Thargoids and Interstellar Space...too common?

[Killer Wolf]

we're outnumbered a million to one. that sucks. imagine if they team up w/ the spiders too.

[Svengali]

Oh, I imagine. 0.0001 FPS .-)

[JensAyton]

But to remove existing ships via OXP scripts, I don't know of a good way to do it without causing weird visual artifacts.

Code: Select all

this.shipWillExitWitchspace = function ()
{
    system.shipsWithRole("thargoid").forEach(function (e)
    {
        e.remove(true); // Remove without sending shipDied event.
    });
}

[Commander McLane]

But to remove existing ships via OXP scripts, I don't know of a good way to do it without causing weird visual artifacts.

Code: Select all

this.shipWillExitWitchspace = function ()
{
    system.shipsWithRole("thargoid").forEach(function (e)
    {
        e.remove(true); // Remove without sending shipDied event.
    });
}

Didn't know about the parameter for remove(). That's indeed handy and will solve half the problem.

However, the other half is that a lot of OXP-Thargoids may only be added at shipExitedWitchspace, so you can only remove them via a timer after that event. Which means that the player may see them popping out of witchspace and vanishing into nothing.

[Eric Walch]

However, the other half is that a lot of OXP-Thargoids may only be added at shipExitedWitchspace, so you can only remove them via a timer after that event.

Some thargoids are even added later than that. e.g. thargon_threat because it must first wait until it know show many police are added in witchspece.

But I don't really see the problem with so many thargoids in interstellar space. Plain Oolite does not add that many, so it are the users that install the oxps that add the thargoids. Take for example thargon_threat. The readme starts with

This is an experiment to even out the odds of witchspace-skirmishes, to present a little more challenge in WS when the Behemoth.OXP. For every behemoth in witchspace two thargoids appear.

The whole purpose of the oxp is adding more thargoids. When someone does not like this, just don't install it.

[JensAyton]

However, the other half is that a lot of OXP-Thargoids may only be added at shipExitedWitchspace, so you can only remove them via a timer after that event. Which means that the player may see them popping out of witchspace and vanishing into nothing.

If the “problem” is that there are too many thargoids in interstellar space, don’t use OXPs that add more thargoids to interstellar space and then actively initiate misjumps. I mean, really. The notion of “solving” the “problem” that other OXPs customize the game makes no sense.

[DaddyHoggy]

Interesting thread...

I'm quite happy to accept that Thargoids have an inherent deeper understanding of what "we" call Witchspace, they may even exist outside our own space/time and thus what we perceive to be an unbelievable ability to always be present at a misjump exit point may just be their ability to step into our own space/time to remove the annoyance that keeps upsetting their own dimensional stability. This doesn't quite fit with the canon of the DW which describes these vast hives, but again they could be temporary manifestations into our own universe - the tip of a hyper-dimensional iceberg so-to-speak (if anybody has read "The Year of our war" by Steph Swanson - you'll get my drift)

[Commander McLane]

However, the other half is that a lot of OXP-Thargoids may only be added at shipExitedWitchspace, so you can only remove them via a timer after that event. Which means that the player may see them popping out of witchspace and vanishing into nothing.

If the “problem” is that there are too many thargoids in interstellar space, don’t use OXPs that add more thargoids to interstellar space and then actively initiate misjumps. I mean, really. The notion of “solving” the “problem” that other OXPs customize the game makes no sense.

If we assume a player who knows what he's doing and doesn't install contradicting OXPs. You know the type, it's the guy who always scrutinizes the readMe before installing anything, and takes notes of the most important content.

[JensAyton]

If we assume a player who knows what he's doing and doesn't install contradicting OXPs. You know the type, it's the guy who always scrutinizes the readMe before installing anything, and takes notes of the most important content.

I’m not suggesting people are sensible, just that creating counter-OXPs to fight the intended behaviour of OXPs isn’t going to help anyone.

[Commander McLane]

I’m not suggesting people are sensible, just that creating counter-OXPs to fight the intended behaviour of OXPs isn’t going to help anyone.

Of course not. It's just the twisted way we scripters think...

But seriously, personally I have no intention of scripting anything in this direction. We are just contemplating the numbers of Thargoids and possible ways of reducing them—hypothetically. And my stance was: it would be messy. The need to counter other OXPs only adds to the messiness.

[Kaks]

Meh, if we follow Clym's reasoning, potentially all Thargoids of a given galaxy - or maybe all galaxies together, now that I think about it - have the ability to converge onto one interstellar space's position at a moment's notice.

Something that rather reminds me of the Battle of Britain. The RAF had radars & some planes plus an incredibly committed & corageous - & rather small - number of pilots, but whenever & wherever a German plane appeared near Blighty, they would seemily always encounter a RAF patrol, ready to fight.

Thankfully that lead Jerry to massively overestimate the number of British planes, and over time the luftwaffe more or less gave up: 'them British pilots are everywhere, they must have millions of planes & trained pilots, we can't possibly risk sending our men to certain death over there' - hence the V1 & V2 programs & - rather surprisingly - the Apollo program & the space race...

Where was I? Ah yes! Even if we had 1000 Thargoids showing up at once, that might only mean there are a total of just 1000 Thargoids in the whole 8 galaxies. Considering that there are 256*8 systems, and most systems could have - say - about 20 non-thargoid ships on average, we're already talking 40000 non-thargoid vessels: a 40-to-1 ratio!
Of course, if more systems have 50-60 ships, then things are even worse for those poor few, besieged & misunderstood Thargs!

No matter how many Thargoids show up in any single place all at once, in my own ooniverse there aren't that many Thargoids overall, and sometimes I wouldn't mind seeing them more often.

Actually no, I would mind seeing them more often: I only fly a Cobra3, with none of that fancy smancy self repair stuff or any of them new-fangled turret things that seem to make oolife so much easier for some!

Anywho, fascinating as it all this is, we do seem to be going round in circles, somehow - I better get off now!

Cheers!

[Cody]

I only fly a Cobra3, with none of that fancy smancy self repair stuff or any of them new-fangled turret things that seem to make oolife so much easier for some!

Which leads me to wonder how many of us only fly a standard Cobra Mk III... I've gone from Harmless to Elite, and never changed ships once... I love my Cobra!

[Ganelon]

Even if we had 1000 Thargoids showing up at once, that might only mean there are a total of just 1000 Thargoids in the whole 8 galaxies.

Or we may only ever have seen that portion of the Thargoid population that equates to our pest control exterminators.

Yes, debate can go round in circles like this endlessly. It probably does just that in countless spacer bars in the Ooniverse at any given moment over many a pint of a dizzying array of exotic beverages. But isn't that a part of the culture? Spacers endlessly debating about the Thargoids and what they're really up to and how much of a threat they actually are, and all that? It's as much a part of the Ooniverse as the debates about weapons and ships and gossip and trade routes and "hot tips" about the market and advice to new Jamesons (whether it be actually useful or a "snipe hunt").

Part of what makes this game fun!

[Makandal]

I only fly a Cobra3, with none of that fancy smancy self repair stuff or any of them new-fangled turret things that seem to make oolife so much easier for some!

Which leads me to wonder how many of us only fly a standard Cobra Mk III... I've gone from Harmless to Elite, and never changed ships once... I love my Cobra!

Commander Makandal is one, only Ore Processor and Planetary Landing are not standard but I have the approval of GalCop. I could take back an old Deadly commander, so I am just a rookie competent (230 kills). I hate cheats and most of these mods are nothing but cheats, to my humble opinion, they should go on a separate category on Wiki (but this is a totally different subject)

I think Thargoids are not too common. At the contrary, they are too rare. One tends to forget that we are not flying the whole ooniverse but only a very restricted portion of it. We are on kind of "space corridor". I consider the "missjumps" zone like kind of nodes in hyperspace that Thargoids have the possibility to calculate. Thus they are there, waiting for us, in ambush.

[Switeck]

However, the other half is that a lot of OXP-Thargoids may only be added at shipExitedWitchspace, so you can only remove them via a timer after that event. Which means that the player may see them popping out of witchspace and vanishing into nothing.

Some thargoids are even added later than that. e.g. thargon_threat because it must first wait until it know show many police are added in witchspace.

But I don't really see the problem with so many thargoids in interstellar space. Plain Oolite does not add that many, so it are the users that install the oxps that add the thargoids.

I'm not worried that OXPs "muck things up" by adding more Thargoids. I will be hacking OXPs to my liking, once I figure out some solid code for detecting if the arrival in interstellar space came from a deliberate misjump FROM interstellar space. I won't be removing what OXPs added, they simply won't be adding when I'm done.

If the above code works well enough for removing Thargoids in interstellar space (at least after the first deliberate misjump), that'll be good enough to deal with the plain Oolite added Thargoids that "slip through".