Are Thargoids really all that threatening?

[Duggan]

I imagine 4 empty Pylons and two thargoids remaining on your tail along with damaged sheilds and over heated laser cannons. and crippled fuel injectors might make the Esc button become a viable if not appealing option .

Not in interstellar space... no point in ejecting there.

Indeed, there is another word to describe that particular predicament, thank heavens for autosave

[Disembodied]

I recall reading a recent article about how scientists from the university of Beijing were able to quantum entangle two photons to facilitate a faster than light transfer of information over a distance of 16km. Of course, the cipher had to be transmitted by more mundane means but the potential is there. The possibilities are exciting quite frankly.

If it's this one:

http://www.physorg.com/news193551675.html

then that doesn't sound like it's a viable way of sending encoded information FTL. It's just (just!) quantum teleportation, and the higher-energy photon of the entangled pair was sent via what's described as a "free space" channel at, I assume, the speed of light ... the only information that travelled FTL was already pre-coded. Basically this is a way of letting two people see the same thing at the same time, but there's absolutely no control over what anyone sees. This is not to rule out true FTL communication in the sci-fi universe of your choice, of course.

Personally, though, I prefer the idea of a slower pace of information spread: something more haphazard and erratic. Again, there's more wiggle room for interesting stuff to happen, and it elevates the status of the roving spacejock, I think: people swapping tales at the bar, interested to hear what's going on in distant places. It makes us more akin to seafarers in the 17th-century Caribbean, and less like modern-day van drivers. No offence to van drivers, but when seeking out adventure and wild romance, I'd go for the 17th-century Caribbean any day ...

[Cpt]

Thargoids can be threatening in numbers then they can sure get Oogly!

[Diziet Sma]

Interesting thread.. thanks for resurrecting it, Cpt! (can't believe I missed it before!)

Source code gives Thargoid ships a scan range of 50km, compared with human 25.6km (due to technical issues in Oolite, they don't currently have a 50km scan range, but I believe they're supposed to).

Ummm.. would this "technical issue" be the now-solved lack of double-precision coordinates? Because if so... (I leave the rest to your imagination)

[Cpt]

You're welcome Dizzy!

So Thargoids can now see us coming before we see them, ho hum!

With OXPs the Thargoid Controller seems almost impossible for the Galactic navy to dispatch without help, I would have thought a Behemouth could and should be trying to ram it... ::shrugs::

[cim]

Source code gives Thargoid ships a scan range of 50km, compared with human 25.6km (due to technical issues in Oolite, they don't currently have a 50km scan range, but I believe they're supposed to).

Ummm.. would this "technical issue" be the now-solved lack of double-precision coordinates?

No, it wouldn't. Single-precision coordinates are adequate up to around 1000km and are the move to double-precision is about expanding the scale possible in the system so that we can move to realistically-sized systems for Oolite II: Frooontier you don't get noticeable imprecision while sun-skimming or at some mission OXP's deep-space station.

Note that that post was written several months before I joined the dev team, and before I'd looked at the scanning code in great detail - I knew they didn't have a 50km scan range despite what shipdata said, but I hadn't looked in to why. There are essentially two answers to that question:
1) The code for scanning sometimes uses the shipdata scan range, and sometimes uses the hard-coded 25.6km constant. Occasionally it uses both in the same function. How far a Thargoid can actually see is unclear.
2) Scanning a larger volume is potentially less efficient. In practice most scans use the fast 'checkScanner' internal function, which only returns 16 objects within scanner range (32 in 1.79 or later). Part of how the function is fast is that it doesn't return the 16 or 32 closest objects; in busy space the objects it returns may even end up all on one side of the ship. So long as there are generally fewer objects really within scanner range than the maximum check, the oddities aren't too noticeable.

The first I probably should fix. The second ... I suspect isn't going to be that much of a problem for a 50km scan range on Thargoids, but might well be on other ships.

[cim]

With OXPs the Thargoid Controller seems almost impossible for the Galactic navy to dispatch without help, I would have thought a Behemouth could and should be trying to ram it... ::shrugs::

The problem is that they're ridiculously small: by the time you're close enough to see it, you're close enough that laser parallax is a really big deal - but unlike other objects on the same scale, it's also tough enough to take more than a single laser hit. The NPCs - with their worse aim - don't stand a chance.

[Smivs]

...so that we can move to realistically-sized systems for Oolite II: Frooontier

<chortles>

[Cody]

How far a Thargoid can actually see is unclear.

Good... that's how it should be!

[JazHaz]

I might be wrong, but Thargoids seem to make a bee-line for the player, even when there are closer targets. This seems wrong to me!

[Cpt]

How far a Thargoid can actually see is unclear.

Good... that's how it should be!

So would performing an eye test on Thargoid resolve this matter once and for all?
(until of course the obligatory "Thargoid Multifocol Zoom Spectacles OXP" is released)

When I try to perform my experimental amateur Laser eye surgery on them, they don't survive the process... maybe I am doing it wrong... ::shrugs::

[Smivs]

When I try to perform my experimental amateur Laser eye surgery on them, they don't survive the process... maybe I am doing it wrong... ::shrugs::

Are you aware that a Thargoid's testicles are where most things have eyes?

[Cpt]

Are you aware that a Thargoid's testicles are where most things have eyes?

:: I will avert my gaze in future, that might explain why eye contact didn't appear good...

[Thargoid]

Ahem

[Gouanaco]

I find them deadly... well i guess that because i dont have a fully kitted out ship or pro skills.

But the Thargoids are just a sub-intelligent race that basically is a threat.
Who knows maybe they have some powerful weapon up there sleeve that there about to pull out like a Black Hole Emitter and maybe ( i dunno) they mainly hide in a hidden galaxy called Galaxy 9 ( i might write a book on that actually)

So i guess it depends on your skill in combat vs them.

And in terms of warfare... they could be alot stronger than we think.