Elite Dangerous News: Millions of Humans Missing. What does it mean for on foot AX

[@jdo1842]

i just think the Thargoids on foot will just be reskinned humans as "The Thargoids" . The reason why "Millions of Humans Missing". Hopefully im wrong.

[@joeness682]

i'm so starved for new content at this point that i dont even care if this is the case

[@yann9915]

​@@joeness682imagine if they just made the AI capable of taking cover and shooting over it rather than crouching behind it. Imagine an animation where they sprint back to cover and dive sideways to hide. It'd make combat so much more realistically and not "shoot the enemy 10m away thats walking straight at you and cant see you yet till you break their shields" :')

[@hakunai7227]

That’ll be the day I switch to star citizen

[@wiser3754]

Or the Far God cult indoctrinated by the Thargoids. Pretty lazy if FDEV go down this route.

[@cmdrjaycemacleod8198]

I think this will be the case 100%

[@zacattack8]

Personally I wouldn’t mind them using humans as drones as long as they have a cool look, new animations, unique attacks, and sounds. It’s very reminiscent of infested terrans in the starcraft universe.

[@moon9light]

I think I'd watch any Buur Pit Thargoid content just to see what new nicknames they can conjure for them.

[@cmdrjontomasson5510]

My theory is that the Thargoids want a translator/emissary, and are doing their own version of Azimuth's human Thargoid interface experiments. Just like D2 was a breakthrough for Azimuth, the Thargoids might need millions of attempts to find a human that would work as an interface. In gameplay terms, this could allow for Thargoids to be a faction in game that CMDRs could trade with, do missions for, etc. You'd land at Thargoid settlements/stations and communicate with a human/Thargoid interface drone (a repurposed human), and do deals that way. It'd be creepy as hell, but it'd be different.

[@noahhull3390]

I hope you're right and they launch this with a powerplay overhaul that includes new thargoid powers

[@bonel0rd326]

Fdev is absolutely gonna take the cheap route and have us fight reskinned Zombie Humans as "Thargoids"

[@ShikkamaruLazyShinobi]

I think we will fight "assimilated humans" in the future but later fdev might add proper Thargoids onfoot as well. "Assimilated humans" being equivalent of easier Thargoid targets and proper Thargoids being equivalent of a Hydra. Also, the new Thargoid sites poping up on surface might suggest it's where those new "assimilated humans" would show up first and maybe make the surface habitable for proper onfoot Thargoids in some way, or that Thargoids have some future plans to make stuff on surfaces. All speculation at this point ofc o7

[@AnotherOne-Retro-Paladin]

sounds creepy

[@Meanslicer43]

if anything. we could see those onfoot thargoids as a future event, and the Assimilated are just a stop gap measure to provide ground capabilities while on foot thargoids are being made by the hive.

[@stevenford6107]

stroggification

[@MarkSapsford]

I hope you're right. I need to manage my expectations....

[@AnotherOne-Retro-Paladin]

@@stevenford6107 tharggification. So they are Tharggs.

[@Geirkztilb]

If it's another hovering drone enemy I'll get Canadian Healthcare I swear to goid.

[@r4dios1lence92]

The foot soldier would be quite nice, thinking about it. Easier to develop (some extra assets for weapons, armor and other features) and it would be a nasty enemy on the story side. All the decent zombie features could be used (if used well, as you said). Imagine a solider defending a starport from and on-foot invasion, seeing a glimpse of their lost father when the walking goids breach the compound, dropping their weapons and getting shot with a caustic projectile from the husk of their former father. The division between "they can't be saved" and "we're killing our own" tearing people apart. People trying to develop a treatment being targeted by people who are already too deep into the "they can't be saved" campaign and don't want to risk being tried on criminal court. Chaos. Utter chaos. Could also open possibility for more thargoid communication, and maybe understanding better how much they hate us now (and maybe if there are divisions on the hive mind that still think we're not worthy the time and we're just seeing a small fraction of all goids).

[@cadenh03]

If Thargoid on foot conflict truly becomes a thing, an army thats part thargoid converted humans part thargoid drones would honestly be pretty cool, and equally horrifying

[@MicraHakkinen]

This scenario reminds me of something Rick said in Rick and Morty s06e08: "I think it's the best I can do to profit from a situation and maybe set an example." Maybe it's the Thargoids just being pragmatic: eliminate humans and replenish their troops in one move and perhaps the entire premise makes the rest of humanity think twice about continuing this war. For all we know we have never even encountered "civilian" Thargoids yet, only their equivalent of an ant colony's worker, and the Thargoids are sure as hell not about to risk anything happening to their "ant queens".

[@AndyFirebladeMuza]

If we are going to have on foot Thargoid combat of some sort, I hope it's a bit more diverse than the current on foot combat we have.

[@dlkjAENFadlkfj]

Something to also keep in mind, and I find this to be an important detail to be missing from the video, is the current Thargoid Matrix' scattered about. These are supposedly factories to grow as time rolls on, and clearly have weird noises emerging from them that sound organic in nature, almost in a hive like some of them. I can definitely imagine that currently all the humans are in some sort of "stasis" within the bellies of the Thargoids, only to later be put through those new factories in order to dump them right at our doorstep - another sort of Forward Operating Base, much like the Titans themselves seem to be. Additionally, and this is a point you touched on earlier, is my own theory about the Thargoids and how they behave. You see, we know that live Thargoids have existed in the past, we've captured them and experimented upon them. However, that was BEFORE the deployment of the Mycoid virus. My personal believe is that said Mycoid virus killed nearly all the Thargoid pilots in the Interceptors, but since the Interceptors themselves are also alive (i.e. like a war elephant), they can still move on their own and make their own decisions, guided by a general intelligence of which they were bred for and maybe even a queen. In order to restore their "former glory", they needed a suitable host to turn into the new Interceptor brains, and whilst before the proteus-wave shenanigans they didn't even consider us... Perhaps after seeing and realizing that "oh hey, they ARE capable enough to use that kind of technology, meaning they are advanced enough to use as CPU's/new pilots", only then did they get interested in kidnapping us.

[@DJRJAU]

Oh wow, my first ever Buur Pit news report where I'm there to see it live. (GMT+10 is a bitch, you know...)

[@feedbackdt]

There is nothing wrong with taking a development shortcut to a new gameplay loop. As long as they have unique weapons and behaviour, and it feels or plays different from the existing on-foot combat, its another thing to do.

[@jimarthur68]

just an FYI: On Friday 4th August, I was selling some stuff at a station, when I saw an item listing for (something like) a xeno bio prison (sorry I can't give more details, as much beer was involved). I've been offline since, so I don't know if they are still listed...🤔 Might be that there's more to this than just shooting...

[@cmdrsoundo5240]

Ooh I like these theories. Invasion of the body snatchers comes to mind. Excellent vid as usual .

[@maxwainscott2270]

" I realize that animating an on-foot insectoid along with the A.I. pathing to navigate settlements is more work than your ever going to do... so I came up with a solution. Humans painted green." Wormhole X-Tream

[@Rival95]

At this point I've accept that we will only get reskinned humans, but like you said maybe this could be pretty fun if handled correctly. Regular On foot conflict zones would be pretty interesting with scouts, revenants, and even interceptors flying around. This could bring back surface conflict zones as they have completely disappeared ever since the AXI have cracked down on alert systems. If they can introduce modifications to the scorpion turret to inflict greater damage to scouts, then we could actually have a full triangle of combat where on foot people would be taking the zombies and revenants, SRV's can assist with scouts, and the ships taking down interceptors. Even without on foot thargoids, this does sound interesting to me. I still hope to see my space bugs though 😁

[@Sighman]

Maybe the thargoids will be little spider things that attack in waves, like the replicators in Stargate.

[@johnnybravo9096]

I'm currently on my way all the way around the galaxy. I reached Sagittarius A* am now on my way to beagle point going a clockwise direction all the way around the galaxy. I'm doing it in my totally unengineered Dolphin. 30ly jump range. 60 with the FSD injector doubling it, but I'm saving that for the Abyss. I'm.scanning every metal rich, metal content, earth, water and methane worlds. Rarest encounters for me are Helium rich systems, only 1 encountered. And I havent yet encountered a green gas giant.

[@Tumama13_88]

Spooky season is coming in a couple of months, I can see the borg thing totally happening as a Halloween event.

[@maunz5791]

Maybe the first thargoid soldiers will be like the husks from mass effect. Could get interesting. But I'd still prefer to see a guardian or a real guardian ship to fly. _Or ship interiors, Frontier!_ But nice to see that Buur is still bringing quality content.

[@PaiSAMSEN]

I hypothesized a while ago that, based on their reactions, and being millions of years older than humanity and being accordingly more developed, what we encounter of the Thargoid might be closer to immune system dealing with foreign entities than what we considered a military force. Part of human immune system (simplified, of course) is that they are bunch of first-responders whose job, aside from dealing with invaders, is to take a piece of invader to another cells, whose job is to use this piece to make antibody specific to this particular foreign invader. What if...this is Thargoid attempt to gather material to create specific anti-human weapon?

[@Moirai343]

If they are intending to use them as foot soldiers of some kind, I must admit that, currently, I'm leaning more towards Mass Effect style Husks since there's a more intense psychological fear factor associated with them. But, hey, we'll see...

[@andrewparkin4036]

I'd genuinely love to see on foot Thargoids.... however this is FDev, the odds are high that they will just reuse human templates that are going to be Thargoid controlled abducted humans instead of actually doing a Thargoid itself. (all insectoid etc) if I recall correctly in the Novella for the original Elite wasn't there a part where the hero of the story found some creatures that had Tharglets in their brains controlling them? So it wouldn't be a stretch to have the reskinned human model used in place of insectsl...a tad disappointing, but understandable from a technical point of view. On B5 there was an insect black market trader that was shown from time to time too it wasn't much bigger than a human and was capable of being fairly dexterous.

[@PocketDrummer]

This really feels like they're laying the foundation for Thargoid modified humans. I was REALLY hoping we'd get to fight Thargoids themselves, but I think they're going the easy route by modifying things they've already made.

[@Datan0de]

Great as always. Love the INRA base visuals!

[@chasewelch4613]

The Thargoid/human concept is cool, but we also need actual Thargoids in my opinion. To be fully honest both are easily possible, they just wouldn't come inside our buildings. As long as the AI for Thargoids would keep them from standing in front of doors to be easily shot, people would need to leave a building to kill them/escape anyways. Besides going upstairs and such outside, they jump onto roofs, and so on...I personally would like to see both in the game and would be super happy only if both are in the game. Only time will tell!

[@cmdrjaycemacleod8198]

I think on foot Thargoids are going to simply be Human/Thargoid "Hybrids" - kind of like how the Bord in Star Trek assimilate people into drones. Think also a "headcrab" from Half-life, alien parasite attached to a person. The in game model will simply be a NPC Human with green splotches and some tendrils on their suits. Maybe a scary alien face. But I don't count on FDEV to make an entirely new model for actual Thargoids.

[@Dandroid_1]

There was a leaked model of an actual Thargoid, i dont mind 'zomgoids', so long as theyre accompanied by an actual thargoid, as a sort of mini-boss. Like we have to eliminate the zombies first, then we have to go toe to toe with their Thargoid commander, avoiding it's bone-cleaving claws and skin-boiling weapons

[@craiglee8596]

Onn-foot Thar-ombies for human settlements, and hopefully eventually, Thargoids in Thargoid surface sites. Fingers crossed

[@theforgottenelitedangerous4827]

Here is something with a few tin hats and lavian brandy , But in the early days of the game there was the plot of the missing , the formadine rift bases that where abandoned megaships that where abandoned as well. . Could be something similar .

[@c0baltl1ghtn1ng]

I feel the Zombies route for all the kidnapped is the most likely, and the most uninspired. I'm hoping it is the 'Research' path and they're trying to learn our language. If I wanted to fight zombies, I'd play one of the bunches of zombie games.

[@MarhtiSan]

Thanks for another great post! Your recap of human-thargoid history was quite interesting (I've only been playing for a year, and hadn't yet researched much history). And, again, I appreciate and am entertained by your clever phrasing and composition, e.g., "bovine war" ~ "hamburgers". The opinions and speculations you offer are logical, well explained, and insightful, providing much food for thought, and, at least for myself, increase my interest and admiration for ED. o7.

[@crazygolm]

Good video, and thanks for doing these every week! I'm hoping and fairly confident that we'll see actual Thargoid "giant bugs" on foot at some stage - it seems like it's building towards them.

[@mrvei-vg7et]

on foot hybrid human-goids i think is on point, as FDEV has pumped out the "goid" bits for ship hulls as toys already

[@streyafromspace]

I agree, assimilated Thargified humans wouldn't be bad at all. I've been a Trek fan long enough to know how terrifying an assimilated human can be! But it would also be good if they had a Thargoid "puppet master" unit like a Boss unit for us to take out, perhaps at the new Barnacle Matrix sites?

[@DavidKnowles0]

or may be make the Thargoids humans hybrids essentially unkillable and the only way to stop them is to hunt down and kill the puppet master.

[@AzriaphaleArkus]

'Alex looked at the Thru-V pictures, and for a second couldn't comprehend the grotesque sights he saw. Looking through the bodies of the Mymurth, the camera had picked up the spider-like life-forms that were living inside the shuffling, harmless turtle-forms. The sight was discomforting. Jointed legs seemed to be reaching out into every limb, and every body space. The central black body was shiny, and from it peered a number of bloated, faceted eyes. Two long, bristly tendrils stretched into the Mymurth's brains from each of these hideous parasites. 'What are they?' Alex whispered, and Elyssia said, 'Trouble. They're immature Thargoids' Alex felt his heart quicken. Tharglets! He was transporting Tharglets, the larval forms of one of the most deadly life-forms in the known Galaxy!' Excerpt from - Elite: The Dark Wheel by Robert Holdstock So that said, it's easy to imagine that humans are either being taken for a massive Thargoid breeding program or, are going to be used as a controlled 'drone' type of humanoid combatant; which is probably more likely because that way fdev can save effort on creating actual Thargoid aliens & just use these 'compromised humans' for the ground combat encounters - I mean, fdev has already given us the Revenant drone to fight at settlements so why not another... Fdev then have the option to either drag out the story further before they need to reveal any Thargoid models or, just stick to using these 'compromised humans' as a way to avoid creating a Thargoid model altogether - which wouldn't surprise me at this point...!!

[@lucylouise4922]

'Millions of humans missing'? They've gone to play Star Citizen.

[@xo-Tobe]

Bro, honestly you need to start writing ED novels ... cheers to both of you... I'd subscribe to your audio books in a jiffy

[@leeebbrell9]

We may see borg like at our settlements, I expect we will see actual thargoid when we eventually get into their structures

[@Nails077]

They think we are adorable and now every thargoid wants a pet human. It's really hard to keep up with demand so they take all the humans they can get.

[@Ralfram]

Good reason, since they need ages to breed!

[@cmdrhomborger6214]

“Let’s face it - a war with bovines would result in a fair few hamburgers” 😂🤣

[@sgoalder]

Love your videos. This one was well thought out. I agree with your theory that the kidnapped humans will be used against us in a future update, and I will try rising to the challenge!

[@connerjeffries7852]

My theory regarding the kidnapped humans, is that they are being used as a form of fertiliser for growing their ships. The new sites that have been discovered could be where new titans and other ships are growing and liquefied humans could be the fertiliser.

[@ObjectiveTruth5168]

the foot soldier concept was also used in Mass Effect

[@MrSmartman23]

For me personally there is no problem if devs will make goids zombies if its gona be different gamplay. I guess it will make zero sense that goid-humans will act same as normal humans... Btw GREAT video! That background fight looking like staged cinematic, very well done , o7.

[@cjhiggins3803]

Remember how in mass effect the Protians ended uo being the Reapers , interesting similarity

[@josephorr5175]

Notwithstanding the lack of creativity in the 'puppet' human concept, it does, as you suggest, give FDev a much easier development path for these new encounters (as I'm sure the end state will lead). Designing this new 'human' will be like putting on a new set of armor (ugly to be sure). They likely will wield similar weapons (assuming they left them with two hands), again making the math of these new designs easier to implement. I think it will be cool nonetheless, but it's hard to not see the time / resource angle of the eventual new content, leading me to bet on the path of least resistance for FDev. All that said, a 'human' adversary should be easier to conquer. And if they are feeling creative, they might create some interesting "rescue the assimilated humans" missions, perhaps in some form of hibernation / alteration pod or ship. Perhaps they can come up with a way of liberating our brethren...for a nice reward. It doesn't have to always end in Call of Duty mass killing activities...

[@Henrawr106]

So we might have guardian handheld weapons or have to engineer our suits..... More grind

[@paulsweet322]

Have to agree with your last point, I reckon, but hope I'm wrong that we'll be facing humans that have been taken over by Thargoids or even some of the thargoid cultists. This game will be ten years old next year, I don't think it has the staff, the finances or the vision now that we would like to keep this game fresh and bringing in new Commander's. Personally I feel the game has now become too focussed on Thargoids, plenty of new enemy ships to try and kill but no real new player ships to do this in. I preffered it in the original game were Thargoids may or may not grab you in witch space and even if you did have military lasers equipped you might not make it back. I really hate the fact that you need different weapon types for players/npc's and Thargoids. I preferred the old way, whatever weapon you had it could inflict damage, you just had to aim and either get lucky or be good. I guess we'll see the 'zombie' hordes in Thargoid update 17, yay, more Thargoids, just what only a small percent asked for and wants.

[@Pengajim]

We're going to get little green bipeds instead of actual thargoid combat. I'm now leaning towards they never develop thargoids.

[@DutchessOdyssey]

HUGOIDS. That alone sounds creepy

[@Dr_Tripper]

Hysterical Hyperdicting Hiacynths, Burr, I think your logic is sound. I would like to see hybridized or 'goided' foot soldiers. But I really want to see is the return of the Guradians! I can see them now popping into goid controlled systems with their huge triangular craft!

[@chriscarr1666]

I reckon,, carapace skinned humans will be the next step, FDEV have already tested the skins will apply so adding that to "human" NPCs should be really easy 😬

[@Cee64E]

Here's a thought: Not just assimilated humans, but assimilated humans who can pass as normal humans, ala Battlestar Galactica's human looking Cylons. Give those Far God cultists a chance to get back at humanity's unbelievers...

[@BrandonOsborn404]

Thargoid burrito, with extra pico, please!

[@cjhiggins3803]

Its bit like the Reapers in Mass Effect

[@suburbia2050]

It seems more likely we will get both, don't get the negativity re the "reskinning" jibe. The current narrative is currently introducing small content updates that are *free*. It seems perfectly reasonable that a zombie army that makes clever use of exisisting assets could be added for more Odyssey gameplay variety to promote the DLC to those who are engaging in the Thargoid narrative. This could be possible for 2023. This still leaves room for a premium Thargoid update as Paid DLC, this will be gated content on Ammonia Worlds. The other option would be on foot action in the Titans themselves but I'm not so sure, putting gated content behind planet access is more likely.

[@TDogsYard]

Ah human 🍲 makes baby thargoid strong!

[@Hewardrv8]

I'm down with humangoids! As long as they change up the look and the way they act in combat if they did exactly what the other npcs do it would be somewhat underwhelming!

[@mortisiranitimati]

So i am not the only cuber plaing ED :)

[@MR.MACH1NE]

Like I said on many of your previous episodes, I fear that we are going down the Mass Effect 'Husk' route...the Borg reference is not quite the same as they were ex humans assimilating other humans and not an insectoid species changing humans... semantics I know. I think we need to see proper Aliens and not just husks. One way round the going indoors thing is to have both husks and aliens, the husks can follow the humans into building etc and drive them out for the waiting thargoids to pick them off....please don't cheap out fdev!

[@stab74]

What if Thargoids started abducting cattle? Thargoid Bovine War incoming? 👀

[@1darkthought]

Please please pleeeease Fdev, throw some new body horror into Elite

[@justinblackwalker586]

why do people think Thargoids are insect like? They very much seem a lot more like fish

[@TheBuurPit]

Codex and in-game descriptions describe them as insectoid iirc

[@justinblackwalker586]

what does the game base this ID off of? I bet the more we learn about Thargoids, the more the Codex changes. Everything I observe about Thargoids is marine like@@TheBuurPit

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

It's a COOK BOOK!

[@leeebbrell9]

The borg, assimilation

[@petesouthall1482]

I'll bet the next thing will be thargoid mind controlled humans simply because Fdev is too lazy to add actual thargoids into ED Odyssey's on foot combat.

[@cjhiggins3803]

Kinda just want some new human ships rather than more thargoid ships.

[@andrasdomokos4538]

Borg would be cool.

[@DannyMancheno]

Basically late last month was my first time in my elite carreer that i've voluntarily stopped playing elite (since 2017) . Nothing external. Just purely given up on elite 's future for non thargoid content. I'm tired of waiting for new exploration content. I'm tired of being tired. They could release commander pilotable thargoid ships in U17. Thargoid settlements in Thargoid atmospheric worlds. I couldn't be bothered. I want new ships, rivers, clouds, new plants, etc. But obviously that's a foolish dream now.

[@cmdrStarrySky]

I honestly want a dead space vibe. Let it be gory and disgusting.

[@TheBuurPit]

We were talking about that very thing here yesterday actually... So in terms of the games pegi age rating and certification etc I think it would prohibit any really serious gore. By that I mean obviously lots of blood and dismemberments etc. But when it comes to out and out creepy, scary horror vibes I wanna say they're not too restricted. It's an odd line with certification and changes between international borders but you can generally show people being shot but not any blood. Nudity is also restricted heavily. However.... It used to be the case (generally) that wasn't the case with aliens or zombies etc because they're not humans... the sensibilities of certification boards are weird and inconsistent :) o7

[@CMDR_Shokwave]

Resistance is futile.

[@mkohlhorst]

I think the game will go Maintenance Mode long before there's anything approaching a conclusion to the game. I also wonder if there will be another entry into the franchise this decade.

[@jounivataja7040]

Fact= no thargoid kill reflex on itercepters= g mark's guardian use of thargoid material... ram tah monolith opens this wery rea son

[@greatdanexlks]

THARGOID XENO XOMBIES INCOMING!!!! I called it months ago saying on foot Thargoids could save this game!!!! Was F Dev listening? Stay tuned!!! Wait ... Wait... will we see Thatgoids busting out of human host bodies??? Those spider Thargies scurrying around settlements???!!! That would be sooo cool man. Or will it just be another narrated audio storytime with a badly done CGI video? Who knows.

[@Jailbird5000]

Zomboids for sure dudes

[@saffieification]

maybe they just sent the humans to RAXXLA 😂

[@caelumincola]

Fantastic stuff! Really well written and thought out theories there CMDR. o7

[@rastarn]

Just the mention of zombie or vampire themes makes me cringe. Such an overused genre/story device, that they've become boring, mundane. I'm gently hoping for something more original and scifi, possibly more epic in scope, a deeper origin rooted in the Guardian/Thargoid war, or maybe even just a cold, hard, existential, dispassionate consumption of humanity as a basic resource. Anything other than fricken vampires or zombies.

[@SpaceHero-Elite]

Please don't let it mean human Thargoid zombies that we gotta fight

[@Roblstar]

I hope that you are right? If they just introduce human Thargoid drones? That will drive more away from the game! :/ If the human drones are introduced with actual Thargoids that is a different matter! A very different matter!!! As you say just copy/pasting humans as Goids into the game would be awefull! Awefull from the perspective of u lazy B'stewards Frontier... (After all these years as well...) However, they would compliment proper Thargoid ground combat. Elite Dangerous is currently in the doldrums! I wish it was not. I really hope they can develop the game in the way it so clearly deserves? But if it is just human drones? Frontier are in for a real hiding! Plus they will thoroughly deserve it!!!

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

Millions of Humans Missing... probably all the players who don't play Elite anymore?