 This is Witch Based News for Friday the 2nd of December 2022. I'm CMDR Buur. In Elite Dangerous News this week, as the Thargoid War continues to wreak devastation in the bubble, we evaluate what we're now seeing and how the community is reacting. We have the very latest information from the Thargoid frontline and how you can help effect the progress of the war. This week's F-Dev livestream features revelations from two of Update 14's architects and after much community investigation we might now know what the author is up to. You know how this bit goes, if you enjoy our stuff please do hit the thumbs up, don't forget to subscribe and ding that little bell to see all our Elite Dangerous content. You can also directly support our work by joining our Patreon, links to that and everything else are below. Community managers Bruce Carito and Arthur Tolme hosted a bumper edition of Frameshift Live this week that featured two developer interviews, both taking a deep dive into the creation and workings of Update 14 which we now know is entitled Aftermath War. Taking to the stage were two developer stream favourites, designers Tom Kuhl and Darren Hallill. Both very absorbing and fascinating interviews that revealed to the listening audience a lot about what we're now facing and how it differs from what has come previously from the Thargoids and how we deal with it. I'll go into more depth on some of those details in a moment. It's worth stating here however that the team revealed that prior Thargoid incursions have all been hand placed. What we're dealing with now is a system driven attack. To all intents and purposes a frontier created AI Thargoid Overlord is managing the war. It has goals and needs and it's now that system that we're fighting against. I don't think it's a huge surprise to anyone witnessing what is happening in the bubble right now that the caustic cauliflower have significantly upped their game. Elsewhere in the stream Frontier did acknowledge some oddities that had arisen in the background simulation system that were causing some odd unexpected influence behaviour. They have now implemented a fix but it's important to note that the BGS is a huge complex ball of very angry spaghetti and pulling on threads can often unravel another so there may well be further tweaks incoming. As part of the fix they implemented some systems away from the war were pushed back to prior states so if you're seeing sudden unexpected change that's likely the cause but all eyes are on the BGS Pastosphere nonetheless. Dropping a war into the middle of something like the BGS was always bound to deal out some splash back. Fdev also made mention of the increase in vista genomics payouts that also arrived as part of update 14. That has been dishing out monstrous payouts that not only took players by surprise but also it seems Fdev may have been somewhat shocked by them. Again that is being looked at currently so there may be some future movement in those numbers to balance things out. The next Fdev livestream is in two weeks time on the 15th of December that will be the last Frameshift Live of the year and will be the team's Christmas special. It's bound to feature lots of fun stuff, prizes, giveaways and guests etc if you want to bookmark that. The big news this week is of course the arrival of update 14 into the game and the start of what many are calling the second Thargoid War. It seems the sour salad's previous bonfires at our expense were just some prodding and poking about and what we're seeing now is Thargoids with purposeful intent. A cursory glance at update 14's opening gambits may seem like just more Thargoids but the truth is a degree more complex than anything that would be seen by the casual observer. It's also a good degree scarier and as was made painfully apparent on the livestream last night there are serious consequences to what we're seeing unfold before us currently. In the developer interviews on Frontiers livestream we were told in no uncertain terms that if players take no action at all then this will spread until it is encompassed the bubble and no pocket of human space is safe anymore. It was specifically mentioned that even Colonia is not safe from this war of annihilation. I've mentioned on this channel on numerous occasions over the last few years that should they be of such a mind to attack Colonia then there is a line of stations leading from the bubble all the way to Colonia. That line was recently reinforced and made more dense with human owned assets when the Colonia bridge project was completed. It's all now but confirmed should the bubble fall then Colonia will be next. We made a video during the week that explains how you can get involved in the war effort and make a difference even if AX combat is not your thing. Whilst obviously killing Thargoids is a significant tool in our arsenal to push them back like any conflict, logistics and the evacuation of civilians has a large part to play in the successful persecution of a campaign. We got some more granular insight into the ethos of the new elite dangerous warfare metagame in last night's interviews. We are only just starting to learn what the new system states that the Thargoids are inflicting on the bubble mean over and above their more obvious system situational meanings. As I've mentioned AX combat will always have value but there is a level of subtlety that was explained last night by Darren Halil to for example the timings of evacuation and logistics supply missions that makes them more valuable to players in the overall war simulation. The specific example Darren gave mentioned evacuation missions from a system that is in a state of Thargoid alert where Thargoids are being detected but not yet attacking and how evacuation at this stage could be considered pre-emptive. When a station is under Thargoid attack however there is a larger degree of validity to evacuating refugees from an actual active war zone and the simulation will attribute more value to that action as a result. And just like any BGS state in Elite Dangerous the more missions lending positive actions a system sees the more likely it is to change to a positive state in this instance helping drive back the Thargoids. We mentioned in our first video earlier in the week about the new system states the game has introduced to support the new gameplay those states being Thargoid Alert, Thargoid Invasion, Thargoid Controlled, Thargoid Maelstrom and Post Thargoid Recovery. As the invasion has moved on we are learning more about those system states and there's now mounting evidence to suggest that the new non-combative Thargoid interceptor that Aftermath War has reintroduced the Orthrus is intrinsically linked to one of those system states. We've received multiple reports from across the community in the last few days reporting that the Orthrus interceptor can be found in threat level 4 signal sources in systems marked as under Thargoid Alert. That's a system that is under threat of attack but not yet subject to full on assault. All evidence so far at least seems to suggest that the Orthrus is a Thargoid Reconnaissance Asset. When the signal sources are dropped into they contain a Thargoid Probe. Within a few seconds of a commander arriving an Orthrus will drop in and recover the probe which has it seems been surveying the system as a target for possible invasion. Given what we know about positive actions in this war it seems logical that at the very least denying the Thargoids access to the intelligence they're gathering via these probes by either destroying them or stealing them before the Orthrus can scoop them up would seem the way to go in order to help prevent a system falling under attack. Please be aware that whilst the Orthrus is non combative it does leave a caustic wake behind it and it will call in assistance if it detects you. However and this is important it was revealed on the live stream last night that the Orthrus eye sight is extremely laser focused. It doesn't have good if any peripheral vision so where possible avoid approaching it head on. Also unlike other Thargoid attack craft it is nowhere near as fast or manoeuvrable as it's combat bred sisters. Run cold and run fast and you should be able to get back into supercruise and make good your escape if execution of the foul beast is not your plan. We started this week with the arrival of one Maelstrom. When it landed it felt like a nuke on a summer picnic. The devastation the arrival brought stretched across multiple systems that are now under threat under direct attack or completely lost to the Thargoid advance. Since day one two more Thargoid Maelstroms have been deployed. As of this recording eight systems are under Thargoid alert and vulnerable to attack 25 systems are currently enduring Thargoid invasion and 50 systems have already been lost. Our devoid of human life and our under complete Thargoid control. Right now the front line stretches across over 192 light years and encompasses thousands of star systems. Those star systems are being devastated without discrimination. We speculated earlier this week that player factions may not be safe and that is absolutely the case. The Thargoid war machine doesn't care for allegiances or boundaries. There have been a number of player factions this week that have woken up to find parts of their territory in flames. We are all now in the same fight but there is a fight and it's on multiple fronts and the community whilst undoubtedly shell shocked is mobilising. The forces of the anti-zeno initiative have started publishing and prioritising targets to focus the entire community's efforts to make any pushback more effective. The pilots of the post disaster evacuation service have likewise mobilised and started issuing emergency evacuation orders and the mighty hauling behemoth that is Operation Ida has creaked into life again and is moving logistics and emergency supplies to where they are most needed. What Frontier has done with Aftermath War is unlike anything I have personally experienced in an online game. They have taken the established equilibrium and in one fail swoop turned it completely on its head. This is an evolving, expanding, panic inducing, emergent war scenario in a one to one scale recreation of the Milky Way. It's already innovative and it's incredibly bold and it's only just beginning. There are still five more maelstroms en route that are likely to hit the bubble in the next few weeks. What happens next is very much up to us. How have you reacted to the encroaching Thargoid aggression? Has your own faction been affected? Are you hunting the authorists investigating a maelstrom or evacuating refugees? Let us know in the comments below. That's it for now. Thanks very much for watching. We'll be back later this week with more videos. Until then, 07 Commanders, follow the Greens on the way out and do keep clear of the toast rack. We very much look forward to seeing you next time.