 Update 14 to the Elite Dangerous Live Game has arrived. There's new mechanics, there's new gameplay, the name of the new Thargoid Interceptor has been confirmed and there's a lot more to this update than just AX Combat. In this video I'm going to break down what we know about the evolving war that we are now facing on multiple fronts. If you enjoy our videos as always please do like, subscribe and ping that notification bell to see all our future content. To directly support the work we do here you can also join our Patreon, links to that and everything else are below. The next major narrative phase of the game has now begun. The unknown interstellar anomalies that have been moving across space since last August have begun to arrive in the bubble. They are indeed completely Thargoid in origin and if there was any remaining doubt of their intentions following the disastrous Kingfisher peace mission that doubt has now been completely swept away. With Update 14 to Elite Dangerous entitled Aftermath War we are witnessing a massive invasion of the bubble by highly aggressive Thargoid forces across multiple fronts. And whilst we've seen attacks by the Thargoids before these are not the skirmishes and relatively consequence free starport assaults that we've seen previously. The Thargoids are here in force and they intend to stay. Don't let the subtitle fool you however whilst combat is undoubtedly a large part of the update there's also activities for non-combat pilots as well that can have an impact on the war and affect whether humanity can hold on to its claim on the bubble. More on that in a moment. It's important to stress at this point that what we're seeing currently in Update 14 is available to every player on the PC using the live version of the game regardless of whether you own Odyssey or not. It's also important to note that what we're seeing deployed today is very much the dawn of the war. We already know that updates 15 and 16 are in our future and that they contain new content and gameplay. You can likely expect the situation to expand from here and dare I say it get worse. As part of Frontier's new partnered content creator program we were fortunate to get access to some advanced information. I am going to talk about that information now and some of it could be considered spoilers so if you're sensitive to that stuff and would rather discover it all yourself then stop watching now. Here we go then. When a stargoid arrives in a system it is currently represented in-game by a huge caustic cloud referred to as a maelstrom. Each cloud is individually named after the stargoid that deployed it so you can expect to find the Tarranis maelstrom in-game. Each maelstrom is somewhere in the magnitude of 180 kilometers across and is clearly visible in supercruise and in the full spectrum scanner. Upon dropping into normal space around a maelstrom you'll note it generates lightning like effects similar to some of the Lagrange clouds found in deep space. The lightning generated by the maelstrom is also visible when on approach in supercruise. Upon entering the cloud your ship will warn you that it is a hazardous environment and if you push deeper into the cloud your ship will start to take caustic damage. What is at the centre of the cloud Frontier aren't yet saying. All they are saying is that it is amongst the largest objects that they have ever generated for the game and that humanity will find itself in an arms race to develop the technology needed to pierce the clouds heart and discover what is inside. Away from the centre however you'll find Thargoid technology moving about that appears to be generating the gas needed to shield whatever is at the heart of the maelstrom and you'll also find Thargoid vessels patrolling. It wasn't clear from what we were shown how precisely the maelstroms will spread the war with humankind but there are new tools in place in the in-game map to show the territory affected by the Thargoid presence and what one of the new system states being added any given system is under. Those new system states are as follows Thargoid Alert Thargoid Invasion Thargoid Controlled Thargoid Maelstrom and Post Thargoid Recovery. As of this recording we don't yet know what difference those system states make to the newly invaded bubble systems we are however looking forward to finding out. At the time of going to press we do know that there are new scenarios being added to the game that will appear in the systems as a result of the encroaching war with the Thargoids. The related POIs will feature scenarios such as military convoys that have been ambushed by Thargoids or capital ships under attack etc. We also know that missions available to the player will be able to affect the war effort and importantly those missions are not just combat related for example trade and passenger missions will also be available to players who don't wish to participate in combat but still want to contribute to the combined war effort. Whilst it hasn't yet been specifically stated we're assuming that the Thargoid tab in selected starport mission boards is about to light up with options. We've seen from the events in HIP 22460 and from Frontiers own comments following those events that the Thargoids have learnt to hold on to terrain. In this new stage of the aftermath if we the players fail in our efforts and a system falls to the Thargoids then unlike previous Thargoid incursions there are now dire consequences. Conflict zones can now appear around surface starports and orbital stations and the facility that is being attacked will defend itself whilst continuing to operate throughout the conflict. If however the conflict does not go well then the affected installation can be completely taken out of action and whilst starports and now surface ports on fire is something we've been shown what we're talking about here is a whole nother level. In footage released to us by Frontier we can see starports and orbital facilities completely offline with landing pads unavailable and even the mail slots shield doors closed with the affected facility surrounded by the now familiar Thargoid gas cloud. Our understanding from Frontier is that if a system is lost to the Thargoids then recovering it at the moment is at the very least extremely challenging. It's difficult to overstate the potential severity of what is about to hit the bubble. We have no reason to believe that starports and facilities owned by player minor factions for example are magically immune to unwanted attentions from the Thargoids and we therefore have every reason to believe that they are just as vulnerable as anything else in the bubble. Allegiances amongst all the player minor factions in the bubble who have for all these years been jostling with each other for space are about to take on a whole new level of importance as the cold eye of an enemy that has no care for politics, allegiances or affiliations could well turn toward your home after having absorbed your troublesome neighbor. The Thargoids have already in the last week demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they make no distinction between a human that is set on conflict and a human that desires peaceful coexistence just ask one of the inhabitants of the Kingfisher Megaship. Frontier mentioned in their last live stream that a new Thargoid interceptor would be arriving in the game as part of update 14. I'm going to talk briefly about what we know of that interceptor now and we will be showing it on screen again I would like to preface this section with a spoiler warning if you would rather not know anything about this new threat and would rather discover it for yourself then please stop watching now. If you're still with us then I can tell you that the new interceptor arriving in the game in update 14 is called the Orthrus. Long time elite dangerous players will know that infamous name the ship has appeared briefly in Elite Dangerous before we made a video about it which you can see linked on screen now. The behavior of this Orthrus appears very different to what we've seen from interceptors historically it appears that it won't itself attack but will instead call for assistance if it detects you. It seems that detecting just what the Orthrus is up to will be a big part of the first stage of the war again whilst there is very much now a dynamic and evolving war raging around us frontiers seem aware that they need to provide gameplay to players that don't necessarily focus on conflict and that was very encouraging to hear. After months of speculation following the disastrous events in hip 22460 we do now know it seems how the Thargoids reacted to those events and how they interpret us as a result of those actions. There can be no doubt now we have proven ourselves to be a significant threat and therefore worthy of action. The Thargoids are here and whilst this is just the first stage of aftermarth war the battle for the bubble has now truly begun. If you've witnessed the war firsthand tell us what you experienced have you seen a system under full Thargoid assault? Have you yet found an Orthrus Interceptor and if you did what was it up to? Let us know in the comments below. That's it for now thanks very much for watching. If you enjoyed this video consider subscribing to the channel and maybe take a look at one of our other videos linked on screen right now.