 This is Witchspace news for Friday the 6th of January 2023. I'm CMDR Buur. In Elite Dangerous News this week, new weapons are delivered to aid in the war against the Thargoids. Azimuth Biotech explores options for utilising that armoury better and is salvation really gone? Subject D2 seems to think not. If you enjoy our videos please do hit the thumbs up, subscribe and ring that little bell to see all our Elite Dangerous content. You can also directly support us by joining our Patreon. Links to that and everything else are below. Before we get started this is the first Witchspace news of 2023 and both CMDR Reney and I would like to wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year. At the tail end of last year we had multiple community goals running simultaneously and the end point of all those CG's was an addition to the current pantheon of non-guardian off the shelf available for in-game credits anti-Xeno weaponry. Whilst the flavours of AX weaponry that were being introduced were all very familiar, those flavours being AX multi-cannons and missiles, the new additions are enhanced variants that offer more in one regard or another of what the previous models dished out moderately well already, generally offering variations on slightly more damage, higher rates of fire and effective range. Since the complete set of community goals finished, the following have now all been added to the game as enhanced variants. Turreted AX multi-cannons, Turreted AX missile racks, Fixed AX multi-cannons, Fixed AX missile racks and Gimbald AX multi-cannons. As I mentioned before these weapons are based on human technology and as such they are unaffected by the Proteus field generated by Thargoid maelstroms that degrades and damages the much harder to obtain Guardian based weaponry. Further they are available to purchase off the shelf for in-game credits at the newly stationed rescue megaships that are dotted along the Thargoid front line and clearly marked on the Galaxy map. Thus far the Thargoid conflict seems to be going moderately well for humanity, in no small part due to the huge community wide multi-factional response that the conflicts arrival prompted. It's far too early to call victory or indeed defeat for that matter. We are I suspect very much still in the midst of the wars opening gambits but once the festive season is properly stowed away and folks settle back into their regular routine for a couple of weeks we should have a much clearer picture of the task that still lies ahead of us. But as things stand it's certainly a long way off being insurmountable and it does appear that we are at the very least maintaining somewhat of a front line. As we've mentioned on this channel before there is much more to this ongoing conflict than simply AX combat. There are just as crucial missions to be run that require hauling or passenger evacuation vessels and whilst you will undoubtedly encounter the Thargoids in various forms generally speaking all you need to survive is speed and heat sinks. They have just as much trouble making you dead if they can't catch up or they can't lock on their weapons. If you're keen to get involved in the war but are struggling to know where to go to best make an impact then all through the week here at the Burpit we do publish a constantly updated list of suggested targets that are shared by not only the larger player groups like the AXI the post disaster evacuation service and Operation Ida but also from smaller but just as effective coalitions of player minor factions and pilots aligned with the galaxy's superpowers. The list itself is published across our entire social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Mastered On and also on YouTube's own community pages and you'll see all of those linked below if you're not following already. Over the festive holiday period the in-game Galnet news service continued to chug away churning out some useful background information alongside potential harbingers for what is to come. The approach to the turn of the year saw the publication of a valuable three-part recap of 3308 headline events. As you'd expect the Azimuth saga and the resultant rise and fall of Caleb Witchley's Salvation alter ego is a dominant voice in that recap but there are a number of likely important subplots that are easily forgotten in the noise of the Proteus wave that are worth underlining again for future reference. Use the right hand panel in-game to have your ship read the stories out to you as you play. As the new year turned the definitely still evil mega corporation Azimuth Biotech resurfaced with word that it was working to increase the amount of AX weapons that could be carried by a ship and that it had already seen promising results. This is an important development for as long as forever there has been a limit on the number of AX weapons any one ship can carry that number being four. The peculiar restriction is highlighted when viewed through the prism of a ship such as the Type 10 Defender a vessel that was developed in direct response to the Xeno threat with nine hard points available to it only four of which can, under the current rules, actually hold anti-Xeno weapons. Honestly the limit has a rather arbitrary resonance to it and feels like a slightly clunky unnecessary artificially gamified limit. No other weapons in the game are restricted by such a limit AX weapons are because well they just are. Whilst the complaint has long been echoed in the community it has particularly been brought to the fore again of late as the lower tier human tech weapons of yesteryear have gained a new relevance with the explosion of the Proteus wave and the developing Thargoid conflict. It does appear that Frontier have heard those grumbles and are responding to them. It is of course worth underlining here that all of this chatter in the lore at least is coming from salvation's azimuth biotech and will doubtless require that we grind up hundreds of puppies smearing the resultant puppy paste over our existing AX weapons to allow new ones to be added. Moving swiftly on, Seo Jin A formerly known as Subject D2 and the victim of azimuth biotech's horrific human experimentation had previously taken up the offer of protection and rehabilitation from a cabal of good guys fronted by revered scientists Professor Palin, Professor Albert Tesro and Citizen Ramtar who I'm sure sailed through his cycling proficiency test with a plon. Having been somewhat rehabilitated whilst also proving that she can still understand on some level Thargoid communications, Seo Jin A is reported this week to have absconded from the facility where she was undergoing ongoing therapy. Upon leaving the facility, Seo did message her former carers to say that she was grateful for all that they had achieved but that she had quote, unfinished business with salvation unquote. This story is extremely important for two reasons, Miss Jin A has said that she has unfinished business with salvation, not azimuth biotech or indeed its new CEO and lead moustache twirling pencil neck Torben Raidmaker but Caleb Wichely's salvation who supposedly died following the Proteus wave explosion at the battle of hip 22460. It's long been speculated that salvation wasn't in fact on board the bright sentinel when the Proteus device fired and this speculation is not without evidence. In the cutscene that accompanied the Proteus detonation, the view from salvation's command chair out over the planet below is clearly at complete odds with the exterior shots showing the bright sentinel itself. Also take a look at a zoomed in view of the control panel to the right of salvation's chair and the name of the ship he's actually on board can clearly be read as Nemesis. The view from the window being at odds with the ship exteriors absolutely could be a stylistic choice and the Nemesis tag on the ship's internal display and indeed the date on the pad that appears to be July 3308 and not August 3308 could well be an FDF placed fleet carrier internal set that they used to film this particular bit of footage and that they just didn't notice at the time. We'll likely never know the truth but Frontier are either owning that small era picked up by the beast of a million eyes community or this was the plan all along. Either way it does seem as though Seo Jin-A is not yet done with the monster that created her and there's yet to be a final showdown. The second part of all this is that Seo Jin-A clearly has her own agenda that she's more than capable of now pursuing. I've yet to be convinced that Seo Jin-A and her Dr. Thargoid Adulite-like communication talents don't yet have some other significant part to play in the greater tapestry of the Elite Dangerous Evolving Landscape and this story underlining her continued and very apparent sense of self and independence is further reinforcing that for me. I spoke in our video yesterday about where we think this might all be heading and if you've not seen it you'll find that video linked on screen now. Ready for Elite Dangerous far from being its previous incarnation as background fluff is now very much an important tenant in the games future pulling the galaxy forward with it and introducing new features and events as it does so and I can't wait to see where this year ahead takes us all. Do you think salvation is out there still waiting to be found on board the Nemesis? Have you tried out the new enhanced AX weapons yet and how was the experience? Are you looking forward to bolting more of them onto your ships and going toe to toe with the Thargoid Menace? 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, O7 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.