 This is Witchbase news for Friday the 31st of March 2023, I'm CMDR Buur. In Elite Dangerous News this week, F-Dev announced the opening date for the console copy system. The Elite community meet is back for 2023, the Thargoid war rebalance yields results but humanity continues to lose ground, D2 insists that salvation is still alive and more. As always if you enjoy our videos please do hit the like button and if you haven't already be sure to subscribe and click the bell so you don't miss any of our Elite Dangerous content and if you would like to directly help in supporting our work you can join our Patreon links to that and everything else are below. Frontier announced as we were putting this show together today that the console account copy portal will be opening up again on the 3rd of April. The system was paused late last year after an initial flurry of transfers but F-Dev always promised it would return and true to their word it is indeed back next week with the full list of features as last time. The service which copies your console commander profile over to the PC live version of the game is completely free, has no effect on your console commander which remains usable after the copy and comes bundled with a free copy of the base game for you to play on once you've copied over. As we've reported a good few times before you don't necessarily need a PC at all to use the copied profile on the live game. Nvidia's GeForce Now for example is a subscription service that allows access to PC games from a number of non-PC platforms including the Xbox. We've made a video about the features of that service which is linked on screen now if you think it might be the right fit for you. F-Dev have said the current copy system is remaining open indefinitely with no planned end point as things stand but should that situation change they'll let everyone know well in advance. The annual Elite Community Meet organised by Commander Vante Young of the Hutton Truckers was officially announced last night on the Hutton Orbital live stream. Subject to hotel contracts being signed, teas being crossed and eyes being dotted the event will go ahead at the Hilton St Anne's Manor Hotel in Wokingham in the UK on Saturday the 19th of August. If you've never been to an ECM before you can expect a large plush venue chock full of somewhere in the region of 160 or so commanders according to Vante Young's own estimates. The event itself will feature tons of retro games, a quiz and lunch in the price of admission but the vibe with ECM has always been to bring some fun with you. So if there's something you want to show off then bring it along, if there's a board game you want to play take it with you. A large part of the ECM experience being what the community makes of it. If you need to stay overnight then staying at the hotel venue is not mandatory, there are other options nearby but Vante Young is keen to make it known don't book anything yet as tickets are not yet on sale. Just assured when Vante Young gives us the nod we'll report it here and link to any web resources you need to book your tickets. But the important takeaway, ECM is happening Saturday the 19th of August, Hilton St Anne's Manor Hotel in Wokingham in the UK with more details to follow. Frontier announced this week they are making a minor change to the weekly Discovery scanner post on the official Elite Dangerous website. The Discovery scanner ordinarily would report every Monday or Tuesday morning come rain or shine and whilst that may still be the case we're needed the key phrase in that sentence from here on is we're needed. Going forward the Discovery scanner will be collating its information into more bumper additions celebrating featured commanders and cool events or happenings with a somewhat more unscheduled regularity instead collating development and update news into their own dedicated additions when appropriate. Galnet updated this week with an article focusing on the ongoing struggle against the Thargoids in the bubble noting that whilst some victories are being achieved by humankind we're still losing more systems than we're saving. The article makes special note of three commanders who it says have achieved phenomenal success destroying Thargoid vessels Commander Ogmios TTT Commander Knight Furry and Commander Frank XJR. Always nice to see real commanders in the game getting a mention on Galnet. As of this week's Thargs Day Tick the game is reporting 1128 systems under Thargoid control. 31 systems are being subjected to Thargoid invasion, 29 systems are recovering from Thargoid invasions having had those invasions repelled and 40 systems are currently under a status of alert where the Thargoids are targeting those systems as a possible invasion candidate. The number of systems in a state of Thargoid alert has been consistently at 40 for the past three weeks having been almost consistently double that for all the previous weeks. The halving in the number of alert systems is quite stark and apparent particularly when viewed on the Defence Council of Humanities website which tracks the progress of the war. The shift in the number of alert systems coincides exactly with the 16th of March and the recently announced Thargoid war rebalance that we reported on a few weeks back. Just prior to that you may remember an Aegis article on Galnet encouraging commanders to focus on hunting the Orthrus Reconnaissance vessels in alert systems. It's apparent I think that FDF had planned for commanders to target stopping the spread of the war by focusing efforts on alert systems and when that didn't happen to the degree they'd anticipated they clearly stepped in with balance changes to clip the Thargoids claws somewhat ensuring that the war remains fun and progress achievable while simultaneously being a definite clear and present danger nonetheless. The energy pulse barrier at the centre of the Thargoid maelstroms remains as we assume the final barrier to actually reaching whatever is waiting for us there and we're guessing it's likely we'll hear more about how to bypass that barrier in the coming weeks ahead. I believe Salvation survived. Was the stark headline that greeted Galnet readers this week as the artist formerly known as Subject D2 Sojin A reiterated her recently revealed alleged discoveries pointing to what is now being referred to as Salvation's Nemesis failsafe device. A system based on Guardian technology that would in the event of the death of his physical body upload Salvation's consciousness to some form of storage device ensuring that the bargain basement messiah could personally continue his vendetta against the Thargoid race even after the death of his already 250 year old body. Assuming D2 is correct then the dumpster fire deity could at this very moment be floating around in Guardian system somewhere as bits and bites waiting for the next opportunity to stretch his already bloated sense of self importance. Simply speaking a solid argument could already be made for Salvation being somewhat less of a full ticket before the events of HIP 22460. Having now been disembodied, uploaded to Lord alone knows what device and then existing as a non corporeal entity after 250 years of fingers, toes, sunshine and sandwiches one can only imagine what such an experience would do to even the strongest of personalities. Let alone a maniacal, zenocidal, mass murder-tron who insists on being called Salvation whilst simultaneously setting everything on fire and killing millions completely without even the slightest threat of acknowledging the irony of that moniker. D2's tin foiling has yet to be proven so you have to acknowledge that she could be mistaken or indeed herself be mad as a brush. It does seem however extremely unlikely that FDF would choose to sow the seeds of this particular thread if they had no intention of pulling on that thread at some later date. It's my suggestion then that as future updates to the game drop, swinging by the numerous guardian sights in the galaxy might be prudent just to see if something, anything has suddenly changed after all these tens of thousands of years. Are you planning on going to the Elite Dangerous Community meet? Have you recently tried hunting the authorist Thargoid Reconnaissance Vessel? Do you think Salvation will really return and if so, what form will he take? 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.