 This is Witchspace news for Friday the 7th of October 2022 I'm CMDR Buur In Elite Dangerous news this week Did designer Tom Kuhl deliberately drop a hint of on foot Thargoids into this week's livestream? There's pre-engineered heat sinks up for grabs in this week's CG as the Thargoids reappear in the bubble and there's a chance to win a unique Halloween themed paint job for your Asp Explorer If you enjoy our videos please do like and subscribe Don't forget to click the little bell icon and turn on all notifications to ensure you see all our Elite Dangerous videos and posts and if you'd like to support our work on this channel you'll also find our Patreon linked below As we reported earlier in the week the three systems that suddenly found themselves with more than the requisite number of aggressive alien invasions for a human occupied star system suddenly found their alien invasion variable reset to zero again and everything returned to situation nominal this week. No sooner had that happened however and a further caustic goopy visitation popped up in alliance space. As we reported previously this recent batch of Thargoid infestations doesn't quite sit with the norm that we'd become used to. The Thargoids are arriving in a system, stations in the system are remaining intact and in a very real sense the caustic fury flowers are then being set upon by legions of human piloted vessels just for the mere fact of being there. The initial three systems were Federation controlled, the latest system which is now subject to an AX focused community goal is very much an alliance focused system with the alliance deploying a reactionary task force with the assistance of the Sirius Corporation to fend off the apparently relatively passive Thargoids. This week for your efforts in defending the alliance against an attack that isn't happening you'll receive a pre-engineered heat sink module from their corporate sponsors by the way. It's not terribly hard to see the pattern developing here, if I were a betting man I'd suspect there's not much money to be made from wagering that the Imperials receive a similar slime dipped visitation in the near future. It's almost as though someone or indeed something is suddenly aware of the military, political and factional divisions that exist in human civilization and is probing each one in turn to determine their respective defensive and aggressive capabilities. No unnecessary fire starting let's just see what they do if we arrive perhaps. It certainly seems to be unusual for a species that up until now have simply not displayed cognitive behaviour of that particular flavour before. If the Imperials do receive a similar visit from our slavering alien neighbours then it'll prove to be even more of a curiosity. Elsewhere in Galnet perhaps unsurprisingly the far gods true chapters didn't receive the support from the community they were hoping for and as a result their newly acquired dedicant megaship has been seized by the feds. The far gods remaining assets namely the testament and the perdition have since abandoned their pre-published scheduled jumps and are now AWOL lest they too become subject to federal seizure. As we were going to press a story broke on Galnet this afternoon proclaiming that, and I brace yourself for this, Asimuth Biotech of all people are offering assistance in the matter of subject D2's mental and physical recovery after she announced herself to the galaxy and was taken under the wing of Professor Albert Tesrow and the still attempting to reform Aegis Xeno research and defence agency. D2 or Seo Jin A to give her her real name was in fact the victim of Asimuth Biotech's attempts to pilot captured Thargoid vessels by merging them with an unwilling human test subject. Whilst dripping in a sick irony and simultaneously blaming the experiments on salvation Asimuth's CEO and not the company itself, Asimuth comments do contain some hints that, as we'd suspected, Seo Jin A may still be able to interpret Thargoid communication somehow. If this thread is followed through in the game, it's seemingly, increasingly likely that perhaps communication or engagement with the Thargoids on some level beyond shooting them in the mandibles might be in elite's future. Meanwhile, in deep space, the Thargoids, whatever they are, draw ever closer to the bubble. As you may be aware, every week Frontier run a screenshot competition for the community that spans the forums and their various presences on social media. Screenshots submitted with the hashtag Stella Screenshots are judged by the community staff and at the end of the weekly cycle, winners are chosen who then receive Asp Shatter paint jobs that are exclusive to the competition and can't be obtained any other way. This month being October, the month of Halloween and the traditional month of all things spooky, the team are changing things up slightly and incorporating what they're calling Stella Screenshots into the mix. Each week in October an extra prize, the malevolent ghast Halloween themed paint job for the Asp Explorer will be given for the creepiest screenshots tagged with hashtag Stella Screenshots. There's been some awarded already and you can see an example of one on screen now and just to be clear, if you win, you'll get this paint job as well as the regular Stella Screenshots paint job of the week. It's great to see this cute seasonal mixing of the paint jobs on offer and there's plenty of scope for this kind of unique festival reward multiple times each year. I really hope Frontier continue and expand on it. To be in with a chance of winning the Halloween Asp paint job, take the creepiest Elite Dangerous screenshot that you possibly can and post it to either Twitter, Facebook or the official Stella Screenshots forum thread linked below with the hashtag Stella Screenshots. And if I never have to say those two hashtags together ever again, that will be okay. The regular fortnightly frameshift live slot was moved due to some scheduling conflicts this week and instead popped up on Wednesday hosted by community managers Bruce Carido and Arthur Tolmey. We do know that November is due to see the next significant content drop into the game but, thus far at least, Frontier haven't said much about it. However, toward the start of the stream Arthur mentions that he'd seen some really cool things for the game that day but that he can't yet talk about them. From his reactions on camera, it's very clear he's excited about them. Alongside the regular segments for Stella Screenshots and Galnet News, the main event on the stream was very much a pre-recorded interview with Senior Designer on Elite Dangerous Odyssey, Tom Kuhl. The interview predominantly takes the form of a walkthrough and indeed talkthrough of the Elite Dangerous Odyssey on foot tutorial mission that Tom was a part of building and delves into great detail from a design perspective on why the player finds themselves where they are, what the tutorial is attempting to teach the player, when and how and why. It also shows off a few somewhat hidden aspects of the tutorial that players won't have found if they just ran through it as quickly as possible before heading for the main game, never to return. Tom is a semi-regular guest on Frontier's live streams these days and a chat with the hugely enthusiastic designer is always interesting. His insights are well worth hearing and we've linked below to the full live stream. The interview itself is well over an hour long. One particularly interesting point of note at the start of the interview, Bruce is talking to Tom about his previous appearance on the live stream where he spoke about his work on the design process behind the Scorpion SRV. At the end of his comment, Tom somewhat randomly says quote, if you're going to get blown up by Thargoids anyway, you may as well do it in a scorpion unquote. Without wishing to get too utterly wrapped in tinfoil, that is an extremely odd comment to make when Thargoids haven't been mentioned. There is really no terribly easy way to get blown up by Thargoids on the ground, certainly outside of a ship. If the team are attempting to drop a hint of anything there, then on foot Thargoid conflict in some regard would be the obvious go to for that comment. We've often commented here that aside from its obvious stability and sturdiness benefits, the scorpion feels like a weapon ready for a fight that hasn't yet started. Could it be the scorpion will come into its own in a future update that sees the arrival of the much anticipated and speculated Thargoid ground war. It is of course entirely possible and it would certainly give the tanky SRV more of a reason to exist. I've linked to the specific clip with Tom's comments below. Have a listen and see what you think. Will you be trying to win a Halloween paint job? Do you think the Thargoids are testing our defences and did Tom really hint at a Thargoid ground war during that interview? 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.