 This is Witchbase news for Friday the 30th of June 2023, I'm CMDR Buur. In Elite Dangerous News this week, 7 months on we look at the status of the Thargoid Invasion, there's an in depth explorers guide to uncovering those elusive green gas giants, Alec Turner pitches an extreme docking challenge to the community 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. You can also join our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support our work, links to that and everything else are below. The Thargoid War that started with the arrival of the first Thargoid, the Thargoid Titan we now call Taranis started 7 months ago as I speak these words. That first Thargoid beach head unleashed a wave of Thargoid attacks that was quickly followed in the weeks after by 7 more Thargoid Titans each bringing their own wave of attacks. At the peak of the invasion the caustic cauliflower controlled no less than 1186 systems. As the Thargoid invasion front moves further away from its source its lines become stretched however and the density of the spiteful spinach advance is significantly decreased. The end result of which being it loses power, that coupled with the availability of new weapons and the player bases increased understanding of what tactics and strategies we can use to stem the advance has now seen the invasion all but stopped in its tracks. Whilst the last couple of weeks has seen 4 or 5 systems invaded each week just 3 weeks ago there were no new invasions at all. To put this into perspective at their height the Thargoid were invading well over 50 systems every week and on one particular occasion 67 systems fell to the foul alien menace in just one week. Whilst the Thargoids now control 971 systems in the bubble that is still less than 5% of the real estate with humanity still controlling over 20,000 systems. Across all that space there are just 24 systems in a state of alert where there is danger of invasion and just 5 systems this week are actually being invaded at the moment. A further 24 systems have seen the Thargoids ejected and are in a state of recovery. To get involved yourself check the in-game galactic map and click the Thargoid war filter. Clicking on a system will show you the progress bar towards successful completion of that system's goals as well as what tasks you can perform from combat through to hauling goods, civilian evacuations, running missions, recovering black spot flight recorders or escape pods and even selling Thargoid tissue samples which have been found to be particularly effective of late. To check in on the stats and check on the general progress of the war I use the DCOH website which produces all sorts of cool graphs and graphics to illustrate what's going on and highlight where help might be needed. You'll find a link to that in the description below this video. The next update to the game update 16 is currently scheduled to arrive in around one month's time. As we saw a couple of weeks back we know that that will introduce a new Thargoid hunter variant to the mix at the very least. As soon as we know any more we will of course let you know right here. Frontier announced this week that the latest batch of content creator applications has been processed and the fine folks that you see listed on screen now have been welcomed in as Elite Dangerous partners. By partnering with Elite Dangerous content creators get content and channel promotion opportunities from Elite Dangerous channels and streams, Twitch drops for their own Twitch channels and code bundles to give away for YouTube channels that contain in-game cosmetics. They also get an exclusive merch pack as a welcome gift. Frontier takes on partnered content creators on a regular cycle. The end date for the next cycle is in October. There are some hoops to jump through but if you'd like to apply as a partner yourself then you'll find a link below to get you started. With a system as large and complex as the stellar forge that is used to generate the extended galaxy of Elite Dangerous some quirks, oddities and bugs are inevitable. As we've mentioned on this show a couple of times before the software is known to occasionally turn out systems with colliding planets for example. One other perhaps less frequently encountered galactic oddity is the infamous green gas giant or GGG as the exploration community calls them. In such instances as the name suggests what could ordinarily be a fairly run of the mill stellar object instead emits an eerie, dare I say it, otherworldly vibrant green glow from its horizontal atmospheric bands. The colouring is so stark that it very much sits at odds with the colouring of just about everything else in the game that isn't manufactured by humans, thargoids or guardians. Being so rare these glowing green gas giants have become somewhat of a sought after find to the explorers in the game. One such explorer is commander Arcanic of the Galactic Exploration catalogue who, having previously published a video study of all the then known GGGs in the game has now published a documentary piece to YouTube that delves into their own discovery linking the surface temperature of the green gas giants to their striking colouration. The commander's discovery means that there is now a way of short listing the gas giants uncovered upon arrival in a system to see if further investigation is worthwhile as they could be potential new GGGs. The video is well worth a look if you're looking to seek out an undiscovered GGG for yourself, as always I've linked to commander Arcanic's video in the description below. If you're looking for a new challenge in the game that is equal parts daring, technically challenging and skillful as well as being madder than a bag of badgers in a tumble dryer and likely to get you a rebuy then the community's regular aficionado of such endeavours Alec Turner has something for you. Inspired by the famous no time for caution docking sequence in the movie Interstellar, Alec's latest challenge will have you over a planet's surface turning off flight assist, putting the ship in a spin, shutting down your thrusters and then launching in an SLF and attempting to dock with your now tumbling plummeting ship and regain control of it all before it becomes a hot flaming pile of scrap on the ground below. In his video on the extreme docking challenge Alec can be seen trying the stunt over both a mountain peak and a surface installation for extra drama. Check out the video linked in the description below and if you fancy giving it a go and upping the ante somewhat then maybe give it a bash in an active conflict zone while the ship is on fire and for an extra level of spice why not try turning off your life support and fill your space suit with killer bees first. I think Alec might finally have outdone himself with this latest challenge and I'm very much looking forward to seeing other commander's flaming horror story videos. Let us know how you get on. One quick heads up, the steam summer sail is on at the moment and alongside a lot of the frontier stable you'll also find Elite Dangerous and the Odyssey expansion at significantly reduced prices. As at this recording Elite and Odyssey can be purchased for a total of 15 quid, useful to know if you're looking to get a second, third or maybe an eighth account. I'm not judging. Will you be trying the extreme docking challenge? Are you seeking out a green gas giant or will you be jumping into the fargoid invasion of the bubble? 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.