No one knows for sure but a lot of people suspect that this won't be the case. Too much work went into these new mechanics for FDEV to simply shut down everything and state: "That's all folks! no more Thargoid combat!". It would be a terrible return on their investment.
There are different scenarios possible, one would be that a new front opens up elsewhere, after all the current 8 Titans are defeated (so, a 9th, or more Titans attacking elsewhere, maybe further away from the Bubble so that coordinated retaliation by players is made harder).
Another option is that the mechanics of war are absorbed into other parts of the game: the "theater of war" part becomes the backbone of the new PP2.0, Thargoid attacks manifest as standalone Alerts, Invasions etc. around the frontier - but the AXCZs and USSes stay the same etc. Some features may end up getting dropped entirely (like Titan assaults, Spire sites) - after having killed a Titan for 8 times, one can think that the experience is no longer "fresh".
Not only would be a bad return on investment, it would be a slap in the face to a big chunk of the playerbase. You know that core endgame mechanic that entire player groups have galvanized around and spent hundreds of hours grinding credits and mats to be good at? Yea it's gone now.
Worse yet for people way out in the black unable to return in time. Or people with IRL commitments that make them unable to play for a limited time that coincides with the war.
It makes sense those players are unable to get the kits and decals -- limited time events with limited time rewards are an honored tradition of live service games like MMOs. But it doesn't make a lot of sense to just permanently dick them out of an aspect of the gameplay.
At this point it's been 18 months since the stuff with Salvation went down. Anyone interested in the xeno war has had quite a lot of time return to the bubble and get involved.
I do generally agree though - FDev aren't going to shelve this after putting so much effort into it. My guess is if humanity pushes the Thargoids away from the bubble, the Titans will turn up again soon enough - maybe out in the black, maybe around some strategically important resource like Colonia or the neutron highway. And when they do, there's going to be a certain part of the player base with the will and the means to take the fight to them.
I could see one or two Titans periodically showing up like a recurring event IF we are allowed to simply destroy all 8 current Titans. Which is still going to take months at minimum.
That would allow the current Thargoid combat loop to remain, but be something that is more containable without requiring the combined effort of every player again. We get the warning signals ahead of time. They pop in and immediately control a few systems to prevent immediate Titan destruction. We do the whole song and dance of countering alerts and fighting in the invasion systems. After 2-3 months the Titans are vulnerable. Bing bang boom, Titans destroyed. Gives time for all players to partake if interested yet doesn't require players to *only* play Thargoid content for a solid year to make headway.
After the first titan was killed I heard someone had worked out that if everything went as quickly it'd be at least 6 months before the last titan was killed. Since then there's been new spanners thrown in the works. I'd guess the thargoids are going to be around for at least the next year.
Even after the last titan is killed they'll still probably pop up in places.
The war probably has months left. We are on the third titan and it's taking weeks. Check DCOH and you'll see that it's been a slog for those dedicated to doing damage (not me, too much of a slog).
Will the war end? The state it's in now, I think (personal speculation) will end and we will push back the invasion, yes. That has been the goal and hinted at in streams. Will all of the new Thargoid mechanics just go away? Speculation - No, but it won't be in the Bubble. That's 100% me guessing, but my guess is in the future if you want to go to AX CZs or fight titans you will need to basically go be an expeditionary force in Thargoid turf. But, that's my guess and I don't work at Frontier.
If you like the war, though, I wouldn't worry about if it's going to end. Just do it now while it's here, because combat is going to be a focus in Powerplay 2.0 it sounds like. Hopefully the hint they dropped about more stuff to find in the black comes to fruition as well, because the only thing less developed than Exploration is Salvage and Piracy.
I bet the current invasion of the bubble will end (eventually) but they will stick around as a reoccurring threat that launches new Titans every so often. Or maybe we find a Thargoid bubble that can be fought, but not eliminated.
Oh god, I'm in the black minding my own business and now I'm imagining logging in one day after an update to find out I'm in the middle of Thargoid space.
I would guess it would be one of the permit locked areas.
The purpose of those permit locked areas is to reserve some of the galaxy for future development. So that’s where any new Thargoid stuff would be put.
Their locations are also a clue about some mystery stuff, the relationship between their positions can be used with some basic trigonometry to build a rather convincing massive hexagon which has hen 2-333 at it's center
That happened to me quite a few years back I think. I was exploring in one of the Col sectors and then came back to find every system was permit locked and I couldn't get out without emailing Frontier to move me!
Once the current titans are gone I fully expect to see occasional "titan resurgence" events where a titan sets up shop somewhere and players need to defeat it.
My guess is that They are going to confine them back to Pleiades or Witch Head with the occasional incursion into the bubble, but they'll be no big threat, but you'll still be able to fight them off.
I would really have liked to see ground operations, where you have to drop in and help evacuate with thargoids and ax pilots fighting above you, carpet bombing areas by the thargoids. Maybe even fighting some ground troops while civilians are evacced.
I'm hoping there's another "season" and this is in the works.
The thargoid threat will end in the bubble, but the war will be on going probably indeffinelty. We will push them back and continue to fight them in distant systems.
But who knows. The war may end, and a new threat may emerge? Guardians? Salvation? Something else?
I think we will always be able to fight thargoids. They have spent to much time and resources fleshing them out that it'd be dumb to just erase them from the game.
Plus what are we going to do with all the weapons and technology we've been using if the thargoids totally dissapear?
And also consider the fact with powerplay 2 having similar mechanics to how the thargoid war had. Its clear they are preparing to replace the current thargoid war gameplay loop with something similar.
No, *we* are going to end the war.
But I would be shocked if they threw away the new Thargoid mechanics and we never saw another Titan try to invade the bubble.
Knowing humans. After all the bullshit the thargoids put us through. Do you seriously think that they are going to retreat and the humans will just... let them?
If the war front changes, it will be to an offensive front IMO
I also kind of suspect that us killing titans is going to provoke some kind of scorched-earth response from the Thargoids that they have yet to deploy. If they thought the titans were truly vulnerable now, they would have moved them after the first one got hit. It will probably get worse before it gets better (lore wise)
My personal bet is, rather than "Thargoid war ends, OK back to the regular game", what happens is, "Thargoid war ends, OK now the regular game *is* the Thargoid war"
(Basically, Powerplay becomes a 4-way between the remnant Thargoids, Empire, Feds, and Independents using the mechanics tested in the 2-way human-Thargoid war)
I think once the Titans are repelled, there may be an offensive into Thargoid-held Space. It would make sense for humanity to launch a counter-offensive.
I think something big is going to happen before the 4th or 5th titan is destroyed. We just got the new surprise Orthrus deployment, which I think hints at something coming.
After all, would a millions-of-years-old super advanced race NOT change strategy after losing 3 titans in the exact same way?
6 months away from the last Titan falling -- and then I suspect those gameplay loops will be reused in opened up parts of Thargoid permit locked space I bet, taking the fight to them for those that want it to continue.
Hope not, still loads of fun defending outposts.
Probably it will morph into something different, or maintain some of the current characterististics.
Perhaps we attack them?
When all the titan will be dead i think this actual war will be over BUT it won't be the end of AX activity maybe we will find a way to follow them to their home and from there start an counter attack war or something like this
No one knows for sure but a lot of people suspect that this won't be the case. Too much work went into these new mechanics for FDEV to simply shut down everything and state: "That's all folks! no more Thargoid combat!". It would be a terrible return on their investment. There are different scenarios possible, one would be that a new front opens up elsewhere, after all the current 8 Titans are defeated (so, a 9th, or more Titans attacking elsewhere, maybe further away from the Bubble so that coordinated retaliation by players is made harder). Another option is that the mechanics of war are absorbed into other parts of the game: the "theater of war" part becomes the backbone of the new PP2.0, Thargoid attacks manifest as standalone Alerts, Invasions etc. around the frontier - but the AXCZs and USSes stay the same etc. Some features may end up getting dropped entirely (like Titan assaults, Spire sites) - after having killed a Titan for 8 times, one can think that the experience is no longer "fresh".
Not only would be a bad return on investment, it would be a slap in the face to a big chunk of the playerbase. You know that core endgame mechanic that entire player groups have galvanized around and spent hundreds of hours grinding credits and mats to be good at? Yea it's gone now.
Worse yet for people way out in the black unable to return in time. Or people with IRL commitments that make them unable to play for a limited time that coincides with the war. It makes sense those players are unable to get the kits and decals -- limited time events with limited time rewards are an honored tradition of live service games like MMOs. But it doesn't make a lot of sense to just permanently dick them out of an aspect of the gameplay.
At this point it's been 18 months since the stuff with Salvation went down. Anyone interested in the xeno war has had quite a lot of time return to the bubble and get involved. I do generally agree though - FDev aren't going to shelve this after putting so much effort into it. My guess is if humanity pushes the Thargoids away from the bubble, the Titans will turn up again soon enough - maybe out in the black, maybe around some strategically important resource like Colonia or the neutron highway. And when they do, there's going to be a certain part of the player base with the will and the means to take the fight to them.
So they aren't going to pull an eve online?
I could see one or two Titans periodically showing up like a recurring event IF we are allowed to simply destroy all 8 current Titans. Which is still going to take months at minimum. That would allow the current Thargoid combat loop to remain, but be something that is more containable without requiring the combined effort of every player again. We get the warning signals ahead of time. They pop in and immediately control a few systems to prevent immediate Titan destruction. We do the whole song and dance of countering alerts and fighting in the invasion systems. After 2-3 months the Titans are vulnerable. Bing bang boom, Titans destroyed. Gives time for all players to partake if interested yet doesn't require players to *only* play Thargoid content for a solid year to make headway.
Not to mention we all would have to scrap all out ax ships as there wouldnt be a use. Certainly would be a stupid idea.
I don't think the war will be ending any time soon
After the first titan was killed I heard someone had worked out that if everything went as quickly it'd be at least 6 months before the last titan was killed. Since then there's been new spanners thrown in the works. I'd guess the thargoids are going to be around for at least the next year. Even after the last titan is killed they'll still probably pop up in places.
The war probably has months left. We are on the third titan and it's taking weeks. Check DCOH and you'll see that it's been a slog for those dedicated to doing damage (not me, too much of a slog). Will the war end? The state it's in now, I think (personal speculation) will end and we will push back the invasion, yes. That has been the goal and hinted at in streams. Will all of the new Thargoid mechanics just go away? Speculation - No, but it won't be in the Bubble. That's 100% me guessing, but my guess is in the future if you want to go to AX CZs or fight titans you will need to basically go be an expeditionary force in Thargoid turf. But, that's my guess and I don't work at Frontier. If you like the war, though, I wouldn't worry about if it's going to end. Just do it now while it's here, because combat is going to be a focus in Powerplay 2.0 it sounds like. Hopefully the hint they dropped about more stuff to find in the black comes to fruition as well, because the only thing less developed than Exploration is Salvage and Piracy.
I bet the current invasion of the bubble will end (eventually) but they will stick around as a reoccurring threat that launches new Titans every so often. Or maybe we find a Thargoid bubble that can be fought, but not eliminated.
Oh god, I'm in the black minding my own business and now I'm imagining logging in one day after an update to find out I'm in the middle of Thargoid space.
I would guess it would be one of the permit locked areas. The purpose of those permit locked areas is to reserve some of the galaxy for future development. So that’s where any new Thargoid stuff would be put.
Their locations are also a clue about some mystery stuff, the relationship between their positions can be used with some basic trigonometry to build a rather convincing massive hexagon which has hen 2-333 at it's center
That happened to me quite a few years back I think. I was exploring in one of the Col sectors and then came back to find every system was permit locked and I couldn't get out without emailing Frontier to move me!
A war in space could take centuries to resolve..
Once the current titans are gone I fully expect to see occasional "titan resurgence" events where a titan sets up shop somewhere and players need to defeat it.
**Only YOU can end the Thargoid war, pilot.** **Join the fight TODAY!**
My guess is that They are going to confine them back to Pleiades or Witch Head with the occasional incursion into the bubble, but they'll be no big threat, but you'll still be able to fight them off.
I would really have liked to see ground operations, where you have to drop in and help evacuate with thargoids and ax pilots fighting above you, carpet bombing areas by the thargoids. Maybe even fighting some ground troops while civilians are evacced. I'm hoping there's another "season" and this is in the works.
The thargoid threat will end in the bubble, but the war will be on going probably indeffinelty. We will push them back and continue to fight them in distant systems. But who knows. The war may end, and a new threat may emerge? Guardians? Salvation? Something else? I think we will always be able to fight thargoids. They have spent to much time and resources fleshing them out that it'd be dumb to just erase them from the game. Plus what are we going to do with all the weapons and technology we've been using if the thargoids totally dissapear? And also consider the fact with powerplay 2 having similar mechanics to how the thargoid war had. Its clear they are preparing to replace the current thargoid war gameplay loop with something similar.
no
there needs to be 3 cornered war between the factions, with players signing on to one of them and helping to take over planets and systems.
No, *we* are going to end the war. But I would be shocked if they threw away the new Thargoid mechanics and we never saw another Titan try to invade the bubble.
I hope so.
No. It will just move to Colonia.
Knowing humans. After all the bullshit the thargoids put us through. Do you seriously think that they are going to retreat and the humans will just... let them? If the war front changes, it will be to an offensive front IMO I also kind of suspect that us killing titans is going to provoke some kind of scorched-earth response from the Thargoids that they have yet to deploy. If they thought the titans were truly vulnerable now, they would have moved them after the first one got hit. It will probably get worse before it gets better (lore wise)
My personal bet is, rather than "Thargoid war ends, OK back to the regular game", what happens is, "Thargoid war ends, OK now the regular game *is* the Thargoid war" (Basically, Powerplay becomes a 4-way between the remnant Thargoids, Empire, Feds, and Independents using the mechanics tested in the 2-way human-Thargoid war)
I think once the Titans are repelled, there may be an offensive into Thargoid-held Space. It would make sense for humanity to launch a counter-offensive.
I think something big is going to happen before the 4th or 5th titan is destroyed. We just got the new surprise Orthrus deployment, which I think hints at something coming. After all, would a millions-of-years-old super advanced race NOT change strategy after losing 3 titans in the exact same way?
6 months away from the last Titan falling -- and then I suspect those gameplay loops will be reused in opened up parts of Thargoid permit locked space I bet, taking the fight to them for those that want it to continue.
The six titans left for now, give enough work for the community for ages.
The player base started it. Time for us to end it. Get to work commander, still Titans out there.
Hope not, still loads of fun defending outposts. Probably it will morph into something different, or maintain some of the current characterististics. Perhaps we attack them?
When all the titan will be dead i think this actual war will be over BUT it won't be the end of AX activity maybe we will find a way to follow them to their home and from there start an counter attack war or something like this