Alien Invasion Kicks Off in Elite; Community Fights Back

Elite: Dangerous received update 14, which brought with it an alien invasion. After its debut in early 2017 and the fiasco of the human superweapon operation, the Thargoids no longer stop at small occasional skirmishes with the humans.

Now, their fleets are launching massive attacks on human-controlled sectors. Even hitherto safe havens in these regions are not safe for pilots, and an alien invasion is to be expected at any moment.

What's more, players had already learned about the destruction (sabotage?) of the megaship Kingfisher. Its task was to send signals to the space anomaly Taranis, which had been approaching the "bubble" (as player-inhabited sectors of the universe are commonly called in Elite: Dangerous) for months and it was the arrival of it and other "Maelstroms" that was the beginning of the invasion.

Fighting aliens

Not all players are delighted with the Thargoid attack. Some people complain that they left their belongings in the war-torn sectors and are greeted by alien ships when they log in. Even traveling at FTL speeds is not safe, as aliens are able to intercept such craft.

However, it should be remembered that for the time being, the Thargoid invasion has covered only a small part of the "bubble", where players can help repel the aliens, and not only through combat: support for humanitarian and research missions is equally valued (as can be seen, among other things, by increased payouts for scanning organic matter, including alien ships).

In places, there are also complaints about the alleged lack of new content, basically differing from existing alien skirmishes only in scale. However, many players disagree with this opinion.

Secrets of Maelstrom

It should be noted that the developers deliberately did not reveal much about the new attractions. The patch notes for Update 14 are limited only to information about the addition of "content and gameplay for the continuing Thargoid narrative." So it's hard to judge right now whether Update 14 really adds something truly new. Especially after reading reports from Frontier Development's meeting with journalists (vide Polygon).

Besides, many Internet users argue that the scale, frequency and consequences (destruction or abandonment of surrounding bases and stations) of clashes with Thargoids in Update 14 make the invasion a big attraction in itself. Of course, not everyone has to be interested in fighting aliens, but you can always stick to safe sectors (as long as you know which regions are threatened by the alien visitors).

Some are in a great hurry to discover the secrets of the Maelstrom. Others are even ready to sacrifice themselves, just to go as far as possible into the gas vapors. For example, like the author of the following material.

Escape from PS4 and XOne

Console gamers may be unhappy, although this is not related to the update itself. The developers have stopped the development of Elite :Dangerous on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, so Update 14 is unavailable on these devices.

True, the developer announced the possibility of a free account transfer from consoles to PCs, but there is one problem. Frontier Development has put on hold the option to transfer save files from PS4/XOne to PC until the first quarter of 2023. If you haven't managed to 'move' to PC already, you'll have to wait a bit for another opportunity.