The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

I work nights and play UQM sometimes on my old laptop to pass the time.  In this game I went up to get the code to kill the probes and was leaving there as the battle between the Illrath and the Thrads was coming to an end.  I decided to go go to the Thrad home solar system and arrived just as the two circles representing their territories were at their smallest, right before it disappeared.  I was hoping to maybe kill a few Illrath in a vain hope of saving one of our better allies.  When I got there, there were about  2 dozen Thrad battle groups in the system.  I went to the home world, but it was destroyed and there were no Illrath left.  I looked at the Starmap and both Illrath and Thrad territory circles disappeared. 

So how do I save these last remaining Thrads?   2 dozen battle groups means around 550 to 600 Thradash Captians and crew.  Enough to maybe re-start the race just as we re-started the Shofixti.  But the Thrad don't like "me" because I stole their Aqua Helix.  But, until the Illrath attacked, the Thrads were Earth Allies, so how do I get them back to the Station to keep the race alive?

Well, you can't save them. They are goners. For good. As soon as you leave the system, the remaining battle groups are going to disappear.

Though, if I recall correctly, you can still build Thraddash ships anytime after you ally with them, no matter what else might happen (even if you anger them or they're defeated by the Ilwrath). There's no way to "save" the Thraddash in-game in the same way as you can save the Shofixti.

Fluff-wise, it's really hard to say what exactly happened, but I like to think that they (and the Ilwrath, though it's harder to sympathize with them) didn't get entirely wiped out. With the Ilwrath it's easier to suppose this (presumably they left those not fit to fight back on their home planet), and with the Thraddash, well, it wouldn't be the first time they were blasted back to the Stone Age, right? Only this time it was the Ilwrath who did it rather than themselves.

Well, with the Ilwrath we know their home system is void of life after both circles disappeared.

Maybe a group of Torches flew a revenge mission.
We'll never know, as it's not part of the stories revealed in-game.

IIRC, if you do the thing that angers them and then talk to them, they stop supplying you with ships. If you sneak away, they don't.

You can't build Thraddash ships after the Thraddash are wiped out. UQM isn't that buggy.

I believe it is the case that when they are wiped out you can't build their ships.  But when they are angry at you, you are still able to build their ships.

Not if you KNOW they're angry at you.
They only stop supplying once they formally broke with you (you talked to them).
So, once you got what you need stop talking to them...

Ah, so that's how that works? Okay then.

I suppose that's possible, but I think it's more likely that they just didn't have time to add the fluff in for the event when you land on the Ilwrath homeworld after their SoI is gone. Meaning that survivors are still possible.

Not true.  I've talked and fought and killed Thrads after taking the Aqua Helix.  They're mad at YOU specifically, but are still Earth Allies, you can still build their ships at the Space station right up until the moment the Illrath territory reaches the Thrad territory on the Starmap.  Either way, Commander Greenteeth never says a word about the Thrads being our allies, or being gone like he does with the Spathi or Zok Fot Pik.

Yeah, I know we can't save them, but I'm frustrated because I like the Thrad, they've got one of the best fighting ships and are Earth Allies.  I just wish we could chose which race we want the Illrath to go kill off.  I'd pick either Vux or Mycon, given a choice.

Not Kohr-Ah?

As long as you're not in a hurry!

Based on that, I think I'd venture that they aren't really one of the best ships.

So once I steal that part from them (I like their ships), so I just stay away from them like the plague? Correct?

Yes, that worked for me.

Is genociding the Thraddash necessary to win?  I do not remember

If you don't send the Ilwrath after the Thraddash, the only way to access the Chenjesu homeworld is by having the Kohr-Ah wipe out the Ilwrath. I think the Ilwrath is usually one of the last targets of the Kohr-Ah's destruction, so this wouldn't normally result in the Thraddash being spared (assuming you can even make it to the Sa-Matra in time).

The Thraddash are among the first to be cleansed by the Kohr-Ah. So, you cannot spare the Thraddash...
You either let the Ilwrath to the job, or the Kohr-Ah will do it...

But, if you send the Ilwrath, you can be quicker. If you reach the Sa-Matra before the Ilwrath reach the Thraddash, the resulting end-of-game upheavals may change history, but you'll have no influence on that, nor will you know about it, as the fight against the Sa-Matra is not something any ship-captain can surive (besides Arilou captains, who can just skip out, and Pkunk captains, who can, if lucky, re-birth). In this case, the fate of the Ilwrath and Thraddash is left open.

I'm pretty sure I've managed to access the Chenjesu world without doing anything about the Ilwrath. My impression was they don't start guarding the Chenjesu homeworld until you've been there a couple of times, though I'm not sure if that's the actual trigger.

They start guarding the Chenjesu homeworld when you get the sun device. Before that, you can't release them anyway; all you can do is talk to them with a Hyperwave caster.

What?  The player survives.

Yes, the player survives, but in-game there's no feedback of how it played out while you were "absent".

I see no reason to suspect that full-fledged starships are any less capable of making it out than the Vindicator's escape pod. Plus, they can start leaving earlier.

What I meant with the original comment is, that when the Sa-Matra blows up, and the Chmmr start their tour of freeing the galaxy, they might do this fast enough to stop the Ilwrath near Thraddash space if you caused the annihilation march late enough to not have happened when you win the game.

The ships you take along should all survive, but.... we do not know how the Thraddash distribute their captain posts among the genders.
The rest of the crew are Humans or Shofixti anyway.