The Quest To Find Raxxla

[Rochester]

In concern with talk of ‘data-mining’ yes that’s a total no-no and FD will take action.

Not wishing to actually dive into this area, but others have seen a plethora of ‘oddities’ within the code, not including code for unused content, some of this was named appropriately, other stuff used aliases.

It’s very likely that such code does exist but, its structure etc is held on the server, not the PC, so one might not be able to reconstruct it; all you would have - theoretically - would be a placeholder name, such as ‘insert Petunias here’.

 

[Rochester]

Given as I am to accept the Garden theory in telling us ‘where’ Raxxla might be - I am of the mind it might also give us a little hint towards ‘what’ it could be too?

Given it certainly is within a system (an instance), it’s logically either a main body or more likely an asset around a body?

Like with the Lost Realms, this whole endeavour could very likely be a homage to Holdstock, I do think then that what Raxxla is might be somewhat inspired?

The garden design would seem to advocate six marks (trees) around a certain body, I might be inclined to suspect a ringed body (?), and possibly Raxxla then, is either that body, or it’s the six elements around it.

Does this line of enquiry hint towards RH writings as well, such as with his Raxxla Lenses concept?

Or is it another Miltonian reference?

Regards the logo; the outer hexagon might represent the confines of a system, the six spokes = six objects around a body (?), at its centre an Omphalos? Does sound like a Guardian construct…

Or maybe it’s a hollow body, all moons and planets in game are just wireframe shells! it’s possible to break the code and enter these... (by travelling very quickly and abruptly). What if it’s an intentionally hollow planet by design, this might replicate the Miltonian concept, we would not see Raxxla from the outside, as it could technically be in disguise, would one then need to access Raxxla at its apex?, like Satan did when he walked upon the outer sphere of the Crystalline Sphere! Or it’s a gas giant hologram!

If not then I’m probably inclined to think it’s at least physical body surrounded by six objects.

‘He sees, not unconform to other shining globes, Earth and the gard'n of God, with cedars crownd above all hills’. Paradise Lost.

So in PL; we are transported through the outer void cosmology, and travel to the pendant globe, then through its ‘portal’ to our realm, paradise is upon a hill surrounded by cedars… how can that be transposed in game?

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Petunias? I think mine are dead!

I've been suspicious of WHAT Raxxla is ever since Ram Tah disclosed his decodes of the Guardian texts and mentioned their ark ships. In conjunction with the old lore (can't remember that lore source) that Thargoids had planet/moon-sized ships I think that's a strong hint as to what Raxxla might be. Hadn't thought about trying to get into a hollow planet...good thinking there!

Mmm, hadn't realised that 6 of the middle garden lights match the positioning of the 6 trees, well spotted...another aspect of the garden design decided! 6 moons orbiting a ringed planet?

Going to go back to try something!! But would the entrance be at one of the poles? And what is the entry mechanism-would it mean the normal dropout distance when approaching a planet would be removed? And would this hypothesis mean that Legacy users would not be able to find Raxxla?

 

[Han_Zen]

"...to implement."

Something Raxxla WAS in the original(s) code at the beginning. Not working as a feature (I made Elite rank in 1985 on C64, knew it inside out, no Raxxla whatsoever ingame) but it was written in .
Ian Bell confirmed it was there (written in a code), and removed for the later editions.

So I'd gladly hex the crap out of the original, if only someone can unpack it.
A single line "Raxxla xyz" would make a breakthrough.

This has been done for all the older games. Elite, FE2 and FFE have all been reverse engineeed or had the code released.
No Raxxla in any of them.
The name generator from Elite, can’t even make the word Raxxla.

 

[Macros Black]

Pharmaceutical Isolators
High Grade Emissions
LHS 350 - Outbreak

Edit:
Pharmaceutical Isolators & Proto Heat Radiators

Whizzing around in a system with the SCO is fun - as long as you watch the fuel consumption

 

[Han_Zen]

I was thinking a bit about portals. There aren't a lot of examples of portals in Elite. The only portal I can think of, is the Thargoid transporter in FFE. When you dock with that one, you are teleported to another similar ship.
The transporter is in orbit around Polaris 4b and takes you to Miackce (probably Col 70 sector fy-n c21-3 in ED).

The Thargoids are an old species. The transporter could have been there for Thousands of years. It was discovered by Mic Turner, who was killed like Jason Ryder.
In FFE the portal only works once. If you go back to Polaris you can dock with it, but nothing happens. It was clearly controlled by the Thargoids, during the first jump.

Could FD possibly have spun the Raxxla mystery around this device? Could it link to more than one location, in an ancient Thargoid network?

Polaris would of course fit most hints in the codex. It is the pole star. It burns on top of the galaxy. The other stars spiral around it. It is the Omphalos point. It is even surrounded by a dragon.
Polaris 4b is an unremarkable moon and a definite place. The transporter is an alien construct and Polaris is guarded by powerful, twisted men (INRA in FFE).

If the mystery is constructed this way, the permit is the challenge. Or even a module or nav-computer hack that allows us to ignore permits. This would make it easy for FD to implement the Elite rank requirement and they could effectively limit the number of commanders that gets access at all. Help from the Dark Wheel may be an absolute necessity, to access Polaris.

All this would be convenient, easy to implement and give FD full control.

What do you think? FD usually keeps things quite simple, when it comes to mysteries. We aren't as good at that.

 

[Macros Black]

I was thinking a bit about portals. There aren't a lot of examples of portals in Elite. The only portal I can think of, is the Thargoid transporter in FFE. When you dock with that one, you are teleported to another similar ship.
The transporter is in orbit around Polaris 4b and takes you to Miackce (probably Col 70 sector fy-n c21-3 in ED).

The Thargoids are an old species. The transporter could have been there for Thousands of years. It was discovered by Mic Turner, who was killed like Jason Ryder.
In FFE the portal only works once. If you go back to Polaris you can dock with it, but nothing happens. It was clearly controlled by the Thargoids, during the first jump.

Could FD possibly have spun the Raxxla mystery around this device? Could it link to more than one location, in an ancient Thargoid network?

Polaris would of course fit most hints in the codex. It is the pole star. It burns on top of the galaxy. The other stars spiral around it. It is the Omphalos point. It is even surrounded by a dragon.
Polaris 4b is an unremarkable moon and a definite place. The transporter is an alien construct and Polaris is guarded by powerful, twisted men (INRA in FFE).

If the mystery is constructed this way, the permit is the challenge. Or even a module or nav-computer hack that allows us to ignore permits. This would make it easy for FD to implement the Elite rank requirement and they could effectively limit the number of commanders that gets access at all. Help from the Dark Wheel may be an absolute necessity, to access Polaris.

All this would be convenient, easy to implement and give FD full control.

What do you think? FD usually keeps things quite simple, when it comes to mysteries. We aren't as good at that.

I think the answer is simple: We must find a way to commandeer a Thargoid vessel. ;-)

 

[The Phat Waffle]

ive been thinking there are alot of dockable megaships that jump to different systems... i wonder if any of them jump into permit locked systems? you could dock, and wait for the megaship to jump?

 

[simulacrae]

Polaris would of course fit most hints in the codex. It is the pole star. It burns on top of the galaxy. The other stars spiral around it. It is the Omphalos point. It is even surrounded by a dragon.
Polaris 4b is an unremarkable moon and a definite place. The transporter is an alien construct and Polaris is guarded by powerful, twisted men (INRA in FFE).

If the mystery is constructed this way, the permit is the challenge. Or even a module or nav-computer hack that allows us to ignore permits. This would make it easy for FD to implement the Elite rank requirement and they could effectively limit the number of commanders that gets access at all. Help from the Dark Wheel may be an absolute necessity, to access Polaris.

All this would be convenient, easy to implement and give FD full control.

What do you think? FD usually keeps things quite simple, when it comes to mysteries. We aren't as good at that.

Ya you are right- polaris has always been an obvious place to look. The fact that it has been locked up with a seemingly unatainable permit…. It will either be story driven and only unlocked when FD decides to -or there might be a way to get the permit … but i havent found it..

Spitballing…
The way most permits seem to work is u need to align with the controlling faction - usually in nearby star systems outside the permitted system. But we dont really know who the controlling faction is… and with all the player made factions taking over the bubble - the old faction might have been relegated to obscurity…

Im still working off the assumption that Sirius has something to do with it - will try making friends with all the Sirius factions…. While i continue to bounce around Lucifer looking for dark stations

 

[Rochester]

I was thinking a bit about portals. There aren't a lot of examples of portals in Elite. The only portal I can think of, is the Thargoid transporter in FFE. When you dock with that one, you are teleported to another similar ship.
The transporter is in orbit around Polaris 4b and takes you to Miackce (probably Col 70 sector fy-n c21-3 in ED).

The Thargoids are an old species. The transporter could have been there for Thousands of years. It was discovered by Mic Turner, who was killed like Jason Ryder.
In FFE the portal only works once. If you go back to Polaris you can dock with it, but nothing happens. It was clearly controlled by the Thargoids, during the first jump.

Could FD possibly have spun the Raxxla mystery around this device? Could it link to more than one location, in an ancient Thargoid network?

Polaris would of course fit most hints in the codex. It is the pole star. It burns on top of the galaxy. The other stars spiral around it. It is the Omphalos point. It is even surrounded by a dragon.
Polaris 4b is an unremarkable moon and a definite place. The transporter is an alien construct and Polaris is guarded by powerful, twisted men (INRA in FFE).

If the mystery is constructed this way, the permit is the challenge. Or even a module or nav-computer hack that allows us to ignore permits. This would make it easy for FD to implement the Elite rank requirement and they could effectively limit the number of commanders that gets access at all. Help from the Dark Wheel may be an absolute necessity, to access Polaris.

All this would be convenient, easy to implement and give FD full control.

What do you think? FD usually keeps things quite simple, when it comes to mysteries. We aren't as good at that.

If it’s Polaris then we know it cannot be found currently. FD confirmed a long time ago that permit is s not currently accessible to any Cmdrs as there is no way to access it. Ergo narrative.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Pharmaceutical Isolators
High Grade Emissions
LHS 350 - Outbreak

Edit:
Pharmaceutical Isolators & Proto Heat Radiators

Whizzing around in a system with the SCO is fun - as long as you watch the fuel consumption

Keep The Fuel Rats on speed dial!

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

I was thinking a bit about portals. There aren't a lot of examples of portals in Elite. The only portal I can think of, is the Thargoid transporter in FFE. When you dock with that one, you are teleported to another similar ship.
The transporter is in orbit around Polaris 4b and takes you to Miackce (probably Col 70 sector fy-n c21-3 in ED).

The Thargoids are an old species. The transporter could have been there for Thousands of years. It was discovered by Mic Turner, who was killed like Jason Ryder.
In FFE the portal only works once. If you go back to Polaris you can dock with it, but nothing happens. It was clearly controlled by the Thargoids, during the first jump.

Could FD possibly have spun the Raxxla mystery around this device? Could it link to more than one location, in an ancient Thargoid network?

Polaris would of course fit most hints in the codex. It is the pole star. It burns on top of the galaxy. The other stars spiral around it. It is the Omphalos point. It is even surrounded by a dragon.
Polaris 4b is an unremarkable moon and a definite place. The transporter is an alien construct and Polaris is guarded by powerful, twisted men (INRA in FFE).

If the mystery is constructed this way, the permit is the challenge. Or even a module or nav-computer hack that allows us to ignore permits. This would make it easy for FD to implement the Elite rank requirement and they could effectively limit the number of commanders that gets access at all. Help from the Dark Wheel may be an absolute necessity, to access Polaris.

All this would be convenient, easy to implement and give FD full control.

What do you think? FD usually keeps things quite simple, when it comes to mysteries. We aren't as good at that.

I like @Rochester's idea of a hollow "planet", which would fit the Paradise Lost theme perfectly. Given MB's penchant for PL, and the effort he expended putting that theme into ED, and that the Brookes Tour ends with the "pendent world" quotation, I'm leaning towards that possibility. It could perhaps be a reskinned Coriolis, which could fit the game mechanics and explain the logo. I'm assuming the entrance port would be fairly small and somehow hidden-maybe at the bottom of a ravine?

 

[Han_Zen]

I like @Rochester's idea of a hollow "planet", which would fit the Paradise Lost theme perfectly. Given MB's penchant for PL, and the effort he expended putting that theme into ED, and that the Brookes Tour ends with the "pendent world" quotation, I'm leaning towards that possibility. It could perhaps be a reskinned Coriolis, which could fit the game mechanics and explain the logo. I'm assuming the entrance port would be fairly small and somehow hidden-maybe at the bottom of a ravine?

Aren’t we inside the pendant world? Shouldn’t we be looking for a way out, not in?

 

[simulacrae]

Aren’t we inside the pendant world? Shouldn’t we be looking for a way out, not in?

Seems more likely we are looking to release the devil from his cage… and i get the idea there is a possibility of either finding the sparkly creatures that saved the president or the Far God (or both?). I imagine the Far God is not the benign friendly type. And i have reservations about the sparkly ones too…

 

[Merlin StWahgwaan]

I was thinking a bit about portals. There aren't a lot of examples of portals in Elite. The only portal I can think of, is ...

what about when we "die" in space and we "eject" and magically and instantly, appear in a place that could be 10's of thousands of LY away depending on where you were when it happened.

what if dying/exploding near Raxxla, sends you there? just intrusive thoughts

 

[Merlin StWahgwaan]

I like @Rochester's idea of a hollow "planet", which would fit the Paradise Lost theme perfectly. Given MB's penchant for PL, and the effort he expended putting that theme into ED, and that the Brookes Tour ends with the "pendent world" quotation, I'm leaning towards that possibility. It could perhaps be a reskinned Coriolis, which could fit the game mechanics and explain the logo. I'm assuming the entrance port would be fairly small and somehow hidden-maybe at the bottom of a ravine?

I've long since said and believed, Raxxla is a " Rogue planet", potentially hollow or a "large" asteroid station, and that it could be moving, like the Thargoid Titans, between set systems, there by making it a path/trail that must be traveled to find it...

it's always made sense (if you believe some of the non-/cannon stories influenced its design) and makes more and more sense as time goes on...

IMHO, we need to find the path/set of planets/stars it travels too/around.

 

[Rochester]

Technically I don’t believe objects can physically travel between systems, as we exist in game in instances, surely there is no actual interstellar space aspect in game, otherwise FD should have utilised it?

If it moves FD just increased the complexity of the puzzle unnecessarily, to do so, one would need include additional temporal clues to advertise this, I can’t see that currently within the Codex, although granted somewhere else, but any clues to date are I believe intentional vague.

I think rogue planets exist in game, but that these are either represented either as Brown Dwarfs or ‘captured bodies’, at most they might be a redundant element of FDs more complex and initial designs, which although promoted heavily, never actually made the cut.

Note M Brooke’s identified the existence of dark systems in his book Legacy, even named one. These were originally, as per DB promotions, to be how some mysteries were to be seeded and may have identified rogues?

That said, I am siding on it being a fixed traditional body, certainly something big and probably repurposed, for it to move essentially is, in my opinion counterintuitive to the description of a ‘pendant globe’ eg of it being ‘fixed’ in place?

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Aren’t we inside the pendant world? Shouldn’t we be looking for a way out, not in?

Only if you're living in Paradise- I think that lies in UK somewhere between Lancashire, Lincolnshire & the North Sea, & a bit further South than Scotland..see my signature:
"Jorkshire- God's own country"!!

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Seems more likely we are looking to release the devil from his cage… and i get the idea there is a possibility of either finding the sparkly creatures that saved the president or the Far God (or both?). I imagine the Far God is not the benign friendly type. And i have reservations about the sparkly ones too…

This is also a possibility, nobody ever said Raxxla would be beneficial to our health!
I think the Far God was supposed to be the Thargoids Titans. Ive always suspected Halsey's "tiny yet gargantuan...real caretakers of our galaxy" are the fireflies that exist around Thargoids Sensors and Barnacles...possibly (given MB's interest in this and his Sun Dragon novel) Guardians evolved into a plasma lifeform. Or it might be another lifeform entirely- we know of Intelligent AI (though from the Zurara expedition base logs I suspect they're in Bovomit sector). Either way they may not be friendly to humanity.
But if Raxxla is about releasing the devil from his cage then from PL the location should shift- I was looking around the Empyrean region (still trying to resolve the anagram hypothesis, my spreadsheet programming skills are negligible!), and I think the PL cosmology and pendent world reference points to this, but the devil should be in Hell- @Rochester do you have a system that is around the centre of Hell? I'm guessing Tartarus? Hell bubble size around 80 ly to correspond to the Empyrean?

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Technically I don’t believe objects can physically travel between systems, as we exist in game in instances, surely there is no actual interstellar space aspect in game, otherwise FD should have utilised it?

If it moves FD just increased the complexity of the puzzle unnecessarily, to do so, one would need include additional temporal clues to advertise this, I can’t see that currently within the Codex, although granted somewhere else, but any clues to date are I believe intentional vague.

I think rouge planets exist in game, but that these are either represented either as Brown Dwarfs or ‘captured bodies’, at most they might be a redundant element of FDs more complex and initial designs, which although promoted heavily, never actually made the cut.

Note M Brooke’s identified the existence of dark systems in his book Legacy, even named one. These were originally, as per DB promotions, to be how some mysteries were to be seeded and may have identified rouges?

That said, I am siding on it being a fixed traditional body, certainly something big and probably repurposed, for it to move essentially is, in my opinion counterintuitive to the description of a ‘pendant globe’ eg of it being ‘fixed’ in place?

Typo- Mars is a rouge planet! You mean "Rogue" planet! A rogue planet is not orbiting a star and should exist in its own instance...though might be found in a star system just not orbiting a barycentre. The orrery view should show it with a hyperbolic trajectory entering and leaving the system

MB confirmed possibility of Rogue Planets in-game when he said "Not all stars have planets, but then again not all planets have suns either"

All things Frontier Developments at E3 2014!

Think it might be "Paradiso Outpost", then an illegible (to me) line and "Independent Jurisdiction" on the line below. Your guess is as good as mine re the build no. It is indeed Paradiso Outpost - it's a deep space exploration support station. Michael

forums.frontier.co.uk

See my FDev quotes thread.

I don't know how we would find a system without a star...it would have extremely low mass and IIRC system names are based on system mass as well as sector location.