The Quest To Find Raxxla

[Nezzie Muso]

OK I've done a billion credits worth of missions in Pareco the last couple of weeks, no new inbox / tip-off missions received. I've also again carefully explored the edge of Asire's sphere of influence. Even though the comet is just 17km outside Asire, at no point does the comet's USS or sphere of influence ever appear in the HUD. Its completely swamped by Asire's 100km wide shipping lane. I can go to the approximate (within guage accuracy) location of the comet, either in normal space or by dropping out of SC. It makes no difference. All I get is shipping lane. So .... any other ideas folks? I've used night vision, I've honked repeatedly to no avail. There must be some other way of progressing from here. I know folks have suggested that i carry trinkets of fortune, but the fact you can only acquire them by pirating peaceful NPC traders makes me feel this really can't be the way forward.
in other news, has anyone else yet become allied and receieved the blackman silo data theft mission ?

 

[Macros Black]

Alllied with all factions yesterday, haven't seen any data theft missions yet (was it in your in box?)

Also tried to get just outside the Asire Dock instance, but no comet instance shown on the HUD.

Maybe @Ozric has some tips?

 

[Zimous]

Has anyone even seen that comet instance since Odyssey release? Perhaps that was removed?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

OK I've done a billion credits worth of missions in Pareco the last couple of weeks, no new inbox / tip-off missions received.

I got to Allied last week but didn't get any tip-offs - but I didn't have time to do many actual missions once Allied, either, especially since I was restricting them to types which could be both taken and completed in the Pareco system in case that mattered. Will give it another go in the next few days, though, since even if it does nothing mysterious I should at least get the tip-off!

but the fact you can only acquire them by pirating peaceful NPC traders makes me feel this really can't be the way forward.

Out of interest, why not? I don't see anything in the hints we've been given which suggests that the route to Raxxla (or to the Dark Wheel) will be entirely legal.

Indeed, if the theory that Raxxla is secretly being used to dominate humanity is true, I might expect actions which had a chance of finding it to be much more likely than average to be illegal, given who gets to set the laws.

Alllied with all factions yesterday, haven't seen any data theft missions yet (was it in your in box?)

Yes - tip-off missions will show up as an inbox message once you complete an ordinary mission while Allied. The chances of getting one are relatively low per mission, though I don't think the mission type itself matters.

 

[Nezzie Muso]

I know this is the raxxla thread, not the TDW thread, but just in case it triggers anything, I'm going to throw this out for consideration. I remember a pulp scifi book from my youth (larry niven?) whose cover showed an alien world with a black spoked nebula above it (A "dark wheel"). So I went looking for something similar and found the vulpecula dark region. Whilst checking the view of the nebula from all the nearby stars I reached 13 vulpecula. Now vulpecula is "fox" and the 13 vulpecula A star has an LYT combination. And fox and crane being a famous aristotle parable it seemed this could be a "lyta crane" reference. The A 7 A planet makes an excellent reference for the TDW station picture from a distance of 0.6 LY. But i spent a couple of months there - visiting unknown signals and rescuing NPC miners from NPC pirates. Nothing came up, and I couldnt find a station so i gave up. but 13 vulpecula is about 250LY, too far out for raxxla but could potentially be a modern base for TDW. Anything chime?

 

[Nezzie Muso]

Out of interest, why not? I don't see anything in the hints we've been given which suggests that the route to Raxxla (or to the Dark Wheel) will be entirely legal.

Indeed, if the theory that Raxxla is secretly being used to dominate humanity is true, I might expect actions which had a chance of finding it to be much more likely than average to be illegal, given who gets to set the laws.

But the Ryders were traders who were themselves ganked by pirates ..... so becoming pirates to join TDW seems not to be in character ?

 

[Ozric]

Alllied with all factions yesterday, haven't seen any data theft missions yet (was it in your in box?)

Also tried to get just outside the Asire Dock instance, but no comet instance shown on the HUD.

Maybe @Ozric has some tips?

I can only really offer the same advice as I gave Nezzie.

You need to fly around until the sphere of influence changes from the closest station to say 'Pareco Comet 2'. I would suggest making sure you have one of the stations targeted as that will slow your Supercruise acceleration a bit.

Unfortunately the Comet's sphere of influence is only 50Km wide, which means you can pass it in the blink of an eye, which then makes dropping out within it even harder.

It might be worth recording your play and fly around a bit to see if you can then review the footage slower. If you manage to notice the SoI change then you can see how far away you are from a station, and that might help you notice it in real time and plan when to drop out.

I did ask Alot if he could remember any more and he said:
"I think I basically just pootled around at minimum SC speed right at the edge of the Asire Dock sphere of influence, then when I saw comet just went beyond the 1Mm range and dropped quick as I could"

As he remarks in the thread he only really saw what it was by recording and watching it back.

To answer @Zimous I haven't landed on it since Odyssey, it was enough of a pain in the backside trying to get it the first time There may be some out there, but I doubt they're on the forum and even less likely to be reading this thread.

As has been noted a few times though the chances of the comet being linked to Raxxla is virtually non existent in my opinion. There is no visual representation of it, and there wouldn't be one hidden away waiting for you to meet certain criteria for it to suddenly appear.
It's still a really cool thing to do if you can nail it, especially with others because you can fly outside of the sphere of influence in normal space, suddenly be kicked into a new instance, and watch the others zoom off into the distance as they travel with the Comet's instance

 

[Ian Doncaster]

But the Ryders were traders who were themselves ganked by pirates ..... so becoming pirates to join TDW seems not to be in character ?

The Ryders were attacked by a specific Raxxla-funded assassin, not a pirate ... and "peaceful trader" was just Jason Ryder's cover story.

Alex's first action following the attack is to steal an entire ship from a cemetery, and then later he engages in smuggling of illegal goods (rather more illegal than he thought, yes) to an undocumented system.

I expect the rest of TDW only follows the law when it happens to be convenient to them, too.

 

[Rochester]

The Ryders were attacked by a specific Raxxla-funded assassin, not a pirate ... and "peaceful trader" was just Jason Ryder's cover story.

Alex's first action following the attack is to steal an entire ship from a cemetery, and then later he engages in smuggling of illegal goods (rather more illegal than he thought, yes) to an undocumented system.

I expect the rest of TDW only follows the law when it happens to be convenient to them, too.

This might be a key theme many of us have ignored, myself included.

The mythos of Raxxla in ED I suspect is as much concentrated upon the works and themes of Robert Holdstock as it is as anything else. So equally those themes specifically I suspect have been utilised to shape what Raxxla could be and how to find it.

The Dark Wheel book is filled with an odd heroes journey yet it’s certainly set upon a dark path, as @Ian Doncaster points out.

I do suspect The Dark Wheel ‘was’ originally tied to the quest; simply through the linguistic clues hinted at ‘place that is not a place’ etc.

And of course Trinkets were linked too as FD has confirmed, which themselves can only be pirated.

We then have the odd injected text from the codex about a pirates stash etc, and dark despotic individuals…

The only official ED book that was allowed to talk about Raxxla; Elite Legacy, is upon its wider concept focused upon the secretively nefarious and powerful Cavus family.

I do wonder if some paths towards Raxxla (if still active) are actually supposed to be very dark, and shrouded in machinations!

 

[Rochester]

Off on another topic, the new 10 year anniversary logo, which I find peculiar in that it represents a ship seemingly traversing across a divide, which clearly shows two diametrically different locations!

Being literal here in the interpretation, and very likely grabbing at invisible straws, because given FD supposed scientific accuracy, I just find that particular artistic impression an oddity.

A place that is not a place, an otherworld, a location apart from ours in another dimension, travelled to via a border or doorway… it’s a little bit too over the top, for a logo, also any intentional Raxxla link here advocates a ‘narrative’ aspect, which I’m not keen upon.

So is it supposed to be a reflection?

 

[[PS4 Pro - PC] earthtone99]

Off on another topic, the new 10 year anniversary logo, which I find peculiar in that it represents a ship seemingly traversing across a divide, which clearly shows two diametrically different locations!

Being literal here in the interpretation, and very likely grabbing at invisible straws, because given FD supposed scientific accuracy, I just find that particular artistic impression an oddity.

A place that is not a place, an otherworld, a location apart from ours in another dimension, travelled to via a border or doorway… it’s a little bit too over the top, for a logo, also any intentional Raxxla link here advocates a ‘narrative’ aspect, which I’m not keen upon.

So is it supposed to be a reflection?

View attachment 412532

It appears to show the ship leaving the original main menu, but the image is reversed.

Have the stars in the new background been identified, and especially that Nebula, to allow for triangulation?!?!

 

[CMDR Davanix]

It appears to show the ship leaving the original main menu, but the image is reversed.

Have the stars in the new background been identified, and especially that Nebula, to allow for triangulation?!?!

That nebula is the LMC the one of 3 closest galaxys to the Milky way and somewhat in the same gravitational pull/or part or our local galaxy group it is featured a ton since release and some suspect this is where the Raxxla gate/[portal is linked to, if you move around the galaxy map towards it you will notice how close it is and even see it is not just a static image like the other galaxys show...a place that is not a place...yet also chimes in with Brabens...its in the Galaxy map...a bit to obvious

Large Magellanic Cloud - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[selbie]

Off on another topic, the new 10 year anniversary logo, which I find peculiar in that it represents a ship seemingly traversing across a divide, which clearly shows two diametrically different locations!

Being literal here in the interpretation, and very likely grabbing at invisible straws, because given FD supposed scientific accuracy, I just find that particular artistic impression an oddity.

A place that is not a place, an otherworld, a location apart from ours in another dimension, travelled to via a border or doorway… it’s a little bit too over the top, for a logo, also any intentional Raxxla link here advocates a ‘narrative’ aspect, which I’m not keen upon.

So is it supposed to be a reflection?

View attachment 412532

Like earthtone pointed out, it is interesting that it uses the main menu splash screen but mirrored.

Given the context of FDev's effort in revitalising the game's features, I would imagine it's an artistic choice - with a literal reflection of the last 10 years of accomplishment encapsulated within the Griffin logo, and doubling as a symbolic mirror reflecting the viewer's involvement.

So in that sense, yes there is no doubt a post-Titan era enthusiasm for change being communicated, which may introduce new narrative elements in proximity to Raxxla. However, because of that sense of enthusiasm I don't see why they would want funnel us closer to solving Raxxla via narrative elements. The day they do that, it would be a sign to me that the project is being sunsetted for end-of-life closure, and they would want us to find it before it's gone.

I noticed they included Braben retelling the story of the Guardians being found too early. It's a great anecdote for the video, but it also reinforces how impactful it was to the dev team. Sadly for us it made them wiser about showing any loose threads we could easily tug on for clues

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

OK I've done a billion credits worth of missions in Pareco the last couple of weeks, no new inbox / tip-off missions received. I've also again carefully explored the edge of Asire's sphere of influence. Even though the comet is just 17km outside Asire, at no point does the comet's USS or sphere of influence ever appear in the HUD. Its completely swamped by Asire's 100km wide shipping lane. I can go to the approximate (within guage accuracy) location of the comet, either in normal space or by dropping out of SC. It makes no difference. All I get is shipping lane. So .... any other ideas folks? I've used night vision, I've honked repeatedly to no avail. There must be some other way of progressing from here. I know folks have suggested that i carry trinkets of fortune, but the fact you can only acquire them by pirating peaceful NPC traders makes me feel this really can't be the way forward.
in other news, has anyone else yet become allied and receieved the blackman silo data theft mission ?

@Nezzie Muso @Ian Doncaster
According to the Codex: "The Dark Wheel is the name given to a legendary group of adventurers, explorers,
investigators and treasure-hunters"...Ive pointed out before that Elizabethan-age pirates were often called "Gentlemen Adventurers"

Dont you have to be within a system for 40 minutes to an hour to get TipOff missions?

Given the close relationship between TDW and Raxxla in the original novella discussion of TDW is quite acceptable in this thread. However while I personally believe Raxxla is hidden within the game, I'm not convinced TDW is anything other than narrative fluff (but I remain open to the possibility I could be wrong on this!), FD have never confirmed its existence, whereas both DB and MB did so for Raxxla.

Nezzie- Macros said he had some TOHF for sale on his FC. I'd suggest going back to the original discoverer of the Pareco comet and asking him how he managed it (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...-drop-into-normal-space-close-to-them.350586/). Without the Galmap overflow method to mark its location I suspect it is just a matter of timing and sheer dumb luck. I think you'd have to travel in SC at a slow speed but sufficient to make the orbital markings visible, align yourself on the axis of the station orbits, travel down towards the centre of those circles and drop out of SC at that point...you have to be within around 50-100 Km to drop into its instance so it is just a tedious RNG exercise, which FD designers were overfond of in the early days.

I wasnt aware of Pareco until I learnt of the overflow method so I think thats the only way I used.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Off on another topic, the new 10 year anniversary logo, which I find peculiar in that it represents a ship seemingly traversing across a divide, which clearly shows two diametrically different locations!

Being literal here in the interpretation, and very likely grabbing at invisible straws, because given FD supposed scientific accuracy, I just find that particular artistic impression an oddity.

A place that is not a place, an otherworld, a location apart from ours in another dimension, travelled to via a border or doorway… it’s a little bit too over the top, for a logo, also any intentional Raxxla link here advocates a ‘narrative’ aspect, which I’m not keen upon.

So is it supposed to be a reflection?

View attachment 412532

May be a reflection. May be a "window" (or Rift??) through which another location is visible. But it is showing a Coriolis, and we know Coriolis are the oldest type of station (hence the most likely to be forgotten and reused by TDW, whose name itself may be obfuscation, Lyta Crane AFAIK is the only sour e that says their station is toroidal). A Coriolis features in the game startup vid, with, IIRC, the same star-lit planetary edge. So is this a hint to go back to the startup vid for a clue?

Or, as suggested above, it may just be an allusion to the original game's stations and Cobra mk3, with wireframe graphics limited mission functionality transitioning to the stunning visual and gameplay depth (?) of the current game.

 

[selbie]

Given the close relationship between TDW and Raxxla in the original novella discussion of TDW is quite acceptable in this thread. However while I personally believe Raxxla is hidden within the game, I'm not convinced TDW is anything other than narrative fluff (but I remain open to the possibility I could be wrong on this!), FD have never confirmed its existence, whereas both DB and MB did so for Raxxla.

Agreed and in the past I've often wondered if there is a step in the process which involves a GM to verify the player's discovery of a key milestone, or to permit access somewhere. The GM would contact the player/s roleplaying as a DW agent giving instructions or clues for the next step. That could be one explanation for no clear confirmation of TDW existing. Obviously the contact could be automated in the usual systems FDev use already, but it is one avenue where FDev could represent themselves within the game world as the covert arm of the PF and thus would only reveal themselves when a Raxxla milestone is reached.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Agreed and in the past I've often wondered if there is a step in the process which involves a GM to verify the player's discovery of a key milestone, or to permit access somewhere. The GM would contact the player/s roleplaying as a DW agent giving instructions or clues for the next step. That could be one explanation for no clear confirmation of TDW existing. Obviously the contact could be automated in the usual systems FDev use already, but it is one avenue where FDev could represent themselves within the game world as the covert arm of the PF and thus would only reveal themselves when a Raxxla milestone is reached.

I mentioned a couple of pages ago that several players had reported a Friend request arriving from some unknown person when they had attained Elite. It was a while ago but should be searchable within this thread. I mostly play Solo and would have discarded any such request if I didnt know who they were from thread discussions.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Dont you have to be within a system for 40 minutes to an hour to get TipOff missions?

No. The main difference is that those are missions, and tip-offs aren't, as such.

Non-board missions:
- if you're in the same normal-space instance long enough (I've only ever seen them while mining, though people without ammunition constraints presumably get them in RES too) any of the factions in the system may offer you a mission
- this is a normal mission that you can accept or decline (and will generally be fairly local)
- if you accept all the normal personal and BGS consequences for success or failure apply

Tip-offs:
- if you complete a mission while Allied you have a (small!) chance of getting one
- they're not a mission: you can't refuse them, though equally there's no penalty for ignoring them
- the tip-off will generally send you to scan some temporary (2 weeks) or permanent POI a long distance away, giving you the coordinates so you don't even need a DSS to find it
- anyone can scan that POI if they find it without needing the tip-off
- but if you do it with the tip-off, you get a "decryption key" which makes the data obtained significantly more valuable (generally low millions rather than low hundred thousands)
- consequences for succeeding are purely personal and there's no BGS effect on any faction

 

[Pyroboros]

Pareco Comet 2 is extremly hard to find, cause there is no indication that one is in its SOI.
This is what my Journal says where i am right now: (Legacy Horizon)
{ "timestamp":"2024-12-21T08:37:21Z", "event":"SupercruiseExit", "StarSystem":"Pareco", "SystemAddress":3034117572971, "Body":"Pareco Comet 2", "BodyID":2, "BodyType":"SmallBody" }
and this i what i see:

 

[Pyroboros]

Be in Plane to all Stations, Hit Asire Docks SOI, fly in normal Space torward the Center (aiming at centere is the hard part ), once SOI Changes from Asire Dock to Shipping Lane Check rel. Velocity to Stations or the JournalFile.
Her is a Wall of quickly made Images of what i mean (Station Positions do not reflect positions in game):

Spoiler: Wall of Images