Unknown Artefact (or artifact) Community Thread - The Canonn

[PvtTUX]

Ah OK, I thought they were added, perhaps the mystery part was an addition in 1.3 ?

 

[Nicholas Powell]

Wat how why? Are we sure that it's not just gone out of Sol and into the next system over?

Am wondering the same thing myself, so am heading there now to check the surrounding systems. Quietly. Since it's a rival Power's territory, and all that.
If anybody can already rule out any of them - or, indeed, confirm a Voyager sighting elsewhere, or confirm removal from the game itself - please let me know here so I don't have to diddle about in a rival Power's space overlong.

 

[mrtree]

I am not sure but I think the previous post is correct we are overthinking it... maybe at the nav beacon in Azaleach the Morse code changes. but I think that the answer is very simple.

I will be headed back that way (going to start following Halsey's trip, in order) & will test that.

- - - Updated - - -

ok - been trying SSS's in 109 Virginis for a few days now and no joy. I've seen plenty of military convoys, but no UA convoy. I'm assuming that you hear/see the comms chatter reasonably quickly, but I hung around for a minute or so whenever it was a convoy just in case (no cargo scanner on my current build)

Anyway, I think that's me done for now - off to do something more interesting instead. I'll probably swing back to 109 V or Timocani for more UA hunting after a break

Mostly a lurker here, but just wanted to let peeps know that there's some people trying to help even if I didn't actually achieve anything.

This is the best way to play. Don't let yourself get burnt out on anything. As we've seen, they'll still spawn so you can always come back.

 

[Han_Zen]

Wat how why? Are we sure that it's not just gone out of Sol and into the next system over?

I don't know. People can't find it any more. I have no Idea if it's a temporary bug or if it's an in game event or if it's still there but the mecanics for finding it has changed (or if RedWzzards UA ate it).

 

[knowles2]

It's a tricky object to film. The different effects are visible at different distances. The close ups you (all of you) did this round were excellent. There are plenty of material to study.
R.L. circumstances gives me little time to play and plenty of time to watch video clips on my phone.
As I said, I think that there are always two of the three pods on the second row from the head, that light up green near the end. I think this is a permanent feature, not a code.


I have been looking closer at the markings this time.

Thorax markings:
View attachment 49797

Head markings (+ Thorax from side):
View attachment 49796
es.

Has anyone look to see whether those markings match any of the sound waves in the audio?

Got a failing hard drive I hope it the hard drive an not something else more expensive so I deleted all the copies off all the audio I had and generally cleaning up the hard drive.

 

[Jacob Marshall]

...
I think to get a response we need to find 'the' system that triggers the UA to do something, or makes the thing on the other end of the line sit up...

Ah...

I will be headed back that way (going to start following Halsey's trip, in order) & will test that.....

I thought I'd read some time back somebody retraced Halsey's steps? I could well be wrong tho.

 

[mrtree]

If it plays the name of the nearest body, then place the answer as the nearest body.

The voyager probe has a golden record indicating it's origin and a brief history of Earth. If you place a UA near the voyager probe, it will either spell out the voyager probe or it will spell out where it's from.

I noticed on the wiki it hasn't been tested, is it worth a shot? Did this come up in discussion before?

As I tried last night, the Voyagers are gone. I've been to them before (http://cmdrbranch.tumblr.com/post/117758850475/voyager-2-spinning-broadcasting, in 1.2.07). There was a thread on them on Reddit about them being gone for CMDR Tanj Redshirt. I went back, found them missing for me & filed a bug report several weeks back - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=159562. No response.

I checked last night, the "Ancient Probe" files are still present in the game. Here's an IRL description of where the probes ought to be http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/25711/where-are-the-voyagers-going. I targetted Sirius & headed out 1M Ls out from Sol. No POI, no Ancient Probes. I had the UA, so it wasn't the key to re-finding the Voyagers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDange..._the_secret_that_was_in_the_changelog/cmr7r84 had them calculated as being the right distance out. They're moving too slowly to be in another system by now.

I'd welcome correction on this, but I can't find them anymore.

- - - Updated - - -

Is it maybe now like how a RES site won't show until you're within 1,000ls of the planets? I wonder if it's gone from the game files completely, if it's just hiding, or what.

That's too bad. Back to the drawing board.

Still in the game files. They used to show up once you were out near the Neptune/Pluto/Charon distance (as unmarked POIs). But I scrubbed the whole skybox & didn't see them.

 

[mrtree]

Ok, I'm done with thinking of blowing things up for the moment, and I think combining it with things or trying to actively engage with it are (possibly) a dead-end.

For want of a better way of putting it, I don't think 'it's there for us'. Having had a little browse on the idea of contacting alien species the logic seems to 'provide a Rosetta Stone, then provide further information about us or a means to contact us'. I don't think the Morse is a Rosetta Stone because other than transmitting the name of it's location there is no further 'Morse'.

What we little we do know is that when we take it somewhere, it broadcast's its location*...and once outside the ship the UA blows-up after 5-minutes. Oh, and we know that these are in The Bubble.

So** they're not for us, they're in 'our' space and they're telling someone/thing where there are. Presumably the rest of the broadcast, gurgles, screams, colours, hoots, honks and hootanannies contain information about their current location.

So, why are they here? Are they surveying our systems? Are they an early-warning system? Are the colours, P/G, a threat indicator?

Bottom line is, I don't actually think they are 'good news', and I don't think the UAs want to play with us and our Sap 8s and Painite.

I think to get a response we need to find 'the' system that triggers the UA to do something, or makes the thing on the other end of the line sit up.


*We know the lights flash, but haven't figured out why.
** Purely my speculation.

This is how I've been approaching it (it will activate something in the right system/set of systems). The weird part in all of this is that the UA is basically like cargo, which unless you're a pirate/salvager, you *rarely* directly interact with cargo. There's no operations that work on cargo (beyond scooping & jettisoning).

What cargo DOES do is allow you to complete missions and, in the case of rares, expose their otherwise hidden entries on the commodities market.

Clearly the UA is different in some ways (the location-specific sounds, the color pulses, eating the ship), but mostly it acts like cargo (which Nav Beacons, the Voyagers, ship debris, fired ammunition like missiles/mines & other small space-born objects don't do).

 

[rizal72]

It's a tricky object to film. The different effects are visible at different distances. The close ups you (all of you) did this round were excellent. There are plenty of material to study.
R.L. circumstances gives me little time to play and plenty of time to watch video clips on my phone.
As I said, I think that there are always two of the three pods on the second row from the head, that light up green near the end. I think this is a permanent feature, not a code.


I have been looking closer at the markings this time.

Thorax markings:
View attachment 49797

Head markings (+ Thorax from side):
View attachment 49796

These markings look very symbolic. Like a animal head or something. The head marking comes in long horn and short horn (possible code?). The thorax markings are in fact the same symbol, but they are twisted around the spine of the UA.
Again I have no idea what this means or if it means anything.

Head markings as Morse code is either: SY or QS

As I said, no answers. Only raising attention to these features.

Let me underline and support what Han_Zen is pointing: since the first time I've seen those "bull's head" markings, long time ago, I've immediately thought that they meant something, most of all because they light up!

The ones on the head are ALL DIFFERENT: seven they are, like the seven notes...

 

[mrtree]

Simple option = Sell UA.

The problem is that this ends the testing, so if it doesn't work, we're down to a single UA. If this is what it ends with, I'll be pretty mad TBH. The hardest fought 180k I've ever made in game (literally less than a 5 minute trading trip for me vs the nearly 80 hours I spent in SSS/WSS trying to get it). If we find a couple more, I'd be willing to sacrifice mine this way, but for now, I want to believe there's something more to this than making some crappy credits.

 

[wilkie79]

Attachment 49796

Looking at the markings on the front, they spell out GB in morse (--. -...). Are the UA's made in Great Britain and they are probes sent out by humans many years ago? If they are, try dropping one outside Earth to see if they wake up an old, sleeping reciever.

 

[mrtree]

Attachment 49796

Looking at the markings on the front, they spell out GB in morse (--. -...). Are the UA's made in Great Britain and they are probes sent out by humans many years ago? If they are, try dropping one outside Earth to see if they wake up an old, sleeping reciever.

I'll go back to Sol & drop it at Earth tonight (since I'm still relatively close - LHS 3006) with a recording. I'm not overly confident it'll do much though.

 

[rizal72]

The problem is that this ends the testing, so if it doesn't work, we're down to a single UA. If this is what it ends with, I'll be pretty mad TBH. The hardest fought 180k I've ever made in game (literally less than a 5 minute trading trip for me vs the nearly 80 hours I spent in SSS/WSS trying to get it). If we find a couple more, I'd be willing to sacrifice mine this way, but for now, I want to believe there's something more to this than making some crappy credits.

The UA was already been sold: the first one that was discovered was sold by mistake by the player who found it. He received money and that's all. BTW he didn't try if something new appeared in the outfitting screen after selling it.

 

[Han_Zen]

Attachment 49796

Looking at the markings on the front, they spell out GB in morse (--. -...). Are the UA's made in Great Britain and they are probes sent out by humans many years ago? If they are, try dropping one outside Earth to see if they wake up an old, sleeping reciever.

Thats much better than my QS (--.- ...)

 

[morbidorbits]

The problem is that this ends the testing, so if it doesn't work, we're down to a single UA. If this is what it ends with, I'll be pretty mad TBH. The hardest fought 180k I've ever made in game (literally less than a 5 minute trading trip for me vs the nearly 80 hours I spent in SSS/WSS trying to get it). If we find a couple more, I'd be willing to sacrifice mine this way, but for now, I want to believe there's something more to this than making some crappy credits.

I think some people believe that selling it could trigger/unlock something, especially if sold at the correct location. Having said that, I don't argue against your very valid reasoning to keep your UA. I do believe (assuming it is the trigger!) that FDev would have expected it to have been tried very quickly.

 

[Jacob Marshall]

This is how I've been approaching it (it will activate something in the right system/set of systems). The weird part in all of this is that the UA is basically like cargo, which unless you're a pirate/salvager, you *rarely* directly interact with cargo. There's no operations that work on cargo (beyond scooping & jettisoning).

What cargo DOES do is allow you to complete missions and, in the case of rares, expose their otherwise hidden entries on the commodities market.

Clearly the UA is different in some ways (the location-specific sounds, the color pulses, eating the ship), but mostly it acts like cargo (which Nav Beacons, the Voyagers, ship debris, fired ammunition like missiles/mines & other small space-born objects don't do).

See that's what I'm thinking. This game is mostly very good ensuring the game mechanics are the same for player and npc.

Halsey is the only record we have of an extraordinary event involving the UA. iirc, and the reports are to be believed, this event occurred when they attempted to Jump System; whether the trigger was their starting system or the destination (if at all ofc) I don't know.

It's possible that Halsey's incident involved a UA. If it was. and we haven't tried already, I think Halsey's actions should be a line of enquiry, mainly in the sense that anything Halsey could have done would have been subject to the same game mechanics we are. He can't bombard it with planite in SC because we can't do that.

It's been said before, and I think I agree with it; we're over-thinking it. It's like those old text-based rpgs...no as was said earlier I think it's a case of "Speak Friend and Enter"

 

[Vincent Starson]

http://i.imgur.com/Oi2Z658.png

Voyager is ~2 million ls away, not 1 million. This is the only image I can find of it's last known location.

 

[CMDR Cluster]

Currently approx 400kLs out of Sol on the way direction Sirius - let's see if I have more luck finding them...

 

[Han_Zen]

Ant:

UA head markings:



To far fetched?

 

[LordZoltan]

Snip!

Halsey is the only record we have of an extraordinary event involving the UA. iirc, and the reports are to be believed, this event occurred when they attempted to Jump System; whether the trigger was their starting system or the destination (if at all ofc) I don't know.

Snip snip snip!

Unless I'm missing somethin, there is absolutely no evidence for the UA being involved in Halsey's disappearance - only hopeful conjecture from here.