Unknown Artefact (or artifact) Community Thread - The Canonn

[rizal72]

Rizal..... I am determined to bag a 2nd UA Think team Biscuit barrel got the speed record ! Now aiming to find at least 4 ! I like high targets......
WHEN ! We do it s all yours...

Fly Safe and good hunting all..

You are my heros CMDRs!
I really wish to help, but I'm still on holidays for the next two weeks, in Sicily and then in Tuscany
We have very long holidays here in Italy

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Normally when a thread hits 8000 posts it's because the mother of all flame wars has broken out (c.f. open vs solo). I bet the mods can't believe there is a perfectly civilised conversation that has lasted so long. This is probably their most favourite thread ever!

Well said CMDR, well said!

 

[Vasious]

It never corrodes Advanced Discovery Scanners (actually it might be DDS) but I just put that down to something being a bit wonky with the game engine, rather than it actually having any meaning.

We cannot target scanners either, maybe toxic corrosion follows the same rules as what one could target in combat, and the DSS is unbreakabe

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It never corrodes Advanced Discovery Scanners (actually it might be DDS) but I just put that down to something being a bit wonky with the game engine, rather than it actually having any meaning.

We cannot target scanners either, maybe toxic corrosion follows the same rules as what one could target in combat, and the DSS is unbreakabe

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

Just posted this on reddit (disclaimer: all these points might have already been covered)...

A dev stated the answer is "right before our eyes" - therefore I can only conclude it's something visual - the audio is just some cool sounds added for awesomeness and is a red herring.


So if we go by "right in front of our eyes" - that leaves something to do with the visual appearance of the UA, or some pattern on the UA's surface, or even some pattern in the UA's light show.


Y'know from some orientations, the UA looks like an alien life form itself, even with two "eyes". Might be something to do with that.


Regarding the audio - which again I think is a Red Herring with regards to messages encoded within it (Morse notwithstanding) - it doesn't sound like something an insect race like the Thargoids would produce. I'd have been expecting insectiod screeches and clicks - not this audio - which sounds more like it's made from an aquatic lifeform.

 

[dumbo]

For all others. Im talking about the markings on the side of the UA. They seem to be similar to the mayan number system and can be translated directly into numbers:

View attachment 49968

More about this number system can be found here. A calculator can be found here.

Here are my results from both elements. As you can see they can be interpreted in many ways. The only correct - if you go strictly for the rules of the mayan number system - would be the longest number. All others are some kind of reinterpretation. I hope this pictures makes it more clear:

View attachment 49970

I just found this on the wiki - and it's quite interesting (especially given the explict mention made to aztec in a galnet article)... but I think it's slightly off.

Mayan/Aztec numbers are base 5 and have up to 4 horizontal dots per line. The UA markings only seem to have room for 3 horizontal dots.

For the first image:
- the single row that is identified as '1,3' might be a '4'.
[or]
- the whole thing might be in base-4 with the '1,3' line representing zero.

A naive representation might be (base 5):
7 3 [4] 3 3 3 8 3 13
13 3 8 3 3 3 [4] 3 7

For base 4:
6 3 0 3 3 3 7 3 11
11 3 7 3 3 3 0 3 6

Or it might just be a pretty pattern .

 

[clavain]

Systems in FE2/FFE have z coordinates, but the galaxy in very narrow in the z direction so the z coordinates don't vary as much as they should. I have a list of all the hand-coded systems in FE2/FFE and I'd be surprised if they aren't in ED (I'll check later). The systems that were procedurally generated in FE2/FFE won't be in ED unless they decided to hand-code some of them as the procedural generation system is different. Some of the "significant" systems from those games will have been procedurally generated. If you want to make a list of the ones you're interested in I'll check them.

Liaququ would be one from FFE to start with, you would be Han Zen's best friend forever if you found that. There are several mentioned in the FFE Journals that do not appear in ED Galaxy map, at work at the moment but will try to get you a list of other possibilities.

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Someone on reddit posted all the audio files related to the Unknown Artifact. https://www.reddit.com/r/UnknownArtefact/comments/3gira3/stripping_game_files_for_ua_sound/

Most of them mechanical chirping. Some are insectoid chirping or clicking. Some are the whale. Nothing we haven't heard before. Listened to all 102 files and nothing sounded significantly interesting. File 101 is a little weird but that's it.

We try to keep this approach off this thread. It is likely considered an exploit by FD, and it ruins the mystery for those who don't want it spoiled by delving into game files.

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Deconstructing assets is against the spirit of the challenge... I'm out.

You should not be out - the person deconstructing the assets should be. See the previous posts by several of us on this thread to that effect.

 

[Hellcat]

Just posted this on reddit (disclaimer: all these points might have already been covered)...

A dev stated the answer is "right before our eyes" - therefore I can only conclude it's something visual - the audio is just some cool sounds added for awesomeness and is a red herring.


So if we go by "right in front of our eyes" - that leaves something to do with the visual appearance of the UA, or some pattern on the UA's surface, or even some pattern in the UA's light show.


Y'know from some orientations, the UA looks like an alien life form itself, even with two "eyes". Might be something to do with that.


Regarding the audio - which again I think is a Red Herring with regards to messages encoded within it (Morse notwithstanding) - it doesn't sound like something an insect race like the Thargoids would produce. I'd have been expecting insectiod screeches and clicks - not this audio - which sounds more like it's made from an aquatic lifeform.

Comments like "right in front of our eyes" can also be read in a much more abstract way, for example perhaps he means the answer has to do with something commonly found near your PC while you're playing, such as a microphone, webcams or even mouse, keyboards, joysticks, you name it. Hell he could even be referring to your nose, that's right in front of your face, maybe you need to smell the UA...?

 

[clavain]

So i'm look at the lore around shinrata, and...another sytem, close to the dark secrets of Nuentes and strange traffic of Bunda...
Skeggiko 0: In game lore"....Local rumours hint of secret meetings in the far reaches of their systems."
These are all systems in direct contact of Shinata.
I'm going to look.

Smells like Dark Wheel to me.

 

[Nicholas Powell]

It never corrodes Advanced Discovery Scanners (actually it might be DDS) but I just put that down to something being a bit wonky with the game engine, rather than it actually having any meaning.

Possibly relevant observation/query:
Don't ADS and DSS modules use extremely low amounts of energy from the power plant? Perhaps just me on my spoilt brat Anaconda where it is so low it has no noticeable effect on power management, can't recall previous ships and power load-outs therein, but if the same with other vessels a possible micro-clue for interpretation. (Happy to be confirmed as wrong!)

 

[clavain]

Just posted this on reddit (disclaimer: all these points might have already been covered)...

A dev stated the answer is "right before our eyes" - therefore I can only conclude it's something visual - the audio is just some cool sounds added for awesomeness and is a red herring.

Do you have a source link for this quote and a name for this Dev? Other than "someone on Reddit said"?

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

Just posted this on reddit (disclaimer: all these points might have already been covered)...

A dev stated the answer is "right before our eyes" - therefore I can only conclude it's something visual - the audio is just some cool sounds added for awesomeness and is a red herring.


So if we go by "right in front of our eyes" - that leaves something to do with the visual appearance of the UA, or some pattern on the UA's surface, or even some pattern in the UA's light show.


Y'know from some orientations, the UA looks like an alien life form itself, even with two "eyes". Might be something to do with that.


Regarding the audio - which again I think is a Red Herring with regards to messages encoded within it (Morse notwithstanding) - it doesn't sound like something an insect race like the Thargoids would produce. I'd have been expecting insectiod screeches and clicks - not this audio - which sounds more like it's made from an aquatic lifeform.

Comments like "right in front of our eyes" can also be read in a much more abstract way, for example perhaps he means the answer has to do with something commonly found near your PC while you're playing, such as a microphone, webcams or even mouse, keyboards, joysticks, you name it. Hell he could even be referring to your nose, that's right in front of your face, maybe you need to smell the UA...?

Nah, that's taking things to an extreme.

It's going to be something glaringly obvious when the secret is finally revealed. I just think people are way overcomplicating the search to such an extent that the KISS principle has been forgotten - after all as someone has mentioned in some other forum, this is Elite: Dangerous, not a test to get into MENSA

 

[Sigon]

Possibly relevant observation/query:
Don't ADS and DSS modules use extremely low amounts of energy from the power plant? Perhaps just me on my spoilt brat Anaconda where it is so low it has no noticeable effect on power management, can't recall previous ships and power load-outs therein, but if the same with other vessels a possible micro-clue for interpretation. (Happy to be confirmed as wrong!)

Well, someone already indicated a couple of pages back that even a shut down power reactor was being affected by the UA.
And I think it has also been tested with disabled/power-off system modules?

 

[RedWizzard]

Liaququ would be one from FFE to start with, you would be Han Zen's best friend forever if you found that. There are several mentioned in the FFE Journals that do not appear in ED Galaxy map, at work at the moment but will try to get you a list of other possibilities.

Is it sad that I can tell just from the name that Liaququ is a procedurally generated system in FFE? Yeah, it is sad.

FFE assigned system names to procedurally generated systems using three syllables from a set of only 32 possibilities. It picked the syllables using a pretty simple algorithm based on the sector coordinates and the system number within the sector.

 

[clavain]

UA occurence map.

Any obvious system close to the big red dot in the centre?

 

[bitstorm]

Well, someone already indicated a couple of pages back that even a shut down power reactor was being affected by the UA.

*cries* =(

 

[Nicholas Powell]

Well, someone already indicated a couple of pages back that even a shut down power reactor was being affected by the UA.
And I think it has also been tested with disabled/power-off system modules?

Thanks. Fair point. But I thought we couldn't shut down our power plants, and if it remains on at all times then even with other systems shut down perhaps the UA is simply ignoring those (whether on or off) which it somehow 'knows' are the least 'tasty' for nicking juice from. (Maybe it just targets Cargo Hatches for the roughage...)

 

[b_laiskiainen]

I just found this on the wiki - and it's quite interesting (especially given the explict mention made to aztec in a galnet article)... but I think it's slightly off.

Mayan/Aztec numbers are base 5 and have up to 4 horizontal dots per line. The UA markings only seem to have room for 3 horizontal dots.

For the first image:
- the single row that is identified as '1,3' might be a '4'.
[or]
- the whole thing might be in base-4 with the '1,3' line representing zero.

A naive representation might be (base 5):
7 3 [4] 3 3 3 8 3 13
13 3 8 3 3 3 [4] 3 7

For base 4:
6 3 0 3 3 3 7 3 11
11 3 7 3 3 3 0 3 6

Or it might just be a pretty pattern .

Thargoids have 3 digits per limb and apparently use base-12.

Redo plz?

 

[clavain]

So, just came across this, created on August 5th:

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Bleia_Sector_Theory

This seems so vague and unsourced and implausible (dare I say inaccurate - UAs supercruising?) that I don't have much faith in it (particularly as its author did not put it on our wiki, or this thread for input), but would be interested if others have heard anything at all about such events? Without putting too fine a point on it, and without someone like Erimus backing it up, all the alarm bells are screaming fake to me.
[...]
...can someone take a look and see if there are any permit systems in this sector, or if the sector itself is permitted like Regor? And that's me done for tonite.

I can confirm that area is "unknown permit" access only...weird.

Interesting - as it does not seem mentioned in Erimus' Community Galactic Mapping project. In fact there are only two references to sectors with "Bleia" in them, and both of those are BLEIA SOMEOTHERWORD Sector, and not permitted:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=116450

Hmm, all his map links seem to be broken at the moment - I hope that is only because he is busy updating them. So can't check to see what is on the actual maps at the moment. Bleia1 to 5 sectors do show up as permitted here though, among many others, so likely nothing to it with regard to the UA, unless we suddenly have real confirmation of one appearing that far out, which is darned unlikely:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=122593

 

[Vall]

Any obvious system close to the big red dot in the centre?

The red dot is SOL. I have been looking for a system in proximity of both mass centers, but I don't have Elite at work so I can't check the galaxy map. The internet databases don't say anything but they may as well not have the systems from the game. You can try looking for systems around {17.3368, -16.9271, 4.04167} or {11.9375, -8.03606, -9.75481}, but I'm not sure that will bring any results. Will check that when I get home. There's another post of mine with some explanation a few pages further.

Well, someone already indicated a couple of pages back that even a shut down power reactor was being affected by the UA.
And I think it has also been tested with disabled/power-off system modules?

That's also one idea. Freeze the ship (turn absolutely everything off and let the temp drop) either with the artefact in hold or outside. Maybe it's afraid of company.

Comments like "right in front of our eyes" can also be read in a much more abstract way, for example perhaps he means the answer has to do with something commonly found near your PC while you're playing, such as a microphone, webcams or even mouse, keyboards, joysticks, you name it. Hell he could even be referring to your nose, that's right in front of your face, maybe you need to smell the UA...?

So... Try to use voiceover from Wings and talk to it? Or reply the signal generated back to the UA?

 

[Nicholas Powell]

That's also one idea. Freeze the ship (turn absolutely everything off and let the temp drop) either with the artefact in hold or outside. Maybe it's afraid of company.

I believe RatKing (if not others as well?) has performed such tests. To the avail of a big fat zilch.

 

[clavain]

The red dot is SOL. I have been looking for a system in proximity of both mass centers, but I don't have Elite at work so I can't check the galaxy map. The internet databases don't say anything but they may as well not have the systems from the game. You can try looking for systems around {17.3368, -16.9271, 4.04167} or {11.9375, -8.03606, -9.75481}, but I'm not sure that will bring any results. Will check that when I get home.

Cool, thanks. I was wondering if it was Sol. RedWizzard might be able to help you out with system data or calculations if you need it, he is involved with the EDSC folks and such.

Edit: And just saw your other post with all the system data and the plot, dooh!