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UA Mystery thread 4 - The Canonn
- Thread starter Yaffle
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I hope at least some of us are searching for barnacles away from shell. We don't know that the barnacles are related to the UAs (personally I think they probably aren't), and if they aren't then the shell is no more likely than any other part of the galaxy.
Keep in mind that the Pleiades floaters weren't discovered for two months after 1.3 was released because we weren't looking in the right places. It took an XBox player who wasn't involved with the mystery to find one. And it happened again with the shell: we found Aries Dark Region GW-W d1-52 and a few other nearby regions quickly (during the beta), but very few other systems even though there were literally thousands of shell systems within 150 Ly of the Pleiades where we were spending all our time. The shell wasn't recognised until 6 weeks after the beta launched. Both of these cases make me somewhat concerned that we may be focusing too much on the shell. They also suggest that those people saying "we haven't found anything yet it can't possibly be in the game" are being quite premature.
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Yes, I checked it on day one after Horizons launch: the new ships have their own drawings (apart from the Cobra MKIV that has the same drawing as the Cobra MKIII, and the Corvette, I cannot buy yet). No one seemed that much interested so I posted just a couple of them.
And that's all.
PS:
after I posted the Keelback drawing, pointing that it was not behaving like the other T-ships, MB popped out saying that the T-ships different behavior (the UA did not draw them, spelling the system name instead) was a bug.
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Currently Searching NGC 7822, my favourite nebula. Haven't had chance to land on any planets yet. First landable planet was 3+ G, very much nope. Currently investigating an interesting looking potato.
For the same reason Red Wizzard pointed out, I'm currently in HIP 61958, ~1000Ly up the galactic plane...
Found an awesome ultra scarred ice Potato moon, but no Barnacles so far...
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I've tried to keep up with the thread, so my apologies if I've missed this - what is the procedure once one of these is found? Much like the UA, Some ideas:
Despite this, my fear is that, as has been raised before, we'll need to blow it up simply to get the meta-alloy to be sold for research purposes. Doesn't seem like we'll have the know-how / tools to treat it as being "sentient". Pretty sad "first contact" experience - you don't reply, so we'll blow you up and cart you to a lab.
Alternate tin-foil hat theories (and no, as of this post, not one has been discovered):
- Post here and see if anyone can join you at the coordinates (just post the system, planet and coordinates). Wing up.
- High res video and audio recording of the SRV scanning the barnacle (and zoom into the scanner if possible)
- Record moving towards the barnacle (i.e. figure out how others can pick up on something / anything to detect their presence without a direct visual
- Go around it; try to pick up on any audio or video queues, and record / screenshot as much as you can
- See if you can "access it" via data scan (who knows?). Other communication methods? Headlights on, headlights off, completely power down the SRV... etc etc.
- Same testing as with the UA; park some craft & other objects (UA for example) next to one, see if anything changes.
- Check other P.O.I.s on the same planet, and start checking similar planet types in neighboring systems
- Compare markings with the UA. See if they "point" in a certain direction (same UA stuff).
- Firing at it should be a last resort; just like with the UAs, there's going to be a time when these are in abundance, but until then, treat whatever you find as if it were the only one for a while.
- See if someone has or can get a mission to deliver it; the ~$80k price on the market won't get the research anywhere and I'm sure other players can spot you the cash if that's an issue.
Despite this, my fear is that, as has been raised before, we'll need to blow it up simply to get the meta-alloy to be sold for research purposes. Doesn't seem like we'll have the know-how / tools to treat it as being "sentient". Pretty sad "first contact" experience - you don't reply, so we'll blow you up and cart you to a lab.
Alternate tin-foil hat theories (and no, as of this post, not one has been discovered):
- Hopefully the clicks and beeps (or visuals) from the SRVs scanner will help people distinguish between these and rocks / man-made objects.
- These launch the UAs into space (although that seems to have been disproved)
- They only "grow" on certain types of planets
- These are just the "tip of the iceberg", although with in-game dynamics, hard to "dig" below them to find out.
- The barnacle looks like the back end of a small ship which crashed directly into the planet (half buried) https://forums.frontier.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=90013
- If they do exist, some players may have already found them and are harvesting them for the cash (looking at this post and smirking because of the revenue), and not giving any peeps or leads.
I've been doing something of a loop 1kly from Sol searching for barnacles. Went out to the pipe/bowl area, Snake, Soontil, Orion nebula, California nebula, etc. Nothing too interesting yet. Not sure where next. I don't mind chasing breadcrumbs, but so far I'm just chasing my tail.
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3g isn't too bad. I landed on a planet that was 23 earth masses. Talk about a clincher. I was full on vertical thrust the whole time and still hit pretty hard but managed to land.
I cut it above 2.5G. To much damage to far out can make for some tedious trips back and forth from civilized space for repairs.
I don't blame you! That huge planet I landed on was a metal rich planet and I really wanted to see what was on it. Honestly, I was rather disappointed. Won't be making that mistake again.
Needle in a haystack then... what can we do instead of searching widly (which I admit I've been doing in Merope and surroundings)? Some ideas:
- Map which ports / bases are ready to purchase the meta-alloy. Doesn't seem like it's all of them. If they are all more towards a certain area of occupied
, perhaps this can give us a general orientation of where they can be found. Map where the missions to find these meta-alloys pop up. - Why the incredibly high price tag on the market if they are supposed to be common in a certain area of space? Not sure if this is supply and demand, or a "reward" for having to go so far out of the bubble to find them and bring them back
- If FDev added missions to find them (albeit in 6 days) they should have them in game to find (otherwise the mission should not be there). I would think they would not require people to venture too far out of the bubble since it requires going to planets and several systems. Kind of contradicts the second idea though.
It's the planets you least expect that have the most interesting features.
On a whim I decided to investigate a High Metal Content planet on my way to NGC 7822. In a large crater there was a huge cliff with a shear 5+km drop. It beats finding the barnacles any day.
The system is WREDGUIA VP-X B30-0, the planet is number 1.
Cool, thanks for testing and reporting back
I'm not questioning the behaviour, but am interested in the technique- how was it ascertained that UAs point to Merope? I can understand positioning the camera behind the UA aligned along its axis but how to decide what star it's pointing at? because I'm assuming Merope wasn't visible 160 ly away?
Given the number of posts I've seen on here from people apparently desperate to shoot something/anything alien, plus a few who appeared to be lurking pirates etc, a better process for any first contact finding would be to immediately PM the members of the Canonn Council who could coordinate the protocols for data capture & analysis, & arrange for appriate protection measures to be implemented (I believe Knights of the Black offered this if we required it).
P.S. the link you posted is to a picture that is apparently a hoax.
P.P.S. If the UAs are larval barnacles & the barnacles produce meta-alloys then that might explain the cargo container-shaped appendages on the UA, & if the barnacles are growing then perhaps these "pods" would drop off when "ripe"- they may not need/be capable of being shot off the barnacle, & maybe that's behind the 6 day duration for the meta-alloy missions- perhaps you have to wait for the pods to ripen. Just musings...!
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You can target any system in the galaxy using the galaxy map. Once you do that it appears targeted in the canopy hud, so you can position yourself so the UA is between you and the HUD target and see if the UA is aligned with it.
Thanks Jorge. Sorry, I didn't explain my question clearly. I assumed that selection in the Galaxy Map was the mechanism to give a visual highlight on the hud to check the alignment, but what was behind the decision to select Merope in the GalMap- there is a step missing from visual alignment along the axis of the UA to selection in the GMap. In RL you would check the stars either side of the visual alignment, then go into the GMap & use those to refine the alignment search but it's more complicated. I'm wondering because with any measurement there is an element of inaccuracy & the visual alignment would give a cone of possible alignments; and that cone would extend to the far edge of the galaxy giving a huge number of possible stars. I'm interested in how that accuracy was refined down specifically to select Merope.
It was a step by step process. You can see it in Ratking15's YouTube channel.
I've been poking around far and wide too. Not as far as some people here though! o7
Since we don't know anything for sure, the barnacles could be anywhere until more information is available. So, while there is a dedicated group scouring the Merope shell, I'll spend my time taking stabs in the dark.
A couple of days ago I thought I'd check out the "eye" Helix Nebula. Didn't find any barnacles, just the usual POI spawns. Got some nice screen shots.
I particularly like the sunrise/galaxy-rise, seeing the sky burn with a billion stars rising from the edge of the world.
Probably just a coincidence, but the #1 POI canister I find is Tea! But I wonder if this is a little wink from the developers.
Since we don't know anything for sure, the barnacles could be anywhere until more information is available. So, while there is a dedicated group scouring the Merope shell, I'll spend my time taking stabs in the dark.
A couple of days ago I thought I'd check out the "eye" Helix Nebula. Didn't find any barnacles, just the usual POI spawns. Got some nice screen shots.
I particularly like the sunrise/galaxy-rise, seeing the sky burn with a billion stars rising from the edge of the world.
Probably just a coincidence, but the #1 POI canister I find is Tea! But I wonder if this is a little wink from the developers.
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