UAs, Barnacles & More Thread 5 - The Canonn

[Agony_Aunt]

We know there are fixed POI's with barnacles.

Do we? :O

Where was this stated?

That changes things if true as it means we do need a methodical method rather than just flying around waiting for the RNG to grace us. It might also mean there is a kind of logic to their placement (for example, in specific locations like craters, or at the poles (because reasons).

 

[dynamicbob]

One thing that I do like about this megathread #5 is that it isn't all the "the usual suspects" posting. A lot of what's going on is from folks who weren't necessarily involved with the UA mystery early on and so have a fresh perspective. They aren't jaded or weary from answering the same questions that inevitably keep cropping up. We all suspect that UAs and Large Barnacles are related somehow and having new blood and new eyes looking from different angles can only be a good thing.

Right now we're in terra incognita WRT Barnacles. There is no right, there is no wrong. There's what we can try and what we can record. That means telling people what you're doing and where you're doing it.
To summarise, don't stop posting!

Myself, I'm roughly 1500ly from Maia and heading back in. I've been putting on a hard burn for the last couple of days to get back quickly.

Good point the rusted on members tend to get stuck in specific thought streams, its good to have new blood, new ways of thinking and solving this grindfest of a mystery

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What sort of large crashed ship? A t9? Anaconda? If so did you catch the grid location?

An assumption based upon patch notes and to a lesser extend the horizons video, micheal brookes has gone quite again.

Im off tomorrow to flood maia with unknown artifact sales and see if that moves things along

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Do we? :O

Where was this stated?

That changes things if true as it means we do need a methodical method rather than just flying around waiting for the RNG to grace us. It might also mean there is a kind of logic to their placement (for example, in specific locations like craters, or at the poles (because reasons).

Micheal also indicated at other locations ( which is code for possible random) obvious landmarks have been checked in some places and nothing found.

The mystery rolls on a bit

 

[squiggsy]

Do we? :O

Where was this stated?

That changes things if true as it means we do need a methodical method rather than just flying around waiting for the RNG to grace us. It might also mean there is a kind of logic to their placement (for example, in specific locations like craters, or at the poles (because reasons).

In the changelog for the latest update it says that it fixed not being able to call down your ship when at Wrecks and Barnacles. This implies they are using the same coding and are both fixed POI's (since it's the large persistent wrecks they are referring too, which have been confirmed to have had this behavior pre-patch)

Also MB confirmed it over the space of the last thread.
They may also exist in blue POI's but I personally don't think so, people have taken some of what Michael said to suggest that but from what I've seen he hasn't explicitly stated it.

 

[Opiter Stellarius]

Welllll... what you are theorizing is about carbon-based life chemistry. In RL we have the (somewhat recent, somewhat surprising) discovery of sulphur & silicon-based life at the edges of deep-sea geological fault planes (the Vents/Trenches). We also know that there's at least another chemistry in E|D, those "ammonia-based life" gas giants. I wouldn't stick to a carbon-based life theory for an alien organism...

Actually, the life forms depending on the hydrothermal vents are all carbon-based, just like us. We do not know of any example of non-carbon-based life IRL. The bacteria at the bottom of the food chain at hydrothermal vents simply create their carbohydrates using CO2 and H2S released by the vents, whereas plants, algae and cyanobacteria produce their carbohydrates using CO2, water and the energy of the Sun's light. It's just a different path to reach the same destination.

But I agree with you. The biochemistry of these "barnacles" need not be carbon-based and most of what we know of life on Earth may well not apply to them. From what we know, these life forms live on airless planets. From the hint in the trailer (assuming these are indeed "large barnacles"), they endure a higher gravity than Earth's. They may (but more probably may not) have access to liquid water, ammonia or other solvent in their environment for their metabolic needs. And the temperature at which they exist may be much hotter or much colder than what we deal with on Earth. The adaptations to these radical environments have to be radical... and the meta-alloys are likely one such adaptation.

 

[woodhouse]

Has any planetary landing been done in the 135-150ly sphere where free-floater UAs can be found?

 

[squiggsy]

Has any planetary landing been done in the 135-150ly sphere where free-floater UAs can be found?

Yes I did a load, so did a few other, we didn't find anything.
It has been confirmed that the Pleiades is were we should be looking now anyway. The place is huge enough as is.

 

[Turban]

Yes I did a load, so did a few other, we didn't find anything.
It has been confirmed that the Pleiades is were we should be looking now anyway. The place is huge enough as is.

Same. Tried in and around "the UA shell", nothing but tea and gold...

 

[simulacrae]

Do we? :O

Where was this stated?

That changes things if true as it means we do need a methodical method rather than just flying around waiting for the RNG to grace us. It might also mean there is a kind of logic to their placement (for example, in specific locations like craters, or at the poles (because reasons).

from last thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=195658&page=542&p=3371375#post3371375

Originally Posted by Michael Brookes
Not really, some are randomly generated, but others have been specifically placed to be found.


Michael

 

[Dakron Nova]

This Commander has arrived Pleiades sector and is 4 jumps from Merope. I will spend the day here and post anything I find.

 

[dynamicbob]

it could be the random ones that havent been found yet, its a rather large haystack, if yorue part of any groups folks ( ie not cannon) but wondered in from outside go back to yorue groups and promote this search, spread the word to speak, the more we can get on this the better.

Fdev have given us the ulitimate grind fest and we need more eyeballs, ive been encouraging exploring smugglers to come and assist as well. A community goal might be enough to raise numbers further. Im sure if it drags on to logn ,all brookes has to do is raise the modifier for random occourance of these things until someone finds em, i expect after that they will spawn in more locations as the storyline moves ons / opens up

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This Commander has arrived Pleiades sector and is 4 jumps from Merope. I will spend the day here and post anything I find.

Cool have u brought anyone else with u from the real world who can assist

 

[IceFire122]

Another idea:
Why not investigate a known fixed POI to learn its behavior?

Obsidian Ant made a nice video about the Anaconda crash site on Orrere 2B, including the exact coordinates.

Investigating this site during different day times could give us indications from which height it can be seen and how. This should be helpful for finding the barnacles...

 

[squiggsy]

Another idea:
Why not investigate a known fixed POI to learn its behavior?

Obsidian Ant made a nice video about the Anaconda crash site on Orrere 2B, including the exact coordinates.

Investigating this site during different day times could give us indications from which height it can be seen and how. This should be helpful for finding the barnacles...

Good idea, I'm not over at the Pleiades at the moment so I'll head over there, I'll report back my findings.
(I also just really wanted to visit one of those wrecks anyway )

 

[Han_Zen]

A just slightly wonky survey area map for a portion of Merope 1D

Spoiler

View attachment 93517

... not the prettiest ... but if anyone thinks something like this might be usefull

Hi Sim.

Do you think it's time to dig out the old Maya number drawings? Coordinates seem to be the way to find fixed POI.

Off course we need a system and a planet as well :-/

 

[Jorge]

Just thought I would post this information, feel free to correct me but I believe these are the facts and the unknowns...

Barnacle Facts
1. Are they in the Game? - They are in the game
2. What Region of space can they be found? - Can be found in the region of the Seven Sisters nebula (Pleiades).
3. Where do they live? In the void of space or on a planet? – Planet
4. How will they appear? - Either a POI or a specific placed location.
5. How common are they? - They are exceedingly rare.
6. Has a player found a Barnacle? - No
7. Are they linked to the Meta-Alloys and Mission? - Yes

This is good, but I'd make your second point a little more nuanced. What MB said (I'm paraphrasing) is that they are likely to be found in nebulae, specially the one with the seven sisters in it. So not only in the Pleiades, and he didn't even clearly say we would find them there, but we were likely to (though that second part is probably just semantics).

 

[Kalearne]

I have a theory about the placement and I dont think its going to make anyone happy. I think all of the barnacle placements might be fixed. MB's comment that some were placed (this is where we assumed these are the fixed instances) and some were random (and heres where we assume random). What if random means the location was randomly generated and persistent.
Say 10 barnacles, each with its own location. Five of which were handpicked, the other five randomly generated but checked to be viable, i.e. not up a cliff wall.

 

[Bluwolfe]

As a side note, I've completed about 5 hours of planetary landings and scans in a few locations within the Pelican Nebula and North America Nebula (as I was very close in the region), wanted primarily to see if 'as well as other nebulae' might pop up easier rather than just near Merope . Didnt find anything much though, best was one of the morse code fallen probes I think people have already found that seems to repeat the "B R O K E N" message

So no random wild luck out here. Probably head inbound to Merope soon, sadly cut this exploration trip short given the recent news

 

[squiggsy]

I have a theory about the placement and I dont think its going to make anyone happy. I think all of the barnacle placements might be fixed. MB's comment that some were placed (this is where we assumed these are the fixed instances) and some were random (and heres where we assume random). What if random means the location was randomly generated and persistent.
Say 10 barnacles, each with its own location. Five of which were handpicked, the other five randomly generated but checked to be viable, i.e. not up a cliff wall.

Yep this is basically what I think, though I assume more than 10. if there are 10 in a whole nebula then I hate whoever wrote "common in some parts of space" about them.

 

[Jorge]

I have a theory about the placement and I dont think its going to make anyone happy. I think all of the barnacle placements might be fixed. MB's comment that some were placed (this is where we assumed these are the fixed instances) and some were random (and heres where we assume random). What if random means the location was randomly generated and persistent.
Say 10 barnacles, each with its own location. Five of which were handpicked, the other five randomly generated but checked to be viable, i.e. not up a cliff wall.

True, we don't have a proper definition of what Michael meant as "random" in that context. The supposition that it meant "randomly placed once" instead of "randomly placed and spawning per gaming session" is at the very least plausible.

 

[EddyRockSteady]

I cannot help but wish, for the sake of the story and my journey in Elite, that searching and finding these barnacles relied on something a wee bitty more than flying around planets for hours on end relying on blind, dumb luck to spot a pop-up.

There has to be a better way, FD. Would be nice to be sat docked in a station and overhear surreptitious NPC comms chatter over a 'secure' channel, follow a clue overheard from the NPC to another NPC, sweat him over a laser sunburn to get more info, track another NPC to a planetary base where a search is conducted for a hidden stash containing coordinates for a system that 'something weird, green and alien' was spotted, although due to data corruption, coordinates are sketchy, said mission turning into a mercy-mission as well as said NPC Commanders Wingman was lost in a green fog that enveloped his craft upon closer inspection and so on and so on.

With a wee bit of imagination I would relish the search if couched in a wee bit of mystery.

Oh well, off to do what needs done before my now weary search continues. The lower left quadrant of my right Femur aches (I feel it in my bones ) when I think of Electra......

 

[Han_Zen]

I have a theory about the placement and I dont think its going to make anyone happy. I think all of the barnacle placements might be fixed. MB's comment that some were placed (this is where we assumed these are the fixed instances) and some were random (and heres where we assume random). What if random means the location was randomly generated and persistent.
Say 10 barnacles, each with its own location. Five of which were handpicked, the other five randomly generated but checked to be viable, i.e. not up a cliff wall.

I think so to. I think large barnacles and big wrek sites uses the mechanics for structures and are generated upon entering an instance at a fixed possition.