The one thing I really want confirmed is if there is a way to find them in-game. Are there clues within the game that will lead you to the locations of a barnacle site, or are we just expected to find them randomly by accident. If it is the latter, than we might as well just stop now, because the probability of that happening is miniscule. Just want to know if there is some clue, either a mission, a galnet article, or something with the UA that will ultimately reveal the location of meta alloys.
UAs, Barnacles & More Thread 5 - The Canonn
- Thread starter Yaffle
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More than likely those are the persistent POIs that have been manually entered in the game. Regular random POIs have not completely been abandoned just yet.
More info is needed, ie the Meta-alloys are seperate from the Barnacles, or these are farmed from the Barnacles when we find them, if we find them then it becomes a rare item, like all the other rares in the verse, but this time you might have to fight and land to get them, if both are seperate, then a Barnacle is just a alien mining functioning base......
A base is permanent..... not moves around, so with that, the science and the struggle to find the holy grail of all grails in this verse, opens up highways... ie the rare trader, if after all this time, it is rare and a fixed place, not moving........ ie a rng of poi... it is s a place a site permanent........ why make a mission for an item thet you will find by what searching the verse? a rare item, yes it might move a story forwards, but no more clues, a pain, and hours spent in the neb well my srv needs new tyres...... any clue should be in game, no reason to go overboard outside the game........... it is after all a prgression, and if the so said "Meta alloy" is found then we all benefit, if it increases shield strength, or other wonders.
A base of alien structure and not of the prize is the story going forward........
A base is permanent..... not moves around, so with that, the science and the struggle to find the holy grail of all grails in this verse, opens up highways... ie the rare trader, if after all this time, it is rare and a fixed place, not moving........ ie a rng of poi... it is s a place a site permanent........ why make a mission for an item thet you will find by what searching the verse? a rare item, yes it might move a story forwards, but no more clues, a pain, and hours spent in the neb well my srv needs new tyres...... any clue should be in game, no reason to go overboard outside the game........... it is after all a prgression, and if the so said "Meta alloy" is found then we all benefit, if it increases shield strength, or other wonders.
A base of alien structure and not of the prize is the story going forward........
I think given enough time, FD would force their hand by releasing a very large hint on GalNet and probably have it planned to occur relatively soon. However, what we are doing now is by all accounts, an attempt to discovery the secret early. Granted, it's difficult and rare but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try.
You know, I have been reading the history here, and there's been a lot of focus on tidally locked moons. If a moon is tidally locked to its planet, that does NOT mean that it has a fixed day/night side. It just has one side that faces the planet, and one that doesn't, and the length of its day is equal to its orbit. Only a body tidally locked to a star will have a permanent night side. Focussing on tidally locked moons is probably unnecessary.
Like I said, really reaching for some type of answer for "why nebula?". I think, in this case, Occam's Razor takes status quo and it's simply as someone said previously, that nebulae are naturally conducive for meta-alloys and thus barnacles.
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OK so I have surveyed the north pole of the following moons:
Merope 1 B
Merope 1 C
Merope 1 D
Merope 5 A
Merope 5 B
Merope 5 C
Merope 3 B
Merope 3 C
Merope 2 D
so these can be discounted from future searches
Merope 1 B
Merope 1 C
Merope 1 D
Merope 5 A
Merope 5 B
Merope 5 C
Merope 3 B
Merope 3 C
Merope 2 D
so these can be discounted from future searches
Well, a lot of the theories are coming straight from the trailer itself. Which is why Tidally locked planets and moons are so convenient. I guess think of it as a 'controlled' (to be fair, dumb luck and rng are the controls).
I am pretty Damn sure that this is the case. There are real fd statements and logic to back it up, not just guessing
Given the scientific bent of the game's procedural generation (and the fact that some barnacles being hand placed basically means that some are procedurally placed), I am highly confident that we can science it down to a "best area to find them" in game, but there's not currently a puzzle that leads to coordinates.
I see it the same as any scientific expedition looking for a rare creature. We can, for example, know that creature X prefers so-and-so habitat, and is active at X time of day, but that doesn't mean if you go in any place like that, you will find that animal. From our perspective, there will still be an element of "luck" involved (although it's not really "luck" in the sense that it's entirely random).
I don't think this will be a murder-mystery style "puzzle". It's science.
Okay CMDRs, I've got a theory. It's a bit nuts, but it's plausible, it's pretty easy to test, and, most importantly, it drastically constrains the search area.
As I outlined here, the mist we see on airless worlds isn't static - it comes and goes with exposure to sunlight, and disappears completely at night. As such, places that are both dark and misty are what I'd call exceedingly rare (pun intended) - you pretty much only find them during eclipses.
This got me thinking about a few things:
My theory is that these barnacles are in some way dormant until the right conditions emerge. I think the right conditions are inside nebulae, in the presence of volatile mist, when the sun has just been obscured, so that they're safe from too much heat, but not so safe that there's no mist to consume. If I were right, we'd either find 1) they're somehow more visible when they're "happy" or 2) the spawn rate of the randomly generated ones is higher in the right conditions.
In order to test this idea, I hunted around the Pleiades, checking out the orbital characteristics and positions of various moons (FDev system orrery view plz!). Turns out eclipse conditions don't happen that often.
Eclipse conditions are so rare, in fact, that I was not able to find any anywhere within the nebula cloud of the Pleiades earlier... but there's one about to happen:
On Merope 1B, sometime in the next hour, Merope 1A will eclipse Merope, turning this very foggy crater I'm sitting in into a very dark foggy crater. (And yes, it's moving in the right direction, I made sure before posting.) If I'm right, one of these moons will eclipse part of the other's misty surface every ~9 hours, for... I have no idea how long. At least an hour? Two?
I'm thinking that if the mist reliably shows up in a short enough time period, then there's an eclipse, and the barnacles never spend too much time "dry", you've got somewhere that you can find barnacles. This would constrain the search to places like Merope 1A/1B, and allow us to rule out entire categories of planets (such as Metal-rich and Icy, which I don't think have any mist).
So uh... anybody want to come throw a foggy eclipse rave on Merope 1B? Bonus points for bringing UA disco balls.
I may be totally crazy here, but the scenery should be cool, and we're probably only gonna be dealing with about 10% of one moon at a time, instead of half a dozen systems - and constraining the search area, at this point, is my primary concern.
P.S. Writing this took long enough that the eclipse has started! Will be back with screenshots later, if possible.
As I outlined here, the mist we see on airless worlds isn't static - it comes and goes with exposure to sunlight, and disappears completely at night. As such, places that are both dark and misty are what I'd call exceedingly rare (pun intended) - you pretty much only find them during eclipses.
This got me thinking about a few things:
- The meta-alloys description refers to Large Barnacles as "alien entities" - one way or another we're hunting a life form.
- IRL barnacles are filter feeders - they extrude a filter-thing out into the water when the water conditions are right, scoop desirable things (plankton) out of the water for nourishment, and extrude a protective shell around themselves. They can dry out and rehydrate with the tide, and be just fine, up to a point.
- FDev are clearly pretty proud of this mist - Braben showed it off in an early youtube video of horizons, and has taken the time to explain it to people at least once.
- This mist rises and falls like tide - on a closely orbiting moon, or a closely orbiting binary pair, misty conditions would form, and then the light would disappear in an eclipse, at least once per orbital period.
My theory is that these barnacles are in some way dormant until the right conditions emerge. I think the right conditions are inside nebulae, in the presence of volatile mist, when the sun has just been obscured, so that they're safe from too much heat, but not so safe that there's no mist to consume. If I were right, we'd either find 1) they're somehow more visible when they're "happy" or 2) the spawn rate of the randomly generated ones is higher in the right conditions.
In order to test this idea, I hunted around the Pleiades, checking out the orbital characteristics and positions of various moons (FDev system orrery view plz!). Turns out eclipse conditions don't happen that often.
Eclipse conditions are so rare, in fact, that I was not able to find any anywhere within the nebula cloud of the Pleiades earlier... but there's one about to happen:
On Merope 1B, sometime in the next hour, Merope 1A will eclipse Merope, turning this very foggy crater I'm sitting in into a very dark foggy crater. (And yes, it's moving in the right direction, I made sure before posting.) If I'm right, one of these moons will eclipse part of the other's misty surface every ~9 hours, for... I have no idea how long. At least an hour? Two?
I'm thinking that if the mist reliably shows up in a short enough time period, then there's an eclipse, and the barnacles never spend too much time "dry", you've got somewhere that you can find barnacles. This would constrain the search to places like Merope 1A/1B, and allow us to rule out entire categories of planets (such as Metal-rich and Icy, which I don't think have any mist).
So uh... anybody want to come throw a foggy eclipse rave on Merope 1B? Bonus points for bringing UA disco balls.
I may be totally crazy here, but the scenery should be cool, and we're probably only gonna be dealing with about 10% of one moon at a time, instead of half a dozen systems - and constraining the search area, at this point, is my primary concern.
P.S. Writing this took long enough that the eclipse has started! Will be back with screenshots later, if possible.
In game clues, assuming UA's, Barnacles, and Meta-alloys are linked:
UA's point to Merope.
Meta-alloy description says' they only exist below a certain temperature (Meta-alloys melt into normal metals at high temps).
Forum Clues:
MB has confirmed they're near the Seven Sisters
Trailer clues:
thrusters on the SRV indicate >1g world - could be meaningless
Dark - could be meaningless
Foggy - could be meaningless.
Crashed ships nearby - could be meaningless.
My hypothesis is that we will find Barnacles and meta-alloys together on a >1g world in Merope, not to near the star, at a ship graveyard.
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Double confirmed ! Ive done the same sweep today , wastelands everyone of em :/
South Poles > when the wifes not watching...
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get yourself an advanced discovery scanner to see all the astronomical objects in a system. or fly around aimlessly with a basic or intermediate scanner until you find them all.
I think the most logical thing to do is to continue searching in the Nebula (Pleiades or otherwise), and just wait for hints.
Section PR5 = ???? I don't get it either. PR could be Pleiades Region. Although Pleiades is referred to as Pleiades sector.
Row 2 = Open planet view, second row from the top of grid.
Seats 5 and 6 = Assuming seat 1 is the first grid square when you open planet view, count six blocks to the right
Row 2 and seats 5 and 6 could also be co-ordinates. I get longitude and latitude mixed up, but whatever is north-south would be row 2, or 2 degrees. And whatever is east-west would be 56 degrees.
Dead Centre/perfect viewing height would be the mound at the centre of a crater.
I've read those as well, but it just seems strange that would happen though, no? As far as I know, there's no other POIs besides ports and synth materials that do not show up as blue circles, unless I'm completely misunderstanding the mechanics behind the blue POI circles. You would think for all intent and purpose, barnacle POI's would show up as blue circles...
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Agreed. Keep searching. One of two things is going to happen. Someone is going to find one kicking off a GalNet story, or a GalNet story is going to lead to someone finding one.
It's the Existential Nihilist sect within the Canonn. I thought they'd given up.
Cough.
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