So you want to know about the Formidine Rift? (Part 3)

I decided to lurk around there as well and take a look. Haven't been flying my good old Asp for almost a year; it's good to be out in the void again after all this time :)
 
Great question.

The answer? We don't know.

A couple of the Elite: Dangerous tin-in novels make mention of the Formidine Rift and something being out there in or beyond it. The author of Elite: Reclamation, Mr. Drew Wagar, has confirmed that Frontier Developments added a 'surprise' out in the area somewhere. We don't know what it is that we are looking for but we do know that 'it' is out there. So we're looking.


Oh ok.

Would look. But I still need to upgrade my conda.
 
Greetings folks,

Just wanted to let you guys know that I am helping to form a Federation exploration group, the Earth Expeditionary Force. We're going to seek to get more Commanders interested in the Rift, other galactic mysteries and the Lore of the Elite universe. In many ways I hope to foster a group that will be as involved and engaged as the Children of Raxxla that is open to Federation-aligned players who want to maintain that allegiance. If successful I hope we can interact with CoR on many PvE levels, including providing a Federation presence for ongoing narrative purposes as we, led by Drew, continue to participate in the story of Kahina Loren and the Formidine Rift.

More information is available here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=257997

"Once a citizen, always a citizen", so you can count me in. o7
 
Yes true, but that was just an example of how 'it' might be something made of very normal assets as opposed to something unique.

That said, if was something like that, a 30 ly bubble? To see that on the map you would have to be in close, sweeping over a still vast area, even on one plane that would take someone many many hours to cover any reasonably area of space. Thats before we take 'off the plane' into consideration. I still think it would be a major undertaking. And then you would still want to go look anyway.

For example I recently found this whilst map sweeping. What were the chances?

Interesting. I've lost track of how much time I've spent looking for a planetary nebula like that. In fact I'd decided they simply didn't exist. On the other hand given the scale of that (testing with zooming in/out) I have a hard time believing we've all missed one in the Rift area. It's pretty visible at the 250LY across the screen scale with all stars off. But it's 'plausible' that we have, especially if it's darker.
 
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Interesting. I've lost track of how much time I've spent looking for a planetary nebula like that. In fact I'd decided they simply didn't exist. On the other hand given the scale of that (testing with zooming in/out) I have a hard time believing we've all missed one in the Rift area. It's pretty visible at the 250LY across the screen scale with all stars off. But it's 'plausible' that we have, especially if it's darker.


But lets say my one example (the many white dwarves) was a reality, you would have to be much closer than 250ly range to see them.

However I am now more inclined to think this is going to be a series of otherwise normal planets but which have a sentence in there description of something like "This planet shows signs of previous habitation". Something that would be easy to miss if you don't detailed surface scan everything and then re-check the system map.
 
Here is my tinfoil idea. I believe we are looking for a ship. A mystery ship. There are no clues as to the "who" that goes looking except for the three letters "EB,P". "Who" need to be a Explorer, Bounty hunter, Pirate. "Who" goes looking need to have a Frame shift wake scanner. In the video the old women talked about "systems that were dark". Also she said "take you time" and "watch your six". She also said you need a "tough ship and a good pilot". Sounds to me you will need guns and know how to use them. And we need to follow that ship to where it is going.
 
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I'm thinking about haw far is the thing Salomé was looking at from Earth. If we suppose she was looking at something from there.

The distance directly correlates how many years before the event happened. If we suppose there was an event she wanted to look at.

So, is there anything in the lore about things that could have happened around where the rift is, thousands of years ago?
 
Here is my tinfoil idea. I believe we are looking for a ship. A mystery ship. There are no clues as to the "who" that goes looking except for the three letters "EB,P". "Who" need to be a Explorer, Bounty hunter, Pirate. "Who" goes looking need to have a Frame shift wake scanner. In the video the old women talked about "systems that were dark". Also she said "take you time" and "watch your six". She also said you need a "tough ship and a good pilot". Sounds to me you will need guns and know how to use them. And we need to follow that ship to where it is going.

Wakes only last a few mins.
 
Is it long enough to scan and follow? never used one. watched a youtube video on how to use it.


Long enough to scan, yes.

I imagine if it involves following wakes, they'll be either made persistent or just modified a little bit to allow some sort of investigation
 
Long enough to scan, yes.

I imagine if it involves following wakes, they'll be either made persistent or just modified a little bit to allow some sort of investigation

From the youtube instruction, you just need to lock on the wake, scan it and charge you frame shift drive. It will jump you to the same system you just scan. If it is a dark system. I guess it will not show up on our map. Maybe the only way to go there is to follow someone else.

This is the only theory I can come up with as far as "who" and why we had not been able to find anything so far.
 
Here is my tinfoil idea. I believe we are looking for a ship. A mystery ship. There are no clues as to the "who" that goes looking except for the three letters "EB,P". "Who" need to be a Explorer, Bounty hunter, Pirate. "Who" goes looking need to have a Frame shift wake scanner. In the video the old women talked about "systems that were dark". Also she said "take you time" and "watch your six". She also said you need a "tough ship and a good pilot". Sounds to me you will need guns and know how to use them. And we need to follow that ship to where it is going.

The problem here is that we've both been specifically told that dark systems are not in the game, and I think we've also basically had confirmed that "EB,P" was just a little Easter egg to lead to "RO,C" - "Right On, Commander" - and that there is no deeper meaning there.

I think it's always a good idea to go exploring with a Wake Scanner, but I also think it's important that we not chase our tails with simple conjecture, and focus on what we can actually test or look for.

No offense intended. :)
 
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Not directly related to this but is anyone in game right now? Just seen a post on Facebook about someone on Merope 5c looking for barnacles, and when he got to the approx coordinates he was kicked to orbit and was told he needed a permit? I know meta alloy is buyable right now, bit that seems pretty odd regardless.
 
NVM, just checked for myself and all appears to be as normal as it *can* be...maybe just an instancing error or something...as you were. *tinfoil folded away*
 
Not directly related to this but is anyone in game right now? Just seen a post on Facebook about someone on Merope 5c looking for barnacles, and when he got to the approx coordinates he was kicked to orbit and was told he needed a permit? I know meta alloy is buyable right now, bit that seems pretty odd regardless.
I was there one or two days ago with a friend, to see the barnacles for once. We didn't encounter any problems and landed.
I checked the system map now, the planet isn't marked red.
 
As I'm Allied to the Dark Wheel, after 2.1 went live I've been looking at doing more missions for them.

So I went to one of the Dark Wheel controlled planetary bases - specifically Neumann Camp - and found some interesting things there...

1) Neuman Camp appears to be some sort of observatory of some kind

The appearance of this base struck me as odd.


There are two of these buildings - same design - and both have what I can only describe as a telescope of some kind - radio? Optical? Both? Or is it a transmitter? Who knows...

Also, on the above screenshot - have a look at the roof - there is a logo there - more on that later.



2) One of these "telescopes" is aiming at a specific area...


I thought that was interesting. I wondered if that was just some accident of the planet's rotation, so I investigated which area of the sky this thing is aimed at...

It appears to be aiming towards a permit locked area of space known as Col 70 Sector.

I couldn't get an exact marker due to time constraints, but the following two screenshots give a good indication...



This is interesting in and of itself.

I hear your skeptical question : "But Genar, this could just be a coincidence!" - I hear you, fellow skeptic! All I can say is, I logged off of the game for a few hours as I had to go out and do stuff in real life. When I came back on the game, the "telescope" was still aimed at the same area of space - so maybe the planet this base is on doesn't move or rotate? :) Who knows...

The other "telescope" is aimed at the same angle, but in a 180 degree opposite direction, into the galaxy. I did not have the time to see if I could figure out the line it flows through.

3) The logo on top of the two "observatory buildings"...

Here is the logo in question...


I am unsure if it has any significance whatsoever - or whether this is a breadcrumb trail deliberately dropped by FDEV and whomever is helping to write the ongoing storyline. All I know is that 1) This is a cool logo and 2) I wonder if there might be some information encoded within said logo - that is not my forte so I'll leave that as an exercise for others to ponder over and possibly decode if there is information in there to be gleaned.

And that's all I have for now. I will continue following the Dark Wheel trail. Thank you for reading :)
Maybe a bit late to the party, have been away for a bit...

I can report having seen a similar base during beta. I cleared save, and had worked my way up to the Adder, so no access to Dark Wheel content.

It called my attention, and I even took a screenshot from it. As you can see, the base I found, although it has the same layout, does not have a telescope. It does have a logo of some sort on the same place as in your base, although I can't make it out from the screenshot. It had an AR something label as well and number 27 instead of 23 (barely recognizable in screenshot).
55HMcSG.png
This was Carr Terminal in Meliae in case anybody wants to check.
 
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Maybe a bit late to the party, have been away for a bit...

I can report having seen a similar base during beta. I cleared save, and had worked my way up to the Adder, so no access to Dark Wheel content.

It called my attention, and I even took a screenshot from it. As you can see, the base I found, although it has the same layout, does not have a telescope. It does have a logo of some sort on the same place as in your base, although I can't make it out from the screenshot. It had an AR something label as well and number 27 instead of 23 (barely recognizable in screenshot).
This was Carr Terminal in Meliae in case anybody wants to check.

Excellent! Now ... is there anyone in the bubble who can visit Meliae / Carr Terminal and have a look to see if it the same logo? My bet that if the logos are the same then we can skill the tinfoil on this one.
 
Hello fellow rifters.

Commander Candido123 posted this on the Spanish thread of the Formidine Rift. He said that he didn't take that screenshot but I think worth check it.

8xb6FjK.png


On the top right: Permit required to land.

The system is Pha Aeb XV-E D11-1 A 1, in the middle of the Rift (roughly -10.000 / 9 / -6.500). I know that Horizons is not needed to solve the mystery BUT is a permit locked planet in the middle of nowhere... If is any commander near could double check this? And check if is something weird on the system.

Edited: The screenshot was made by the Cmdr Than0s
 
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