UAs, Barnacles & More Thread 6 - The Canonn

[Jmanis]

Not sure why you're stressing over Palin so much. His best upgrade is for normal thrusters and he doesn't sell special cargo crates that can hold UA's. At least not until next patch it would seem.

... I'm not sure why you think I'm 'stressing' over Palin?

Just expressing annoyance. I can access and collect upgrade material for engineers synchronously to other activities, but getting to Palin will need a concentrated period of working for a different faction to get a permit... and as i think the permit issue system is bugged based on other posts, that's annoying. Not a big deal sure, just annoying.

Also, what ilo said. Everyone so far seems to say his upgrade is available. Any link to something saying it isn't?

 

[ilo]

... I'm not sure why you think I'm 'stressing' over Palin?

Just expressing annoyance. I can access and collect upgrade material for engineers synchronously to other activities, but getting to Palin will need a concentrated period of working for a different faction to get a permit... and as i think the permit issue system is bugged based on other posts, that's annoying. Not a big deal sure, just annoying.

Also, what ilo said. Everyone so far seems to say his upgrade is available. Any link to something saying it isn't?

I had the sirius permit before 2.1, will do a quick rush into getting Palin access and see myself if the cargo racks are available or not. currently I have qwent waiting for his 25 modular terminals.

I use to travel 90% of my time with 2 UAs in my backpack, i was expecting these cargo racks to be available asap.

 

[Stattick]

This may sound silly and it's coming from someone far to involved in other games to actually participate in the mystery.... but:

Has anyone looked at the line passing between Pleiades and California nebula and extended it to see what it "hits"? I would also recommend looking for any nebula that could create a "Bermuda triangle" type area or where the Cali Pleiades line crosses the formidable rift r-r line.

Apologies for the voice sans action, I enjoy the story you guys and FD are creating and keep up with most of the mysteries. Maybe someday I will convince my friends to pick E up again

 

[Vision1776]

Palin has to be a part of the puzzle. They got a lot of hype over this topic, why not throw some of that hype at the engineers and even Powerplay?

I think Palin might give some hints if you get to max rep with him. Just my theory though no source for that.

PS right now I am at SOL looking for any spying Unknown Probes there might be lurking around. No luck yet.

 

[ilo]

Palin has to be a part of the puzzle. They got a lot of hype over this topic, why not throw some of that hype at the engineers and even Powerplay?

I think Palin might give some hints if you get to max rep with him. Just my theory though no source for that.

PS right now I am at SOL looking for any spying Unknown Probes there might be lurking around. No luck yet.

not the first time I suggest this, but look specially for ships departing from Triton at sol or lave2 at lave systems. as no one has access to these planets, the only way to find out what is in their markerts.

you got me crazy, vision1776, you were going to have an in depth look of the 'missing' at merope for a week, then the next day you were looking for an UA shell California, then next day you were back in Merope for the barnacles and now you are at sol looking for the unkbown probe.

 

[Vision1776]

not the first time I suggest this, but look specially for ships departing from Triton at sol or lave2 at lave systems. as no one has access to these planets, the only way to find out what is in their markerts.

you got me crazy, vision1776, you were going to have an in depth look of the 'missing' at merope for a week, then the next day you were looking for an UA shell California, then next day you were back in Merope for the barnacles and now you are at sol looking for the unkbown probe.

Haha man, I been putting a lot of time to this. I finish my tasks too fast. You gotta keep up!
My time zone is USA Mountain time btw. I stayed up until almost 5am yesterday looking in CA nebula and around there. There's nothing there.
Ok I will need to buy a sidewinder and kit for scanning and interdiction. May be worth the effort. Logging on now.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

This may sound silly and it's coming from someone far to involved in other games to actually participate in the mystery.... but:

Has anyone looked at the line passing between Pleiades and California nebula and extended it to see what it "hits"? I would also recommend looking for any nebula that could create a "Bermuda triangle" type area or where the Cali Pleiades line crosses the formidable rift r-r line.

Apologies for the voice sans action, I enjoy the story you guys and FD are creating and keep up with most of the mysteries. Maybe someday I will convince my friends to pick E up again

You have my attention. Anyone heard about this?

 

[irongut]

More semi random thinking...


What is a Barnacle for?

Mining it would seem. Nebula are rich in many elements, so stars and planets inside them would be a good place to get materials. This could account for the Barnacles only appearing inside nebula.

What do they do?

They manufacture Meta-Alloys apparently. A bio-engineered factory. The spikes seem to be the delivery method. As material is mined (eaten?) and processed (digested?) it is pushed up into the spikes to be collected (by who?).

For what reason?

So far, the only thing we have found that Meta-Alloys are useful for is protection from the auto-repair systems of UAs. If we assume that is what Meta-Alloys and therefore Barnacles were for then they were created specifically to help move/study UAs.

But

UAs are pointing at Merope. Which makes you think the UAs and monitoring Barnacles (yes we know they are elsewhere). So... which came first? This train of thought is a bit Chicken and the egg.



I'm guessing that the Barnacles are indeed simply Meta-Alloy producers, as opposed to Meta-alloys being a waste byproduct (although that in itself is an interesting idea). But here, I am also assuming Meta-Alloys are made to help contain UAs. That could itself simply be a handy side effect of interactions between two completely different technologies.

I think the MAs are likely the barnacle product and the other minerals are more likely the waste by-products but if we took some aircraft grade alloy back to the iron age and gave it so an early blacksmith he might think it made great axes but he wouldn't think "you could build a vehicle out of this and travel the skies!" Just because the only use we have found for MAs so far is to contain UA related corrosion doesn't mean that is their ultimate purpose; I don't think it safe to assume that.

 

[Vision1776]

not the first time I suggest this, but look specially for ships departing from Triton at sol or lave2 at lave systems. as no one has access to these planets, the only way to find out what is in their markerts.

you got me crazy, vision1776, you were going to have an in depth look of the 'missing' at merope for a week, then the next day you were looking for an UA shell California, then next day you were back in Merope for the barnacles and now you are at sol looking for the unkbown probe.

The game literally wont allow you to go into the planet. After you drop out the message says this planet is restricted for visitors. I thought that I could sneak in there and just monitor the ships leaving but the game mechanics dont let you do that.

However as I left, I interdicted a transport. It was carrying military supply stuff. Nothing interesting. I have also stopped at several USS and the most interesting thing I saw were prototype weapons.

I think this theory is leading no where so Im moving on. I think my next move is to get in touch with engineer Palin. Will be a lot of grind..... but I need to know. All my leads are dry except that and going to Orion Nebula and the surround ones.

 

[Vision1776]

This may sound silly and it's coming from someone far to involved in other games to actually participate in the mystery.... but:

Has anyone looked at the line passing between Pleiades and California nebula and extended it to see what it "hits"? I would also recommend looking for any nebula that could create a "Bermuda triangle" type area or where the Cali Pleiades line crosses the formidable rift r-r line.

Apologies for the voice sans action, I enjoy the story you guys and FD are creating and keep up with most of the mysteries. Maybe someday I will convince my friends to pick E up again

What is this theory? I am a getting dry on leads. I could use more. The main leads I have now are Orion since he sought after the seven sisters Merope being special in the story as the only one that had children with a human. My other lead is the engineer Palin. Hes been in the news a lot must know something. So I could use more leads.

 

[chagnampra]

California Nebula and the surrounding stars up to 300 LY have no signs of UAs. Me and others have been looking. I found none.
While around the Merope system I found an UA pretty quickly. It shows up as Anomaly Level 4 threat. Crashed into it and collected the new "unknown materials"

Darn it - I dropped into an 'Anomaly Level 4 threat' USS last night on the way from the Witch Head Nebula to Pleione. It seemed to be empty, nothing on the scanner. So after flying around for a bit, I left. It must have only been 100-200ly from the Witch Head, in a system beginning with 'MEL' (sorry, didn't note the exact system). Is it normal that UA's don't show up on the scanner?

 

[Vision1776]

ECCENTRIC HYPERSPACE TRAJECTORIES

UKNOWN VESSEL DETECTED

Found something interesting guys.
Im not sure what triggered it. While at the engineer base I noticed I had a message on there that I had missed. I must have picked up that message on the way to the engineer's base. I can recall my path if it is worth it.

Have a look at this screen shot please:
http://imgur.com/RHw98d5

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Darn it - I dropped into an 'Anomaly Level 4 threat' USS last night on the way from the Witch Head Nebula to Pleione. It seemed to be empty, nothing on the scanner. So after flying around for a bit, I left. It must have only been 100-200ly from the Witch Head, in a system beginning with 'MEL' (sorry, didn't note the exact system). Is it normal that UA's don't show up on the scanner?

That sounds like you hit the bubble around Merope. Sometimes those instances take a while to spawn what's inside. You gotta wait a good while.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Here is a new theory. The reason there is a UA shell around Merope is because we need to do something there. And either A It requires a lot of UAs to do or just 1 and there is a abundance just to help OR B the devs put that shell around there to tell us "You need to do something here"

Ya I saw this ... was there some statement from FD that set this off? It sounds like he is saying that when we meet the Thargoids it will be for the "first" time in this game ... so the old thargoid war never happened? hmmmm ya would be a shame ... there is alot of good story to draw on and continue with instead of going back and redoing things. Hate the Hollywood remake fetish. Was there a livestream or something where someone from FD said this is how things are going?

The only statement I've seen/heard of is Drew's via this thread; I think we ought to be given some formal clarification, possibly in the newsletter - I haven't even received that email this week!

 

[Cometborne]

1. I was wondering if barnacles could be scanned multiple times - interesting...

I found it far more interesting that the Merope 5C barnacle was restored a second time. First with all the others during the big change Thursday, and then again between Thursday late night (when some spikes were shot by another commander while I was watching) and Friday morning. I am heading back down there at the moment, let's see if I can scan them a third time.

2. Let us know what you find out from Farseer.

You cannot sell the barnacle scan data to Farseer as there is no contacts tab in her base. However, selling exploration data at Farseer Inc gives a massive boost to levelling up with her, on top of the usual payout and grade increase. I had reached about 20% on grade 2 with her, 2.8 million of data and a single grade 1 upgrade to my new Asp brought me to 12% at grade four.

 

[ilo]

ECCENTRIC HYPERSPACE TRAJECTORIES

UKNOWN VESSEL DETECTED

Found something interesting guys.
Im not sure what triggered it. While at the engineer base I noticed I had a message on there that I had missed. I must have picked up that message on the way to the engineer's base. I can recall my path if it is worth it.

Have a look at this screen shot please:
http://imgur.com/RHw98d5

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -



That sounds like you hit the bubble around Merope. Sometimes those instances take a while to spawn what's inside. You gotta wait a good while.

Please, read this whole thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=259286

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Lots of threads quoted in one here, so apologies if it seems messy...


Your video clearly shows the UA pointing straight at Merope.
The audio doesn't sound particularly unusual. The sounds that you're referring to sound louder when you're a couple of hundred metres away from the UA.

Sorry Zenith, I have to say that I'm not convinced- I watched somebody's (not sure if it was CookieJarvis') video and the UA pointing alignment looked to me as if it was most definitely a few degrees off of Merope.

Now I've just checked Riz's summary of MB quotes on the first page and when asked:
Q: So my question is why do the UA's point us to Merope, should they have been pointing to Pleiades Sector JC-U b3-2 1 ?
Michael Brookes' response was
"They are pointing where they are supposed to."

-being pedantic that response does not in any way confirm they are pointing to Merope. I remember the one and only time I (accidentally) found a UA its alignment also seemed to be a little off of Merope, but I didn't think any more of it at the time.

Pointing alignment may have been changed in an update. This might be the reason why nothing has been found in Merope despite extensive searches there.

Before anyone does any more Merope searching I suggest a few UAs should be used to accurately confirm the pointing behaviour.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Ya I saw this ... was there some statement from FD that set this off? It sounds like he is saying that when we meet the Thargoids it will be for the "first" time in this game ... so the old thargoid war never happened? hmmmm ya would be a shame ... there is alot of good story to draw on and continue with instead of going back and redoing things. Hate the Hollywood remake fetish. Was there a livestream or something where someone from FD said this is how things are going?

OK, so in short: Anybody coming across any octagonal-shaped ships, DO NOT SHOOT at them or antagonise them in any way!! Give them a chocolate hobnob and a nice cup of tea to drink while you slowly retreat . Meanwhile we need to focus Lab69 research onto mycoid viruses!!

 

[Vision1776]

Sorry Zenith, I have to say that I'm not convinced- I watched somebody's (not sure if it was CookieJarvis') video and the UA pointing alignment looked to me as if it was most definitely a few degrees off of Merope.

Now I've just checked Riz's summary of MB quotes on the first page and when asked:
Q: So my question is why do the UA's point us to Merope, should they have been pointing to Pleiades Sector JC-U b3-2 1 ?
Michael Brookes' response was
"They are pointing where they are supposed to."

-being pedantic that response does not in any way confirm they are pointing to Merope. I remember the one and only time I (accidentally) found a UA its alignment also seemed to be a little off of Merope, but I didn't think any more of it at the time.

Pointing alignment may have been changed in an update. This might be the reason why nothing has been found in Merope despite extensive searches there.

Before anyone does any more Merope searching I suggest a few UAs should be used to accurately confirm the pointing behaviour.

You might be on to something. Is there confirmation that the UAs point to the Merope star? I heard confirmations around that when taken to Merope the UAs point to the actual star itself.

 

[Vision1776]

As soon as you drop in, a notification pops up saying "Ship Scan detected".
Soon after, once the instance spawns everything, you should see a white cargo marker. It should appear. Maybe the connection was bad to the server or something else glitched out.

Hey, did you find anything at Witch head? Is it worth going over there?

Also, I have a question to the community. I heard some theory about the blue stars being special and also forming some kind of line. Is there more to this lead? I mean that's not enough information.

Im running out of leads. I want to head out to Orion nebula and the Orion's Belt constellation to see whats out there. Orion and Merope are linked together in greek mythology. Could be a lead.
There is also that missing station that everyone pretty much forgot about.
Then there are the Unkown Ship USSs.
And finally the grindy engineers lady that wants an entire galaxy worth of materials to rank up. Im done working with that witch. I wish I could just give her 10 million credits to tell me where Palin is.

What other leads are there? The blue star one sounds interesting.

 

[KellyR]

When you are dealing with distances of light years, there is no almost. If it's pointing directly at Merope, fine. If it's slightly off, then Merope is NOT the target. Even from Earth to the moon, 1 degree error will result in the craft missing the entire planet. It's either pointing at Merope, or it isn't. If it is slightly off, then it is NOT pointing at Merope and looking there might net some interesting results, but almost certainly they will have nothing to do the the alignment of UA's.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

You might be on to something. Is there confirmation that the UAs point to the Merope star? I heard confirmations around that when taken to Merope the UAs point to the actual star itself.

That was confirmed (i think by Redwizard) some time ago, but we ought to recheck that also. The issue of UAs pointing to Merope but nothing found there has been bothering me for a while. If the alignment is off by a few degrees then we might have something new to go on. A few degrees at 130 to 150ly would bring in a few other Pleiades systems to check. In-system pointing to Merope star would be a counter-indicator, but if the pointing is also off in-system then...

Of course the behaviour may be unchanged and Merope may be the POI location (there is a suspicion of FD not having initially inserted POI, or POI initially failing to spawn correctly which messes up the storyline for us), just think we should confirm.

 

[ilo]

You might be on to something. Is there confirmation that the UAs point to the Merope star? I heard confirmations around that when taken to Merope the UAs point to the actual star itself.

exactly, both of you guys are right. one end of the UA points to Merope. whether it points to or from, that is more a conjecture, but it is assumed they point to.

once you deploy the UA in Merope, there is not off in the orientation. the star is so huge that it is difficult to misinterpret.