UAs, Barnacles & other mysteries Thread 7 - The Canonn

[LordZoltan]

freelance reports are submitted by players. There wont be any hints or clues in them.

Yep that one is written by my successor (and predecessor in many ways) and purveyor of the infamous biscuit barrels - Nick Powell

Nuggets of genius it'll contain yes - hints, no

 

[Nicou]

I'm flying for hours above the surface on Merope 5C: not a single POI.
It's very strange, it looks like FD removed the POI so, when we find one: it's the one... maybe

 

[piranha9]

Disclaimer: I am currently suffering from the worse jet lag I've ever known. It is possible that entire post is garbage.

How feasible would a full scale mapping project of Merope 5c be? By this I mean getting screen shots of the entire planet surface, linking them all together to form a large texture, mapping them to a sphere and then linking to some form of data storage so poi would be visible on it and details could be stored and displayed by clicking on the map. Maybe other functionality could be added.

Note I'm not talking about the actual coding, that would be pretty straightforward in something like Unity simply the mapping of the planet surface? Getting a screenshot at a certain height on your way down to the planet on the way down would be trivial for most people but how big is the planet itself? I can't get into game right now and fly, wouldn't trust myself to get out of the station in one piece.

It's seems certain the 5c isn't going anywhere for a while so it could be a long term thing. Something to keep us going when the chase inevitably dies down.

Thoughts?

Well, if it would help, i could easily put together some Unity app where you can set lat/long markers on a planet. Texturing the planet like Merope 5c will be tricky because it would be difficult to get a decent texture map, but i would say texturing isnt needed in that case.

 

[Patau82]

Disclaimer: I am currently suffering from the worse jet lag I've ever known. It is possible that entire post is garbage.

How feasible would a full scale mapping project of Merope 5c be? By this I mean getting screen shots of the entire planet surface, linking them all together to form a large texture, mapping them to a sphere and then linking to some form of data storage so poi would be visible on it and details could be stored and displayed by clicking on the map. Maybe other functionality could be added.

Note I'm not talking about the actual coding, that would be pretty straightforward in something like Unity simply the mapping of the planet surface? Getting a screenshot at a certain height on your way down to the planet on the way down would be trivial for most people but how big is the planet itself? I can't get into game right now and fly, wouldn't trust myself to get out of the station in one piece.

It's seems certain the 5c isn't going anywhere for a while so it could be a long term thing. Something to keep us going when the chase inevitably dies down.

Thoughts?

5c has a radius of 1478km
any one know if its possible to get your location (lat,long) from the net logs when you are on planet?
maybe that could be used to produce a 3d map that fills itself, similar to how some of the exploration tools work?

 

[TheDayman]

Yeah, I agree. Thing is, when I made this mapping system back in January I did it based on the fact that those grid squares are huge. If you're flying about 2km up and you're in the middle of your current coordinate space, you can see the entire 1x1 grid space, but just barely. And you may not be able to see things in mountains and craters. Even at my 1x1 scale, it's incredibly easy to miss something. Add to that the fact that the barnacles are almost impossible to see, even if you're only 1km up and directly overhead and I came to the realization that even though my 1x1 scale map was cumbersome and way too big for a single screen, even that probably wasn't detailed enough to be accurate.

Ideally, the search will have commanders spaced out liberally across the planet. The map only aids in telling us which spaces have already been searched so that we can direct our searches away from the others. Your map and mine both accomplish the same thing, yours just does it on a single screen, which is at least easier to read at this stage.

As I discovered later, the SRV wave scanner has quite a great range compared to the human eye (or monitor), and can detect Barnacles from over 2km away if you know what to listen for.

But that doesn't help that much, we're still talking about searching an entire planet here. No matter how we organize this, it's going to be cumbersome. This may actually be the first time in history humans have done an exhaustive search of an entire planet. Even though it's all a game, we're still dealing with realistically scaled planets. It's not like trying to find a baseball in the neighbor's overgrown back yard.

The methods we come up with for doing this may end up being the basis for actual planetary search operations years from now. To think...

Let me know if you guys need a hand with the grid-based search. I think it's a good idea and am willing to help. I can get to 5C tonight (US EST) to help.

Edit: In-game name CMDR The Dayman

 

[Sterlino]

I'm flying for hours above the surface on Merope 5C: not a single POI.
It's very strange, it looks like FD removed the POI so, when we find one: it's the one... maybe

come on...

...do you really expect a signpost where is written: 'alien here' ?

i don't think it is a poi.. maybe not in the way we expect, at least.

 

[Iridium Nova]

Well, if it would help, i could easily put together some Unity app where you can set lat/long markers on a planet. Texturing the planet like Merope 5c will be tricky because it would be difficult to get a decent texture map, but i would say texturing isnt needed in that case.

If anyone manages to get a decent planetary map of Merope 5c together I could see about making it a background on my grid map project. I'm not even sure that's possible, but I could look into it.

 

[TheDayman]

I'm flying for hours above the surface on Merope 5C: not a single POI.
It's very strange, it looks like FD removed the POI so, when we find one: it's the one... maybe

Don't rely on POIs - use your SRV wave scanner instead. AFAIK they don't show up on POIs.

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If anyone manages to get a decent planetary map of Merope 5c together I could see about making it a background on my grid map project. I'm not even sure that's possible, but I could look into it.

We could always start with mountain ranges, craters of note, etc. and work back from here. Map the planet's topography first, then make search attempts based upon the data.

 

[Iridium Nova]

Let me know if you guys need a hand with the grid-based search. I think it's a good idea and am willing to help. I can get to 5C tonight (US EST) to help.

Edit: In-game name CMDR The Dayman

You can edit the map yourself, so when you search a coordinate, just color the appropriate grid spaces according to the legend. Red for ground search, blue for aerial, purple for both.

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We could always start with mountain ranges, craters of note, etc. and work back from here. Map the planet's topography first, then make search attempts based upon the data.

That's a clever idea. I'm not sure that would work with my grid project though - I don't think you can draw on it. I'm still trying to find a better system.

 

[TheDayman]

You can edit the map yourself, so when you search a coordinate, just color the appropriate grid spaces according to the legend. Red for ground search, blue for aerial, purple for both.

Oh....duh... Will do.

Avoiding a double post: I do remember MB almost being surprised that we found barnacles on 5C. Didn't he comment that was one of the harder ones?

 

[Bungalo]

Oh....duh... Will do.

Avoiding a double post: I do remember MB almost being surprised that we found barnacles on 5C. Didn't he comment that was one of the harder ones?

He could have meant it was a harder one to find on that planet. As the other seem to be very close to each other in a crater, yes?

 

[Gauntlet]

How about 36 cmdrs all meet at one of the poles and each take a 10 degree bearing from one another and drive to the other pole! Now that would be a search party.

I am joking slightly, but still that is the level of dedication and single-minded purposeness I've come to expect from Canonneers

 

[Leskit]

Has anyone spent time in the area around the (geographic or magnetic) poles? by human nature they tend to get glossed over. Just a thought. I'm about 3k ly from the bubble so i'm no help yet in person.

 

[Nicou]

come on...

...do you really expect a signpost where is written: 'alien here' ?

i don't think it is a poi.. maybe not in the way we expect, at least.

POI are "points of Interests" (you know that), things that are not the bland surface. A structure, a canister, something. Something would definitely appear on my screen. However I don't expect finding something in a handful of hours, that's why I'm still looking for "something".
I'm sure it would pop the screen, there is nothing on my scanner, nor on my SRV scanner: there is something going on, this is not normal.

Edit: Oh yeah you're right, I'm not sure if Barnacles appeared on my scanner now... that will be a tough job!

 

[crushdepth]

I'm flying for hours above the surface on Merope 5C: not a single POI.
It's very strange, it looks like FD removed the POI so, when we find one: it's the one... maybe

I found one tonight, just a dead navigation satellite. POIs never have anything actually of interest in them.

 

[Jmanis]

POI are "points of Interests" (you know that), things that are not the bland surface. A structure, a canister, something. Something would definitely appear on my screen. However I don't expect finding something in a handful of hours, that's why I'm still looking for "something".
I'm sure it would pop the screen, there is nothing on my scanner, nor on my SRV scanner: there is something going on, this is not normal.

Like the guy before, just found a POI, dead satellite too.

 

[TheDayman]

We still don't know where the UA's or UP's actually came from. We've only found them floating in random, or in convoys. Barnacles at least have some type of known origin, but the who, what, why, how, and when are still a mystery....

I wonder if MB is lurking around here somewhere

 

[ilo]

am I the only one thinking the UP has too much work in it to just say: ignore me and start searching a huge planet?

maybe the UP is needed to find whatever is to be found there, either by needing one or by finishing decoding the info in it (is it happen to have). the reason why the task of scrutining Merope 5 C is huge is because we are missing clues IMO.

even worse, what if the UP has to die to reveal something..

 

[CMDR Random]

Don't rely on POIs - use your SRV wave scanner instead. AFAIK they don't show up on POIs.

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We could always start with mountain ranges, craters of note, etc. and work back from here. Map the planet's topography first, then make search attempts based upon the data.

The only real crater of note I have seen is the "Death Star Cannon" Crater located at approxinately 20, -47 5C seems to be a fairly boring planet in terms of geography

 

[TheDayman]

am I the only one thinking the UP has too much work in it to just say: ignore me and start searching a huge planet?

maybe the UP is needed to find whatever is to be found there, either by needing one or by finishing decoding the info in it (is it happen to have). the reason why the task of scrutining Merope 5 C is huge is because we are missing clues IMO.

FD knows how many people are at this. You do bring up a good point, in that for a single person it'd be impossible, but this is an organized group of players. They might've taken that into consideration. I doubt it's a red herring... but you never know. They've acknowledged that the UA "points to where it should point" so we can only assume the UP is the same.