UAs, Barnacles and other mysteries Thread 8 - The Canonn
- Thread starter Yaffle
- Start date
- Status
Ozric
Volunteer Moderator
What do you mean no distance marker?
It is orbiting. it is in a very tight orbit to the barycenter of 5 and 6.
Last edited:
You are linking to my personal Homepage, not to the frontpage
However, thanks for the free advertising
Last edited:
Ozric
Volunteer Moderator
I think it's probably just because the Alliance set up their listening post nearby and the Feds want somewhere closer to the Pleiades than them.
*Edit* Oh just read the article...
Last edited:
Indeed. It appears that nobody has reported any... they aren't on the known barnacle site list:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...5ihWKXebt4BcM/edit?pref=2&pli=1#gid=223643326
You are linking to my personal Homepage, not to the frontpage
However, thanks for the free advertising
Hehe, I didn't think to link it to the frontpage that would be cool
No value added here, but as someone who's been playing this game since the 80s, on a BBC, then a C64, then a 386, etc.; I'm not sure how I feel about the overly complicated process required to get through some of the puzzles. To be honest, I was basically washed out when horizons came out, and I actually stumbled on the fact that there is any plot at all when I ended up here. I do think it's cool that there are folks out there with the time, inclination, and equipment to figure these out, and I certainly plan on lurking some more; but as an Xbox player, I'm not 100% sold that I shouldn't be able to solve the puzzles and progress the game, which I paid for without resorting to outside sources. That being said, it's just an opinion and certainly not enough to make me stop playing any time soon, so smart away smart people so I may reap the benefits of your research. Rant over.
Maybe someone should go and investigate? I would but i'm in ET... and the update of course
now now, this is the science thread; lets not get all realistic and accurate about the game :|
well, people will insist on jumping to conclusions, rather than taking hypotheses & rationally constructing tests based on those.
Nobody has found a wild UP for sure. Everyone seems to have rushed off to Elephants Trunk Nebula based on an unvalidated report of what might have been found 60 days ago, assuming it was a UP.
Hypotheses exist to define possible experiments- from recent hypotheses we have a couple of likely lines for search:
IF its to do with a Generation ship launched from Earth & assume the UP is a distress call, then the UPs are likely to be on a line from Merope5C towards Earth; & travel at the same speed as the generation ships (C or less) so presumably towards the Sol end of that line, or within Sol system. How far are the UP convoy systems from Sol?
Feds may have found UPs during their recent occupation of Merope & the convoys may be taking them to Sirius Corp for testing, so within Merope system
More speculatively IF something to do with Thargoids, then since Col70 has recently been blocked off (implying potential source for that race), so UPs might be along that direction.
it's not a chord, either, it's a ... ray?
A chord crosses a curve at two (or more?) places
WHAT DID YOU DO RAY
Last edited:
Would be helpful if we had the full unabridged and edited version of the systems
I kind of agree, but I also kind of disagree. It basically gives people a chance to "play the game" while not actually playing the game, which I enjoy. It is interesting to follow, it just shouldn't come at the expense of other in-game puzzles and story.
Towards a more detailed description of UP behaviour
I do not believe we have adequately studied the behaviour of the Unknown Probe.
Lets look at these behaviours systematically to see what we do and don't know and what further information might be useful. I have also seen conflicting reports of effects so it would be useful to clear these up. I will pose some questions. I expect many have already been answered. If you can provided evidenced answers or other observations then I will update this post.
The aim is to provide a more detailed description of UP behaviour. With an improved description we will be able to do better science.
Standard resting behaviour of the UP
The UP orients itself with Merope 5 c.
This has been confirmed by multiple observations.
Insect like chittering sound with low level rumbles.
This appears to have similarities with the sounds from the UA.
Sparkling effect around the UP
This appears to be the same as the effect observed around the UA.
A gentle low level regular pulsing of pink/orange light
This comes from the four surfaces that look like the compound eye of an insect. It is appears similar to the pulsing bluish light of the UA.
The UP degrades over time
When ejected into space the UP's integrity begins to degrade. This does not happen on the surface of Merope 5 c.
Behaviour of the UP upon being triggered by a ship's discovery scanner
One of the key questions you will see me ask is when do things happen. I believe it may be useful to have clear timings of effects so that we can build a timeline of the UP behaviour and try to see what the relationships are between different effects. I suggest we set a time zero as the beginning of the discovery scanner honk.
The EMP effect on ships
It has been postulated that this occurs in order to allow the audio signal to be clearly heard. It has also been stated that their is a maximum distance at which this occurs. It does not appear to effect SRVs. I have seen contradictory statements about the EMP effects.
The push back effect
Push back seems to occur immediately after the EMP has disabled the ships HUD. This appears to affect all ships within a maximum distance. The distance seems to be a consistent 14m. Direction and rotation caused by the push back appears to be random.
Gravitational lensing
The UP appears to distort space around it similar to the effect we see with black holes.
Audio broadcast
This has been the focus of most investigation so far. The audio appears to be substantially identical for all tests performed so far. We know that a spectrogram of the audio reveals an image.
Visual broadcast
Upon triggering, the lighting behaviour of the UP changes. A series of bright flashes are emitted. These have been to studied to a limited extent. It appears that the pattern of the flashes is consistent across experiments. A number of investigators have looked to see if the might represent morse code. I'm of the opinion that our description of these flashes is currently inadequate. We need high quality source video that can be examined in greater detail.
Further Investigation
Some of the questions I pose may already be answered. Some may require re-examination of data we already have (although not all that data will be in the public domain). Some will require further testing, but this should not be seen as a demand to perform those tests: UPs are very rare and those in possession are entitled to the science that they see fit.
If you have anything to add to this post. Answers, corrections, or other things you think should be investigated then please contact me by PM and I will update this post.
Note that this post is not intended to be about interpretation or speculation. It is about improving the quality of our observations and our working description of the UP.
I do not believe we have adequately studied the behaviour of the Unknown Probe.
Lets look at these behaviours systematically to see what we do and don't know and what further information might be useful. I have also seen conflicting reports of effects so it would be useful to clear these up. I will pose some questions. I expect many have already been answered. If you can provided evidenced answers or other observations then I will update this post.
The aim is to provide a more detailed description of UP behaviour. With an improved description we will be able to do better science.
Standard resting behaviour of the UP
The UP orients itself with Merope 5 c.
This has been confirmed by multiple observations.
Insect like chittering sound with low level rumbles.
This appears to have similarities with the sounds from the UA.
- What are the similarities?
- What are the differences?
Sparkling effect around the UP
This appears to be the same as the effect observed around the UA.
A gentle low level regular pulsing of pink/orange light
This comes from the four surfaces that look like the compound eye of an insect. It is appears similar to the pulsing bluish light of the UA.
- What is the period of this pulsing?
- Is it the same as for the UA?
- Does the period of the pulsing ever change?
The UP degrades over time
When ejected into space the UP's integrity begins to degrade. This does not happen on the surface of Merope 5 c.
- What is the rate at which it degrades?
- Does the UP recover in the ships hold?
- Is the UP stable on other planetary surfaces?
- Does the UP recover on the surface of Merope 5 c or other planets?
Behaviour of the UP upon being triggered by a ship's discovery scanner
One of the key questions you will see me ask is when do things happen. I believe it may be useful to have clear timings of effects so that we can build a timeline of the UP behaviour and try to see what the relationships are between different effects. I suggest we set a time zero as the beginning of the discovery scanner honk.
The EMP effect on ships
It has been postulated that this occurs in order to allow the audio signal to be clearly heard. It has also been stated that their is a maximum distance at which this occurs. It does not appear to effect SRVs. I have seen contradictory statements about the EMP effects.
- What is the maximum distance? I have seen 200m mentioned (this may only have been the push back). Has this been evidenced?
- How long does the EMP effect last? When does it start and when does it end?
- I have seen it stated that EMP only affects ship that honk with a discovery scanner. Has this been confirmed for ships within the maximum distance?
- Does the EMP damage ship systems? Is there a pattern to damage? Is it consistent across tests?
- Does the number of ships honking simultaneously change any EMP effects?
The push back effect
Push back seems to occur immediately after the EMP has disabled the ships HUD. This appears to affect all ships within a maximum distance. The distance seems to be a consistent 14m. Direction and rotation caused by the push back appears to be random.
- How long does the push back last? Is it consistent?
- Has the direction and rotation been confirmed to be random? Has the direction in space (rather than relative to the UP) been recorded? Could ships be left pointing towards Merope 5 c or another location perhaps?
- What is the relationship between the number of ships honking simultaneously and the distance of the push back?
Gravitational lensing
The UP appears to distort space around it similar to the effect we see with black holes.
- When does this start and when does it end?
- Is the effect consistent across tests?
- Are then any observable patterns?
Audio broadcast
This has been the focus of most investigation so far. The audio appears to be substantially identical for all tests performed so far. We know that a spectrogram of the audio reveals an image.
- Do we have unambiguous timing of the audio with relationship to the honk?
- Is it confirmed that only the triggering ship(s) receive the broadcast?
- When triggered by multiple ships in short succession is the audio received in relationship to the first honk or does each ship receive the audio (and potentially other effects) only in relationship with it's own honk?
Visual broadcast
Upon triggering, the lighting behaviour of the UP changes. A series of bright flashes are emitted. These have been to studied to a limited extent. It appears that the pattern of the flashes is consistent across experiments. A number of investigators have looked to see if the might represent morse code. I'm of the opinion that our description of these flashes is currently inadequate. We need high quality source video that can be examined in greater detail.
- When do the flashes start and end?
- What is the detailed pattern?
- Can we synchronise any of the visual broadcast with parts of the audio broadcast?
Further Investigation
Some of the questions I pose may already be answered. Some may require re-examination of data we already have (although not all that data will be in the public domain). Some will require further testing, but this should not be seen as a demand to perform those tests: UPs are very rare and those in possession are entitled to the science that they see fit.
If you have anything to add to this post. Answers, corrections, or other things you think should be investigated then please contact me by PM and I will update this post.
Note that this post is not intended to be about interpretation or speculation. It is about improving the quality of our observations and our working description of the UP.
Last edited:
I've expressed the exact same sentiment several times but not worded as well as you did. Rep.
That's probably a better way of phrasing what I was trying to say.
You are linking to my personal Homepage, not to the frontpage
However, thanks for the free advertising
mmmmm caffeine and fruit - good start to any day
I subscribe to the theory that the image is Merope 5 C, where the Merope is rotated counter clockwise 90 degrees from how you'd typically view it. I reason I subscribe to that theory is because that orientation (or the clockwise rotation of 90 degrees) are the only rotations where the longitude lines align with the lines in the image.
If that is the case, then I think the direction indicated in step four is to drive at an angle of 315 degrees (see http://imgur.com/a/711UL for an explanation as to how I arrived at that). That said, I may be wrong, and am open to being corrected.
Chord, interesting. I sometimes tried to look at those as arc-length for possible meaning.
Word of advice, don't use that graphic. I don't personally know where it comes from, but it is too perfect. I think it was created by a player, based on what the spectogram looks like. Things to note:
The two lines you use for your chord are not aligned with the center of the grid/circle on the spectogram image. The grid lines in the spectogram is not symmetrical in the y direction (up/down). However, it is in the X (left/right). The circle or elipse in the spectogram is not centered with the grid.
And a question for you: Why represent a quadrant as two concentric quarter circles? Why not just one quarter circle?
its like 86%rock 14%metal so prob not
But isn't one Merope planet is 100% metal? Is it 2?
I found a 100% metal planet yesterday out riftwards but didnt try to find the hatch, I may have missed out on the galactic McDonalds takeout
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
But I thought since 2.1 we only get "sensible" POI far from the human bubble? Ship wreck I could understand, but skimmers? Just seems a bit strangeNothing really haha, I just found a POI out there
- Status