UAs, Barnacles and other mysteries Thread 8 - The Canonn

[LordZoltan]

Sorry just a quick brain wave on the issue of where Unknown Probes can be found outside of the convoys.

UAs - Hypothesis

If UAs are indeed a scouting/scanning party, as many of us have suggested, then their placement is important. The shell is a vast volume of space, but the range is *very* precise.

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that they're searching for something that could move and which started out from Merope. Its speed was known, but the amount of time it travelled for, less so. Or vice versa. This would give you a region of space exactly in this shell shape - in which, if you had the means - you'd seed with scanners and listen for the lucky ones which said 'over here! over here!'.

So the placement of the artefacts around Merope was deliberate: what they were looking for was in that shell and can only have been in that shell, because that's where it started. They broadcast their location because that was their job ('reporting from here'), and they then scanned our ships because that's also their job - but not exclusively our ships. It's possible that our ships only served to confuse matters!

UPs - Hypothesis

So, why the probes? The probes are more precise - with more capabilities (and perhaps produce less noise, because they don't scan our ships!) - but they're perhaps not focused on locations in space, but locations on a surface - because that's where what they were looking for has ended up. They're orbital surveyors.

The question is where would you deploy your more advanced probes? If you follow the same modus operandi as with the artefacts - then you'd deploy them where your lucky UAs which screamed 'over here! over here!' told you to.

So?

If correct - then unknown probes will found in the shell. But perhaps not in deep space - Unknown Artefacts have that covered - but around one or more planets or moons that have been deemed as good targets for the probes to do their work.

Problems

It might only be one planet or moon. But it's possible that either the UA offers a clue as to where; or perhaps more likely that the UP does.



Thoughts?

 

[D347H]

nevermind. cant even upload the pic.

 

[Sterlino]

i begin to think that there is not an UP free floating in space, at all.

maybe it's only in some planet's fortress around sirius...

 

[Allant Doran]

i begin to think that there is not an UP free floating in space, at all.

maybe it's only in some planet's fortress around sirius...

What we have to keep in mind is that the UAs were once this rare too. They were available long before they were actually discovered free-floating, but their rarity was reduced with each patch.

If they are out there now, which I personally believe they are, then they are just SUPER rare but will become more common with time.

 

[MyklAtrum]

If correct - then unknown probes will found in the shell. But perhaps not in deep space - Unknown Artefacts have that covered - but around one or more planets or moons that have been deemed as good targets for the probes to do their work.

This has been my thinking as well. From a gameplay point of view, I don't see why they would point us to Merope, then specifically 5C, only then to point us further out to another star system as some are suggesting. Sometimes the most simplest answer is right in front of our face.

The problem I, and others, have had is that we have combed a good portion of 5C already. And many of us have searched in space around it as well. Maybe not extensively enough. Or maybe not in the right location. The UP shell could be orbital height, a little further out, or even around another planet for whatever reason. Maybe they are even orbiting the star itself and orienting towards 5C?

I'm at a loss on how to find them. But this path just seems obvious.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

...

Thoughts?

It's as good as any other theory.
In fact better because it has a plan of action to follow.
It's a big search area but it is at least clearly defined.

My suggestion would be to set up 6 search groups, send each group to the best fit system at each of the cardinal points away from Merope (x, y, and z +/- 140LY) and then have the search groups scatter from those points mapping the shell, confirming UA spawning, and scanning the shell systems.

I've been bookmarking the systems where I've found UAs. I'm sure others have as well.
Add that info to the existing shell DB and we'd have a decent start.

 

[CmdrZaratan]

Sorry just a quick brain wave on the issue of where Unknown Probes can be found outside of the convoys.

UAs - Hypothesis

If UAs are indeed a scouting/scanning party, as many of us have suggested, then their placement is important. The shell is a vast volume of space, but the range is *very* precise.

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that they're searching for something that could move and which started out from Merope. Its speed was known, but the amount of time it travelled for, less so. Or vice versa. This would give you a region of space exactly in this shell shape - in which, if you had the means - you'd seed with scanners and listen for the lucky ones which said 'over here! over here!'.

So the placement of the artefacts around Merope was deliberate: what they were looking for was in that shell and can only have been in that shell, because that's where it started. They broadcast their location because that was their job ('reporting from here'), and they then scanned our ships because that's also their job - but not exclusively our ships. It's possible that our ships only served to confuse matters!

UPs - Hypothesis

So, why the probes? The probes are more precise - with more capabilities (and perhaps produce less noise, because they don't scan our ships!) - but they're perhaps not focused on locations in space, but locations on a surface - because that's where what they were looking for has ended up. They're orbital surveyors.

The question is where would you deploy your more advanced probes? If you follow the same modus operandi as with the artefacts - then you'd deploy them where your lucky UAs which screamed 'over here! over here!' told you to.

So?

If correct - then unknown probes will found in the shell. But perhaps not in deep space - Unknown Artefacts have that covered - but around one or more planets or moons that have been deemed as good targets for the probes to do their work.

Problems

It might only be one planet or moon. But it's possible that either the UA offers a clue as to where; or perhaps more likely that the UP does.



Thoughts?

I think it's a better theory than most, especially if there's only one area of the shell that the UP's could be found in, and the image from the sound helps you identify which area of the shell to check.

 

[two quiet suns]

i have mentioned this before but for consideration;

If the barnacles are engineered from real earth barnacles then they have 3 stages;

Barnacles have two distinct larval stages, the nauplius and the cyprid, before developing into a mature adult.

Nauplius larva of a barnacle with fronto-lateral horns
A fertilised egg hatches into a nauplius: a one-eyed larva comprising a head and a telson, without a thorax or abdomen. This undergoes six months of growth, passing through five instars, before transforming into the cyprid stage. Nauplii are typically initially brooded by the parent, and released after the first moult as larvae that swim freely using setae.

Cyprid
The cyprid larva is the last larval stage before adulthood. It is not a feeding stage; its role is to find a suitable place to settle, since the adults are sessile. The cyprid stage lasts from days to weeks. It explores potential surfaces with modified antennules; once it has found a potentially suitable spot, it attaches head-first using its antennules, and a secreted glycoproteinous substance. Larvae assess surfaces based upon their surface texture, chemistry, relative wettability, colour, and the presence/absence and composition of a surface biofilm; swarming species are also more likely to attach near other barnacles. As the larva exhausts its finite energy reserves, it becomes less selective in the sites it selects. It cements itself permanently to the substrate with another proteinacous compound, and then undergoes metamorphosis into a juvenile barnacle.

So we have seen these guy appear out of order; The Barnacle the last stage, feeding and excreting meta alloys and other mined materials, UA is first stage looking for the right area (nebulae?), UP is the second stage looking for the best spot to land.

Which MAY mean we need to look away from Merope, as Merope is the destination, not the origin?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnacle

 

[Belthize]

Its a decoder ring. One of my puzzle guys already decoded 1 thing from it. apprently FD are teaching us thargoid. who knew!

I would say "color me skeptical" but I'm all out of skeptical and down to a little stub of burnt sienna.

 

[Gimi]

This has been my thinking as well. From a gameplay point of view, I don't see why they would point us to Merope, then specifically 5C, only then to point us further out to another star system as some are suggesting. Sometimes the most simplest answer is right in front of our face.

The problem I, and others, have had is that we have combed a good portion of 5C already. And many of us have searched in space around it as well. Maybe not extensively enough. Or maybe not in the right location. The UP shell could be orbital height, a little further out, or even around another planet for whatever reason. Maybe they are even orbiting the star itself and orienting towards 5C?

I'm at a loss on how to find them. But this path just seems obvious.

Arguably, if the probe carries a message (it does) and that message requires a reference point or some point of origin to make sense (it seems like it does), it would make sense for the probe to point to that reference point.

 

[MyklAtrum]

Arguably, if the probe carries a message (it does) and that message requires a reference point or some point of origin to make sense (it seems like it does), it would make sense for the probe to point to that reference point.

While this is a perfectly valid point, why do it in stages? Why point to the Merope system and then 5C? If 5C was to be a reference point, then it seems that it would be an in-system reference point. Otherwise, you could just as easily use the star as a galactic reference point and it would make more sense. The two stages seem to be a narrowing of the search to me. But again, I could be wrong.

 

[Belthize]

Thoughts?

I'd posted a conclusion though through a different line of reasoning about a week ago so I've been primarily searching 'within' the shell.

Along those lines (since it matches something I've been pondering). It seems reasonable to me to assume the UAs were heading *away* from Merope. I've recently wondered if it's a life cycle kind of thing, they hit some system with the right sun, and then become UPs and return to Merope.


The UA's were heading away, the UPs are heading back. The Fed's figured it out and are scooping them up at the source. At some level that implies the ones heading back found what they were looking for before reaching the 135-150LY shell so what if any unique stars are in that bubble ?


I've also pondered whether you can't find UPs, you have to drop a UA where they can evolve. So I have a few that I'm hoping will 'evolve'.

We're used to the speeds with which we can travel but maybe the UAs/UPs can't travel so fast. We assume that if a UP were returning to Merope5c it could do it in many minutes or hours but maybe it takes years or hundreds of years. If that's the case they'll appear to us as being sitting still and may well still be in or around whatever they 'found'.

I left in the other little bit of 'evolve' tinfoil.

 

[Han_Zen]

Sorry just a quick brain wave on the issue of where Unknown Probes can be found outside of the convoys.

UAs - Hypothesis

If UAs are indeed a scouting/scanning party, as many of us have suggested, then their placement is important. The shell is a vast volume of space, but the range is *very* precise.

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that they're searching for something that could move and which started out from Merope. Its speed was known, but the amount of time it travelled for, less so. Or vice versa. This would give you a region of space exactly in this shell shape - in which, if you had the means - you'd seed with scanners and listen for the lucky ones which said 'over here! over here!'.

So the placement of the artefacts around Merope was deliberate: what they were looking for was in that shell and can only have been in that shell, because that's where it started. They broadcast their location because that was their job ('reporting from here'), and they then scanned our ships because that's also their job - but not exclusively our ships. It's possible that our ships only served to confuse matters!

UPs - Hypothesis

So, why the probes? The probes are more precise - with more capabilities (and perhaps produce less noise, because they don't scan our ships!) - but they're perhaps not focused on locations in space, but locations on a surface - because that's where what they were looking for has ended up. They're orbital surveyors.

The question is where would you deploy your more advanced probes? If you follow the same modus operandi as with the artefacts - then you'd deploy them where your lucky UAs which screamed 'over here! over here!' told you to.

So?

If correct - then unknown probes will found in the shell. But perhaps not in deep space - Unknown Artefacts have that covered - but around one or more planets or moons that have been deemed as good targets for the probes to do their work.

Problems

It might only be one planet or moon. But it's possible that either the UA offers a clue as to where; or perhaps more likely that the UP does.



Thoughts?

I'm searching for free floaters in the shell. Only near planets. I will focus mostly on moons similar to M5C, from now on (it's so hard to scoop in orbit around big planets).

I guess that means I agree with you.

 

[LordZoltan]

I'm searching for free floaters in the shell. Only near planets. I will focus mostly on moons similar to M5C, from now on (it's so hard to scoop in orbit around big planets).

I guess that means I agree with you.

Lol - that might technically mean I agree with you!

 

[Gimi]

While this is a perfectly valid point, why do it in stages? Why point to the Merope system and then 5C? If 5C was to be a reference point, then it seems that it would be an in-system reference point. Otherwise, you could just as easily use the star as a galactic reference point and it would make more sense. The two stages seem to be a narrowing of the search to me. But again, I could be wrong.

I tend to agree with you.
Two things. I'm not sure that the plot was planned to sufficient detail to take all this into account, and we know that our actions have influenced the plot and how they introduce the mysteries into the game.
Not much help, I know.

 

[SorenCounscil]

I think we need to take a step back. Here's what I think :

1. More information in sounds.
I don't believe there is more information in music/sounds that are relevant to the alien mystery. Let's assume we got all there is and work with it - since no one has interpreted the existing data properly.
2. UP image points to another star system.
The lines on the image clearly indicate that we are dealing with a sphere, or spheroid. Ergo we need to be searching for the answer near a celestial body, not overlaying the image on galactic map.
3. We have searched Merope 5C thoroughly.
No we didn't. There is an overwhelming amount of surface area and without a system to catalog the features and divide the planet into smaller regions it is impossible to say we've checked it all. I strongly believe that even with the effort of hundreds of well organized CMDRs we won't find nothing. We need the coordinates.

Thus my conclusion :

We need to produce sets of planetary coordinates from the data we have and check all the permutations.

What do you think?

P.S I think barnacles are Thargoid mining sites.

 

[Atebits]

I'm starting to think maybe the UP, UA, and Barnacles are a kind of AI.

What if the Feds were looking for a way to create a false-alien event using something real they found in or around Maia?
It would be terribly convenient if the Imperials happened to find something 'growing' in their systems which just so happened to destroy their technological infrastructure? It just got out of hand.

 

[LordZoltan]

I'm starting to think maybe the UP, UA, and Barnacles are a kind of AI.

What if the Feds were looking for a way to create a false-alien event using something real they found in or around Maia?
It would be terribly convenient if the Imperials happened to find something 'growing' in their systems which just so happened to destroy their technological infrastructure? It just got out of hand.

this and similar ideas have been a popular thought among a few people for a while

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

I'm searching for free floaters in the shell. Only near planets. I will focus mostly on moons similar to M5C, from now on (it's so hard to scoop in orbit around big planets).

I guess that means I agree with you.

I was heading back from an exploration drive (money-making and engineer rep-building) - I think I will instead straight over to the shell ASAP. The idea is too compelling for me.

 

[Atebits]

this and similar ideas have been a popular thought among a few people for a while

When people have disturbing ideas like this tell them them, "no, no, we dismissed that already." I was about to take a nap

 

[Han_Zen]

Lol - that might technically mean I agree with you!

You made a nice little hypothesis. I just went with gut feeling.

You win.