UAs, Barnacles and other mysteries Thread 8 - The Canonn

[JamyThegreat]

I might have a little bit more sympathy with this if they hadn't spent a fortnight already teasing that we'd be getting "a truth that the whole galaxy would want to hear". And then there was an actual set of clues leading people all over the place, cool codes, the kind of stuff you'd expect from these sort of events/ARGs. And then after making out like today was the day to get excited about, it was essentially a 12 hour bewildering scrabble to be told "give us space booze and we'll tell you the next bit some other time"

Anyone expecting a Thargoid armada to come pouring out of the black hole at Maia probably had their hopes too high, but constantly saying that nobody should have been hoping for anything at all is a bit disingenuous.

I get what you're saying, but don't you think thats down to our own discussions and speculations on this whole topic?

Yes the FDEVS have left us vague clues over the past months, and during games con last week, but all they've really hinted at was that the hunt starts today. If they were going to let the hunt finish today and release thargoids or whatever it is we will eventually find, they would've surely needed to do a big update/patch to implement it, no?

Lets stop expecting them to hand it to us on a silver platter guys, that's not what a game is, if you want everything handed to you instantly, go play the Sims!

 

[WreckWren]

I just do not understand what was wrong with the existing missing-giving systems for this. This could very easily have just been a regular series of missions that lead you to a place. Everybody could have felt involved.

Instead one or two people got a random blip of information and absolutely everyone else got to waste an evening.


If this kind of thing happens again, where there's absolutely no hope whatsoever of being the one to discover any info (especially for me, an Australian - UK players don't instance with me, which means FD's characters cannot be found according to their instancing system), I don't know what to do - FD is just casting a whole nation of players out of the story of the game. What did we do to you, Frontier? Why don't we deserve to take part in the story of the game we bought? Is this just how Australians are treated in the gaming industry?

 

[CMDR_Mogriax]

Lol what are you smoking? There's no possible way that we're getting Raxxla before Thargoids; I'm not trying to be mean with that, but man come on. [squeeeee]

Well whats so secret that you would want the whole galaxy to know about, it in terms of the whole of the populated human bubble. the location of Raxxla.. sounds about right. anything alien wise. well thats UP territory and MB did say that this might be connected to them at a later date.

 

[Mosait]

Did you expect a huge announcement with fireworks and banners and balloons?

No, it was encoded in those interviews as clues because its a game, call it treasure hunting or whatever, but a game it is. No-one gets the answers at the beginning of a game, that takes the fun out of it.

Nope. Balloons and fireworks in space would be very underwhelming, but still better than this. I did expect more from FD than a quasi text adventure.

Also, I didn't know that saying "it's a game" is a valid excuse for explaining why something is boring. I appreciate the knowledge punch.

 

[Shed Some Skin]

I get what you're saying, but don't you think thats down to our own discussions and speculations on this whole topic?

Yes the FDEVS have left us vague clues over the past months, and during games con last week, but all they've really hinted at was that the hunt starts today. If they were going to let the hunt finish today and release thargoids or whatever it is we will eventually find, they would've surely needed to do a big update/patch to implement it, no?

Lets stop expecting them to hand it to us on a silver platter guys, that's not what a game is, if you want everything handed to you instantly, go play the Sims!

I think you're strawmanning me here. At no point have I said I think anything deserves to be handed on a silver platter. What I do think is that given that the prior standard of puzzling was pretty high, what those puzzles led to was a bit rubbish. I'd have been perfectly content watching the minds in this thread decode another round of fiendish ciphers. I'm not so content with hundreds of players battling off PvP lunatics just to be in with a shot to meet an NPC who delivers some vague and badly worded indications of us being told something, at some undetermined future date, that might maybe, possibly, lead us to something else.

It was not well designed or executed by the standards Frontier have previously set, in my opinion. I am not screaming and tearing my hair out over this. Today was a bust but there's plenty more game to play, I'll just get back to doing my own thing, no harm done. But again, there seems to be a mounting sentiment in this thread that anyone who was disappointed is being completely unreasonable and I don't think that's expecially fair.

 

[Soon(TM)]

I just do not understand what was wrong with the existing missing-giving systems for this. This could very easily have just been a regular series of missions that lead you to a place. Everybody could have felt involved.

Instead one or two people got a random blip of information and absolutely everyone else got to waste an evening.


If this kind of thing happens again, where there's absolutely no hope whatsoever of being the one to discover any info (especially for me, an Australian - UK players don't instance with me, which means FD's characters cannot be found according to their instancing system), I don't know what to do - FD is just casting a whole nation of players out of the story of the game. What did we do to you, Frontier? Why don't we deserve to take part in the story of the game we bought? Is this just how Australians are treated in the gaming industry?

FD just dont know how to tell the story, they have no idea how to get their points and objectives accross to the players.

First they do it outside the game encouraging expert people to use binary and morse code decoding techniques, which is like 2% of the playerbase

Then they release another clue, which requires another type of expert, audio experts capable of extracting audio and spectrographs.

Then they do more videos at gamescom which requires more binary decoding.

and the final result is a few text messages from some FD controlled NPC's in Open Play only... that die half the time because of griefers.....

This game has 1.4 million owners, and its only trying to engage around 1000 of those owners.

Well done FD, well done!!!!!

 

[Raile]

We haven't had a patch recently, so no, no aliens.

 

[CMDR_Mogriax]

We haven't had a patch recently, so no, no aliens.

Someone go find Wonko the sane and ask him why the fish.

 

[Mosait]

I think you're strawmanning me here. At no point have I said I think anything deserves to be handed on a silver platter. What I do think is that given that the prior standard of puzzling was pretty high, what those puzzles led to was a bit rubbish. I'd have been perfectly content watching the minds in this thread decode another round of fiendish ciphers. I'm not so content with hundreds of players battling off PvP lunatics just to be in with a shot to meet an NPC who delivers some vague and badly worded indications of us being told something, at some undetermined future date, that might maybe, possibly, lead us to something else.

It was not well designed or executed by the standards Frontier have previously set, in my opinion. I am not screaming and tearing my hair out over this. Today was a bust but there's plenty more game to play, I'll just get back to doing my own thing, no harm done. But again, there seems to be a mounting sentiment in this thread that anyone who was disappointed is being completely unreasonable and I don't think that's expecially fair.

Thank you. You put forward my sentiments better than I.

I do hope that the mystery and story development get better around this. My optimism has dropped some after today though.

 

[WreckWren]

I think you're strawmanning me here. At no point have I said I think anything deserves to be handed on a silver platter. What I do think is that given that the prior standard of puzzling was pretty high, what those puzzles led to was a bit rubbish. I'd have been perfectly content watching the minds in this thread decode another round of fiendish ciphers. I'm not so content with hundreds of players battling off PvP lunatics just to be in with a shot to meet an NPC who delivers some vague and badly worded indications of us being told something, at some undetermined future date, that might maybe, possibly, lead us to something else.

It was not well designed or executed by the standards Frontier have previously set, in my opinion. I am not screaming and tearing my hair out over this. Today was a bust but there's plenty more game to play, I'll just get back to doing my own thing, no harm done. But again, there seems to be a mounting sentiment in this thread that anyone who was disappointed is being completely unreasonable and I don't think that's expecially fair.

It's pretty bad that an entire nation(s) has been precluded from taking part due to existing problems with the game, and the devs have been actively ignoring these problems for well over a year.

 

[JamyThegreat]

I think you're strawmanning me here. At no point have I said I think anything deserves to be handed on a silver platter. What I do think is that given that the prior standard of puzzling was pretty high, what those puzzles led to was a bit rubbish. I'd have been perfectly content watching the minds in this thread decode another round of fiendish ciphers. I'm not so content with hundreds of players battling off PvP lunatics just to be in with a shot to meet an NPC who delivers some vague and badly worded indications of us being told something, at some undetermined future date, that might maybe, possibly, lead us to something else.

It was not well designed or executed by the standards Frontier have previously set, in my opinion. I am not screaming and tearing my hair out over this. Today was a bust but there's plenty more game to play, I'll just get back to doing my own thing, no harm done. But again, there seems to be a mounting sentiment in this thread that anyone who was disappointed is being completely unreasonable and I don't think that's expecially fair.

I wasn't being specific to you, but a majority of people in this thread and other threads expected it to be solved by the end of today, and with ease, and that's what's caused an outcry about it.

I do also think what people are forgetting is the images (not binary coding) in those 'teasers' during the interviews, it shows a lot more than just a secret message, no?

 

[Bit.Slade]

Well whats so secret that you would want the whole galaxy to know about, it in terms of the whole of the populated human bubble. the location of Raxxla.. sounds about right. anything alien wise. well thats UP territory and MB did say that this might be connected to them at a later date.

I'd love for it to be Raxxla, but that is THE biggest secret that the Elite franchise has, and I'd almost bet my soul that Frontier aren't going to reveal it during this hunt.

As for how the event was handled, yeah it definitely could have gone better. I know it wouldn't fit the roleplaying aspect they're going for with dev controlled NPCs, but I would have activated some sort of god mode and just ripped the griefers to shreds. They are actively trying to ruin one of the most built up events of the game thus far, so I feel like that course of action would absolutely be warranted.

*In regards to the Aussie players, I'm really sorry. There's no way around the fact that Frontier completely cut you out of it this time.*

 

[Raist]

False alarm

 

[LordZoltan]

The operative part of your sentence here is "If they had time," but they have had ample time to develop that sort of thing. On the other hand, that already exists in the form of mission contracts; why this wasn't handled via a mission contract with redirects is beyond me.

Time is money and game development must fund itself, otherwise: no game. So while there are loads of things which might be 'cool' and which we might want to see, FD have to prioritise their big cycles around point releases instead of patches to be able to keep the whole season release model pushing along.

So yes - they've had the time, but in the grand scheme of things, such a feature would be pretty way down the list versus things like fighters, multicrew and so on.

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

Oh, I don't understand, sorry.
Does he work for FD? Or for whoever manages the forums?
Anyway, never mind, it's ok!

lol no. He's just Pat

 

[Shed Some Skin]

I wasn't being specific to you, but a majority of people in this thread and other threads expected it to be solved by the end of today, and with ease, and that's what's caused an outcry about it.

I do also think what people are forgetting is the images (not binary coding) in those 'teasers' during the interviews, it shows a lot more than just a secret message, no?

Well, the images are pretty clearly teasing aliens, be they Thargoids or something else. And as has been mentioned several times, those aren't showing until we see a decently sized patch arrive.

If I can sum it up as succinctly as possible (something I struggle to do. I am an inveterate waffler. I'm doing it right now. Look at me waffle. Waffle waffle); we're on the path of an interesting and well delivered puzzle, and the day that we were told to be the most excited about, the one that got the largest player engagement, turned out to be the least interesting and well executed.

And worth bearing in mind, the game is welcoming a lot of new CMDRs at the moment, thanks to a sale on Xbox and an increased interest in space games in general. For a lot of players, this was their introduction to both the mystery and big community events. And frankly, if I was one of those new players I'd be wondering why anyone cared about this stuff after today.

 

[IProgenyI]

I think there are now two options at this moment for searching.

No.1 Look for a system that has a binary neutron system, a single M-class Star and a land-able rocky planet, concentrating this search towards COL 70 and around.

No.2 Look for systems with an M-class star and ten bodies, ( non-including the star ) one or more of which should be land-able regardless of type of planet, concentrating this search 'within' and on the close 'outskirts' of the the Pleiades, California and witch nebula.

Reasons behind both of these.

I think we should assume that the answer doesn't lie tens of thousands of light years outside the bubble, most mysteries have been concentrated in or close around the bubble.
Binary neutron systems are going to be in few numbers in the general area of where we're looking, even fewer will be found with an M-class star and rocky planet. Concentrating the search towards Col 70 I think makes sense as regardless of whether or not this is related to the UP/UA mystery, more developments and content have been occurring in this direction.
The Pleiades Nebula has been subject to a lot of goings on lately, and with the knowledge that the nebula is where the Destroyed Cobra wreckage was found, and that the code hidden with this and related videos has led us to where we are now, then it doesn't seem like much of a jump that we should search these areas. There is only 5 or so M class systems within the Pleiades, it shouldn't take long to search these nebulae for the criteria we're looking for, yes we may need further clues to know the exact location if we find this system but hell we found barnacles without any instructions or co-ordinates.

 

[ilo]

I think there are now two options at this moment for searching.

No.1 Look for a system that has a binary neutron system, a single M-class Star and a land-able rocky planet, concentrating this search towards COL 70 and around.

No.2 Look for systems with an M-class star and ten bodies, ( non-including the star ) one or more of which should be land-able regardless of type of planet, concentrating this search 'within' and on the close 'outskirts' of the the Pleiades, California and witch nebula.

Reasons behind both of these.

I think we should assume that the answer doesn't lie tens of thousands of light years outside the bubble, most mysteries have been concentrated in or close around the bubble.
Binary neutron systems are going to be in few numbers in the general area of where we're looking, even fewer will be found with an M-class star and rocky planet. Concentrating the search towards Col 70 I think makes sense as regardless of whether or not this is related to the UP/UA mystery, more developments and content have been occurring in this direction.
The Pleiades Nebula has been subject to a lot of goings on lately, and with the knowledge that the nebula is where the Destroyed Cobra wreckage was found, and that the code hidden with this and related videos has led us to where we are now, then it doesn't seem like much of a jump that we should search these areas. There is only 5 or so M class systems within the Pleiades, it shouldn't take long to search these nebulae for the criteria we're looking for, yes we may need further clues to know the exact location if we find this system but hell we found barnacles without any instructions or co-ordinates.

I insist, even with coordinates and the lat long being shown in the display, you will not see a barnacle unless you are as close as you could (enough probably to crash into it).

good luck hunting -don't know whats- on -don't know where-, this doesn't work.

 

[Masheikh Scytale]

Navigating to Jacques right now. Using the map I need ...three coordinates. Three.

 

[Titus Balls]

+ 1 Rep

So many people are forgetting original clue of ''the hunt starts on the 28th''

Honestly if it had been figured out and solved by the end of today you'd all be moaning at the FDEVS 1000 times more than you currently are for it being easy and quick to figure out. They haven't created this story/arch/clues to be solved within hours of it beginning... it would be boring if they did.

There's also the theory that the interpretations are incorrect, so really guys, stop blaming the Fdevs because its not over and done with already [uhh] [alien]

I'm not complaining because of this - yes it says is starts today. But the issue is that it started with a whimper not a bang. The clue should have lead to something starting right away but instead we've been told to wait again.

 

[JamyThegreat]

Well, the images are pretty clearly teasing aliens, be they Thargoids or something else. And as has been mentioned several times, those aren't showing until we see a decently sized patch arrive.

If I can sum it up as succinctly as possible (something I struggle to do. I am an inveterate waffler. I'm doing it right now. Look at me waffle. Waffle waffle); we're on the path of an interesting and well delivered puzzle, and the day that we were told to be the most excited about, the one that got the largest player engagement, turned out to be the least interesting and well executed.

And worth bearing in mind, the game is welcoming a lot of new CMDRs at the moment, thanks to a sale on Xbox and an increased interest in space games in general. For a lot of players, this was their introduction to both the mystery and big community events. And frankly, if I was one of those new players I'd be wondering why anyone cared about this stuff after today.

I do understand the frustration, and yes we were given a clue to be ready for a hunt that began on the 28th... but thats not to say we were told to be most excited... surely that day will be when they (whatever they are) will arrive... it's all a mystery is the point I'm trying to make. People shouldn't be trying to solve it within hours of it starting, and they shouldn't be getting p***ed off and losing momentum so early on in this whole hunt when they don't get their own way of it being solved already.

The rest of your post i do agree with, it's good to see new players, however, I don't think they would be up to speed so soon after a weekend of trying to figure out how the heck to fly a sidey for the first time!