So you want to know about the Formidine Rift? (Part 3)

[Lonesome Joe]

I think people are definitely on to something with the theories about certain things not being on the "official" navigation map we use in our ships. It's extremely fishy that very notable features of "our" sky are absent in ED, when pretty much everything else is present and accounted for. AND it's very specifically stated that ED is made and meant to be in a "correct" Milky Way.

It's a big part of why I came out here; to look at the skybox for myself. I've seen nothing, sure, but to be honest I'm not the keenest observer. Especially not after fifty thousand light years (give or take) of jump-and-scan. [wacky]

Anyone traversing the Rift or snooping around EAFOTS or the Heart should also be sure to check the Navigation tab on the left cockpit screen for odd stuff once in a while. I doubt it's as simple as that, but what if...?

Brown dwarf systems are good places to scan the skybox in, by the way.

 

[Han_Zen]

there was, about a year ago, a youtube that someone had done analysing the various sounds from different types of planet; unfortunately I have lost the url

I wasn't thinking of planets. I was thinking of the sounds from the sky box, when you are in normal space, far from any bodies.

 

[Elfino]

A trip to Formidine


Hi, although my nick is Elfino, I'm commander Kimanuel in the game (I have to change that if I can, and use here my CMDR name). I am member of Corsarios de Heimdal, a Spanish speaking clan. Thanks to his members: Xpi2, Aken, TCAS, Galactic Thor, Nyra... and allied members like Kancro Vantas.


While travelling to Jaques Station and listening to music (fast travel, no exploration at all), I started to think about Formidine again.


Some months ago I went there, exploring some areas with the surname GL-A, RO-C, TI-N... and so on. I tend to think that all these misteries, if they are well-conceived, are so elegant that when you finally discover what the mistery was, you think... Well, it was so easy and nobody saw that! Nobody had seen the elephant in the room! Anyway I also recognize that cryptography bores me, so I prefer that kind of smart enigmas.


I started to look for information about stars in the constelation of Cassiopeia. I saw a relation of them with their different names (you know, HIP and so on), and I saw that Rho Cassiopeia had, in one of those catalogues, the number 7. I started to investigate about that kind of catalogue, the name "Flamsteed" appeared. And it was a Catalogue created by the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, that started his work in the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London.


http://www.worldlibrary.org/articles/list_of_stars_in_cassiopeia


At this moment the visit that senator Kahina made to London through Cambridge Spaceport came to my mind. Perhaps there is a relation in all this... all the people has pointed that Cassiopeia A (the number 3) has dissapeared in the game, but I've never read an observation about the fact that Rho has the number 7. You know, the seven veils and that stuff. Ah, by the way, it's thought that John Flamsteed was the first discoverer of Cassiopeia A. And then in 1948 was found as an astronomical radiosource in Cambridge.

http://www.constellation-guide.com/cassiopeia-a/

In the sentence "Good luck, and ... Right on, commander." the second part of the sentence has been identified many times with "Rho Cassiopeia". But, what about the first part? Well, as you can imagine, I started to look for GL-A systems near Rho Cassiopeia. And then this happened:

Well, it's pretty graphic. The stars HYPHEEG GL-A C3-, HYPHEEG GL-A C3-2, HYPHEEG GL-A C3-1 are aligned, just like three dots ... Sorry for being so obvious Edit: Distance from Rho Cassiopeiae to Hypheeg GL-A C3-2 = 830,39 ly.

Anyway I was arriving at Jaques Station, so I had to delay that. After exploring a sector for one week as part of the Colonia Nebula Project and painting my ship in red; I returned to the bubble, prepared my ASP Explorer "Rocinante" for the trip and left.

I have to say at this moment that I had been reading a bit more while exploring. The area of the GL-A asterism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterism_(astronomy)) was adjacent to Cepheus constellation, in a confluence of many sectors, which can help hiding a place (QIEDAEA, HYPHEEG, GLUFOA...) and near the possible situation of Cassiopeia A, that according this post it's in the area of -10370, -385.7, -4138 .

That zone is also almost in Cepheus, a mythical king of Aethiopia, the name that greeks and romans gave to the north of Africa. Just like Kahina, queen of the same place.

Well, I explored those three stars. There's a fourth one (HYPHEEG GL-A C3-0) next to the others. The stars of two of them had been previously explored. If those three stars are the solution to the enigma, and as far as I remember, people from Frontier said that the systems we are looking for had been partially discovered.

After that I started to explore the area. My objective was the three following systems, that are placed exactly between Rho Cassipeia and the Hypheeg GL-A family. They are HYPHEEG UX-B D0, UX-B D1 and UX-B D2. No luck, except an ammonia world.

I started exploring the area and I found another 3 ammonia worlds. I have the theory that we are exploring something extense, perhaps the original (7?) ammonia worlds where the thargoid invasion started, and a human space station for research. But I just saw four. There are two earthlike worlds too, in this area:

Ammonia

HYPHEEG PG-C C1-0 9
HYPHEEG KV-C C1-0 C 1
HYPHEEG IQ-B C2-1 4
HYPHEEG UX-B D0 D 2

Earthlike

HYPHEEG TD-Z D1-11
HYPHEEG PL-C C1-0 – Hi Erimus, you had discovered it previously

I don't know if there's something hidden in the area. Perhaps those three stars (remember, there's a fourth one) are the best worst red herring I've ever seen.

I had another idea. I looked in the center of the line between Rho Cassiopeia and the GL-A family. But I could think of GL-A as a mirror. That way, we would look for a point situated at the same distance to GL-A that Rho, but in that same line. The point is -104356, 687, -4485. There are not stars there and is an area too high (excesive distances) to be reachable when the game was gamma. I have to say anyway that the prism 10x10 corresponding to that point has no stars in the positive Y axis.

And well, I'll do a fast visit to Mars High. I have to test some ideas.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

I wasn't thinking of planets. I was thinking of the sounds from the sky box, when you are in normal space, far from any bodies.

Ah sorry, lack of sleep, brain malfunctioning!

 

[Cosmos]

A trip to Formidine


Hi, although my nick is Elfino, I'm commander Kimanuel in the game (I have to change that if I can, and use here my CMDR name). I am member of Corsarios de Heimdal, a Spanish speaking clan. Thanks to his members: Xpi2, Aken, TCAS, Galactic Thor, Nyra... and allied members like Kancro Vantas.


While travelling to Jaques Station and listening to music (fast travel, no exploration at all), I started to think about Formidine again.


Some months ago I went there, exploring some areas with the surname GL-A, RO-C, TI-N... and so on. I tend to think that all these misteries, if they are well-conceived, are so elegant that when you finally discover what the mistery was, you think... Well, it was so easy and nobody saw that! Nobody had seen the elephant in the room! Anyway I also recognize that cryptography bores me, so I prefer that kind of smart enigmas.


I started to look for information about stars in the constelation of Cassiopeia. I saw a relation of them with their different names (you know, HIP and so on), and I saw that Rho Cassiopeia had, in one of those catalogues, the number 7. I started to investigate about that kind of catalogue, the name "Flamsteed" appeared. And it was a Catalogue created by the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, that started his work in the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London.


http://www.worldlibrary.org/articles/list_of_stars_in_cassiopeia


At this moment the visit that senator Kahina made to London through Cambridge Spaceport came to my mind. Perhaps there is a relation in all this... all the people has pointed that Cassiopeia A (the number 3) has dissapeared in the game, but I've never read an observation about the fact that Rho has the number 7. You know, the seven veils and that stuff. Ah, by the way, it's thought that John Flamsteed was the first discoverer of Cassiopeia A. And then in 1948 was found as an astronomical radiosource in Cambridge.

http://www.constellation-guide.com/cassiopeia-a/

In the sentence "Good luck, and ... Right on, commander." the second part of the sentence has been identified many times with "Rho Cassiopeia". But, what about the first part? Well, as you can imagine, I started to look for GL-A systems near Rho Cassiopeia. And then this happened:

http://i.imgur.com/mUycRkV.jpg

Well, it's pretty graphic. The stars HYPHEEG GL-A C3-, HYPHEEG GL-A C3-2, HYPHEEG GL-A C3-1 are aligned, just like three dots ... Sorry for being so obvious Edit: Distance from Rho Cassiopeiae to Hypheeg GL-A C3-2 = 830,39 ly.

Anyway I was arriving at Jaques Station, so I had to delay that. After exploring a sector for one week as part of the Colonia Nebula Project and painting my ship in red; I returned to the bubble, prepared my ASP Explorer "Rocinante" for the trip and left.

I have to say at this moment that I had been reading a bit more while exploring. The area of the GL-A asterism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterism_(astronomy)) was adjacent to Cepheus constellation, in a confluence of many sectors, which can help hiding a place (QIEDAEA, HYPHEEG, GLUFOA...) and near the possible situation of Cassiopeia A, that according this post it's in the area of -10370, -385.7, -4138 .

That zone is also almost in Cepheus, a mythical king of Aethiopia, the name that greeks and romans gave to the north of Africa. Just like Kahina, queen of the same place.

Well, I explored those three stars. There's a fourth one (HYPHEEG GL-A C3-0) next to the others. The stars of two of them had been previously explored. If those three stars are the solution to the enigma, and as far as I remember, people from Frontier said that the systems we are looking for had been partially discovered.

After that I started to explore the area. My objective was the three following systems, that are placed exactly between Rho Cassipeia and the Hypheeg GL-A family. They are HYPHEEG UX-B D0, UX-B D1 and UX-B D2. No luck, except an ammonia world.

I started exploring the area and I found another 3 ammonia worlds. I have the theory that we are exploring something extense, perhaps the original (7?) ammonia worlds where the thargoid invasion started, and a human space station for research. But I just saw four. There are two earthlike worlds too, in this area:

Ammonia

HYPHEEG PG-C C1-0 9
HYPHEEG KV-C C1-0 C 1
HYPHEEG IQ-B C2-1 4
HYPHEEG UX-B D0 D 2

Earthlike

HYPHEEG TD-Z D1-11
HYPHEEG PL-C C1-0 – Hi Erimus, you had discovered it previously

I don't know if there's something hidden in the area. Perhaps those three stars (remember, there's a fourth one) are the best worst red herring I've ever seen.

I had another idea. I looked in the center of the line between Rho Cassiopeia and the GL-A family. But I could think of GL-A as a mirror. That way, we would look for a point situated at the same distance to GL-A that Rho, but in that same line. The point is -104356, 687, -4485. There are not stars there and is an area too high (excesive distances) to be reachable when the game was gamma. I have to say anyway that the prism 10x10 corresponding to that point has no stars in the positive Y axis.

http://i.imgur.com/lgAi8gH.png

And well, I'll do a fast visit to Mars High. I have to test some ideas.

I'll check it out.. not far from that location Servers seem slow atm

 

[FuriousMeow]

Arrived back in the Bubble, sold my damaged DBX and picked up a Viper MKIII fully kitted with beams and heat seeking missiles to get me to the Engineers that accept exploration data. 30M credits in exploration data got me level 5 access at both Farseer and Long Sight. Engineered the Viper a bit since I plan on using it quite a bit, let my Vulture rest a little longer - pretty amazing little fighter with beams and heat seekers.

Surprised I only earned 30M credits scanning out in the Rift for a month or longer. Oh well... once 2.2 is released I'll get a new jump scanner and head out there.

Oh, and yeah - it appears that it was a very unique combination of probably SLI and how full the NavPanel list of locations was to create the very unique display issue I was getting and maybe also the DBX had a part in it since I haven't seen it with the Viper Mk III yet and never noticed it with the Sidewinder, Viper Mk IV and Vulture.

 

[Cosmos]

I'll check it out.. not far from that location Servers seem slow atm

So I checked out the surrounding area.. Nothing to note really other than a few ammonia planets. I'm getting really frustrated with this now. There is so little to go on, other than esoteric abstract hints and snippets of this and that. Its a wild goose chase.

If I want to spend my time unravelling endless puzzles I'll go do a Physics degree, join Cern and try to understand the smaller particles. I've had enough of this, its yet more grind and no content. Wild goose chase 101, tell everyone there is something amazing in the game and sit back and watch as thousands waste their time looking for it.

Its the mirage all over again. This is not fun anymore! Not even sure I can be       travelling back to the bubble - the self destruct button is looking very tempting right about now. What the point in having 'content' in the game that no one can ever find?

 

[Siranui]

I don't think it will take heavy artillery to dispatch of these probes. Pulse lasers should be good enough, I think. Ammo restock is way to time consuming, when exploring.

If these probes actually shoot they are bound to drop some goodies as well, so it might be attractive to shoot a lot of them.

Well, it was never intended to be 'just' for probes: It's an insurance and mild nod to the possibility of mysterious scary-woo-woos in some way protecting the Rift.

I don't intend to be in multiple engagements - nor a prolonged one - in my explorer Asp. I don't have a great distributor and the PP is at 137% with everything on. I do not want to sacrifice more than a token amount of mass and a fraction of a LY range to such an insubstantial and fleeting possible threat.

As such, something to take down a shield effectively, then a dozen seeker missiles used with carefree abandon should allow an explorer to -briefly- punch above their weight.

If combat becomes a routine hazard rather than an extraordinary one, then I'll need something with more ammo.

 

[Spenceuk99]

I'm trying to cross the rift right now. What a nightmare. Am almost half way in my 33ly Aspx but everywhere seems to be a dead end.

Anyone offer some advice to an explorer noob?

 

[FuriousMeow]

I'm trying to cross the rift right now. What a nightmare. Am almost half way in my 33ly Aspx but everywhere seems to be a dead end.

Anyone offer some advice to an explorer noob?

I had a 35LY DBX and hit a dead end, I could have kept going around trying to punch through the more sparse area but decided to return to get the credits on several ELWs I discovered. There is a way across that is a bit easier that has a denser amount of stars but that I don't think is part of the Rift anymore but is still the "gap" between the Perseus and Outer Arm. So if you are just trying to cross to the other side, that way is the easiest. Otherwise, Heisenberg bridge with Jumponium or keep poking around and go 100LY forward then 97LY back trying to punch through.

 

[Spenceuk99]

THanks for that. I'll have a Google for the crossing point.

 

[Lonesome Joe]

I'm trying to cross the rift right now. What a nightmare. Am almost half way in my 33ly Aspx but everywhere seems to be a dead end.

Anyone offer some advice to an explorer noob?

There are no noobs out here, only first timers.

I crossed the rift with ~43 LY base range and plenty of stored FSD boosters. I went as far as I possibly could by normal jumps, then found a star I could boost to, and THEN thoroughly checked that one for further connections before commiting to any boosted jumps. If I couldn't make sure, I backtracked and looked for another place to cross.

If you have at least five 100% boosters, -but preferably more to be safe-, I think you can make it with 33 base range. Remember you can squeeze more range out by letting your fuel get low. Just be careful that you're not stranding yourself on a brown dwarf.

Without any boosters, though, you'll have to look up the "bridges" that other explorers have found across the Rift; I don't know exactly where those are, but there's supposed to be one a ways out "west" of the Heart and Soul.

I noticed myself that when I was coming back over to the "east" of the Heart and Soul, I didn't have to boost even once to make it all the way across.

-I'm on my way home now. When I've turned in the data, I might go have a look at the Cobra in Algol as my last bit of effort toward this thing. I'm not convinced it's a fluke. Everything about it just fits the clue we had like a particularly jagged puzzle piece, and I know its presence has been reported as a bug; in other words, FD are aware of it, and I like to think they're not mean spirited enough to knowingly leave things in that are causing unnecessary misdirections on something they know a lot of players are heavily invested in and increasingly frustrated by as it is. But maybe I'm naive.

 

[FuriousMeow]

THanks for that. I'll have a Google for the crossing point.

The area of denser stars I'm talking about is a bit towards Pho Cas but not that far - it's pretty much where you see a lot of "dark" clouds (gas clouds?) between the Perseus Arm and New Outer Arm. I'll get a screenshot to show later the area I'm referring to.

 

[Jaiotu]

A friend of mine just got first discovery on R Virginis, a real-word star high above the galactic plane: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_Virginis

Now... if this rather obscure star with a single sentence entry in Wikipedia is in game, where the heck are Tycho's Star and Cassiopeia A? These are two rather famous stars. They should be there somewhere.

If it is famous enough to be mentioned in a Hollywood film it should be well known enough that leaving it out of the Elite: Dangerous galaxy is either an embarrassing oversight or something intentional:

[video=youtube_share;r9VOCFofR7A]https://youtu.be/r9VOCFofR7A[/video]

 

[Macros Black]

A friend of mine just got first discovery on R Virginis, a real-word star high above the galactic plane: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_Virginis

Now... if this rather obscure star with a single sentence entry in Wikipedia is in game, where the heck are Tycho's Star and Cassiopeia A? These are two rather famous stars. They should be there somewhere.

If it is famous enough to be mentioned in a Hollywood film it should be well known enough that leaving it out of the Elite: Dangerous galaxy is either an embarrassing oversight or something intentional:

https://youtu.be/r9VOCFofR7A

Dang, thought it was Chewbacca, then I had a closer look...

Non-procedural stars are added by hand, think I remember Michael Brooks saying that he used Simbad to add some of them. Guess he isn't finished yet.

 

[Lonesome Joe]

Have you tried reporting the absence of Cass A as a bug in the Bug Report subforum, and thus forcing FD to either admit it's a bug, provide a "real world" explanation for why it's not there in 3302, or stay suspiciously silent about it? [big grin]

 

[Jaiotu]

Have you tried reporting the absence of Cass A as a bug in the Bug Report subforum, and thus forcing FD to either admit it's a bug, provide a "real world" explanation for why it's not there in 3302, or stay suspiciously silent about it? [big grin]

I plan on it. Just getting all my facts in order first.

 

[Masheikh Scytale]

So I checked out the surrounding area.. Nothing to note really other than a few ammonia planets. I'm getting really frustrated with this now. There is so little to go on, other than esoteric abstract hints and snippets of this and that. Its a wild goose chase.

If I want to spend my time unravelling endless puzzles I'll go do a Physics degree, join Cern and try to understand the smaller particles. I've had enough of this, its yet more grind and no content. Wild goose chase 101, tell everyone there is something amazing in the game and sit back and watch as thousands waste their time looking for it.

Its the mirage all over again. This is not fun anymore! Not even sure I can be travelling back to the bubble - the self destruct button is looking very tempting right about now. What the point in having 'content' in the game that no one can ever find?

Welcome to the Club.

 

[kpc118]

I'm trying to cross the rift right now. What a nightmare. Am almost half way in my 33ly Aspx but everywhere seems to be a dead end.

Anyone offer some advice to an explorer noob?

I made it across in a 35 ly asp by using lots and lots of FSD injections. Especially now that you can see what a planet provides before you land and poke around. Other than that, https://www.edsm.net/ will give you a map to a few ways across that you can follow jump by jump. Look up Heisenberg (SP?) Bridge. On my return trip i went around the rift.

 

[Jaiotu]

Okay. I've bug reported Tycho and Cassiopeia A. We'll see if they say anything. In the meantime... I'm flying back from Jaques in preparation for a possible expedition to hunt for both of the supernova remnants.