Greetings CMDR Rabbid-HH.
I honestly didn't think my post would get much attention given how fast this whole thread is moving. I also haven't written any more updates here, but have kept on going with some independent research into the ruins. I've attempted to keep track of the active obelisks in the site and continue grouping them into sets. Since the post that you linked I have mapped one more set from Open play, totaling six sets now (I-VI), and I've attempted to map additional sets from Private Group with some degree of success.
Since I made the post I've been thinking that the active obelisk sets work as a function of how many people are in the instance. If correct, this means a problem in Open play. We really don't have any control over who joins an instance and who leaves, so it is possible that the Sets change while one is in the ruins scanning. Added to this are the server disconnects (adjudication errors, client crashes) which I'll get into in a little bit.
In light of these things, I was able to get into a Private Group with three other CMDRs (thanks to CMDR ObiJ3ff, CMDR ArcherAC3, and CMDR El Master PR) and have a bit more of a controlled environment to do research in, which included how we joined the group. The PG started out with just CMDR ObiJ3ff and CMDR ArcherAC3 in it, and as far as they could tell only Set I (default set) was active while they were there. They did not carry out any scans for the time being. A little after that I joined the server with them and we surveyed the site, and sure enough some different obelisks had activated with my arrival. All three of us could see the same "special" obelisks. I emphasize on that because it is important, and it somewhat differs from what other people have seen in Open play, but I might have an (incomplete) explanation for that. Once we finished surveying and mapping that new "special" group, we had CMDR El Master PR join us in the group, and surveyed once again the site. This is where things get both interesting and frustrating at the same time... When he joined us we observed the active obelisks change once more, so sure enough it appears that the sets change as people join up on the instance. I attempted to map this set, but unfortunately was interrupted by the end of Zone E due to a server disconnect (I missed just two obelisks from that new set). Now, when we had all rejoined in the group we started seeing some funky behavior that I honestly don't believe is intended. I had been disconnected due to an adjudication error, but when I rejoined I began seeing a different set of lit obelisks than the other CMDRs in the instance. In other words, we stopped seeing the same special obelisks. I would, for example, see obelisk A4 while the other commanders would see A2. It was weird. But even weirder than that was that in some Zones I would see more lit obelisks than there should be. Up to now all my observations point towards a fixed number of lit obelisks per Zone:
Zone A = 1
Zone B = 1
Zone C = 4
Zone D = 1
Zone E* = 3 (E=1; H=2 for those following the sub-divided map)
Zone F = 1
Zone G = 4
But when I got back into the private group I observed eight lit obelisks in Zone C. A very strange occurrence, but I believe it is a byproduct of the server disconnect error. You can see an image of Zone C here:
I say I think it's only a byproduct of the server error because it was the only time I saw more Obelisks in a specific area. I got disconnected a couple more times after that (as well as other CMDRs) and the number per zone kinda "normalized", but we kept on seeing different sets of lit obelisks.
Obviously it became impossible for me to continue mapping the set of lit obelisks due to these irregularities, so my map cuts short in that sense. We then switched to the second part of our research: Attempting to pinpoint specific data pieces to specific obelisks. I had joined Open play several times before and gotten an additional 8 pieces of data that I could not say where they came from due to the chaotic nature of Open. We began randomly scanning the obelisks in our private group until we settled on a more scientific approach (which could definitely be improved). We decided that three of us would remain in our ships, while a single CMDR would be on the ground scanning the lit obelisks. If there was a piece of data, we would be able to receive it on our ships. We had a requirement for the CMDR on the ground: One of the pieces had to be the "key" to the zone:
Zones A, D, F, G = Casket
Zone B, E* = Orb
Zone C = Tablet
Zone H* = Urn* (?)
The second piece in the SRV could be anything the CMDR wanted. In this way we would accomplish two things: Identify the specific obelisk a data piece would come from, and in case the SRV did not get a success message, we would know to discard the SRVs secondary cargo piece.
From this method we drew some initial conclusions:
- The pieces of data appear to depend only on the Zone, and not the Set of active obelisks. For example, we found Historic 12 and 13 in Zone G, independent on the set of obelisks at the time. I had found one of them in Solo Play (Hist 12; well documented by now) with Set I, while another one of our CMDRs got the same piece in the "special" set we were observing in the PG. To put it another way: A specific piece of data can be obtained from one of several obelisks located in a particular Zone
- Each zone indeed has a "key" item, regardless of the set being observed. The CMDR in the ground would not get any message from each zone unless his pair of items unlocked a piece of data (a success message). A notable exception to this rule appears to be Zone H, as other CMDRs have noticed and started to map. We began scanning Zone H under the assumption that the Urn was the key to it, but were surprised to find out that the CMDR on the ground (me), holding an Urn+Orb pair, received an error message. I quickly switched to Totem+Urn before scanning the second lit obelisk (E21) of the zone and another one of the CMDRs received Cultural 10. I got no error message this time, meaning that the Totem was the key to that region of Zone H. Other CMDRs in the thread have observed similar outcomes.
- Finally, it appears that even if the set of obelisks every CMDR observed was different, the data-bleed phenomenon would still work. In other words, it was possible that a CMDR scanning an obelisk that I saw as inactive would result in me getting a data piece from it. We still need to test this one further, as there was an occasion where it didn't appear to work, but it seems this was the case more often than not. I personally think this is another byproduct of the server disconnects.
Some Obelisk/Data Piece Findings:
Please keep in mind that there might be some errors in the following information. We attempted to keep track of the data pieces as best as we could. The first part of the table are some Data pieces that I received while in Open and didn't know where they came from at the time, but added a corresponding obelisk from another CMDR in my group getting the same piece of data while in this PG. The second part of the table are some pieces of data that the other CMDRs in the group received that either I didn't (because I was in the ground) or I already had.
| MY PIECES OF DATA | |
| C13 | Language 11/21 |
| G27 | Historical 13/21 |
| E6 | Technology 11/20 |
| ?? | Biological 8/19 |
| C42 | Language 13/21 |
| E19 | Cultural 8/20 |
| ?? | Historical 9/21 |
| B2 | Technology 9/20 |
| ?? | Language 10/21 |
| E17 | Biological 11/19 |
| E15 | Technology 13 |
| E18 | Cultural 7 |
| A1 | Historical 16 |
| E22 | Cultural 11/20 |
| C22 | Language 9/21 |
| OTHER CMDRs | |
| G28 | Historic 14 |
| F8 | Historic 16 |
| C39 | Language 11 |
| D3 | Historic 10 |
| G13 | Historic 12 |
| G27 | Historic 13 |
| B2 | Technology 9 |
| E21 | Culture 10 |
That's all the info I've got for now. I'll most likely get back online later today to try and do some more research into the ruins. As it stands right now I've got 28 data pieces, but would like to somehow obtain the remaining 8 that have been identified. I also want to try and recreate some of our methodology and see how repeatable it is. I'll continue keeping track of the lit obelisk sets as best as I can, and I'll post an updated map later on (my current version needs a bit of cleanup). I hope this post can help a bit in the current research and that we can all figure out what the heck is going on with these ruins.
Until then, fly safe. o7
-CMDR Falcon413
Edit Forgot to reply about the side of the obelisks. To be honest I haven't been keeping track of that small detail. At first I didn't think the lit side mattered, but now I am not sure. It might actually be an important detail, but I haven't kept track of it.
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. Luckily, I managed to exit, so I was no fun for griefer. Approx ~25 HP left. 
