USS Guide: (Unknown Signal Source)
1) Supercruise System regions:
A supercruise instance is separated into different regions, and can be identified in the lower left HUD panel (system & target information):
2) General USS information
3) Type of USS spawned is determined by several factors:
Degraded Emissions (Anarchy)
Encoded Emissions
High Grade Emissions
Combat Aftermath
Convoy Dispersal Pattern
Weapons Fire
Distress Call
Ceremonial Comms
Anomaly
Mission Target
Trading Beacon
5) Recommended method for finding USS's
This takes into account sudden region changes, time allowed to react to USS spawning, speed control, etc.
Happy hunting!!!
EDIT: Formatting and adding some newer data
1) Supercruise System regions:
A supercruise instance is separated into different regions, and can be identified in the lower left HUD panel (system & target information):
- Shipping Lanes: Areas traveled between arrival star and various population centers (planet bases, stations, etc)
- Orbital cruise: Area around any land-able body where Altimeter is shown, (Seen as a blue line around the body when Orbital lines is enabled
- Celestial Bodies/Planets/Stations/Etc: Area around these bodies, represented as that bodies name (Ex: Sirius, Serebrov Terminal, Mars, etc). Stars have the largest area, often 100ls or great, gas giants several million kilometers, and stations average about 1000km
- Deep Space - Basically anywhere else.
2) General USS information
- Only during supercruise flight at random.
- Generated in a cone in front of player. Cone angle & distance which USS appear depends on ship speed (higher speed = less angle and farther distance)
- Non-persistant (Except in very rare cases with story related content, or other FDev hand crafted content)
- Other players or NPCs can drop into a USS instance by following your low-wake.
- USS's time out and disappear after about 30s if NOT targeted.
- USS threat level of anything other than zero means NPC ships will be in the instance. These could be hostile or neutral. Higher the number, the higher threat.
- Spawn more frequently in high population systems
3) Type of USS spawned is determined by several factors:
- System population
- System superpower allegiance
- System state
- System security level
- System area (See section 1)
location: Any area in any system
Threat level: 0
Description: Very common USS, can be found anywhere. Engineer materials inside depend on system (see material description). Rank 1-3 materials, biased towards the low end. Sometimes nothing but cargo.
Variants:
Threat level: 0
Description: Very common USS, can be found anywhere. Engineer materials inside depend on system (see material description). Rank 1-3 materials, biased towards the low end. Sometimes nothing but cargo.
Variants:
- Debris field: Mix of either commodities, private data beacon (Scanned for grade 1-2 data), grade 1-2-3 materials. (just one or two of these options)
- Search & rescue ships may be rarely encountered special orange paint job and unique dialogue). The S&R ships will scoop all cargo present unless driven away or destroyed.
- Debris field with one or several escape pods and exploration data caches. These usually appear in uninhabited systems and away from the bubble.
Degraded Emissions (Anarchy)
Location: Populated anarchy system, no further than 1000 Ls from any populated body (station, etc)
Threat level: typically 3
Description: Special "anarchy" variant which spawns pirate vessels as you approach commodities
Threat level: typically 3
Description: Special "anarchy" variant which spawns pirate vessels as you approach commodities
Encoded Emissions
Location: Any area of populated system.
Threat level: 0
Description: Materials and/or data. Materials inside depend on system.
Variants:
Threat level: 0
Description: Materials and/or data. Materials inside depend on system.
Variants:
- Debris field with private data beacon and several grade 1-2-3 materials. The beacon can be scanned for data
- Debris field, several grade 2-3-4 materials
- Regions around inhabited Earth-like world: Satellite that can be scanned for some grade 1-2-3 data.
High Grade Emissions
Location: Deep space (primary) and around celestial bodies (Infrequent)
Description: High grade USS contents depend on system variables (allegiance, state, etc.) For example, If you need Imperial Shielding and Pharmaceutical Isolators, look for an Imperial system in Outbreak. will spawn ). It's recommended to choose a system that can spawn only one type of high grade USS if searching for something specific.
Variants:
Description: High grade USS contents depend on system variables (allegiance, state, etc.) For example, If you need Imperial Shielding and Pharmaceutical Isolators, look for an Imperial system in Outbreak. will spawn ). It's recommended to choose a system that can spawn only one type of high grade USS if searching for something specific.
Variants:
- Federal systems: Core Dynamics Composites
- Imperial Systems: Imperial Shielding
- Civil Unrest: Improvised Components
- War & Civil War: Military Grade Alloys, Military Super-Capacitors
- Outbreak: Pharmaceutical Isolators
- Boom: Proto Heat Radiators, Proto Light Alloys, & Proto Radiolic Alloys
Combat Aftermath
Location: Regions surrounding system bodies & shipping lanes of populated systems
Threat level: 0
Description: Debris fields with several materials, and sometimes cargo (Stuff that high-end transports might drop.)
Threat level: 0
Description: Debris fields with several materials, and sometimes cargo (Stuff that high-end transports might drop.)
Convoy Dispersal Pattern
Location: Any area of populated system (More common around system bodies & shipping lanes than Deep space)
Threat level: 0-4
Description: Convoy of one or several navy or security transports with escorts. Neutral unless provoked. They will eventually high-wake if left alone. If engaged and destroyed, they may drop CZ-grade material such as thermic alloys, polymer capacitors, etc.
Threat level: 0-4
Description: Convoy of one or several navy or security transports with escorts. Neutral unless provoked. They will eventually high-wake if left alone. If engaged and destroyed, they may drop CZ-grade material such as thermic alloys, polymer capacitors, etc.
Weapons Fire
Location: Any area of populated system (More common around system bodies & shipping lanes than Deep space)
Threat level: 1-4
Variants:
Threat level: 1-4
Variants:
- - Low threat level: Mix of transports, pirates, and/or system security ships, up to 4 total and usually small ships (Hauler, Adder, Viper, Cobra) with low combat rank.
- - High threat level: Pirate ambush
Distress Call
Location: Any area of populated system, rarely in uninhabited systems in or near the bubble.
Threat level: 1-4
Variants:
Threat level: 1-4
Variants:
- - NPC requesting fuel (Pirates may drop in)
- - Damaged trader who is under pirate attack. Pirates will proceed to attack the player. If engaged, several waves of pirates will spawn with increasing difficulty
- - Debris field and several S&R ships (Very Rare)
- - Threat level 4: Farragut battlecruiser under pirate attack. Pirate Farragut will jump in shortly after player. If engaged, all pirates need to be destroyed an pirate battlecruiser needs to be driven away
Ceremonial Comms
Location: Around system bodies and shipping lanes of populated systems
Threat level: 0-1
Description: Wedding Barges & Funeral Ships (Needs more info)
Threat level: 0-1
Description: Wedding Barges & Funeral Ships (Needs more info)
Anomaly
Location: Systems within 150 Ly of Merope in the Pleiades Nebula, surrounding Ammonia worlds
Threat level: 4
Description: Spawns Unknown Artefact/Probe. Can be destroyed to gather Unknown Fragments
Threat level: 4
Description: Spawns Unknown Artefact/Probe. Can be destroyed to gather Unknown Fragments
Mission Target
Location: Mission dependent, typically around a system body
Threat level: Mission dependent
Description: Contains target/Item(s) needed to complete mission (Assassination, Liberate and Salvage)
Threat level: Mission dependent
Description: Contains target/Item(s) needed to complete mission (Assassination, Liberate and Salvage)
Trading Beacon
Location: Unknown
Threat level: Unknown
Description: Rarest USS. Visually Similar to Mission Target USS with blue text and "Mission Objective Detected" audio message, but an active mission is not needed. Contains a Lakon Type-9 offering trade missions to deliver goods to nearby system.
Threat level: Unknown
Description: Rarest USS. Visually Similar to Mission Target USS with blue text and "Mission Objective Detected" audio message, but an active mission is not needed. Contains a Lakon Type-9 offering trade missions to deliver goods to nearby system.
5) Recommended method for finding USS's
This takes into account sudden region changes, time allowed to react to USS spawning, speed control, etc.
- Research and travel to desired system, and region within system (See section 1)
- Set speed around 0.5 Ls\second.
- Ensure that ship is flying straight.
- Open Navigation tab, set filters to show signal sources, and monitor
- As soon as USS appear, target it. The ship will adjust speed accordingly
- Maneuver to identify the USS type.
- Drop into USS instance if desired, if not, disable target lock and ship should automatically resume previous speed
Happy hunting!!!
EDIT: Formatting and adding some newer data
Last edited:
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