The Quest To Find Raxxla

[Scytale]

I believe someone looked at the Journal file format when it came out & that has object types that include those. But can’t find my link to that journal spec. Should be googlable!

I quoted these files time ago here. Were initially posted by FDevs themselves. (link in HunterwithGreenScales Reddit post, thx Cmdr MarkusCZ)
The thing with the rogue planets is how would Stellar Forge manage them without a system ?
Because if it is inside a system, it therefore would be subject to the local gravity. Wouldn't it ? So no longer a rogue as long (millenials, millions of years ?) as it stays in that system.

 

[Noobilite]

Mars, although it's not really red.

What about the asteroid belt in the sol system. Maybe it's not something that is still rogue but was once rogue.

 

[Han_Zen]

I quoted these files time ago here. Were initially posted by FDevs themselves. (link in HunterwithGreenScales Reddit post, thx Cmdr MarkusCZ)
The thing with the rogue planets is how would Stellar Forge manage them without a system ?
Because if it is inside a system, it therefore would be subject to the local gravity. Wouldn't it ? So no longer a rogue as long (millenials, millions of years ?) as it stays in that system.

It would just be traveling in the system, somwhere. As long as it has escape velocity, it would not be a permanent member of the system.
It would still take many years to go from one system to the next.
Pluto uses 248 years to go around the Sun.

 

[Scytale]

Yes, of course. Anyway, the probability of finding a rogue planet cruising inside a system versus interstellar space must be very low. Ls cube vs Ly cube...or something like that.
But as always, the Hand of FDGod is allmighty. So...

 

[HunterwithGreenScales]

It would just be traveling in the system, somewhere. As long as it has escape velocity, it would not be a permanent member of the system.
It would still take many years to go from one system to the next.
Pluto uses 248 years to go around the Sun.

The real question is: Would a ADS still be able to detect it? Does a ADS detect celestial objects based on their gravitational pull on the host star/s? Or based on any point of gravity within what counts as the system?

 

[Stinja]

It would just be traveling in the system, somwhere. As long as it has escape velocity, it would not be a permanent member of the system.
It would still take many years to go from one system to the next.

Like the Voyager probes: they are exiting the system, but can be found via the POI system.

Likewise the comet at Pareco, it's in system, but can't be honked.

If Raxxla is a rogue dwarf-planet, with say a station orbiting it (and maybe shielding it from scans with alien-handwaveum), both could be say travelling around the bubble, and we just need to know when it's going to be in a particular system, and at what coordinates to intercept it.
Say it was in Lave, and has moved to Shinrarta, and is now in Epsilon Indi, but your chances of finding it in-system are like finding Voyager without any clues...

 

[Scytale]

Anyway, there is an intrinsec inconsitency in all this GalMap and NavPanel stuff. We shouldn't know the coordinates of every single system in ED. We should gradually discover the systems when exploring. Kind of "fog of war".

 

[bitstorm]

I believe someone looked at the Journal file format when it came out & that has object types that include those. But can’t find my link to that journal spec. Should be googlable!

From the journal schema, can delete if folk think this is a bit too "data-miney" for the thread :

Spoiler

Rouge planets would be like any other planet in a system, except that they wouldn't orbit any star.
They could potentially switch systems, but this would be rare. Systems are big and planets move slow, so it wouldn't happen every Thursday morning. [big grin]

I am still feeling triggered!

Comets would probably do this, we know they're in the game. It's why I think they're not enabled, essentially technical difficulties around when it would transition or issues with it essentially being in multiple (instance) systems at once.

 

[Scytale]

From the journal schema, can delete if folk think this is a bit too "data-miney" for the thread :

If you don't already have the big picture, from the very FD forum: (Note the disclaimer at the end.)

Spoiler

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-data-sample?p=4562494&viewfull=1#post4562494

The real question is: Would a ADS still be able to detect it? Does a ADS detect celestial objects based on their gravitational pull on the host star/s? Or based on any point of gravity within what counts as the system?

The "rogue planet" is classified among the stars. So may very well appear as a system in the GalMap/NavPanel.

 

[Thatchinho]

I remember the exotic star class. The classes were listed in open text files in the beginning.

I can't remember any rouge planet, but that does not mean it's not there.

Rouge planets would be like any other planet in a system, except that they wouldn't orbit any star.
They could potentially switch systems, but this would be rare. Systems are big and planets move slow, so it wouldn't happen every Thursday morning. [big grin]

Hmm, I think the implcations of it being from the Star Descriptions list is that the Rogue Planet would be a jump destination in it’s own right rather than a body in a system.

From what I remember of how the Stellar Forge works, I would guess it could be a result of:

- there not being sufficient material in the original gas cloud for any bodies produced to achieve fusion

- a random event displacing a planet or somehow preventing star formation

Just speculation though!

 

[Stinja]

I think the implcations of it being from the Star Descriptions list is that the Rogue Planet would be a jump destination in it’s own right rather than a body in a system.

Are there any "Nebula" or "StellarRemnantNebula" that you can jump to though?

They are also listed in the Star Descriptions list, and while such things are named in the galaxy map, I don't recall any being a specifically targetable destination: you jump to a star in a nebula.

 

[Han_Zen]

Hmm, I think the implcations of it being from the Star Descriptions list is that the Rogue Planet would be a jump destination in it’s own right rather than a body in a system.

From what I remember of how the Stellar Forge works, I would guess it could be a result of:

- there not being sufficient material in the original gas cloud for any bodies produced to achieve fusion

- a random event displacing a planet or somehow preventing star formation

Just speculation though!

It looks like the rogues are their own system. It also looks like nebulae are their own systems.
A nebula is searchable in the galmap, but not possible to select. They don't show up in the nav panel.

Some nebula share coordinates with a star, like the Pleiades and Maia. Other nebula have no star at their coordinate.

If rogues are in the game, don't think they show up in the nave panel. Someone should have found one by now. Statistically there may be billions of them in the galaxy.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

It looks like the rogues are their own system. It also looks like nebulae are their own systems.
A nebula is searchable in the galmap, but not possible to select. They don't show up in the nav panel.

Some nebula share coordinates with a star, like the Pleiades and Maia. Other nebula have no star at their coordinate.

If rogues are in the game, don't think they show up in the nave panel. Someone should have found one by now. Statistically there may be billions of them in the galaxy.

IRL there should be many rogue planets in the galaxy as gas giants migrate around a system during its development and can eject planets entirely, however if they were to be detectable, what would they be called in the nav panel? They would essentially form their own system but should not have a normal system name as that is based on the system’s main star category, not any planets therein. So it might be that FD put this object type into the journal spec to represent the “dark systems” that were mentioned in the FD-spnsored books, but haven’t implemented them. In his Oolite books DW had Raxxla as a rogue planet which appeared and disappeared (via witchspace) in other, normal, systems. Wasn’t it supposed to be in Lave at one time? It might be that FD implemented them in his way, with perhaps a very odd orbital inclination (always had a suspicion about one Maia orbit). The rogue might then be numbered normally in accordance with the rest of the system, but might then disappear leaving a gap. So one way to find them might be to watch for “holes”in a system’s planetary numbering& then start scouting around nearby systems; not sure if they could appear in a USS. We can’t get of witchspace except at systems so there is no mechanism for finding them in space between systems, unless they do have some numbering scheme that would allow them to be targeted in the nav panel.

I have no idea what a StellarRemnantNebula would be. A stellar remnant should logically be a black hole, neutron star/pulsar or a nebula, so perhaps this object would be a BH with nebula?

 

[Scytale]

NVM

 

[Han_Zen]

IRL there should be many rogue planets in the galaxy as gas giants migrate around a system during its development and can eject planets entirely, however if they were to be detectable, what would they be called in the nav panel? They would essentially form their own system but should not have a normal system name as that is based on the system’s main star category, not any planets therein. So it might be that FD put this object type into the journal spec to represent the “dark systems” that were mentioned in the FD-spnsored books, but haven’t implemented them. In his Oolite books DW had Raxxla as a rogue planet which appeared and disappeared (via witchspace) in other, normal, systems. Wasn’t it supposed to be in Lave at one time? It might be that FD implemented them in his way, with perhaps a very odd orbital inclination (always had a suspicion about one Maia orbit). The rogue might then be numbered normally in accordance with the rest of the system, but might then disappear leaving a gap. So one way to find them might be to watch for “holes”in a system’s planetary numbering& then start scouting around nearby systems; not sure if they could appear in a USS. We can’t get of witchspace except at systems so there is no mechanism for finding them in space between systems, unless they do have some numbering scheme that would allow them to be targeted in the nav panel.

I have no idea what a StellarRemnantNebula would be. A stellar remnant should logically be a black hole, neutron star/pulsar or a nebula, so perhaps this object would be a BH with nebula?

Crab Nebula is a Stellar remnant nebula, I think. It has a pulsar in the middle.

The list of RL rouge planets is just two long. Only PSO J318.5-22 and SDSS J111010.01+011613.1 are confirmed and not a possible brown dwarfs. Even SDSS J111010.01+011613.1 is an edge case, as it's very close to dwarf mass.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSO_J318.5-22
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet

 

[Scytale]

NVM

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Crab Nebula is a Stellar remnant nebula, I think. It has a pulsar in the middle.

The list of RL rouge planets is just two long. Only PSO J318.5-22 and SDSS J111010.01+011613.1 are confirmed and not a possible brown dwarfs. Even SDSS J111010.01+011613.1 is an edge case, as it's very close to dwarf mass.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSO_J318.5-22
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet

Anyway, even the concept of "rogue planet" is quite unclear imho, as it is arbitrarily based on relation with Jupiter masses...

Two confirmed rogue planets but half a dozen candidates, so far. Edit: has anyone visited the RL rogues in-game?

Not really arbitrary related to Jupiter masses, just that the mechanism to eject a planet from its parent system may involve a large mass object (e.g. a gas giant like Jupiter) migrating around within that system and if it gets too close to a planet may slingshot it out of the system.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_migration

 

[Scytale]

NVM

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Well...what I meant is "is it a star or is it a planet" ...

Was I not clear? A rogue planet is a planet. My point was that it might form a “dark system”, as per the fiction, and therefore would be a viable jump destination, but that if so it should be distinctly named in the nav panel since current jump destinations are systems named in accordance with the class/energy output (A, B, C, D) of their main star, and of course a rogue planet would have no accompanying star.

But if it is not a jumpable destination in its own right it could be a part of an extant system and might therefore be named/numbered in accordance with that system’s makeup (or it could be named entirely differently). The only distinguishing thing would then be that its orbit might well be highly inclined to the ecliptic since it would not have formed from the spinning dust disc that formed everything else there.

i think there is currently no third alternative, since that would require that we be able to exit witchspace during a jump sequence somewhere other than the original destination, and that doesn’t seem to be possible in this game (unless interdicted by Thargoids, and that usually leaves you at the edge of the source system).

We need to be able to visit a known RL rogue planet to be able to distinguish between these possibilities. Edit: is there a way of sorting through EDSM to see if anyone has found a rogue planet?

 

[Thatchinho]

Are there any "Nebula" or "StellarRemnantNebula" that you can jump to though?

They are also listed in the Star Descriptions list, and while such things are named in the galaxy map, I don't recall any being a specifically targetable destination: you jump to a star in a nebula.

It looks like the rogues are their own system. It also looks like nebulae are their own systems.
A nebula is searchable in the galmap, but not possible to select. They don't show up in the nav panel.

Some nebula share coordinates with a star, like the Pleiades and Maia. Other nebula have no star at their coordinate.

If rogues are in the game, don't think they show up in the nave panel. Someone should have found one by now. Statistically there may be billions of them in the galaxy.

Good points!