That’s my idea. Those systems are unlisted so we can’t select them and investigate. There should be hundreds if not thousands of stars in the sky so it’s really hard to eyeball if some of them is missing on the galmap. And if Raxxla is a rogue planet (or on it / in an orbit around) it is impossible to see it with naked eye, even with telescopes. Those systems should require a special permit or high wake scan like action to be added on your map.
The Quest To Find Raxxla
- Thread starter Macros Black
- Start date
That’s my idea. Those systems are unlisted so we can’t select them and investigate. There should be hundreds if not thousands of stars in the sky so it’s really hard to eyeball if some of them is missing on the galmap. And if Raxxla is a rogue planet (or on it / in an orbit around) it is impossible to see it with naked eye, even with telescopes. Those systems should require a special permit or high wake scan like action to be added on your map.
After reading "And Here the Wheel", i think we can safely say that the Soontill system is the correct system and Soontil 1 is THE Soontill. The "space fog" around the planet seen in the book was an instillation disguise wrapped around the whole planet. One of the many examples of technology the CIEP developed (themselves or through the services of other parties) to aid in their endeavors of political manipulations. Said instillation was likely removed or destroyed after Soontill's destruction.
The only remaining issue is that Soontill is implied to be a former Thargoid hive, which implies it was an ammonia world, and while there is still ammonia in its atmosphere, its physical location so close to its host star calls that detail highly into suspect.
Yes but iirc in And Here The Wheel the Soontill system is described as being a brown dwarf system, and Soontill 1 is 2au from the star with an asteroid belt between it and the star. Soontill in game is a class M Red Dearf and Soontill 1 is only 18ls from the star (instead of the 998 in the book) and there’s no asteroid belt between. Also, Soontill was somewhere on the way between Grandmort and the circle attack route. But Soontill in game is in the opposite direction of that.
As a Thargoid world, it should be cold and low G, in a system with an ammonia world or ammonia gas giant. None of these things describe the in game Soontill.
Kudos for general approach, but various points:
Hyperdrives/hyperspace
- It’s early 2100s for hyperspace, not 2100 specifically (unless you’ve got a reference for it being 2100 specifically?)
- Hyperspace and Witchspace are the same thing
- Hyperspace and Supercruise are different things
- Early Hyperspace travel is Hyperspace travel, not Supercruise travel
- The Hyperdrives between 3150(ish) and 3300 (type 2b) were also rubbish compared to what we have now.
- The pre-3150 Quirium drives were much better than the 3150-3300 ones. (They’re almost certainly not the original Hyperdrives though)
- speculation here but it’s probably a fair bet that original Hyperdrives were more akin to the type 2b in operation than FSD or Quirium drives.
Tau Ceti
Colonisation timeline is (on mobile with bad reception so going of memory a bit here):
- unmanned probe is sent to Tau Ceti via hyperspace
- probe surveys system and confirms it’s suitable for colonisation
- probe sends data back via normal space (taking 10ish years)
- colonisation ship(s) travel to Tau Ceti non-FTL as hyperspace travel is not considered safe enough for mass-scale transportation (taking a multiple of 10ish years)
General discovery distances:
- these aren’t limited by mass-scale transportation / colonisation effforts
- as Han Zen says, Achenar is 140ish ly from Sol and was colonised fairly early (mid 2200s)
General Points:
- Raxxla doesn’t actually have had to be found for it to be rumoured, plenty of other possibilities exist
But even assuming the Soontill in game is the actual Soontill, and the base is destroyed. There should be other CIEP bases, abandoned, to find. Which may give us some information on their current whereabouts and perhaps information on TDW. Has a CIEP base ever been found? I have noticed that the vast majority of bodies in that area (grandmort, Lanaest, Brohman etc) are not mapped. Perhaps there’s something there to find 
Just note to Achenar colonization. This was on Galnet 12-JUL-3301 (https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/GalNet/3301/July)
The Achenar system was first colonised in the middle of the 23rd century. It was founded by an expedition led by Marlin Duval, a wealthy woman who had grown disillusioned by the ever increasing rigidity of the Earth governments and stifling social conformity. Marlin Duval vowed to get as far from Earth as she could, and after a long and treacherous journey across what was then unexplored space, most of the convoy eventually reached the Achenar system.
The Achenar system was first colonised in the middle of the 23rd century. It was founded by an expedition led by Marlin Duval, a wealthy woman who had grown disillusioned by the ever increasing rigidity of the Earth governments and stifling social conformity. Marlin Duval vowed to get as far from Earth as she could, and after a long and treacherous journey across what was then unexplored space, most of the convoy eventually reached the Achenar system.
Middle of the 23rd century = mid 2200s, as Han_Zen & Thatchinho said.
If hyperdrive invented early 2100 that gives around 150 years for improvements to be made, so 140ish ly should have been quite practicable for Marlin Duval et al to move to Achenar.
Raxxla is a little more hazy; codex says (do we believe this? could be more obfuscation) earliest rumour around 2296, so say it was found circa 2250 to provide some 45 years for the rumour to spread bubble-wide. So 150 years- around the same time as Achenar was first colonised. Is this a hint that it’s in or close to Imperial space?
Am I misremembering because I thought the early jump drives were capable of 7 ly jumps, & once a week does ring a bell. IF (!!!) this is correct that means a dedicated exploration team could travel 52*7 = 364 ly per year of expedition time. 150 years total, so 75 out & 75 back could mean it was located anywhere up to 27,300 ly from Sol, if there was an organisation dedicated to explore for new mysteries (e.g. TDW).
I remember Jason Ryder was setting up an expedition to search for Raxxla based on his research but was first taking a break with his son when he was killed. How far does that imply for Raxxla location? Say 10 weeks of travel each way for an expedition of tough spacers? What was the jump range then??
edit: of course this discussion is just trying to explore where Raxxla might have been originally found based on lore; FD may not have felt constrained by lore when siting it, or Raxxla may have been moved as the bubble grew (depending on whatever it is!) - presumably by TDW since they are said to have lost it (pretty careless if you ask me, not like losing your car keys....unless Raxxla is the name of the key fob carrying DB’s ship keys
).
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The early drives, we just don’t know. The 7ly range is just the standard Cobra MkIII max jump range from circa 3000 to 3150.Middle of the 23rd century = mid 2200s, as Han_Zen & Thatchinho said.
If hyperdrive invented early 2100 that gives around 150 years for improvements to be made, so 140ish ly should have been quite practicable for Marlin Duval et al to move to Achenar.
Raxxla is a little more hazy; codex says (do we believe this? could be more obfuscation) earliest rumour around 2296, so say it was found circa 2250 to provide some 45 years for the rumour to spread bubble-wide. So 150 years- around the same time as Achenar was first colonised. Is this a hint that it’s in or close to Imperial space?
Am I misremembering because I thought the early jump drives were capable of 7 ly jumps, & once a week does ring a bell. IF (!!!) this is correct that means a dedicated exploration team could travel 52*7 = 364 ly per year of expedition time. 150 years total, so 75 out & 75 back could mean it was located anywhere up to 27,300 ly from Sol.
I remember Jason Ryder was setting up an expedition to search for Raxxla based on his research but was first taking a break with his son when he was killed. How far does that imply for Raxxla location? Say 10 weeks of travel each way for an expedition of tough spacers? What was the jump range then??
edit: of course this discussion is just trying to explore where Raxxla might have been originally found based on lore; FD may not have felt constrained by lore when siting it, or Raxxla may have been moved as the bubble grew (depending on whatever it is!) - presumably by TDW since they are said to have lost it (pretty careless if you ask me, not like losing your car keys....unless Raxxla is the name of the key fob carrying DB’s ship keys
Don't have anything new to add, sorry. But here's a stray thought: from the beginning, players searching for Raxxla have been looking for a celestial object, right? Planet most likely, maybe black hole. Because the tools available from release have been just the map and the basic / adv. scanner.
So with players looking for a planet since the beginning, how come the devs say "You don't know what it is" after a couple years of searching?
I mean, then it can't be a planet, right?
So with players looking for a planet since the beginning, how come the devs say "You don't know what it is" after a couple years of searching?
I mean, then it can't be a planet, right?
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Something I just noticed that may give is a better idea where or how far to look for TDW, and therefore Raxxla. There’s an Ad at the stations for Brewer, apparently the manufacturers of the Orbis style stations, and it says “Brewer, Looking down on worlds since 3100” with a very odd,possibly early Orbis station as the picture (looks much like the one in TDW codex entry). So if they’re in an Orbis style station left disused by someone else, as seems to be the case, that would mean they couldn’t have been in it before 3100 yeah?
I went to Neumann Camp, a settlement on Shinrarta Dezhra AB 2 H just to see what the deal is ( I just got my Triple Elite just now). This settlement I know is fully controlled by The Dark Wheel (presumably not the real one) the faction is in Outbreak. I check the system status of Shinrarta cause I never seen it in status before. Then I went ahead and check LFT 926 another place they have control over again this system isn't in Outbreak it's only in Civil Unrest.
So where the heck are they getting Outbreak status from?
Edit: I get the feeling Shinrarta is just bugged and doesn't want to update it's status.
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Status isn’t system wide anymore but is owned individually by the various factions who have a control port in the system. So TDW can be in outbrake in SD when no one else is. I too was checking out their planet base since they’re the controlling faction. Nothing yet but I did a little work for them to get allied and also get them out of outbrake. We’ll see what happens.
Hmm, I recently saw a movie about a similar search for a semi-mythical game object.
Has anyone tried flying through witchspace backwards?
Also, is there any virtual library that documents all of David Braben's personal interests & day-to-day interactions we could look through?
I feel like if we just knew what his favorite 1980s TV shows were, we could crack this puzzle wide open!
[where is it]
Also, the center of the Raxxla symbol is a circle with a dot in it.
Wikipedia calls it the Circumpuct, and apparently it's been used a symbol for a lot of things.
It could be: our solar system ('Sol'), our sun itself (the main star of the Sol system), any solar system in general, gold, the egyptian god Ra and maybe Hydrogen.
I delivered ~780 tons of Gold to Sol > M. Gorbachev [its importing gold and it's orbiting the 3rd planet of Sol], and Ra > LeConte Dock [also importing gold, orbiting the 3rd planet of Ra].
Nothing happened...
Has anyone tried flying through witchspace backwards?
Also, is there any virtual library that documents all of David Braben's personal interests & day-to-day interactions we could look through?
I feel like if we just knew what his favorite 1980s TV shows were, we could crack this puzzle wide open!
[where is it]
Also, the center of the Raxxla symbol is a circle with a dot in it.
Wikipedia calls it the Circumpuct, and apparently it's been used a symbol for a lot of things.
It could be: our solar system ('Sol'), our sun itself (the main star of the Sol system), any solar system in general, gold, the egyptian god Ra and maybe Hydrogen.
I delivered ~780 tons of Gold to Sol > M. Gorbachev [its importing gold and it's orbiting the 3rd planet of Sol], and Ra > LeConte Dock [also importing gold, orbiting the 3rd planet of Ra].
Nothing happened...
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Hmm, I recently saw a movie about a similar search for a semi-mythical game object.
Has anyone tried flying through witchspace backwards?
Also, is there any virtual library that documents all of David Braben's personal interests & day-to-day interactions we could look through?
I feel like if we just knew what his favorite 1980s TV shows were, we could crack this puzzle wide open!
[where is it]
Also, the center of the Raxxla symbol is a circle with a dot in it.
Wikipedia calls it the Circumpuct, and apparently it's been used a symbol for a lot of things.
It could be: our solar system ('Sol'), our sun itself (the main star of the Sol system), any solar system in general, gold, the egyptian god Ra and maybe Hydrogen.
I delivered ~780 tons of Gold to Sol > M. Gorbachev [its importing gold and it's orbiting the 3rd planet of Sol], and Ra > LeConte Dock [also importing gold, orbiting the 3rd planet of Ra].
Nothing happened...
Well, given that it really looks like a sun cross or solar wheel which usually incoperates a circumpunct. Sonnenkreuz In German. There are different versions throughout history depending on what was to be represented, 4 spokes for NSEW, or 6 spikes to include equinoxes, more spokes still for other reasons. The six spokes ones leave the center hexagonal with a circle dot in the middle
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_cross See the archaeological record section for a picture that includes an example of one.
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Might be anything. Saying Ed didn’t know what it is tells us nothing, other than Ed wasn’t in the inner circle of TDW!
I have several times posted the hypothesis that it could be a station named something like Raxxla Gateway.
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This sort of info should be documented so it’s a little more obvious, thanks! But the Raxxla rumour has been around since before that date so it can’t be an Orbis.
However it might be an early Ocellus. Wiki says “Modern Coriolis stations are cuboctahedrons with a 2-kilometer diameter. When it was first introduced by GalCop, the design had a much smaller diameter of 1 kilometer, but beginning in the 3200's the size was increased.” “Modern Coriolis” implies there was at least one earlier version. This might fit the design shown in the Raxxla codex entry. Galcop was the era of the original game, so way back (edit: GALCOP arose on 2696 & dissolved in 3174, so that is the potential timeline for an “early ocellus” station type).
I think TDW hidden station is an orbis design which “originated during the early years of the Federation” (established 2242) “and persisted over the centuries with minimal changes”. It is clearly a wheel shape
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No.
Nothing has been ruled out and Coma Berenices is above average interesting. It's the galactic north pole and has several jewel analogies.
It's a fine constellation.