Investigation into the "Mysterious Stranger"

Thank you - I've saw your data submissions of the TO investigation forms


Checked this recently and now can confirm: on the mission-completion screen of the last mission that effectively triggers Tip Off occurrence there is in fact a direct mention of the upcoming event, so the case study of "Mysterious Stranger"(s) identities can be closed as there is nothing "Mysterious" in their identities.
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Good spot.
 
Thank you - I've saw your data submissions of the TO investigation forms


Checked this recently and now can confirm: on the mission-completion screen of the last mission that effectively triggers Tip Off occurrence there is in fact a direct mention of the upcoming event, so the case study of "Mysterious Stranger"(s) identities can be closed as there is nothing "Mysterious" in their identities.
View attachment 151751

Nice spotting.

Is it worth perhaps collating a list of 'who' the people are providing the MS missions so we might be able to glean if there is a specific faction behind those tip off missions?

/ Ra
 
Hmm... That list will be quite long. Really. As any contact from any minor faction can be potentially there - as "Mysterious Strangers".
In fact my current explanation why we have those "strangers" in commanders mailboxes - instead of the real contact's names - is trivial: inbox opening time optimization. FD just want to avoid procedural recalculation of the current commanders supervisor name/avatar from a given minor faction each time the inbox opens (message can be stored up to 30 days, commander can be already at the other side of the galaxy, his/her reputation with given faction can be changed quite a number of times and even faction itself can be purged out of existence - and in correct case we need the name of the curator that was attached to commander at the moment of TO appearancel) - i..e. that name is faction/reputation dependent. And name can not be "approximate" as in case of geo/bio signals and FSS. In other words the anonymity of those contacts is linked to game engine implementation, not to any mysteries.
 
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Hmm... That list will be quite long. Really. As any contact from any minor faction can be potentially there - as "Mysterious Strangers".
In fact my current explanation why we have those "strangers" in commanders mailboxes - instead of the real contact's names - is trivial: inbox opening time optimization. FD just want to avoid procedural recalculation of the current commanders supervisor name/avatar from a given minor faction each time the inbox opens (message can be stored up to 30 days, commander can be already at the other side of the galaxy, his/her reputation with given faction can be changed quite a number of times and even faction itself can be purged out of existence - and in correct case we need the name of the curator that was attached to commander at the moment of TO appearancel) - i..e. that name is faction/reputation dependent. And name can not be "approximate" as in case of geo/bio signals and FSS. In other words the anonymity of those contacts is linked to game engine implementation, not to any mysteries.

I agree with your assessment that it's more likely a construct of code and optimisation than an actual meaningful event for an Elite in-game cmdr.

Pity really, It'd be kind of awesome to have one tip-off lead to another, and force exploration of other systems where you're dangled another carrot, with an end-goal tantalisingly drip fed for us to follow through the galaxy.
 
At some point while many of us have been carrying out missions or otherwise just flying around, each of us may have recieved a message from someone identified only as "Mysterious Stranger". These messages can be in few different forms. Those that I have recieved have either given the location of a crashed ship and asked me to collect the logs from the site or asked me to raid some surface installation (all high security) for data. I'm undertaking an investigation to attempt to determine the identity of this "Mysterious Stranger", who they work for, and what their motivations may be. It may not be possible to determine all three, but with enough information it should be possible to at least determine a possible overarching motive.

However, there is a catch. These specific types of tip-offs do not spawn consistently. In the years I've been flying, I remember recieving only four or five in total. Additionally, the payouts are generally considered mediocre at best therefore many CMDR's ignore these messages entirely. Given these complications, specific data concerning these missions is sparse to say the least. Therefore, I have a request for each member of the Pilot's Federation.

My request is simple, if you recieve one of these tip off messages/missions,do everything in your power to investigate the site or accomplish the mission. Then, once you have completed your investigation of the site and/or accomplished the mission pass on as much of the following information to me as possible:


  1. Which system you were in when you recieved the tip off.
  2. Which factions (if any) you were allied with in that system. If you want to provide your reputation level with each faction in the system, I would not be opposed.
  3. Your pilot's federation rankings when you recieved the tip off.
  4. The destination of the tip off. System, Planet, and Coordinates if a surface wreck or POI. If it's a surface installation, include the same, but additionally provide the facility name and the controlling faction.
  5. The text of the tip off itself. This may be typed out or an image of the message.
  6. Any data or items recovered/found at the site. This includes logs and any materials or commodities.
  7. Any additional information that you deem pertinent to the investigation.
Some may require assistance from other CMDR's given the difficulty of raiding high security sites alone. If you recieve assistance, ensure that you are the one to scan any data points or logs. If you do not do so, any data found at the site will not be decoded.

Though I cannot provide monetary reimbursement for your efforts, know that you will have my gratitude and that of the entire galactic community for your efforts.

For all dark things shall be brought to light. Fly dangerously CMDR's.

CMDR TheoVerwolf
Ok, will do if I can.

o7 CMDR

CMDR Gavin786
 
Another thing people might like to keep in mind.

Even if this is not a "thing" in that it has been coded up and there is something behind it, if there is a lot of community interests, the Devs may well make it a "thing".

If a lot of people are submitting this data and it is a cool thing that people are engaged in, might very well end up as some narrative or part of an interstellar initiative. I know a lot of people want to shut down the OP but this is a continuously evolving game and can evolve. What is true today might not be true tomorrow.

CMDR Gavin786
 
Sorry, I've been unable to keep up recently. In response to a post that I made,* you offered a confirmation.
* https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...ysterious-stranger.443594/page-3#post-8112048

Checked this recently and now can confirm: on the mission-completion screen of the last mission that effectively triggers Tip Off occurrence there is in fact a direct mention of the upcoming event, so the case study of "Mysterious Stranger"(s) identities can be closed as there is nothing "Mysterious" in their identities.

In reading your post,* I feel compelled to ask if this is the only additional datapoint of if you have more.
* https://forums.frontier.co.uk/posts/8148491

The message from Camryn Slater could be read as though Slater was forwarding a message he received, rather than directly sending one that he wrote to you. The writing isn't entirely clear in that way.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into this...
 
Ok, will do if I can.

Commanders!
"I'd like to direct your attention that this..."=)
... thread has been started by commander TheOverWolf one and a half year ago. At the beginning of my own Tip Off related investigation I've contacted him - he doesn't have time to continue with it. More recent one (half a year) is here - started by commander Jmanis. And, for historical reasons here is one of the first in-deep investigation of Tip Off's back in 2016-2017.
And yes, my own investigation still running, however due to the lack of documentation I haven't posted it yet in a separate tread. Most of related communication takes place on IRH and CEC discord servers. All the collected data (that inherits also all I've found in the public sources) is currently accumulated in this Tip Off Archives spreadsheet. There is a "Links" tab there with plenty of info on-topic.

I know a lot of people want to shut down the OP but this is a continuously evolving game and can evolve. What is true today might not be true tomorrow.
As I've said, Tip Off mechanics investigation still continues - but by other commanders.

Pity really, It'd be kind of awesome to have one tip-off lead to another, and force exploration of other systems where you're dangled another carrot, with an end-goal tantalisingly drip fed for us to follow through the galaxy.
But in fact, Tip Off end messages ARE divided in a number of separate non-crossing hidden subsets/groups (and I don't mean by the "message header" here)... one can even name some of them "stories".
Also, those logs are localization-dependent. And during analysis of them I have performed some approximate calculations that shows that most probably it's theoretically impossible to collect them all while staying in the frame of only one chosen localization - i.e. this investigation provokes "international" collaboration, in fact=) And all that said I can only repeat that the amount of original text buried in those "stories" is comparable to 1/3 of the Dark Wheel novel.

Sorry, I've been unable to keep up recently. In response to a post that I made,* you offered a confirmation.
* https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...ysterious-stranger.443594/page-3#post-8112048

In reading your post,* I feel compelled to ask if this is the only additional datapoint of if you have more.
* https://forums.frontier.co.uk/posts/8148491

The message from Camryn Slater could be read as though Slater was forwarding a message he received, rather than directly sending one that he wrote to you. The writing isn't entirely clear in that way.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into this...
In fact, I already have one another:
Mysterious Stranger(s)_2.png


Yes, one can say that "it's just forwarding". However the uploader - commander's contact - is the sender. And the source is "rumors" (or some kind of "private" informers that commander's contact don't want to share). I think that there might be also another variations of the additional text.
o7
 
Just wondering if you'd like to know the answer to this or if you'd prefer it to remain a mystery that you can speculate about and continue to investigate?
Can't speak on behalf of the folk here, but if I had invested time on this, I'd only like to know if we're totally off track or if some line(s) of investigation merit pursuing. Subtle hint(s), inside spoiler tags. :)
 
Hi there,

Lots of interesting theories.

Just wondering if you'd like to know the answer to this or if you'd prefer it to remain a mystery that you can speculate about and continue to investigate?

Thanks,
Dom
Thank you for jumping in! And I hope you don't mind that I've used citation from one of your earlier post as kind of slogan for my investigation=)

In fact not so many things remain unsolved (imo). I know already that the Tip Off mission text body contain quite a direct "hint" to the "hidden" subset of of the end message logs (and I've already sorted out most of those groups). Currently I'm trying to reconstruct the mission assignment "geo-check" rules (also mentioned by you years ago) and other rules/requirements necessary to met in order to get Tip Off missions (would like to find still undiscovered sites).

The real mystery for me that only a developer can answer - is the localization dependency (a bit "strange" feature, imo) of end message logs is really implemented "by design"?

Also - if my information is correct - it's a bit disappointing that WHN enclave still have not its own pool of Tip Off locations, now redirecting commanders to the Bubble.

Hope that with the rest we can deal - but let us wait for the other commanders opinions.

o7
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
For what it worth, I don't think putting the answer in here is a good idea, even if it is in Spoiler Tags. The chances of someone else not the mentioning it are very, very low. If the people who are doing the majority of the work don't want it, then it would undermine all of the huge amount of work they've put in.
 
PS: To be more correct in wording - there is no much theories - rather "knowledge".
I'm personally and adept of - yes, this time "theory" - that there is no anything really mysterious behind the whole Tip Off mechanics, their distribution determined by Star Forge in the same manner as most of any other objects in ED universe (stations, planetary ports, large amount of POI's, etc) using a pre-desinged set of crash site models. This at least cam be potentially confirmed (or not) by FDev. I have many indirect traces that this is the case but can not prove it 100%. Only 99% may be=)
But if this is true then I'm not sure that FDev know exact placement or even final count of those sites.
End message logs - they are written so the number of them currently in-game must be known (however I suppose that community is already aware of most of them, may be 3-5 logs are still not reported elsewhere - already collected 135 unique/116 "real unique" texts not counting translations and older versions). Hidden division into subsets and mission text composition are not "theories", this is already kind of established knowledge.
Tip Off related crash site "timing"/life-cycles - already known. Layouts are still examined for possible profits=)
Must admit that the less studied in my case are the exact rules of Tip Off mission triggers and how game engine assigns mission to one of the already active sites to given commander - here are so far mostly "theories" and assumptions only.
So I really don't think that we will have any kind of
dramatic conclusion.
at the finish line=)
 
Do any of these missions lead to a 'Server Bank' at a crash site? Found one today and cant interact with it or scan it and cant seem to find any answer anywhere?
 
Do any of these missions lead to a 'Server Bank' at a crash site? Found one today and cant interact with it or scan it and cant seem to find any answer anywhere?
affirmative. Quite a number of crash sites (target - "unidentified wreckage") have "server bank". Always bugged. Reported years ago.
 
Thankyou djadjok, that's the shortest wild goose chase Ive had in ED so far...just 4 hours lol

They play Morse Code but Im not good enough to decode it to see if it means anything, they also play some kind of sound that may be a voice saying one word but Im old and hard of hearing
 
Thankyou djadjok, that's the shortest wild goose chase Ive had in ED so far...just 4 hours lol

They play Morse Code but Im not good enough to decode it to see if it means anything, they also play some kind of sound that may be a voice saying one word but Im old and hard of hearing
However all those sites (with "server bank") have always another scannable point - "Comms Control" - the scan of it results in "text log" and some cash in form of a voucher.
 
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