News Dove Enigma and the Enigma Expedition
- Thread starter Zac Antonaci
- Start date
Fantastic response by Zac and Frontier, even if you shouldn't have to apologise for the mindless behavior of a minority
To everyone on the Meta Armada who have dropped everything to rescue the Dove Enigma, and to all my fellow CMDRs on the Enigma Expedition - you are all amazing.
When my wing docks at the Dove Enigma in a couple of days, I know for sure that it will be fully operational, because as a community, we got this.
o7
To everyone on the Meta Armada who have dropped everything to rescue the Dove Enigma, and to all my fellow CMDRs on the Enigma Expedition - you are all amazing.
When my wing docks at the Dove Enigma in a couple of days, I know for sure that it will be fully operational, because as a community, we got this.
o7
Thanks Zac for the update, and thank you Frontier for taking time to investigate this last night, rather than waiting for today.
I may not arrive in time to do much good, and I'm only carrying 50-ish MAs anyway, but to heck with it. THE SNAIL TRADER DELIVERS!
I may not arrive in time to do much good, and I'm only carrying 50-ish MAs anyway, but to heck with it. THE SNAIL TRADER DELIVERS!
I kind of wanted the Gnosis to jump in, Galactica style waving heal beams and handing out meta-alloy as well.
But a nice outcome nonetheless.
But a nice outcome nonetheless.
We'd love to but unfortunately it'd take the Gnosis most of a year to get there, which is probably a bit slow for a heroic rescue attempt.
Ozric
Volunteer Moderator
Thank you so much for looking into this so quickly. A huge thank you for posting at half one in the morning to tell the community!
I was in no doubt that the community would prevent the shutdown from happening. We had a few hundred Cmdrs en route within a couple of hours of the impending shutdown being announced, now there will be far more than enough Meta Alloys delivered. In fact I think that so many might be delivered that you could coat the entire inside in Meta Alloy plating
I think it is worth people remembering that even if we had of/do miss stopping the shutdown this week, there's still plenty of time to get it back up and running before the expedition finishes. While some people were using the situation for their personal gain, we were flying, we were gathering wingmates from all groups, and Frontier were working hard investigating.
Frontier didn't have to act so quickly, but they did, and you got it all in just 10 hours.
No not at all. The more Meta Alloys delivered the more protection the station will have for the end of the expedition.
I was in no doubt that the community would prevent the shutdown from happening. We had a few hundred Cmdrs en route within a couple of hours of the impending shutdown being announced, now there will be far more than enough Meta Alloys delivered. In fact I think that so many might be delivered that you could coat the entire inside in Meta Alloy plating
I think it is worth people remembering that even if we had of/do miss stopping the shutdown this week, there's still plenty of time to get it back up and running before the expedition finishes. While some people were using the situation for their personal gain, we were flying, we were gathering wingmates from all groups, and Frontier were working hard investigating.
Frontier didn't have to act so quickly, but they did, and you got it all in just 10 hours.
No not at all. The more Meta Alloys delivered the more protection the station will have for the end of the expedition.
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Ua bomb is delivering thargoid canisters to a station, it will disrupt the station and might be closed for ship to land there. To counter this you can deliver Meta-alloys and that will counter the shutdown.
Ozric
Volunteer Moderator
Hi. Selling enough Unknown Artefacts to the black market of a station can cause parts of it to shutdown. The act itself is not an exploit, but Frontier believes there's reason to further investigate whether an exploit was used to achieve the shutdown in this situation. For the rest you can have a look at the thread Zac linked.
UA, nowadays renamed as Thargoid Sensors are an alien artifact that causes massive damages to human technology. UA dumping is the act of selling these Sensors in the black market of stations (since they are illegal)...if enough are sold, this can cause the station to experience technical difficulties and ultimately shutdown. This is called UA bombing.
I am not entirely sure what is being referred to as an exploit.
This UA Bombing was done at a station that was made on the request of the community in the name of a CMDR battling cancer. This station station was supposed to be the end of an expedition in his name. This UA bombing is going to cause the station services to close and severely affect the expedition.
This community is just mind blowing. CMDRs are taking Meta Alloys, a commodity that counteracts the effects of UA Bombing to the said station. This commodity is found only in the bubble and a UA bombed stations need several thousand tonnes of them to get fixed.
Hopefully, I was able to answer the question well.
'UA' means 'Unknown Artifact'. We've subsequently renamed them 'Thargoid Sensors'. Items of alien (specifically Thargoid) origin. Collecting these and selling them to a Station's Black Market will have the effect of disrupting that Station's facilities. The more that are delivered, the greater the disruption until the Station all but shuts down.
This disruption can be countered by so-called 'Meta Alloys' (or MAs). Delivering those to a Station will essentially undo any UA interference. Needs quite a few though.
The current situation is that a Mega Ship called the 'Dove Enigma' has been UA bombed ('bombed' in this case simply meaning that UAs have been delivered there). The problem is that it's in Colonia, 22,000Ly out of the bubble. Commanders are flocking to a surface port in Maia called 'Darnielles Progress', which is the only known place you can buy MAs. They are then embarking on the 22,000Ly trip to deliver them. For many (like myself) this will entail several night's jumping.
UA bombing in and of itself is not an exploit, but in this instance it's possible that an exploit was used in some way to facilitate it. Only Frontier can tell for sure.
What's got people angry is that the Dove Enigma is the final destination of an expedition being held in honour of someone with terminal cancer, and said person is participating as much as they can. That's why some people are saying that in this case in-game activities are having very real, out-of-game consequences, potentially extremely negative ones.
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If enough Thargoid Sensors (formerly known as Unknown Artefacts aka UAs) are sold at the black market in a station then the station suffers "technical difficulties" which can result in station services being shut down. Note that UA bombing/dumping cannot cause a station to be closed entirely. In order to prevent the UAs having this effect, or to repair an effected station, Meta-Alloys can be sold at the station. I believe it requires significantly more MAs to fix a station than the number of UAs required to effect it.
UA bombing/dumping is not an exploit. It's a valid mechanic that's been used creatively before. In fact Colonia may well only exist because a certain commander (and possibly a few others) decided to see what would happen to Jacques' Station if they sold a lot of UAs there before it's planned jump to Beagle Point. Jacques' Station suffered a misjump and ended up where it is today.
The exploit that has been mentioned as possibly having been used would be an exploit that allows UAs to be moved to Colonia without having to carry them there in the usual way. Transporting UAs is difficult because they corrode the internals of ships; there are corrosion resistant cargo racks but size 2 is the largest so only something like 15 UAs could be shipped per trip using those.
A "UA dump" is selling thargoid items (originally called "Unknown Artifacts" - UAs - so the name has stuck even though it's no longer accurate) to a station's black market. Selling a few here and there is basically harmless, but selling them in large bulk will shut down almost all station services.
You get a week's warning on Galnet when the shutdown threshold is reached, and if corrective action is not taken the station shuts down.
Corrective action consists of delivering a large quantity of Meta-Alloys to the affected station. This can take place proactively to prevent the shutdown or reactively to repair a station which has been shut down. Delivery of Meta-Alloys can also be used as preventative action to increase the number of UAs needed to damage a station in the first place.
So, the commanders currently flying out to Colonia with holds full of Meta-Alloys will sell them at the station (before Tuesday 6th), with sufficient volume to cancel out the UA sales ... and probably then a few tens of thousands more ... and prevent the shutdown.
UA dumping is not itself an exploit, but there have been suggestions made that some sort of exploit may have been used to either collect or transfer the UAs (which can only be found relatively close to the Pleiades) all the way to Colonia. Only Frontier will know for sure whether that's true or not - it's certainly *possible* to do this without an exploit, and people have done so over similar distances in the past.
As it shuts down most station services - basically everything except a very limited commodity market to sell the meta-alloys to - it can be used to inconvenience other players, and therefore some people consider it griefing (either in all cases, or just in some specific cases). Regardless of whether you want to apply that particular description, it is generally considered a hostile act against the station owner/supporters.
Now this is the appropriate response to events rather than god-modding. (fully acknowledged that if the issue was exploit based then god modding wouldn't be entirely inappropriate in this instance)