Here's a nice summary of hints, and I took the link from this post:
Is EB,P really RO,C (Right on, commander) or something else? The twitter exchange linked to in the summary might help with that... although, we need to remember that Drew said that his books were not necessary for solving any ED mysteries.
After it was "solved" he made his remarks about "graduation day", "await 1.3" and "watch Galnet". So it sounds like future clues may be found as ROT13-encoded snippets in Galnet articles. There's a handy cut-and-paste ROT13 decoder here if anyone wants one!
I looked through all the Galnet articles I could find about Kahina and couldn't see anything suspicious. Put her profile page on Drew's blog through the decoder as well, but didn't find anything.
Well... I'm going back to colonized space... Hull is at 15%, out of heat sinks and AFMs. Got as far as Heart nebulae. You win this round Rift! But I'll be back!
Also did any one try translating the "Right on, Commander" to different languages and then trying decoders or just extracting co-ordinates?
I still think that the 'whatever we are looking for' is somewhere IN the rift, not across the rift. And it's in a dark system.
What makes me think that? The clues in the book (as cited on the forums, I haven't read it), Drew's clues, and particularly something interesting I just found cited in this reddit post (it's from Braben himself):
Stellar systems that have not been explored will simply show the star or star(s) that can be seen there from a distance, and have a systematic name. Someone will have to explore them AND RETURN for them to become more generally known. They will also be able to stake a claim and name such a system.Some "dark" systems will not be shown at all, until someone actively scans that area of space, and makes that information available – and without that information (which will be tradable) it will not be possible to travel through hyperspace to it.
That info is likely still up-to-date as this is close to the Galaxy Map behaviour as we know it now, and it ties in with what Drew said, that the possibility to solve the mystery has been in since launch.
The book suggests that we might not have to actually cross the rift:
Instead, we only have to map a way across the rift. And that once we are in the rift, something could appear behind our back. Where could this something come from if not from within the rift? This something could be either 'it' (Thargoids! There, now I've said it ) or maybe a dark system that you've honked:
'Once you reach the rift you’re going to have to plot a way across. There are no stars for dozens of light years and the dark systems haven’t been mapped, so
take your time, watch your six.'
So, I believe we need to find the dark systems. What we look for is there, and once we've found them, traveling in the rift will be easier - no Anaconda's required, but doable for a 23ly-armed-Cobra.
Instead, we only have to map a way across the rift. And that once we are in the rift, something could appear behind our back. Where could this something come from if not from within the rift? This something could be either 'it' (Thargoids! There, now I've said it ) or maybe a dark system that you've honked.
I presume that dark system would be where a main body is a black hole, a gas giant, brown dwarf. But the gal-map shows all of them. So I dont really know if dark systems actually are in game...
As far as we know, dark systems were planned, are though not in-game yet. I think whatever we might find is in a normal system.
Looking in galmap over the rift, there are several special shining systems (zoom out until you don't see the stars any more, and search for persisting lighted dots). Might be one of those. Tried to count them, not that they are the seven veils, but was too sleepy to check them all out. They do draw a sort of a line through the rift though, and two of them specifically are really close to the RR line. Those are systems that I'd say we have to check, most of them being O type stars.
Next week as soon as I have more time I'll try to take Erimus map and overlay the RR line over it. Also, might be good for anyone around the Rift to fire up EDdiscovery and give coordinates to stars in the RR line at the beginning and end of the Rift. We should be able to draw a pretty accurate line with that info right over the Rift in the maps we have available thanks to Erimus.
As far as we know, dark systems were planned, are though not in-game yet. I think whatever we might find is in a normal system.
Looking in galmap over the rift, there are several special shining systems (zoom out until you don't see the stars any more, and search for persisting lighted dots). Might be one of those. Tried to count them, not that they are the seven veils, but was too sleepy to check them all out. They do draw a sort of a line through the rift though, and two of them specifically are really close to the RR line. Those are systems that I'd say we have to check, most of them being O type stars.
Next week as soon as I have more time I'll try to take Erimus map and overlay the RR line over it. Also, might be good for anyone around the Rift to fire up EDdiscovery and give coordinates to stars in the RR line at the beginning and end of the Rift. We should be able to draw a pretty accurate line with that info right over the Rift in the maps we have available thanks to Erimus.
Its not in a dark system since they were never implemented in the game. The Dark Systems were intended to be orphaned planets and such that exist without a stellar body. Their existence would have made crossing the rift easier (you could jump the wider distances between star systems by hopping to the dark systems between them as long as you had the fuel).
Drew has confirmed that whatever it is we are looking for actually exists in-game and since the dark systems don't exist (and may never be implemented) then the implication is that we aren't looking for a dark system.
please help me understand what the rif is - if you know. Is it the large dark space between our spiral arm and the next in our galaxy? If so it's pretty big... And empty!
Yeah, that whole thing was "solved" back in 1.2 . If you go back In the forums around that time. Particularly the UA and Dark Wheel/Children of Raxxla stuff, you will find all sorts of people posting "secret" messages using combinations of Morse, rot-13 and another French cipher I forget the name of. We have Drew to thank for _all_ of that. ;-)
Thinking about the "the, ahem, core of the problem" comment by Drew. Wasn't SAP 8 Core added in 1.3? Some mission descriptions say they contain map data. Drew also hinted that something was to be added in 1.3.
Dommarraa is the expert on SAP8, he can probably give more details.
please help me understand what the rif is - if you know. Is it the large dark space between our spiral arm and the next in our galaxy? If so it's pretty big... And empty!
I have the same question. But looking at the map, why would it be the first dark space between arms? It's just not that dark or empty either, and not a good candidate for 'nobody has been past it'. There is another rift beyond the next arm (the very faint one) where the stars really do thin out. Maybe we are looking too close to home?
I think this is a fair point. Not read the book, but from what info I've read online, we should be looking on the outermost edge of the galaxy. Not one arm in from the edge.
Thinking about the "the, ahem, core of the problem" comment by Drew. Wasn't SAP 8 Core added in 1.3? Some mission descriptions say they contain map data. Drew also hinted that something was to be added in 1.3.
Dommarraa is the expert on SAP8, he can probably give more details.
My personal take on that was that the SAP 8 core description matches the description of the crystal data core described in John Harper's And Here The Wheel, containing the map to
The location of the CIEP base (former Thargoid base) in Soontill
And has nothing to do with the Rift. How short some people's memories are.... ;-)
) or maybe a dark system that you've honked:
