Horsehead Nebular Permit Locked?

VR Nupol · Oct 15, 2017

like all Systems in the Horsehead Nebula are permit locked : (requires unknown permit) and i cant plot a route to Orion, Running Man, Flame Nebula and others in this area because route plotting fails (i have no filters enabled). I can plot a route to any other area in the galaxy but not anywhere near these nebulas...

Is this a bug or does FD lock interesting places to explore?

Thx anyways for destroying my Exploration plans.

Sapyx · Oct 16, 2017

FD has locked this particlar area. Specifically, the Col 70 Sector and several smaller neighbouring sectors within or adjacent to Col 70, around Barnards Loop. This permit lock was not originally in the game; it was added sometime around version 2.1, I believe. Certain explorers were flying through Col 70 sector when the permit lock wasa enacted, stranding them in the middle of locked space; they had to be helped out manually by FD.

There seems to be some kind of link between Barnards Loop and the Thargoids. We assume the Orion Region / Col 70 permit locks were put in place to protect Thargoid content from being accidentally discovered befoer it was ready.

There are some smaller sectors inside the larger Col 70 sphere that are nor permit-locked, but the route plotter has trouble getting in there and back out again because those sectors are basically like being inside a balloon, with a relatively small entranceway in and out. If the route plotter sees the most direct route being blocked by permit-locks and can't figure out how to get around them, it gives up and says "route plotting failed".

Tentacle Love · Oct 16, 2017

pretty sure they found a few spots after a while and realized they should lock off those zones so they could do something interesting with them later.

Do take note, there are plenty of aliens that aren't thargoids. We just won't find that many of them for a while, mainly due to time constraints on the artists, I'd wager.

Achilles7 · Oct 16, 2017

& I was just about to commission a new planet, too!

JonLuis69 · Oct 16, 2017

Achilles7 said:
& I was just about to commission a new planet, too!

There is room for Magrathea in there. That would be a cool homage to Doug.

Essnem · Oct 22, 2017

For mining and passenger missions, as well as refuelling & rearming, the Witch Head Science Centre is in system HIP 23759. The Orion Nebula Tourist Centre is in system PMD2009 48

Red Anders · Oct 22, 2017

You can get to both of them, you just need to plot your route around Col 70 sector, i.e. find the edge of it and work round it. I was in Orion and the Flame nebula last week.

Aasgard · Nov 7, 2017

JonLuis69 said:
There is room for Magrathea in there. That would be a cool homage to Doug.

After listening to Hitch-Hikers on a bumpy flight from Germany and reaching the Whale and Bowl of Petunias, I decided to look in ED for Magrathea. Found it here!!!
Would be great to have the planet firing missiles at ships approaching the planet...

Vandaahl · Nov 26, 2017

Essnem said:
For mining and passenger missions, as well as refuelling & rearming, the Witch Head Science Centre is in system HIP 23759. The Orion Nebula Tourist Centre is in system PMD2009 48

Nice info, thx!

I just realized they added a lot of remote stations to these nebulae. Almost all on this side of the galaxy have one, which is great imo.

Punished Mobius · Nov 26, 2017

I had sincerely hoped that 2.4 would come with the removal of these permit locked systems...Barnard's Loop and the Horsehead Nebula being linked to the Thargoids used to be a no brainer connection to make...Now I am really not so sure whether or not Fdev plans to involve these areas of the galaxy with their Xeno "narrative".

bootsam · Nov 26, 2017

As long as we dont find Vogon. The Gruntbuggly's are a bit gabbleblotchits apparently.

damon8r351 · Nov 26, 2017

You can get out to the Flame Nebula and the other side of Barnard's Loop, you just can't plot a straight course to it from the Bubble because Col 70 Sector gets in the way. You have to plot in multiple stages to get around it. Closest I've gotten to the Horsehead Nebula was HIP 37397.

And at least in my estimation, the best nebula views aren't from the inside, but when you're within a few light years.

Alex Brentnall · Nov 27, 2017

Admittedly it was nearly a year ago but I had great success travelling vertically upwards to +200 ish then flying over where I wanted to go and dropping down... Having higher jump range also helps I believe but Barnards should be accessible even in low range ships with this method.

damon8r351 · Nov 27, 2017

Betelgeuse would be an appropriate well-known landmark to plot to. It's well up-plane from most starting points in the Bubble, then from there one should be able to have a clear plot to the molecular cloud complex. I'd recommend the Witch Head Science Center at HIP 23759 and then the Orion Nebula Tourist Center at PMD2009 48 as the next waypoints.

CMDR Carbo · Nov 27, 2017

Nupol said:
like all Systems in the Horsehead Nebula are permit locked : (requires unknown permit) and i cant plot a route to Orion, Running Man, Flame Nebula and others in this area because route plotting fails (i have no filters enabled). I can plot a route to any other area in the galaxy but not anywhere near these nebulas...

Is this a bug or does FD lock interesting places to explore?

Thx anyways for destroying my Exploration plans.

Best way is to plot your route in parts. If I remember correctly I flew to flame nebula, then straight upwards, over Barnards Loop a bit over the galactic plane, worked well.
Most of the smaller nebulas have asteroid bases you can use a stops.
Good Luck.

Aashenfox · Nov 27, 2017

aguettinger said:
Best way is to plot your route in parts. If I remember correctly I flew to flame nebula, then straight upwards, over Barnards Loop a bit over the galactic plane, worked well.
Most of the smaller nebulas have asteroid bases you can use a stops.
Good Luck.

For Palin, I did a mini nebula tour on that side of the bubble. I headed down to witchhead, then from there to the flame nebula which is almost inside barnard's loop, then I had to do a kind of skirt around to the right of the systems behind Barnard's Loop which are PLed, and continue on to the Rosette Nebula (which as another poster just pointed out, like many nebulae, was amazing from the outside, but boring as hell from the inside. lol.)

Factabulous · Nov 27, 2017

OP You're not going to make much of an explorer if you can only explore in straight lines

CMDR Carbo · Nov 27, 2017

Aashenfox said:
For Palin, I did a mini nebula tour on that side of the bubble. I headed down to witchhead, then from there to the flame nebula which is almost inside barnard's loop, then I had to do a kind of skirt around to the right of the systems behind Barnard's Loop which are PLed, and continue on to the Rosette Nebula (which as another poster just pointed out, like many nebulae, was amazing from the outside, but boring as hell from the inside. lol.)

Yes, that is almost exactly what I did to unlock Palin too. Except I made the detour above Barnards Loop, which is slightly below the galactic plane.
I added the Jellyfish nebula to the tour, which wasn't necessary but it has a Neutron star and looks nice form the outside.