Investigation into the "Mysterious Stranger"

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
 
Ian Doncaster is definitely involved with finishing them in Colonia.
Hello :)

Yes. You'll want https://cdb.sotl.org.uk/sites#tip-off for the Census' catalogue of Colonial sites. I've not seen anyone doing similar work for Sol but I haven't looked in great detail.

I don't have the full 5/6 information for most of these any more, though there are screenshots of some of them on the Census discord (mostly in #3-2-updates if you scroll back to when it was #3-1-updates) and the census data will give you a rough idea. As regards '6' cargo present is randomised within categories - so one person might get a black box while another gets a damaged escape pod, but not a tonne of beer - but other details are consistent for all visitors.

As far as receiving tip-offs goes, my current theory after getting lots of them is:

1) You probably need to be Allied with a faction to receive them, but this may be a consequence of '2' rather than an actual requirement.
2) You receive them every N (fairly large N higher than merely getting Allied) missions you complete for a faction
3) PF Ranks are irrelevant (except in so far as they may affect mission generation)
4) The system you are in has no bearing on where the tip-off is other than whether you get a Sol or Colonia one
5) Possibly new in 3.1 as a lot more of them have been added: The tip-offs themselves appear on a weekly cycle (I think probably two per week for Colonia) and then disappear from the pool after a couple of weeks - though the sites may remain a bit longer to allow completion of existing tip-off messages. This sets up a rotation where you get a slow feed of them - and can get four at once if you're starting fresh - but can't just find all of them in a week or two - and would be consistent with which ones various searchers in Colonia have found and when.
6) You'll never get a tip-off you already have. I think if a faction meets the requirements at '2' it just sticks there until you complete another mission when there is a new tip-off to get.

So if you want lots of them, pick a region to work in, and run missions for everyone. Data courier are by far the easiest to stack up, of course, but it's possible that other types count more.

Based on the distribution of sites discovered so far in Colonia there could in theory be around 140 of them now out here ... though a smaller number is also possible. We have not yet seen the cycle of availability repeat, anyway.
 
Ian, that's a good start to the information that I am looking to gather, but without the original tip offs and site logs it doesn't provide any insight into the "Mysterious Stranger" or their theoretical organization. As to item #'s 1-3, I looking to establish not only that you need to be allied with at least one faction (as that's pretty much a given at this point), but rather if there is any pattern to the type and affiliation of the factions that lead to an increased frequency of these tip off's. Or alternatively if there is any pattern to the distribution of where these can be received.

Also, while I realize that the precise items found at the site do vary, as you pointed out they are restricted to a specific category (Search and Rescue, Precious Goods, Thargoid Tech). This alone can provide some detail about what our friend is after. I recently received one that sent me to a wreck with a dated log and a Thargoid Sensor. The date was from before the original UA's were discovered and would indicate that he is involved in the Thargoid plot in some way.
 
but rather if there is any pattern to the type and affiliation of the factions that lead to an increased frequency of these tip off's. Or alternatively if there is any pattern to the distribution of where these can be received.
No, not obviously.

There is of course nothing to say that Colonia's mysterious stranger is the same person as the Sol one anyway, or that there's only one of them. :) Ours seems to just hand out coordinates for crashed ships and wrecked buildings, most of which appear to have just been local piracy and smuggling, with normal trade cargoes.

(Finding any wreckage that old out at Colonia would be extremely surprising, but we haven't yet!)
 
Here we go: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ing-we-cannot-stop-them-and-we-need-your-help

but rather if there is any pattern to the type and affiliation of the factions that lead to an increased frequency of these tip off's. Or alternatively if there is any pattern to the distribution of where these can be received.

Dom (Former Mission guy for FD) essentially confirmed on here a while back that Tip-Offs are awarded for running lots of missions for a single faction... nothing else to it than that really.

I could tell you what spawns tip offs, but it's really not that interesting...
 
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[Edit: oh, i hadn't read the message above. Well, it might not be useful info in the end, but i'll leave it here anyway]

I've only received one tip-off for now, so i'll try remembering everything:
1. I was doing passenger missions around Sothis on August 15th. I didn't read it immediately, so i was either in Ceos, Sothis or Robigo when i received it.
2. My standing with local factions:
Ceos
- Federation Unite! - Allied
- RSR - Friendly
- Sirius Corp - Allied
- Liberate Ceos - Friendly
- Deep Space Clan - Cordial
Sothis (many factions in common between these three systems, i'll just write the new ones below)
- Overlord Armada - Cordial
Robigo
- CDE Corp - Cordial
- Robigo Cartel - Neutral
3. Combat Mostly Harmless, Trade Tycoon, Exploration Pioneer
4. Bakawa B1A - 16.48, 173.97
5. See imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/PWpKvGH
6. Site: crashed Sidewinder, two canisters (one uranium, one coffee i think), plus a message worth 100k+ in the data core (see imgur album)
7. It rested inside a canyon, like the Orrere Conda. I traveled a bit further both ways to find any further trace of the pilots' survival, found nothing.
 
[Edit: oh, i hadn't read the message above. Well, it might not be useful info in the end, but i'll leave it here anyway]

I've only received one tip-off for now, so i'll try remembering everything:
1. I was doing passenger missions around Sothis on August 15th. I didn't read it immediately, so i was either in Ceos, Sothis or Robigo when i received it.
2. My standing with local factions:
Ceos
- Federation Unite! - Allied
- RSR - Friendly
- Sirius Corp - Allied
- Liberate Ceos - Friendly
- Deep Space Clan - Cordial
Sothis (many factions in common between these three systems, i'll just write the new ones below)
- Overlord Armada - Cordial
Robigo
- CDE Corp - Cordial
- Robigo Cartel - Neutral
3. Combat Mostly Harmless, Trade Tycoon, Exploration Pioneer
4. Bakawa B1A - 16.48, 173.97
5. See imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/PWpKvGH
6. Site: crashed Sidewinder, two canisters (one uranium, one coffee i think), plus a message worth 100k+ in the data core (see imgur album)
7. It rested inside a canyon, like the Orrere Conda. I traveled a bit further both ways to find any further trace of the pilots' survival, found nothing.

Thanks, I've recorded this one.
 
Here we go: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ing-we-cannot-stop-them-and-we-need-your-help



Dom (Former Mission guy for FD) essentially confirmed on here a while back that Tip-Offs are awarded for running lots of missions for a single faction... nothing else to it than that really.

Jmanis I've seen that forum post from Dom before (actually it's partly why I'm doing this). I interpret Dom's statement differently. Other than confirming that you don't need to be at max rep, he didn't really confirm anything. And by the phrasing, at least to me anyway, it implies that there may be more to it than simply running missions for a single allied faction. Then again I may be reading too much into it. I do tend to be a strong supporter of the aluminum foil industry. :D

Also, I'll have to work my way through that older thread. I'll be sure to add those to my data. Thank for the reference.
 

Dominic Corner

Mostly Harmless Programmer
Frontier
Dom (Former Mission guy for FD)

Hi there,

I'm not a former mission guy, I'm a current mission guy.

Still not gonna explicitly tell you what spawns tip off messages because tin foil hat conspiracies are more fun.

Ian Doncaster's post is the most accurate post I've seen anyone write up about tip-offs, but it's not completely correct.

Thanks,
Dom
 
Hi there,

I'm not a former mission guy, I'm a current mission guy.

Still not gonna explicitly tell you what spawns tip off messages because tin foil hat conspiracies are more fun.

Ian Doncaster's post is the most accurate post I've seen anyone write up about tip-offs, but it's not completely correct.

Thanks,
Dom

Sorry mate! Thought you'd left (and glad you haven't!) Now I'm wondering who im thinking of that left...
 
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I'm not a former mission guy, I'm a current mission guy.

Do you know when are the wing mission payout multipliers going to be fixed Dom?
They were nerfed months ago, making them totally uneconomical to use for for the amount of time they would require.

It would be interesting to be privy to the stats of how many wing missions are actually being selected these past few months - if at all, especially when wing missions are one of the poster points of Beyond chapter 3.
 
Hi there,

I'm not a former mission guy, I'm a current mission guy.

Still not gonna explicitly tell you what spawns tip off messages because tin foil hat conspiracies are more fun.

Ian Doncaster's post is the most accurate post I've seen anyone write up about tip-offs, but it's not completely correct.

Thanks,
Dom

Hi Dom thanks for jumping in here. We couldn't persuade you to disclose which points of Ian Doncaster's post aren't accurate, could we? Given the subject we'll understand if the response is "Cannot confirm nor deny".
 
Very interesting post from Ian Doncaster but a couple of points stand out from my own experience (admittedly only a handful, 5 or 6 I think):
.
It does not require you to have done many missions for a faction to get a tip-off. My first ever Tip-off was after paying 1 MCr for a donation mission that had been my only mission for the faction (it was at the destination station for smuggling Gilya Signature Weapons to during the Dangerous Games, so I was allied from my deliveries).
The tip-offs I have had have been from high-ranked missions (not sure if they were all elite-ranked but they would all have had high rewards).
I have received a repeat of a tip-off mission some time after after a previous attempt expired (it was a very difficult base scan mission I was unable to do).
I seem to receive them more on Thursdays but my sample size is too small for this to be significant so far.
There is no guarantee of receiving one even if you regularly do missions for a faction. (There are some regions of space where I have done many missions in order to get allied with different factions and have not received tip-off missions for but they can show up when I go elsewhere for a couple of quick missions in passing)
Faction state may be a factor. I think I've received them in Boom more than others but my sample is small.
It has been a very long time since I last got a tip-off (I think only one since 3.0 and it was the repeat of one I couldn't do), and they are interesting, if varying in difficulty, so it's interesting to see what other people are finding.
 
Hi there,

I'm not a former mission guy, I'm a current mission guy.

Still not gonna explicitly tell you what spawns tip off messages because tin foil hat conspiracies are more fun.

Ian Doncaster's post is the most accurate post I've seen anyone write up about tip-offs, but it's not completely correct.

Thanks,
Dom

I would caution there's a limit to how much 'fun' this stance is to take, in general...I hope that Codex stuff is coming along well, 'coz presently, it's rather like the whole game is a tin foil hat conspiracy.
 
I would caution there's a limit to how much 'fun' this stance is to take, in general...I hope that Codex stuff is coming along well, 'coz presently, it's rather like the whole game is a tin foil hat conspiracy.

Rather telling when I had to ask where the vanguard was this week. No in game way to know except to inspect every star.
 
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