Lets get a real discussion going. All these mysterious "permit required" systems.

[Mistress Athena]

Not sure if you've noticed. I've never seen them before this latest update except for the select few in inhabited space...

I know Obsidian Ant has commented how a few nebula area's are no longer accessible, but... It's not just a few stars or Nebula's.

The whole Orion/horsehead sectors are cut off. Everytime I try to go there it errors out. I noticed then that there are hundreds, if not thousands of stars all around those 2-3 tightly packed nebula's, creating a bubble that restricts you from getting in there.

Then I found some very random stars as well out in the middle of nowhere that requires a permit. COL 70 sector BV-P DP-5 is one. Smack dab in the middle of nothing, no mans land, requires permit...


These are huge spaces, and thousands of stars being cut off. What in the heck do you think they have planned?

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Edit: lawls.. forgot to post my theory.. /facepalm

One theory I've got, is that the missing station might be found in one of these area's, like it was somehow hijacked, and moved to a different location. Possibly the Aliens researching it, in a grand scheme to potentially replace one of the stations in inhabitated space with a "fake".

We've already had a mysterious ship that looked human but had odd characteristics, which is a hint that the aliens have the ability to replicate our stuff to some degree. It could be a grand plan to slowly infiltrate one of the super powers with indoctrinated leaders feeding intel back to the aliens.

 

[dynamicbob]

future content

 

[_Fissure]

future content

Thank you for such and insightful and quality contribution to the discussion. I'm sure it will earn you tons of E-rep.

OP, Im honestly thinking that our first alien contact will stem from those systems. Not too far, so people can access them easily, but far enough to be mysterious in some fashion.

 

[crushdepth]

Not sure if you've noticed. I've never seen them before this latest update except for the select few in inhabited space...

I know Obsidian Ant has commented how a few nebula area's are no longer accessible, but... It's not just a few stars or Nebula's.

The whole Orion/horsehead sectors are cut off. Everytime I try to go there it errors out. I noticed then that there are hundreds, if not thousands of stars all around those 2-3 tightly packed nebula's, creating a bubble that restricts you from getting in there.

Then I found some very random stars as well out in the middle of nowhere that requires a permit. COL 70 sector BV-P DP-5 is one. Smack dab in the middle of nothing, no mans land, requires permit...


These are huge spaces, and thousands of stars being cut off. What in the heck do you think they have planned?

I don't know, but I was around Barnard's Loops just before the update and I had a hard time navigating past all the suddenly locked systems to get back to the bubble. I do think it lends weight to the theory that the barnacle "logo" is Barnard's Loop though.

Problem is that locking all these systems kind of makes further exploration of them...impossible.

 

[dynamicbob]

Thank you for such and insightful and quality contribution to the discussion. I'm sure it will earn you tons of E-rep.

OP, Im honestly thinking that our first alien contact will stem from those systems. Not too far, so people can access them easily, but far enough to be mysterious in some fashion.

actually i kept it simple to convey a simple message.

 

[Mistress Athena]

actually i kept it simple to convey a simple message.

Actually what you did was write a completely useless post. So much so, I wrote it off as a troll bait response, which I know it is. Not only do I specifically state in my question "what do you think they have planned" which obviously makes my post a conversation about the future content they have planned.

Bad troll is bad. If you're gonna troll try to not be so idiotically obvious about it.

I don't know, but I was around Barnard's Loops just before the update and I had a hard time navigating past all the suddenly locked systems to get back to the bubble. I do think it lends weight to the theory that the barnacle "logo" is Barnard's Loop though.

Problem is that locking all these systems kind of makes further exploration of them...impossible.

I'm having that problem right now. Cruised up into the Witchhead nebula just before the Orion/horsehead. Now I can't find a way around it without traveling 800+ LY in any given direction.

I'm currently attempting to get to the Soul Nebula, but I'm getting an awful amount of "Errors" when calculating the route. Further investigation leads to me finding yet more hundreds of systems in a "wall" like setup stopping me from going in that direction.

One theory I've got, is that the missing station might be found in one of these area's, like it was somehow hijacked, and moved to a different location. Possibly the Aliens researching it, in a grand scheme to potentially replace one of the stations in inhabitated space with a "fake".

We've already had a mysterious ship that looked human but had odd characteristics, which is a hint that the aliens have the ability to replicate our stuff to some degree. It could be a grand plan to slowly infiltrate one of the super powers with indoctrinated leaders feeding intel back to the aliens.

Just my potential theory.

 

[WR3ND]

Maybe he was commenting on the futility of further speculation.

But yeah, it might be related to this...

Spoiler

 

[Jmanis]

Other regions like regor, bovomit etc which have always been permit locked, sure, future content. But the change which was announced in notes by fd as restoring region permits to areas that players shouldn't have been able to access, which locked out explorers in the newly locked areas is pretty extreme.

The way they are set up it creates a bit of a maze to actually get through to barnards loop proper. On the one hand this feels intentional for some mysterious region.

On the other, triton in Sol now needs a permit again. In horizons beta, this was the case, but then it went live ander no permit wad needed. Now it's back to needing one, so perhaps it was just a genuine mistake and these regions were simply meant to be unreachable in the first place.

Referring back to the stuck explorers though, again, that's pretty extreme, angst you'd only do it if toy had a really really good reason. Nothing ive seen in the barnards loop area suggests anything of interest yet though. No planetary pois and rarely uss. There are ways through these walls, even a combo of upgraded fsd and jumponium would have you completely clear some regions. But again. Nothing seems to be of interest past them

 

[Mistress Athena]

Other regions like regor, bovomit etc which have always been permit locked, sure, future content. But the change which was announced in notes by fd as restoring region permits to areas that players shouldn't have been able to access, which locked out explorers in the newly locked areas is pretty extreme.

The way they are set up it creates a bit of a maze to actually get through to barnards loop proper. On the one hand this feels intentional for some mysterious region.

On the other, triton in Sol now needs a permit again. In horizons beta, this was the case, but then it went live ander no permit wad needed. Now it's back to needing one, so perhaps it was just a genuine mistake and these regions were simply meant to be unreachable in the first place.

Referring back to the stuck explorers though, again, that's pretty extreme, angst you'd only do it if toy had a really really good reason. Nothing ive seen in the barnards loop area suggests anything of interest yet though. No planetary pois and rarely uss. There are ways through these walls, even a combo of upgraded fsd and jumponium would have you completely clear some regions. But again. Nothing seems to be of interest past them

Could be something mundane. But where's the fun in that?

 

[WR3ND]

The Crab Nebula Expedition of 3302 will be getting underway before too long and heading out in that direction. Over 300 Commanders are registered for it. Would be interesting if they were secretly watching the forums and had something planned. Not likely, I'd say, but perhaps.

I did detail surface scan the new listening outpost's system in HIP 19072 and didn't really notice anything noteworthy, but didn't do any really checking up under every rock. They definitely have something more planned out in that general direction though.

 

[Ouberos]

Lave 2 is also permit locked now. The Lore places Dr Waldrens secret cloning base on Lave 2.
I have roughly explored it prior to locking but found not much of interest, usual stuff. Locking it suggests something has now been added or is being added and tested. Or it could just be another red herring.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Or.

It could be a sign that Dr Waldren has infiltrated clones into the Pilots federation and they have locked off Lave 2 as their influence has grown.

If you controlled the frame shift drive permit system, privatizing entire regions of space would be a great way to consolidate power.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

future content

Repped

 

[WR3ND]

Elvira wouldn't mind hacking the FSD's for us, I would think, though it might take us infiltrating the Pilots Federation to be able to reverse engineer their source code.

Wait... who's side am I on again? These things seem to get mixed up now and then.

 

[n4p0l3on]

Lore wise, how is it possible that FSDs are being prevented to access certain star systems? And on whose authority? And when?

Until we establish the in lore answer to this, then speculating on the subject of this thread is in my opinion wrong.

 

[R3DB3RD]

It's a sub division...
... Rented out to some company called Robert Space Industries.

 

[Aussiedroid]

It's a sub division...
... Rented out to some company called Robert Space Industries.

LOL ... Na the areas are waaaay too big for just them

I assume the future content will be aliens related, but not sure why they need to block it off in so far in advance though. There were areas blocked since launch and now new ones, and nothing in them it seems. Cynically, I am leaning towards there being some sort of software bugs instead, having to block it off to prevent crashes or something and has nothing to do with new content at all. I hope I am proven wrong one of these years.

 

[Ouberos]

It's a sub division...
... Rented out to some company called Robert Space Industries.

I know that name from somewhere.

 

[amigacooke]

future content

Personally I like this answer. Accurate and brief, it says in two words what others will spend paragraphs saying.

 

[barcode]

It's a sub division...
... Rented out to some company called Robert Space Industries.

Great, we'll never get access to those regions now.

 

[Sapyx]

Lore wise, how is it possible that FSDs are being prevented to access certain star systems? And on whose authority? And when?

Until we establish the in lore answer to this, then speculating on the subject of this thread is in my opinion wrong.

It's never been explicitly stated. Some systems are obvious (such as the capital-planets of the superpowers) but other systems with permits are indistinguishable from thousands of similar systems without permits. The Dukes of Jotunn, for example, are just one of thousands of independent feudal factions in the game, with no logical reason why they should have a permit and most of the other feudal states don't.

The head-canon I hold to is this: the permit system appears to be entirely software based. Who wrote this software? Presumably whoever wrote the starmaps found in everybody's navigational computer - Universal Cartographics. So, if you're a faction and you have enough money, you can purchase a permit-lock on your system from Universal Cartographics. When a pilot does whatever that faction requires to earn a permit, the faction that controls the permit gives the pilot a software key which unlocks that system, and allows your shipboard computer to plot a course there. Furthermore, the lockouts can change without notice, so whatever control UC has over our shipboard map data is instantaneous and dynamic - they presumably send out regular file updates, which include changes to the permit systems.

In this scenario, somebody has paid an awful lot of money to UC to lock out entire sectors of the galaxy, and/or has convinced them to put those permit-locks in place for the greater galactic good. One would assume one of the superpowers, or perhaps a shadowy coalition of two or more of them, using the permit system to enforce a whole-of-humanity Prime-Directive-type situation around certain systems, presumably because they are known (or suspected) to house sentient life.

What doesn't make sense in all this, of course, is the complete and utter inability of anybody in the 34th century to hack these pesky permit-locks away for you. If it's truly "just a software lock-out", then you should be able to go to pretty much any anarchy and pay some lowlife codebreaker to hack into your starmap and kill off all the permit-locks. Should be a piece of cake for an Engineer.