Massive number of systems no longer accessible - unknown permit required

[Rardain]

Hey all.

A couple of years ago I spent a year exploring and with the advent of the new exploration tools I am retracing my flight log to go and fully map some of the more interesting systems I discovered.

Trouble is, some of those systems lie in the COL 121 SECTOR which now appears to be largely locked off from exploration for totally obscure reasons, citing it requires an unknown permit.

Has anyone else come across this (or other locked off area's)?

I am not sure if this is intentional or a bug so I have logged it as such anyway - not heard anything back about it though.

 

[Silektuo99]

Hey all.

A couple of years ago I spent a year exploring and with the advent of the new exploration tools I am retracing my flight log to go and fully map some of the more interesting systems I discovered.

Trouble is, some of those systems lie in the COL 121 SECTOR which now appears to be largely locked off from exploration for totally obscure reasons, citing it requires an unknown permit.

Has anyone else come across this (or other locked off area's)?

I am not sure if this is intentional or a bug so I have logged it as such anyway - not heard anything back about it though.

Yes large chunks of the COL sector by the nebulas are locked down. I believe it is for future content. They have been locked for some time.

 

[Sunyavadin]

Yeah, vast swathes of space in all directions around the area of the Horsehead to Witch Head nebulae are locked down and have been for a few years now. Even plotting a route to barnard's loop often requires heading to a waypoint like Rigel and then re-plotting. Trying to traverse the regions around it is difficult to say the least and usually explorers give it a wide berth when plotting a route out from the bubble.

Occasionally there have been attempts to get in, such as the Gnosis' planned jump to the Cone Sector, but without success.
FD have confirmed it's for future content, and the buildup to the Thargoids' return over the last couple of years seems to suggest somewhere in that region is where we'll eventually see their home systems.

 

[varonica]

Yes large chunks of the COL sector by the nebulas are locked down. I believe it is for future content. They have been locked for some time.

There's also an entire nebula about 5kl the other side of Sag A* that's locked, I suspect Moties but in that case they are far from home!

 

[dinasi89]

Can’t get to Running Man Nebula

Wow was I frustrated not being able to get to the Running Man Nebula, until I read this thread about sections ‘locked out.’ Thanks; I’ll have to settle for Witched Sector

 

[Sapyx]

I take it it's been a while since you've been out in the black, commander?

Col 70 and several nearby sectors, such as 121, were locked with the Unknown Permit sometime around version 2.2 - just after the Thargoids started appearing, but before they arrived in force in 2.4. It's a common "trap" for budding explorers who head off towards the biggest, shiniest nebula in the game (Barnards Loop), only to find themselves stuck inside the Col 70 "flytrap", almost completely surrounded by permit-locked systems. Then, of course, a couple of commanders were actually in those sectors when the permits came down, and woke up the next morning to find themselves literally trapped, with no system within range they were allowed to jump to. They had to be manually rescued by FD.

It is not a bug and has been well-documented here on the forum. We can speculate as to "why" the region was permit-slapped, though "Thargoid stuff" seems to be the most logical explanation, given the timing. And given that everything else labelled as "Unknown" in the game usually turns out to be "Thargoid" (eg. Unknown Artifacts => Thargoid Sensors).

If you are aware of any ELWs that are now in the permit-locked sectors, please advise Marx in the ELW thread, as he's trying to record the existence of any known ones, for closer examination once the permit is acquired/lifted.

 

[Thatchinho]

Wow was I frustrated not being able to get to the Running Man Nebula, until I read this thread about sections ‘locked out.’ Thanks; I’ll have to settle for Witched Sector 

Running Man isn’t locked, cmdr. It’s in one of the unlocked areas within the Col 70 permit locked region. The surrounding permit locked region often stops direct route plotting and you need to find a way around it. In this case if you can plot a route to the Witchhead then all is fine. Once you’ve hit the Witchhead, you’ll be inside Col 70 and should be able to plot a route to the Running Man without any problems. o7

 

[Henkka77]

"Future content" going on for the fifth year..

 

[Rardain]

Hi all, thanks for the exploration update, most helpful.

As I say, I spent an entire physical year in the black from 23/12/2015 to 23/12/2016 and haven't been back out that way since...I guess I had explorers fatigue so took some time to just blow stuff up. [smile]

With the new explorer tools it's time to head back to the black.

I only discovered 15 systems in the COL 70 sector but some 36 system in COL 121 - none of them contained Earth-like worlds but there were some interesting ones with Water worlds.

There are 9 systems where I discovered Earth-likes spread across the rest of my journey and lots of other interesting feature systems but trying to plot a route to them at the moment is problematic as I am at the edge of the COL 121 impenetrable bubble.

Guess I will just need to back-track a good distance and try and work my way around the barrier.

I will check out the Earth-like worlds list and add to it if mine are not listed.

I am really interested to see how things have changed visually since my last visits.

 

[Thatchinho]

Hi all, thanks for the exploration update, most helpful.

As I say, I spent an entire physical year in the black from 23/12/2015 to 23/12/2016 and haven't been back out that way since...I guess I had explorers fatigue so took some time to just blow stuff up. [smile]

With the new explorer tools it's time to head back to the black.



I only discovered 15 systems in the COL 70 sector but some 36 system in COL 121 - none of them contained Earth-like worlds but there were some interesting ones with Water worlds.

There are 9 systems where I discovered Earth-likes spread across the rest of my journey and lots of other interesting feature systems but trying to plot a route to them at the moment is problematic as I am at the edge of the COL 121 impenetrable bubble.

Guess I will just need to back-track a good distance and try and work my way around the barrier.

I will check out the Earth-like worlds list and add to it if mine are not listed.

I am really interested to see how things have changed visually since my last visits.

You didn’t got to Col 70 Sector FY-N C21-3 by any chance did you? (I already know the answer’s almost certainly no, but I’m still going to ask just on the infinitesimal chance that you did!)

 

[Rardain]

You didn’t got to Col 70 Sector FY-N C21-3 by any chance did you? (I already know the answer’s almost certainly no, but I’m still going to ask just on the infinitesimal chance that you did!)

Hi Thatchinho,

It's always worth asking, but unfortunately on this occasion you are right, I didn't get there. Got to a few systems fairly close to it though.

What is it you are interested in?

 

[thundernuns]

There's also an entire nebula about 5kl the other side of Sag A* that's locked, I suspect Moties but in that case they are far from home!

I think that's the Bleia sectors. There's 5 entire sectors locked off there.

 

[Sunyavadin]

Wow was I frustrated not being able to get to the Running Man Nebula, until I read this thread about sections ‘locked out.’ Thanks; I’ll have to settle for Witched Sector ����

Once you get to the witch head nebula, plotting a route right into barnard's loop works just fine, I've done it from Rigel and the Witch Head Science Centre plenty times just fine.
There's even an asteroid base right in the corridor of nebulae there, the tourist centre.
You can head in there and explore the running man, orion, and flame nebulae, but you cannot exit the far side of barnard's loop into the horsehead nebula, as that's locked out.

 

[Thatchinho]

Hi Thatchinho,

It's always worth asking, but unfortunately on this occasion you are right, I didn't get there. Got to a few systems fairly close to it though.

What is it you are interested in?

It’s a system referenced by the Thargoid Probes. Without going into the details of it, and how it was worked out, etc, long and short of it is they transmit their distance from that system!

 

[Cliff Dobbs]

Hey all.

A couple of years ago I spent a year exploring and with the advent of the new exploration tools I am retracing my flight log to go and fully map some of the more interesting systems I discovered.

Trouble is, some of those systems lie in the COL 121 SECTOR which now appears to be largely locked off from exploration for totally obscure reasons, citing it requires an unknown permit.

Has anyone else come across this (or other locked off area's)?

I am not sure if this is intentional or a bug so I have logged it as such anyway - not heard anything back about it though.

I was recently watching an episode of Blake's 7 in which a sector of the galaxy was entirely uncharted. The explanation for this was that every ship that had ventured that way had failed to return. No-one knew what was there and no-one was inclined to try finding out (except the crew of the Liberator, of course).

That gave me a plausible in-game explanation for why the Pilot's Federation and Universal Cartographics might lock off certain areas of the galaxy - for our own safety

C

 

[Thatchinho]

Once you get to the witch head nebula, plotting a route right into barnard's loop works just fine, I've done it from Rigel and the Witch Head Science Centre plenty times just fine.
There's even an asteroid base right in the corridor of nebulae there, the tourist centre.
You can head in there and explore the running man, orion, and flame nebulae, but you cannot exit the far side of barnard's loop into the horsehead nebula, as that's locked out.

Just to add for Dinasi, while you can’t get into the Horsehead, you can still get out of Col 70 that way if you want to. There’s still a bit of Permit Locked areas to get past, but basically if you either go over or round the West of the Horsehead Dark Region then you should be fine.

 

[Fanghur Rahl]

Dollars to donuts Raxxla is located somewhere in there.

 

[Rardain]

Mmmmmmm....donuts.

 

[Cirrus]

There's also an entire nebula about 5kl the other side of Sag A* that's locked, I suspect Moties but in that case they are far from home!

Another "The Mote in God's Eye" fan? One of my all time favourite books. Had me gripped to the end, if you excuse the pun..

 

[Lightspeed]

Remember the Gnosis