Greetings all! First up, don't read if you don't want spoilers. Second up, all this was gained without any exploit, data-mining or breaking the game. It's simply that it was apparently accidentally in the game too early and those of us at UIA#2 just after it was detected were able to see this before it was later removed from the game. Now that Galnet has announced that the Stargoids are called Rogue Signal Sources I decided to make this teaser for what's coming, because I'm so HYPED knowing how different this is to anything that's happened before! Update 14 looks to contain a LOT more than just some Tharogid CZ's in the bubble 
Dropping in on the moving Rogue Signal Source is actually fairly hard since supercruise assist can't catch it (you just follow the RSS but never quite get close enough to drop!). Manually dropping is also hard since the RSS seems to function similarly to a celestial object, your ship's speed alters relative to the RSS, slowing you down on approach. You end up going fractionally too slow to actually drop into it, so you need to approach from the front and let it fall towards you, it's tricky but not impossible.
It's likely that when we see them in the coming weeks this may no longer be an issue. I'm not sure if that's simply because my ship's systems weren't calibrated for locking onto a moving source like this, which the PF will obviously patch later, or whether it takes skills that I clearly need to practice
Rogue Signal Source (RSS) 1st Encounter:
(Dropping into the RSS results in a Crash-to-desktop (CTD) resulting from missing data. However, that's not the end...)
That's my ASP and CMDRs Goidbyte and Mallchad also still in supercruise over the top of the green-yellow cloud. My fellow Commanders speculated at how big this thing was for a while, concluding that it must be massive given how big our supercruise trails were next to it - though perspective and scale are notoriously difficult to judge in supercruise.
From here CMDR Mallchad discovered that simply dropping out of supercruise without a destination lock "as you would above a planet" was the key to success! No CTD occurred, and we found ourselves here:
Sadly my computer's mainframe is very outdated so my image resolution isn't good enough to do this awe-inspiring sight justice. You can see from Mallchad's photobombing that we're not in supercruise here!
What you're seeing is literally 'inside' the moving RSS. It's exactly like being around a planet, you're in normal space (not supercruise) and the area is vast! The RSS marker, presumably the centre of the cloud, was 661km from us when we dropped in! We got as close of 400km before we experienced a CTD - we repeated this many times and even tried to use fighter to get closer, to no avail. Provided we didn't cross that 400km threshold we could stay in the area with no issues and fly around normally.
It's clear that something lurks within that enormous cloud. I fully anticipate that soon we'll see these RSS appear in populated systems and these areas will be swarming with Thargoid ships defending whatever titanic edifice exists within there...
As it approached, it was clear that it was going to miss the actual star, but we were all curious as to what it was going to do, would it shoot past and off into deep space? By this time many other Commanders from Canonn had joined us and were all chasing the RSS.
From inside the RSS Commanders Mallchad and Goidbyte reported that they could see the sun getting rapidly larger and the cloud was illuminating in the sunlight.
The RSS didn't fly past the star! it actually swung around the star in an epic display of celestial mechanics and wound up on a new trajectory - the same heading that UIA#2 had gone off on a few hours before, thus proving that the RSS and the UIA are linked but not necessarily the same thing. Given the recent Galnet article it could be that the Stargoids are a cluster of these RSS' and one 'breaks off' to zoom through a system.
From inside, Commanders Mallchad and Goidbyte reported an amazing sight as they saw the sun swing around the cloud at .23c and recede into the distance! Once it was established that the path the RSS was now on coincided with the path the UIA took to the next star we saluted this amazing object and watched it speed away into the void...
There ends the ballad of possibly the first encounter with the inside of a Rogue Signal Source. Those of you reading this, I hope this fills you with as much excitement as it does me!
o7
Final Warning: SPOILERS for future content (probably)!!
1st Encounter:
When UIA#2 was first detected I was at UIA#1 with many others. I raced over to the approx location of UIA#2 and was amongst the first there. I decided to fly towards the Stargoid as it approached the system, as many had done with UIA#1 - this was before anyone really knew anything about them so many people were still trying to reach them, etc. Only a few minutes into the super cruise trip I saw a "Rogue Signal Source" appear and whizz past me. It appeared exactly as any normal signal source, but I realised I'd never seen that name before so I turned and was amazed to find that the Rogue Signal Source was moving at .23c towards the primary star. The following image-capture was taken during that first encounter.Dropping in on the moving Rogue Signal Source is actually fairly hard since supercruise assist can't catch it (you just follow the RSS but never quite get close enough to drop!). Manually dropping is also hard since the RSS seems to function similarly to a celestial object, your ship's speed alters relative to the RSS, slowing you down on approach. You end up going fractionally too slow to actually drop into it, so you need to approach from the front and let it fall towards you, it's tricky but not impossible.
It's likely that when we see them in the coming weeks this may no longer be an issue. I'm not sure if that's simply because my ship's systems weren't calibrated for locking onto a moving source like this, which the PF will obviously patch later, or whether it takes skills that I clearly need to practice
Rogue Signal Source (RSS) 1st Encounter:
(Dropping into the RSS results in a Crash-to-desktop (CTD) resulting from missing data. However, that's not the end...)
2nd Encounter
I reported this to Canonn and discovered that Commander Eckee had reported it to them a couple of hours earlier than me and recorded a video of it. To my knowledge Commander Eckee was the first to record the RSS. Commander Eckee's experience was the same as mine, chase, struggle to drop then CTD. RSS' seemed few-and-far between with no other reports since then. Several other commanders joined me after I was able to find a second RSS in the same system by simply flying a line between the primary star towards the Stargoid to about 20k ls and back again over and over for several hours until I found another RSS. CMDR Goidbyte and CMDR Mallchad joined me from Canonn discord and they were instrumental in discovering the true secrets of the Rogue Signal Source, including how to drop safely into it without causing a CTD. After this point I was basically just along for the ride, and taking pics!Inside the RSS
In playing with the 1st RSS I had accidentally discovered that flying past the RSS and slowing down meant that it would actually catch up to you and 'hit' you, when it did so your ship (still in supercruise) was somehow merged with the RSS and you could actually move around within it in supercruse, bathed by an eerie green glow. CMDRs Goidbyte and Mallchad discovered that by using the external cameras you could actually see an immense green cloud! This is one of the first ever recorded images of the object within a RSS:That's my ASP and CMDRs Goidbyte and Mallchad also still in supercruise over the top of the green-yellow cloud. My fellow Commanders speculated at how big this thing was for a while, concluding that it must be massive given how big our supercruise trails were next to it - though perspective and scale are notoriously difficult to judge in supercruise.
From here CMDR Mallchad discovered that simply dropping out of supercruise without a destination lock "as you would above a planet" was the key to success! No CTD occurred, and we found ourselves here:
Sadly my computer's mainframe is very outdated so my image resolution isn't good enough to do this awe-inspiring sight justice. You can see from Mallchad's photobombing that we're not in supercruise here!
What you're seeing is literally 'inside' the moving RSS. It's exactly like being around a planet, you're in normal space (not supercruise) and the area is vast! The RSS marker, presumably the centre of the cloud, was 661km from us when we dropped in! We got as close of 400km before we experienced a CTD - we repeated this many times and even tried to use fighter to get closer, to no avail. Provided we didn't cross that 400km threshold we could stay in the area with no issues and fly around normally.
It's clear that something lurks within that enormous cloud. I fully anticipate that soon we'll see these RSS appear in populated systems and these areas will be swarming with Thargoid ships defending whatever titanic edifice exists within there...
Since this 'instance' operates much like a planet, we speculated that it's likely that you'll be able to fly up to whatever is in there (presumably fighting your way through defending Thargoid interceptors) and land on it like a planet, get out and explore or presumably fight Thargoids. Commander John Jameson in his logs described a similar journey, flying up to a vast hive ship past its defences to deliver his mycoid payload... It could be that a Thargoid Queen lurks in the depths of whatever the cloud hides...
The RSS Trajectory:
As I mentioned earlier the RSS was 'falling' through the system that the Stargoid (UIA#2) was heading towards. Over the course of several hours moving at a consistent .23c it became clear it was heading right for the sun! The UIA#2 Stargoid actually swung past this system long before the RSS reached the star.As it approached, it was clear that it was going to miss the actual star, but we were all curious as to what it was going to do, would it shoot past and off into deep space? By this time many other Commanders from Canonn had joined us and were all chasing the RSS.
From inside the RSS Commanders Mallchad and Goidbyte reported that they could see the sun getting rapidly larger and the cloud was illuminating in the sunlight.
The RSS didn't fly past the star! it actually swung around the star in an epic display of celestial mechanics and wound up on a new trajectory - the same heading that UIA#2 had gone off on a few hours before, thus proving that the RSS and the UIA are linked but not necessarily the same thing. Given the recent Galnet article it could be that the Stargoids are a cluster of these RSS' and one 'breaks off' to zoom through a system.
From inside, Commanders Mallchad and Goidbyte reported an amazing sight as they saw the sun swing around the cloud at .23c and recede into the distance! Once it was established that the path the RSS was now on coincided with the path the UIA took to the next star we saluted this amazing object and watched it speed away into the void...
There ends the ballad of possibly the first encounter with the inside of a Rogue Signal Source. Those of you reading this, I hope this fills you with as much excitement as it does me!
o7