Soontill Relics, the Regor Permit Sector and DB's cryptic hints....

[Ratking15]

Morten-Marte - you may want to wing up with Erimus, I think he is already heading there... ;-)

Facece would be another good bet - old secret INRA base (now major Imperial naval base).

If you have an extra one, I'd trying selling it first before running all over the place though.

I would sell the other one though I'd need permission from wishblend first as I own one and the other one is her's but also 1.3 introduced NPC's who have about 1 in 8 jumps to supercruise to appear and try to kill you for it until they die or you get into a no fire zone which added with the double cargo corrision damage to the cargo hatch makes it VERY hard to move around as I'm constantly repairing my cargo hatch.

where they ones picked up before 1.3 ?

Yep I am with wishblend and Redwizzard. But they did lose theirs and gain new ones from mine though ACCIDENTLY doing the cargo duplication bug which we have reported to Frontier and have said they won't take them away but to refrain from doing the bug in the future.

 

[Poseidal]

Morten-Marte - you may want to wing up with Erimus, I think he is already heading there... ;-)

Facece would be another good bet - old secret INRA base (now major Imperial naval base).

If you have an extra one, I'd trying selling it first before running all over the place though.

Is it not Hotice you are thinking of?

Facece was always the Imperial naval base, and has been Imperial for a long time (like almost as long as Achenar).

 

[clavain]

Is it not Hotice you are thinking of?

Facece was always the Imperial naval base, and has been Imperial for a long time (like almost as long as Achenar).

Nope, Morten-Marte - Federation listening post.

Hotice does not seem to exist on the Galaxy Map, checked that a while ago. ;-)
Edit: It was the INRA research station that developed the Mycoid virus in FFE which was nuked. (Hotice-1 was the planet it was on).

Facece was also a secret INRA base I believe, could be wrong.

 

[Han_Zen]

First, I think the reboot and repair idea is good. It was added 1.2 thogether with the UA.

Second, scanning. When we listen to something we are infact scanning. Our ships are passive scanning all the time.
D-scan and S-scan are active scanners. The honk is probably the sendig, like the ping on a sonar.
The passive sensors can pick up EM waves (heat, radio etc.) and gravity waves. GW in ED is much faster than light.
According to lore, there is also sub-space communication. This is insta com. over long distance, used for GalNet and other stuf. Sub-space indicates quantum entanglement.

All this tell me that the UA could very well be scanning and transmiting "back home". The only problem is that it breakes after a couple of min. In space.

 

[clavain]

First, I think the reboot and repair idea is good. It was added 1.2 thogether with the UA.

Second, scanning. When we listen to something we are infact scanning. Our ships are passive scanning all the time.
D-scan and S-scan are active scanners. The honk is probably the sendig, like the ping on a sonar.
The passive sensors can pick up EM waves (heat, radio etc.) and gravity waves. GW in ED is much faster than light.
According to lore, there is also sub-space communication. This is insta com. over long distance, used for GalNet and other stuf. Sub-space indicates quantum entanglement.

All this tell me that the UA could very well be scanning and transmiting "back home". The only problem is that it breakes after a couple of min. In space.

Disposable alien scout ships? They activate in the presence of our ships or other life only, then scan and transmit, then self-destruct to avoid us capturing the technology or learning anything about them? And we have been carrying them all over the place... ;-)

 

[Zulu Romeo]

The Elite ranking missions all mention the Dark Wheel at some point. It is increasingly clear that perhaps they ought to be investigated more, to see what they want with all of this information and hardware. Indeed, they have been reaching out to us in other threads...

Also, has anybody been able to eject a Sap 3 containment thingy to see what it looks like?

 

[clavain]

The Elite ranking missions all mention the Dark Wheel at some point. It is increasingly clear that perhaps they ought to be investigated more, to see what they want with all of this information and hardware. Indeed, they have been reaching out to us in other threads...

Also, has anybody been able to eject a Sap 3 containment thingy to see what it looks like?

Has anyone even found a SAP 8-Core containment thingy? I still have suspicions that the number 8 is significant, and would like to see a picture to compare it with a UA - which just happens to have 8 "pods" on it.

Since you and Slashgoh seem to have broken the Dark Wheel cipher, why don't you or he reach out to them and see what, if anything they have to say? ;-)

 

[Han_Zen]

Disposable alien scout ships? They activate in the presence of our ships or other life only, then scan and transmit, then self-destruct to avoid us capturing the technology or learning anything about them? And we have been carrying them all over the place... ;-)

Jepp, that would not be fortunate.
I rather repair it's drive and send it out in the galaxy. It could scan 24/7 while I stay at home eating biscuits and watching old Eccy G hollos.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Has anyone even found a SAP 8-Core containment thingy? I still have suspicions that the number 8 is significant, and would like to see a picture to compare it with a UA - which just happens to have 8 "pods" on it.

Since you and Slashgoh seem to have broken the Dark Wheel cipher, why don't you or he reach out to them and see what, if anything they have to say? ;-)

Sap 8-core sounds like a new CPU make. Perhaps it's a special prize for another hardware giveaway?

Or the 8 may refer to 8 sides of a Thargoid ship, and it's playing us all for saps.

From what I gather, the trader Elite mission involves carrying one or some of these in the hold to the destination, while the combat Elite mission involves stealing one from a convoy or something. Therefore, trader and combat Elite pilots might want to take on such a mission and drop one i to space to look at and listen to it. (The explorer Elite mission is just a simple courier delivery across a short distance: no other special cargo.)

I had thoughts about investigating the Dark Wheel (their code was not hard to decipher I must admit ) to see what they know and what they plan to do. Certainly Drew's involvement with them is highly suspicious.

Sadly, I'm on enforced time away from ED, for what can only be described as "real life manual control difficulties" which is pretty frustrating as there's still a lot of things in the game I want to do. My interest in the game is still pretty bright right now. (I guess it's true: absence does make the heart grow fonder. )

 

[clavain]

Jepp, that would not be fortunate.
I rather repair it's drive and send it out in the galaxy. It could scan 24/7 while I stay at home eating biscuits and watching old Eccy G hollos.

From Potential cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact wiki page:

"Freitas finds numerous reasons why interstellar probes may be a preferred method of communication among extraterrestrial civilizations wishing to make contact with Earth. A civilization aiming to learn more about the distribution of life within the galaxy might, he speculates, send probes to a large number of star systems, rather than using radio, as one cannot ensure a response by radio but can (he says) ensure that probes will return to their sender with data on the star systems they survey.[66] Furthermore, probes would enable the surveying of non-intelligent populations, or those not yet capable of space navigation (like humans before the 20th century), as well as intelligent populations that might not wish to provide information about themselves and their planets to extraterrestrial civilizations.[66] In addition, the greater energy required to send living beings rather than a robotic probe would, according to Michaud, be only used for purposes such as a one-way migration.[67]

Freitas points out that probes, unlike the interstellar radio waves commonly targeted by SETI searches, could store information for long, perhaps geological, timescales,[66] and could emit strong radio signals unambiguously recognizable as being of intelligent origin, rather than being dismissed as a UFO or a natural phenomenon.[66] Probes could also modify any signal they send to suit the system they were in, which would be impossible for a radio transmission originating from outside the target star system.[66] Moreover, the use of small robotic probes with widely distributed beacons in individual systems, rather than a small number of powerful, centralized beacons, would provide a security advantage to the civilization using them.[66]Rather than revealing the location of a radio beacon powerful enough to signal the whole galaxy and risk such a powerful device being compromised, decentralized beacons installed on robotic probes need not reveal any information that an extraterrestrial civilization prefers others not to have.[66]"

 

[clavain]

Certainly Drew's involvement with them is highly suspicious.

His one comment on that thread was pretty non-committal. I would be very surprised if he was actively involved with them.

So c'mon, tell us, what did their message say?

Sorry to hear about your "manual control" issues, hope they are overcome before the Thargoids - or something worse - arrives.


- - - Updated - - -

Though I must admit Han Zen, I am actually more worried about this type of probe:

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/V/vonNeumannprobe.html

 

[Murp]

Has anyone even found a SAP 8-Core containment thingy? I still have suspicions that the number 8 is significant, and would like to see a picture to compare it with a UA - which just happens to have 8 "pods" on it.

Since you and Slashgoh seem to have broken the Dark Wheel cipher, why don't you or he reach out to them and see what, if anything they have to say? ;-)

I have decoded it myself and attempted to reach out to them, although I have not had any results as of yet.

 

[Han_Zen]

Though I must admit Han Zen, I am actually more worried about this type of probe:

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/V/vonNeumannprobe.html

Those look clever. Do you think the UAs are actually canbalizing sub-systems like reboot-repair?
They tend to duplicate.

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

Sap 8-core sounds like a new CPU make. Perhaps it's a special prize for another hardware giveaway?

Or the 8 may refer to 8 sides of a Thargoid ship, and it's playing us all for saps.

From what I gather, the trader Elite mission involves carrying one or some of these in the hold to the destination, while the combat Elite mission involves stealing one from a convoy or something. Therefore, trader and combat Elite pilots might want to take on such a mission and drop one i to space to look at and listen to it. (The explorer Elite mission is just a simple courier delivery across a short distance: no other special cargo.)

The Sap-8 is an interesting addition. I think the fact the UA is unstable is significant, and not just there for special effects. Sap-8 could be a new angle to pursue, similar to what we tried with the other new items that were introduced with the UA in 1.2.

 

[Allitnil]

Since you and Slashgoh seem to have broken the Dark Wheel cipher, why don't you or he reach out to them and see what, if anything they have to say? ;-)

Is there any reason to believe that the Dark Wheel forum poster is anything other than just some CMDR role playing? If the DW really existed then shouldn't it be surreptitiously approaching those with the right qualities, not asking people to send their CVs via facebook? (which is all that message was about).

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Is there any reason to believe that the Dark Wheel forum poster is anything other than just some CMDR role playing? If the DW really existed then shouldn't it be surreptitiously approaching those with the right qualities, not asking people to send their CVs via facebook? (which is all that message was about).

Maybe not the Dark Wheel roleplayer here, but perhaps the Dark Wheel faction itself, in game.
And of course those who are Elite can access them to a certain degree. I'm now beginning to see what the devs have done there.

 

[Sgt.Barnes]

Though I must admit Han Zen, I am actually more worried about this type of probe:

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/V/vonNeumannprobe.html

Sounds like a mechanical virus too me. Spreading itself via self replication. Its a good theory but I really think the damage it causes your ship is due to some kind of field it gives off to stop you going too far with it. Kinda self defence/self destruct ethos. It reinforces my idea that its intended to be carried and lead you somewhere but only if you have the 8 sap to carry it in ?

The Sap-8 is an interesting addition. I think the fact the UA is unstable is significant, and not just there for special effects. Sap-8 could be a new angle to pursue, similar to what we tried with the other new items that were introduced with the UA in 1.2.

Its a strong bet that the sap 8 core is a stabilizing transportation case for the UA allowing us to carry it without degrading itself or the ship. I spent most of last night looking round for another UA with no success. Seemed to be lots of people getting married though

 

[LordZoltan]

I'm adding my voice to the idea that SAP 8 Core and UA arr related. I don't believe that a single UA convoy has been spotted since 1.3 went live. Happy to be wrong.... But....

If so, and then these SAP 8 containers have appeared, I believe there's a strong chance that a video showing a SAP container floating in space will bear a remarkable resemblance to a UA.

The one argument outstanding against this could be Red's video of the pre-1.3 UA, with the new audio, still identifying as 'Unknown Artefact'. But if FD introduced a new item to replace the old, it stands to reason they'd ensure the old item continued to identify with its old name.

Like I say, I'm very happy to be wrong-just tossing the idea out there, and saying that it would make a certain sense to bring missions around this where other agents in the universe are explicitly looking for Elite CMDRs to help research the origins of this thing.

I suppose the other argument against is why change the item at all - these SAP 8 missions would still work with 'UA' as the item, so I'm probably way off

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

Sounds like a mechanical virus too me. Spreading itself via self replication. Its a good theory but I really think the damage it causes your ship is due to some kind of field it gives off to stop you going too far with it. Kinda self defence/self destruct ethos. It reinforces my idea that its intended to be carried and lead you somewhere but only if you have the 8 sap to carry it in ?



Its a strong bet that the sap 8 core is a stabilizing transportation case for the UA allowing us to carry it without degrading itself or the ship. I spent most of last night looking round for another UA with no success. Seemed to be lots of people getting married though

That's what I was hoping to test, but I've had no luck getting hold of a UA, and just had a bunch of silly passive aggressive PMs from one particular player whose hording them when I asked if we could have one. He must be on to something I've got a friend whose close to combat Elite who said he'll try for one of those Sap-8 container combat missions and grab one when the time comes. Its worth ruling out if nothing else?

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

I'm adding my voice to the idea that SAP 8 Core and UA arr related. I don't believe that a single UA convoy has been spotted since 1.3 went live. Happy to be wrong.... But....

If so, and then these SAP 8 containers have appeared, I believe there's a strong chance that a video showing a SAP container floating in space will bear a remarkable resemblance to a UA.

The one argument outstanding against this could be Red's video of the pre-1.3 UA, with the new audio, still identifying as 'Unknown Artefact'. But if FD introduced a new item to replace the old, it stands to reason they'd ensure the old item continued to identify with its old name.

Like I say, I'm very happy to be wrong-just tossing the idea out there, and saying that it would make a certain sense to bring missions around this where other agents in the universe are explicitly looking for Elite CMDRs to help research the origins of this thing.

I suppose the other argument against is why change the item at all - these SAP 8 missions would still work with 'UA' as the item, so I'm probably way off

+1

Maybe the reason we aren't seeing any UA drops now is that they're actually still there, but are now being carried around inside the Sap-8's ?

So in theory NPC's have figured out how to transport them (hence FD's introduction of the Sap-8 in 1.3) ?