Starter Systems and Stellar Forge

[Spaceman Si]

I can’t see if anyone has asked this question already, so apologies if it has...

Over the course of the last year and a bit playing, the workings of the Stellar Forge sort of seeped into my brain via osmosis and some very good posts by the usual suspects. That “Discovery Scanner” video on the forge has been watched more than a few times as well!

I had gained the firm impression that it wasn’t possible to add or remove systems, planets, etc easily, or indeed if at all, because of the way the forge works with it’s mass allocation. Otherwise, things like the star cubes, and the x/y line of blankness would have been fixed, and new objects added as they were discovered IRL etc.

So... Where did the new “starter systems” that got introduced with the recent bugfest^h^h^h^h^h^h^h patch come from? How were they created so readily, given the restrictions on the mass distribution in forge boxels?

 

[iain666]

Interesting question. Dromi is new in EDSM this week, so may be entirely new but checking a few other systems now covered by the Pilots Federation permit they've been in the database for years so it's only the locking that's new.

Maybe it was always there but invisible? Maybe they nicked the mass from some other hand-authored and permit locked systems so it doesn't effect the forge and players can't notice the change?

 

[marx]

A good question. Would be interesting to hear the answer from the devs.

Maybe it was always there but invisible? Maybe they nicked the mass from some other hand-authored and permit locked systems so it doesn't effect the forge and players can't notice the change?

Hm, invisible systems, invisible mass... Oh, dark matter!

 

[Para Handy]

Dromi was Manu it seems (opening EDSM from EDD in Dromi gives the Manu page): https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/105443/name/Manu

Matet EDSM page is:https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/38327900/name/Matet - my presence and scans there don't show, nor does anyone else's.

Otegine page: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/180799/name/Otegine

Sharur opens in EDSM as LPM 734: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/33015/name/LPM+734

Orna opens in EDSM as: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/105444/name/Col+285+Sector+XB-M+a37-1

 

[Factabulous]

Changing a few systems - fine. But that's just a few overrides to the Stellar Forge, not regenerating the galaxy, which would change everything and is not going to happen.

 

[Spaceman Si]

Changing a few systems - fine. But that's just a few overrides to the Stellar Forge, not regenerating the galaxy, which would change everything and is not going to happen.

Well as I understood it, even changing a few systems wasn’t an option easily done. For example, it seemed that introducing Trappist-1 involved some careful manipulation that either removed or substantially changed a different system in the boxel.

 

[Spaceman Si]

Dromi was Manu it seems (opening EDSM from EDD in Dromi gises the Manu page): https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/105443/name/Manu

Matet EDSM page is:https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/38327900/name/Matet - my presence and scans there don't show, nor does anyone else's.

Otegine page: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/180799/name/Otegine

Sharur opens in EDSM as LPM 734: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/33015/name/LPM+734

Orna opens in EDSM as: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/105444/name/Col+285+Sector+XB-M+a37-1

Does that mean that all that happened was a few existing systems got renamed?

If so, then mystery resolved, it would seem!

 

[Sapyx]

Yep, they took a bunch of uninhabited, uninteresting systems, and converted them into the starter systems. Gave 'em new names and everything. Because we could see the starter systems from the livestream video, people were able to work out prior to ED-AU going live exactly which systems were scheduled to be "Genesis torpedoed". Some people flew to the starter systems prior to the update and logged off there, to "see what would happen" (i.e. see if they could sneak into the starter systems without the required permit). But I believe FD ran a script to move everybody out of those systems. Someone posted a list of them, with their former and current names, on the forum here in this thread.

The "new" systems presumably have exactly the same masses as the old systems they replaced, so as not to upset the Stellar Forge and accidentally delete the galaxy.

 

[Yaffle]

Dromi was Manu it seems (opening EDSM from EDD in Dromi gises the Manu page): https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/105443/name/Manu

Matet EDSM page is:https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/38327900/name/Matet - my presence and scans there don't show, nor does anyone else's.

Otegine page: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/180799/name/Otegine

Sharur opens in EDSM as LPM 734: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/33015/name/LPM+734

Orna opens in EDSM as: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/105444/name/Col+285+Sector+XB-M+a37-1

There is something odd about them, the data seems to fail going to EDSM/INARA/whatever for the BGS (well, there isn't really much to BGS) and for the body data for them. I also assume that a nearby faction can't expand into them.

As to the OP - it looks as if these are outside SF somehow, but I know I don't know enough to begin to understand.

 

[Orvidius]

I'm under the impression that they can override the type of planets (for instance, taking a lifeless world and terraforming it into an earth-like) without hosing up the StellarForge. It's only when the mass distribution and/or sequence of bodies changes that it can have far reaching impacts.

You would think that it might be possible to add overrides to change more, but I'm guessing that's much more difficult due to the fact that the galaxy map view needs to be quick and have accurate information, so all of those details have to come out of the "first pass" in the procedural generator. Whereas parameters on a body of given mass are more like the "leaf nodes" in the data structure, and are more easily fudged.

But yeah, if they renamed the systems, turned a few things into ELWs, and added some stations, that all sounds pretty normal in terms of what they can override easily.

 

[Para Handy]

............ Someone posted a list of them, with their former and current names, on the forum here in this thread.
.

Interestingly that link took me to a forum that wanted me to register / login (forums-new.frontier.co.uk/threads/april-update-content-reveal-livestream-recap.509052/). (N.B. I am not complaining.)

 

[Sapyx]

Interestingly that link took me to a forum that wanted me to register / login (forums-new.frontier.co.uk/threads/april-update-content-reveal-livestream-recap.509052/). (N.B. I am not complaining.)

Sorry, I used Google to find it, and it used a weird link. Easily fixed, just by deleting the "-new" from the link. Done.