THE FORMIDINE RIFT MYSTERY (Part 4)

[Tanksy]

Yep, always a risk as jacques has shown with a mobile base.

But Jacques is an NPC moved there by Frontier, not a player-owned ship that the players can decide where to take it. I feel like there's a lot more Terms and Conditions that Frontier would apply to such a thing.

Why Claim the Zurara

Spoiler

The idea was because Drew made it clear that there are no more clues, this chapter that involved the "Rift Mystery" is over, and he's now busy finishing his book and is currently unsure of his level of involvement of any future Elite story. With no more clues, I felt our loose group of Rifter's could do with some focus. My post a few pages before the Zurara suggestion was to collaboratively clean up the front page in light of what we now know, and archive a lot of the unimportant stuff - and write a decent summary of events from a Rifter perspective. This could all be done on a GoogleDoc or Trello then copied back onto the front page.

Then I saw that Canonn were getting a megaship for science. I realised that Frontier must be willing and able to have a group 'own' a larger ship asset and move it about to some extent. I thought it would be fitting if we did something with the Zurara. It is, afterall an in-game asset put there for no reason other than to be the objective of anyone following the clues left by Drew in his book and since in Galnet and more recently the Dynasty arc. It was put there for US to find, so who else would be more deserving of making some kind of use of it?

We are a small, disorganised group, compared with other player groups out there, and I wouldn't for a minute think we were deserving of or capable of getting a new megaship or an asteroid base or whatever. But as part of Drew's story this ship now exists out there, and I thought it would be a good idea to focus some of our attention on it out there and make something of it. As something to concentrate some effort on and to give us something to do as a community still related to the Rift Mystery that brought us together.

My reasoning behind the Asteroid Base suggestion here is that the Zurara doesn't have docking points on its own, and Frontier may not be willing to edit the assets to add those on, so why not use assets that already exist?

Player Faction/Group

Spoiler

My initial suggestion was to create our own faction out of this, which has met with a lot of resistance, which I kind of agree with. We don't want to be tied down as any kind of structured organisation, and I certainly don't want to get involved with the BGS and politics. The key point of the suggestion was to bring the Zurara back to life, give it purpose. Steal it from the shadowy organisations that killed all aboard and raise awareness of what they did by our actions.

I've heard that LuckyLuke did set up a player group out of the last Rift thread, but I can find no evidence of this searching the groups forum. We definitely don't have a player faction, and I now think that would be a mistake.

My reasoning was that there would need to be people on board the Zurara to bring it back, so we'd need a faction. However, it doesn't need to be us. It just needs it's own minor faction. It could be "Zurara Crew" or "Dynasty's Child" or anything, but nothing linked to us. Just new tenants of the revived megaship once we complete some community goals to bring her back.

If we were to be in control of the Zurara, then shouldn't it be subsequently owned by us as a faction? We needn't deliberately take part in BGS or politics, we can just have a faction purely for names sake. Afterall, we're not likely to suddenly start gaming the BGS in our favor.

Decals

Spoiler

The latest suggestion of a Rifter Decal came from Drew. He suggested it after his event on the 29th, and asked to be put in touch with the designer of the patch a lot of us use. This has now happened (Qohen Leth created the patch) and it's in Drew's hands to see if Frontier will create one, and decide how to distribute it.

I suggested linking it to some community Goals around the Zurara, but the idea of a Decal has set this thread on fire over who is and isn't a Rifter. The Canonn Decal is going to anyone who is allied with the Canonn minor faction AND contributes to their new community goal if it passes the first tier. This is why I suggested a similar system. But the choice is up to Drew/Frontier and I think we should stop speculating on who is or isn't a Rifter. Everyone knows if they class themselves a Rifter, and whatever criteria get's put in place, those who want the Decal I'm sure will work for it. I'd rather more people get it that arn't Rifters than risking excluding anyone who feels they should have it.

Totally agree with you here. Exclusivity of the decal makes absolutely no sense in relation to the Rifters and threads, who themselves are not an exclusive group.

Community Goals

Spoiler

There has been some good suggestions on community goals around this, but I can't remember them all off hand and the thread is going at a crazy pace again because of this new controversy. Remember this is all speculation at the moment, nothing may ever come of any of this. But if enough of us get behind it, we can work to make at least some of it happen.

Off the top of my head, suggested community goals are:

Retrieve the Dead
Collect the corpses frozen on the Zurara and return them to the bubble and their families.
This can be used as a method of highlighting the plight of the Zurara, the existance of the Dynasty expedition and try to force the dark forces behind the massacare into the light.

Repair the Reactor
Bring the Zurara back to life so it can be habitable. A new outpost for humanity deep in the Rift.

Repopulate the Zurara
Bring a willing population out to the Zurara so it can be developed as a functional port for explorers to dock at.

Develop the Zurara (maybe stretch goals for a previous mentioned CG)
Refuel, Repair etc facilities onboard the Zurara.

then the controversial one....
Replace the outdated jump drive with a modern FSD drive
So the Zurara can be re positioned for any future mystery investigation

These CG's in that order would be a good idea to pitch to Frontier. It would give everyone ample time to prepare for things. For us to prepare for how we'd handle the Zurara, for Frontier to prepare any possible new assets for it, as well as make it all work in the first place. Really, the final CG would be the one that shows wether or not "we" as a collective want it mobile or not, and I think that would be a lot more telling than a back-and-forth on the forum.

Other involved parties

Spoiler

Of course, the Zurara is Drew's creation. It's his story, his novel, his characters and his mystery. I've PM'd him to get what his thoughts are on us Rifter's taking some action that effects this ship. Hopefully he'll come in here and post his opinions, which may stop all this speculation dead, or give it a chance of actually going ahead.

Then there are the Children of Raxxla. A player group formed out of the original Rift thread who aligned themselves with Salome, have connections with Drew and have been working hard in parallel to this thread to solve the Rift Mystery. They have their own systems, faction, and involvement in Drew's story. As soon as this idea to claim the Zurara got traction in this thread, I contacted the CoR concul to ensure this doesn't conflict with any plans they may have, and maybe get their approval or even assistance. I am waiting to hear their response.

I think that in asking CoR about this, you may just convince them to start their own megaship campaign.. Realize that if Frontier end up being harrased over multiple people wanting their own ship, then a likely outcome is that nobody gets one.

Desecrating a Memorial

Spoiler

There have been a couple of voices saying that this idea is inhumane, and the ship should be left as a memorial like the recently found Generation ships. The counter argument is that returning the dead to their families is the honourable thing to do.

There have been claims that the Zurara should be left alone with it's voice messages for future players to find. I argue that it was put there for US to find. Anyone who looks back over the history of the Rift Mystery and the antics of Salome would just see whatever happens next to the Zurara as the next step in the story. They wouldn't feel robbed of the opportunity to visit it. It will still exist anyway. As pointed out, if anyone wants to see a ghost ship, there are now plenty of Generations ships close to the bubble to see. If someone makes the trek to the Rift to visit the Zurara, they would be a Rifter and should take pride that other Rifter's saw to bring her back to life despite the attempts of those behind the Dynasty expedition to eradicate all evidence of it ever existing.

This is the main "Con" of allowing the Zurara to move, as it brings up the question of what becomes of the voice logs. I really don't think it's fair to assume that only a rifter is going to make the journey out there to see it -- It's already been proven that non-rifters have done it many times. It's a cool thing to see, and one of the only things to see in an otherwise story-barren game environment, and that attracts people who may be feeling like there's not much else to the game. Jump Range isn't nearly as hardcore as it used to be and it's very easy to have a ship go 35+ lightyears without sacrificing much to do so, so people who aren't full on explorers like we might be can still make their way over there.

And Finally

Spoiler

This talk of who is or isn't a Rifter over the Decals has caused some tension previously unseen in this thread (other than when we were invaded over the 29th live event, and the Drew Conspiracy theorists). There has been some mud slung and accusations of a 'self-appointed "Rifter Council"' and that 'oldest most dedicated of Rifters get any special reward'.

Can't we all just get along as usual? We're unique in that we have no Council, leaders, inner circle or such. We're just like minded individuals with an interest in mysteries and a newer understanding of Mythology and blunting Occam's Razor. The only level of organisation we have is that someone has to curate the front page (muggins here) and there is usually a consensus bashed out in the thread as to what should be promoted there.

I don't like it when people assume superiority over others when there's no real reason for it. Nor should anyone. The reason I don't like the idea of the decal being exclusive is pretty much because of that, and because of this very thread. The way it behaves, and the way we behave as a group -- There's absolutely no "exclusivity" here. Making the decal exclusive is simply imposing yourself as being part of the "exclusive" group to solidify certain peoples inflated egos.

 

[clavain]

Don't be silly. We'd be spreading the truth.

It's official. Third optional battlecry is "Don't be silly!" Glad we decided something after all that discussion.

 

[Lyrae Cursorius]

...

It's a crime scene, not a luxury yacht.

our own faction

Thousands of players from dozens of player groups have put in years of research, system sweeping, and analysis into the R+R line. The discovery of it wasn't even a part of this thread, only the aftermath. Like Canonn, you are attempting to speak for group ownership over something that you do not own, and doing so loudly.

 

[BluWolve]

*Sigh* Squabbling over stickers, which in fact we probably have no control over how it is divvied out anyway. Decal for all that want it, bobblehead for those that buy Premonition, and a tinfoil shipkit in the store for those truly dedicated men, women and penguins that desire it.

At the core of the Rifters - why I respect, admire and join in - is Freedom of choice and the sharing of ideas and information. Please, keep it that way. None should be excluded and none should be forced to conform to a specific ideal. You know if you're a rifter, no decal will ever change that.

Now please, lets all move past the whole sticker thing and discuss the proposed CG. I like the idea of bringing home the dead, though not sure how that would be possible in terms of current game mechanics.

Exploration CG sounds fitting, search for beacons or terraformed worlds, maybe other ships that were part of the expedition. That's kind of already been done though, its not that different from what a lot of Rifters have already been doing for years.

Commodities, taking them to the heart and/or soul bases for setting up an expedition of recovery. The dead and information contained on the Zurara, then later down the track the information discovered can lead to further clues. Cryptic clues that require more puzzling out to decode of course

One thing to remember is that the fact the Teorge logs have been discovered means that the forces behind the whole conspiracy no longer care if their plan is discovered. The galaxy knowing about the Dynasty expedition is unimportant at this stage as far as they are concerned.

So bringing attention to the expedition wont have any real effect. We need to figure out who and why, then make that information public and apply intense pressure on these shadowy forces to reveal more information that isn't available to us any other way. How to go about that is something I have been thinking about a lot. So far a CG is the only current game mechanic I can think of, though I'm sure there are other ways I haven't considered yet.

Poking around chasing ghosts hasn't been much use for me as yet, nothing new has come to light that isn't already known. Doesn't mean I will stop, just that so far nothing of interest has come of my usual method of investigation. This is why I'm exploring other options such as a CG, but I welcome any other suggestions to achieve the same goals.

 

[Belthize]

I would love to see a chapter in the book with a CMDR (it can be a fictional character, doesn't have to be me) out on the far side of the rift spending roughly a month, hours at a time:

• Jumping to a random system, flying to 200KLS from the star to avoid any glare
• Looking back toward the galactic center to see if anything was highlighted
• Shutdown all systems so it's quiet, rotate through 360 of N/S heading (N is back to core) with FA-Off (for quiet) offset E/W by -45 degrees
• Repeat for 0 and 45 degrees to cover full sky
• Isolate galactic core sound (it's easy to hear)
• Pick loudest/most interesting sound, zero in, look at galmap jump 500KLY toward sound
• Repeat

Boy that was an exciting month.

I knew it was a fools errand but I held out hope I could hear some beacon of some sort and by week 2 I was definitely hearing things.

Part of me wonders would would have happened if I'd tried that between the bubble and the stations, as it turns out based on where I was the galactic core was always behind what there was to be found and would therefore mask any actual sound if there even was one to hear, I do recall hearing interesting non-galactic core clicks in that vague direction.

It really would make a riveting chapter, right up there with chapter 8 of the epic thriller "Paint Drying by Numbers".

 

[Masheikh Scytale]

So bringing attention to the expedition wont have any real effect. We need to figure out who and why, then make that information public and apply intense pressure on these shadowy forces to reveal more information that isn't available to us any other way. How to go about that is something I have been thinking about a lot. So far a CG is the only current game mechanic I can think of, though I'm sure there are other ways I haven't considered yet.

Not very sure all this has much to do with exploring.
But as it seems the Rifters are even considering to become some kind of badged bartenders and there is not much left to explore in the Rift...why not?
I, for myself, will keep on exploring and keep an eye on the DW... That has still a Rift-ish taste. Even if it's not as genuine as when riding the stars in EAFOTS.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

The discovery of it wasn't even a part of this thread, only the aftermath.

Given that DrewW was confirming answers to the 'Greek Myths' riddle in THIS thread, I'd say that wasn't strictly true

 

[Harley Quinn]

But Jacques is an NPC moved there by Frontier, not a player-owned ship that the players can decide where to take it. I feel like there's a lot more Terms and Conditions that Frontier would apply to such a thing.

If we were to be in control of the Zurara, then shouldn't it be subsequently owned by us as a faction? We needn't deliberately take part in BGS or politics, we can just have a faction purely for names sake. Afterall, we're not likely to suddenly start gaming the BGS in our favor.

All factions, whether player or npc, work the same. You don't play BGS when near another faction, you get invaded and lose you base.

Now it still remains to be seen how megaships work, but we have 1 example of 1 movable base to go on and that's it, and if they have kept the same mechanics which is likely from what little they have said on usuage, it would just act like any other base in a system.

Maybe not, but you can only plan on what is known.

 

[Archon Valec]

Agreed, a lot of CoR would be on the list, and I'll buy them a drink as fellow rifters any day of the week while disliking CoR, although as I've only been to Conflux and the gap maybe I shouldn't be let in the bar.

Keep in mind a lot of CoR were originally Rifters, myself included. The Rift mystery is inextricably linked to the Kahina/CoR story line from the begging. Oh, and I STILL can't rep you!

Your a Rifter. It's not about where you been.

Heck... my wife should be an honorary Rifter for putting up with many a night listening to "HONK! Fuel scooping ... fuel scooping complete ... fuel scoop disengaged ... Frame Shift Drive charging ... 4, 3, 2, 1. Engage" over and over again (and over)

EDIT: I'll bet most of you read that last sentence in Verity's voice

I hear you man, my wife has actually gone so far as to read Zach's first page posts to get a better understanding of what the heck I'm talking about (god bless her). Oh, and I STILL can't rep you either!

But according to you, only the oldest most dedicated of Rifters get any special reward regardless of contribution. So, half the people who post in this thread currently don't get one?

Pretty sure to be a rifter, you just need to decide you are a rifter... Following the previous rift threads is what got me into this game, I may not have the history some have with the rift mystery, but I'd like to consider myself a rifter, even though I only bought the game last September!

Can't we have a faction and not be part of the BGS?

I mean, it'd essentially just be a group we'd all share in common. Sure we may or may not have our own base, but we'd be far out of the way and not interfereing with the game's BGS or politicing.

Luckily with anything that far out BGS would be largely irrelevant. And it's only influenced by player actions anyways. By constantly dumping exploration data, what ever controlling faction would just increase in influence and remain there. Unless a player purposely undermined said controlling faction by doing missions for the other minor factions, or blowing up NPC ships, then nothing would change anyways. I'm no BGS expert, but that's my limited understanding.

Gin always wins over brandy in my glass.

Scotch guy myself

In my opinion we don't need a Rifter faction. We already exist as a player group and have managed to stay pretty active and cohesive without being a faction.

Factions control stations and systems ... We're talking about controlling a ship. Totally different dynamic.

I Agree, I'm not entirely sure what a in-game player faction would do for the rifter community. I also still advocate making the Heart Nebula base our defacto home as opposed to the Zurara. As Lyrae said, it's a place with a very sad history, and I kind of think it should be left as-is as a memorial, and a place for other explorers to come and see, and "pay their respects" so to speak. I'm hesitant to say if ANY group should lay claim to it because of this.

You may need to sit down before reading page 268 of Elite Dangerous Premonition in that case.

Cheers,

Drew.

Any chance at hinting at any other player names from this thread that may be mentioned? I'd assume there's quite a few, and I'd be curious! And how would one write a murderous penguin into this story line? I'm asking for a friend of course lol

Spoiler

 

[Volimar]

"You're a Rifter Harr...wait"

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

And how would one write a murderous penguin into this story line? I'm asking for a friend of course lol

You mean you don't know?

Darn, I was hoping to be on a CoR (s)hitlist somewhere. Maybe you just don't have the security clearance.

 

[clavain]

It's a crime scene, not a luxury yacht.

Thousands of players from dozens of player groups have put in years of research, system sweeping, and analysis into the R+R line. The discovery of it wasn't even a part of this thread, only the aftermath. Like Canonn, you are attempting to speak for group ownership over something that you do not own, and doing so loudly.

Not like CoR of course.

 

[CMDR Poet Starwind]

All this talk of turning the Zurara into a factioned megabase/bar makes me think we should have a shanty for the place.

I vote for "What Do You Do With a Drunken Rifter?"

Do you think "Shave that belly with a gimballed laser" is too gauche?

 

[DavidMik]

With the Zurara found and Salomé dead, it's pretty unclear as to what to do next. Presumably the story as it has been told so far will be continued in Premonition, hopefully supplemented with new leads to follow in-game. But what do we do now? Sure, we could hash out plans for decals and squatting in megaships, but... that seems like quite a bore compared to what may or may not be going on here.

So, what are some loose ends that may be worth investigating? Here's a few I've thought of:

• The marooned Sidewinder mentioned in the logs of the Rift Bases - where is it stranded? Perhaps some corroborative evidence of what happened to the Zurara is here.
• Strange formations and other phenomena in witchspace (mainly mentioned in the Conflux logs). Is this referring to our flowery friends causing mischief, or something else being so far away from the reported hyperdictions?
• "Hyperspace Signals" in the Rift. Now, given the apparent use of some mind altering device, this could well be hallucinatory, but if not, what caused this? Where was it encountered exactly?
• Is the Zurara the same ship that was mentioned in the Rift Logs with the whole crew that needed to stop by an Earth-Like, or not?
• Megaships in other locations - was on sent out to the Rift alone (perhaps it showed more promise), or were other ships sent to the Conflux and Gap?
• The Zurara mentions they dropped biofilters and marked habitable or terraformable worlds. Can we find evidence of this? Would this evidence be along the RR line (where the Zurara is situated) or between the Zurara and the Rift bases?
• What's up with Sirius? They may have been funding this, so investigation of Sirius itself, though probably undertaken by many players already, is still of interest.
• The mind-altering drug/device/thing - what was it exactly? I haven't looked yet, but does galnet ever mention something happening that would fit the description of this between the expedition and now?
• Col 70 sector - are there any strange happenings on the borders of it, and can we find a way in perhaps? Probably no on the latter, but I have a feeling the locking of the sector will become more and more related to the Rift mystery as time goes on.
• The Zurara - does the name have significance? I see links to Muhammad's companions or a Portuguese chronicler. I am having a tough time finding a definition for the name - only thing I found was "To throw something at the wall to see if it sticks", which would make a hell of a lot of sense, but I only found that on one website with no sources.
• Where did Rebecca go in the core?

That's what I can think of off the top of my head. Maybe a lot of these have simple explanations and I'm just trying to keep myself motivated in a relatively quiet time in the aftermath of numerous discoveries, but who knows.

 

[Jaiotu]

... and a tinfoil shipkit in the store for those truly dedicated men, women and penguins that desire it.

Sign me up. I want a tinfoil Sidewinder (it's what the hull is made from anyway ...)

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Hey, I said silly first! You aren't a real Rifter anyways... ;-)

No, he's a librarian

Ok, I get the point. I don't have to have a decal if I feel it's devalued.

 

[IliteratSqirel]

Will the real Rifter please stand up

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

*Sigh* Squabbling over stickers, which in fact we probably have no control over how it is divvied out anyway. Decal for all that want it, bobblehead for those that buy Premonition, and a tinfoil shipkit in the store for those truly dedicated men, women and penguins that desire it.

At the core of the Rifters - why I respect, admire and join in - is Freedom of choice and the sharing of ideas and information. Please, keep it that way. None should be excluded and none should be forced to conform to a specific ideal. You know if you're a rifter, no decal will ever change that.

Now please, lets all move past the whole sticker thing and discuss the proposed CG. I like the idea of bringing home the dead, though not sure how that would be possible in terms of current game mechanics.

Exploration CG sounds fitting, search for beacons or terraformed worlds, maybe other ships that were part of the expedition. That's kind of already been done though, its not that different from what a lot of Rifters have already been doing for years.

Commodities, taking them to the heart and/or soul bases for setting up an expedition of recovery. The dead and information contained on the Zurara, then later down the track the information discovered can lead to further clues. Cryptic clues that require more puzzling out to decode of course

One thing to remember is that the fact the Teorge logs have been discovered means that the forces behind the whole conspiracy no longer care if their plan is discovered. The galaxy knowing about the Dynasty expedition is unimportant at this stage as far as they are concerned.

So bringing attention to the expedition wont have any real effect. We need to figure out who and why, then make that information public and apply intense pressure on these shadowy forces to reveal more information that isn't available to us any other way. How to go about that is something I have been thinking about a lot. So far a CG is the only current game mechanic I can think of, though I'm sure there are other ways I haven't considered yet.

Poking around chasing ghosts hasn't been much use for me as yet, nothing new has come to light that isn't already known. Doesn't mean I will stop, just that so far nothing of interest has come of my usual method of investigation. This is why I'm exploring other options such as a CG, but I welcome any other suggestions to achieve the same goals.

As far as I can see the only way to apply pressure other than with a lazor is by manipulating via the background sim (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/193064-A-Guide-to-Minor-Factions-and-the-Background-Sim) but I think that is applying pressure to a faction rather than an individual. I don't know if PowerPlay could be used to pressure an individual (I think one or more of the powers is behind Dynasty); neither of these methods of play appeal to me.

- - - Updated - - -

I would love to see a chapter in the book with a CMDR (it can be a fictional character, doesn't have to be me) out on the far side of the lift spending roughly a month, hours at a time:

• Jumping to a random system, flying to 200KLS from the star to avoid any glare
• Looking back toward the galactic center to see if anything was highlighted
• Shutdown all systems so it's quiet, rotate through 360 of N/S heading (N is back to core) with FA-Off (for quiet) offset E/W by -45 degrees
• Repeat for 0 and 45 degrees to cover full sky
• Isolate galactic core sound (it's easy to hear)
• Pick loudest/most interesting sound, zero in, look at galmap jump 500KLY toward sound
• Repeat

Boy that was an exciting month.

I knew it was a fools errand but I held out hope I could hear some beacon of some sort and by week 2 I was definitely hearing things.

Part of me wonders would would have happened if I'd tried that between the bubble and the stations, as it turns out based on where I was the galactic core was always behind what there was to be found and would therefore mask any actual sound if there even was one to hear, I do recall hearing interesting non-galactic core clicks in that vague direction.

It really would make a riveting chapter, right up there with chapter 8 of the epic thriller "Paint Drying by Numbers".

A space-mad audiologist! The plucky comic relief....

 

[Taranis Dekker]

A space-mad audiologist! The plucky comic relief....

At least we won't hear him scream.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

All factions, whether player or npc, work the same. You don't play BGS when near another faction, you get invaded and lose you base.

Now it still remains to be seen how megaships work, but we have 1 example of 1 movable base to go on and that's it, and if they have kept the same mechanics which is likely from what little they have said on usuage, it would just act like any other base in a system.

Maybe not, but you can only plan on what is known.

If you mean the Canonn Gnosis then that may not be a good guide to how megaships work. Her first point of call will be the Pleiades; I fully expect her to be the first casualty when the aliens invade (I anticipate Winter will come not long after PS4 release which is planned for launch in Q2 2017 hence anticipate invasion around July/August), though I hope it's the second cos I want to see Palin BURN!