The Quest To Find Raxxla

CMDRCorrMorningstarFelian

CMDRCorrMorningstarFelian
SergMx said:
A long time ago, in my youth, I played MechWarrior on a 286 computer. I don't remember exactly, but there I was doing various missions, buying robots, advancing further. And so I played until I was retired.
There are not many games, and I played like that many times.
But one day I started reading the dialog in the bar, etc. and began to perform not any missions, but those that were in the story. And the game ended in victory.
Click to expand...
As much as everyone loves simple solutions, this doesn't seem to be one of those cases. We didn't know which Universe this was (or was it the same Universe as prior games), we receive a ship and perpetual insurance from an Unknown Benefactor, we are told we are part of The Pilot's Federation (but even they are secretive). There are groups with secretive agendas. Our past is deeply obscured. We appear to be something somewhere between hired mercenaries or gods.

If anything, this is something more like a "choose your own adventure" story.
 

Rochester

Rochester
SergMx said:
A long time ago, in my youth, I played MechWarrior on a 286 computer. I don't remember exactly, but there I was doing various missions, buying robots, advancing further. And so I played until I was retired.
There are not many games, and I played like that many times.
But one day I started reading the dialog in the bar, etc. and began to perform not any missions, but those that were in the story. And the game ended in victory.
Click to expand...
This is very close to the original intent I believe. Braben did say once “we got it wrong” and that originally missions ought to have driven players around the galaxy, if they got to know the small factions. But players were driven by grind and money, or they chose to explore far and wide.
 

Emperor

Emperor
Rochester said:
Yes these are god-modes the Devs use, there are hackers out there who’ve accessed them to exploit infinite jumps or fly Thargoids etc.

The ‘galaxy’ is not really a spacial entity, we don’t physically travel anywhere, Cmdrs dial up that data and it loads into an instance. So logically ‘distance’ or ‘fuel’ are simply game-logic limitations.
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Looks like there is (or was) no god mode on the public servers.... I guess the vids I saw were dev or test builds.... unless the admin suite does that stuff, which I doubt based on the comment below, and having had a Conda reimbursed once (back when they were really expensive!) when recalling it from a planet and watching it pile straight in to the surface, I guess it's for that kinda stuff ;-)

Do FD staff have "God Mode"?

We have separate development, testing and public servers - playing on public is generally on a normal account. I always use my normal account for that, but I have different accounts for the other servers as needed. Michael So, do you mean that you don't need to block regions with an unknown...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk

"The public facing builds don't support any of our trickery as the developer console is compiled out, so no god mode ingame.

We could cheat progression by using the admin suite that support uses to help stuck players, but that would be... cheating... (Also it's audit logged on the live envronment, so not worth the risk)."


Also noted MB responded to a question about Unknown permits being used for testing content:

Do FD staff have "God Mode"?

We have separate development, testing and public servers - playing on public is generally on a normal account. I always use my normal account for that, but I have different accounts for the other servers as needed. Michael So, do you mean that you don't need to block regions with an unknown...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk


"So, do you mean that you don't need to block regions with an unknown permit to include content in it, as you can do that first on separate development servers ?"

"We can, but we also have a fair idea for where things are going to take place, and we've had those locked off from the start, as well as some speculative areas as well."
 

Emperor

Emperor
Merlin StWahgwaan said:
Also, I still have a theory that Raxxla actually moves. I've had people jump down my throat previously for even suggesting that, saying it wasn't possible, but now, after the Thargoid mothership things moved thru the galaxy, I'm even more convinced that Raxxla is on some predetermined "path" or "circuit" between set stars, only being at each star for a limited duration of specific time before moving to the next star, likely always at a far far distance from any objects in those systems so as not to disturb orbits (or its the size of the thargoid motherships or smaller and just doesn't effects orbits as it passes), and that to be able to find it, and be a repeatable process, requires finding and understanding that path, or simply stumbling upon it (which would be unlikely, assuming Raxxla won't show up on FSS/system map as Raxxla (FSS wasn't in-game at launch anyways))...
I also think if Raxxla is Guardian in nature, that this would be one of the ways they would choose to hide it, so that even if stumbled upon once by someone (an enemy), it would not be there when/if they returned....
but again, just a theory and no good idea of where to even start...
Click to expand...

It's a good a theory as any other until it's found as we don't know what it is! ;-)

m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&t=13m43s&v=-f7Zx7WUwF0
13:45, does Raxxla exist? There’s an interesting one. What a silly question, of course....You don’t know what it is though!

I think you could interpret the following two statements as suggesting it's moving....
"Anyone can FIND IT MORE THAN ONCE" - If it's a stationary object why would you need to find it each time?
"It's NOT A RANDOM THING." - With reference to not having to find it by chance... so there may be a method to find it more than once...

1701552194441.png

And it might be because Raxxla is orbiting a comet like this station..


Which MB confirms might be the case here (for the station orbiting the comet... not Raxxla!)

What is this??

Do you see something strange in this screenshot? :rolleyes: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=572128347
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk

And as for Raxxla being Guardian in nature, perhaps only one of the Guardian sites is "Active" in someway at anyone time and that is Raxxla? (After all as we've been told....we don't know what it is!)
 

Emperor

Emperor
Darrack said:
It could also be read as you don't have to do anything, its not random because its always there?

O7
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Absolutely the problem with the English language, it's open to lots of interpretations... but MB made two comments in a short period of time... and the other one was about anyone finding it more than once... which can be read that it's not always there, so perhaps it does move, or it's cloaked/hidden, or some other reason why he used the word "find" rather than something like "return to it more than once" which would imply a static position? - which might also be a bit of strange comment if it was always there..... e.g. lets flip it and use Earth as an example.... "Earth is always there and you can find it more than once" sounds a bit strange as you know where it is and don't need to find it again? and "Earth is always there and you can return to it more than once" sound better to me but still a bit strange/over stated? .... "Earth is always there" would seem sensible and suffice? :cool:

MB will have used his words carefully when speaking of Raxxla as he did when he answered DJTruthSlayer..... Every word with meaning and guarded as to not "reveal anything further at this time" :)

And perhaps if it was always there it wouldn't be "hard to find" in the first place? ;-)

Just a thought...
 
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Emperor

Emperor
Been thinking on the comments about the Raxxla codex being the only evidence in game...

Then using argument modelling to start to try and map out what might be leads/not leads....

anyway here's my starter for 10.... loads missing, but thought it might be useful and if you can knock down some of the thoughts or add to them let me know...

https://www.mindmup.com/ - if you want to use something to mindmap stuff.... first time I've used it and seems cool....

Green is putting a position forward/red is an objection/negative thought...
 

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Darrack

Darrack
Emperor said:
Absolutely the problem with the English language, it's open to lots of interpretations... but MB made two comments in a short period of time... and the other one was about anyone finding it more than once... which can be read that it's not always there, so perhaps it does move, or it's cloaked/hidden, or some other reason why he used the word "find" rather than something like "return to it more than once" which would imply a static position? - which might also be a bit of strange comment if it was always there..... e.g. lets flip it and use Earth as an example.... "Earth is always there and you can find it more than once" sounds a bit strange as you know where it is and don't need to find it again? and "Earth is always there and you can return to it more than once" sound better to me but still a bit strange/over stated? .... "Earth is always there" would seem sensible and suffice? :cool:

And perhaps if it was always there it wouldn't be "hard to find" in the first place? ;-)

Just a thought...
Click to expand...
Aye the 'find it' bit does seem to point towards finding it once but it may not be in the same place next time, hence find it again.

O7
 

selbie

selbie
Emperor said:
Been thinking on the comments about the Raxxla codex being the only evidence in game...

Then using argument modelling to start to try and map out what might be leads/not leads....

anyway here's my starter for 10.... loads missing, but thought it might be useful and if you can knock down some of the thoughts or add to them let me know...

https://www.mindmup.com/ - if you want to use something to mindmap stuff.... first time I've used it and seems cool....

Green is putting a position forward/red is an objection/negative thought...
Click to expand...
Mind mapping is definitely a smart way to help find idea relationships and paths of enquiry.
Perfect example, your map exposed one question I hadn't given much time to - what would the "Rift" actually mean? or more importantly what other meanings of Rift haven't been considered? The codex could be deliberately leading the reader off track by inferring it is a type of wormhole in space or gateway construct.

Could it be a geological rift? A place that is divided? Something that is breached? Something that is burst open? Something wrenched open / split with force / cleaved?
 

Rochester

Rochester
Emperor said:
Been thinking on the comments about the Raxxla codex being the only evidence in game...

Then using argument modelling to start to try and map out what might be leads/not leads....

anyway here's my starter for 10.... loads missing, but thought it might be useful and if you can knock down some of the thoughts or add to them let me know...

https://www.mindmup.com/ - if you want to use something to mindmap stuff.... first time I've used it and seems cool....

Green is putting a position forward/red is an objection/negative thought...
Click to expand...
… power resetting …

I don’t believe one can simply interpret the Codex, without first having the eyes to see….namely, understanding the original context…I suspect the author has utilised a number of abstract allegories.

I agree this concept of mapping can assist with interpretation as an application of critical analysis which is very helpful to stress test our understanding and identify unknowns.

…. Power failing…
 
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Jorki Rasalas

Jorki Rasalas
selbie said:
Mind mapping is definitely a smart way to help find idea relationships and paths of enquiry.
Perfect example, your map exposed one question I hadn't given much time to - what would the "Rift" actually mean? or more importantly what other meanings of Rift haven't been considered? The codex could be deliberately leading the reader off track by inferring it is a type of wormhole in space or gateway construct.

Could it be a geological rift? A place that is divided? Something that is breached? Something that is burst open? Something wrenched open / split with force / cleaved?
Click to expand...
Mind mapping is a useful tool for exposing for criticism your logic in interpreting relationships, but is only as good as the input information.

I've pondered "Rift" in the past. Rift could mean a hole in spacetime, i.e. a gateway (would also fit "door that is also the key") and science postulates this might be caused by a rotating Black Hole. It could also mean a dark nebula, i.e. one that is dust that is not emitting light so appears to be a hole in the galactic background. There is one interesting one, the Great Rift, but IMHO it is too far from Sol to fit the first rumour date, and is pretty big so no use in localising Raxxla:
en.m.wikipedia.org

Great Rift (astronomy) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

However a grapefruit-sized black hole might form a rift, and be extremely difficult to detect. I saw mention of the possibility of one being in the outskirts of Sol, IIRC it was a possible solution for a rumoured 10th planet, though FD have decided to put Persephone there.
 

Rochester

Rochester
The use of the term ‘rift’ has always caused me some interest, in respect of being able to identify what or where Raxxla might be - within game, especially when interpreting it in relation to the use the word Omphalos.

Initially within Greek mythology the Oracle of Delphi, said to be to home / resting place of the Omphalos; sat directly over a supposed rift or fissure.

Archaeological excavations of the Delphi complex has identified that area is situated directly over a geological fissure, and a river complex runs through the area, supporting in part this theory.

In game, we can suppose that early statements off Braben and Brookes established that the game ought to be based upon real-world science (!) except for faster than light travel, which is just in their words made up hand-wavy sci-fi to enable the game to work.

So in theory, how could a natural fissure work in game?

One possible hypothesis:

I’m seeing a lot of references to zones and areas separated by water, thunder, mountains and the underworld, especially in relation to the concept of travelling to the ‘Otherworld’.

There are certain references in game to Holdstock (Lost realms) and Gilgamesh which revolve around travelling through mountains to get to this ‘Otherworld’!

Could the Omphalos Rift relate to these spacial zones and an intersection identifying a passage to the Otherworld!

….signal interruption
 
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El Saico

El Saico
Emperor said:
Been thinking on the comments about the Raxxla codex being the only evidence in game...

Then using argument modelling to start to try and map out what might be leads/not leads....

anyway here's my starter for 10.... loads missing, but thought it might be useful and if you can knock down some of the thoughts or add to them let me know...

https://www.mindmup.com/ - if you want to use something to mindmap stuff.... first time I've used it and seems cool....

Green is putting a position forward/red is an objection/negative thought...
Click to expand...
There are two points on this where we got further answers from Drew Wagar:

4.27 - Raxxla was explicitly off-limits to the book authors (and The Club is a DW creation)
5.2 - Michael Brookes was responsible for every single handcrafted system in the game
 

Darrack

Darrack
El Saico said:
Now there's a Raxxla question I have a faint hope that could get an actual answer:

"Allegedly someone has been on the same system as Raxxla at least once; however, is it still there?"
Click to expand...
Which brings the question did they not notice it as they were literally buckyballing or was it something that showed up on the scanner as a normal object?
For example a space station, our missing Dark Wheel?

O7
 
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