The Quest To Find Raxxla

[Louis Calvert]

Two questions:

1. How do the many asteroid bases scattered around the various nebulae fit into this logic?
2. Regarding the 'massively, hugely unlikely' part - isn't that EXACTLY the reason why Raxxla is so significant?

All of those bases are new - as in, made in the last three years. So, all of them fit into my logic - in that, if FTL was easy and commonplace prior to FSD then those bases would be old and there would be colonies all over the Galaxy. There's not, so, older FTL was limited in the extreme.

2) Sure, but you're forgetting - Raxxla is known about. So, at least one person made it there and back, and if Ryder's theories/myths are true then many people made it there, live there and guard it. If that's the case then it must have been close enough to known space that getting there (and back) was viable - what's the point of guarding a place and assassinating people that know where it is if it's so far away that it's almost impossible to get to?

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

All of those bases are new - as in, made in the last three years. So, all of them fit into my logic - in that, if FTL was easy and commonplace prior to FSD then those bases would be old and there would be colonies all over the Galaxy. There's not, so, older FTL was limited in the extreme.

2) Sure, but you're forgetting - Raxxla is known about. So, at least one person made it there and back, and if Ryder's theories/myths are true then many people made it there, live there and guard it. If that's the case then it must have been close enough to known space that getting there (and back) was viable - what's the point of guarding a place and assassinating people that know where it is if it's so far away that it's almost impossible to get to?

Are they new?
They just became visible recently, but that doesn't mean that they're new.
Also, it's kind of a weird coincidence that all these asteroid bases suddenly appeared all at once - how did all that construction happen without anybody hearing about it?

What's the point of keeping somewhere secret if it's right in the middle of populated space?
If Raxxla is now in the Bubble then somebody would have found it. You can't keep it secret - there are just too many people you'd have to kill. It would be like trying to hide a secret city in the middle of Norfolk.

 

[Louis Calvert]

Are they new?
They just became visible recently, but that doesn't mean that they're new.
Also, it's kind of a weird coincidence that all these asteroid bases suddenly appeared all at once - how did all that construction happen without anybody hearing about it?

Well, they're new in that they weren't there before people started exploring, and now they are. So, yeah, they're new. Remember FSD tech only became widespead around 3 years ago, it was only developeed about 10 years ago.

Remember too that only 50 years ago going as far as the Pleiades was considered "Long Range Exploring" that was well beyond most people (even most explorers considered that a very far distance). Moira in OotD considered going to Peregrina a long-haul and dangerous trip outside the bubble in 3270. If you look at where it is on the map you'll see it's not that far out at all - so FSD has really opened up the Galaxy.

What's the point of keeping somewhere secret if it's right in the middle of populated space?

That's both the question and the answer, IMO.

If Raxxla is now in the Bubble then somebody would have found it. You can't keep it secret - there are just too many people you'd have to kill. It would be like trying to hide a secret city in the middle of Norfolk.

How do you know people haven't found it? I thought that's exactly what the missions detailed in the start of this thread show, that people have found it?

I don't know if you've ever taken part in the eyeball searches for INRA bases, but even knowing that there is definitely something on the planet it can still take hours and days for hundreds of people to eyeball search a small planet. There's almost 25,000 star systems within 150ly of Sol. If there was an alien structure on one small airless world with a base built over the top of it and guarded by a small wing of Elite pilots, no-one would ever know. Hell, if there was something like the Guardian Ruins on a small planet in the bubble there's a good chance even now it wouldn't have been accidentally found.

EDIT: Actually, ages ago I read a forum post that suggested someone had found a Dark Wheel faction planetary base - can't find it now, but they had photos and there was a logo on the side of what looked like a big telescope or sensor dish, lots of discussion on the meaning of that logo etc. Hell, might even be earlier in this thread somewhere Why couldn't that base be built over the Raxxla gateway? Who would know!

 

[Strangepork]

This ship log will be used to document the assumptions, facts, theories and efforts surrounding Raxxla, with the ultimate goal of locating Raxxla. All commanders willing to join are most welcome. If no new entries are made by me for a period of 2 weeks, you must assume that I have been eliminated by the Dark Wheel, swallowed by the abyss, or found Raxxla and have gone there. I hope for the latter (but will probably send pretty postcards).

Raxxla
A planet in another galaxy? with an alien construct that's a gateway to other Universes. The Dark Wheel found it (and lost it?), and will keep it's location secret at all costs.

Assumptions

• Raxxla exists and can be found.
  • Supporting indications:
    • The existence of the Dark Wheel faction which is strongly connected to Raxxla.
    • Missions[2][3][4][6] are currently was being handed out and might be related to Raxxla.
      • Mission [2] mentions a rumour that talks about:"A Certain celestial body. Place that isn't a place, door that is also the key. The myth.". Upon delivery you receive a message mentioning a map and a context for coordinates.
      • Mission [6] is very vague about the "hunt for, well, you know", but could be a reference to Raxxla. However, this mission could be feeding the ships log (data crystals or spheres?) into the Mission: Obfuscated In The Outer Rim.
    • Strongest indication for the existence of Raxxla so far is Drew's blog entry[7]

Theories

• Members of the Dark Wheel are already making inter-galactic jumps using the spheres they have onboard, hence the "intercept Dark Wheel ships" Elite only mission.
  • Complete missions to see if it gives any results.
  • Tail all and any Dark Wheel ships using a wake scanner to see if they suddenly inexplicably disappear.
• The Dark Wheel has lost[6]? the location of Raxxla and are currently trying to decrypt data crystals? to recover the location. Missions[2][3][5] indicate that the Dark Wheel is having no luck decrypting the data crystals themselves and are employing the services of others to assist in this endeavour, directly and indirectly.
• Raxxla is in an another galaxy and the only way to get to it is using the key;the gateway placed in our galaxy. Where would one place an alien gateway in our galaxy?
  • Possible gateway incarnations:
    • "Gateway station" - a station acting as a gateway, upon entering you are instantly transported?, how would you select destination - one station - one destination?
    • Jumping into a permitted system transports you to another universe? - Witch's Reach? - or a station in the permitted system is the gateway
    • Entering hyperspace in a particular fashion or in a particular system will transport you?
    • A system with the alien construct with a letterbox orbiting a planet, just like a station?

References
[1] The Dark Wheel
[2] Mission: Obfuscated In The Outer Rim
[3] Mission: The Silent Song Of The Spheres
[4] Mission: Discrete Redistribution Agent Desired
[5] Mission: Dark Wheel Seeks Diplomats For Discreet Delivery
[6] Mission: What Was Lost Will Soon Be Found
[7] Possible Raxxla existence confirmation
[8] Positive confirmation for Raxxla in the Milky way - DJTruthsayer lore interview with Michael Brookes

Not wishing to be a damp squib, but I guess it's not in game yet, rather like the generation ships suddenly appeared recently.

 

[Louis Calvert]

Not wishing to be a damp squib, but I guess it's not in game yet, rather like the generation ships suddenly appeared recently.

It is in-game and has been since the start, confirmed by DB.

https://canonn.science/lore/drewwagar-raxxla/

"David Braben said “It’s out there and we (FD) know where it is.”"

That doesn't mean that a) It's currently possible to find it, or b) it's possible to do anything with it yet.

And here's Drew saying he asked DB directly, that's where the quote comes from, so if you want to call Drew a liar, go for it

https://www.drewwagar.com/lore/elite-dangerous-lore-raxxla/

 

[NW3]

I believe Raxxla is out there, either in the bubble or nearby. As to why it hasn't been found, it's currently hard to find stuff in this game, due to missing scanner functionality (heatmaps and such). It might be on a planet with an atmosphere. It might be on a planet that doesn't show up when you honk the system.

For all we know, it could lie beyond Hutton Orbital. If I was an ED developer, that's where I'd hide it!

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

I thought we were looking for a planet, not a moonbase *shrug*

Either way, if you make it impossible to find, then you have to provide a trail of breadcrumbs, or you may as well not include it at all.
So those of you who think it's in the Bubble, but obfuscated, how do you think we're going to find it?

 

[Louis Calvert]

There's no need to call on the faraway network or 7ly drives for explanation. FD have already provided plenty.

Colonisation and exploration are very different things. The bubble marks the extent of major known colonisation. FD have talked about the models they used and the factors around it and it's well thought out.

Colonising other planets and systems is not cheap or easy, particularly if terraforming is needed. Transport of large numbers of people needs to be available. Even large numbers transport-wise are not going to be large in terms of planetary populations. Those populations will take a considerable amount of time to grow to the point where there's any population-level drivers to colonise another system.



Probably best all round if you leave saying what I'm doing to me, ta.

So, to be clear I am doing the calculations based on what we know, and in addition I am fleshing what we know.

I have at no point said we have always had the capability to travel like we do now in terms of range. My view is that we are our current commercially available travel capability is considerably in excess of what we've had before, and consequently we are experiencing a renaissance and golden age of exploration following a dark age after the loss of quirium.

I've already shown that the total distance coverable per unit time was hundreds of times greater for type 1 drives than type 2bs.

That was based on a 7ly jump range.

FSD is better again, even for a 7ly jump range. Arriving in proximity to the star means the arrive-scoop-jump process will generally be quicker than for a type 1. It's also trivial to show that the general jump range is higher for FSD too - just compare an off-the-shelf Cobra MkIII's jump range to its 7ly jump range with a standard type 1 drive.

So, FSD is the best commercially available multi-use hyperdrives we've seen.

However, there's also non-commercially available and single-use hyperdrives to take into account. Galactic hyperdrives are myth so that's a bit up in the air, but what's 100% lore is Jacques big jump - that was intended to be to Beagle Point so that's a jump of more than 65,000 ly. Even with the jump only going to Colonia that's still in the 10s of thousands of ly. I've not done the working on this part though.

But just looking at normal hyperdrives, the point is that yes, there has been nearly a thousand years of travel. And we have it confirmed that from early days, probes were being sent out and pioneers using it regardless of safety concerns.



That's not a fact, that's just what you think.

What is fact is that in our current wave of exploration, when we have gone into the distant reaches of galaxies we have found large areas that are permit locked. That provides a pretty strong counterpoint to the idea that we are only discovering those areas for the first time.

Can't see anything robust to support your feeling I'm afraid.

This only applies to colonisation, and it only applies to what equates to in-game public knowledge of the extent of colonisation.

Exploration is different.

Again we have the permit locked areas. Then there's the asteroid bases which are fairly far out. All the exploration caches that can be found. The Wayfarers Graveyard...

The travel distance per unit time was very low for type 2b as I've said before. 100s of times smaller than that of a 7ly jump range type 1 and getting towards 1,000s of times smaller than that of an engineered FSD exploration ship.

Sorry, but as covered above that's not a valid extrapolation.

Doubly so for this, as even if the previous extrapolation was valid, the fact that Raxxla's location is generally unknown means that it's more likely to be out where virtually no one has been, not less likely.

I respect your views, but I strongly disagree. I think it's pretty self evident that given the opportunity to explore and colonise, humanity does, will and can. The only reason humans haven't colonise, explored and charted the galaxy in the past 1000 years of interstellar travel is that it simply wasn't possible.

The fact that it's very clear in-game that humanity has only just started to explore outside the bubble is self evident in the actual game itself, regardless of your disagreement with Lore sources and evidence in game.

 

[Louis Calvert]

I thought we were looking for a planet, not a moonbase *shrug*

Either way, if you make it impossible to find, then you have to provide a trail of breadcrumbs, or you may as well not include it at all.
So those of you who think it's in the Bubble, but obfuscated, how do you think we're going to find it?

As I've said before I think it's end-game content. As such, if it hasn't already been found there will be clues and hints to guide people to it, but as I've previously said also, I think we can find it, at least the general location, even if we can't do anything with that info at the time. We know Fdev have previously said they don't care if we find stuff early, it's if we fail to find important stuff in time that they start to worry and drop more and more clues until it's found.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

As I've said before I think it's end-game content. As such, if it hasn't already been found there will be clues and hints to guide people to it, but as I've previously said also, I think we can find it, at least the general location, even if we can't do anything with that info at the time. We know Fdev have previously said they don't care if we find stuff early, it's if we fail to find important stuff in time that they start to worry and drop more and more clues until it's found.

Well I already went through that spectacularly disappointing process with the Rift mystery. I'm not going to be played for that kind of fool again.
I'm going back to the Rift thread where there's nothing left to let me down

 

[Scytale]

Well, it seems we are few here who give some credit to the unique clue MB actually gave us.
Good! Less competition then !

As I've said before I think it's end-game content. As such, if it hasn't already been found there will be clues and hints to guide people to it, but as I've previously said also, I think we can find it, at least the general location, even if we can't do anything with that info at the time. We know Fdev have previously said they don't care if we find stuff early, it's if we fail to find important stuff in time that they start to worry and drop more and more clues until it's found.

I don't think so. My feeling is that Raxxla is a personal quest, a Concerto where only the Solista matters and not a Simfonia , a collective work, like other storylines.
IMHO FDevs have set up the quest since the first day like a bonus for the players who were aware of the myth from former games and novels. An eastern egg, a tribute without relation with others storylines (now, because when the Rift mystery was going on, I thought Raxxla was the answer) .
That's why there will be no clues as MB said.

 

[Louis Calvert]

Well, it seems we are few here who give some credit to the unique clue MB actually gave us.
Good! Less competition then !



I don't think so. My feeling is that Raxxla is a personal quest, a Concerto where only the Solista matters and not a Simfonia , a collective work, like other storylines.
IMHO FDevs have set up the quest since the first day like a bonus for the players who were aware of the myth from former games and novels. An eastern egg, a tribute without relation with others storylines (now, because when the Rift mystery was going on, I thought Raxxla was the answer) .
That's why there will be no clues as MB said.

Thing is, if there will be no clues, as MB said, then that means the mission that started this thread are meaningless?

 

[Scytale]

Thing is, if there will be no clues, as MB said, then that means the mission that started this thread are meaningless?

The tiny little bit obvious thing. The unique clue as I wrote (and you quoted) are these missions;
https://player.twitch.tv/?volume=0.8&video=v66487974&time=1h40m30s

 

[Louis Calvert]

The tiny little bit obvious thing. The unique clue as I wrote (and you quoted) are these missions;
https://player.twitch.tv/?volume=0.8&video=v66487974&time=1h40m30s

Yep, that's why I think it's founders world too. A journey everyone has to take for themselves - earning elite status to get there, and "you have to make it a tiny bit obvious" - most people looking for Raxxla head off into the black, And that makes total sense in terms of a place that's hard to get to, takes dedication, etc.

But, founders world is a place that, IMO fits all the clues and is hidden in plain sight, and is an earth-like world and takes a personal journey to get there. Maybe the reason some Raxxla hunters don't like it as a potential solution is maybe because it's too easy? it's right there after all. But, as I've said, knowing where Raxxla is isn't the point, it's actually being able to interact with it, which I believe is where the actual journey starts

The other reason I think it's Founders is because Raxxla was never in any other game. I think they made it Founders World as sort of a nod to people who supported the dream, the idea of ED, just like for decades the myth of Raxxla existed despite never being in any game and people still talked about it and searched for it. I realise that's a bit prosaic but there it is

I mean, it's entirely possible that the Raxxla Gate at Founders is like a Stargate that goes to the heart of one of the permit locked areas, there's another human bubble there made up of TDW and Elite pilot descendents, it's permit locked because if anyone found it now it would be pretty obvious what it was, they hate visitors and that's what Rebecca meant when she said "And they thought the Thargoids were trouble"!

Who knows, but it's fun speculating

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Not wishing to be a damp squib, but I guess it's not in game yet, rather like the generation ships suddenly appeared recently.

I think DBOBE himself has confirmed Raxxla has been in-game from the start, but only he and a small number of FD know where. To disbelieve that statement suggests an existentialist state of mind which disbelieves (rather like the Zarura deniers) anything of interest is in game until it is found, & if that were to be the case then playing the game would be meaningless.

 

[Macros Black]

Thing is, if there will be no clues, as MB said, then that means the mission that started this thread are meaningless?

The mission that started this thread was the quest to find Raxxla. The 'raxxla' missions listed in the OP was the most obvious clue(s) to follow at the time.

 

[Cmdr Shijima]

If Raxxla is now in the Bubble then somebody would have found it. You can't keep it secret - there are just too many people you'd have to kill. It would be like trying to hide a secret city in the middle of Norfolk.

I'm sure I recall hearing a little while back that all systems within the bubble have now been discovered. If that's the case then my thoughts are that either it's not in the bubble, it's hiding in plain sight (Founders' World theory) or is a planet in a system that has not been detail scanned/doesn't appear on scanners...

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

I'm sure I recall hearing a little while back that all systems within the bubble have now been discovered. If that's the case then my thoughts are that either it's not in the bubble, it's hiding in plain sight (Founders' World theory) or is a planet in a system that has not been detail scanned/doesn't appear on scanners...

Or it’s permit-locked in plain sight: Lave2, Isinor, Triton...

 

[Scytale]

So the "outer rim" where it is meant to be "obfuscated" ....[where is it]

 

[clavain]

Or it’s permit-locked in plain sight: Lave2, Isinor, Triton...

Polaris... or the Moon. That would be amusing.