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Yes, but even that I find a bit of a stretch, having to know morse in order to be able to solve the mystery. I think it's there for depth, sure, but I still wonder if the whole key is something much simpler that requires logic and observation skills, but not very specialised knowledge (such as morse).
I didnt like the idea of Morse when it first came out - mainly because I wanted the UA to be alien and hated the idea that it would communicate in Morse ... But from an immersion standpoint - there is a fair amount of lore in game about federation blink code (which is essentially morse) and there is obvious morse coming from the nav beacons ... So I don't think it is considered specialized knowledge - rather common if mostly unused. As to being able to hear it in game ... Takes a better ear than Ive got
Which leads to the question - is it only scanning us in self-defence, after we target it with an active scan (lock onto it in the HUD) or threaten it by coming within 1km.
Sounds like the humans might be the agressors, again.
Hmm, never really considered if anyone involved in direct testing was using VR or not. I've never not played the game on the Oculus, so the question didn't even occur to me.
I've never seen an actual UA either, but I haven't really tried to find one. If there's actually a chance some useful data could come from it, I'll head back towards the bubble and see if I can find one to compare with your observations.
PS: what kind of VR are you using? The debug cam works for me on a Rift DK2....
Lastly, I plan on tracking/following a Fed Security Convoy. Maybe a Med Convoy, not sure. But I theorize that there is a chance that the Fed Convoy will take you somewhere interesting.
Another free-floater for the Red files - MEL 22 SECTOR DB-X D1-12
Also, an interesting behavioural note (which may already be known, but I have not seen it mentioned) - the free-floating UA does not broadcast ANY Morse AT ALL if you do not target it, until you come within 1km of it and you get scanned. If you back off beyond 1km, it stops broadcasting Morse after its last sequence finishes, and remains silent other than honks and purrs, AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT TARGET IT IN THE HUD. As soon as you do that, it starts broadcasting Morse again with the next honk sequence (of the system, I believe, when you are > 1 km away). Video upload to follow at some point. There, I did a Rizal, WITH CAPS AND EVERYTHING.
I am wondering if you come within 1km of it without targetting it in the HUD if it broadcasts any Morse at all, about to check that.
- - - Updated - - -
OK, so when you come within 1km of it, without out it being targetted in the HUD, it starts to broadcast again, but it seems short so I think it may just be the system. So it only stops broadcasting completely if you do not have it targetted in the HUD, and are > 1 km away.
Video confirmation of all this to follow at some point, probably not tonight though.
Interesting. I'm a noob but haven't seen this mentioned either. Can you stay >1Km away from it so it is "quiet" but send in the debug camera to observe it up close without it changing behaviour? It would be interesting to know if the distortion field and/or blue sparkles are still evident with no external disturbance.
I've been doing a little independent research on the signal these things produce because well.. I'm curious. I also come at this largely ignorant of any in-depth analysis that's been done. That's OK, a fresh perspective can be helpful. At the moment I'm more interested in the signal structure itself.
I'm just sharing my thoughts and observations.
Looking at these cycle timings for the first object -
The graph shows cycle times (in seconds) for each subsequent cycle. I understand the cycle times are dependant on the morse characters sent, but even allowing a +/- second error I wasn't seeing any repeated pattern. So I wondered how long the message actually was. I set about to find out from the horses mouth so to speak.
Incidentally I was parked next to one when I logged out, when I logged in it wasn't there (confirmed twice). It didn't take long to find another one though (I suspect they eventually spawn in every system in the'shell').
I started timing the second one I found and listening to the sounds it was making, Something in my brain shifted gears and where previously I was hearing the digestive rumblings of someone who had eaten too many baked beans for breakfast the sound suddenly resolved itself into distinguishable morse code. Morse code mind you sounding like it's coming from underwater, slowly drifting up and down in pitch, with 'dits' a high tone and 'dahs' a low tone, and varying in it's timing, but definitely morse code at about 8-10 wpm.
(Although each individual morse character is identical, there is a slight difference between each character. As if someone had tapped out “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” by hand and that sample was chopped up to generate each character. ).
I start picking out individual characters. Goodness my morse code is rusty, and not helped by the other noises happening at the same time.
I started writing down the morse decoding it by ear over about a half hour period. I found-
A message composed of 29 groups of six-character 'words'.
This message is repeated every ten cycles.
As best I could make out (with a low degree of certainty) the morse message in my case was-
(Question marks indicate non-resolved characters)
This supposedly translates to a 2D coordinate map of my ship (courier). Any ideas how ? Has anyone actually plotted one out ?
In my mind was the question, Does the cycle time depend solely on the length of the morse character sequence ?
Looking at the timings for the sequence I decoded by ear (the last five 'frames' of the signal ) -
I'd tentatively suggest there's some other factor involved in the cycle times. To draw a firmer conclusion I'll need to time both 'on' and 'off' times for each cycle. Anyway that's for another day. What I'm looking at is to prove to myself as much as possible that there isn't another layer of information in the signal. Like I say, I'm curious.
One question – can anyone point me to small simple PC audio recorder ? I don't need video recording and don't have the SSD room anyway.
Thanks
Just being pedantic - Does it take the full ten cycles to send the 29 6-letter groups for the ship diagram? Has anyone checked to see if there is anything else?
...So I don't think it is considered specialized knowledge - rather common if mostly unused. As to being able to hear it in game ... Takes a better ear than Ive got
I mean the way it's considered in real life, not in game. Right now it would seem that we are assuming to solve this mystery we need to know morse. I think most people in real life don't know morse. Even if you do know morse, I've seen people making many mistakes when trying to decode some of the UA sounds by ear, mainly because they are so distorted, and only really getting the true morse translation when they make a recording and take it into some software to help decode it.
So if this is the route that FD really expect us to follow it means they've decided to make the mystery solvable to people with certain knowledge (morse) and/or access to certain software (audio analysis). It also would seem that console players are put at a disadvantage when trying to solve a problem like this.
So yes, it's possible that it really is the plan at FD to limit (or at least make easier) the solving of the mystery to people that tick those boxes. Or perhaps there's a more straightforward way of solving it, in that it can be done in-game without the need of knowing morse or using external software. And perhaps the hidden morse has been put there because it fits the story, but not because it's the key to the riddle, or perhaps not the ONLY key.
Anyway, I'm not really trying to defend this position. I'm just trying to explain it because I get the impression I may not have done it clearly in the first place.
I'm also not suggesting anyone should stop checking the morse as it may be ONE way of solving the problem, and in any case it seems to be pretty much the only way we can get information out of the UA at the moment. Unless there's some other way we are missing, that is.
One observation, then: if it is the same thing, then it would also neatly explain the knowledge of Morse(acknowledging that there are other explanations) - we've said a few times that picking up ambient Morse at a distance from Earth would be tricky, apart from the few known deliberate attempts by humans to send out messages to specific areas of the cosmos. If you were floating around sol in the 23rd century, however, then you'd most likely have been spoilt for radio 'snooping' opportunities.
For something in Sol system in the 23rd century to be receiving Morse it would have to have been transmitted in the 23rd century, which seems unlikely. Of course we don't know how long that relic was there before it was discovered.
It's irrelevant anyway because the UAs (or UA makers) could have easily learnt Morse from the nav beacons. That's the obvious explanation. Occam's Razor and all that.
I mean the way it's considered in real life, not in game. Right now it would seem that we are assuming to solve this mystery we need to know morse. I think most people in real life don't know morse. Even if you do know morse, I've seen people making many mistakes when trying to decode some of the UA sounds by ear, mainly because they are so distorted, and only really getting the true morse translation when they make a recording and take it into some software to help decode it.
So if this is the route that FD really expect us to follow it means they've decided to make the mystery solvable to people with certain knowledge (morse) and/or access to certain software (audio analysis). It also would seem that console players are put at a disadvantage when trying to solve a problem like this.
So yes, it's possible that it really is the plan at FD to limit (or at least make easier) the solving of the mystery to people that tick those boxes. Or perhaps there's a more straightforward way of solving it, in that it can be done in-game without the need of knowing morse or using external software. And perhaps the hidden morse has been put there because it fits the story, but not because it's the key to the riddle, or perhaps not the ONLY key.
Anyway, I'm not really trying to defend this position. I'm just trying to explain it because I get the impression I may not have done it clearly in the first place.
I'm also not suggesting anyone should stop checking the morse as it may be ONE way of solving the problem, and in any case it seems to be pretty much the only way we can get information out of the UA at the moment. Unless there's some other way we are missing, that is.
Because as previously explained, Braben replied "well" when asked about Thargoids, and then deliberately changed the subject to the UA to avoid talking about them and giving anything away. Allen talked at length about the earlier "alien artefact" and how it would fit into the ED universe and that it was significant (in my interpretation, as the first UA find).
All we need now is for Kerrash to post something nonsensical to clarify both statements. ;-)
Stroud was talking about the "alien relic" noted in the timeline from FE2. He said it was significant and that they were defining it's role in the lore. At no point did he say anything that links it to the UA. He's saying "we plan to do something with the relic" and you're assuming that "something" is the UA. Perhaps it is, but to me that's conjecture at this point.
As for Braben, it's your interpretation that he changed the subject. I disagree; for me he simply spoke about the recent history of the subject rather than giving away anything coming up. But even if he did change the subject, I claim that the fact that he changed it to the UA is significant. "Thargoid" made Braben think "UA".
But you're right, we can't really settle either debate without some new information. Roll on 1.5/2.0.
Did a bit of looking in the old threads since I thought I remembered a remark that not everyone would be able to solve it, but couldn't find it, at least, not from FDev.
However, I did come across a couple of other interesting things, regarding the recent discussion: Is it Thargoid or not?
Originally Posted by Skuli
I also question the "Soon" in "Soontill Relics."
The next quotes seem telling in regards to the troubles the space stations are having:
Originally Posted by PsychoFish
Hmm, to me this sounds like there is nothing to trigger and find out. The UA is just something that we could guess correctly and will learn later when something else happens as continuation to the story. (Thargoids attack)
In part you've already triggered the next phase and that's some of what is coming. There's other aspects that haven't been found yet, so these will come in foreground a bit more.
I think I see what you mean, in that this is the first event of this type for both the players and the FD staff and the story or future plans have likely been adjusted as things unfold.
In game feedback either immediate or a few days later would be good, for example when a UA exploded inside Crown Gateway a Galnet article was written which subsequently got published which (at least) I felt was an acknowledgement by Frontier of an awareness of the event which then put us (the player) in a reasonable position to draw conclusions whether an outbreak subsequently occurred or did not occur at the station.
Where possible we'll make the connection, however some things are being foreshadowed or even have a storyline of years. In many cases the changes in direction aren't obvious unless it's a conflict - such as stopping the Cerberus plague. With the UA it's all a bit more subtle - for now anyway
Can anyone help me decode this morse from the UA?
I managed to drop in to an UA without getting scanned. The recording is done from 1.1km distance.
I have tried to transcribe it myself but I find it hard at this distance. I barely manage it when I'm really close to it.
The recording is done through Audacity. Full project file can be downloaded from here: http://1drv.ms/1NBdHQ6
Just being pedantic - Does it take the full ten cycles to send the 29 6-letter groups for the ship diagram? Has anyone checked to see if there is anything else?
Did a bit of looking in the old threads since I thought I remembered a remark that not everyone would be able to solve it, but couldn't find it, at least, not from FDev.
However, I did come across a couple of other interesting things, regarding the recent discussion: Is it Thargoid or not?
The next quotes seem telling in regards to the troubles the space stations are having:
That first quote is suggestive, though there were other people talking about Thargoids so maybe MB was addressing those comments rather than accidentally giving it away with the Thargoid reference.
Braben also said something to the effect of "it's going to get real interesting for you UA researchers soon". I took it to mean something more overt was coming.
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