Yes I agree the crates are significant. Think about the timing- we get hints of Meta-alloys & Space Barnacles, then there is a huge grindfest to find them. A comment by MB "This is good thinking" on Squiggsy's suggestion that there was no reason for treating Merope in any special way in the search was misinterpreted (I don't think that MB was trying to mislead us in any way, it was a valid comment on a good bit of logic) by most of us as meaning that there were none there, which slowed down the search. So when we do find them suddently a lot are found (partially due to us now knowing what to look for) and then a ship in distress call which takes us directly to the Anaconda site with the Caine Massey crates. So I interpret all this as FD are trying to get us to catch up on the plot timeline 'cos we wasted so much time in finding the barnacles. I think these crates are a huge hint.
So, what about the info (I can't see your high res pix)- there is a number on the crate "MO (either letter or number?) -301377" which seems to have arrows either side highlighting it. Coordinates clue?
Those crates are present at the permanent Anaconda wreckage in Orrere. I bet that both wrecks are the same hand-coded POI scene. So the crates are likely irrelevant to the UA/barnacles mystery. I think it's far more likely that things went like this:
Several people on this thread: "Michael, help us, we need more hints"
Michael to dev: "hey, these guys are really struggling to find a barnacle, we need to help them out"
Dev to Michael: "how about we post a little puzzle on Galent about a crashed ship"
Michael to dev: "sounds great, get on it"
Dev to Michael: "ok, I'll use the Anaconda wreck we already developed"
That said, I don't want to discourage anyone who wants to investigate this "hint". Just don't be surprised if it doesn't lead anywhere.
