Oh boy. What if that is what the UAs are for? They have formed a shell around Merope because they are going to make it go nova? That might constitute spooky action at a distance but we are now well into the realms of tin-foil realities.
UAs, Barnacles & More Thread 6 - The Canonn
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Oh boy. What if that is what the UAs are for? They have formed a shell around Merope because they are going to make it go nova? That might constitute spooky action at a distance but we are now well into the realms of tin-foil realities.
Something I worry about a little with the ol' sciencing is that we can never be quite sure when we've discovered everything that there is to be discovered until FDev roll out the next bit of content for this subplot.
The possibility of finding more barnacles in different sorts of locations is enough to keep me wanting to explore, but in the back of my head I wonder if it's a fool's errand until the next bit. We're at a point in the investigations where what we really need is more data.
But what if there's not any more data to be had, yet?
The possibility of finding more barnacles in different sorts of locations is enough to keep me wanting to explore, but in the back of my head I wonder if it's a fool's errand until the next bit. We're at a point in the investigations where what we really need is more data.
But what if there's not any more data to be had, yet?
Exactly why I stopped actively looking for them. The way that people had been looking for them for ages and then suddenly they popped up all over the place in systems that had already been scoured was highly indicative of them simply not being added until a certain point in time and this search for whichever other nebula they may be in won't bear any fruit if they simply haven't been included in the game there yet in order to control the pace at which the story arc is delivered.
I did ask straight out in this thread whether they were currently in the game and able to be found at which ever other location they are supposedly at back when MB was last posting (no clues wanted, just a simple 'yes they are in the game' or 'no, not yet') but the question was either missed or studiously ignored. I'll happily spend time looking for something that I know is there to be found but I don't plan on spending my time looking for the equivalent of a tin of tartan paint.
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There was an acknowledged bug associated with getting them to spawn early on. My understanding is we should have been able to find them from day one 2.0, but despite MB getting someone to verify their existence, there might have been an issue with spawns when more than one CMDR was 'around'. That was subsequently fixed, leading to more being discovered - in addition to the one that was hinted on Galnet of course
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CG completion galnet:
Might finally be able to fix our stations!
Taking a small load of MAs to Bond hub to add to stockpile there, hope they haven't sold on the hundreds of MAs delivered there in the past few months
Looks like we became too efficient at gathering them! I, too, hope that the demand stays relatively high because they're a decent source of no-cost trade cash - and I think the labs at Bond could do with them!
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Thoughts as we approach the anniversary of The Question
There are two things I want to ask with this post, in light of the fact that it is getting close to a year since Michael Brookes' famous "Have you listened to them?" question on the first page of the first mega-thread.
Firstly: is there anything being planned to celebrate this event? That moment seems to be when the UA investigation really began, even though they had been introduced at the start of 1.2. Is it something that should be celebrated with in-game events, or merely remembered now that the storyline seems ready to take a new turn with the capability to transport the UAs long distances safely?
Secondly: what would have happened if Michael Brookes had never asked that question? This is something that I want to highlight, as it may relate to whether the game could have taken a very different storyline path or whether some separate events are really part of the same story but from a different angle.
.
If the famous question had never been asked then, as the rarest item in the game, I would think that it is quite possible that it might have been some time before anyone captured sound and video of the UAs. The interest that was kindled by the question would have been delayed until that moment but it seems feasible that the extraordinary appearance and sound of these objects would have sparked a similar degree of interest, eventually. In the meantime, though, how might the storylines of the game have advanced? The outstanding items in the game appeared at that time (during 1.2) to be UAs, Hafnium 178 and AI Relics, of which two were newly-introduced. The Hafnium convoys were (and still are afaik) uncommon but not hard to find with a little time spent searching SSS. The AI Relics had been in before but do not seem to have sparked much interest, so perhaps this is a storyline thread that could have been explored more and led to new directions. Are the UAs, the Hafnium 178 and the AI Relics related to the same storyline but from different angles or are they completely separate? We've lost the chance to find out as only one of these was explored, with UAs being sought and examined, though not sold in numbers until 1.4.
.
The release of 1.4 overtly guided our thoughts towards the Pleiades and Merope in particular and (with the release of Horizons) to the meta-alloys that allow us to both remedy the effects of numerous UAs being sold to stations and to produce cargo holds able to transport the UAs long distances. This seems to set up the next phase, where someone takes a UA to a particular region of the galaxy and finds something as a result. So the question is: does this still happen without the interest being shown in UAs in 1.2 and 1.3?
.
The change in UA behaviour and availability was not the direct result of player activity - it was an injected change. The ready availability of UAs in 1.4 would have been noticed, probably fairly soon, and then people would have begun to investigate them if they had not been doing so already. I also note that it is not necessary to understand or even to realise that they transmit Morse code in order for the storyline to progress, though it does give an insight into their nature: they observe their system passively in 1.2/1.3 and transmit the name of the system or the nearest station; they actively scan ships that approach them in 1.4+ and transmit an image of the ship. They behave like navigational beacons or probes but are never seen to move or be transported (except by the convoys but in small numbers, from the rarity). The storyline is changed by what we do with them: we deliver them to stations and we then need to fix those stations. We harvest meta-alloys from the Barnacles the UAs led us to and deliver them to the affected stations but something or someone (who has successfully remained anonymous - so far!) opposes our efforts and slows us down, with disappearances, kidnappings and even an attempt to spread the Cerberus Plague.
.
This is a major storyline that could still have been followed if people had instead been delivering large quantities of AI Relics and Hafnium 178 to the black market but it might not have happened in the same way because without the player interest in UAs, people might instead have ignored it, as they largely have Hafnium and AI Relics. Perhaps stations would have been disabled in different ways by transporting those goods to them and the meta-alloys would still have been needed. Perhaps the Hafnium is related to a different storyline with the superpowers entering an arms race. Perhaps the AI Relics contained enough of the original AI to unite the powers against what could have been an invading force with as much destructive potential as the Cerberus Plague and Technological Plague combined. They remain relatively untested strands of an unknown puzzle and we are left with the progression of a storyline centred on the UAs.
.
Once we can take UAs anywhere in the Milky Way, perhaps we will be on the verge of finding out not only where they come from but who made them and why. Maybe we will also find out who doesn't want us to discover these things, to the extent that they were willing to unleash a variant of the Cerberus Plague to slow us down or stop us - and why they could be so desperate to keep us in the dark. (Perhaps these people might not want us to take the UAs to certain places - could this be why Michael Brookes hinted that going undefended into deep space might not be viable in future?).
Interesting times are ahead!
There are two things I want to ask with this post, in light of the fact that it is getting close to a year since Michael Brookes' famous "Have you listened to them?" question on the first page of the first mega-thread.
Firstly: is there anything being planned to celebrate this event? That moment seems to be when the UA investigation really began, even though they had been introduced at the start of 1.2. Is it something that should be celebrated with in-game events, or merely remembered now that the storyline seems ready to take a new turn with the capability to transport the UAs long distances safely?
Secondly: what would have happened if Michael Brookes had never asked that question? This is something that I want to highlight, as it may relate to whether the game could have taken a very different storyline path or whether some separate events are really part of the same story but from a different angle.
.
If the famous question had never been asked then, as the rarest item in the game, I would think that it is quite possible that it might have been some time before anyone captured sound and video of the UAs. The interest that was kindled by the question would have been delayed until that moment but it seems feasible that the extraordinary appearance and sound of these objects would have sparked a similar degree of interest, eventually. In the meantime, though, how might the storylines of the game have advanced? The outstanding items in the game appeared at that time (during 1.2) to be UAs, Hafnium 178 and AI Relics, of which two were newly-introduced. The Hafnium convoys were (and still are afaik) uncommon but not hard to find with a little time spent searching SSS. The AI Relics had been in before but do not seem to have sparked much interest, so perhaps this is a storyline thread that could have been explored more and led to new directions. Are the UAs, the Hafnium 178 and the AI Relics related to the same storyline but from different angles or are they completely separate? We've lost the chance to find out as only one of these was explored, with UAs being sought and examined, though not sold in numbers until 1.4.
.
The release of 1.4 overtly guided our thoughts towards the Pleiades and Merope in particular and (with the release of Horizons) to the meta-alloys that allow us to both remedy the effects of numerous UAs being sold to stations and to produce cargo holds able to transport the UAs long distances. This seems to set up the next phase, where someone takes a UA to a particular region of the galaxy and finds something as a result. So the question is: does this still happen without the interest being shown in UAs in 1.2 and 1.3?
.
The change in UA behaviour and availability was not the direct result of player activity - it was an injected change. The ready availability of UAs in 1.4 would have been noticed, probably fairly soon, and then people would have begun to investigate them if they had not been doing so already. I also note that it is not necessary to understand or even to realise that they transmit Morse code in order for the storyline to progress, though it does give an insight into their nature: they observe their system passively in 1.2/1.3 and transmit the name of the system or the nearest station; they actively scan ships that approach them in 1.4+ and transmit an image of the ship. They behave like navigational beacons or probes but are never seen to move or be transported (except by the convoys but in small numbers, from the rarity). The storyline is changed by what we do with them: we deliver them to stations and we then need to fix those stations. We harvest meta-alloys from the Barnacles the UAs led us to and deliver them to the affected stations but something or someone (who has successfully remained anonymous - so far!) opposes our efforts and slows us down, with disappearances, kidnappings and even an attempt to spread the Cerberus Plague.
.
This is a major storyline that could still have been followed if people had instead been delivering large quantities of AI Relics and Hafnium 178 to the black market but it might not have happened in the same way because without the player interest in UAs, people might instead have ignored it, as they largely have Hafnium and AI Relics. Perhaps stations would have been disabled in different ways by transporting those goods to them and the meta-alloys would still have been needed. Perhaps the Hafnium is related to a different storyline with the superpowers entering an arms race. Perhaps the AI Relics contained enough of the original AI to unite the powers against what could have been an invading force with as much destructive potential as the Cerberus Plague and Technological Plague combined. They remain relatively untested strands of an unknown puzzle and we are left with the progression of a storyline centred on the UAs.
.
Once we can take UAs anywhere in the Milky Way, perhaps we will be on the verge of finding out not only where they come from but who made them and why. Maybe we will also find out who doesn't want us to discover these things, to the extent that they were willing to unleash a variant of the Cerberus Plague to slow us down or stop us - and why they could be so desperate to keep us in the dark. (Perhaps these people might not want us to take the UAs to certain places - could this be why Michael Brookes hinted that going undefended into deep space might not be viable in future?).
Interesting times are ahead!
What if the meta-alloys that we're using to fix the stations...... take over the stations?!
They're alive right?
They're in a bunch of stations.
Has anyone drawn up a map of the affected stations to determine if there would be any tactical or strategic value. Would be an interesting plot development if the UA/Barnacle/Meta-alloy thing was an elaborate pre-cursor to an invasion.
They're alive right?
They're in a bunch of stations.
Has anyone drawn up a map of the affected stations to determine if there would be any tactical or strategic value. Would be an interesting plot development if the UA/Barnacle/Meta-alloy thing was an elaborate pre-cursor to an invasion.
Sounds to me like Halsey has heard the Call and is overwhelmed. She doesn't understand what's going on, just that she isn't the same. That could make anyone talk in a manner that would be incomprehensible to most. Space is vast, deep and magnificent. Anyone who is planet bound has no idea what it's like out there. Even we who play the game don't actually know, but we know a bit better than most. Well, to Halsey, it isn't a game. It's reality and a reality that seems to have overwhelmed her.
There was an acknowledged bug associated with getting them to spawn early on. My understanding is we should have been able to find them from day one 2.0, but despite MB getting someone to verify their existence, there might have been an issue with spawns when more than one CMDR was 'around'. That was subsequently fixed, leading to more being discovered - in addition to the one that was hinted on Galnet of course
I see. I was following the threadnought back then but I was still getting up to speed with everything being a relative newcomer to the game at the time; I knew about the bug that was preventing them from appearing consistently in all modes but not about an earlier one that had prevented them from appearing at all. It probably happened when I couldn't check the thread for half an hour and missed 30 pages
Was thinking I may head back out to Bernard's Hoop this weekend to carry on poking around, I still think it's by far the most obvious location. Trouble is that it covers such a huge area I'm not sure we're going to find anything other than by blind luck without some further steer, either from FD via in-game clues, the ever-dedicated efforts of you mad scientists, or possibly from something craftily inserted into any trailer content FD produce for Engineers.
I do think this story arc is moving towards another kick forward, simply because the rhythm of progress would seem to make one about due now, tied to the fact that the CG we've just had is clearly linked to it in some way since it has given us a method for safe transportation of UAs.
I still hope that station cure is going to be effective though; I was thinking last night that if the 2 ton reinforced cargo racks we've just unlocked will fit in a class 2 slot (asuming that it's a class 2 module but half of the usual 4 ton capacity is shielding) you could fit seven of them (so 14 UAs) and a class 4 fuel scoop in a Cobra MkIV, making it a very cheap station UA bomber. I can forsee massive amounts of UA trolling coming up.
Wait... what'd I miss that indicates there needs to be a retraction on that story?
My main worry is not knowing whether we've reached the end of what we can currently usefully investigate or not. If we need to wait for an update to, for example, understand everything to do with the symbol on the barnacles then fine, but I want to know that, so I don't keep trying stuff in a futile way. If we've found all the barnacle systems that there are to be found at the moment, again, I just want to know. Same for whether they're in another nebula. And if the anti-corrosion containers come soon they could reveal new info... or not.
I don't mind waiting, but I think it's important to know whether or not we're on a wild goose chase and when there is actually something to be discovered
Really? Is that from the purrs sound that the barnacles make?
Yeah, rizal72, posted the link on the 1st page in the spoiler under THE BARNACLES SOUND An interesting analysis from bitstorm:
Well, then if your decryption is right then that's REALLY VERY interesting!
I think he made a couple mistakes on the sounds, I would appreciate if some one would check again. Just don't refer to the 1/0s posted and use his post https://soundcloud.com/bitstorm-1/merope-5c-large-barnacle-20
erm....
So this is how I hear the pattern, done fresh now :
0x101101010x10x001x011001010x00101010
The x are the "crunch" sound, I'd previously assumed they were masquerading a morse pulse since the pulses seem regular.
But without the x (ie assuming the crunch is not masquerading a pulse) it's....
or
.- / .-- / .- / .-. / -. / .. / -. / --. / .- / .-. / . / .- / . / -. / - / .
Which translates to
A W A R N I N G A R E A E N T E
Fer God's sake, someone please confirm!
http://morse-code.eu/m/eJxjZBARYXBUCFdwVAhS8FPwBGJ3MNsVSLoCeSEKrgBtfgam
Unbelieveable, it was right in front us all along.
For anyone heading out for more audio, that phrase came from a 20 x speed of barnacles audio over 12 minutes.
Get more than 12 minutes!
Râgnôs can I ask how you separated the letters? Just trial and error?
Further to that this audio was remarkably similar to UA audio in that *assuming the x covered a pulse* there were no triple repeats. I'm now starting to wonder is something can be done with UA pulses.
So this is how I hear the pattern, done fresh now :
0x101101010x10x001x011001010x00101010
The x are the "crunch" sound, I'd previously assumed they were masquerading a morse pulse since the pulses seem regular.
But without the x (ie assuming the crunch is not masquerading a pulse) it's....
Code:
01011010101000101100101000101010
or
.-.--.-.-.-...-.--..-.-...-.-.-.or
.- / .-- / .- / .-. / -. / .. / -. / --. / .- / .-. / . / .- / . / -. / - / .
Which translates to
A W A R N I N G A R E A E N T E
Fer God's sake, someone please confirm!
http://morse-code.eu/m/eJxjZBARYXBUCFdwVAhS8FPwBGJ3MNsVSLoCeSEKrgBtfgam
Unbelieveable, it was right in front us all along.
For anyone heading out for more audio, that phrase came from a 20 x speed of barnacles audio over 12 minutes.
Get more than 12 minutes!
Râgnôs can I ask how you separated the letters? Just trial and error?
Further to that this audio was remarkably similar to UA audio in that *assuming the x covered a pulse* there were no triple repeats. I'm now starting to wonder is something can be done with UA pulses.
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