UAs, Barnacles & More Thread 6 - The Canonn

[Lurker]

Sorry for the low quality, recovered from a video recorded two days ago.

Yes have posted few entries before: they are to find up to this V2.01.02 . I love to scan NPC cargo ...
The key was the "Trinkets" was also listed like the "unknown probes" now in system map and don't have brought much fun or other gameplay, story, misssions ...
Only clear relation in the missions (before 2.0) was: dedicated to "The Dark Wheel" faction.
Keep up the good work.

 

[LordZoltan]

Slow down fella! Can't keep up
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Regarding the probe I think we'll find them in or near our worlds.. I imagine "they" will be probing stuff/areas they don't know rather than stuff/areas they do like Merope (if they're related).

Any landables in Sol that might match barnacle parameters?

 

[fyo]

Respect to all the last wonderfull Barnacle findings. For me it smells more depending on CMDR/graphic/instance/time frame combo then skill/luck to see/find them. Most (like me) see nothing befor 1Km also when you have the coordinates ...
Also a killer for a collective search.

I'd like to see details of those who cannot spot barnacles at at least 2km on the vast majority of barnacle planets under direct sunlight.

My problem isn't seeing barnacles. I can spot them from a good distance just fine, I'm just not finding any new ones. Am I choosing bad spots to search? Just having some bad luck? Underestimating how much time the successful hunters are spending? Or is my technique just bad?

Seriously, consider the size of a barnacle planet. Assume for a minute that the only barnacles there are the 1 or 2 that have been found. There are usually hundreds of "hot zones" on each planet and each can easily take an hour to search. If you spent 10 hours a day on that for a solid week, you'd have covered maybe half a planet, likely much less since it would be hard not to ever visit the same location twice.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

Any landables in Sol that might match barnacle parameters?

Mercury? - http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Sol/Mercury

 

[ilo]

Yes have posted few entries before: they are to find up to this V2.01.02 . I love to scan NPC cargo ...
The key was the "Trinkets" was also listed like the "unknown probes" now in system map and don't have brought much fun or other gameplay, story, misssions ...
Only clear relation in the missions (before 2.0) was: dedicated to "The Dark Wheel" faction.
Keep up the good work.

Oh, I see what you meant now, not having a particular purpose.

 

[BluWolve]

I was reading the patch notes and apprently the thing Meta-Alloys spawn on are called "Seed Spikes" hmm....

This is what I was trying to discuss above! Does this mean the meta alloy are the seeds?

Also, if the seed pods were not spawning seeds and the reproduction cycle was bugged, does this mean all my previous attempts to grow a barnacle of my own were doomed to fail through a glitch?

I beseech the gods! If I attempt to grow my barnacle crops in this season will they yield a bountiful harvest? Or are my dreams to be dashed and cursed to forever wander the galaxy leaving nothing but barren fields?

Commence offering of tea and biscuits.

 

[Lurker]

I'd like to see details of those who cannot spot barnacles at at least 2km on the vast majority of barnacle planets under direct sunlight.

My problem isn't seeing barnacles. I can spot them from a good distance just fine, I'm just not finding any new ones. Am I choosing bad spots to search? Just having some bad luck? Underestimating how much time the successful hunters are spending? Or is my technique just bad?

Seriously, consider the size of a barnacle planet. Assume for a minute that the only barnacles there are the 1 or 2 that have been found. There are usually hundreds of "hot zones" on each planet and each can easily take an hour to search. If you spent 10 hours a day on that for a solid week, you'd have covered maybe half a planet, likely much less since it would be hard not to ever visit the same location twice.

http://imgur.com/a/sBwgV
Even with optimal expected angel (I'm at an AMD 7900 series /XEON/16GB/SSD/Win7Pro)
Only to see until picture #3 under 2000m.

And as a thank you my "Ally" opened fire at me after friendly 20minutes via a dropship after driving arround and succesfull scan the barrnacle and ... kill me. Great gameplay. No doubts.
So mostly useless, non conclusive game stuff that. I also don't see a big step if we find more and more farer out like the tea factories in V2.0

But all again history with these new update...

_______________________________________________
Yaffle! Let me out of this thread. Please close ...

 

[ilo]

http://imgur.com/a/sBwgV
Even with optimal expected angel (I'm at an AMD 7900 series /XEON/16GB/SSD/Win7Pro)
Only to see until picture #3 under 2000m.

And as a thank you my "Ally" opened fire at me after friendly 20minutes via a dropship after driving arround and succesfull scan the barrnacle and ... kill me. Great gameplay. No doubts.
So mostly useless, non conclusive game stuff that. I also don't see a big step if we find more and more farer out like the tea factories in V2.0

But all again history with these new update...

Quite enthusiast! so optimistic! lol

 

[Jmanis]

man, nvm I lost it. I called for the fuel rats (btw 10/10 service would call again in emergency) and the cargo hatch malfunctioned. I only noticed it was gone when I was in the next system.

Probably a good idea to spruik my Asp Penetrator again, specifically designed for retrieving UAs.

Strategy:
This has no fuel scoop, and is designed to punch out up to almost 800LY without refuelling thanks to 96t Fuel rather than the standard 32t. In more solid terms, this will get you from Gliese 1269 to the shell and back in one tank. Reason for no scoop is that you can avoid UA corrosion damage if you spin up the FSD immediately after cooldown has completed. The UA shell is just 100-200LY away from the bubble, so it's designed to get in and get out in one run.

Corrosion damage means you don't have time to scoop much, and even if you do, to do it effectively you run the risk of heat damage when spooling up to avoid the corrosion: Heat damage is way more harmful than UA corrosion (even if you have 20 on board)

A-Rate life support is designed to protect against canopy blowout by the UAs. Once you have 16 UAs in the hold it'll one-shot your canopy which cannot be repaired by the AFMUs. You can very safely make it back even with an interdiction or two.

If you are in supercruise and you hear "Module Malfunction" or see a Cargo Hatch Malfunction, conduct an emergency drop from supercruise. This prevents UAs spilling out in SC.
For this reason, if you are hunting UAs and don't have separate Supercruise/Hyperspace keybindings (like me) you should never have a different star system targeted; otherwise your Hyperspace drive will spool up rather than dropping out of supercruise. Bad juju.

Options:
- No weapons/Utility mounts fitted: That's for you to decide. I've not tried mines, but they were popularised in a weak-shield Asp.
- 2 x 3A AFMUs give redundancy, though depending on your needs, one can be subbed out for a vehicle bay if you plan to go on planets with UAs in the hold.
- If you really need a Class 5 shield and don't care about exploring, you can replace the Disco Scanner + Detailed Surface scanner for 2 x 4t Cargo and sub the 3A shield for an 8t cargohold, giving 16t. As mentioned, any more than 16 UAs in the hold will be insta-death for your canopy.

Notes:
Yes, this is not an optimal-range Asp. The point of this is rapid long-range target exploitation, in this case UA hunting. This fitting also works great for other very-long-distance activities tethered to the bubble (no more than 300LY from a station). I imagine an FSD Range boost from an engineer plus jumponium could do wonders for this build.

 

[TheOneWithNoLife]

Respect to all the last wonderfull Barnacle findings. For me it smells more depending on CMDR/graphic/instance/time frame combo then skill/luck to see/find them. Most (like me) see nothing befor 1Km also when you have the coordinates ...
Also a killer for a collective search.

I'd like to see details of those who cannot spot barnacles at at least 2km on the vast majority of barnacle planets under direct sunlight.

My problem isn't seeing barnacles. I can spot them from a good distance just fine, I'm just not finding any new ones. Am I choosing bad spots to search? Just having some bad luck? Underestimating how much time the successful hunters are spending? Or is my technique just bad?

Seriously, consider the size of a barnacle planet. Assume for a minute that the only barnacles there are the 1 or 2 that have been found. There are usually hundreds of "hot zones" on each planet and each can easily take an hour to search. If you spent 10 hours a day on that for a solid week, you'd have covered maybe half a planet, likely much less since it would be hard not to ever visit the same location twice.
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Well I am running on ultra, I haven't found a barnacle yet but most of the details (rocks etc) spawn for me at around 300-400m. When i fly at around 2-4k I constantly see glitches in the shadows or the render of the planets. Sometimes I see a cluster of black spikes on the ground... And just as i start to get excited they disappear as I get closer. It is very frustrating. That's why i decided to scout canyons with my SRV. Are barnacles still bugged and not showing on the SRV scanner? Because if they are that's also pointless. Am I the only one thats getting those glitches?

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[Han_Zen]

I was thinking about the wrecks that are discussed in this thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/264118-23810-Prototype-wrecks-WIP

From all the messages, it seems quite clear that someone is working on experimental drive technology. The curved sections are probably parts from the test vehicle for these drives. This vehicle looks to be a circular tube. Like a UFO, with a hole in the middle or a small version of thee rings on stations.

The fail rate seem massive and that suggests that the technology it really experimental.

Could this be alien (perhaps even Thargoid) drive technology, that has been reverse engineered from UAs? It is very likely that the UA has hyperspace capability. This must have been interesting to drive manufacturers and others to investigate. Availability of Meta-Alloys may be the key to make this work.

Prime suspect in a venture like this will always be Sirius corporation. Perhaps in corporation with INRA. There seem to be a federal involvement as well. This could well be on behalf of shadow president Winters. She has a long history with Sirius corporation and we have hints of both shadow organisations and 'Winter is coming'.

Something is going on in the bubble. It's not just the possibility of an alien encounter that is lurking.

 

[nosscar]

Thought you guys might be interested in this, a whole fleet of fighter ships have joined the farragut on Merope 2A barnacle site. See my thread here.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...d-by-fleet-on-Merope-2A-(since-update-)-video

 

[Jmanis]

I'd like to see details of those who cannot spot barnacles at at least 2km on the vast majority of barnacle planets under direct sunlight.

My problem isn't seeing barnacles. I can spot them from a good distance just fine, I'm just not finding any new ones. Am I choosing bad spots to search? Just having some bad luck? Underestimating how much time the successful hunters are spending? Or is my technique just bad?

For me, I use the "ultra" settings, but my terrain work is only at the 50% mark. This seems to result in a lot of artefacts that *could* be barnacles, but typically aren't, though it's not discernable til I get to a range of 2k or so, and my resolution is just 1280x800 on a smallish screen.

Seriously, consider the size of a barnacle planet. Assume for a minute that the only barnacles there are the 1 or 2 that have been found. There are usually hundreds of "hot zones" on each planet and each can easily take an hour to search. If you spent 10 hours a day on that for a solid week, you'd have covered maybe half a planet, likely much less since it would be hard not to ever visit the same location twice.

So at least in my case, it's completely impossible to spend "10 hours a day for a solid week" searching just half a planet. Don't take that as criticism of your remark, I totally understand that's a thing people can do, and I think you're estimate is bang on, but I simply can't do that, and that's what I hate the most about the way barnacles are implemented in the game.

My time commitment is more like 2 hours *solid* gaming a night, and I'm lucky in that I don't have children, but I can't play every night either. I'll run missions for four hours a night, but 80% of that is done AFK doing other things either around the house or online, and occasionally running back when I hear an interdiction buzz go off. Looking for barnacles is eyes-to-the-screen constant.

10 hours a day for a solid week is 70 hours of gameplay.er That's 35 nights of my life just to covhalf a planet. Frankly, I outright refuse to do anything in a game for a month without any sort of guarantee or indication that what I'm doing will amount to anything, and nothing to do with barnacle hunting gives that indication at all^. Maybe I don't "have the right attitude" for looking for these things, and I'd happily cop that. But to compare, I could also finish the Mass Effect trilogy in that timeframe with near optimal completion. In Frontier, that's at least four small systems I could flip ownership of, and two expansions for my faction, so hopefully you can understand my recalcitrance towards that aspect of the game.

Just to reiterate, this might be someone's bag, but it sure isn't mine.

^ To compare, I gladly spent two weeks at 2-3 hours at a time gathering/selling UA's to sell at Jaques just based on the inkling that UAs cause station issues and the 0.01% chance it might actually impact the story.

 

[Lurker]

Probably a good idea to spruik my Asp Penetrator again, specifically designed for retrieving UAs. - - - C U T - - -

"UA shell systems" are to found 35Ly from station systems, Sir.
And I promise to final shut up for this thread#6 ...

Enjoy the ride!

 

[Jmanis]

"UA shell systems" are to found 35Ly from station systems, Sir.
And I promise to final shut up for this thread#6 ...

Enjoy the ride!

Oh yeah, there are a couple outliers for sure (Arietis 49?).

I personally like to unload UAs much deeper into the bubble

 

[ilo]

so, 1.5 hours flying canyons in T Tauri A 1 A, amazing views, all super clear, and then suddenly I remembered why I had to come back from IC 4604: I started feeling pain on my back, looks like one of the muscles has been stressed more than enough, so in shame and tears I have to say I must stop here and now. Barney hunting is very static and time consuming, so for the sake of my rehab I better focus my efforts in other POIs or things that could be achieved in smaller time spans. If I manage to fly back or start flying again soon I might go back to my UAs until I feel relieved enough to do another stint, probably back in IC 4604, probably not soon.

I'm sorry dudes, this is my last view from T Tauri A 1 A before I had to log off.

 

[ilo]

Oh yeah, there are a couple outliers for sure (Arietis 49?).

I personally like to unload UAs much deeper into the bubble

mm.. I get the UAs in Hyades Sector CQ-X B1-5, and closest inhabited space is Peregrina or Kagutsuchi (aroud 40Ly 60ly from the shell), so probably with a bit of tweaking on the UA source you can get closer, but I agree with jmanis, the purpose of the UAs is not to bring them to the closest station, but to the desired location

 

[fyo]

So at least in my case, it's completely impossible to spend "10 hours a day for a solid week" searching just half a planet. Don't take that as criticism of your remark, I totally understand that's a thing people can do, and I think you're estimate is bang on, but I simply can't do that, and that's what I hate the most about the way barnacles are implemented in the game.

My time commitment is more like 2 hours *solid* gaming a night

I completely understand where you are coming from. I do have kids and two hours a day on average is probably on the high end. I do have some periods where I have more time, but I certainly recognize that I will likely never find an undocumented barnacle.

One thing that keeps me going is the belief that we're only finding a relatively small number of the barnacles that are there. That and I'm combining it with other projects that are somewhat compatible. These projects also mean I won't spend 10 hours searching one planet, but rather spread the time on 10 planets, even though this doesn't mean I have greater chance of finding a barnacle.

And if I get bored doing it, I'll start doing one of the many, many other things I want to try in Elite. I certainly don't feel like I'm running out of things to do (in fact, it seems like my "to do list" is getting longer by the day).

 

[Michael Brookes]

^ To compare, I gladly spent two weeks at 2-3 hours at a time gathering/selling UA's to sell at Jaques just based on the inkling that UAs cause station issues and the 0.01% chance it might actually impact the story.

Jaques being stuffed with UAs didn't help his jump attempt

Michael

 

[Dommarraa]

we spent weeks hunting the for the first UA's, personally it took me a month of solid hunting in Timocani before I found the right Signal Source!

It was 100 hours of hunting until I even SAW a UA Convoy. Then it got away.