Well due to our very thorough defense treaties with all NATO countries, ALL nato countries will have to wade in when one of those morons pulls the trigger over there.
Persomally I think they are human artifacts and the people who made them came from Sol. But if the logo is Barnard's Loop, maybe that's the origin and they were headed the other way.
I doubt the logo is barnards loop. Lore-wise there's been about a thousand years of history where people could travel there; There's no permit systems. if anyone was in barnards loop there we would know
The simplest explanation seems to be a faction logo, There's no reason to assume it's any sort of message for us and they're not a natural phenomena. [edit] And it indicates the origin of a particular barnacle in a way useful to those who made them, not just us
Currently tearing through the game files to find some evidence that they can in fact spawn outside of the pleiades, It's incredibly frustrating to find nothing but nav beacons, not exploring again until there's some evidence and not simply a dev comment
Figured I'd share my research. I had been able to collect 4 UA's and fly them to merope. First I wanted to double check and make sure the UA's were still pointing towards the sun. I made sure to drop one and test on one side of the sun and again on the exact opposite side and they are indeed still pointing directly at the suns core. Lastly I went to the barnacle site on Merope 5c and dropped all 4 on the surface next to it and it did absolutely nothing. I will say through my findings though that If I had 2 UA's in my SRV's cargo and dropped them both at the same time on the surface it would crash the game and cause me to lose connection to the game; when I would log back in one of the UA's would be on the ground and one still in my cargo hold. With 4 on the ground they seemed to emit some sort of EMP field and distorted the background when looking through them. Lastly after about 5 minutes of watching them they were randomly moving/wiggling to where two of them moved closer to each other, the other two stayed put but they all wiggled. I had another CMDR Star Lord pop up and see what I was doing and they stopped wiggling so I think it may have been just a glitch or the fact I have an older graphics card. But those are my findings. Unsure what to test as of this point. If you look at the picture I attached, you can see the UA's made picture taking blurry.
Han Zen is right .... also Rizal has a good synopsis at front of this thread.
Paraphrased from MB comments -(see front) MB said that the Barnacles are generated in certain nebulae and you are guaranteed to find them if you are in the right location - and the nebulae that barnacles can be found in relate to their origin.... that sounds alot like currently coded content for people who keep harping on that idea.
11/01/2015 3:39 PM
Q: Yeah, he did actually say meta-alloys were "exceedingly rare" towards the end of the last thread. People then started pointing out how similar his wording was to a post he made when UAs were first introduced.
Posted by Michael Brookes:
I did indeed say they are exceedingly rare - much rarer than UAs. ALthough unlike the UAs there are some that have been physically placed by us, although they are generated in certain areas of space.
Michael
11/01/2015 6:09 PM
Q: When you say "placed", do you mean that if you show up in that particular place you are 100% sure to see one, or is there still a random element to whether it will actually appear or not when you arrive?
Posted by Michael Brookes:
You are guaranteed to find them if you are in the right location.
14/01/2016 6:31 PM
Q:Now that one has been found, can you be a little more candid with your responses?
What other nebulae are they found in? And is Lagoon nebula one of those nebulae?
Posted by Michael Brookes :
I'm afraid not - the nebula that they can be found in relates to their origin and I can't talk about that.
I wasn't 'harping on' about anything, I simply asked a question. The only reason anything was said after that is that a few people seemed to misinterpret what that question actually was.
I read all of MB's comments at the time he made them. To take them in order:
Posted by Michael Brookes:
I did indeed say they are exceedingly rare - much rarer than UAs. ALthough unlike the UAs there are some that have been physically placed by us, although they are generated in certain areas of space.
That quote doesn't answer the question. We know there are barnacles physically placed by FD - we have found them. There is no requirement for barnacles to currently be in additional places for that statement to be true.
Posted by Michael Brookes:
You are guaranteed to find them if you are in the right location.
You're guaranteed to find them if you go to Merope 5C -26.3515 -156.4056. There is no requirement for barnacles to currently be in additional places (other than the various Pleiades sites) for that statement to be true.
14/01/2016 6:31 PM
Q:Now that one has been found, can you be a little more candid with your responses?
What other nebulae are they found in? And is Lagoon nebula one of those nebulae?
Posted by Michael Brookes :
I'm afraid not - the nebula that they can be found in relates to their origin and I can't talk about that.
If I was telling people that right now, today, they can be found in-game by a player in a location other then the Pleiades, that is what I would say.
If I was telling people about an aspect of this clearly episodic story arc which was planned for a couple of months in the future (such as, oh off the top of my head the origin of the barnacles...) I would also answer the question like that.
Say for example that the barnacles originate in a system on the 'other side' of Barnard's Loop and that is what the Palin disappearance is going to lead us to, a further clue as to where to search next. What else can he say? He can't say 'no they aren't anywhere else' because it will be shown to be a lie when the story reaches that point and people would no doubt be mad. He can't say 'yeah they're in Barnards Loop guys' because a) it kind of kills the whole discovery aspect and b) the story isn't yet at the point where they ae intended to be found.
The easiest way of stopping something from being found too early is to not insert it into the game until it is supposed to be found.
Despite the fact players had been searching for barnacles since the first mission to provide meta alloys was picked up from a BB and that the link with UAs was speculated about very early, nobody found any in the system that the UAs point to or the surrounding systems for what, a month or more? Then suddenly hordes of them were found in the space of about 48 hours. Granted we had the spawn bug which could have meant someone rolled right over where one was supposed to be three weeks before that and it just didn't appear, but it hardly seems a leap to wonder if the reason they weren't found was simply that they weren't there. If so, it's only another short step to wondering if that is the case with the other locations they are ultimately going to be found in.
The pace of this story arc is obviously being controlled, which I think is a good thing; I'm enjoying it and appreciate the work that is being put into it. I just wonder if FD would want to chance that story arc being spoiled by some random commander bumping into a 30 foot high barnacle or something in the back end of Barnard's Loop two months before they're ready to deliver that part of the arc.
I appreciate you tried to provide an answer but I'm not asking because I wasn't aware of MB's comments, it is the interpretation of them that's the issue. Either he will clarify it further or he won't. The sun will rise tomorrow either way.
TL;DR I'm just asking a question but it's not one that can be answered by anyone other than the person who made the comments. All anybody else has their own interpretation of what those comments mean, same as I do.
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but the Pleiades "Nebula" is actually the Pleiades "Nebulae". The Galaxy map shows it as Pleiades Nebula but I believe that is incorrect. The Pleiades is actually a star cluster not a nebula. The nebula cloud is actually multiple individual nebulae associated with each of the brightest stars (including Merope). I think flying around to other distant nebulae such as California, Barnard's Loop, etc. is going to turn up nothing Barnacle or UA related. When Michael Brooks corrected himself with "Nebulae" instead of "Nebula" I believe he was indeed still only referencing the Pleiades "Nebulae".
Here's another thought...I am unable to locate it but I remember post about the Merope system seeming almost "artificial like" because of the distances between planets being similar and other "perfect" stats. Suppose there is something to this and the UA "Shell" is some kind of shield that is currently under construction with the UAs being the building blocks? That would explain their "pointing" at the Merope Star and the near perfect spherical shape of the "shell". Still trying to come up with a good reason for FD wanting us to find the Barnacles (even to the point of helping us with clues and signals and crash sites), although it may be they wanted us to know all about the Barnacles and Meta-Alloys before the shield was complete and potentially no longer accessible...
Given the way the 'Barnicle' (yes it is spelled wrong) poi scenes are stored, i'm all but certain only the Pleiades versions exist, of which there are 3 specific layouts. Won't find anything until fdev decides to advance their story
There is one non-barnacle poi that i don't think anyone's found, doesn't look like it can spawn though, No wave scanner signal
I suppose like all oracles ... the "hints" from MB can be interpreted different ways - sure there is a timetable and there "could" be a Cthulhu in the Machine holding us back or "allowing" us to find things .... it just seems (to me) to make sense to assume that when he says they can be found in other nebula(e) - they are probably in other nebulae .... No more "clarification" needed
The Merope nebula is possibly a super nova remnant. This makes it special. Super novae are one of the major sources for heavier elements in the galaxy, including Carbon and metals.
EDIT: Elements produced in a super nova are heavier than oxygen. Carbon, as I initially stated, is not one of them.
The Merope nebula is possibly a super nova remnant. This makes it special. Super novae are one of the major sources for heavier elements in the galaxy, including Carbon and metals.
So the Maia B black hole would be the star that went supernova?
How many other nebulae have black holes in them?
Edit: Current thinking suggests the dust that forms the nebula and the Pleaides stars are not related to each-other. That the stars are just passing through an otherwise dusty region of space. The nebula itself is a reflection nebula where the dust is illuminated by the very bright stars (in this case the B class stars).
Edit 2: From the wikipedia page on reflection nebulae:
Some 500 reflection nebulae are known. Among the nicest of the reflection nebulae are those surrounding the stars of the Pleiades. A blue reflection nebula can also be seen in the same area of the sky as the Trifid Nebula. The giant star Antares, which is very red (spectral class M1), is surrounded by a large, red reflection nebula.
Tonns of them, I found several on my expedition through various nebulae. Fairly sure there's one in sard somewhere, given the similar coloration i'd imagine there's a similar cause
Could be, Pleaides refers to the star cluster, not the nebula itself, merope being a member of the cluster. It's hard to say how they're actually implemented in elite, likely doesn't matter since it would take many millions of years for the stars to pass through
Does anyone have an hour recording of the barnacle noise?
I was playing around with the sound this morning.
I hear a max of 5 signals before each shuffle noise when the sound is sped up 16X
and that suggests to me...that it might be tap code.
However none of the recordings I've found are long enough.
There might be a recording out there that has more than 5 signals which would easily disprove my theory.
Non-data is still good data... in which case...
To drive this point home:
- We know UAs are able to convert sound signals to letters
- Tap code was a common cipher similar to morse code.
- Use of ternary produces no interpretable results
- Binary... may produce something but as of yet...not much.
Bonus far fetched theory:
We also have a diamondback turning up designated S 6:7
Could this mean that the letter S would be row 6 col 7 in a different kind of tap code table?
I'll post images of the shuffle and the signals between them
I can't find the actual quote, but I think that what he actually said was "Nebulae are good places to look, especially the one with the seven sisters."
That doesn't confirm or deny anything. He did hint about a barnacle/alien home nebula though, although I'd be surprised if anything was in game yet. For the record I've been to sadr, elephant's trunk, ngc 7822, ngc 281, crescent, bubble, heart & soul, orion and probably a couple of others I've forgotten and not found a single barnacle yet and comparable planets to barnacles already found on are not exactly that numerous.
'14/01/2016 6:31 PM
Q:Now that one has been found, can you be a little more candid with your responses?
What other nebulae are they found in? And is Lagoon nebula one of those nebulae?
Quote Originally Posted by Michael Brookes View Post
I'm afraid not - the nebula that they can be found in relates to their origin and I can't talk about that.
I thought of a theory today after a little discussion with Drew on the thread about the generation ships. Sorry if this has been suggested many times before, and also sorry because this is not testable in game
My theory stems from a need to make sense of the logo on the barnacle. There is a very human element about using a logo. It suggests belonging. It suggests ownership and nationalism. We all know why these are important for humans, when used in the context of human cultures.
Now, to tie this in with the generation ships. If we assume the logo on the barnacle to be witch head and barnard's loop as seen from Sol, wouldn't it be an appropriate logo for a generation ship leaving Sol to travel towards barnard's loop? It suddenly struck me while speculating that the barnacles and maybe UAs could be from one of the lost colonies branching ona different path of technology from Earth. It even explains the Morse.
I don't know, I just like it as a theory and wanted to share. Not that I put much value on it
Also, just noticed this. The Running Man nebula is a mirror image of Witch Head nebula in ED. Is this a weird bug or was it always like this?
I like your theory. If this is Generation ship-related, then they should at maximum be around 800LY from Sol (assuming set off in ~ 2500 & travel at C or close thereto). So if the line of Barnacles is extrapolated back to SOL where is the 800LY point? To handle uncertainty in their actual speed & departure date lets say a system alog that line 700 to 800LY from SOL?
Especially as the theme for Season 2 is "the lost" ties in quite nicely.
Generation ship gets to destination or is picked up by Aliens. Technology is swapped, stolen, assimilated.
Hybrid technology sent back to study the origin of the Humans. The question is, why Merope? Was that the original destination on the generation ship that became lost?
This is one of the things that irks me. I can land my ship at a completely random spot on any random planet in any random system anywhere in the galaxy and I'll always be within ten minutes driving distance of at least one crashed nav beacon. That means that I'm either staggeringly lucky or there are thousands of them crashed on every single (airless) planet in the galaxy; probably trillions in total.
This is just begging to have some mathematics thrown at it, so...
If we start manufacturing them right now at a continuous rate of one every second, 24 hours a day, 365 days per year then by the 34th century we'll still only have made roughly 40 billion of them.
That's just not enough.
Hopefully FD will tweak how these things spawn
I was looking on the Maia System map if you zoom in a bit by the black hole it looks like the hole is causing solar flares on the main system star and even stealing ejecta from the star i was surprised to see this on the system map because it seems like the main star is quite far from the black hole and i never realized the system map displays such gravity effects, just thought it was very cool.
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but the Pleiades "Nebula" is actually the Pleiades "Nebulae". The Galaxy map shows it as Pleiades Nebula but I believe that is incorrect. The Pleiades is actually a star cluster not a nebula. The nebula cloud is actually multiple individual nebulae associated with each of the brightest stars (including Merope). I think flying around to other distant nebulae such as California, Barnard's Loop, etc. is going to turn up nothing Barnacle or UA related. When Michael Brooks corrected himself with "Nebulae" instead of "Nebula" I believe he was indeed still only referencing the Pleiades "Nebulae".
Here's another thought...I am unable to locate it but I remember post about the Merope system seeming almost "artificial like" because of the distances between planets being similar and other "perfect" stats. Suppose there is something to this and the UA "Shell" is some kind of shield that is currently under construction with the UAs being the building blocks? That would explain their "pointing" at the Merope Star and the near perfect spherical shape of the "shell". Still trying to come up with a good reason for FD wanting us to find the Barnacles (even to the point of helping us with clues and signals and crash sites), although it may be they wanted us to know all about the Barnacles and Meta-Alloys before the shield was complete and potentially no longer accessible...
