Unknown permit needed? A whole sector of the map entirely off limits?

Imgran · Oct 21, 2017

OK that's a bit odd. I just took a mission to explore down into a particular area of the map outside the bubble, but not very far outside, maybe 1200 LY. I was looking for a good medium to short range exploration mission to fill out my weekend in the 1-2k light year range, so when I saw what I was looking for I took the mission first, plotted the route later.

Weird thing... when I tried to plot the route, and remember this is only about 1k LY from the bubble, the route wouldn't plot. Well OK, I have a jump range of 35 so that's definitely strange but maybe the destination is outside the disc and there's legitimately no way to get there. Be my own fault then if I took that mission without researching -- but maybe I could burn some Jumponium, and get there anyway.

So I decided to try to plot routes to nearby systems, and all of them failed until I pulled back to about 250 LY away from the original target, and I encountered a star that said "unknown permit required."

What.

This is the first time I've ever heard about any sector of space actually being blocked off by anything like an unknown permit. It very much looks like that sector was cut off from the rest of space rather deliberately. I have never seen this before.

So I wandered around Google and found out that FD has been apparently blocking off various nebula since 2.1 at least. Nobody seems to know why.

I've spent so long in the bubble I literally had no idea of this. That's weird. The possibilities for why this might be happening seem endless, from updating their map one sector at a time to modern astronomical findings to something story related that may happen in the future and they want to set a sector up for it.

Of course it's just like FD to issue missions to areas they themelves have blocked off, but permit me to register my astonishment that they are actually capable of doing this. Why are whole sectors of the galaxy suddenly magically unplottable now? What's going on in there?

Dangit I am going to have to see if I can find a way to Jumponium in now, just to see what's in there. My weekend either got a little more frustrating or a lot more interesting.
.
If you're curious my original mission target that is currently unplottable is Running Man Sector CQ-Y D16 (I run in private groups while exploring so I'm not afraid of getting ganked, and I'm wondering if anyone else is curious about this). My jump range is about 35.8 LY so there shouldn't be too many places in the galaxy I can't go, especially not whole sectors. I'll let you guys know if I still can't plot in tomorrow.

damon8r351 · Oct 21, 2017

Yes, there's a few sectors that are permit locked. It's not just stars and planets.

CapitanAceRimmer · Oct 21, 2017

Yeah, I have been in that area since last weekend, exploring all the nebulas, and it is a bloody nightmare. There's several regions where systems are locked, in the end I gave up as too many interesting areas are locked. Even trying to return to the Witch Head nebular was tricksey.

By the way, I got out here by hitching a lift off The Gnosis.

varonica · Oct 21, 2017

CapitanAceR said:
Yeah, I have been in that area since last weekend, exploring all the nebulas, and it is a bloody nightmare. There's several regions where systems are locked, in the end I gave up as too many interesting areas are locked. Even trying to return to the Witch Head nebular was tricksey.

By the way, I got out here by hitching a lift off The Gnosis.

I am assuming you are talking of the Col 70 sector, I have been there a few time, there's always a way around, and if you find it hard backtracking having an app that records your journey is very useful, you can just backtrack star by star.

Hell Razor5543 · Oct 21, 2017

Col 70 Sector has been locked away for well over a year now.

Jpotter · Oct 21, 2017

Check EDSM.net -> Galactic Map -> Check filter for 'Restricted Sectors'

Lot's of them out there.

Tadeus72 · Oct 21, 2017

What's an exploration mission?

Sapyx · Oct 21, 2017

There aren't any "exploration missions" yet, though these are supposed to be coming in 3.x. What we do have now are long-range passenger missions where a "famous explorer" wants you to take them to faraway tourist beacons. A couple of those places are on the far side of Col 70 permit-locked space.

And yes, the Col 70 sector and a few nearby sectors have been permit-locked since 2.1. Some other more distant permit-locked sectors have been in the game since the very beginning.

The reasons have never been formally explained to us, though it seems reasonable that the Col 70 sector around the Orion region has been locked out to protect against the premature discovery of aliens - almost certainly the Thargoids. But there are 26 permit-locked sectors scattered throughout the galaxy (the full list can be found in this thread) and we don't know how to obtain the permits to any of them. They can't all be Thargoids, there must be other alien sites (or other things, like "lost colonies" or "rogue AI") out there that are being protected.

Jmanis · Oct 21, 2017

From the "Permit List" thread:

Permit Locked Regions of Space:

Regor sector (Gamma Velorum is a "named" system, worth checking out in the future)
bleia1
bleia2
bleia3
bleia4
bleia5
Bovomit
Dryman
Froadik
Gamma Velorum
Hyponia
praei1
praei2
praei3
praei4
praei5
praei6
Sidgoir

* Horsehead Dark Region https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=254212
IC-4673 Sector
* Col 70 Sector
Col 121 Sector
Col 97 Sector
M41 Sector
NGC 1647 Sector
NGC 2264 Sector
NGC 2286 Sector
NGC 3603 Sector

Imgran · Oct 21, 2017

So I should be able to get to Running Man sector by plotting around Col 70 sector. That's what I needed to know. Thanks guys.

Achibot · Oct 21, 2017

Imgran said:
So I should be able to get to Running Man sector by plotting around Col 70 sector. That's what I needed to know. Thanks guys.

It would seem easier (and more practical going forward) to build a ship with decent jump range, at least something north of 50ly.....

CMDR Endincite · Oct 21, 2017

Imgran said:
So I should be able to get to Running Man sector by plotting around Col 70 sector. That's what I needed to know. Thanks guys.

Except Running Man is right in the middle of Col 70

It's complicated. Col 70 as a named sector is vast, and various other sectors within its overall sphere are unlocked, so you can visit the exact centre of it (actually in Running Man Sector) if you so choose (I did, found nothing).
The parts of Col 70 that are overlapped by another named sector (e.g. Witchhead, Orion, Running Man and some others) are usually not locked. The parts of it not overlapped and still named Col 70 are locked.

I basically followed the line from the asteroid base in Witchhead to the one in Orion without issue, and from there it's a short hop to Running Man (I was in my Python with a range somewhat less than yours, for reference).

andylegate · Oct 21, 2017

I ran into this last week when I had earned enough credits and got a ship to try and do some exploring.

I wanted to visit Polaris, but found it required a Polaris Permit, which confused me since I didn't think ED had a way for players to control areas of space (like Eve Online), and decided to Google it later.

So then I decided to plot a course to the Orion Nebula and discovered huge areas that said "Unknown Permit required". Googled that and saw where it seems no one knows what is going on with that. I found it included many areas around some of the most interesting nebula that I wanted to visit.

I ended up just doing a 2,000 ly run in the opposite direction.

I'm surprised that there has been no official word on it in so long. I'd be perfectly happy if it was simply "reserved for future content" or something like that.

Straga · Oct 21, 2017

I did a run out to the COL70 sector, Horsehead and the running man a long time ago in a trusty Type 6, predating the release of the Diamondback ships. There was nothing there other than some very closely packed star systems.
I have first discovered on a couple of stars around there, but nobody can really see it right now because it's all locked.

Raktavijan · Oct 21, 2017

Except that is the exact reason FDev have given. All the locked regions are precisely for "future content". There's nothing more interesting, mysterious or suspicious about them. Theories are abound of course, but in the end, it is just a game and this is FDev's way of doing things.

Imgran · Oct 21, 2017

CMDR Endincite said:
Except Running Man is right in the middle of Col 70

It's complicated. Col 70 as a named sector is vast, and various other sectors within its overall sphere are unlocked, so you can visit the exact centre of it (actually in Running Man Sector) if you so choose (I did, found nothing).
The parts of Col 70 that are overlapped by another named sector (e.g. Witchhead, Orion, Running Man and some others) are usually not locked. The parts of it not overlapped and still named Col 70 are locked.

I basically followed the line from the asteroid base in Witchhead to the one in Orion without issue, and from there it's a short hop to Running Man (I was in my Python with a range somewhat less than yours, for reference).

I basically wound up doing what you're doing. Getting to Witchhead, that allowing me to get to Orion, and from there on into Running Man. Given the nature of the thing I was going in to scan I wonder if the whole reason the scan point (called Triple Nebula) is there is because going on a triple nebula run from Witchhead to Orion to Running Man is the only way in.