What is the REAL reason for Permit Lock Regions?

We are told by Fdev, that these areas are reserved for future content, however in the history of the game, I am unaware of a single permit locked region becoming unlocked for any reason. Fdev delivered the all the Guardian and Thargoid content we have seen thus far into regions that were not permit locked and just "God handed" it in. One day it was an empty planet, next day there is a Guardian or Thargoid structure there. Given the pattern Fdev has established, since launch, of never using "Permit Locked" areas for major new content and just dropping major new content into open space and pretending it was always there, why do we have Permit Locked areas at all? I don't have the answer here but I think the time is long overdue for us to start asking some hard questions to Fdev. Why do we have permit locked regions if you never use them for new content? Why has there never been a single Permit Locked region released to the community in all these years? Why are such vast expanses of space still permit locked when you are half way through the planned life (support) for this game?

There is something very wrong here. I don't know what it is and I would prefer Fdev to step up and provide a logical and truthful answer, but in the absence of that, speculation is welcome.
 
They're just boxed off to be used for something as yet to be determined, at a point as yet to be determined. Based on the fact most of the locked areas (distant ones as well as the Col 70 sector and nearby regions) have been locked for anything between 2 years and the start of the game with none ever being unlocked yet, plus the illustrative example provided by the Gnosis, it seems reasonable to assume they're just reserved space at the moment, nothing more.
 
I know the OP is complaining about locked systems held off for FD's future use, but a great number of permit locked system open up with the appropriate reputation. I can't see what FD have to answer for. There is no evidence of anything but forethought. Another non-issue laced with a liberal dose of outrage.
 
The intention remains the same.
That doesn't automatically mean it's going to happen with all or even any of them.
They are cordoned off, so they retain the option to use them...emphasis on option.
Not that there's anything wrong with asking of course, and i wouldn't mind an answer either.
But i simply choose the relaxed approach: "Ok, can't jump in there, i jump somewhere else then".
I think FD has plenty of things to tackle that we can see, i'm not fussed about the stuff i can't.
 
I am afraid both Red and Mohrgan are missing the point. FDEV DOES NOT USE PERMIT LOCKED REGIONS FOR NEW CONTENT. They never have. If you disagree, give me ONE example where they have. Furthermore, Mohrgan, I am not talking about permitted systems that can be unlocked, I am talking about permit locked regions, which can not. Read more carefully. They say they are locking it off for future content but we have had quite a bit of "future content" with the Guardians and Thargoids. Did they use even one system in all that permit locked space? No. So why have these huge swaths of space blocked off? Since Mohrgan can't understand why blocking access to large sections of continuous space causes problems, I will give you one of many examples. The route plotter in ED is garbage. It can't plot a course around permit locked regions. If you, for example, had been in the Pleiades and tried to go and meet up with the Gnosis a couple weeks ago, you would have had to manually plot your course there because the router planner would fail because of Col 70. This means that not only do you have to waste time manually plotting a course, which is not engaging game play, you also have to travel farther because the direct course take you through a permit locked region. Permit locked regions are a pain in the you know where for players that actually leave the Bubble. If Fdev was actually using these to deliver content that would be one thing and an acceptable temporary inconvenience but they are not. These regions are a long term inconvenience and Fdev is ONLY delivering content to the unlocked regions of space. So Fdev, if you would be so kind, either use the permit locked regions for content or open them up to the players. If you have actual plans for these areas, seeding hints as to what will be there in Galnet is engaging, but just saying "future content" over and over rings hollow.
 
We're currently 4 years into a ten year plan, dude.

Though I suspect that the area around Barnard's Loop is locked for the Stellar Forge team to work on it more than because of Thargoids. It has a lot of densely packed nebulae and must be a difficult region to get looking right.

Getting blocked by the Col 70 lock was part of my first exploration trip out of the bubble, through Witch Head. Back then, all route plotting was manual.
 
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I think that Red and Mohrgan read and understood your post perfectly well. There is no dark secret behind the permit lock, no conspiracy that Frontier has to answer for.

The sheer fact that some smallish additions “appeared” in already explored(?) systems has no relevance for other content that might need more room. A small installation might have been overlooked in the vastness of space, might not have been found on endless dusty surfaces.
But an entire alien civilization would have been hardly overlooked. This is especially true for a game, where the first visitors leave their marks on planets (and soon surfaces). How to explain, that CMDR ZigZac visited a planet and somehow didn’t see the buzzing station filled with weird insectoid aliens or the machine ships of an ancient AI race?

Sorry, the truth for the locked regions is exactly what you dismissed in your OP: a space for future content. Nothing more, nothing less.
 
While I do see your point to a degree, I have to agree with the others that say FD have nothing to explain.

The Thargoid situation can be explained because of their notionally bio-tech nature.

The Guardian situation is less easily explainable. However, there are theoretical explanations that could cover why the Guardian structures seem to appear (effectively) over night.
  1. The structures were once buried and only recently surfaced or were uncovered
  2. They were built by dormant nanobots that got awoken for some reason
 
While I do see your point to a degree, I have to agree with the others that say FD have nothing to explain.

The Thargoid situation can be explained because of their notionally bio-tech nature.

The Guardian situation is less easily explainable. However, there are theoretical explanations that could cover why the Guardian structures seem to appear (effectively) over night.
  1. The structures were once buried and only recently surfaced or were uncovered
  2. They were built by dormant nanobots that got awoken for some reason

Have you ever considered competing in the Olympics? You're amazing at mental gymnastics!
 
At OP.

You claim that Fdev isn't using the permit locked system for future content.
How do you know that?
I surely have no idea what Fdev is working on, it's not like they're very open about future projects.
Even the "exciting" thing they're working on right now is something they can't say anything about or when it's gonna happen.

Chill out man, there are 400billion systems you can visit, the permit locked ones won't even get close to one percent of that.
Yeah they could've put the aliens in some previously locked systems, would that have made such a difference?
My faith in Fdev isn't at an all time high at the moment but I do hope that one day we'll see what they have in store for those locked systems.
I can't believe they just picked some systems at random and permit locked them just for the fun of it.
 
We are told by Fdev, that these areas are reserved for future content, however in the history of the game, I am unaware of a single permit locked region becoming unlocked for any reason. Fdev delivered the all the Guardian and Thargoid content we have seen thus far into regions that were not permit locked and just "God handed" it in. One day it was an empty planet, next day there is a Guardian or Thargoid structure there. Given the pattern Fdev has established, since launch, of never using "Permit Locked" areas for major new content and just dropping major new content into open space and pretending it was always there, why do we have Permit Locked areas at all? I don't have the answer here but I think the time is long overdue for us to start asking some hard questions to Fdev. Why do we have permit locked regions if you never use them for new content? Why has there never been a single Permit Locked region released to the community in all these years? Why are such vast expanses of space still permit locked when you are half way through the planned life (support) for this game?

There is something very wrong here. I don't know what it is and I would prefer Fdev to step up and provide a logical and truthful answer, but in the absence of that, speculation is welcome.

I did answered once in the same thread like this one. It was closed and i can't find my post anymore.

So i will say it again, but in less proportion. OP, you need to know the truth.

In 4 years i never seen any single time when any single permit locked area was unlocked. In fact tons of them were ADDED to the game in 4 years.

And what is more funny.. There was a HIP 24460 system that was confirmed by many players and Cannon pilots that it have Thargoid Structure in it. We even knew what is in this system beside the TS. This system was available to players in BETA of 2.3. On the release day this system was locked by permit.

Today is 16.09.3304 sol year. HIP 24460 is in permit lock 18 months.

My best and wild guess - Every permit locked area have nothing to do with story, your "personal narrative" or anything else FD want you to believe.

Most likely permit lock is the way FD dealing with some galaxy optimisations + lock out systems that are somehow broken beyond repair (HIP 24460).

I bet any amount of X$ that HIP 24460 will never be unlocked in next X years. I am very confident in this.
 
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Orion/Col 70/Cone - Thargoids home systems. We're early enough in the Thargoid plot that "taking the fight back to them" isn't going to happen yet.
Regor - Guardians. May well also be unlocked later in the Thargoid plot.

The rest? It's entirely possible that no-one at Frontier knows what any of the others are for yet, especially the deep space ones. They probably just didn't want to be in a position where the game was wildly successful, lasted far longer than expected, and then in year 16 or whatever they needed a continuous region of previously unexplored space for their latest plot and didn't have any. Most of them are *way* too far out to be of interest to anyone but explorers, at least for now.

i.e. "for future content"

(If you don't believe "for future content", what do you think they're possibly for?)

The sheer fact that some smallish additions “appeared” in already explored(?) systems has no relevance for other content that might need more room. A small installation might have been overlooked in the vastness of space, might not have been found on endless dusty surfaces.
I wonder how they'll adapt this once we get the new surface mapping probes in 3.3 and it becomes much harder to overlook that sort of thing - more than about 500 LY from Sol it will still be easy enough to find an unmapped planet, of course.
 
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