Elite: General talk
29 Sep 2023, 12:46am
Aleksander MajjamSchmackAleksander Majjam
My friend. You don't have to explain the benefits of mining anywhere in Elite.
I hail from a magical and prosperous time long forgotten of the Borann LTD3 spot. No war. No grind. Funny ass pirates that roleplayed stealing your precious LTD's. Stations well within the jump range of my Python that made me billions.
What a time to be alive.
I found my own "egg" several hundred LYs outside of the bubble toward HIP 36601. With my carrier just a short super cruise away, I filled it up with LTDs and made that 1.5 hops back to sell a few times.
Oh man, nice. Finders keepers, eh? What are LTD's going for now?? Or is that a now screenshot?
They tanked. That is a screenshot from then, still my biggest single sell to date. I think Musgravite is going for more now than either void opals or low temp diamonds. Both are meh.
29 Sep 2023, 6:39pm
30 Sep 2023, 3:47am
Astronomy and biology and physics (especially particle physics and quantum physics [random tangent, I have no idea why these are considered separate things. Quantum physics is just the study of the subatomic, which is also what particle physics is], but despite my extensive knowledge of these subjects my math skill is incredibly lacking, and science is just surface knowledge if I can't back it up with math proofs) have always fascinated me, but there's not really anything I can contribute
I've considered maybe doing the opposite of what's been done for the past few decades, in which people make heavier and heavier elements, maybe working with antimatter and trying to make it more stable, or delving into something completely bizarre like trying to make heavier antimatter (the highest we've been able to create is antilithium iirc), but I don't know if that's something I can actually make contributions to, being constantly sore and exhausted all the time
And as for piloting...? I'm nearsighted with astigmatism.
I can never fly.
30 Sep 2023, 4:33am
- Many "alien" sightings have turned out to be the result of carbon monoxide poisoning, carbon dioxide sickness, and too much or too little oxygen (contrary to what you're taught in basic biology, you primarily inhale nitrogen, and just a little bit of oxygen.. too much oxygen is also not good for you, especially since it.. well.. oxidizes)
- Moving through fluids quickly (and the air is in fact a form of fluid, just not in the conventional sense) in altitude can cause effects known as The Bends, or its inversion, Oxygen Toxicity - both of which can result in a hallucinogenic, or even drunken, effect
- Humans are incredibly good at picking out patterns in things, and this was especially helpful for older humans (this can be seen more strongly by people with ADHD and autistic people, especially autistic savants), even when there is no pattern, like pareidolia, or the uncanny valley (which is realistically a psychological response to rabies and similar diseases, allowing us to avoid people who were a massive risk of infection)... consequently, if you're moving at high speeds, exhausted, or even just thinking/worried about things, you may see things in your peripheral vision that aren't there, and this can be exacerbated by PSTD, CPTSD, and psychotic disorders like schizophrenia (while I'm on the topic, schizophrenic and even psychotic people are just people; most of them don't even have "evil" voices like shown in media, it's generally something stupid like vaguely hearing their name, or something like "Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey dude. Hey" bugging them - and I know someone who has the misfortune of the harassing/screaming kind and medicates for it, and they don't let that affect how they treat other people; they're one of the kindest people I've met)
- Humans are unfortunately prone to false or modified memories... running on a fat sac of dendrites trading ionized chemicals to transfer information is quite prone to making mistakes, and memories become increasingly modified the longer you live, because you can only optimize space so much (this is unrelated to the development of Alzheimer's, which is a genetic disorder that results in your neurons turning into plaque)
- Several "alien" incidents, such as the Roswell Incident1, are government cover-ups
- If you're ever announced aliens by a government official instead of a peer-reviewed scientific body that doubts themselves and wants more evidence, expect that said government has done something horrible, and try to find what they're burying. The same applies with corporate stunts - look into what's going on with that corporation
- Any alien life even in the plant stage of development would be incredibly obvious from Earth, as we'd be able to easily see their refracted light spectrum causing a biological dip, and any society with satellites or excessive construction, we'd also see a technological dip in the light spectrum, (more of a straight, square dip than a sine-like dip) and would pretty much be absolute confirmation of extraterrestrial life
- Any civilizations traveling near the speed of light2 would not only be using entire stars as their energy source, and we'd be able to see their Dyson Swarms3 or the extinguishing of stars, and they would leave easily visible trails of ionized gas, as the universe is full of hydrogen, helium, and a small bit of lithium - a few atoms per metre, but enough to be obvious
1During the Cold War, the USA and the USSR were spying on each other's nuclear tests. NASA provided the US the critical information, that as the air is a fluid, it'll have a similar region like in the ocean where sound waves can only travel sideways. The US military authorized NASA launching nuclear listening satellites into this point in orbit, and were listening for Soviet nuclear tests. One of these satellites crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, the parts were discovered by a civilian, who immediately contacted for help. The US military rushed to retrieve it, and immediately sent the FBI to people's doors to ask if they had seen anything, for fear of Soviet spies discovering what they were doing (hence, Men In Black).
2Close-to-Light speed is currently believed to be impossible, as it would require a ship able to pretty much constantly accelerate with an impossibly large fuel supply. Also, the ship would be obliterated by single atoms (see: airplanes being obliterated by birds) without a forcefield, which is currently believed to be impossible. Lightspeed is a mathematically impossible speed to reach, and you can only get closer and closer to fractions of light speed - light will always surpass you, as it is an absolute, and protons are fourth-dimensional (if we consider time as the fourth dimension) particles in a quantum superposition between matter and energy (see: double-slit experiment) [while I could explain this in more detail, I'd rather link a video that explains Virtual Matter Theory4 in layman's terms]. Faster-than-Light travel is also believed to be impossible, because it would require something with negative mass - and dark matter, dark energy, and antimatter all fail to meet this requirement.
3A Dyson Sphere is a very bad idea, as it could be slightly misaligned by small issues or misconstructions, resulting in it being partially sucked into the star, which would make the entire thing get sucked into the star - and if the star fails to break it down into more basic elements before iron enters it, you just killed the entire star - iron is stellar ash, and results in the death of a star once it forms in its core. The alternative is a Dyson Swarm, a field of 1 micron-thick solar cells orbiting a star - in our own Solar system, this would require the deconstruction of pretty much the entire planet Mercury for enough resources, and would take well over a decade, even with doubling power, and creating satellites that small (aka statites) is currently believed to be impossible. The presence of a Dyson Swarm would also be incredibly visible, and even the WTF star is believed to just be a shattered moon obscuring the light of the star.
4Theory here refers to the scientific process of calling things widely believed to be fact "theory," in case it's ever disproven.
30 Sep 2023, 6:52am
30 Sep 2023, 9:55pm
ClawsOfTiamatI have never seen anything too crazy myself, as far as that goes, but I have heard plenty. I entered the Navy in the late 90's and then it was almost a death sentence for your career to say anything about UAPs, but they were there. I flew helicopters for a bit and we didn't have the fancy radars or other cool-kid stuff the jet pilots had. Most "UAPs" I saw ended up being flares or something benign. I have folks I trust with my life that DO fly up there and aren't the kind of people to BS, and they all swear there is something to it. Stuff that just defies everything we know about modern physics.
Hi squid. Jarhead here. Been a passenger in helos and have backseated the F-18, EA6B, F-16, and F-5 in my career and the only time I've seen anything regarding a UAP was during my hypoxia test during physiology training. Flashing lights all over the place, lol.
In all seriousness, I think there's a new netflix documentary that's currently about this very subject.
@madam - One of the most interesting concepts of space travel I've seen has been project Orion. Kind of far fetched IMO, but still interesting nonetheless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
01 Oct 2023, 1:01am
madamepestilenceA Dyson Sphere is a very bad idea, as it could be slightly misaligned by small issues or misconstructions, resulting in it being partially sucked into the star, which would make the entire thing get sucked into the star - and if the star fails to break it down into more basic elements before iron enters it, you just killed the entire star - iron is stellar ash, and results in the death of a star once it forms in its core.
Err, to kill a star with iron, I think you would need to get at least close to the Chandrasekhar limit, which is about 140% of Sun’s mass. Nobody has ever suggested a Dyson sphere that massive, AFAIK. (You are right about the stability problem, however.)
01 Oct 2023, 2:07am
ClawsOfTiamatDefinitely agree that Roswell was likely a special/dark USAF project aircraft.
I mean. The incident is declassified, we know the exact type of satellite it was lmao, it was a listening satellite
At Fort Worth Army Air Field, Major Jesse A. Marcel posing with debris on July 8, 1947.
and a physical description of it:
The balloon which held it up, if that was how it worked, must have been 12 feet [3.5 m] long, [Brazel] felt, measuring the distance by the size of the room in which he sat. The rubber was smoky gray in color and scattered over an area about 200 yards [180 m] in diameter. When the debris was gathered up, the tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks made a bundle about three feet [1 m] long and 7 or 8 inches [18 or 20 cm] thick, while the rubber made a bundle about 18 or 20 inches [45 or 50 cm] long and about 8 inches [20 cm] thick. In all, he estimated, the entire lot would have weighed maybe five pounds [2 kg]. There was no sign of any metal in the area which might have been used for an engine, and no sign of any propellers of any kind, although at least one paper fin had been glued onto some of the tinfoil. There were no words to be found anywhere on the instrument, although there were letters on some of the parts. Considerable Scotch tape and some tape with flowers printed upon it had been used in the construction. No strings or wires were to be found but there were some eyelets in the paper to indicate that some sort of attachment may have been used.
Brig. General Roger Ramey, left, and Col. Thomas J. DuBose pose with debris.
It was just incredibly handy for the US Army to reinforce the concept that it was aliens, as this helped cover up that they were spying on Soviets, and so led to things like this:
On July 12, 1947, the US Army released photos of a hoaxed "flying disc" recovered from Twin Falls.
If you want more information, the satellites/balloons were part of a project called Project Mogul (or Operation Mogul)
01 Oct 2023, 9:59am
Decided to also solidify my Squadron's Faction alignment since making some checks between things has confirmed that console is fully severed, and even the economy and Powerplay are completely different - which means I have a less saturated Powerplay sandbox to work in, and there's not really a possibility of a Player Minor Faction, so I might as well have the PS Squadron run on an NPC Faction
06 Oct 2023, 8:16pm
I fly lots of flight sims and zero issues in those, so I'm very doubtful my stick is to blame (Virpil T50 Mongoos). The buttons are also fine over multpile tests with the controller CPL in Windows and the VPC input tester software. Still also checked internal and external connections - nothing to see there.
It only happens in USS and FSS. I tried switching my assignments for those two scenarios but it made no difference - all of the buttons on the stick go intermittent.
Weird.
**edit: it just started happening recently. Up to Odyssey all was fine, but I stopped playing until a week ago. The problem started a couple of days later.
06 Oct 2023, 10:10pm
07 Oct 2023, 12:24am
Bodgester **edit: it just started happening recently. Up to Odyssey all was fine, but I stopped playing until a week ago. The problem started a couple of days later.Seems really like a game bug. Since you've checked everything else quite rigorously. Sadly, there's a lot of bugs in Elite. Have you tried re-assigning those to keyboard or mouse buttons to check the input that way, without using the sticks in USS/FSS? Like, to figure out, is it the interface bug or incorrect mapping? Also, you could check for conflicts in your mappings, I can't remember exactly but it seems like Elite doesn't have any kind of warning text persistent on the screen if some of your mappings are conflicting.
07 Oct 2023, 4:29am
Kasumi GotoPerhaps you’re instead thinking of PSR J0024-7204E?
https://www.edsm.net/en/system/bodies/id/81304230/name/PSR+J0024-7204E
That is one hot neutron star, if I do say so myself. I’m guessing a pulsar that has been catalogued IRL, judging by that classification/name.
Very, very late, but I'm here to eat crow; it was in fact PSR J0024-7204E, not U