Oh good! I’ve missed doing that. Guess I mistook the tone as carrying over from some of your comments above. Or else just habit.
Uh … probably the worst this could mean (so far) is just what it seems to be: that we’re dealing with recon in force. They seem to be messing with spacetime and computers inside the affected systems, doing stuff like changing the system name to their own alphabet. It’s pretty intrusive, so, what comes next is probably, well … an invasion.
What they do when that happens, I guess we’ll see.
Since you wanted worst-case, though, I guess … hm. They’re already messing with spacetime, so, worst case might be sort of, “Nice system; we’ll take it.” The Abyss does seem to have at least individual, isolated solar systems; maybe they’re there because the Triglavians took them with them when they left.
Maybe they’re looking to expand their territory, resources, and population by dragging ours down into the Abyss to join them, one star system at a time.
CONCORD urges all Capsuleers to mobilize and push back the invaders, to investigate the invaded systems, examine the abyssal conduits and engage roaming squadrons in order to gather more intel on their movements, technology and rare materials.
The situation regarding threat to planets, stations, baseliner traffic is unclear. The Triglavians do attack unarmed capsuleer ships, though, so it goes well beyond any provings of flows or whatever that ■■■■ was about earlier.
Solidly in the “threat level: unknown” territory for now.
I can confirm, they will take shots unprovoked at a corvette with no cargo moving without pause through the invasion zone. So this isn’t retributive, and they aren’t responding to threats. They just seem to be in the habit of shooting at anything that wanders nearby.
I’m curious if anyone has taken the current invasion locations and reviewed the previous Triglavian stellar assessments to see how well they line up or not.
I.e. Do the assessments link up with the invasion locations close enough to call it a prediction or OPSEC leak?
Or were those assessments what some thought - a separate scouting for a specific reason (new home or EvE Gate as some suggested) and not related to the invasion locations.
I’m currently refitting my DST for another long haul run and admit I have not had time to review the data myself and hoping to learn from other enterprising pilots.
Based on their data, the invasion of Amarr was predicted by me with 100% accuracy. Triglavian hit in the nodal system. Therefore, Uedama and Colelie will be a natural consequence.
Ok, so what do we do about that? If, worst case, all the efforts of capsuleers amount to is ‘blowing up ships the Trigs wrote off as a diversion in the first place’, how do we call that ‘effective’, and what do we do to achieve more than being batted away and mired in the nettles they’re using to keep us back?
So, “effective” in this context basically just means “we fielded this fleet comp against what was there and it took the worst of what was there, cleared the field, and didn’t explode.” I don’t think there was really any claim being made that we’re winning a war that almost certainly hasn’t even begun in earnest, Arrendis.
And, considering what they’re doing to the systems themselves … uh. If it’s a diversion, it’s really really impressive?
I mean, if I could black out the stars system-wide excepting maybe an itty-bitty little gap around the edges, wow would that be an amazing trick to just pull out to alarm and distract people!
Of course, all three zones could be diversions distracting us from something else in a fourth, but it seems at least as likely that they’re not. We don’t really know for sure, but the Triglavians so far haven’t seemed (unlike the Drifters) all that big on mystery and deception.
It’s possible to spend so much time looking over your shoulder that you don’t see the fist coming right in front of you, so, if you see, like actual indications that they’re doing something sneaky maybe let us know?
Uhm… I was saying the ships were the distraction. Not any of the system-wide effects. Not the weird appearance to everything. Just the ships. You know…
So… the system stuff? That’d be what we’re being distracted from. So how do we look into what they’re actually doing, and how to stop it? I mean, this isn’t a capability we have. We’ve been beating on the Sansha for a decade, and we don’t know how they do it from their supercarriers… even though we’ve built those ships.
So how do we get past slap-fighting with things they’re putting out there to keep our attention, and address what they’re actually up to?
Ms. Culome, given your apparently grave concern on this matter, I look forward to your reports when you pursue the courses of action you clearly feel aren’t being followed by others.
Eh … in her defense, ma’am, this is probably her contributing. She can’t be here (she has duties; I can relate, though I got leave from mine), so she’s adding helpful suggestions from afar.
How? Remember: this was also addressed to @Makoto_Priano, who runs a, well, ‘Research Consortium’. So: how are we looking? Are we just dropping scan probes? Using visible light telescopes? D-scans?
What specific measures are being taken, so that we can either a)rule things out, or b)start looking for ‘what aren’t we looking at?’
D-scans, probes, and a lot of camera drones, within the limits of what pilots are available for. There’s a lot of murk, and pacing ourselves is likely to be a little important. We have no way of knowing what kind of timetable the Triglavians are working on.
Frankly, I kind of suspect that what’s actually causing the disruptions is probably still on the Abyssal side of things. Not that we can confirm that, yet, but … you’d think whatever was causing such a massive and widespread effect would be pretty obvious. Unless, it’s basically still “submerged.”
(We did have someone try some filaments inside the affected area. No change. Those were pretty shallow, though.)
Hrm. And what are the specific effects being seen, how are they being measured, and is there any variation as gravitational effects increase or decrease with proximity to mass shadows like planets and the central star?
( And yes, @Makoto_Priano, Aria’s right: I can’t go and start deploying equipment or marshaling scientific resources, much as I’d like to. I admit, I’ve only spent 8 hours in the pod today, as I’m currently taking a break from fleet operations to get some of the administrative work done. Still, averaging about 5 (3-4h) fleets a day (as usual) gives me very little free time for other things. )
Well … what we’ve been seeing are weird temporal effects that don’t seem to reduce the mass of our ships or increase or decrease their speed, but do greatly boost ship agility. (Like I said, weird.) Drone mobility is disrupted; so’s drone attack capability.
I think hull integrity’s being affected? Not shields or armor, though. I guess it’s sort of … twisting stuff. Inside.
There doesn’t seem to be a big difference based on proximity to planetary bodies and so on, but those don’t usually have a strong enough influence to affect our ships all that much anyway. Neither does parking next to a star, even. I’m a little worried about what this weirdness is doing to planetside populations.
Visible light is greatly muted, except, maybe, in a narrow band that appears level with the system’s plane. There are crimson … I’m not sure what to call them. They’re too mobile to be clouds in the normal sense, and though they can appear to be pretty close by I think they’re actually maybe part of the outer layers of whatever weird field is swathing the system, in which case the ripples or shimmers are probably moving through the field at above C. They don’t appear to glow, as such, but they’re plainly visible in the gloom, which almost nothing else that doesn’t actually shed light, including Triglavian ships, is.
Overall light quality, to the degree it’s even there, is reddish and frankly eerie. There really isn’t much; it’s like night’s fallen, system-wide. Planetary populations might have trouble keeping crops alive if it persists for long.
Oh! Also worryingly they’re messing with the system ID data, converting it all to the Triglavian alphabet. I don’t know that they’ve actually changed any system names or anything, though; it seems likely to be a direct translation. They seem to be including symbols but not numbers in the translation, so a sec status 0.5 system appears as “0[cute little itty-bitty triangle]5”.
I’ll have to check the next time I’m there. Other pilots might have a better answer.
Oh! Also worryingly they’re messing with the system ID data, converting it all to the Triglavian alphabet. I don’t know that they’ve actually changed any system names or anything, though; it seems likely to be a direct translation. They seem to be including punctuation but not numbers in the translation, so a sec status 0.5 system appears as “0[cute little itty-bitty triangle]5”.
It seems a little unlikely (but possible) that they’re using the same system ID data we are, so the change is probably for our benefit rather than theirs, either for intimidation or as an implicit demand that we familiarize ourselves with the super-pointy and therefore plainly superior symbols employed by our new super-pointy overlords.