What is Project Discovery
The project is a research group made up of the brightest and best minds in the Galaxies this side of the Sphere. They have been given a remit by the Coalition Council to reverse engineer and figure out as much as they can about key elements of the invading A.I. The project has a primary office in each of the accessible Galaxies. You will find these on Promenades and can be accessed by any Captain of any level.
What does Discovery hope to achieve
Their first directive is to create a series of Drones that can withstand the forces deep inside a Nebula. Their second goal is to create a drone capable of traversing / mapping the network of gates that the A.I must be using within the Nebula to reach the Core.
Finally they have been given a directive to design a Battle Ship with an F.T.L capable of traversing the network and aiding in the defence of the Core. This last directive has a long way to go before the team can begin to think that far ahead but in time it is hoped that every captain in the Sphere will be able to aid in the defence of the Core.
How will Discovery do this?
There are TWO main parts to Project Discovery. The first is the gathering of resources for each stage of the research projects challenges. These are initially likely to be open ended as they have no idea how much of any given resource they will need. Also these ‘wish lists’ are likely to change month by month as progress is made. The team will likely also be asking for end product Modules pre-built to save the team time and effort of having to manufacture their own basic modules.
The SECOND stage which will run in parallel is shared data processing. This is done by the use of a clever ‘Discovery Pod’ that has been designed. When you first visit ANY of the Project Discovery offices, you will be issued with a Discovery Pod. If you wish to take part in this process simply fit the pod. It requires no power or Pod Points, just a pod slot.
It will receive a packet of data from the Project Servers and whilst you are actively playing it will process these packets and return them once processed. This way the project can process vast amount of data in record time. By processing data for the project in this fashion you will accrue ‘Personal Research Points’. You can view how many you have by visiting any of the Project Discovery offices.
What do I do with the Personal Research Points?
Later, once the Discovery Team has begun work on the Battleship plans and systems, you will be able to purchase Schematics from the team using these Research Points. As time rolls on more refinements and additional weapons, systems, defences etc will be available to those who have helped with and are continuing to help with the project.
Do I have to take part?
Yes and No – If you want to simply help the project collect resources and earn some credits in reward then help out with the collection stages. But if you later are going to want to take the fight to the AI and travel through the Gate Network back to the Core – then yes you will need to help with the data processing.
How does the Collection Office work?
We have modelled the system on the way the Genesis Collections work. Each office is connected to a central collection. You can deposit up to 10,000 units of resource PER day (reset midnight game time). Deposits are made in Batches of 1,000 units. So if you have less than 1000 units of a resource required you will have to wait till you have enough.
Resources are taken directly from your LOCAL Commercial Store (where the office is located). Saving you time moving items to and from your store and ships hold. Modules are taken directly from your ships crafting store. You may deposit as many modules as you have whilst the project requires them.
The project will offer roughly a base 2 X Joes value on most items. This MAY vary slightly and you WILL find the list changes from time to time or as one item is no longer required it is replaced by another. But the lists are all driven from a central list, so each office is a mirror of each other, no need to go hunting across the Universe.
Again – You can only deposit up to 10,000 units of resources in any single day – in batches of 1,000 units. This is so the research group does not end up with 10 tones of something they no longer require.
How long will Project Discovery go on for?
At this time it its expected that the project will be on going until the AI threat is once and for all removed. As this is going to mean the effort of the whole server it is surmised that this will continue for many, many years.
Footnote:
This post will be used to update the community on the stages of the project. IE once a stage is completed and ‘useful intel’ or an updates is required it will be posted here along with any accompanying ISN / Dev post.
Changes to the Resource ad Modules list will NOT be updated publicly, that’s up to you as a player to review from time to time and make your own choices. As there will be an office in EACH Galaxy its not that hard to check.
Lastly….
I’m posting THIS post prior to rolling the offices to live. There will be some overlap of this post and the Offices Appearing on the live server.