The Location, Location, Location of BotFodder’s Base
Location, location, location! Sometimes the universal reset of Atlas Rises v1.3 does something positive for a player. In this case one can only imagine player BotFodder2 logging in on August […]
Exploring the archaeology in (and of) video games.
Location, location, location! Sometimes the universal reset of Atlas Rises v1.3 does something positive for a player. In this case one can only imagine player BotFodder2 logging in on August […]
Location, location, location! Sometimes the universal reset of Atlas Rises v1.3 does something positive for a player. In this case one can only imagine player BotFodder2 logging in on August 11, 2017 to find that his base, once suspended in thin air, was now connected to a Trading Post, a very own corner shop or 7-11 just down the ramp. This might be a unique instance of base placement, with the Trading Post spawning underneath. Note that the base unit itself is missing, with its icon indicating it is buried underground. Excavation did not discover the unit, digging down to the bedrock. In theory, it should have been adjacent to the exocraft geobay.
Below is an image of the base as it was during Pathfinder, which in itself is an anomaly to have a floating base from v1.2 possibly cause by that update after v1.1. Read more about this base from the Pathfinder era here.
Anatomy of BF165-1 Long Time Home Frozen
BF165-1 Long Time Home Frozen
Legacy Hub
System: [K-9C]BF165 Onsifi (RiCa 8+m Badgers)
Base Name: BotFodder’s Base
Player: BotFodder2
Type: “Glacial” Planet
Weather: Powder Snow
Sentinels: Standard
Flora: Generous. According to the Discoveries log, 12 plant species (all “common”) have been discovered.
Fauna: Typical. Also based on the Discoveries log, 11/11 animal species have been recorded.
Economy: High Tech // Struggling
Dominant Lifeform: Gek
Conflict Level: High
Planet Base Coordinates: 064A:0081:0D6D:009C
Portal Coordinates: pie pie galaxy tent pie face balloon ship tree tree moon whale
Resources (according to the log): Star Bulb, Emeril, Nickel, Heridium. I did not observe Star Bulb.
Exterior Temp: Range between -86.4 F, 1.8 Rad, 14.8 Tox (day) and -88.8 F, 0.1 Rad, 5.4 Tox (night)
Storms: None.
Length of Day: 1 real-time minute = 45 minutes on Long Time Home. 32 real-time minutes = 1 day on Long Time Home.
Sunrise: 0400
Sunset: 2000
Circumference: ca. 10:30 minutes (630 seconds) at 4756u/s = 2,996,280u or ca. 2,996ku
Diameter: ca. 954ku
Volume: 4.55 x 108 u = 455,000,000u
The Earth’s moon has a circumference of: 10,921km (or nearly 4x that of Long Time Home).
Long Time Home is mountainous and cold, but with plenty of vegetation and animal life when compared to other cold planets explored for this project. Snow exists in pockets and does not cover the planet.
38 Waypoints discovered, dates ranging from February 17, 2017 to September 26, 2017.
2 on February 17, 2017 by BotFodder2.
5 on February 18, 2017 by BotFodder2.
12 on March 8, 2017 by BotFodder2.
1 on March 22, 2017 by BotFodder2
2 on April 14, 2017 by BotFodder2
3 on August 19, 2017 by BotFodder2
4 on August 20, 2017 by BotFodder2
4 on September 26, 2017 by BotFodder2
1 on May 5, 2018 by aj-oggy
The base sits atop a trading post with a long ramp leading south from the post’s roof to a holographic doorway. Upon entering, one must take the ladder on story up to access the base’s ground floor. From the top of the ladder, one can head south to a T-corridor with holographic exits to the left and right leading to their respective landing pads, which are frequently in use by visiting NPC ships. To the left of the ladder is an active Trade Terminal 0-W-3 Matrix. Hallways branch off to the east and west. Heading east leads one to a small room with a tire rack and a hall to the north. An airlock opens onto a landing pad to the south. Heading north, one enters a room with a weapons station and a ladder heading up to the second level. A hallway leads west. Halfway down the hall is another hallway leading south to the central room. Farther west is another room with a ladder heading up. Another doorway leads south to a room with an airlock opening to the second landing pad. The ladder in the western room leads up to a hydroponic dome containing 13 mature Frostwort plants. A hallway leads south to another hydroponic dome with 1 Gravatino Host and 8 Albumen Pearls. A hallway leads east to a central dome with 8 Mordite plants and 2 Coprite Flowers. Continuing east along another hallway leads to the eastern hyrdroponic dome with 2 Solanium, 2 Cactus Flesh, 2 Fungal Mold, 2 Albumen Pearls, and 2 Gamma Weeds. Following the hallway north heads to another hydroponic dome with 13 Frostwort plants and a ladder heading back down to the first level.
Directly under the base (and under the trading post) is a flag icon for the original base unit, which could not be found through excavation. A few meters west of center is a Nomad geobay.
It is probable that the base used to sit on a slope, attached to the trading post by the ramp, or it might also be true that the trading post spawned underneath the base during the Atlas Rises reset. The placement of a base atop a place of commerce is not unlike the modern (and ancient) trend of placing apartment housing atop street-level shops (even if that was not the original intent).
One white-and-blue comm station was placed by Syn1334 (Galactic Hub founder) a 26” walk southwest of the base stating, “Documented Legacy Heritage Site.” A cluster of 10 airborn comms lies 14 hours almost due south around what used to be a base site (no general base unit remains). Seven of these comms are accessible only by starship because of their height above the new ground level. Most of the comm balls express amazement at the disappeared base.
A photo of the base in May 2017 (see above) shows it suspended in the air without a trading post underneath it. I had originally thought that floating bases would only appear after August 11, 2017, because of the Atlas Rises update, but this seems not to be the case. Bases cannot be built in the air, so I am wondering if this base relocated itself, or if the planet’s topography changed in some way during the Pathfinder update.
—Andrew Reinhard, Archaeogaming