G.H. Subproject 4: Eden - Changing Appearance Research

The subject of this article is from the Pathfinder update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 10 August, 2017.

A subproject of the Galactic Hub Project.

Summary

Subproject 4: Eden - Changing Appearance Research, or just Subproject Eden, is the fourth official Subproject of the Galactic Hub Project.

This research project stems directly from research conducted by the Deep Thought Collective of NMSPortals.

Purpose

Most people believe the NMS universe to be essentially static, barring updates. One planet or one space station is assumed to look the same from one day to the next. Close observers have discovered this isn't the case - not only does the appearance of a system change, it's possible that such a change can be triggered intentionally.

The purpose of Subproject Eden is to understand the mechanism behind, and full effects of, the change in appearance within Space Station gardens and other changes. For example, one of the most dramatic changes observed so far is the color change in this Tyranocae species. As the color change can be seen in the discovery menu as well, it's clearly not just a trick of the lighting.

Images by Reddit user and NMSPortals moderator, MrUnnoticed.

Original	Original (Discovery Page)

Altered	Altered (Discovery Page)

Source Material

As mentioned in the Summary, this subproject stems directly from research conducted by the Deep Thought Collective, aka Portal Researchers. Although their main focus is Portals, they pursue many mysterious aspects of NMS - Subproject Eden is not necessarily related to Portals.

Research on this topic has been primarily summarized by reddit user MrUnnoticed in the following three threads:

• At the Eye of the Storm (Part I)

• Eye of the Storm II: Revenge of the Monoliths

• Eye of the Storm III: The Forgotten Gardens

Part I is mostly just background info, Parts II & III (mostly III) contain the most pertinent information.

Current Process

This is the current process to affect changes within a system's Space Station garden (and possibly other aspects of the system). It is based only on what has already worked; thus, it may be possible that portions of the process are unnecessary.

1. . Find a "garden system" - a system with a Space Station Garden Room (Carbon and Iron composition) behind a V2 or V3 door.
2. . 100% everything within that system, especially fauna.
3. . Photographically document anything in this system which you could notice a change in, especially: planet discovery info stats (type/weather/flora/fauna), all aspects of the Garden Room, all fauna (particularly colorful species or megafauna), etc.
4. . Try to scan the rocks within the garden room.
5. . Enter the Galactic Map and click on the Garden Room system. You will notice "threads," similar to trade lines within a system or a constellation, connecting your star to other stars.
6. . Warp to any star connected to the garden room star via these lines. It may be a good idea to give preference to 1-or-2-planet systems, as those will be easier to fully scan the entire system.
7. . Fully scan everything you can within the system. Remember to check caves and oceans, if applicable, as well as trying to get 2 genders of each species and any tiny rocks.
8. . Once you are confident you have scanned everything you can within the system, return to the garden room star. Repeat steps 3 & 4.
9. . Document any changes on this page.
10. . Repeat steps 4-9.

• Activating Monoliths is likely associated with changes, but further research is required.

Specific Goals

Determine and Define What Triggers a Change

We must attempt to determine what triggers a change in appearance to occur.

MrUnnoticed posits that it is "true 100%-ing" a planet in a connected solar system - finding not only all of the fauna, but all of the flora and rocks as well. While first-hand experience of Galactic Hub Founder 7101334 confirms that indeed, changes in a system's garden were observed after "true 100%-ing" a nearby planet, it is important to remember that correlation =/= causation.

Part of this goal is also defining what does not trigger a change. Thus, if you try something to trigger a change and you are fairly certain that no change occurred, make sure to document that as well.

Determine What Types of Changes Can Occur

As the function or purpose of this apparent ability to change systems' appearances is unknown - if it is even intentional - it's also unknown exactly what its limits are.

It is confirmed, without a doubt, that Space Station Gardens can change in their appearance (although it cannot be 100% confirmed that a player triggered this change). MrUnnoticed's T-Rex also confirms with a high degree of certainty that fauna appearance may change (however, this change will not be included in the "Results" section until replicated by this subproject itself - not due to any doubt, just data purity).

Document Changes in Appearance

This goal is fairly straightforward. "Before and after" photographs of any areas where changes were observed - mostly gardens, but any changes in flora, fauna, resources on a planet, planetary characteristics (ie Hostile Sentinels, No Fauna), or any other changes.

Also note what "stage" this change is in your photographs (ie, if it's the first change you observed, that is a Stage 1 change. If it's the second change you observe, that is a Stage 2 change, etc).

If rocks were unscannable and then became scannable, note that in this section as well (pictures not necessary).

Determine if Changes are Visible to Other Players

This goal is also fairly straightforward. When uploading pictures to the "Results" section of the "Photograph Changes" section, create a separate heading for each system, as well as your in-game name (as we don't know if it is connected to specific players). Then, players can visit the system and observe what stage of "development" the garden room is at, check the color of altered fauna, etc.

Note: Visitors may need to also visit the connected system(s) before any changes become visible to them. However, if they can view changes based on your scans and only need to warp around, that still cuts down the overall work.

Results

Determine and Define What Triggers a Change

1. Visiting a planet in a "connected system," and scanning all (or the vast majority of) rocks, flora, and fauna on the planet. (Stage 1 Change affected in HUB7-G-E4 Yggdrasil by scanning a blue 1-planet system, HUB7-G-FB Cobalt Heat, to completion or near-completion.)

Determine What Types of Changes Can Occur

1. . Visual changes to a Space Station's garden room.
2. . Previously-unscannable rocks in the garden room will become scannable.

Document Changes in Appearance

HUB7-G-E4 Yggdrasil

Syn1334

Default (First Observation)

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  Center Aerial View

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  Center Side View

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  Quadrant 1

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  Quadrant 2

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  Quadrant 3

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  Quadrant 4

Stage 1 Change - Affected by connection with HUB7-G-FB Cobalt Heat

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  Center Aerial View - Small, white, "slinky-like" rock became scannable

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  Center Side View

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  Quadrant 1 - Extremely evident blue "veins" appeared in all the red leaves.

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  Quadrant 2 - No change observed.

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  Quadrant 3 - Same as Quadrant 1

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  Quadrant 4 - Same as Quadrant 1

Stage 1.5 Change - Affected by connection with HUB7-K-13F Reunion Trophy

• Visited Reunion Trophy but was unable to 100% one of the 2 planets. Only change observed was that a previously unscannable rock became scannable.

Stage 2 Change - Affected by connection with HUB7-V-124 Kugelblitz.

• Important to note that change occured despite 3 fauna species being undiscovered (did not appear after 2 real-time hours of nonstop searching).

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  Center Aerial View - No visual change. One additional rock became scannable.

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  Center Side View

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  Quadrant 1 - Extremely evident change; entire shape of the leaves is different, and color has changed.

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  Quadrant 2 - No change observed.

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  Quadrant 3 - Same as Quadrant 1.

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  Quadrant 4 - Same as Quadrant 1.

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  This rock became scannable, the same type of rock which became available during Stage 1.5, but a smaller version.

DoctorXI1

Default (First Observation)

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Stage 1 Change - Affected by encounter with Nada and Polo and warping to a non-connected and undiscovered system

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  The animals on the bottom row now have a blue tint to their backs.

Reever6six6

Default (First Observation)

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Default Garden.

One rock scannable being Huberrwite.

First Attempt at Stage 1 Change

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Went planet-side, got 100% scan on Yggdrasil and returned without leaving system.

No change to plants but two more rocks become scannable.

Quadrant one's plants always look brighter.

This is due to the lights on either side of the planter.

Stage 1 Change

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Scanned 100% of remaining planets Ryeoudan and Gas Station on Lockdown without leaving,

Returned to SS.

Apparent Stage 1 change with Blue Vein Leaves.

Four rocks now scannable being Huberrwite, Eiluwitte, Aukoroite, and Odanoite.

These appear as previously stated ie:

• Invisible in options menu with Yggdrasil System selected, but shows when mouse hovered over Discoveries area.

Attempted Stage 2 Change

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Left Yggdrasil System for Cobalt Heat System.

Planet Blue Hell 100% scanned.

Returned to Yggdrasil System SS, Back to one rock scannable being Huberrwite.

Other "invisible" rocks previously scanned are not shown, even with cursor hover in System Discovery select.

Departed Yggdrasil again and scanned both planets in Reunion Trophy System.

Returned to Yggdrasil System.

1 rock scan available being Eilluwite.

All plants returned to default.

This caused me to take a detour from the plan.

Went planet-side to Yggdrasil again. Stumbled on an Observatory containing 2 "Gardens" behind Atlas doors. .

Scanned the garden tagging rocks from the first room in this order of availability:

1. Aukoroite
2. Odanoite
3. Goseniite
4. Eilluwite
5. Treniumpite

The second rooms Garden only let me scan Huberrite.

Uploaded all of them and they showed normally in the Yggdrasil Planet Discovery.

Check if the discoveries affected SS Garden.

Returned to the Yggdrasil SS and scanned the Garden again.

Eilluwite was still showing "invisibly" in the System Discovery panel when hovered over. Uploaded it from the "Invisible" menu. Eilluwite uploaded.

Left system on a round trip through Reunion Trophy and Cobalt Heat systems, and back to Yggdrasil.

Double checked the Yggdrasil SS Garden and Aukoroite was available.

Findings:

1. Space Stations have their own Discoveries panel that is invisible until hovered over.
2. SS rocks can be uploaded, but seem to be removed at log out.
3. The same rocks found in planet-side Gardens can be uploaded alongside "Invisible" SS discoveries, and appear normally in the Discoveries panel.
4. Rock scan availability seemed random on the SS, and similarly planet-side, but there was consistently only one rock available at at time.
5. During the inter-system movements, the leaves sometimes went blue without me doing anything (or noticing what I was doing) besides changing Systems.

NB: I did not monitor creature changes during this, but will do so using the same method at a later date. (The rocks got me good)

Second Attempt:

Entered Yggdrasil after leaving the system.

Started the process from SS, left to two adjacent systems and returned (Already 100%). "Blue Veins" activated.

Used the Yggdrasil SS teleport to go back to base. Did many random things in several other systems over a few days.

Used base teleporter to return to Yggdrasil , entered the SS garden room which was "unlocked" ie: it wasn't fully open, but I only needed to turn the door once.

This is what was inside...

Quad 1: Entirely Different Leaves	Quadrant 2	Quadrant 3	Centre Garden

There were 3 stones available for scan being:

• Odanoite
• Eilluwite
• Treniumpite

Yet to compare creature images.

Miscellaneous Notes

• A garden room may occasionally revert to its default state. If this happens, you can visit the systems you fully scanned to trigger a change, then immediately warp back to the garden room station. The garden room will return to Stage 2 (or, presumably, whatever other stage it was at - although you may need to warp to multiple systems). Confirmed at HUB7-G-E4 Yggdrasil via connection with HUB7-G-FB Cobalt Heat.
• If a garden room reverts to its default state, you will lose the scans of any rocks and need to rescan them once the room is returned to a later stage.