Mystery and controversy surrounds a recent escape of a Quantar pilot known only as "Courier" who had been detained in Tripoint station.  Another pilot, Septio was suspected of aiding the escape and Quantar authorities are looking to question him.

On the evening of 104.11.16, Courier escaped from a secure detention area on TriPoint.  The escape was allegedly aided by the Septio and was further facilitated by the fact that nearby beacons had not been properly maintained and were not online with Quantar central computers.

After the escape was made public, The Brotherhood announced that it was establishing a "detection network:"

"In response to the threat presented by the recent escape of the pilot code-named "Courier" from a TriPoint detention facility, The Brotherhood will immediately begin establishing a broad detection net to capture this fugitive. The net will also be tuned to detect pilot Septio, who is wanted for questioning in relation to the escape."

According to Quantar authorities, Courier was being held for allegedly hacking into the market pricing system.  There has been no background provided on Septio, although his name suggests he is of Octavian descent.  Both pilots are listed in the TRI database as "Classified," adding further to the confusion and mystery.

Just days after Quelliar Neamru II announced that both of the fugitives had apparently escaped from Quantar space, Brotherhood Seneschal Spork tracked Septio, who was flying a Typhoon, from The Gurge all the way down to Hyperial station where he apparently destroyed Septio's ship . . .

Yet even though TRI recorded the kill, Septio ended up safe at Hyperial station.  Either the TRI network erroneously recorded the kill or homing transducer on Septio's ship was tuned to Hyperial station.

"It does not surprise me a bit that Hyperial is involved with this,"  said The Brotherhood's leader Ambrosius.  "If something nefarious is going on, the path usually leads there."

As yet, there has been no report of any sightings of Courier.

Jammer ECM Prototypes Disappear from Lexxor Facility

Shortly before the completion of the Hyperian faction mission to build a Customer  Producer for the new "Jammer" ECM, between 10 and 20 prototypes were reported to be unaccounted for by Lexxor.

Lexxor's new "Jammer" ECM is popularly described as the first true electronic antimissile countermeasure available. Rather than actively destroying an incoming missile, the Jammer disrupts the missile's tracking systems, resulting in a failure to strike the Jammer-equipped target in nine of ten combat trials.

Lexxor Intelligence employs over 230,000 people in three Quantar stations, three Solrain stations and Hyperial . Its primary source of income is in missile systems, the best-seller being the Cutlass. Lexxor also has a big stake in various entertainment operations, as well as luxury vehicle development.

Sentient Spotted
in Flux Space

Reports have been received that Pilot Draiocht  ran across a sentient Krakken-class conflux while on patrol in conflux space. Although he was caught completely by surprise when the sent ship chased him through a gate, he was able to destroy the conflux and did confirm that he received a sentient "kill confirmation" from TRI.

Although running across flux in flux space is not typically considered "news," this is the first reported sighting of a sentient in that territory.  There is an unconfirmed report that TRI has requested biometric logs on pilot Draiocht for 104.11.24 to confirm his sobriety.

TRI R.M.D. Plans Lineup of Holiday "Events"

TRI RMD announced the scheduling of a series of events which they have called "The Twelve Days of Christmas" -- allegedly named after some obscure song discovered on a rusty DSS in The Fields.  The "Twelve Days" lineup actually began on 104.12.1 with a 12-day "flux-a-thon" event.  Other events include the following:

104.12.13     Tow Death Race
104.12.14     Noob Shuttle Royal Rumble
104.12.15     Infestation InSaNiTy
104.12.16     Rocket Range (sim)
104.12.17     LF Royal Rumble
104.12.18     "No Rules" Royal Rumble
104.12.19     GM-A-Thon (sim)
104.12.20     TBD
104.12.21     Eel Survival
104.12.22     Kill the Flag
104.12.23     HF Royal Rumble
104.12.24     Single-Elimination Tournament (sim)

(NOTE:   all events are held in real-space except where otherwise indicated.)

Pilots are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to kick-back and have some fun during the year-end holidays celebrated by all factions.  Join your friends (and enemies) in one --  or MORE -- of these entertaining competitions!

new feature!
ISTVAN'S UPDATE
Darkspace Dispatch is proud to announce that Jumpgate's lead developer, Istvan, will be providing periodic exclusive updates right here!  So stay tuned-in to stay abreast of what's in store . . .

Despite my recent forum comments about adding a warfare system, I still have not deserted major non-PvP elements of my agenda. I spoke to the community in the summer about upcoming changes to the conflux, and although technical problems here have prevented recent client patches, work on the conflux has continued.

My foremost goal with the conflux is to make them more interesting. Fighting the flux has always been very simplistic, based on whatever spawns when players enter a sector. Historically, the spawns have always kept coming. My short-term goal with the conflux is to introduce a mechanism whereby players can clear conflux from an area of the TRI map, and reasonably expect that area to be free of conflux for some period of time thereafter. The objective is to temporarily make an area safer for mining or hauling, or prevent PvP in the area from being interfered with. My mid-term goal is to try to correct our most notorious conflux-related bugs in the game, most of which are familiar to everyone and have sadly become an almost-accepted, though frustrating part of our game experience. My longer-term goal is to improve some of the mechanisms that dictate the very simplistic conflux behaviors. Most of this presently just involves target identification and collision avoidance. I hope to create a situation where conflux use a detection mechanism more like players' radar, and aren't guaranteed to relentlessly attack the moment a player enters the sector: a slower, noob ship might be able to avoid conflux through stealth methods, instead of flashfire, afterburner, and prayer. Assuming this works, it should become possible to avoid conflux by being 'roided, again making it possible for a PvP force to avoid interference, or at least choose to engage the flux at a moment of their own choosing.

As always, to prevent offering more than I can possibly deliver, I'm being intentionally vague about these changes and how I'm going to execute them. In the last few months there have already been changes introduced server-side in the system governing the conflux swarms, as well as provisional changes to conflux stats. I have more things in mind for the swarms, and the role of conflux space is also overdue for reassessment. I intend to be putting these things in place while I ramp up the basic changes necessary to make the factional warfare system work. If all goes well, the next several patches should contain some very interesting material. I'm looking forward to the results as much as my fellow players are.

Online Numbers Drop Slightly

In a somewhat disappointing development, online numbers have fallen off a bit over the past month with online pilots during prime time generally running in the 30s.  You can see an hourly chart of pilots online over the last seven days HERE.

JPR News - Jumpgate Pirate Radio  has announced the hiring of two full-time DJs:  Radi (a.k.a. The Spammer) and InterOrka (who is believed to have nefarious purposes for taking the job).  Radi and IO join "part-timers" WileECoyote, Anguish and RT_Mus and producers Unver_FJB ("FudgeBob") and Vulture83.

JPR Broadcast schedule and DJs are typically announced by mid-week on JOSSH Forums and JGW Forums -- as well as on the JPR home site (click on the JPR logo above).

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Darkspace Dispatch Back-Issues

Vol.   I, No 1 (104.7.24)           Vol. I, No. 2 (104.8.12)           Vol.   I, No. 3 (104.10.2)          Vol.   I, No. 4 (104.10.2)

 
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