Lockboxes embedded in station geometry

Something feels wrong with some of the lockbox coordinates. Either they are using a different coordinate system (possibly relative to station origin?) from the screen shot tool or they are wrong.

For example take the PMC Plutarch Exchange boxes. The rare drop one leads to a point where there is nothing. The jump fuel box leads to the middle of nowhere several kilometers away from the station. This also applies to the Jump Fuel one for the PMC Metalworks Yard which also lists coordinates that lead to the middle of nowhere far from the station.

I will keep investigating for a solution as currently these coordinates are turning out not very useful.

-IG

To convert to zone co-ords, you need to extract "zones.xml" from the core files under maps->XU_ep1_universe. This file contains the station's locations and rotation, unfortunately in quaternions.

I Googled an excel spreadsheet that converted these quaternions into a matrix that you could then multiply by the co-ords given above ("quaternion-rotations-tested.xls"). This is basically the offset from the station's location relative to the zone, so getting the actual co-ords is to just add the result to the station's location.

Even with exact co-ords, they can still be tricky to find, mainly because the only way to track your co-ord is by taking screenshots, although I am sure someone can (or has) written a script that outputs to the Debug log in game. That and the above doesn't disinguish between multiple factories of the same type in a zone.

-BraxUK

Hi all,

I'm really having trouble finding anything. I'm not even sure what I'm looking for! Do these lockboxes look the same as the one you find in open space? Are they just 'glued' to the surface or do you need to travel into tunnels, ducts, etc? I've just spent 3 hours trying to use the data above and have yet to find anything 

Thank you for your help!

Wukka

Thanks very much. I'll check them out!

This is nice.  I had already found 2-3 of them. bu I never imagined there were so many.

Good job!

it seems that map doesn't center on point of origin. for example, with station in The Third Duke, if you center the station, the "point of origin" is somewhere in space. yet, there is a lockbox with coordinates of x:4, which obviously can't be since it would be in space.

for the same reason, it would be nice if the unit of measurement (X:4 - 4 of what? meters? centimeters? inches?) was given along with coordinates, as even if the point of origin is wrong, one could still figure out where the center is using a known lockbox. as it stands, it's nigh impossible to find any lockboxes on big stations even if you know where one of the lockboxes is.

I have searched the station RoC Habitation in Heartache Mist (DeVris/Barren Heart) for over 4 hours and havent found anything.
So far I just cant confirm the existence of these "station crates", unless someone can provide a good discription or (even better) a screenshot. Right now, I dont have any clue how these crates look like.

The best way I found to find boxes is to use station scanning mode. The station will light up but the boxes will not.

The coordinates are tough to use so I think each entry needs a text guide. For example the woodland pasture AES Energy Array II can be found as follows:

Far Out- Woodland Pasture- AES Energy Array II (Medium weapon components)

• Fly out the woodland pasture highway and hold still.
• draw a line from the comm dish(nearby, lower right) to the wine glass hologram up ahead. It's on that docking block.
• Fly behind the block and look under the glowing cylinders.

Tips for writing a guide:

• Always auto rotate to the ecliptic. That way everyone is facing the same way.
• Always start your directions at an obvious waypoint. This will usually be the highway. Some places have multiple highway lines so specify how you want them to enter the system. Set the waypoint to the factory and leave exactly when the waypoint tells you to.
• Stations are made up of multiple big chunks. Point out what chunk the player wants to search. High, low, left, right, close, far. All players are starting from the same waypoint so describe where to go if they start at that point. Station geometry usually has obvious shapes to describe them by. Simple.
• Leave final details for investigating that chunk. Some boxes are pretty well hidden even if you know where to look!
• Some boxes can be discovered easily with the long range scanner! I don't know the exact rules for this but I suspect only the free flying boxes are visible. If you can scan it, say so!

It would also help a great deal to specify which axis belongs to which number.

Is it for example X:Y:Z or X:Z:Y ??

While searching for Jump Drive Coolant, I found Albion

But when I click on the station to orient it, it is shown completely to the left of the X Axis, meaning the X can't be a positive number for the jump drive coolant. Could anyone tell me how to properly read those numbers ? I really do not get it.

Jump coolant boxes (noDLC) guide:

Maelstrom AG Sky meadows:

• Exit the Jump Gate and point towards the Blast Quarry highway. Look at the 4 o-clock position from there.
• The tall cylinder tower closest to you (blue) is the target.
• Fly underneath the far end of the tower.
• It's a few hundred meters from the storage bridge info point.

Devries Heartache Mist:

• Inside the ruined station piece connecting the whole ring to the partial ring.

Lookout Alpha Metalworks yard

• There are three arms on the station.
• The target arm points towards the highway in the direction of highway travel. It's on the steel refinery(orange) block and has a URV launcher.
• Fly directly under the URV launcher and face directly towards the station.
•  strafe right about a km. The box is hidden in an alcove at the top of the screen.

Albion, Ascendency, Third duke: BER Tech lab

• Tucked in the tesla duo charger (green, two rows of cylinders storage) in the middle of the other container storage units (green).
• You will find a URV launcher with its back to the duo charger. Fly directly behind it and look right through the cracks. It's in there pretty deep.
• OR check around and under the "Station Administration" dock.

Albion, Far out, big empty: PMC Plutarch Exchange

• Exit the Highway
• Turn left and fly just behind the Free Commercial Port(~1km). Turn towards the highway again.
• The lockbox is hidden at the end of the Hit/MA turret line underneath you.

Well that was fun! I hope you had as much fun finding these boxes as I had making the guide!

Would it not be easier to just list what part of the station its embedded on? or even just post a picture as to what they look like i haven't been able to find a single one using this :/

Hi All,

Actually I'm still confused with the coordinates... I can see the zone map also the x/z orientation but on the zone map I cannot see any numbers. How can I interpret and use these numbers in the coordinate column? Where can I turn it on on the map? Or how to see any number on the map??

Thanks in advance!

Hi Sparks,

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. Its totally understandable for me. However it is not so easy way. 

May I have a stupid question? Wouldn't be enough helpful to describe the station modul where the lockbox is? Maybe with some explanation about it? If this possible I think it also helps to search in a much smaller area.

Thanks again!

If you want an easy(er) way of finding them, if only to document their positions with a screenshot or somesuch, I have the "fly by lootbox" mod installed.

It automatically opens lootboxes I get relatively close too. This is rather useful with the embedded boxes, because the dropped loot will show up on the zone map as a tiny yellow cube if you don't suck it up; letting you figure out where it dropped from more easily.

Unfortunatly, my automatic loot collection mod seems to not work on these drops for some reason, meaning I still have to fly around getting near every bit of station, then check for tiny yellow cubes :L

Well, i dont know is this would be allowed:

Spoiler!

I found the rare engine items located in:

Just look for the Plasma Tech station component (in the map, click on the listed station, then click the + to show the componets until you find "Plasma Tech")

figure the center of the Plasma Tech component, and from above you will see an open space in which you can get trough, the lockbox will be inside in opposite side just in the center.

The rare engine items in:

Are in the Zoltek Sotarage of the first Missile Forge (first in the list).

Quick little video showing where the 30,000,000 credit box is in Omni L: