Guide To Xenoarchaeology

This guide is not only a guide to basic Xenoarchaeology, it is also a guide to playing an efficient and believable Xenoarcheologist. So, if you feel some parts are too much for you, feel free to ignore them, but it is still appreciated to work with a believable coworker rather than someone who leaves all their stuff on the floor, doesn’t analyze their findings, and barely even does their job.

Xenoarchaeologist, anomalist: The difference

The first thing to know is that a Xenoarchaeologist is not an Anomalist. While they tend to work together for obvious reasons, their field of study, method, and RP archetypes are quite different.

A Xenoarchaeologist looks for artifacts. Artifacts are those things most people think are useless, like fossils, alien spoons, bowls, those kinds of things. And, on a gameplay point, they are, indeed, mostly useless: Most of them do not have any function except decoration, and the few that do have a function are not very useful. Xenoarchaeology is mainly an RP job, where you give story and sense to these objects. It also quite different from the other Scientist jobs: You do not work in a laboratory solely, you mostly work outside, digging through rocks in the cold hard environment of your dig sites. You may work in a Laboratory during analysis (Spectrometry, Paperwork). So Xenoarchaeologists are a strange breed amongst the Research team, with a very different set of goals and line of work.

An Anomalist studies the anomalies Xenoarchaeologists bring to them. They are much more of a Lab worker than the Xenoarchaeologist, do not spend much time outside, etc. This job is less of a pure Roleplay one, and much more closer to the rest of the colony, with significant testing and gameplay to fiddle with. However, that does not mean you should not try to put some RP into it: How was your anomaly used by the people who made it? How does it relate to the artifacts the Xenoarchaeologist found buried with it? You are not a Xenoarchaeologist, but that does not mean you should totally ignore them and that your work does not relate.

So, know the difference between the two jobs, and act accordingly. Right now, Anomalists are very dependent on Xenoarchaeologists as no anomalies are stored in the colony, So Anomalists could retrieve their own anomalies. This should only be done if there is nothing to analyze or the Xenoarcheologist is missing or otherwise busy. Work with your Xenoarchaeologists just as they should work with you.

Preparation

All the equipment listed here is available in Lower Soteria Outpost Excavation lockers, so look in the lockers.

1. Measuring Tape: Tells you how deep you already dug into your site. Useful when you lose track of your excavation.
2. GPS: Tells you your position. Not of major importance, but can be useful if you want to keep track of that too.
3. Tracking Beacon: When activated, allows locator devices to locate it by tuning on its frequency. Useful if you are in trouble, or if you simply lost your suspension field generator. Not a necessity at all and mostly a waste of space.
4. Core Sampler: Absolute necessity. Needed to take the rock samples you need for spectrometer analysis.
5. Wrench: Needed to set the suspension field generator, which is necessary to collect artifacts.
6. Hand pickaxe: The excavation tool that you'll use to at dig sites. A normal pick works too but this one fits in the belt.
7. Locator Device: Locates Tracking Beacons by tuning to their frequency. As useless as the Tracking Beacon.
8. Depth analysis scanner: Absolute necessity. Tells you if the tile of rock in front of you, contains something, and gives you information about it if it is the case. Detailed later in this guide.
9. Lantern: A very useful light source. Helpful, but not necessary. Activate your excavation hood.
10. Excavation gear-belt: The belt that will allow you to carry most of your equipment.
11. Optical Meson Scanner: Absolute necessity. Allows you to see through the rock, and locate your precious dig sites.
12. Expedition Suit Helmet Comes with a built-in flashlight. Click in the top left.
13. Expedition Suit: Both the suit and helmet are absolute necessities. Needed to protect you against radiations and partially against exotic particles, should you find an activated anomaly.
14. Suspension Field Generator: Used for proper removal of artifacts.
15. Fossil Satchel: Holds fossils but not other finds. Can hold quite a few of them.
16. Alden Saraspova Counter : Gives the distance to a anomaly.

Note: An Expedition suit is not vacuum proof. Temperature or pressure danger is still vary much a thing.

Now, you probably know the rest: Various things to keep you alive outside as you make your way to your dig site. Weapons, Armour and Medical supplies. Ammo if your using a bullet based gun instead of a energy weapon ect. For paperwork its advised to bring a computer or Pda to use nanoword. Or at least print off some forms so you can do paperwork on the fly at your dig sites. If hunting for anomalies its a good idea to bring science googles and some gloves to increase your resistance to exotic particles and help against "Touch" based anomalies. I, however, advise you to leave free slots in your backpack, to carry the artifacts you find back to the colony. You may also want to carry a duffle bag or crate instead.

Excavation

To avoid destroying the very artifacts you intend to mine, you will want to carry a Depth Analysis Scanner along with you. When using the Alden Saraspova Counter to find anomalies its a good idea to scan rocks before you clear them when you get close to your anomaly. If you fail to do this you can destroy your anomaly which normally causes pain and suffering to living creatures around it. Otherwise if you are looking for basic dig sites they can be identified by a rust like covering ontop of the rock. Not all dig sites will have that coloring but every time you see that coloring its a dig site. At last, you have found a dig site, or your Depth Analysis Scanner pinged while you were looking for one. It is time to be precise and thorough.

If you click on your Depth Analysis Scanner, a screen with the following information will appear:

Time: The time at which the scan was made. Only for paperwork purposes.

Cords: Coordinates of the dig site. Paperwork purposes too.

Anomaly depth: The depth at which your artifact resides.

Clearance above anomaly depth: The size of the cavity in which the artifact is. If you dig in it, you will get a strange rock, which I will talk about later.

Dissonance spread: Quite useless, a 1 means it is an artifact, other numbers indicate an anomaly, but in this case, the scan is different enough to render this information useless.

Anomaly material: Tells you roughly what your artifact is. Depending on this information, you will activate a specific field on your suspension field generator to collect the artifact.

Now that you have this information, bring the Suspension Field Generator to the dig site. You need two free tiles around the site, so that you can put your generator on one, and be on the other one. Fix it to the ground with the Wrench and do not activate it yet. For now, what we need is a rock sample.

For that purpose, you will need to dig just before the cavity starts. It means you need to subtract the Clearance from the anomaly depth, and dig at this distance. Now that you have dug this distance, take your Core Sampler and click on the dig site. The red light will turn green, meaning that a sample was taken.

Note: You only need one sample per dig site.

Now you can focus on the excavation. You will need to strike at the exact anomaly depth and turn the suspension field generator off. Then, repeat the same procedure minus the core sample until your Depth Analysis Scanner stops pinging.

Note: "A easier to see overall formula for the digging math needed is" Anomaly depth - Clearance - depth already dug (tape measure to find this) = double the amount to excavate

Note: This example is for a precise excavation. If you dig too far, the artifact breaks. But, if you dig too short, and you end up in the cavity of the artifact, you will get a strange rock. While not being a total failure, a strange rock is bad. First, because you need to open it with a welder, which is one unnecessary step in the process. But the most important point here is that opening strange rocks quite often breaks the artifact itself, so, try to dig at the exact anomaly depth to avoid these kinds of issues.

When you are done with the excavation, bring your sample and findings back to the anomaly research lab.

Analysis: spectrometry

So! You have spent some time digging and excavating, and now, you have around 6 different dig sites, maybe more. That’s good. Hopefully, you organized and labeled them all according to a memorable pattern. Now, take all the samples, put them in your crate, and head back to anomaly research, for the Spectrometer analysis.

Here is the Anomaly Research Laboratory. In the room, you see two coolant tanks, a bucket, some nanopaste, and a spectrometer. Once it is filled with coolant, take your first sample, take the rock sample in it, and put it in the spectrometer.

Note: Use only one Spectrometer, and start with your Dig Site 1, then 2, etc. The results of the analysis are chronologically enumerated, so, that way, you will have a correspondence between your samples and your results.

Now, you have opened the Spectrometer menu. Big scary screen at first, but simple to understand.

Scanner: Indicates the progress of the scan, and the "health" of the spectrometer. When it is too low, use nanopaste to fix it.

MASER: The most important stuff. Try to match you Current Wavelength with the Optimal Wavelength best as you can, since it is what makes the scan progress.

Environment / Internal: The speed at which the machine functions, and the heat it endures. The faster it goes, the hotter it is.

Radiation: Sometimes, radiation outbursts happen during the scan. You can enable the Radiation Shielding, but it stops the scan, so I rather suggest you keep your expedition suit on yourself since it protects you against it. That way, you can totally ignore this factor.

Cooling: Rather simple to understand. It is what keeps the Internal Temperature low. Put the flow rate at 2 u/s: It is best to keep it that way, 2 u/s gives you plenty of time before emptying it, and avoids overheat in almost every case.

If you followed these instructions, the only part you need to focus on is the MASER field, since it is the only one that will necessitate you to fiddle with during the scan.

Now, you begin your scan, keep the Wavelength in check, and normally, the scan goes very well without any trouble. The machine pings, ejects your rock sample, and prints the result of the scan. After all that work you have some techno-babble that will allow you to RP-study your artifacts later.

Study

Now you have organized all your findings… think, look at the reports, be creative! Look at your 800 years old weapons of Dig Site 4. Maybe they belonged to the species depicted on this 850-year-old bowl, in Dig Site 2? Basically, make logical links between the findings, invent stories around them, entire civilizations, wars, religions, the possibilities are massive. Maybe when you have enough data, you could write a book about it? Xenoarchaeology may be a very lonely job, but it still gives you plenty of occasions to make great RP, so just go crazy.

Anomalies

But, while you have fun with your trinkets and old plant fossils, your buddies in the Anomalistic department are still waiting for anomalies to work with.

They are found the same way you find artifacts: Scan a tile, if it doesn't ping , anything, if it pings, excavate it. To make your life a lot easier, the Alden Saraspova Counter tool can be used to track anomalies. Rather than scanning every tile, this tool will find the closest anomaly and display your distance from it. Every time you change position, you can use it again, getting closer with each scan. Once you're within a few meters, you can begin to scan tiles confident that one of them will ping and contain an anomaly. Generally, anomalies are hidden behind a bunch of artifacts, so finding them is generally a matter of luck. At this point, it means you need to dig at a depth of 200 cm. Once you are there, the external rock collapses, leaving a rocky debris. Scan it once again, and you’ll get another bunch of results, which are quite erratic, so don’t focus on them. For the excavation, you do not need your field generator, so just grab a small pick and start excavating. Make sure to go one excavation unit at a time. The last thing you want is to destroy the artifact. At one moment or another, the rocky debris will collapse too, leaving you with the anomaly. At this point, you might want to take a photo or something else, to add to your own paperwork.

Then, simply bring back the anomaly to Anomaly research and put it into A Isolation Room. If you have an Anomalist working with you, announce it over the radio. If you're alone, simply analyze it when you're ready to analyze.

Step-by-step Guide

1. Once you have prepped your gear and arrived in the area of choice, begin to use the Alden Saraspova Device. This device will inform you of anomalistic radiation within the area round you, carefully use the device until you are within six or five meters of the anomalistic radiation signature. If the device indicates 'Background Radiation' this means no anomalies/artifacts are within your zone, walk around for a minute and then use the device again.
2. Now that you are within five to six meters of the anomalistic signature, begin scanning (clicking-on) the nearby rocks with your Depth Analyzer. Once the Depth Analyzer pings, examine the information presented on the interface screen, you now know the depth of the anomaly/artifact along with other information.
3. Drag your Suspension Field Generator to face the selected rock containing the anomaly/artifact, wrench it in place and swipe your identification-card to unlock the interface, however DO NOT enable the generator itself until completing the following steps.
4. Examine the information presented by your Depth Analyzer. Specifically the Anomaly Depth, Cavity, and Dissonance Spread. The Anomaly Depth informs you how far down the find actually is sitting. The cavity tells us how big the space above it is. If you dig into the space above it without a active field from the generator you'll end up with a strata rock. So make sure you follow the digging formula below.
5. ((Depth - Cavity - Current dug depth)/2)
6. Once you have cleared all ores/rocks from the excavation site, Set and turn on the Suspension Field Generator. (If the generator is not turning on, ensure that you have wrenched such down securely, the power-cell is charged, and that you previously unlocked the equipment using your identification-card. Make sure to set it to the correct collection settings.)
7. Now that the Field Generator is online, begin using the excavation pick to slowly excavate the clearance distance towards your artifact. Once you have successful removed such from the site, the Suspension Field Generator will deploy a net-like field and secure the anomaly for your collection.
8. Disable the Field Generator and collect your anomaly/artifact, store such safely within a bag or container before continuing further excavation operations. You will want to use the Depth Analyzer once again on your previously excavated site, if the analyzer pings once again you will want to examine the new information presented then return to step-two.
9. Return to the Colony with all your collected anomalies/artifacts, enjoy the blissful process of creating/developing a story or explanation for your discovered materials.