If you check the Galactic Atlas, you’ll find in just two clicks the Nofreu Void region, and within there a local hub.
“The Atlas Peacemakers are a group of knights of peace and harmony, dedicated to helping those in need. Our portal is open to all travellers.” can be read in the description (in Spanish because yes; my primary language as well as the group’s is Spanish.), and so little text can’t do justice to how it truly was, such a brotherhood of noble players. And how can I tell this tale? Well I was its co-founder! Another player named Atheris and I led this group alongside members from all around the world, with our first operations kicking off right as the W/ARE incident was unfolding.
Darn so many whole years ago. Still remembering it as it was yesterday tho. Actually it is almost as if I can’t remember anything but that. Eh, nonsense I know, forgive me, must be senile dementia. Anyway, about its sudden disappearance: it is exactly as it sounds: Most of the original members simply vanished. Those who had only just joined, or who were less active to begin with; y’all can imagine they just went silent.
Now I can’t speak for each of the members; but you’ll understand why I can safely believe we shared our reason for disappearing. Alas everyone has a right to privacy, especially those heroes, but humanly speaking, how long can you keep such a secret? so, sigh, I’ll tell you: it’s mostly all about that planet, that void that surrounded us.
Here is what I know as I witnessed it: As we dedicated our time to our main mission; to help other players, I decided to start a new save on the freshly introduced Permadeath mode. (If it weren’t for that change I’d still play mainly in my first save, one that started 10 years ago on launch day, and got lost in this incident.)
One thing you learn FAST in permadeath mode is that you need elite ball knowledge just to survive. So that became my first kind of contribution to our ranks: knowledge and intelligence so a call for help to a peacemaker does not end up as two stranded players. CSD member doing CSD member stuff I guess.
But here’s the catch: it was always sure as death was that any knowledge could be temporary. Do you remember Thamium9 kiddo? It’s what we used to fuel our life support on back in the day, before oxygen existed; then it disappeared. Oh you had to be there to feel the hype for each and every update. Well don’t be sad, you have no less from HG nowadays; so is the same feeling; I just experienced it more times that’s all.
In any case, that would mean that recipes, tutorials, game mechanics, all of that could be rendered useless overnight. One of the many reasons we never bothered doing a wiki or the like. So I took it as a personal problem: it was becoming quite annoying seeing colleagues complaining why a recipe doesn’t work anymore.
Because of that I then started looking into the deepest most primordial mechanics of the game, looking for knowledge that may truly transcend time; those game mechanics so rooted into the game that would never change.
I started learning about the save architecture, json editing; and that led me to learn about that one wicked name: Odyalutai, the sunken galaxy. From that moment I knew, I just knew, I felt so utterly true yet baseless that I had to go there.
But I didn’t want to edit my save, it was too cheaty; besides although I wasn’t actively participating, I knew about the W/ARE dreamers thing going on at that time; so I knew doing weird things to the simulation wasn’t recommended. And finally, I wanted to make something that everyone could enjoy: so the idea was born, a mod that would allow players to use portals between galaxies.
So my first idea was to upgrade the portal code value, to expand the portal coordinate array from 12 glyphs to 14; to include in those two extra glyphs the target galaxy. I delved into the code with my rudimentary knowledge of coding. I discovered that the portals are coded deep into the primordial mechanics; that’s why in game they cause such impact to the characters, every time we use the glyphs we are making a slice into the game engine itself. So you can’t just add two values to the portal address, without risking a fatal crash. I still kinda did it that way, as a “first test”, I did it just by changing the strictly necessary values; I could worry about compatibility or other issues later; to see when the crashes occur could give me clues of what really needed fixes.
I loaded the mod, deleted DISABLEMODS.TXT, entered the game, skipped the modded game warning and entered my normal save. I used the portal at the Atlas Peacemakers main base, which at that time was an elegant lush planet.
But that thing, that portal, I think it crashed somehow. Then, I don’t remember? Sorry, hold up, how come I can’t remember it? I was there. Those are my memories!
are they?
Why was I even telling you this? Oh yea! The vanishing of the Atlas Peacemakers. To wrap it all up, we just left the game; our main base planet became the planet you’d get by breeding Arrakis with Azathoth. Very nice weather if you ask me; I really enjoy visiting there from time to time, I developed a liking to it, I guess? it feels, like me(?). Enough…
So there is that, just some lore drops on the reason for my new username and account, as well as why I am picking up the Cosmos update alliance feature not as the Atlas Peacemakers, but with another new concept: the Kaos Eye.
(aka 
