 This is Witchbase News for Friday the 3rd of March 2023. I'm CMDR Buur. In Elite Dangerous News this week, the first module allowing us to travel deeper into the Thargoid Maelstrom is released, but there's a catch. Frontier publish a release window for update 15 to Elite Dangerous and there's big payouts for explorers on the cards with this week's community goal. If you enjoy our videos be sure to subscribe and click the little bell to be certain you see all our Elite Dangerous content and community posts here on YouTube. If you want to directly support our work by joining our Patreon you'll find links to that and everything else below. Frontier's weekly published plan for the week, the Discovery Scanner, let go the current expected release window for update 15 when it was posted this week. As things stand update 15 is scheduled to land at the end of April. The caveat of course being that these things are always subject to change. As things stand the last available Monday or Tuesday would put us at the 24th or 25th of April. When we hear more we will of course post it here. The Discovery Scanner post also makes mention of the console copy portal that was paused at the tail end of last year that allowed commanders on the no longer updated console versions of Elite to copy their commander profiles over to the PC live game. Whilst not yet able to give a date when the service will recommence they did say that it is still very much on the cards and as soon as they have some more news they'll let everyone know. It is worth stating here again just to set an expectation Frontier have previously stated that when the service returns it will be in a reduced form to that scene previously and won't therefore be as comprehensive as the previous limited time offering but importantly the plan is still to bring it back. If you're an explorer looking to make some quick coin then there's a community goal running as of yesterday as we record this that whilst offering increased payouts for Ammonia World surveys and planetary scans is also threatening an extended period of increased payouts for all exploration data upon its conclusion. Universal Cartographics has teamed up with the newly reformed Aegis Research Agency in an effort to chart as many Ammonia worlds as possible in the next week in what they're calling an attempt to identify potential staging grounds for Thargoid fleets and rather terrifyingly arrival points for additional maelstroms. Just to be clear everyone as of this recording we have no evidence that there are any more maelstroms on the way I wouldn't rule it out obviously but there is currently and I stress currently nothing to suggest any more of the system decimating caustic mini nebulae are on the way. It's been a while since we had an exploration focused CG and it's likely that this is just an excuse to feature one of those with the war as a nice dramatic backdrop. Here's hoping anyway. I mentioned expanded general exploration payouts upon completion of the community goal and those expanded payouts are directly linked to the CG meeting its various tiers. At the maximum if it reached tier 4 we're looking at 2 weeks with a 4 times value multiplier for exploration data that's no small amount of new carrier fund. Worst case which is possibly unlikely we're getting one week with a 2 times payout still not to be sniffed at. The website Enara has created a page with links to all the nearest Ammonia worlds to the system hosting the community goal so you can maximise your travel time efficiency if you so desire. As always the CG ends next Thursday unless it tops out before. Yet another new module arrived in the game this week with the launch of the anticipated and hugely useful in the current climb Caustic Sync. In the last couple of months we've seen new enhanced AX multi cannons, enhanced AX missile launchers and the enhanced Xeno scanner in response to the Thargoid conflict and they're joined now by the new Caustic Sync module. Whilst the former additions to the toolkit are all very clearly useful when it comes to getting our newly acquired Thargoid neighbours off the lawn the Caustic Syncs are great at soaking up the Caustic damage the murderous Marigolds liberally spray about whenever they're around and will undoubtedly make fighting the danger daffodils a degree easier. Where it's expected and indeed has been specifically stated their greatest use will be however is in probing and exploring the depths of the Thargoid maelstrom's caustic clouds that are threatening the bubble of human occupied space. There's a nice video from Commander Apathos that very simply shows how the new icky gicky suppressor works which you'll find linked in the description below. They work in a slightly different way to heat syncs and how you'd perhaps expect them to work however just like the now familiar heat sync module they can also be engineered in a similar fashion with the more ammo option being the current go to favourite for obvious reasons. If you were in the very top echelons of last weeks community goal then you'll have access to at least one of the sticky Thargoid filth removers already. Gaining access to them for the rest of us was until this morning a little confusing as they weren't showing up in storage after they'd been unlocked. We are hearing reports now however that the syncs are starting to show up and can be fitted to vessels. If you're wondering about the process of getting the syncs themselves then they are a one time unlock from the tech brokers stationed on rescue megaships and brace yourself a few of the necessary materials needed to unlock the syncs are only available wait for it in the maelstroms themselves yes people you heard that right in order to obtain the caustic syncs that let you travel deeper into the maelstroms you need to spend extended periods of time in the maelstroms and will therefore need a ship capable of spending those extended periods of time in that highly caustic environment. That very ship it could be argued then negates the need for the caustic syncs in the first place I can hear your face from here. Some luminary and professional Bill Nyee looky likey Alec Rock legend Turner has started a forum thread documenting his personal journey on investigating and unlocking the new caustic syncs he's honestly doing the hard work and learning for you so if you haven't got the scubiest of clues where to start I'd highly recommend following that thread which I've linked below. I'm guessing there is a reason for all the caustic sync acquisition gymnastics fdev are asking of us we just don't know what those reasons are yet however let's not forget exploring the maelstroms themselves is not the end game here frontier have hinted on a number of occasions that there is more to the caustic abominations currently haunting the bubble and whatever that more is lies at the very centre of the maelstroms. We've got a pretty good guess what is actually at the centre of the Thargoids forward operating nebulae and we think it's entirely likely that the ship you might need to gather the mats necessary to get yourself armed to the teeth with caustic syncs is not the same ship that you might want meeting and dealing with that something at the centre but for now at least that is all pure speculation. The Thargoids clearly don't want us there the caustic cloud is one layer of defence and the violent em pulse that repels ships as they approach the very centre of the clouds is another and I'd anticipate that particular issue will be next on the human technological solution ladder that we're currently climbing. Are you busy exploring for this week's community goal? What ship and build are you using to explore the maelstroms and have you managed to unlock yourself some caustic syncs? Let us know in the comments below. That's it for now thanks very much for watching we'll be back later this week with more videos until then 07 commanders follow the greens on the way out and do keep clear of the toast rack we very much look forward to seeing you next time.