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[Bungee_man]

I've seen enumerable theories about sensor ghosts, but, so far, nobody's mentioned the one that seems most plausible to me: Sensor ghosts are the result of hyperspace being chronologically ambiguous, meaning that sensor readings of old fleets (or perhaps future fleets) can show up in the present day. In other words, the hyperspace ghosts are very much real fleets, but they aren't physically present in hyperspace at the same time as the player.

Lore Evidence:

* It's mentioned at some point that hyperspace relays occasionally pick up broadcasts dating back from the AI wars. This feels like a deliberate nod towards this theory - hyperspace sensors can pick up things that once were, but aren't there anymore.

* I believe it's also mentioned that time and space don't work the same way in hyperspace, and that "when" is not a suitable question. Don't recall the exact context, though.

Hyperspace Ghost Behavior:

* Most immediately, there are two kinds of ghosts that reveal a fleet that hasn't been mobile for a very, very long time. The Remnant ghost, and the derelict ship ghost. In both cases, you see the sensor readings of a mobile, active fleet, followed by a decades-old derelict once you get close enough to observe it. The "ghost" is the fleet's last maneuvers, carried out a long time before you encounter it.

Besides that, ghosts look a lot like normal fleets:

* There are ghosts that act like pirates, rushing towards the player and then fading out. Presumably, some pirate long ago or years from now has a story about spotting a promising-looking sensor signature, burning in, and watching it vanish into thin air.

* There are ghosts that fight each other with interdiction pulses - the color of their pulses resembles that of the Hegemony or the Path, IIRC. In the former case, these battles could have taken place during the AI wars.

* There are ghosts that keep their distance from the player, but track his movements - typically in the Core, where local governments might want to keep an eye on weird sensor readings.

* We see a ghost that resembles the Ziggurat lurking around the system where it was once being tested, after we've already captured the ship for ourselves (or escaped/destroyed it).

* We see ghosts that head towards systems with loot or past human activity, presumably echoes of either traders or salvagers.

There are some ghosts that exhibit behavior we haven't seen before, like the untold speed of the harassment/interdiction ghosts. These ghosts could be from the distant future, with capabilities that aren't yet possible to achieve.


Thoughts? I think they're much too different from each other to all be some special kind of alien, or anything of the kind, but their behavior seems to map pretty closely to 1:1 with the kinds of human fleets we know are around.

[ludds strongest soldier]

Yeah that would explain a lot of their behavior and it makes sense, but while a lot of them do behave like human fleets there are a few that behave almost like animals by flocking or scattering when you get close. There are also a few of the stranger ones like the one that causes a massive hyperspace storm, which I'm not sure what to make of.

[Doctorhealsgood]

And those ghosts who make slipstreams

[Bungee_man]

Yeah that would explain a lot of their behavior and it makes sense, but while a lot of them do behave like human fleets there are a few that behave almost like animals by flocking or scattering when you get close. There are also a few of the stranger ones like the one that causes a massive hyperspace storm, which I'm not sure what to make of.

Worth noting that the big ones that generate slipstreams use the same term, "leviathan", as abyssal lights ("leviathan calves") do in the game's code, at least on the wiki.

[Mrtophatcat]

I think the most interesting theory I've heard is that the sensor ghosts are another entity, like (or are) the shrouded dwellers, which we don't have the technology to fully see but they can see us. They can effect on our dimension, hence the slip streams and ability for both parties to interdiction pulse each other. It already known that sensors have to be calibrated to see phase ships, and now the same is true of the Threat, its possible we just can't see them yet either from a lack of calibration or the lack of technology.

The ziggy motes further links to it being a lack of technology. If you accept that Omega/Dwellers/Ziggy are all connected and use similar advanced technology to operate, then we can assume TT figured out using that tech to see or even "domesticate" the motes. The ziggys system is called a "mote attractor" with the undamaged one you fight having "High Frequency motes" for its "High Volition Attractor." If we can find motes in hyperspace then clearly they can exist outside of ziggy and are a natural phenomena which have a "mind" (Volition meaning "The act of making a conscious choice or decision") of their own. TT just weaponized the motes with the Omega/Dweller tech to make them kamikaze on things.

Between the motes and dwellers its safe to say things exist in "higher dimensions" (I don't know what term I want to use but I guess dimension will do) which use sensors readings (or some other technology for the motes) as a means of seeing other entities. Of course the only thing linking the sensor ghosts to this theory is the mote also existing in hyperspace and interdiction pulses (which use sensor tech to disrupt drive fields) being the main interaction the player and these ghosts have. I doubt the sensor ghosts are all motes and/or dwellers but I don't think its too much of a stretch to assume we simply lack the technology to really see what these ghosts are. But they do exist and clearly we can see and interact with them and they can see and interact with us mostly through sensor activity. The dwellers are just one "creature" which can somehow fully breach their "dimension" into ours. With the motes being the other.

The dwellers do give us room for more speculation that it could be entities from a different "dimension" and the connection between sensor activity helps link that together.

[altronbee]

I've been saying this for a while too

I don't think every sensor ghost is some kind of time warped human fleet but most of them probably are

The ghost that follows you is a reflection of your fleet, you can actually see it grow in size as your fleet grows in size

The ghosts that turn into derelict ships or remnant fleets are old ships that got lost in hyperspace with no drive field to keep them stable

But with the ghosts that make slipstreams and that interdict you are probably native phenomena to hyperspace, like the dwellers, lights, slipstreams, etc

[Bungee_man]

I've been saying this for a while too

I don't think every sensor ghost is some kind of time warped human fleet but most of them probably are

The ghost that follows you is a reflection of your fleet, you can actually see it grow in size as your fleet grows in size

The ghosts that turn into derelict ships or remnant fleets are old ships that got lost in hyperspace with no drive field to keep them stable

But with the ghosts that make slipstreams and that interdict you are probably native phenomena to hyperspace, like the dwellers, lights, slipstreams, etc

That sounds reasonable to me. One of them is called a "leviathan", and the abyssal lights are called leviathan calves in the game's code.

It might be that these odd ones both time-displaced and non-human in origin. Either from the (extremely) distant past, before all the gravity wells made the place uninhabitable for them, or from the future, after something causes them to start expanding their activity into the sector proper.