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Elite: Dangerous exploration - Weekend at Barnard's Loop
#1
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
I've mentioned before, I've been playing a lot of Elite: Dangerous lately. It's a space trading/combat/exploration sim that allows you to do pretty much whatever you want, set in the 34th century when humanity has expanded into the cosmos and colonized a small 400ly wide section of the milky way typically known as "The Bubble."
What's unique about Elite is even though most of the action takes place within that bubble, it still gives you the entirety of the Milky Way to explore. The galaxy is scientifically accurate, with 400 BILLION stars, set within about 100 billion star systems. Naturally, only a fraction of them have been mapped so far, and I'll be heading into the black to see if I can't put my name on some systems.
This 250 million credit investment has been transformed from a large cargo ship to a fully autonomous deep space exploration and science vessel. This exploration will likely take a few months, and this thread will be updated with screenshots of the adventure. Hopefully I won't fly into a neutron star on the first day (though, thankfully this ship is equipped to potentially survive such a mishap)
What's unique about Elite is even though most of the action takes place within that bubble, it still gives you the entirety of the Milky Way to explore. The galaxy is scientifically accurate, with 400 BILLION stars, set within about 100 billion star systems. Naturally, only a fraction of them have been mapped so far, and I'll be heading into the black to see if I can't put my name on some systems.
Meet my ship, The Melville
This 250 million credit investment has been transformed from a large cargo ship to a fully autonomous deep space exploration and science vessel. This exploration will likely take a few months, and this thread will be updated with screenshots of the adventure. Hopefully I won't fly into a neutron star on the first day (though, thankfully this ship is equipped to potentially survive such a mishap)
#2
Bubble181
Bubble181
I admit I've gained some weight lately, but come on man, that's just not very nice at all.
#3
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
Day 1 of the expedition isn't all that exciting. It's equipment checks. The plan is to travel a few hundred lightyears outside of the bubble and make sure all of our shit works together. The systems installed on the Melville are somewhat complex, as it has a very undersized power plant installed in an effort to reduce mass and get a further jump range. Because of this, it doesn't have enough power to power everything at once, and keeps most of its non-essential systems offline most of the time, activating them only when needed with a complex priority system. If everything is set correctly, I shouldn't suddenly lose power to life support while traversing a star system, or suddenly lose power to thrusters when trying to land on a planet... hopefully.
First test is to make sure I can successfully fuel scoop from stars to replenish my fuel supplies without overheating, and to make sure I can actually land this beast on a planet surface, as this is easily the largest ship I've ever piloted.
Around 200 ly outside of the bubble, I find something I hadn't expected to find so quickly. An unexplored planet. The system itself had been explored, and every other planet in it, but this one outer planet had never been scanned, probably because it was so far out from the star (it's worth noting that when you jump to a system, you always jump to the main star of that system as the anchor point, and have to fly out to the planets from there)
Here it is, the first planet to get my name on it as the discoverer, good ol' SYNUEFAI WF-L D9-38 C 1. It practically rolls off the tongue.
Since this planet has no atmosphere, we can also test our landing on it. Unfortunately, I lack the ability to land on planets with an atmosphere. This is a spaceship, after all, it's not really meant for atmospheric pressure.
The surface of this planet honestly isn't that exciting... it kinda looks like Arizona. It's a high metal content rocky planet, pretty common, but it's going to be the first of my exploration legacy, so I'm gonna ride around on it!
Landing was a success, vehicle hangar deployment works perfectly, the priority system successfully cut power to engines before deploying the bay, so I wouldn't have messed anything up even if I had forgotten to do that myself.
Since it is a metal rich world, I was able to drive around with my prospecting scanner and gather some supplies for later in the mission. Things like carbon, iron, and nickel all get collected and brought back to the ship, where it can be synthesized into material for the auto maintenance units that ensure I can fix anything that gets damaged on the trip.
That's it for day one. All systems are functional, all emergency equipment works perfectly, and my power priority system keeps everything functioning despite the limited power. I even tested the weapon systems by blasting some asteroids to pieces. Most explorers don't take weapons, but I know there are thargoids out there... and with unknown probes showing up in odd places and whole stations mysteriously vanishing, I'm not taking any chances.
Onward, to discovery!
First test is to make sure I can successfully fuel scoop from stars to replenish my fuel supplies without overheating, and to make sure I can actually land this beast on a planet surface, as this is easily the largest ship I've ever piloted.
Around 200 ly outside of the bubble, I find something I hadn't expected to find so quickly. An unexplored planet. The system itself had been explored, and every other planet in it, but this one outer planet had never been scanned, probably because it was so far out from the star (it's worth noting that when you jump to a system, you always jump to the main star of that system as the anchor point, and have to fly out to the planets from there)
Here it is, the first planet to get my name on it as the discoverer, good ol' SYNUEFAI WF-L D9-38 C 1. It practically rolls off the tongue.
Since this planet has no atmosphere, we can also test our landing on it. Unfortunately, I lack the ability to land on planets with an atmosphere. This is a spaceship, after all, it's not really meant for atmospheric pressure.
We're gonna land right in that crater
The surface of this planet honestly isn't that exciting... it kinda looks like Arizona. It's a high metal content rocky planet, pretty common, but it's going to be the first of my exploration legacy, so I'm gonna ride around on it!
Landing was a success, vehicle hangar deployment works perfectly, the priority system successfully cut power to engines before deploying the bay, so I wouldn't have messed anything up even if I had forgotten to do that myself.
Since it is a metal rich world, I was able to drive around with my prospecting scanner and gather some supplies for later in the mission. Things like carbon, iron, and nickel all get collected and brought back to the ship, where it can be synthesized into material for the auto maintenance units that ensure I can fix anything that gets damaged on the trip.
That's it for day one. All systems are functional, all emergency equipment works perfectly, and my power priority system keeps everything functioning despite the limited power. I even tested the weapon systems by blasting some asteroids to pieces. Most explorers don't take weapons, but I know there are thargoids out there... and with unknown probes showing up in odd places and whole stations mysteriously vanishing, I'm not taking any chances.
Onward, to discovery!
#4
Jay
Jay
#5
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
#6
Calleja
Calleja
#7
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
#9
Ravenpoe
I have used keyboard and mouse, when first starting, but damn if a HOTAS stick setup doesn't make it so much easier.
This is what I use
Ravenpoe
I haven't tried it myself, but I do know people who pretty successfully use an xbox controller for flying. I only use one for driving the SRV, because buggy driving with a stick feels weird.Oh pooey
I have used keyboard and mouse, when first starting, but damn if a HOTAS stick setup doesn't make it so much easier.
This is what I use
#10
Soupy
Soupy
#11
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
#12
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
#13
Gruebeard
Gruebeard
#14
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
#15
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
I had planned to turn around, plot a direct course to where my other ship is stored, and just book it back to civilization as fast as possible... but I kept discovering stuff along the way!
Like this T-Tauri star
By the time I did make it back to civilization to turn in my data, I had a better list of firsts than I expected from only a day. Mostly plain, rocky planets though, so not worth a lot, this short trip didn't make me rich (although slavery did... that's another story)
And now it's official. I've got my name on the map.
*note: Ravel Poe is the name I use in this game, it was the name of a star wars rp character I made for a tabletop game long ago in a galaxy far away
Like this T-Tauri star
By the time I did make it back to civilization to turn in my data, I had a better list of firsts than I expected from only a day. Mostly plain, rocky planets though, so not worth a lot, this short trip didn't make me rich (although slavery did... that's another story)
And now it's official. I've got my name on the map.
*note: Ravel Poe is the name I use in this game, it was the name of a star wars rp character I made for a tabletop game long ago in a galaxy far away
#16
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
I made it to the conflict zone... I wasn't prepared to find PSYCHO DAD there
#17
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
#18
Gruebeard
Gruebeard
#19
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
#20
Ravenpoe
This is fine. I don't need a canopy. Or air, or... oh god, space is getting in.
Ravenpoe
This is fine. I don't need a canopy. Or air, or... oh god, space is getting in.
#21
PatrThom
PatrThom
#22
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
Nebulae make for really pretty screenshots. Strange things are happening in the Pleiades Nebula, and here's a shot from a planetary base inside of it.
#23
Dave
Dave
#24
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
#25
Bubble181
Bubble181
Daenerys/Leie Organa, Jon Snow/Snape, how cool are we talking, exactly?
#26
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
All of the above. It's a very progressive relationship.Daenerys/Leie Organa, Jon Snow/Snape, how cool are we talking, exactly?
#27
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
I've still been playing a ton of this game, but as I've become more active in the factions within the game lore, I've had less time to explore. And it's hard to take screen shots when people are shooting at you. The Federation and the Empire are gearing up for war against each other, the Alliance is... doing something, no one really cares about them, and out on the galactic edge are continued rumors of strange sightings in hyperspace, as well as recovered shipwrecks with messages claiming that a "terrifying sound" came from space, which is impossible, before something pulled them from hyperspace and made them crash. So who knows what is out there in the beyond.
But who cares about any of that? I've become a Baron in the Empire, which means I can buy an Imperial Clipper!
This ship is sexy as hell.
But who cares about any of that? I've become a Baron in the Empire, which means I can buy an Imperial Clipper!
#28
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
I decided to paint it black. Still not sure if I prefer it like this, or the classic Imperial White.
#29
Gruebeard
Gruebeard
#30
PatrThom
PatrThom
#31
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
#32
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
Ok, so... weird shit has been happening in Elite the past few months, things that seem to point to an alien presence.
A quick rundown on aliens in the Elite universe: Extraterrestrial life does indeed exist in the universe of Elite. But it is very rare, and typically pretty simple. While there have been planets discovered with life on them, that life is almost always very simple single-cell organisms. I myself was pretty stoked to discover a gas giant that had life in the form of ammonia-based protoplankton floating around in the clouds.
Sentient life in the universe... that's another story. While life in the universe is there, but rare, sentient life is almost unheard of. There is at least one known sentient race to have existed outside of humans, as ruins with pictographs were discovered in the Soontill system, though the planet they were discovered on is long since dead.
And then there's the Thargoids. The Thargoids are rumored to be an extra-dimensional race of space faring aliens that live somewhere beyond our universe, in hyperspace. As hyperspace technology advanced, more and more odd occurances would happen, strange encounters during hyperspace jumps with ships experiencing something 'attacking' or 'pulling' them out of hyperspace. Strange sights, strange sounds (which shouldn't be possible in space, but that is a part of the mystery) to the point where some oldtimers even refer to hyperspace as witchspace, believing that it holds unknown horrors. There was a brief but violent encounter between the Alliance (the smallest of the three galactic superpowers) and what appeared to be an alien race coming from hyperspace, henced dubbed the Thargoids, that appeared in insect-like ships with no apparent propulsion system to attack, before vanishing without a trace. Even those that were shot down left behind no wreckage, so whether or not the alliance is believed in this encounter is iffy.
That brings us to now. As I said, strange things have been happening in the galaxy. Shipwrecks discovered with badly corrupted logs that seem to point to being attacked in hyperspace, which should be an impossibility. Mentions of strange 'sounds' coming from weird objects. Even a whole space station, being transported via hyperspace to a new location, managed to go missing, and wasn't discovered until some time later a full 22,000 lightyears away from where it was supposed to be.
Strange objects, which have been named "unknown artifacts" have been discovered, seemingly alien in design. No one knows what they do, but they will scan your ship, emit a strange chittering sound (and again, no one is certain just how they are emitting what we perceive as sound while in space) and will badly corrode your ship should you try to scoop it into your cargo hatch, doing continuous damage until you eject it again. They also have a habit of causing technology around them to malfunction and shut down, which was discovered when players began amassing them within space stations, only to find the station soon shutting down from unknown causes.
This brings us to the newest discovery. Objects similar to the UAs but different in design, which have been dubbed Unknown Probes. These probes are even more rare than the UA's, and people are in the process of researching them. One person discovered that scanning them with a discovery scanner will cause the probe to emit an EMP pulse that will temporarily shut down your ship, making you unable to scan it, and will also cause your ship to resonate with a strange sound. This person recorded that sound and ran it through a spectrograph, and was surprised at what they found.
There appears to be an image encoded within the sound.
This is now what everyone is trying to decipher. So far it is believed that it is a description of a specific planet or moon, though as to which planet that is still unknown.
As for me, well...
A quick rundown on aliens in the Elite universe: Extraterrestrial life does indeed exist in the universe of Elite. But it is very rare, and typically pretty simple. While there have been planets discovered with life on them, that life is almost always very simple single-cell organisms. I myself was pretty stoked to discover a gas giant that had life in the form of ammonia-based protoplankton floating around in the clouds.
Sentient life in the universe... that's another story. While life in the universe is there, but rare, sentient life is almost unheard of. There is at least one known sentient race to have existed outside of humans, as ruins with pictographs were discovered in the Soontill system, though the planet they were discovered on is long since dead.
And then there's the Thargoids. The Thargoids are rumored to be an extra-dimensional race of space faring aliens that live somewhere beyond our universe, in hyperspace. As hyperspace technology advanced, more and more odd occurances would happen, strange encounters during hyperspace jumps with ships experiencing something 'attacking' or 'pulling' them out of hyperspace. Strange sights, strange sounds (which shouldn't be possible in space, but that is a part of the mystery) to the point where some oldtimers even refer to hyperspace as witchspace, believing that it holds unknown horrors. There was a brief but violent encounter between the Alliance (the smallest of the three galactic superpowers) and what appeared to be an alien race coming from hyperspace, henced dubbed the Thargoids, that appeared in insect-like ships with no apparent propulsion system to attack, before vanishing without a trace. Even those that were shot down left behind no wreckage, so whether or not the alliance is believed in this encounter is iffy.
That brings us to now. As I said, strange things have been happening in the galaxy. Shipwrecks discovered with badly corrupted logs that seem to point to being attacked in hyperspace, which should be an impossibility. Mentions of strange 'sounds' coming from weird objects. Even a whole space station, being transported via hyperspace to a new location, managed to go missing, and wasn't discovered until some time later a full 22,000 lightyears away from where it was supposed to be.
Strange objects, which have been named "unknown artifacts" have been discovered, seemingly alien in design. No one knows what they do, but they will scan your ship, emit a strange chittering sound (and again, no one is certain just how they are emitting what we perceive as sound while in space) and will badly corrode your ship should you try to scoop it into your cargo hatch, doing continuous damage until you eject it again. They also have a habit of causing technology around them to malfunction and shut down, which was discovered when players began amassing them within space stations, only to find the station soon shutting down from unknown causes.
This brings us to the newest discovery. Objects similar to the UAs but different in design, which have been dubbed Unknown Probes. These probes are even more rare than the UA's, and people are in the process of researching them. One person discovered that scanning them with a discovery scanner will cause the probe to emit an EMP pulse that will temporarily shut down your ship, making you unable to scan it, and will also cause your ship to resonate with a strange sound. This person recorded that sound and ran it through a spectrograph, and was surprised at what they found.
There appears to be an image encoded within the sound.
This is now what everyone is trying to decipher. So far it is believed that it is a description of a specific planet or moon, though as to which planet that is still unknown.
As for me, well...
#33
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
#34
Ravenpoe
Ravenpoe
Thargoids confirmed... decoding lots of clues and hunting around the universe has lead to the discovery of a crashed alien ship.
#35
GasBandit
GasBandit
#36
PatrThom
PatrThom