2018-12-29 09:27:44 (edited by magurp244 2019-07-20 11:05:38)

As reported by [polygon], for those who have an interest in the various intrigues of MMO Space Sims...

The same fellow who documented a huge [3000 player battle] last year, is going to be one of over 4600 players in Elite Dangerous gearing up for a 200,000 light year journey to the outer rim of the galaxy in two weeks, calling the caravan Distant Worlds 2. Members of the expedition are also picking out their own roles in the journey inbetween mind-numbing grind sessions in preparation for the trip, which includes geologists for studying planets and asteroids, miners for stripping said untouched beauty for fuel, fighter escorts, and even tour guides. There will also be a contingent of artists and astrophotographers for documenting the journey, both during and afterwards. Overall the undertaking is estimated to take over 8 real world months to complete.

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2018-12-29 16:05:08

and the point of this message is? elite dangerous is not accessible.

2018-12-29 16:05:41

that's not to say i wouldn't want it to be accessible because i would but it will never happen.

2018-12-29 16:42:52

The point is that the journey is interesting in and of itself.

2018-12-30 04:56:48

I don't play elite dangerous either, and the idea of grinding in it isn't particularly interesting. But the politics and drama that unfolds in those games can be as good as any sci-fi fiction or book you'll ever read, with the added bonus that it actually happened. Granted, it would be 100 times more awesome if it was accessible, but it doesn't have to be to enjoy the story.

Also, you should never say never, heh. Life can be full of surprises...

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2018-12-30 05:01:03

While we still can't play it, I have a friend who can, and this is pretty neat to learn about and maybe discuss with him.  Don't be a jerk.

2018-12-31 00:53:05

Hi.
Wow this sounds cool! I look forward to seeing what happens. Thanks for posting, I completely understand how this could be fun even if we can't play it ourselves.

Guitarman.
What has been created in the laws of nature holds true in the laws of magic as well. Where there is light, there is darkness,  and where there is life, there is also death.
Aerodyne: first of the wizard order

2019-01-10 08:56:52

As reported by [Polygon]:

Continuing with the coverage of the Distant Worlds 2 expedition, there's been a few updates on the now 7500 players preparations for their journey. It covers the logistics of the trip and potential hazards, like threading the needle between binary systems and gravitic anomalies, getting an advanced FSD drive and stripping everything that isn't nailed down for fuel economy to make the journey, and juicing the jump drive with "Jumponium" for some extra milage between jump points. The developers have also gotten in on the event and given the expedition the mission of building a new star base situated in Sag-A, a super massive black hole for research purposes, and to serve as a new home base for players to explore deeper into the unknown neighboring systems.

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2019-01-10 08:58:39

As reported by [Polygon]:

After stripping naked for the long journey ahead, there isn't a lot of room left for little things like "guns", or "defenses", whatever those words mean. Suffice it to say thats kind of dangerous in a PvP gank fest called Elite: Dangerous. There are undoubtedly many raiding parties stockpiling their own supplies and sharpening knifes in sweet anticipation as much as the convoy is, though for entirely different reasons. So how do you keep a caravan of now 8300 players safe? For starters by using a private session called FleetCom, though players are free to play in Open and Solo modes as well, the organizers are also not relaying the waypoints of the journey ahead of time, as they don't want people in faster ships zipping ahead and claiming all the glory, among other things.

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2019-01-10 09:07:22

Hi.
Oh boy things are heating up. The anticipation is killing me! Thanks for these wonderful updates, I can hardly wait until they get going!

Guitarman.
What has been created in the laws of nature holds true in the laws of magic as well. Where there is light, there is darkness,  and where there is life, there is also death.
Aerodyne: first of the wizard order

2019-01-11 07:15:12

that's pretty cool. I've always wanted to play that game, or something equal with the same level of detail.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2019-01-11 23:22:22

I was reading about elite dangerous to get more familiar with the game, it sounds incredible! I followed them on twitter so maybe they will get into more detail as this progresses.

Guitarman.
What has been created in the laws of nature holds true in the laws of magic as well. Where there is light, there is darkness,  and where there is life, there is also death.
Aerodyne: first of the wizard order

2019-01-12 05:30:20

As reported by [polygon]:

So, your crawling along in an interstellar caravan of 9400 players now on an 8 month long journey across the galaxy to stare at rocks, what do you do to pass the time? Why going full meta and playing the Elite Dangerous D20 RPG of course! What better way to play the game than to, play the game, afterall? Right? RIGHT? A user named Allison "Commander Wishblend" Goodman is spearheading one of these RP groups as game master, and is also an avid novelist and tabletop player. She'll be using the officially licensed [Elite: Dangerous Role Playing Game (EDRPG)] for the trip and already has a series of 8 or 9 adventures planned already, scheduling them for groups of four to five players at a time throughout the journey. The branching storylines, as is sometimes the case with such RPGs, will also be dynamic based on the outcomes and choices of their players. Goodmans stated that others can follow along in these sessions, as others will be streaming them, and plans on writing the full story when finished based on its various outcomes.

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2019-01-14 02:15:04 (edited by magurp244 2019-01-16 05:46:38)

As reported by [polygon]:

And there off! More than 10,000 players launched into the void this evening on their way to their destination: Beagle Point, a remote system 64,279 light years from Sol, bringing the games servers to its knee's under the strain. Many lost their connection and are now spreading out to reduce the load. The launch party was covered by Commander Dr. Kaii, which you can watch [here], and if yor interested in more live coverage of the journey the Distant Worlds 2 organizers are maintaining a list of over 30 livestreamers over [here].

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2019-01-16 04:29:40

Awesome!

#FreeTheCheese
"The most deadly poison of our times is indifference. And this happens, although the praise of God should know no limits. Let us strive, therefore, to praise Him to the greatest extent of our powers." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

2019-01-16 05:47:40 (edited by magurp244 2019-01-16 05:56:29)

As reported by [rockpapershotgun]:

First blood! After starting their journey from the Pallaeni system, a number of pilots stopped in the HR 6164 star system, otherwise called "The View" for its stunning vistas. Unfortunately for them it has a gravity well 3 times that of earth, and over 30 pilots selfied themselves to death. A number of players and fleet commanders are coordinating rescue efforts and preventing further casualties, but with a good 10k pilots in the sky, expect more interesting accidents. For additional coverage you can also read Charlie Hall's reporting on the launch [here] on polygon, where he leaves off parking his ship in "The View".

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2019-01-19 03:54:51 (edited by magurp244 2019-01-19 06:11:29)

As reported by [polygon]:

The ranks of the expedition have grown to over 13,000 players since launch just a few days ago and after passing through lovely sights like the Lagoon and Cinnabar Moth Nebulas are expected to reach their first waypoint: The Omega Nebula. The Nebula is home to thousands of independant contractors who work at the Omega Mining Factility, the only place your likely to find anything resembling a drink for thousands of lightyears. So far there have been quite a few rough scrapes, with the deathtoll hitting 54 ships in The View, which is unprecedented with the previous record being 11 accidents.

The well known Fuel Rats have also been kept busy offering fuel to wayward and stranded pilots, and a new faction is making the scene: The Hull Seals. This new group of fleet mechanics have come along to offer emergency repairs to badly damaged ships in the convoy, with over 120 calls so far.

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2019-02-07 05:45:35

As reported by [polygon]:

Recent coverage goes more into the various modes and balance of Elite: Dangerous, the challenges of defending the fleet, and more in depth into Iridium Wing. Like the Fuel Rats and Hull Seals, Iridium Wing's goal is to protect explorers, miners, and other players with their comically overpowered blackhole death cannons from hostile NPCs and players. Currently 4 members of Iridium Wing are travelling with the Distant Worlds 2 Expedition, the reasons being that with public and private modes and the size of the fleet, there's only so much coverage they can give, so they focus more on discrete escorts and assistance requests.

But as has been suspected, others are taking advantage of the expeditions vulnerability. Calling their co-event [Distant Ganks 2], a rogue band of players have taken it upon themselves to kill as many of the expedition as possible, or as the infamous Commander Harry Potter put it: "to gank where no other ganker has ganked before.”, with a kill count already reaching 1200.

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2019-07-20 11:06:42 (edited by magurp244 2019-07-20 11:09:17)

Its been 5 months, but the journey that 13,615 intrepid explorers began finally reached their destination at Beagle Point on June 13th. Of those, only 3747 [survived] to see the journey to its end, a little over 27%. Its estimated 2700 crashed into various obsticals, 3000 self destructed and returned to the safety of the home stars, 620 persevered dispite setbacks, the intrepit Fuel Rats rescued 166 stranded pilots, and many others were lost in limbo or succumbed to "space madness" along the way.

There's a final write up from one of the reporters who managed to reach Beagle Point [here], from huge detours around impenetrable debris fields, the crushing emptiness of The Abyss, to the horrors of intergalatic red tape and space permits, its worth a read and a fond farewell, until the next adventure...

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer