Distant Worlds 3 - A Decade of Exploration and a New Journey?

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mearmortal

mearmortal
I'll join in but maybe like alot of people 5Klys a week or more is difficult to do every week for 3 months, I found myself jumping week after week and not looking at anything just to do the events last time. Maybe 3 day stop overs with carriers to help with that.
 

BZSm1th

BZSm1th
Definitely up for it. Procrastinated too much when DW2 took place. So very keen to join in with DW3....would be great to give the Mandalay a good run out o7
 

BDelacroix

BDelacroix
DW was great and I was glad it was around. These days, I'm not sure I have the stamina to play catchup. I get to play maybe once a week, but that's a me problem.
 

Mengy

Mengy
I just heard about this from Obsidian Ant's channel.

My favorite moments with the Elite Dangerous were both DW1 and DW2, plus countless other group exploration expeditions. I haven't played Elite in almost four years now, but if DW3 happens I will start playing again just for that! Heck I never even bothered to buy Odyssey, but I'd spend the $15 if DW3 takes place.

Consider me very interested, in fact consider me a sure thing for joining any theoretical DW3! 😁
 

KOLUMBUS

KOLUMBUS
I am Kolumbus, a player from Germany who has already participated in Distant World 2 with great enthusiasm. Meanwhile I also belong to the German STELLANNEBULA community.

Count me or my half-sister DEZETT from KA among the participants in a DW 3.

And as a small suggestion for the problem with the carriers:
To curb the involvement of too many carriers, you could create a code of honor that states that as an individual player, you refrain from having your own carrier participate.

Maybe there should be the possibility for each player group to register ONE single carrier, which is then officially used.

Greetings Columbus
 

Fanstea

F
Erimus Kamzel said:
View attachment 415263
Logo by Qohen Leth​

What is a Distant Worlds event?

For those who came to Elite in the years that followed DW2 (2019), or who never experienced either DW1 or DW2 during the time they were running, the general theme is to create an expeditionary event - a journey through the deepest parts of the galaxy lasting approximately 3 months - have it built around an interesting core idea or goal that offers practicable gameplay, and flesh out the journey with player-run events, such as geology projects, mining goals, mapping surveys, and a science project, as well as the traditional waypoint meetups that would include SRV races, planetary circumnavigations, and localized exploration ventures.

  • DW1 launched in January 2016 and had over 1,300 players take part. It was one of the first large-scale community created events in Elite Dangerous, laying down a blueprint for many other expeditionary events that followed.
  • DW2 launched in January 2019 and this time almost 14,000 players signed up and took part. Among many other achievements, DW2 built the Explorer's Anchorage outpost in the galactic core, the event was extensively covered in the gaming media at the time, as well as featuring in the New Scientist Magazine and on mainstream radio, and was voted #2 in the Gameranx Game Events That Achieved The Impossible (receiving over 6 million views).

You can read more in-depth info about what DW1 & DW2 entailed here - link.


A Decade of Exploration and a New Journey?

Next January marks the 10th anniversary of the first Distant Worlds Expedition (DW1). A few months ago, organizers from both DW1 and DW2 began discussing ways to commemorate this milestone. During these conversations, the feasibility of rekindling our ideas for a Distant Worlds 3 (DW3) resurfaced. If this was to go ahead, the event would likely begin in mid-January 2026, aligning with DW1's anniversary.


Reflecting on Past Challenges

Initial plans for DW3 were halted about four years ago due to major challenges. Odyssey's release faced stability issues that took nearly a year to resolve. Later, the announcement that Odyssey wouldn't be on consoles excluded many key team members from participating, especially those who had helped organize DW2. Unwilling to continue without them, we decided to indefinitely retire future Distant Worlds events.

Now, four years later, much has changed. Many former console team members have transitioned to PC, Odyssey has reached a much more stable state, Elite itself is undergoing something of a renaissance, and with DW1's 10th anniversary on the horizon, we feel there's a renewed opportunity to take another look and explore the idea of a DW3.

But first, there are some key questions that need to be answered to help us decide if this kind of event still holds an interest amongst explorers, as well as what kind of an event a DW3 would be if we decide to move forward with it. i.e. should it be as ambitious as DW2, or something more akin to the spiritual successor of DW1, which was a much more lower-key and casual journey?


Is there still an interest in large-scale, player-created events in Elite Dangerous?

Events like Distant Worlds, the Gnosis Incident, Dangerous Games, the Birth of Colonia, the early Apollo Expeditions, and Premonition are among the most memorable of the Horizons era. Driven by passionate communities, these events involved thousands of players and required immense planning and collaboration. That chapter in Elite’s history was defined by creativity and a constant flow of high-profile community-driven events.

Since DW2 six years ago, it’s worth noting—and perhaps surprising—that aside from the excellent anti-xeno initiatives and the numerous smaller-scale expeditions that followed Horizons, no player-run events of a similar scale or impact, nor the variety of those seen during the Horizons era, have emerged. Or, if they have, they’ve not garnered comparable attention. This raises important questions as we consider the future: “Do today’s Elite Dangerous players (particularly explorers who a DW3 would be aimed toward) still have an appetite for this type of engagement?”, or has this near absence of large-scale community created activity (compared to Horizons) been more down to a technical barrier in some way?


How would a DW-type event work in today's game?

For those who took part on DW1 (2016) or DW2 (2019), you'll remember part of its appeal was the journey itself - it being a kind of right of passage, sometimes challenging, and sometimes requiring teamwork to help ships of lesser range to make headway through some hard to cross regions.

The game has changed a lot since DW2. The abundance of personal Fleet Carriers along with ships with triple the range we had back in the day, and other factors have changed the face of deep space journeys forever, some in a positive way, but also in a way that now makes obsolete some of the key factors that made both DW1 & DW2 attractive to so many - those being the challenge of the journey itself, the endurance needed, and in DW1's case the navigational nous required to traverse places like the outer-arm Abyss. For good or bad these are no longer factors we can work with.

Instead we now need to find new central 'hooks' to make this interesting and offer some semblance of challenge or an achievement beyond the journey itself, as without those, it's not worth pursuing.

Notre objectif en tant qu'organisateurs serait donc de trouver des moyens de retrouver ce qui rendait ces voyages si spéciaux en utilisant les mécanismes et les ressources du jeu existants, ou éventuellement de concevoir un itinéraire qui offre quelque chose de différent ; où nous allons, quel type de points de cheminement difficiles pourrions-nous inclure le long du chemin (en gardant à l'esprit que les transporteurs à portée de 500 LY rendent ce défi difficile à surmonter). Quoi qu'il en soit, cette fois-ci, le voyage se concentrerait sur l'exploration d'un endroit différent du traditionnel trek transgalactique de la bulle à Beagle Point.

En bref , et si nous suivons le modèle de DW2, Distant Worlds 3 s'appuierait sur ce qui s'est avéré populaire lors de son prédécesseur (les divers projets et événements auxquels des milliers de joueurs ont participé). Nous explorons également la possibilité d'inclure un gameplay basé sur l'industrie et la logistique dans une certaine mesure, éventuellement en lien avec la DSSA. De plus, cette fois-ci, nous ferions en sorte que l'ensemble de l'événement se déroule dans le cadre d'un récit que Drew Wagar ( auteur d'Elite : Reclamation et Elite : Premonition ) s'est gentiment porté volontaire pour écrire. Il existe également de nombreux autres « projets » en cours de réalisation, et des détails plus approfondis sur ceux-ci suivront en temps voulu.


Porte-avions de flotte : quel effet auront-ils sur un événement Distant Worlds ?

Si les transporteurs de flotte sont indéniablement utiles, leur présence massive dans les systèmes visités est souvent considérée comme perturbatrice. Imaginez les systèmes de points de cheminement submergés par des transporteurs regroupés autour de chaque corps céleste ou de chaque POI que nous visitons. Au-delà de la perturbation esthétique d'une expédition dans l'espace lointain (qui est censée être un voyage très éloigné de l'infrastructure humaine), le simple volume de transporteurs pourrait entraîner des problèmes de performances et de charge du serveur, ainsi qu'un ralentissement dégradant l'expérience pour toutes les personnes impliquées.

Nous avons des idées qui pourraient aider à limiter l'utilisation excessive des Carriers sur DW3 et nous partagerons les détails une fois finalisés. Mais cela a été un défi depuis leur introduction, et nous avons dû nous battre avec il y a 4 ans. En tant qu'organisateurs, nous ne pouvons que demander respectueusement aux joueurs de ne pas apporter leurs propres Carriers personnels, mais beaucoup le feront de toute façon, peu importe ce qu'on leur demandera. En fin de compte, seule Frontier peut résoudre ce problème et nous prendrons en compte tous les conseils qu'ils nous donneront pour éviter les interruptions de serveur pendant les rencontres et les événements de lancement.

Dans tous les cas, si DW3 se poursuit, il n'y aura aucune raison pratique pour que les gens apportent leur propre transporteur personnel, car nous utiliserons deux ou trois transporteurs officiels liés aux événements, au récit et aux projets, permettant aux participants de les utiliser comme leur maison loin de chez eux pour stocker des navires, du matériel et pour faire du stop au fur et à mesure des besoins.


Évaluer l’intérêt avant d’aller de l’avant

Mais avant tout cela, et en évaluant l'intérêt des joueurs, nous devons évaluer si DW3 est viable. L'organisation de cet événement nécessiterait des mois de préparation et de supervision, à l'instar de DW2, qui a nécessité six mois de planification et trois mois de gestion pour une équipe de 40 personnes.

Il ne s'agit pas d'un fil d'inscription, mais d'un appel à commentaires pour évaluer l'enthousiasme de la communauté. Êtes-vous susceptible de participer à cette expédition ? Votre contribution contribuera à façonner DW3, qu'il s'agisse d'un successeur ambitieux et riche en événements de DW2 ou d'une expérience plus décontractée comme DW1.

Joueurs sur console, n'hésitez pas à partager votre soutien et votre plateforme. Si l'intérêt est grand, nous organiserons peut-être un DW3 basé sur Horizons en parallèle de l'événement Odyssey.

En substance, cela fait six ans depuis le dernier événement Distant Worlds, et nous devons comprendre si une expédition à grande échelle, menée par la communauté, loin du contenu centré sur les bulles, correspond à l'état actuel du jeu, à la fois techniquement et socialement, et si suffisamment de joueurs sont prêts à investir des semaines de leur temps de jeu pour y participer.

Merci.
- Publié au nom de l'équipe de l'organisation The Distant Worlds


Un rappel de certaines des choses que nous avons vues sur DW2…
Source : https://youtu.be/awdsTmCQrOA?si=53K9QntrBYvmjY91
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Ma dernière longue explo a duré 1 an. Je m'étais mis comme objectif de visiter toutes les petites nébuleuses planétaires et toutes les balises touristiques dans la galaxie. Je n'ai aucune idée si ma quête est complète, mais ça pourrait être un objectif unique pour un DW3.
 

Chrystoph

Chrystoph
Straha Yeagar said:
This would be the perfect time for Frontier to spin up the Magellenic Clouds and/or Andromeda and bring back the Galactic Hyperdrive.
Click to expand...
With the SCO in game, it would be a logical place to source a variant of the Bussard Ram and create a drive that could surf the stellar streams. You'd just need a couple of orders of magnitude more speed.

That would give routing to the Clouds and potentially limit FCs.
 

Mk1Cursed

M
DW2 is one of my fondest memories in Elite, I made many friends that have given the game life far beyond the norm. I'd love to see DW3 have some integration with Colonisation, so perhaps fueling or escorting a speical colonisation ship to some far flung corner of the galaxy.
 

dj_wylie

dj_wylie
Had another idea - if Fdev were really up for it. There is a supernova event on the other side of the galaxy. We can all see the explosion live in the game (maybe like the Thargoid Titans?). But as its a supernova obvs its gonna be visible in the galaxy for days. it will leave a permanent scar in the milky way and maybe even create a new hand crafted nebula. As part of the expedition we have to go explore and research and take lots of screenshots.
 
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