[Information] The Expedition Hub
- Thread starter Erimus Kamzel
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Ooooh I like the look of this 
The Sagittarius-Carina mission just now reached "100+" participants
Nice oneThe Sagittarius-Carina mission just now reached "100+" participants
Expedition participants updated in the OP [up]
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My way back home from Distant Worlds Expedition. I decided to get back in Open mode and asked my friends from The Winged Hussars group for help with escorting my exploration data. You can see below how they answered for my call. I wish you all this kind of returning from you exploration trip .
[video=youtube;jsV_9dwtv8g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsV_9dwtv8g[/video]
. [video=youtube;jsV_9dwtv8g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsV_9dwtv8g[/video]
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Added information on Iridium Wing to the main post. Welcome aboard commanders o7
Very organised, very slick, like the look and the way it ticks.
Inspired by this thread I went into the dusty archives of the FGE to see what I could find... (I only joined the FGE at the end of gamma-phase, and as such wasn´t there from the start back in alpha). Some fun facts I discovered:
The FGE held its first explorers gathering on July 30th 3300 and had regular gatherings during the beta phase of the game. The number of participants are hard to meassure, since no records exist of these. The number of different people replying in the forum threads are around 20-30, but the number of views of some of these early threads are above 11.000. These gatherings doesnt appear to have been expeditions as such, but simply testing out Team Speak and flying together - since the game area was so limited and mechanics so jumpy at the time.
The first expedition seems to have taken place on Nov 1st 3300. The goal was to scout an area 125-140LYs from Eranin, where the Cephei Sector systems borders the Col 285 Sector. Participants were primarily flying sidewinders or cobras with a range between 10-15 LY. Today we may smile at the distance travelled and the jump range of the ships involved, but the thread about this first expedition has a view-count of more than 20.000! The number of participants doesnt seem to be recorded anywhere, but from descriptions within the thread and the number of people posting in the thread a guess could be 25-30 people or more.
When the limits to travel was removed in gamma, the most noteworthy exploit of an FGE member is of course the journey of Zulu Romeo to the galactic core, but I have found no records of group exploration during that short period.
After the launch of the full game, the FGE did a number of research voyages in Jan-Feb 3301. For these we have valid sign-up information, and a total of more than 50 explorers took part in these expeditions to many local nebulae. Most explorers at a single event was 44 CMDRs on Jan 10th 3301.
I have gathered some info on these events in our research voyage sub-forum on the FGE forums.
I don´t really know how any of these events should be classified, but as they are among the first group explorations ever in Elite Dangerous (I have no knowledge of any other exploration group-events dating so far back) I belive they are worth mentioning in some way or other.
So what did these early group expeditions accomplish?
- Well, in terms of distance travelled they could not compare to any of the solo expeditions taking place at the time (the mechanics of exploration in ED being what they are). What they did, was introduce and develop the concept of group exploration, including best practices for group travel, using comms effectively and tracking down distant objects using parallax in a group. Most of the skills aquired at the time are obsolete today due to the introduction of the routeplanner, wing mechanics and the advanced discovery scanner. But other things never gets obsolete, and one thing these expeditions did, was to give the participants that special gut-feeling a well coordinated hyperspace jump with a flottilla of ships can give you, and that sense of cameraderie among explorers flying and doing teamwork together. A feeling that should by now be well known to all who have taken part in Distant Worlds
On a personal note it has been really nice to see how much joy and engagement Distant Worlds has given to so many explorers (myself included) - but to me it also reminded me of the spirit of those early research voyages back in january 3301
The FGE held its first explorers gathering on July 30th 3300 and had regular gatherings during the beta phase of the game. The number of participants are hard to meassure, since no records exist of these. The number of different people replying in the forum threads are around 20-30, but the number of views of some of these early threads are above 11.000. These gatherings doesnt appear to have been expeditions as such, but simply testing out Team Speak and flying together - since the game area was so limited and mechanics so jumpy at the time.
The first expedition seems to have taken place on Nov 1st 3300. The goal was to scout an area 125-140LYs from Eranin, where the Cephei Sector systems borders the Col 285 Sector. Participants were primarily flying sidewinders or cobras with a range between 10-15 LY
. Today we may smile at the distance travelled and the jump range of the ships involved, but the thread about this first expedition has a view-count of more than 20.000! The number of participants doesnt seem to be recorded anywhere, but from descriptions within the thread and the number of people posting in the thread a guess could be 25-30 people or more.When the limits to travel was removed in gamma, the most noteworthy exploit of an FGE member is of course the journey of Zulu Romeo to the galactic core, but I have found no records of group exploration during that short period.
After the launch of the full game, the FGE did a number of research voyages in Jan-Feb 3301. For these we have valid sign-up information, and a total of more than 50 explorers took part in these expeditions to many local nebulae. Most explorers at a single event was 44 CMDRs on Jan 10th 3301.
I have gathered some info on these events in our research voyage sub-forum on the FGE forums.
I don´t really know how any of these events should be classified, but as they are among the first group explorations ever in Elite Dangerous (I have no knowledge of any other exploration group-events dating so far back) I belive they are worth mentioning in some way or other.
So what did these early group expeditions accomplish?
- Well, in terms of distance travelled they could not compare to any of the solo expeditions taking place at the time (the mechanics of exploration in ED being what they are). What they did, was introduce and develop the concept of group exploration, including best practices for group travel, using comms effectively and tracking down distant objects using parallax in a group. Most of the skills aquired at the time are obsolete today due to the introduction of the routeplanner, wing mechanics and the advanced discovery scanner. But other things never gets obsolete, and one thing these expeditions did, was to give the participants that special gut-feeling a well coordinated hyperspace jump with a flottilla of ships can give you, and that sense of cameraderie among explorers flying and doing teamwork together. A feeling that should by now be well known to all who have taken part in Distant Worlds
On a personal note it has been really nice to see how much joy and engagement Distant Worlds has given to so many explorers (myself included) - but to me it also reminded me of the spirit of those early research voyages back in january 3301
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Nice bit of historical research Corbin
Added the following entry...
JAN 3301 - FEB 3301
FGE NEBULAE RESEARCH VOYAGES
EXPLORATION
50
FGE
COMPLETED
FGE (TS)
LINK
CLOSED
We always had an eye to history and as such, all posts made on the FGE forums where moved into the archive section, so any future historian can look through the founding of the FGE.
But I agree it is a good write up.
Unlike me, you were there from the start Wish, so if anything stands out as incorrect please let me know
Unlike me, you were there from the start Wish, so if anything stands out as incorrect please let me know
It seems fine Corbin, but if an would be historians want to dive into the archives they are welcome.
I've added the early FGE Nebulae Research Voyagers to the Pioneers Timeline (January 3301 entry). If you have any other significant entries for the timeline, let me know
Nice bit of our history there, Corbin - thanks for compiling the summary. It brings back many memories.
Usually from 10-20 turned up, but the exact participants varied - probably about 40-50 individual commanders came along at one time or another. These early voyages were as much about testing the instancing ability of the game as going anywhere.
That was indeed the first true expedition and it's an accurate estimate. We traveled in several groups of about 3-8 each with the aim of investigating potential systems for a base at the other end of the "pill" (the capsule shaped area of space we had access to at that time, for anyone who was not there). It was a test of scouting mechanics and the co-ordination of multiple scout groups.
There was a group expedition to the Pleiades some time in gamma but it was not recorded. This was the first group expedition by anyone to the Pleiades AFAIK, but unfortunately I can't track down any documentary images as proof. There was also definitely another group expedition on December 6th - I remember as we were on a group voyage that day when Wishblend (who was not with us) met up with Zulu Romeo on his return journey. Both of these should probably be classed as "unofficial" group events.
Actually they started in December 3300. The first official FGE expedition that was open to anyone and advertised widely was to the Coalsack on December 20th. http://firstgreatexpedition.org/mybb/showthread.php?tid=1599&highlight=coalsack We had approximately 30 participants traveling in several groups and solo.
@Erimus:
Please note the above. The first Coalsack expedition was on December 20th. The formal Research Voyage programme was in January and February 3301, but the earlier voyage was an official event and the inspiration for the Research Programme.
Usually from 10-20 turned up, but the exact participants varied - probably about 40-50 individual commanders came along at one time or another. These early voyages were as much about testing the instancing ability of the game as going anywhere.
That was indeed the first true expedition and it's an accurate estimate. We traveled in several groups of about 3-8 each with the aim of investigating potential systems for a base at the other end of the "pill" (the capsule shaped area of space we had access to at that time, for anyone who was not there). It was a test of scouting mechanics and the co-ordination of multiple scout groups.
There was a group expedition to the Pleiades some time in gamma but it was not recorded. This was the first group expedition by anyone to the Pleiades AFAIK, but unfortunately I can't track down any documentary images as proof. There was also definitely another group expedition on December 6th - I remember as we were on a group voyage that day when Wishblend (who was not with us) met up with Zulu Romeo on his return journey. Both of these should probably be classed as "unofficial" group events.
Actually they started in December 3300. The first official FGE expedition that was open to anyone and advertised widely was to the Coalsack on December 20th. http://firstgreatexpedition.org/mybb/showthread.php?tid=1599&highlight=coalsack We had approximately 30 participants traveling in several groups and solo.
@Erimus:
Please note the above. The first Coalsack expedition was on December 20th. The formal Research Voyage programme was in January and February 3301, but the earlier voyage was an official event and the inspiration for the Research Programme.
I've added the early FGE Nebulae Research Voyagers to the Pioneers Timeline (January 3301 entry). If you have any other significant entries for the timeline, let me know
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Sag-Car mission just reached 130 participants
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