Coming back from the last iteration of my long-standing “every edge of the galaxy” exploration project, I have some thoughts about the FC, more precisely the way they influence exploration. I’m really not the kind who thinks “Things were better before”, they are not, and Elite is no exception: Elite is much much better now that it was before. Still, FC for exploration puzzle me. Please note that I’m not talking about using your own FC, which basically boils down to using your own ship, I’m talking about the DSSA network. On the one hand, FC network is a real plus:
- It enables repairs, meaning that we can spend more time exploring distant regions without having to come back “defeated” after a big landing mistake or the loss of a SRV. You can stay in the region you want to explore basically as long as you want to, using the nearest FC as a base, and that is great because when the trip to that place takes long, you really want to stay there for a while, not being forced to come back due to a single moment’s inattention. It enables better and deeper exploration.
- It also acts as a “save” for those who want to find their way to the very edge of the Galaxy, as these trips often end up in a dead-end from where you can’t come back. That “save” gives CMDR the possibility to validate their data first and more importantly create a checkpoint, so if things go bad, you don’t lose much and you can try again, which is really cool as it frees your mind whenever attempting something potentially stupid. I've done this a lot, and that new insurance policy is a great step forward.
- Once an already low-risk career, Exploration basically became riskless. Now, if you have an issue, you simply look for the next FC, then you fly safe up to there without landing and with the supercruise assist ON, and you’re sure to be fine, and continue your trip whereas before it meant a return ticket and the end of the trip. Losing a SRV is not an issue either anymore. The “save” mode makes it also much less costly to die, meaning that nowadays not only it is nearly impossible to die but also that if you do it doesn’t bear any real consequences: the days of exploration as an activity in which the pressure was increasing as you were going further away, giving you a real sense of fragility, are gone, and that is a shame because that was the Explorer's thrill.
- More importantly, it changed the way we look at the galaxy: before, whenever you get out of the Bubble, there was only one way: to the Black. In front of you, nothing, only the void, the cold endless void. The only civilization was behind you. Always behind. It created a really, really strong feeling of loneliness and you really FELT like an explorer as you were moving away fro the Bubble, especially as the auto-generation concept meant that you were REALLY exploring places that no-one had ever designed, let alone visited. I’ve played countless games in my life but only Elite was capable of delivering that particular feeling, and I loved it. Nowadays, in front of you there is always a FC somewhere, so civilization is everywhere, nowhere do you really feel like “out there” anymore. I remember the first time I went to the very edge of the Xibalba galactic arm I really felt like I was to the very edge of creation. Today, even all the way there there is a FC, with a bar and NPCs inside it…. There is no more void, no more loneliness, no more urge to come back to your kind: the galaxy became smaller. It actually completely killed that extraordinary feeling. At least for me.
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