CMDR Austinfinity here o7
I was introduced to the franchise via Elite Dangerous, and it's hard to pick out a single favorite moment across the thousands of hours logged since. Meeting commanders in the most unlikely places out in the middle of nowhere, playing CQC with Ed, getting a screenshot in the newsletter, or outside of the game, meeting Sandro at PAX East. Or even just going to Sol for the first time, the moment I really got hooked. But if I had to share a fond and unique memory...
Jump back about 4 years to 3301. The Hutton Mug CG, the first time I really saw and felt how uniquely exciting Elite could be, and how enthusiastic the community was, too. I'd (unknowingly of course) made the mistake of visiting Hutton once before, but I had a totally different feeling approaching the outpost this time. I was still pretty green and hanging around in a Asp, so I took as much junk as I could fit over their for my first run...only to find that the sole medium pad was being occupied by someone being a little inconsiderate. Maybe they didn't know better, maybe it was trolling, or they were AFK; after enough time, myself and other people loitering around the pad decided to just switch over to solo to dock and do our business.
This gave me idea. A 34th century problem that demanded a 34th century solution.
I returned to Sol to swap back into my Vulture, my only other ship that I really couldn't afford but didn't know any better at the time, and made no room for scrap. I returned to Hutton, this time, with a cargo scanner and hardpoints deployed and one objective in mind: keep the medium pad moving, by force if necessary. And by some miracle combo of a lot of global text chat, ship lights, loitering right on the pad, and of course the cooperation and a little roleplaying from many total strangers, I actually managed to play the part of Hutton's air traffic controller in assuredly its greatest time of need. At least for a few hours, anyway, announcing incoming CMDRs and their cargo like it really was my job, and corralling them into a more-or-less straight queue for docking, limiting each person's time on the pad, and later on taking out an active griefer (who later even had the heart to journey back to apologize!) And for the cherry on top, the great folks of the Hutton Truckers sent me the original, genuine Hutton mug, which is now a staple part any time I hop onto ED.
This still stands as probably my most distinctive experience in Elite, and really in any game. In my mind, it was Elite at its best: no concern for progress or credits. Just blazing your own trail and inventing your own fun in functionally infinite space, even if that meant loitering on a docking pad for a few hours. Thanks for all the good times, FDev and CMDRs o7
(See here for an image, myself in the Vulture on the far left, courtesy u/zipperseven CMDR WhiskeyTangent on r/EliteDangerous.)
I was introduced to the franchise via Elite Dangerous, and it's hard to pick out a single favorite moment across the thousands of hours logged since. Meeting commanders in the most unlikely places out in the middle of nowhere, playing CQC with Ed, getting a screenshot in the newsletter, or outside of the game, meeting Sandro at PAX East. Or even just going to Sol for the first time, the moment I really got hooked. But if I had to share a fond and unique memory...
Jump back about 4 years to 3301. The Hutton Mug CG, the first time I really saw and felt how uniquely exciting Elite could be, and how enthusiastic the community was, too. I'd (unknowingly of course) made the mistake of visiting Hutton once before, but I had a totally different feeling approaching the outpost this time. I was still pretty green and hanging around in a Asp, so I took as much junk as I could fit over their for my first run...only to find that the sole medium pad was being occupied by someone being a little inconsiderate. Maybe they didn't know better, maybe it was trolling, or they were AFK; after enough time, myself and other people loitering around the pad decided to just switch over to solo to dock and do our business.
This gave me idea. A 34th century problem that demanded a 34th century solution.
I returned to Sol to swap back into my Vulture, my only other ship that I really couldn't afford but didn't know any better at the time, and made no room for scrap. I returned to Hutton, this time, with a cargo scanner and hardpoints deployed and one objective in mind: keep the medium pad moving, by force if necessary. And by some miracle combo of a lot of global text chat, ship lights, loitering right on the pad, and of course the cooperation and a little roleplaying from many total strangers, I actually managed to play the part of Hutton's air traffic controller in assuredly its greatest time of need. At least for a few hours, anyway, announcing incoming CMDRs and their cargo like it really was my job, and corralling them into a more-or-less straight queue for docking, limiting each person's time on the pad, and later on taking out an active griefer (who later even had the heart to journey back to apologize!) And for the cherry on top, the great folks of the Hutton Truckers sent me the original, genuine Hutton mug, which is now a staple part any time I hop onto ED.
This still stands as probably my most distinctive experience in Elite, and really in any game. In my mind, it was Elite at its best: no concern for progress or credits. Just blazing your own trail and inventing your own fun in functionally infinite space, even if that meant loitering on a docking pad for a few hours. Thanks for all the good times, FDev and CMDRs o7
(See here for an image, myself in the Vulture on the far left, courtesy u/zipperseven CMDR WhiskeyTangent on r/EliteDangerous.)
![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
