After some debate a friend has wanted to see this game. We reinstalled and have been giving it a go again. There was a lot of debate as to what to do. As long-time DAoC Gaheris players we are much more invested in a cooperative experience than combat. With things like Distant Worlds going on my friend, his wife, and several family members besides have taken interest. We sat down the other night to discuss time investments, what's to do, and first impressions. It was decided we'd first do a tour of how to play the game, what missions are, ships available, and what sort of community assistance is out there. After that we debated ships and where to go. It was decided we'd go to Witch Head Nebula. No one had the time for it all at once, so four of us sat down to make the trip. It would turn out only three of us could make it. We bought a Diamondback Explorer after some debate. The deciding factor became price. It's a great ship for what it is and if it blew up we'd be able to recover the loss fairly well.
I did the outfitting:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70i,mpV0Wg0Wg0_g0_g,2-6Q6u7_5K6u5K8I,7Q44_w1IM2jw2UI
My boyfriend and this his best friend started the flight out. I had classes and then other obligations. We imagined it would take several days so we really had no plan as to when we'd finish this. Our plan was just to keep one person at the computer until it was completed. It would turn out the trip became more of a spectator sport with two backseat drivers.
Our flight plan involved starting out somewhere in Imperial Territory, probably Mehuenomici, and then to head generally down towards:
Witch Head UJ-Q B5-0 using the fuel economy flight path.
From there, we'd begin doing long distance jumps and refuel at each one.
While we brought a Detailed Surface Scanner our intentions were not use it unless we found something truly peculiar.
Our notes go as follows:
Syneufe ES-R D5-22
!!! Stars want to eat your face !!!
- binary star system with close orbits (don't be asleep when you get here)
65 PSI Eridan
!!! dual white star, 5 star system, "God was drunk "
Witch Head contains Tardis?
Dr. Who?
- In reference to a moment when the left panel of the Diamondback's window frame became the only thing illuminated creating the illusion of a Taris floating off the side of the ship.
"Celestial salamander spotted off the port bow."
- Sort of left and down from Orion while still approaching it are these white clouds of swirly pretty what's it. We began giving them names. This one was Celestial Salamander. The one above Orion became Celestial Crab. ... It makes sense when you're there.
Note Follows: " God has Salamanders? "
Witch Head Sector CL-Y D14
- Way Point I
- A safe area to jump in, refuel, and take a break
Running Man Sector FW-D1-8
- Waypoint II
2Mass J05350825-0529121
- " The Black "
- There is a large lance of stars that right right through the middle of Orion. This particular area is positively pitch black.
2Mass J05350825-0529121
- Wow....
- A system just packed full of planets. This lance of stars listed above can be clearly seen passing out of Orion while also getting a clear picture of the bowl shape of the nebula. The lance of stars can be confused with the galactic disk until you realize it's at the wrong angle.
- Image: 2016-02-24_00023
Next we took off to Burnard's Loop, detours to take a look around the Flame Nebula, but couldn't find a way to actually see it while close up. It turns out things are more glamorous further away.
- There is no such thing as aliens...
After that I wasn't home, but they found another clump of densely clustered stars around: DM99 32.
- Apparently everyone got bored after that. By the time I got home in the morning everyone had turned the game off. The notes and picture stop there.
Total Credits Earned:
a little more than a 1million
Total Hours to Arrive and Return:
A little more than 10
There were some amazing moments like the image of the Horse Head Nebula. We took a throw-away ship, but are generally discontent with exploration options in this area. The Diamondback was entirely reliable. Especially considering my boyfriend stopped paying attention to the screen at one moment while watching a video. He jumped and then didn't notice the ship had completed the jump so it flew right into a star. It came out unscathed, though lost 2/6 of our heat-sinked. For now everyone's going to wait to see if any better ships come with two seats and better canopy. The Type-9 is the most desired with its back-swept canopy, but is prohibitively expensive. There's some discussion amongst us that we might work toward getting a Federal Corvette. Despite the limited jump range it really won't matter how long it takes to get somewhere if there's three or four of us together. Discovering how to get a billion credits and rank before everyone dies of old age is another story.
Planning a Second Trip
As a whole more people went home wanting to play the game than not, but are skeptical of the game's lack of ships and immense time required to find monetary stability. We're not in disagreement with it. Realism and time-to-reward make this game what it is. However, the "How" and "When" factor to planning it out really aren't provided anywhere. It would appear that veteran players of a year ago are far better off than those now starting. Missions for ships requiring rank pay less than participating with Power Play. Smuggling may be an option, but we've been unable to determine if these options still exist in the game reliably. To clarify the point of this section: "We're planning for another journey. Hopefully with at least one more person having an account." So, two ships. However, it's weeks to grind out to an Asp as the person most likely to buy the game next is a father of two. He works more than anything else. So does his wife. Trying to plan ahead is tricky.
- For now we've sold the exploration ship and are discussing getting into Power Play or Mining. There appears to be no point to appropriating our time to anything except money gain until having acquired roughly a billion credits. That amount would be able to purchase 1 fully fitted Anaconda, Cutter, or Corvette. While we don't presently plan to own one, reaching that monetary goal it should set our spending options equal with other players presently in the game for the foreseeable future and allow us choice as to what vehicle(s) we'll eventually settle down with.
Our next trip is probably going to be the Heart and Soul Nebulas. Probably in April or May.
I did the outfitting:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70i,mpV0Wg0Wg0_g0_g,2-6Q6u7_5K6u5K8I,7Q44_w1IM2jw2UI
My boyfriend and this his best friend started the flight out. I had classes and then other obligations. We imagined it would take several days so we really had no plan as to when we'd finish this. Our plan was just to keep one person at the computer until it was completed. It would turn out the trip became more of a spectator sport with two backseat drivers.
Our flight plan involved starting out somewhere in Imperial Territory, probably Mehuenomici, and then to head generally down towards:
Witch Head UJ-Q B5-0 using the fuel economy flight path.
From there, we'd begin doing long distance jumps and refuel at each one.
While we brought a Detailed Surface Scanner our intentions were not use it unless we found something truly peculiar.
Our notes go as follows:
Syneufe ES-R D5-22
!!! Stars want to eat your face !!!
- binary star system with close orbits (don't be asleep when you get here)
65 PSI Eridan
!!! dual white star, 5 star system, "God was drunk "
Witch Head contains Tardis?
Dr. Who?
- In reference to a moment when the left panel of the Diamondback's window frame became the only thing illuminated creating the illusion of a Taris floating off the side of the ship.
"Celestial salamander spotted off the port bow."
- Sort of left and down from Orion while still approaching it are these white clouds of swirly pretty what's it. We began giving them names. This one was Celestial Salamander. The one above Orion became Celestial Crab. ... It makes sense when you're there.
Note Follows: " God has Salamanders? "
Witch Head Sector CL-Y D14
- Way Point I
- A safe area to jump in, refuel, and take a break
Running Man Sector FW-D1-8
- Waypoint II
2Mass J05350825-0529121
- " The Black "
- There is a large lance of stars that right right through the middle of Orion. This particular area is positively pitch black.
2Mass J05350825-0529121
- Wow....
- A system just packed full of planets. This lance of stars listed above can be clearly seen passing out of Orion while also getting a clear picture of the bowl shape of the nebula. The lance of stars can be confused with the galactic disk until you realize it's at the wrong angle.
- Image: 2016-02-24_00023
Next we took off to Burnard's Loop, detours to take a look around the Flame Nebula, but couldn't find a way to actually see it while close up. It turns out things are more glamorous further away.
- There is no such thing as aliens...
After that I wasn't home, but they found another clump of densely clustered stars around: DM99 32.
- Apparently everyone got bored after that. By the time I got home in the morning everyone had turned the game off. The notes and picture stop there.
Total Credits Earned:
a little more than a 1million
Total Hours to Arrive and Return:
A little more than 10
There were some amazing moments like the image of the Horse Head Nebula. We took a throw-away ship, but are generally discontent with exploration options in this area. The Diamondback was entirely reliable. Especially considering my boyfriend stopped paying attention to the screen at one moment while watching a video. He jumped and then didn't notice the ship had completed the jump so it flew right into a star. It came out unscathed, though lost 2/6 of our heat-sinked. For now everyone's going to wait to see if any better ships come with two seats and better canopy. The Type-9 is the most desired with its back-swept canopy, but is prohibitively expensive. There's some discussion amongst us that we might work toward getting a Federal Corvette. Despite the limited jump range it really won't matter how long it takes to get somewhere if there's three or four of us together. Discovering how to get a billion credits and rank before everyone dies of old age is another story.
Planning a Second Trip
As a whole more people went home wanting to play the game than not, but are skeptical of the game's lack of ships and immense time required to find monetary stability. We're not in disagreement with it. Realism and time-to-reward make this game what it is. However, the "How" and "When" factor to planning it out really aren't provided anywhere. It would appear that veteran players of a year ago are far better off than those now starting. Missions for ships requiring rank pay less than participating with Power Play. Smuggling may be an option, but we've been unable to determine if these options still exist in the game reliably. To clarify the point of this section: "We're planning for another journey. Hopefully with at least one more person having an account." So, two ships. However, it's weeks to grind out to an Asp as the person most likely to buy the game next is a father of two. He works more than anything else. So does his wife. Trying to plan ahead is tricky.
- For now we've sold the exploration ship and are discussing getting into Power Play or Mining. There appears to be no point to appropriating our time to anything except money gain until having acquired roughly a billion credits. That amount would be able to purchase 1 fully fitted Anaconda, Cutter, or Corvette. While we don't presently plan to own one, reaching that monetary goal it should set our spending options equal with other players presently in the game for the foreseeable future and allow us choice as to what vehicle(s) we'll eventually settle down with.
Our next trip is probably going to be the Heart and Soul Nebulas. Probably in April or May.