I enjoy a nomadic lifestyle in Elite I have been all through parts of the bubble, went to see the happenings in the Pleiades, got enough Imperial rank for an I-courier (fun ship), hunted bounties with it (still own it), and then on a whim decided to chart a course from the bubble to Colonia, it's a kinda nomadic drive for me, to move about seeing all I can, doing interesting things, and I just sorta keep moving, one jump, one system, one scan at a time, Colonia I'll see your shores tonight.
Explorers: Share your motivation!
- Thread starter Squid Gumbo
- Start date
While doing research on the game I came across a player group called the First Great Expedition that wanted to launch a major group expedition to reach the galactic core in the game. In the previous single-player installments in the Elite series of games, I had never done much exploration - but this idea of a group effort of exploration really thrilled me.
Once Gamma launched I almost immediately set out to towards Barnard Loop to learn the basics - and that area was just so beautiful to explore. As soon as the main game launched I met up with the FGE and we all had a blast doing group exploration together. Good times
. Still is good times though
Once Gamma launched I almost immediately set out to towards Barnard Loop to learn the basics - and that area was just so beautiful to explore. As soon as the main game launched I met up with the FGE and we all had a blast doing group exploration together. Good times
. Still is good times though 
I have to be honest, I largely started playing the game because I found out that you really could venture completely outside of any inhabited space. Back in the day, I loved playing Wing Commander, and the Privateer. But I found out very quickly in ED that a LOT of players --- and NPC --- only want to do one thing: destroy your ship. So, I became an explorer to get away from all players of any type so I could simply enjoy flying. To most, I'm sure this would be unacceptably boring, but the hours upon hours of complete solitude in a ship I can largely customize myself is relaxing a gratifying. I started the LONG trek to Colonia once I was able to afford a decently-outfitted Diamondback Explorer back in January. I plotted a largely line-of-sight path. I didn't know yet about the "neutron star superhighway" and, frankly, once I found out about it approximately 1/4 through the journey, I didn't want to navigate to the nearest neutron star in that path because I figured I'd run into others. I didn't have the most efficient loadout on my DBE, opting for safety more than range. This meant my journey finally concluded two weeks ago. It turned out to be a good call on picking the loadout I did. I arrived with 30% hull and most modules either dead or close to it (once my AFMS died, I was on borrowed time). Man, that DBE can take a beating. I liken the Diamondback Explorer to the A-10 Warthog. It ain't the prettiest, but it withstands more than it looks like it can. Anyway, here I am in the Colonia "bubble", building up some reputation and influence among some of the developing systems, doing data runs before deciding what longish trip I'm going to make next. Generally, I'm finding these systems are much friendlier--even the NPCs--and that even if I get interdicted, they aren't shooting first and taking names later. I can FTL out before anything serious happens. It's just a shame there aren't more ports with some serious upgrades yet. I figure that will come in time.
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Just started my trip to Colonia. Furthest I've been was VY Canis Majoris. I love to trade in my Python and Bounty Hunt in my FDL, but I decided to dust off the Asp, install an engineered jump drive, put a buggy in it and take off for the long trip. Motivations are mainly just wanting to see the brighter and denser starfield, check out the tourist hotspots around Colonia like high g planets, geysers, plant life and all that stuff. And eventually use it as a launch pad for other trips like the one to Sag A I need to make. At the moment I have a second monitor that is usually playing a news program like CNN, or I'm listening to some podcasts as I go.
So far I've been rewarded with pretty nebula where active outposts have been installed on the road to Colonia, a cute little black hole in a planetary nebula and some nice water worlds. (all ELW tagged as I would expect). My only brush with death was a tight binary while forgetting my heat sink hotkey, and deciding to turn on my AFMU while taking off from a 2g planet and having the excess power shut down my thrusters and shield as I crash back into the planet. Down to 50% hull but was only a few jumps away from an outpost. (thank goodness for those).
If I plan to stay in Colonia I may spend the big bucks to xfer the FDL for pew pew, but that's a distant possibility. It's more than likely i'll be returning home to Turir at some point down the road.
So far I've been rewarded with pretty nebula where active outposts have been installed on the road to Colonia, a cute little black hole in a planetary nebula and some nice water worlds. (all ELW tagged as I would expect). My only brush with death was a tight binary while forgetting my heat sink hotkey, and deciding to turn on my AFMU while taking off from a 2g planet and having the excess power shut down my thrusters and shield as I crash back into the planet. Down to 50% hull but was only a few jumps away from an outpost. (thank goodness for those).
If I plan to stay in Colonia I may spend the big bucks to xfer the FDL for pew pew, but that's a distant possibility. It's more than likely i'll be returning home to Turir at some point down the road.
I like tagging un-tagged and interesting bodies. That's part of the motivation. Other part is going to those places on the map that are hard to reach. I also detest bubble politics.
verminstar
Banned
Motivation wise...I despise the bubble and the bgs within it...all aspects of it. I came out into the black to get lost and get as far away from the feeble and uninteresting human politics as one can get, and if aliens burn the house down, I wont lose any sleep Im afraid.
The bubble feels restrictive and sterile...a place where credits rules all and the recent storylines are just laughable half baked attempts on a drip feed. As tedious as exploration can be, its a world away from the bubble game...its not even in the same league and I turned my back on the bubble a long long time ago.
If one was forced back to the bubble and exploration became impossible, one would simply walk away entirely because the game that is left is not the game I want to play ^
The bubble feels restrictive and sterile...a place where credits rules all and the recent storylines are just laughable half baked attempts on a drip feed. As tedious as exploration can be, its a world away from the bubble game...its not even in the same league and I turned my back on the bubble a long long time ago.
If one was forced back to the bubble and exploration became impossible, one would simply walk away entirely because the game that is left is not the game I want to play ^
Yeah motivation. When I get a little borked out by the constant jumping I contemplate the enormity of space and my place in the cosmos by watching Ozzy man clips.
These are classic existential analyses:
https://youtu.be/EPu4aUY8uDE
https://youtu.be/aPxwXKPb0b8
https://youtu.be/jjFGapt328w
Motivation. We salute you Cmdr Ozzy man
These are classic existential analyses:
https://youtu.be/EPu4aUY8uDE
https://youtu.be/aPxwXKPb0b8
https://youtu.be/jjFGapt328w
Motivation. We salute you Cmdr Ozzy man
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Hah, that's a great description of the DBE! It is a lot like the A10 actually, rep to you for that!!!
I've explored for over 600,000lys in Elite but recently lost my motivation and haven't been much out of the bubble for over three months now. That's the longest I've been in the bubble since 1.0. I skipped out on the Silly Ships 2 and the Small Worlds expedition because I just couldn't muster the will to fly out there again. I think the beige worlds combined with the lack of exploration development just caught up to me, I felt like there wasn't anything for me to find out there anymore. So I did some trade runs, some mining, leveled some engineers, a bit of combat, and a bunch of passenger missions, but I've come to realize that without exploration in Elite the game simply loses a lot of it's appeal to me.
Reading through this thread though reminds me of why I ever went exploring in the first place, and why I grow so bored when inside the bubble. It's that thrill of discovery, of finding something that no one has ever seen before and calling it your own. It's that search for incredibly scenic locations, or that desire to just see the galaxy from a different point of view; a view without politics or murderers, one that feels less crowded. It's about solitude and yet comradarie in a united purpose: science and exploration.
I'm beginning to feel the pull of the void once again.
Bought the game about 4 months ago with the intention of being a combat pilot...... quickly ground my way to Competent in a Cobra MK3 before starting to feel the call of the void. Why spend your time in the bubble chasing NPCs when you could take a real gamble at survival out in the depths? The Asp had been my favourite ship since Frontier so...
Bought myself an Asp Explorer and flew off to the Horsehead nebula with an advanced discovery scanner and a tiny fuel scoop, dreaming of finding some unexplored system with earthlike worlds! Safe to say I didn't find anything fast haha! Between nearly crashing into stars, taking an age to refuel, and barely straying from the fastest route I found sod all - although I did get some nice pictures in the nebula! Feeling a bit dis-heartened, I headed back to the bubble with every intention of selling up and grinding my way towards a proper combat ship. Taking a slightly longer route home, thanks to a permit only region, I chanced upon an unexplored earthlike hanging like a jewel in space around a K-Class star. I was emboldened.
Getting back to the bubble I sold my data and made, what was to me, a tidy sum of credits! I started to look into engineering my ship so i could jump a bit further.... A month later, I had gotten my Sirius permit and needed to travel 5000LY to unlock Palin. "Damn" I said to myself "That is one heck of a long way.... how to do it quickly and make some money on the way?" I settled on travelling to the Heart and Soul Nebulas and back. "That should achieve both objectives nicely" I thought. A bit of grinding to get some materials for Felicity Farseer and I was headed out into the dark, this time properly equipped - Class6A fuel scoop, 2 AFMUs, 40LY jump range, 3 heatsinks, and every kind of upgraded scanner I could buy - and ready for my jaunt.
This was 2 months ago.... I got distracted..... first by a cluster of bright stars, the first of which yielded 2 black holes as part of it's crazy system, and then by a friendly commander who not only showed me my first asteroid base, but told me that I was in the 'Arrow', and that if I was heading out to the H&S nebula I might want to detour to the Bubble Nebula..... totally worth it
I'm now somewhere in between the Soul Nebula and the Crab Pulsar - which is now my final major destination before I head back to civilisation - exploring Neutron stars and still finding some stunning systems of multiple suns and life-supporting gas giants. My Asp is pretty beaten up, with about 2 heat sinks left, half an AFMU, virtually no paint to speak of, and by my side a sheet of A4 paper covered in scribbles so I can retrace my neutron star highway if needed!
I am happy.
I feel at home this far away from civilisation. Reminded of the tenuous nature of life everytime I arrive near to the surface of a star. Driven by the joy of exploration, of finding something new.
That is why I explore.
Bought myself an Asp Explorer and flew off to the Horsehead nebula with an advanced discovery scanner and a tiny fuel scoop, dreaming of finding some unexplored system with earthlike worlds! Safe to say I didn't find anything fast haha! Between nearly crashing into stars, taking an age to refuel, and barely straying from the fastest route I found sod all - although I did get some nice pictures in the nebula! Feeling a bit dis-heartened, I headed back to the bubble with every intention of selling up and grinding my way towards a proper combat ship. Taking a slightly longer route home, thanks to a permit only region, I chanced upon an unexplored earthlike hanging like a jewel in space around a K-Class star. I was emboldened.
Getting back to the bubble I sold my data and made, what was to me, a tidy sum of credits! I started to look into engineering my ship so i could jump a bit further.... A month later, I had gotten my Sirius permit and needed to travel 5000LY to unlock Palin. "Damn" I said to myself "That is one heck of a long way.... how to do it quickly and make some money on the way?" I settled on travelling to the Heart and Soul Nebulas and back. "That should achieve both objectives nicely" I thought. A bit of grinding to get some materials for Felicity Farseer and I was headed out into the dark, this time properly equipped - Class6A fuel scoop, 2 AFMUs, 40LY jump range, 3 heatsinks, and every kind of upgraded scanner I could buy - and ready for my jaunt.
This was 2 months ago.... I got distracted..... first by a cluster of bright stars, the first of which yielded 2 black holes as part of it's crazy system, and then by a friendly commander who not only showed me my first asteroid base, but told me that I was in the 'Arrow', and that if I was heading out to the H&S nebula I might want to detour to the Bubble Nebula..... totally worth it
I'm now somewhere in between the Soul Nebula and the Crab Pulsar - which is now my final major destination before I head back to civilisation - exploring Neutron stars and still finding some stunning systems of multiple suns and life-supporting gas giants. My Asp is pretty beaten up, with about 2 heat sinks left, half an AFMU, virtually no paint to speak of, and by my side a sheet of A4 paper covered in scribbles so I can retrace my neutron star highway if needed!
I am happy.
I feel at home this far away from civilisation. Reminded of the tenuous nature of life everytime I arrive near to the surface of a star. Driven by the joy of exploration, of finding something new.
That is why I explore.
I play elite as an escape. I work a very frustrating job and my ultimate fantasy is my own star ship to explore the galaxy free of anyone else. Exploring in Elite Dangerous, for me, isn't so much about gaming as much as it is clearing my head and letting myself imagine what could be out there. Eventually we'll get more interesting planets and space legs. When that happens, I likely won't be found near colonized space unless something unfortunate happens the forces me to return for repairs.
Great reply. That with bells.
