Paige Harvey
Community Manager
Hello Commanders, and welcome to the twenty-fourth Featured Commanders thread of 2019! This week we're talking to the Scottish streaming wonder, Carrumba!
o7 Carrumba, thank you for joining us today! Tell us, when did you first find out about Elite Dangerous?
Full disclosure – I was one of those kids whose skills in mathematics were probably improved by playing the original Elite on C64 with a pencil and paper, furiously taking down commodity prices and working out the best profits. You just had to be very careful to not let your parents read the words “slaves” or “narcotics”! When the Kickstarter for Elite Dangerous came around I emailed my best friends saying “have you seen this new Elite game?!” before scrambling for my bank card. My friends and I backed at the tail end of Alpha/Premium Beta and have played together ever since.
Best friends forever! What got you and your friends hooked on the game?
Initially, it was being back in that familiar universe again and flying spaceships with friends that kept me hooked. My friends gained their first two Elite ranks way ahead of me but that didn’t matter as we could still meet up and fly like lunatics or take an exploration trip together! In some games, if you fall behind your friends in progression, it stops being fun when everyone is so much more advanced than you, but that’s never been a problem for us in Elite Dangerous.
It’s a vast and beautiful game that sounds incredible- you can let your imagination run away with you when playing it. When I began streaming Elite Dangerous, I discovered a whole new group of friends to play the game with as the community are awesome, geeky, generous and creative! Some of them have become close buddies in our player group and I really need to give a shout out to the members of 95th Squadron who keep things going... in spite of my best efforts.
Speaking of streaming, when did you first begin?
I first started streaming in July of 2016, and Elite Dangerous has been my main game since then. That being said for the longest time I had an absolutely terrible microphone... so I'm going to pretend that I've only been streaming since July 2017! When I stream I'm confined to a cupboard under the stairs and have to try and filter out the rest of the house right next to me whilst being merrily cooked by my PC but I do like to suffer for my art!
What’s your favourite piece of content you’ve created around Elite Dangerous?
I try to keep my streams pretty chilled out and Elite Dangerous is the perfect game for that! We get to wonder at the beauty of the universe, chat about our lives and laugh at me as I get a rock stuck between the front wheels of my SRV. I’ve had some moments with my audience I’ll never forget, like the time I was trying to take off from a 10.66G world with D-rated thrusters on my Anaconda, while coming home from Distant Worlds 2. All the exploration data I'd gathered flashed before my eyes. A member of chat had to walk away and lie down after tensely coaching me till I escaped.
I've also taken part in two charity streams, both based around playing Elite Dangerous. For the first I helped TheHoneyThief with his fundraising and for the second I flew solo as part of "TheConvergence" during GamesBlast19. Receiving thank-you cards from Special Effect on both occasions were proud moments of mine, and I would heartily recommend all streamers to do their bit for charity.
Those are wonderful memories, we're proud to have been a part of them! If you could give one piece of advice to every Commander, what would it be?
Try. Everything.
Some people get addicted to trading as a play-style (FOR THE MUG!) or become anti-xeno specialists. Some disappear off into the black and only occasionally reappear at stations wild-eyed and muttering “does anyone need data sold to help their BGS?” before vanishing again while others get involved in Powerplay. All of the above band together and lend a hand when there is an in-game emergency, like Thargoids trashing your home station whilst the bulk of your pilots are on Distant Worlds 2. There are plenty of playstyles in the game and plenty of communities setup around them. You can move around them as different things grab your interest- or you can remain a lone wolf, it's up to you. You can be as dedicated or casual a player as you want - the galaxy is certainly big enough for everyone.
Excellent advice! Are there any Commanders you'd like to shout out?
There are so many streamers making excellent content, so I try and steal (read: learn) ideas from all of them! I'd like to highlight the stream teams and communities I am a part of, namely Sovereignty Stream Team, Hammers of Slough and The Convergence. They're groups of fantastic streamers and have a wealth of knowledge between them for content creators, new and experienced. I'd also like to mention Lave Radio and Hutton Orbital! o7, Commanders.
Do you have any cool projects coming up?
Having successfully survived my third Fantasticon, I've been working on some of the devious plans hatched over glasses of mead and beer! In-game, our Squadron is currently ruminating over the name of our fleet carrier and what parts of the galaxy we can crash into with it. Current suggestions for a name include “The Inevitable Collision”, “BFNF Impact Crater” and “The Faffmobile” – there seems to be a bit of a theme there.
I'm also looking to hold another charity stream soon for Special Effect, and next year I'm going to try and go to as many conventions as possible, including my first Lavecon! I’m always looking for new projects and collaborations though, so I'm happy to receive suggestions from anyone.
We'll keep a look out for these projects! Where can people check you out online?
Twitch - 20:00 BST on Fridays and Sundays, and 12:00 BST on Saturdays
Twitter - For cat pictures and stream schedules
Discord - Carrumba#0095
In-game - 95thSquadron
Thank you Commander Carrumba! We'll see you out in the black.
If you're reading this and would like to be interviewed as a Featured Commander, apply here.
o7 Carrumba, thank you for joining us today! Tell us, when did you first find out about Elite Dangerous?
Full disclosure – I was one of those kids whose skills in mathematics were probably improved by playing the original Elite on C64 with a pencil and paper, furiously taking down commodity prices and working out the best profits. You just had to be very careful to not let your parents read the words “slaves” or “narcotics”! When the Kickstarter for Elite Dangerous came around I emailed my best friends saying “have you seen this new Elite game?!” before scrambling for my bank card. My friends and I backed at the tail end of Alpha/Premium Beta and have played together ever since.
Best friends forever! What got you and your friends hooked on the game?
Initially, it was being back in that familiar universe again and flying spaceships with friends that kept me hooked. My friends gained their first two Elite ranks way ahead of me but that didn’t matter as we could still meet up and fly like lunatics or take an exploration trip together! In some games, if you fall behind your friends in progression, it stops being fun when everyone is so much more advanced than you, but that’s never been a problem for us in Elite Dangerous.
It’s a vast and beautiful game that sounds incredible- you can let your imagination run away with you when playing it. When I began streaming Elite Dangerous, I discovered a whole new group of friends to play the game with as the community are awesome, geeky, generous and creative! Some of them have become close buddies in our player group and I really need to give a shout out to the members of 95th Squadron who keep things going... in spite of my best efforts.
Speaking of streaming, when did you first begin?
I first started streaming in July of 2016, and Elite Dangerous has been my main game since then. That being said for the longest time I had an absolutely terrible microphone... so I'm going to pretend that I've only been streaming since July 2017! When I stream I'm confined to a cupboard under the stairs and have to try and filter out the rest of the house right next to me whilst being merrily cooked by my PC but I do like to suffer for my art!
What’s your favourite piece of content you’ve created around Elite Dangerous?
I try to keep my streams pretty chilled out and Elite Dangerous is the perfect game for that! We get to wonder at the beauty of the universe, chat about our lives and laugh at me as I get a rock stuck between the front wheels of my SRV. I’ve had some moments with my audience I’ll never forget, like the time I was trying to take off from a 10.66G world with D-rated thrusters on my Anaconda, while coming home from Distant Worlds 2. All the exploration data I'd gathered flashed before my eyes. A member of chat had to walk away and lie down after tensely coaching me till I escaped.
I've also taken part in two charity streams, both based around playing Elite Dangerous. For the first I helped TheHoneyThief with his fundraising and for the second I flew solo as part of "TheConvergence" during GamesBlast19. Receiving thank-you cards from Special Effect on both occasions were proud moments of mine, and I would heartily recommend all streamers to do their bit for charity.
Those are wonderful memories, we're proud to have been a part of them! If you could give one piece of advice to every Commander, what would it be?
Try. Everything.
Some people get addicted to trading as a play-style (FOR THE MUG!) or become anti-xeno specialists. Some disappear off into the black and only occasionally reappear at stations wild-eyed and muttering “does anyone need data sold to help their BGS?” before vanishing again while others get involved in Powerplay. All of the above band together and lend a hand when there is an in-game emergency, like Thargoids trashing your home station whilst the bulk of your pilots are on Distant Worlds 2. There are plenty of playstyles in the game and plenty of communities setup around them. You can move around them as different things grab your interest- or you can remain a lone wolf, it's up to you. You can be as dedicated or casual a player as you want - the galaxy is certainly big enough for everyone.
Excellent advice! Are there any Commanders you'd like to shout out?
There are so many streamers making excellent content, so I try and steal (read: learn) ideas from all of them! I'd like to highlight the stream teams and communities I am a part of, namely Sovereignty Stream Team, Hammers of Slough and The Convergence. They're groups of fantastic streamers and have a wealth of knowledge between them for content creators, new and experienced. I'd also like to mention Lave Radio and Hutton Orbital! o7, Commanders.
Do you have any cool projects coming up?
Having successfully survived my third Fantasticon, I've been working on some of the devious plans hatched over glasses of mead and beer! In-game, our Squadron is currently ruminating over the name of our fleet carrier and what parts of the galaxy we can crash into with it. Current suggestions for a name include “The Inevitable Collision”, “BFNF Impact Crater” and “The Faffmobile” – there seems to be a bit of a theme there.
I'm also looking to hold another charity stream soon for Special Effect, and next year I'm going to try and go to as many conventions as possible, including my first Lavecon! I’m always looking for new projects and collaborations though, so I'm happy to receive suggestions from anyone.
We'll keep a look out for these projects! Where can people check you out online?
Twitch - 20:00 BST on Fridays and Sundays, and 12:00 BST on Saturdays
Twitter - For cat pictures and stream schedules
Discord - Carrumba#0095
In-game - 95thSquadron
Thank you Commander Carrumba! We'll see you out in the black.
If you're reading this and would like to be interviewed as a Featured Commander, apply here.
