Going to Colonia
- Thread starter Alec Turner
- Start date
now I am thirsty and hungry 
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Me too, and i've just had lunchno I am thirsty and hungry
Ozric
Volunteer Moderator
Those delicious sausage cuts won't get on that platter by themselves!
Day 19 - 05.01.3307
DORN AND DOVE DONE AND DUSTED
My main plan today is to get grade 5 engineering access with Etienne Dorn. I'm going to honour @Ian Doncaster's request tho' and do so by engineering a manifest scanner so the first thing I need to do is pick up one of those. It's while I'm researching this that I hear from @Marbat who's on his last few jumps and is about to arrive in the Tir system. I decide to head on over there, a) to check for any potential threats and b) so I can film his arrival.
Safely down I leave him to count his exploration earnings and head off to Colonia Dream in the Ratraii system to get that scanner. A misjudged drop from supercruise gives me an opportunity to photograph the coriolos station while it's still 100km away and provides a fresh perspective on its size and orientation relative to the planet.
Manifest scanner fitted I head back to Kraken's Retreat in the Los system (which is now sadly dark so riding that ridge will have to wait for another day) and soon enough have grade 5 access and a pinned lightweight life support blueprint (something only Etienne is able to provide).
Next on my list is Petra Olmanova for whom I'm going to need 200 Progenitor Cells. That's going to require a new ship I think so I head back to Colonia and decide to visit the Dove Enigma megaship while I'm here (location of one of the most wonderful moments of Elite community support when hundreds of Cmdrs rushed to repair the UA bombed megaship in time for Cmdr DoveEnigma13's arrival).
My actual destination in Colonia is the planetary port of Colonia Hub where I plan to buy a Type 7. When I get here tho' I can't help but notice that mountain behind it.
Yup, that's just begging to be climbed.
Considering how straightforward it looked from a distance I've never known a climb with so many false peaks. We make it in the end tho and there's a fantastic view of the landscape beyond from up here ..
.. and back the way I came you can just make out Colonia Hub down below.
Tomorrow we'll base jump back down there and get that T7.
DORN AND DOVE DONE AND DUSTED
My main plan today is to get grade 5 engineering access with Etienne Dorn. I'm going to honour @Ian Doncaster's request tho' and do so by engineering a manifest scanner so the first thing I need to do is pick up one of those. It's while I'm researching this that I hear from @Marbat who's on his last few jumps and is about to arrive in the Tir system. I decide to head on over there, a) to check for any potential threats and b) so I can film his arrival.
Safely down I leave him to count his exploration earnings and head off to Colonia Dream in the Ratraii system to get that scanner. A misjudged drop from supercruise gives me an opportunity to photograph the coriolos station while it's still 100km away and provides a fresh perspective on its size and orientation relative to the planet.
Manifest scanner fitted I head back to Kraken's Retreat in the Los system (which is now sadly dark so riding that ridge will have to wait for another day) and soon enough have grade 5 access and a pinned lightweight life support blueprint (something only Etienne is able to provide).
Next on my list is Petra Olmanova for whom I'm going to need 200 Progenitor Cells. That's going to require a new ship I think so I head back to Colonia and decide to visit the Dove Enigma megaship while I'm here (location of one of the most wonderful moments of Elite community support when hundreds of Cmdrs rushed to repair the UA bombed megaship in time for Cmdr DoveEnigma13's arrival).
My actual destination in Colonia is the planetary port of Colonia Hub where I plan to buy a Type 7. When I get here tho' I can't help but notice that mountain behind it.
Yup, that's just begging to be climbed.
Considering how straightforward it looked from a distance I've never known a climb with so many false peaks. We make it in the end tho and there's a fantastic view of the landscape beyond from up here ..
.. and back the way I came you can just make out Colonia Hub down below.
Tomorrow we'll base jump back down there and get that T7.
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Many thanks - engineering research has been progressing very rapidly up here recently, so my earlier list for the other engineers is now a bit out of date. Currently all we need now is:
Petra Olmanova: AFMU (only!)
Marsha Hicks: Fuel or Hatchbreaker Limpets
...we're very close to being fully complete, and great work by everyone who's come together to do this.
I think there's an old Tannik Seldon video of him using that mountain as a ramp to jump right over Colonia Hub.
Not the only base to have an impressive mountain nearby, either - if you can find time to check out The Bone Yard while you're up here, that's a particularly interesting example.
Welcome to the true frontier, Alec! Enjoy your stay, and be sure to steer clear of certain imperialist factions who tend to shoot on sight. Well, actually, no. They don't. They're too busy farming bounties on each other in PG for influence to ever dare venture out where people might shoot back.
I've thoroughly enjoyed your travelogue going out here, and I'd be honored to wing up with you and provide you with some escort as you tour the Nebula
I've thoroughly enjoyed your travelogue going out here, and I'd be honored to wing up with you and provide you with some escort as you tour the Nebula
Day 20 - 06.01.3307
PROGENITORS R US
The day starts back on top of that mountain and the view back down to Colonia Hub is even more spectacular today!
So, first order of business ... 3, 2, 1, GERONIMO!
Right, so today the aim is to take 200 Progenitor Cells to Petra Olmanova. In order to do that I buy a Type 7, tweak its outfitting a bit (including a somewhat inadequate power supply as we'll discover later), fill it with cargo racks and name it "Progenitors R Us".
One thing that strikes me about the Colonia region is that it's far less important to carry a Fuel Scoop as everything is so compact. Even in a Type 7 most places here are just two jumps away.
Next we buy 200 Progenitor Cells ..
.. and head off to Sanctuary in Asura. When I get there however the first thing that happens is I'm distraced by the presence of more notable stellar phenomena (there really are quite a lot of these dotted around the Colonia area, it's a fantastic place for the keen amateur photographer).
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah ... Sanctuary!
I'm slightly disappointed to discover that the Colonia Engineers appear not to have purpose built bases but instead simply reside inside standard issue planetary cities. Anyway, I give Petra her Progenitor Cells (and, might I add, not even a smirk about the name of my ship ... no sense of humour these engineers) ..
.. and then research where to buy an AFMU (which, according to @Ian Doncaster's instructions, is a helpful way to attain grade 5 access). It seems my next port of call is an outpost. Can you spot the deliberate mistake?
A short while (and a small amount of forehead slapping) later I'm on course for the Vera Rubin Complex in Garuda.
Has every single planetary base in the region been positioned at the foot of a tantalising mountain? I'm not going to get any work done here at this rate! I resist the temptation, fit an AMFU, wonder why my breathing seems louder, plot a course back to Petra's gaff and launch. Hang on, Oxygen what now?!?!
OK, I see what's happened. I've overloaded that crappy power supply and the Life Support has powered down.
I could just power down the AFMU and bring the life support back online. Or ... ... I could see if I can get to Sanctuary in 4 minutes and 53 seconds!
Ahh well ... nearly. I land back at Sanctuary and get Petra to engineer the troublesome AFMU until I have grade 5 access.
I think that just about wraps it up for today. Tomorrow I might go mining for Marsha Hicks or I might take a break from engineering and do a bit more sightseeing.
PROGENITORS R US
The day starts back on top of that mountain and the view back down to Colonia Hub is even more spectacular today!
So, first order of business ... 3, 2, 1, GERONIMO!
Right, so today the aim is to take 200 Progenitor Cells to Petra Olmanova. In order to do that I buy a Type 7, tweak its outfitting a bit (including a somewhat inadequate power supply as we'll discover later), fill it with cargo racks and name it "Progenitors R Us".
One thing that strikes me about the Colonia region is that it's far less important to carry a Fuel Scoop as everything is so compact. Even in a Type 7 most places here are just two jumps away.
Next we buy 200 Progenitor Cells ..
.. and head off to Sanctuary in Asura. When I get there however the first thing that happens is I'm distraced by the presence of more notable stellar phenomena (there really are quite a lot of these dotted around the Colonia area, it's a fantastic place for the keen amateur photographer).
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah ... Sanctuary!
I'm slightly disappointed to discover that the Colonia Engineers appear not to have purpose built bases but instead simply reside inside standard issue planetary cities. Anyway, I give Petra her Progenitor Cells (and, might I add, not even a smirk about the name of my ship ... no sense of humour these engineers) ..
.. and then research where to buy an AFMU (which, according to @Ian Doncaster's instructions, is a helpful way to attain grade 5 access). It seems my next port of call is an outpost. Can you spot the deliberate mistake?
A short while (and a small amount of forehead slapping) later I'm on course for the Vera Rubin Complex in Garuda.
Has every single planetary base in the region been positioned at the foot of a tantalising mountain? I'm not going to get any work done here at this rate! I resist the temptation, fit an AMFU, wonder why my breathing seems louder, plot a course back to Petra's gaff and launch. Hang on, Oxygen what now?!?!
OK, I see what's happened. I've overloaded that crappy power supply and the Life Support has powered down.
I could just power down the AFMU and bring the life support back online. Or ...
... I could see if I can get to Sanctuary in 4 minutes and 53 seconds!Ahh well ... nearly. I land back at Sanctuary and get Petra to engineer the troublesome AFMU until I have grade 5 access.
I think that just about wraps it up for today. Tomorrow I might go mining for Marsha Hicks or I might take a break from engineering and do a bit more sightseeing.
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Day 20 (addendum) - 06.01.3307
PLAYING THE ONE ARMED BUCKYBANDIT
I nearly forgot ... at some point I wound up at Jaques Cafe and wasted 20 minutes playing the one armed Buckybandit while I waited for two Buckyball holo-ads to come up side by side.
It never happened.
Gamble responsibly!
PLAYING THE ONE ARMED BUCKYBANDIT
I nearly forgot ... at some point I wound up at Jaques Cafe and wasted 20 minutes playing the one armed Buckybandit while I waited for two Buckyball holo-ads to come up side by side.
It never happened.
Gamble responsibly!
Down to 8% at one point! And one, doing over 250m/s I think, where I took almost no damage at all. Why can't they all be like that.The damage from some of those bounces
Just wanted to say, to all the folks who've posted here and mentioned they'd be happy to wing up for some random emergent Colonia based adventures ... feel free to shoot me a friend request in-game (Cmdr name is the same) and if we happen to be online at the same time then I'm definitely up for winging up and doing something. And just generally thanks for all the comments. In my interview on the Flight Assist podcast last year I spoke about the thing I enjoyed most in the game being "random emergent adventure" (or something like that). Well thus far I've had 20 consecutive days of it so I'm having an absolute blast. Knowing that people are enjoying following this is a massive added bonus. Thank you!
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Congratulations on your safe arrival in Colonia!
It's so tempting to just head for the neutron fields and jump for a few hours (or less), it was refreshing to see you make an adventure out of the journey o7
By coincidence, I also bought a T7 in Colonia for much the reason you did - I wanted a cheap large ship to go round the engineers. I've since turned it into a short range miner/hauler. I also keep a few ships out there for other purposes, so it's a home from home in some ways and the engineering is much easier now than it used to be. (I still haven't given Etienne Dorn his occupied escape pods, though!)
P.S. CMDR crotalus just set a new personal best time in the Colonia Trophy Dash (link in sig.), Unlimited mode. He used a Python I wouldn't say any ship is uncompetitive; it depends on your luck with obscured jumps and how you handle fast planetary approaches. Make sure you've sold all your exploration data before trying it out though - there are occasional casualties!
It's so tempting to just head for the neutron fields and jump for a few hours (or less), it was refreshing to see you make an adventure out of the journey o7
By coincidence, I also bought a T7 in Colonia for much the reason you did - I wanted a cheap large ship to go round the engineers. I've since turned it into a short range miner/hauler. I also keep a few ships out there for other purposes, so it's a home from home in some ways and the engineering is much easier now than it used to be. (I still haven't given Etienne Dorn his occupied escape pods, though!)
P.S. CMDR crotalus just set a new personal best time in the Colonia Trophy Dash (link in sig.), Unlimited mode. He used a Python
I wouldn't say any ship is uncompetitive; it depends on your luck with obscured jumps and how you handle fast planetary approaches. Make sure you've sold all your exploration data before trying it out though - there are occasional casualties!I often see comments about going to Colonia (not just in this thread) basically saying "don't bother, there's nothing there". This is entirely dependent on what you're looking for and indeed your attitude to the entire game. If you treat the game as a collection of unique assets and "interactives" (as designed and built by Frontier) to be collected and/or consumed as quickly and efficiently as possible then journeys are just obstacles between you and your goal and destinations are just further collections of assets to be consumed when you get there. There's only a finite number of these and ultimately you're going to be disappointed. In my own personal opinion this is a very limiting way to think about the game. The game's galaxy should be viewed as one giant simulated playground where nothing is essential (we don't HAVE to eat, drink, make money ... or even stay alive). It's a place where nearly everything can be beautiful and fun (if you enjoy the central premise of being a space pilot) and where journeys should be viewed as things to be savoured in their own right rather than simply something to be endured when getting from A to B. So thanks for the observation Edelgard. And to everyone I say - don't ever be tempted to NOT make an adventure out of the journey, there's opportunity at every turn.
P.S. save a place for me on the Colonia Trophy Dash scoreboard ... somewhere around the middle should do nicely!
Day 21 - 07.01.3307
TRIBUTES AND FINES
Bit of a leisurely day today as I decide to go and visit a few nearby landmarks. We start in the Colonia system where I'm immediately distracted by another notable stellar phenomena containing Viride Umbrella Molluscs.
Next it's a memorial to Cmdr Garak, sadly no longer with us.
I pay my respects to the fallen commander ..
.. and then pay my fines to the Jaques authorities who had the extreme bad taste to object to my tribute (it's not my fault they put the memorial right next to their station).
I hadn't actually realised that the memorial, tourist beacon, fleet carrier dock and station were all right next to each other here (I initially dropped on the beacon). While I'm here I grab a shot of a fleet carrier currently under construction. I wonder what function those four massive columns serve ... grain silos? or spare blasters for a massive dalek?
Next stop on this morning's tour is Kremmen's Respite in the Kioti 368 system. This station is owned by the Privateer's Alliance and is named in honour of @ElvisKremmen who made 15 runs out to Colonia and delivered 5397t during phase 2 of the Colonia community goal. You can hear Kremmen talking about this during his interview on the Flight Assist podcast.
Sadly it's pitch black here at the moment so I do little more than a spot of parkour purely for my own entertainment. Spot the SRV!
The final stop for today is The Bone Yard in Canis Subridens. This station is on my radar as another ground base with a fun nearby mountain to climb. What I hadn't expected is that the base is actually perched on its own plateau.
Again, the darkness here rather spoils any photo/video opportunities for today but I do investigate some possible activities for tomorrow and discover that the Smiling Dingo Crew are very sensitive about my ship being anywhere near their precious landing pads.
That's it for today. I'm gonna review my todo list later and see if I can be a bit more focused tomorrow.
TRIBUTES AND FINES
Bit of a leisurely day today as I decide to go and visit a few nearby landmarks. We start in the Colonia system where I'm immediately distracted by another notable stellar phenomena containing Viride Umbrella Molluscs.
Next it's a memorial to Cmdr Garak, sadly no longer with us.
I pay my respects to the fallen commander ..
.. and then pay my fines to the Jaques authorities who had the extreme bad taste to object to my tribute (it's not my fault they put the memorial right next to their station).
I hadn't actually realised that the memorial, tourist beacon, fleet carrier dock and station were all right next to each other here (I initially dropped on the beacon). While I'm here I grab a shot of a fleet carrier currently under construction. I wonder what function those four massive columns serve ... grain silos? or spare blasters for a massive dalek?
Next stop on this morning's tour is Kremmen's Respite in the Kioti 368 system. This station is owned by the Privateer's Alliance and is named in honour of @ElvisKremmen who made 15 runs out to Colonia and delivered 5397t during phase 2 of the Colonia community goal. You can hear Kremmen talking about this during his interview on the Flight Assist podcast.
Sadly it's pitch black here at the moment so I do little more than a spot of parkour purely for my own entertainment. Spot the SRV!
The final stop for today is The Bone Yard in Canis Subridens. This station is on my radar as another ground base with a fun nearby mountain to climb. What I hadn't expected is that the base is actually perched on its own plateau.
Again, the darkness here rather spoils any photo/video opportunities for today but I do investigate some possible activities for tomorrow and discover that the Smiling Dingo Crew are very sensitive about my ship being anywhere near their precious landing pads.
That's it for today. I'm gonna review my todo list later and see if I can be a bit more focused tomorrow.
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Day 22 - 08.01.3307
BONEYARD BOOGALOO
While I was fleshing out my todo list a bit last night a message popped up on Galnet about a new community goal based in Colonia. Not only that but it's focused around gathering data from some of the lifeforms found inside notable stellar phenomena. You'd think that would be right up my street. I drop into the mission board to find out more.
Unfortunately, on further investigation, it turns out the lifeforms involved are nowhere near Colonia and that this is more suited to playboy billionaires with access to a fleet carrier. I dismiss it as a tedious grind and go and look out of the window.
Well waddya know, daylight! And that means it's time to do the Boneyard Boogaloo! I limber up with a spot of SRV parkour that gets me onto the roof of the smaller building (spot the SRV).
Not bad but it's those central skyscrapers that I have my eye one. What I'd really like to do is see if I can get the SRV up here (circled) ..
The 1/3rd Earth gravity pretty much rules out simply driving straight up the vertical sides so it's time for plan B.
The view from up here is sensational! (spot the SRV)
I do have to come clean tho' ... it wasn't actually as easy as I made it look (it rarely is).
And now on to my second activity of the day. Looking at the location of The Boneyard in the daylight you can see that it sits on top of a really quite formidable peak, the steep upper sides of which are reminiscent of the "Devils Tower" that so haunted Roy Neary in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind back in 1977.
My plan is to start on top of the nearest peak and then use the speed and momentum I build up while descending it in order to climb back up to the Boneyard. Unfortunately there's nowhere to land on the top of that first peak so first we need to do a quick hill climb.
Right then, Boneyard here we come!
Errr, yeah - apologies, the 2nd half of that was nowehere near as entertaining as I'd hoped. In my mind I'd imagined building up so much speed that I'd jump clean over the top of the base in the galaxy's raddest ever "big air" snowboard jump (I already had all my grabs and spins planned out in my head). In practice I think I lost a lot of speed in that final bounce plus the sides of that peak are seriously steep.
Oh well ... all in all a very fun morning.
BONEYARD BOOGALOO
While I was fleshing out my todo list a bit last night a message popped up on Galnet about a new community goal based in Colonia. Not only that but it's focused around gathering data from some of the lifeforms found inside notable stellar phenomena. You'd think that would be right up my street. I drop into the mission board to find out more.
Unfortunately, on further investigation, it turns out the lifeforms involved are nowhere near Colonia and that this is more suited to playboy billionaires with access to a fleet carrier. I dismiss it as a tedious grind and go and look out of the window.
Well waddya know, daylight! And that means it's time to do the Boneyard Boogaloo! I limber up with a spot of SRV parkour that gets me onto the roof of the smaller building (spot the SRV).
Not bad but it's those central skyscrapers that I have my eye one. What I'd really like to do is see if I can get the SRV up here (circled) ..
The 1/3rd Earth gravity pretty much rules out simply driving straight up the vertical sides so it's time for plan B.
The view from up here is sensational! (spot the SRV)
I do have to come clean tho' ... it wasn't actually as easy as I made it look (it rarely is).
And now on to my second activity of the day. Looking at the location of The Boneyard in the daylight you can see that it sits on top of a really quite formidable peak, the steep upper sides of which are reminiscent of the "Devils Tower" that so haunted Roy Neary in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind back in 1977.
My plan is to start on top of the nearest peak and then use the speed and momentum I build up while descending it in order to climb back up to the Boneyard. Unfortunately there's nowhere to land on the top of that first peak so first we need to do a quick hill climb.
Right then, Boneyard here we come!
Errr, yeah - apologies, the 2nd half of that was nowehere near as entertaining as I'd hoped. In my mind I'd imagined building up so much speed that I'd jump clean over the top of the base in the galaxy's raddest ever "big air" snowboard jump (I already had all my grabs and spins planned out in my head). In practice I think I lost a lot of speed in that final bounce plus the sides of that peak are seriously steep.
Oh well ... all in all a very fun morning.
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