[Information] The Galactic Mapping Project & Expedition Hub

Erimus Kamzel · Feb 19, 2015

INTERNAL LINKS

Galactic Regions & Overview Map

The Expedition Hub

History of Beagle Point & Archived Maps

The Age of Pioneers

The Distant Worlds Expeditions

New Horizon & DSSV Distant Worlds

Colonia Connection Highway (external link)

ED Astrometrics (external link)

THE GALACTIC MAPPING PROJECT - IN ASSOCIATION WITH EDSM (LOGO LINK)

Logo by Qohen Leth
-

The Galactic Mapping Project is the oldest community project in Elite Dangerous - founded on February 19th 2015. Originally a labour of love for its founder during the first 16 months of its existence, the GMP maps and associated POI data collated up until that point, were migrated across to the EDSM platform, which launched on May 21st 2016. EDSM has hosted the project ever since.

Although the community naming of locations collated within this project are not officially recognised by Frontier, they have on occasions used some of the names submitted to the GMP, for certain points of interest, and implemented them into the game. These include;

Beagle Point, Rendezvous Point, Colonia, The Abyss, Sagittarrii Conflux, Orion-Perseus Conflux, Tenebrae/Tenebris, Hawking's Gap, The Norma Expanse, Macedonica's Leap, VonRictofen's Rescue, The Anaconda's Graveyard.

FDev are therefore receptive to adding certain community-named POIs to the in-game map and lore (if they become well-known locations), as such its highly recommended that when submitting POIs of your own to the GMP, you choose names that fit within the spirit of the gameworld and its setting - to give it a better chance of being considered as part of the official lore.

Video by Obsidian Ant

Polygon article about the GMP, by Charlie Hall (May 6th, 2019)

INTRODUCTION & ENTRY STIPULATIONS

Introduction :

This project was born out of the very early days of deep space exploration (early 3300), during the Age of Pioneers, when the first explorers began traveling far beyond human borders and out to the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Along the way these early pioneers discovered many diverse and interesting points of interest, created maps, and logged data of what they found out there.

Apart from our local region, the galaxy is filled with procedurally generated names that don't really inspire the imagination or do justice to some of the wondrous sites out there.

During my journeys across the Vela Molecular Ridge and to the far side of the galaxy in the early days of Elite Dangerous exploration, I created a few names for the places I've seen along the way and labeled them on the various maps I made - mainly as it was easier to use my own labels when describing some place I'd seen rather than the unusually long and uninspiring procedural names the game generates.

I thought other players could do the same and provided they can prove they were there (via a video or screenshot) they get to name that location for the community mapping project maps... as long as they choose a sensible name of course. Its all unofficial obviously, until FD start labelling things themselves when more content is added.

As an example, when I crossed the gap between the Norma arm and outer galactic core I labelled that area on the map, the "Norma Arm Expanse", as its a large 2,500 LY low star density gap between the far fringe of the Norma arm and beginning of the 3kpc arm. Its very distinctive on the galactic map, but has no description. I also passed through a core region nebula that was packed full of young stars that I called the Greae Phio Stellar Forge (after the region its located in). The galactic outer rim was so devoid of stars, nothing but inky blackness outside my window, it was like staring into an abyss... so I labelled it the "Abyss" on the maps I made.

Link: 65,000 LYs away.

I made a start, and hoped other deep space explorers would add their own flavour to it. When you discover something interesting, a point of interest, or a feature that deserves a far better description than a procedurally generated string, you could add it to the map. We could gradually build up a galactic overview of lots of points of interest that explorers can add to their 'must visit' list'. A sort of almanac... explorers guide to the galaxy.

Erimus Kamzel - 19th Feb. 2015

The guidelines are :

Candidate entries should be something unique or rare. This can be anything from statistical record breakers or visually spectacular locations to places of historical interest or with interesting stories behind them. A good rule of thumb is this: “Would another explorer be willing to travel thousands of LYs to visit this place?”
Your entry should be something you've visited personally. Please provide documentation of your visit in the form of screenshots or video. Any “glamour” image that you would like to see added to the map entry itself should preferably be resized to a with of 640 pixels.
Only choose names that fit within the spirit of the game. Please no silly phrases or POIs named after your commander. For ideas you can check out the real life astronomical naming conventions, or choose something completely different if you prefer - as long as it is sensible and not like this.
No renaming of real life places or FD named places. We are only replacing procedural names and not renaming catalogue stars like HD, HIP, etc.. However it is acceptable to submit an entry for a real-life astronomical object under its real name.
All submissions should be considered as player created fiction only. If FD rename any in-game POIs for whatever reason, the GMP will follow suit and rename entries to whatever FD do.
All submissions are treated in the chronological order they were submitted to this thread, regardless on whether the person submitting the entry has in-game 'tagged' it or not. Please bear in mind that the GMP team update entries and EDSM in their spare time so on the whole we will use this thread for the vast majority of entries. It is unpractical and too time-consuming to scour other threads for POI names explorers have made mention of.
Older POIs usually stay on the map even if the game evolves to make them less rare finds. One example of this is Jumponium-Rich systems. These used to require a lot of effort to find and verify, but new scanning mechanics have made it much easier and they are no longer considered rare. But to honor the hard work originally put into locating these, we are not removing the ones already on the map.
Added May 2020 : Exploration rarities and statistics - what to look for. A comprehensive guide by Heavy Johnson (GMP team member).

A minority of entries may not always conform to the guidelines that have been set out, as they are not strict rules to adhere to, but the GMP staff will use them to try and keep the integrity and ethos of the project on track wherever they deem necessary.

POI Catagories :

Most prominent POIs:

Historical Location - a place of particular interest in the history of exploration. Examples include extreme deep space meetings of explorers or the very first visits to very remote areas.
Mystery POI - locations tied to mystery and lore, like abandoned settlements, derelict generation ships or alien civilizations.
Deep Space Outpost - any starport outside the inhabited bubble.
Restricted Sectors - locked areas inaccessible to FSD travel.
Jumponium-Rich System - a system particularly rich in materials used for FSD synthesis. (NOTE: The GMP no longer accepts submissions of these).

Major features:

Star Cluster - any stellar cluster present in the game.
Nebula - any (non-planetary) nebula present in the game.
Regional Feature - any other remarkable phenomenon that covers more than a single star system.

Other places of interest:

Planetary Nebula - most planetary nebula do not qualify for inclusion. Planetary nebula need to be exceptionally interesting to be added to the GMP, due to the large number of them in the game. However, all PN's can be submitted to Marx's Catalogue of Galactic Nebulae as an alternative, linked here.
Pulsar - any system described as a pulsar or known to be a real world pulsar.
Black Hole - remarkable black hole or combination of black holes.
Stellar Features - remarkable star or combination of stars. Including remarkable stellar rings, Lagrange clouds and anomalies (see special note below).
Planetary Features - remarkable planet or system composition. Including remarkable planetary rings.
Topographical Features - remarkable surface features like canyons or mountains.
Organic POI - remarkable organic finds in remarkable locations (see special note below).
Geological POI - remarkable geological finds in remarkable locations (see special note below).
Archived POI - these are older entries that may not hold the interest or relevance they may once have, often due to the bar being raised when new content is added (Odyssey being a prime example). The GMP team periodically review POIs and will archive ones they feel no longer hold the relevance they once did.

Special note on Codex POIs :

There are probably thousands upon thousands of Codex POIs out there and for the map we only want those few that truly stand out. Before you submit a Codex POI to the mapping project, remember the golden rule: “Would another explorer be willing to travel thousands of LYs to visit this place?”. Examples of stuff we WOULD be interested in could be highly unusual combinations like a Lagrange cloud with space lightning near a ringed ELW, or a system where nearly every type of anomaly can be found, or a planet with an extremely high number of biological POIs, etc.

Important! Submitting Points of Interest:

Please use the following convention when submitting an entry (and in this order)..

Name:	(Name of your entry after checking the naming stipulations mentioned above)
Game map search ref:	(Provide the exact procedural name of the POI you discovered - if its a nebula choose a system within the nebula to act as its reference location)
Description:	(Write a short description of what you found)
Screenshot reference:	(Provide the post # or link of where your screenshot or video of your POI can be found - it is a big help if you provide the image resized or cropped to a with of 640 pixels. If this is not possible for you just submit the image anyways and we will do it for you. But it does save us a lot of time if you have done it yourself)

THE MAPPING TEAM

	Project Founder & Custodian (February 19th 2015 - Present) Original region and POI data collation and entry. Original 2d Map creation, regional labeling and text descriptions. Regional border defining and mapping. Localized mapping & POI data entry.
	Custodian (21st May 2016 - Present) High-def map production (with Finwen EDDiscovery). Regional border defining and mapping. Localized mapping & POI data entry. EDSM regional screenshot incorporation.
	Custodian (21st May 2016 - Present) EDSM programming and galactic map incorporation. Regional polygon creation in EDSM for the borders defined by Erimus Kamzel & Corbin Moran.
	Former Custodian (21st May 2016 - 2nd February 2021) Localized mapping & POI data entry.
	Custodian (24th May 2017 - Present) Localized mapping & POI data entry.
	Former Custodian (27th February 2018 - 2nd February 2021) Localized mapping & POI data entry.
	Custodian (7th May 2020 - Present) Localized mapping & POI data entry.
	Custodian (2nd February 2021 - Present) Localized mapping & POI data entry.
	Custodian (2nd February 2021 - Present) Localized mapping & POI data entry.

MAPPING PROJECT CONTRIBUTORS

A
AbsolutePK, Absolver, A. C. Dobro VI, Adeezha, Admiral Spoon, Agony_Aunt, Aiki_Zvezda, Akira Masakari, Akurei, Alac, Alec Turner, Alesia , AlexBrentnall, Alex Swindler, Alex Traut, Alistair Hope, Alkibiades, Allitnil, AlkholHardin, Ancient King, Andete, Andrew Gaspurr, Andrew Marcus, AndyBoom, AndyMJ, AnthorNet, Anuranium, Axonteer, ArachAu, Archaicjinn, Archvillain, Argon, Arkkan, Artemis quinn, Asayanami, Asdon, Astirian, Aterfax, Athrael Emathors, Atreyeu, Áurum, Azraphael

B
Babaa Yaga, Bafaut, Bakerloo, Barefoot Bandit, Baroness Galaxy, BastiWandeR, Bathuzad, Baton, Baxder, Becquerel, Bendurion, Bigmaec, BigZiggyHD, Billy Chase, BL1P, BlackMirror, Bluebottle, Bjorna, bobrodobro, BradHann, Bravada Cadelanne, Byped

C
Caedus, Captain Redeye, Chankk Saotome, Chessi, Chob, Chronverge, Chrystoph, Ciel Noir, CJPilot, CMDR Bartizan, CMDR DasExorcist, CMDR_Fru, CMDRGURU951, Cmdr Joe 2016, CMDRLeesti, CMDR Legomayhem, CMDR Mechia, CMDR Pitou, CMDR Robb Macruz, CMDR RogueJP, Cmdr ST4R F0X, Cmdr Tornadopelt, Coldglider, Commander Alesia, Conal Cuan, Corbin Moran, Coryphaeus, Coslnay, Coyote, Crassus, Crel00, Cula-Ta

D
Daemon Black, Dakeyras, Dalgin, Dandak, Dante Chusuk, dape, Darker than Black, DartBatiatus, David Bowman, Deadfight, Deathbane, Derthek, DeVice Null, Dobbo, Dinochrome, Diostar50, DocteurGui, Domaq, Dominic Hyde, Dommarraa, Dpjon, Draco, Draco84oz, Dragoon0123, Drake McCoy, Dr.Digital, Dread-Fox, Drew Wagar, drkaii, DrNoesis, Drownerfood, Dunadin, DVHeld, Dyse

E
Eahlstan, Edamski, EddyRockSteady, Edelgard von Rhein, edgar, edgepixel, Edmund Black, Eisen, EfilOne, El-Thorgrin, empyrean190, Enigmatic, EoD, Erimus, Ericbol0703, Esvandiary, EtherealCereal, Evil Ed, Evoflash, excalibus

F
Falconfly, Ferdan, Ferris, Finwen, FloatingGhost, floc, Flyinspaghetti, foobaron76, Frang, Frankymole, Frawd Digger, Frontier Guest 0195570, Fuchsov, Fuci, FurioMan, Fyrzo, FilmExile

G
Galaban, Gastone, Gazatronic, Gerakis, GerUA, Gibbonici, Giieko, Gombari Noah, graafje, Grebenkov, Gregg Rulz ok, GregMalcolm, Greytest, Griffin, Guy De Lombard, GuyWithoutAPie

H
Hanekura Shizuka, HansMeiser, Han Zulu, HappySpaceInvr, Harper Lewis, Hawkflight, Hathor86, HazardousMatt, Heavy Johnson, Hedy, Henkka77, HEIFEHEN, Herzbube, Highwaywarrior, Histarium, Holint

I
iain666, Ian Dane, ibanix, IDragox, Idronan, IncoherentOrange, iospace, Iridium Nova, Iron Body, Iron Orchid, ishmair, italktowalls, Itznya Akkadia

J
Jackie Silver, Jak, Jaredd, Jason Thorpe, Jav Marlo, Jeff God of Biscuits, jenos, Jerek, Jermus, Jimbo Lazy, JKB, Joghiarius, Jonas Treesong, JonathanBurnage, Jorki Rasalas, jusaari11

K
Kalie Lennox, Kancro Vantas, Karaya1, Karla, kastia, Katejina, Kazahnn Drahnn, kccummings3, Kelanen Alcatraz, Kennzo, Kensei, Kerenn, khaos526, Kieffer, killosopher, Kiultoll, Kola2, KOLUMBUS, Konnivar, Kr1spy, Kray, Krikemaric, Kurama 1100, KvaNTy, Ky Vatta

L
Lance 'Spacecat' D, Lapsang Twobob, Largo Ormand, LCU No Fool Like One, Leifur Eiriksson, Leif_Erikson, Lhynn, LivewareCascade, LoboEstelar, Logan Darklighter, LordFedora, Lord Tyvin, LtOBrien, Lucco, LuckyLuigi, Lurker, Lyneira, Lyrae Cursorius

M
MacrosTheBlack, Mad Billy, Mad-Max, Madraptor, Makrone, Malcotch, malenfant, Mai404, Maia Posideina, Major Klutz, Manae, Maolagin, Maro-Val, marx, Markzx59, Marlon Blake, Martín Afonso, Matt Kowalsky, MatYNWA, McBeathan, Mehdic, Mengy, Michael Darkmoor, mienamoo, Mikayé, Mike 'Ziggy' Lucas, Mist0, Mithrasyn, Mindwipe, mjmw, MNarath, Molan Ryke, Montague Druitt, Mooing, Moonrays, moose1036, mossfoot, mtt9999, MudAlfons, Murishani, Murf, Myshka

N
NCC71201, Neil Trayce, Nemaroth, Nexolek, NicoOlvia, Nik Fury, Nightstrider, Nijelu, Nstor, Nolanus Raven, Numida

O
Odengard, OhPif, Okopok, Olfart, Olivia Vespera, Orphius, Osser, Orvidius, Over, overlow, Ozric

P
Palkkipantteri, Panpiper, Pate, Peandreo, PGleesonuk, Phers, phxhawke, Picker, Pilot Mark, Pilot Pirx, Pinda Gupta, Pirin, Piso deUorrior, Pitsligo, Pnyx, Poseidal, Psypher, Psynergy, P4wel

Q
Qohen Leth, QuixoticKoala

R
rampart, Ranaulf, Reise Lang, Rise Kraven, robess, roboteconomist, Rocangus, RolloTreadway, Roqinn, roryclague, Rudi Raumkraut, Robert Macleod, Rogue Roxy

S
Saii, Sakrem, SanCo, Saool, Sapyx, Satsuma, Scal, Sclams, scorpiojoe, Scytale, Seamus Harper, Sepster, Setaou, shadmar, Sharkbiscuit, Shanaeri, Shiftycircle, shreddog, shx, silvermistshadow, Silvershadow, silversheen, Simon Darkstep, SirKiwi, SKafre, Sky Captain, sleoj, SonicXRox, Souvarine, SpaceMonkeyz, Spiderkeegan, Spid3r, SpocksOddSocks, Squid509, Star_Crusider, Starfield, Starlanced, Starry, Steven BinghamSteyla, Stivl Writh, Straha Yeagar, strapkass, Stulli, Sunny v. Isegrim , Surefoot, Surly_Badger, Svenno, Swift Arrow,

T
tachyondecay, Taen, Tango1Down, Terrabla'e, Thalkran, Tharrn, Thatchinho, The Doc, thestyx, TheTick, Thewanderer, ThorCoolguy, thundernuns, Thrawn29, Threeofseven, tired_man, Tom X, Tornadopelt, Traveler, Traveller_GG, Trevor Goodchild, Tromador, Troopi, Tubby, Tumama, Turjan, turkwinif, TwoFingers, Tychu9, Tyy’sun Eson

U
Ultimus, UrbanOrange

V
Varonica, Vasious, Vekt Ey'doom, Ventri, vetal_l, Viva la Ben, Vovva The Bluehaired, Vulcan

W
Waylander Sagan, Wargrum, WesULVD, Wesley Bilby, Weylandt, Wheelybob, Whiterose, Whitmann, Winna, winston, who?, Whoamus, Woodenhorsė

X
Xandermud, Xenia_K, XFightingFalconX, XhaleR, Xin-Ai, xNathRulez22, Xydhroz

Y
Yanick

Z
Zaph Nova, Zenika, Zenith Ddraiglas, Zer0axis, Ziggy Stardust, Zil Zalo, Zinnsei, Zion Ravescene, Zulu Romeo, Zweistein000

#
59thLefty

Special thanks to the Rock Rats, CoR, Canonn, and FGE.

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Erimus Kamzel · Feb 19, 2015

GMP GALACTIC REGIONS

The regional maps have been a work in progress since the mapping project began back in February 3301. Little by little, as explorers and pioneers traversed the depths of space, they submitted data of their travels to the mapping project to help gradually build up a picture of the galaxy, and over time these player-submitted regions were pieced together.

There are now almost 60 player named regions plus 9 major galactic arms all mapped out and presented on a high definition map for explorers, chroniclers, and storytellers to use in their journey through the gameworld.

Please note that from the outset this project was community driven and the maps, regions, and points of interest they contains, are not officially sanctioned names by Frontier Development... although some have become adopted by FDev over time. Most notably among these are Beagle Point, Colonia, Rendezvous Point, and Hawking's Gap (all four named by Erimus Kamzel) and the Sagittarrii Conflux (named by Corbin Moran) - with the latter two being player-named regions that became part of the official lore via the book Elite: Premonition.

When the Codex regions were added to the game, and following a huge show of support on the exploration forum, FDev also included the player named GMP regions of The Abyss, The Norma Expanse, Tenebrae/Tenebris and the Orion-Perseus Conflux.

With the introduction of the Codex in late 2018, Frontier Developments decided to add a regional overlay to the in-game map, and chose their own region names when doing so. Thus the majority of GMP region names have become obsolete, but they will remain on the community-made map indefinitely.

They are listed here for archival purposes;

The Abyss	The Orion Complex
The Abyssal Plain	Orio-Perseus Gap
Angustia	The Orion Spur
The Anthor Patch	The Orion Spur Shallows
The Ascendance	The Outer Arm Rift
The Bleak Lands	The Outer Arm Vacuus
Boreas	The Perseus Crags
Centaurus Reach	The Perseus Fade
Circinus Transit	The Perseus Transit
Colonia	Perseus Stem
The Dryman Ridge	Sagittarius Gap
Eastern Neutron Fields	The Scar
Eurus	Scutum-Sagittarii Conflux
Exteriores Australis	Silentium
The Fallows	The Sidereal Wall
The Festival Grounds	The Solitude Void
The Formidine Rift	Styx
Galactic Aphelion	Tenebris
The Gallipolis	The Torment
Hawking's Gap	The Tyros Ridge
Hipparcos Basin	The Vela Molecular Ridge
Hyponia	Vela Ultima Complex
Ishtar	Via Maris
Lin-Shu Hollow	Viatori Patuit
Mare Desperationis	Wagar's Reach
Masefield's Ocean	Watkuweis
The Norma Expanse	The Wayfarers Graveyard
Nyauthai Ripple	Western Neutron Fields
Orio-Perseus Conflux	Zephyrus

COMMUNITY NAMED REGIONS

From January 3301 to January 3303, the following deep space explorers visited and named the above regions on behalf of the Galactic Mapping Project...

The Abyss - Erimus Kamzel
The Abyssal Plain - DrNoesis
Angustia - Drew Wagar
The Anthor Patch - Erimus Kamzel
The Ascendance - Corbin Moran
The Bleak Lands - Erimus Kamzel
Boreas - Erimus Kamzel
Centaurus Reach - Corbin Moran
Circinus Transit - Corbin Moran
Colonia - Diostar50 & Erimus Kamzel
The Dryman Ridge - Erimus Kamzel
Eastern Neutron Fields - Kancro Vantas
Eurus - Erimus Kamzel
Exteriores Australis - Allitnil
The Fallows - Erimus Kamzel
The Festival Grounds - Edelgard von Rhein
The Formidine Rift - Drew Wagar
Galactic Aphelion - Erimus Kamzel
The Gallipolis - Erimus Kamzel
Hawking's Gap - Erimus Kamzel
Hipparcos Basin - Corbin Moran
Hyponia - Frontier Developments
Ishtar - Corbin Moran
Lin-Shu Hollow - Andrew Gaspurr
Mare Desperationis - Erimus Kamzel
Masefield's Ocean - Andrew Gaspurr
The Norma Expanse - Erimus Kamzel
Nyauthai Ripple - Andrew Gaspurr
Orio-Perseus Conflux - Corbin Moran
The Orion Complex - Andrew Gaspurr
Orio-Perseus Gap - Erimus Kamzel
The Orion Spur - Real Life Region
The Orion Spur Shallows - Murishani
The Outer Arm Rift - Erimus Kamzel
The Outer Arm Vacuus - Erimus Kamzel
The Perseus Crags - Corbin Moran
The Perseus Fade - Akira Masakari
The Perseus Transit - Real Life Region
Perseus Stem - Erimus Kamzel
Sagittarius Gap - Erimus Kamzel
The Scar - Erimus Kamzel
Scutum-Sagittarii Conflux - Corbin Moran
The Sidereal Wall - Erimus Kamzel
Silentium - Erimus Kamzel
The Solitude Void - Erimus Kamzel
Styx - Corbin Moran
Tenebris - Erimus Kamzel
The Torment - Akira Masakari
The Tyros Ridge - Erimus Kamzel
The Vela Molecular Ridge - Real Life Region
Vela Ultima Complex - Andrew Gaspurr
Via Maris - Erimus Kamzel
Viatori Patuit - Erimus Kamzel
Wagar's Reach - Erimus Kamzel
Watkuweis - Erimus Kamzel
The Wayfarers Graveyard - Erimus Kamzel
Western Neutron Fields - Kancro Vantas
Zephyrus - Erimus Kamzel

GALACTIC OVERVIEW MAP
The overview map poster can be downloaded :Here

- overview map courtesy of Corbin Moran

Erimus Kamzel · Feb 19, 2015

A place dedicated to archiving the history of major expeditionary events.

"Home is behind, the world ahead. And there are many paths to tread. Through shadows to the edge of the night, until the stars are all alight. Mist and twilight, cloud and shade. Away shall fade! Away shall fade!" - Tolkien

THE EARLY ADVENTURERS

DATE	THE EARLY ADVENTURERS - AN AGE OF PIONEERS	INFO
MAR 3300 - AUG 3301	A HISTORY OF EARLY EXPLORATION, EXPEDITIONS, AND ACHIEVEMENTS	LINK

PIONEERING EXPEDITIONS

DATE	EXPEDITION	COMMANDER / GROUP	INFO
DEC 3300	1ST JOURNEY TO SAGITTARIUS A*	CMDR Zulu Romeo	~~LINK~~
DEC 3300 - JAN 3301	★ 1ST RECORDED GALACTIC CROSSING (DISTANT SUNS EXPEDITION)	CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel	LINK
MAR 3301	THE FORMIDINE RIFT LOCATION SURVEY	Children of Raxxla Founders	LINK
APR 3301 - JUN 3301	1ST RECORDED GALACTIC CIRCUMNAVIGATION	CMDR Turamber	~~LINK~~
MAY 3301 - NOV 3301	2ND RECORDED GALACTIC CIRCUMNAVIGATION	CMDR Katejina	~~LINK~~
MAY 3301 - JUL 3301	1ST ATTEMPT TO MEASURE THE GALACTIC LIMITS	CMDR Allitnil	~~LINK~~
SEP 3301 - FEB 3303	1ST RECORDED GALACTIC OUTER RIM CIRCUMNAVIGATION	CMDR Cruento Mucrone	LINK
MAY 3302	TRANS-POLAR BEAGLE POINT II EXPEDITION (1ST SURFACE MAPPING ATTEMPT)	CMDR Felix Macedonica	~~LINK~~
JAN 3302 - MAY 3302	3RD RECORDED GALACTIC CIRCUMNAVIGATION	CMDR Chiggy Vonrictofen	LINK
JAN 3302 - JUN 3302	THE CARDINAL POINT MISSION (BASED ON SAG-A*)	CMDR Duckfather	LINK
JAN 3302 - JUL 3302	THE CARDINAL POINT MISSION (BASED ON SOL)	CMDR Arnoldo	LINK
SEP 3302	1ST RECORDED PLANETARY CIRCUMNAVIGATION	CMDR Tannik Seldon	LINK
OCT 3304 - NOV 3304	1ST SIDEWINDER TO REACH SEMOTUS BEACON	CMDR R4nger0	LINK
MAR 3305	1ST RECORDED MASS PLANETARY CIRCUMNAVIGATION EXPEDITION (20+ COMPLETIONS)	The Planetary Circumnavigation Club	LINK

★ Expedition in association with the Galactic Mapping Project.

INSPIRATIONAL JOURNALS

NOV 3306 - FEB 3307

GOING TO COLONIA

ALEC TURNER

LINK

ELITE'S LARGEST EXPEDITIONS
350 or more participants

RANK	EXPEDITION	PRIMARY MISSION GOALS	CMDR's	ORGANIZERS	LAUNCHED	INFO
1	★ DISTANT WORLDS 3305 EXPEDITION	EXPLORATION & STARPORT CONSTRUCTION	13,625	DW TEAM	JAN 3305	LINK
2	★ DISTANT WORLDS 3302 EXPEDITION	GALACTIC HIGHWAY MAPPING	1,153	ERIMUS KAMZEL / DR KAII / FLEETCOMM ADMIN	JAN 3302	LINK
3	APOLLO 50TH ANNIVERSARY	EXPLORATION	670	YANICK	JUL 3305	LINK
4	ENIGMA EXPEDITION	EXPLORATION	611	GREYTEST	JAN 3304	LINK
5	★ AUGUST EXODUS - A JAUNT TO JAQUES	COLONIZATION EVENT	562	TREESONG / UNREALIZATION / ERIMUS KAMZEL	JUL 3302	LINK
6	THE BEAGLE POINT EXPEDITION	EXPLORATION	500	KING INF3RNO / WISHBLEND	JAN 3304	LINK
7	CHRISTMAS CARRIERS CONVOY	COLONIZATION EVENT	493	CCN	DEC 3302	LINK
8	CRAB NEBULA EXPEDITION	EXPLORATION	485	SHIRALI	JUN 3302	~~LINK~~
9	PERSEUS REACH EXPEDITION	EXPLORATION	448	DR. NAGI	FEB 3306	LINK
10	ELITE DANGEROUS LORE TOUR	LORE TOUR	365	DREW WAGAR	APR 3306	LINK
11	★ DISTANT STARS UNKNOWN ORIGINS	EXPLORATION	364	ERIMUS KAMZEL / DR KAII	JAN 3303	LINK
12	STELLAR UNKNOWN EXPEDITION	EXPLORATION	362	ELTAMIN & SCALEIOS	SEP 3305	~~LINK~~
13	FORMIDINE RIFT EXPEDITION	DISCOVERY	355	CHILDREN OF RAXXLA	AUG 3302	LINK

★ Expedition in association with the Galactic Mapping Project.

Update: April 2019 - Unfortunately some of the very early posts that chronicled the early pioneering journeys have been lost during the Frontier forums update of March 28th 2019. If anyone can find them, please let me know. I've added a strike-through for those that are now broken links.

LINK : HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF ALL EDSM REGISTERED EXPEDITIONARY EVENTS

A VISUAL HISTORY - BY QOHEN LETH

Erimus Kamzel · Feb 19, 2015

The History of Beagle Point

THE HISTORY OF BEAGLE POINT

The History of Beagle Point : Part 1 - Distant Suns

Ceeckia ZQ-L C24-0 was an unremarkable star system out on the the fringe of the galactic rim, 65,279 Light Years from Sol. Just one star system among 400 billion.

In December 3300, an Asp Explorer departed frontier borders and headed out into the galaxy. Its mission was to test the endurance, wear and tear, and range of the recently released explorer-class starship, document all its discoveries along the way, and look for sentient life within the Galactic Aphelion regions, specifically around the Praei Sector.

The ship, designated Deep Space Surveyor 'Beagle', was stripped down to its bare bones to squeeze as much jump range out of it as possible. Mainly D-Class modules were fitted along with an A-class FSD and C6 Fuel Scoop, overall maximum jump range was around 35 light years - which was considered high-end before the Jumponium and Engineering era. No heatsink was fitted as at the time the dangers of hyperspacing into close binary pairs was unknown and would only become apparent several weeks later. The early prototype NavCom of the day would only plot at maximum of 100 light years at a time, and even that often malfunctioned. There were many unknowns about deep space exploration during this early period of expansion, foreknowledge we take for granted today on how exploration works, what the do's and don'ts are... all of this was in its infancy.

On December 16th 3300 the Distant Suns expedition began with the first tentative steps out in to the galaxy, taking in a visit to the Coalsack and HR 4747. After a brief visit to these frontier neighbors, the DSS Beagle crossed the Sagittarius Gap and visited the Lagoon Nebula. A few days later the starship passed through the NGC 6357 nebula and explored some of the Pismis Star Cluster embedded within.

Three days after departure, Beagle had crossed the Norma Expanse, entered the outer galactic core, and discovered the Grea Phio Stellar Forge. A vid-log transmission of the Forge was transmitted back to human space and made its way into certain publications at the time.

Due to technical difficulties of the prototype NavCom and early route plotter, headway through the galactic core toward Sagittarius A* was slow going, with large detours around 'broken sectors' to navigate a major problem at the time. Finally on January 9th 3301, the Beagle reached Sagittarius A* and became the second known starship to do so, following CMDR Zulu Romeo's trip there a few weeks earlier.

After 4 days of exploring Sag-A* and its nearby systems, the DSS Beagle began the first ever known trip beyond the supermassive black hole, and headed across the far core regions.

On January 16th 3301 the galactic core had been successfully navigated with the Beagle emerging on the far side of the Perseus Stem. Route plotting across the uncharted Galactic Aphelion regions now began and two days later the Beagle reached the mysterious Praei sector within the Aphelion but was unable to enter due to constant NavLoc failure. It took several hours for the ship to skirt around this permit locked sector, during which the ship suffered major hull damage when becoming wedged in the inferno after hyperspacing into a red giant binary pair. The starship was stripped of 30% hull in seconds, and with no heat sink fitted, it was a close call.

After exhausting its AFMU making repairs, and finally plotting a route out across the Scutum-Centaurus arm around the Praei Sector, the Beagle headed out to the far galactic rim.

By mid-January 3301, the starship had reached the edge of the galactic arm and attempted to cross a foreboding inter-am gap that looked so devoid of stars it felt like staring into an Abyss. Indeed, the DSS Beagle had reached one of the most difficult to cross regions in the known galaxy - a region that subsequently became known as the Abyss. At this point the unreliable 100 LY route plotter began to fail, and manual plotting - one system at a time - became the only way to make headway.

Beagle's first attempt at crossing the inhospitable region ended in failure as approximately 500 Lights Years into the void no more systems in the ships' range could be located. At this point Beagle was forced to turn back and carefully retrace its route back into the denser sectors of the Scutum-Centaurus arm.

A few days later Beagle had traveled approximately 8,000 light years along the outer edge of the Scutum arm, looking for a denser ridge of stars across the Abyss through which to make a second attempt. Eventually that ridge was located, and within 24 hours DSS Beagle had made the first known crossing of the Abyss and had entered the fading edge of the far outer arm.

Through 8,000 light years of ever more diffusely spread star systems that became known as the Solitude Void, the Beagle edged its way out to the Ceeckia sector in attempt to locate the most distant star that technology of the day would allow.

Finally Ceeckia ZQ-LC24-0 was in sight, and after a few hours of looking for more distant systems, this proved to be the end of the line for the DSS Beagle and the Distant Suns expedition. A vidoelog was beamed back to civilized space which was picked up by Federation listening posts along the frontier, and relayed on to several news networks. GalNet news articles and a live news bulletin announced the successful conclusion of the Distant Suns Expedition.

The wealth of videoblogs and discovery data the DSS Beagle gathered along the way became the early POI submissions and thus the foundation of the Galactic Mapping Project.

The History of Beagle Point : Part 2 - The 65,000 LY Rendezvous.

Over the following months, Ceeckia ZQ-LC24-0 earned the nickname 'Beagle Point', and the system became a popular place to visit for explorers who had subsequently made it out to the far rim conducting their own survey missions of the region.

In June 3301 CMDRs Barefoot Bandit, Stulli and Allitnil held a historic gathering at over 65,000 LYs from Sol, and just several light years from Beagle Point.

The History of Beagle Point : Part 3 - Distant Worlds 3302.

One year after the DSS Beagle's galactic crossing, the Distant Worlds Expedition was launched. The mission goal was to roughly retrace the Beagle's route, and also map out the first galactic highway across the galaxy.

Over 1,200 pilots from all corners of human space banded together and formed the largest fleet of that era. The 3 month expedition began at Pallaeni on January 14th 3302. Along the way the expedition conducted extensive exploration and prospecting of many major POI's that had been catalogued within the Galactic Mapping Project.

Beagle Point became the focal point and the final expedition basecamp, Darwin's Legacy, was situated on Planet 2 of the system. By early April 3302 over 500 of the initial 1,200 pilots has successfully made it to this once unremarkable star system at the edge of known space.

On May 26th 3302 Universal Cartographics (Frontier Developments) officially renamed Ceeckia ZQ-LC24-0 to 'Beagle Point' in recognition of the systems historical background.

The History of Beagle Point : Part 4 - The Mystery of Jaques Starport.

In recognition of the Distant Worlds fleets successful conclusion to their expedition, Jaques the Cyborg and owner of the galaxies only roaming Orbis Starport, announced his intention to hyperjump the starport to Beagle Point (GalNet). In late May of 3302 thousands of pilots had rallied to Jaques cause and had delivered over 1 million tonnes of Hydrogen fuel to the starport - the fuel needed to attempt the jump. A few days later Jaques plotted the route, initiated the hyperjump, but unfortunately due to navigational failures the initial jump failed.

Rumors of a NavCom failure have hinted that the Orbis Starport made it to Beagle Point but impacted on the surface of one of its worlds, where it remains undiscovered to this day. In early June 3302 the last remnants of the Distant Worlds fleet still at Beagle Point conducted a search of Darwin's Legacy, covering approximately 20,000 square kilometers of the terrain around the basecamp, but no trace of the starport was found at the time.

Update : In late June 3302 Jaques was discovered by CMDR Cly who noticed an anomaly on the galactic map at the procedural system of EOL PROU RS-T D3-94, some 22,000 LYs from Sol and situated on the western edge of the galactic core. Further investigation proved it to be the system in which Jaques ended up - over 46,000 Light Years short of its intended destination, Beagle Point.

Mapping Beagle Point - an initiative by Olivia Vespera.

Link : Here

THE ARCHIVES - OLD MAPS AND DATA (PRE-EDSM ERA)

Map Symbols :

η - Historical Location
α - Nebula
β - Planetary Nebula
σ - Star Cluster
ξ - Pulsar
∇ - Beacon
δ - Black Hole
λ - Restricted Sectors
✴ - Stellar POI
∅ - Planetary POI
Θ - Surface POI
☢ - Jumponium-Rich System
☄ - Cometary Body (turned off until needed)
★ - Minor POI (turned off by default)
⚑ - Region

Link: Imgur archive - original GMP maps circa 2015 (pre-EDSM era).

SAPYX'S GALACTIC OUTBACK GAZETTEER - courtesy of CMDR Sapyx

"After my two month long (and occasionally interrupted) grand tour of the Outback, here are the results of my surveying. This is, as near as I can tell, a complete list of inhabited star systems situated outside the Bubble. There are 17 systems in total. I looked all over the forum and as far as I know, no-one else has compiled all this information in one easy-to-find place. If it's not complete, please let me know and I will update the list - and yes, I know I haven't added the new station in Maia yet. The systems are listed in alphanumeric order.

The system descriptions are partly based on established Elite lore, partly on Galnet and other "official" ED news sources, and partly on my own bizarre imagination. As with all fan-based lore, it is open to re-interpretation, cancellation and revokation at any time". - CMDR Sapyx (November 3301).

CMDR Sapyx has kindly given permission to include his Gazetteer within the Galactic Mapping Project.

Original thread : Here

17 Draconis

Galactic co-ordinates: -306 272 50
Distance from Sol: 412 LY
System government: Confederacy Federation
Default map status: Explored
Starports: 1
Paradiso Outpost Service Confederacy Federation

[This system is something of an anomaly, being created to show off aspects of the game for a tech show demonstration in 2014. I suppose one could write up a "lore" reason for its existence. I had something like the following in mind.]

Eccentric holovid director Jeb Danishman was a stickler for detail. When nitpickers pointed out that the "far flung Seronetta system" featured in his 3181 blockbuster "Distant Suns" trilogy was actually and obviously the Altair system, he took it personally. So for his next planned trilogy, "The Farthest Stars", he decided to spare no expense and set out to build his very own star system, out in deep space, to use as a film set. Universal Cartographics was of tremendous help, pointing out that the best star system that fitted his criteria (remote, uninhabited Earth-like planet with a unique and distinctive star-system layout) was 17 Draconis, with an Earth-like in orbit around a gas giant in a triple-sun system.

Filming began in 3187, after a five-month-long voyage using old-style hyperdrives. Of course, the actors and crew needed a real-live space station to cater to their whims in between takes, as well as a space station to use as a scenic backdrop, so one was hastily built and shipped out. Filming took seven years, during which time the system also played host to tourist liners full of holovid fans hoping for a glimpse of their favourite stars. Unfortunately, "The Farthest Stars" failed to live up to the hype and made a substantial loss, ruining Danishman's reputation in the process. The film set was abandoned with Federation-backed administrators taking control, providing a skeleton crew to look after the occasional tourist cruiser that still made it out this far.

Over a hundred years later, the situation has changed very little. Visitors to 17 Draconis should be aware that, although Paradiso Outpost looks like a fully functional Orbis-class space station from the outside, it's still mostly an empty movie prop on the inside. As the planet below is still largely uninhabited, there is nothing to actually buy here and, while the automated goods transshipment facility will happily take commodities off your hands, the extreme lack of demand for anything at all means any regular trade goods brought out here will likely make a significant loss when sold. The "shipyard" is also devoid of any actual parts and modules for sale, though the damage-repair facility and ship repainting dock (both extensively used by Danishman during filming) are still fully operational.

Aditi

Galactic co-ordinates: 73 -338 -159
Distance from Sol: 380 LY
System government: Patronage Empire
Default map status: Explored
Starports: 2
PEW-1901 Agricultural Patronage Empire
SMJL-Central Refinery Corporate Empire

The first stop on the "Fehu Spur", a couple of widely-spaced Imperial worlds founded far out from the main front of Imperial colonization, in the opposite direction from Achenar to Federation space. Founded in secret during the last major conflict with the Federation, their existence is now public knowledge, though they are still seen by certain members of the Imperial ruling class as an emergency redoubt, in the unlikely event of the Empire suffering a severe military defeat within its home space. As it stands, the two systems of the Fehu Spur make perfect stopping bases for explorers setting off in (or coming home from) the general direction of Galactic Down. The next stop out and terminus of the Spur is the Fehu system.

Almagest

Galactic co-ordinates: -275 -11 -271
Distance from Sol: 386 LY
System government: Corporate Independent
Default map status: Unexplored
Starports: 1
Sirius Reach Terraforming Corporate Independent

This is the fourth of seven stops along the "Sothis Spur", a string of colonies very recently established By Sirius Corporation. Situated roughly halfway between Te Kaha and Sothis, it is a "natural"s stopping-off point for anyone wishing to visit Sothis by the most direct route. As with most of the Sothis Spur worlds the station is an Orbis-class and is still "under construction" at time of writing.

BD+22 4939

Galactic co-ordinates: -236 -193 -80
Distance from Sol: 315 LY
System government: Dictatorship Independent
Default map status: Explored
Starports: 1
Hansford's Landing Agricultural-Refinery Dictatorship Independent

There are four planets in this system with oxygen atmospheres, though only the innermost was within the habitable zone of the star. Terraforming of the first planet was begun over fifty years ago by a consortium of independent factions that promised colonists a frontier lifestyle far away from interference by any of the major galactic powers. The terraforming is now complete; situated just outside the "bubble" of Inhabited Space, this system - which is yet to be granted a common name, even though the colonists vehemently disagree about how the catalogue designation should be pronounced - is now home to a flourishing agricultural planet but, due to the lack of neighbours to trade their agricultural produce with at the moment, the system remains a quiet backwater. It may be a helpful Last Stop for explorers bound for "The Negs", or the Rimward-Down-and-Spinward direction.

Canopus

Galactic co-ordinates: 280 -132 -40
Distance from Sol: 312 LY
System government: Anarchy Independent
Default map status: Explored
Starports: 1
Rangarajan's Base Extraction Democracy Federation

From Earth and from most of the worlds first colonized by Mankind, the white supergiant star Canopus is one of the brightest stars in the night sky, a shining beacon that attracted adventurers and colonists in the very early days of exploration - especially once minable resources were found on the few barren planets in the system. The only starport orbits a world at a considerable distance from the FSD arrival point, so travellers heading off in the general direction of the Magellanic Clouds and are seeking a quick stopover may be better advised to avoid this star system in favour of neighbouring Exphiay.

Long a haunt for pirates and privateers, the controlling factions of Canopus and Exphiay have recently been at loggerheads. Currently, the ruling faction of Canopus is a Federation-aligned faction originally based out of Exphiay - which is ironic as the criminal gang ousted from Canopus now controls the Exphiay system. Explorers hoping to use one of these two stars as an emergency repair facility are well advised to spend the few seconds it takes to check the starmap and ensure which (if either) system is not in anarchy.

Ceos

Galactic co-ordinates: -349 13 -339
Distance from Sol: 486 LY
System government: Corporate Independent
Default map status: Unexplored
Starports: 1
New Dawn Station Terraforming Corporate Independent

The second-last stop on the Sothis Spur, and within an easy single jump of Sothis itself. This unusual proximity of two frontier worlds means that Ceos and Sothis usually have a more turbulent political situation than other Spur worlds. For example, it was recently (and briefly) taken over by a Communist faction.

Exphiay

Galactic co-ordinates: 290 -129 -30
Distance from Sol: 318 LY
System government: Anarchy Independent
Default map status: Explored
Starports: 2
Worlidge Hub Service Anarchy Independent
James K Winston Refinery Anarchy Independent

Slightly further away from Sol than the nearby Canopus system, Exphiay was originally founded by a small splinter group from there. The proximity and the lack of any other neighbours means that local facitons are constantly meddling in the affairs of their neighbour.

In many respects, Exphiay is a more accessable system than nearby Canopus, in that the stations are much closer to the arrival point and that there are two stations to choose from, giving twice the likelihood that there will be a "safe" spaceport for a poorly armed or badly damaged explorer. Both stations are currently under the control of a criminal gang from Canopus, but this may change again in the future.

Fehu

Galactic co-ordinates: 46 -449 -127
Distance from Sol: 468 LY
System government: Patronage Empire
Default map status: Explored
Starports: 2
Frigschneck's Resort Agricultural Patronage Empire
Thompson-Keen Asylum Refinery Patronage Empire

The terminus of the Fehu Spur, Fehu has all the comforts of civilization that a long-established colony world brings, while at the same time being "way out there" on the furthest fringe of Human space. The name of the space station around the agricultural world indicates a desire by the local governor to promote Fehu as a "get away from it all" tourist destination. Wealthy tourists are advised that, although the station is very upmarket in appearance, the facilities are nowhere near as luxurious as can be found on more central Imperial tourist planets. It is, however, an ideal "last stop" for anyone heading off exploring in the general direction of Galactic Down; Fehu is about halfway between Sol and the edge of the easily navigable galactic disc.

HIP 74290

Galactic co-ordinates: -254 -40 279
Distance from Sol: 379 LY
System government: Democracy Independent
Default map status: Unexplored
Starports: 1
Pratchett's Disc Terraforming, Extraction Democracy Independent

In the 2900s, a wave of "twentieth century mania" swept the galaxy, seeing a fashionable revival of hundreds of millenia-old entertainment franchises such as books, television and movies. The legacy of this can still be seen in numerous systems, such as George Lucas Station in the Leesti system. But one of the most interesting legacies, from an anthropological point of view, has to be the remote colony of HIP 74290.

At the height of the craze in the 2950s, several dozen "themed" colony ships were launched, each one carrying diehard fans of a certain film or book franchise, with the aim of founding self-sufficient colonies in deep space that imitated their beloved fictional civilizations as closely as possible. The only one that seems to have flourished is the one launched towards HIP 74290, which was themed around the "Discworld" novels written by fantasy-humour novelist Terry Prachett. Assumed lost along with all the others, the galaxy was pleasantly surprised when contact was re-established with the eccentric lost colony in 3274.

Many doctoral theses have been written on the reasons why the "Discworld" colony not only survived but thrived, while the colony ships launched by the likes of the Klingons, Jedi, Elves, Timelords and the fans of "Gilligan's Island" all either failed or disappeared without trace. But in the HIP 74290 system, the colonists have done their best to re-create the Discworld universe, even though the terraforming of their chosen homeworld is still far from complete. There are three factions that vie for control here: the Ankh Guards (Democrats), One Vote One Value (dictatorship) and the criminal gang known as The Guild.

The system is also a practical alternative to Quince at being the "Last Stop" before heading off towards the Galactic Core.

HIP 8396

Galactic co-ordinates: -226 -13 -193
Distance from Sol: 297 LY
System government: Corporate Independent
Default map status: Unexplored
Starports: 1
Stepping Stone Base Extraction Corporate Independent

The second stop on the Sothis Spur, and unusual in that it is not a terraforming base, but rather a mining colony. Travellers are advised that facilities here are still extremely spartan; there is no shipyard, repair facilities nor munitions supply, for example. There isn't even a functioning Bulletin Board. The situation in this system is nevertheless positive, with Sirius Corp spending millions of credits on expanding the facilities here and encouraging miners to travel out here to begin to develop the system as a viable trading stop enroute to Sothis. Please note that the only starport in the system is an Outpost, so larger ships are not yet catered for.

LTT 9846

Galactic co-ordinates: -90 -272 11
Distance from Sol: 286 LY
System government: Anarchy Independent
Default map status: Explored
Starports: 1
Geoffrey's Crash Industrial Anarchy Independent

This system contains one of those rarities, a highly developed heavy industrial economy in deep space. Founded by a cartel of speculative investors not long after the invention of the Frame Shift Drive, the anticipated boom on colonization of neighbouring stars never materialized. With no market for their goods, the economy never really took off and the system has since fallen into Anarchy; well-armed long-range merchant ships with a spacious cargo hold are advised that many pieces of heavy machinery can often be obtained here far cheaper than they can in the more densely populated regions.

Maia (Pleiades Nebula)

Starport currently under construction.

New Yembo

Galactic co-ordinates: -334 5 73
Distance from Sol: 341 LY
System government: Corporate Independent
Default map status: Unexplored
Starports: 1
Unity Terraforming, Extraction Corporate Independent

As may be assumed from the name, this planet was founded in very recent times by a faction based in the Yembo system. It's been less than a year since the mobile phase of the starport Unity arrived in orbit in the system formerly known as HIP 101110. This was the first system in which the efforts of independent pilots in expanding the frontier of human space was formally asked for and formally recognized, with the names of the top four contributors to the Unity Project emblazoned on the starmap entry for the system. It was the model for the later, successful Sirius Corp colonization efforts in the Sothis Spur.

Quince

Galactic co-ordinates: 57 341 333
Distance from Sol: 480 LY
System government: Patronage Empire
Default map status: Explored
Starports: 2
Millerport Agricultural Patronage Empire
Jeffries High Tourism Patronage Empire

[Quince is another galactic anomaly. In the FE2/FFE map, Quince was a central Imperial system, located not far from Facece and Achenar. It's lock-stock-and-barrel relocation to way out here in deep space is something that requires an explanation in Lore. Here is my attempt.]

A hundred years ago, Quince was a loyal, prosperous Imperial system, deep in Imperial space. Their sun was a red giant star but no-one really considered this to be a problem until, as eventually happens to all such stars, it became unstable and imploded into a white dwarf. Imperial astrometricians were, of course, forewarned decades in advance that this catastrophe was going to happen, so in 3266 they made the recommendation to evacuate the entire star system. The question arose as to where to relocate the people and, just as importantly, the indigenous lifeforms of the jungle planet New America that were widely seen as important to the colony's cultural identity. The Imperial Senate ratified the expensive evacuation project, in recognition of the centuries of service Quincet soldiers had happily provided for the defence and expansion of the Empire.

An uncolonized red giant star was located and it had a suitable planet with nearly identical surface conditions to New America; it also happened to have a continent recently stripped of native life by a recent asteroid impact. It was very, very far away from the rest of Imperial space, but the colonists believed the near-perfect match to their soon-to-become-extinct home system was worth that sacrifice. "Old Quince" was evacuated in plenty of time, well before the conflagration which happened in 3291. The white dwarf star in Imperial space formerly known as Quince has, in accordance with the wishes of the people of Quince and the charter of Universal Cartographics, been deleted from the galactic stellar database.

Until the recent colonization of the worlds of the Sothis Spur, Quince (nobody ever calls it "New Quince"; doing so is considered extremely rude and most Quincets remain very sensitive to being insulted) was the furthest Human colony from Sol and remains by far the most remote outpost of the Empire. In the years since the evacuation, the people of Quince have become fervent pacifists, knowing full well that the resupply route to the rest of Imperial space is not only very long, but passes right through the heart of both the Alliance and the Federation.

Quince is widely seen by many explorers of all political persuasions as being an excellent "Last Stop" before making the run towards the Galactic Core.

Robigo

Galactic co-ordinates: -303 7 -314
Distance from Sol: 436 LY
System government: Corporate Independent
Default map status: Unexplored
Starports: 1
Robigo Mines Extraction Corporate Independent

This small mining colony, stop 5 on the Sothis Spur route, offers the chance for pilots flying smaller ships to make a small profit on the side while enroute out to Sothis, producing some minerals that are in demand in the nearby Terraforming systems. Please note the error on the Galactic starmap: the map classifies it as another Terraforming system, when in fact the system is Extraction only. There are no terraformable planets in the system.

Sothis

Galactic co-ordinates: -353 10 -346
Distance from Sol: 494 LY
System government: Democracy Federation
Default map status: Unexplored
Starports: 2
Newholm Station Terraforming Democracy Federation
Sothis Mining Extraction Corporate Independent

Sothis is perhaps the most famous of the Outback systems and in the months since it was founded has become something of a pilgrimage site for explorers, tourists and the opportunistic. There are several reasons for this. At 494 LY from Sol, it's currently the most remote human settlement (although more remote ones are being planned as this is written). It is a logical Last Stop for explorers bound Spinward. The fact that Universal Cartographics still considers the system "Unexplored" - and will therefore pay commanders for scanning data for it - adds to the allure as there are a large number of high-value exploration targets in the system, including a binary pair of Earth-like worlds. The proximity to Ceos means there's always a chance to make money by meddling in the local politics - the system has swapped hands several times since Sirius Corp founded it less than a year ago, with a pro-Federation faction currently in control.

Perhaps the most interesting, and certainly one of the most lucrative, properties of the Sothis system is the recent discovery of an unusual allotropic form of gold that can be synthesised from regular gold only on exposure to underwater volcanic vents in this system. This "crystalline gold" is a Rare Good; it is highly sought after and valued everywhere else in Human space.

Takurua

Galactic co-ordinates: -254 -5 -254
Distance from Sol: 359 LY
System government: Corporate Independent
Default map status: Unexplored
Starports: 1
Foothold Orbital Terraforming Corporate Independent

Takurua, the third stop along the Sothis Spur, would be entirely unremarkable were it not for a curious social experiment introduced into the system on the orders of Pranav Antal, whereby they (briefly) took economic control of the system. You'll have to ask the Simguru's ardent followers if they thought the effort was worthwhile and/or if they intend to resume Control anytime soon, but for followers of other Powers, it was just another demonstration of the eccentric nature of that Power. The Control System status of Takurua has since been abandoned, with the system reverting to its previous, unassuming state.

Te Kaha

Galactic co-ordinates: -173 13 -155
Distance from Sol: 232 LY
System government: Corporate Independent
Default map status: Unexplored
Starports: 1
New Horizons Orbital Terraforming Corporate Independent

Only just "outside" the Bubble of inhabited systems, Te Kaha was founded by Sirius Corp at the same time as the other Sothis Spur worlds. The ultimate goal, one assumes, is to see these terraformed worlds become the nuclei of further expansion and development into nearby systems along the Spur.

GURU-951 CONSTELLATION TOUR

LINK

Erimus Kamzel · Feb 19, 2015

The Age of Pioneers (March 3300 - August 3301)

EARLY EXPLORATION IN ELITE DANGEROUS

The Birth of the Mapping Project - The Age of Pioneers (March 3300 - August 3301)

Introduction

"I've put together a brief history of the early days of exploration in Elite Dangerous, dating back to the first beta of March 2014, and up to August 2015. I believe this 18-month era was an age of pioneers, when exploration was in its infancy and players were on the whole oblivious to what was out there, what the optimal set ups were, and how to deal with any hazards the early explorers would soon be experiencing.

I was lucky enough to be there from the very beginning so have witnessed a lot of what went on (if not in person, certainly by being an avid follower and chronicler of the forum posts, logs, and blogs players wrote during this period). I would say that 95% of my time in Elite Dangerous since the premium beta days has been spent exclusively playing as an explorer. So although this post may briefly touch on other aspects of the game, its main focus is all about the early history of exploration in Elite Dangerous.

Most of it is from memory and from the few old posts I've managed to dig out and get info from, so its by no means a fully accurate record. The info I've put together will have quite a bit of my own adventures mentioned as obviously those are the ones I remember the most. There are details of many other players' adventures too, and events that made the headlines during this early period in Elite Dangerous' history. Please feel free to add or correct me on anything important I've missed and I'll edit any info as and when I get it". - CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel, Aug. 5th 3301.

The Alpha & Beta's : March 3300 - October 3300

The Sidewinder Era

Late Alpha Development - March 3300: The earliest days of the 34th century saw the introduction of new frame shift drive technologies. During this time all new recruits graduating from the pilots federation were issued with a standard Sidewinder space craft. As the newly released FSD technology was largely untested, all navigational databanks throughout occupied space were restricted to just a handful of pre-defined hyperspace linked star systems as the developers ironed out bugs and worked on optimizing these new engines... engines that were hoped would soon open the door for humanity to explore the furthest reaches of the galaxy.

In late March of 3300 news of an explorers consortium emerged, requesting recruits for an expedition that was to be launched within the year. The consortium became known as the First Great Expedition (FGE), and several hundred pilots signed up for the venture.

The Premium Beta's - May & June 3300: The birth of community driven news began springing up around this time. The Centauran Herald leading the way. Indeed it was the Herald that was one of the earliest news outlets to break the news of the first organized emergence of an explorers 'guild', the afore mentioned First Great Expedition - with the announcement of their intention to set up a base camp on Mars.

Yet exploration during this short era was pretty much non-existent due to the limited number of reachable destinations. Some intrepid pilots attempted to bypass the restrictions imposed by the lack of NavCom data available and actually tried to traverse the vast distances between stars using supercruise flight only! This proved to be a fruitless endeavor due to technical difficulties sustained during the attempts, forcing pilots to hyperspace back to their point of origin, or be forever lost in the void. Pilot attempts to supercruise between star systems!

Elsewhere during this period, the Eranin blockade and the blockade runners it gave birth to began to entice many frustrated pilots away from their preferred professions and join sides in the growing unrest. Piracy and bounty hunting increased exponentially and the very limited amount of exploration left became pretty much non-existent as the handful of available systems became saturated with more and more new recruits fresh out of the academy.

In May of 3300 the spread of piracy reached epidemic levels when scores of pilots were ambushed during an Asellus Primus trade summit.

In June of 3300 there was an attempted landing on the inhospitable moon, Dustball, in orbit around Maher Prime, in a hope to locate the lost science vessel 'Leavitt-Payne' which was rumored to have crash-landed there a few days previous. The attempt failed due to corrosive atmospheric dust damaging the hull of the rescue ship - forcing it to abandon the effort. Calls on the Federation and Empire to release suppressed atmospheric shielding technology that would once again allow pilots to land on planetary surfaces sadly fell on deaf ears.

Instead, pressure on the powers to release more NavCom data and push back the restrictive bubble grew, and finally in late July of 3300 the interstellar market for the next version of FSD tech and distant NavCom data was opened up.. codenamed Beta 1.

The Beta's - July to October 3300: Fifty-five star systems covering 38,000 cubic light years centered around the Boötes constellation, often known as the first 'beta bubble', all of this was now in reach due to the release of the next phase of FSD tech and NavCom data. With this new boundary, exploration finally began to become recognized as a valid profession. Pilots spread out from tension-ridden Eranin and its neighboring systems and began reporting on new trade links between systems further and further afield. Yet within a month of this era, many explorers had grown weary of exploring the bubble for no monetary reward and instead turned to other means in order to make a living - including piracy.

The New Frontier

Despite the larger area open to pilots, exploration in the first few days was often dangerous due to the amount of players being squeezed into still such a low volume of space. Hostile encounters with players and NPCs was often inevitable. Nevertheless, the first tentative roles began to emerge and players soon spread out and mapped the inner borders of the new bubble - yet yearned for the time when the release of yet more NavCom data would burst the bubble once and for all and throw open the entire galaxy. Gradually over the next few weeks the beta bubbles were expanded to encompass steadily larger regions.

Again it was The Centauran Herald that first broke the news of mounting unrest.. mostly growing out of the strict fines meted out for loitering, canister dumping, high taxation laws that the Federation began imposing, and finally the collapse of the interstellar bank that wiped out all pilots federation credit balances.

Finally, in late July of 3300 many frustrated pilots massed outside Aulin Enterprise for what was codenamed the 'Aulin Apocalypse' - a beta blowout that saw hundreds of pilots attacking the Orbis Starport. Footage of the battle is still archived to this day within the Heralds databanks.

Ultimately the Federation withheld the onslaught but many survivors of that fateful weekend still claim that the pressure brought upon the powers 'persuaded' them to release the Gamma Phase of FSD tech and the long awaited NavCom databanks containing all deep space hyperspace routes out of colonized space - removing the restrictive borders of the local region and 'beta bubble', and throwing open a much wider region for new recruits to explore. At the same time many pilots who had invested in research and development into these new techs were rewarded and allocated various prototype space craft... one of which was the newly produced Long Range Cobra Mk III.. a starship primarily dedicated to long range exploration.

A new era of exploration had begun.

The Early Adventurers

The Cobra Mk III Era

The Gamma Phase - November 3300: The early Gamma phase saw pilots exploring the new boundary, and at the far edges of this boundary a few daring pilots managed to find several routes outside the 'pill'. CMDR Azriphail being one of the first to document such endeavors, and months later, in March 3301 he wrote an account of his adventures surrounding his trip outside the limits. Other explorers did likewise and one of the last surviving visual recordings of that era shows where explorers had managed to reach, despite the boundaries imposed.

Finally on November 22nd 3300 the last restrictive boundary was removed, and for the first time the entire galaxy was opened up. A vast exodus of pilots began as the first tentative journeys to nearby astronomical points of interest were made. The Coalsack, The Pleiades, Barnard's Loop... all places relatively close to humanities frontier that became the first hotbed destinations for the earliest travelers as they undertook their first steps out into the galaxy..

Exploration was in its infancy. No one knew what hostiles were out there. No one knew how far a ship could travel without needing maintenance. No one knew anything about the dangers of hyperspacing into a contact binary system, or how to deal with it. It was the ancient wild west revisited... a new frontier was opening up.

A first journey to Sagittarius A* and the New Horizon's Expedition

The first reports of deep space exploration began to filter back into colonized space around late November of 3300. CMDR Zulu Romeo, commanding an explorer-class Cobra Mk III 'Useless Reptile' had made the very first attempt to cross the arduous 27,000 LYs and journey to the Galactic Core. Reaching the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A* in early December. Whilst simultaneously, CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel, piloting the 'Shackleton Explorer', had embarked on the New Horizons Expedition - a journey along the Orion Spur, crossing the Vela Molecular Ridge, and out to the Eta Carina Nebula.

Considering the unknowns at the time and coupled with the hostility of ever present NPCs and non-existent route planners, such expeditions were regarded as remarkable feats. Explorers back then had no route planner at all, routes were plotted one star at a time! There were no star filters, and no known strategies for dealing with ship maintenance or environmental hazards (i.e. contact binaries).

Full Release - December 3300: In December 3300 the Gamma Phase came to an end and a massive influx of new Pilots Federation recruits entered the world. At Noon on December 16th 3300, David Braben officially launched Elite Dangerous. With it, the age of the Asp Explorer and ultra deep space exploration began.

The Early Pioneers

The Asp Explorer Era

On the afternoon of December 16th 3300, an Asp Explorer (The Deep Space Surveyor 'Beagle'), and piloted by CMDR Kamzel, left its berth in an outlying frontier system and began its journey to the distant stars on the far side of the galaxy.

Late December 3300 was a time of turmoil for early explorers. Bugs were scuppering many attempts to reach the galactic core regions as it became increasingly known that something bad had gone wrong with the travel mechanics since Zulu's successful Gamma Phase trip to the galactic core. Explorers reaching the outer core regions beyond the Norma Expanse were often disconnected during hyperspace and were unable to get back online afterwards - leaving many pilots unable to continue their journeys for days, and sometimes weeks. A word of warning was issued to explorers leaving home for the depths of space. On the bright side a 100 LY route planner was finally introduced, something that explorers had been calling for during early Gamma.

Thankfully by mid January 3301 most of these hyperspace disconnect issues had been resolved and the early pioneers could once again continue with their endeavors.

On January 5th CMDR Kommodore sets off to visit Sagittarius A* in an Eagle kitted out for long range travel... he wouldn't be heard of again until almost 10 months later.
On January 7th a pilot called R4nger0 left colonized space in his Sidewinder (called Sneaky Pete), with the sole intention to cross the entire galaxy with it.
Around the the same time other expeditions set forth to push deeper into the galaxy and CMDR Rekal and CMDR Big Bad Lynx, both piloting Asp Explorers, began their own individual journeys to the far side.

Throughout late January and February, news of these first few early adventurers and the expeditions they were undertaking was covered extensively in the various newsfeeds back in colonized space, as video diaries and screenshots from the depths of space began inspiring more and more pilots to begin their own adventures out among the stars.

The Pioneer Age had begun.

The Pioneer Timeline

October 3300

★ CMDR Patau82 creates the Universal Cartographics Galactic Records database. A place for explorers to submit scientific data that they've discovered throughout the galaxy.

★ CMDR Jorlin becomes the first pilot to fly the newly released Asp Explorer.

★ A few days after Jorlin's initial test flight, newsfeeds receive the flight-recorder footage of another Asp Explorer's maiden voyage, this one visiting several outlying beta frontier border systems, including the once incredible Wunjo 1 Furnace.

November 3300

★ CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel completes the New Horizons expedition and retires his Long Range Cobra (Shackleton Explorer), at Aulin Enterprise.

★ The FGE begin steadily pushing the envelope on what could be accomplished with group exploration. Without the help of route planners or wing mechanics - the first tentative attempts at group exploration begins with a series of expeditions out to nearby nebulae. On the first day of Gamma a flotilla of FGE exploration vessels head out to the Pleiades and begin surveying the nebula.

★ CMDR Zulu Romeo successfully traverses the 27,000 LY distance to Sagittarius A* (and returns safely in early December 3300).

December 3300

★ CMDR Nutter complies the first comprehensive explorers guide to the galaxy.

★ CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel embarks on the Distant Suns expedition to the far side of the galaxy.

★ A FGE expedition to the Coalsack begins - approximately 30 research vessels make the trip to this frontier border nebula and conduct surveys of the surrounding star systems.

January 3301

★ CMDR Kommodore sets off on a journey to visit Sag-A* in an Eagle rigged out for long distance exploration... the first recorded attempt to reach the galactic core in such a vessel. Later that year, in late September 3301, Kommodore successfully returns to colonized space and is awarded over 123 million credits from Universal Cartographics for the data he amassed. His mission is thought to be one of the longest running on record, at 9 months.

★ CMDR R4nger0 begins his epic quest to cross the galaxy in a Sidewinder. Update : 4th Feb. 3302 - R4's quest comes to an end when his Sidewinder (Sneaky Pete) finally returns home after crossing to the the far side of the galaxy and back - successfully returning home 13 months after the journey began.

★ The FGE Nebulae Research voyage sets off to explore the Pleiades, Hind, and California Nebulae, and concludes the following month with trips out to the Eskimo, Helix, and LBN 623 Nebulae.

★ CMDR Big Bad Lynx sets off to cross the galaxy in an Asp Explorer.

★ CMDR Zieman embarks on a survey mission to the Orionis constellation and begins an extensive study of over 200 star systems with Orionis designations, before concluding the mission with a further study of the Orion Nebula cluster.

★ CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel reaches the far side of the galaxy after successfully crossing the outer rim Abyss in an Asp Explorer - circa Jan. 18th 3301. The first recorded crossing of the galaxy was reported and published a few days after the explorer reached 'Beagle Point' (CEECKIA ZQ-L C24-0), a star system over 65,000 LYs from home. A GalNet report of the endeavor causes some controversy at the time as it is stated that the DSS Beagle had returned from the far galactic rim, when in reality it had been badly damaged after hyperspacing into a red giant binary pair, exited in the corona of one of the stars, and thus remained crippled out on the galactic rim for several more weeks before the journey home began.

GalNet Propaganda - The Distant Suns Epilogue
GalNet YouTube News Bulletin - 65,000 LY Journey Across the Galaxy
Frontier's GalNet 'misinfo' News Release : Previously Unknown Explorer Returns from Outer Rim
Frontier's re-released News Article : Outrage Amongst Explorers’ Association

February 3301

★ CMDR Ozric completes his journey to the Crab Nebula.

★ CMDR Maia Posidana and CMDR Katier announce (independently) their intentions to circumnavigate the galaxy.

★ CMDR Big Bad Lynx returns from his epic 170,000 LY round trip of the galaxy.

★ CMDR Rekal returns home from his trip to the far side of the galactic core.

★ The EDC-Explorers Four Corners Mission is launched form the Atlantis star system. The mission, made up 12 commanders flying in three separate groups, set out to explore the 'four corners of the galaxy' - one of the earliest recorded wing coordinated expeditions.

★ The Galactic Mapping Project for explorers is born.

★ CMDR Glynie begins compiling a list of all known Earth-Like Worlds so far discovered. His work is later passed on to CMDR Marx who continues cataloging data on ELWs submitted from the exploration community.

★ The 1,000 LY Route Planner and Star Filter is introduced. Payouts from Universal Cartographics is significantly improved - finally bringing exploration income into line with other professions. The star filter paves the way for easier location and surveying of scientific points of interest - namely neutron stars and blackholes.

March 3301

The Anaconda Era

★ Possibly due to the larger and richer rewards from exploration, a new wave of deep space exploration begins with many richer explorers now turning to the large Anaconda class star ship as their ship of choice. These larger vessels, capable of over 40 LYs jump range, make long distance travel much quicker and allow pilots to reach certain systems that the earlier exploration vessels couldn't jump to.

★ CMDR DrNoesis leaves inhabited space to explore the largely uncharted New Outer Arm. Conducting an intense survey of those regions it is reported later that year (September) that the commander had reached a point parallel along the arm to the core, around 25% of the way around the whole galaxy.

★ The first Exploration Community Goal (Lambda Andromedae) successfully concludes and leads to the construction of the most distant bases from Sol at Sothis and Ceos, and other outposts in between.

★ CMDR Dastardly Devine concludes his epic 60,000 LY journey.

★ 43,000 LYs from Sol, CMDR R4nger0 in his Sidewinder reaches the near edge of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, there a rendezvous with CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel (who is returning home from the far side) occurs and the two explorers make a joint survey of the rendezvous system before parting ways. The meeting is recorded and beamed back to colonized space where GalNet picks it up and reports the event via various newsfeeds.

★ The Wings feature is introduced and many explorers begin teaming up. Solo exploration remains popular though due to the unreliability of the early wings mechanic.

★ CMDR Dr Kaii begins his epic documented journey to the galactic depths and produces the stunning Deep Space Surveys video series.

★ CMDR Marlon Blake returns from an 80,000 LY round trip and is awarded a staggering 145 million credits for the data he collated - one of the highest payouts to date.

★ CMDR Rikk pilots the first recorded Imperial Clipper to Sagittarius A*. Setting off on 28th Feb 3301, he did not reach home until 23rd June 3301 - having covered 70,000 LYs during the trip.

★ CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel limps home from the far galactic rim, concluding the Distant Suns expedition. The heavily damaged DSS Beagle is decommissioned and retired from service.

★ CMDR SvennoJ departs on his quest to find the galaxies loneliest planet. Later in his journey he crosses the western edge of the Abyss using an Anaconda class starship.

★ The first recorded survey mission to the distant Hyponia sector is released.

April 3301

★ The Thargoid Flap : Rumors of a mystery out beyond the Formidine Rift causes a stir throughout the exploration community. Many pilots flock to this relatively nearby region, some 10,000 - 15,000 LYs from Sol, beyond the Perseus Arm, but to no avail. So far nothing untoward has been located. CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel produces a video log of his own investigation into the Rift and the possible connection to the Unknown Artifacts that appeared throughout colonized space in the spring and early summer of 3301.

★ CMDR Allitnil concludes his epic 14,000 star system journey, and in doing so is recorded as being the first pilot to cross the far galactic Abyss in a Cobra Mk III.

★ CMDR Katejina embarks on an epic quest to circumnavigate the galaxy as well as explore the core regions.

★ The Buckyball Run A* event begins. Pilots from across colonized space, including many dedicated explorers, begin the competition to reach Sagittarius A* in as short a time as possible.

★ CMDR Tylar's five week tour of planetary nebulae concludes.

★ CMDR SvennoJ reaches CEECKIA PE-E D13-0, a system 65,365 LYs from Sol - setting a new distance record for a 41 LY Anaconda.

★ CMDR Dognosh compiles a comprehensive exploration guide that includes lists, tools, and diaries related to all things exploration.

★ The First Great Expedition embark on the first mass-surveying endeavor of the mysterious Regor sectors and produce detailed 3D maps of its border regions.

★ The 'Four Corners Expedition' map the borders of the Bleia Permit Zone that is embedded within Perseus Stem, on the far side of the galactic core.

May 3301

★ CMDR Kancro Vantas publishes 'The Galactic Tour of Wonders' - an extensive pictorial guide to points of interest visted during a 11,000 LY journey.

★ CMDR DoubleSkulls becomes the first explorer to have his ship destroyed at Sagittarius A* due to hostile fire from an unknown assailant.

★ CMDR Akira Masakari publishes a guide to distinguish planet types from sounds coming from them, possibly easing labor for a number of explorers.

★ CMDR R4nger0 becomes the first explorer to pilot a Sidewinder class starship to the far side of the galaxy - reaching a distance of 58,000 LYs from Sol. However the ship could not cross the outer rim Abyss due to its limited FSD range.

★ CMDR Mossfoot travels to Sagittarius A* and records footage of his journey. Eventually he produces a video series of the trip and edits ancient classical musical scores with the footage - producing the 'movements of exploration' piece that is played in theaters throughout colonized space. Along with an earlier piece named Starsoul, one of the first classic 'Art of Exploration' series is born.

★ CMDR Allitnil embarks on an expedition to measure the extent of the reachable galaxy.

★ CMDR Anuranium travels to Sagittarius A* in an attempt to hunt down and destroy the 'SagA Sniper' who was attacking unarmed explorers visiting the supermassive black hole. When confronted with Anuranium's fully armed starship, the sniper promptly set his own ship to self destruct in an act of cowardice and was never heard of again as its smouldering wreckage disappeared beyond the event horizon of the black hole.

★ CMDR Dognosh starts version 2 of the log of all submitted Commanders' exploration trips.

★ CMDR Kola2 embarks on an expedition to explore the rarely traveled 4th quadrant.

June 3301

★ CMDR Picker returns from an epic 151 day voyage around the galaxy, visiting over 6,600 systems and traveling approximately 180,000 LYs in the process.

★ CMDR Turambar concludes his 200,000 LYs galactic journey and becomes one of the first explorers to circumnavigate the galaxy via the outer arms route.

★ CMDR CaptainKremmen embarks on a journey coreward and sends back a pictorial log of his travels.

★ The Fuel rats are formed - a voluntary collection of pilots dedicated to rescuing explorers (and other travelers) who have inadvertently ran out of fuel far from home.

★ CMDR's Stulli, Barefoot Bandit and Allitnil rendezvous close to Beagle Point on the far side of the galaxy, some 65,000 LYs from Sol, and in doing so set a record for the most distant encounter so far recorded.

★ CMDR Andrew Gaspurr sets off on the "Pilgrim's Path" tour - an expedition out to Eta Carina, NGC 3199 and beyond the Orion Spur shallows, exploring the seldom traveled 4th Quadrant regions.

July 3301

★ CMDR Kancro Vantas publishes the most definitive guide to date of the vast galactic core neutron fields. The neutron survey becomes a great source of information for science-based exploration missions to the core regions.

★ The Quest to find Raxxla begins, with many pilots collating data and clues on the whereabouts of this mysterious world.

★ CMDR Allitnil concludes his mission to measure the extent of the reachable galaxy and submits some of his findings to the Universal Cartographics Galactic database.

★ CMDR Derthek travels to (and surveys) the star system Drooteou PW-I A36-4, which is cited as being the physically located antithesis of Sol on the opposite side of the galaxy. The system turned out to consist of an unremarkable red dwarf orbited by several dead worlds and one moon, and is now known as 'Derthek's Folly'.

★ The Fuel Rats receive a distress call from a deep-space explorer named CMDR Monchiko, who stranded 18,000 LYs from Sol out in the Sagittarius spiral arm. The closest 'Rat' being over 16,000 LYs away. CMDR Alex Traut, CMDR Aitken, and CMDR b0rg9, all out exploring in different areas, answered the call as far away as 18,136 LYs, and in 12 hours of marathon jumping saved the stranded pilot and his months of SagA* exploration data - thus making history as the most distant and successfully completed rescue attempt ever recorded.

August 3301

★ The First Great Expedition invites the exploration community to embark on a mission to jointly explore and chart the Sagittarius-Carina spiral arm of the galaxy. The mission is later changed to an open-ended community project that continues to this day.

This expedition marked the end of the Age of Pioneers.

What the early explorers achieved during the Age of Pioneers

Explored all the nearby points of interest; nebula, clusters, black holes.
Traveled to the Galactic Core regions and brought back data on Sagittarius A* and the vast Neutron Fields.
Crossed the entire galaxy and visited the most distant star systems.
Mapped the borders of many permit-only regions strewn throughout the four quadrants of the galaxy.
Circumnavigated the galaxy.
Created a wealth of data and knowledge in the form of guides, diaries, and databases, all for the love of exploration.
Surveyed an estimated 12,000,000 star systems during the Pioneer period (according to a July 3301 Newsletter).
Extensively mapped the local regions of the Orion Spur, and began the first tentative steps in creating maps of all four quadrants.

The Age of Pioneers (3300 - 3302) - famous Exploration Starships

The Useless Reptile (Cobra Mk III) : First ship to reach Sagittarius A*
Shackleton Explorer (Cobra Mk III) : First ship to visit VY Canis Majoris and cross the Vela Molecular Ridge to survey the Eta Carina Nebula (New Horizons Expedition).
DSS Beagle (Asp Explorer) : First starship to cross the Abyss and reach the far side of the galaxy, over 65,000 LYs from Sol, discovering the system that later became known as Beagle Point.
The 'Phonebooth' Explorer (Eagle) : First starship of its class known to have attempted to reach the galactic core. Successfully concluding its mission later that year.
The Roncevaux (Cobra Mk III) : First Cobra-class starship to cross the eastern edge of the Abyss and into the outer galactic arm regions.
Svenno's Anaconda (Anaconda) : First Anaconda-class starship to cross the western edge of the Abyss and into the outer galactic arm regions.
Magellan (Asp Explorer) : Starship that embarked on one of the earliest recorded attempts to circumnavigate the galaxy.
The Orinoco (Asp Explorer) : The Starship that undertook the epic survey of the 4 neutron fields strewn throughout the galactic core regions.
Sneaky Pete - (Sidewinder) : First Sidewinder to cross to the far side of the galaxy - reaching a distance of 59,000 LYs from Sol.
Nobody's Business (Anaconda) : The ship that undertook the trip to the Galactic Limits, an endeavor to measure the extent of the reachable galaxy.
Viaticus Rex II (Lakon Type-6) : The ship that recorded extensive video footage used in the making of the 'Movements of Exploration' series.
Lostpath Wayfarer (Asp Explorer) : A ship that was stranded during the Orion expedition, near Epsilon Orionis, but was ultimately rescued by the newly formed Fuel Rats at the time.

Original Thread : Here

Erimus Kamzel · Feb 19, 2015

THE DISTANT WORLDS EXPEDITIONS

Distant Suns - The Forerunner

Distant Suns 3300-3301 by Erimus Kamzel

"Distant Suns was a vid-log journey of a solitary Lakon Asp Explorer (DSS Beagle) across the galaxy that began on December 16th 3300, and culminated on January 18th 3301 out on the far galactic rim at a star system designated as Ceeckia ZQ-L C24-0 , some 65,000 LYs away. It marked the first recorded galactic crossing, and news of the event made it into the earliest GalNet articles and YouTube news channels at the time".

Ceeckia ZQ-L C24-0 later became known as 'Beagle Point' and more in-depth information on the DSS Beagle's journey there can be found in the 'History of Beagle Point' section.

Distant Worlds 3302 (DW1)

Distant Worlds 3302 (DW1) by Erimus Kamzel

"The initial idea was born on August 5th 2015 after the announcement of the Horizons update at Gamescom. That's when I decided to plan another 1-man journey across the galaxy as a followup to the Distant Suns expedition of 3301. I intended to retrace my old route to the star system that later became known as Beagle Point, but this time with the Horizons update I'd be able to land on and explore some of the distant worlds I'd visited during that first trip, ones that I'd only previously been able to view from orbit.

In late October 2015 Dr. Kaii heard I was planning another trip across the galaxy and he asked me if he could come along too. I then mentioned on a forum post that we both intended to cross the Galaxy together once Horizons was released, which lead to me receiving a few PMs from other players asking if they could tag along too. Following this, on November 7th 2015, I created an expedition thread with the route & itinerary I'd originally intended to take, and followed it up with an 'expedition sign-up' post to gauge how many would be coming along. At first we thought maybe a dozen at most would join us on the journey, but within a couple of weeks over 100 other players had expressed an interest. By the time we set off in early January 3302, over 1,000 players had signed up!

That's how "DW1" came about, and eventually a whole team of people came on board to help out, including; Dr Kaii, Kancro Vantas, Corbin Moran, NeoTron, Grnbrg, Wishblend, Wolverine, Katejina, and Akira Makasari.

Full details, including maps, locations, statistics, and roster links for Distant Worlds 3302 can be found : Here

DISTANT WORLDS 3302 - "A journey beyond the Abyss"
- An in-depth overview (from ED Wiki).

Initials: DWE
Launch date: 14th January 3302
End date: 5th June 3302
Destination: Beagle Point
Number of Waypoints: 23 (24)
Particpants: 1,153
Demonym: Distant Worlder

Expedition Organizers:

Erimus Kamzel (original concept & co-organizer)
Dr. Kaii (co-organizer)

Volunteers:

Glasswalker
NeoTron
grnbrg
Kancro Vantas
Corbin Moran
Wishblend
Wolverine
Katejina
Akira Makasari
Jhyrryl
Kola2
The_Damn_Fox
Rodent54
Nexolek
Eoran

Inception:

Distant Worlds, more popularly known as Distant Worlds Expedition (DWE), and retroactively as Distant Worlds 3302 was one of the first major community expeditions in Elite: Dangerous history. Created by CMDRs Erimus Kamzel & Dr. Kaii as the sequel to Kamzel's Distant Suns journey, it featured over a thousand recorded members with many more who followed along the journey. Its legacy continues to inspire the community through the variety of expeditions that sprung up after it, and its effects on in-game events such as Jaques Station's community goal, "Jaques' Big Jump", and the colonization of Colonia.

Background:

On December 16th 3300, the day Elite Dangerous was officially released, a long ranged Asp Explorer, the DSS Beagle, piloted by CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel, left the Pallaeni star system to begin the first recorded galactic crossing.

Codenamed 'Distant Suns' the expedition was recorded in a 12-series video log. The mission was to travel to the far side of the galaxy via the galactic core, mapping and documenting all major discoveries made along the way.

Some 5 weeks later, on January 18th 3301, DSS Beagle reached a star system on the edge of the far galactic rim, 65,279 LYs from Sol. The system (CEECKIA ZQ-L C24-0) subsequently became known as 'Beagle Point'. It marked the end of the line of the Distant Suns expedition.

One year later, in January 3302, the DSS Beagle was recommissioned and given a new mission.

Codenamed 'Distant Worlds', this new expedition tasked all its participants to travel a route that roughly followed the original path taken by the Beagle back in 3301, this time with the added task of surveying and exploring as many worlds as possible at key locations along the way.

Pre-launch:

Registration for the expedition required that members make a comment on the official forums.

During Registration, members could choose to take on certain roles;

Fuel Rat - Cargo Rack and a Fuel Transfer Limpet to your ship, and take a stock of limpets in your cargo hold.
Prospector - This role is geared toward helping out fellow fleet members as your role involves pinpointing resource-rich worlds. After locating an outcrop or meteorite that contains minerals - find out what it yields by blasting it with your SRV laser. Make a note of what you find and relay it to fleet members in the Skype Text Prospectors Channel, stating what kind of minerals you have discovered. If someone who needs them is nearby, you may be required to remain on site to keep the instance open until their SRV crew arrives to collect the minerals. Worlds of particular interest are ones that have deposits of the minerals that enable FSD Boosting (see the logistics section below for further details on 'Jumponium' synthesis)
Cartographer - These roles require pilots who have the most game time to spare. Your role is to seek out interesting worlds with interesting surface features for the fleet to explore. Try to stay within a 300 LY radius of each designated waypoint POI though as we don't have time to deviate too far off the planned route. This role will require you to stay no more than a day or two ahead of the main fleet as to give you sufficient time in reporting interesting finds close to the base camp system.
Armed Escort - For close encounters of the unknown kind.
Cargo Haulage - It is said that our first encounter with the Thargoids will determine our relationship with them. If we are hostile, expect to die. If there are Thargoid outposts out there that we somehow stumble upon, and they allow us to dock, having trade goods may be a good idea. Just don't take bug spray, they may get the wrong idea!
Video Makers, Photographers, and Live Streamers - Feel free to make videos or run live streams for any part of the expedition... the more the merrier!

Private groups:

Kamzel, Patrecleus, Erimus; also known as Group K, P and E are the three private groups used for the expedition by members.

The first 600 members who signed up for the expedition were added to Group K. The second 400 members were added to Group P. the outliers were added to Group E. After Waypoint 11, Group P members were merged into Group K. After [insert WP here], all groups were merged into Group E.

DW logo contest:

The DW logo contest was organised by CMDR Kola2. The submissions were posted on the forum thread until 13th January 3302 where voting was opened. The winner was announced on the Distant Worlds Expedition Twitch stream the next day on the 14th. The launch day of the expedition. The winning submission was created by CMDR Hi-Ban.

Legacy:

The Distant Worlds Expedition coincided with the launch of Horizons 2.0 and it caught the zeitgeist of the exploration communities desire to explore the new content of that release. Over 1,300 commanders took part in its six month long endeavour to map out the first galactic ‘Jumponium’ highway for the Mapping Project, stretching 81,500 light years from Pallaeni to Beagle Point.

According to Michael Brookes (FDev), the event was covered in eight different gaming magazine articles, and spawned several hundred Distant Worlds YouTube videos. It was extensively covered by the streaming community, and has given rise to hundreds, if not thousands, of forum posts and blogs on various forums, Reddit, Wiki’s, and external websites. A weekly newsletter series was also created during the event, which was eventually turned into a book.

The event incorporated many aspects of community created content and gave rise to groups like the Rock Rats and the Candy Crew. It was the foundation of the FleetComm community, which today has in excess of 3,000 members dedicated to exploration.

Distant Worlds was the event that directly inspired Jaques the Cyborg to attempt a starport hyperjump to Beagle Point - in recognition of what the DW fleet had accomplished. Jaques hyperjump failed, and he ended up in a region 22,000 light years from Sol - a region that subsequently became known as 'Colonia', and the birth of humanities first outer colony.

The overwhelming feeling of DW 3302 has been extremely positive and its influence on exploration, mass expeditions, and background lore has made it an event that is still talked about fondly today by the community who took part, and those who watched it unfold.

Organizers Retrospective:

"The initial idea behind "Distant Worlds" was for a 2-man wing (CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel & CMDR Dr. Kaii) to set off from the Frontier in an attempt to retrace the Distant Suns route out to the star system designated Ceeckia ZQ-L C24-0 (Beagle Point), on the far galactic rim. Once it became known, several other commanders took an interest and eventually I posted an invitation to the exploration community - complete with roster sign up options and an itinerary and maps of the route. It was thought that no more than half a dozen players would be interested in joining Erimus & Dr. Kaii on this crazy venture.

Within a week of posting the invite, 25 commanders had signed up.

Within a month, over 100.

Within three months, 600 pilots had signed up, representing 35 nations around the world.

The event grew into something no one envisioned. It captured the imagination of the exploration community. By the events launch date of January 14th 3302, around 1,150 commanders had officially registered with the Distant Worlds fleet, with around 200 more missing the deadline but coming along regardless." - Erimus Kamzel

Full Wiki Article: Here

Distant Worlds 3305 (DW2)

Distant Worlds 3305 (DW2) by Erimus Kamzel

"The first early plans for a new Distant Worlds expedition began during the Frontier EXPO event in October 2017. I remember meeting a lot of fellow explorers there, some of which had been participants on the Distant Worlds 3302 expedition (DW1), and who still talked fondly of that journey and were keen to know when the next DW event would take place.

At the EXPO, Frontier announced their plans for ‘Chapter 3’ of Elite Dangerous, and attendees got to chat to the Game Developers about some of the interesting new ideas and gameplay content that was in the works, all scheduled for the next series of major updates set to be released throughout 2018. Among other things, Mining was to be given a whole new lease of life with some innovative and explosive gameplay mechanics, Fleet Carriers were announced, along with Squadron options, revamped Ice Worlds were being promised, and to top it all off, explorers would have a reworked exploration mechanic, including planetary mapping, and a whole Codex full of new content seeded throughout the galaxy to discover.

Although not all of it made it into the Chapter 3 release, this was the kind of content that we had been waiting for before announcing a followup to DW1, and coupled with the lingering enthusiasm that the original DW event still had amongst those who experienced it, I felt the timing was right to start seriously thinking about its sequel. After returning home from the EXPO event I wrote the first draft outline of DW2, along with two construction CGs in an attempt to incorporate the new revamped mining gameplay into the expedition.

After getting feedback from the Rock Rats (Eisen & Baroness Galaxy), and Dr. Kaii, I posted the Distant Worlds 2 Expedition proposal thread on January 14th 2018 (the 2nd anniversary of the launch of DW1) and opened the ideas up for community discussion. I invited a number of content creators on board to bring their ideas and projects into the mix, and all of who ultimately became part of the organisation team. In February 2018, I posted the fleet roster sign up post, along with Qohen Leth who set up the roster database, and the expedition was opened up for players to register their interest and participation.

Almost 2,000 players signed up in that first month, and just like on DW1, the project grew into something no one could have envisioned - with eventually almost 14,000 players registering their participation prior to the launch from Pallaeni on January 13th 3305".

Full details, including maps, locations, statistics, and roster links for Distant Worlds 3302 can be found : Here

DISTANT WORLDS 3305 - "A journey of discovery"
- An in-depth overview (from ED Wiki).

Initials: DW2
Launch date: January 13, 3305
End date: Q2/Q3 3305
Destination: Sagittarius A* & Beagle Point
Number of Waypoints: 12
Particpants: 13,625
Demonym: Distant Worlder

Expedition Organizers:

Erimus Kamzel (Original Concept & Project Leader)
Dr. Kaii (PR & Project leader)
Qohen Leth (Roster Admin)
Olivia Vespera (Content Creator)
Wishblend (Content Creator)
Satsuma (Content Creator)
MadRaptor (Content Creator)
Kolato (Content Creator)
Alex Brentnall (Content Creator)

Full organisation team: Here

Inception:

On October 10, 3303, CMDR Erimus Kamzel made an early announcement for the sequel to the Distant Worlds Expedition. Coming in the wake of the reveal of Elite Dangerous: Beyond at Frontier Expo 2017, it was determined that Distant Worlds II would launch in Q4 3304/Q1 3305, after the release of Beyond's exploration-focused Chapter 4 update.

The stated goals of the expedition were;

We want to create an event that challenges its participants, like DWE 3302 did.
We want to create interesting basecamp meetups and events, that include all what the first expedition had, and more - specifically utilising whatever new discovery mechanics the new content requires.
We would like to reach the same scale as last time or beat it, and then take advantage of our large contingent in the hopes the expedition might discover some of the new and mysterious things FD have hinted at!
We have plans to bring back the Distant Worlds weekly newsletter that proved so popular last time around, and eventually have it again bound into a book as a memento.
Naturally DWE2 plan to work in conjunction with the Galactic Mapping Project to discover, catalogue, and name new POIs, spatial anomalies, and geological features.
The expedition will encourage and facilitate all the emergent gameplay that explorers are renowned for into joining and helping organise and oversee certain aspects of this mammoth endeavour; Fuel Rats, Rock Rats, MediCorp, The Repair & Tour Group, The Galactic Travel Agency, Surveyors, Galactic Mappers, Scouts, and even squadrons that will hopefully be able to utilise the new fleet carriers.
We will put together an experienced organisation team to help create a memorable event.

Expedition Proposal:

On January 14, 3304, on the second anniversary of the launch of the Distant Worlds Expedition, the expedition outline was posted by Erimus. The proposal included a Community Goal idea that would be run in conjunction with the main expedition, which if implemented, would incorporate prospecting and mining into the expedition. Early plans also suggested Community Goals to construct a Starport in Sagittarius A* and a Surface Port in Beagle Point; while the former goal was mostly preserved for Waypoint 7 of the finalized proposal, the latter goal was cancelled.

Registration:

The expedition began accepting signups on February 1, 3304. A number of milestones in participation were achieved before the main roster closed;

2,000 registrants - February 22, 3304[4]
3,000 registrants - August 6, 3304[5]
4,000 registrants - December 11, 3304[6]
5,000 registrants - December 31, 3304[7]
6,000 registrants - January 4, 3305
7,000 registrants - January 6, 3305
8,000 registrants - January 8, 3305
9,000 registrants - January 10, 3305
10,000 registrants - January 12, 3305[8]
11,000 registrants - January 13, 3305
12,000 registrants - January 15, 3305

Registrations for DW2 closed at 18:00 UTC on January 18, 3305, at which point the main roster was locked and existing registrants could longer make or request any further changes to their registrations. A secondary "latecomers" roster opened until February 17, 3305, but it was not administrated or publicly displayed. The secondary roster was later merged with the main roster to create a finalized roster that was archived and presented.

When registrations had officially closed, the DW2 expedition counted 13,625 total registered members.

Roles:

Explorer
Fuel Rat
Miner
Fleet Mechanic
Tour Guide
Astrophotographer
Geologist
Scientist
Media
MediCorp
Fleet Logistics

Preliminary Route:

The preliminary expedition route outlined on February 1, 3304 proposed that Distant Worlds II would travel through both Sagittarius A* and Beagle Point on the "Outbound" stage, while "The Voyage Home" stage would trace the journey of the USS Voyager. The journey would cover over 200,000 ly and was estimated to take 304 days to complete.

Squadrons:

Distant Worlds 2 utilized the Squadrons feature added by Elite Dangerous: Beyond Chapter Four (3.3). As Squadrons have a maximum capacity of 500 members, multiple Squadrons were created for the expedition. Joining an official DW2 Squadron is not mandatory, but applicants are required to first register on the official DW2 roster, and anyone found not to have registered is subject to immediate removal. Expedition Squadrons began accepting member applications on January 1, 3305.

Finalized Expedition Plan:

In early December 3304, Distant Worlds II organizers announced their finalized expedition plan. The expedition was scheduled to depart from Waypoint 1 in the Core Systems on January 13, 3305 on the 18-week "Outbound" half of the journey to Beagle Point, which consisted of four stages:

Waypoints 1-5: Laying the foundations for Galactic Core scientific studies, revisiting mysteries of the past, and trailblazing the new age of discovery.
Waypoints 6-10: Building the Galactic Core Starport and discovering secrets at the heart of the galaxy.
Waypoint 11: Mapping the Aphelion.
Waypoint 12: A journey across the Abyss... and beyond.

In addition to various community events and exploration opportunities along the full route, a Community Goal took place at the Waypoint 2 system, Omega Sector VE-Q b5-15, and involved mining materials for the construction of a new Starport, Explorer's Anchorage, in Stuemeae FG-Y d7561, a system near Sagittarius A*. By the time the expedition reached Waypoint 7, which was be located in a third system near both Sagittarius A* and Stuemeae FG-Y d7561,[13] the Starport had opened to host a second Community Goal to upgrade its amenities for members of the expedition and future travelers. The expedition planned to remain in the Galactic Centre region for two to three weeks before continuing onward to Beagle Point.

Originally, Beagle Point was intended to mark the end of the outbound half of the expedition and the beginning of the return trip, or "Voyage Home", which would have followed a different route. During the course of the expedition, however, it was decided that Beagle Point would become the official endpoint of DW2, after which the fleet would break up and its members would go their separate ways.

Legacy:

Distant Worlds 2 became the largest player-created event in Elite Dangerous history. DW2 may have made gaming history, depending on what metrics you use, but consider that this was a player run event, written by the players, organised by the players, and overseen by the players, it had almost 14,000 participants, it took place in one of the largest video game worlds in existence, and lasted 6 months,...we can't think of any other player created event in any other video game doing anything on this scale, for this long, in this big a gameworld anywhere else before. Maybe it was a first in that respect?

DW2 has been extensively covered by dozens of press mediums, over 30 magazine articles were written about it, including coverage in New Scientist - that alone was read by over 1 million people. The expedition was featured on two mainstream German radio broadcasts, and one from Swedish Radio too. The expedition even received a good luck message from astronaut Chris Hadfield on the eve of its launch. It's been talked about far and wide because it caught the imagination of people who love to see this kind of creativity, energy, and enthusiasm - especially when its based upon exploration.

Full Wiki Article: Here

DIRECT LINK (for zooming etc)

Erimus Kamzel · Feb 19, 2015

The Event Horizon Science Relay

As a tier reward earned during the second Distant Worlds 2 Community Goal, held as the Explorer's Anchorage in March 3305, the Event Horizons Science Relay has now been deployed around planet CD 1 of Stuemeae FG-Y d7561.

The DSSV Distant Worlds

As a tier reward earned during the second Distant Worlds 2 Community Goal, held as the Explorer's Anchorage in March 3305, the Deep Space Science Vessel 'Distant Worlds' has now been constructed.

"Dedicated to the DW2 fleet who built it, we are very proud to announce the launch of the DSSV Distant Worlds megaship, and we look forward to its maiden voyage as it embarks on its Journey of Scientific Study around the galactic core".

The megaship will follow a flight-path based on the following Pilots Federation (FDEV) stipulations;

It should visit no more than 6 locations during its tour
It should travel no further than 1,500 LYs max distance from the Explorer’s Anchorage
Each hyperjump cannot exceed 500 LYs
Each jump will occur on a fortnightly basis
The final jump will be its return to the Explorer's Anchorage, whereupon the tour will begin again

This megaship will be based out of the Explorer's Anchorage, and will periodically conduct a Journey of Scientific Study during its travels between the following galactic core points of interest;

Stuemeae FG-Y d7561 (Explorer's Anchorage)	Binary Star System
Sagittarius A*	Supermassive Black Hole
Myriesly HR-N E6-3640 (Jocelyn's Star)	Neutron Star
Myriesly CL-P E5-7383 (Storms of Fenrisulfur)	Notable Stellar Phenomena
Myriesly HR-N E6-4354 (Blink of an Eye Remnant)	Notable Stellar Phenomena
Phua Aub VM-W D1-91 (Merrill's Legacy)	S-Class Carbon Star

Jump #1 [3 LYs]
Explorer’s Anchorage to Sagittarius A*

Jump #2 [490 LYs]
Sagittarius A* to Myriesly HR-N E6-3640 (Jocelyn's Star)

Jump #3 [275 LYs]
Myriesly HR-N E6-3640 (Jocelyn's Star) to Myriesly CL-P E5-7383 (Storms of Fenrisulfur)

Jump #4 [208 LYs]
Myriesly CL-P E5-7383 (Storms of Fenrisulfur) to Myriesly HR-N E6-4354 (Blink of an Eye Remnant)

Jump #5 [372 LYs]
Myriesly HR-N E6-4354 (Blink of an Eye Remnant) to Phua Aub VM-W D1-91 Planet 1 (Merrill's Legacy)

Jump #6 [326 LYs]
Phua Aub VM-W D1-91 Planet 1 (Merrill's Legacy) to Explorer’s Anchorage

Surly_Badger · Feb 19, 2015

I love this idea. And your names are awesome - respectful of the greatness and vastness you're exploring.

I have personal names for a few of the things I've found. Such as I call
COL 359 SECTOR ZZB B3 1-1
"The Ocean Of Rocks"
Because it has a rather huge rocky ring that I spent an hour trapped in, trying to get out.

I guess my point is that some regions definitely should be named but some star systems, like Rendezvous Point could have individual names because of events that happened there. Which makes me wonder who named "The Great Annihilator" or "Lost My Beer" (that massive black hole..)

Gogster · Feb 19, 2015

You have no peers in this line of work.

Erimus Kamzel · Feb 19, 2015

Thanks

Surly_Badger · Feb 19, 2015

Erimus said:
That's what I was hoping for too. Even if its personal to you, add it to the map. There are 400 billion systems - so plenty of room for players to make their marks!

How do you envision doing this? If you do it manually, you may want to throttle it so that we don't have explorer CMDRs naming things after their dog, or whatever (unless the dog fell into a black hole or something name-worthy)(*)

In my opinion, it would be a good idea if someone determined the name-worthiness of a name. Perhaps it would be good to require a storty to be attached to it. Like your "Outer Rim Abyss"

A name overlay for regions and individual objects wouldn't be too hard to implement. It's just a 3D search tree.

Sorry, I'm being a doofus. Back in 1987 I spent a few months coding on a K-D Tree implementation that nearly broke my brain.

(* and now I am remembering the hysterical story by ... um, someone. About the OFFOG and "destroyed by gravitational stress" ... )

Ozric · Feb 19, 2015

This is a great idea. I am actually just passing near a stretch of Badlands on my way out to visit the Crab Nebula (for personal reasons) I'll let you know where it is, if it's wide enough to cause troubles. How wide/big would you envisage that being?

Once I've done that then I had already planned on heading out to the New Outer Arm, so hopefully I can bring back some stories from out there...

Toscaner · Feb 19, 2015

nice idea! i like it.

will think about it on my next journey.

edit: can't give you rep atm, sry

Erimus Kamzel · Feb 19, 2015

Surly_Badger said:
How do you envision doing this? If you do it manually, you may want to throttle it so that we don't have explorer CMDRs naming things after their dog, or whatever (unless the dog fell into a black hole or something name-worthy)

In my opinion, it would be a good idea if someone determined the name-worthiness of a name. Perhaps it would be good to require a storty to be attached to it. Like your "Outer Rim Abyss"

A name overlay for regions and individual objects wouldn't be too hard to implement. It's just a 3D search tree. Sorry, I'm being a doofus. Back in 1987 I spent a few months coding on a K-D Tree implementation that nearly broke my brain.

I think it could be categorized.

Ranging from minor points of interest... like something that is personal to a player (like your experience in that asteroid belt), to major descriptive features and write ups of interesting POIs. Provided your naming is sensible, you write a reason why its important to you, and provide a screenshot. Minor entries could be simply labelled on the map with a number. Then players can look at an index and see what that number refers to and see if it interests them.

Obviously we cant fit thousands of labels on the maps so only significant features or places of interest beyond the personal stories level should actually be named on the maps (unless it has some wider impact - like the first Thargoid encounter or the first Alien relic found by a player.. most distant PvP battle etc).. everything else could be simple reference numbers with an accompanying index?

If it gets too complicated or becomes an information overload then I'm not sure how it could work.

I guess we'll have to see how much interest there is and how good the data/description/screenshots are and possibly vote on what should be added to the main maps.

But there is no reason why there can't be localized maps created by individuals, say a few 1000 LY square, with labels and descriptions on those too of what that individual did/discovered there. Akin to minor maps.

In theory with a galaxy this size there could literally be hundreds of maps created by players. I think if nothing else, this idea could at least centralize them into one place so future explorers can bring up a map of the region they're traveling to and look through some historically recorded info on what happened there, who went there, and what they saw/recorded, and finally have some descriptive names of what they're likely to see.... and not just procedural strings of text and numbers.

pHUB4R · Feb 19, 2015

Great idea.I'm near sagittarius a.Be nice to put names to objects i find interesting.

Erimus Kamzel · Feb 19, 2015

pHUB4R said:
Great idea.I'm near sagittarius a.Be nice to put names to objects i find interesting.

There are plenty of supernova remnants with ejecta clouds around the galactic core worth exploring and "tagging"

Ozric · Feb 19, 2015

Is it too cheesy to want to call a system I've just discovered with 4 Water Worlds - Oceana?

What I thought was a stretch of badlands near my position wasn't actually too bad because there were a few type M and K stars scattered throughout it. However I had just flown through 5 systems in a row that only had stars in them. It was beginning to feel a bit barren and I was feeling the need to quench my exploring thirst

I then jumped into a system that returned some objects and they looked promising. Once I had scanned the system I had discovered 4 Water Worlds within it, the most I have found in a single system. However I could not quench my thirst there as 3 of them had Ammonia atmospheres... best to stay away I thought.

Erimus Kamzel · Feb 19, 2015

Ozric said:
Is it too cheesy to want to call a system I've just discovered with 4 Water Worlds - Oceana?

What I thought was a stretch of badlands near my position wasn't actually too bad because there were a few type M and K stars scattered throughout it. However I had just flown through 5 systems in a row that only had stars in them. It was beginning to feel a bit barren and I was feeling the need to quench my exploring thirst I then jumped into a system that returned some objects and they looked promising. Once I had scanned the system I had discovered 4 Water Worlds within it, the most I have found in a single system. However I could not quench my thirst there as 3 of them had Ammonia atmospheres... best to stay away I thought.

http://i.imgur.com/2zXxjCSl.jpg

4 water worlds in one system is quite rare I think, so could be worthy of an index entry

When I get the first dozen or so submissions of interesting locations I'll update the relevant map.

Erimus Kamzel · Feb 20, 2015

Update:

I've added the Great Annihilator and the two minor POIs to the relevant maps.

drpaul · Feb 20, 2015

Can we have establishing a station at Sagittarius A* a community goal too?