Last night I looked at the sky for the first time in months...

So here in cloudy cold Estonia it's been overcast for most of winter. Last night however I went for a walk to the shop and the sky was clear and empty of clouds. I'm a bit of an amatuer astronomer so im used to looking at the sky and know it like the back of my hand. However last night I realised just how much Elite Dangerous is influencing my perspective. I looked up at the vast stretch of the milky way for the first time in 2 months and all of a sudden I was blown away by the magnificence of this little game we're all playing. In-game I am currently near NGC 6357 on my way to Sagittarius A*. As I looked up at the sky I couldnt help but feel inspired by my own journey and the journeys of my fellow explorers. I imagined my in-game self, out there in the cold blackness of space, wrapped in a blanket and sipping some hot chocolate while the mighty bulk of the nearby nebula looms outside the window. Sure "its just a game", but we are all sharing in an experience that is truly special and unique.

Thank you Frontier.
 
I have to admit that I'm so used to the game's star names, that when I see a wikipedia about one of them, it feels weird because I kind of forget they're actual real stars.
 

Matthew Florianz

Senior Audio Designer- Elite: Dangerous
Frontier
+1

I feel exactly the same, Elite has rekindled a very old, almost forgotten love.

I don't want to complain, but it is unfortunate that looking up, so little of the night sky is visible where I live. Thinking back of summers in the Austrian mountains (where I grew up) my dad would show me the Milky Way and the constellations which were so clearly visible; more stars in a tiny part of the sky than I can see from where I live now.

Yet, looking up is still awe-inspiring and instils that longing to go there, how lucky to live also in a time where that, through imagination and this very game, it is possible to do so. I love Elite for that feeling which will only get better.
 
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Couldn't agree more. Walking my dog on a clear night and just looking up at the stars thinking "which one is that? Let me check my cell phone app." Then I find it, or what I hope is it, and the next time I'm in game look for it on the galaxy map... and most of the time it's there and not too far away. My explorers list is growing for when I can actually afford a kitted out exploring Asp! Can't wait!!!
 
I talkd a couple of coworkers into buying ED. At first one of them was skeptical that the "milky way" was modeled in game...then i showed him how to zoom in/out of the galaxy map....he just smiled when he saw it, no more debate :)
 
Braben really nailed it in that little new yorker online piece about how the game isn't so much educational per se, but could serve to inspire wonder about what's actually out there.

In the end the galactic simulation and stellar forge will probably prove to be Dangerous's trump card, what absolutely distinguishes it among its competitors - just imagine when this thing gets more powerful, and the formulae and art assets allow for bodies to interact in realistic ways, like stars feeding on each other or the energy jets of a particularly massive black hole. The things that we'll be able to discover then....
 
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+1

I feel exactly the same, Elite has rekindled a very old, almost forgotten love.

I don't want to complain, but it is unfortunate that looking up, so little of the night sky is visible where I live. Thinking back of summers in the Austria mountains (where I grew up) my dad would show me the Milky Way and the constellations and they where so clearly visible, more stars in a tiny part of the sky than I can see from where I live now.

Yet, looking up is still awe-inspiring and instils that longing to go there, how lucky to live also in a time where that, through imagination and this very game, it is possible to do so. I love Elite for that feeling which will only get better.

Not to derail the thread, but your audio team is also a large part of the draw of this game for me. Absolutely top-notch work sir, pass that on to your whole team please. o7
 
As I played last night I thought if they ever make a movie about Elite, or any good sci-fi movie, they could use footage from the game. It's almost movie quality. There's very little they'd have to add to it to make it better.

I was on my way to Wolf 359 and I thought of a t shirt, "Wolf 359, been there done that."
 
One of the things that I deeply sorry and can't really get over in this life is the fact that we are forever stuck on this little planet - when there is just so much out there.

Every evening we go out with gf for dinner, and I keep staring at the sky - she laughs at it quite a lot.

Elite helps to overcome this sore of the soul.
 
One benefit living in the countryside is the amazing lack of light pollution. It almost makes up for the mockery that is supposedly called broadband!

Glass of whisky and a cold clear night makes for a wonderful sight. Best in the summer, but outstanding any time of year really...
 
So here in cloudy cold Estonia it's been overcast for most of winter. Last night however I went for a walk to the shop and the sky was clear and empty of clouds. I'm a bit of an amatuer astronomer so im used to looking at the sky and know it like the back of my hand. However last night I realised just how much Elite Dangerous is influencing my perspective. I looked up at the vast stretch of the milky way for the first time in 2 months and all of a sudden I was blown away by the magnificence of this little game we're all playing. In-game I am currently near NGC 6357 on my way to Sagittarius A*. As I looked up at the sky I couldnt help but feel inspired by my own journey and the journeys of my fellow explorers. I imagined my in-game self, out there in the cold blackness of space, wrapped in a blanket and sipping some hot chocolate while the mighty bulk of the nearby nebula looms outside the window. Sure "its just a game", but we are all sharing in an experience that is truly special and unique.

Thank you Frontier.

Couldn't have summed it up better myself when I give demos to potential new commanders at trade shows.

Great comment. I'll pass it on to the Dev team.

Ed
 
I've posted about this elsewhere but I had a similar star gazing epiphany just after I started playing the game. What I then did was to download one of those augmented reality app's to my iPad (SkyView in this case), locate the system I was currently docked at within the app via its HIPP number and then I took my iPad out into the garden and managed to find that star up in the night sky. It actually sent a chill down my spine :)
 
Want something to blow your mind,

Zoom out of on the Galaxy map so you see the Galaxy and black space all around. Now picture that black/blank space going on for infinity... :eek:


:rolleyes: My head hurts again.
 
Want something to blow your mind,

Zoom out of on the Galaxy map so you see the Galaxy and black space all around. Now picture that black/blank space going on for infinity... :eek:


:rolleyes: My head hurts again.

Nope, what you want to do is imagine a universe where each of the dots on the E: D map is actually a galaxy itself in some galactic supercluster; or just have a play with SpaceEngine to get a feel for just how many millions of galaxies (each containing billions of stars) there are up there.

This picture off Wikipedia also gives some sense of scale. I'm expecting the sequel (2Elite2Dangerous) to at least give us the whole Local Group, if not the Virgo or Laniakea Superclusters to mess around in :eek:
 
+1

I feel exactly the same, Elite has rekindled a very old, almost forgotten love.

I don't want to complain, but it is unfortunate that looking up, so little of the night sky is visible where I live. Thinking back of summers in the Austria mountains (where I grew up) my dad would show me the Milky Way and the constellations and they where so clearly visible, more stars in a tiny part of the sky than I can see from where I live now.

Yet, looking up is still awe-inspiring and instils that longing to go there, how lucky to live also in a time where that, through imagination and this very game, it is possible to do so. I love Elite for that feeling which will only get better.

Totally Agree - I often lie on my back looking up at the vastness of space and "feel" the majesty and awesomeness of the eternal
 
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