I'm not sure I can quite express how awesome Lavecon 2017 was so I thought I'd just do what I do best and collect everyone else's thoughts, photos, etc all together here in one place (I apologise in advance if anyone objects to me doing this).
What I will just say/confess is that when I got home (admittedly tired, hungover and emotional) and started to write this I basically burst into tears ... so yeah, it was that good. You are ALL awesome! I've never seen such selfless giving from any community - ever (appropriate since I was involved in Saturday's Q&A panel on that very subject). The time, materials, friendliness, positivity, creativity and shear love and enthusiasm for this dumb game that we're all so very fond of (and that absolutely goes for everyone from Frontier as well) is staggering. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.
OK, that's enough from me, here's some other voices (and images). Feel free to add your own or point out anything I've missed (particularly from Reddit which I don't really use)
Sean Nocti Schofield (facebook)
Slowly recovering from fantastic weekend of meeting old new cmdrs especially you trucker's. So much was going on and time seemed to so short. The only regret was Sunday and I had leave before event was over. Thanks for all your support . and great gifts. Anyway enough if me talking rubbish . great community great weekend fly safe cndrs o7
Mark Sanders (facebook)
Been home a few hours now. A MASSIVE thank you to Karen Fishwick, Psykokow T MadKow, Lave Radio Crew, Frontier Developments and everyone else who makes the event what it is. You guys are legendary. — feeling grateful.
Craig Hikins (facebook)
Had a fantastic weekend at lavecon and I would like to say Thank you from all of the DELTA SQUADRON for the amazing weekend we all had, a few sore heads and a few thing we would all lime to forget but we won't (ha ha ha) but AMAZING. Well done all those who organised the entire weekend and all the hard work they are continuing to do for it. o7 CMDR TAZ101
Rory Scarlett (facebook)
What an awesome few days! I can't thank Karen and the team enough for putting on such a splendid event. Great to see everyone again and so many new faces too!
I feel so lucky to be a part of such an inclusive and welcoming community.
And the guys from Frontier... What complete and utter L E G E N D S to put themselves on offer to us in such a friendly way.
Thanks everyone...
Zulu Romeo (facebook)
Below lie my spoils of LaveCon 2017. Special thanks to Jude Walker for her awesome artwork including the personalised one in the centre, to Frontier's Steve Kirby for generously giving me his 3rd place prize of a Fuel Rats towel for their fuelling rescue challenge, and especially to Jeremy Howat for kindly offering to give me his signed Elite: Dangerous art following the Q&A.
But really, LaveCon was more than all this. It was more than playing games and listening to seminars and workshops on the games and science fiction arts. It was more than picking up free paintjobs and deciding which VR set to buy after all.
It was about all of us.
I was finally able to see all those CMDRs and online community personalities I see and hear in text, picture, sound and video, finally come to life before my eyes.
In fact this was my very first real life Elite: Dangerous community get together with real people in a real location, and I was absolutely terrified about what to expect and how it would pan out. It turns out that it was all brilliant. Everybody there was absolutely wonderful, kind and awesome, and they were just as pleased to see me as I was to see them. More than cordial, more than friendly, positively Allied.
Regrettably I realise that there were some I didn't quite get to say hi to or shake their hand or have a chance to say how great the universe they created for us was or how great it was to play with them, and some who couldn't make it to LaveCon this year. No doubt there will be more times later for us to meet again Soon™.
As Allen Stroud and others summed up at the end of this afternoon's Lave Radio podcast recording, events such as this really revived interest in this little game, and gave us new meaning and new reason to keep painting this universe for everyone, and new reason for all of us to continue enjoying each other's company be it virtual or personal.
It has certainly given me new hope. I leave with a new perspective on the game and renewed enjoyment and hope. And I shall hope to return again for LaveCon 2018 - and maybe many others too.
May the Supermassive One bless you and keep you...
Fly well,
H.
Deal Or No Deal with Ed Noelmunds (Ed on absolutely top form - utterly hilarious!)
https://www.facebook.com/spikecraib/videos/1572098322862640/
Apologies if people can't see this video. If anyone has another one let me know.
Lavecon opening speaches.
[video=youtube_share;68S2KMuyJgw]https://youtu.be/68S2KMuyJgw[/video]
Lavecon cryptic location search (and answers)
Answers ...
Russel Pitcher (facebook)
Can I add my voice to the chorus of praise to everyone involved in LaveCon this year. I had a blast chatting with old and new friends, learned a lot in Chris Jarvis's audio workshop, saved the world twice in Artemis and even came joint second in the docking darts, which absolutely positively wasn't a complete fluke.
I'll try to erase the memory of the hour spent decorating Hober but that may take more Centauri Mega Gin than I currently have. Perhaps Jerry Pringle's fantastic HOT IPA will help!
Thanks again to all of you!
Cmdr Arithon's Elite Dangerous blog post
http://elite-dangerous-blog.co.uk/post/LaveCon-2017
Karen Fishwick (facebook)
Lots of people have said thank you to me for Lavecon 2017, which is lovely, but those thanks need to be shared as I could not do this on my own.
Firstly to the HWS team who came in to help with the front desk/merchandise when some of our regular volunteers could not make it as well as the VR room; Lisa, Julie, Dave & Stuart.
To the Lave Radio team, who organise and lead on a lot of the content; John, Psykokow, Ben, and Chris.
To all our wonderful volunteer crew, without who we literally could not run this; Simoof, Steve, Bill, Chris, Tamara, John, James, Ashley, Harry, Chris James Stabler , Dylan & Oliver .
To all the wonderful attendees who helped out when needed (there are too many to mention, but I will tag a few...) Darren, Andy, Peter in particular spring to mind, but everyone who helped.
To our wonderful sponsors EDTracker and EDRPG. And to everyone in the community, who make the event such a friendly and welcoming place.
You guys are all the reason that I do this, thank you to all of you.
And of course to Allen who got me into this in the first place.
(I have almost certainly forgotten someone and I am really sorry... I blame being tired)
Cmdr Vonpaulus (facebook)
Well I hope all CMDRs (and passengers) have arrived safely back at their home ports. This was my first LaveCon and for sure will not be my last. Special thanks to Karen and the many others that worked hard to make this event fun for all. Was great to meet so many of you. Some I knew from flying with before etc but for others this was a first contact situation. The FDev team were awesome and the Hutton crew seemed to be everywhere!!!! Much drinking and fun was had and special shouts to my wingman Jeremy (Jez146), the infamous Haji (Zulu Romeo) who was aimlessly wandering around the car park - probably trying to tag something decent this time, Brother Jason (Shepperton) with the lovely Nina, Rick (Star Biker) who next time should not just come for the Sunday, Alison (Wishblend) who was lucky I didn't try to pilfer some of her patches
, The camping queen Jude (BeetleJude) who made some snazzy art for everyone to enjoy, just don't trust her with codes , AJ Coles, (Cillit er um Fury who likes to expose him self at conventions and on Youtube if rumours are correct , Russell who's design eye and craft hand could be seen all over the event and who was pretty lucky that myself and Jeremy didn't make mischief with his Hutton adorned car when we were drunk !!! And Michael who gave me the definitive version of why the moon isn't currently landable in game - though I got a very different explanation when I put the same question to a slightly drunken Sandro! There were so many more great people but my memory isn't what it should be after Friday and Saturday nights levels or "merryment" and big thankyou to all and so, so glad we all met up!!!
Fly safe ladies and gents and hope to see you all next year - CMDR Vonpaulus
[video=youtube_share;F5lDM5HSqQM]https://youtu.be/F5lDM5HSqQM[/video]
Cmdr Mindwipe (facebook)
Lavecon 2017 was Cmdr Mindwipe's 1st Lavecon i loved it and didnt want to go home dispite missing the kids (truely). when i first arrived i was nervous as hell as im not used to crowds for the longest time but all of you who i interacted with made me feel so welcomed. So as one off i quickly slapped this together to reflect.
https://soundcloud.com/mndwipeuk/lavecon2017-dont-you-forget-about-me
Unofficial group photo - Michael Werle (twitter)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDGMZn5W0AA92LL.jpg:large
Flossy's photos
https://helenlister.smugmug.com/Lavecon-2017--23-266/
Lavecon 2018! (yes, already!)
https://www.facebook.com/events/782439308590510/
What I will just say/confess is that when I got home (admittedly tired, hungover and emotional) and started to write this I basically burst into tears ... so yeah, it was that good. You are ALL awesome! I've never seen such selfless giving from any community - ever (appropriate since I was involved in Saturday's Q&A panel on that very subject). The time, materials, friendliness, positivity, creativity and shear love and enthusiasm for this dumb game that we're all so very fond of (and that absolutely goes for everyone from Frontier as well) is staggering. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.
OK, that's enough from me, here's some other voices (and images). Feel free to add your own or point out anything I've missed (particularly from Reddit which I don't really use)
Sean Nocti Schofield (facebook)
Slowly recovering from fantastic weekend of meeting old new cmdrs especially you trucker's. So much was going on and time seemed to so short. The only regret was Sunday and I had leave before event was over. Thanks for all your support . and great gifts. Anyway enough if me talking rubbish . great community great weekend fly safe cndrs o7
Mark Sanders (facebook)
Been home a few hours now. A MASSIVE thank you to Karen Fishwick, Psykokow T MadKow, Lave Radio Crew, Frontier Developments and everyone else who makes the event what it is. You guys are legendary. — feeling grateful.
Craig Hikins (facebook)
Had a fantastic weekend at lavecon and I would like to say Thank you from all of the DELTA SQUADRON for the amazing weekend we all had, a few sore heads and a few thing we would all lime to forget but we won't (ha ha ha) but AMAZING. Well done all those who organised the entire weekend and all the hard work they are continuing to do for it. o7 CMDR TAZ101
Rory Scarlett (facebook)
What an awesome few days! I can't thank Karen and the team enough for putting on such a splendid event. Great to see everyone again and so many new faces too!
I feel so lucky to be a part of such an inclusive and welcoming community.
And the guys from Frontier... What complete and utter L E G E N D S to put themselves on offer to us in such a friendly way.
Thanks everyone...
Zulu Romeo (facebook)
Below lie my spoils of LaveCon 2017. Special thanks to Jude Walker for her awesome artwork including the personalised one in the centre, to Frontier's Steve Kirby for generously giving me his 3rd place prize of a Fuel Rats towel for their fuelling rescue challenge, and especially to Jeremy Howat for kindly offering to give me his signed Elite: Dangerous art following the Q&A.
But really, LaveCon was more than all this. It was more than playing games and listening to seminars and workshops on the games and science fiction arts. It was more than picking up free paintjobs and deciding which VR set to buy after all.
It was about all of us.
I was finally able to see all those CMDRs and online community personalities I see and hear in text, picture, sound and video, finally come to life before my eyes.
In fact this was my very first real life Elite: Dangerous community get together with real people in a real location, and I was absolutely terrified about what to expect and how it would pan out. It turns out that it was all brilliant. Everybody there was absolutely wonderful, kind and awesome, and they were just as pleased to see me as I was to see them. More than cordial, more than friendly, positively Allied.
Regrettably I realise that there were some I didn't quite get to say hi to or shake their hand or have a chance to say how great the universe they created for us was or how great it was to play with them, and some who couldn't make it to LaveCon this year. No doubt there will be more times later for us to meet again Soon™.
As Allen Stroud and others summed up at the end of this afternoon's Lave Radio podcast recording, events such as this really revived interest in this little game, and gave us new meaning and new reason to keep painting this universe for everyone, and new reason for all of us to continue enjoying each other's company be it virtual or personal.
It has certainly given me new hope. I leave with a new perspective on the game and renewed enjoyment and hope. And I shall hope to return again for LaveCon 2018 - and maybe many others too.
May the Supermassive One bless you and keep you...
Fly well,
H.
Yeah, I have officially played too many games for too many hours... Buckyball race, docking challenge, Artemis. Pretty much everything I had time to join inbetween the fuel rat event I won so I guess it was a good job I didn't have time to do anything more!
[Essay]
What we did and feedback:
For those that didn't follow. Lavecon is a IRL convention at Northampton UK for fans of Elite and sci-fi in general which FDev join in with. The Fuel Rats had an event in the lan room which was basically a standard fuel rat drill but involving a tactical faceplant into the star and a code-red scenario. The upside being we had myself and a few other rats alongside in person coaching the players through it.
This worked fantastically well with a 100% success ratio and some frankly amazing results. o2 timers started at 25 minutes around the Fr+ time and once the wrong system and navlock failed issues had been sorted and the TFP completed the timer scores were mostly between 8 minutes and 16 minutes left!
Each participant was "secretly" marked on: Experience level, skill/style, communications, time left on o2 timer and Execution of TFP. Very few dared to do both the flying and the irc chat so I handled that for most people, however, the best TFP drops were 500m, 700m, 1km, 1km and 3km. And none of these players had ever done a TFP before!! Worst was a few Mm but moving to 3km on the 2nd attempt.
We had many good comments on the process being a lot more challenging than they thought and a lot more adrenaline pumping than expected. Lots said it was highly enjoyable being a completely different way to play the game than they usually do... And deliberately flying into a star was a little un-nerving for more than a few people.
Over the 2 days we ran 22 players through the challenge including Steve Kirby from FDev. Each time there was up to 15 people stood behind watching and asking questions so the audience was much larger than the number appears. Several are interested in joining to some extent so if you see any pop in over the next few weeks do take care of them as I know you will!
Winners:
1st) Cmdr Nyxa Lovell - Best all around attempt
2nd) Cmdr D Sinclair - Best style/skill award
3rd) Cmdr Just Call Me Wendy (Steve Kirby FDev) - Tagline "I know what I'm doing"
4th) Cmdr Zulu Romeo - Excellent run with a focus on control and accuracy
Honorable mentions:
Cmdr Taz101 - Great control skill and style, speedy and efficient but just didn't quite nail the drop at the end with ~3km
Cmdr Myshka - Same as above, ~1km drop
Very hard to separate the top 3, in short it was rather a close event in the end, as I said some amazing results.
Thanks and further feedback:
Yes as Alec said massive praise goes to Masterloon, Watar, Demfloro, Adanaran for helping run the #laverats channel as damsels and dispatchers. A big thanks in particular Brother Sabathius who ran almost all the damsel side of things on both days with lots of brandy, humor and generally powered through one after the other. I was foolishly worried that I'd be sat there with a queue of people and nobody available on the irc but that was never the case so thank you for that!
(sorry for anyone I miss on the thank you lists, there was lots of things happening and alcohol involved)
Had some really positive comments throughout both days about the event and the rats in general and quite a few "thank yous" from people we've helped in the past.
A thanks again to the tech-rats for getting the channel up just for us to run the event in and sorting the bot. There were many comments on how well the !search function works and general amazement at how automated and sophisticated fuel ratting has become. (On the Saturday I was sat with one player where we just watched a live rescue take place in #fuelrats and he was literally stunned at the whole dispatching and general process).
There were also many who I quickly showed the Confluence help pages to who were amazed at all the background reading material, statistics page, leader-board stats etc. A common question was asking how busy we are and as the leaderboard shows about 30-40 rescues a day surprised many people.
The short answer is, lots and lots of people know about the Fuel Rats but many don't know much beyond the "who we are" and "what we do". Showing a basic bit of behind the scenes was a pretty great eye-opener for many people.
More thanks to Alec Turner, Uvelius Sang and Surly Badger also get a huge thanks from me for the frankly amazing artwork, advertisements printing and loot/prizes. (I think we won the unofficial "best free loot competition" too!).
Many people were determined to get their hands on the certificate, I still have a good 15 left, not sure what to do with them but I may be able to get them posted out to people if anyone wants one sent their way.
Thanks to Yujo Kameida as well for distributing the loot, stickers like it was his life's calling on the Saturday!
Finally lots of people including the devs asked if we would be branching into repair limpets. I could only answer: "I'd be surprised if we didn't"... So no pressure guys!
Personal reflection:
In short this event would have not been at all the same without all of you and it turned out pretty fantastic. It was great to see you all again as well, hopefully I'll be around next year, maybe more of the same again.
Anyone that was there will tell you I spent a lot of time talking at a rapid pace helping people through the event and the rest of the time running around between things and the bar! Despite the "workload" I did find it highly enjoyable.
Suggestions:
1) From a player looking at Confluence: It's very wordy, one thing that may help is a bullet point step-step guide for rats in certain scenarios like the TFP, the CRs etc that can be used as a quick reference guide for anyone that hasn't trained in the obscure events.
This may already exist but being truthful I probably don't know half of what's on confluence
2) Next year at Lavecon we should consider doing a "Dispatcher training" challenge where we can add more and more clients in until the participant breaks under the pressureNot sure how this would work as dispatching isn't a simple process... I'll have a think over the next 12 months and see what I can come up with.
One thing I'd love to do is have them dispatch whilst the rat and damsel both stream on a 2nd/3rd screen so they can watch a drill rescue in real time whilst dispatching it.
I also want to get a large vertical screen with the #fuelrats channel up so anyone wandering by can watch any live rescues over the weekend happen in real time as a lot of people were interested in that.
[/essay]
Side note: Big props to the Buckyball racers too, helped make this a very enjoyable weekend. You are awesome!
Side note 2: I have not tons but a significant amount of loot left if anyone is visiting any Elite related events in the UK I can send a care package of stickers and badges, let me know.
Tl: dr - Epic weekend!
Deal Or No Deal with Ed Noelmunds (Ed on absolutely top form - utterly hilarious!)
https://www.facebook.com/spikecraib/videos/1572098322862640/
Apologies if people can't see this video. If anyone has another one let me know.
Lavecon opening speaches.
[video=youtube_share;68S2KMuyJgw]https://youtu.be/68S2KMuyJgw[/video]
Lavecon cryptic location search (and answers)
Answers ...
Russel Pitcher (facebook)
Can I add my voice to the chorus of praise to everyone involved in LaveCon this year. I had a blast chatting with old and new friends, learned a lot in Chris Jarvis's audio workshop, saved the world twice in Artemis and even came joint second in the docking darts, which absolutely positively wasn't a complete fluke.
I'll try to erase the memory of the hour spent decorating Hober but that may take more Centauri Mega Gin than I currently have. Perhaps Jerry Pringle's fantastic HOT IPA will help!
Thanks again to all of you!
Cmdr Arithon's Elite Dangerous blog post
http://elite-dangerous-blog.co.uk/post/LaveCon-2017
Karen Fishwick (facebook)
Lots of people have said thank you to me for Lavecon 2017, which is lovely, but those thanks need to be shared as I could not do this on my own.
Firstly to the HWS team who came in to help with the front desk/merchandise when some of our regular volunteers could not make it as well as the VR room; Lisa, Julie, Dave & Stuart.
To the Lave Radio team, who organise and lead on a lot of the content; John, Psykokow, Ben, and Chris.
To all our wonderful volunteer crew, without who we literally could not run this; Simoof, Steve, Bill, Chris, Tamara, John, James, Ashley, Harry, Chris James Stabler , Dylan & Oliver .
To all the wonderful attendees who helped out when needed (there are too many to mention, but I will tag a few...) Darren, Andy, Peter in particular spring to mind, but everyone who helped.
To our wonderful sponsors EDTracker and EDRPG. And to everyone in the community, who make the event such a friendly and welcoming place.
You guys are all the reason that I do this, thank you to all of you.
And of course to Allen who got me into this in the first place.
(I have almost certainly forgotten someone and I am really sorry... I blame being tired)
Cmdr Vonpaulus (facebook)
Well I hope all CMDRs (and passengers) have arrived safely back at their home ports. This was my first LaveCon and for sure will not be my last. Special thanks to Karen and the many others that worked hard to make this event fun for all. Was great to meet so many of you. Some I knew from flying with before etc but for others this was a first contact situation. The FDev team were awesome and the Hutton crew seemed to be everywhere!!!! Much drinking and fun was had and special shouts to my wingman Jeremy (Jez146), the infamous Haji (Zulu Romeo) who was aimlessly wandering around the car park - probably trying to tag something decent this time, Brother Jason (Shepperton) with the lovely Nina, Rick (Star Biker) who next time should not just come for the Sunday, Alison (Wishblend) who was lucky I didn't try to pilfer some of her patches
, The camping queen Jude (BeetleJude) who made some snazzy art for everyone to enjoy, just don't trust her with codes , AJ Coles, (Cillit er um Fury who likes to expose him self at conventions and on Youtube if rumours are correct , Russell who's design eye and craft hand could be seen all over the event and who was pretty lucky that myself and Jeremy didn't make mischief with his Hutton adorned car when we were drunk !!! And Michael who gave me the definitive version of why the moon isn't currently landable in game - though I got a very different explanation when I put the same question to a slightly drunken Sandro! There were so many more great people but my memory isn't what it should be after Friday and Saturday nights levels or "merryment" and big thankyou to all and so, so glad we all met up!!!Fly safe ladies and gents and hope to see you all next year - CMDR Vonpaulus
[video=youtube_share;F5lDM5HSqQM]https://youtu.be/F5lDM5HSqQM[/video]
Cmdr Mindwipe (facebook)
Lavecon 2017 was Cmdr Mindwipe's 1st Lavecon i loved it and didnt want to go home dispite missing the kids (truely). when i first arrived i was nervous as hell as im not used to crowds for the longest time but all of you who i interacted with made me feel so welcomed. So as one off i quickly slapped this together to reflect.
https://soundcloud.com/mndwipeuk/lavecon2017-dont-you-forget-about-me
Unofficial group photo - Michael Werle (twitter)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDGMZn5W0AA92LL.jpg:large
Flossy's photos
https://helenlister.smugmug.com/Lavecon-2017--23-266/
Lavecon 2018! (yes, already!)
https://www.facebook.com/events/782439308590510/
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![Cmdr Delmonte[VR]](https://d2aefvhu2f0gi9.cloudfront.net/data/avatars/m/82/82957.jpg?1711998379){kind=avatar}
