Out of Fuel? - Explorer Rescue Service, The Fuel Rats
- Thread starter Surly_Badger
- Start date
Diary of an X-Rat : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=203413&p=3153045#post3153045
TL, DR - had an eventful night Ratting last night
TL, DR - had an eventful night Ratting last night
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Damn YES !
OMG, I sprayed my monitors with the morningtea while reading fuelrat reddit this morning...
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDange...t_of_fuel_for_new_cmdrs_the_fuel_rats/cxf7plw
Keep up the good work
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDange...t_of_fuel_for_new_cmdrs_the_fuel_rats/cxf7plw
Keep up the good work
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Understatement of the week!!!
Brilliant!
I can just see his expression changing during your exchange.
Out of fuel and no scoopables... I'm an diot! I'm lost I'm lost I'm lost Oh no Oh no Oh no what to do!?! Fuel rats will save me, yes of course! Here comes one now I'm saved! Glory be, all that data, all those hours thank you thank you so much for coming all this way to... What the Holy...!!!
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CMDR Fat[A]lut1on wants to join the Fuel Rats!
Please, tell me what I need to do...
I have outfitted ASP already.
*Can't change my name here, sigh*
Please, tell me what I need to do...
I have outfitted ASP already.
*Can't change my name here, sigh*
Yeah it's a bit of a shame, maybe it will still come eventually. Either way I'm glad FD have acknowledged the sheer awesome of his skins as well as putting them across all rescue NPC's and not just being available on an Asp. That Anaconda looks epic
I found myself interdicting any of them I saw in beta, I even disabled a few of them just to fly around looking at the skin
Political Philosophy
Robert Paul Wolff, in his classic "In Defense of Anarchism" lays out a position he calls 'philosophical anarchism' - a political philosophy that checkmates the legitimacy of the state by opposing it with the autonomy of the individual. Wolff's view of anarchism is not the 'anarchy' of a zombie apocalypse television series, or the fevered imaginings of Friedrich Nietzsche, it's a doctrine of self-discipline. In Wolff's anarchism, the autonomous individual asserts "I do not need to be 'led' thank you very much, I've got this." There is no need for a state, or for rules, because the autonomous individual is sensible and mature enough to realize their own self-interest, and that is peaceful co-existence and mutual support. Humans are social animals and have evolved to depend on eachother; as one of my biologist friends once said, "A solitary person is not fully human." In the universe of Elite Dangerous, this is especially the case - humanity has migrated to the stars and has created a vast far-flung web of dependencies. Even the most hard-core deep space explorer needs the dock rat that maintained their ship, the researcher who designed their frame-shift drive, the construction worker that assembled the orbital, the hydroponic farmer that grew their food. Anarchism is not the collapse of social dependencies; it's an acknowledgement that the autonomous individual is ready and worthy to participate fully in human society without needing 'encouragement' from the strong hand of a police-state.
In fact, one of the tragedies of Nietschean nihilist anarchy (Henceforth I will call it 'anarcho-nihilism') is that it inevitably devolves into a dictatorship. Many Earth societies went through dark ages that eventually coalesced around the biggest thug on the street, who was usually granted the title 'king' and their thuggish goons usually stood by ready to make up an 'aristocracy'. Philosophical anarchists look at this in horror because they realize that a nascent aristocracy is hardly going to result in liberty - it's just trading one form of oppression for another, endlessly. When a philosophical anarchist says "I am an anarchist" they are not saying "you can't give me orders!" they are saying "you don't need to give me orders!" Because the philosophical anarchist realizes that the collective they are establishing is their only protection against eventual oppression, Hobbes' war of every man against all others, or Nietzsche's chaos from which the ubermensch will claw his way to the top. To become ruler.
When I started the Fuel Rats there weren't any other Fuel Rats to talk to (picture me, sitting in a bar in Veach Hub, Atins II, talking to a circle of empty mugs of Insty-Bruu, while Mossfoot tried to decide whether to call station security) so I made decisions by myself. One of those decisions, which I hope never to regret, was to structure the Fuel Rats so that there was no hierarchy, no leadership, nothing but the bonds of cooperation and companionship. It's an idea I lifted straight from Epicurus (341–270 BC) though Epicurus eventually couldn't resist the urge to create a hierarchy ... and guess who he put at the top? As I watched the Insty-Bruu cool I formulated an idea I've floated here, before:
The Doctrine of Individual Excellence
Simply, it defines the bonds between the individual and the collective. Absent authority, and absent need(1) the best reason to do things with the good of the collective in mind is because the individual is strongest, and so is the collective, when the individual is being awesome in the name of the collective. Those of you who feel the slightest shred of pride at saying "I am a Fuel Rat" understand what I am talking about, here. By associating yourself with The Fuel Rats you're enhanced. You're cooler. You're probably even a better pilot. If you've ever wondered how it is that Kerenn is two jumps from anyplace, it's simply because Kerenn's a Fuel Rat and Fuel Rats are awesome like that. Therefore, so is Kerenn. And Kerenn's mighty deeds under the Fuel Rats' banner(2) make the entire Fuel Rats collective more awesome. To live in accord with the doctrine of individual excellence, it's simple: make yourself your best by making the collective be the best. If you think about that for a second, you'll see that the doctrine of individual excellence is diametrically opposed to the selfishness of the Nietzschean ubermensch, who has no concerns except "what's in it for me?" Under the doctrine of individual excellence, your decision-making process ought to involve awesomeness, humor, steely-eyed cool under pressure, Snickers Bars, doing your paperwork, and finding CMDRs that need fuel and firing limpets at them.
If you find yourself saying to another Fuel Rat "We're an anarchy, you're not my boss" or something to that effect, you profoundly fail to understand what it means to be part of a team, and to bask in the awesomeness of your team's accomplishments. In the Fuel Rats nobody is anyone's boss because we're all responsible individually to help the rest of the collective.
The structure of the Fuel Rats collective is designed to maximize individual autonomy while maximizing our strength to act as a collective. I am constantly awestruck by the incredible emergent team-work that the Fuel Rats show. You watch DISPATCH putting together a rescue around a CASE RED and it's not hierarchy on display: DISPATCH is coordinating because it helps, and they have accepted a tremendous responsibility with no authority - and the Fuel Rats in the rescue allow DISPATCH to coordinate the rescue because, after all, someone has to, and having a steely-eyed Fuel Rat DISPATCH talking a client through a rescue looks and sounds awesome (and is comforting, besides!) The way we're structured to allow for emergent team-work means that you don't need Surly Badger, or any other Fuel Rat to decide what's the right thing to do: that's your job. That is philosophical anarchy. It's anarchy with responsibility. Earth's ancient samurai had a saying: "Death is light as a feather, Duty is heavier than a mountain." Our self-chosen duty to fire limpets at people is why we'll fly 25,000ly to do it.
Because of misunderstandings about the word "anarchy" I have edited the 'About' section on the Fuel Rats site(3) to no longer refer to us an an 'anarchic collective.' Another reason I did this is because the in-game description of the Fuel Rats is as a 'collective' and I think that emphasizing our collective nature instead of our non-hierarchical nature is probably a good thing. We still have no leaders. We still are a collective.
If someone says, "We're a collective, you're not my boss" you can reply to them one of two ways:
"We're a collective, we're all your boss."
or
"We emphasize individual excellence; you are your own boss and you should be more demanding of yourself than I ever possibly could."
I salute you all,
Badger
(1 - in-game, we don't actually need anything. So how do we appeal to an individual's enlightened self-interest? We need something external to the relationship between the individual and the collective: we need the plaudits of others and our personal sense of aesthetics!)
(2 - memo to self: banner, dang it. We need a banner)
(3 - http://fuelrats.com/about-the-fuel-rats/ )
Robert Paul Wolff, in his classic "In Defense of Anarchism" lays out a position he calls 'philosophical anarchism' - a political philosophy that checkmates the legitimacy of the state by opposing it with the autonomy of the individual. Wolff's view of anarchism is not the 'anarchy' of a zombie apocalypse television series, or the fevered imaginings of Friedrich Nietzsche, it's a doctrine of self-discipline. In Wolff's anarchism, the autonomous individual asserts "I do not need to be 'led' thank you very much, I've got this." There is no need for a state, or for rules, because the autonomous individual is sensible and mature enough to realize their own self-interest, and that is peaceful co-existence and mutual support. Humans are social animals and have evolved to depend on eachother; as one of my biologist friends once said, "A solitary person is not fully human." In the universe of Elite Dangerous, this is especially the case - humanity has migrated to the stars and has created a vast far-flung web of dependencies. Even the most hard-core deep space explorer needs the dock rat that maintained their ship, the researcher who designed their frame-shift drive, the construction worker that assembled the orbital, the hydroponic farmer that grew their food. Anarchism is not the collapse of social dependencies; it's an acknowledgement that the autonomous individual is ready and worthy to participate fully in human society without needing 'encouragement' from the strong hand of a police-state.
In fact, one of the tragedies of Nietschean nihilist anarchy (Henceforth I will call it 'anarcho-nihilism') is that it inevitably devolves into a dictatorship. Many Earth societies went through dark ages that eventually coalesced around the biggest thug on the street, who was usually granted the title 'king' and their thuggish goons usually stood by ready to make up an 'aristocracy'. Philosophical anarchists look at this in horror because they realize that a nascent aristocracy is hardly going to result in liberty - it's just trading one form of oppression for another, endlessly. When a philosophical anarchist says "I am an anarchist" they are not saying "you can't give me orders!" they are saying "you don't need to give me orders!" Because the philosophical anarchist realizes that the collective they are establishing is their only protection against eventual oppression, Hobbes' war of every man against all others, or Nietzsche's chaos from which the ubermensch will claw his way to the top. To become ruler.
When I started the Fuel Rats there weren't any other Fuel Rats to talk to (picture me, sitting in a bar in Veach Hub, Atins II, talking to a circle of empty mugs of Insty-Bruu, while Mossfoot tried to decide whether to call station security) so I made decisions by myself. One of those decisions, which I hope never to regret, was to structure the Fuel Rats so that there was no hierarchy, no leadership, nothing but the bonds of cooperation and companionship. It's an idea I lifted straight from Epicurus (341–270 BC) though Epicurus eventually couldn't resist the urge to create a hierarchy ... and guess who he put at the top? As I watched the Insty-Bruu cool I formulated an idea I've floated here, before:
The Doctrine of Individual Excellence
Simply, it defines the bonds between the individual and the collective. Absent authority, and absent need(1) the best reason to do things with the good of the collective in mind is because the individual is strongest, and so is the collective, when the individual is being awesome in the name of the collective. Those of you who feel the slightest shred of pride at saying "I am a Fuel Rat" understand what I am talking about, here. By associating yourself with The Fuel Rats you're enhanced. You're cooler. You're probably even a better pilot. If you've ever wondered how it is that Kerenn is two jumps from anyplace, it's simply because Kerenn's a Fuel Rat and Fuel Rats are awesome like that. Therefore, so is Kerenn. And Kerenn's mighty deeds under the Fuel Rats' banner(2) make the entire Fuel Rats collective more awesome. To live in accord with the doctrine of individual excellence, it's simple: make yourself your best by making the collective be the best. If you think about that for a second, you'll see that the doctrine of individual excellence is diametrically opposed to the selfishness of the Nietzschean ubermensch, who has no concerns except "what's in it for me?" Under the doctrine of individual excellence, your decision-making process ought to involve awesomeness, humor, steely-eyed cool under pressure, Snickers Bars, doing your paperwork, and finding CMDRs that need fuel and firing limpets at them.
If you find yourself saying to another Fuel Rat "We're an anarchy, you're not my boss" or something to that effect, you profoundly fail to understand what it means to be part of a team, and to bask in the awesomeness of your team's accomplishments. In the Fuel Rats nobody is anyone's boss because we're all responsible individually to help the rest of the collective.
The structure of the Fuel Rats collective is designed to maximize individual autonomy while maximizing our strength to act as a collective. I am constantly awestruck by the incredible emergent team-work that the Fuel Rats show. You watch DISPATCH putting together a rescue around a CASE RED and it's not hierarchy on display: DISPATCH is coordinating because it helps, and they have accepted a tremendous responsibility with no authority - and the Fuel Rats in the rescue allow DISPATCH to coordinate the rescue because, after all, someone has to, and having a steely-eyed Fuel Rat DISPATCH talking a client through a rescue looks and sounds awesome (and is comforting, besides!) The way we're structured to allow for emergent team-work means that you don't need Surly Badger, or any other Fuel Rat to decide what's the right thing to do: that's your job. That is philosophical anarchy. It's anarchy with responsibility. Earth's ancient samurai had a saying: "Death is light as a feather, Duty is heavier than a mountain." Our self-chosen duty to fire limpets at people is why we'll fly 25,000ly to do it.
Because of misunderstandings about the word "anarchy" I have edited the 'About' section on the Fuel Rats site(3) to no longer refer to us an an 'anarchic collective.' Another reason I did this is because the in-game description of the Fuel Rats is as a 'collective' and I think that emphasizing our collective nature instead of our non-hierarchical nature is probably a good thing. We still have no leaders. We still are a collective.
If someone says, "We're a collective, you're not my boss" you can reply to them one of two ways:
"We're a collective, we're all your boss."
or
"We emphasize individual excellence; you are your own boss and you should be more demanding of yourself than I ever possibly could."
I salute you all,
Badger
(1 - in-game, we don't actually need anything. So how do we appeal to an individual's enlightened self-interest? We need something external to the relationship between the individual and the collective: we need the plaudits of others and our personal sense of aesthetics!)
(2 - memo to self: banner, dang it. We need a banner)
(3 - http://fuelrats.com/about-the-fuel-rats/ )
'Certification'
We've been experiencing a rush of new recruits (yay!) and new rescues (yay!) and several of the dispatchers have approached me to point out that we risk having quality control problems with our service.
I've asked a few of the dispatchers to establish an SOP for drilling new rats. The reason is simply this: some of our new recruits are really great pilots, who have recently decided to join the Fuel Rats - but no matter how great a pilot you are you still need to know how to work with DISPATCH and at least be familiar with Plan B, Plan C, and maybe Plan D in case you run into instancing problems.
Roughly here's how it will work: if you want to be a Fuel Rat, you should plan to run a rescue drill first. Ask DISPATCH to set up a DRILL-SPATCH and do a rescue drill. After that, the drill-spatcher will teach you the secret Fuel Rats' Handshake, and you're ready to go out on real rescues. If you've already done rescues and are on the leaderboard then, of course, you already know the secret Fuel Rats' Handshake, etc - no need to do a drill. Drilling is an opportunity to learn any new SOP; for example if I go back in and start doing rescues I'll probably request a drill because it's been months since I did one and the universe changes constantly.
As always, matters are left to the discretion of DISPATCH if there are exigent circumstances. If you're 10,000ly out and someone needs help next door, of course you'll do the right thing. Etc. Be flexible, and be glorious.
This also sets us up because with Horizons we will face new challenges. And new challenges mean: new SOPs to develop and learn (!!! how exciting !!!!) We really don't know what to expect but there will be new adventures in store for us and we will respond to them somehow. Once that's sorted, everyone who's going to participate in the new rescues ought to consider drilling in them. Just because the last thing we want to do is lose a client because someone thought they were too good a pilot to practice.
Last but not least: we are heading into the 1 year anniversary of the game's release. That means that the leaderboard contest I proposed way back when we started will close, and I'll figure out who gets a mug or a tshirt or whatever. This problem will be complicated by the fact that you collectively did about 3,900 more rescues than I expected!!!!! So I will tell you two things:
- I have a sort of a year-one anniversary present for the collective and, if you're interested you probably really want to make sure you're on the leaderboard prior to December 16, 2015.
- The leaderboard contest also closes on December 16, 2015. The top 25 rats on the leaderboard will get something. My original idea was to get each of the 25 top leaderboard a Tshirt with a list of rescues on the back. That's not gonna happen; some of you guys would need a cape that would trail on the floor. To tell the truth I am not sure what, because a lot of you already have Tshirts and mugs and whatnot. I may have a special mug or shirt made. My inclination is toward a Tshirt simply because they are cheaper and easier to ship (less packing required) My inclination is a Tshirt that reads something like "I came, I saw, I saved people's asses." I welcome comments. This is for you.
I salute you,
Badger
We've been experiencing a rush of new recruits (yay!) and new rescues (yay!) and several of the dispatchers have approached me to point out that we risk having quality control problems with our service.
I've asked a few of the dispatchers to establish an SOP for drilling new rats. The reason is simply this: some of our new recruits are really great pilots, who have recently decided to join the Fuel Rats - but no matter how great a pilot you are you still need to know how to work with DISPATCH and at least be familiar with Plan B, Plan C, and maybe Plan D in case you run into instancing problems.
Roughly here's how it will work: if you want to be a Fuel Rat, you should plan to run a rescue drill first. Ask DISPATCH to set up a DRILL-SPATCH and do a rescue drill. After that, the drill-spatcher will teach you the secret Fuel Rats' Handshake, and you're ready to go out on real rescues. If you've already done rescues and are on the leaderboard then, of course, you already know the secret Fuel Rats' Handshake, etc - no need to do a drill. Drilling is an opportunity to learn any new SOP; for example if I go back in and start doing rescues I'll probably request a drill because it's been months since I did one and the universe changes constantly.
As always, matters are left to the discretion of DISPATCH if there are exigent circumstances. If you're 10,000ly out and someone needs help next door, of course you'll do the right thing. Etc. Be flexible, and be glorious.
This also sets us up because with Horizons we will face new challenges. And new challenges mean: new SOPs to develop and learn (!!! how exciting !!!!) We really don't know what to expect but there will be new adventures in store for us and we will respond to them somehow. Once that's sorted, everyone who's going to participate in the new rescues ought to consider drilling in them. Just because the last thing we want to do is lose a client because someone thought they were too good a pilot to practice.
Last but not least: we are heading into the 1 year anniversary of the game's release. That means that the leaderboard contest I proposed way back when we started will close, and I'll figure out who gets a mug or a tshirt or whatever. This problem will be complicated by the fact that you collectively did about 3,900 more rescues than I expected!!!!! So I will tell you two things:
- I have a sort of a year-one anniversary present for the collective and, if you're interested you probably really want to make sure you're on the leaderboard prior to December 16, 2015.
- The leaderboard contest also closes on December 16, 2015. The top 25 rats on the leaderboard will get something. My original idea was to get each of the 25 top leaderboard a Tshirt with a list of rescues on the back. That's not gonna happen; some of you guys would need a cape that would trail on the floor. To tell the truth I am not sure what, because a lot of you already have Tshirts and mugs and whatnot. I may have a special mug or shirt made. My inclination is toward a Tshirt simply because they are cheaper and easier to ship (less packing required) My inclination is a Tshirt that reads something like "I came, I saw, I saved people's asses." I welcome comments. This is for you.
I salute you,
Badger
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Just a heads up, I'm planning a trip out to Sag A* in an Eagle starting some time this week or next week, depending on finals. I think the loadout I have lined up will be sufficient, but I wanted to ping you guys just to be on the safe side
Good luck, generally if you fly up or down a bit before heading in you should be fine although remember we do enjoy a good long distance rescue so I am sure there will be a number around waiting for your call
Iirc there was a Sag A* local area rescue recently, some rats may still be around or on their way back even
Yes indeed, I am very proud to have designed something that is to be used so extensively in game. That said I cannot lie, I am rather sad that FD could not have made the skins available for me to use on my ships. It was not through lack of trying I can assure you. Being credited in the GalNet news is pretty cool though and my CMDR name is of course now scribed in lore.
Yeah it's a bit of a shame, maybe it will still come eventually. Either way I'm glad FD have acknowledged the sheer awesome of his skins as well as putting them across all rescue NPC's and not just being available on an Asp. That Anaconda looks epic
I found myself interdicting any of them I saw in beta, I even disabled a few of them just to fly around looking at the skin
I agree. I designed 4 skins originally (Asp, Diamondback, Python, Anaconda) not sure if any other class of ships exist in game with the GSAR livery.
I... I... There's something in my eye, just give me a moment to fire a limpet at it...
I might have to get back in the saddle...
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I've had the most stressful resuce I've ever had yet.
First it seems nothing out of the ordinary, client sends the signal and I take the jumps to the system he's in. When I enter the system I find out that the client is about 120kls away from the main star. Now I have no idea as to why, since the thing furthest away from the star was a planet just over 8kls away. Maybe he alt tabbed or something idk. Either way I start heading out there.
Thanks to NAVlock the trip doesn't take too long. But as I land on the client, a pirate NPC lands with me, so I throw a limpet to the client, swap to the guns and fire away. While doing this I misjudge the distance and speed to the client and as I throw my ship down to avoid him I barley scrape into him and ate some of his hull. I didn't destroy him, just gave him some bruises.
But in the middle of my fight with the NPC I get kicked back into the main menu, and upon relog I find that the game ate half of my fueltank. And guess how much I had before that? Yeah, just about half a tank of fuel. I had now two choices, either fly back to the main star in the current system (110kls) or find a scoopable system close by. Thankfully the closest one is just 2.7ly away AND scoopable.
And just before I jump I took a picture, so here I present to you, the lowest amount of fuel I've ever seen on my screen:
I hope to never see it that low ever again.
I refuel completely whilst talking to a very stressed client that was now fighting an NPC in his sidewinder. I get the client to jump to supercruise as I had back to the system he's in. Him still being 100kls out I check my NAVpanel and relize he should have enough fuel to get to the system I was just in, a system that had a station in it. So I tell him to lock on to said system and jump. I do the same and can now see the client not to far in front of me, both of us heading towards the station.
The "fun" was not over yet, ofc the client had to be interdicted on his way. I activate NAVlock once again, and as he gets pulled out I follow him down. This time there are 2 NPC, I aggro them both to get them away from the client, and in the middle of the fight the client jumps away to safety. I finish of the 2 NPC, then I turn the ship around and start heading towards the station.
Once both of us are docked a the station I debrief the client about dotted lines, scoopable stars and the lot. He thanks me a bunch before we both say goodby.
Another rescue, another client saved. Hopefully the next ones will not be this stressfull for neither me nor the client
First it seems nothing out of the ordinary, client sends the signal and I take the jumps to the system he's in. When I enter the system I find out that the client is about 120kls away from the main star. Now I have no idea as to why, since the thing furthest away from the star was a planet just over 8kls away. Maybe he alt tabbed or something idk. Either way I start heading out there.
Thanks to NAVlock the trip doesn't take too long. But as I land on the client, a pirate NPC lands with me, so I throw a limpet to the client, swap to the guns and fire away. While doing this I misjudge the distance and speed to the client and as I throw my ship down to avoid him I barley scrape into him and ate some of his hull. I didn't destroy him, just gave him some bruises.
But in the middle of my fight with the NPC I get kicked back into the main menu, and upon relog I find that the game ate half of my fueltank. And guess how much I had before that? Yeah, just about half a tank of fuel. I had now two choices, either fly back to the main star in the current system (110kls) or find a scoopable system close by. Thankfully the closest one is just 2.7ly away AND scoopable.
And just before I jump I took a picture, so here I present to you, the lowest amount of fuel I've ever seen on my screen:
I hope to never see it that low ever again.
I refuel completely whilst talking to a very stressed client that was now fighting an NPC in his sidewinder. I get the client to jump to supercruise as I had back to the system he's in. Him still being 100kls out I check my NAVpanel and relize he should have enough fuel to get to the system I was just in, a system that had a station in it. So I tell him to lock on to said system and jump. I do the same and can now see the client not to far in front of me, both of us heading towards the station.
The "fun" was not over yet, ofc the client had to be interdicted on his way. I activate NAVlock once again, and as he gets pulled out I follow him down. This time there are 2 NPC, I aggro them both to get them away from the client, and in the middle of the fight the client jumps away to safety. I finish of the 2 NPC, then I turn the ship around and start heading towards the station.
Once both of us are docked a the station I debrief the client about dotted lines, scoopable stars and the lot. He thanks me a bunch before we both say goodby.
Another rescue, another client saved. Hopefully the next ones will not be this stressfull for neither me nor the client
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