Personal highlights of the year 3304

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
As the year 3304 draws to a close I thought it might be a good time to reflect on some of our personal best memories of another year in Elite: Dangerous.

I'll start the ball rolling with a few of my own.

It was another year of superb Buckyball Races. They were all fantastic fun but a few particular highlights were:

"The Medevac Memorial Challenge" - a race with some wonderful roleplay based around the idea of a space ambulance training operation involving various things like an emergency delivery of donor blood, transferring a medical patient from a crashed ship to a hospital facility and rescuing survivors of a space battle. I turned one of my runs into a short film:

[video=youtube_share;-_YsqdEnis8]https://youtu.be/-_YsqdEnis8[/video]
"Falling With Style" - an SRV base jumping festival of my own devising which had commanders hurling themselves off the top of the 15km high mountain next to Smith Base in the Beta Sculptoris system.

[video=youtube_share;5Z2DAYAMFK4]https://youtu.be/5Z2DAYAMFK4[/video]
As well as the time trial we also ended up having a really well attended and utterly hilarious live meetup based around the idea of the Gloucester Cheese Roll where commanders had to not only survive the death defying journey back down to Smith Base but also collect one of the many cargo cannisters littered across the mountainside on the way down. Many knecks SRV's were broken in the attempt, not least because the attendant race marshal (your truly) kept accidentally boosting his ship into the start line.

[video=youtube_share;MmvuKHLC0m8]https://youtu.be/MmvuKHLC0m8[/video]
"The Triangle Triathlon" - a fantastic race involving SRV's, ships and ship launched fighters. Learned more in a week about using the SLF than I would have done in a year of casual gameplay.

[video=youtube_share;_G9-1UKlQlc]https://youtu.be/_G9-1UKlQlc[/video]
Oh, and we got our own holo-ad added to the game as well! (SQUEEEE)

oqjPpcF.png

Massive thanks to all the regulars and race organisers at the Buckyball Racing Club as well as all the new recruits we had throughout year. Our 3304 season has now finished (apart from the three standing challenges) but we'll be back in 3305 with a whole host of news races for everyone to come and take part in. Check our website for further details:

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Aside from racing, some of the other highlights of my year included:

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Formed in 3303 when I completed an SRV circumnavigation of Pleione 3A, in 3304 we saw no fewer than twenty three new planetary circumnavigations completed. Followed the stories of every single one of them (all of which are available by clicking on the above logo) and even managed to meet up with a few and cover some miles together.

Bomba Luigi
[video=youtube_share;LYbx4ksiF50]https://youtu.be/LYbx4ksiF50[/video]

Ray Mobula
[video=youtube_share;sre9u_CNAYI]https://youtu.be/sre9u_CNAYI[/video]

Primetime Casual
[video=youtube_share;XCdZxP21Cdc]https://youtu.be/XCdZxP21Cdc[/video]

Jonas Treesong
[video=youtube_share;kAXvziBOxqE]https://youtu.be/kAXvziBOxqE[/video]

Reighdar
[video=youtube_share;m6QNeptQuok]https://youtu.be/m6QNeptQuok[/video]
There was some incredibly ludicrous tomfoolery at Penal Colony BV 2259 where I spent several days attempting to ride my SRV on a Thargoid's back!

[video=youtube_share;6CL2XH0RKd0]https://youtu.be/6CL2XH0RKd0[/video]
There was race action of a different kind with Speedbowl I and II where you had to maintain incredibly fine control of a Flight Assist Off ship as it surfed the gravity well of a high-g planet attaining speeds measured in many thousands of metres per second ... and in the 2nd event you had to do this while at the same time aiming to skim just above the rooftops of a planetary base!




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Alas, very few of my video cameras survived the high speed/high gravity impacts so only these scraps of footage remain.

[video=youtube_share;6lhxbHTQOxI]https://youtu.be/6lhxbHTQOxI[/video]
I also had the privilege to get involved with the astonishlingly good Sagittarius Eye magazine, initially as an interviewee (for planetary circumnavigation), then as a researcher and later in the year as a minor photography contributor and crossword consultant. January sees my debut as a writer - woo hoo! Such an incredibly talented bunch of people - it honestly puts most "professional" magazines to shame. Check out the latest issue (as well as all the back issues) over here:

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There's even still a chance to win a unique paintjob by solving the crossword (which afaik nobody has done yet)!

What else, crikey this has turned into a bit of an epic. Errr, there was Lavecon somewhere along the way which was glorious as ever. About the only thing I can remember now is playing a vodka fuelled game of Beat Saber at 1am in the morning with some of the Winged Hussars but it was ALL fantastic and I can't wait for next year.

I helped Cmdr Malibu draw the Fuel Rats logo on the galaxy (just did one letter but it was a true privilege to be a part of that epic undertaking).

[video=youtube_share;jTG-pCDvVVY]https://youtu.be/jTG-pCDvVVY[/video]
Errr, at some point I trained for a terrific crater race organised by the Tethy's Empire Crew (but was alas unable to take part in the actual event) ..

[video=youtube_share;O5Vofyvbr6s]https://youtu.be/O5Vofyvbr6s[/video]
Delta Squadron introduced me to the concept of "Ridge Running" (yes, you can blame them for that!) ..

[video=youtube_share;6W-T4B1hJOU]https://youtu.be/6W-T4B1hJOU[/video]

.. where I learned a new technique for getting the SRV out of tricky situations ..

[video=youtube_share;Rm9t9DyVeDo]https://youtu.be/Rm9t9DyVeDo[/video]
.. which ultimately led to the creation of the Pomeche Ridge Challenge

[video=youtube_share;sGKxhrgbtDE]https://youtu.be/sGKxhrgbtDE[/video]

.. and a blooper reel from some of my less successful runs ..

[video=youtube_share;GTajrnFQqEs]https://youtu.be/GTajrnFQqEs[/video]
And last but by no means least there was my involvement with the Truckers Up Teide in-game mountain climb charity fundraising event.

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It was a truly epic day of SRV shenanigans while 14 middle aged men cycled up an active volcano in Tenerife. Wonderful wonderful lunatics every single damn one of you!

[video=youtube_share;iCKK9exd6is]https://youtu.be/iCKK9exd6is[/video]

[video=youtube_share;MBvo-MUSAU4]https://youtu.be/MBvo-MUSAU4[/video]

[video=youtube_share;HlY6xn2uMxA]https://youtu.be/HlY6xn2uMxA[/video]
Z0pjosw.jpg

(hic! cheers!)​
Phew! What an incredible year it's been (and I've probably missed out more than I've included). I'd like to thank Frontier (oh wait, I missed out my unexpected and utterly amazing visit to Frontier - or did I dream that?*1) for creating this amazing game and every single one of you reading this for making the Elite: Dangerous community the most wonderful, vibrant and enthusiastic gaming community I've ever encountered.

Merry Christmas and a here's to 3305!

o7

*1 - nope, seems it actually happened! :p
0kYCBYc.jpg
 
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Straha Yeagar

S
I had a few personal highlights, but two stand out as particularly memorable.

The first was showing that even several years in, there are still extreme places to be reached in the galaxy.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/443523-Peak-A-new-high-point-in-exploration

The second, and definite highlight of my year was my planetary circumnavigation.

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https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/444913-Meridian-a-planetary-circumnavigation

Where I recreated Eratosthenes' famous experiment and determined the circumference of my circumnavigation moon to an accuracy of 37km, or error of less than 1%

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https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...umnavigation?p=7015862&viewfull=1#post7015862
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Codger said:
You're always such a positive fellow. That's what I like about you! Have a great holiday, Alec, and a great next year!
Click to expand...
Thanks Codger, you too! I'm hammered after "last day of work" drinkies now but, yeah... happy fricking xmas EVERYONE.

P.S. I'm starting a thing ... message/email/phone/contact someone you haven't said hi to for a while ... share a joke, a meme, a christmas greeting. Whatever ... just say hello!

[heart]
 
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Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
For me, buying ED in May, getting Elite exploration in September and now finishing the year having flown around 250,000 Ly in such a short time.
Oh, and 3.3 landing on us and dragging me out even further into the black, just because I can :D
 
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