I'm looking to establish a loose collective of solid surface scientists and set up a base of operations in the upcoming Colonia Expansion Initiative.
You can apply for a visa here: https://www.elitedangerous.com/en/colonia-expansion-initiative
(mostly so I don't have to keep working out of my own ship and only occasionally crash at Jaques bar)
To that end I'll need enough support for the concept and expertise to make it through one of the expansion cycles.
the concept
This "group" only being a loose collective there won't be any special communication channels or events (unless it happens to grow over my head) and I would personally stick to the CCN, teamsters, rock rats and other channels.
And while I'm not opposed to setting up external offices in other ports and systems in case that happens to develop, I'd rather focus to avoid exhaustive expansions and work to improve the services of the base itself - which will require some political and economical expertise in possibly uncommon directions.
My own work, which would fall under the accomplishments of the Rock Research Ring, has been mapping the asteroid belts and rings of Colonia for their content (resources and materials) and publicly sharing the results. This has helped to strengthen the Colonia Community and is now a great resource for missions, synthesis and engineering in the entire galaxy (the results help to predict where to find resources in any location). But I would also like to see the facilities used for rock rat work (analysing planet surface material distribution) and more abstract studies of resource distribution in the galaxy.
It is still unclear how the expansion initiative will go, but in case the base gets established in a new system I'd be aiming for a primary economy type of service (=research). Secondary economy types in order of importance: refinery, high tech, extraction, industrial (we are looking to analyse samples from the surrounding systems first and foremost, thus local extraction and industrial scale have lowest priority).
If we get to decide name and location of the base, I'm open for suggestions. Personally wouldn't be opposed to being situated around a distant secondary star (especially if that comes with an interesting location/view), but I'm sure most would prefer being close to the arrival point.
required expertise and support
I'm a scientist, not a manager. Thus I'm likely not a good match to run the expansion initiative or a resulting base with a lot of success.
It would be okay if initial support is just enough to set up the base and I would absolutely welcome it if it is controlled and run by a different faction afterwards.
(to that end this faction could technically also simply be added to the home from one of the factions below)
Current list of potential partners to run the logistics:
- Colonia Research Department
- Colonia Research Division
- Colonia Refinery Operations
- Colonia Tech Combine
- Colonia Mining Enterprise
- Colonia Mining Co-operative
- Colonia Exploration and Research
- Asgard Research
- Canonn Colonia Department
- Radio Sidewinder Galactic
- Explorers' Nation
(personally have a soft spot for the Mining Co-operative, but the Refinery Operations might be best to easily get a hold of samples - the research factions seem to be focused on the respective ammonia and earth like worlds)
If there are opportunities to improve the facilities after the base is build, priorities would be on a universal cartographics connection (to gather data), a market (to gather samples and supplies), restock (limpet and SRV supply) and an empty outfitting and shipyard (to store and transfer equipment).
the first month
Here is some of my experience for the first batch of Galactic Travel Guides brought to Colonia.
So what can you do, regardless of your current position, to help during this month (and potentially months to come as necessary)?
If you are in Colonia and not intending to visit the bubble you can map resources and materials of the area and spread the service of the rock research ring. All my mapping documents are open for submission.
I can drop you a few Galactic Travel Guides to chime in on this CG if you like.
If you are in the bubble you can help fill up ships transporting Galactic Travel Guides to Colonia. It takes 10 minutes for the supply to get back up to 10 tons when you don't have any, so help is needed to get >100 tons loaded up quickly.
You can also help loading up ships for other factions you'd like to support. This is as much a collaborative effort as it is competitive and maybe some of them will appreciate it and return the favour (most important for the ones getting their bases after this month - as they will have succeeded and won't be a competition anymore - the best allies one can have).
Beyond that you can invest some time and credits into building a transport vessel as described in the link above. Do not settle for anything that has a much worse tons/jump ratio unless you want to make a trip to Colonia anyway.
You won't be of much help taking forever to transport a small amount. (unless you happen to convince a whole bunch of others to do the same ...
)While we don't know whether the future Migration Appeals in upcoming months will follow the exact same format, we can assume that a ship of this type will be useful regardless. So consider this preparation and practise.
Once you have a ship ready to get loaded, temporarily replace the AFM units with collector limpet controllers (store the AFMs, I think Bluford doesn't have them at that size and grade).
Buy your own allocation for 10 tons, a bunch of limpets and then look through all your available channels for help. Discord, steam, friends list of commanders online in the bubble and commanders present at Bluford.
Fetch some high value commodities to pay for the Galactic Travel Guides if necessary.
Good luck on your journey(s)
the second month
The campaign continues as before. However, contributions from the previous month will carry over and this month the top 5 will set up bases.
According to my own contributions last month we should be starting out just below the top 10.
Now that contributions are known to carry over between months I do however expect many more factions to join in with full force - so even keeping up the pace may not see us maintain the current standing.
With the expertise gathered from last month we can certainly push a little harder without going mad in the process, but I now expect it to take a few more months to get through.
Thanks for all the help
the third month
Continuing as before (still top 5 going through) and since last month we have the support of an established colonial faction: Radio Sidewinder! If you wanna help out you can pop into their discord to request loading or offer to help with loading.
We made 7th place last round, which puts us to start in 2nd place this month!
However I won't be able to contribute for two weeks, so to maintain top 5 for a base a lot of additional help will be required.
edit: Due to some miscalculations month 2 had 6 instead of 5 factions entering, which had us start out even higher and it seems we made it through!
Total estimation from Darkmoor:
Once settled in I'll rejig this thread a bit.
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