It's been a while I haven't posted anything on the forums (and nothing in the official expedition thread so far) - I was fully absorbed by Kumay and all circumnavigation related activities. Now it's seems right to me to post here at least my concluding report:
Day 43, I have finished the "official" circumnavigation part, and that passed quite unexpectedly even for myself. That was not planned so soon. Well, sometimes things are not going as predicted. May be the pace I've taken starting from the very depth of the Naga Canyon got me carried away a little bit. Or just absence of daylight and related opportunities to stop for - "wow, must take a screenshot of this" - allowed me to concentrate on the pure driving/flyving - don't know really.
Either way I think it's a good time to sort out all the pleasant memories and funny moments I've got during this expedition - kind of a review to my journey storyline in other words.
First of all, let me thank Cmdr
Alec Turner and all other commanders who have participated in planning, prospecting and other absolutely necessary tasks in order to make this expedition even possible. Oh, long ago I've had few occasions to plan and head expeditions of approximately similar duration IRL (and with not always experienced participants) - so I assume I can imagine what amount of organization work and hard efforts this can require even in virtual world. From my side - but I'm quite sure this can be approved by many other commanders - you've completely succeeded in your goals (to say the least). o7, commanders, bravo!
Also "bravo" to all the participants and non-participants, even if some of them has been "lost in action". Together we have managed to create quite an atmosphere for this expedition - a mix of fun, freedom, competition and cooperativeness, support and a little pinch of madness - that even for a hermit-style player like me it was a real pleasure to dive in. I really appreciate the resulting spirit of this expedition! Seriously, that's a real achievement in the game where each player supposed to blaze its own way! o7
I remember the day... or better say "night" of the expedition start. I was a bit disappointed as I was not lucky enough to join the main instance with racing and festivities=) New friends (
BillieJoe,
Agony_Aunt,
Doctor Introvertsius,
Sgurr,
Darplata94,
Tyrope), commanders with quite the different driving experience level and - must mention - different stock of repair/refuel mats, our caravan, leaded by CMDR
Doctor Introvertsius, slowly departing from Bridger and stretching quite fast due to our bad pace synchronization, my futile attempts to gather us back again. My first srv lost when I've tried to bounce high enough from a crater lip to see all of us, and forgetting to check my hull in advance. Some commanders joining in, some others logging out,
Agony_Aunt disappearing quickly above the horizon=) and me - trying to figure out where all things going while lost in mountains as I as usual have found the most uneasy way to cross them - and my first meetup with
Alec Turner when I finally got out of them. First geo-site on the route and preparing smoked limpets on a "campfire", encountering other commanders and driving alongside with them. Rescue operations, cameraman work when I've tried to film ultra-fast commander
cookiehole (at least as it seemed to me then=)) and my own admiration of his flyving mastering, the first expedition meetup "The First Great Kumay Nipple Jumping Festival" at The Grand Canyon Craters, first extra-damage bug experience, new places...
Canyon jumping and surviving with 1% of the hull, Cmdr
Tyndalos (we have covered quite a distance together) waiting patiently for my fly-back from Bridger in order to restock srv's when I've lost the last one. Beauty of the Coluber's Folly, spontaneous meetup there with jumping on top of the "mighty big Cutter" and photo session with commanders
Veristhea and
janara; Snow Queen Palaces of the Blue Cliff Valley and ghostly glow of the Blue Vein Valley; endless attempts to get one meter more up on the Northern Route and conquering of the Sulphur peak. North Pole and my navigational "loop of shame", air support mission to assist commanders
Agony_Aunt and
Crank Larson in their climb on the most picturesque - if seen from distance - Peak on the route - Manaslu Peak (at least the first one succeeded, and may be my friendly bump have helped him=) )
Yes, screenshots- screenshots- screenshots.... Finally arrived at O'Donnell Settlement - kind of my in-game specialization - and the decision to start new investigation on the search zones (my trip there and help from commanders
Tyrope and
Kiwi Rob ); enchanting shenanigans and srv-pyramids at NP, and all that was just the first third of the official route ...
And I'm sure all of us have learned a couple of tricks from the others. Quite a good experience gained, at least in my case. I was not a complete "noob" at the very beginning with 7Mm in my backpack, but this circumnavigation has doubled it. Cruise speed progress from top 50 to 150 normal and 300+ as tops=) And after all up to now I haven't even mentioned one of the most living discord servers in ED universe!
SRV stats - oh... Honestly I've lost 3 or 4 for my own driving errors and/or bad luck. Some more while -or due to - abnormal damage testing (and I'm sure that it's the united effort of expedition participants was one of the main reasons that this long-reported issue has been finally fixed in the last update) . And... at least a dozen due to leaving my srv somewhere and forgetting about it when my presence in RL were needed=)
At last I must say, that up to now I'm sticked to a kind of space-gipsy in game lifestyle, having no homeports, no squadrons, factions or powers aggravating my life (except my own investigation projects and necessity to upgrade ships to be up to date) so I'm relatively free and currently planning to stay on Kumay for quite some time (even to transfer my alt-account here as I said to Alec). Yep, I want to continue a bit spontaneously started investigation of the search zone generation mechanics. And what about high towers of Bridger Town - can I get there? The Sentinel is also in my "why not?" to-do list (Manaslu peak also can be there, but actually I'm quite sure that is not doable on my level). So I also plan to revisit some waypoints and master external camera videotaping - or can join someone's flyving as a cameraman. Regarding what
Alec Turner have said about his plans on review-promo clip of the expedition I have also 800G of raw video (most of it is junk or just my desktop so must be cut away) and a few Gig's of screenshots to sort them all out. Anyway for me it's not the time to say "goodbye" to Kumay=)
o7, commanders! Let the bouncing be gentle to your srv's=)
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(And here I leave a placeholder for the link to my upcoming album with selected screenshots)
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. Luckily plenty of time. Last night the distance to Beagle Point was reduced to just shy of 30.000 LY. Depending on the mood I'd say arrival in a week or so is possible. Kokor on the other has just bought herself a shiny new T10 which is now outfitted for core mining and (mild) combat. Thanks to a recent promotion to Elite her outfitting woes belong to the past now.
