Here is my previous experience on exploring:
Q: what is expected of me?
A: usually, nothing regarding the expedition, just care to not inconvenience others. No firing on other ships (ever), no damaging other ships, keep your distance.
Some expeditions have scouts - people who go out in front and scout suitable base camps - or other roles (repair, refuel...) but that's not expected, you volunteer if you want.
Q: how is this supposed to work?
A: Go through each waypoint at your own pace. IF you can, join the meetups - it's fun! If you want, join the discord, it's fun in there too!
Q: mass jumps? This isn't mass effect(tm)!
A: Yeah. See explanation above - everyone turns up, we choose a star, we charge the FSD but keep the throttle at 0, and then the game crashes (usually). But if it doesn't, after the countdown, everyone does throttle to 100% and warps out and it's cool to watch!
Q: how do I see you guys planetside?
A: a set of coordinates will be given; how to get there is another thing. There are some helpers available - lookup Edison for one, it'll make navigating the coordinate system MUCH easier.
Q: what do we do between the meetups?
A: Jump, and jump again. Search for shiny stuff, like interesting planets, stars, records, earth-like worlds, terraformable planets (these bring in the cash afterwards). If you first discover something, once back and you sell the data to Universal Cartographics, your name will be on that planet!
Incidentally, I think this is why some bodies on the way to WP8 will already be named. The Dead Ends' Circumnavigation Expedition just finished a few days ago, and WP8 (
Aicods KD-K d8-3 (Point Decision) was also a waypoint there too.
Hope it helps!
