Community Event / Creation The Surly Badger's Journal

[Surly_Badger]

1:07:36 15 Jan 3301

I decided I wanted to be a starship pilot at an early age, and got all the practice that I could, using simlators set on the highest difficulty. I figured that if I could fly a complicated simulator well enough, and did all my research on "how to"s on youtube, I'd probably do OK. And I was right. The big problem was how to get a starship. Fortunately, my dad worked as a short range hauler for a local firm, so I borrowed his ship, took it to the market, and sold it. I suppose I should have told dad I did that because he apparently reported it stolen to the police; I hope the buyer isn't angry enough to send someone after me.

My first big interest was asteroid mining. It seemed like a decent way to make some geck and it turned out sure enough to be true. You've got to love a "job" which consists mostly of sitting around in your underwear eating breakfast cereals and drinking coffee while occasionally scooping jagged chunks of metal into your refiner.

The trick with mining, it turned out, is to start off by selling literally anything you can collect. It's all money in the bank. But more importantly, it's practice. I got to the point where I'd use my laser to knock off 3 chunks of rock, wait for them to stabilize their trajectory, then scoop them up, bim, bam, boom! Repeat, pause for a sip of coffee, and do it all again. I spent my first income buying a better refiner, then a hauler, then extra cargo bays, and finally I felt confident enough to jump off to system ATINS, which has a ringed planet of pristine metal-rich rocks just waiting for my laser to tickle them.

Then, the money rolled in.

 

[Surly_Badger]

2:20: 15 Jan 3301

Landing in the big cylindrical star-ports is interesting. There's something about the 'porters (maybe the recycled air they breathe?) that renders them particularly stupid. What do I mean? Well: For one thing, they number the landing pads randomly. It's like they were based on that old CMDR Monty Python sketch where King Arthur is throwing the hand grenade and counts "ONE! THREE! FIVE!" I've seen some pads numbered 23 all the way at the end of the cylinder and the one I'm assigned - 35 - is right by the entry. And the 'porters keep flicking the lights on and off. So you're about to land, and they're going "ha! he's gonna land on the wrong one, ready the turbolaser we're gonna fry this rockhound but good! *grunt* *snort*" Sheesh. Well, the joke's on them. They're still flatlanders.

Oh, yeah - and the way they number the landing pads, they probably had to kill their graphic designers, who quoth, "hey, let's use fonts that are highly readable from a distance, and let's put a tick-mark at the left so if someone's coming at them upside-down or sideways they won't mistake pad 09 for 06" But then, who'd have the fun with the turbolasers? Fluppin' flatheads.

 

[Surly_Badger]

6:27:14 16 Jan 3301

Today I met a real pirate. By that I mean "a gentleman and a pirate" - CMDR Pirate interdicted me, then explained that he was going to make big holes in me if I didn't 'stand and deliver' so I vented 4 tons of coffee that I had. He shot up the back of my hauler as I made for frame shift, but I was able to escape more or less in one piece with the 16t of platinum I was carrying back from a successful day of mining. I hope CMDR Pirate enjoyed the coffee; I bought more.

Pirates keep life interesting, I suppose. Maybe I'll go pirate some day. But if I do, I'm gonna go "OLD SCHOOL" and get someone important to write me a Letter of Marque and Reprisal so that I can be legit.

 

[Surly_Badger]

Right now my screen reads "SHIP DESTROYED BY GEORGE LUCAS"

If I ever find out who George Lucas is, he's got a lot to answer for.

 

[Surly_Badger]

7:06:19 18 Jan 3301

Talking with a fellow in a spaceport bar, he claimed that the gods had turned away from miners and that noplace were there great big metal rocks full of valuable minerals. This scared me so I paid my tab and left quickly, then boosted to my favorite rock-fishing spot (Atins 2, inner ring) and proceeded to hit payload on my first rock: 60% platinum 10% silver!!! And I got 10 chunks off it, which was fine indeed.

I kind of wish I'd paid that guy's bar tab, too. But he looked like he'd been drinking a lot. Sometimes I think the universe puts losers like that in our paths to see how we treat them; we should be kind to people who are down on their luck.

Later that trip I found a great big hunk of gold rock (40% gold with traces of something or other) but it was spinning at very high speed. I sat back with my laser and sawed off hunks, which would sit spinning in space until the rock whipped around and knocked them flying. My game became a matter of zooming in and grabbing the rock before getting knocked flying. I have an appointment with the body shop in a couple of days to get a new coat of paint shot over my ship's outer armor. It looks extremely rugged right now.

All in all a good day; I made 500,000cr

 

[Surly_Badger]

3:38:21 19 Jan 3301

Today, I thought my refining machine was talking to me. Worse than that, it was talking to me in the voice of my sister. I shook myself and had a bunch of coffee and bounced around the cabin in Zero-G for a while to clear my head.

I did discover one really great way of finding huge amounts of Platinum: accept a resource collection bounty for Indite. Because of an unfortunate docking accident that delayed me, I was under tight time-pressure so I zoomed out to my favorite spot on 2's inner ring and started swooping from rock to rock sampling them for Indite...
Platinum
Gold
Platinum/Silver
Silver/5% Indite
arrrrgggghhHH!!!!! Finally, I found a chunk of rich Indite and scooped it then hied me home and got the bounty. For 11,000cr I flew away from 30,000cr of precious metals. That's what trying to have a good reputation'll do for you.

 

[Surly_Badger]

12:22:12 20 Jan 3301

Today I decided to play tourist. I heard rumors there was a capital ship in/around one of the conflicted star systems, so I went to visit. And - wow - all I can say is "BIG"!!!!




The thing was flippin' humongous. What was insanely fortunate timing was, just as I was swinging my ship around to get a better perspective on the thing, it hit its Frame Shift and departed. Perhaps it was something I said?



After that I left and - crazy good fortune that I have - in the next system over I encountered another capital ship. It ignored me and I decided to see how close I could get before someone said something.

Answer: very close

 

[Surly_Badger]

6:09:13 21 Jan 3301

I almost had an unusually expensive night out. I thought I'd use some of my spare cash and kit out a viper so I could do some head-kicking at the local nav point. Mostly, I thought, just practice. By the time I got there there was already a fight underway -- a "Dangerous" local popping laser beams into a "Mostly Harmless" and I thought I'd jump into the fray. Which I did, with no lack of gusto, by popping a dumbfire missile into the wrong ship. Suddenly, he spun and vented my canopy to the Big Black. 10 minutes to get back to Veach Hub and I made it in 7. Suddenly my decision to buy a better life support system doesn't look like such a luxury. I mean, honestly, I got the new life support system because my old one made the interior of my viper smell like old socks - I mostly upgraded for the improved filters. Now I'm really happy I did so.

 

[esraven]

I like your style of writing. It reminds me on the way the diary is build up in Godsville. I wonder if you have not any relatives living out there.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Surly_Badger]

It reminds me on the way the diary is build up in Godsville. I wonder if you have not any relatives living out there.

Thanks for dropping by!! I'll try to update my stories here every so often ...

When I'm out there doing my thing, I've usually got a constant monologue going on in my head, "and, when I do this thing then I'll do the next thing..." except it's sometimes more exciting than that: "I wonder if that guy's wanted and whether there are enough dumbfire missiles left in my rack to ruin his morning coffee?" And I get back here and write them down.

(Out of character: I find that with every game I play, I role-play as I'm going through it - it really makes the experience more vivid for me. ANd, I thought maybe it'd be fun to share a bit of the complicated adventures that go on noplace other than in my head. I'm also trying to drop a few clues about gameplay or gameplay issues without starting a whole thread about whatever topic ... BTW if you're familiar with Stanitslaw Lem's brilliant "Tales of Pirx the Pilot" that's a heavy influence on me. In the Pirx stories Lem often ponders what would happen if perfectly ordinary things happened in the context of space. Like: imagine you've put your vacuum suit on, helmeted up, and there's a fly in the helmet with you! I didn't realize it at the time but that was doubtless where I got the idea of a pilot having a used life support system that made his cabin smell like gym socks.)

 

[Surly_Badger]

My buddy, CMDR Razorfist, and I met up outside Atins 2 for a photo-shoot. It turns out that it's a bit tough to rendezvous in space where you're not near a known location, but we figured it out: we flew to a resource extraction site then we supercruised to an attractive place and he interdicted me down. Maybe there is a better way, but "whatever works" is my motto.



I got some awesome shots of him, including one of him flying face-first into an asteroid and wrecking his ship. But I promised not to publish that one. So it's totally not this picture:



We both requested docking clearance at Veach Hub and I flew in after him and snapped a couple of shots of his ship landing. I got a 400cr fine for loitering but I think it was worth it.



It's sad that I have to go to so much effort to get good pictures of my stuff, when it's so beautiful. It really ought to be easier. You know, there ought to be an external camera or something, like they had in the old 20th century NASA spacecraft. That'd be a good idea.

Oh, and when you're dogfighting in an asteroid zone: keep a safe following distance!!!

 

[Surly_Badger]

19:12:02 25 Jan 3301

I wish there was a service for hauling ships. I picked up a kill mission back in empire space, and kitted myself out a cobra to do it. Sweet little ship but not much cargo space. So I left it back in Bodb Dearg and now it's a hundred or so ly away and I could sure use it. I bet you could make creds if you offered an insured ship transporting service - ships delivered while you wait, kind of thing. For the right amount of cred I'd put my feet up on the dashboard of someone's ship and fly it from here to eternity.

Today I met an interesting scammer by the name of Moses Eisley ("Mos" to his friends, he said) -- he's trying to open a chain of franchise cantinas that he wants to put at various spaceports and provide a comfortable place where pilots can put their feet up and drink whatever they drink. He wanted me to invest a million creds in his scheme, and I offered to take him out to the rings of Atins 2 and show him how my airlock functions.

 

[Surly_Badger]

23:47:07 25 Jan 3301

People of English ancestry still fly into the wrong side of the spaceport mail slot.

I learned a new trick today, but it's nerve-wracking. Another asteroid miner who was unloading his ship told me this one: pirates and looters like to hang out by the resource extraction sites, so what you can do is just supercruise right into the planetary rings and hope your safety "crash stop" system is functioning correctly. If it is, you can have a huge mining spot all to yourself. If it's not you'll make a little blinky squirt of plasma that nobody'll notice.

 

[Surly_Badger]

19:01:23 29 Jan 3301

Today I met the stupidest pirate in the galaxy. I hope his soul has found peace, wherever he is.

Heading toward the nav point in Fotla, I was interdicted in my cobra. As I usually do when I'm rigged for combat, I'll submit; it might be legitimate law enforcement and my record is squeaky clean. But this was some goofbrain in an asp who announced he wanted my entire cargo (which consists, as it usually does in my asp, of one ton of palladium) So I deployed hard points and went after him and crushed him slowly in a few minutes. So that's what I don't understand: how did such an idiot manage to buy an asp and what made him think he could be a pirate? Maybe it was some rich kid who inherited a ship from daddy and decided not to go to dentistry school like his parents wanted him to. Tough universe.

 

[Surly_Badger]

Just a pretty picture...

I managed to snap this one with my camera just before all the explosions started. I think it must have been a pilot who was taking a break from the controls and letting his landing computer take over...

 

[Hilight]

Excellent journal--- very well written. R+ for you

 

[Surly_Badger]

Who _IS_ John Galt?

I remember that used to be an important question to some people. Well, it appears he's a minor pirate, now converted to space dust.

Glad I used my lasers; his bounty wasn't worth a missile.

 

[Surly_Badger]

18:51:07 7 Feb 3301

I may be losing my mind.

The lady's voice (OMG I wish there were different voice-packs for these ships!! Lakon Heavy Industries, I am looking at YOU) that says "friendship drive charging" has now started calling me "sh*t for brains" when I depart a port. She used to say "ship raised" but now I hear different. Is this the combat stress catching up to me?

Lately I have been doing a rare commodities run that I designed using a couple of tools and some jump planners. A friend of mine and I have been optimizing it (some of the jumps can be shortened if your ship can handle longer hyper-jumps) It's tricky because if you're fully loaded your FSD maximum range changes. We also ran the loop a couple times to figure out the best place to sell each item.

It's here.

I'm going to stop trading rares soon; I think I'll buy a Type-7 and haul big loads of stuff instead. I am starting to have a fine collection of ships at my home-base in Fotla.

My next project will be to kit myself out a hauler for exploring. And by "exploring" I mean "flying to the back end of nowhere in a hauler full of beer and not coming back 'till it's all drunk up." If I am, in fact, losing my mind, that ought to heal me or send me off into the deep black, adieu.