... and quite possibly the most fun I've ever had playing ED. Better even than when 2 Cobras piloted by CMDR's jumped me.
Anyway - out of the clear blue sky (I didn't search on the topic) YOUTUBE recommended a video about how to do FED/EMPIRE ranking - fast, real fast. I was in the business at the time of casually strolling around the galaxy gathering up rep to get promoted to Rear Admiral for the Federation. Slowly, read that as snail like
.
The video was by a German YouTuber (can't think of his name) and it showed that if you went to a station allied to the Fed that was recently attacked by those insect thugs the Thargoids, one could transfer out from the station to a rescue ship the folks jumping the station like rats on a sinking ship. Sounded like a cool thing do. There was some video of a burning station on the inside. Didn't make an impression. I'll give that a try, I thought.
Little did I know what I was getting myself into.
Picked a fed system with the recently attacked icon and flew there in my Type 7 - The Happy Mule - and headed for the station in trouble. Note just in trouble - I thought - figured I'd land, load up all passenger cabins and move on - EASY right? MAN! Was I wrong. As soon as I dropped out of supercruise near the affected station a message from the pilots federation is at the top of the screen telling me basicly, NO SIGHT SEEING! If ya ain't here to help then kindly get the HELL out of dodge so real heroes can do their work. OKAY. Not a problem. I was there to help.
Sooooo...
I contacted the station and requested landing permission. The next thing I hear is a semi-panicked, scared to death flight controller (sounded to me like FD had the voice actor locked in a room, lit it on fire and told him - read your lines and make it real or we'll turn up the heat even higher). Most real voice acting I ever heard in ED. I won't repeat it. Don't want to spoil it for anyone that hasn't been in the situation yet.
Still - I had yet to appreciate the real gravity of the situation. Got assigned a landing pad and give orders on what to do when I got there. Lined up on the slot and flew my Krait-Phantom thru the slot. I could see the destruction as I was flying thru - it was bad - I just didn't know how bad (though I should have - more on that later). On entering the inside of the station I saw floating wreckage from at least 3 ships, one a very big one. There was smoke and flames every where and a dimly lit red foggy atmosphere. It was noisey - at least I think it was, not sure, had other more important things to concentrate on at the time and sight seeing wasn't one of them. It took a second or two to get my bearings and to find the pad I been assigned and it was marked "reserved" which made me hesitate - was there a mistake, was I gonna get shot down for landing there? But I was committed - the fire and explosions were causing me to rapidly - and I mean very, very fast take on heat. Dumped a heat sink around 120% and my EDDI computerized friend was screaming at me to drop a heat sink dummy, now! (really, I've done some serious editing on the EDDI voice). I got to the landing pad and entered the hangar - still heating up... BUT I WAS IN the HANGAR - couldn't dump another HS. Went immediately to the Passenger lounge and as quickly as I could loaded up every passenger I could. At least 128 maybe 144 (however many a Krait Phantom could hold with every slot except a couple or 3 not fitted with Passenger Cabins).
As soon as I reached fully loaded I punched the launch button and then immediately deployed a Heat Sink (ship was at 220% heat at the time - that was a first - highest ever before that was 180) rapid cool down and my EDDI computer voice stopped yelling at me). Didn't take long though until she started up again. I boosted out of the station and released my last heat sink, turned off FA and coasted for a bit (actually more than a bit and it cost me over a million and a half credits - those that have been in this situation should be able to figure out why). Headed for the rescue ship and unloaded the passengers. 16 missions worth 3 Plus rep per mission. My fed rep jumped from a bit over 75 to 98 or so just like that. Pilot rank went up a bit. Did 3 more missions, ended up with pilot rank going from 26% to 51% (was expecting more). Fed rep went to 100 after 2nd time and who know where after the 3rd. Understandably the 2nd and 3rd missions were exact reapeats of the first and didn't have the impact that the first did - still fun - but no real impact.
Now here's the really cool part.
Back Story:You see I served in the US Navy for 10 years. Even though I was an electronics tech, on the 2nd ship I served on I got assigned to the Damage Control Fire Fighting team. Training for that was very, very realistic but obviously not the real thing. You knew you weren't gonna die and unless you did something really stupid wouldn't get burned. It was realistic enough, though, that I knew I never wanted to experience the real thing, ever.
Anyway: While I was drifting along, FA off, for about 5 seconds the memory of that very realistic training (the training took place in a facility built to be a ship, with boilers, living compartments, electronics areas, etc) returned and I was back in fire fighting training, something I hadn't thought about at all in the 36 years since I had taken it .
NOW THAT WAS a GREAT SCENARIO that could bring back memories of a real life experience. In real life I don't imagine the destruction as depicted in the ED scenario would be that big of a deal. Just turn the shield off in front of the slot and let the hurricane of air leaving the docking area clean out the fire and all the debris with it. But where would the fun be in that?
I don't have too many memorable gaming exeriences. Only been jump scared once and I remember that quite clearly. The other time was in ED when two Cobras jumped me and the last time was today and the one today will be remembered along with the rest as memories that make gaming worth more than just killing time. It takes a lot to get a rise out of me but that's two for ED and One for the very first Resident Evil.
Here's hoping ED can rise to the occasion again...
Anyway - out of the clear blue sky (I didn't search on the topic) YOUTUBE recommended a video about how to do FED/EMPIRE ranking - fast, real fast. I was in the business at the time of casually strolling around the galaxy gathering up rep to get promoted to Rear Admiral for the Federation. Slowly, read that as snail like
.The video was by a German YouTuber (can't think of his name) and it showed that if you went to a station allied to the Fed that was recently attacked by those insect thugs the Thargoids, one could transfer out from the station to a rescue ship the folks jumping the station like rats on a sinking ship. Sounded like a cool thing do. There was some video of a burning station on the inside. Didn't make an impression. I'll give that a try, I thought.
Little did I know what I was getting myself into.
Picked a fed system with the recently attacked icon and flew there in my Type 7 - The Happy Mule - and headed for the station in trouble. Note just in trouble - I thought - figured I'd land, load up all passenger cabins and move on - EASY right? MAN! Was I wrong. As soon as I dropped out of supercruise near the affected station a message from the pilots federation is at the top of the screen telling me basicly, NO SIGHT SEEING! If ya ain't here to help then kindly get the HELL out of dodge so real heroes can do their work. OKAY. Not a problem. I was there to help.
Sooooo...
I contacted the station and requested landing permission. The next thing I hear is a semi-panicked, scared to death flight controller (sounded to me like FD had the voice actor locked in a room, lit it on fire and told him - read your lines and make it real or we'll turn up the heat even higher). Most real voice acting I ever heard in ED. I won't repeat it. Don't want to spoil it for anyone that hasn't been in the situation yet.
Still - I had yet to appreciate the real gravity of the situation. Got assigned a landing pad and give orders on what to do when I got there. Lined up on the slot and flew my Krait-Phantom thru the slot. I could see the destruction as I was flying thru - it was bad - I just didn't know how bad (though I should have - more on that later). On entering the inside of the station I saw floating wreckage from at least 3 ships, one a very big one. There was smoke and flames every where and a dimly lit red foggy atmosphere. It was noisey - at least I think it was, not sure, had other more important things to concentrate on at the time and sight seeing wasn't one of them. It took a second or two to get my bearings and to find the pad I been assigned and it was marked "reserved" which made me hesitate - was there a mistake, was I gonna get shot down for landing there? But I was committed - the fire and explosions were causing me to rapidly - and I mean very, very fast take on heat. Dumped a heat sink around 120% and my EDDI computerized friend was screaming at me to drop a heat sink dummy, now! (really, I've done some serious editing on the EDDI voice). I got to the landing pad and entered the hangar - still heating up... BUT I WAS IN the HANGAR - couldn't dump another HS. Went immediately to the Passenger lounge and as quickly as I could loaded up every passenger I could. At least 128 maybe 144 (however many a Krait Phantom could hold with every slot except a couple or 3 not fitted with Passenger Cabins).
As soon as I reached fully loaded I punched the launch button and then immediately deployed a Heat Sink (ship was at 220% heat at the time - that was a first - highest ever before that was 180) rapid cool down and my EDDI computer voice stopped yelling at me). Didn't take long though until she started up again. I boosted out of the station and released my last heat sink, turned off FA and coasted for a bit (actually more than a bit and it cost me over a million and a half credits - those that have been in this situation should be able to figure out why). Headed for the rescue ship and unloaded the passengers. 16 missions worth 3 Plus rep per mission. My fed rep jumped from a bit over 75 to 98 or so just like that. Pilot rank went up a bit. Did 3 more missions, ended up with pilot rank going from 26% to 51% (was expecting more). Fed rep went to 100 after 2nd time and who know where after the 3rd. Understandably the 2nd and 3rd missions were exact reapeats of the first and didn't have the impact that the first did - still fun - but no real impact.
Now here's the really cool part.
Back Story:You see I served in the US Navy for 10 years. Even though I was an electronics tech, on the 2nd ship I served on I got assigned to the Damage Control Fire Fighting team. Training for that was very, very realistic but obviously not the real thing. You knew you weren't gonna die and unless you did something really stupid wouldn't get burned. It was realistic enough, though, that I knew I never wanted to experience the real thing, ever.
Anyway: While I was drifting along, FA off, for about 5 seconds the memory of that very realistic training (the training took place in a facility built to be a ship, with boilers, living compartments, electronics areas, etc) returned and I was back in fire fighting training, something I hadn't thought about at all in the 36 years since I had taken it .
NOW THAT WAS a GREAT SCENARIO that could bring back memories of a real life experience. In real life I don't imagine the destruction as depicted in the ED scenario would be that big of a deal. Just turn the shield off in front of the slot and let the hurricane of air leaving the docking area clean out the fire and all the debris with it. But where would the fun be in that?
I don't have too many memorable gaming exeriences. Only been jump scared once and I remember that quite clearly. The other time was in ED when two Cobras jumped me and the last time was today and the one today will be remembered along with the rest as memories that make gaming worth more than just killing time. It takes a lot to get a rise out of me but that's two for ED and One for the very first Resident Evil.
Here's hoping ED can rise to the occasion again...
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