Elite Dangerous: Odyssey – An Almost-Ready StarCitizen?

Posted to Frontier forums:

OMG!

As a software dev with 20+ years of experience, I have to say I’m not new to this and am gravely disappointed by the number of bugs and (given Frontier’s track record of issuing fixes) the amount of time they’ll likely stay present in the game – because everyone wants to pretend to be an expert on the subject it seems whether they’ve ever written a line of code in all their life or not. But let’s try starting with the positive:

• a seemingly solid graphics update – with fewer issues than those of some of the other feature teams (A-). An A+ rating might’ve been possible – only I see now a few reports of things like the undue glare on some game elements which is a little disconcerting. Stellar fading on the NVIDIA card also seems a little bizarre.
• combat explosions get an A+ and reflect solid time spent, I’d say (A+).

And now for the bad news:

• Whole sections of bindings and interface issues have been reported for those of us with highly customized control interfaces (D-). Mostly frustrating the end-user experience and this isn’t new for Frontier which seems to be unsettled on its own UI going from one update into the next. This is also bad software design practice – all you need to think about is what would happen if Microsoft Office products suddenly removed the now infamous ‘ribbon’ (and all the scandal it caused when it was introduced) and replaced it with some external device you had to buy or control from your cell phone. Oh the uproar! (Hopefully, Frontier isn’t considering anything like that for future releases!)
• Planets, while revised and appearing more true-to-size on approach within a star system, seem to suffer (by raw number) from being refugees from the ‘potato universe’ where nothing can assume the shape of an oblique spheroid like say, Earth, Venus, and Mars in the Sol system (C). Why this might be, I dunno – but smaller terrestrial worlds seem ‘smaller somehow, yet should span still several thousands of kms in diameter. This is an unexpected change from Horizons where these kinds of worlds seemed strangely more proportional at closer range.
• Connection errors and hyperspatial game anomalies seem to be rampant for all of the player base, ranging from code ‘Blue Cobra’ exceptions through ‘Mauve Adder’. I have no idea what, if anything, was done to game protocols yet that could contribute to this or perhaps Amazon is to blame for some of it (F). I do know that on Norton Life-Lock (yes, Norton) security exceptions are being thrown with this game and shouldn’t be (and no, it’s not Norton’s fault here – BELIEVE me). This is new to Odyssey too – Horizons (even now) still doesn’t trigger this behaviour.
• Missions seem to be all but completely inoperable – rewards arbitrarily resetting total inventory counts in some cases with no wing missions offered at all (F). Not a pleasant thing to discover after you’ve completed a mission (if you’re allowed to – not guaranteed by any means).
• Planetary mining has been reduced to suffering from multiple errors making the Raw Materials Trader your best hope of getting the resources you need (F). The blue ellipses on-planet which used to indicate concentrations of materials distributed planet-wide are now gone and you’re left with guessing where to find anything with an SRV. This, effectively, makes the SRV useless in gameplay unless you want to run about settlements shooting other players on foot.

I could go on and on here, but I’m sure I’m getting the point across without resorting to an exhaustive list of what I’ve encountered thus far. I could add another 4 or 5 issues with behaviours, issues, etc. fully documented – but I really don’t work for Frontier and it’s quite likely others have drawn attention to a full list of necessary fixes. Let’s not even get started on the what-if scenario if I were to start quoting Reddit articles.

In short, this game is best characterized as an unwanted regression to what most of us serious players had thought was the long-dead past for Frontier. Indeed, they have succeeded completely in an apparent effort to make Elite more like (dare I say it) Star Citizen in that the title is now less-functional, more bug-heavy and left quietly screaming in the darkness to anyone at Frontier who may yet care for a fully involved QA process at the feature team and full deployment package levels. Had they established a regimen of complete unit tests invoking end-user credentials on all of the supported platforms years ago – we’d surely not be where we are today….which is still waiting for the completed version of the latest chapter in the Elite franchise.

It should be mentioned that this analysis does consider at least some of the hurdles which may well have been introduced with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, however, does not delve into the fiscal realities that sometimes interfere with the software development process. A valued mentor in my own background once said, “You can manage scope or timeline. Not both.” This might be seen as some sort of fallacy or pipe-dream in the modern gaming industry, but remains true of any meaningful software project regardless of industry vertical.

Hopefully, Frontier will release fixes and patches aggressively as soon as possible! I, for one, expected a lot more than a game that might forgivingly be called a ‘beta’.

Sincerely,

TRIUM, CMDR/VADM Reserve Fleet
FNS Genorex (AR-12) | Trade Elite, Exploration Elite, Combat Dangerous
Pilots’ Federation Certified | Interstellar Federation

The Man Who Shrunk the World

At 97, Chuck Yeager has lived a very full life. But it was distinguished for many other reasons too. Not the least of which being he was one of the architects of what was once called ‘The Global Community’. This is a smaller world where communications and mobility of mankind began to have powers that the ancient gods of the past could have only dared dream of.

Yeager’s contribution was willing to be a test pilot for the United States Air Force and, insodoing, became the first man to break the speed of sound itself. It was only the first of many achievements to come, of course – but at the time it really seemed to kick things off in a way nobody in the world could approach. In the later years of his life, Yeager would have seen super-sonic speed as commonplace (even with passenger craft like the Concord taking flight). But he’ll surely be most often remembered for being the first to show how it could be done.

Of course, today, such high-profile achievements tend to either not happen at all or be so sophisticated in enhancing our capabilities as a species we daren’t even speak of them openly (for whatever that might mean). This might lead one to think Yeager was one-of-a-kind in other ways too: that he was among the last to bring the US well-deserved glory; but while totally untrue in fact – it doesn’t diminish Yeager or his life. For those who play Elite, some of the older of us may recall he even became involved with software gaming for a time in the late 1980s – for many Chuck Yeager’s Flight Simulator was a real hit!

Chuck Yeager, remembered today as a pioneer and explorer. Truly more worthy than any of us of the title ‘Elite’!

Gen. Chuck Yeager became a legend for being the first person to experience speed beyond sound itself. (Credit: Winnipeg Free Press, December 8, 2020)

Straw Poll: Pro-Cancel Culture?

On Net.Etiquette

Recently, I had another discord.gg altercation which has seen me withdraw completely from the chat service for the foreseeable future. Admittedly, I’m growing weary of the “clique” mentality that pervades the system, and in particular with the emotions of those involved somehow growing so completely out of control (from my perspective) that, initially at least, there’s little sense to be made of it. It’s not that the complaints people may have are totally without merit (although invariably they are coming from a what seems a narrowly-defined group). It’s that I can’t understand how something like an inadvertent breach of etiquette could lead to someone becoming so angry as to label another person as ‘evil’ or ‘irredeemable’ — particularly when the consequences of doing so may simply lead to others who don’t share their own extreme reaction as feeling uncomfortable or out of place. Another consequence to this are those who react this way becoming stressed out themselves, which is the last thing I want to contribute to.

I’m writing about this issue with a degree of historical perspective and as someone who finds human beings conflicted, irrational and difficult to understand in most cases. This can lead to intolerance, belligerence and worse behaviours in some; although I must make the point that this isn’t a defense of my own behaviour nor intended to characterize me as “the victim”. But a recent straw poll of those in my own life (and on social media) leads me to conclude the people generally feel that when there’s evidence someone has violated a convention or social norm they should be spoken to instead of ostracized. So why has the discord service proven to be so different for me?

Once upon a time, many years back, there was a form of what’s now considered “social media” called NNTP or network news. At the time, it was unbeknownst to myself and my first business partner posting advertisements or discourse related to one’s own business ventures was considered “poor etiquette”. So when we decided to announce our new consulting business opening up online, we were somewhat shocked at the response being almost universally negative. Here we were trying to make a valued contribution and getting effectively black-listed for going about it the wrong way. Of course nowadays, the NNTP-like service called Reddit is host to ads aplenty and the etiquette changed radically — not necessarily because people started clamouring for ads to appear at some point. Regardless of how it came to be, what once yielded hate e-mail spamming ones mailbox changed to “acceptable” behaviour.

This isn’t to say that at some future date streaming a discord server won’t go the same way. (It probably won’t, in fact.) But auto-streaming to twitch, YouTube or Mixer (or any of 50 other services) is growing in popularity and contributes value by donating content. It might not be the most popular content, but it is a form of content contributed for the general consumption of all. Add to this the streaming brokers like OBS or Mixer (I think they have a utility that streams to their online site as well as YouTube) or others providing a means of controlling how and what content is presented and you have a recipe for updates to influence what gets published; all potentially without the direct knowledge of the presenter. Or perhaps one of the hundreds of discord updates that occur every year impacts presentation in an unfamiliar or unexpected way.

And then if this scenario prevails and people’s voices were heard from a discord server in a stream without advance permission: we have an apparent breach of etiquette with evidence. It might seem perfectly legitimate to consider me guilty of surreptitiously trying to broadcast content behind the backs of those on a private server, right?

Ignoring for a moment that “secretly” trying to do anything in public online is at best contradictory and at worst outright stupid, the question persists does such a breach of etiquette warrant labelling as “irredeemable” or even being kicked out of a social group (even one online)? And without being given the opportunity to try to explain what might have happened or examine the evidence particularly when the offending party had thought he’d been given permission at one point to continue a stream with parties on the server in question present (although I’d taken such permission to apply only to one specific stream — not a carte blanche permission to stream all the content that would ever be posted)? Evidence alone as it appeared was enough all without context.

For these reasons, it is my view that discord generally needs to be taken down a notch. It simply isn’t right that people are targeted in this fashion. And I did speak with a number of others who’d either themselves experienced the “clique” mentality I’m speaking of or who had been banned from servers (thus separating them from social groups) on the basis of what may seem dubious circumstances involving many different social dynamics. But to summarize, I posit that a violation of etiquette is not just cause to start slandering or hating your fellow human beings.

Discord, for its part, may not be to blame here in any way. There are those who want to “burn the whole world down” and do nothing but cause trouble and mayhem. That’s why discord lets you ban people, fundamentally, I think. Another chat service several years ago called “IRC” seemed to not have these same problems. But if people react in a rational fashion to social challenges and use the technology in a constructive way I think discord could be a very useful and powerful tool indeed.

Right now, it just seems to promote cliques and clique behaviour. And I question who, if anyone, that’s helping.

I should at this juncture for my growing English audience (or so the analytics say) make a few quick points to address potential interest:

• if I did a stream on the discord Elite server in question, it was more out of habit and typically with a mind to disable channel dialogue from making to the broadcast (although in 1 case I believe it was deliberate)
• if a deliberate streaming happened, it was done under the following circumstances:
  • I thought I had permission to do so, and/or
  • I didn’t think it a serious breach of etiquette at the time for some mindless reason; and
  • I have streamed on other servers before, including my own without issue.
  • NO EFFORT was made to sneak it by without the group’s awareness (as should be evidenced by it being public, unless you truly think me THAT stupid)
• it may also be relevant to keep in mind that discord visualizations (which until tonight I wasn’t even aware were activated) DO NOT transmit into the V/R environment without the involvement of 3rd party software, which I do not use; those who think the profile icons of users on the server should somehow have clued me into what was going on are incorrect
• I’ve counted 3 cases total during my own investigation, thus far, where streaming occurred and these are, at the admin’s “cease and desist” request, removed. If there are still others unaccounted for, you should:
  • send a message to me using discord or, if you have it, my commander’s email address with the URL included
  • notwithstanding the above deletions, there were a total of 9 sessions auto-cast to YouTube from the date I first stated using the server, to my best recollection; most of which seemed free of offending traffic
• I will continue investigating all content and re-post sessions thought to be free of dialogue from the discord server in question.

On my YouTube channel, there was one case where I’d mistakenly cited the availability of this server as part of a larger service offering. I’ve posted a comment to the video (with highlighted reference on the video itself using YouTube’s rather broken tools for text editing overlays) citing the reference and this correction, but I do so again here to come completely clean on the subject.

I believe it is important for all to keep in mind that each of us is human and quite fallible. Pointing out errors tactfully isn’t the problem, however. We’re all capable of mistakes and errors in judgement, both on and off discord. And as Facebook scandals continue to erupt (something that’s likely to persist for the foreseeable future), chat services like discord are likely to only increase in popularity. Hopefully, as this type of social media grows we can all adopt standards of behaviour and etiquette that will serve to keep people growing their communities instead of limiting ourselves to serving baser instincts.

Let’s try to end “cancel culture”.

Fly safe, commanders!

Lord(Marcus)British Reacts to Trium Withdrawal

LordBritish can get very, very angry it seems. Far angrier than even I (and I had quite a temper growing up many years ago). And now it seems to be taking the form of trolling, lies and insults on discord.gg (and elsewhere):

And with that, LordBritish contacted CMDR Alpha Station and had me thrown out of that squadron too. CMDR Alpha apparently wasn’t interested in hearing anything from me on the subject of what got LordBritish so riled since it was he and CMDR Farmere who, last night, had apparently become telepathic and started suddenly dictating what I was thinking about them and myself. Add to this suddenly revamping what I said and perverting it into something I hadn’t said at all – when I asked permission to record the conversation for later playback, they both refused without saying why. I was only interested in a record to ensure accuracy for the 3 of us to go back to. Perhaps they thought I had other motives?

Seeing I wasn’t welcome any longer and finding no way to resolve their apparent deep-seated issues with me (which had been festering for a while I’m now told) they came onto my discord.gg channel and posted the above. When I left the LordBritish server, I had not intented to return and was on to minding my own business desiring neither further discourse with Farmere or Marcus (LordBritish). So why the fresh campaign of slander, lies and insults? Because I’d blocked both of them to concentrate on my own business I didn’t see the above text right away and it was left there probably too long.

To those who caught it, this is apparently what it was all about — my decision to depart without accepting their re-imagined view of the conversation (and it was completely re-imagined). What had started as a silly argument about the facts of my education from a pair of game players who take themselves a little too seriously ended up perverted into something it never was in the real version. Apparently, they felt because there were two of them agreeing to some new version of what I’d said somehow that made it true.

Excusing the hypocrisy at their accusations of “pretentiousness” is one thing. But clearly, they’re not leaving this alone so I offer the above explanation in hopes it (and they) will all just go away. I know what I said and how I said it. Just because there are 2 of you doesn’t mean you can edit the conversation to your preferred version and stick it on me. Tell the whole world your version if you like — mine is still the correct one and if it wasn’t you wouldn’t have been afraid of recording further conversation for the sake of reference.

I will add here I can’t stand people who talk behind each others’ backs maliciously and this coupled with the trolling mentality I’ve started to endure is surely a clue even to these people — enough’s enough! Obviously, I erred here: I shouldn’t ever have wasted the time getting to know you 2. I can’t get that time back, but I can ask you not to waste any more of my time with your lack of ability to cope with this disagreement. Let’s just go our separate ways. OK?

Frontier Dev (FDev) Discloses Elite Refinement Schedule Through 2020

Frontier (the software design company behind “Elite Dangerous”) released the schedule of its forthcoming development of the Elite universe this morning (EST) with the revelation there are no plans to enhance the current edition of the Milky Way galaxy further. Instead, the company reports it will be sticking to a strategy of player retention while it completes some major upgrades to the simulated environment through to the midpoint of 2020. Through 2019 there will be a gradual replacement of “Community Goals” to player missions. Though the parameters given in the release from Frontier were quite vague, there is the possibility that some of the original storylines around Raxxla (a long sought-after planet within the gameplay) might be used to aid player retention.

Initial CMDR (player) response was extraordinarily negative with one initial reaction reading as follows:

Wow. Pretty weak Frontier. The promised Premium Content delayed again. After being delayed again and again. 
Just another announcement of another coming announcement. This one in 18 months. You have really outdone yourselves this time. 

— User “Cmdr Ultra“

Another writes:

The white knights are going bananas trying to explain away this. 5 years between horizons and whatever the next dlc is. There’s slow…then there’s FDev development slow.

— User “Rambojambo“

But CMDR reaction wasn’t universally negative — a number lept to FDev’s defense with comments like the following:

Whilst I’m sure late-2020 will disappoint many, I’m actually very pleased that FDev have learned from the LEP-fiasco of 2018 and are being up-front with us. We may not like the news, but at least we know.

— User “PiLhEaD“

Another writes:

I think you missed the part where he said that [life account] owners get the whole new content for free…

Also I got news for you: Making content, especially as big as advertised, takes time.

And it’s not like they stop making any updates until 2020.

— User “Hellfire85 “

It is this journalist’s own view (as a professional software developer) that really given what we’ve seen in-game so far there should be no great surprise at the time being invested toward developing new features into the game in a manner consistent with its vision. When the Elite Dangerous project first began, they could add landing on planets without atmospheres, change mission structures and make other relatively superficial changes without too much effort. Also, they were working (at least in part) on a crowd-funded budget. The gameplay that resulted from this effort was a hair’s width short of miraculous.

But now CMDRs want to land on atmosphere-ready planets with the ability to fly through gas giants if need be. That means taking into account physics and graphics the initial engine just could not provide. And the gaming universe continues to change too — we’ve got StarCitizen (very-well funded by Hollywood corporate money) and now not just cinematics but full feature-length movies to contend with. Elite Dangerous 1.0 (if I can call it that here) just wasn’t built to deal with such niggling business realities. At the very least the players will need to see Earth-type planets from orbit with 20,000 inhabitants not already inlaid with apparent civilizations on the ground. They’ll need to see at most a scant few dim lights around a stronger-lit central hub. And that kind of dynamic means getting a software architecture into place that can meet such a demand.

Not to mention all of this needs to run seamlessly on 4 or 5 major gaming platforms, including the PC and virtual reality. That’s a tall order and after all the debugs and testing (I’m told they have it, despite the obvious bugs that have recently hampered gameplay) 18 months isn’t hard to see. You can likely get a shorter deadline, but Frontier still has ownership that expects to turn a profit over the long-term. Addressing these problems with a new software architecture in itself could easily add up to the proposed timeline. And I don’t even work at Frontier and am unaware of all the technical challenges and realities the teams there need to face.

Hopefully, the existing user-base will be tolerant over this intervening period as a new platform for future growth of the environment is developed. But keep an eye on Star Citizen and Squadron 42 — they won’t be out-of-the-market forever!

Guardian FSD Booster

www.youtube.com/watch

Elite Dangerous Servers Down (Again)

As of ~4:15 p.m. EDT / ~3:15 p.m. CDT (North America), it looks as if Elite Dangerous servers have gone down unexpectedly. Within a couple of minutes of the outage, the support site broadcast an “Issues Detected” message, but no details were immediately available.

Updates to this story as they occur…

____________________

UPDATE 04:35 p.m. EDT:

Service was restored.

Sol and Achenar Confirmed as Thargoid Primary Targets

E

agle Eye intelligence (brokered by ‘Lab 69‘ within Canonn Research has, as of this week, affirmed earlier predictions that both Sol and Achenar are the intended primary targets of recent encroachments by the hostile species into the core systems.  Both Earth and Mars in the Sol system and Conversion and Capitol in the Achenar system are next expected to receive protection from capital ships equipped with the still experimental AX-class weaponry researched by Aegis Corp. through its own research projects in the Pleiades Sectors of the Milky Way galaxy.  Aegis megaships will also likely serve as support bases into both systems when an attack looks imminent.

The full text of Eagle Eye intelligence output follows:

==+ NoSecrets v2.1.3 Log. License expires 17th Feb 3305. THANKS FOR 
UPGRADING +==
==+ [1041745480075058158] > Packet snoop established. P2P GUDP Packet 
identified. +==
==+ [1041745480075058175] > qTLS Tap OK, Auth: Mutual. Eve (v1.2.7701) is 
in the house +==
From: [Captain Rebuy (Canonn)|Canonn Institute|Col 285 Sector IX-T d3-43]
To: [Overseer Gluttony Fang (AXI)|Arc's Faith|HR 1183]
Subject: Eagle Eye Report Week 11 - 17/05/3304

Eagle Eye Report and Summary of the previous week:

For a second time both target systems were successfully defended with
LTT 8517 and Dalfur systems both having the Thargoid threat repelled. 
Well done all who took to their ships in support. Neither system are 
showing non-human signal sources at present.

Intelligence obtained from Eagle Eye this week shows the targets are 
Lalande 4141 and Lwalama, and NHSS have been detected.

Aegis Megaships were dispatched to Coquim and LHS 1453 (neither of 
which were Eagle Eye targets) and wrecked megaships were found in 
several systems nearby.

The other targets given to us by EE were decoded and have indicated a 
barnacle forest location, wrecked megaships, and an INRA base (Almeida 
in Conn).

All indications so far are that both Achenar and Sol are intended 
destinations.

--Captain Rebuy--

Report Ends…..

==+ [1041745480075058259] > qTLS Tap Dropped. Eve (v1.2.7701) has left
the building +==
==+ [1041745480075058259] > End of P2P GUDP Packet +==

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A quick review of recent achievements by CMDR Trium within the last 10 days.  Visit the VFL archive to review helmet-cam footage.

It should be noted here — despite recent comments made by figures in both the Federation and Imperial navies — no Federation or Imperial NPC navy vessels have prevailed in a Thargoid-to-capital-ship engagement.  (This includes task forces employing both the Federation’s Farragut-class carriers nor the Imperial Majestic-class battleships.)

Humanity may find itself ‘on the ropes’ if victories aren’t seen soon.  To say nothing of what might happen to our species in the event speculation about the Thargoid base structures actually turning out to be late-assembly baseships launching off of nearby planets.

One rather large outstanding question remains here: is Frontier timing the release of planet atmospheric operations to coincide with an even bigger Thargoid threat?  What about the possibility of Thargoid attacks on planet bases or (in atmospheric gameplay) population centres like cities on planets like Earth and Mars?

Further reports to follow as developments warrant.

Planets With Atmospheres: Almost Available?

 

Frontier staff have recently been heard hinting that planet atmospheres could be gradually rolled into players’ Elite Dangerous Experience soon!

F

or me, a veteran Elite CMDR who has been playing various versions of the game since its introduction in 1983 (yes — I am that old) being able to interact with planets regardless of whether they have an atmosphere or not is simply a basic feature.  Although the initial release of Elite back in 1983 offered only single-planet star systems where the “planet” was really just a line-art circle (whose surface would result in the loss of your Cobra Mk III craft if you ran into it), Elite II and Elite II: Frontier both enabled you to take off from partially-terraformed moon Merlin in the Ross 154 star system.  There, one could see the reddish sky and the eerie gas giant Aster dominating the skyline from the tarmac of the local starport with the lights of a nearby domed city also in-view.  Elite Dangerous has taken us back in some respects to an earlier time when such extravagances as being blasted to dust for not requesting tower clearance prior to liftoff from said planet-bound starport was but a glint in David Braben’s eye.  (Braben is, of course, the mastermind behind the Elite franchise as well as the original programmer.)

CMDR ObsidianAnt who runs an extremely popular running commentary on Elite Dangerous shares with us in his latest YT-cast a preview of what might (and should) be coming throughout 2018 and perhaps 2019 by merging the view of an Asp Explorer spaceframe with a short demo of worlds created using a tool called Space Engine, available for download here.  ObsidianAnt says that Space Engine and Elite Dangerous are “two very different pieces of software” in his video, but perhaps not being a software developer himself he’s missing some background.  Whatever code is used as the basis for Space Engine, I’m extremely skeptical at the outset that the two titles (the other being Elite Dangerous) can’t be integrated.  True, there are numerous tasks associated with software integration methodology, but speaking as a systems developer (my own strength) I’ve been tasked with taking two “very different” pieces of software and experienced some degree of success in getting the job done several times in my career.  Superficially, I’m not seeing any architectural issues or other seemingly insurmountable challenges.  Frontier Developments has a very capable team of software engineers, obviously — and it would be something just short of unimaginable to say a 3rd-party product like Space Engine can’t be made to work with Elite.

Of course, one must keep in mind the console platforms which might introduce challenges I could, in fact, not imagine.  But on the PC, it’s unlikely to my mind the effects we’re seeing in Space Engine can’t be successfully migrated to Elite Dangerous.  At the very least having a perusal of the Space Engine source could cultivate stronger implementations of atmospheres on the worlds of Elite Dangerous.

If you have a different take on this subject, please chime in with a comment below.

And regardless of the timeliness of new feature intros to the game — kudos to Frontier Developments, creators of Elite Dangerous, for creating a truly immersive and enjoyable spaceflight sim.  We’re all on the edge of our seats waiting for that next “big thing” to come out….we know you won’t let us down!

Novas, Aliens and Dates — Oh My!

E

Taken from the Elite Dangerous Wiki images, here we see the LMC and SMC as they appear within the Universal Cartographics galaxy map as it appears in Elite Dangerous.

veryone has been talking about it — where are the Thargoids?  Are the Guardians still around somewhere (in hiding?), and why is the galaxy so static?  In reality, a recent Cornell University study suggests our best observations predict a rate of ~35 to ~75 novas annually.  There stands a very good chance that the Thargoid homeworld could be located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) — a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way that is quite evident in the galactic map.  One proposal for transiting human ships to the LMC could involve a megaship similar to the ICS Indra, equipped with an intergalactic hyperdrive (available only to large capital ships) and transiting docked player and NPC vessels to/from the LMC according to a schedule.  And why have we not encountered more alien civilizations yet?  Not all would need to be spacefaring after all — some could even involve the introduction of Dyson spheres or have still other motives for not exploring the surrounding galaxy very far.  Could these ideas for system-managed dynamic content be somehow integrated into the game universe created for Elite Dangerous?

 

Astronomical Events

It’s likely that stars in “the bubble” (core systems) would have to be exempted for obvious reasons.  Systems close to Sol going nova would pose a meaningful contradiction to the known history both of our own galaxy in reality and the scripted timeline for Elite (c. 2050-3404[-3410?]).  However, having a star explode in-game would not only provide a spectacular event for players to watch, it could stir things up in some areas of the galaxy — especially those with Thargoid bases or fledgling human colonies, for example.  And it would serve to add a whole new dimension to gameplay if a system like Betelgeuse had humans in it who noticed the death throes of such a huge star and had to escape either by jumping away or hitting supercruise in order to stay ahead of the large, destructive shock-wave that will surely chew up the last 2 planets in that star system.

Using Megaships to Transport CMDRs Inter-Galactically

The Wells-class Carier Ship (Source: Elite Dangerous Wiki)

I doubt we’re likely to see Frontier trying to model the Andromeda Galaxy anytime soon, much less provide the capability to transfer CMDRs there.  Or anywhere else in the Local Group, for that matter.  However, the Milky Way extends a halo of disconnected (and largely dark) matter around the outer rim systems for quite some distance (~30,000 ly, I believe I’d heard) and then there’s largely empty space until the much-abbreviated halo around the LMC gets encountered at ~150,000 ly from Sol.  Although the Thargoids could originate elsewhere, it seems likely the LMC is the logical place to start looking based on how their activity has spread near to human-controlled space.  And given that large jumps have been achieved with capital ships featuring docked CMDRs in the past, one thinks it only logical to rely on the superior ability of capital megaships to spearhead such an exploration effort.

After all: one won’t win any conflict with the Thargoids simply by defending human space and hoping they go away at some future date.  What if they chose not to?

Aliens

It is my belief that aliens are likely to be more common than simply having one species occupy all of the Milky Way galaxy at a time.  And it seems that with the ever-expanding exoplanet index revealing the likelihood of Earth-like worlds (not to mention the atmospheres of such worlds being catalogued by the James Webb Space Telescope or JWST set for launch no later than early 2019) will present us with irrefutable evidence concerning the likely existence of sentient species elsewhere in this galaxy soon.  Should not additional alien civilizations be introduced to the galaxy now — while there is still time for fantasy species to be included?

Of course, one could argue a sentient alien civilization was destroyed in the Elite timeline already with the founding of the Galactic Empire on Capital (Achenar 6D) in ~2250 CE.  This it itself could suggest others both in the Milky Way galaxy, the LMC and elsewhere beyond (though it’s not clear of what practical benefit there’d by to an attempt at contact from species too far away to be otherwise involved in the game).

The Update vs. Scheduled Events

I’d propose that adding some of the aforementioned concepts to create a more “living galaxy” could be done most simply via scheduled events that occur outside the PowerPlay update (which occurs in North America on Thursday mornings).  Players interested in using a jump to the LMC could assemble at a predetermined location (perhps a “checkpoint”?) and dock their ship prior to the announced jump time.  At the appointed time, an intergalactic hyperspace jump would occur and after a few moments cause arrival at a set of coordinates in the outer sectors of the LMC.  From here, CMDRs would disengage from the mother ship and return when the schedule announced a forcast return to the core systems in the Milky Way.  Costs would be associated with financing the jump and an early Galactic Goal might involve the creation of a starport at the arrival point in the LMC.  Here, humanity would manage its beachhead

Comments and questions on the content presented here are welcome regardless of brevity.  But my goal would to be to present the discourse to Frontier via their forms or through the public network services (Twitter, Reddit, etc.).  Thanks for your participation!

Elite Dangerous Launcher Locks Out All CMDRS!

Just filed the following ticket with Frontier Store support:

I am currently having multiple problems with my Elite Horizons installer and ticketing system.  First I got the following a short while ago trying to use the launcher app:

After attempting a re-install of the launcher which also failed, I attempted to launch a support ticket.  This resulted in the following from the Frontier support website:

Invalid response from user account service

….and no matter how many times I’ve tried to access my account through changing my password on the support maintenance site, I still get the same above errors!

What is going on?  I can’t file this trouble ticket on the website — how should I proceed???

Extremely frustrated with all the errors experienced playing Elite lately,
RH
(CMDR Trium Augus)
{omitted, use:} cmdr.trium@apprefactory.ca

CMDR Trium Videos at New URL

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MDR Trium’s videos are now being posted at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7ZBNd12ewr4KT74VKG06kA or http://bit.ly/CmdrTriumVFL if you’re looking for the short address.  This may change once more to a shortened YouTube URL if there’s enough traffic to qualify for a custom URL.  As for the VFL content pertaining to CMDR Trium, this new address will serve as a new permanent location so the old /apprefactory URL can be used for commercial purposes (although for the time being the @apprefactory Twitter account will still serve to provide related notices pertaining to CMDR Trium).

You can email CMDR Trium at cmdr.trium@apprefactory.ca if you have any questions or comments to share on this subject.

Exoplanet Ross 128b an Earthlike World?

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erlin has just been discovered!  (For those of you who are familiar with the Elite universe….Ross 128 is the system which is host to the Merlin colony, an earth-like world which actually is a moon of the gas giant Aster in the game.)  The similarity of Merlin and this discovery might be astonishing!  I certainly hope the folks at Frontier are paying attention to this news item.

 

Artist’s conception of what the exoplanet Ross 128b might look like on the surface.  (Source: CNN.com)

 

 

Thargoids Nearing “The Bubble”

Alliance logo

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he Thargoid invasion is proceeding nicely — if you’re a Thargoid (or perhaps Prime Minister Ed Mahon).  Unfortunately, the bulk of humanity is governed by the Federation and the Empire; leaving humanity largely vulnerable to retaliation for the rumored attempted genocide of the Thargoid species.  And now, Thargoid encroachment is moving dangerously close to human-held space.  Indeed, non-human attacks have (as of recently) now struck as close to Earth as 70ly!  And we’re not seeing much apparent attention to this emerging crisis from either of the parties who, almost certainly, caused it in the first place.  Where is the mighty Empire?  Where are the fearless soldiers of the Federation?

Starships Wanted

Thargoid logo (proposed)

One solution that the pair of superpowers could offer are new classes of warships that would allow CMDRs to dock and allow the Empire and Federation both to project their might into areas hosting Thargoid activity — like near key installations, such as starports.  Allowing CMDRs to “park” their craft on a carrier class vessel would allow them to always organize and counter-attack in regions affected by Thargoids.  On top of which sooner or later this war will only be won by taking the fight into the territory of the enemy.  If that means using intergalactic hyperdrive technology, such an investment in larger capital ships may become necessary.  That is….if the Thargoid threat is ever to be pacified once and for all.

 

Pirates Using Thargoid Tech?

Are pirates using Thargoid tech to disrupt operations and some starports?  The possibility was raised this past week when one CMDR (name unavailable at present) proposed the notion that stolen Thargoid tech adapted for long-range energy disruption was actually responsible for all of the various starports reporting power problems.  Some groups (like the Ant Hill Mob) have taken to piracy and terrorism, leveraging the Thargoid threat as an opportunity to further the objectives of one small group at the expense of humanity!  If this proves true, I personally believe it should become a new objective to target these groups for decimation once the Thargoid threat has been resolved.  Such groups are demonstrating they are enemies of humanity as a whole, after all, through such self-serving acts!

As of the GalNet update, 30-JAN-3304: Vonarbug Port in the Maridal system, 70ly from Earth, was facing energy disruption activity that may originate from the Thargoids.  Does this mean this station is a target for attack in the near future?

On the other hand, it is entirely possible the Thargoids themselves are responsible for this disruption.  And in either case, the Empire and the Federation need to act together now.  The nearest point where this remote disruption activity is occurring is in the Maridal system, just 70ly from Earth!

The Future of Elite Dangerous: The Great In-Game Debate

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MDRs IronJaguar and SoapyKnight joined me in an unarranged VoiceComms chat session this evening to discuss wing options.

Click to review VFL data from FNS Quantica, January 25, 3304.

Or so I thought.  Suddenly, we were talking about VR gaming and the collective disappointment with how long new features were taking to be rolled into the Elite: Dangerous universe.  As a software developer myself, I’m acutely familiar with how it’s produced.  Prior experience with the world’s largest software production company, Microsoft, has helped that education and acquaint me with the most modern practices involved with the full software development lifecycle.  I thought I’d bring this view to a pair of gaming consumers; one from New York and another a fellow Canadian who lives relatively close, geographically (which is not a given in the world’s second-largest country).  CMDR IronJaguar, in particular, laid the heaviest expectations on Frontier (the producer of the Elite game series).  Could he be convinced to be more understanding of the issues involved in producing Elite: Dangerous?  And what about Frontier’s competitors?  Where is Star Citizen?  What about EndSpace and From Other Suns?  Could they pose a threat to Elite’s dominance in the VR flight sim market at some point?

Watch today’s gaming session here to find out!

Elite Dangerous Universe: Calendar dates?

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ello CMDRs!  It turns out that the date on the Elite Universe timebar (3304) is pretty close to the same day of the week we experience in 2018:

January 3304

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

As you can see from the above, today ‘s date in 3304 (January 24^th) falls on a Thursday, while in 2018 it is obviously a Wednesday.

Just another interesting fact about the gameplay of Elite, brought to you by CMDR Trium!

Follow the Adventures of the FNS Quantica!

CMDR Trium Augus, January 3304

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he year is 3304 and mankind has started to explore the galaxy in earnest with tens of thousands of humans fanning out across the cosmos thanks to affordable spacecraft being made available to people from various walks of life: explorers, bounty hunters, miners, exothropoligists and many others.  Supported by other companies like Universal Cargographics, Cannon Research, the Aegis Corporation, DeLacy Spacecraft, Lakon Spaceways and many others, this intrepid group together with (the real) Frontier software development company has created an environment spanning our Milky Way galaxy, including 400+ billion unique star systems containing a smattering of eyeball-catching astronomical phenomena.  Herein, spacecraft commanders (CMDRs) complete on missions for starport or political factions, pursue community goals with galactic impact and/or further the ambitions of humanity in their own unique way, or just trade ferrying cargo from one system that’s in demand in another.  Against this background, you can follow the adventures of CMDR Trium Augus (yours truly) and watch the epic saga of those he deals with unfold.  This is just the beginning of a universe Frontier calls “Elite Dangerous” and is the brainchild of David Braben; who created an old game for 8-bit computing platforms (like the Apple //e or Commodore-64) called “Elite” back in the mid-1980s.  It is upon the legacy of the game (and its successors in the 1990s) that Elite Dangerous is built.

Click to launch INARA Radio player – which accompanies you playing Elite Dangerous!

Ongoing coverage of the events in this make-believe universe are presented in digest form here.  But I encourage every reader to visit The AppRefactory Inc. on YouTube as soon as you’re finished with content presented here.  My story is one handled in a video presentation that gains new contributions almost daily through the winter months and weekly at other points during the year.

Hope you’ll visit us soon!

Other background info on CMDR Trium is available at the following sites:

• Elite Dangerous Star Map Profile: CMDR Trium
• INARA Pilot’s Federation Profile: CMDR Trium
• CMDR Trium Flight Log Recorder Site (on YouTube.com)
• ….and here too from now on!

Other websites supporting CMDRs in the universe of Elite Dangerous:

• LAVE Radio (and others)
• Elite Dangerous Star Map
• Frontier Elite Dangerous (ED) Forums
• ED Wiki Site
• Elite Dangerous Galaxy Data (eddb.io)