Elite Dangerous, the slow burn love affair that lit up like a supernova x 10.

A little over a year ago, Epic had a free game giveaway, it was elite dangerous. And as common practice, I just claimed the game as I do with all freebies on epic with the mantra "claim now play later".

So truth be told, first time I installed it and played, I didn't like it. Ship controls felt weird with mouse and keyboard, it wasn't beginner friendly at all. The game just literally throws you in to the cockpit "Here's your ship, here's some basic flight training, now figure out the rest". I uninstalled it immediately after.....

Fast forward to 3 weeks plus ago . After playing Star Wars Squadrons, I wanted more space stuff, the definitive experience or close to it. Star Citizen is still a broken money sink mess. Star trek Online , I basically inhaled the story content, same with warframe. I scrolled through Epic and saw Elite Dangerous. So I reinstalled it yet again. This time armed with a Logitech controller.

The Controller eliminated the splitting headache that I got from trying to control the ship with the mouse and I got the explore the game and fly my ship properly. The learning curve on this game is pretty steep, its complex and even somewhat complicated and probably very daunting for beginners. A friend of mine actually gave up midway on the tutorial. I on the other hand kept going, main motivation was it's a space game and I love space. I learned the mechanics, fumbled around like a headless chicken for a while, flying into Stars, exploding, tried planetary landings and exploded, tried docking into a starbase and...you guessed it, exploding. Bought a new ship and having it blown up a few mins later. So the game can be and is very punishing, even now when I consider myself better at it.

Story wise, this game has it but unlike other games where you're thrown in head first into the story, where there's some Dark Lord/Emperor or some other constant evil galactic power that you need to stop because you're the ultimate savior of the Universe. That doesn't happen here. The game devs basically created a living breathing Universe where things can and will happen with or without your participation. From wars, elections, Pirate hunts and even shopping. Yes, you see that crate of Booze you wanted to buy 5 mins ago while you were installing a cargo hold for it? Its gone now coz "someone else" bought it. The focus of the game is "PERSONAL NARRATIVE". What that means is in a dynamic ever changing universe, you are one of many insignificants specs that have your own story to tell. Since there is no all encompassing space drama plot to nudge and push you in a particular direction, how you play and how your story or head canon develops is up to you. This makes any achievement you actually make all the more sweet and satisfying, as you got that because you wanted to and because you honed your skills ( yes launching probes on a planet is a high demand skill) and not because plot dictates that you achieve this or that you're some kind of chosen one/wunderkind. So this type of achievement is great and no one can take that away or diminish your experience because you are the hero of your story and everyone else are just side characters. Same applies that you are probably a side character is another players story.

So now on to my story as the greatest explorer, combat pilot, all round giganto penis hero of the universe ( It's my universe so STFU :D). I began my journey to Colonia, a far off secondary human settlement 22,000 light years from the primary human area at SOL (earth system for you noobs) 15 days ago, after being satisfied with my combat achievements, and generally getting bored of combat, I decided to pack up my bags and jump into my Diamondback Explorer and made my way there. I streamed the first part of the experience, but did not continue as its very boring and not exactly engaging high octane content that you'd expect from a space game. But I did take tons of pics (check below). All I did for the whole trip was jump into system Scan, map planets, maybe land on a few and scan plants for Exobiology points, refuel and jump out. Rinse and repeat ad nauseum.

I did run into several amazing sights like stellar phenomenons, Neutron stars, white dwarf stars, some unique plants and space bacteria. Also ran into a few black holes, almost exploded (seriously this game is violent). Also found a system called "I HAD SEX", yes its real and I plan to visit it soon. But these amazing views were far and few in between. But when you find them it is amazing.

After I reached Colonia, which is already an achievement worthy of a few Klingon songs, I decided to go all the way to the center of the galaxy and look at Sagittarius A, a real supermassive black hole in our Galaxy. As much as I want to see these things for real, it is not possible in my lifetime. Perhaps someday when our leaders stops focusing on superfluous things and actually focus on science and technology for real. So this is the next best thing.

Along the way you will find terraformable planets, water worlds and earth class planets, all these are very valuable and will help you into getting the elite ranking in exploration. So after all that is done I finally gathered enough scan data and achieved ELITE rank. (confetti spray, popping balloons, parades in my honor, heroic medals in my chest and all that stuff) It was truly an achievement and this is where the "personal narrative" aspect of the game shines the most.

With 400 billion stars to discover, there's still a huge chunk of the game that is yet to be discovered. Someone actually did the calculations, if you actually tried to discover and map all 400 billion systems in the game, it'll take you roughly 12,000 years. So that's definitely something you can do to fill up your retirement time. LOLZ

Elite Dangerous a slow burn love affair that became a supernova. Enjoy the pics and I'll continue updating and maybe stream if anything high octane happens in the game.

Commander Arthellian (It's Just Krelian :P)

Greatest Explorer ever....nuff said.