The Intergalactic Aerospace Expo (IAE) 2952 is done! This was my first IAE and I think this is probably my favorite event. Very much looking forward to IAE 2953.
Invictus and Alien Week were great and the ship availability during those events were cool, but there’s just something about IAE that felt more like an actual convention/expo. From the location (On MicroTech), to the show floor, the Whitley’s guide videos, even the in game chatter about the event, it felt like I was actually visiting a convention centered around companies showing off the best parts of their spaceships. And speaking of Whitley’s guide, this was my first introduction to the series and it is one of my very favorite things. I immediately had to go find all the other seasons for the “show.”
There are no RSI website pages for Whitley’s Guide for 2951 and 2952 that I could find. But a YouTuber collected all the videos into a playlist, so the links to those two years will also give you everything.
With all the ships available through the free fly event, I only ended up trying a few I’ve never flown before but I tried all of the new ones. We ended up having three new ships debut at IAE and two of them were a surprise! I ended the event owning all three. New fleet makeup at the end of the post.
New ships!
First up is the Drake Cutter. A new starter ship that looks a lot like the Winnebago from Spaceballs. I ended up loving this ship so much that I went ahead and picked up the discounted war-bond for it. The VTOL engines on the side are just adorable. My only knock against it is that it can’t be summoned at an outpost like a Pieces can.
Speaking of the Pieces, there’s now a rescue variant with a Tier 3 medical bed in it! In the picture below you can also see it also sports a small fridge that you can access water and various med-pens. This one I got from melting a couple of ships to get some store credit to get this and the next one… which is… well just look.
The Drake Corsair has been known to be in the pipeline for a while. It’s been on the loading splash screen for as long as I can remember. It’s become my daily driver essentially. The Mercury Star Runner is going to always be my favorite ship and the Constellation Andromeda will always be the most iconic ship to me, but the Corsair scratches an itch in both utility and aesthetic. She’s terrible in atmo, but it just has so much power, a big ass to put stuff in, and JUST LOOK AT THE WINGS!
I was landing at Port Olisar and noticed another Corsair pilot running around in the Hinterland (yellowish) paint and got jealous. I was running the Eternity (black with red strip) paint. We ended up connecting and running High Risk Target bounties. I’m not sure either one of us took any real damage except me when the pirate ran into me and took a wing off.
Current pledge ships
There was a bunch of shuffling. And in hindsight, I should have sat on my hands for a couple of days because I missed out on some paints. Before IAE, I owned a Scorpius and the regular Pisces. Both of those got Best in Show paints this year. But I melted them and some other things to be able to pick up the Corsair the Rescue Pisces and the RSI Galaxy (Galaxy is in concept and probably a ways away.) I should have been patient. But I got big eyes at the Galaxy and pulled the trigger too soon. I dropped the Scorpius because, while I loved it, I just don’t do enough fighter stuff to fly it often. And to be honest, it’s stronger with 2 people and it’s getting rarer and rarer that I can actually pull a co-pilot to run the turret. I got the MSR Best in Show paint. That’s all that really matters.
I got close to melting the Galaxy and setting it back to the way it was in order to pick up the paints but the more I thought about it, the more silly I felt. I wasn’t flying the ship. What’s the point in having the paint for it? I might not end up keeping the Galaxy based on what I’ve been reading about it, I still don’t know. But I’m going to just sit on it for a bit. Especially since it’s likely the price will only go up later and the fomo will be strong then. The biggest plus for it right now is the loaner ship for it is the Carrack!
Farewell, IAE
All in all, it was a great event and I had a lot of fun. I still failed to get any of my core friend group to try the game while it was free but ah, well. I’ll try again at the next one. I’m excited for 3.18 and the new content. It’ll be nice to put that Vulture to work. I ended up doing a windows re-install in the middle of the event and lost some screenshots (I have a system in place now to back them up), but here are some for you to look at!
What was your favorite bit about IAE? What are you flying these days? Let me know in the comments!
Fly safe!
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