Nice

Enough time has passed:

More than enough! So, I go through cycles. Long stretches of doing a thing and then long stretches of not doing a thing. So I’m coming out of both an Elite Dangerous lull AND a not blogging lull. I started playing again a couple of weeks before the latest Beyond update and, with the update, I’m feeling like writing stuff down again. I don’t know. It’s weird. And I don’t know how long it’ll last (the writing thing) so let’s take advantage of it, right?!

Where I’ve been:

I haven’t updated since March! We moved houses! That’s a huge thing! Guys, we love the new place so much. It’s bigger, in a better neighborhood, and the dogs are a lot happier there. Zoe doesn’t chew on door frames or spend all day panting nervously when we have to go to work…it’s just amazing.  I’m out of the basement and now above the garage! It’s such a nicer space.

Part of the move meant newer, nicer furniture and, at long last, I have an actual desk. The old kitchen table is now a workbench for my new 3D printer build. Here’s my new battle station from IKEA:

Beyond Update:

You can get more info on everything that was in the Chapter 4 update for the Beyond season from reputable (actual) websites…but here’s the gist of everything that changed this month:

  • Two new ships
    • Mamba (need it)
    • Krait Phantom
  • Exploration Update
    • New ways to scan bodies in a system without having to fly by the planet – cash money
    • New Detailed Surface Scanner lets you shoot things at a planet
  • Mining Update
    • Ever wanted to crack an asteroid open and scoop the goodness inside? Well here you go
  • New multiplayer squadrons
    • We set up a Hammer Squadron but we’re not really sure what we’re doing yet.
  • Cockpit improvements
    • These are mostly changes to the menus in the Cockpit UI. For example, you can request dock right off the contact page rather than having to go another layer deep in the menu. It’s great…but yo, that muscle memory
  • Visual enhancements and a new lighting engine

As I get back into writing more, I’ll probably expand on a bunch of those. For instance, I’ve always wanted to try mining but just never got around to it. The videos I’m seeing of the new system and the new equipment you can use has me itching even more to try it. I’m just no where near a spot to refit one of my ships and do that (more on that in the next section).

What I’m doing now:

I was off last week and set myself to getting all the engineers I need to build a speedy Courier named The Keranos. It translates to Lightening and is named after my ship in a TTRPG campaign that I’m playing in. To help me keep track of all the stuff I want to do, I set up a Trello board. I know…how nerdy… Believe me, I know. That board will track more than just Elite Dangerous stuff, but everything Elite related will be tagged appropriately. Over the last week, after the servers stabilized from the update, I finished off the last couple of Black Market transactions needed to get access to The Dweller. After that, I started gaining an allied rep with Sirius Corp. Soon after, I was in with Marco Quint. The next stop is Professor Paillin. For that, I need around 4 thousand more light-years logged. So I’m in The Star Blaster a quarter of the way to a tourist destination 8 thousand light-years away. And for a pretty nice payout, too.

Along the way I’m going to honk and see if I can’t get some extra money looking for water worlds and Earth-likes. Which is a lot easier now thanks to the FSS. I’ll show that off a little more in a later post.

Until then, what are you most excited for in the latest update?

Fly safe, Commanders!