At about 11:45 in-game time, 29/06/13, I had been hunting out on the plains South of Fort Argus, Planet Calypso, when the PM indicator started flashing. Chela Cee Bias was wondering if I could finally go on my first training flight. This had been on the cards for some months already, except that one or two complications had put this on the back shelf, so this time I jumped at the chance as I had never been in a larger 'EU spaceship' before - it was now or perhaps never. There was also the added incentive that we would be more than likely hunting space creatures, something I had not yet encountered. View from inside the forward gun turret Moments later I was beamed aboard Pathfinder XXXI via the ship's teleporter and was presented with my very first views of this Vega Class Privateer spacecraft, which was much bigger inside than I imagined. I then familiarized myself with the layout as much as possible as Cee and some of the regular crew members; Oczko, Soo and Wolta, explained some of the basics. With that done, it was then decided to get things underway without much further ado. Cee then promptly entered the bridge and Oczko, Soo and Wolta assumed their invaluable roles as repair technicians, whilst I took control of the forward gun. It was now about 12:05. Leaving Calypso Space Station Cee then pushed on the throttle with the announcement "Ok we are ready to go :)" and the huge craft started to gain momentum. At the same time I then rotated the turret to take a screenshot of Calypso Space Station that was now disapearing into the distance - and blue triangles were now everywhere indicating other spacecraft, which meant the possibility of pirate encounters, something we wanted to avoid as much as possible. For this reason, Cee wisely decided to take Pathfinder XXXI into the safe zone around Crystal Palace before going further afield, before going into creature territory. Approaching Crystal Palace Close bypass of Crystal Palace Soon we were clear of Crystal Palace and heading into deep space and then the first few orange triangles started to appear on the HUD - space mobs! Slowly but surely, a large, strange tentacled creature loomed up in front of me until it was fairly and squarely in the gun sights, revealing itself to be a Cosmic Horror - and then I just started firing as quickly as the laser battery would allow. Luckilly the firepower to hand was more than adequate, and I was able to finish it off with four or five rounds of weapon cells. I had just got my very first space mob and space combat related skills! My first encounter with a Cosmic Horror This was to be just the first of many, as the mob pattern then started to increase rapidly. At least another ten of these menacing space squids had attacked the vessel during the next fifteen minutes or so. However, because it hadn't been a concerted or continuous attack, they had been fairly easy to deal with also, but it wasn't all going to be plain sailing as I was soon to find out. It was at around this time that Cee asked whether I wanted to take over the role as navigator or pilot and I readily accepted the invitation, as I was curious to see if controling a Vega Class Privateer was the same as for smaller craft, such as Quad-Wings. So I quickly vacated the forward turret and we swapped places, but unfortunately things didn't go entirely smoothly from this point onwards... I don't know if it was just me, or a bug, or a combination of both, only I couldn't always get the craft to fly straight and level, so there was a great deal of meandering and counter-stearing over the next half hour or so, which made targetting further Cosmic Horrors very difficult, that were now comming in thick and fast. Five, eight or more together in all-out assaults! Inevitably, the ship started to take on too much damage, so Cee decided to regain the pilot seat so as to stabilize the situation. Once again the craft was adopting a more predictable path and so hitting the mobs became easier, only not for me as I wasn't actually manning any gun position. Some glitch in the system had taken me outside of the craft and put me into third-person view or mode, so that I was looking down on it from above. I had suddenly become one of the first space jockys in entropia space, if not the first! I then tried all combinations of 'WASDF' and 'E' keys which eventually worked. Suddenly I was once again back in the main hold of the vessel in first-person view and immediately I thought of taking up one of the gun positions to help out, but then realized it wouldn't make much difference as Cosmic Horrors were now hitting the ship in an almost continuous train. Instead I took some further screenshots, such as of the teleporter, the Propulsion repair point and Reactor repair point. The teleporter The gunners had managed to get a lot of them and those repairing had held the ship together for as long as possible - so skilling had been good and there was some loot into the bargain, but there was just too many. In the end the ship was destroyed and we all ended up at the revive on Crystal Palace. From there we went back to the craft so that it could be repaired, when I realized what the time was - almost 14:00, so we had been in space for nearly two hours, but it had only seemed like about one, so time really did fly for us! I then made my farewell's and thanked Cee for a great adventure before teleporting to Calypso Space Station, then paid the 7 PED fee to get down to Port Atlantis as all of my transports were in personal storage. Propulsion repair point Reactor repair point Operated by an experienced captain and crew, Pathfinder XXXI offers a great space ferrying service to anyone who needs it at short notice and something tells me I will be joining them again soon...
Very nice write-up Nexus, I enjoyed the read. I remember the first time Magam took me out in the "Turtle" (what he calls one of Anhithe's Pathfinders that he pilots) and I had a blast with the space mobs. I also did an article on it at MSM. I also remember the first time Anhithe took me out in the Yamato MS and gave me pilot rights (also did an article on my maiden voyage) - now THAT was an exciting experience to do my first warp across space, and then exit the hangar in my Quad to play with the space mobs - that was a challenge (for me anyway) and really takes coordination. Your articles are really done well.
Nice intro to privateers :) I love hanging out on both them and the larger motherships, esp when there is a fun group of people.
Thanks everyone for the positive feedback. I had a great time and really enjoyed the experience of being part of a spaceship crew for the first time, even though my piloting stint left a lot to be desired - he, he :) I'm not sure what it is, it's just that I find controlling the craft with the mouse a bit haphazard as opposed to using shift/Ctrl for up and down, and left and right arrow keys for steering, but I should be ok after a few more training sessions...
Hi Nexus, Thanks for the write up, you do me more credit than I deserve :). Of course you are welcome aboard for further adventures. Cee.
Further space adventurees sounds great to me, but first I must learn to fly straight. I hope all the meandering and counter-steering didn't make all aboard too dizzy :p Had no idea you'd been on EP since mid 2011 btw, so good to know :)
Yes, being part of the crew was great fun. This type of as-it-happens adventure is what participants want to know about, so I just had to do an article about it. If an extra pair of hands is needed to man a turret or for repair work and I'm in-game, just beam me up :)
