Greetings and belated felicitations to one and all.
This will be complicated.
Commander seSSlaine here (I am obliged to include my gamer tag of «seS» from my FPS days as the game account is derived from my Steam identity when I was an active map editor/beta-tester and team member of the 'southeast Smugglers' working on content for Battlefield 1942/Vietnam/2042/2 plus some CoD/FarCry and similar. I chose Slaine (Slaine McRoth, 2000AD) as my online persona as I am a blueskin; I also had no previous FPS experience and expected to die a lot) ... my apologies for any confusion. I answer to 'Slaine' as a nickname but seSSlaine is the Elite profile you would be looking for).
Who am I?
I'm a child of the 60's. I remember ice on the inside of my bedroom window; I was a player of the original Elite (using the names Norrin Radd - AKA The Silver Surfer, and Nemesis - see 2000AD again), excessively educated but childish to the bone and arrogant to boot.
I recently returned to 'the bubble' after some 30 or 40 years in the wilderness. I like to think that I have been lost in the gemini sector after my stellar forge map was corrupted during a prolonged but ultimately fruitless attempt to locate Raxxla. For me then, the Anaconda (named Blitzkrieg) was a derelict ship that I stumbled across on the outskirts of the Formadine Rift and I prefer to start my 'personal narrative' at station-x in the crab nebula about a month or two ago. (The rest I would call 'initialisation' and yes, I used to be a mainframe programmer too).
I was never really keen on FPS but 'got guud' eventually. Circumstances beyond my control took me out of the loop for a few decades but I returned recently to the realm of good interwebs and built my PC specifically for one thing ... the (then) newly updated Elite Dangerous (Horizons). I passed mustre and secured my sidewinder reward about 6 months ago and have since then secured 1000 hours of flight time (according to Steam anyway - it's utter nonsense, nearer 500 hours but ... meh). Recently made Elite in Trade (yes, it can be done by Boom Data missions alone although I boosted this by making a packet ferrying precious metals around Sothis and passengers from Robigo so I have a nice selection of hulls although no engineering and no guardian tat as yet). The next target is Exploration (my BIG thing - currently 50% of Pioneer) and interested in exploring further. To date no more than 6000 LY from sol.
I didn't buy into PvP. If we ever get SpaceLegs then fine, I'm headshot ready; but ship - ship warfare does not sit well with me, particularly the rather messy way it is administered at present so I wish to avoid it wherever reasonably viable. I get that this is a dangerous game (the clue is in the name) but the dangers should be from my own actions, not the whims of others. I would prefer to see a profile completely reset on death (permadeath) and agonised over most of the six rebuy screens that I have met to date, the first when I accidentally clipped a security ship in a Hi-rez (3 seconds later it was all sparks and flames and off to the penitentiary in a bodybag), the second when a weak craft tore across my path and exploded on my hull when I was doing 102km/s outside a station (the station then took the unusual step of introducing me to hospital food) and most recently, my failed first attempt to land my newly purchased but underpowered Cutter in 2.6g whilst accidentally activating 'flight assist off' (the other three were cheapo bounty hunting errors that I sorely deserved for being an idiot) If it wasn't for 'the grind' ...
I've been watching the 'official' Elite forum since getting my pilots licence but have been singularly unimpressed (often underwhelmed) by the inconsistencies. I admit this is as much to do with the fact that I used to beta-test as part of a select group (and had direct contact with other developers via our private Teamspeak server) as it is to do with anything else but it is embarrassing to realise that there is better support available on YouTube than on the official forum or in game. Another important disclaimer is that we were then a group of 10, not 10's of thousands. The logistics for Frontier Development must be a nightmare, so when all is said and done there is much respect and kudos owed. I tried, but having been reprimanded for 'joining in' and watched far worse get through unmolested ... I've gone cold on the whole site. I have been doing a little beta testing for the imminent update but today I bit the proverbial bullet and applied to Mobius.
I am here to explore, to help, to reach out and to participate whenever possible. Elite is not my main game, it's my reality. I log out of the cockpit to play at working 9-5, and return home to my career in 3304. I have a bucket list of places to visit and am keeping a rough note of my adventures and experiences to mould into a written narrative that exists currently as a word document named "The Next Cycle", with an obvious nod to "The Dark Wheel". My cockpit has been upgraded to include a second computer so that forum, web or streamed music/movies are available for myself and any passengers. I do swear, a lot; but I will try to tone it down. I'm old now and set in my ways. I do sincerely apologise if I offend anyone ... but sometimes it is the only way to adequately get an idea across. I have read the terms and I will make every effort to respect (and abide by) them.
My Cutter is named "Spare us", the Corvette is named "Dark Star". My python collection are named John of Cleese, Terry of Gilliam and Graham of Chapman (obviously three more to buy yet). Make of that what you will. In my other life I ride a Kawasaki ZZR1100.
Now accepting new friend requests in game. All previous requests were ignored out of self preservation. Any questions? Please just ask.
Live well and prosper commanders,
o7 and out
CMDR Slaine McRoth (assumed name)