I thought I might give a synopsis of what I experienced during this expedition for the folks who weren't there. It all went really well, even if I screwed it up.

I hopped on Team Speak and some of the guys were already at the Guardian site. I was at Fowler Orbital in Dvorsi, 921 light years away. I checked my ship configuration one last time. I had loaded a SRV and two point defense on the roof. I had no weapons and a jump range of 57. Ship config is linked earlier in this thread. Mad Hops is her name, and the point of this expedition was to make her Hop Madder. 57 jump is phenomenal for me, so to get more was exciting. I was really looking forward to the experience and to the permanent boost to my entire fleet.

After checking that the ship was good, I cast the lines and set sail, announcing my departure with a "Airborne, gear's up" and I was on my way. As I jumped and scooped, jumped and scooped I listened to the guys go about their business, hoping to get a better idea of what was in store and what might be required of me once I got there. At intervals I called out the remaining jumps so they would know of my progress.

They seemed to be doing well, gathering lots of Guardian bits. The trip out to HD 63154 took about 30 minutes and as I approached the planet the Guardian site popped up since I had scanned the system the night before. Recluse, Bohemond and Wingnuts were already down there having a bash and I told them I was approaching and was directed to park my ship near theirs. I found a good spot quickly right next to them, but it was on top of one of the pylon locations. Thankfully Wingy saw this and directed me to move over a bit to another spot. Found good terrain and set her down. The 'hardest part' was done.

Or was it?

I deployed the SRV and we re-logged to reset the instance so there would be new bits to grab. I had never been to this site so orientation was a challenge. Didn't know what to do or where to go but I followed Wingy who asked me to set up next to a pylon so once the schoosting begins I could do my part to charge it. Went to turret mode and aimed at the glowing bits. Just tell me when to fire.

The others all took their places in this ritual and then it began. When it was my turn I opened fire and the pylon was quickly charged. Seconds later all hell broke loose as sentinels appeared and I was taken by surprise. I didn't know what a sentinel was. Was it a golem, or a big glowing ball, or a giant space squid? But now I saw my first one. Kinda like a skimmer. They fire missiles which throw your SRV around if they hit. I got flipped a few times during this expedition, but the SRV is an amazing little contraption and it finds its way back on to it's wheels fairly easily. Most of the time.

I did have a problem with getting stuck on things, but managed to break free. A few times I wasn't sure I would and it was all rather embarrassing. One time Wingy had to ram me to get me off the thing I was stuck on. That's what friends are for

Once we dealt with the sentinels and Recluse had his Guardian Module Blueprint it was my turn. Another re-log to reset the instance. Wingnuts showed me where to park and told me what to do. We repeated the ritual. It all went perfectly until it was my turn at the altar. The final step is to scan the floating orb for the blueprint data. I targeted it and tried to scan it. Nada.

I tried everything I could think of. Clearing fire groups, changing HUD modes, changing position, and nothing worked. The guys were patient thankfully but it just wasn't working. The scanner would not fire. So Wingy came up to see if it worked for him, which it did of course. I scanned a obelisk and that worked, so it was clear my setup was OK. Why won't it work? I hated the thought of coming all this way, and enlisting the help of the guys, only to leave empty handed. We re-logged again.

After it failed to scan a second time I knew the problem had to lie with me. But what was it? What was I doing wrong? Then someone mentioned the targeting symbology, the little wing thing under the circle. What's that called? Anyway, a light bulb appeared over my head like in the cartoons. What if I ACTUALLY AIM AT THE #%&*$# THING? Scan complete. Blueprint acquired. Good grief man, get it together!

So as you can see, I had never used the SRV to scan anything that wasn't directly in front of me at my level. My 'sight picture' looked good, but I needed to elevate just a bit to point at the thing. Doh!

We spent some more time getting me a second blueprint for the shield booster, battling sentinels and gathering the Guardian bits needed to unlock the FSD booster. Once both Recluse and I had enough, I had had enough We said our goodnights amid plenty of thanks and I climbed back in to my ship for the flight home. I scanned a bit along the way, and the money I made from exploration data covered the cost of the FSD booster that I bought.

As I said earlier, I never would have done this on my own. I may have tried, but I would have failed. So thanks again to everyone for being a part of this. It was a lot of fun with a cool group of guys and I had a blast. I hope to be part of another expedition in the near future.

Sorry, but I didn't take a single screenshot.

Frontier did a lot of things WRONG with the Multiplayer aspects of Elite Dangerous (Multi-Crew etc...) but it works REALLY well for things like this (and Bounty Hunting). What a hoot seeing everyone's ships on the ground, External lights bathing the landscape in their glow, Automatic Point Defenses knocking down Sentinel Missiles and crazy-Taxi SRV drivers zipping around, over, through and occasionally STUCK on the Guardian Ruins.

Even when we are light years apart, the social aspects on TeamSpeak add to the game, but when everyone is together in one place there is a special feel.

Big thanks to Wingnuts. I would NEVER been able to do this on my own, even with all the videos and guides out there. Especially easy with the 4 of us as we could be pre-positioned instead of having to zip around within the time limit to charge up all the pylons while fighting off Sentinels.

From the very beginning, I doubt I would have stuck with Elite Dangerous without the help of those who had gone before to guide me through the rough spots and help with all the initially confusing aspects of getting from a Sidewinder to a more capable ship and eventually leaving the nest.. When a new thing comes up like Deep Core Mining, or the Damaged Station missions, it's great to still have a dedicated crew to share learning and experiences. It's always a pleasure to PAY IT FORWARD the same way for newcomers.

I didn't take any screenies either.

+1

Another thing I struggled with was since it was my first time hanging with you guys, I didn't immediately connect names to voices. Someone would say 'over here by me' and I would go to the wrong one. But it all worked out in the end.

LOL.. we need better radio discipline..

"Guardian 1-1 to Guardian 1-2, form up on me...."

It got better as we went. But I confused you and Bo a couple of times. By the end I had the patterns uploaded in my brain

Sorry bout that, D. You seemed to fit right in to the group and it was easy to forget that we had a newcomer to the Group. TS and the social aspect REALLY does seem to add a whole different aspect to E:D, at least imho. Had a hoot last night, wish I could’ve stayed on longer.

No worries Bo. It went really well especially if you consider how bad it could go. Wingy's direction was priceless. Thanks for joining this. Having you there too made it easier for everyone.

My pleasure <s> I’ll be on intermittently all weekend, as will a number of the Group I’d imagine.

Helping the compadres and as Recluse said so well "Paying it Forward" is what keeps me playing. For me the game is 25% of the enjoyment. 75% is who I play with. The people I've had the pleasure of playing with are why I've got over 2,200 hours in this game.

So, anybody needs anything just holler. DB if you want that booster let me know, we'll venture out to scan the obelisk site I found. Then we'll go get more power cells and tech components.

Having the four of us was a bonus. It allowed us to preposition ourselves at the towers and that was making it super easy.

YES PLEASE!!!

(I hollered)

Let's set something up. Gotta say, if I had some sort of event to look forward to all the time that would be great. The past few days were fun, as I researched, and outfitted, anticipated and discussed the approaching expedition.

How about next Thursday? I am thinking of setting sail on an exploration expedition to finally get my explorer rank over the line and put this new Guardian whizbang to the test. So I may be out of the bubble for a few days.

Thursday I think is fine for me. Consulting my notes we'll be visiting SYNUEFE XR-H D11-102 1B. You will scan Obilisks until you have 24 Delta (8 Deltas). You'll run the route I show you and rinse and repeat until you reach your goal. Route should take you 5 minutes or less. As always questions just ask. Oh and you can use a medium or small ship. Choice is yours. Travel will be much quicker now you have that booster!

I don't have a stellar track record with scanning you know.

Otherwise that sounds good. Count me in. Thanks Wingnuts.

Oh, something I wanted to mention. Not sure if anyone will be going back where there are sentinels around, but I read that if you set the parking brake it will prevent you from being flipped by their missiles. Just FYI, and it may actually work!

I want to ask if the gang might be up for another Guardian session, this time for the shield booster stuff? If so, lemme know.

Whoa, not all at once, wait your turn!

Haha, I'll work it out. I think I have the blueprint, just need the components and can suss that out on my own.

Not sure which ships I might want to put one on though. Unlock first and work that out later I reckon.

I should be available this week, D. Haven’t been on since before the update, so I’ve no idea what the rest of the crew is up to.

OK, we should conjure up some sort of shenanigans and have at it. Maybe some hunting? I can take a pair of beams out of another ship and make the Courier insta-ready.

I feel compelled to say that my ship cannot contribute the majority of the damage dealt to the enemy. And I will boost at the first sign of incoming

I’ll prolly be on between 14:00 and 20:00 most nites this week.

I should be around a bit. Probably tonight. Have been looking for something to do. I tried mining Painite in DOUBLE HOTSPOTS, but it wasn't nearly as lucrative as the video made it seem. Maybe they are played out. Was going to try for the LTD triple hot spot, but I am guessing it will be depleted as well.





I was using my Python and only had 3 collector limpets, but I was NOT finding the density of high Painite content asteroids, so more limpets wouldn't necessarily have helped much.


I thought the new "INTERSTELLAR INITIATIVE" might be a spark of novelty, but so far I don't really understand what they are doing. Also requires going back into the BLACK, which I think I am done with for while...

Yeah, the II (interstellar initiative) seems very meh to me.