Some people play gigantic space game Elite: Dangerous to lead humble, (relatively) ordinary space lives. They do missions, make deliveries, and decorate their cockpits with silly little bobbleheads. Then thereâs The Great Expedition.
The First Great Expedition began with a single goal: to collectively explore all of Elite: Dangerousâ 400 billion star systemsâor at least, as many of them as humanly possible. The recently launched space sim contains a massive galaxy modeled after our own Milky Way, its twinkling nebulae knit together by human hands and procedural algorithms rooted in real science.
To explore as much of it as they could, some members of this expedition would forsake the rest of the game and just dive into the black unknown. This isnât like in other games, either; traveling back to civilized space isnât as simple as a quick press of a button, nor is plotting routes or figuring out what youâre gonna encounter. Weâre talking thousands upon thousands upon thousands of light years of space. This isnât just a project you knock out on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
A little less than a year ago, a gamer named Steve âGibboniciâ Wilds put up a post looking for fellow explorers. At that time, Elite: Dangerous wasnât officially released. In fact, it wasnât even close to presenting a complete, openly traversable galaxy. But there would be space to explore, more than one man could see/catalogue. Wilds expected responses from maybe 15 or 20 people. Instead, he found himself with over 1,000. His team would go on to attract amateur astronomers, astrophysics experts, and one ex-NASA scientist.
Members of the Expedition spend their time in the game exploring uninhabited areas in deep space, charting the stars, planets, and pitfalls they find, and relaying information back to other members of the group. Some put in more time than others, some occupy specialized roles, but still, it all goes back to a singular purpose: to see and understand as much of space as possible.
âThere are some extremely knowledgeable amateur astronomers with us who are keen to visit some of the stellar bodies theyâve been looking at through their telescopes,âWilds told me via email, explaining why some people signed up for his Great Expedition into the virtual galaxy. âWeâve got people who love the idea of playing with others but not in doing the same old guild/corp thing. And there are more than a few who had no interest in exploring at all until they stumbled across us.â
Exploring, however, is not as simple as pointing your spaceship in one direction, cranking some classic rock, and shouting âyeeeehaw.â Planning and logistics are key in a simulation where you have to account for things such as limited resources,overheating spacecraft engines, complex travel routes, and the occasional black hole. The Great Expedition, while not quite as demanding as, say, a major corporation in long-running space game EVE Online, has to be a well-oiled machine.
Thatâs important. Virtual outer space is a dangerous place, especially when itâs rooted in actual scientific fact, courtesy of Eliteâs Stellar Forge galaxy generation system. That tech cooks up the gameâs galaxy by accounting for the chemical composition, gravity, orbits, mass, and actual scientific phenomena weâve witnessed in the real Milky Way.
The Great Expeditionâs ex-NASA scientist, Gryffin du Verd, explained:
âI find myself falling into âmission planning modeâ when I get ready to leave the stations. The frameshift drive/supercruise model in the game doesnât behave like normal orbital mechanics as you would think of with the shuttle (burn the engine on this side of planet to effect an orbit change on the other side), but the planets do have effects on your ship, slowing you down and sometimes âslingshottingâ you around the other side as Keplerâs 2nd Law says it must. So, while the tasks are different, the mindset is surprisingly similar [to what I did at NASA].â
The Expedition team plotted and planned their charting of the gameâs galaxy long before Elite: Dangerousâ official launch. That enabled them to pre-establish a set of roles for players. Today, thereâs a core staff of around 10 people responsible for laying down the figurative tracks, or figuring out where people should go. Thereâs also a âwingâ system in place to handle issues like scouting and defense as they come up during exploration.
In between all the Milky Way derring-do, people are also needed for more mundane tasks like managing base campsâwhich serve as central meeting points for about a week at a timeâand charting progress. Then thereâs perhaps the most important role of all: the pathfinder.
âThe main specialist role we run at the moment is the Pathfinders group,â explained Wilds. âTheyâre the guys who scout ahead and build up the routes for everyone else to follow. The âofficialâ Pathfinders group is about eight strong at the moment, but the great thing about explorers is that they tend to be very self-motivating, so we donât have to send anyone out anywhereâtheyâre just doing it under their own initiative.â
âA few [pathfinders] have been out to the Orion Nebula (spectacular place to visit, nestled at the foot of the Horsehead Nebula with Barnardâs Loop overheadâand the Orion stellar nursery is breathtaking), others have been to the âroofâ of the galaxy, and one of our guys, Zulu Romeo, even made it all the way to Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the galaxy. All of these trips people are doing give us a great insight into the travel times and obstacles weâll be facing during the Great Expedition.â
But why? Why put all this time and manpower into exploring and not, say, amassing space dumptrucks of glittering space loot? Everyone has their own reasons for wanting to venture into spaceâs cold nothing until thereâs nothing left to venture into, but du Verd made his case with the most passion:
âIâm troubled by the fact that many of us have lost our interest and maybe even our ability to explore the world around usânot just space, but everywhere,â he said. âMy fear is that the âaverageâ player will get in the game and say, âOh, another star, another planet. No combat or trade stations? Letâs move on.â Frontier has put 400 billion star systems in the game, but unless people are curious about whatâs out there, very few of those stars will be of interest to anyone. They could just as well have set it in an entirely fictional galaxy, and no one would have noticed. And that, really, is the problem: We arenât curious anymore.â
At the moment, the main thrust of The Great Expeditionâthe part where players drop everything for the sole purpose of explorationâhasnât begun. Wilds and co decided to hold off for a bit to wait for Elite: Dangerous to gain some additional features like extra player character slots so people wouldnât have to use their game accounts solely for exploration. That, however, hasnât stopped them from running other big expeditions. The results have been eye-opening, to say the least. There was always a big question looming over The Great Expedition: âCan we actually do this? Is this really feasible at this scale?â The wait, the smaller expeditions, have turned out to be blessings in disguise.
âIt was a hard decision to take at the time, but it was definitely the right one,â said Wilds. âIt gives everyone more time to build excellent exploration ships, and itâll give us chance to really nail down all the details of moving, exploring and working as a team. Itâs amazing how many ideas that sound great on paper actually turn out to be useless when you try them out for real.â
That also hasnât stopped them from uncovering some wild surprises nestled amongst the stars.
âEvery few days system maps are being posted on [The Great Expedition] forum showing some really crazy systems,â said Wilds. âSome of them have nothing but stars in them, all locked in weird orbits with each other. Others have multiple black holes with all kinds of weird and potentially destructive stuff going on.â
âFor some of us the real surprises come when youâre on your way to a nebula or dark region or whatever. You scoop your fuel, then head away from the mainstar to plot your next series of jumps in the galaxy map. Sometimes, when you close the galaxy map with your course plotted, youâll be treated breathtaking view of your target nebula with stars scattered across it like jewels cast over silk, and you just have to take it all in. Screenshots canât do those views any justice at all. They just lose all sense of scale. God knows what they must be like in the [Oculus] Rift.â
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgYDK_uKHEg
The ex-NASA worker du Verd has found himself pleasantly surprised by how well the gameâs Stellar Forge adheres to scientific principles, all the way down to little details most players wonât even care about.
âWhat I find to carry over more than NASA work is my research in astrophysics,â du Verd said. âFor example, when I run across a T Tauri star, I expect to find strong stellar winds and a lot of activity on the surface of the star. Another example came up in planning the Expedition itself: Are there stars between the spiral arms that we can use to cross down to the galactic core? The science says there should be lots of dim red stars (since they live a long time) and very few blue stars (since they die comparatively quickly). I was pleased when our early scouts came back and reported that was exactly what they found as they explored coreward. I find that having that background in astrophysics makes it more ârealâ than just a game, and thatâs no small feat.â
Itâs hard not to be impressed by what Wilds, du Verd, and the rest of The Great Expedition have achieved so far, but there are still questions. Four hundred billion star systems is, you know, a lot. How long can The Great Expedition last? What if people get bored?
âYeah, thatâs the question, isnât it?â admitted Wilds. âFor all the passion and enthusiasm weâve got for this thing, exploration is going to lose some of its appeal six months down the line. Thereâs no getting around that, and itâs something weâve been conscious of right from the start. You canât start something like this without being realistic about its longevity or being aware that patience is part of the challenge.â
The hope, then, is that once Elite developer Frontier adds extra player character slots, people will be OK with dedicating one character to The Great Expeditionâs cause. For now the wait is bittersweet, but according to Wilds itâs better than the alternative. âIt would be a wasted opportunity if we set off now only for everyone to fly back to civilization after a month,â he said.
You canât stop explorers from exploring, though. At best, you can only slow them down. Whether blazing a trail through the star-speckled skies as one giant force or a series of smaller groups, The Great Expedition will continue. I wonder what theyâll find.
Gorgeous exploration videos courtesy of Erimus One and Titus Balls. Screenshot credit goes to The First Great Expedition forums.
To contact the author of this post, write to [email protected] or find him on Twitter @vahn16
