Elite Dangerous: Odyssey

Got the latest DLC for this game and it's a huge upgrade, knocking Star Citizen, still stuck in Alpha after eight years, into a cocked hat.

It's nice to get out of your ship and walk around stations. I'm amazed at just how big my Krait, Coventry Speedboat II, actually is when I walk up to it.

Also, here's my commander, Stephen Hunter, out and about.

See you in the deep black! O7

Postcards from the Pleaides (Elite Dangerous Diaries 2)

I've managed to get myself out to Maia and am currently on my way back to the 'Bubble', having currently reached Pleiades Sector JC-V d2-62, home of a small military space station that you can go to in order to get repaired.

Doing the 'Maia' run in a Viper Mark IV (I was one of the people who won one in the community goal thing in March last year) is hard, but doable. You have to jump through a lot of unpopulated systems and engage in fuel scooping; trying to get enough fuel without overheating; a task made more complex when you run the risk of an emergency drop out of Frame Shift if you get too close.

Towards the end of the run out, I was actually starting to have Drive malfunctions, but I managed to make it.

Landed on an alien world, with a beautiful nebula behind me

Admiring a coronal ejection after a Frame Shift Drive drop-out

On my arrival in Maia, I wasn't able to sell my exploration data at Obsidian Orbital due to barnacle interference leading to their Universal Cartographics office being closed, but later made my way to a surface world, gaining over 70,000 for it. Less than I hoped, but I used the cash to buy myself a
missile launcher.

Before heading back, I chose to take a quick tour of the Pleiades, visiting all the Seven Sisters and their 'parents' Atlas and Pleione. This included a trip to the Maia black hole and a landing on Merope 5C, where the first 'barnacles' were spotted.

Approaching the Maia black hole

The Maia black hole itself

The Merope 5 gas giant with its huge rings

Merope 5C, the Planet of the Barnacles. No Barnacles this time though; many have mined out

An ice valley on another remote world that I stopped off at

My journey back to the Bubble will be via the stations dotted off the 'main route' from Sol; these allow for full refuels and repairs.

Approaching PRE Logistics Support Epsilion; you can see my fuel is rather low

Elite: Dangerous adventures update

My Viper Mark IV landed at a station

 I have been playing quite a bit of Elite: Dangerous at present and have been making some progress, reaching the trade rank of Peddler and the exploration rank of Mostly Aimless, while being only one or two kills away from going up to Mostly Harmless.

This isn't exactly world beating, but I'm happy with it. My current plan is to fly out to the Pleiades nebula, the nearest stellar landmark of note outside the 'human bubble', the area of habited human space - it was also where the 'barnacles' were found. This is a habited system at Maia, 384 light years from Sol (which I can't currently visit as I need a better Federation rank) and that will be my goal to reach. Using my Basic Discovery scanner, I should be able to make a little bit of money on the run there and back.

While I know taking a Viper Mark IV out there isn't the wisest thing in the world - you only live once. Well, there's no perma-death in this game in anyway.

Second part of my Berlin post is coming soon, but I'll keep you up to date with this as well.