From Sol to Sagitarrius A* to Beagle Point - where do you want to go?
Exploration has always been a favorite pasttime for many of us. Discovering distant stars, surveying distant worlds and making distant hauls to Colonia, there has been lots of things for us explorers to do over the last few years. Some of us can travel thousands of lightyears on end, discovering countless earthlikes and systems which you would have to see yourself to believe. We discover planetary nebula and earthlikes around neutron stars. Ammonia moons and binary earthlikes. What we see on a regular basis is incredible, and makes the thousands of lightyears we travel each day more than berable.
But the issue is, not everyone is capable of this.
However, there might now be a solution to this.
Introducing The Galactic Travel Agency! - Expand your horizons today!
What?
Using the soon to be implemented multicrew functionality which allows a player to be instantly teleported to anywhere in the galaxy, we will be able to give people who do not have the time, the credits or are otherwise unable to explore, the jaw-dropping experience of the Elite : Dangerous galaxy! By having a large roster of "hosts" each at different locations trough the galaxy, some on POIs, some just doing their regular exploration buisness we can provide plentifull of experiences for CMDRs who simply can't manage to get out there themselves, or for explorers who just want to get a sneak peak of what they can travel to themselves in the future! From beautiful stations within the bubble, to Sagitarrius A* and the distant star systems around Beagle Point - nothing is out of reach!
How?
If you want to travel somewhere*
*This will not work until Elite : Dangerous 2.3 comes out.
Simply search trough the catalogs of commanders willing to hitch you a ride, join the discord and/or contact the commanders directly! While not all commanders will be online at all times, and are not always willing to hitch you a ride, you are certain to find someone willing to take you somewhere special most of the time. One second you might be hauling slaves in the empire, and in the next enjoying the sights from the top of the galaxy! Not only do you get to see amazing sightes only veteraned explorers get to enjoy usually, but you get to meet all kinds of new people, from RP-hard alliance pilots to casual federal pilots to constantly joking imperial pilots! While the sights certainly are impressive, the bond you might develop with a random stranger are just as memoorable if not even more!
If you want to contribute
As this feature is not yet announced it is difficult to predict exactly how this will work, however we here at the galactic travel agency have devised a plan on how to deal with it to allow as many as possible to contribute to this awesome project.
1. Spreadsheet. By having an easily accesible google spreadsheet (Link TBA) all pilots who wishes to contribute can easily write up their name, ship and approximate position on the galaxy and update it gradually as they go. You can also write the usual times you are online to ensure that whoever wishes to join you contact you at the right point.
2. Discord Server. By having a discord server one can easily announce their plans to participate in this project in the various text channels. While it is advised that all hosts write themselves up on the google spreadsheet the discord server remains to be an easy way to request host locations, announce a hosts plan on when he/she is online as well as allowing for communication between organizers, hosts and tourists alike. Various voice channels will also be open so hosts can discuss between eachother or the tourists they are hosting.
3. Forum. While the forum is by far the slowest and will be the least used of the 3 ways of contacting organizers, hosts and tourists alike, it is still a good way of getting in contact with the project. You can leave a reply requesting for a specific host location, ask if there is anything someone would reccomend or just have a chat about something else regarding the project. The benefit to doing this is that by replying you are also keeping the project front paged and therefore exposing it to more people, meaning that in the future it is more likely to be more hosts, more tourists and more interest in the project as a whole!
Why?
The reason we, more specifically I want to do this is because i have a genuine belief that exploration is amazing. From my first trips to the outer rim, to when i first met Sagitarrius A* face to face, and my eventual participation in DWE i have experienced a lot of fun things while exploring, and a lot of that has been because of my extensive free time and will to travel large distance. Not everyone has a lot of free time or will to travel large distances, and therefore a lot of the galaxy is locked behind a wall which they will never overcome. While i certainly think that the effort and time investment that comes with exploration certainly is some of what makes it fun for some of us like me, i do also realize that this is a huge barrier for other people. And as the galaxy is so stunningly beautiful, i don't wish that only some people are able to experience it fully.
This project was inspired by the fuel rats and the amazing services they gave and are continuing to give to regular players and explorers the like. They are awesome, and you should definetley give them some praise even if you have not been rescued by them. Seriously, they are amazing, let's hope we will be as amazing at some point too.
I wish to participate, will you give me those links you kept refering to?
Discord Server - https://discord.gg/yj9n9z9
Spreadsheet - https://goo.gl/qhtCbg
Currently lists of things to do, news, etc.
Need to get the spreadsheet up. 01/02/2017
Never used google docs before, so this might take a while.
Edit: Nevermind it took like 2 seconds.
What are you waiting for? Join now!
While 2.3 is still far from release, you can still sign up on the spreadsheet and join the discord! The more players we have on launch day willing to take passengers the more fun for everyone involved!