Featured CMDR: Toxophilite “Jones”

23 Oct 2020

What was your first experience with the Elite universe and what keeps you playing it today?

I was always into flight sims and strategy games like Civilisation – when I heard about Elite: Dangerous I got very excited as it sounded like my perfect match. I took the plunge in early 2018 and realised immediately that I’d found my spiritual home! I signed up to a community goal early on, without really knowing what I was doing (rescuing escape pods after a pirate incursion) and was helped greatly (and non-lethally pirated!) by a number of other Cmdrs – which was my introduction to the incredible Elite:Dangerous community. It’s the community, plus the variety of activities that keep me playing – trade, exploration, assassination, planetary work, station rescues, tip-offs. Two thousand hours later I still love & live it!

What made you decide to join The Fatherhood?

I’d had no interest in cooperative gaming prior to that, so it was a real eye-opener and it got me interested in the idea of joining a squadron. I saw an article via twitter about The Fatherhood – and as a dad & business owner the laid-back & part-time friendly ethos was an obvious draw. With some trepidation I signed up, learned what a discord server was and never looked back. It was a massive game-changer, and as time has gone by I’ve gone from an occasional chat-while-exploring member, to an active BGS team-member, PvP tourney player to rumoured involvement with the Pathfinder team, whose existence I can neither confirm nor deny…

How did you come up with the name of your Commander?

My Commanders name came easily – I’m a keen archer when away from the keyboard, and my first Sidewinder & Cobra (which of course I still have) are called the “Longbow” & “Recurve”.

How did you earn your callsign?

Well… For a good while I was known by the callsign “Vanilla Ice” after it was discovered early on that having completely misunderstood how engineering worked I had needlessly engineered my DBX to run as cold as possible for my first trip to Colonia & back. We think it was one of the coldest ships in the galaxy and had just a 25ly range… Fortunately in Nov 2019 I redeemed myself, and earned my new callsign by becoming the first Commander in some time to discover a previously unknown set of Guardian ruins, so now you can call me “Jones”!

Tell us about your favorite ship in the game.

It’s that same Diamondback Explorer – The Fatherhood Ship “Wife’s Asleep”. She’s been engineered much more efficiently these days – my third ship in the game, she was my early trader and bounty hunter, then took me to see the sights of the Galaxy, nebulae, Colonia, Sag A*, Dove Enigma, Guardian ruins. Range in excess of 60ly including shields & defences, she is my explorer of choice – and her name has proved quite a hit with other Cmdrs as well!

What’s been the most memorable moment in Elite: Dangerous?

There have been many, but I’d pick the night I noticed an anomalous signal in an unexplored system whilst running Ram-Tahs Guardian mission and realised I’d discovered a new Guardian Ruin site. After checking it wasn’t logged on Cannon’s index, I was physically shaking as I announced it on squad chat – there’ll be some Cmdrs in the squad who remember that! I had been about to go to bed, but instead sprinted back to the bubble with my valuable find, sweating at each sighting of NPCs & Cmdrs alike in case I was interdicted before I could make my claim – Incredible to find I could get such an adrenaline rush without any combat! Exploration is definitely my main thing!