Featured CMDR: Qildail

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

Elite: Dangerous is my first foray into the Elite universe. I have enjoyed talking to others about their connections that go back several decades to the older games. It brings perspective to the passion some people have about Elite: Dangerous today.

The player community is one of the best parts of Elite: Dangerous (but also sometimes one of the worst parts). It greatly contributes to the game’s engagement for me, though. The game would not be as enjoyable for me as a completely isolated, single-player experience.

There is also more than a touch of the gambler’s fallacy in the explorer mentality — that belief, however misplaced, that a system will have something nobody has ever seen in the game, and one more jump will be all it takes to find it.

Tell a quick story about your favorite moment in Elite: Dangerous.

My first trip to the core, before jumponium and engineers, was in a Cobra Mk III with around 20 Ly range. Running out of fuel in the Aucocks Pocket was a real danger then if you were not paying attention to your jumps and scooping, plus there was a much higher chance of a jump going horribly wrong.

The first try I slammed into a supergiant about a quarter of the way and was promptly converted to ash. The second try I ran out of fuel only a couple of light years away from the next scoopable star. On the third try I finally made it. I must have spent at least an hour just staring at Sagittarius A*. That journey was nerve-wracking, exciting, frustrating, and yet an accomplishment at the same time. It was also lucrative — six weeks out and back for an amazing 90 million credits!

Tell us about your favorite ship in the game.

I am a big fan of the Clipper. It may not be as iconic as the Cobra or Krait, as versatile as the Anaconda, or as deadly as the Corvette, but it’s filled nearly every role in the game for me and is a real joy to fly. Now if it could just land on a medium pad!

What made you decide to join The Fatherhood?

Exploration is a lonely profession by its nature. Months can go by between sightings of other commanders. There are many exploration squadrons, and I have acquaintances in several of them, but they can become ultra-focused on one aspect of the game and very quiet in between expeditions and special events. With its myriad personalities, playstyles, and conversation topics (both about and outside the game), The Fatherhood has made a great companion on my long exploration tours, and I’m glad I have been able to be part of it for as long as I have.