Elite’s Distant Worlds 2 expedition: Building a starbase in the center of the Milky Way

The Distant Worlds 2 expedition in Elite: Dangerous is nearing the end of its eighth week, and the community has embarked on a game-changing project. By this time next week, players will have completed construction on two massive new structures in the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy. Their efforts are expected to launch a new era of exploration among the game’s 400 billion star systems.

Elite is a spacefaring game launched in 2015 by UK-based Frontier Developments. Most of the narrative action takes place in the “bubble” of human-occupied space around our sun, Sol. But the game also features a massive recreation of our galaxy, containing hundreds of billions of procedurally generated star systems.

In addition to mining and combat, a major part of Elite is going out to explore those systems and returning with pictures of stunning new worlds. To date, Frontier says that only .036 percent of the galaxy has been explored, leaving more than 399 billion systems undiscovered.

Commander Yuksarr

Nowhere in Elite are the stars more densely packed than inside the region known as the Galactic Centre. And that’s where the nearly 13,000 player-strong Distant Worlds 2 fleet is situated. The expedition, led by Commanders Erimus Kamzel and Dr. Kaii, is fully sanctioned by the developer, which has added a special project for the community to enjoy.

At the center of Elite’s simulation of the Milky Way is a supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*. First explored by Commander Zulu Romeo soon after the game launched, it’s become a popular tourist destination. There’s even a guestbook. But previously, there was no place for long-haul travelers to stop, make repairs, and grab a few fingers of Lavian brandy. That changes now.

Frontier has kicked off a community goal to build a new starbase near Sagittarius A*. Called Explorer’s Anchorage, the cutting edge Ocellus-class station arrived in the Stuemeae FG-Y d7561 star system under its own power last week, taking up position in close orbit around an Earth-like world.

Commander TheWanderer

Now, players have the opportunity to help build out the starbase. What services it will have going forward depends on how well the expedition works together to scout for viable ring systems and mine their resources.

But that’s not all. The text of the community goal also says that Frontier will be adding a megaship to the area. Megaships are a relatively new part of the world of Elite. There are several already deployed around the galaxy, some of which offer docking facilities. The addition of a megaship could give future explorers another place to pull in for repairs as it moves around a fixed set of waypoints in a region. Between the starbase and the megaship, these changes will open up a third bubble of inhabited space in the game, giving players everything they need to explore more of the Milky Way for weeks and months at a time.

From the community goal:

The organisers of the Distant Worlds II expedition have requested materials for two construction projects in the Galactic Centre. The exploration fleet aims to build a megaship and installation in the Stuemeae FG-Y D7561 system. Dr Kaii, Fleet Liaison for Deep Space Surveys, explained: ‘This installation will be a place for scientists to study the supermassive black hole at Sagittarius A*. Future explorers visiting the station will be well looked after by Deep Space Surveys, to whom we will hand the keys before continuing to Beagle Point.’ Bauxite, Water and Liquid Oxygen should be delivered to Explorer’s Anchorage.

In-game, players are treated to images of the Ocellus-class station lazily rotating in space while crews weld together bits of its habitation rings. The scene looks like something straight out of Firefly or The Expanse. According to the fiction, the system is now home to some 750,000 people, and that number is only expected to rise once the rings are completed.

Early on, however, the expedition nearly met with disaster, thanks to ongoing structural issues with Elite itself.

The game’s so-called “background simulation,” also known as the BGS, manages the political state of every star system in response to player actions. The BGS has had technical issues all throughout 2018 and into the new year. An oversight or a bug — it’s hard to tell which — nearly turned the area around Explorer’s Anchorage into a war zone. That would have locked down the station entirely, and prevented players from outfitting their ships for mining or even signing up to participate in the community goal.

On March 7, Commander Sajime Chent-Shi sent out an urgent message to the fleet on Discord:

Frontier have identified and fixed an issue with the BGS at the Explorer’s Anchorage system. Since the station was deployed, there has been no Nav Beacon or Resource Extraction Sites in the system, which has made it nigh on impossible for players to bounty hunt. This has led to Civil Unrest within the controlling faction, which left unchecked will go into Lockdown mode and disable most station services. [...] We therefore need players to fit weapons at the station and begin bounty hunting NPCs.

Once the message went out, dozens of commanders — myself included — purchased what meager weapons we could and launched our starships into battle. The going was tough, considering that most ships set out weeks ago without basic items like armor and defensive countermeasures to keep weight down. After my first engagement, I limped home with my canopy blown out, breathing from an emergency oxygen supply.

According to reports generated by the Elite Dangerous Star Map, a fan-run community website, bounty hunting may have contributed to at least 77 player deaths around Explorer’s Anchorage in the last week. Luckily, most, if not all, will have been able to respawn at Explorer’s Anchorage and continue on with the expedition.

Commander x1

“Thankfully Frontier fixed the issue,” Erimus Kamzel told Polygon via Discord. “We got a message out to the fleet and people went bounty hunting to bring the civil unrest under control.”

The community goal itself was also bugged for a time. All day yesterday, players were unable to sign up to participate thanks to a server issue. Things seem to be back to normal as of this morning. It’s unclear if Frontier will add additional time to the event, which currently ends in six days.

The next leg of the Distant Worlds 2 expedition is expected to be the longest, taking between 10 and 12 weeks. If you’re interested in catching up, now’s not a bad time to do it. Even if you don’t meet up with the fleet before it moves on toward the far side of the Milky Way, at least you’ll have a new starbase as a basecamp once you reach the center of the galaxy.

Meanwhile, Frontier let fans know that work on Elite will be slowing. In January, it announced that its next major update won’t arrive “until the later half of 2020.” Community goals, like this one, will continue and even see enhancements in the short term.

Commander Xhaler