Explore the galaxy! See fascinating sights! Meet interesting people, some of whom may not, in fact, actually start shooting at you right away!
My trusty Hauler, outfitted for exploration, docked at Pratchett’s Disc. (Click for larger.)
Cynicism aside (although, to be fair, the inhabited part of the in-game universe is a rather bad neighborhood), Elite:Dangerous is a fun way to explore the galaxy. As you would expect from a title in the Elite series, it is set in the actual Milky Way galaxy. Stars are, at least to a reasonable extent given our imperfect knowledge of them, in the correct places and of the correct classes. Space stations (along with the FTL drive, still science fiction) are actual, working places that you can navigate to, dock inside or on, and interact with. The larger ones even rotate, simulating gravity.
The entire galaxy is rendered at its actual size of about 100,000 light-years across, meaning that even with the futuristic FTL “frame shift drive” that ships employ, getting across the galaxy can take quite some time. A Hauler outfitted similarly to mine, for instance, can jump about 30LY at a time, if there is a suitable star nearby to jump to. Given optimal placement of stars, this means that a trip to the center of the galaxy would take about a thousand jumps, give or take.
Fastest paths to all star systems within 100ly of my current location. (Click for larger.)
Zoomed out, 100ly no longer looks quite as large. (Click for larger.)
Jumping directly from one system to the next without stopping except to refuel seems to take about 45-50 seconds per system, at least in the Hauler I’m currently flying. So a trip to Sagittarius A* (which, of course, exists in-game) will take at least twelve hours or so. An Anaconda — a huge almost-capital-ship which I can’t yet afford — is said to be able to do 38ly at a jump, which should cut that down to 9-10 hours or so.
At this scale, the 100ly sphere of routes is barely even visible at all. (Click for larger.)
Modern technology is fun: I visited the Orion Nebula yesterday. How was your weekend?
