What follows is a report on the (mis)adventures of a new recruit during their first night in the 'verse. Some terms used may be unfamiliar if you haven't played Star Citizen. Please follow the provided links for more info.
We spawned on microTech at New Babbage and I began walking him through the basics of leaving a hab. Straight away I knew my job of onboarding him was going to be a lot easier when he told me he actually liked the interaction system and the way things looked and felt.
We took the elevator down and bumbled around the foyer of the Aspire Grand while I explained the basic controls. We visited the Kel-To to see the shopping interface and personal storage--things got a bit hairy when he had to use the inventory system to move things back and forth between personal and local inventory. "This inventory system sucks," he said. He was not wrong.
Next we headed downstairs to the Metroloop and I passed on more sage advice like "avoid stairs, just jump as far as you can--it's faster"--and so on. We boarded the train to the Expo (IAE) and as we exited out of the tunnels to the microTech surface it blew his mind a bit when he realised this was a fully real-space-moving-object (no smoke or mirrors here, just jank as the train jitters along the tracks).
Arriving at the expo we stopped for a quick bit of clothes shopping so he can show off his IAE pride (he bought an Argo hat, but we won't hold that against him).
As we made our way into the expo halls he continued to be awed by the massive spaces and mentioned that he loved these kinds of spaces IRL so seeing the representation in game was resonating with him. We made it way around the floor checking out ships "wow it's so big!" and I made sure he rented each one so he can take them for a spin later if need be. We made a pit stop at the coffee cart and he was very upset with all the trash laying around, and was disappointed he couldn't get his empty drink bottle to go into the trash can (kept rubberbanding). Finally we exited the halls and headed to the spaceport.
Climbing the stairs at NBIS as we approached the hangar elevators FPS took an immediate nosedive, "there must be some kind of entity overflow, perhaps a personal hangar with too much stuff," I said wisely (I have no clue if it's true but it makes me sound smart). Unfortunately though we couldn't even get to the hangars due to all the elevators being broken (perhaps related?). I mentioned we should server/region hop and he took it totally in stride, asking what we needed to do, so we exited to menu and joined on another server (thanks to ShackFleet member Cpl Punishment for being online in a working server). After spawning on the new server and making our way back to the spaceport we were able to get to my hangar and we explored a bit (once again he was awestruck by the size and verisimilitude of the space).
I called up a Tumbril Cyclone so we could mess around with vehicle controls a bit and finally we parked it and summoned a rented A1 to head out into space. Here I made a crucial mistake thinking we could park the Cyclone in the A1, as "technically" it fit, but the cargo room door closed on it jamming it diagonally in the cargo bay. We had a good laugh and spent a few mins trying to get past the vehicle to get it out of the ship before heading off.
As we left the hangar, I explained the various steps and interactions for takeoff and we headed to Port Tressler to set respawn, which I mentioned was a crucial step to reduce the friction of respawn-to-ship time if we died. After a quick tour of Tressler I made sure to kit him out with some armor and weapons and we discussed the contracts system, as we prepared for his first mission.
He picked up his MT mercenary eval contract, so we headed planetside to the occupied bunker. As we arrived there was a Cutty Black (pirate) parked nearby and we talked about abandoned ships, and a bit more detail on PES. As we walked to the facility suddenly we were under fire! I shouted "take cover" and dropped a couple of Nine Tails before t discovered the mounted minigun and laid waste to a few more. We mopped up the remaining forces outside then moved into the facility. As the elevator arrived at floor B1 we stepped off and came under fire again, we fanned out and took cover, and made quick work of the ne'er do wells inside. Alas the friendly MT security forces were already dead. Press "F" to pay respects.
We explored the bunker and looked for lootboxes and went through looting steps and hit the second major roadbump of the night: weapon management, as he found a weapon he wanted but was having a hard time with the juggling of 2 weapons + 1 carried. Eventually we got it sorted and headed back outside.
As we passed by the abandoned Cutty he asked if we could steal it and so I showed him how to shoot open the cargo door. We got in and toured the ship and he got settled into the pilot seat for his first flight. I went back to the A1 and prepped for takeoff. Upon lifting off we were immediately attacked by the bunker defence turrets and his ship did not survive. I flew away a man down and promised that I would inform his wife of his passing.
Alas, it wasn't just a simple respawn though, as his CS1 caused him to be sent to Klescher prison to do a whole 7 mins of hard time. I told him that I didn't really know the prison game loop since I'm a law abiding citizen, but we were able to finally figure out how to mine a rock right as his sentence ended. Meanwhile I was already QTing to Everus Harbor for the eventual pickup upon his release. He chuckled at the whole "congratulations you did it!" exiting prison sequence and we reunited on Everus to begin anew.
Deciding I should show him some space combat, I asked him to look for the dynamic "Save Stanton" event and after accepting and sharing the "Protect Hauler" contract, we set our destination for Crusader and headed out in my A2. We arrived at the distress beacon and after working through some wrinkles with the various turret modes, started laying into the various ships that were harassing the NPC hauler.
Sadly we were outmatched and outgunned and the hauler was shredded. Our shields were depleting fast so I left them to their fate--we'll avenge you random NPC who's name I forget! We checked for the Phase 3 Idris Incursion and headed to the location, but sadly the only contacts on the radar were the Comm Sat and its complement of turrets--who promptly began to open fire on us! We booked it out of there and headed back to the nearest station to end the night.
Having only had a single aborted piloting attempt, my friend decided he wanted to take a ship for a spin. He pulled up a venerable Cutter Rambler and we headed to his "small" but adequate hangar and boarded the ship so I could give him the piloting instructions. We took off and headed out for a quick sojourn around the station then as we headed back, he hailed ATC for landing but took too long and lost his hangar. Unable to get a new one, I told him it was time to learn the joys of the touch and go pads, so we headed over there, ditched the Cutter and EVA'd back into the station (yet another game mechanic checked off!)
As I bid him adieu he was going through the process of pulling up one of his rented ships so he could complete a takeoff and landing and was successfully able to do so, realising his earlier issue was that he didn't leave the station's area of operation before requesting a new hangar. Successfully landed and satisfied with his experience, we called it a night and somewhere Chris Roberts sighed contentedly as another fool inched closer to joining his "cult" of spaceship JPG owners.
-errational signing off
