We stumbled upon Corpse Necrumus's stream last week, when he was turning in 11 months of exploration data. Not only had he been out for 11 months, but he'd been doing econimical jumps only - we watched as he turned in a stunning amount of data, and sent over these questions about his trip to learn a little bit more about this dedicated Commander. You can see at timeplase of his 9 hour stream in the video below.
Please note that Necrumus' tale does contain some tragic details about a friend of his that recently passed away, so it does make for an emotional story. The questions were sent to Necrumus in advance... he replied exactly as seen below.
1 – That was an impressive trip. Can you give us the final tally on how much you made? Did you make it to Elite? Give us the full details!
I made exactly 582,332,653 CR and it took 7 hours and 36 minutes to turn in, and I livestreamed the entire event on twitch! so Yes, I made it to Elite and beyond! :D
2 – How long did this trip take? What was your motivation when heading out? Why did you choose do it?
My Trip took 10 Months and 1 Day - from the 27th of May 2015 to the 28th of March 2016. My motivation for heading out was just that I had always dreamed about being able to fly to outer space and exploring vast Nebulae and
my original Destination was the crab nebula, but seeing that it would be quite boring to fly in a straight line all the way out to the crab Nebula, I decided to make various checkpoints, in this case, either specific stars, black holes, or nebulae along the way. The idea to do it economically was because I wanted to do something different than most explorers do these days :) I wouldn't however have made this trip if it wasn't for my friend Thomas who encouraged me to do the trip when I was uncertain if I could actually do it. May his soul rest in space. he died on the 13th November 2015, two days later, I get to know, at the same day I reached the Crab Nebula that My friend had committed suicide, at that point I first didn't know what to do. he had always watched the pictures I took of nebulas and other stuff and commented on it. I looked around, and in the far distance I saw the Heart and Soul Nebulas, I decided I'd go there as a acceptance of his passing, and I swore I would complete the journey economical route, so I continued, but after the Heart and Soul Nebulas, I started my journey home (again via Nebulae and stars) To tell the entire trip shortly: I began at LTT 15449 and went to the following checkpoints: Mintaka, Rigel, Witch Head Nebula, EZ Orionis, Orion's Nebula, Running Man Nebula, Flame Nebula, Messier 78, Barnard's Loop, Horsehead Nebula, Orion Dark Region, Vy Canis Majoris, Thor's Helmet, Seagull Nebula, Rosette Nebula, Jellyfish Nebula, Monkey Head Nebula, Crab Nebula, Heart & Soul Nebulas, NGC 7822, Cave Nebula, Elephant Trunk Nebula, North America Nebula, Pelican Nebula, Sadr Region and finally The Pleiades Nebula. after that I went home to the bubble where I grinded Merits in Powerplay for Li Yong Rui's bonus. So you could say half of the journey was because I wanted to see nebulae, and the other half was to honor a deceased friend. :)
3 – Did you have any scrapes along the way? Near misses where you thought you may lose it all?
I had 3 close encounters and times I was worried I'd lose it all. the first one was When I fell asleep in front of the computer, and woke up to the heat alarm in the ship going in full force, thankfully it was only at 101%, so I had only taken heat damage to modules. Second one was when I had about 1000 lightyears left to NGC 7822, I came to a big black gap where there were no stars to go to, and I didn't have a viechle hangar, nor weapons because of me heading out back in 1.2 so synthesis was out of the question. I managed to deplete my fuel to low enough to make the few jumps in between the few stars there though. The Third -and worst one- was when I was grinding Merits. I had outfitted my ASP (same old "Da Sneaky Gobbo" as I used for exploring) and I jumped into a fight against a Dangerous Imperial Clipper (Bad Idea) he broke my canopy, so I charged my frameshift drive, but noticed It was going slowly, so I was panicking and thinking "WHY?!" then I remembered that I was trying to low-wake, so I quickly selected another system, and jumped out with 39% hull left. but it doesn't end there - I decided I was gonna land on a planet to repair. but because my canopy was not possible to see, I went on the oposit side of the planet, realizing this, I finally saw a statinon above me in just outside of the planet, a station I was wanted at, but I decided this time it was all or nothing, I boosted in, turned on silent running and managed to get in with more or less a minute to spare... I really almost had a heartattack with that one... Shoutout to S7 and Capn' Murica from the Code for keeping me calm and focused via teamspeak.
4 – Any highlights along the trip, what did you see?
Oh there were tons! I've taken quite a few pictures during my trip which I'll show pictures off in a tribute video I'm going to make for my deceased friend, but I think the most awesome place was when I jumped to a black hole with a supernova-like nebula around it. (This one in particular is called CYOIDAI GH-U E3-3. Check it out!) I also have a video of it on my youtube. I also found a Earth-like that had no name on it within 1000 Lightyears of Sol! Would you believe it that there are still untagged systems that close to the bubble?! :D
5 – You’ve played a lot of Elite Dangerous, how many hours? Why do you play so much?
At the point of this question being asked, approx 4200 hours (3210 on steam, and about 1000 hours before it came to steam) I Play Elite: Dangerous so much because it is my passion, it's the best game I've ever played (personal opinion, don't hate me! D:) I just love all aspects of it, Exploring, Pirating (which needs to be fixed a bit actually, because right now it's hard to pirate now with all the "no-pirate-in-mind"-thinking that is going on), PvP, Combat overall, Trading, Smuggling, Mining... hell, I even love CQC, allthough I wish they'd fix the matchmaking, because that part, and sitting in a queue (for sometimes 3 hours without a single match) is annoying. I think one improvement that could be made there, would be if you could still chat in CQC in the lobby, so people actually don't just sit there and don't have anyone to talk with. it gets lonely! :D I also look forward alot to all the coming patches, but being a roleplay "Onionheadabusing Misanthropic Hallucinating ex-military Terrorist-Pirate", I especially look forward to 2.3 when we get The Character Creation and Multicrew. and I can't wait to see what "big secret" you guys have for us in 2.4 ;)
6 – What do you think of the Elite Dangerous Community?
I love most of the communities, there are some people I strongly agree with, and others I strongly disagree with. I'll mention no names here, as it would be rude to a certain part of the playerbase ;)
7 – Are you involved in any other Community Groups yourself?
Yes I be a Crew Member of THE CODE! YARRRR!!! ye best be sure tae drop the cargo demanded when asked to, cause being selfish and keeping it all to yerself shows what kind of friend ye'd be. we pirates of the Code share our loot with our mateys, So ye better obey or Ye will soon have yer ship blown up, or be asked tae drop twice the ammount for trying tae escape! and if you even dare to combat log in front of me, I'll mark you on my kill-on-sight list ;) - Oh, and if Interdict you alongside Capn' Murica and you see this, feel free to say hello to me, afterall we are all crazy pirates, and we enjoy having fun!
8 – What’s next? Another big exploration trip?
Next I will be in The bubble mostly, doing PvP and piracy, but I'll also help out people if I can, and if I don't have orders to destroy specific targets ;) Also, I will at some point go to the Skull and Crossbone Nebula, and also to Sagittarius A. But the only thing that I currently know when it will happen is that the 13th of November 2016 I'll be going to the Eight Burst Nebula, this time not economical route though. and I'm doing so as a memorial day from one year of my friend's passing. he wanted me to go there at some point was one of the last things he told me. I intend to as before, uphold my honor. People can feel free to join me for this, it's entirely optional. A timestamp will come later if people are intrested in following me there. don't worry, it's just about 2000 light years away from the bubble. I will probably stream this event aswell.
9 – Anything else you want to say?
Whatever ye do ye Stationlubber, don't take me last Code-Noodles, that there be a plasma accelerator Death Sentence! if ye do so, prepare yer rebuy screen an' get ready tae walk the plank! The Code is Red - Long Live The Code! ;)