08-09-16 Day 1, Messaline, Androzoni Major, Androzoni Minor

Mostly just continued tracking outposts, shelters and monoliths, kind of hitting a repeatable rhythm more so than actual investigation.  Still not sure how to set waypoints.

Kept struggling to get those flying things I nicknamed Minidactyls.  But, that's not their name until I can get a proper scan on them and get it uploaded to the Atlas. 

I gotta say, some of my favorite screenshots are coming from the cockpit while I'm flying.  The variation in this game is incredible.

Not that the view form the ground is bad, it's also pretty amazing.

One thing I like about flying as well, is that you can see the process of creation as the environment is procedurally generated.  If you fly fast enough, you can watch trees grow out of the ground.  Kind of neat.

I felt like I'd spent enough time on Messaline, although I was a little annoyed I wasn't able to collect the Minidactyls, but decided there are other planets in this system.  It's time to see them.  With that in mind, I launched and aimed at Beemnessze Doter.  Another terrible name, which I would fix shortly after taking a walk around the planet to see what Doctor Planet Name might be fitting.

Androzoni Major

• "Androzani Major and Androzani Minor are a pair of planets that form the setting of the serial The Caves of Androzani. Androzani Minor features a network of caves, inhabited by spectrox-producing giant bats. When the planet moved closer to Androzani Major, mud burst from Androzani Minor's core. The planets are located in the Sirius system. Both planets were once covered by water but have become hot and arid desert planets. Native life on Androzani Minor includes the Magma Beast, which lives in Androzani Minor's bubbling mud pools.^[16][17] Androzani Major was also named as the place which the Harvest Rangers were from in the 2011 Christmas special, "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe".^[18][19]"

There were similar sounds on Androzoni Major as Kembel.  I still don't know what's causing it.  But, this planet seems to have a higher volume of caves as well.  If it is a natural occurrence; and that seems unlikely, I wonder if it's connected to them in some way.  This planet, like Messaline and Kembel seems to be littered with luminescent plant life.  Not sure if that is particular to the game or perhaps just this solar system.  More than likely, the game.  Seeing a lot of the same geologic formations and flora. 

The cave systems are actually quite a bit bigger than I realized walking on the surface.  Easy to get lost in. 

Again, like so much of the design in this game, the cave interior was extremely beautiful with the revolving luminance of blues, greens, reds, oranges and yellows.  It's definately where the beauty on this planet is, because topside, it's vast and desolate. 

I didn't see much in the way of Sentinel activity.  I wonder if that's because the planet was so barren?  In reviewing the footage, I saw one.  And it was in the vicinity of the weird animal noises I couldn't identify on Kembel.  And again, it was in the proximity of the caves, but when I was in the caves, I didn't hear it at all. 

Found the beacon where you can use a bypass chip if you've found or crafted one.  That was cool.  Saved me a walk back.  Not having a bad climate to deal with though, it wasn't bad. 

The planets does look fairly rich in mineral elements and with the minimal Sentinel presence, it should be easy to come harvest large quantities with no hassles.  Might be able to generate the funds to upgrade my ship to something with more save slots.  When I circle back to this planet to spend more time, That's more than likely what I'll do.

The ruins on this planet, while teaching me Vy'keen words, had a statue of a lizard looking head.

So, are these Vy'keen ruins, or ruins of a previous race?  Or is it a creature they worshiped?  In their Legacy or Legend monoliths, they refer to Hirk.  There's been references to the Atlas in connect with the monoliths.  But when Hirk asked the monolith about the Sentinels, it didn't respond.  So, their relationship is still a question mark. 

With there not being much to see here and the source of that sound continuing to be elusive, I decided to jump world.  I found my way to Toshoudhur Skli, or as I renamed it, Androzoni Minor.

Androzoni Minor

• "Androzani Major and Androzani Minor are a pair of planets that form the setting of the serial The Caves of Androzani. Androzani Minor features a network of caves, inhabited by spectrox-producing giant bats. When the planet moved closer to Androzani Major, mud burst from Androzani Minor's core. The planets are located in the Sirius system. Both planets were once covered by water but have become hot and arid desert planets. Native life on Androzani Minor includes the Magma Beast, which lives in Androzani Minor's bubbling mud pools.^[16][17] Androzani Major was also named as the place which the Harvest Rangers were from in the 2011 Christmas special, "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe".^[18][19]"

Androzoni Minor was beautiful.  A water world.  However, it came with poison rain making it toxic.  It was also home to the first animal species I've come across, a crab like animal that I named Macra, for obvious reasons (if you are a Doctor Who fan.  Crablike animals, toxic environment, etc...) The plantlife was more fungal than anything.  At least on the surface. 

There was also a sort of flying lizard/fish animal.   I gave it the somewhat uncreative name of Flying Eel.

playlist:

Del McCoury - All Aboard

Skrillex -  Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites

Alice in Chains - Got Me Wrong

Afu-Ra, Masta Killa - Mortal Kombat

Sepultura - Ratamahatta

Bassic - Seduction

God Lives Underwater - No More Love

Music seemed a bit loud, I'll have to turn it down a tad going forward.  I want it to be there, but not distracting.

08-09-16, Day 1, Ceres System and Kembel

Getting out of atmosphere wasn't a big deal, but figuring out how to jump over to the next planet took a few minutes.

Ceres:

"The Ceres star system was the secondary location of the Infinite, its whereabouts provided by the data chip possessed by Kaliko. (TV: The Infinite Quest)" 

My initial reading of the planet (Dodrarlagthuale) I pointed my ship at was 2 hrs 30 mins, which there was no way I was doing.

 Once I sped up, time improved to 15 mins, which still seemed excessive.  I wasn't reading the bottom left of my screen, which was telling me how to engage my pulse jump because I started dodging asteroids.

 I did finally figure it out though.  And the time dropped to 30 seconds, way more understandable for a game.

 Re-entry was interesting for the first time doing it.

Kembel:
"Kembel is the setting of "Mission to the Unknown" and much of The Daleks' Master Plan. It is mostly covered in large, inhospitable^{[to whom?]} jungles home to many strange creatures. It is described as the most hostile planet known, and only the Dalek forces were willing to use it as a base. However, when the Time Destructor is activated there by the First Doctor, the planet is reduced to a desert."

Kembel, originally Dodrarlagthuale, was like a massive desert.  It felt on initial arrival a lot like the southwest in the USA.  It had some sporadic life, but no real animals it seemed like. Although, I kept hearing strange sounds, which made me think there must be something there, but I just wasn't seeing it. 

After touch down, I began to pick up beacon transmissions.

 At the Tisippon Outlook, I was introduced to a simple puzzle that resulted in map information... well, not map, by location information for sites I could check out.

I discovered a plasma cannon blast that could dig holes in normal rocks that my mining beam hadn't previously been able to penetrate.

There wasn't much on Kimbal.  Found mostly the same type of places as on Messaline with ruins, outposts, drop pods, etc...

  Caves also appeared to be very similar to Messaline.

The climate, despite being a barren desert, didn't give my suit any trouble, although I felt like the battery didn't last that long.  It could be that there was very little Carbon on the planet and I was using Plutonium to power my Life Support system instead.  

It seemed perpetually dark.  Not quite night, but not quite day.  I wonder if the planet's rotation is slower?  Is that something that happens in the game?  Causing twilight to extend for longer?  Not sure what the driver was for that.  Or is it possible the game allows planets to have different angles to the sun for their rotation?