Ten thousand Elite Dangerous players join in group expedition to faraway places

The Elite Dangerous space simulator has recently launched one of the largest group expeditions to date. This one is called Distant Worlds 2 and according to developer Frontier more than ten thousand players participate in it.

David Braben, the CEO of Frontier, shared a list with the different numbers of participating ships. The expedition heads to Beagle Point, a distant corner of the galaxy, and will last eighteen weeks. In the game there is approximately 65,279 light years between the starting point, the Earth, and the final destination. This journey is considered one of the most dangerous in the game. Players need a minimum jump range of 34 light-years to reach Beagle Point.

The previous Distant World Expedition also went to Beagle Point, but this time players hope to make discoveries that were overlooked during the previous Expedition. This weekend the group expedition will arrive at its first stop. Beagle Point was first called Ceeckia ZQ-L C24-0, but was later named after DSS Beagle, the ship of a player who was the first to reach the farthest star in 2015.

Distant Worlds 2 hasn’t been completely flawless so far. According to Polygon, the servers crashed during the expedition’s kick-off on January 13. This was due to the sheer number of players showing up for the adventure. As a result, the servers became overloaded.

In addition, at least thirty players got stuck in a system called HR 6164. This system, which includes a blue star, two deadly black holes and a volatile neutron star, contains a planet called The View. A spectacularly beautiful view awaits from the surface, but it is very difficult to land safely. That’s because the gravity here is 3.3 times higher than on Earth. That strong appeal has certainly already taken a victim.