Completed The Move...and A Rant About Colonia-Haters
08 Sep 2019Scubadog
Well, that didn't take too long. Let's be honest, my fleet is pretty mature at this point. I've acquired all the ships I have really been interested in getting, and I've got them all pretty much outfitted as well as you can, out here in the Wild West. And since we do have four decent engineers about, I've got most of the engineering I care to done. I'll do some tweaking here and there, of course. So, what I need is services. The two key services that Bisley Landing has that nobody in Ratraii has are cartography and interstellar factors. And, as I said, the surroundings at Bisley are beautiful. Relaxing. And a sight more welcoming after a few days of bounty hunting or mining, or a few weeks of exploring.
So, I set to the task of migrating my fleet from Colonia Dream to Bisley Landing. For all but my Anaconda--which is configured for just south of an 80ly jump range--this was a two-jump endeavor. I'm not hard-pressed for cash, but I'm not exactly flush with it, either. So, I didn't fancy the idea of paying some logistics company to shuttle all my ships to their new home. I decided to have them move my smaller ships, but the medium and large ones I worked myself. This entailed The Ceti Volpe, my engineered Sidewinder to Colonia Dream, grab another of my fleet and fly it to Bisley and call for the Volpe behind me. Rinse and repeat until I finished up by flying the Type 10 to Bisley.
I still have a bunch of unpacking to do, and setting up the new condo. Man, I love the view.
This brings me to my rant. I've been following a number of published log entries out there from commanders who have a decidedly unfavorable opinion of Colonia. First off, if you are simply coming here to visit, to check that off your bucket list, okay. You have access to literally everything you need if you need a waystation on the way to somewhere else. So, why in hells would you badmouth my home as if you had a flipping clue? You're passing through. Cash in your cartographic data, repair/re-arm/re-fuel your ship and then be on your merry.
But those of you who claim to have tried to "make a go" of spending some time here, what in blazes did you actually do? Everything is close by here. I constantly hear the waves where people whine about how long it takes to get anywhere in the bubble. Well, you don't have that problem here. Engineers? All very close by. Shipyards? Close by. Material traders? Ditto. Modules? All close by. Now, I freely admit that our engineers aren't fully skilled yet but instead of whining, how about giving them some work so they can speed up their skill level, huh? And as for the modules, it's a fair complaint that not all modules are available, but almost all of the normal ones are here or are going to show up soon. You won't find some of those more exotic ones, ones that require you to shove your nose up the Alliance or Imperial butts. But why didn't you think to bring THOSE along with you? And pin your best blueprints back in the bubble so when you get here you can remote engineer stuff.
Now, I don't know what some of these commanders were doing that they claim every time they turned around they were getting pirated. But that has NOT been my experience in the well-over-three years I've lived out here. And because of the relatively low density of population and coziness we share, it's quite a bit easier to strike up friendships with the locals and get great tips for navigating around here, as well as some protection if you need it. Yes, quite a bit easier than doing that back in the bubble.
Other than play footsie with the Big Factions, there's not a damned thing you can do in the bubble that you can't here. In fact, the biggest money-maker now--mining--is far and away easier and safer here than in the bubble. You can't throw a rock these days without hitting a nice, juicy hotspot to mine.
One commander lamented about the minimal resources our locals have access to. I don't know where he was docked, but we have all the same resources everyone in the bubble has. And we can get them easier. You'll find as wide a variety of conditions here as you will in the bubble. I promise you that. I mean, hells, look at the place I moved to! And we don't have all the stupid politics to deal with, either.
So, if you're tempted to come to Colonia, let me help you out. If you're just passing through, we're glad to see ya. Set a spell, freshen up, make a few credits and then move on. Don't badmouth us on the way out. If you're planning to make this your home, here's my advice:
1. Research what modules or ships you may want to buy before you leave the bubble. It's easy to find out what we have or don't. If we don't already have it here, buy it in the bubble and ship it later, if needed.
2. Engineer with a purpose! If you never fancied pinning blueprints, then now's a great time to go back and do that. Since there are some module types our engineers currently have less experience with, they can't get you to level 5 on those yet. Again, this is easily researched. Which is why pinning your most important module blueprints is important. When you get here, give our engineers the business by upgrading your modules as far as they can, and get your experimental effects added...and then use your blueprints to finish the engineering.
3. Get to know your neighbors. Your best move will be to seek out us locals and chat us up. We have our share of bad guys here, but not nearly on the scale of the bubble. The overwhelming majority are good folk, looking to make an honest credit.
4. Embrace the fact that you won't have to spend a lot of time traveling between major systems here, unlike the bubble. And embrace that you won't have to deal with the Thargoid threat here, either.
5. Your most important systems to get familiar with are Colonia, Ratraii, Ogmar, Kojeara, Coeus, Carcosa, Luchtaine, Los, Tyr and Asura. That covers major shipyards, major modules inventories, material traders and engineers. See how easy that is? Try to jell down all you have to know or place to go back in the bubble. You can't do it as nicely as this.
There you have it. Colonia is a great place with plenty of opportunities and a lot less of the hassle. I used to be at Colonia Dream in Ratraii because of their shipyard. But now I'm at Brisley Landing in Benzaiten because of the services and the view. If you're in our neck of the woods, look me up.