Fending Off Space Madness (Elite Dangerous)

"Don't skimp on the fuel scoop" should be a t-shirt slogan, maybe in the style of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

I find consuming large amounts of Adult Beverages is a good Counter to space madness

Funnily enough, setting down on a planet "for the night" is a common routine for me in my own little runarounds through the galaxy already. It just doesn't feel as comfortable to log out while adrift in space. While in civilised space, I pretty much never log out without docking first, unless I'm in a particular hurry.

It is peculiar, that after a while the game starts impacting the psyche. My first couple of forays out of the bubble, I would chicken out after a couple weeks, and go back to the bubble. Then treated later trips into the galaxy as dares. Daring myself to go farther, or stay out longer. Then getting protective of the cartographic data, and not taking any risks. Now, I've come to terms with the desolation, and consider it peaceful. After a 6 month trip in the black, I went back to the bubble, got my Sol permit, and went to one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn or whatever. I landed near one of those tourist beacons, and it bothered me. The thought of, "others have been here," and "this place (the bubble) is too busy for my liking." It's fascinating that a game could have these impacts. Make friends with the madness, it's part of the trip. And listen to Pink Floyd.

Great advice! Another protip that's saved me thousands of galactic seconds: You can start charging your FSD as soon as the star in your navigation map turns from red to yellow. You'll never overheat and you'll have plenty of time to orient yourself in the right direction before it reaches max charge.

I think space madness would be weaker with space legs: having no "home" (as a station or something) plays a big role on space Madness as you feel lost without a reference of home. With space legs, you feel more like a Man in a ship, and the ship becomes your home, your reference point. Walking around it when feeling mad would probably help

Best cure for space madness is to put the game down and go for a walk. Also taking breaks to play other games helps keep me fresh in my deep space exploration.

Listening to music while i jump and jump and jump really helps. Especially listening through bluetooth. It tricks my brain into thinking my ship has a radio lol

"Nav computer screw ups are rare" I ran into 2 white dwarfs in a 30 minute period and they were filtered out. 2 of them! My heart can't take that in such close timing.

If only we could build actual 'disposable' base camps, a la early structures in NMS. Even if other commanders couldn't find them later on, just being able to interact with more than the SRV would make a tremendous difference on space madness. That and the emotional departure would have that much of a better payoff. Here's hoping for New Era...

As much as I prefer your mnemonic, KGB FOAM has stuck into my mind like a bad jingle and it is the only one I can remember.

Also a good show to watch: Red Dwarf. In fact, I named my deep space exploration vessel Red Dwarf and gave him the Leo COVAS voice.

I thought it was just me, my flatmate pilots like he's playing Forza while describing it as relaxing but I'm filled with a sense of dread and anxiety like I'm actually in the cockpit. I fly like a grandma drives and I'm still terrified, when I stop playing it feels like I'm still rolling side to side and I have to yaw around corners in the house so I don't tip over. I only started a couple of days ago so I'm hoping my brain is going to understand that it's just a game soon. I don't like the way it makes me feel at all but I keep logging back in. That's the maddest part.

I literally started to hallucinate, I was travelling to sagittarius and the stars seemed to warp around me and form a floor and walls, like my brain was trying to make the space around more confined so I can understand it. I was also sleep deprived at the time but I literally felt like w was about to crash into a floor made of nothing.

Space madness affects me in two of the ways you've mentioned in this video: landing on a planet and sitting there for a ridiculous amount of time; and extremely risky and dangerous behavior. I'll often overheat my ship to 200% just to see how far I can push it, then land on a moon of a gas giant in a position where I can see the gas giant just cresting the horizon, disengaging all my internal modules with the SINGLE exception of my life support and sit there, staring at space for hours while listening to the quiet sounds of space, my ship, and the game's soundtrack.

Space madness: GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS while dual screening.

I've been watching your entire Elite catalog. I've owned the game for a year or two, but never really gave it the time of day. Your "starting out" video really opened the game up for me. It's like 18 Wheels of Steel in space. My brothers and I used to watch the MST3K marathons on Thanksgiving every year. Also, Mike is my ride or die.

Haha, I know how you feel, I've been playing Elite since the beta and I STILL get weirded out when I jump in to an unusual star type unprepared. I find that listening to audio books while out in the black staves off space madness, it usually only comes up to say hello when I'm landing on a planet in a previously undiscovered system, landing on new planets so far away from anyone really does make you feel insignificant.

Dude, two days ago I jumped into an A type star system and nearly got fried because there were also TWO flippin neutron stars there lol. I totally understand the jitters.

I just got this game a few days ago and I already know space madness. I was in the Ehecatl system, which has 3 stars, and my mission was to go to a station orbiting one of the farthest planets of the farthest star. I engaged super cruise assist like normal until I realized about 10 mins later how long the trip was taking. That's when I realized I was going over 500 times the speed of light and still accelerating because I wasn't even close yet. If it weren't for the other commanders in the System chat I doubt I would've been able to hold it together long enough to arrive. This game is unlike any other