When was the origin of Fuel Rats in the franchise?
Have they existed since the first game was first released in 1984? Or only after IRC came around a few years later?
Very curious about the history of Fuel Rats in the game series, as well the history of technology these used to communicate.
No, these are actual In-Real-Life-People. Maybe parent got their dates a wee bit wrong.
When I started playing Elite:Dangerous (circa release date 2014?) I ran out of fuel in a system I couldn't refuel in (wrong type of sun or something like that)...and so was stuck. The only way out was to self destruct.
After some googling I discovered the Fuel Rats on Reddit and then their IRC channel. So as per their S.O.P. I put out a call for assistance on their IRC channel and within 10-15 mins or so one of their crew appeared in-system and refuelled me. I don't like to abuse the word "awesome", but these folks were awesome. They were like the AA or RAC of the galaxy :)
Just one of the greatest things I've ever heard of online.
I've been saved once or twice by fuel rats. The process is fantastic and seeing the dispatchers in action is fascinating. After they refuel you, they give you a little talk and help you avoid running out of fuel again.
"Right when Elite:Dangerous was coming out, I had just quit a 3-year stint of playing World of Warcraft ... When Frontier decided to add a feature to the July 2015 release, consisting of a refuelling limpet/probe that could be used to transfer fuel to someone who was out, I had a brain-flash and did a posting announcing that I was starting an organization called “The Fuel Rats” who would undertake to rescue people in-game who ran out of fuel. And, The Fuel Rats were an unexpected success ..."
The hardest part of using their (really good) services was having to use IRC. If they'd used Discord, I'd hop into a server effortlessly. Instead, I had to navigate the byzantine vagaries of terrible UX while running out of oxygen. D:
Just like we do today in Webex Teams for example.
I personally never liked the transition to web based chat because IRC was a lot more information dense than any web chat can be.
Being able to paste inline code doesn't sell it for me since there are pastebins you can host on prem easily.
If you run out of "fuel" in game, and you need a Fuel Rat to come rescue you, you do it in IRC. Dispatch talks to you in their IRC channel, other dispatchers are communicating in NOTAM[2] like notation with pilots out 'rescuing' other players.
It's amazing to behold.
[1] https://confluence.fuelrats.com/display/FRKB/Rescue+Standard...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOTAM
Disclosure: Fuel Rat 2010-2013, Retired.