To make it easier to find new updates I’ve added a Blog Updates page. This is available by clicking on the ‘Menu & Widgets’ graphic in the top right of the screen and should save anyone looking for new information the trouble of rooting through all the pages checking for new details. Any additions to existing information will be bullet pointed.
Month: July 2016
Patch Update: 2.1.05
On the 28th July Frontier release patch 2.1.05. You can read the full list of patch notes here or see the list below.
The two biggest changes are the ability to scan planets to see what materials are available on the surface and that, “When collecting physical micro resources or retrieving data loot, add 3 to the inventory instead of 1.” These should be welcome changes to players trying to gather items for the Engineers.
Stability Fixes
- Fixed Skimmer Group issue
- Fix a crash if we try to send a message to or about a player that is no longer in the game
- Fix crash during high res screen capture
- Fix crash in wing manager
- Fix for the pilot object never being destroyed
- Fix a number of unreleased effects that could potentially have caused small memory leaks
- Fix crash when calculating the tidal locking amount for a planet with exactly -180 axial tilt
- Fixes to protect against a fatal network error, and early detection of the disconnection with server
- Fixes a crash in the fairly rare case of a ship being killed or fleeing while waiting for a response to a docking request
- Fixes for cross-platform crashes reported from the Xbox client
- Improvements to memory management to tackle cases of fragmentation
- Fix a potential NaN in the vehicle system
- Added crash protection in outfitting when getting the inventory for a sub slot
- Fix crash when taking damage and when a contributing player doesn’t exist anymore, likely due to quitting
- Fix a server crash if a CQC game ends at the same time the lobby is shut down
- Fix a crash if you disconnect while shooting someone while in CQC
- Fix a crash in CQC capture the flag if someone leaves the game at the same time that the flag is dropped
- Fix crash when disconnecting while taking damage in CQC
- Fix a transaction server error when transferring cargo on changing ships
General Tweaks & Fixes
- Added surface scan materials data to system map
- Fix to allow TrackIR users to have the same headlook range as before the 2.1 patch when live
- Station weapon strength increased to allow for players with engineer upgraded defences
- When dropping out after an interdiction make sure we don’t drop out too close to a planet
- Added Saitek x56 control pre-set
- Fix occasional doubling up of first discovery names on the system map
- Fix for first discovery bonuses not being paid out when all members of a wing sell their exploration data
- Factions can no longer retreat if fewer than 3 factions would remain in that star system
- Fixed combat rank increases awarded from killing other Commanders
- Balancing tweaks to the Engineer crafting recipes
- Added latest batch of translations
- Various text fixes
Xbox One
- Updated New Logo and Idents
- Improvement to user settings when switching players
- Added a language override option to allow players to choose English over their default console language
- Reduce the frequency that the statistic events are sent to make them less spammy
- Don’t allow the player to spam Create Commander requests – block new requests while another is active
- Don’t refresh the XBL Inventory when unconstraining to avoid the client and server getting out of sync
CQC
- Matchmaker optimisations
NPCs
- Rebalance for fixed scenario AI set up, specifically for Nav Beacons and RES sites
- Increase the threaten timer across the board for all AI. Pirates have slight higher since they are waiting for cargo to be dropped
- Set all AI ships in lawful space to have an interdiction rank range of 2 or less ranks below their own, and all AI ships in anarchy space to have an interdiction rank range of 3 or less ranks below their own
- Slightly reduced Anarchy interdictions, whilst keeping them more dangerous than lawful systems.
Engineers
- Fixed blueprints being lost when using reputation to override the special modifier
- Make sure POI data points have the firmware rarity improvements mirrored across to them
- Rebalance POI data point drop quantities, including the rate and spread of drops
Change the weighting on “Wrecks” USS- Fix for being able to select an unselectable adjust option which appeared to give a free upgrade
- When collecting physical micro resources or retrieving data loot, add 3 to the inventory instead of 1. If your inventory can’t fit 3, just add enough to fill the inventory
- Added locations to the descriptions of the commodities
Weapons
- Balanced thermal weapons
- Fixed lens flare on class 4 burst laser
Missions
- Make permit missions have rank up tick box ticked
- When attempting to add a message to the inbox list in GUI, check if the mission manager knows about the mission. Don’t show it if it doesn’t
- Add a short wait time before the client re-requests a tutorial mission (60 seconds)
- Fix to allow Navy promotion missions to succeed if offered prematurely
- Fix to use the correct rank name in Navy promotion inbox messages
- Automatically clean up undeletable inbox messages for expired missions
Powerplay
- Prevent depopulating systems, change the background sim to only allow Factions to retreat if there are at least 4 factions in that system
- Additional modifier to require a commodities market during Trade related CG’s
Audio
- Fixed bug where planetary music suite didn’t play when approaching from supercruise
- Reduced the timing interval on the probe to bring the total transmission down to just over 6 mins
2.2: Commanders Log
As announced at Lavecon 2016 Frontier will introduce a new journal feed in 2.2 that will allow 3rd party developers to create a ‘Commanders log’ for any participating players. On the 20th July, Zac Antonaci posted some more information on the official forum,
“To do this we have two downloadable links. One has a manual, explaining how the journal works. The other is a small set of data to get you started.
More data can be compiled later but we felt it was best to get the first set of info out so people can begin understanding the functionality of the Commanders Log.
What’s more, the very amazing Howard Chalkley (who is far more intelligent than I) will be on hand in this thread to answer any questions that you have regarding the journal.
As always, post on this thread and feel free to get in touch directly with any questions, concerns or recommendations.”
Additionally the manual contains a few interesting snippets of information that feeds back into proposed upcoming content. These have been added to the Horizons: Preview Information post.
Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016
Gamescom 2016 is just around the corner (17th August to the 21st August) and if you’re keen for the latest news on ED then this is when you can expect to hear about it. Frontier’s latest newsletter commented,
“Just like last year we’ll be streaming live from the show floor from the official Elite Dangerous accounts. We’ll have special guest interviews, sneak previews of content coming in season 2 and much more. We’ve got a content schedule planned that we’re sure will keep you coming back every day for more, so make sure you don’t miss out on the biggest Elite Dangerous stream of the year. More information on our schedule coming soon, but streams will be live every day, here.”
I’ll be doing my best to do a live blog of information as it happens, but the Official Forum and Reddit will no doubt have the lowdown.
Lavecon 2016 – Q&A
On Saturday the 16th July Frontier held an open Q&A session during the first day of Lavecon 2016. Below are a few points taken from the session that was attended by: Dav Scott, Sandro Sammarco, Michael Brookes and Mark Allen. There were many smaller things mentioned which you can listen to on the stream recording here (starting at 4 hours 40 mins). Note: Information here has been updated on the Horizons Preview post and ‘The Future?’ post.
Tourist Information
Michael Brookes explained that Tourism, which is just one aspect of the forthcoming ‘Passengers’ update, will hopefully guide some players into new locations, as suggested by the players themselves. When taking tourism missions the scanning of objects in the specifically requested locations will reveal the commander who suggested the location as well as integrating any relevant lore surrounding the area. This might be for example the scene of a historically important battle. Some trips will be up to 70,000 light years from the bubble making them long time-consuming affairs. It was commented that there would be a time limit to do the trips, but that it would be “generous”. To avoid any doubt it was confirmed that passenger specific ships (e.g. the Orca) would be better than non-passenger specific ones when doing tourism trips.
Jaques Station
Michael Brookes revealed that following suggestions from the players, Frontier will support the introduction of a new player inhabited bubble surrounding the station. Additionally any community goals would be given a longer time limit (a month of longer) to allow players to be involved.
Escort Missions
When asked at Lavecon 2016 Sandro suggested this was a ‘desirable feature’ and that it blended in with multi-crew and ship-launched fighters, but didn’t go as far as saying when it would actually appear.
Player Journal
The 2.2 Updates will see the introduction of a player journal into the game. Information will be written to a local file enabling 3rd party apps access to the data. Some of the developers of these apps have already been contacted in regard to this.
Consequences for Criminal Actions?
Sandro commented that although there is no ETA or guarantees, they are aware of issues surrounding this topic and want to improve it.
Engineers Criticism. Was it justified?
Sandro said that yes, some of the constructive criticism was justified and that he felt the team was lucky to be in a position to have a “second bite at the apple” in trying to improve the system. He said that they had made a mistake with the first balance pass and it was “too harsh.” Due to the game being based on geography and distance to travel places, the crafting aspect takes longer than in other games and changes have been made and would be made to amend this.
Additionally the introduction of special weapons was intended to be seen as ‘personalisation’ in the game, but in effect they created proto-roles within the game (ie. healer, tank). Sandro said the forums was quite correct in making this observation and that sometimes as a developer you can be too close to the game and “not see the wood for the trees.” This he felt, was one of those occasions. Sandro also commented,
“Now that the game has been live for a while, it’s a big complicated game. When you add something to it, no matter how small and seemingly trivial, you pull on lots of different strings that effect lots of different systems, so we have to apply a cautious approach to any sort of improvement.”
Q. When will there be more variation in stations?
A. Gamescom.
Will there be cross-platform play?
Would love to do it, there have been discussions and despite limitations it is being considered.
Ship naming?
This question cropped up again and ship naming will be coming but again, no dates given.
Ship Delivery?
A question regarding this much asked feature was given a reply of “nothing to announce now.” However it might be noted that Sandro Sammarco commented during a live Q&A stream on the 19th May 2016,
“This is slated for Season 2.”
This might be Frontier being a little coy about an upcoming feature (which is my guess), but it might also suggest it has been moved in the schedule.
Horizons Update
Frontier have recently removed the rough timings on their store regarding the release of the 2.2 and 2.3 updates. Previously they read, ‘Summer’ and ‘Autumn’, but they now read as “still to come”. As of yet there has been no further comment about when these updates are expected.
The Engineers: Planned Update
Note: This update appeared on the 28th July as Patch 2.1.05. You can see the patch notes here
Frontier recently announced that there will be a major point update in late July/early August with the changes outlined below. It’s suspected this refers to an update before the arrival of 2.2.
“In order to continue to address the feedback raised regarding both the grind and RNG nature of The Engineers we’re going to making the following changes;
- We will be adjusting the way the surface scanner works to allow you to see what materials are available from any given planet. This should make locating materials far easier.
- In addition we are making a number of changes to the lowest level blueprints. This includes improving the positive effects of low level upgrade results as well as reducing the cost and simplifying the materials needed.
- We’re also increasing the number of units you get for each instance of a material you find. This means instead of getting one unit of a material, you will get multiple units of that material. This will allow you to increase the number of attempts at each Engineer.
- We’ll be increasing the number of materials spawned when surface mining. Again, to make the process easier and the materials easier to gather.
- The likelihood of finding rare materials in these instances will also be increased, meaning it will be easier to use higher level blueprints.
- And we will be reviewing the balance and locations of non-planet salvage and reviewing the possible USS locations for each material.
Not to mention the changes that we’ve made in the recent point update. To be able to select your weapon upgrade and give you control over what module you leave with, reducing the requirements to unlock certain Engineers and increasing the visibility of where materials can be sourced, should help to make the Engineers more accessible and more rewarding for players venturing down to the planet surface in search of a new upgrade.
As always the development team will continue to read and review your feedback to allow us to make the best possible experience for the community.”
You can see a list of the new blueprint requirements here
Below you can see a video of Frontier’s early concept work for how the planetary discovery scanner might work. It should be said that this was just proof of concept and the final version might look nothing like this, but it might give some clues as to what sort of implementation we could expect.
The Official Frontier forum has some wonderful players suggestions about how this could work, worth a look!
Elite: Odyssey 