Below are a list of changes to relevant pages of the blog as new information becomes available. You can access the pages by clicking on the MENU button at the top of the screen. The scope of this information is fairly large, so only features which are sufficiently important to warrant inclusion are mentioned.
Site Update!
26th September 2023
After a looong time with no updates all previous releases and patch notes have been added to the website. Some other bits and bats to follow.
Creating Elite: Dangerous – Videos
23rd May 2022
Video interview with Tom Kewell
The Future? “It’s on the list…”
22nd April 2022
Updated to reflect introduction of Fleet Carrier interiors.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
Updated to reflect Fleet Carrier update, the cancellation of the console development and an update of patch notes in ‘Post Release’ section.
Patch Notes & Timeline
Updates to show links for Update 11 and Update 11.01.
Patch Notes & Timeline
14th February 2022
The timeline page has been updated to include the hotfixes: 10.0.1, 10.0.2 and 10.0.3
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
13th December 2021
A new subpage added to the Patch notes section with a download of the ED Timeline.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
12th December 2021
Large update to the Odyssey: Full Breakdown page adding all the features from updates 1-9 to it. All present and correct.
The Future? “It’s on the list…”
Updated with to reflect changes to multi-crew and Scorpion SRV which appeared with the Odyssey updates. More details to be changed when I get round to them..
The Future? “It’s on the list…”
2nd September 2021
Updated with some changes to: Bookmarks, Engineers, Camera Suite to reflect a few of the updates that came with Odyssey. A thorough update to follow…
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
12th April 2021
Updated release and compatability details in the ‘Release Details’ section at the top of the page. Added release trailer to the ‘Overview’ section.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
12th April 2021
Added images of the Kinetic SMG and Pistol to the combat section.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
10th April 2021
Added GUI changes to quality of life section. Added a few photos from Official Forum showing a couple of the new fauna types. Removed images of ice planet concept art and in game changes from 2018. Will replace with more up to date version when good images are available.
The Future? “It’s on the List…”
10th April 2021
Updated all the page links so they work correctly as previously they were taking visitors to the old page which was removed due to WordPress shenannigans. If you’ve bookmarked this page for reference, please visit the new version via the menu or here.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
4th April 2021
Added details on new bookmark system to the Quality of Life updates section.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
31st March 2021
Added a few small details to the Quality of Life section, namely SRV changes, Ship explosions and Ship models.
Added image of Takada Laser SMG following its appearance on Twitter.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
30th March 2021
Added new Takada weapons to Space Legs > Combat section following release of images on Twitter.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
27th March 2021
- Updated with a photo of the Manticore Combat suit following its reveal on Twitter.
- Re-organisation of the missions section to make it read better. Removed some text, added some text.
- Corrected a bunch of tglaring but previously missed typos on the page.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
26th March 2021
On the 26th March at 5:35pm Frontier showed via their Elite: Dangerous Twitter feed, the Shield Grenade which is due to appear in the Odyssey update. You can read about this and the rest of the update on the Odyssey: Full Breakdown page
The Future? “It’s on the list…”
26th March 2021
Updated reference to various entries to this page to include information on features appearing in Odyssey. Unfortunately Frontier have been very tight lipped since Sandro Sammarco left, meaning any future changes are particularly hard to find information for.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
26th March 2021
Added the Alpha roadmap under the Introduction section with a link to the Alpha – How it works page.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
25th March 2021
Large number of updates following the Starport tour video. Updates generally to the Combat & Weapons section, and the Missions, Stations, Gameplay & Lore section.
Added a new QUALITY OF LIFE section for the no doubt numerous general game improvements which will come with Odyssey.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
24th March 2021
On the 24th March at 5:32pm Frontier showed via their Elite: Dangerous Twitter feed the EMP grenade which is due to appear in the Odyssey update. You can read about this and the rest of the update on the Odyssey: Full Breakdown page.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
23rd March 2021
On the 22nd March at 5pm Frontier showed via their Elite: Dangerous Twitter feed one of the new suits available to Odyssery players. You can read about this and the rest of the update on the Odyssey: Full Breakdown page.
Also added photo of Frag Grenade. as per today’s photo.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
19th March 2021
Updated Equipment & HUD under Space Legs section following a photo and information of the Arc Cutter tool shown by Frontier via the E:D Twitter feed.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
18th March 2021
Updated Equipment & HUD under Space Legs section following a photo and information of the Profie Analyser tool shown by Frontier via the E:D Twitter feed.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
17th March 2021
Updated Equipment & HUD under Space Legs section following a photo and information of the Energy Link tool shown by Frontier via the E:D Twitter feed.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
15th March 2021
Updated Elite: Dangerous: Patch Notes link to the release timeline to reflect the 3.7.10 update at the end of January.
Note: Also updated this update page and amended all dates on posts from January onwards as being in 2021, not 2020!
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
10th March 2021
Updated large sections of the page following the release of the mission playthrough video and announcement of the Alpha date (29th March). The most information was added to the mission secton of the page along with some additons to the FAQ (added to the bottom of this section)
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
18th February 2021
Updates to the page following the Q&As re: first footfall and the Planetary Tech interview featuring Dr Kay Ross.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
15th January 2021
On Friday the 15th January Frontier posted a series of answers to questions posed by the community regarding Settlements. Some of these have already been answered in the Odyssey: Full Breakdown page, but a few details have been added (mainly the types of state ground bases can exist in as per the BGS. You can see the full list of questions on the Frontier forum, here.
Odyssey – General Update
13th January 2021
Changes made following new that Odyssey has been delayed until at least the 31st May for PC and some point after that on console. You can read the details here.
Odyssey: Concept Art
11th January 2021
Numerous released images added to the previously fairly limited concept art page.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
10th January 2021
Added details of new planetary surface generation via an interview with Dr Kay Ross.
“In Odyssey we are changing the process in which we generate landable planet surfaces. Where before we had a generator for rocky surfaces and one for ice surfaces which both took Stellar Forge inputs, we now have terrains and terrain materials of various different types and scales which are derministically selected and blended together depending on the Stellar Forge driven properties of that planet.
“Landable planets are still classified between rocky, icy, rocky ice, high metal content and matal rich depending on what emerges form the Stellar Forge simulation, but the terrains are dependent on those simulation values more than these discrete titles (classifications). Terrain shapes, styles, and combinations are mixed toehter, meaning there is a lot of variation within these classes.”
And a brief comment from Gareth Hughes regarding the role of in-game mission givers,
“One key area where this can be most keenly felt is in the difference obtaining missions; the mission board offers a quick and efficient way to pick up regular missions but engaging with a physical faction representative offers more nuanced missions with greater personality and narrative depth and also the opportunity to barter for a better reward. ”
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
6th January 2021
Added some concept art to both the Full Breakdown page and the Concept Art page showing Vista Genomics store.
Also added three more questions to the bottom of the FAQ section
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
5th January 2021
Added a stack of information mainly around the Combat and Missions section, as well as some additions to Engineers.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
17th December 2020 (13:05 GMT)
Added a bunch of information following Frontier’s official forum Q&A. You can read the added details, here. Alternatively visit here for the full breakdown on Odyssey.
There’s likely to be a further update later today after they reveal some combat based information on their Christmas live stream.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
15th December 2020
Added a new HUD section to ‘Equipment, Weapons & HUD’ under Space Legs. Details added to show what each part does.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown & Odyssey: An Overview
11th December 2020
Updated with information and images following the release of the Gameplay Trailer and an additional four images. Also updated pre-order details. See here for a brief rundown.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
8th December 2020
Added a question about a Beta for Odyssey to the FAQ section.
Also dded ‘The Journey So Far’ trailer to the Odyssey overview page.
Odyssey – Full Breakdown
14th October 2020
Updated with the following:
- Combat section with combat CQC information.
- NPC Shop varieties
- Space Suit information
- Engineers
- Extra information on Apex travel
- More detail on planet/spaceports and outposts.
- Addition of new images
Odysssey – Full Breakdown
5th October 2020
Large update following Dev Diary #2, which now gets its own page.
Odysssey – Full Breakdown
12th September 2020
Additions made following an update by Frontier on their official forum.
“The thin atmospheres we’re unlocking in Elite Dangerous: Odyssey are inhospitable environments, incapable of supporting human or typical animal life. That being said the array of organics discoverable in-game extends beyond traditional plant life or ‘flora’. Some of the organics found are more fungal or chemosynthetic bacterial in nature, and others would sit well outside of any earth classification system – these could, in scientific terms, be considered fauna, but not in the traditional sense of the word and we want to be clear on what to expect in game based around the thin atmospheres that will be unlocked. In summary we use the term organics because this is a more representative and accurate term for what commanders may discover.”
“There will be a huge variety of organics available to discover in Odyssey with a large number of core species and further variants and subspecies planned for day one. The generation of these will take into account numerous factors including the compositional make-up of the planet and atmosphere, along with their geographical placement on that body.”
All suits come equipped with a flash light for exploration
Odysssey – Full Breakdown
9th September 2020
Additions made following the below update by Frontier
“Greetings Commanders!
“We hope you enjoyed our first dev diary release and stream. It was our pleasure to bring you the latest news on Odyssey and needless to say we can’t wait to share more info around further locations, missions, combat and more in further episodes over the coming months.
“We are aware that there are a lot of questions across the community and while we will be bringing a more detailed FAQ for these very soon we felt “it was right to update you on a couple of the most discussed topics in the Elite Community at this time, specifically around VR in Odyssey, and ship interiors.”
VR and Elite Dangerous Odyssey
“We understand that our VR players are keen to know more about how the transition and gameplay will work in Odyssey in VR. With that in mind, we would like to share our current plan for how that will work.
In Odyssey, players will be able to fly down to planets, fly through atmospheres and drive along planet surfaces in their SRVs – all while remaining in VR.“When disembarking your ship or SRV, players will be presented with a projected flat game screen in their VR headset in order to continue on foot. Players will of course be able to remove headsets if they so choose, but this will not be a requirement to continue your adventure.
“There will be no requirement to boot between Horizons and Odyssey in order to continue your journey.”We understand that VR is a big part of Elite Dangerous and is a feature that holds a dedicated and passionate community. However, we do strongly believe that VR should only be enabled for on foot gameplay when we have an experience that truly matches the same quality bar that we set for cockpits. That said, we do hope that this implementation will allow our VR players the best possible transition between their VR experience and exploration on foot.”
Ship Interiors
“Another topic we know players keen for more information on is around ship interiors, and we wanted to clarify our current position on this.
“While Odyssey will see players explore a wide range of on and off world locations including station interiors, ship interiors will not be included at launch.
“We understand that the bond between Commander and starship is incredibly strong and know this will disappointing news for some. However, we believe it is right to invest our development time in locations and features which offer the most meaningful experience and gameplay for all players. Rest assured that Odyssey will offer a great variety of long requested locations to explore, both on land and in space, which we’ll be sharing more details around very soon.
“As always, we value and appreciate your passion and feedback and cannot wait to share more with you.”
Odyssey: Full Breakdown
28th August 2020
Some additions to the page following an interview with WCCTech Magazine,
3. Space Legs
> Vehicles & Ships
Frontier have yet to explicitly comment on what new ground based vehicles or ships will be present in Odyssey, but during an interview Luke Betterton commented,
“There are plenty of ways to get around in Odyssey and we look forward to sharing more over the coming months.”
4. Missions, Gameplay & Lore
> Lore
“We are listening, there are a lot of things we are working on behind closed doors and we’re really excited to be able to share something about that in the future […] as and when we’re able to share more people will understand a) where the game is at and b) what we’ve been doing and working on, watch this apace and keep and eye and hopefully we’ll be able to share something to excite the community really soon”
5. Frequently Asked Questions
> Crossplay
“Currently, there are no plans for crossplay in Elite Dangerous: Odyssey.” – Luke Betterton – WCCTech Interview
27th August 2020
Odyssey: Full Breakdown
The section has beenchanged into an Overview page with general details and history of the update, the main Odyssey: Full Breakdown page, The Dev Diary #1 page and finally a Concept Art section.
18th August 2020
Odyssey Section – Update
The section has broken out into a General Overview page, a Dec Diary & Discovery Section page, a Concept Art Page and a FAQ.
18th June 2020
General Website Update
All major release pages now have a link to the patch notes at the top of the page next to the release date. Main body tex has been changed to make text easier on the eye.
Elite: Dangerous Artwork
Added two new artists and art: Ignatious Hango and Steffan Scheffers
Elite: Dangerous – Patch Notes
Updated bits and bobs including a broken link to the new Fleet Carriers section and added the new patch note 1 link.
“The Future? It’s on the list…”
Tidied up some text and added a link to Lagrange Cloud video in the Atmospheric Landings and Planets section.
Odyssey: 4.0 – An Overview
3rd June 2020
Updated this page to reflect the news that the new update coming in early 2021 will be called Odyssey and will feature ‘Space Legs’ and ‘Atmospheric planets’. you can read the full details, here.
“The Future? It’s on the list…”
Updated to reflect details of the above post for the Space Legs and Atmoshperic Planets sections.
Fleet Carriers Update: June 2020
27th May 2020
Updated pages ro reflect announcement of release date confirmed as the 9th June 2020.
4.0: [Title Unknown]
Updated with news previously posted on the blog about the delay until the first quarter of 2021 due to Covid-19 and a brief portion of text re: what Frontier have announced to the Stock Market re: its intentions for the next E:D release.
Elite: Dangerous – Patch Notes
29th April 2020
Updated charts in link in top paragraph to show release date graphs and days between each release
Fleet Carriers Update: 2020
15th April 2020
Updated with all details of Fleet Carrier release and upcoming changes following feedback from Beta 1.
Fleet Carriers Update: 2020
26th March 2020
Page title changed to reflect updated news along with added information to existing text following Frontier’s post about the Betas and possible release date along with the cost of purchase.
Post Beyond: An Overview
Added text to a synopsis of the Post Beyond releases to reflect the above information.
Fleet Carriers – Quarter 2: 2020
5th February 2020
A small update to reflect the news on the front page of this website that Frontier will be releasing more information “sometimes after the end of February”.
January Update: 2020
14th January 2020
Various text changes made to this following the release of the January Update.
Post Beyond: An Overview
Changes made to reflect the January 2020 update.
Elite Dangerous – Patch Notes
Added link to patch notes. A further link will be added for the upcoming Patch 1 changes.
January Update: 2020
25th November 2019
New section added to reflect the update that will run from Beta and be released in January 2020.
Post Beyond: An Update
Updated to show January update overview and The Golconda Interstellar Initiative.
Apologies for the lack of updates – real life issues have got in the way!
December Update: 2020
23rd October 2019
Following news of the delay to fleet carriers this menu has been renamed Fleet CarriersQuarter 2 – 2020.
Bugs & Issues Update
This is a new section to be updated when Frontier release details of the issues and bugs to be fixed.
“The Future? It’s on the list…”
7th October 2019
Added information and video about Space Dredgers into the ‘Mega-Ships’ section of the page. Here’s the video thanks to Mr Hammersticks.
“The Future? It’s on the list…”
13th September 2019
Updated with a small piece of text about what happens to the servers at the end of the game’s lifespan.
September Update: 2019
13th September 2019
Updated following Frontier’s preview live stream on the 12th September 2019.
December Update: 2019
31st August 2019
Added some Q&A’s from the official Frontier forum.
Post Beyond: An Overview
31st August 2019
Updated with previously missed details from the 28th August.
December Update: 2019
28th August 2019
Added details of content for Fleet Carriers following Frontier’s announcement at Gamescom
September Update: 2019
28th August 2019
Date added for release – 18th September.
Creating Elite: Dangerous – Videos
16th August 2019
Updated following Dav’s live stream explaining changes to the BGS following Beyond: Chapter 4.
“The Future? It’s on the list…”
1st August 2019
A couple of updates to the Spacelegs section and the Planetary Surface Upgrades adding quotes and a linked video.
During the Discovery Scanner #5 video on the making of the Krait Frontier employee Jordan Clarry spoke about how they have to consider the spaces inside the ship.
“This falls into the planning you have to do early on. We have to […] account for these voids in the ship where the landing gear to fit into. If people have to walk into their ship they can’t just walk into nothing, there has to be volumes there set in place and we block those out and make sure those things make sense logically.”
“What our artists have done here is basically provided us with a road map for where we want to get to with the look of our planets, and that’s really useful for us because it really focuses us on getting the right things into the game to enhance them and make them even better than they are now”
“We will also be improving what we call our scatter rock system […] we will be pushing it and getting a greater variety of size and shape and scale and different forms in there to really make the environments a lot more compelling to navigate and a lot prettier as well.”
“We will also be looking at localised ambient effects for fog and vapour and we really think that’s going top bring and increased depth to the visuals that you’ll be getting when you’re exploring.”
“The Future? It’s on the list…”
30th July 2019
This page has been re-designed with a vast array of new information, images, videos and links. Hopefully it is more representative of what has been spoken about and is possibly planned for the game.
Post Beyond: An Overview
8th July 2019
Pages added to this section for both the September and December updates following Frontier releasing news at Lavecon 2019. Both are available from the main menu.
Post Beyond: An Overview
30th June 2019
Added previews and details of Interstellar Initiatives to the overview page as I was tardy adding the original information
Horizons : An Overview
30th June 2019
Added all of the original release trailers to the overview section of the Horizons page. Removed superfluous text.
Creating Elite: Dangerous – Videos
28th June 2019
Updated to link the Discovery Scanner 5 live stream showing the making of the Krait Mk II.
Post Beyond: An Overview
27th June 2019
Added a block of text to show Frontier’s plans for the series of updates before the new 2020 update rather than just adding a link.
“In addition to the weekly and monthly activity happening in Elite, we will also be releasing a series of updates roughly every 3-4 months. The first two of these updates will primarily focus on new player and welcoming experiences, and we will also be introducing a number of quality of life improvements for the entire player base, of which we will have more news on in the coming weeks. This will help ensure that new players are able to better progress through the game, and therefore help bring more players through to our very awesome, very welcoming community. We will also have additional game tweaks, benefits and bug fixes for all players. In the subsequent updates we will be focusing on bringing in new features, perks and content, including a range of exciting new additions to the game that will build up to this new era.”
“It is important to note that these updates will not take the same level of content or size that we have seen from our previous updates in Beyond or Horizons, as the majority of the development team will be focusing on the new era.”
Elite Dangerous has an incredibly passionate, enthusiastic and talented community, and we’re committed to supporting Elite now and for the future. We would like to take this opportunity to say, once again, that none of this would be possible without the continued support and dedication from our community – so, thank you. Keep sharing your feedback with us, and if you have any questions feel free to share them with us by posting in this thread. We’ll try and answer as many of them as we can.
Elite: Dangerous – Patch Notes
14th May 2019
Added a link to the patch notes page following the second update for the April release.
Elite: Dangerous – Patch Notes
3rd May 2019
Added a link to the patch notes page following the first update for the April release.
April Update: 2019
25th April 2019
Added the video link to the Interstellar Initiatives section as I’d missed it out and moved details of bug reports etc. to the bottom of the page as it was in the wrong section.
April Update: 2019
19th April 2019
Updated with two new videos and a variety of text changes.
Post Beyond: April Update
10th April 2019
Added a new section to the ‘Post Beyond’ section on the menu to reflect the first update to take place.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
7th March 2019
Changed the sections on Powerplay and Carriers to reflect news updated by Frontier in this post.
Premium Paid Content & Lifetime Pass
Changed to reflect the original update made regarding the original Important Community Update page here.
4.0: [Title Unknown]
1st March 2019
Updated to reflect the news that Frontier announced the next major release in the E:D series would not be available until ‘the later half of 2020’. Also see the update directly below this for additional pages added.
Post Beyond: Updates
Added a new page to reflect the fact updates would be coming this year and likely next year whilst waiting for the release of the next major landmark in Elite: Dangerous.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
20th February 2019
Added a couple of images of the interior of ships to the ‘Space Legs/Elite Feet’ section.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
19th February 2019
A whole host of changes and updates to sections referring Beyond content, which is now released. Information now reflects that status and doesn’t sound out of date.
Beyond: 3.0 – An Overview
19th February 2019
A few minor text changes to the header text which were left uncorrected following the release of 3.3.
Elite: Dangerous – Patch Notes
18th February 2019
Updated following the release of 3.3.03 patch.
4.0: [Title Unknown]
5th February 2019
A small update following some comments made by Frontier employees re: content in 2019.
During recent Twitch Live-streams Will Flanagan commented that there are plans in place for 2019 but that they aren’t yet ready to reveal them. You can watch a short clip of some of those comments, here.
Elite: Dangerous – Patch Notes
16th January 2019
Updated following the release of 3.3.02 patch notes which is due for release on the 17th January 2019 at 09:45am (UTC).
Elite: Dangerous – Patch Notes
3rd January 2019
Updated the Release Timeline and Days Between Release Timeline to reflect the Beyond: Chapter 3 and the 3.3.01 patch.
Elite: Dangerous – Patch Notes
11th December 2018
Patch notes added following their release on the Frontier website.
Premium Paid Content & Lifetime Pass
10th December 2018
Updated the page to reflect Frontier’s news about free content for LEP holders.
“Greetings Commanders,
“We wanted to give you an update on the Lifetime Expansion Pass (LEP) content previously mentioned in Zac’s post here.
“We’re pleased to announce that the wait is over! If you’re a Lifetime Expansion Pass owner, read below for the details on what we’ll be sending your way – and when you can expect it.
“What Lifetime Expansion Pass holders will receive:
“Alongside the Beyond – Chapter Four launch tomorrow, we will be adding a new gift bundle of store items directly onto the accounts of all Lifetime Expansion Pass owners. This bundle will include two festive bobbleheads and six all-new paint jobs.
“We’ll be emailing the details of the bundle to all LEP owners as we upload them, so keep an eye on your inboxes for all the details. Each item we’re sending your way is completely new and has never before been on sale, so we know that each LEP owner will get the 100% of the value from the bundle.
“We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all of our Lifetime Expansion Pass holders, for their continued support, dedication and passion for Elite Dangerous!
“We will also be making the majority of the new cosmetic items from this bundle available in the store at the same time tomorrow, so non-LEP owners will be able to purchase these items from the store should they wish. Some select items from this bundle will be made available over the festive period instead.
“If there are any questions, please post them below and we’ll endeavour to answer them!”
Creating Elite: Dangerous – Videos
10th December 2018
Updated the page with the video from the live stream explaining the creation of the asteroid cracking visuals with Chris Gregory.
Beyond: Chapter 4
3rd December 2018
Updated this and other pages to reflect the news that Chapter 4 would be released on the 11th December.
Creating Elite: Dangerous – Videos
30th November 2018
Updated the page with the video from yesterday evening’s live-stream with Ross Stack explaining the creation of the asteroid cracking audio.
Premium Paid Content & Lifetime Pass
28th November 2018
On the 27th November 2018 in response to a thread on the official forum Ed Lewis replied on the subject of Lifetime Expansion Pass holders,
“Hi everyone,
“Just wanted to jump in here and address a few points. First of all, thanks for you remaining considered and reasonable with your feedback, we’re able to pass this information and sentiment on very quickly.
“The Lifetime Expansion Pass holders are still set to receive something this year. Currently we don’t have any more to say on that topic right now, but keep an eye on the usual channels as we’ll have more for you very soon.
“With regards to what’s coming next, we aren’t ready to talk about it in any detail, and we’re still hard at work on Beyond – Chapter Four, but as previously mentioned here by Zac, “A while ago, our development went from pre-production into full production on our next major milestone of Elite development.” We’ll let you know when we’re ready to start talking about further details, and to echo what’s said above, you’ll be able to find more information on our social channels and here on this forum, but please continue to be patient while we work hard on releasing Chapter Four.
“Your continued support is really important to us, and we’re extremely grateful for the time you’ve been on this journey with us (can you believe it’s been more than four years!) It’s really cool to see the same names time and time again in the forums, on the livestreams and engaging with us on social media… it makes doing our jobs an absolute pleasure!
“Cheers!”
Ed
Beyond: Chapter 4
12th November 2018
Addition to the lighting section following a comment from Lloyd Morgan-Moore.
> Planetary Changes & Lighting
PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (including Pro and One X) consoles will receive all of the graphical updates (that is the lighting adjustments, colour grading and improved fog effects) with the exception of the shadows in fog volumes. These shadows are an Ultra-only setting on PC due to the impact they can have on performance; we’ve worked on carefully balancing the console settings to give players as much as possible in terms of visuals while maintaining performance.
For PS4 Pro and Xbox One X consoles running in Quality Mode, the fog is more detailed than in Performance Mode or on the standard consoles, and as usual the overall settings are higher.
Beyond: Chapter 4
9th November 2018
Added text descriptions to the two new ships.
Krait Phantom
With a spacious cargo hold and a relatively generous quantity of hard points, the Krait Phantom is a versatile ship suited to a range of roles. It has enough firepower to hold its own against larger targets, and enough straight-line speed to outpace smaller targets. The ship also offers eight internal compartments, allowing the pilot to tailor the ship to their requirements. And while it lacks the firepower and fighter bay of its sister ship, the Krait Mk II, it is both faster and lighter.
Mamba
Based on an unreleased racing prototype, the Mamba is one of the fastest ships in production. It can also deliver a lot of punishment, boasting one huge and two large hardpoints. This emphasis on firepower and speed means the ship can hit hard and fast, vanishing before the target has a chance to react. Comparisons to the Fer-de-Lance, also produced by Zorgon Peterson, will be inevitable, but the Mamba is in fact faster in a straight line, while being slightly less manoeuvrable.
Beyond: Chapter 4
7th November 2018
Added a brief update re: Discovery scanner change.
- The Discovery Scanner is now a built in module fitted to all ships. This frees up a slot for players to use and sees all their credits refunded for any previous purchases.
Elite: Dangerous – Patch Notes
7th November 2018
Added temporary links to the Chapter 4 Beta patch notes.
Beyond: Chapter 4
3rd November 2018
Added a brief comment to the QoL section about bookmarks now being addable via the left hand navigation panel.
Beyond: Chapter 4
1st November 2018
Added text and in-game images from the live stream to the mining section. Also removed some superfluous text given by Frontier when they were originally previewing the idea. This is ongoing so the section will likely change over the next 24 hours.
Beyond: Chapter 4
1st November 2018
Added a video showcasing volumetric fog in planetary rings systems and a photo of a new ship (spoiler). Added some quality of life additions to the game. Tidied text up. More photos to be added.
Beyond: Chapter 4
29th October 2018
Added a navigation menu to the major sections as the amount of features and information in Chapter 4 was making the page a bit of a chore to read. Added a new section for QoL features as invariably there are more things in the game than Frontier mention in the patch notes and live streams.
Beyond: Chapter 4
25th October 2018
Large changes to the Scenarios and Background Simulation section of the Chapter 4 page following the leave stream. This page will be amended as images and video clips are added.
Beyond: Chapter 4
22nd October 2018
Removed previous concept-art images of probes and replaced with an in-game version.
The Future? It’s on the list….
21st October 2018
Some changes to the Orrery Map section following confirmation of its release in Chapter 4.
Orrery System Maps
This much requested favourite among the player base was confirmed to appear in Chapter 4 of Beyond, albeit initially as a schematic version.Frontier have said that at the time of release a textured view of the Orrery as per the system map is,
“not currently planned at this time.”
Beyond: Chapter 4
21st October 2018
More re-arranging and condensing of text along with bullet points to make it more accessible. Re-added some lighting image changes after they were accidentally removed in a previous post.
Beyond: Chapter 4
19th October 2018 @ 4:20pm
Added a few new pieces of information and corrected the time on the linked live stream video to correctly show the Orrery section
A schematic version of the much requested Orrery map will be available in Chapter 4. You can see the live stream clip of it in action below. It can be displayed via the traditional system map menu and gives a much better sense of how the systems are made up, how they rotate as well as giving a better sense of scale from within the map. It also enables players to,
“To find interesting orbits or clusters of planets without having to actually visit them [first].”
Beyond: Chapter 4
19th October 2018 @ 10:00am
Some adding of information, editing, tidying and other jiggery-pokery along with the addition of a ‘space-cloud’ image.
Beyond: Chapter 4
18th October 2018 @ 10pm
Large update following the first live stream showing off exploration.
Beyond: Chapter 4
18th October 2018
Changes to the dates/content of the streams following a announcement by Frontier. Changed again to show tonight’s stream will also feature the cockpit UI changes.
The Chapter 4 – Live stream dates:
- Exploration, Codex, Cockpit UI Changes & Visual Improvements– 18 October (19:00 BST)
- BGS and Scenario Interactions– 25 October (19:00 BST)
- Mining & Squadrons– 01 November (19:00 GMT)
- The Ships – 8 November (19:00 GMT)
Added short text and link to PCNGames article about a scenario interaction coming to Chapter 4.
> Scenario Interactions
On the 18th October PCGamesN magazine ran a piece on a pirate ship scenario that is due to appear in the Chapter 4 update. You can read about it here.
Beyond: Chapter 4
15th October 2018
A number of changes following the announcement of the Beta for Chapter 4 along with some short snippets of information on other bits of content not previously mentioned. You can see the short promo trailer in the link above or below.
Beyond: Chapter 4
3rd October 2018
Updates to Codex section following quotes previously missed.
Sandro Sammacro commented,
“We will add a Codex in the fourth chapter of Beyond that will keep track of pilots’ exploration achievements and offer more context and data on discoveries. It’s like an in-game encyclopedia and filling it will be a lot of fun. The codex will also hint at additional sites to explore based on previously visited locations and will offer a personal narrative to complement each commander’s play style.”
Laurence Oldham (Game Director) said,
“The codex will log your discoveries and the things that you’ve found, but will also act as a kind of encyclopedia so giving more depth and context to the things that you’ve found and also possibly hinting at other things that you might be able to find out there.”
Beyond: Chapter 4
12th September 2018
A considerable update with content far too large to put in here following Frontier’s reveal detailing exploration additions. Read it here.
Beyond: Chapter 4
8th September 2018
Updated with the news that Frontier would be using a dedicated mission server in Chapter 4.
Beyond: Chapter 4
31st August 2018
Following Frontier’s (long) announcement regarding changes to Chapter 4 plus other information you can read here, some relevant changes (in red) have been made to the page. I will leave these in the page for some time (I don’t want to be accused of ‘vanishing’ information’!) before eventually removing the content and placing it in a more suitable place.
Premium Paid Content
31st August 2018
Title of page changed and added specific information following the Frontier announcement in the paragraph above.
4.0: [Title Unknown]
31st August 2018
Added a new page following the confirmation that Frontier were working on major landmark content beyond the release of Chapter 4 and any Premium Content that could appear.
Beyond: Chapter 3
30th August 2018
Added a small but noteworthy section about a quality of life improvement which was mentioned in the patch notes but not by FDev when announcing the contents and changes of Chapter 3.
> Quality of Life Improvements
>Cargo Depot
It’s now possible for players to accept missions that contain amounts of cargo that they are unable to fit in to their current ship. This enables players to do multi-hop trips in a small ship or to change to a larger ship before loading the cargo on board.
The Future? It’s on the list….
28th August 2018
Changes following live stream to Engineers section to reflect the new engineers in the game following the release of Chapter 3. Also added a comment re: changing the populations of systems.
Population Change Missions – Players have requested to be able to significantly change the populations for systems by altering the background simulation. On the 28th August 2018 Dav Stott replied to a question on this by commenting,
“Nothing to announce at the moment but it was something that comes up internally on the forums and we can all agree it’s a cool idea. When it does come to moving population around the game it something would look to integrate really tightly into the game mechanics.”
4.0 : Premium Paid Content
28th August 2018
Created a new page for this section in advance of Frontier (at some point unknown) talking about what this might be. Added a new quote from Ed Lewis made during the Chapter 3 live stream.
Elite: Dangerous – Patch Notes
28th August 2018
Added the patch notes for Beyond: Chapter 3.
Re-named the section previously called ‘Elite: Dangerous – Current Features’ to ‘Elite: Dangerous – Patch Notes’.
Beyond: Chapter 3
28th August 2018
Multiple updates following the release of Chapter 3. This includes confirmation of the new Holo-screens and to follow shortly the official Chapter 3 trailer.
Beyond: Chapter 3 & Beyond: 3.0 – An Overview
23rd August 2018 @ 6:28pm
Updated both sections to reflect changes following Guardian Fighters trailer, images and various other bits of text following official information from Frontier. You can read it all here.
Beyond: Chapter 3
22nd August 2018
Update following the Elite Meet at Gamescom. See here for full details. This is likely to be updated when Frontier make the official presentation on the 23rd August.
Elite: Dangerous – Artwork
3rd August 2018
Added two more artists to the page – Janne Paulson and Erlend Hoem Thordarson
The Future? It’s on the list….
1st August 2018
Small update following David Braben interview with PC Gamer on the 26th August.
BEYOND & BEYOND
“The plan was – beyond the [current] season for Elite, which is mostly announced – there are a lot of things that we will be announcing that are really exciting, some of which will be free, some of which will be paid. So it’s that quite healthy mix that is very good for the studio and is really good for the game”.
The Future? It’s on the list….
13th July 2018
Added a quote to the introduction section from David Braben about the ’10 year plan’ for Elite Dangerous.
“Looking back at those (developer videos), you can see what we’ve done, were executing on the plan. There’s still a lot of things that are to come and those are very exciting. We do have a long plan. It would take us a long time to deliver all the things that we want to do. The great thing is the more things get added to the end of it. So it may well be never ending. I’ve said sort of 8 years, 10 years, but actually it could end up and I’m hoping it’ll be a lot longer than that. The key point is we’ll keep doing exciting things and we’ll work out how best to do that.”
The Future? It’s on the list….
11th July 2018
Updated details in the Ships, Crew, Vehicles and Stations section on NPC Crew and Persistent NPC’s with information from the design discussion forum to give a little background as what Frontier originally had in mind.
NPC Crew
The ability to hire NPC Crew is a much requested feature of the game that was first mentioned in the early design discussions,“Wingmen in Elite will provide players with the ability to, for a price, protect themselves with AI companions. For a limited period, these companions will escort the player and aid them by attacking aggressors. Players will need to be careful who they hire though, some will follow the letter of the law, others may decide that you are a juicy target, betraying you when you least expect it.”
Persistent NPC’s
The idea of having repeated interactions with NPC’s was originally mentioned in the early design discussions and has been requested many times by players. In Elite there are three sorts of NPC’s (as per the early design discussions) of which TIer 1 and Tier 3 are the most feature complete,
Tier 1 – These are major characters within the game world, for example Planetary Presidents, Major Corporation CEO’s and top ranking crime bosses. Typically the player will interact with tier 2 characters associated with the tier 1 character rather than directly with the tier 1 character. Examples are:
- Players do not interact with these characters directly.
- The character is common to all online players.
- The character is created via an in-game invent – typically manually.
- The character can only be killed by an in-game event.
- A tier 2 character can be promoted to tier 1, but only by an event.
Tier 2 – These characters that persist for players, but can be interacted with directly. There is a per player list of tier 2 characters and they are identified by the following characteristics:
- Faction leader underlings that the player deals directly with
- Mission targets
- Mission providers
- Pilots of NPC vessels that the player has previously interacted with
- Player contacts
Tier 3 – These characters are transient characters that are created when traffic is generated, these are typically pilots for NPC ships. Tier 3 characters are randomly generated from a global pool as needed. Examples are:
- Pilots for generated traffic
- Passengers
Elite: Dangerous – Artwork
10th July 2018
Updated this section with images from Jordan Clarry who was responsible amongst other things for the interior of the new Krait Mk II and Gerald Fitzgerald who designed some excellent base concepts and vehicles.
The Future? It’s on the list….
9th July 2018
Short paragraph of text to the Introduction section to give some context to future content.
“We plan to continue to significantly enhance the game via further expansions after the launch date, using the same incremental development philosophy that we’ve used so far.
“Major new features will include planetary landings and even walking around inside ships, stations, and planet surfaces with time.
“For those who have a Lifetime Expansion Pass (included in Premium Beta and Alpha, and also still available here until 29th July 2014) all such significant expansion will be included. Those without the Lifetime Expansion Pass will be charged for each expansion as they are released.”
The Future? It’s on the list….
6th July 2018
Added a small clip to the Space Legs section.
Very early on in the design process Frontier showed a short render of a pilot moving around within a cockpit. This can be seen below.
Added a table of contents near the top of the page now has links to jump to the appropriate section of text in the page to hopefully save vast amounts of scrolling/searching for information.
Elite: Dangerous – Current Features
5th July 2018
Added link to official patch notes following release of 3.1.1 update.
The Future? It’s on the list….
5th July 2018
Some changes made to the structure of content to make more logical sense with ‘Planets & Exploration’ being moved inside the ‘Core Gameplay’ section. I’ve also added a table of Contents near the top of the page which will shortly have links to jump to the appropriate section of text in the page. This should be working by the end of the week.
The Future? It’s on the list….
3rd July 2018
Small update to the ship launched fighters part of the text following a comment from Elite Designer Barry Clark.
“Finally, not promising anything, but a fighter with mining hard-points is something that’s on my list, as much for multi-crew as for flying around inside asteroid debris.”
Elite: Dangerous – Current Features
30th June 2018
Added a table of contents with hyperlinks to enable people to jump to specific patch notes without scrolling.
The Future? It’s on the list….
29th June 2018
Added details to the Ships section about the Panther Clipper
-
Panther Clipper LX – The much commented on Panther Clipper was first seen way back in Newsletter #7 in the form of of a grey-box animation of it on a landing pad as well as some early concept at in Newsletter #13. These can be seen below courtesy of Cmdr. Arithon. So far there has been no comment on when this ‘heavy cargo freighter’ might appear.
Beyond: Chapter Two
28th June 2018
A host of text changes and additions reflecting the release of Chapter 2 today. Also added a few new photos of ships and some stats of the Challenger and Krait courtesy of the Elite: Dangerous Wiki.
Beyond: Chapter Two
26th June 2018
Updated with a few text changes and images following the Beyond: Chapter 2 Live-stream held by Frontier on Tuesday 26th July.
The Future? It’s on the list….
26th June 2018
A few small text changes to reflect details about the appearance of the Krait, Challenger and Chieftain in the section on ships.
Beyond: Chapters Two
24th June 2018
Updated after the release trailer for Chapter 2 was shown via PCNGamesN. Also added some texts from the link. The Beyond – 3.0 : Overview page has also been changed to reflect the new video.
“You might think of the Krait Mk II as analogous to modern updates of the real-world Mini Cooper or Volkswagen Beetle,” narrative lead Ian Dingwall tells us. “It’s a re-imagining of a classic that connects conceptually and aesthetically with the ship from 1984s Elite, while offering enough innovation and quality to compete with contemporary rivals in Elite Dangerous. While the Mk II embodies the essence of the original, it’s very much its own ship.”
Barry Clark, Elite’s senior designer commented that the ship will go tow-to-tow with the Python which,
“Currently occupies a unique place among our ship roster and is very popular among players […] the idea of a low-profile ship for Commanders flying dubious cargo was really cool to us, too.
“The Krait is a great all-round ship with a strong hull, powerful engines – which look super-cool – and a great load-out. It’s also less ‘conspicuous’, meaning it’s less likely to get scanned by the police compared to other ships of that size and class. It has significant straight line speed and power, as well as enough firepower to match the Python thanks to three large and two medium hard points. It has a really nice punch against a variety of ship types and sizes.”
The Future? It’s on the list….
21st June 2018
Updates following comments by Sandro Sammarco on the 21st June live stream whilst answering some questions.
Signal Sources
At LaveCon 2018 Frontier mentioned that they had plans to improve how signal sources feature in the game. Then on the 21st June 2018 Sandro Sammarco said that they were“Looking at way to make signal sources more deterministic and relocatable using gameplay for exploration.”
This he hoped could/should remove some of the random nature of them.
Also a rather tardy update regarding Powerplay proposals suggested by Sandro Sammarco
Powerplay – Open Only & Incentives?
Sandro Sammarco asked the question about whether Powerplay should be an ‘open only’ mode and mentioned the possibility of incentives for those doing so. The discussion can be seen here and here.Any changes to this would not be seen in the short or medium term.
Beyond: Chapters Two & Three
21st June 2018
Added a large section of text to the mining section of the page taken from Frontier’s Mining Focused Feedback Forum. Also images of surface deposits to be found on asteroids.
Beyond: Chapters Two & Three
21st June 2018
Added a small piece of information about the Alliance Challenger and a couple of photos following their publication on the Elite: Dangerous Twitter feed.
>Ships
The Alliance Challenger
The Challenger will be available to all players as it has no rank lock.
Elite: Dangerous – Artwork
19th June 2018
New artwork added by Nick Tagney, Aaron Khachik and Ed Hanley.
Elite: Dangerous – Current Features
12th June 2018
Included a link to a chart showing all the major releases and patch updates since 1.0.
If you wish to view a chart showing the releases of Elite: Dangerous, you can view it here.
The Future? It’s on the list….
11th June 2018
Along with changes made to this page regarding all forthcoming updates to Q4 in the Beyond series, some other details were added that were mentioned during the Q&A session.
> PLANETS & EXPLORATION
At LaveCon 2018 Frontier showed a brief glimpse of a small part of the upgrades they are making to Ice worlds in the form of a short video clip seen below courtesy of Obsidian Ant’s YouTube channel:
Multiple source lighting
This “couldn’t be ruled out” as a possible feature, but if it did appear it would be a graphical setting for high end computers. At Lavencon 2018 the reply was given that it’s still not in the official schedule but it has been looked at.
Signal Sources
At LaveCon 2018 Frontier mentioned that they had plans to improve how signal sources feature in the game.
Stellar Objects
Sandro Sammarco mentioned at LaveCon 2018 that Comets would not be appearing in the Q4 Beyond Update. Previously Sandro Sammarco had said that comets and accretion disks could make an appearance at some point in the Horizons season of updates. The status of Accretion Disks for that update is not yet known.
Beyond: Chapter 4
9th & 10th June 2018
A large number of changes too numerous to mention following Frontier’s trip to Lavecon 2018. You can see them here.
Updates to Chapter 2 have been done and can be seen here.
The Future? It’s on the list….
4th June 2018
Comments added about possible lighting changes to dark side of planets.
They have also commented that they will look at the lighting on the ‘dark side’ of planets which at the moment is not totally dark saying,
“We understand the call for darker ‘dark sides’ of planets, and we’re looking to address this as part of a larger suite of lighting changes coming later in the Beyond season.”
Beyond: Chapters Two & Three
31st May 2018
A number of content updates following the news that Chapter 2 will be released on the 28th June 2018.
Beyond: Chapter 4
30th May 2018
Small updates given the delay to the focused feedback on mining.
Estimated start dates for discussion:
Squadrons Discussion
Focused Feedback Live Stream #1
8th MayMining Discussion
Delayed: New Date TBCExploration/Codex
18th June
Beyond: Chapters Two & Three
17th May 2018
Added a quote from Ed Lewis to the first part of the page regarding release information.
Release Date
“The Q2 update [and the Q3 update], those are the 2 smaller updates, and they’re likely to not have a beta period.”
The Future? It’s on the list….
15th May 2018
Additional text added to the Powerplay section following the Focused Feedback post made by Sandro Sammarco.
The Future? It’s on the list….
14th May 2018
A few minor text changes and links added. Nothing of interest in terms of new information.
Beyond: Chapter 4
11th May 2018
Updated the Squadrons section following Frontier’s live stream on the subject. A brief summary can be read here
Beyond: Chapter 4
10th May 2018
Updated the Squadrons section with text released by Frontier from their first initial disclosure of information about Squadrons.
Beyond: Chapter 4
2nd May 2018
Small update to Beyond: Chapter 4 following the news that Frontier would be opening up the Focused Feedback Forums to discuss certain aspects of the game.
Estimated start dates for discussion:
Squadrons Discussion
8th MayMining Discussion
28th MayExploration/Codex
18th June
The Future? It’s on the list….
24th April 2018
Small quote about spacelegs courtesy of Elite Dangerous Wiki
> ‘SPACE LEGS’ / ‘ELITE FEET’
On April 11 2017 during the The Commanders Release Live-stream, Braben confirmed that space legs is coming and is planned, but it’s not imminent. A person in the chat asked “Will we get space legs at some point? If yes don’t say when, but answer with long, medium or short.” Braben said: “It’s coming, but obviously it’s not imminent, but it is coming and it is planned.”
Creating Elite: Dangerous – Videos
4th April 2018
Added a new section to the main menu featuring videos explaining how some parts of the games were made, from Thargoids through to server architecture and the creation of planets. You can find the link in the above menu or here.
The Future? It’s on the list….
13th March 2018
Small update re: damage models.
> GRAPHICS & ASSETS
Ship Damage Models
Frontier’s original pitch included the design of various damage models for the ships. At present the only ships with an in-game damage model is the Anaconda. This question has not been raised with Frontier for a long while, so when/if the current implementation of this may arrive is not known.
Beyond: Chapter 1
6th March 2018
Small update to the page as reflected by the 3.0.2 update
Others
Following the 3.0.2 update it is now possible to rescue political prisoners at the Search and Rescue contact instead of selling them on the open market.
Elite: Dangerous – Current Features
6th March 2018
Link added to the patch notes for the 3.0.2 following the latest update.
The Future? It’s on the list….
28th February 2018
Comments added regarding NPC crew following Sandro Sammarco comments on official forum.
NPC Crew
There have been many requests for hired NPC crew not to die when your ship is destroyed (as is currently the case). Sandro Sammarco commented on the 28th February 2018,
“We have some ideas for preventing fighter crew death whilst retaining some form of jeopardy, but we haven’t got round to implementing them.
“Clearly we don’t want a situation where crew can always be saved, this would mean that everyone would only ever hire one or two fighter crew. However, we accept that the current situation is too harsh in terms of investment versus risk. Look for more information in a future update.”
Beyond: 3.0 – Chapter 1
27th February 2018
A variety of changes to various pages following the release of the first Chapter in the Beyond series of updates.
Beyond: 3.0 – Chapter 1
20th February 2018
Updates to various pages including the above following Frontier’s announcement of the release date for the first part of the Beyond series.
The Future? It’s on the list….
14th February 2017
Updated to mention Tionsila Graveyard.
> Graphics & Assets
Tionisla Graveyard
This was originally mentioned way back in Robert Holdstock’s novel that came with the original 1984 release and was said by Frontier at Lavecon back in 2016 to be coming some time after the 2.2 release. Since then nothing has been mentioned. It is described in the original novel as below,“The best way to see the wreckplace at Tionisla is to approach it from the Sun (a reasonably safe thing to do since Tionisla, being a Democracy has few pirates in its system). Tionisla itself is a bright yellow world, and the cemetery is always between the planet and its star. As you fly close, the whole strange graveyard seems to be expanding from the circle of the world behind.
“The first thing you see is a shimmering, silver disc, a double spiral of tiny bright points. It slowly turns: it’s a galaxy in miniature, with the same intense blur of light at its centre, because here is where the biggest tombs are to be found.
“Come closer and soon you can see that the stars in this galaxy are markers, great lumps of metal, heavily inscribed with the words and symbols of a thousand religions. The cemetery is a bizarre and moving sight. The markers are rarely less than a thousand feet across. There are chrome-alloy crosses, titanium Stars of David, duralium henges, and all the strange symbolic shapes of the worlds, and the minds and the faiths that have come to die in this Star traveller’s special place.
“Tethered below this vast, rotating mausoleum is the dodecahedral shape of a ‘Dodo’ class space station, the home of the Cemetery Authorities. Here you go through security checks and get your visitor’s visa. And as you stand in the queue, staring up through the translucent ceiling of the Customs Hall, you can see the battered, broken ships of many of the dead, still attached to the silent tomb that contains the body.”
The Future? It’s on the list….
9th February 2017
Below are a selected list of questions answered by Sandro Sammarco during the 8th February Q&A. “The Future? It’s on the list…” has been re-worked to include this new information.
Q. Extra module storage?
A. This has now been doubled to 120.Q. Will SLF’s have outfitting capabilities?
A. Nothing to announce, something they may do at some point but will be done when it fits in the schedule.Q. Limpet Bay?
A. Frontier are looking at a Limpet controller rack that will store a number of controllers in them.Q. Tracker limpet?
A. In the big list and very much wanted.Q. Any chance of being able to change the colours of the HUD display?
A. Not at the moment as it’s a significant amount of work.Q. Engineer tech brokers weapons?
A. Very likely to happen in Beyond at some point.Q. Will the Discovery Scanner and surface scanner see updates?
A. Yes, later in 3.0 as part of the exploration update Frontier will look at all of these.Q. Will ATR Ships become persistent? (ie. they will follow players out of a system)
A. Sandro said this would be looked at, but not until they have seen how ATR operates in the initial release.Q. Are Frontier looking at using mega-ship interactions in other areas such as capital ships, combat zone and planetary outposts etc.?
A. Yes. Looking at a few areas but no further comment at the moment.Q. Can Combat zones and RES sites be improved?
A. Yes, these sites will be looked at but these are long term plans.Q. Will bookmarks be colour coded and see other updates?
A. Yes, these and possible other changes could well come when they introduce the codex later in Beyond.Q. Changes to Powerplay?
A. They would like to integrate missions into powerplay and have some ideas, but no ETA, guarantees.Q. Any plans to stop players from permanently boosting their ship engines? (specifically as it’s causing issues during battle)
A. Yes, this will be looked at as it should not be at a loss of tactics during battle.Q. Will there be further iterations of wing missions?
A. Yes, there will be more wing missions coming.Q. Changes to smuggling?
A. Yes, but nothing to comment on at the moment.Q. Will it be possible to re-name engineered modules?
A. It’s on the list.Q. NPC Crew & Wings?
A. It’s something we want to do, but we need a bunch of other stuff such as communicating with NPC’s and more rules to govern them, so not at the moment.Q. Any plans for changes to the Asp Scout?
A. There are some “come cool plans for the Asp Scout, that I’m not allowed to talk about”.Q. Will colour changes to planets reflect the content of the planets?
A. No, but the exploration mechanics in the 3.4 update will assist with figuring this out.
Beyond: 3.0 – Chapter 4
Small change regarding Squadrons and when some details might emerge about what their content could be.
> Squadrons
It has been said by Frontier that they will discuss their ideas and request feedback for Squadrons at the end of Q1 and the beginning of Q2. This could of course change.
Beyond: 3.0 – Chapter 1
26th January 2018
Added a few photos to show the upgraded planetary surfaces
Elite: Dangerous – Current Features
25th January 2018
Fundamental features and changes added to this section of the blog following the release of the patch notes for 3.0: Beyond. Also some heavy formatting changes to provide consistency and readability across the page.
Elite: Dangerous – Current Features
24th January 2018
Set up the header ready for the Beta patch notes for 3.0: Beyond – Chapter 1. Removed a large number of ‘fixes and tweaks’ contained within 2.4 The Return patch notes as they were inconsistent with the rest of rest of the blog in only mentioning the major changes.
The Future? It’s on the list….
A wide range of changes to this page have been made following the confirmation of specific content for Beyond: Chapter 1. This was mainly the removal of chunks of text that were referenced to and duplicated in the Beyond: Chapter 1 section. Links to the text have been made where applicable.
Beyond: 3.0 – Chapter 1
23rd January 2018
Updates following the final of the three streams which focused on Engineering, Galnet Audio and a couple of other bits and pieces. Updates are outlined below. Visit the main page, here for the full details.
>Engineering
Materials Trader
Materials traders are now to be found at various place in the universe and will allow you to trade larger amounts of lower value materials for smaller amounts of more valuable ones, in the same class. This should help players looking for more hard to find high value materials.
Remote Workshop
Players will now be able to submit their pinned blueprint to an unofficial engineer at a remote workshop who will follow the design as specified by the real engineer to craft you a module. This will mean that you will no longer have to visit the engineer to upgrade. It does however mean you will not be able to apply any experimental effects and you will not receive an increase in reputation.
> Galnet Audio
In a change to the way Galnet delivers its news it will now have the ability to deliver them via audio to the players. Audio and Galnet itself will be available at any time during play, including super cruise. Audio stories can be added to a play list and paused at any time and can be accessed from the right hand in-game menu.
Ship Voice (Covas Customisation)
There is now an extra voice available in the cockpit with the option to have Victor (rather than Verity) as you ships computer voice. Frontier will be bringing other voice packs to the game in the future. Link to follow.
Traffic Control Call signs
Players can now choose how to have traffic control address their ship. They can be addressed via letters from your ship name, commander name or ship ID.
> Ships
Keelback
The Keelback now has two seats to allow multi-crew.
Beyond: 3.0 – Chapter 1
19th January 2018
Large update to the Beyond: Chapter 1 section following the second live stream . Sections updates are: Trade, Planetary Tech, Ships (Chieftain), Tech Broker, Mega Ships.
Added some additional comments by Steve Kirby about how the Tech Broker items will be accessed by players,
“Selecting one item to unlock will not block you from buying any other item. We felt this would restrict players too much. You are free to unlock any and all items at your own pace.
“That said unlocking certain items is linked to certain types of gameplay. What we showed yesterday was just a taster. The best thing about the system is it is very expandable giving us and you plenty of flexibility.
“At the moment the tech brokers have types which each have a pool of things they can offer. We decided on this approach to make the system as accessible as possible with larger numbers of brokers in the galaxy rather than just X number in specific locations. But if we decide to we want to make unique specialist tech brokers in specific locations we can.
“..there will be a new By Services option in the Map view Configuration and you will be able to search for star port services including the tech brokers in the galaxy map with a 40ly radius of your current location (similar to the trade data system shown in the live stream) so that you can see where the nearest ones are to you as long as you have discovered them.”
Screenshots of planets will be added when some decent quality ones are available.
Beyond: 3.0 – Chapter 1
18th January 2018
Replaced my rather inefficient descriptions of Wing Missions & Crime & Punishment with the official blurb from the Frontier Forum. You can see the changes here.
Beyond: 3.0 – Chapter 1
16th January 2018
A few details updated following the first live stream, specifically to Wing Missions. Further details to be added with time stamps as and when time allows.
Beyond: 3.0 – Chapter 1
16th January 2018
Following Ed Lewis’s interview with PixelBandits (interview starts at about 32 minutes), some brief amendments have been made:
Many parts of Beyond will also be available to owners of the base game as well as Horizons owners. Additionally some details before tonight’s live stream on features in Chapter 1 of Beyond.
Chieftain – Medium landing pad ship. Mainly a combat ship. More manoeuvrable than ships of a similar size and will be available to all players who can afford to buy it. Not hundreds of millions. Two large hard-points, one medium and three small. This will be available to owners of Horizons only.
Trade Data – Trade data will be available in real time. You will also be able to find data in galaxy map and using a search function for previously visited places as well as being able to see data in a radius from your current location. Data will be back dated based on places you have previously visited.
Wing Missions – These can be taken as a solo player and can be part completed in part. For instance do cargo delivery mission, you could do half of it then log off and do the rest of it the next day. You can have in your wing if you have each have three people in a one wing, you are sharing all three of those missions. These will be availlable to owners of the base game.
Planetary Update: More variety in the vibrancy of the planet and more uniqueness to each planet. Colouration will ‘perhaps give a greater impression by looking at the planet as to what substances it contains’. These changes will be visible to players of the base game from space.
Galnet Audio: Audio will be available at any time during play – possible with the exception of when a ship is in hyperspace – but not confirmed.
Beyond: 3.0 – Chapter 1
14th January 2018
Added a small section for a missed comment re: Frontier re-balancing the rewards for missions.
Beyond: 3.0 – An Overview
12th January 2018
A large re-ordering of pages and information regarding the Beyond series of updates following Frontier’s comments that they are treating the free updates to Horizons owners as ‘Season 3’ and each release as a ‘Chapter’. As a result the pages and menus have been re-ordered to reflect the layout of Season 2. Click the menu button to see the changes. Hopefully it’s nice and obvious where everything is.
Beyond: Core Gameplay
12th January 2018
A whole bunch of changes to the Beyond page, following the news that the Open Beta would begin on the 25th January 2018.
The Return: 1.9 & 2.4
20th December 2017
Details added re: release of Type-10 Defender and the trailer video showing Thargoids attacking space stations.
Beyond: Core Gameplay
11th December 2017
Comment added following details on 24hr Christmas stream.
During the Frontier 2017 Live 24hr stream, David Braben talked over a short clip showing some more of the details of the changes to be made. You can see that here.
Beyond: Core Gameplay
30th November 2017
Changes made following the live stream discussing Engineering changes.
> Quarter 1: Update
EngineeringEngineering will undergo some changes in the Beyond series. The current proposed changes to this part of the game are outlined below, can be found on the official forum, here and can be seen in Frontier’s live stream, here.
- All engineering rolls on a blueprint will improve upon the previous one although there will still be some negative effects.
- Level 5 upgrades can only be reached by progressing through all the other levels first.
- All secondary effects will be removed and the base rolls of blueprints will be improved to offset this.
- All penalties of a blueprint will be fixed, unlike previously when they were in a negative range of values.
- Players with a pinned blueprint will be able to craft it anywhere there is outfitting meaning they no longer have to return to an engineer’s base once materials have been gathered.
- The storage cap on materials will be increased to 100 (not confirmed) for each one.
- Players will no longer be able to lose reputation gained with an engineer.
- Experimental effects will no longer be randomly applied to weapons. Instead players will have to pay with extra materials to get them. These will be pre-set rolls.
- Players will be able to trade materials at star ports in exchange for for specific amounts of others – for a small mark-up value. This will enable you to gain materials you need without having to go out and find them.
- It will be possible to place materials on an ignore list (they won’t show up in your contacts) if you do not want to collect them.
- Any modules a player already has on their ship will persist into the new system.
- It’s possible module storage will be increased. If this happens there will be a rental cost.
Beyond: Core Gameplay
30th November 2017
Updated with a sub-section featuring details of the feedback surrounding the Beyond series with relevant links.
> Focused Feedback
Frontier have said that they intend to run many of the new ideas for Beyond by the community in order to get as much feedback on them as possible. As a result there is a forum section to discuss some of these ideas as well as a series of live stream where some of the ideas are discussed in more detail.
Focused Feedback: Forum Discussion
Focused Feedback: Live stream [Crime & Punishment]
Focused Feedback: Live stream [The Engineers]
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
27th November 2017
Added a video of David Braben talking about gas giants to the PLANETS & EXPLORATION section.
Beyond: Core Gameplay
27th November 2017
Crime & Punishment
Updated to reflect comments on website, live stream and Radio Lave Interview regarding ideas for Crime & Punishment system.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
3rd November 2017
> OTHER PLATFORMS
Frontier have confirmed that Elite: Dangerous will appear on the Xbox One X and have full 4k support. Other details are not yet known but will follow.
Horizons: 1.5 & 2.0 – Features
1st November 2017
Somehow I managed to miss this page out! So here it is, a run down of the salient features to be added to the original 1.5 & 2.0 release. Alternatively find it in the menu at the top of the page.
Elite: Dangerous – An Overview
18th October 2018
I’ve eventually got round to adding a section for the release of the 1.0 – 1.4 base game. This will mirror the features for 2.0 Horizons once finished. You can see the overview page, here. Alternatively select it from the menu button at the top of the page.
Beyond: Core Gameplay Improvements
9th October 2017
Added comment following comment by Frontier staff about possible paid content during 2018. Also added to ‘The Future? “It’s on the list…” page.
Frontier’s Head of Communicaitons, Zac Antonaci, commented after Expo 2017,
“In addition to all the content talked about at Frontier Expo, we also have some pretty cool things in the works which will be available to purchase. We’re not ready to talk about them just yet so we can’t give you any details but rest assured that the lifetime expansion pass owners will be looked after and will be getting their hands on premium content as part of their lifetime expansion pass before the end of 2018 and the Beyond series of updates.”
There is no further information about what this might be at present.
Various
12th October 2017
Another host of style changes in order to give sections and pages more visual consistency.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
11th October 2017
A large re-organisation of information (categories better organised and merged) as well as numerous updates, deletions and changes to make the information more streamlined and easy to find. Several videos added following Expo 2017.
Beyond: Core Gameplay Improvements
9th October 2017
Added some official Frontier videos on the audio and planetary news and updated some text, namely a little information on what can be expected in the two smaller updates.
“More information coming but this will include things such as new ships, missions, scenarios and other new content.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
8th October 2017
A large number of amendments made following the Frontier Expo 2017.
Beyond: Core Gameplay Improvements
7th October 2017
Massive update following the Expo reveal of the future content coming in 2018.
Elite: Dangerous – Current Features
29th September 2017
Complete patch notes added for the 2.4: The Return release as well as links to both them and 2.4.01 on the Official website.
The Return: 1.9 & 2.4
14th September 2017
A few changes to various related pages following the news of the release date for 2.4 and a short quote from Sandro Sammarco
“Thargoids will put us on the back foot. Human technology is made to defeat other humans, not Thargoids. A few new things, that might be surprising, fun and very challenging and we hope you relish the challenge. It won’t just be Thargoids with new weapons. It will mark a new way of doing things. There will be narrative feeds and changes as it goes along. It is an exciting change for us to see how it pans out.”
2.5: Core Gameplay Improvements
14th September 2017
During the live stream before the release of 2.4: The Return Sandro Sammarco dropped a few hints that some of the areas they would be looking at include the possible reduction of RNG in the game in relation to The Engineers. There would also possible be an extra seat for the Keelback and some Alliance related ships. Exploration would also be on the list for improvements.
The Return: 1.9 & 2.4
5th September 2017
Update to reflect Frontier update.
RELEASE DATE & BACKGROUND
The 1.9 & 2.4 update will be the final release in the Horizons season of Elite: Dangerous. On the 5th September 2017 Frontier commented,
“In the stream next week on Thursday 14 September at 7PM BST, we’ll be bringing on our developers for a lore livestream where we’ll discuss some of the story in preparation for 2.4 so that you’re ready for when the update comes. We’ll also be giving more information about the launch of 2.4 The Return, and a date of when you can expect to be exploring the content for yourself!”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
4th September 2017
Small detail added to comments about possibility of future NPC chatter.
During a Reddit AMA when asked about the use of voices for NPC ships, Jim Croft head of audio commented,
“It’s a huge undertaking to avoid repetition. I would like to use speech synthesis and do it procedurally.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
30th August 2017
Added comments made by Frontier re: Orrery Map and removed now outdated ones by David Braben from back in 2015.
GENERAL FEATURES
- Orrery Map
On the 29th August 2017 following a discussion on the Frontier forum Community Manager Dale Emasiri said,
“Having spoken at length with some of the designers, this is the general consensus with regards to the challenges that they’d face. Of course, those aren’t really the problem since our devs love a good challenge. The issue is that it isn’t a high priority as far as needed features or things that require refinement. It would be fantastic to have and I know for sure it’s on the wishlist of things that our artists and designers really would love to see, but that wishlist may not always be practical or realistic. I don’t think it’s a 3.x sort of feature we’ll see, but who knows? As is always the case, we’d love to; however, we have to be realistic about it.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
21st August 2017
A few comments added about the possibility of Elite running in Linux.
OTHER PLATFORMS
Elite for Linux has been the most longstanding platform request. Frontier commented back during the Kickstarter,
“Yes. It would be great. The PC version comes first though, and then we will look at the demand for other platforms. If the game exceeds its target, then there will be scope to increase the number of platforms. We will discuss with the backers in the design discussion forum, and how to address the issues that will arise, but I have every hope that we will cover some or all of these platforms.”
There’s a longstanding thread on the Frontier forums discussing the possibility, here.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
21st August 2017
Additional comments re: Player stations. Also some changes to comments about NPC communications in the audio design section (also reflected in Missions section).
GENERAL FEATURES
Orrery Map
In a Q&A with David Braben back in 2015 when speaking about the Horizons series of releases, David commented when asked about its appearance,
“I hope so, my guess is it will happen in Season 2 but probably towards the back end.”
SHIPS, CREW & VEHICLES, PLAYER STATIONS
Player Stations – In 2015 Frontier commented,
“Maybe, although it’s a long way out if it happens. Before this we need to change the background sim so that it is capable of creating new outposts or settlements.”
AUDIO DESIGN
The audio in Elite: Dangerous is widely recognised as being among some of the best in modern video games. Following the release of the 2.4 Beta, the patch notes revealed that,
“The radio chatter system works differently under the hood now, enabling us to do cool magic chatter based things in the future.”
This follows on from previous comments back in 2015 where Frontier said they would like to make changes to NPC Communications,
“NPC comms is still on the cards {…} The tier 2 NPCs is likely to change, but we need to see how other factors like NPC comms fit in and what we can take from there.”
[…]
“We also want to look at chatter providing hints and clues to hidden or secretive events like treasure hunts.”
The Return: 1.9 & 2.4
18th August 2017
Added details about possible list of Engineers appearing in 2.4, with additional comment about it being speculation. (This previously was listed in ‘The Future? It’s on the List…’)
Engineers
Note: These are unconfirmed at present but there’s a possibility they will appear in 2.4 /speculation.
Engineers – Unofficially there are another 10 Engineers set to appear in the game. It’s possible these will appear in the 2.4 – The Return update. Their names, affiliations and locations can be seen below. Note: These are all subject to change.
Captain Banner (Independent) – HIP 61061
Dorn Etienne (Empire) – Jupang
Elui Shera (Independent) – Conven
Kit Lange (Independent) – Torno
Lex Avermann (Independent) – Thrudihe
Marshall (Independent) – Na Zha
Matt ‘The Gunner’ Sorbis (Independent) – Lelabo
Mel Brandon (Alliance) – 70 Virginis
Plasma Piotr (Federation) – NLTT 9949
Trin Falcour (Independent) – Yavas
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
18th August 2017
Added a comment re: Audio changes likely to come in the future following the Beta patch notes for 2.4
AUDIO DESIGN
The audio in Elite: Dangerous is widely recognised as being among some of the best in modern video games. Following the release of the 2.4 Beta, the patch notes revealed that,
“The radio chatter system works differently under the hood now, enabling us to do cool magic chatter based things in the future.”
The Return: 1.9 & 2.4
17th August 2017
A large update following the release of the Beta for 1.9/2.4 and the patch notes.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
9th & 10th August 2017
Updates following post on official forums showing the existence of more engineers in the game. Also additional comment from Sandro re: changes to engineers.
GENERAL FEATURES
- Engineers –Unofficially there are another 10 Engineers set to appear in the game. It’s possible these will appear in the 2.4 – The Return update. Their names, affiliations and locations can be seen below. Note: These are all subject to change.
Captain Banner (Independent) – HIP 61061Dorn Etienne (Empire) – JupangElui Shera (Independent) – ConvenKit Lange (Independent) – TornoLex Avermann (Independent) – ThrudiheMarshall (Independent) – Na ZhaMatt ‘The Gunner’ Sorbis (Independent) – LelaboMel Brandon (Alliance) – 70 VirginisPlasma Piotr (Federation) – NLTT 9949Trin Falcour (Independent) – YavasAdditionally Sandro Sammarco commented on the possibility of allowing players to trade engineer materials saying,
“I think it’s unlikely that we will allow the purchase of materials. They exist specifically as a new resource to manage […] so things that we might look into could be: trade materials for higher class or different types at material broker contacts (probably at some loss), tweak the algorithms so that materials for pinned blueprints had better chances of being generated, more rewards that were materials based.”
The Return: 1.9 & 2.4 – Beta
4th August 2017
Updates to all relevant sections following the announcement of the date for the Beta test of The Return.
The Return: 1.9 & 2.4
30th July 2017
A few text updates to the images providing some information re: Search & Rescue Agents, Science Reports and possible Audio Logs.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
28th July 2017
Update to details of 3.0 following announcement of Frontier Expo.
3.0 – OVER THE HORIZON
On the 24th May 2017 Frontier confirmed that content following 2.4 would be concentrating on improving core gameplay experience. This content will be revealed at Frontier Expo 2017 on the 7th October 2017.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
5th July 2017
Small update following comments by Sandro Sammarco on NPC wing men.
NPC Wingmen
“This is something we still haven’t reached a decision on. The idea of NPC wing men is totally cool, but there are some interesting issues, mainly revolving around balance. What we’d prefer to avoid is a wing man being a “no-brainer” in terms of effectiveness.”
The Return: 1.9 & 2.4
26th June 2017
A large update following Lavecon that can be seen here.
Horizons : Preview Information
16th June 2017
A whole series of adjustments to reflect changes to features that have changed, appeared or are now not likely to appear in the game any time soon.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
16th June 2017
Update following comments by Frontier staff on official forum
PLANETS & EXPLORATION
This was then later confirmed by Dale on the Frontier forum commenting on the 15th June 2017,
“Having spoken to our team at E3, atmospheric landings remains something we are still working towards and the whole studio, including David, is very keen to implement. We’d like to be able to give you an idea of the rough time frame for it, but unfortunately that’s not possible at the moment – we don’t want to make potentially empty promises to you.”
Elite: Dangerous: PS4 News
16th June 2017
Frontier have confirmed a PS4 pre-launch stream.
“Hello! Just about to announce this in a live stream thread… but we’re doing a pre-PS4 launch live stream next week (on Thursday 22nd June) where we’ll be basically answering any leftover questions. There will be a forum post that runs down all that information too. We’ve got a couple of things to wrap up in terms of exactly how it will roll out, so we’re waiting for that… you should have everything you need to know on Thursday at 7PM BST!”
“We’ll be showing off the game, and all the features on the stream too. Lloyd Morgan-Moore will be joining me on the stream, he’s the producer who has been responsible for moving the game over to the PS4 (and he’s lovely and has a nice face).”
The Return: 1.9 & 2.4
16th June 2017
Small update, without giving details to avoid spoiling it for those who don’t want to know.
During E3 Frontier showed some video to members of the gaming press. You can read a report on that here – warning it does of course contain spoilers.
“We’re slightly confused but enthralled by this amazing shot from @TheYamics. What do you reckon this is, Commanders?”
The Return: 1.9 & 2.4
24th May 2017
Details added following a Frontier update.
The 1.9 & 2.4 update will be the final release in the Horizons season. Details are still a little sketchy on the content although from details announced by Frontier on the 24th May 2017 it would appear that certain outstanding story-lines are due to be tied up and revealed throughout the course of the release.
“Back at EGX in 2015 we showcased the headline features that would be coming to Horizons. However, there’s always been an extra little update, a mystery if you will, that has yet to be revealed.
“We’ll be providing a little more information about the update to the community and the press during E3 on June 13th and 14th. We’ll be hosting special community live streams and activity so stay tuned for more news and updates as we get closer to the date.
“I can, however, tell you that this update will be slightly different to previous ones – content will be revealed over time rather than all being available on day one. Additional pieces of exciting content will surface over the coming months as the narrative progresses. “
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
Changes to the information regarding the likely content to releases following 3.0.
3.0 – OVER THE HORIZON
On the 24th May 2017 Frontier confirmed that content coming after 2.4 would be concentrating on improving core gameplay experience.
“We’re happy to be able to confirm that the next major updates following 2.4 will focus on core gameplay, existing features, quality of life and other improvements! We’re delighted to be investing a considerable amount of development and effort into making the core gameplay experience even better for our fantastic community or players.
“We’ll be sharing more news on that content and our road map at a very special event coming later in the year – more details on this event will be released in the weeks after E3.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
12th May 2017
Hull Repair & Tracker Limpets – During a March 2017 Q&A Sandro Sammarco commented that Frontier were looking at introducing hull repair and tracking limpets. The later would presumably be of interest to bounty hunters and pirates although no confirmation of how they might work has yet been given. On the 12th May 2017 Sandro Sammarco commented,
“Some form of bounty tracker has been on the “big list” for some time – the concept definitely something we like, whether it’s a limpet, some form of tie-in with wake scanning, or something else. Of course, there are some technical challenges to overcome, so no ETA or guarantee, but I think we’re all on the same page here.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
30th April 2017
Small update regarding limpets.
- Hull Repair & Tracker Limpets – During a March 2017 Q&A Sandro Sammarco commented that Frontier were looking at introducing hull repair and tracking limpets. The later would presumably be of interest to bounty hunters and pirates although no confirmation of how they might work has yet been given.
The Commanders: 2.3 – Preview & Current Features
25th April 2017
Following a post on the Frontier forum explaining some amendments to blueprints the following has been changed.
New blueprints added to:
- Bill Turner:
- DSS to grade 5
- Sensor/scanner to grade 5
- Felicity Farseer:
- DSS to grade 3
- Sensor/Scanner to grade 3
- Heri Tani:
- DSS to grade 5
- Sensor/Scanner to grade 3
- Juri Ishmaak:
- Sensor/scanner to grade 5
- DSS to grade 5
- Lei Chung:
- DSS to grade 5
- Sensor/scanner to grade 5
- Lori Jameson:
- Sensor/scanner to grade 5
- DSS to grade 5
- Tiana Fortune:
- Sensor/scanner to grade 5
- DSS to grade 5
The Commanders: 2.3 – Preview & Current Features
19th April 2017
A couple of pieces of information that weren’t in the patch notes or mentioned by Frontier before or after release.
Pirates
- NPC pirates will now ask the player for a cargo amount from a player. Complying will result in the NPC pirate not opening fire.
Interdiction
- Players in supercruise can now visually see other interdictions taking place. You can see this taking place in this video.
Horizons : Preview Information
12th April 2017
Amendments regarding CQC following David Braben comments.
Additional Horizons Content
- CQC Maps –
Michael Brookes has said that at some point during Season 2 they were likely to release more maps for CQC.David Braben subsequently said during a Reddit AMA that due to a low uptake on CQC there were no current plans to make any changes to this part of the game.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
11th April 2017
Some relevant updates following the Reddit AMA
OVER THE HORIZON
It’s possible that there will be a change to the way ‘Seasons’ are handled, with David Braben recently commenting in a Reddit AMA that,
“I don’t think people liked having to pay for multiple updates in one go, so that is something we are going to move away from. At this end of the ‘season’ it makes sense, as people can see the huge number of features we are delivering, but it makes for a higher price.”
GENERAL FEATURES
Crime & Punishment – A much requested area of the game to have a re-working by players was commented on by David Braben during the release of 2.3, when he said,
“We are looking at this now. We certainly do want to improve this, but be aware these changes can end up being far-reaching so we need to be sure they make sense.”
MISSIONS
Small (ship specific) Missions – Something that has been suggested several times by players is the ability to only do specific missions in specific smaller ships, i.e. the Sidewinder. During a Reddit AMA before the release of 2.3 David Braben commented,
“I’d love to see this; it is a good idea we will look at.”
SHIPS, CREW & VEHICLES, PLAYER STATIONS
CQC
During the Reddit AMA for 2.3 David Braben also commented that changes to CQC were probably not likely any time soon as,
“…the player counts mean this isn’t a high priority, I’m afraid.”
Station Variations
He also replied,
“Maybe :)”
when asked during a Reddit AMA if it were possible that the game might see some “abandoned/destroyed space stations, asteroid bases or mega ships?”.
POWERPLAY
David Braben commented,
“We have talked a great deal about it internally, but we need a good solution – something we don’t yet have.”
Elite Dangerous: Current Features
11th April 2017
A variety of additions to the features list for 2.3 Commanders some of which were missed first time round.
- Camera Suite
- Added vanity cameras to all ships enabling players to view their commander and ship from a variety of interior and exterior camera angles.
- Free-view camera also available to enable players to select non-fixed views.
- Ships & Stations
- Ship Naming and ID plates can now be added via Outfitting
- Stations
- Stations can now be placed within rings
- Stations can now be placed within asteroid clusters
- CPU optimisations around stations and capital ships
- Stations that are within a planetary ring are now displayed on the system map
- Exploration
- New mysterious things added
- New organics added to planetary surfaces
- Rebalanced the amount of exploration career rank awarded when completing Passenger missions
- Increased the credit values of exploration data for scans after this release. Unsold data from previous scans is unaffected by this change.
- Player Journal
- Added journal events for Multi-Crew
- Include more details about atmospheric composition in player journal, when detail-scanning a planet with atmosphere
- Celestial
- Surface rock system optimisations
- Audio
- A very large number of changes and fixes have been made, far too long to list here. Please see the 2.3 patch notes as reference.
- CQC
- Re-balanced capacitor and charge rates to be the same across the different ships
- VR
- Made the schematics render in stereo
- Added dithering support to tackle banding in VR
- Fixes to some of the cockpit VR cameras
- Fixed some incorrect scale assumptions when fitting the left eye image to the monitor window. The view should feel a little less stretched. In addition there will be a significant memory saving moving from 2160×1200 to 1280×768
- Added Python ship kit VR hangar cameras
The Commanders: 2.3 – Preview
11th April 2017
Changes to various pages to reflect the news that 2.3 is to be released today.
The Commanders: 2.3 – Preview
10th April 2017
Slight rejig of information and added the wonderful video showing off the new camera suite.
THE CAMERA SUITE
You can view the video of the live stream demonstration here, or take a look at the beautiful video below by Cmdr Hoppryngil that shows off the new camera suite.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
31st March 2017
This well requested and discussed feature was missing off the list!
SHIPS, CREW & VEHICLES, PLAYER STATIONS
- NPC Crew – The ability to hire NPC Crew initially came up in the early design discussions. The first sign of them in-game appeared in 2.2 – The Guardians when it became possible to hire three crew, with one of them joining you on your ship. Frontier have been quite guarded about commenting on when and if this feature might be expanded, but it does seem likely but unconfirmed that at some point more roles will become available.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
27th March 2017
Various tidying up of text for legibility reasons. Small addition to the following re: Raxxla
MYSTERIES
During the Live stream on the 20th December David Braben confirmed that there were still a number of undiscovered secrets in the game, including the mysterious Raxxla, which has been present since the launch of Elite: Dangerous.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
22nd March 2017
A few small but relevant updates following the Live stream on Tuesday 21st March 2017.
GENERAL FEATURES
Bookmarks – In response to a question about having “droppable beacons to bookmark specific coordinates/locations on planets (visible to the player only)” Sandro replied,
“We want this and have done for a little while, but its finding the right time and feature to slide it in with”
Player Journal – Replying to a question asking if there were any “plans to let players store tourist beacon/obelisk data in game or in the journal so we can refer back to them?” Sandro Sammarco commented that,
“We are looking at storing some of the more interesting player messages in the journal.”
Ship Call Signs – In reply to a question asking whether station announcers would change your call sign to that of your Ship ID Sandro commented that,
“This is something they are looking to and the audio team are keen on this.”
Ship Scanner – In reply to a question about extending Ram Teh’s scanner tech to find other surface features such as abandoned bases, Sandro Sammarco commented,
“Maybe – watch this space, nothing to announce at the moment.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
21st March 2017
Additions to comments re: Mega-Ships from Steve Kirby, Lead Games Designer.
SHIPS, CREW & VEHICLES, PLAYER STATIONS
Mega-Ships
“…we are as keen to get these locations fully fleshed out as you guys are. We don’t want these to be just a pretty location to visit once. We have read every single post in this thread and made a note of all the suggested gameplay for these locations. I’m in full agreement with you that these locations needs more meaningful interactions and links to other areas of the game. I will be doing everything I can go make these locations what we originally envisioned them to be.
“Much of our planned gameplay for these sites has been slightly delayed due to several reasons I can’t go into, but we hope to implement them in the future. “As many of you know, we tend to implement these things in stages for various reasons. Now that we have the key installation types in place, we are now in a position to work on the deeper gameplay.
“As for the reason this has not been completed already for 2.3, all I can say is that sometimes priorities have to be changed and we don’t get to implement everything we originally intended got the first iteration of a piece of content.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
20th March 2017
SHIPS, CREW & VEHICLES, PLAYER STATIONS
- Multi-Crew – This appeared in the 2.3 ‘The Commanders’ update but with very combat-centric features. When asked if other non-combat roles would be built into the feature Sandro Sammarco commented,“Hopefully, no announcements at the moment. Lets see how it goes […] There’s no reason other than time and resources why it couldn’t be expanded, but let’s take it one step at a time… It could get further. We have concepts for taking it further. Obviously nothing to announce at the moment.” Additionally there are no current plans to allow players to launch an SRV from the ship, although this has not been completely rules out.
- Mega-Ships – There are also some gameplay elements due with these ships, although due to a change in priorities these have been delayed for an unspecified period of time.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
13th March 2017
Quotes added from Sandro Sammarco from Pax: East
‘SPACE LEGS’ / ‘ELITE FEET’
“Just to set the record straight, Space Legs and EVA gameplay, that’s way off in the future. That’s a goal. I’ve talked to David and it’s always been part of his core vision for what Elite really is, even from way back in the day, it’s always been about you’re a person in a real futuristic setting, not just a ship. However, I think it’s also fair to say Space Legs is effectively dovetailing a whole new game into Elite. We take steps towards it, it’s our end vision, but we’re not there yet, we’re… it’s a long way off. And when it does, by the time, if we get there, if we manage it, I’m sure we’ll have the time to sort out any consistencies that need to be sorted out.”
GENERAL FEATURES
- Camera Suite – This appeared in the 2.3 update, ‘The Commanders’. Sandro Sammarco commented that there would be a compelling argument to add filters and other improvements to the camera suite if it sees a lot of use.
Ships
- Hull Repair Limpets – According to Sando Sammarco at Pax: East these are ‘on the list’.
- Bounty Tracker Limpets – As above.
- Mega-Ships – When asked during Pax: East if players could hitch rides with Mega-Ships or store ships on them, Sandro Sammarco gave a hesitant reply of “No comment”.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
6th March 2017
Some general tidying up of various bits of outdated information given news re: 2.3 ‘The Commanders’ and a reshuffle of some of the sections so they hopefully make more sense when trying to find information.
The Commanders: 2.3 – Preview
3rd March 2017
Updated photos of in-game ship naming and an example of a photo taken with the new camera suite.
Horizons : Preview Information
2nd March 2017
Some information changed to green text to signify its inclusion in the 2.3 ‘The Commanders’ update.
- New Structures – CQC environments made their appearance in 2.2 and new massive ships will appear in 2.3. As yet there is no additional gameplay contained within them but this is expected to change with a future Horizons release.
- Chained Missions – These are defined as “different missions in a sequence”. They will appear in 2.3 and expanded upon in future updates.
- Asteroid Bases – The existence of these much requested bases was all but confirmed during the launch of the PS4 trailer.
The Commanders: 2.3 – Preview
28th February 2017
A large update to the Preview section has been made following the release of the Beta.
The Commanders: 2.3 – Preview
19th February 2017
Updates to include information on Corvette Ship kit, Data Link scanner and possibility of multi-crew SRV.
Additional Information
- There is no multi-crew based SRV action available to players “at the moment”.
ADDITIONAL CONTENT
- Corvette Ship Kit – Exactly as it says on the tin.
Data Link Scanner
- It’s still to be confirmed but Frontier are hoping to include in 2.3 the ability to use the Data Link scanner in your ship. It’s not yet known what exact uses this will have, but it will be bound to a button in your fire groups, as below.
The Commanders: 2.3 – Preview
17th February 2017
Another large update following the 17th February Live stream previewing the forthcoming 2.3 update.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
16th February 2017
Passenger Missions – …..One missions type that is a future possibility is for the player to carry prisoners. This possibility came to light following a post to the official forum which you can see here.
The Commanders: 2.3 – Preview
16th February 2017
Additional information and videos added following the live stream on the 14th February.
The Commanders: 2.3 – Preview
14th February 2017
Large update following the 14th February Live stream previewing the forthcoming 2.3 update.
Horizons : Preview Information
31st January 2017
Amendment to The Commanders information following Dev update.
2.3 – The Commanders (Multicrew & Commander Creation) | (Full Release: TBC)
At 4.25pm on the 27th January 2017 Frontier confirmed that the Beta for 2.3 will be available at some point between: Monday 20th February & Sunday 26th February 2017. It will be available for anyone who has previously purchased the Horizons Beta. Frontier have said they will announce if the Beta will be made available for purchase for people who currently don’t own it. You can read these details, here.
For the full current preview of ‘The Commanders’ preview click here.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
27th January 2017
Removed link to game folder showing list of ships as now out of date. Also included information re: possible underwater ship from before the launch of the game.
New Ships – David Braben confirmed during the 2.1 live stream on the 25th May that more ships would be coming to the game and that “he had seen some of them”. Note: The Beluga liner subsequently appeared with the 2.2 release.
He also said that he would like to see the Krait in game, but as with all aspects of the game there is a running order of when things are scheduled to appear. The Dolphin has been glimpsed during the reveal of the PS4 trailer.
Additionally there was a mention by David Braben of underwater ships making their way into the game at some point during the early game design discussions. If this were still to happen it would only take place once planets with water are available to land on.
“A slightly more unusual enquiry that we received was for the inclusion of underwater ships. Perhaps surprisingly, this is actually something that has been thought about by the team.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
26th January 2017
Image showing interior of Ship Launched Fighter Bay added.
Persistent NPC Ships – The idea of having repeated incarcerations with AI ships has been requested many times by players. During an AMA with David Braben he commented,
“It’s something we are looking at for the future.”
Ships, Bases, Crew & Vehicles
- Player Stations – This feature was first hinted at before the original release of the game in 2013. Sandro Sammarco commented,
“We will not have player build ships/stations/buildings in release 1. This will happen – but the specific timing and content is up for discussion.”
Modding
This was briefly mentioned a year or so before the original release but has not been commented upon (and as far as I can see not asked about) since with the exception of ruling out players authoring their own missions which has cropped up a couple of times.
Modding tools were another big request that we received for future updates. Giving players the chance to author their own scenarios and missions, or create completely new content would enrich the game even further and create completely new communities around the game. For this reason modding tools are also planned for the future, although not until much further down the line:
Sandy: Yes we would like to but definitely not until a number of updates have gone out. Probably as part of update 5 or later.
Michael: We do want to support modding, but as this requires considerable support this will be some time down the line.
Horizons : Preview Information
Added information confirming Multicrew not including walking about in ships.
2.3 – The Commanders (Multicrew & Commander Creation) | 2017 (TBC)
Multicrew will allow a team of up to 4 players players to assume roles (Pilot, Gunner, Navigator and Engineer) aboard the same ship. As confirmed by Michael Brookes during a Reddit AMA, Multicrew will not include the ability to walk around your ship(s).
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
23rd January 2017
Graphics & Assets
Station variations – Greater variations in station interiors were made to the 2.2 update and David Braben also confirmed that they would like to do more with the look of stations in terms of them looking more run down etc., but that graphically this is a lot of work. This was also commented on by Dav Stott in a live stream when he answered the following question…
Q: Will there be an effort to make the background simulation more visible and audible from out of your spaceship’s cockpit? Having the look and audio of stations and settlements change depending on system states, for example.
A: Nothing to announce today, but planet bases already change decals if faction changes. (since Horizons launch). Nothing more to announce at the moment.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
13th January 2017
Ships, Bases, Crew & Vehicles
- Player Stations – During the stream for 2.2 Beta David Braben was asked if players will ever be able to own their own stations. He responded by saying,”It’s an interesting one, we have been talking about that for a while, there are a lot of challenges with that, particularly around game balancing, but yes it’s certainly a candidate feature.”
Horizons : Preview Information
Added information re: 2.0 content and an amendment to text regarding possible release date/content of 2.4.
13th January 2017
1.5 & 2.0 – Planetary Landings | Released: 15th December 2015
The first part of the Horizons season was released on the 15th December 2015 and features the ability to land your ship on airless planets and moons as well as drive across the surface in your SRV. Additionally you can find materials to refuel, rearm and repair your ship and SRV.
You can see the launch video here, or read the list of headline features here.
2.4 – Unknown (Quarter 2 of 2017)
Currently there is no information on the Frontier store about the content of this update. However we do know that it will arrive in Quarter 2 of 2017 (Apr to Jun) as the PS4 release has been confirmed in this time period with all of the Horizons season of content.
Horizons : Preview Information
9th January 2017
Added link to Eddie Symons talking about lava and ice volcanism during a live stream.
Additional Horizons Content
Beyond these headline releases there’s a variety of other features that will be woven into the Horizons season. Again, these are subject to change.
New Planets – It’s possible that the ability to land on airless planets with volcanic activity (ice & lava) will make an appearance in the Horizons season, along with some associated gameplay. This was briefly mentioned way back in a live stream during the release of 2.0 which you can see it here. Note: It’s not particularly clear if this is in reference to the appearance of geysers which appeared in 2.2.
The Future? “It’s on the list….” & Guardians 1.7 & 2.2 Feature List
6th January 2017
On the evening of the the 5th January 2017 Cmdr. DP Sayre became the first pilot to be pulled out of witch space by an unknown alien species, thought to be a Thargoid. You can read about it here or get the full lowdown on the Official Forum or on Reddit. Additionally, find out more about Thargoid lore via Elite author Drew Wagner, here.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
22nd December 2016
Large parts of some sections have been re-ordered so at to make more logical sense and easier reading.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
21st December 2016
Thanks to Golgot100 on Reddit for this detailed summary from the Christmas stream.
Over the Horizon
It’s likely there will be a change to the way Seasons are handled, with David Braben commenting that,
“Well we change things all the time, we’re not locked in any one thing, we do listen to what people are saying. So things will change but we haven’t announced how exactly how they will change.”
Ships, Crews & Vehicles
Capital Ships / Large Piloted Ships – “That is something that we’ve thought about. We’ve always talked about the docking slot in the way the Panama canal limits ship sizes for those taking that route. The slot size should constrain ships. When you get to ships like the Cutter and Anaconda, they’re already quite sluggish. You’re already getting to the point where you wouldn’t go much bigger without going to executive control, controlling it like you would a liner or a battleship, saying go there and it turns very very slowly. But in the same way even with the Anaconda you often end up with a better result, and you’ll see this in Multicrew, if you go with turrets. So it wouldn’t be a case of a giant ship being flown by one person with one big gun pointing down the length. That’s the way it would work, but whether it fits with the game that’s another question. We already have big balance issues when people arrive with 100’s of 1000’s of tonnes of cargo. It’s an issue, shall we say.”
Transporter Ships – …on the 20th December David Braben suggested that the ship seen in the PS4 trailer was a new ‘super-large ship‘.
Planets, Exploration, Aliens & Ancient Civilisations
The talk of there being caves in the game has been mentioned since before the release of Horizons. It’s thought there were some technical reasons that needed to be overcome to allow them to happen, as well as the fact they would only appear on certain planetary types. In the Christmas 24 hour stream on the 21st December 2016 David Braben dropped the first real hint that they would be in game when he commented,
“I’m not going to comment on that.”
Before smiling broadly.
There are said to be some things currently in game (as of 21/12/16) that have not yet been found, aliens possibly included.
Cross Platform Play
David commented that the reason for it not being currently done was that there were,
“Practical reasons for various platforms. There are things that we will resolve over time but no promises. Microsoft didn’t ‘stop it’, it’s more complicated than that, there are other people involved.[57:50] + On moving Cmdrs between platforms, no plans, but can look at it later.”
Elite Dangerous: Feature List
16th December 2016
This page now has an extensive list of links for each release to the relevant patch notes.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
14th December 2016
Missions
Winged Missions
Wing Missions During a live Mission Q&A stream Adam Waite commented that shareable wing missions are something they want to do, but are not in the immediate road map and will not be in 2.3. A lot of considerations have to be taken into account in about how they will work which in turn raises a lot of questions in multiplayer – which are much more difficult to solve.
Military Career
During a live Missions Q&A stream on the 13th December 2016, Frontier said they are aware of desire for something along these lines and they dont have anything to announce soon, but it is being looked at as a possibility.
Chained Missions
These were courier missions. Feedback made them feel that they didnt realise they were providing the kind of experience they wanted. But it was partly a test bed to find out how missions could progress into different areas of the game.
Horizons – Preview Information
9th December 2016
2.3 – The Commanders (Multicrew & Commander Creation) | 2017 (TBC)
The release date for 2.3 is still somewhat unclear, but a recent Reddit comment from a Frontier employee regarding the possibility of 2.3 arriving in Q1 (Jan – Apr), before the release of Horizons on the PS4 was that it was,
“A valid assumption, but I’m not going to promise one way or the other. Essentially the best thing to remember is this:
- PlayStation 4 release = content available on PC/Xbox One at the time
- Subsequent major updates / point updates will hit all 3 at the same time
“We’re not going to commit to set dates at this time because, as you know, these can change. We want to get things right, so will take the time necessary to do so.”
The Commander Creator
During the Elite: Dangerous PS4 promo trailer a some CGI shots of commander creation faces could be seen, as per the image below.
Additional Horizons Content
Asteroid Bases – The existence of these much requested bases was all but confirmed during the launch of the PS4 trailer.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
8th December 2016
Season 3 & Beyond
During the game trailer previewing the PS4 release some pre-rendered footage of players in their ships was seen for the first time. See here and here.
Ships, Crew & Vehicles
The Dolphin has been glimpsed during the reveal of the PS4 trailer.
Graphics & Assets
Asteroid stations have been confirmed as making it into the Horizons release and were recently featured in the PS4 trailer.
Other Platforms
On the 8th December 2016 Frontier announced that in Q2 in 2017, Elite:Dangerous would be released on PS4. You can see the trailer, here and read David Braben’s comments on the upcoming release on the Playstation Blog, here.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
6th December 2016
Ships, Crew & Vehicles
CQC Bots – The ability to play CQC against AI controlled ships is something that Frontier have said to be keen on (Sandro Sammarco comment on 6th December Live stream), but realise it’s considerable amount of work.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
28th October 2016
“There are a great many things in this area we have been looking at long term. Now we have ship-launched fighters, more lumbering ships can make more sense. We have also looked at more of the much larger ships in game – as NPCs and ultimately under player ‘executive control’ – but no promises as there are a good deal of gameplay challenges to be resolved first.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
25th October 2016
Updates from David Braben’s AMA on Reddit,
Season 3 and Beyond…
“It is of course something we have thought about a good deal. The real challenge with walking around, EVA, etc, is not the fact of doing it – walking around is something we have done in many other games – it is what you do while doing it to make it interesting. We have nothing to announce at the moment.”
Graphics & Assets
“We’ve been looking at the various kinds of bodies in the game, and some of you will have seen the updates in the beta to white dwarves and neutron stars. We have been balancing our effort across many different kinds of gameplay, ‘quality of life’ updates, and so on. I am personally a huge fan of the science elements, and we will continue to move forwards on them. Black holes, accretion discs, exotic star types like Beta Lyrae stars, and many other elements and features are on our list for attention, in no particular order. So yes, there are plans, but no promises as to when.”
Ships, Crew & Vehicles
“There are a great many things in this area we have been looking at long term. Now we have ship-launched fighters (or at least will in a few hours!), more lumbering ships can make more sense. We have also looked at more of the much larger ships in game – as NPCs and ultimately under player ‘executive control’ – but no promises as there are a good deal of gameplay challenges to be resolved first.”
Ship Naming
Another very popular request and something David Braben said during a Reddit AMA that it was, “Something we have been looking at.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
20th October 2016
Added back in the video of the cockpit interiors from early on the in the Development Diaries as it mysteriously vanished!
13th October 2016
Some changes to the text on the possibilities of Season 3 being ‘Spacelegs’ following the Horizons 2.2 Beta 7 Live stream with Sandro making some comments.
Season 3 and Beyond…
It seems possible (but by no means confirmed – indeed Sandro recently in the Beta 7 video, 13th October 2016, said walking around “wouldn’t happen anytime soon”) that following the arrival of the character creator in Horizons 2.3, that the first iteration of ‘spacelegs’ could arrive in Season 3.
“During and after the initial Horizons launch there will be additions to the different types of planets you can land on. Atmospheric landings in general will appear throughout the development cycle, but perhaps not anytime soon. As Sandro commented on the 13th October during the Horizons 2.2 – Beta 7 livestream,
“Atmospheric landing is a long way off, it’s clearly in the road map but we’re a long way from it still”
Planets, Exploration, Aliens & Ancient Civilisations
Sandro commented during a Horizons 2.2 Beta 7 stream that they were looking at additional gameplay for planetary landings, specifically mentioning ‘science reports’.
Missions
During the Horizons 2.2 Beta 7 stream Sandro Sammarco commented that they are still looking at this and it could lead to ‘people with a Naval Rank being called up.’
5th October 2016
Some text changes and tidying up of the information on when ‘Spacelegs’ might appear. Added a couple of early pieces of Frontier concept art to show the player floating around in a damaged ship, repairing the outside of one and a view from the inside of a space station..
1.7 / 2.2 – Guardians
Added player journal information to the update as this was somehow left out of the original update.
Player Journal
The 2.2 Update 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 developing this feature.
1.7 / 2.2 – Guardians
20th September 2016
A wide range of additions following the patch notes on release of the Beta.
- 4 new engineers added to the game and a new power.
- Military installation screenshot
- Neutron in-game star image (replacing concept art)
- Advertising holograms both inside and outside stations
- New Training Tutorials
- Graphical updates to planetary surfaces
- ‘Mysterious things’ added.
1.7 / 2.2 – Guardians
19th September 2016
Other locations
Frontier announced,
“Get ready to encounter new structures in space – installations. These buildings cover a range of facilities, from comms arrays to unauthorised hideouts to prisons, and more.
As well as making for great backdrops to meet up with other Commanders, expect appropriate traffic, from traders, to pirates to military vessels, as well as the chance to locate and collect tasty materials and cargo.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
19th September 2016
DirectX 12
On the 19th September 2016 David Braben announced that Frontier planned to drop its support for Win32 and DirectX 10 in approximately 6 months time. This would he explained give,
“Principally better performance and prettier effects, but it should also help with dev time […] Obscure bugs can take a disproportionate amount of dev and QA time.”
1.7 / 2.2 – Guardians
12th September 2016
Ship Transfer
Ships can be transferred from anywhere you left them to your current location, with a time delay. There will be a cost based on the value of your ship and the distance required to transport it. Times for delivery may be adjusted in the final release, but the rough estimates were 5 minutes to over 100 minutes (for a journey across the bubble). As the original intention was to make ship transfer an instant event, it may delay the release of this feature beyond 2.2, but before 2.3. However Sandro Sammarco has said they will try and fit it in as originally intended. You can read about the vote on this subject here.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
Transporter Ships – Following the confirmation of timed ship deliveries, Sandro Sammarco commented that they had not rules out introducing the visualisation of the no doubt massive ships doing the transportation.
“…it would be cool to have visual representations of these in the future (no ETA, no guarantee).”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
8th September 2016
Other Platforms
David Braben confirmed on his Twitter account that there would be a PS4 version of the game, but that no date had been set. In a 21st July Facebook post Frontier commented,
“There’s no exclusivity period at the moment but we’re just developing the PS4 version of the game at the moment. We’re hoping it’s ready for you all soon but we’re not quite there yet. More to be announced soon.”
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
2nd September 2016
Introduction
The main features are written into the schedule, with other secondary features being more flexible.
1.7 / 2.2 – Guardians
26th August 2016
Passengers
- The timings for some passenger missions may we as long as three weeks.
Quality of Life Features
- Geysers on some planets surfaces will be active, allowing the SRV to be lifted up into the air. [Sandro Sammarco via Lave Radio]
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
23rd August 2016
Video added showing Frontier developers speaking about the features they are looking forward to the most.
Missions
The development of missions in the game is an ongoing one and something that is very complex given its procedurally generated nature and the fact there are so many ‘edge cases’ to design for.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
22nd August 2016
Some additional concept artwork added for an SRV, a ship interior and the inside of two space stations.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
21st August 2016
Some additions of information found from Gamescom along with the highlighting of information that has changed.
Planets, Exploration, Aliens & Ancient Civilisations
Additional planet types to land on will be expanded as the game progresses. First on the list is likely to be volcanic planets (ice & lava) with no atmospheres. These are expected to appear in the Horizons season. Beyond that gas giants and planets with atmospheres (but no life) could appear after that, and possibly include water worlds. Earth-like worlds are expected last on the list for the simple reason that creating 1-1 richly detailed worlds like that are really, really, really hard to do.
It’s also been muted that some artificial points of interest (ie. not naturally occurring) will be included during the Horizons season. David Braben during his Gamescom video interviews spoke about the introduction of some elements of archaeology into the game and ‘a long dead species, that has reason they are long dead long dead.’
Some sort of Alien invasion, likely to be Thargoid related has been heavily touted by Frontier during ‘interrupted videos’ at Gamescom.
Ships, Crew & Vehicles
- During Gamescom 2016 Sandro Sammarco said that Frontier were looking at allowing some storage of materials at Engineers bases in relation to the creation of blueprints.
Horizons – Preview Information
21st August 2016
The below section has been amended to reflect the more accurate information provided by Gamescom.
2.2 – Guardians (Ship Launched Fighters, Passengers, NPC Crew) | Due: October 2016
- Frontier confirmed at Gamescom 2016 that Guardians 2.2 will arrive in October 2016. This is later than initially scheduled. As usual there will be a Beta version to play test before initial release, date to be confirmed.
- It’s recommended you head over to the Gamescom Update page to get the latest news on all the features (of which there are many!)
The below was removed due to details appearing at Gamecom.
2.3 – The Commanders (Multicrew & Commander Creation) | TBC
- Note: NPC crew members (for players wanting to fly solo buy hire crew) have been widely spoken about as something Frontier would possibly like to add, but nothing confirmed.
The below was removed due to it now appearing in 2.2
Additional Horizons Content
- Ship Transportation – The ability to move your ships around to avoid having to travel to pick them up is a much requested feature and is has been confirmed as appearing in 2.2.
Guardians – Gamescom News
17th-21st August 2016
Multiple additions each day based on stream content for the Horizons – Guardians update (2.2). See here for the full details.
The Future? “It’s on the list….”
12th August 2016
Amendment to text to qualify that not much is known about chain missions.
Additional Horizons Content
- Chained Missions – These are defined as “different missions in a sequence”. They are expected to continue to be introduced into the game although little information is available on them.
27th July 2016
Some small amendments to
Planets & Exploration
- Added video re: procedural generation, specifically regarding clouds
- Qualified information re: Surface scanner following its addition in 2.1.05.
Elite: Odyssey 