Ed said:Hello!
Hope you're all well... genuinely excites me to still see so much enthusiasm for Elite, because believe me, it's an enthusiasm we share in the office (I'd argue our enthusiasm exceeds yours even... but this isn't a competition so I'll stop trying to win it).
Just wanted to set the correct expectations about what we're doing at Gamescom. As with previous Gamescom Frontier Meet events, we've focused on what's coming in the short term with our game releases, we've had giveaways, food and drink, and created a space where you can interact with the developers and meet each other (in some cases for the first time in real life!).
This year will fit the same mould, with us detailing what's still to come as part of Beyond.
As David was quoted in this post, we are still working on Elite Dangerous, and we'll let you know when we're ready to share our plans post-Beyond.
Thanks!
Ed
yepIs that a comment about their Gamescom announcements or lack thereof? Because it would fit it seems. To answer my own question: They won't be showing any content outside of "Beyond":
Greetings Commanders,
Elite Dangerous: Beyond - Chapter Three is launching on August 28, and is the second of our two smaller content updates before the larger update called Chapter Four at the end of the year. Here's a breakdown of the key features that we talked about at Gamescom:
Guardian Beacons
New Guardian Beacons have been discovered in the galaxy. These will lead you to new discoveries and help you uncover new Guardian secrets. The puzzles you solve at these giant structures will lead you to unlock some incredible new technology.
New Ships – Hybrid Fighters
The Hybrid fighters combine the best of both standard and Guardian technology to make them hyper-effective combat machines. They come in three variants:
- The Trident armed with a plasma charger
- The Javelin with a shard launcher
- The Lance with a gauss projector
These ships are light, fast and agile with strong shields to let them dart into the fray. The trade-off, as with other smaller fighters, is that they have weaker hulls.
To acquire a Hybrid fighter blueprint you will need to investigate new Guardian beacons which will point you in the direction of the sites to investigate.
New Ship – The Alliance Crusader
A new member of the Alliance ship group, the Crusader acts as a midpoint between the Chieftain and the Challenger with one very important difference: A fighter bay!
Engineers in Colonia!
The Engineers have arrived in Colonia! The engineers will be found at planet bases across the Colonia region and will only be available to players who have purchased the Horizons expansion and have done some engineering previously.
The new Engineers will only make contact with Commanders who have interacted with Felicity Farseer, Elvira Martuuk, The Dweller, Liz Ryder and Tod "The Blaster" Mcquinn. As with all existing Engineers, the new additions will all have to be unlocked before they make their services available.
Given that Colonia is a human colony on the fringe of space, not all technology will be available at first. Commanders out in fringe will need to work together with the Engineers to expand the available tech. That means the more a recipe is used the sooner will the improved version be made available.
Each Engineer will start as level 1 and as usual you will need to complete a request to unlock the engineer before you can upgrade any modules. The community can work together to raise the level of these engineers from 1 to 3! The current grade of the Engineers will be show on a local news article.
Wing Missions
Commanders will have the opportunity to take on planetary Wing Missions, further increasing the mission types you can take on with your friends.
More Weapons!
The galaxy grows ever more dangerous, so we've increased the available firepower to help you defend yourselves. The following weapons have been added to outfitting:
- Large Dumbfire Missile
- Large Seeking Missile
- Large Torpedo Launcher
- Large Multi Cannon (turret)
The following weapons have been added to the human tech broker:
- Small Shock Cannon (turret)
- Small Shock Cannon (gimbal)
- Small Shock Cannon (fixed)
The following weapons have been added to the Guardian tech Broker
- Small Guardian plasma launcher (turret)
- Small Guardian plasma launcher (fixed)
- Small Guardian Shard Cannon (turret)
- Small Guardian Shard Cannon (fixed)
- Small Guardian Gauss Cannon (fixed)
Thanks again for your continued support Commanders. We can't wait to see what you think of these new additions! o7
I'm starting to wonder just how few of us actually venture outside the bubble for them to completely ignore us for so long.
It's not that I wouldn't be down for combat stuff. Those fighter designs look pretty cool.
But in the foreseeable future, I'm done with Elite grind, so not for me.
I'm starting to wonder just how few of us actually venture outside the bubble for them to completely ignore us for so long.
A few Frontier devs have stated in the past that it's actually a large percentage of the players who venture outside the bubble. Frontier simply doesn't like developing content for them, not anything substantial at least.
Frontier's combat fixation is consistent. That might be because it's fairly low effort to create weapon and combat ship variants compared to non combat content, or maybe it's just because the devs don't care much for non combat stuff. Just look at the exploration improvements reveal, it's two months late now with no word at all on why or when we can expect it. Probably because they pushed it off til last and now need to cut features to make the Q4 update.
The four year neglect of exploration didn't happen by accident, that was by design, so the fact that it's still at the back of the bus despite finally having an actual update focusing on it really shouldn't surprise anyone. It's not combat content, so it's a lower priority.
It makes me so sad. :(
It's also strange to me how it feels like FD has been so combat-focused these past few years, yet little actual combat changes/improvements have happened. We just get new modules, new ships, and some tweaks to existing ones. Otherwise, entering a CZ or RES mostly plays out the same way it did years ago.
It's supposed to be released before the end of the year we'll hear about it :)I'd like to get back into Elite, but I'm mainly waiting for some meaty exploration updates. I hope we hear something by the end of the year.
Maybe X4 will offer something more deep than Elite's grind when it releases? It will be less shiny than Elite though (probably considerably more niche and smaller budget) and I expect the ship handling to be less enticing.
In German, but some good new footage and explanation of the features nevertheless.
On the other hand, it won't be slowed down by trying to be a MMO, but somehow not daring to be a MMO - see the ridiculous lack of guild/group features in Elite and the total lack of either direct game world influence of players (Eve) or good authored multiplayer content (WoW Raids).
Despite the lack of multiplayer, I'll definitely keep an eye on this.
- nearly all ships flyable - from small single seat ships to capital ships
- levelable AI crew for ships
- fleet ownership
- dynamic economy
- space station ownership and construction
- mixture of procedural and dynamic universe
- space legs
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/444800-Important-Community-Update
TL;DR:
- Cutting fleet carriers for squadrons from Chapter 4
- Cutting Ice Planet overhaul from Chapter 4
- No longer planning paid premium content for 2018 (they were initially)
- Beginning development on the next big milestone of Elite which will be paid content, no details at all about it yet, release will be a significant amount of time after the final Beyond update.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/444800-Important-Community-Update
TL;DR:
- Cutting fleet carriers for squadrons from Chapter 4
- Cutting Ice Planet overhaul from Chapter 4
- No longer planning paid premium content for 2018 (they were initially)
- Beginning development on the next big milestone of Elite which will be paid content, no details at all about it yet, release will be a significant amount of time after the final Beyond update.
Haven't played in a long time. Have the engineers been fixed? Last time I played the results were so random that sometimes they were worse than the starting stats. Kind of made grinding the engineer mods pointless. I thought I saw that they were looking into fixing that but not sure if it was implemented.
Curious if it's Space Legs or Atmospheric Landing. It has to be one of those two.
But also looking forward to chapter 4. Hope they'll reveal something soon, the focused feedback is overdue..
They changed engineers awhile ago. Now you always get an improvement, but the amount of improvement is randomized. Experimental effects that used to be gained randomly can now be applied on demand.
The winter of 2016 I started the voyage out to Colonia. It is now September 2018 and I'm 300 20LY jumps away. The T6 will do it. It will deliver the 40 units of clothes I promised those people nearly 24 months ago.
Monster, those people are literally wearing rocks waiting for your shipment
On PC it's totally unlocked, there's even several framerate lock settings above 60.
Does this game use the arrow keys and numpad? Because my right arrow key doesn't work and my keyboard doesn't have a numpad.
Does this game use the arrow keys and numpad? Because my right arrow key doesn't work and my keyboard doesn't have a numpad.
By default, the arrow keys are used for power distribution - specifically, the right arrow is used to give power to the weapons capacitor.The numpad isn't used at all.
Not much has changed. It's still a very "no tutorials allowed" game. Everyone I know play with either a tablet (on console) or of course a browser on PC with all the usual: inara, eddb, edtd, etc.I know this is a very broad question, but...what's the general gameplay loop right now?
The crime and punishment system, ship stats screens, terminologies, etc, all really got me lost the last time I played, and once I was ready to get serious and do something more than just small-time courier missions, I actually couldn't find out what anything really meant, even accidentally taking an illegal mission not knowing it was illegal. But it seems like I was only wanted by a certain faction and no authority came after me. Am I doing something wrong, is the game fairly straightforward and I missed something? Or is the game just not going to be for me if I don't like having to look up everything?
Yeah with VR it's really difficult because I have to pull myself out of the game everytime I want to look something up, it's what's keeping me from really getting into the game more.Not much has changed. It's still a very "no tutorials allowed" game. Everyone I know play with either a tablet (on console) or of course a browser on PC with all the usual: inara, eddb, edtd, etc.
Edit: You don't always need them of course, but there's always a point where you need to confirm something. Like where exactly are you supposed to get this material, or where you can get that module without having to dock to dozens of stations to find them, etc.
Yeah with VR it's really difficult because I have to pull myself out of the game everytime I want to look something up, it's what's keeping me from really getting into the game more.
I was planning to check out this game again today but reading everything over at their forums kinda put me off. I kinda think them opting for Elite, Planet Coaster and Jurassic World evolution has spread them a bit thin.