Elite Dangerous is now 4 years outdated by some means, or 5 for those who rely the assorted betas. In that point, it’s gone from unimaginable promise (ah, these halcyon 2012 Kickstarter days) to absolute bedrock of recent PC gaming, what with its mix of solo noodling about, deadly PVP sandbox and slow-burn, community-driven storytelling. Whether it’s fairly what we anticipated a brand new Elite recreation to be half a decade in the past is an everlasting query, however by this level it’s very a lot its personal recreation, together with embracing the ‘Seasons’ idea that’s so sizzling proper now (er, once more for about 5 years). Season three, ‘Beyond‘ is kicking off on the finish of this month, with a headline wordcount-challenging replace named Elite Dangerous: Beyond – Chapter One.
It introduces an entire mess of modifications, together with new varieties of ship and merchants, revisions to crime and the punishment thereof and an overhauled mission system.
Here trailer right here:
That’s plenty of flash and space-noise, so that you’ll be wanting some precise particulars, I think about. ‘Beyond’ is the umbrella title for a bunch of updates that can span this 12 months, with ‘chapter 1’ due for launch on Feb 27. Its headline options embrace:
- A brand new pilotable and purchasable ship, the Alliance Chieftan, which is designed to be super-manoeuvrable however with out being a fight light-weight.
- Revisions to the oft-griped about mission system, together with rather more in the way in which of co-op goals and a selection of rewards (credit, reputations or commodities)
- You can now see commerce knowledge from previously-visited techniques, with out having to schlepp all the way in which again over there to work out whether or not you’ll get value in your maintain stuffed with weevils or no matter. Also a slew of latest market instruments to work out what wants or sells what, the place. I.e. they’ve simply upgraded ED’s space-internet.
- Improvements and extra selection to planet surfaces – excellent news for explorers.
- Something of a rethink for crime and garden enforcement, together with felony prices being related to ships relatively than pilots however pilots now having a Notoriety stat that results ship rebuy prices. Plus! Space Jail, being despatched to which necessitates both paying off your fines and bounties or being declared bankrupt and winding up with only a Sidewinder Mk1.
- New Traders, for Materials and Technology
- A text-to-speech reader for GalNet reviews.
And an entire lot extra, a partial rundown of which is here. That’s all due out on Feb 27, and is free to anybody who already owns the Horizons version of Elite Dangerous.
