Elite: Dangerous Update #88

Hello, Commander,

Welcome to Elite Dangerous Newsletter #88.

This week we are at PAX Prime in Seattle which starts today. We're showing off CQC for the first time at a U.S. public event, meeting thousands of potential new recruits and spreading the word about dogfighting, exploring, and trading your way through the 400 billion star systems of our Milky Way galaxy.

If you're at PAX this weekend make sure you swing by our booth in Hall 6. You can't miss us - the Frontier Banner and Elite: Dangerous logo can be seen as soon as you walk in the door. Hopefully see you there Commanders! We may have something special for you if you find us and tell us the newsletter was sent to you... You'll also have the chance to win an Xbox One in our end of day raffle, and you can pick up a world-exclusive PAX 2015 Paint Job!

For those who can't make it to PAX, and instead get to enjoy Elite: Dangerous from the comfort of your armchair at home, a selection of content has been added to the Community site this week. New information, articles, interviews and more are added frequently.

There's a sale on Paint Jobs this weekend, and we recently announced that the Lifetime Expansion Pass will be available on our store only until 14th September.

As always, you can hear the latest news and updates directly from the development team on our Forums, Twitter, Facebook, Community Homepage and right here in the newsletter every week, and we're always eager to hear your feedback.

Contents This Week

• 40% Off Selected Paint Jobs
• Lifetime Expansion Pass
• Community Goals Update
• Peek Of The Week
• Developer Update
• Comms Chatter
• GalNet

40% Off Selected Paint Jobs

Sale ends Midnight Monday BST

It’s the bank holiday weekend in the UK and what better way to celebrate than with a weekend sale. With 40% off a huge range of paint jobs it’s the perfect time to get the look you’ve been longing for.

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Lifetime Expansion Pass sales to close!

We’ve had a number of players asking us how long The Lifetime Expansion Pass will be on sale for. We can now confirm it will only available on our store until the 14th September. So reserve your seat now for every season of expansions in Elite: Dangerous and get access to every Beta build too!

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Community Goals Update

Hi Commanders,

Welcome to this week’s community goals blog.

Last week you were challenged to smuggle Battle Weapons, haul Ceremonial Heike Tea and search desperately for ships carrying Toxic Waste. Many commanders took up the challenge and all three goals were completed, albeit to different levels of success.

Of course, there was a bit of a twist in the tale. Galent alerted eagle-eyed Commanders that the faction offering these goals were in fact Emperor’s Dawn, the group suspected of killing the Emperor, many of whom then decided not to assist a potential terrorist group.

Emperor’s Dawn have disappeared back into the shadows, but some elements of the Empire have this week organised an exploration drive in order to hunt them down.

The following information should help you locate the goal:
Cemiess – Mackenzie Relay – Deliver exploration data to Universal Cartographics here.

Each tier completed will provide the Empire’s bureaucrats with enough data to locate an Emperor’s Dawn cell in a system.

Finally, a reminder that after the successful efforts of over 1,500 commanders there is still an ongoing 30% discount on all Technology commodities in the Apalar system to be had.

Safe Flying (look out for black holes!)

Adam Bourke-Waite

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Peek Of The Week

A screenshot from a planet's surface. You can win the chance to name your own planet in Elite Dangerous by telling us which star system and planet it is!

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From the desk of Executive Producer Michael Brookes...

Hi everyone,

Following on from last week's dev update our big focus at the moment is preparing for the CQC update beta and alongside it the Xbox One release. The CQC update is currently going through our internal QA pass and assuming this continues going well we’ll release the beta next week after the Bank Holiday.

CQC Championship is the main feature of the update and that has changed quite a bit since GPP2 on Xbox One. We've been working on matchmaking to improve its speed and reliability. The Xbox One version uses Xbox Live’s functionality, but for PC we have created our own, which is one of the features needing hammering in the beta test.

We've also added two new maps for the update: Ice Field and Asteria Point. Ice Field sees you flying through a dense asteroid field where skilled piloting of your ship is required and Asteria Point where the tunnels system in the main structure can be used to shake a tail. Customising ship loadouts is another great addition to CQC. As players rank up they'll unlock new weapons, abilities and internal modules that they can apply to their ships. Each item offers the player a different way to set up their ship so they can have it set up to match their playing style.

When players reach CQC Rank 50 they'll be given the option to 'Prestige'. Prestiging allows the player to set their rank back to 1 where they will lose all of their unlocks, but in return they will be able to earn more credits for use in the main game, a permit to the Attilius Orbital starport in CD-4311917 and a new icon next to their name to show others that this pilot is not to be trifled with. A player can progress up to Prestige Level 9 where they max out the amount of credits they can earn and are seen as one of the best fighter pilots around.

Players can earn credits for use in the main game when they play CQC. The amount of credits a player earns depends on their performance in the match as well as their ranking. The higher their ranking the more credits you can be awarded. When a player Prestiges they open up the possibility of earning even more credits as their rank, and reputation, increases.

As always with a major update there’s also a host of tweaks and fixes and we’ll post the change log when we release the beta.

Thanks!

Michael

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Comms Chatter

And finally, CMDR DrunkRenegade12 on the Xbox One took this amazing shot of our blue marble.

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Heroes: that's what some call the Fuel Rats. Ever since launching their emergency fuel delivery service a little over two months ago, the Fuel Rats have made an impact on the lives of over 1,000 commanders who would otherwise have faced a long spacewalk home. For one stranded commander, over 31,500 light years from inhabited space with five months worth of exploration data on board, the Fuel Rats’ service was greatly appreciated. Commander Paul Kavinsky, in partnership with Commander Rusticolus, made an incredible high-speed transition to the far side of the galaxy to rescue Commander TheHairyMob.

Heike Starport Security under Strain. On patrol outside the busy starport of Brunel Station, Heike Security Forces pilot Kenji Nobu reluctantly admits that not all visitors to the station are being subjected to "the full scrutiny of the law". "There's just too many of them and too few of us", Nobu said, resignedly. In the last 24 hours, nearly 750 ships have docked at Brunel Station, mostly small or medium transport ships – over 10 times normal volumes.

The popular gladiatorial tournament known as the ‘XYZ Fight Club’ took place again this weekend. Our reporters were ringside for the spectacle. Pilots descended on Athena, pitting dog-fighting skills against one another in both light and medium ships. Criminals targeting participant Commander Angel Rose marred the start of the event and forced an evacuation of Darboux Orbital, but Commanders Rhea and Lynk1973 ensured that contingency arenas allowed combatants and spectators to avoid further harassment.

Civil Aid Crisis as Millions of Mourners Fill Capitol. The civic authorities on Capitol have reported needing to use strategic reserves of food, medical supplies and shelters as millions of mourners now fill the streets, waiting for their chance to see Emperor Hengist Duval’s body before the funeral next week.

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That’s it for Newsletter #88. As always, if there's anything in particular that you’d like to hear more about, or if you'd like to ask a question, then please contact us at elite-newsletter@frontier.co.uk.

Click for the latest Game Manual, Quickstart Guide and Pilot Training Videos. Visit our Support team here and read our previous newsletters here.

Until next time, fly safe and Right On, Commander.

The Frontier Team