Elite Dangerous Update #98

Hello, Commander,

Welcome to Elite Dangerous Newsletter #98.

This week we're thrilled to announce the beta release dates for Elite Dangerous 1.5, and Elite Dangerous: Horizons 2.0. We're giving you another exciting glimpse at Planetary Landing, with David Braben's latest sneak peek video footage showing a misty crater, catching up with the latest GalNet news and much more.

Pre-order links:
Elite Dangerous: Horizons
Elite Dangerous: Horizons Beta

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

• Beta Dates Announced
• From Space to Surface
• Settlements Deep Dive
• On the Horizon Livestream
• Educating Ed Episode 3
• Name That Station
• Community Goals Update
• Comms Chatter
• GalNet

Beta Dates Announced

During the Q&A livestream with David Braben on Wednesday, David announced the beta dates for Elite Dangerous: Horizons and Elite Dangerous 1.5.

Next week (w/b 09/11/2015), Commanders with beta access will be able to test out the new ships coming to Elite Dangerous 1.5, including the Imperial Cutter, the Federal Corvette and the Keelback. We’ll let you know through the normal channels the precise date once we get final confirmation from the team.

On Tuesday November 24th those Commanders with access to the Elite Dangerous: Horizons 2.0 beta will be able to touch down on planet surfaces and take their SRV out for a spin!

We can't wait to hear about people's discoveries and adventures, see video creations from our community, and experience the vast planet surfaces ourselves. See you on the ground, Commanders!

Pre-order links:
Elite Dangerous: Horizons
Elite Dangerous: Horizons Beta

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Mist

This week, David's sneak peek videos of Elite Dangerous: Horizons continued, showing off a cold, deep misty crater. The mist is formed from volatiles released from the rocks below. These are not uncommon, and even possible at high temperatures, where lead vapour can also form high temperature mists.

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Settlements Deep Dive

This week's Developer update from Executive Producer Michael Brookes went in to detail about the settlements you'll be visiting, exploring and assaulting in Elite Dangerous: Horizons.

Ports and settlements are at the upper end of the scale of locations you can discover on planet’s surfaces. They can vary in size themselves from huge, established conglomerations of structures to quite small outposts. Surface starports are generally the largest and they act in a similar way to the starports in orbit. They can have the same facilities and have economies dependent on the type of world and with specific variations depending on the starport itself. New economy types have been added that only apply to surface starports.

As with the orbital starports, missions can be taken from surface starports and they can take you to surface bases. Similarly missions can be issued from orbital starports that require visiting the surface – assuming you have the ability to do so. There are also new mission variants that apply only to surface operations.

Complementing this is a range of resources and commodities that are only available from surface starports or by collection from points of interest as I mentioned last week. We’re also adding a new type of method for locating resources and uses for them which is a prelude for the loot and crafting system coming later in the Horizons season – more on this soon.

The surface starports and settlements are where the population of these airless worlds live and present various opportunities for Commanders. The style and layout of these facilities reflects their purpose. One of my favourite examples of this is the prison colony – this is an imposing and well-guarded structure that you might need to penetrate to facilitate a prison break.

Surface installations are a lot more open than orbital stations. Of course you can collect and deliver goods from surface bases, but it is also possible to hack data links, sections of bases get power from specific generators – taking out those generators takes out the lights in that section, but also the power to the turrets… Skimmers can also be taken out, or taking out the towers that control them can be just as effective way of breaching the defences. Whether it’s a secret research base or a prison colony, there are multiple stages to carrying out your objectives.

As we’ve shown and mentioned already it is advisable to take a flexible approach to these settlements – some of them are protected by capital ship scale weaponry that is lethal against ships, although less so against the SRVs – both because of their slower motion, but also they have a minimum angle of declination – so a Scarab can use the landscape to stay below the guns in most cases. Smaller turrets and skimmers are more of a threat to the SRVs. If you’re operating in a wing then each Commander can work in different roles at the same time, but even on your own you can achieve the same effect more slowly by switching between your ship and SRV accordingly.

Depending on the world’s population there can be none, a few, or many of these surface starports and settlements. As you’d expect they’re more common within the human habited bubble, but they’re not exclusive to that volume. Similar crime and ownership rules apply to settlements and ports as they do to space stations and outposts. Some of these can be lawless, others where the law is enforced – so take care before opening fire! As well as the bounties available at these sites you can encounter settlements in a state of war which can be engaged in a similar fashion to combat zones.

So far we’ve focused on the locations and the more action orientated gameplay, but naturally there’s more to planetary landings than that. I’ve already talked about the points of interest you can discover, but how you find them utilises a new device on the SRV, in addition to the ground scanner you have already seen. This works very differently to the ship scanners and we’ll reveal more about this next week.

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On The Horizon Livestream

During Wednesday’s ‘On the Horizon’ livestream, David Braben spent an hour answering the community’s questions about Horizons, and the future of Elite Dangerous development. David answered more than 60 questions, without skipping any from the community-created list. You can see the stream in full here, where David touches on alien races, character creation, new ships, and much more.

Continuing our On the Horizon series of livestreams, Community Manager Edward Lewis will be joined by Lead Designer Sandro Sammarco for a live Q&A, and a chat about some of the previously unseen features coming as part of Planetary Landings, including collectable resources found on planet surfaces that we're calling 'Materials '.

Materials are one of the many exciting features coming to Elite Dangerous: Horizons at launch, and they lay the foundation for the loot system that will be a part of the next Horizons expansion during 2016.

As part of the livestream Sandro will also be giving us a tour of the new ships that you'll be able to fly in the 1.5 and Horizons 2.0 Betas. Keep a close eye on our forum and social media channels for more details on how you can get your questions to Sandy before the livestream starts.

The stream will start at 7PM GMT on Tuesday November 10 on our official YouTube channel.

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Educating Ed Episode 3 - Elite Racers

On the last episode of Educating Ed, Ed joined up with the Elite Secret Service, taking on a super-secret spy mission. Things turned dramatic towards the end of the episode, but you'll have to watch to find out what becomes of the Galactic Intern's ESS 'contact'.

The next episode, with the Elite Racers will be live on our official YouTube channel on Thursday November 12 at 7PM GMT.

The Elite Racers meet up regularly to take part in high-speed races around the starports of Elite Dangerous. The Galactic Intern will be learning all about Elite Racers culture, taking part in the preliminary heats and experiencing the fast-paced action of an Elite Racers finale.

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Name That Station

Earlier in the week we asked you to suggest a name for the station you are building in the "Among the Stars" Community Goal.

We’ve had hundreds of suggestions and we’ve picked out 15 of the most commonly suggested names for you to vote on.

Have a look at the list on the forums and let us know what you would like the station to be called. The vote will end Monday morning GMT so you will need to be quick!

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Community Goals Update

Greeting, Commanders, and welcome to this week’s Community Goals blog.

Reports are coming in that the Empire has declared war on the Cayutorme Syndicate. Having ignored an Imperial order to disband its fleet and hand over data relating to the garrison stockpiles it is suspected of looting, the organisation has been labelled an enemy of the Empire. The leader of the Cayutorme Syndicate, Kyle Kurowski, is trying to encourage mercenaries to join his already-imposing armada, claiming that the Empire is attempting to strong-arm factions in independent systems for its own gain. It seems that conflict in Cayutorme is inevitable.

In other news, London Relay in the Epsilon Indi system is to host a summit conference focusing on terrorism and galactic security. Representatives from the Empire, the Federation and the Alliance are all expected to attend the three-day event, which begins next week. As preparations for the event began, Federal authorities raised security levels in the system and warned that any unlawful activity would be met with extreme prejudice. Meanwhile, an organisation known as ‘Revolution Incorporated’, based at London Relay, announced its intention to commemorate the summit with “a special event”. The organisation said it would approach independent pilots for help with their efforts.

If you’re looking for a goal this week, the breakdown below should help:

Cayutorme, Adkins Port: (Cayutorme Syndicate) Help the Cayutorme Syndicate resist the Imperial attack, and sell your Combat Bonds at Adkins Port in the Cayutorme system.

Cayutorme, Adkins Port: (Giryampi Empire League) Help the Empire destroy the Cayutorme Syndicate, and sell your Combat Bonds at Adkins Port in the Cayutorme system.

Epsilon Indi, London Relay: Deliver explosives to the mysterious Revolution Incorporated at London Relay in the Epsilon Indi system.

Fly safe out there, Commanders - these are dangerous times!

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Comms Chatter

The audio drama, ‘Escape Velocity’ is coming to Patreon, so its creator, Christopher Jarvis, is hosting a 12-hour livestream to celebrate. During the stream Chris will be joined by guests from the community and Frontier Developments, playing Elite and will be pointing people in the direction of the new Patreon website. ‘Escape Velocity is a new full-cast audio science-fiction serial, written and produced by Christopher Jarvis and The Radio Theatre Workshop, based on the video game Elite: Dangerous. Join the mysterious Commander Thane as he is thrown across the universe on an unexpected adventure, fighting to stay alive amid the plotting of desperate, greedy and dangerous factions.’ Click here to learn more about escape velocity.

It's an old one, but a good one that was recently brought to our attention again on Reddit this week. It's Share Your Vulnerability's comic strip about Powerplay. Click the image below to see the full story unfold.

CMDR rkmase on the Elite Dangerous subreddit has begun work on a personal DIY, Custom Control Panel.

CMDR Karuv shared to us a really stunning image of an asteroid field with a star further there on. What could be laying in the darkness...

/u/Esvandiary posted up a huge album of pictures to the Elite Explorers subreddit. Have a gander of their travels throughout space!

And finally, last but not least on this weeks larger than usual comms chatter... gistya on imgur posted up these rather handy graphs. Ever wanted to know the chances of finding a habitable zone planet, based by star class? Take a look!

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The treasure hunt organised by the billionaire and philanthropist Alfred Jeffress has come to an end, with a pilot by the name of Commander Woodhouse claiming victory. Hundreds of people took part in the competition, but ultimately there could only be one victor. As with Jeffress's previous treasure hunt, competitors were required to solve a series of riddles to find the mystery objects at the centre of the search – a trio of time capsules. The clues took pilots first to Slipher Hub in the Faust 68 system, then to Dickensport in Fomalhaut, and finally to the Cernunnos system.

Imperial investigators have confirmed ties between Archon Delaine's Kumo Crew and the mercenary group known as the Cayutorme Syndicate. This partnership brings disturbing context to the civil unrest currently affecting Cayutorme, as well as the syndicate's rapid rise to power.

Following a recent statement from Sirius Corporation announcing its intention to revitalise several newly acquired star systems, the company has launched an initiative to boost the economy of HIP 8396. At the heart of the initiative is a request for osmium, which Sirius Corp hopes will serve as a fillip for the system's financial rejuvenation. Li Yong-Rui, the CEO of the Sirius Corp., was quoted as saying: "The people of HIP 8396 are part of the Sirius Corporation family, but if we are to help our compatriots, we will need help ourselves. So I implore all galactic citizens to contribute to this initiative, and bring a new era of peace and prosperity to HIP 8396."

The deadline for the inspection and disbandment of the mercenary Cayutorme Syndicate fleet has passed, and Imperial Naval vessels have entered the Cayutorme system. Speaking from an undisclosed location, the leader of the Cayutorme Syndicate, Kyle Kurowski, confirmed that his mercenary armada had engaged the Imperial Fleet, but denied reports that independent pilots were fighting for both sides: "Independent pilots are just that – independent. They will not be the tool the Emperor uses to turn us into Imperial citizens. If they stand for freedom, they stand with us."

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That’s it for Newsletter #98. 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