1.4 with CQCC September, Planetary landings "Horizons" by Christmas

[ArithonUK]

The Elite: Dangerous news is hitting high gear today.

We've been told that 1.4 is coming in September. It includes:-

• Close Quarters Combat Championship - a team-based arena combat mini-game, separate from the main Elite galaxy.
• The Imperial Eagle - a tougher Empire version, with a medium hardpoint on top and bigger power supply with higher top speed.
• The DropShip Mk II - a variant of the dropship with higher top speed better handling and larger hardpoints.
• The Federal Gunship - little is known, except it will be Anaconda-sized. And it's not the Corvette.
• Improved and more varied missions.
• Player factions.

I addition they have announced "Elite: Dangerous Horizons"

[video=youtube;B4sAe16UTDg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4sAe16UTDg[/video]

This is the planetary landings expansion. With this comes a new ship - the Cobra Mk IV and the SRV (space buggy). The expansion is £29.99 for existing Elite players and £39.99 for new players (a bargain as this is the main game + the expansion).

Frontier have also brought back the "Lifetime expansion pass" this time for £130 (instead of £100 as it was during the Premium Beta). There is (already) loads of moaning from people about losing their bragging rights to this option, but I for one welcome its return, as I didn't have the cash last time around. This will give purchasers every DLC released for the game over the next ten years.

I will post more details as they appear.

[Sneakytiger]

Be nice if we have it by october

[ArithonUK]

From 3pm Twitch Stream:

You see a planet, descend to orbital cruise, fly over the planet and land then deploy Surface Recon Vehicle (SRV) the "Scarab". Every ship can carry a scarab, but not all SRV's, as there will be others (bigger & specialist task vehicles).

SRV occupies internal rack space.

[Sneakytiger]

yeah being able to land looks mighty nice and going round in a buggy looks great, be nice to see what limitations will be put on us tho, ie.what area we can travel with the buggy and what places we will be able to land at.

[ArithonUK]

Q: Is landing seamless?
A: Yes. You land, deploy SRV and drive around.

SRVs will be visible from ships flying over planet surface. You can explore in SRVs with other commanders.

Surface will have minerals, crashed ships and surface bases for trading.

Flight model will alter due to gravity, so bigger ships will sink as they slow down.

Cobra Mk IV - available only to people who buy Horizons who bought main game.

After CQCC there is one more major content update for core game.

Q: Will Cobra paintjob work on new Mk 4 ?
A: Hope so - confirmation in next week's newsletter.

Q: By "Holiday" release, what the hell do you mean?
A: The grey area between November and December..

[in game] You will have to buy SRV and SRV deployment module. Your ship may (or may not) be invulnerable while you are off SRV exploring...

Assets from CQCC will be appearing in main game.

1.4 stuff

CQCC to PC (within days).
New ships.
Hinting: loot. Crafting.
Minor (player) factions.

Land on any airless body anywhere in the galaxy unless permit-locked.

SRV buggy has thrusters, so it can thrust down to grip surface or thrust up to bunny-hop.

EDIT: Michael Brooks has said atmospheric landings will not be in initial release of Horizons, but will follow further down the line.

[Lameduck]

At the age of 73, I don't consider a £130 'Lifetime Expansion pass' as value for money :roflmao:

[OldBloke]

At the age of 73, I don't consider a £130 'Lifetime Expansion pass' as value for money :roflmao:

I think 'Lifetime' means 10 years in this case :g:

[Liberator]

Glad I bought the lifetime expansion at £35 back in the day.

[BrotherTobious]

As did I

Sent from my Nexus 5

[ArithonUK]

From GamesCom Q&A

This covers what happens when landing in planets. If a non horizons player approaches a planet, when they get close they will be kicked out of SC as they are today. Horizon. Players will keep going. The transition is seamless with no cut scenes

When asked about Thargoids. Said won't ruin the surprise. Also said the UA was added in Wings and it took a long time for people to find them. Strongly hinted that Thargoids are already in the game somewhere

Background sim is not as manual as some people think. Overall they think it works fine but still need to tweak it so it reflects real life. e.g. is a planet has a famine then prices reflect that. They are working on that

Asked about the SRV. When you activate it they will be a fade to you in the cockpit. i.e. no cut screen or need to walk through the ship to get there.

If you die in the SRV you'll be placed back at the ship.

SRV will be customisable.

Permit sectors: They already know what most of them will be used for. They have a couple of spare ones they are not sure about yet

[albert]

£40 per expansion means they have to at least develop 4 to make that lifetime pass viable. That's 4 more major upgrades assuming a major upgrade doesn't become smaller over time and the content diminishes.

I feel having watched the launch info of Horizons whilst it looks very cool there still needs to be "something to achieve as a team!" and making the environments expand and look pretty is one thing but if you have to just grind grind grind then where is the fun.

I'll be asking about this at Gamescon on Friday.

[ArithonUK]

Before "Horizons" is released in November/December and after 1.4 is released next month the main game will get one last major update.

Not much has been said yet, but Frontier announced that a 1.5 update would come before the Horizons expansion and it would be titled ''Ships''.  Its purpose is to make the total count of ships in the game over  30, which is of course more than what Frontier had planned, along with  this, the update is supposed to ''prepare the game for Horizons''.

I can only speculate that this update will include the ships still missing in action (Federal Corvette, Beluga Liner, Panther Clipper, Dolphin passenger ship and Imperial Cutter) and by extension, passenger transport.


That means we'll be getting a major update next month with CQCC in 1.4 and 1.5 to follow in October to be followed by Horizons in late November or December.

Also, I plucked this "compiled" list of information from about Horizons from Reddit.

 

What is Elite Dangerous: Horizons?

  According to the official site:    Elite Dangerous:  Horizons is a new season of major gameplay expansions for Elite  Dangerous, beginning with Planetary Landings across the Elite Dangerous  galaxy. Elite Dangerous: Horizons will continue to introduce new  features and gameplay as the season continues into 2016, enriching the  Elite Dangerous experience with new activities and new ways to play.
 
Horizons is an all-access pass to all Season 2 content. The first  Season 2 content, airless planetary landings, will launch this holiday  on PC. That is the only confirmed Season 2 content we know so far.

  Is Horizons just planetary landings?

  Nope! This stage of planetary landings is just the first expansion in this season.
  What is a season?

  A designated time period of Elite: Dangerous content. The initial  purchase of the base game is considered Season 1, which includes things  like Wings, Powerplay, and the upcoming CQC.
  Horizons is the next designated Season of Elite: Dangerous content,  meaning you will have to pay for it like you did to access the Season 1  content (the game we have now).

  How long will Season 2 last?

  If we're counting the airless planetary landings release as the first  Season 2 content, then it will begin in Holiday 2015 and end at some  point in 2016.    Elite Dangerous: Horizons will continue to introduce new features and gameplay as the season continues into 2016
 
What do I get in Horizons?

  We don't know the full feature list yet. This is what we know so far:
 

• Access to airless planetary landings (what was shown in the teaser trailer). This gives you access to SRVs, the buggys you can use to drive around full scale planetary surfaces. There will be fortified sttlements, low-level flight, access to special events, and more.
  
• The second expansion in Season 2 is some sort of crafting and loot system.

    This  second major update will include additional gameplay-focused content  including an all-new game-changing loot and crafting system.
 

• It will also not include atmospheric planets, which will instead be added in a later season.
  

That's all we know about it.

  How does the pricing work and what does each package do?

  The 3 current expansion packages are £40, £50, and £130. If you  already own Elite: Dangerous you will get £10 off any of those  purchases, but that loyalty discount will expire when Horizons is officially released.
  If you do not own Elite: Dangerous and buy one of those packages, you will get the base game as when planetary landings launches with Season 2 access.
 

• The base package is £39.99 (or £29.99 with loyalty discount) and gives you Season 2 access with planetary landings on it's full release.
  
• The beta package  is £49.99 (or £39.99 with loyalty discount) and gives you Season 2 access as  well as beta access to all Horizons updates that have betas, meaning  you'll probably get to play the planetary landings beta before it's full  release.
  
• The lifetime expansion pass gives you access to all expansion that will ever be released, and is £130 (or £120 with the loyalty discount). It will also grant you beta access.
  

  I am an alpha/beta/lifetime pass backer, will I get free access to Horizons?

  This is answered here.

 

• If you are an alpha backer, you will get access to Horizons and it's beta for free, as well as all seasons of expansions.
  
• If you are a premium beta backer, you will get access to Horizons and it's beta for free, as well as all seasons of expansions.
  
• If you are a standard beta backer, you will not get access to Horizons for free.
  
• If you bought the lifetime expansion pass when it was available the last time, you will  get access to Horizons for free and all future seasons. This applies no  matter what your beta backing level was, so if you were a standard beta  backer with this pass you're good.
  

  What's the deal with the Cobra Mk. 4?

  The Cobra Mk. 4 is a new ship only available to pilots who played  Elite: Dangerous in the first year of it's release. You still have to  purchase it with credits in-game, though.    The Cobra Mk  IV will be available in the game only to players who joined us in the  first year â€" forever. It’s our ‘thank you’ for your faith in the game,  and you’ll see more of the Cobra Mk IV in Friday’s Peek Of The Week.
 
If you are an existing Elite: Dangerous user, you will get the Cobra  Mk. 4 with your purchase of a Horizons pass along with your loyalty  discount.

  Will Horizons and base game players be grouped into the same instances?

  It seems like it. They haven't directly said yes, but this PC Gamer interview hints towards that.    But  they’re keen to stress that support for players who don’t upgrade will  continue, and owners of both versions of the game will still share the  same connected galaxyâ€"and be able to fly together in the same wings.
 
That last line seems to imply that they will still be able to  directly interact with eachother. It would be logical that they can play  together, but only Horizons players have ships that are suitably  equipped to land on planets.

  Will the base game still be supported?

  Yes! I don't have an exact time stamp, but it is discussed here. 1.4 and 1.5 are also both due to hit before the first part of Season 2.    The  game will be playable without the season content and development will  continue for all versions of the game. Where changes are quite  fundemental (like some aspects of missions) then that would be available  to all players. Other content and features would be specific to the  seasons. So the simple answer is yes, there will be continued  development of the core game. We'll reveal more details as we progress.


 
Can I get Horizons on Steam?
    Yes, before the end of the year. For now it will only be available through the Frontier Store.
  Much like  before, If you buy Elite Dangerous: Horizons from the Frontier store you  will have the option to generate a Steam code when it arrives on that  platform.
 
So it's not available yet, but you can rest easy ordering your package from Frontier's store and generating a key for it later.

  Will Horizons be on Xbox?

  Probably, but it is only currently confirmed for PC (I would assume that includes Mac as well). In any scenario, it's coming to PC first.

[ArithonUK]

Some new info has slipped out of Frontier towers today.

Hello Commanders!

Just to let you folk know: the plan for loot, is for it to be a core  system update (all seasons), so everyone will be able to use loot.

However, there will be a bunch of loot content that is season 2 (Horizons) only.

Hope this info helps.

This clearly means that although the first Elite expansion will be released in December, they are planning to continue injecting game-play and content into the core game after the final "season 1" update (1.5) has been released.

Whether this implies that crafting (also slated for Horizons) will follow suit and find its way into the core game, is purely guesswork unless Sandro comments on the issue (the question has already been asked).

So next year we may well be crafting our own ship modules and weapons. Twin hyperdrive for your Anaconda anyone?

[Gorion]

So current players, who joined after the game went live will be able to purchase the Cobra IV with credits right?

That's how I'm understanding it.

[ArithonUK]

So current players, who joined after the game went live will be able to purchase the Cobra IV with credits right?

That's how I'm understanding it.

 If you have Elite or buy Elite before December and then buy Horizons, you will be able to purchase the Cobra Mk IV in game. If you don't buy Horizons or only buy the game (for the first time) after December, you won't be able to obtain the Mk IV in Elite.