<dream>
This is an absolutely legit roadmap that I somehow got my hands on, for the what is called "Phase One" of the future development of ED, no wishful thinking or madeup stuff involved at all!
1.4: The arrival of proper NPCs
The next major free update 1.4. will be released next month. It will contain many updates to bring up NPCs to the ambitious goals we set ourselves in the DDA! These will include:
In addition, this update will see the release of two new ships, the Federal Corvette and the Imperial Cutter!
Since most players have amassed a small fleet of ships by now, scattered all over the galaxy, will now introduce a realtime ship transport service between stations. For a small fee (fuel costs + service costs), you can now let your remotely stored ships be transported between stations in realtime. This will take approximately the same time as flying the ships between stations yourself, but spares you this work and let you focus on your actual activities like trading, combat or mining.
1.5: Exploration: Retribution
In the free content update 1.5, which we plan to release in autumn, the exploration system will be completely overhauled to include many of the great ideas from the DDA and our community members. Among other features these include (but are not restricted to):
We know this will result in some whining and moaning, but we think for this new and more complex Exploration mechanic to work, this step is inevitable.
To accompany the new exploration mechanics, we will also see new station variants like hidden asteroid bases!
We will also give Smuggling a balancing pass, to make it more profitable. Now both, illegal and stolen goods, will be worth a smugglers risks and efforts.
1.6 CQC - we have to squeeze it in somewhere!
1. DLC: Exploring ships and Stations on foot!
Our first DLC - which we will release during the next holiday season - will let you leave your pilot seat and explore your ship on foot. You will finally see how that large chunk of metal looks from the inside or even leave it and conduct repairs in deep space during a EVA! In addition, you will also be able to walk around the huge space stations and see all kinds of procedurally generated facilities that our cunning engineers and artists have come up with.
To bring these "shore leaves" to life, we added some more features:
This update will also see the release of two new ships, the Panther Clipper and the Dolphin!
This concludes the "Phase One" of our upcoming ED plans. Stay tuned to hear more about "Phase Two", soon!
</dream>
This is an absolutely legit roadmap that I somehow got my hands on, for the what is called "Phase One" of the future development of ED, no wishful thinking or madeup stuff involved at all!
1.4: The arrival of proper NPCs
The next major free update 1.4. will be released next month. It will contain many updates to bring up NPCs to the ambitious goals we set ourselves in the DDA! These will include:
- Persistent NPCs - you can now meet the same NPCs again and build up personal reputations, relations and history with them
- NPC contacts - those persistent NPCs with which you have a high reputation will now appear in your contact tab, no matter where they are; they contact you to give you missions or you contact them if you need help (for example if you want to hire them as wingmen etc.)
- NPC wingmen for hire - you can now hire NPC wingmen at stations and outposts that can accompany you on your deep space exploration travels, protect you on your trading runs through low security anarchy systems or fight alongside you in conflict zones
- To make escorting NPC wingmen more meaningful, the security level of a system will now be displayed in the HUD of your cockpit, right next to the government type
- NPC comms - you can now communicate with NPC ships using a system of preset commands (for hired NPC wingmen or to demand trade vessels to drop cargo - if you are a pirate!) and to lead simple conversations with NPC ships you encounter
In addition, this update will see the release of two new ships, the Federal Corvette and the Imperial Cutter!
Since most players have amassed a small fleet of ships by now, scattered all over the galaxy, will now introduce a realtime ship transport service between stations. For a small fee (fuel costs + service costs), you can now let your remotely stored ships be transported between stations in realtime. This will take approximately the same time as flying the ships between stations yourself, but spares you this work and let you focus on your actual activities like trading, combat or mining.
1.5: Exploration: Retribution
In the free content update 1.5, which we plan to release in autumn, the exploration system will be completely overhauled to include many of the great ideas from the DDA and our community members. Among other features these include (but are not restricted to):
- Mechanics to discovery unexplored systems
- Dark systems - systems without stars but other phenomena!
- Removal of the safety switch - flying to close to black holes and stars now will be bad!
- New stuff to discover, like comets, derelict stations, ship graveyards and new types of celestial bodies
- The option to trade exploration data between players and even to sell them to NPC ships
- The range of the Advanced Surface Scanner will be reduced to 5000ls, since we believe some manual work to explore a system should remain
- Class 4 surface scans - to conduct these high level scans, you have to approach the celestial body until you are only 20ls away and scan it with a new type of scanner; this will reveal mineral compositions and other geological information
- To accompany this new time of close range, high level scan, we added a HUD overlay to visualize the scanning process
We know this will result in some whining and moaning, but we think for this new and more complex Exploration mechanic to work, this step is inevitable.
To accompany the new exploration mechanics, we will also see new station variants like hidden asteroid bases!
We will also give Smuggling a balancing pass, to make it more profitable. Now both, illegal and stolen goods, will be worth a smugglers risks and efforts.
1.6 CQC - we have to squeeze it in somewhere!
1. DLC: Exploring ships and Stations on foot!
Our first DLC - which we will release during the next holiday season - will let you leave your pilot seat and explore your ship on foot. You will finally see how that large chunk of metal looks from the inside or even leave it and conduct repairs in deep space during a EVA! In addition, you will also be able to walk around the huge space stations and see all kinds of procedurally generated facilities that our cunning engineers and artists have come up with.
To bring these "shore leaves" to life, we added some more features:
- Visual representations of NPCs and players - NPCs wandering around stations will be procedurally generated, making use of a sophisticated character creation tool. Players will also be able to create a visual representation of their commander - their avatar!
- NPC crews - you can now hire crews for your multi seat ships. Depending on their stats and procedurally generated personalities, they can have different impacts on your ship handling.
- Passenger missions - with all mechanics in place needed to fully flesh out passenger missions - NPC improvements we made with 1.4 and visualizations that come in this update - we are finally set to add passenger missions without them being reduced to some kind of relabeled cargo mission. You can now perform a wide array of passenger missions - fly some official state representatives to a conference; show your wealthy VIP guests around the stunning parts of the galaxy in your luxury liner; smuggle secret agents into stations unseen, using low profile ships like Sidewinders and haulers etc.
This update will also see the release of two new ships, the Panther Clipper and the Dolphin!
This concludes the "Phase One" of our upcoming ED plans. Stay tuned to hear more about "Phase Two", soon!
</dream>
