To Launch, And Beyond with the Lifetime Expansion Pass
We plan to continue to significantly enhance the game via further expansions after the launch date, using the same incremental development philosophy that we’ve used so far.
Major new features will include planetary landings and even walking around inside ships, stations, and planet surfaces with time.
For those who have a Lifetime Expansion Pass (included in Premium Beta and Alpha, and also still available here until 29th July) all such significant expansion will be included. Those without the Lifetime Expansion Pass will be charged for each expansion as they are released.
We have made no secret that our ultimate ambition is to be able to land on the surface of planets, as you were able to in the other Elite sequels Frontier and Frontier: First Encounters.
We want this feature to push the boundaries as we believe we are doing in other areas of Elite: Dangerous already, like space flight, combat, trading, sound, online, visual fidelity etc.
That means rich, varied experiences. Not just landing pads, but rich content on the surfaces, surface vehicles, the ability to stash things there, to explore. Clearly ‘doing it right’ like this will take time, but we have a plan and will get there via a series of meaningful releases.
We believe that each stage will be incredible, and the result truly breathtaking. What you will see on the worlds will be a mix of procedurally generated content, particularly the landscapes, cloudscapes, compositions and so on, mixed with hand-crafted elements.
We also plan to allow you to get up out of your seat and walk around your ship. You can see the level of attention and thought that has already been given to the ship interiors from these ship cockpit views in this video:
All is ready for you to walk around your ship.
Of course walking round your ship will be nice, but it is the just springboard for a very significant expansion of gameplay – you will be able to experience the inside of starports and interact with other players and AI characters, and even board other people’s ships in space and take them by force, as shown in this concept piece.
Of course this will be further expanded to include walking around on the surfaces of planets too.
...please don't hate me! Couldn't resist 
