ANNOUNCEMENT Fleet Carriers - Content Reveal Announcement

Greetings Commanders,

We're thrilled to announce that the first look at the upcoming Fleet Carrier update will be coming to your screens on Thursday, 2 April! Lead Server Developer, Dav Stott, and Game Designer, Luke Betterton, will join us on a special video to talk us through what these vast vessels are and how they'll be shaking up the galaxy!

Since the initial reveal of Fleet Carriers, we've examined the concept of predefined load-outs and decided to invest additional time to ensure that fleet carriers offer the same level of flexibility and customization as other ships within Elite Dangerous. We've done this by adding more loadout options to make your carrier unique, and allow for player-to-player interaction like you've never seen before in Elite Dangerous!

Squirming in your cockpit chair wanting to know more details? Here is some key information on Fleet Carriers - but for the entire content reveal, tune in to our Pre-Recorded Stream on YouTube, on 2 April at 18:00 (UTC). Although we won't be live, our team will be there in the chat to answer any questions that you may have.

  • One of your most frequent questions about Fleet Carriers was: How much do they cost? Fleet Carriers will be a lucrative investment, costing 5,000,000,000cr at launch.​
  • Fleet Carriers are individually owned and feature 16 landing pads (of varying sizes) for other players to dock at.​
  • Fleet Carriers use a new fuel, Tritium, to jump from system to system.​
  • Fleet Carriers have a max jump range of 500LY at one time, with the ability to jump whenever the owner wants, however, they will have a build up and cool down period between jumps.​
  • You can manage your carrier's finances by setting tariffs and adjusting the buying and selling prices for commodities traded in it's market.​
As it currently stands, we're aiming to launch the Fleet Carriers update in June and will be calling all commanders to experience Fleet Carriers (as both visitors and owners) in two upcoming public betas before the update is live! The first beta will begin on 7 April for PC only, and the second beta which will be launched on PC, Xbox and PlayStation, will take place in May. Please note that there is a chance that these time frames may change slightly in the coming weeks, but we'll keep you up to date on the specific times, dates and instructions.

See you there, Commanders.
5 bilion? I think you guys have completely lost your mind! I have 2 billion in my account that should be enough for a basic version. I will not come back to grind another 3 billion credits for this...
Can't you make a smaller and cheaper version? Not everyone need 16 landing pad!!!
See you on December when atmospheric planets will be hopefully announced!
 
First - this is awesome news. I have been waiting on this for so long, and am very excited to finally hear more. Kudos to the team!

Second ... Serious question ... where do the ships go?

The landing pads on the carrier appear to be nose-to-tail. Station hangars in game are not directly underneath the pads, but "ahead" of them, in the direction of the landing, which for most pads in that image would be underneath another pad. Similar thing with the sliding pad that rolls out over the opening when your ship takes the elevator down to the hangar ... slides out from "ahead" of the pad.

New hangar layout? Multiple folded quantum dimensions inside the carrier granting it Tardis-like expandability? New "stretch" carrier layout to accommodate station-like hangars?

/pedant

It is only for landing, there is no shipyard so you can change ships while docked in the FC, so there is no need for extra space to maneuver a single ship per pad.

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Wonder how accurate that article statement is... :unsure:

Reading the article the FCs sound like a credit sink for end game players, what with upkeep and whatnot. I wonder how much a day/week they'll cost to run. Or will the cost be in materials/cargo that can be traded for? Hence the tariffs.
 
I think the price is about right - after all it's something that should require a little bit of effort. Mind you, I'm unlikely to ever even see one - I've been playing since the XBox pre-view and only have around 500M, and I also play in Solo so I'm not going to be docking on anyone else's FC.
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
From article....

"to support the weekly upkeep costs, from wear and tear maintenance to crew wages and Tritium, a new fuel commodity needed to power the megaships. "

"but they will also need to plan and balance their finances to cover running costs, as persistent debt that eventually exceeds the debt threshold could see carriers decommissioned and sold for parts. "

Interesting.
Interesting in a 'this is going to lead to "I left the game for a few months and my Carrier has been scrapped!!1eleven!" threads' sort of a way - certainly.

I wonder, as the Carrier is personal rather than Squadron based, how high the weekly upkeep bar willl be set - too high and it will disenfranchise some players who can afford one but can't devote significant time per week to earn the upkeep.
 
5,000,000,000cr at launch....

That's way too much...

Only old players who used Robigo and others things like that could afford it
Reduce that to 2 000 000 000 and that would be good

Sorry but this is nonsense. You can make 100m an hour in the game today if that's what you want to do. I'm not saying you should do it, you should do whatever you enjoy doing, but let's not push this myth.
 
Does anyone know if FD have put a limit on the number of carriers one can own? I want two.....at least.

Actually, now I think of it, a fleet of carrier task forces would be great.

Yeah......
 
I have the credits and I'll be buying a carrier on day 1; very excited.

But I think the price needs to be lower. According to the Inara statistics we've seen, anyone with over a billion credits is an outlier. I see no sense in FD doing all this work only to generate loads of complaints about "grind".
 
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