May be kind of a dumb question but here goes. I'm new to Elite in VR and absolutely loving it. If I get Horizons do I have the option of playing with it on or off? I know I'll eventually want to play it but I want some more time to get familiar with the base game before I add in even more systems and also so I get a better sense of what Horizons adds. On the other hand whenever Horizons is on sale I want to know I can snap it up without worrying about it. So can I choose to play with the Horizons DLC on or off or once I buy it is it always on?
Horizons Can I choose to play with Horizons on/off?
- Thread starter captainkoloth
- Start date
As near as I can tell, there's not that much difference other than being able to land on planets (or planet bases). Of course, you have the SRV option of being able to wander a bit on the surface of strange, forbidding moons and finding [ fill in blank here ] but otherwise the non-horizons version would have the same things (planets, moon, etc) - you just won't be able to land on them. Also some BB missions require landing on bases.
Elite horizons = Elite without content locks
Yes you can choose the base game on the launcher even if you own horizons. Personally I'd wait until season 3 pre-orders come around if I were in your position. It's unknown if S3 will come with S2 content (horizons) but either way if not S2 will probably be on sale at that point quite cheap.
S3 announcements are expected in the next 2-3 months.
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![[VR] Frank_G](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/59/59394.jpg?1553527111){kind=avatar}
First to answer the OPs question, yes. You can always switch between the basic game and Horizons in your launcher. It does not affect your save neither, so no problem there. If you saved the game on a planet and switch to basic, you will find yourself in orbit of the planet you wer landed on.
Alex Brentnall is right, that the price will most certainly drop when 3.0 is out. But as The Engineers update was shifted back to the end of Frontiers fiscal year, i expect the yet so mysterious 2.4 update around christmas and the new season at the beginning of the new fiscal year at the end of Q1 2017. In my opinion, buy it if you want it. This season will still last a while.
Alex Brentnall is right, that the price will most certainly drop when 3.0 is out. But as The Engineers update was shifted back to the end of Frontiers fiscal year, i expect the yet so mysterious 2.4 update around christmas and the new season at the beginning of the new fiscal year at the end of Q1 2017. In my opinion, buy it if you want it. This season will still last a while.
I would expect 3.0 and 2.4 to come out at the same time, like 1.5 and 2.0 did. It maybe that 3.0 and 2.3 come out at the same time and 2.4 comes out early next year. We shall just have to wait and see.
I think it highly unlikely that 3.0 is coming for Christmas. I would hazard a guess that FD would be advertising that a bit more in advance to maximize hype sales.
I hope I am wrong. My feeling is you will not see 3.0 until Christmas 2017.
Lets see, what Gamescom will bring. There is stuff in the air... I can feel it 
I very much doubt it will be Xmas 2017, they need to get more development money in. Pretty sure it will be this year or early next year. I think 2.4 will likely be out early next year as well. But we have no idea.
If 3.0 is walking around, it maybe restricted to certain areas at first like planets have been.
We shall find out soon. If they advertise it at gamescon like they did with 2.0 at EGX last year, it will be this xmas either at the same time as 2.3 or 2.4.
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Need to? Not if Horizons has not sold as well as was first expected. Each individual project needs to fund itself. If it doesn't, the game will stop being developed. IF Horizons has not sold as expected, it would explain the delays, as cutbacks in staff and funding would have drawn out the development time. I don't have an insight into the ED development plan, but I would expect that the plan is compartmentalised and each stage needs to be looked at as they go along and reworked if not performing as expected. Just ploughing ahead and hoping everything will come good is a recipe for disaster. A yearlong period is a very long time for not stepping in to restructure if the figures show clear signs of not meeting expectations.
The Gamescom show is at the end of August. We still need to have a build up to a Beta and then the Beta itself. FD already said previously that they plan to have their next major point release in September. Michael cleary communicated when I asked him live on this forum that this was not 2.2. I would not be surprised at all if you consider the Beta needs to be launched prior to the actual release, that it will not be until October before 2.2 actually releases. With that in mind, this might actually be what FD plans to try and flog Horizons over the Chrismas period to make up revenue and further support the project. This would make sense as a contingency plan if Horizons could not actually live up to its original 1 year/ 1 season plan model.
This is all just guesswork on my part, but even so, if I am right about the above you may well find you will get two releases next year in the second half of the Horizons 'season'. This would mean that if sales finally make up what they needed to inspire enough financial confidence, FD could confidently invest the time and expenditure to warrant another expansion and 3.0 could launch next Chrismas.
If on the other hand Horizons has sold as was expected you could be right and 3.0 might launch with season 2 lagging behind trying to catch up. This however, has never been FD's style. I see them wanting to milk Horizons for everything it is worth before cheapening it the release of 3.0. By that point, you would find Horizons being lumped into some sort of value offer pack much the same as how we seen the price of the original game fall as Horizons was first launched.
FD takes this approach with the ship skins releasing all the new ship skins on the small ships first and the least attractive skins of basic pastel colours. They know players will not buy those once the large ship skins or the more flashy designs become available are available and so they release them slowly hoping for maximum sales from them before finally providing consumers with the product they really want. That way an enthusiastic punter is likely to make two purchases in the long run instead of just one. It is a clever marketing tactic. I can't see how they would suddenly change that line of thinking with the main expansion releases.
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Ian Phillips
Volunteer Moderator
Gamescom starts in two days!
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Sorry got distracted and pressed send before finishing. It was meant to say this: I very much doubt it will be Xmas 2017, they need to get more development money in.
Also 3.0 is already being developed this was eluded to at the beginning of the year, this is being paid for by the season 2 money and sales of the main game.
The longer they take to release 3.0 the more money they may loose. If season 2 takes a full two years, that is an extra year on development costs without any other revenue apart from Horizons and main game sales coming in. Season 3 need to go live either at the end of this year or early next year in my eyes.
We do not know what the sales of Horizons are.
The next major point release has already happened, which was the material changes and the DSS additions which was schedules for late July or early August (we got it late July).
See here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/268658-The-Engineers-(2-1)-feedback-and-planned-updates
I have not seen or read anything about anything being released in September.
Let's wait until gamescon is finished at the end of this week, then hopefully we will have a better idea of what is happening.
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