News Development Update - 8th Jan

rdizz · Jan 8, 2015

Michael Brookes said:
Hi everyone,

As promised in an earlier post we want to provide more visibility on what we have planned for Elite: Dangerous over the coming months. We have some exciting times ahead and while I can’t reveal everything that’s coming we will provide regular updates regarding what we’re working on and what’s coming up. The plans for releases are being finalised now that the team is back from the holidays, but we will share these with you as we progress through the coming year.

Our first commitment is supporting the game with regular updates. This won’t just be the fixes and tweaking we’ve provided since release but will also add new features and content. Examples of this are Wings and associated multiplayer features, as well as the additional ships mentioned in recent newsletters. We’re proud of the fantastic game that we released before Christmas but intend to keep growing and developing it. To make this happen we’re expanding the team working on the game so that we can maintain a regular schedule of updates as well as working on paid expansions.

We’ll also be having beta test periods for these major updates and access to these will be open to players who already have beta access for the game. More details on this will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Regarding Elite: Dangerous on other platforms, as you know we have already been working on putting the native Mac version of the game together and as expected this should enter beta in about three months time. As the beta date is firmed up we’ll keep you updated.

Thanks!

Michael

So you guys do listen after all... this is tremendous news thanks for the continued communication!

Pixeldemon · Jan 8, 2015

Great! Thanks for the update.

It would be nice if you could accelerate implementation of multiple character slots, as I imagine this is mainly some database tinkering. Many of us would enjoy starting fresh on an alternate character, without losing our "main".

Titus Balls · Jan 8, 2015

Michael Brookes said:
The intention is that I'll post updates on a regular basis so you know what we've got coming up in the future.

Michael

Like you tweeted earlier - this world would be lost without humor

(i.e. I wasn't having a go

)

Personally I appreciate the update, and can't wait to beta test new features.

rdizz · Jan 8, 2015

Pixeldemon said:
Great! Thanks for the update.

It would be nice if you could accelerate implementation of multiple character slots, as I imagine this is mainly some database tinkering. Many of us would enjoy starting fresh on an alternate character, without losing our "main".

And wings.... I can imagine it now with that radio synthesized in game voice chat... "CLEAR MY TAIL"

For the record I would buy a paint job to test these betas *cough

Kerrash · Jan 8, 2015

Oooh! Beta access. YAY!

Thanks for the update MB

Viajero · Jan 8, 2015

Good and interesting to know FDEV is expanding the team to work on the expansions in parallel. Always a positive sign to be able to expand a team.

Leo Sagan · Jan 8, 2015

Thanks for the update, Michael !

MikeSnos · Jan 8, 2015

Kerrash said:
Oooh! Beta access. YAY!

Thanks for the update MB

They'll let anyone play it would seem

Whatever happened to the exclusive Alpha access we were promised?

Kayoe · Jan 8, 2015

Thanks so much, Michael. We can't wait to see what the team has in store ^.^

Bojangles · Jan 8, 2015

Thanks Michael! 2014 was an exciting year thanks to the development of ED, now 2015 is going to be even better! So looking forward to the updates. The game is already incredible, I can't even begin to imagine how amazing it will develop over time, can't wait!

P.S. - Don't forget the Space Dredgers!!

Robert Maynard · Jan 8, 2015

Sounds good - looking forward to the continued (if not continuous

) communication.

Cruel Coppinger · Jan 8, 2015

Main client beta access to previous beta owners sounds good. Maybe open it up to all?

Will there be a option to buy early access/beta for the separate expansions?

amigacooke · Jan 8, 2015

Michael Brookes said:
Regarding Elite: Dangerous on other platforms, as you know we have already been working on putting the native Mac version of the game together and as expected this should enter beta in about three months time. As the beta date is firmed up we’ll keep you updated.

Thanks!

Michael

Hmm, I was hoping for release in about 3 months time, but that is obviously overly optimistic.

-zalamander- · Jan 8, 2015

NOISE! I'm able to start Beta testing right now.

Especially Beta testing planetary landing stuff. Lots of reps to the whole FD team!

Cmdr Eagleboy · Jan 8, 2015

Michael, thanks for explaining it. Can you weight in how regular these status updates from you will be? When we can wait them (for example next one in two three weeks I assume right)? Also nice you plan to do betas for major updates - no matter how limited, still it's better than fighting off hordes of annoyed gamers

Please consider return of dev diaries. I know it takes a lot to produce them, but we are ready to accept minimal quality, and even can provide help to Edward if he is ready to jump in, but still...your video diaries were always so inspirational.

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amigacooke said:
Hmm, I was hoping for release in about 3 months time, but that is obviously overly optimistic.

It will be interesting will Mac clients play with everyone else during beta.

Hydrino · Jan 8, 2015

Michael Brookes said:
The intention is that I'll post updates on a regular basis so you know what we've got coming up in the future.

Michael

Hi Michael, hopefully you will sticky this and update the first post or otherwise make the updates VERY easy to find.

The forum aggregators for Dev comments are good, but it would be really nice to have an 'official' dev comment thread stickied to the top of one of the topics like News & Updates. For instance all of Sandro's comments on Wings will be missed by anyone not using a tracker/aggregator or not having been in those threads.

I have been enjoying the game and really look forward to the ongoing developments. Hope you have seen all my requests and have them queued up, of course.

Cheers!

Jack Luminous · Jan 8, 2015

Wonderful news indeed

Thanks Michael, I'm stoked

zzzornbringer · Jan 8, 2015

since i haven't found a topic about it, could someone plz explain what this "wings" is supposed to be?

Hydrino · Jan 8, 2015

Viajero said:
Good and interesting to know FDEV is expanding the team to work on the expansions in parallel. Always a positive sign to be able to expand a team.

Yay to this for sure!

TheEponymousBob · Jan 8, 2015

Superb! Thanks for this, and I hope it will help ease some of the concerns we've seen on the forums.

Out of interest, may I ask if you have any idea yet how the expansion betas will work? Will there be a separate galaxy for testing, or do you expect the new features to play nicely alongside non-testers?