Elite Dangerous: Horizons and Future Updates

WreckWren

W
Great post, Barking_Mad! Really enjoyed that TED talk.

I hope the SRVs will have at least some kind of rudimentary force feedback for wheel controllers (should they be supported), although that may be wishful thinking.
 

ape808

ape808
Good list, thanks for the updates. one small addition:

Barking_Mad said:
· Release dates: 1.4, and 1.5 will be a Thanksgiving/Christmas release date.
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1.4/xbox launch have been confirmed for september on frontier's main news feed, and frontier support on reddit have confirmed there will be Betas for both 1.4 and 1.5.

http://frontier.co.uk/news/latest/?artid=519&pageNum=0&blk=12

https://np.reddit.com/r/EliteDanger...e_dangerous_horizons_purchase_options/ctvqq5m

edit: oops, i see you have the september date listed in the CQC section, apologies.
 
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Cmdr Eagleboy

Cmdr Eagleboy
Also we don't know when 1.5 arrives...FD uses term 'to prepare for Horizons', so it might mean having software base updated to Horizons changes...but I expect it to arrive at least week before that.

I think we will know after 1.4 launches.
 

xhrit

X
Mashchax said:
No sir, since the Beta they were telling us that Planetary Landings would come as an expansion pack about a year after the release. Now we only get airless rocky planets and have to pay for the rest. It's like they spit in our face. I feel super hyped and mad at the same time. I hate FD.
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Newsletter quote from June 2014:
We do intend to release small, free updates after launch, but expansions that include significant new features and content will be charged for separately. For example, our current roadmap is to add (in no particular order):


  • Landing/ driving / prospecting on airless rocky planets, moons & asteroids
  • Walking around interiors and combative boarding of other ships
  • Combat and other interactions with other players and AIs in the internal areas of star ports
  • Accessing richly detailed planetary surfaces
  • Availability of giant ‘executive control’ ships to players

This is pretty clear that airless moons and richly detailed planetary surfaces were going to be two separate expansion packs, charged for separately...
 
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Hellhawk666

Hellhawk666
Thanks for compiling this OP (why don't FD do this sort of thing themselves?)

Regarding loot, I remember some vague mention of loot stashes from a long time ago, but I don't know if that's what they mean in this context. The Q&A session with DB and SS is very thin on details, but I had a feeling they might have been thinking of active looting of derelicts, crashed ships or the surface bases that were mentioned elsewhere. Just a guess.

Regarding the split in PL builds over two paid seasons, initially I did raise my eyebrows, but thinking on it the two halves will be very different things. They may as well be talking about a mountaineering expansion and a diving expansion - both would involve planet surfaces, but the content and mechanics for each would be wildly different. It's also probably a good 2-3 year's work to create the complete PL system, plus there will be a lot of other features appearing as part of each season, so in the end it doesn't sound so dreadful.
 

Ben Ryder

Ben Ryder
Barking_Mad said:
Here's the information we have so far on the Horizons expansion, plus a few other bits of information about 1.4 and 1.5 updates.

Release Date

· Release date will be somewhere around or between Thanksgiving/Christmas 2015.


Planetary Information

· Trailer for Horizons can be seen here.
· Landing will be on airless planets and moons.
· Four planet and moon types in the release to land on: Ice, Rock, Rock and Ice, and Metallic.
· Some current moons and planets will change in appearance due to new information added via the Stellar Forge (which is responsible for generating the Elite Dangerous universe). This injection of data already exists on the system but is not currently in the game. You can watch a David Braben TedTalk on procedural generation here
· Game play extends seamlessly from space to the surface - taken from Dev Update.
· Planetary Landing will follow process: Orbital Cruise (like Supercruise) > choose anywhere (surface allowing) to land on the planet/moon > Deploy SRV (Surface Reconnaissance Vehicle) The basic vehicle is known as the Scarab.
· While flying above the surface in Orbital Cruise you can discover points of interest like landed ships and surface installations.
· Ships will handle re-entry in different ways. Smaller ships will be easier to handle in orbital supercruise than larger ones.
· You can't land on every airless moon/planet - some are closed off and require a permit. Any other in the universe is available.


Installations & Discoveries

· Scanning planets and moons from space is used to detect signals, crashed ships, mineral deposits, outposts and fortresses. This information will be found in the same fashion as current Unidentified Signal Sources in space - taken from Dev Update and Twitch on 7th August.
· You will be able to dock and trade at these outposts and fortresses, or you can just choose to land in the middle of nowhere and drive about using your SRV.
· Planets will also have rare minerals, pirate bases, crashed ships. You can fly and dogfight over the entire planet once you've descended to it.
· Settlements on certain planets/moons will be fortified. These can be attacked from the air or defended from the ground.


Surface Reconnaissance Vehicle (SRV)

· GIF of the basic Scarab SRV can be seen here (thanks to ArmyDude on Reddit)
· SRV's will take up module/compartment space and you will have to buy the "module" to transport the SRV in the cargo hold.
· Nearly all ships can carry an SRV, but not every ship can carry every SRV. Different SRV's for different tasks with with some cross over like ships.
· One ship (currently not in game) will not be able to carry an SRV. Speculation: Planet & Moon bases/fortifications could have ground based defence craft. One of these might be one of the small ships seen in CQC and would not be able to carry a buggy.
· Gravity will affect SRV's differently depending on the planet.
· It will cost to buy an SRV as per normal equipment.
· The initial SRV (Scarab) will be able to carry 4-6 tonnes of 'cargo'.
· Top SRV speeds will be about 100mph.
· The SRV will not need to be re-fuelled.
· The SRV will carry a weapon(s) that can be used to attack bases on the planet.
· The different planet surfaces will all give you a different handling experience in the SRV.
· Driving the SRV far enough away from your ship will cause your ship to take off and orbit the planet. This will be AI controlled 'for now'. Presumably you will call for it to land when required.
· Returning to your ship has been described as "interesting", the hint being that you can thrust/jump into your ships cargo bay as it is landing/taking off/thrusting above the surface of the planet.
· Thrusters on each wheel will allow you to jump. On low gravity planets, jets will rotate round and force you on to floor for traction - to stop you floating away.
· Thrusters will also allow you to get out of situation where you might get stuck. Self destruction is also an option.
· SRVs are very small, and difficult to track by flying spacecraft, and enable you to tackle some of the fortifications you’ll find planetside in a different way from what you can do in a spaceship.
· It will be possible to blow up another player's SRV using your ship, but due to lack of heat signatures and the very small size and agility of the SRV, this will be hard to pull off.


Planetary Defences

· Some 'surface skimmer' AI vehicles/drones will be remote controlled from a base on the planet. These will be 'almost land based' vehicles.
· 'Skimmers' will come in more than one variety.
· 'Skimmers' can be knocked out by destroying the control base, shooting them, or by destroying the 'relay towers' that exist on the planets surface. These towers give the 'skimmers' better range. Speculation: At the moment these are AI controlled, but it might be possible for players to fly these 'skimmers' from the base of a moon or planet.
· It's been suggested that 'Skimmers' can be destroyed, collected in your SRV and then sold on the black market.
· Debate inhouse on on what happens to ships when you leave them and drive about planet - not decided whether someone else can destroy or just damage it.
· Wings can be used on the planet surface in co-operation. Other co-operative play can be used to destroy bases defences. For instance it might be necessary to destroy a bases defences in a certain order before it can be taken over or destroyed.
· Cobra Mk IV - Photo HERE access available to buy in-game for all early backers, plus anyone who has the original game and pre-orders Horizons. The new ship is apparently 'better in lots of ways, better weapons placement and 1 more hard point.


Future Horizons Updates

· Loot and crafting will be a Q1 2016 update to Horizons. (Speculation: loot has been spoken about before in terms of leaving stolen goods stashed on a planet or you to return to or others to find.)
· Future planets updates in the Horizons season will include 'active volcanism' and 'ice volcanism'. At some point (before fully rendered 'atmospheric planets with life' there will be ones with weather systems.
· Most if not all content mentioned is already in game. No footage available as yet as textures have not been applied. This should be seen Soon! (tm)


Core Game Improvements

· Core missions are being enhanced for the basic game. This will move beyond basic A>B structure and will include 'new interactions' and multiple staged missions. (Source: Sandro here at 1hr 35 mins onwards)


CQC Update News

· CQC (1.4) will be out on PC and Mac in September. PC version will follow 'one day after XBox release (fingers crossed, hopefully)'. Will be lots of other new tweaks.
· CQC will feature 3 new ships:
i) Variation of the (Imperial) Eagle: more expensive and better in combat.
ii) Federal Gunship: 'Look on the underneath at the back, a big area with an opening - not sure what it might be used for'. (Quote & Tease: Elite Producer on Twitch)
iii) Federal Dropship Mk II
· CQC assets - "Absolutely" will be used in main game.


1.5 Update News

· One more free expansion tentatively called 'Ships' (1.5). This will increase the number of ships from 20 to over 30.
· Release dates: 1.4, and 1.5 will be a Thanksgiving/Christmas release date.
· Atmospheric landings on planets with life will NOT be part of this Horizons release. That will come later in another paid expansion.
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Excellent summary. Good Job
 

ape808

ape808
Mashchax said:
No sir, since the Beta they were telling us that Planetary Landings would come as an expansion pack about a year after the release. Now we only get airless rocky planets and have to pay for the rest. It's like they spit in our face. I feel super hyped and mad at the same time. I hate FD.
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xhrit said:
This is pretty clear that airless moons and richly detailed planetary surfaces were going to be two separate expansion packs, charged for separately...
Click to expand...


Yeah, i think this was a case of community making 2+2=5; I'm not sure if they ever explicitly stated that there would be a single PL update containing it all. The community ran with the idea of a single "planetary landing DLC", but I think FDev should've reigned in that expectation more and clearly stated multiple payments expected.

There is this quote from DB in June 2014 that suggests they will be separate launches, although not explicitly separate payments:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=20351&p=455691&viewfull=1#post455691

Planetary landings won't be a single thing. I think I've said before - it is what is down there that makes planetary landings compelling - and please remember all of this will be after first release of the game.

I imagine we will start with landings on airless moons. You would be able to see heavy industry, craters up close, and ultimately be able to deposit things on the surface (stash cargo or mining machines). Atmospheric worlds are a bigger challenge - whether rocky or gas giant in nature - and a key element there is the atmosphere. They should have rich cloudscapes with lightning, turbulence etc.


The biggest challenge is with what we call 'outdoor worlds'. I would want rich and varied vegetation, wildlife, and so on.
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I confess I too was pretty shocked when they announced non-atmospheric only for 2016. I had interpreted quotes like the above to mean multiple stages of a single DLC. But i guess the "Seasons" we now find ourselves in are best discussed elsewhere.


/sorry for off-topic post.
 
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AnnuverScotinExile

AnnuverScotinExile
Mashchax said:
The orbital cruise worries me. This game is a series of mini-games already. I fear planetary landings will feel like mini game as well.
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Why would orbital cruise worry you? You somehow have to change from supercruise at 30Km/sec minimum to normal flight, top speed varies, but very much lower than that. It is also changing modes, hence the obvious transition (in which they also hide the instance handshaking) in the normal game. Even on a rocky moon you need some transition. If we have orbital cruise even for a rocky moon, I suspect it is for consistency with the atmospheres that are (eventually and at additional cost) coming. For those in addition to the SC drop, you have to get through the atmosphere. You must surely expect a difference there, even if it does not last as long as a proper spaceship like the space shuttle takes.
Mashchax said:
And are you sure that atmospheric landings will come in another PAID expansion? Because if you are then FD are simply thieves. At first we were promised we will get planetary landings at launch. Then we were told we will get them a year after launch. Later they told us will get it a year after launch and will have to pay extra for this. Now it turns out we will get this 1,5 year after launch, so 6 months delay and we will only get AIRLESS ROCKY planets. So it's like 1/4 of what we were promised. Dare they really tell us that for the rest of that we will have to pay EXTRA beyond Horizons? And since Horizons is a whole season of updates. Does that mean atmospheric landings will come in 2017? If this is the case, that's a freaking scandal.
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FD have said that atmospheric landings will be in a later season, yes. I think calling them thieves is pushing it beyond reasonable, but they certainly gave no indication up to this point that you would have to pay more than once for an expansion feature. Apparently changing from expansion = feature to expansion = a year's worth without any prior indication is naughty, but the sort of thing we have come to expect. Of course, it makes little difference for the fans that are completely bought in, since they will have the lifetime expansion pass (as I do from the kickstarter). But I feel for anyone who was waiting for landings, and did not want, say, walkies. If I was one of those I would simple pass on season 2, or wait until it was heavily discounted. If you don't buy season 2, but do buy season 3, I would expect you to get season 2 rolled into that. That way you get a bigger bang for you buck, at the cost of late adoption of some of the features.
 
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nexxo

N
Angus said:
Yeah man, its just like watered down Koronis Rift on the 64. ;)
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shadragon said:
Oh man, flash back. Koronis Rift was one of my faves back in the day.

Rep for the memories.
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Same here! :)

Tinman said:
Mass Effect was released in 2007.

Driving around in vehicles down on planets in the next Elite game was talked about by David around the year 2000. They even released an image at some point of precisely this...which is impossible to find now it seems...

They are just doing what they have been talking about internally for a very very long time. :)
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Before then, even. I remember Braben talking about planetary landings and driving a vehicle around the planet since before Elite II.
 

AnnuverScotinExile

AnnuverScotinExile
xhrit said:
Newsletter quote from June 2014:
We do intend to release small, free updates after launch, but expansions that include significant new features and content will be charged for separately. For example, our current roadmap is to add (in no particular order):


  • Landing/ driving / prospecting on airless rocky planets, moons & asteroids
  • Walking around interiors and combative boarding of other ships
  • Combat and other interactions with other players and AIs in the internal areas of star ports
  • Accessing richly detailed planetary surfaces
  • Availability of giant ‘executive control’ ships to players

This is pretty clear that airless moons and richly detailed planetary surfaces were going to be two separate expansion packs, charged for separately...
Click to expand...
Abundantly clear that they were likely to be separate. Not abundantly clear that they would be separately charged for, though clearly that can be inferred in retrospect. And, given what we now know (i.e. you pay for a 'season' with around 5 separate drops and there will not really be 'expansion packs' that you buy), absolutely not clear that any random 2 features from the above 5 examples would necessarily be in different seasons. Had that list included 'loot & crafting', for example, then we know that l&c is in the same payment/season as rocky moons. Of course, the reason that it was not in that list is that at the time FD were still, officially at least, saying that crafting was something that they did not want in 'their game'.

We also have not been told what the rest of season 2 is. Based on season 1, where we had CGs, Wings, powerplay and will get CQC and ships, none of those features are things that you would necessarily call significant. Certainly none of them are at the level that you would expect to have to pay the cost of a whole game for. But FD are deliberately ambiguous and unclear in their examples. So, I would expect 'walkies' to include items 2 and 3 on their list. Indeed, #2 appears to me to be impossible without #3. So do we take this as 'proof' that boarding and FPS combat are two different drops in two different seasons? (Answer: Proof - of course not. But it could be). Short of very simple things like "the beta of x will start on y", FD communications seem to always have multiple interpretations.
 
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nexxo

N
Mashchax said:
The orbital cruise worries me. This game is a series of mini-games already. I fear planetary landings will feel like mini game as well.

And are you sure that atmospheric landings will come in another PAID expansion? Because if you are then FD are simply thieves. At first we were promised we will get planetary landings at launch. Then we were told we will get them a year after launch. Later they told us will get it a year after launch and will have to pay extra for this. Now it turns out we will get this 1,5 year after launch, so 6 months delay and we will only get AIRLESS ROCKY planets. So it's like 1/4 of what we were promised. Dare they really tell us that for the rest of that we will have to pay EXTRA beyond Horizons? And since Horizons is a whole season of updates. Does that mean atmospheric landings will come in 2017? If this is the case, that's a freaking scandal.
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I think that players should be very clear about the fact that they are not simply buying a finished product, but are buying into taking part in a piece of gaming history. ED and SC are ground breakers. Nothing like it has been attempted before. So you are not just buying into a process of development but also experiment. Outcomes may vary. No guarantees implied. These games are a journey, not just a destination. Buckle up; it's going to be a bumpy ride --but a thrilling one, if you like that sort of thing. But if you prefer just to be dropped at the destination all nice and tidy, then wait a few years and come back when we got there, and you'll know exactly what you're buying.

Please be clear about that. The Kickstarter page should have been an obvious clue.
 
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Barking_Mad

Barking_Mad
Somewhere on YouTube there's a 3rd personspace buggy game released by Frontier. Saw it the other day will see if I can find it later unless someone can remember the name.

Ah here you go, Infestation https://youtu.be/0AvKzE8UjgI
 
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Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
Well done OP, looking even more like the new expansion will be value for money... and multiple types of SRVs... that was unexpected, and a nice touch.
 

Cmdr Eagleboy

Cmdr Eagleboy
WreckWren said:
Great post, Barking_Mad! Really enjoyed that TED talk.

I hope the SRVs will have at least some kind of rudimentary force feedback for wheel controllers (should they be supported), although that may be wishful thinking.
Click to expand...

Force Feedback has been long requested feature.
 
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