Frontier Forums

Hi everyone,

With our next major release being the Mac beta this week’s dev update will focus on this new platform. The beta is planned to start on March 31st and will be available to anyone who already has beta access. It won’t be possible to purchase beta access at this time.

The beta test process will follow the same procedure as the PC beta tests, although for this a new Mac launcher will need to be downloaded from the store. We’ll provide the details when the build is available. We’ll set up a new bug reporting and beta discussion forum for the beta players to use, although we won’t restrict access to those forums.

We don’t have a minimum spec as yet, however here are the recommended specs for the Mac beta based upon our development machines:

27-inch iMac (Purchased in 2015 - Current Line)
3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i5
8GB memory
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M with 2GB video memory / AMD Radeon R9 M290X with 2GB video memory
Mac OS 10.10.x (10.10.03 rec)

As with the PC beta there are a number of optimisations planned so the final minimum spec is expected to be lower than this.

The Mac version will connect to the same universe and gameplay sessions as the PC, during the beta phase that will be the test servers we use for the beta test, not the public servers. The crossplay functionality will need testing so at some stage during the beta an equivalent PC beta build will be available to test PC and Mac players together.

It’s not all about the Mac version! We also have a change in the bounty system coming – it’s planned for a minor update so should be with us soon, but bounties cannot be paid off immediately. There will be a cooldown time of a few days before the bounty can be paid off.

Thanks!

Michael

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Dev Update - 26.02.2015
Hi everyone,

The beta release for update 1.2 is rapidly approaching and I have some more details to share in this week’s update.

First let’s look at some more details on the Wings functionality – Wing Beacons. Player wings exist to enable cooperative game play. One of the neat features wings use to support this notion is the wing beacon. This nifty little device allows you to send a signal from normal space into the system’s super cruise environment.
Your wing will be able to see the signal - regardless of distance - as long as they are in super cruise in the system; they can use it just like a wake and drop down to your location.

The wing beacon also leaves the door open for future updates to trigger game events from it, such as distress calls to nearby Commanders and AI ships for example. But right now it makes all the difference when you drop into your wing’s system; with a simple flick of a switch, your team members will be able to instantly lead you to their position.

Wings also brings an overhaul for comms. The most obvious change is the ability to transmit open broadcasts. Such text messages will now be received by all ships nearby. Of course, you can toggle your ship’s ability to receive such broadcasts at will.

We’ve also popped in some text line syntax, allowing you to /T talk directly to the ship you’ve targeted, /R respond to the ship that last talked directly to you, as a well as /W talk to your wing. When you join a wing, you will by default send communications to them, but you can quickly toggle this option when you type your message.

Another change related to comms is that commanders docked in starports will now remain on your contact list so you can chat with them while docked.

Another aspect we’ve looked into is the operating costs on ships, so in 1.2 we’ve performed a balance pass on repair costs. This change should really help Commanders make profit from combat roles: as long as they don’t die, their repair costs should not eat away all of the profit they might be making from bounties and the like.

Balancing the various economies and risks in the game is an ongoing affair, so this probably won’t be the last change we make, but we believe lowering repair costs is on the safer side, so it’s a good candidate to test out and bed in first.

We’ve also added a cool new feature for people with damaged modules. We’re activating diagnostics repair-reboot functionality on all ships. Whilst still not a match for an automatic field-maintenance module, this function allows a ship to reboot and jury-rig completely broken modules, getting them back up and running at a couple of percent health. Of course, there’s a cost: for every percent of health repaired, another, healthier module will be stripped of double this amount as components are cannibalised.

For people wanting to take screenshots or look at their own ships we’re also unlocking a debug camera. This allows you take limited control of the camera outside of your ship. This isn’t a gameplay camera and is purely a debug function to allow players to see their ship.

Looking beyond the 1.2 release we have the Mac beta, still scheduled for the end of March. Beyond that we have the 1.3 update and we’ll share more information on that update ‘soon’.

Thanks

Michael

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Dev Update 29.01.2015

Hi everyone,

For this week’s dev update the focus is on the 1.1 update which will go into beta next week. First we have some good news for explorers. We’re adding the discovered by tag to the system map so when you view a body’s information you will see which commander first scanned and returned to sell the data for that body. Supplementing this we’re also adding information when you sell exploration data of the bodies contained within the exploration data being sold for a specific system. There’s also a change to enable selling exploration data a page at a time to help those who have been on long journeys of exploration!

In last week’s update I mentioned the community goals feature which will be added in the 1.1 update. Here we have two specific examples of what we will be doing with those goals. The first is a minor faction seeking to expand their military capability by constructing a capital ship (one of Farragut Battlecruisers or Majestic Interdictors) which is obviously a huge undertaking so they’ll require a lot of support and resources to successfully construct the warship. The commander who contributes the most to the construction will have the opportunity to name the ship. We’ll need to vet the name of course

One of the other community goals will be a more involved process enabling the expansion into an unpopulated system. This will be a three stage process. The first step is for us and the DDF to establish a short list of candidate systems. The aim for this initial colony is to support further exploration and to act as a hub for other expansion in the region. Once we have the shortlist players will be invited to map the candidate systems and whichever system has the most data about it sold will be the target system. A community goal will then start to gather the resources needed to build an Ocellus starport that will be deployed in the chosen star system.

As well as the new features we’re continuing to fix and investigate issues, some fix highlights include improvements for AI docking and the docking computer, better handling of ship to ship collisions, balancing dumbfire missiles and shield cells and balancing of heat generation by weapons.

Last week I shouted out about the community news item thread and that is off to a good start with some stories already being used. If you have a community event in game or something newsworthy then you can submit it via this thread:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=101801

Thanks!

Michael

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Hi everyone,

We’re approaching closer to the beta release of update 1.1 – as you can imagine things are pretty busy here at the moment! In this week’s dev update I will provide some more details of what is upcoming in the 1.1 release as well as a couple of new initiatives we’ve started for the game.

In last week’s newsletter we posted a screenshot of the new gas giant look and as a bit of a space geek I’m enjoying seeing the depth this adds to the atmosphere. We’ll expand the use of this technique to include the cloud layers on the terrestrial planets. As a double bonus not only does it improve the look of the planets but is quicker to render as well.

Each of the major updates will expand features and content and for the 1.1 release the headline addition is community goals. This feature provides a mechanism to allow players to work in conjunction to achieve common goals to affect a specific circumstance within a system. A good example of this is if a system degenerating into anarchy needs help restoring order. We can add two community goals for players to bring much needed supplies and to improve security by claiming bounties. These goals will be on a system level scale so will require concerted efforts from groups of players. We spoke to PC Gamer about this earlier this week and you can read the article here:

http://www.pcgamer.com/elite-dangero...oals-revealed/

Another addition to the 1.1 update is decals for Pilots Federation ranks – these will be available as you attain ranks. As part of this change support for the Founders level decal will be included.

As I’ve previously mentioned these major updates provide an opportunity for us to include features that are deemed too risky or low priority for the minor releases like this week’s 1.06 release. An example of this is the disappearing holograms on landing pads which will be fixed in 1.1. Fixes and tweaks continue on the online front as well with the stalled queue issue causing updates to system state changes to be delayed has been fixed. Along with regular client releases we’ll continue to monitor and support issues with the online service.

To close this update I have two shout outs for new initiatives started on the forums. The first is the first step in the process of us examining support for third party apps. A thread has been created to capture the wishlist for an API for such apps which has already seen some great input. Join in the discussion here:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=99437

Player participation having a significant effect in the game universe has always been one of our core goals for the game and the various efforts that we’ve seen to push that system has been invaluable for us in identifying issues and changes that we can make to improve the system in the future. As part of that process we want to increase the integration of selected community news within the GalNet newsfeed. We’re particularly interested in player events. You can submit stories / events for consideration here:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=101801

Thanks!

Michael

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Hi everyone,

Following up on my post last week I will provide more information on our process moving forwards and dates for the next two major releases. As you’ve seen since the game’s initial release we have issued a number of point updates, the latest being 1.05 this morning. These are typically restricted to urgent and/or low risk changes and will continue on a regular basis as they allow us to respond as we need to. These aren’t scheduled in the same way as the major updates, but will be ongoing.

More significant updates allow us to add new features and content (as well as sweeping up a host of fixes and tweaks that haven’t been deemed suitable for the intermediate point releases).

Currently beta testing will be available for those who already have beta access for the main game. For players participating in the beta tests there will be a separate mechanism for playing so testing does not affect your game and that you can continue to play the retail version as well. Options for players currently without beta access to be able to purchase beta access will be available. Details will be made available nearer the time.

Depending on how the update Betas go in test, we expect them to be released to everyone a week or so after the Beta release.​

As you all know we’re also working on paid expansions for the game and these will have their own beta periods as well, we’ll again make details available of how this will work as we near their release.

The first planned significant update will be 1.1 and will enter beta in the first week of February. We’ll be talking next week about how 1.1 will introduce a new way to collaborate with other players in the galaxy in preparation for 1.2’s major Wings update. We have some some good news for planners of long journeys - V1.1 will also have a significant increase in the maximum distance for the route planner. We’re currently looking at extending this to 1,000 light years!

Looking further ahead there will be a 1.2 update which is planned to enter beta testing in the first week of March. The focus for this update will be Wings and other multiplayer goodness. I’ll provide more detail in future updates.

Thanks

Michael

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