Premium Beta: what does it contain?

[ShottyMonsta]

I've purchased the premium beta. Can someone break down what it contains for me because I'm struggling to find the information.

What I have found so far:

Alpha Phase 1.1


However in the launcher I am seeing "Alpha 3.4 is Out Now!" and "Alpha 2.0 - Multiplayer is now live!". But surely the game has moved into beta so all this is included in the beta?

Or is the game being phased in, so beta players are seeing alpha 1.0 while alpha backers are seeing alpha 3.4, so in a few weeks/months the beta players will see alpha 3.4 polished edition?

Another confusing aspect of this early access! The explanation behind how the early access works is really bloody confusing, to be honest!

 

[ZeeWolf]

Right now you get access to the original Alpha 1.1 build that was released at the end of 2013 which gives you a bunch of single player missions you can practice on.

Premium Beta begins on the 30th May. You will get access to everything that has currently been tested in Alpha plus the "Travel & Trade" upgrade that is about to be released so keep an eye out for that. On the 30th May you will be able to download the new installer and launch into Multiplayer and start trading/pirating/bounty hunting & trying out some new ships and upgrades. The game will continue to grow during the Beta process.

You will get all future expansions to the game included in your package.

Welcome to Elite commander.

 

[CMDR Texas Stu]

Just the solo combat scenarios from alpha 1.1 for now.
Premium beta doesn't actually start until May 30 but you can practice flying and learning options and controls early!

 

[Aleksej]

Premium Beta buyers were given access to Alpha 1.1 single player so that they could practice flying and combat before the final release of the Premium Beta, which is planned for 30.05. You gain access for Premium Beta, Standard Beta, Gamma and the final release of the game as well as the access to all major game expansions for free.

As far as I know no updates to single player or access to multiplayer will be given to Premium Beta until the release of Premium Beta.

 

[ZeeWolf]

Get some practice in. Unlock the 'Incursion' mission. Most pilots can't complete it!

 

[Jenner]

 

[Tinman]

The thing that probably confuses people is the difference between Premium Beta access and Premium Beta build.

Right now the access to the game for Premium backers has begun and to begin with that gives them access to an early build of the single player scenarios. As already has been mentioned, the actual Beta build will be released on May 30th.

Wording it the way FD has done will without doubt create confusion, but the intent was to give the Premium Beta backers something to play with while they wait for the real thing.

 

[ShottyMonsta]

Right now you get access to the original Alpha 1.1 build that was released at the end of 2013 which gives you a bunch of single player missions you can practice on.

Premium Beta begins on the 30th May. You will get access to everything that has currently been tested in Alpha plus the "Travel & Trade" upgrade that is about to be released so keep an eye out for that. On the 30th May you will be able to download the new installer and launch into Multiplayer and start trading/pirating/bounty hunting & trying out some new ships and upgrades. The game will continue to grow during the Beta process.

You will get all future expansions to the game included in your package.

Welcome to Elite commander.

Right so it's like a wierd phased thing between alpha/beta backers. Fair enough, I can't wait till the 30th May . I've played all the "X" games and rather shamefully never played an Elite game.

The flight controls are 100% awesome. Combat is perfect, graphics are perfect, sounds is perfect.

I just hope adding in 5 billion stars doesn't grind my rig to a halt. I'm currently getting 150fps on max settings @ 1920x1080 144Hz, and "dropping" (lol) to 89fps in the big space battle on the final mission in the 1.1 alpha.

So ye, optimisation is perfect I'm surprised as hell, this dev just comes out of nowhere with this game and it's blew my mind. I pray for the full release to be as good as this alpha.

 

[ShottyMonsta]

Oh ye and NO MICROTRANSACTIONS. please just make it a £50 release, I do hate microtransactions, they're obnoxious as hell, especially in games like this (microntransactions only feel "right" in session based games, in my opinion).

 

[Patrick_68000]

The explanation behind how the early access works is really bloody confusing, to be honest!

It's a dangerous universe. And welcome in the great family of the Elite

 

[CMDR Texas Stu]

You have an earlier buggier SP version. It's already improved for the same you've tried, just so you know.

 

[trekman]

I think that the premium beta will pretty much be the final game and not just the features that the alpha guys have been playing with for months now. I imagine though that frontier will keep a few things to themselves until the gamma release

 

[ZeeWolf]

I think that the premium beta will pretty much be the final game and not just the features that the alpha guys have been playing with for months now. I imagine though that frontier will keep a few things to themselves until the gamma release

I don't think it will involve much more than whatever is contained in the Travel & Trade build. I don't think they are just going to bundle on the rest of the game in a couple of weeks. Unless you mean that the game becomes more like the full game during the Premium Beta process in which case (later builds), you are probably correct.

That said I suspect the T&T Alpha 4 build will have enough stuff to keep us all busy for a while.

 

[djh]

So ye, optimisation is perfect I'm surprised as hell, this dev just comes out of nowhere with this game and it's blew my mind. I pray for the full release to be as good as this alpha.

LOL! Out of nowhere?! You realise the developer, Frontier Developments, is 20 years old?

You also mentioned the X Series. These were direct homages to the original Elite game from 1984 - so if you liked X Series then you owe it all to Elite.

One last thing: Did you find out about Elite from the recent Gamespot article? I think this article might introduce a lot of North Americans to the game, as it has a low profile in America and Canada (even though Elite is the granddaddy of every other space sim since 1984)

 

[Aleksej]

So ye, optimisation is perfect I'm surprised as hell...

Considering optimization, I think there is still a lot to be done in this direction. But certainly the game benefits from more CPU cores and hyper-threading so i7 have advantage over i5. It would be interesting to know if 6 core i7 has significant advantage over 4 core i7 in the game.

 

[ShottyMonsta]

LOL! Out of nowhere?! You realise the developer, Frontier Developments, is 20 years old?

You also mentioned the X Series. These were direct homages to the original Elite game from 1984 - so if you liked X Series then you owe it all to Elite.

One last thing: Did you find out about Elite from the recent Gamespot article? I think this article might introduce a lot of North Americans to the game, as it has a low profile in America and Canada (even though Elite is the granddaddy of every other space sim since 1984)

I've known about Elite for about 10 years (ever since I started playing X) and yes I know it was a direct homage, hence why I said it was shameful that I haven't played it, which you conveniently cut out of your quote

And X improved on Elite in many ways (from what I've read/played), and did a lot of things worse as well. I think we can safely say X3:Reunion was an amazing game and went beyond just being an homage.

In fact Egosoft basically carried the flag for this kind of game, sure Elite was released over 20 years ago, but I've not seen anything from the Elite franchise in the 15 year interim

Shame Egosoft dropped the ball massively on Rebirth, it was an absolute travesty.

 

[gazzareth]

And X improved on Elite in many ways (from what I've read/played), and did a lot of things worse as well. I think we can safely say X3:Reunion was an amazing game and went beyond just being an homage.

X was good, but never felt to me that it was as well put together as Elite (for its time anyway). I think the artificial sectors and jump gates killed it a lot for me - but if you got past that and the pain of commanding other vessels then jumping in multiple TL's to set up a factory chain, or a battle fleet into Xenon territory was good fun.

And at least in Reunion you could avoid the plot!!!

G

 

[djh]

I've known about Elite for about 10 years (ever since I started playing X) and yes I know it was a direct homage, hence why I said it was shameful that I haven't played it, which you conveniently cut out of your quote

Sorry ShottyMonsta. I simply assumed you had not heard of Elite before now because you said you hadn't played it. I didn't "conveniently cut" your quote for anything other than brevity and clarity on what I was responding to.

My emphasis was that Frontier has been around for 20 years. That's hardly "coming out of nowhere" as your quote implied.

You didn't answer my other question. Did you see the link via Gamespot?

 

[trekman]

I don't think they are just going to bundle on the rest of the game in a couple of weeks. Unless you mean that the game becomes more like the full game during the Premium Beta process in which case (later builds), you are probably correct.

That's just what I was thinking.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

And at least in Reunion you could avoid the plot!!!

G

This is a really interesting point you make.

Elite had no plot, and that was fine, 1st encounters did add some of a plot I I felt this added to the game...

Now dont get me wrong, what ever happens i will be putting a LOT of hrs into this game (I am at 95hrs on war thunder and that has no plot at all it is just an arena shooter) but I must admit I DO hope that FD inject some fairly detailed story arcs into ED, even if they will be optional.

I like the idea of following quests etc instead of just playing in a sand box.

but that is just me

PS I hope the OP does not mind my little Segue...... but to bring it back to topic, hopefully the beta will also show some of the mission generation in there as well (after all a mission is almost like a mini story)