I take it everyone has seen this Reddit post but I thought I'd share anyway. https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDange...rizons_and_its_included_expansions_the_known/
Love the idea of more story and better missions for Powerplay coming in, maybe we'll see a return to bulletin board characters and more personality like we had in Frontier II and First Encounters. Very excited this year the core game is great hopefully we'll get tweaks to the story to bring the life of the factions and galaxy out more.
Primarily for new and returning CMDRs, this is an information post of all the known updates coming during Season 2 of Elite Dangerous.
It's adapted from /u/Barking_Madness' excellent forum thread (that some may be unable to access) on the topic, with additions from various sources he's linked there. All this information is taken from official sources and discussions.
There will be 4 expansions within the Horizons season of 2016, free to all owners of EDH:
Loot & Crafting - confirmed as 2.1 for Q1
Ship Launched Fighters - 2.x (unknown)
Multi-Crew - 2.x (unknown)
Commander Creation - 2.x (unknown)
While each expansion is titled after its headline feature - generally available to Horizons CMDRs only - they also will contain many other basegame gameplay/content improvements and additions, available to all CMDRs.
Based on the release timescales of 2.1 and previous 1.x updates, it can be assumed that 2.2/2.3/2.4 will be respectively released in Q2/Q3/Q4, with 2.4 arriving in December alongside 3.0 (for owners of the LTXP and Season 3 pre-orders). For basegame-only-CMDRs the updates will likely be respectively numbered 1.6/1.7/1.8/1.9 (and 1.10, 1.11, etc in Season 3).
Core Game Improvements
Some loot and crafting options will be available. L&C related to planetary surfaces will obviously not be.
Core mission enhancements, including military, ranking and Powerplay.
Fully-chained missions - different types of missions in a sequence, e.g. delivery following an assassination.
Assets/abandoned bases from CQC.
"Mysterious colonies".
Bookmarks.
Overhaul of weapons, missiles and mines.
More ships, some of which will be very large trading ships.
The Unidentified Artefact will be woven into the narrative of the Horizons season - it is not a wild goose chase.
More CGs to expand the human bubble.
More CQC maps and modes.
Story reasons for Piracy & Bounty Hunting.
Ed Symons said there is something else he is working on that he is "more excited about than planetary landings", but he couldn't talk about it.
More differentiation between stations.
Being Discussed - towards end of Season 2 if they make it in
CQC Racing.
Exploration log.
Planets with visible-from-space weather systems.
Co-ordinates for mission targets.
Ferrying multiple ships from one station to another.
More astronomical phenomenon, especially comets.
Comets already in the simulation, but gameplay is being designed for them.
Passenger missions.
Orrery.
Better Wing-support for Piracy & Bounty Hunting.
Ship naming - "we will do it"
Power Play Specific - very likely, discussions on-going since July 2015
More missions, variety and rewards.
Interdiction and spawning rebalancing, with home systems becoming significantly safer.
Each time a CMDR earns a Merit, they also earn a Favour.
Unlike Merit, Favour does not decay – it’s a permanent resource.
At any time during a cycle, a CMDR could “spend” favour to trigger an individual rating’s benefits until the next cycle.
The cost of triggering a rating’s benefits significantly more than the merit total required to activate them, keeping merits as the “supercharged” currency of Powerplay.
Ability to toggle Powerplay status to be active or hidden, through either an option/decal/skin.
Significant enforced cool downs when hiding your Powerplay status before you get the benefits.
Ability to “up vote” or “down vote” a system involved in Powerplay action.
Other CMDRs from your power would see this up/down-vote data as a very clean, contextual communication of ideas.
Importantly, you’d be able to see totals for both “up” and “down” votes for systems involved with Powerplay.
E.g.1: if one of your power’s control systems had a tremendous amount of “down votes”, you could clearly infer that many supporters considered fortifying this system as a waste of time.
E.g.2: Lots of “down votes” on an enemy control system would indicate that undermining it would not be appreciated.
Outside of Powerplay, CMDRs can pledge as a System's Freedom Fighter.
As a Freedom Fighter, a CMDR can Undermine and Oppose for the system they had pledged to, effectively working with opposing powers to weaken the controlling power’s presence.
Freedom Fighters would possibly be valid targets in any system controlled or exploited by any power that shared a major faction with the one being attacked by the freedom fighter.
Freedom Fighters limited to support one system at a time, with a cool down or some mission to “wipe” their status clean.
More dovetailing between minor factions and powers, beyond the government versus ethos effect that currently exists.
Benefits and penalties of ethos versus government scale per exploited system rather than at a set 50%.
Loot & Crafting, 2.1
Some elements of Loot & Crafting (L&C) is available in 2.0.
The full L&C System will be the first update to Horizons, most likely in Q1 (Jan - Mar 2016).
Some loot and crafting will be available to non-Horizons CMDRs.
Greater degree of customisation and power to the ships.
Improve and customise normal weapons and module types.
Loot will be found in various place in the galaxy, e.g. planetary surfaces, wrecked vessels.
It's a reward system to assist explorers, combatants, traders, miners and bounty hunters with each having different L&C options available.
Ability to create different coloured and powered lasers along with guns that would create malfunctions in enemy ships systems.
Ship-Launched Fighters
Larger ships in the game (for example the T-9) will be able to launch and/or dock smaller vessels from their bays.
Launched vessels can be either NPC or CMDR piloted.
These smaller ships will be used to fight off enemy craft, act as scouting vessels on planets.
If playing on your own and choose to leave your main vessel in a smaller fighter craft your ship will fly on autopilot and defend itself.
Multi-Crew
In-game image of how this might look on the bridge of a ship.
Players working together to control the different functions of a ship.
E.g.1: one player would fly the ship whilst others would handle the sub-systems and weapons.
E.g.2: a multicrew ship landing on a planet's surface could have one player stay with the main vessel, another patrol in a ship-launched fighter, and another explore in their SRV.
The maximum number of crew on a ship is 4.
This crew limit may be increased in a future Season, with David Braben commenting at EGX, "We don't know how high we would go." (current instancing instances likely make more than 4 unfeasible)
NPC Crew are planned, but there is no time scale on when.
Commander Creation
Enormous range of faces and features available using the Commander Creation 'slider tool'.
This option will be selected via the game's interface.
In combination with Multicrew players will at last be able to see each other, in game.
Faces will be visible as the visors will be retracted with pressurised cockpit.
Canopy breach will cause Visors to appear.
Although dev-demo shows baldness, hair is confirmed.
NPC characters are planned, but no time frame has been given.
Future Horizons Updates
Extra SRV's.
Planet updates will include 'active volcanism' and 'ice volcanism'.
Already in the internal-developer-build. No footage available as yet as textures have not been applied.
Larger settlements, including cities.
NPC ships flying around stations and the surface. NPC SRVs not this Season.
Atmospheric landings on Planets with Life will NOT be part of Horizons season.
And Finally, Future Expansions in 2017+ (Season 3+)
Newsletter #29 provided a list of what at the time was Frontier's roadmap for expansions. In no particular order:
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.
Pricing Model:
Lifetime Expansion Pass owners gain all future Seasons free.
The LTXP was available to early backers (Alpha tier @ £200, Premium Beta tier @ £100, optional £35 extra for Beta tier @ £50) and in August 2015 for £120.
If the policy stays the same, future Seasons will be £40 to new players, and £30 to existing CMDRs, with the price dropping considerably in sales throughout the Season (£10 in Winter sales).
Buying future Seasons may include all previous Seasons free.
The LTXP may be available for purchase again in the future.
If anyone knows of confirmed/discussed improvements that are missing from the above list, or any inaccuracies, please comment for me to add here and I'll notify /u/Barking_Madness accordingly
Love the idea of more story and better missions for Powerplay coming in, maybe we'll see a return to bulletin board characters and more personality like we had in Frontier II and First Encounters. Very excited this year the core game is great hopefully we'll get tweaks to the story to bring the life of the factions and galaxy out more.
Primarily for new and returning CMDRs, this is an information post of all the known updates coming during Season 2 of Elite Dangerous.
It's adapted from /u/Barking_Madness' excellent forum thread (that some may be unable to access) on the topic, with additions from various sources he's linked there. All this information is taken from official sources and discussions.
There will be 4 expansions within the Horizons season of 2016, free to all owners of EDH:
Loot & Crafting - confirmed as 2.1 for Q1
Ship Launched Fighters - 2.x (unknown)
Multi-Crew - 2.x (unknown)
Commander Creation - 2.x (unknown)
While each expansion is titled after its headline feature - generally available to Horizons CMDRs only - they also will contain many other basegame gameplay/content improvements and additions, available to all CMDRs.
Based on the release timescales of 2.1 and previous 1.x updates, it can be assumed that 2.2/2.3/2.4 will be respectively released in Q2/Q3/Q4, with 2.4 arriving in December alongside 3.0 (for owners of the LTXP and Season 3 pre-orders). For basegame-only-CMDRs the updates will likely be respectively numbered 1.6/1.7/1.8/1.9 (and 1.10, 1.11, etc in Season 3).
Core Game Improvements
Some loot and crafting options will be available. L&C related to planetary surfaces will obviously not be.
Core mission enhancements, including military, ranking and Powerplay.
Fully-chained missions - different types of missions in a sequence, e.g. delivery following an assassination.
Assets/abandoned bases from CQC.
"Mysterious colonies".
Bookmarks.
Overhaul of weapons, missiles and mines.
More ships, some of which will be very large trading ships.
The Unidentified Artefact will be woven into the narrative of the Horizons season - it is not a wild goose chase.
More CGs to expand the human bubble.
More CQC maps and modes.
Story reasons for Piracy & Bounty Hunting.
Ed Symons said there is something else he is working on that he is "more excited about than planetary landings", but he couldn't talk about it.
More differentiation between stations.
Being Discussed - towards end of Season 2 if they make it in
CQC Racing.
Exploration log.
Planets with visible-from-space weather systems.
Co-ordinates for mission targets.
Ferrying multiple ships from one station to another.
More astronomical phenomenon, especially comets.
Comets already in the simulation, but gameplay is being designed for them.
Passenger missions.
Orrery.
Better Wing-support for Piracy & Bounty Hunting.
Ship naming - "we will do it"
Power Play Specific - very likely, discussions on-going since July 2015
More missions, variety and rewards.
Interdiction and spawning rebalancing, with home systems becoming significantly safer.
Each time a CMDR earns a Merit, they also earn a Favour.
Unlike Merit, Favour does not decay – it’s a permanent resource.
At any time during a cycle, a CMDR could “spend” favour to trigger an individual rating’s benefits until the next cycle.
The cost of triggering a rating’s benefits significantly more than the merit total required to activate them, keeping merits as the “supercharged” currency of Powerplay.
Ability to toggle Powerplay status to be active or hidden, through either an option/decal/skin.
Significant enforced cool downs when hiding your Powerplay status before you get the benefits.
Ability to “up vote” or “down vote” a system involved in Powerplay action.
Other CMDRs from your power would see this up/down-vote data as a very clean, contextual communication of ideas.
Importantly, you’d be able to see totals for both “up” and “down” votes for systems involved with Powerplay.
E.g.1: if one of your power’s control systems had a tremendous amount of “down votes”, you could clearly infer that many supporters considered fortifying this system as a waste of time.
E.g.2: Lots of “down votes” on an enemy control system would indicate that undermining it would not be appreciated.
Outside of Powerplay, CMDRs can pledge as a System's Freedom Fighter.
As a Freedom Fighter, a CMDR can Undermine and Oppose for the system they had pledged to, effectively working with opposing powers to weaken the controlling power’s presence.
Freedom Fighters would possibly be valid targets in any system controlled or exploited by any power that shared a major faction with the one being attacked by the freedom fighter.
Freedom Fighters limited to support one system at a time, with a cool down or some mission to “wipe” their status clean.
More dovetailing between minor factions and powers, beyond the government versus ethos effect that currently exists.
Benefits and penalties of ethos versus government scale per exploited system rather than at a set 50%.
Loot & Crafting, 2.1
Some elements of Loot & Crafting (L&C) is available in 2.0.
The full L&C System will be the first update to Horizons, most likely in Q1 (Jan - Mar 2016).
Some loot and crafting will be available to non-Horizons CMDRs.
Greater degree of customisation and power to the ships.
Improve and customise normal weapons and module types.
Loot will be found in various place in the galaxy, e.g. planetary surfaces, wrecked vessels.
It's a reward system to assist explorers, combatants, traders, miners and bounty hunters with each having different L&C options available.
Ability to create different coloured and powered lasers along with guns that would create malfunctions in enemy ships systems.
Ship-Launched Fighters
Larger ships in the game (for example the T-9) will be able to launch and/or dock smaller vessels from their bays.
Launched vessels can be either NPC or CMDR piloted.
These smaller ships will be used to fight off enemy craft, act as scouting vessels on planets.
If playing on your own and choose to leave your main vessel in a smaller fighter craft your ship will fly on autopilot and defend itself.
Multi-Crew
In-game image of how this might look on the bridge of a ship.
Players working together to control the different functions of a ship.
E.g.1: one player would fly the ship whilst others would handle the sub-systems and weapons.
E.g.2: a multicrew ship landing on a planet's surface could have one player stay with the main vessel, another patrol in a ship-launched fighter, and another explore in their SRV.
The maximum number of crew on a ship is 4.
This crew limit may be increased in a future Season, with David Braben commenting at EGX, "We don't know how high we would go." (current instancing instances likely make more than 4 unfeasible)
NPC Crew are planned, but there is no time scale on when.
Commander Creation
Enormous range of faces and features available using the Commander Creation 'slider tool'.
This option will be selected via the game's interface.
In combination with Multicrew players will at last be able to see each other, in game.
Faces will be visible as the visors will be retracted with pressurised cockpit.
Canopy breach will cause Visors to appear.
Although dev-demo shows baldness, hair is confirmed.
NPC characters are planned, but no time frame has been given.
Future Horizons Updates
Extra SRV's.
Planet updates will include 'active volcanism' and 'ice volcanism'.
Already in the internal-developer-build. No footage available as yet as textures have not been applied.
Larger settlements, including cities.
NPC ships flying around stations and the surface. NPC SRVs not this Season.
Atmospheric landings on Planets with Life will NOT be part of Horizons season.
And Finally, Future Expansions in 2017+ (Season 3+)
Newsletter #29 provided a list of what at the time was Frontier's roadmap for expansions. In no particular order:
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.
Pricing Model:
Lifetime Expansion Pass owners gain all future Seasons free.
The LTXP was available to early backers (Alpha tier @ £200, Premium Beta tier @ £100, optional £35 extra for Beta tier @ £50) and in August 2015 for £120.
If the policy stays the same, future Seasons will be £40 to new players, and £30 to existing CMDRs, with the price dropping considerably in sales throughout the Season (£10 in Winter sales).
Buying future Seasons may include all previous Seasons free.
The LTXP may be available for purchase again in the future.
If anyone knows of confirmed/discussed improvements that are missing from the above list, or any inaccuracies, please comment for me to add here and I'll notify /u/Barking_Madness accordingly
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