Greetings commanders,
At Frontier Expo 2017, we revealed the first details of season 3 of Elite Dangerous, called Elite Dangerous: Beyond – you can watch back the announcements here. Throughout 2018 we’re bringing four Beyond updates to Elite Dangerous Commanders which focus on adding new content, uncovering and progressing the mysteries of the galaxy and enhancing existing core gameplay experiences. These updates will consist of a number of additions with the first update detailed below, followed by two smaller content updates through the year and our largest update coming in Q4. Each update will be a new Chapter in the Elite Dangerous: Beyond season.
Today we're pleased to announce that you'll be able to test Chapter 1 of the series in the open beta coming to all PC Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous: Horizons players on Thursday 25 January!
As always we welcome your feedback in our dedicated feedback livestreams, and on the beta and bug report forums. These beta tests have always been an incredibly useful and valuable part of development, and Beyond Chapter 1 will be no exception. Because of the huge number of core feature enhancements, the introduction of a new ship, and other numerous additions and improvements, we want to be sure that as many of you are able to experience and test the beta first-hand, for that reason we have decided to open this beta to all players of Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous: Horizons on PC.
We'll publish a full list of changes on beta launch day, but come along to our content livestreams on Tuesday 16 January at 7PM GMT and Thursday 18 January at 7PM GMT for a closer look at everything in this update. In the meantime, you can see a short summary of some of the features below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKcclm3dFzk
New Ship: Chieftain
Elite Dangerous Horizons Commanders will also be able to take to the stars in the new Alliance Chieftain, designed not only to dish out punishment, but to avoid it. Manufactured by Lakon Spaceways, the Chieftain is more maneuverable than ships of similar size and weight, and its combat profile means it can more than hold its own in a fight.
Improved Core Mechanics
Chapter 1 of Beyond will bring improvements to some of Elite Dangerous' core mechanics, including accessibility enhancements to the engineering mechanics, an overhaul of mission rewards and big changes to crime and punishment. We’ll be sharing more information on the changes to Crime and Punishment, and the Engineers in a future post here on the forums and in the livestreams mentioned above.
Wing Missions
Chapter 1 of Beyond will give you the chance to take on wing missions with your fellow Commanders, sharing both the efforts and rewards.
Revised Trade Data
Commanders will now be able to access trade data from systems they have previously visited, in order to make more informed decisions when shipping goods across the Milky Way.
Planetary Visual Improvements
Chapter 1 also includes the first of the planetary visual improvements coming as part of the Beyond series of updates (with more surface level improvements coming later in the year) bringing a new vibrancy to the Elite Dangerous galaxy.
GalNet Audio
With the introduction of GalNet Audio, you will be able to catch up on the latest news from across the galaxy without ever leaving the action.
You can find the beta details below:
• When? 25 January 2018
• Who? This beta is open to everyone on PC and Mac
The beta includes new content, changes and improvements for both Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous Horizons players. In order to access all of the content, you will require Elite Dangerous Horizons.