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General FAQ

What is "Elite: Dangerous"?

Elite: Dangerous is the 4th instalment in the Elite series of games, which includes mass-multiplayer as an integral part, while still allowing online single player. It will also be the first in the series that will be expanded with walking around. See the main features here.

The subtitle "Dangerous" refers to the 3rd best Elite Rating you could achieve during combat in the Elite games. In the new game it has been expanded to include more than combat.

The origin of the series is Elite, the genre defining open world sandbox, space adventure, trading and combat simulator first released in 1984. It spawned two sequels Frontier: Elite II in 1993 and Frontier: First Encounters (Elite III) in 1995, which already attempted to simulate a realistic Milky Way galaxy with realistic star systems and seamless freeform interplanetary and atmospheric flight and landing on moving planets, with realistic orbits and day/night cycles.

Elite inspired the creation of many space games and the the creation of the "Grand Theft Auto (GTA)" series.

File:Elite Dangerous Gameplay Demo - IGN Live Gamescom 2014

File:The Future of Elite Dangerous

Official Pages:

Community Pages:

Elite - 1984
Frontier: Elite II - 1993
Frontier: First Encounters (Elite III) - 1995
Elite: Dangerous - 2014

What are the main features of "Elite: Dangerous"?

An immersive, evolving galaxy with dynamic society, economy and stories, allowing pilots to join each other and together change the story of the Milky Way.
Pilots will be breaking blockades, battling pirates, attacking enemy positions and installations, and more, leaving their mark wherever they go.
All actions will change history of human kind.
Free-form play allows everyone to choose their own path, becoming an angry pirate, a spy, a peaceful trader, an explorer, a soldier, or a mix between these roles.
There are no classes or skill levels, strength is decided by ship equipment and player skill.
The vast, scientifically accurate 1:1 scale of the seamless Milky Way galaxy is created using a mix of procedural generation and artist direction.
- Around 400 billion star systems according to current scientific theories of star system formation with planets and moons that orbit and rotate.
- Cosmic phenomena like black holes, supernovas, active binary stars etc.
- Specially handcrafted overrides for 160,000 known stars in the night sky and planetary objects that we know and love. For example, our solar system with Earth, Moon and Mars, other systems with recently discovered planets, etc.
Newtonian space combat
Freeform (manual yaw/pitch/roll) interplanetary flight allows to fly freely through star systems in realistic scale to get to a destination. Players can choose to travel wherever they want, including vista points to see Earth rise on the moon, or sun appearing behind of Mars. Or they could choose to explore the vast expanse of space and discover new points of interest in star systems.

The game will be expanded with ambitious features such as atmospheric flight and landings and on-foot and out-of-ship activities (such as FPS combat, walking around and boarding ships, walking in stations and walking and driving vehicles on entire 1:1 scale populated living planets), multi-player crew and possibly player executive controlled capital ships.

More detailed information on a lot of the planned features can be found in the Design Discussion Archive.

Elite - 1984
Frontier: Elite II - 1993
Frontier: First Encounters (Elite III) - 1995
Elite: Dangerous - 2014

On what platforms is and will "Elite: Dangerous" be released on?

Elite: Dangerous has been released for:

Microsoft Windows on December 16 2014

And is planned to be released for:

Apple Mac OS X (approximately 3 months after Windows release)
Microsoft Xbox One
Sony Playstation 4

Where can I buy "Elite: Dangerous"?

Elite: Dangerous can be purchased on the official Elite: Dangerous store website and on Steam.

What are the minimal system requirements to run "Elite: Dangerous"?

While the full release of Elite: Dangerous will be available on both Windows PC and three months later on Apple Macintosh computers. Everyone who bought the Elite: Dangerous, will be able to download the game for Windows and/or Macintosh computers once it is available, at no extra charge.

Development of the OS X version of the game is ongoing, and so recommended specifications are currently only available for the Beta builds.

DirectX 11
Quad Core CPU (4 x 2Ghz is a reasonable minimum)
2 GB System RAM (more is always better)
DX10 hardware GPU with 1GB video ram
Internet connection

Supported Operating Systems:

Windows 7 and higher

Are there plans for other platforms to be supported?

Frontier Developments have confirmed that the game will be released as a timed-exclusive on Xbox One in the Summer of 2015 and a Playstation 4 release will follow at some point in the future and also Linux desktop, but the initial release was Windows only with Mac OS X planned for a few months after.

Does "Elite: Dangerous" support Physically Based Rendering (PBR)?

Yes according to an interview with a graphics programmer dated August-29-2013.

My specialism for this project has mostly been full-scene things, like updating our lighting model to a “physically based” system.

And according to the executive producer.

Short answer: yes it does.
Elite: Dangerous adopted a physically-based rendering (PBR) model right from the start - we want it to look as good as possible under a variety of lighting conditions (and space certainly gives you that!). We expect the visual quality of Elite: Dangerous will continue to improve as we progress through development.
It's worth mentioning though that PBR isn't a one-size-fits-all solution as much as it's the start of a discussion that could probably occupy someone for their entire career - kind of like the way "High Dynamic Range" was quickly adopted by everyone years ago but people are still arguing over the fine details!

Basic Theory of Physically-Based Rendering

File:DockedViper.jpg

Does "Elite: Dangerous" have positional damage?

Yes, the modules all have a position in or on the ship, and some calculations are done based on your armour to decide if there's any penetration at all (which gets more likely as your armour gets beaten up), then how far it's likely to penetrate and which modules are along the path of that penetration and might take damage (there's several more subtle rules, but that's the broad strokes).

Damage is also visually represented.

How can we travel those vast distances in such a huge galaxy?

There are two modes of super luminal (faster than light) travel to cover those vast 1:1 scale distances.

Supercruise, formerly known as frame shifting, is used for freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) travel within star systems. The maximum speed varies based on proximity to celestial bodies, up to 2001 times the speed of light (2001C) that rarely gets reached, to be able handle the most extreme spatial distances. It consumes a small amount of fuel and you can also see other ships that are super-cruising within a star system from a long distance away visually and with long range sensors and also do combat manoeuvring to perform interdictions.
Hyperspace drives are used to travel from anywhere between star systems. Hyperdrives with different ranges, charge up times and fuel consumption parameters are available, and so your particular model of hyperdrive governs your specific ability to move around the galaxy. The game ensures that you will get grouped with other ships near the star with the largest mass during hyperspace exit.

How are players going to meet each other in such a huge galaxy?

Most of the action will take place within the human populated core systems of the major factions and because of the way interstellar hyperspace travel works, the game will ensure that you will get grouped with other ships near the star with the largest mass during hyperspace exit. You will also be able to find other ships that are super-cruising within a star system from a long distance away visually and with long range sensors.

There will also be ways to follow each other's hyperspace trail.

Players won't be able to just take off and disappear into uncharted areas of the galaxy without a huge amount of preparation and logistical equipment, and even when they do start doing that, a big reason for exploring is to find rich systems with lots of resources, so you can make more money by trading or selling information about the location of the resources, which leads them back to the core systems yet again. And if new interesting places with rich resources are found, then one of the major factions may claim the system leading to it becoming part of the core and space stations being built in those systems.

But of course, you can also just go sightseeing.

Having such a large quantity of star systems permits the game to have many major discoveries and many more minor ones, enough for hundreds of thousands of players to experience the opportunity of unique finds without the feeling of tripping over the Ark of the Covenant every two minutes.

Is there be an extensive dynamic economy?

Yes, every station has it's own demands and supply that dynamically change.

Is there any missions or quests?

Yes, missions fall into several types, the ones that you find en route and the ones that will have you actively engage in through a contract. These can earn you both credits and status within the faction you are working for, whether it is a disreputable criminal group or the Federation or Empire themselves.

Is there any roleplaying elements?

Just like in all the previous Elite games, you are not fixed to a specific role like in a traditional roleplaying game, there are also no skillpoints that directly affect the way your avatar performs. Instead you will always be directly in control of your avatar so your own skill will determine the outcome of your interactions.

File:'Elite Dangerous' Beta v2.04 - Opportunist (Flight Assist Off)

File:Elite Dangerous CargoHatch Disruptor

File:'Elite Dangerous' Beta v1.03 - Smuggler (Flight Assist Off)-0

File:'Elite Dangerous' Alpha - Bounty Hunter (Flight Assist Off)-1

That said there are extensive ratings and reputation systems that affect how NPC's and players perceive you, even going so far as taking ship appearance (age/damage) into consideration.

There is also an extensive customization option for the ships.

Will I be able to smuggle illegal goods?

Yes

Is there any mining?

Yes, just like the last two Elite games, there is be mining.

First Mineral Bodies (Asteroids), Frozen Liquid Bodies (Comets), Gas/Dust Clouds and Salvaging, but planetary mining machines are to come.

File:Metal asteroids.jpg

I have heard that the "Elite" series have no actual storyline. Is that true?

No. While the original Elite and Frontier: Elite 2 didn't have an in-game story, the 3rd Elite game, Frontier: First Encounters did have an in-game storyline centered around the Thargoids alien encounter that you could follow if you chose to do so.

The story wasn't explicitly told with traditional cut-scenes, but unfolded from a first person perspective with the help of news events and corresponding missions.

Elite: Dangerous continues with that style of storytelling and is set 45 years after the events of Frontier: First Encounters, in the year 3300 and the Thargoids will make a return. It features more dynamic events, available from newsfeeds within the game or outside, based on both developer injected, dynamic procedural stories , player-caused events and missions.

The game will also have more than 13 official book tie-ins to tell different stories about Elite universe, with lots of places, events and people referenced in the game.

File:Elite Dangerous Gameplay Demo - IGN Live Gamescom 2014

File:Elite Dangerous Dev Diary 2- How the Galaxy will Evolve Over Time

File:Elite Dangerous Trading Dev Diary

In addition to this the Elite universe does have an extensive background history which is covered in many different sources, like In the official novellas - The Dark Wheel from Elite, Stories of Life on the Frontier Life On The Frontier and The Gazetteer from Frontier: Elite 2, and Further Stories of Life on the Frontier from Frontier: First Encounters which can all be found in the following links [1] [2] [3] .

In addition to this there is also Fan Fiction.

Is there detailed ship management and avionics?

Yes, see the following links:

Will I be able to hire crew for my ship?

Yes, as with previous Elite games you will be able to hire NPC crews and player crews for the larger multi-crew ships in future updates.

Can I hire wingmen?

Yes, you can hire wingmen and escorts, but you won't be able to own them. Their loyalty will depend on their morality and faction connections, so they will be able to betray you, or simply refuse to engage in certain criminal acts.

You can however hire players to be in your wing.

Will it be possible to manually land on planets?

Yes, just like the last two Elite games you will be able to seamlessly freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) enter and fly through entire 1:1 scale populated planet atmospheres with living cities and wildlife enabling extra-vehicular activities as part of expansions.

The scope for Elite is huge, so a sensible strategy is used to add to the game in stages.

Keep in mind that the game has been well planned and designed from the start with all these features in mind (it is not an afterthought) and Frontier Developments already has the technology for this.

Elite - 1984
Frontier: Elite II - 1993
Frontier: First Encounters (Elite III) - 1995
Elite: Dangerous - 2014

Is landing and docking be seamless in "Elite: Dangerous"?

Yes, just like in all the previous Elite games you are able to manually dock with space stations seamlessly.

Future expansions will also add the possibility to seamlessly freeform land on planets. Landing and docking will be doable either using auto pilot, or manually.

Elite - 1984
Frontier: Elite II - 1993
Frontier: First Encounters (Elite III) - 1995
Elite: Dangerous - 2014

Are gas giants be realistically represented?

Yes, there are gassy and cloudy gas giants.

Will I walk around the ship, planets and space stations?

Yes, you will be able to walk around the ship interiors, operate ships with multiple players, board and steal other ships with Zero-G FPS combat, walk around and do FPS combat in space stations, do space walks to repair your ship, operate land and underwater vehicles and walk on entire 1:1 scale populated planets with NPCs in living cities, forests and be able to big-game hunt wildlife, like chasing big dinosaurs around as part of expansions.

The scope for Elite is huge, so a sensible strategy is used to add to the game in stages.

Keep in mind that the game has been well planned and designed from the start with all these features in mind (it is not an afterthought).

See this Zoo Tycoon - Dev Diary for a glimpse of the technology that Frontier Developments have for this.

Elite - 1984
Frontier: Elite II - 1993
Frontier: First Encounters (Elite III) - 1995
Elite: Dangerous - 2014

How big are planets and star systems?

Elite: Dangerous has a scientifically accurate 1:1 scale, fully seamless Milky Way galaxy, created from scientific first principles where stars and planets will be accurately positioned relative to your view.

And just like last two Elite games the planets and stars are on a 1:1 scale realistically sized with vast distances between them. The detail in Elite ranges from the macroscopic to microscopic scale.

Does planets rotate and orbit around stars?

Yes, just like in the last two Elite games, Frontier: Elite 2 and Frontier: First Encounters (Elite 3), planets and moons orbits and rotates in 1:1 scale real-time and tilt will affect their seasons.

Full orbital periods are noticeable in-game.

Are there alien life forms?

Alien life is common, but sentient alien life is rare. From these the major alien race are insectoids called the Thargoids, which appeared in the original Elite and had an extensive story arc in Frontier: First Encounters (Elite 3) and they will make a return in Elite: Dangerous.

How many ships are flyable by player in "Elite: Dangerous"?

There are 17 flyable ships and there are plans for at least 30 flyable ships. Both new, modified, and improved models from the previous Elite games.

Can I own multiple ships?

Yes, there is no limit to the amount of ships you can own, but you can only fly one at a time.

Multiple Ship Ownership

Can I own and control capital ships?

There will be capital ships in the game, but initially you won't be able to control or own them, but they will probably be player controllable in an expansion.

Although you can't fly capital ships, you can own and fly large multi-crew ships like the Anaconda and soon to come, the Panther Clipper and Beluga Liner. Some ships, like the Anaconda, can carry smaller ships, so you’d be able to launch a small fighter from it, which is more nimble.

Can I build an empire and own space stations and fleets?

You will be able to own small inflatable asteroid stations as depicted here as part of an update, but you can't own large stations, build empires or own fleets, since that would change the nature of the game.

For example, why would you pilot space ships yourself, when the most efficient way to make money and progress in a game is to sit back in an office and hand out commands?

It's also problematic from a lore and immersion standpoint, since the game is simulating realistic societies, social structures and time scales, so building an empire would involve a lot of resources and politics that only big nations can afford and would stretch over months or years, even building a large space station can take a month or more.

So as an Elite federation pilot, you will only be able to aid in building empires and large space stations through Community Goals, by taking missions to transport resources and defend them, but you are too low on the social ladder (not important enough) to be able to command or own these kind of things.

That said, you will be able to hire NPC wingmen and escorts and give them simple commands, but you won't be able to own or remote control them directly.

Q&A about Development Plan

Why are the ships simpler in design compared to other games?

Because Elite: Dangerous is set in a realistic galaxy where there is no artificial gravity and atmospheric capable ships are engineered to be symmetrical and aerodynamically streamlined, therefore they carry their weapons inboard within a bay to be able to believably skim, enter and freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) fly through planet atmospheres at hypersonic speeds.

The ships in Elite: Dangerous have airlocks, proper mass distribution with no off-centre main thrusters and separate tessellated cargo holds.

However, just like the ships in the previous Elite games, there will be a lot of variety in designs with each manufacturer having its own unique style, which can customized into numerous configurations.

Ships

What are the general differences between "Elite: Dangerous" and "Star Citizen"?

The differences are predominantly in issues surrounding scale, complexity of background simulations, adherence to recognised science of the universe and release schedule.

Heritage:

Elite: Dangerous is the 4th instalment in the Elite series dating back to 1984.

Star Citizen has a heritage in the Wing Commander / Privateer / Starlancer / Freelancer series dating back to 1990.

Release Schedule:

Elite: Dangerous was released on December 16, 2014.

Star Citizen is projected for a general release in late 2016.

Story:

Elite: Dangerous has and Star Citizen will have an on-going background story which will be influenced by the players and augmented with developer injected events.

Star Citizen comes with a single-player focused cinematic scripted campaign and is projected for general episodic releases starting from mid 2015, which will later be updated with free DLC expansions.

Ship Design and landing on planets:

In Elite: Dangerous, the ships are relatively larger for their class, with capital ships in the 2 km range and atmospheric capable ones are engineered to be aerodynamically streamlined and symmetrical, and therefore carry their weapons within a bay. This provides ships with hulls that are able to enter and freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) fly through 1:1 scale planet atmospheres at hypersonic speeds.

In Star Citizen the ships are less aerodynamically streamlined and carry their weapons outboard, some are asymmetrical.

Landing on planets in Star Citizen will use scripted in-game cinematics and will be limited to specific landing zones as opposed to Elite: Dangerous where it will be freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) land wherever you want.

Methods of Travel:

Elite: Dangerous has freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) interplanetary fast travel with combat manoeuvring. Due to the realistic 1:1 scale galaxy with proper distances, it necessitates faster than light speeds, up to 2000 times the speed of light (2000C), to make travel times practical with very long range sensors and combat interaction and you will be able to seamlessly enter hyperspace to travel from anywhere to another star.

Star Citizen's interplanetary fast travel will allow a speed of up to 20% the speed of light (0.2C), which necessitates scaled down star systems to compress spatial distances to make travel times practical. It also won't be freeform (Autopilot Only) nor have combat manoeuvring in this mode, so you will not have the ability to specify an exact random location in space. You can navigate to known locations or tag a ship they want to track or ambush. Also you must fly through wormhole-like jump points (which will allow some interactivity) at fixed locations to other star system.

Galaxy:

In Elite: Dangerous the galaxy will be scientifically accurate and include around a 100 billion star systems (around 400 billion stars considering most systems contain multiple stars). The Elite Universe is modelled on current galactic charts. Planets and moons will rotate and orbit in 1:1 scale real-time, therefore constantly changing a system's environment.

Star Citizen's galaxy will have 120 star systems at launch, with time compressed to 2 hours for each day (1:12 scale time) and a more casual take on spatial size and distance of celestial bodies, meaning planets won't be properly scaled and they might also not orbit. To give an example, Elite: Dangerous will have stars alone that can engulf whole star systems of Star Citizen multiple times. Also see this video to give a sense of scale.

Given what we know about our solar system, the orbits of exoplanets and the fact that the maximum speed in Star Citizen will be 0.2C, with a targeted travel time of around 30 minutes to cross a star system, it is calculated that the size of Star Citizen star systems will be compressed to around 1:100 up to 1:2500 scale.

Weapons:

Elite: Dangerous has lightspeed pulse and beam lasers on all ships fitted with energy weapons, as opposed to Star Citizen which has slow moving beam weapons only on capital ships. The remainder of the Star Citizen fleet will have slow moving laser bolts like one would see in Star Wars.

Planetary Exploration:

Elite: Dangerous will have freeform (go wherever you want) planetary exploration on entire 1:1 scale planets.

In Star Citizen, planetside movement will be restricted to specialized locations, connected by scripted sequences, such as star ports, small city hubs, bars and FPS arenas, while the rest of the planet is off limits.

Artificial Gravity:

In Elite: Dangerous there is no artificial gravity, so space stations are designed to rotate as opposed to Star Citizen.

Flight and Combat Models:

There are major differences in how each game handles close combat flight (as you can see from this video). There is an inherent flaw with the premise of close combat space flight, leading to endless turreting and circle-strafing especially in PVP multiplayer due to the lack of terrain features in mid space, compound that with the fact that Elite also features lightspeed pulse and beam lasers making this issue even more apparent.

Elite: Dangerous deals with this by limiting the yaw rate and enforce an optimum corner speed by way of thruster placement and limits in the flight control computer, forcing to roll and then pitch to get the most efficient turn rate (less efficient, but most comfortable for a human pilot), in addition there is a G-LOC system, a preliminary version can be seen here.

In Star Citizen ships can be pointed more intuitively in a fashion akin to FPS, requiring a strong yaw (most efficient, but discomforting for a human pilot). It deals with turreting by having a G-LOC system as seen here, but this alone doesn't alleviate the problems completely, but it is less critical due to the lack of lightspeed lasers on the smaller ships.

Multiplayer:

Multiplayer is handled with a grouping system in Elite: Dangerous and a PVP-PVE slider which doesn't completely control engagements in Star Citizen.

Additional Links:

What are the general differences between "Elite: Dangerous" and "EVE Online"?

Elite: Dangerous is pay once and play, therefore does not have a periodic subscription like EVE Online.

Another major difference is that in EVE everybody within a star system is in one big instance and when there are too many people within it they slow down the update rate of the game.

Elite: Dangerous features dynamically created free roaming multiplayer instances, based on perception bubble, that are decoupled from the star systems themselves (but you can also play solo).

Due to a lot less network traffic, this allows Elite: Dangerous to have twitch based action instead of classic MMO click 'n' roll (where actual world updates are comparatively slow depending on server load and all attacks are calculated on servers using modified D&D system) which is used in EVE.

That means that Elite: Dangerous combat is twitch skill based.

An important difference is that EVE's economy is totally player driven - so to have ships and weapons in the game have to be manufactured by players themselves, by collecting resources and providing them to factories. Elite: Dangerous uses an economic model that drives NPCs to simulate the flow of products, which also have all player trades as input to the shared universe.

Another important difference is that EVE has a lot of empire building and RTS elements, while Elite is what it would be like to be a spacefarer in a galaxy from a first person’s perspective.

PVP also has some differences which are explained here.

The Elite: Dangerous galaxy is based on the real Milky Way and planets will rotate and orbit their stars, thus constantly changing a system's landscape and adding lot of depth - and it has around 100 billion star systems, as opposed to EVE where the planets are static and don't move.

Elite: Dangerous has freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) interplanetary fast travel up to 2000 times the speed of light (2000C) and you are able to seamlessly enter hyperspace from anywhere to another star. EVE on the other hand has point & click travel and you must fly to a jump gate to enter another star system.

A major feature that Elite: Dangerous will have is freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) atmospheric flight and seamless landing on planets and walking on living planets with cities and wildlife as part of expansions.

Where can I follow development news about "Elite: Dangerous"?

Why is yaw so slow?

There is an inherent flaw with the premise of close combat space flight, leading to endless turreting and circle-strafing especially in PVP multiplayer, due to the lack of terrain features in mid space, compound that with the fact that Elite also features lightspeed pulse and beam lasers making this issue even more apparent.

Elite: Dangerous deals with this by limiting the yaw rate and enforce an optimum corner speed by way of thruster placement and limits in the flight control computer, forcing to roll and then pitch to get the most efficient turn rate (less efficient, but most comfortable for a human pilot), in addition there is a G-LOC system, a preliminary version can be seen here.

Is there Newtonian physics?

Yes, just like in the last two Elite games, the flight physics are Newtonian[4][5]. While this time the forces are fed to a proper rigid body, (so rotation is properly taken into account) instead of a simple point mass (where only linear dynamics matters), the fly-by-wire system (flight control computer) in Elite: Dangerous constrains the ship's angular and linear velocity relative to a common reference frame during regular local flight, to induce interesting tactical dogfights at close range and this flight assist can be partially disabled to be able to skid more freely. Also unlike the last two Elite games, only the Super-Cruise mode (Work In Progress) takes planet interaction into account (subject to change).

Here some quotes from the creator David Braben:

"David Braben I think in many respects it's more comparable to Frontier in terms of the way the galaxy works, that sort of thing. But in terms of the way you fly it's much closer to Elite. We're going to have Newtonian physics. But the way that we apply the fly-by-wire layer over the top of makes the combat feel really visceral and seat-of-the-pants, rather than [as in Frontier] jousting at huge distances"[6]

"David Braben Most of the ‘brutal realism’ of Frontier will continue. The real galaxy and so on. For the combat model we are doing more fly-by-wire than in Frontier, but this is to improve the feel of the game; the realism is still there. Don’t forget there was fly-by-wire in Frontier too."[7]

So there is a fly-by-wire system that keeps the ship within flight parameters, with a flight assist mode that is on by default, that helps you maintain your turns and dampen the angular momentum when rolling, pitching and yawing by automatically calculating the thruster forces needed to stabilize the ship and reduce the skidding.

You can turn flight assist off, so you will have have to manually adjust the thruster forces to control the skidding and counteract the angular momentum, the fly-by-wire however will always be partially active to keep your ship constrained within the specified limits.

Cargo mass will also affect the manoeuvrability of your ship.

Can I manually fire thrusters in every direction?

Yes the game allows for full 6DOF motion.

Is "Elite: Dangerous" an MMO?

Yes, Elite: Dangerous is an MMO, but with the important addition, that you can choose if you want to meet other players.

The game features a shared persistent galaxy server, where macro effects and events such as economy, society and war status etc. are recorded.

The are no multi-player lobbies.

The server transparently creates free roaming sessions (instances) when meeting other players and NPCs within that galaxy based on a perception bubble around you, that is defined by your scanner/visual range. That means that those instances are not a fixed location in space as in most other MMOs, but they dynamically move around.

The effects of those instances are then stored on the central galaxy server and shared by everybody.

Because the game features very high speed twitch combat and very detailed damage models, this is the most reliable way to do it, also keep in mind there can be many sessions within a star system and those sessions can dynamically move around, also because this game uses a 1:1 scale Milky Way galaxy, sessions will typically be spread out much farther away (although most of the action will be within the core systems) and it wouldn't be immersion breaking as opposed to a space game in a smaller area.

How does singleplayer work? Will I need to connect to a server to play?

Yes. The online galaxy of Elite: Dangerous is a shared universe maintained by a central server. All of the meta data for the galaxy is shared between players. This includes the galaxy itself as well as transient information like economies. The aim here is that a player's actions will influence the development of the galaxy, without necessarily having to play multiplayer.

The other important aspect for the developers is that they can seed the galaxy with events, often these events will be triggered by player actions. With a living breathing galaxy players can discover new and interesting things long after they have started playing.

Does "Elite: Dangerous" have a monthly subscription fee?

No. Elite: Dangerous has a fixed a box price, without hidden costs. However, you will pay one-time fees for major additional expansions.

What are the future expansions?

The expansions include significant new features such as seamless freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) atmospheric flight and landings and on-foot and out-of-ship activities (such as FPS combat, walking around and boarding ships, walking in stations and walking and driving vehicles on entire 1:1 scale populated living planets), multi-player crew and probably player executive controlled capital ships.

Frontier releases free updates roughly each month that enhance the game. Expansions that include significant new features and content will have to be purchased.

For example, the initial roadmap is to add these features over the following expansions (in no particular order): [8]

The scope for Elite is huge, so a sensible strategy is used to add to the game in stages.

Keep in mind that the game has been well planned and designed from the start with all these features in mind (it is not an afterthought) and Frontier Developments already has the technology for this.

Elite - 1984
Frontier: Elite II - 1993
Frontier: First Encounters (Elite III) - 1995
Elite: Dangerous - 2014

Does "Elite: Dangerous" support Oculus Rift?

Yes, Elite: Dangerous officially support Oculus Rift.

Where does the Elite: Dangerous community hang out?

References

Fandom>SpyTec