Elite Dangerous: Difference between revisions

All players will be part of a “Pilot’s Federation” – that is how they are distinguished from non-players – so you will be able to tell who is a player and who is a non-player easily.

[[File:Elite Dangerous Dev Diary 2- How the Galaxy will Evolve Over Time|right|335px]]

New star ports will not simply appear overnight, however; they will be slowly built in real time. These events will create opportunities for players as the resources and people required for building will need to be transported and there will no doubt be related military missions and scope for increased piracy.

[[File:Elite Dangerous - procedural generation|full|right|335px]][[Procedural Generation|Procedural generation]] of content is a technique where content is generated from rules. It abstracts repetitive or arbitrary elements of content creation in a very efficient way.

Imagine a medieval landscape. Laying out towns, roads, castles, farm land, forests and so on can be done by a system of rules – putting castles widely spaced out on vantage points, towns near rivers but under the protection of such a castle, roads between them, then with farm land to support them all. An artist can still design the castle, the houses in the towns, but this approach greatly magnifies the content that can be created. “Frontier” did this for the star systems, and planets, and with Elite: Dangerous, [[Frontier Developments]] will go further.

[[File:Elite Dangerous Dev Diary - Shields|full|right|335px]]

Larger ships will have multiple shield generators which can be targeted and will fail individually. This will add an extra level of skill where attackers can inflict hull damage by firing weapons at a single point and the prey navigates in a way that draws fire to working shields.

Alternatively, hyperdrives or thrusters could be targeted, preventing an escape or completely disabling the enemy. Frontier Developments have already hinted at future updates allowing for boarding of ships.

[[File:Elite Dangerous Dev Diary 3 - Player Roles|full|right|335 px]]Unlike RPG games, players in Elite Dangerous will not choose their [[Roles|role]] by customising their character. Instead, the choice and customisation of their ship will be geared towards specific role(s). Examples cited are [[Roles#Trader|Trader]], [[Roles#Explorer|Explorer]], [[Roles#Bounty Hunter|Bounty Hunter]] and [[Roles#Pirate|Pirate]]. However hybrid roles or new roles may be possible through updates or emergent gameplay e.g. mining.

It won't just be commodities that can be traded. David Braben has said that game items can also be bought and sold, such as maps and permits. There will also be [[smuggling]].

===Advanced Combat===

Engaging in combat has the consequence of heating up your hull (e.g. performing tight turns, firing weapons) which will make you easier to spot on scanners. This means that players will be able to detect on-going battles and join in. David Braben has hinted at the abilitiy for combatants to communicate with ships in the vicinity to "do deals". This may mean you'll get a share of the profits if you save a trader from pirates or you'll get a share in the loot if you don't mind getting a bounty on your head.

===Mining and Gas Scooping===

Of course, mining and scooping will be important activities; providing the raw resources to keep civilisation going. However, little has been said about how they will differ, if at all, from previous games. Although mining would seem to be a very labour intensive activity, requiring much of a player's time, it hasn't been included as a career in its own right.

Frontier Developments have mentioned that they have considered multiple in-game currencies, as long as they don't confuse gameplay. Players will be able to buy credits with real money. However, buying progression is made difficult because many aspects of the game depend on rank. By embracing real money transactions they are hoping to avoid the "gold farmers" that have blighted most modern MMORPG games.

Previous games tried to obey the laws of physics to a certain extent. This meant conventional thrusters were limited by the laws of relativity i.e. players could not travel faster than light within a star system. [[Frontier: Elite II]] used the Stardreamer feature as a realism/gameplay trade-off. However, such a mechanism would not work in a multiplayer game, so Elite Dangerous will feature faster than light travel using hyperspace.

Frontier Developments took the decision to implement landing on planets as a future update. This gives them more time to implement a significant feature in a manner that they're happy with. Players will still be able to skim the atmosphere to scoop gases. For an insight in to the rich experience planned for atmosphers, watch the [[Procedural Generation|procedural generation]] video above.

[[File:Engines.jpg|thumb|335px]]Ships will be customisable in a way that affects how the ship functions. They will feature hard points for weapons and thrusters, giving the player more control over how the ship behaves and what strengths and weaknesses it'll have.

Weapons will not always be immediately available. Weapons will need to be enabled in anticipation of using them. This allows for offensive / defensive stances and bluffing.

[[File:Asteroid_field.jpg|thumb|330px|Asteroid Field]]Although, for reasons of playability, the game will not feature completely realistic Newtonian mechanics, there is going to be a vast improvement in astrophysics. David Braben has confirmed the inclusion of new encounters with comets, black holes and quasers (in updates at least).

David Braden, in an interview with [http://www.pcgamesn.com/article/elite-dangerous-will-have-100-billion-star-systems-and-thargoids-braben-reveals-whats-next-his-space-sim PCGamesN]indicated that Elite: Dangerous will be set in a randomly gemerated Milky Way with over 100 billions solar systems, including our own. In addition each system could have up to 100 objects, leading to plenty of opportunities for the player.

After release [[Features not Included at Launch|several features]] will be added to Elite: Dangerous. Some of these were available in previous editions of the game and some new to this one.

[[Category:Elite Dangerous]]

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