Version history
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Elite Dangerous is the definitive massively multiplayer space epic, bringing gaming’s original open world adventure to the modern generation with a connected galaxy, evolving narrative and the entirety of the Milky Way re-created at its full galactic proportions. Here is the Version history of how it has evolved over time.
The current version is Template:CurrentVersion, released on 26th April 2016. Since launch, there have been 3115 documented improvements to the live game.
This page is a quick reference for the purpose of informing returning-CMDRs, after time away from the cockpit, of what has been added to Elite Dangerous and when. Provided are highlights of each release version - approximately 90% of the changelog information is omitted - therefore they are ordered as follows:
- Expansions bring key improvements - so are ordered chronologically, most recent first.
- Patches mostly fix bugs and correct balance issues that appeared - so are ordered by release-date, under their parent expansion.
Each release is briefly described on this page as follows:
- Version identifier, title of headline feature, and date publicly available
- Summary of the content, features and key gameplay improvements added
- Links to the complete changelogs (only ~5% is included here)
Version formatting
Each release version's numeric identifier (n.n.nn) is broken down as follows:
- First digit refers to the Season
- Second digit refers to the major release or expansion
- Third (pair of) digit(s) refers to the minor release or patch
- Example: a version identifier of v1.2.08 = 8th patch, of the 2nd expansion, during Season 1
History
v2.1 "The Engineers" & 1.6 - 26th May 2016
- SURFACE
- Temporarily remove SRV mining
- Made it so that you can't interdict someone who is in orbital cruise
- Player's ship shields should recharge while player is in SRV
- Make all Skimmers and POI objects detectable by ground sensors only by default, we don't want ships picking them off from the skies without having to work for it. Note that anything firing at the player will still show up and be target-able back
- note that POIs can still be discovered from ships
- Collisions with skimmers are now also extremely disruptive to ships, hitting one will cause a temporarily loss of drives and shields
- Extend time ships can fly over settlements before they get fines and bounties
- Settlement point defence capability upgraded
- Skimmer disablers added
- Added point defence systems for settlements and bases
- Reduce the splash damage for dumbfire missiles so they're not overpowered against surface targets
Engineers
- Allow some Engineers to gain reputation by activities other than crafting
- Rebalance engineer reputation gain from crafting blueprints
- Updated rate of Engineer progression balancing numbers
- Prevent superpower reputation from affecting rep gained by Engineers crafting recipes
- Engineers invite mission does not take into account the size of your ship when it selects destination fixed
- Remove unused variables from engineer missions because they may have been blocking progress
- Increase default size of PopUp Engineer Dialogue s in order to accommodate larger strings
- Resource Grade icons have been updated to support grade 5 resources
- Updated buff icons to make them more readable
- Materials can be spawned inside signal sources
- Materials can be dropped from destroyed ships
- Materials can be dropped from destroyed skimmers
- Encoded data materials added
Mining
- Mining resources can now create materials
- Mining scenarios can now spawn in icy rings
- New mining commodities added
Missions
- If you scan a body that has a mission POI on it, the POI will be revealed. The scan can come from the discovery scanner, or from scanning a Nav beacon
- Make planetary missions use rank to determine base strength
- Mission givers have a welcome message that reflects the state of the minor faction, their tone and relationship with player
- Missions are now rated by rank, not gated by them
- Commodities can be awarded from missions
- Loot items can be awarded from missions
- Special treasure locations can be awarded by completing missions
- Added new planetary mission types
- Reduce mission limit to 20
- Make military rank progress a bit easier
Weapons & Modules
- added huge beam laser
- Added huge pulse laser
- Added huge multi-cannon
- Added large multi-cannon
- Added huge gimbal mount
- Shield cell banks now fire one at a time when triggered using the shield cell bank hotkey (similar to heatsinks)
- The Automated Field Maintenance Unit can no longer be repaired unless there are more than one active repair units
- Increased the heat damage of small beam laser slightly
- Explosive damage more effective against shield generators
- Increased torpedo damage
- Increased mine ammo capacity and hardness piercing
- Increased damage from missiles
- Increased ammo capacity for dumbfire missiles
- Reduce the splash damage for dumbfire missiles so they're not overpowered against surface targets
- Increase heat generated per shot on rail guns
- Reduce heat sink ammo by one Speed of Seeker missiles increased from 450 to 625.
- Speed of drunk (packhound) missiles increased from 400 to 600.
- Speed of Dumbfire missiles increase from 600 to 750.
- Blast radius of small seekers and dumbfires increased to be in line with mediums (50% boost).
- Hardness piercing of small seekers & dumbfires plus drunk missiles brought up to intended levels and consistent with medium (100% boost).
- Base damage and hull/module split of all missiles increased as intended, approximately a 40% increase to hull damage and 120% increase to module damage.
- Missiles now take an extra two point defence shots to bring down, but are still easily shot!
- Torpedos now have a 2.5 second arming time rather than their previous 0.5 second. When hitting a target before arming they will deal no damage and self destruct in a small puff
- Torpedos now inherit the speed of their launching ship for the first few seconds of flight, before dropping to a 250m/s cruising speed. These two changes give them an effective minimum range of about 700m+ depending on ship speeds, and also means that you won't be running into your own torpedoes
SHIPS
- Rebalanced heat efficiency of the Fer de Lance to offset the increased power plant change
Galaxy & System Map
- Bookmarks: adding bookmark feature to galaxy map and system map. Player is now able to save specific locations (systems, star, planet, stations, surface settlement)
- Added collapsing sections to options screen
- Community goal markers added to galaxy map
- Minor faction state filters added to galaxy map
- Improved system map load time
- Galaxy map: showing controlling faction state in the galaxy map popup, making sure "none" is displayed when primary minor faction is no particular state
- When searching for a system name, trim whitespace off the end of the search as some people use methods which automatically place whitespace on the end which is preventing the search from working
FACTIONS & BGS
- Unlinked minor faction reputation from their parent major faction reputation, now you will be neutral with an Empire minor faction even if you are allied with the Empire major faction
- Added a 'cordial' minor faction reputation level
- Added new player group minor faction descriptions
- Galaxy map: showing controlling faction state in the galaxy map popup, making sure "none" is displayed when primary minor faction is no particular state
- Remove factions from systems that cannot generate scenarios
- ie: systems without any bodies in them. Added investment faction state
- Rebalance how player actions and missions count towards the star system's influence caps for the day
- Rebalance how player actions and missions contribute towards faction state and influence buckets
- Additional factors now contribute towards outbreak and famine's buckets
- Added a new "Retreat" state for factions with low influence levels not in their home system
- Significantly changed the "Expanded" state. The Faction's search for another system is now triggered at the end of the expansion's active phase. If the surrounding systems are full, then an expansion might trigger an invasion war if an appropriate defender can be found.
- Added new "Investment" state for factions that have failed to expand, which significantly increases development level for a short time and lets the Faction search a bit further away when they next expand
- The "Lockdown" state now locks down many station services for affected Factions, allowing Commanders to concentrate on helping those Factions' crime control efforts
- Conflicts should now be easier to win, with rebalanced effects of combat actions during conflicts.
- War now only needs a 5% influence difference to win. Civil War and Elections remain at 3%
- Superpower reputation now affects the rate of change of affiliated Faction reputation
- Local news articles have been improved for many states, including which system a Faction has just expanded into!
- Ability to scan a Nav beacon to get that system's exploration data added
- Default number of items per page in Exploration selling increased from 20 to 50
- The Automated Field Maintenance Unit can no longer be repaired unless there are more than one active repair units
- Community Goal rewards now automatically redeem after 2 weeks
- Clock added to cockpit's info panel
- Add distances to wakes targeted by the player
- Hardpoints can no longer be deployed while in supercruise
- Ships can no longer enter super cruise if their thrusters are disabled
- Update spawning ambient & Powerplay AI in normal space, and add powerplay ships when at stations, nav beacons and RES locations
- Stop AI (often police) from scanning ships (particularly players) when docked at a station/outpost
- Fixes to AI scanning players with silent running enabled
- Credit reward for routing a cap ship in war zones increased to 150000
- Changelog, notes: v2.1/v1.6
v2.0 "Planetary Landings" & 1.5 "Ships" - 15th Dec 2015
- New 64 bit client
- Vive VR headset support added
- New ships: Asp Scout, Viper MkIV, Federal Corvette, Imperial Cutter, and Keelback
- New CQC-only ship: Imperial Fighter
- New missions and scenarios added: Don't die, Don't get scanned, Multi-stage, Assassination variants, Contact, Unique cargo, Timed window, Search and rescue, Wrecked ships, Deep space salvage, Distress call, Alliance VIP escort
- Missions and scenarios can now be received in space
- Fer-de-Lance's manoeuvrability, Power Plant capacity and heat dissipation all increased
- Balance changes to Shield Cell Banks, Hull Reinforcement Packages and Bulkheads
- More Player Group sponsored Minor Faction descriptions added
- Master Chefs rare good added
- Local emergency rescue NPCs added
- Spanish community-created localisation added
- Background Simulation balance changes
- (Horizons) Ships can land on planet surfaces!
- (Horizons) New flight modes: Orbital cruise, Sub-orbital, Glide path planetary approach, and FA-off support
- (Horizons) Planetary Approach Suite module slot added
- (Horizons) Added the ability to dismiss and recall your ship
- (Horizons) Deployable SRV when landed and at planetary ports
- (Horizons) New GUI indicators added: Landing radar, Gravity strength, Wave scanner, Terrain scanner
- (Horizons) NPC surface skimmers added: Goliath, Sentry, Guardian, Stinger 2
- (Horizons) Surface ports and settlements added, with defences and trespass zones
- (Horizons) Surface points of interest added: Materials, Encounters, Natural, and Structure
- (Horizons) Planetary Missions and Permits added
- (Horizons) Planetary schematic map added
- (Horizons) Overhaul of Planet Surface rendering
- (Horizons) Materials & Synthesis added: AFM module resupply, FSD Boost, Ship projectile resupply, SRV hull repair, SRV refuel, SRV ammo refill
- (PC/OSX) Bobbleheads added
- (PC/OSX) Updated French, German and Russian translations
- Changelog, 955 notes: v2.0/v1.5
v2.0.01 (includes 1.5.01) - 16th Dec 2015
v2.0.02 (incl. 1.5.02) - 21st Dec 2015
- CMDR statistics screen now shows time played
- Audio, gameplay, graphics, performance and stability improvements
- (Horizons) Gameplay improvements
- Changelog, 33 notes: v2.0.02
v2.0.03 (incl. 1.5.03) - 6th Jan 2016
- (PC/OSX) Alternative Download option added to game launcher
- Stability improvements
- Changelog, 20 notes: v2.0.0.3
v2.0.04 (incl. 1.5.04) - 26th Jan 2016
- Gameplay, networking and stability improvements
- Changelog, 26 notes: v2.0.04
v2.0.05 (incl. 1.5.05) - 1st Feb 2016
- (Horizons) Planetside object spawning improvements
- (Server) Background Simulation improvements
- Changelog, 7 notes: v2.0.05
v2.0.06 (incl. 1.5.06) - 16th Feb 2016
- ED Arena (standalone CQC) now available
- i Sola Prospect in the Brestla star system now always stocks all ships and modules
- (Horizons) Gameplay improvements
- (CQC) Gameplay, matchmaking and stability improvements
- (OSX) Fix CMDRs not being able to save bindings
- (Server) Background Simulation, performance, Powerplay, and reliability improvements
- Changelog, 35 notes: v2.0.06 and Server
v2.0.07 (incl. 1.5.07) - 24th Mar 2016
- Oculus 1.3 SDK support
- VR Low & High graphics presets, new VR-only menu, and VR experience demo tutorial
- Crossplay support for First Discovered, Top-5 Bounties, and Community Goal #1 contributor
- (Horizons) VR comfort options for SRV
- Changelog, 19 notes: v2.0.07
v2.0.08 (incl. 1.5.08) - 31st Mar 2016
- Gameplay improvements
- Changelog, 3 notes: v2.0.08
v2.0.09 (incl. 1.5.09) - 26th Apr 2016
- Exploration data selling increased to 50 items per page
- Gameplay improvements
- Changelog, 5 notes: v2.0.09
v1.4 "CQC" - 6th Oct 2015
- Elite Dangerous released on Xbox One
- CQC Championship added
- New ships: Imperial Eagle, Federal Gunship, and Federal Assault Ship
- New CQC-only ship: F63 Condor
- Hazardous Resource Extraction Sites added
- Compromised Nav Beacons added
- Legal salvage missions added
- Outfitting for CQC added
- Changed how powerplant damage is handled - small chance of instant destruction, otherwise malfunctions and halved power output
- Assign Imperial Eagles to those who should have them from their Kickstarter backer rewards
- (Server) Minor Factions sponsored by Player Groups added
- (Server) Various Background Simulation, matchmaking, networking, performance, and stability improvements
- Changelog, 396 notes: v1.4
v1.4.01 - 20th Oct 2015
- New Mission Templates
- CQC Matchmaking improvements
- Improvements to interdictions
- (Xbox) Upload App now supported
- (Xbox) Updated User Guide
- (OSX) Support for Retina native resolutions added
- (OSX) Support for Fullscreen, Borderless & Windowed display modes added
- (Server) Rares goods' availability & legalities improved for Onionhead, Lucan Onionhead and Tarach Tor Spice!
- (Server) More Minor Factions sponsored by Player Groups added
- (Server) Daily limits to minor faction influence changes added
- (Server) Background Simulation, performance and stability improvements
- Changelogs, 24 notes: v1.4.01 and Server #1 & #2
v1.3 "Powerplay" - 5th Jun 2015
- Powerplay added
- Power map views on galaxy map, power information and action screens added
- Power specific ship modules, ambient traffic, defector hunters, goods and actions added
- New ships: Imperial Courier, Diamondback Scout and Diamondback Explorer
- Drones for Cargo/Mining chunk collection, Fuel transfer and Prospecting asteroids added
- Mission system overhaul
- Inbox integration for branching missions
- Missions scaling up based on rank, and reputation with mission giver
- Mission targets can be generated in supercruise rather than USSs
- Spawned AI difficulty determined by mission (if spawned by mission)
- Low and high intensity resource extraction site scenarios added
- Military progression missions revamped
- Founders and Elite ranked missions added
- Minable commodities Painite and Osmium added
- More mission variants added, including slave, mining and alternate-assassination-target
- Updated bounty system:
- Bounties cannot be paid off (Pilot's Fed contact is gone!), but expire after 7 days.
- Major factions don't record crimes anymore, only minor factions
- Fines now take 7 days to expire, but never coexist with bounties (bounties absorb fines and dormant bounties with the same faction).
- Expiry only actually happens when you login, hyperspace or resurrect
- Friendly fire values relaxed
- Select navigation target in system map function added
- Loan ceiling scales based on player's highest Elite rank
- Added crimes for reckless flying (collisions) within Starport no fire zones:
- Shields only collisions above speed limit is a fine
- Hull damage only above speed limit is a larger fine
- Ship destruction within short window after collision above speed limit is a bounty
- Respects 'Report crimes against me' setting
- Allow any general purpose slot on any ship to contain a fuel tank module
- Networking improvements
- Translations for missions added: French, German, and Russian
- (Server) Background Simulation improvements
- Changelogs, 602 notes: v1.3 and Server
v1.3.01 - 9th Jun 2015
- (Server) Various performance and reliability improvements
- Changelog, 27 notes: v1.3.01
v1.3.02 - 10th Jun 2015
- Oculus Rift support updated to SDK 0.5
- (Server) Powerplay balance tweak
- Changelogs, 19 notes: v1.3.02 and Server
v1.3.03 - 12th Jun 2015
v1.3.04 - 16th Jun 2015
- Stellar Forge optimisations
- Changelog, 28 notes: v1.3.04
v1.3.05 - 18th Jun 2015
v1.3.06 - 25th Jun 2015
v1.3.07 - 2nd Jul 2015
- Radius of the sphere of systems used to generate missions increased to 15ly
- Cargo dumping limit increased to 100, when away from stations and outposts
- (Server) Galnet news reports Powerplay predictions
- (Server) Exploration optimisations
- (Server) Powerplay improvements
- Changelogs, 19 notes: v1.3.07 and Server #1, #2 & #3
v1.3.08 - 5th Aug 2015
- Matchmaking improvements
- Appconfig option RouterPort added
- Changelog, 13 notes: v1.3.08
v1.2 "Wings" - 10th Mar 2015
- Wings functionality added
- New ships: Fer-de-Lance and Vulture
- Comms interface overhaul
- NPC Groups added
- Ability to reboot destroyed sub systems (modules) added
- Flyable debug camera with limited range added
- Changelog, 336 notes: v1.2
v1.2.01 - 11th Mar 2015
- Matchmaking improvements
- Hotfix identified as v1.2.02 fixed critical crash bug
- Changelog, 16 notes: v1.2.01
v1.2.03 - 12th Mar 2015
- Earnings from bounties, combat bonds, and exploration data all increased
- Changelog, 21 notes: v1.2.03
v1.2.04 - 13th Mar 2015
- Head-tracking improvements
- (Server) Background Simulation improvements
- Changelog, 6 notes: v1.2.04
v1.2.05 - 18th Mar 2015
- Smaller ships are now better at smuggling
- Changelog, 23 notes: v1.2.05
v1.2.06 - 25th Mar 2015
- (Server) Background Simulation improvements
- Changelog, 21 notes: v1.2.06
v1.2.07 - 10th Apr 2015
v1.1 "Community Goals" - 10th Feb 2015
- Community Goals added
- Route planning extended to 1,000ly
- Russian language translations added
- 'Discovered by' tag to system map added
- New graphics shaders for planets, and city lights added
- Explored system details added to cartographics shop
- Top benefactors support added to system map
- Hotfix identified as v1.1.01 fixed critical crash bug
- Changelog, 306 notes: v1.1
v1.1.02 - 11th Feb 2015
- Backers and Elite-rank discounts added
- Collision damage tweaked
- Changelog, 9 notes: v1.1.02
v1.1.03 - 12th Feb 2015
- Gameplay improvements
- Changelog, 18 notes: v1.1.03
v1.1.04 - 13th Feb 2015
- Bounty vouchers can be redeemed at any local starport
- Changelog, 8 notes: v1.1.04
v1.1.05 - 19th Feb 2015
- Friendly fire relaxed
- Changelog, 15 notes: v1.1.05
v1.1.06 - 5th Mar 2015
- Gameplay improvements
- Changelog, 6 notes: v1.1.06
v1.0 "Welcome to the Galaxy, CMDR" - 16th Dec 2014
- Initial public version of the game :)
v1.01 - 17th Dec 2014
- Gameplay improvements
- Changelog, 11 notes: v1.01
v1.02 - 18th Dec 2014
- Rare commodities supply limit added
- Changelog, 13 notes: v1.02
v1.03 - 19th Dec 2014
v1.04 - 8th Jan 2015
- Background Simulation improvements
- Changelog, 18 notes: v1.04
v1.05 - 15th Jan 2015
v1.06 - 22nd Jan 2015
- Matchmaking improvements
- Changelog, 16 notes: v1.06