There were sad space-faces last month when Frontier Developments announced it would be giving Elite Dangerous' long-overdue Fleet Carriers another six month delay. The silver lining to that particular cloud of woe, however, was that Fleet Carriers were being sidelined in favour of some much-needed bug fixes - and the first of these are now confirmed to be arriving in January.

Frontier's reprioritisation plans were unveiled following the extremely rocky launch of Elite Dangerous' September update. While its headline features - including a new tutorial experience, livery system improvements, and the new ARX premium currency were all present and correct - the update also introduced a number of serious issues.

Problems persisted, despite a series of patches and fixes, and Frontier eventually made the decision to suspend its immediate content plans, announcing that all updates into 2020 would "focus almost exclusively on addressing recent and longstanding issues". Now, the developer has revealed that the first of these updates will arrive "toward the end of January".

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Elite Dangerous' already long-overdue 16-person Fleet Carriers will no longer arrive this December as previously announced, and are now expected to launch some time next year.

Fleet Carriers, as previously detailed by developer Frontier, are capital ships intended to function as a base of operations for large, organised Squadrons. They can be purchased (for a significant amount of credits) and piloted by a single Commander, but feature 16 landing pads to accommodate a full complement of players.

All of which sounds very exciting - just as it did when the feature was originally unveiled in 2017. Back then, Fleet Carriers were announced to arrive as part of 2018's Beyond update. However, as Beyond's fourth and final chapter neared release last October, Frontier revealed that Fleet Carriers had been "reprioritised". It later announced that they'd finally be implemented this December, a full year after their originally planned debut.

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Elite Dangerous is getting fleet carriers in December, Frontier has announced.

The developer unveiled the enormous spaceships in a teaser video, below.

That's it for fleet carriers for now - expect more in the near future, Frontier said.

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Frontier Developments has shared more details of Elite Dangerous' next significant update, which is primarily focussed on delivering a more welcoming experience for beginner players, and due to launch on Tuesday, April 23rd.

Imaginatively titled the April Update, Frontier's latest content drop introduces a new Beginner's Zone, where newcomers are free to take flight and familiarise themselves with Elite Dangerous' idiosyncrasies without fear of attack from PvP-frenzied pros. New players will have access to the area - alongside a selection of easy, introductory missions and reduced re-buy costs - until they earn their first Combat, Trade, or Exploration rank.

Additionally, there are two new ship modules available to all players, both designed to assist with some of Elite's trickier flight manoeuvres. The new Advanced Docking Computer, for example, not only automatically lands a player's ship at a station, it'll undock too. Gone will be the days in which you carefully navigate a station's access slot, only to be greeted by a fellow Commander ricocheting dramatically off a nearby wall.

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Elite Dangerous fans have a long wait ahead for the space sim's next "major milestone" update, with Frontier Developments estimating that it won't be ready until the latter half of 2020.

Since its release in 2014, Elite Dangerous has received two large-scale content expansions, presented as multi-part seasons. The first, Horizons, introduced the likes of planetary landings, ship-launched fighters, and multi-crew co-op, while the latest season, 2018's Beyond, focussed mainly on quality of life improvements and core gameplay overhauls.

Elite Dangerous' next significant expansion was first discussed last August, when Frontier revealed that it had begun work on the space sim's "next major era". In a new post detailing its future plans, the developer calls this project, "a defining moment in the history of the game" and "our biggest update yet". It has not, however, given any indication of what it might include - although fans remain ever hopeful to finally see atmospheric landings and space legs.

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Frontier Developments has announced that the fourth and final instalment in Elite Dangerous' current season of free updates will launch on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 next week, on December 11th.

Elite Dangerous' current season - the third since the game's launch in 2014 - is known as Beyond, and kicked off in February this year. Beyond marks something of a departure for the space sim; unlike previous seasons, which focussed on fancy new banner features, it's primarily concerned with quality of life and gameplay improvements, bolstering Elite's existing core.

Beyond's three previous chapters have introduced the likes of new ships (including the Chieftain), new ship-launched fighters, enhancements to Engineering, visual improvements, new multiplayer-focussed Wing Missions, and the wonderful Galnet Audio news service, which reads out the latest in-universe goings-on and offers a friendly voice in the depths of space.

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Frontier Developments has unveiled the sleek (and slightly sexy) Mamba alongside the Krait Phantom - two new ships arriving as part of Elite: Dangerous' upcoming Beyond: Chapter Four update.

The Mamba is designed by Zorgon Peterson, the in-game manufacturer responsible for the fan-favourite Fer-de-Lance. It's a combat-focussed vessel, apparently based on an unreleased racing prototype (which might explain those striking undulating lines), and combines high speed with significant firepower. "This," says Frontier, "means the ship can hit hard and fast, vanishing before the target has a chance to react.

If you're curious about specifications, Frontier notes that the Mamba features one Huge, two Large, and two Small Hardpoints, five Internal Optional Slots, and has a laden FSD jump range of 6.37LY. Speed-wise, it can reach 316m/s and its boost tops out at 387m/s. You better have a decently sized wallet though: all this will set you back approximately 55 million credits.

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Frontier Developments has announced that the fourth and final major update of Elite Dangerous' current season, Beyond, will launch in beta for all PC players on October 30th, with a full release to follow "soon" after.

Beyond: Chapter Four, as the latest update is known, marks the conclusion of Elite Dangerous' 2018 season, which has largely focussed on expanding and improving existing areas of the space sim, rather than on introducing entirely new features.

To that end, Beyond has already brought major changes to crime and punishment in Elite Dangerous, hopefully making the multiplayer game less vexing for newcomers, as well as improvements to Engineering. It's also introduced new ships, including the Chieftain, new ship-launched fighters, and welcome features such as Galnet Audio, which reads out the latest in-game news, providing a friendly voice in the lonely emptiness of space.

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A brave attempt to rescue a stranded Commander in Elite Dangerous has ended in tragedy following malicious interference by a real-life cat.

That's according to Reddit user Cpt_Shinobi, a member of Elite Dangerous' Fuel Rats - a near-legendary organisation of players that dedicate their time to saving ill-prepared space explorers who find themselves stranded without fuel, often light years away from civilisation, from a slow, faintly embarrassing death.

The Fuel Rats have been liberating players from impending deep space asphyxiation for years and they're good at their jobs - with an incredibly high success rate of locating players, wherever in the galaxy they may be, transferring fuel, and sending them on their merry way. Few reported aid attempts have resulted in both rescuer and rescuee exploding in a horrifying head-on collision, and fewer still have been the result of a cat. Until now.

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Twitter has banned an Elite Dangerous player for writing a poem on the social media platform about killing thargoids.

Tim Wellens, an Elite Dangerous player from Belgium, was suspended from Twitter after writing a poem about killing the game's evil alien race on 4th October - National Poetry Day.

Wellens replied to a poem tweeted from the official Elite Dangerous account...

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