Space sim Elite: Dangerous’ latest community event is a neat sci-fi story as the Federation and Empire face off over the Golconda, a long-lost generation ship launched from Earth more than a thousand years before the game’s current time. Called The Golconda, the ship’s inhabitants are the first found alive on a lost generation ship in the game. The generation ship had long ago arrived at its destination, but had chosen to preserve itself as a closed society and never contacted the outside world. Its inhabitants first reached out to request advanced medical supplies, however, because they were facing a viral outbreak which they could not stop. The game’s player pilots leapt to the ship’s aid, delivering thousands of tons of supplies and warding off pirate attacks on shipping.

Now, however, the game’s superpowers are going to use the isolated society as a political football, requesting support of the players’ independent pilots to change how the people of the Golconda live. The Empire seeks to resolve the Golconda’s original goal and settle its people on a nearby world, whereas the Federation seeks to preserve their unique way of life by building them an orbital station. Both factions have dispatched massive megaships to the Golconda’s system to enforce their will. Starting on the 18th—tomorrow—players will be asked to deliver supplies to either faction’s presence to secure victory for their chosen side. The event will end on November 26th.

Elite: Dangerous is a massively multiplayer space simulator game where thousands of players navigate and explore in a persistent simulation of our galaxy. It has events that take place in real-time on our date, but during the years of the 34th century—delivered via a news feed replete with celebrity scandals and political conflict. These community events have forking, permanent outcomes generally decided by the game’s players through competitions: seeing who can deliver the most goods, score the most bounties, or frag the most of the other side’s ships. Previous to this event lost generation ships have been found in the game, but their crews were either dead or had long since ditched their ride for some reason. The last new generation ship was found almost a year ago.

Frontier has released spoilers about the event’s possible outcomes if you’re interested in reading about that kind of thing.

In August, Frontier Development announced that massive Fleet Carriers with the ability to travel great distances and serve as refueling and refitting stations for smaller ships would be added to Elite: Dangerous in December. That plan has now changed, however, as Frontier has shifted its focus for the remainder of the year, and beyond, to fixing bugs.

The shift in priority followed the release of the September Update, which apparently introduced a number of new bugs to the game. "We realise that some of the issues had an impact on your ability to enjoy Elite Dangerous. The team have been working hard to address the most critical issues and have already released a series of patches and updates to bring those fixes in as quickly as possible," community manager Will Flanagan wrote.

"However, we know there's more to be done. You've asked for more focus on existing bug/fixes and issues, and for the community to be better integrated into the development process and testing for these upcoming updates."

To make that happen, future updates "from now and into next year" will be focused almost exclusively on fixing both new and longstanding problems with the game, rather than incorporating new content. Those updates will be rolled out every three to four months, and will be preceded by a public beta. The first update is expected to begin beta testing in December, and barring any big problems will go live in early 2020.

"As a result of our updated plans, we have made the difficult decision to defer the release of Fleet Carriers," Flanagan wrote. "We are now planning for Fleet Carriers to be released in an update in the second quarter of 2020, rather than in December 2019 as previously stated. This will grant us additional time to refine the feature as well as focusing time on addressing existing reported issues.

"It will also ensure the state of the game is in a better position to introduce Fleet Carriers, that will provide Commanders even more opportunities to interact with the Milky Way. We understand that this delay will be disappointing for some players, but do know that this decision is one that we do not take lightly, and is made with the best interests of the community and game at heart."

Flanagan also touched on the next "major paid expansion" to Elite: Dangerous, which is expected to be out by the end of 2020. Everything is apparently on schedule, but Fronter won't be ready to actually revealed anything about it until—hopefully—sometime in summer 2020, after the Fleet Carriers update is live.

Dr. Kevin Hamlen, a computer science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, was searching for the fastest route from Sol (that's our solar system) to Colonia, a system 22,000 light years away, in Elite Dangerous.

The previous record, set by Commander St4r Fox, was 1:55:32, but Hamlen and his six-year-old son Will managed the journey in 1:38:11.

"I realised that the problem of finding the fastest way to get from Earth to Colonia is actually a famous graph theory problem we teach in computer science," Hamlen told the UT Dallas magazine.

He says he solved the problem by analysing a "directed graph" to identify a "least-cost path", which I'm going to pretend I understand.

"I thought it would be fun to see how well I could do using science to solve it," he says. "I downloaded star map data and wrote some computer code to search for optimal flight paths, and then flew the route it discovered, with Will at my side calling out course corrections."

You can read more about Hamlen and his son's achievement on Sagittarius Eye.

The September update for Elite Dangerous arrives today, which will be of particular interest to prospective pilots who have yet to get swallowed up by Frontier's massive simulation of our galaxy. The highlight of the update is the New Starter Experience, introducing the game to new players, though there's also new stuff for veteran pilots. 

New players will be taught the ins and outs of flitting around through space by Pilots Federation instructor Theo Acosta, taking them through basic flight controls, combat, docking and all the other stuff needed to make it in the Milky Way. The tutorial is fully-voiced in all of Elite's supported languages. 

If you're a returning player looking for a refresher, the New Starter Experience will also be available via the training simulator, accessible via the cockpit of your ship. You can see it in action in the content reveal livestream below.  

The update also replaces Frontier Points and cash transactions with the new ARX currency. It's a premium currency that can be used to splash out in cosmetics, but it can also be earned by fighting, trading and exploring. There is, however, a 400 weekly cap on ARX earned in-game. 

In addition to the new currency, the livery menu has been given an update and there's a new customisation store. You can purchase items from both the livery menu and the new store without being sent to an external site. Similarly, you can purchase items via the Holo-Me menu. 

Finally, there are a bunch of bug fixes and a minor tweak to Supercruise, with an extra option to let the Supercruise Assist module take over your throttle automatically. Check out the full patch notes here.

Elite Dangerous is down for maintenance now, and it's a long one. Expect it back around 6 pm BST/11 am PT.

Elite Dangerous is getting two major new features that bracket the spectrum of player experience. At one end, the September update will add a fully-voiced in-cockpit tutorial to the beginning of the game, while on the other, fleet carriers will arrive in December.

Starting with the first of those, the tutorial will give new pilots a reworked opening few hours in the game. An instructor from the Pilots Federation will guide new players through basic flight controls, scanning, supercruise, and navigation. There's a combat exercise, and finally an introduction to hyperspace and docking at a station.

Again, this tutorial will be fully voice acted, and that includes all of Elite Dangerous' supported languages. Players who have already begun their careers as Elite commanders will be able to access this tutorial via their cockpits' right-hand panel under "Training Section," so there's no need to start a new save.

In December, Frontier will be adding Fleet Carriers. These are huge ships that have sixteen landing pads: eight large, four medium, and four small. You'll be able to buy these things using (a large amount of) credits, and once you've got one you'll be able to let your friends land on them to refuel and refit.

Carriers can also be outfitted with several prefab loadouts depending on the role you want to take on. There are loadouts for bounty hunters, miners, search and rescue operations, and trading. They have a jump range of 500 light years, and will require a special fuel resource—which Frontier says we'll find out more about later.

Later this year, you'll be able to park your little ship in a bigger ship in Elite Dangerous. At this year's Lavecon, a partly-Elite focused fan event in Northamptonshire, developer Frontier Developments teased the biggest stuff coming to Elite Dangerous for the rest of 2019: fleet carriers, better onboarding, and a rebranding of its premium currency on all platforms.

The most exciting bit are the fleet carriers, but they're also the farthest away. Nothing specific was revealed about their functionality, but you can watch the brief teaser above. Fleet carriers are planned for Elite's December update. Frontier had much more to share about the September update, like its rebranded premium currency, which will be called Arx. PC players currently purchase cosmetics directly from Frontier with regular money, but all future in-game purchases will happen with Arx.

As part of the change, Frontier is giving players new opportunities to earn Arx credits through normal play. "We won't ask commanders to change how they play, simply being an active player and engaging with the game is all that's required," the blog post reads. Cosmetics that were previously only available in bundles will also be purchasable on their own.

Frontier also has plans to better onboard new players to Elite. Since the game's launch, new players have been dropped into the open universe of Elite without much tutorialization. A separate training section has always been available to learn the ship controls and combat, but Frontier wants to integrate those lessons into the beginning of the game.

"With clearer instructions and guidance during the beginning of Elite Dangerous, we believe this will lead to a more engaging way to learn the basics and help commanders understand the tools they have at their disposal to become fully-fledged pilots," the blog post reads.

All of these changes are still pretty far away, but they seem to be positive step towards Elite's health, minus the annoyance of buying virtual currencies.

While unscrupulous smugglers, bounty hunters and pirates might be welcome in Elite Dangerous, some rogues have been ruffling their fellow pilots' feathers by using hacks to augment their ships. Programs used to exploit the game aren't new to Elite, but members of the community have noticed a rise, with a recent Reddit thread highlighting a specific group that's been active since at least August 2018. 

Reddit user ryan_m17 claims that a private Discord has been distributing a trainer for the game that allows players to significantly enhance their ships and tweak any module. This gives players using it an obvious advantage in PvP, and while that means they can then be reported, the trainer is still apparently in use. 

The problem doesn't seem to be recent. One player told me that cheating has seen their guild numbers decline over the last couple of years, and while these invincible ships cause lots of issues in PvP, the hacks also interfere with the PvE background simulation. Some players say their groups lost systems to people using hacks or bots. It's a galactic threat, that affects multiplayer and singleplayer.

Frontier routinely bans reported players and investigates cheating, and a ticket was submitted to Frontier, along with an export of the Discord. But without feedback from Frontier, players aren't sure if these problems are being tackled. From their perspective, they're being ignored and the cheating continues. 

"We take activities of this nature seriously," a Frontier representative told me. "Our support teams are aware and investigating." A similar response was given to viewers of a recent livestream when the subject came up in chat.

The problem with acknowledging and discussing these things is that it draws attention to them, but it also means players are better able to look out for people exploiting the game.

Some players are calling for harsher punishments for cheating. Temporary bans to to solo followed by a permaban on the third strike is how Frontier deals with players chaught cheating, but even relegated to solo these hacks could still affect the game for other players.

"Even as a solo explorer, this affects you," DarthHM said. "Imagine getting to the far side of the galaxy and finding a system first discovered by some goober who can insta-jump anywhere. Perma ban to solo is not severe enough."

While players were no doubt hoping for more information, at least Frontier is looking into the issues. And it should go without saying, but using these hacks will probably cost you access to a big portion of the game.  

Hutton Orbital is perhaps the most notorious space station in all of Elite Dangerous. Located in Alpha Centauri—just down the road from our own solar system—this modest little outpost is almost 7 million light seconds from the system's hyperspace jump arrival point. This means that, even travelling in supercruise, it can take over an hour of continuous flying to reach it.

Some players discover this the hard way. They accept a mission in a nearby system to ferry cargo to Hutton Orbital, blissfully unaware of the sheer distance they have to cover to make the delivery. They point their ship towards the station and wonder why, after twenty minutes, or even longer, they don't seem to be getting any closer to their destination. This happened to me when I was a rookie pilot, yet here I am, years later, flying there purely by choice.

The long haul to Hutton Orbital has become something of a rite of passage for Elite players—and one developer Frontier has acknowledged with the Hutton Mug, a rare commodity that can only be bought at the station. So last night I decided to make the gruelling journey to this backwater outpost myself—partly for the novelty of having endured it, but mostly for the mug. I like mugs.

It's not a particularly difficult challenge. You just point your ship at the station, engage the throttle, and occasionally adjust your heading—and not even that often. But it is deeply boring; a test of patience rather than skill. But I don't think that'll be a problem for me, because I'm a Euro Truck Simulator 2 veteran. Driving in one direction for long periods of time is actually fun to me—and in Elite I don't even have to worry about traffic or changing gears.

That's not to say the trip is completely danger free. As someone who always flies in open, a mode where it's possible to run into other humans, I'm a little worried about some griefer camped out at Hutton waiting to blow me to pieces the moment I arrive. I've also heard of players running out of fuel and getting stranded in deep space, but I don't think that should be a problem in my Asp.

And so I fly to Alpha Centauri, line my ship up with Hutton Orbital, and begin the dreaded journey. The station is 6,784,404 light seconds, or 0.22 light years, from the system's jump point. A couple of thousand light seconds feels like a lot to me when I'm running trade routes in Elite, so I'm instantly daunted by the distance. But hey, this is the perfect opportunity to catch up on some podcasts.

Twenty minutes pass and, yes, this is really dull. I keep zoning out, but it doesn't really matter because, so far, I haven't even had to nudge my Asp to keep it pointed at the station. But there is something quite pleasant about being in the lonely depths of space. Usually when I'm in supercruise there are other ships buzzing around me like flies, but out here there's nothing.

Ten more minutes pass. Then another ten. I start questioning why I'm even doing this in the first place. Is this really a good use of the only life I'll ever have? Eden, the planet Hutton orbits, is still a miniscule glowing speck in the distance. Ten more minutes. Then another. At least in Euro Truck Simulator you have to occasionally brake or indicate or merge into another lane: here it's just watching and waiting, listening to the rumble of your engines, watching stellar dust streak past your windows. It's pretty chill, but not exactly entertaining.

It's an hour before I start to feel like I've actually made any progress. Eden is much more visible now, as is Proxima Centauri, the star it orbits. And my ship occasionally drifts now, which gives me something to do other than stare at the stars. Then, finally, I approach the station, slow down, and drop out of supercruise. It's taken me 1 hour and 33 minutes to reach Hutton Orbital, and I'm genuinely thrilled to see this backwater dump floating in the void.

There are no other players around, sadly. I was hoping to say hello to a fellow pilgrim. I dock at the station and fill my hold with Centauri Mega Gin, another rare commodity, and yes, the fabled Hutton Mug. I take a selfie next to the station, because that's what everyone who comes here does, and I notice that my Asp's paintwork has worn off at the front. That's what spending over an hour in supercruise will do to you, I guess. I decide not to repair the damage, leaving the scuffs and scrapes there as a sort of badge of honour.

I feel slightly hollow as I jump back to my home system. Reaching Hutton Orbital wasn't quite as satisfying as I thought it would be. If it was a little more difficult I might feel more fulfilled. But all I've really done here is manage to not fall asleep for an hour—which I suppose is a kind of achievement when there's nothing to look at except a starry void. I think, ultimately, the idea of going there is much more exciting than actually doing it. And I learned this the hard way.

But I really love that this challenge exists at all. It's always great to see something created by players in a game that is then acknowledged and supported by a developer. I don't think you should rush out and attempt your own Hutton Orbital run, but it's an enjoyably silly (if tedious) way to spend an hour and a bit in Elite's vast galaxy. And if you fill your hold up with those rare commodities, you could make some decent money for your efforts. Me, I'm just happy to have gotten here in one piece and returned home with a novelty mug.