Elite Dangerous' long-teased atmospheric landings - and on-foot planetary traversal - will finally become a reality when the space sim's major Odyssey update arrives next year, and developer Frontier has offered a closer look at the sometimes dusty, sometimes icy expanses players will be able to explore as part of its latest developer diary.

Atmospheric landings have been discussed in relation to Elite Dangerous even before the game's release back in 2014, with Frontier's David Braben outlining his hopes to eventually see "interesting things, cityscapes, even animals, life, trees" on planets during its original Kickstarter campaign. Some eight years later, vehicular landings are possible, but the opportunity for players to leave their ship and step foot on distant worlds is yet to materialise.

That changes next year, of course, and Frontier has now shared a few additional details of the sights curious explorers can encounter once the Odyssey update arrives. Those hoping for the diverse flora and fauna of No Man's Sky's fantastical biomes, or even the spectacle of Star Citizen's city planets, might want to get their expectations in check, however. Based on Frontier's latest developer video, Elite Dangerous will initially only permit player to disembark - and enjoy "that Neil Armstrong moment" - on the rather barren wastes of rocky and ice planets.

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Frontier Developments has shared first details on Elite Dangerous' major new expansion, Odyssey, which will bring the likes of atmospheric landings and on-foot traversal to the space sim when it launches early next year.

The developer initially teased its Odyssey expansion last May, telling fans it was working on a mysterious "major milestone" update that was set to be a "defining moment in the history of the game". Since that early reveal, Frontier has more frequently referred to the project as its Next Era update, announcing last month that it would no longer meet its originally planned December launch window and would instead release in 2021.

As of today, however, the Next Era update is now formally known as Odyssey, and Frontier has given an early glimpse of the features it will bring, sharing details on the Elite Dangerous forums along with a flashy cinematic trailer reveal.

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Frontier still has a few wrinkles to iron out before the anticipated June launch of Elite Dangerous' long-promised Fleet Carriers, and to assist in the process, the developer's second beta test - this time open to players on console as well as PC - will begin next Monday, 11th May.

Fleet Carriers - described as "mobile starships and trading hubs" that accommodate up to 16 players - were initially planned to launch as part of 2018's Beyond update, but have been the recipient of numerous delays. Now, however, with one successful beta out of the way, they're finally on track to arrive next month on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

Following that first PC-only beta, Frontier announced it had made some important changes to Fleet Carriers based on community feedback. The most notable of these was a dramatic, and extremely welcome, reduction in upkeep and running costs for the new vessels - which could total as much as 25 million credits a week initially - by 85.5%.

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We all know about Creative Assembly's wonderful Total War: Warhammer strategy games. Now, Frontier Developments has quietly announced it's making a Warhammer Age of Sigmar real-time strategy game.

Buried within the investor relations portion of its website is a note that the Cambridge-based maker of Elite: Dangerous, Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo and Jurassic World Evolution has signed an intellectual property licence with Games Workshop to develop and publish an RTS for PC, consoles and streaming platforms for release in the financial year 2023 (the year ending 31st May 2023). This game is based on the popular fantasy tabletop Warhammer, specifically the popular Age of Sigmar era.

The Age of Sigmar tabletop game first released in 2015, and is the successor to the discontinued game Warhammer. Frontier's game will be the first RTS set in the Age of Sigmar. Creative Assembly's Total War: Warhammer games are based on the "Old World", which is now replaced by the Age of Sigmar.

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Elite Dangerous' still-mysterious Next Era update, which developer Frontier previously described as a "defining moment in the history of the game", will no longer meet its anticipated December 2020 release date, and is now expected to launch early next year.

Frontier broke the news in a post to the Elite Dangerous forum, explaining that "during this uncertain period, we've... had to re-examine our longer term roadmap and make some adjustments". The developer - which has transitioned to working from home during the coronavirus pandemic - said the decision to move its Next Era update into 2021 wasn't made lightly and "has been made with both the team and the game's best interest at heart."

Frontier has so far revealed little in the way of specifics regarding the Next Era update, other than that it will be a "major new paid-for release... which will dramatically expand gameplay" and will include "significant new features to appeal to existing commanders, whilst being specifically designed to be a compelling, attractive and welcoming entry point for new players."

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The current coronavirus pandemic, and the extended lockdowns faced by communities across the globe, have left a lot of people with a lot of time to play a lot of games. Some are using that time to build capitalist empires, some are replicating real-life hangouts to facilitate virtual reunions with their much-missed friends, and others are using the time to spread a little bit of human kindness, in a bid to alleviate some of the stresses of isolation, in any way they can.

One such merry band of joy bringers is the East India Company Gaming, a close-knit group of Elite Dangerous players founded on "principles of tolerance and helping others". Its members spend their time engaging in a broad array of activities across the galaxy, but their most notable endeavour is the delivery of rare and mineable commodities to help others mitigate the arduous grind of Engineer-based ship improvements.

It's a trading service the group (whose name makes a certain thematic sense, given its alignment to Elite's Empire faction) has been providing in exchange for select in-game resources since 2017 - but in the spirit of giving that's been reflected across many gaming communities during the coronavirus outbreak, it's currently waiving that fee.

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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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