Elite Dangerous - BrettC_Frontier
Greetings commanders,

At Frontier Expo 2017, we revealed the first details of season 3 of Elite Dangerous, called Elite Dangerous: Beyond – you can watch back the announcements here. Throughout 2018 we’re bringing four Beyond updates to Elite Dangerous Commanders which focus on adding new content, uncovering and progressing the mysteries of the galaxy and enhancing existing core gameplay experiences. These updates will consist of a number of additions with the first update detailed below, followed by two smaller content updates through the year and our largest update coming in Q4. Each update will be a new Chapter in the Elite Dangerous: Beyond season.

Today we're pleased to announce that you'll be able to test Chapter 1 of the series in the open beta coming to all PC Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous: Horizons players on Thursday 25 January!

As always we welcome your feedback in our dedicated feedback livestreams, and on the beta and bug report forums. These beta tests have always been an incredibly useful and valuable part of development, and Beyond Chapter 1 will be no exception. Because of the huge number of core feature enhancements, the introduction of a new ship, and other numerous additions and improvements, we want to be sure that as many of you are able to experience and test the beta first-hand, for that reason we have decided to open this beta to all players of Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous: Horizons on PC.

We'll publish a full list of changes on beta launch day, but come along to our content livestreams on Tuesday 16 January at 7PM GMT and Thursday 18 January at 7PM GMT for a closer look at everything in this update. In the meantime, you can see a short summary of some of the features below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKcclm3dFzk

New Ship: Chieftain
Elite Dangerous Horizons Commanders will also be able to take to the stars in the new Alliance Chieftain, designed not only to dish out punishment, but to avoid it. Manufactured by Lakon Spaceways, the Chieftain is more maneuverable than ships of similar size and weight, and its combat profile means it can more than hold its own in a fight.

Improved Core Mechanics
Chapter 1 of Beyond will bring improvements to some of Elite Dangerous' core mechanics, including accessibility enhancements to the engineering mechanics, an overhaul of mission rewards and big changes to crime and punishment. We’ll be sharing more information on the changes to Crime and Punishment, and the Engineers in a future post here on the forums and in the livestreams mentioned above.

Wing Missions
Chapter 1 of Beyond will give you the chance to take on wing missions with your fellow Commanders, sharing both the efforts and rewards.

Revised Trade Data
Commanders will now be able to access trade data from systems they have previously visited, in order to make more informed decisions when shipping goods across the Milky Way.

Planetary Visual Improvements
Chapter 1 also includes the first of the planetary visual improvements coming as part of the Beyond series of updates (with more surface level improvements coming later in the year) bringing a new vibrancy to the Elite Dangerous galaxy.

GalNet Audio
With the introduction of GalNet Audio, you will be able to catch up on the latest news from across the galaxy without ever leaving the action.

You can find the beta details below:

• When? 25 January 2018
• Who? This beta is open to everyone on PC and Mac

The beta includes new content, changes and improvements for both Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous Horizons players. In order to access all of the content, you will require Elite Dangerous Horizons.
Elite Dangerous - BrettC Frontier
Greetings commanders,

At Frontier Expo 2017, we revealed the first details of season 3 of Elite Dangerous, called Elite Dangerous: Beyond – you can watch back the announcements here. Throughout 2018 we’re bringing four Beyond updates to Elite Dangerous Commanders which focus on adding new content, uncovering and progressing the mysteries of the galaxy and enhancing existing core gameplay experiences. These updates will consist of a number of additions with the first update detailed below, followed by two smaller content updates through the year and our largest update coming in Q4. Each update will be a new Chapter in the Elite Dangerous: Beyond season.

Today we're pleased to announce that you'll be able to test Chapter 1 of the series in the open beta coming to all PC Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous: Horizons players on Thursday 25 January!

As always we welcome your feedback in our dedicated feedback livestreams, and on the beta and bug report forums. These beta tests have always been an incredibly useful and valuable part of development, and Beyond Chapter 1 will be no exception. Because of the huge number of core feature enhancements, the introduction of a new ship, and other numerous additions and improvements, we want to be sure that as many of you are able to experience and test the beta first-hand, for that reason we have decided to open this beta to all players of Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous: Horizons on PC.

We'll publish a full list of changes on beta launch day, but come along to our content livestreams on Tuesday 16 January at 7PM GMT and Thursday 18 January at 7PM GMT for a closer look at everything in this update. In the meantime, you can see a short summary of some of the features below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKcclm3dFzk

New Ship: Chieftain
Elite Dangerous Horizons Commanders will also be able to take to the stars in the new Alliance Chieftain, designed not only to dish out punishment, but to avoid it. Manufactured by Lakon Spaceways, the Chieftain is more maneuverable than ships of similar size and weight, and its combat profile means it can more than hold its own in a fight.

Improved Core Mechanics
Chapter 1 of Beyond will bring improvements to some of Elite Dangerous' core mechanics, including accessibility enhancements to the engineering mechanics, an overhaul of mission rewards and big changes to crime and punishment. We’ll be sharing more information on the changes to Crime and Punishment, and the Engineers in a future post here on the forums and in the livestreams mentioned above.

Wing Missions
Chapter 1 of Beyond will give you the chance to take on wing missions with your fellow Commanders, sharing both the efforts and rewards.

Revised Trade Data
Commanders will now be able to access trade data from systems they have previously visited, in order to make more informed decisions when shipping goods across the Milky Way.

Planetary Visual Improvements
Chapter 1 also includes the first of the planetary visual improvements coming as part of the Beyond series of updates (with more surface level improvements coming later in the year) bringing a new vibrancy to the Elite Dangerous galaxy.

GalNet Audio
With the introduction of GalNet Audio, you will be able to catch up on the latest news from across the galaxy without ever leaving the action.

You can find the beta details below:

• When? 25 January 2018
• Who? This beta is open to everyone on PC and Mac

The beta includes new content, changes and improvements for both Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous Horizons players. In order to access all of the content, you will require Elite Dangerous Horizons.
Left 4 Dead 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)

Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games.> But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol’ breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.

Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.

(more…)

Elite Dangerous - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brendan Caldwell)

elite-rescue-success-2

An explorer in Elite Dangerous who was stranded outside our galaxy has been rescued thanks to a trio of pilots who flew out to refuel her. The rescue mission took days to plan and execute because of the long distances involved. But eventually the explorer, Commander Persera, was returned to the milky way after setting a new record for travelling further from Sol than any other player. Not to mention spending a full week in the void between galaxies.

It feels like both one of the shortest and longest weeks of my life, she said. (more…)

Elite Dangerous - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brendan Caldwell)

elite-rescue-mission-4

An explorer in Elite Dangerous has ventured into the void between galaxies, seeking to break the record for travelling the furthest distance from our own sun. But due to a miscalculation, they ve run out of the fuel necessary for a return trip and are currently stranded further than any pilot has ever been from civilisation. Now the fuel rats a collection of players who save player ships from dereliction by refueling them are mounting an ambitious multi-ship rescue that will take two days to complete. (more…)

Elite Dangerous - BrettC_Frontier
Greetings Commanders,


The Thargoid threat is rising. We’re receiving reports of attacks on space stations and devastation across the galaxy. Commanders have been requested to embark on dangerous rescue attempts to shuttle survivors away from the menace.

There’s no doubt that we’ve got a difficult task ahead. But it’s not over yet... With the urgent need for new weaponry apparent, the Alliance Navy has commissioned Lakon Spaceways to overhaul the Type-9, in response to recent events.

The result of this collaboration is the new Type-10 Defender, a military behemoth specifically built for combat and absorbing heavy hits. It’s available now from most Alliance-controlled, high-tech systems.


What are you waiting for, Commander?







Elite Dangerous - BrettC Frontier
Greetings Commanders,


The Thargoid threat is rising. We’re receiving reports of attacks on space stations and devastation across the galaxy. Commanders have been requested to embark on dangerous rescue attempts to shuttle survivors away from the menace.

There’s no doubt that we’ve got a difficult task ahead. But it’s not over yet... With the urgent need for new weaponry apparent, the Alliance Navy has commissioned Lakon Spaceways to overhaul the Type-9, in response to recent events.

The result of this collaboration is the new Type-10 Defender, a military behemoth specifically built for combat and absorbing heavy hits. It’s available now from most Alliance-controlled, high-tech systems.


What are you waiting for, Commander?







Elite Dangerous - BrettC_Frontier
Greetings Commanders,

We just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated, watched, or sent their messages of support during this year’s 24 hour livestream. We were absolutely blown away by your generosity, as we managed to reach an incredible £54,000 for SpecialEffect before the day finished!

We’re busy uploading some of the highlights for you now, and will let you know when they go up on our YouTube channel. Some of my personal highlights included watching David Braben punch the air with glee as he managed to dock in the original Elite, Zac Antonaci having his insectoid supper, and the two hour EDRPG session.

As in previous years, the 24 hour stream is a nice way to round off the livestream schedule for the year, so I wanted to drop you a note about the streams and other communication coming in early 2018.

Firstly we’ll be continuing the Focused Feedback Forum posts about the features coming to the Beyond Series of updates. We’ve been thrilled with your constructive feedback so far, and wanted to carry on in the same way. In the new year we’ll make new posts relating to the other features in the Beyond series of updates, including Squadrons and more. We’ll also be continuing the livestreams that run alongside these forum posts, where we’ll be joined by Sandro Sammarco to talk about the feedback and explain the initial pitch and concept for the feature in detail.

Discovery Scanner will continue in to 2018, which is our livestream series that goes behind the scenes of the creation of Elite Dangerous. Previously we looked at the creation of the Thargons with Mark Allen and how the Galaxy was brought to life with the Stellar Forge by Dr Anthony Ross. We have a selection of topics ready to discuss, but I’d also love to know who you would love to hear from! Put your suggestions for future episodes in the thread below… and we’ll see what we can do!

The Beyond Series of updates begins in Q1 2018 and is free to all owners of Elite Dangerous: Horizons. As with our other content updates in 2.4, we’ll be ramping up to the launch with livestreams, images and video on social media and blog posts here on the forum. We’re looking forward to showing you what’s coming in the first of the Beyond Series of updates, and show you some in-game examples in the lead up to launch.

In the meantime, please continue enjoying 2.4, as there’s more to come… I've heard some nasty explosions coming from the Pleiades… what’s all that about?

Thanks again, from me and the community team, for another amazing year… here’s to many more.

Ed


Source: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/395222
Elite Dangerous - BrettC Frontier
Greetings Commanders,

We just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated, watched, or sent their messages of support during this year’s 24 hour livestream. We were absolutely blown away by your generosity, as we managed to reach an incredible £54,000 for SpecialEffect before the day finished!

We’re busy uploading some of the highlights for you now, and will let you know when they go up on our YouTube channel. Some of my personal highlights included watching David Braben punch the air with glee as he managed to dock in the original Elite, Zac Antonaci having his insectoid supper, and the two hour EDRPG session.

As in previous years, the 24 hour stream is a nice way to round off the livestream schedule for the year, so I wanted to drop you a note about the streams and other communication coming in early 2018.

Firstly we’ll be continuing the Focused Feedback Forum posts about the features coming to the Beyond Series of updates. We’ve been thrilled with your constructive feedback so far, and wanted to carry on in the same way. In the new year we’ll make new posts relating to the other features in the Beyond series of updates, including Squadrons and more. We’ll also be continuing the livestreams that run alongside these forum posts, where we’ll be joined by Sandro Sammarco to talk about the feedback and explain the initial pitch and concept for the feature in detail.

Discovery Scanner will continue in to 2018, which is our livestream series that goes behind the scenes of the creation of Elite Dangerous. Previously we looked at the creation of the Thargons with Mark Allen and how the Galaxy was brought to life with the Stellar Forge by Dr Anthony Ross. We have a selection of topics ready to discuss, but I’d also love to know who you would love to hear from! Put your suggestions for future episodes in the thread below… and we’ll see what we can do!

The Beyond Series of updates begins in Q1 2018 and is free to all owners of Elite Dangerous: Horizons. As with our other content updates in 2.4, we’ll be ramping up to the launch with livestreams, images and video on social media and blog posts here on the forum. We’re looking forward to showing you what’s coming in the first of the Beyond Series of updates, and show you some in-game examples in the lead up to launch.

In the meantime, please continue enjoying 2.4, as there’s more to come… I've heard some nasty explosions coming from the Pleiades… what’s all that about?

Thanks again, from me and the community team, for another amazing year… here’s to many more.

Ed


Source: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/395222
Elite Dangerous

Elite Dangerous' legendary Thargoid menace has embarked on the next stage of its apparent plan for galactic domination, attacking space stations and causing utter devastation.

This escalation of events in the Thargoid storyline is one of the most exciting in-game developments since Elite Dangerous' narrative-focussed 2.4 update launched earlier this year. Indeed, it's notable enough to warrant its own trailer.

One of the earliest reports of Thargoid attacks on human facilities came from community member Commander GluttonyFang, who posted a video exploring the aftermath of an alien strike on The Oracle Orbis Starport in the Pleiades Sector IR-W d1-55 system. Up until now, Thargoid encounters have largely been limited to random interdictions from hyperspace, and aggressive engagement with players only when provoked.

Read more…

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