Elite: Dangerous Newsletter #41 - From Frontier Developments View this email in your browser Share Tweet +1 Hi Commander,



Welcome to Elite: Dangerous Newsletter #41!



th anniversary of Elite. To make it extra special we are announcing the Beta 2 release date and some of the many additions you will see in Beta 2. We have also added a limited edition Cobra paint job, and we have a free copy of the original BBC Micro Elite for you!



Galnet will be reporting on the tensions surrounding the 30 year anniversary of Eranin’s independence from the Federation in Elite: Dangerous through a series of special bulletins over the next 10 days, so keep an eye on your inbox. You will also be able catch up on the new Galnet pages on our



Last week we announced that the price of the final release of Elite: Dangerous will be £39.99 ($59.99 and €49.99) and we also announced a special pre-order digital pack, The Elite: Dangerous Mercenary Edition, which is a bonus pre-order game collection loaded with digital extras.



The pack is available on our already pre-ordered the final release version of Elite: Dangerous will also receive the bonus pre-order collection when the game is released.



Don’t forget, if you have pre-ordered the finished game but are tempted to start playing sooner, there is an upgrade path which will cost you an additional £15. Interested? Just go to the This week’s newsletter marks the beginning of our ten day celebration of the 30anniversary of Elite. To make it extra special we are announcing the Beta 2 release date and some of the many additions you will see in Beta 2. We have also added a limited edition Cobra paint job, and we have a free copy of the original BBC Micro Elite for you!Galnet will be reporting on the tensions surrounding the 30 year anniversary of Eranin’s independence from the Federation in Elite: Dangerous through a series of special bulletins over the next 10 days, so keep an eye on your inbox. You will also be able catch up on the new Galnet pages on our website. Last week we announced that the price of the final release of Elite: Dangerous will be £39.99 ($59.99 and €49.99) and we also announced a special pre-order digital pack, The Elite: Dangerous Mercenary Edition, which is a bonus pre-order game collection loaded with digital extras.The pack is available on our store for new customers at a discounted price off the final release of £35.00 ($50 and €40) and anyone who haspre-ordered the final release version of Elite: Dangerous will also receive the bonus pre-order collection when the game is released.Don’t forget, if you have pre-ordered the finished game but are tempted to start playing sooner, there is an upgrade path which will cost you an additional £15. Interested? Just go to the store , put the Beta in your basket and the correct discount will be applied when you checkout.

(Click subject to jump forward): Newsletter Peek of the Week

Beta2 to be released 30th September

Elite 30th Anniversary

Comms Chatter

GalNet Newsletter Peek of the Week 'Imperial Courier' Back to Contents Beta 2 to be released 30th September We still have our collective foot firmly pressing the pedal to the metal on the development of Elite: Dangerous, both on ‘under the hood’ work and forward facing features to get the game ready for release before the end of 2014.



We’re delighted to announce that Beta 2, our second beta phase, will be released on Tuesday 30th September, as the culmination of our 10 days of celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the release of Elite on the BBC Micro - see what we did there…?!



It’s been quite a few weeks since we released Beta 1 on 29th July. Here’s why:



Elite: Dangerous wouldn’t be an Elite sequel without the ability to progress from ‘Harmless’ all the way to the exalted status of ‘Elite’. In Beta 2 all pilots have a visible combat rating, so now you can start to work your way up to ‘Elite’!

As well as a rank, in Beta 2 you have reputations. Your reputation is tracked within each system and separately against the galactic power blocs involved in that system. Reputation can be positive and negative, and affects the pricing of services offered to you in stations or outposts controlled by the Federation, Empire or Independent Alliance. Beta 2 also allows you to start to discover and explore new star systems and planets and even to sell the data on them.



We have now added a detailed system map for each star system – this is populated for known systems, and the map is also the repository for distributing new exploration data as it comes in from those intrepid people pushing out the frontiers of human space.

The system maps are also the visible in-cockpit tip-of-the-iceberg of what has been a big step forward in the detail of the science used to model the creation of planetary bodies, their compositions, atmospheres – even life – within star systems and the systems used to determine their economies, placement of starports etc. This work has in turn allowed us to open up around 500 star systems in Beta 2. The familiar 55 Beta 1 systems are still all there, with an additional approximately 100 light year push out to the frontier and beyond in the direction of unexplored space – after all, you need things to discover!



Another potential winner from the Lakon shipyards has been added, the Asp Explorer. The Asp Explorer is very versatile and its design parameters and layout can accommodate modules that make it a perfect ‘grand tourer’ for your voyages of exploration. Beta 2 also provides much greater variety for modifying all types of ship. There are different Life Support modules, Engines, Hyperdrives, Power Distributors, Sensors, Shield Generators and Cargo Racks. You also are given much more information on upgrades to inform your choices. PRO-TIP: shields and drives are tuned for particular hull masses.



Ships and their systems are subject to gradual wear and tear in Beta 2 – the extent of this of course depends on how careful a pilot you are!



There are new Dumbfire Missile racks, Plasma Accelerators and Cannon. Oh – and the mine launcher first seen in the Beta 1 video has now been added - plus mines, too! Whilst we are on the subject of weapons, there is a new class of non-lethal missile-deployed weapon in Beta 2 called a ‘cargo hatch disruptor’. If your target’s shields are down and you fire one of these, it will attach to the target and use targeted ECM to cause their cargo hatch to open. Cargo will then spill out involuntarily. Think of it as a means to fill your piratical boots with a slightly clearer conscience – the disruptor doesn’t explode so your victim lives to fight another day, and you get a correspondingly smaller bounty on your head.



Outposts, the exposed, isolated galactic equivalents of the run-down roadside café, the remote research base, the windswept motel that we described [in newsletter 37] , are to be found in the more off-the-beaten-track places of Beta 2. Beta 2 also contains the Occelus starport types. The Ocellus starport is stronger, better protected from radiation and more expensive than the Coriolis class stations and slightly smaller, and much smaller than the giant Orbis. The Occellus stations can be moved from place to place with the attachment of a giant drive system, and tend to appear at the end of the first ‘gold-rush’ phase in a new system, marking the start of a more law-abiding way of life. They were described in detail [ in newsletter 38 ]. Beta 2 extends the visibility of other ships in supercruise, whether they are player or AI. You can also buy a module that allows you to track any other ship that jumps into supercruise or hyperspace by following their supercruise ‘wakes’.



As you can see, there is a whole lot more going on in Beta 2 - so there is also now a new live ‘newsfeed’ addition to station services which provides news items about happenings from the far flung reaches of the dynamic, connected Elite: Dangerous galaxy as well as player generated activity in the local system.



We have re-purposed the single player combat scenarios into a series of optional simulator tutorials to aid newcomers to Elite: Dangerous in developing their piloting skills. There are also new, safe simulator tutorials for docking and travel, so to learn these skills you no longer need to scrap a small pile of Sidewinders! A new pre-flight check system in the initial start-flow provides quick, basic instruction of the ship’s main controls, too.



There are also a host of general qualitative improvements in Beta 2 – some of the more obvious ones include the planetary rings that now have rock, ice and metal variants with matching dust motes and depth, and the response to lighting of distant views of ring systems has been improved. There is a lot more music, and Backer’s names (from the appropriate crowd-funding reward tiers) have been added to the Beta 2 NPC database too!



Those of you who have the appropriate hardware will be pleased to know that SLI/Crossfire support in Beta 2 will allow those with suitable high-end rigs to play in 4K ultra-high definition. Never ones to waste the opportunity for another gratuitous 4K screenshot, here goes…: Of course Elite: Dangerous is still very much a work-in-progress – we continue to work hard on more features, improvements and optimizations for the full release. Watch this space! Back to Contents Elite 30th Anniversary Tomorrow is the 30th Anniversary of the first launch of Elite on the BBC Micro in the UK, and in other countries over the following days. We know many of you played the original, and to allow others to join you down memory lane we are giving a free copy of BBC Micro Elite away to everyone via our online store! It bundled with the BeebEm BBC Micro and Master 128 Emulator for PC.



To get your copy just go to the store, where it is listed as a product, put it in your basket and it will appear free of charge. If you don’t already have an account with us, to get the free game please set one up here .



We’d like to thank Mike Wyatt for allowing us to distribute the fantastic BeebEm from our site - he is happy to help anyone using BeebEm via http://www.mkw.me.uk/beebem/



We also have some special new limited edition T-shirts available from today you can buy these and other retro Elite Tees on our store . Also there is a limited edition wireframe paint job for the Cobra which is available here . It will only be available for the 10 days of our celebrations and will be withdrawn from sale on Tuesday 30th September so get it while you can! We have received some amazing memories, pictures and videos from you, many thanks for all your messages and keep them coming in! We will be adding them to a special page on our website and posting them up on our social media pages. If you still want to join in you can send any pictures, videos or images to us at; elite30years@frontier.co.uk or you can tweet #EliteDangerous#Elite30Years



Or email us with a link to where we can download your file. Please make sure you provide a name and contact details with anything you share.

Please note, by submitting content and information you are automatically giving Frontier the right to use the content publically, so if you do not want your video used – don’t send it to us! Back to Contents Comms Chatter David Braben will also be explaining how you can do it all in Elite: Dangerous with his Death, Stealth, Money and Power Developer Session at EGX on Thursday 25th September at 2pm. Rand Haginen has been showing off his flying skills in Oculus mode - he gets very close to the station and shows the enormous detail to be seen.

Isinona has been at it again on his You Tube Channel, this time interstellar bounty hunting with flight assist off! Look out for some fancy flying, and watch the K-Warrant Scanner being put to good use. Iain M Norman posted these two pics up on twitter – they made us smile! Back to Contents Transmission 19th September 3300 Galnet News Transmission 19th September 3300

All information ©3300 Elite Pilots Federation. Copyright violation is a crime in all jurisdictions.



:: Elite Pilots Federation Alert ::

Eranin’s 30 year anniversary of independence from the Federation is tomorrow, and their ‘cold war’ looks more and more like a tinderbox ready to ignite.



Eranin is flaunting its freedom in the face of Federal systems by announcing a celebratory liquor produced in Eranin and its fellow independent communist system Wyrd. In response the Federation has banned liquor in the local area and deployed many black ops teams around the systems, which has even disrupted our own Black Market data gathering this week.



Frankly things don’t look good. We’d expect to see both sides reaching out to members over the coming days for assistance if things take any further turn for the worse.



::GalNet Trade Aggregation Service Reports::

:: Market Information::

Ship Sales (by market share)

After last week’s stunning news of a free Eagle for all, Core Dynamics Eagle take up falls back to a more usual 13.6% market share.



Faulcon deLacy remains top of the pile and tightens its grip on the market even further with a 1.6% overall market share rise to 41.6%. We have been digging hard over the past week following the rumours of the FdL board doing a big deal. Although we haven’t yet got the full story it appears that something huge is about to happen with the Cobra. Could this be linked to the 30 year anniversary tension between Eranin and the Federation?



Zorgon Peterson's once again accounts for a solid 26% share this week.



Lakon sales remain static this week, and the company will hope today’s news of the release of the Asp Explorer on 30 September will help stimulate interest in their range.



Most Profit Made From:

Auto Fabricators << NEW

Consumer Technology v

Terrain Enrichment Systems v

Fish << NEW

Gallium v



Most traded Black Market goods:

Data unavailable.



Most goods bought and sold (By cargo units):

Fish ^

Auto Fabricators << NEW

Computer Components ^

Consumer Technology << NEW

Clothing << NEW



Top 5 Largest Importers, by Quantity of Good Traded:

LHS 3262: Louis de Lacaille Prospect

Aulin: Aulin Enterprise

i Bootis: Chango Dock

Asellus Primus: Beagle 2 Landing

LFT 880: Baker Platform



Top Exports, Ranked by Quantity:

LHS 3262: Louis de Lacaille Prospect : Auto Fabricators << NEW

LHS 3262: Louis de Lacaille Prospect : Consumer Technology v

i Boötis: Chango Dock : Fish ^

Aulin: Aulin Enterprise: Agricultural Medicines << NEW



Aulin: Aulin Enterprise: Terrain Enrichment Systems v



Trade Tips & Hidden Gems:

Markets currently trading with good profits:

Nang Ta-khian: Hay Point ^

Ovid: Bradfield Orbital << NEW

Pi-fang: Brooks Estate

h Draconis: Brislington

Tilian: Maunder’s Hope << NEW



::And Finally::

Our human interest news editor was killed this week in an unexplained ‘accident’ on her way to Eranin to report on the 30th Anniversary celebrations. Out of respect our ‘And Finally’ section will not run this week.



Detailed market information feeds are available via an upgraded subscription to GalNet services.



Sports Results, Entertainment News and Celebrity Gossip are available via an upgraded subscription.



This GalNet News Transmission is sponsored in part by the Bank of Zaonce. Trust the Bank of Zaonce with your hard-earned credits.



Back to Contents That’s it for newsletter #41 - thank you for reading and supporting the development of Elite: Dangerous.



If you are new to the newsletters you can read all our previous newsletters here.



As always if there is anything in particular that you’d like to hear more about, or ask a question, then please contact us at elite-newsletter@frontier.co.uk.



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