Frontier Developments revealed some new Elite Dangerous information this week at Gamescom. The much desired player owned Capital Ships are finally arriving in December this year via Fleet Carriers. While the upcoming September update is around the corner, Frontier gave a tease of what players will get if they have enough money.

Elite Dangerous Fleet Carrier Features

Commanders can only own one. Available for both base game and Horizons players.

A maximum of 16 Landing Pads - 8 large, 4 medium, and 4 small.

Different loadouts for different roles such as - Bounty Hunter, Mercenary, Pirate, Trader, Smuggler, Miner, Explorer, and Search and Rescue.

Has rearm, refuel, and repair services.

500 LY jump range requiring a unique resource.

The developer provided five images showcasing different parts of the Fleet Carriers based on the above information.

The Elite Dangerous Fleet Carrier reveal from Gamescom is below with some gameplay of them in action. A neat feature also mentioned is that commanders can summon their Fleet Carrier remotely on the Galaxy Map.

For those more curious about the upcoming September update, here are the details. Frontier is focused on changing how their microtransaction currency, Frontier Points, works, in changing them to Arx. These points are only for cosmetic items known as Livery in Elite Dangerous. What's interesting about the shift from Frontier Points to Arx is that Arx will be obtainable both with real money and from in-game actions.

Arx was originally teased last month in July on the Elite Dangerous forum. The specifics are unknown on how players will obtain them in-game, but Frontier isn't trying to make it an annoying procedure. It could be as simple as a daily login bonus.

Quick Take

Players on PC could originally buy cosmetics in Elite Dangerous without having to buy a microtransaction currency like the Frontier Points, for example. The integration of Arx is going to change that for PC players which is a common way to mislead consumers on how much money they're spending. It also creates a dilemma where someone might want a $5 skin but needs to buy $10 of Arx. It should be interesting to see if Frontier handles it differently or not.