Hi Commander,Welcome to Elite: Dangerous Newsletter #23!For the past few weeks our focus here at Frontier has been on completing and delivering the final stage of the Alpha process, Alpha 4.So in this issue we will be looking at some of the highlights and the features in Alpha 4 which also provide an early insight and taste of the vast richness, infinite freedom and sheer visceral adventure that will come from Elite: Dangerous.

Sneak Peek of the Week

'The first sighting of an Orbis space station'

Alpha 4 Released!









‘Unexpected gold!’







‘Stop and search!’







‘Tension turns to combat’ ‘Rumours abound of a particularly deadly and elusive pirate lord, flying a deadly vessel called “Colossus”’

Procedural Pepperoni



However the team clearly still had Pizza on their mind when they got back to work in the afternoon judging by this new planet!









Sincere thanks to Commanders Keith 'Oss133' Wilkins, Anthony Kernan, Grant 'Psykokow' Woolcott, Danny 'Remkelp' Busch, Robbie 'Wrongway', Helen 'Flossy' Lister, Ian Woolman, John Stabler and Commander Ben 'Eid LeWeise' Moss-Woodward – you made our day!

Comms Chatter



We've loved seeing your screenshots and videos of Alpha 4!

We've loved seeing your screenshots and videos of Alpha 4! Here are a few videos and screenshots we've picked up on the forums and youtube. Please keep them coming, it's fantastic to see you actually playing the game!



'A beautiful shot of our galaxy map by Keybuk'



'A beautiful shot of our galaxy map by Keybuk'

'Another fantastic shot of a Type 9 by Tinman'

Mostly Harmless Questions



Le-Betz: Will there be Generation Ships? It would be fun to have them, certainly! Kerrash: What is the smallest detail of the procedural content that is being considered? and will we be able to customize it or will it be engine controlled? Dust particles are probably as small as it goes – or perhaps details on procedural textures. Alpha backers will already have flown over ring systems at super-luminal speeds and then looked down and seen the billions of individual rocks hurtling by below, perhaps heading down in to them.

Listeri69: What benefits can we expect to see from becoming an explorer? The excitement of discovering something unusual – and perhaps even staking a claim (though this has to be registered). Finding a metal-rich system that is untouched for example would be a great find – and lucrative too. Philip Coutts: Why did you pick the Sidewinder for the basic starting ship? It is to give us more headroom in the ship progression. The Sidewinder is much smaller than say, the Cobra. For much the same reason the Eagle was the default starting ship in Frontier: Elite 2. return to contents Will there be Generation Ships?What is the smallest detail of the procedural content that is being considered? and will we be able to customize it or will it be engine controlled?What benefits can we expect to see from becoming an explorer?Why did you pick the Sidewinder for the basic starting ship?

Start Playing Today!

Premium Beta Countdown



Premium Beta players can play TODAY!



You can immediately download and play a Single Player Combat build today before this and start practicing your Sidewinder skills.



We are now T-minus 14 days away from the release of the Premium Beta where you will be able to experience for the first time all the excitement of the Alpha and more – join us today!



Don’t forget you can upgrade from any pre-order purchase to Premium Beta – just checkout with the Premium Beta in your shopping car and the correct discount will automatically be applied.

Premium Beta players can play TODAY!You can immediately download and play a Single Player Combat build today before this and start practicing your Sidewinder skills.We are now T-minus 14 days away from the release of the Premium Beta where you will be able to experience for the first time all the excitement of the Alpha and more –Don’t forget you can upgrade from any pre-order purchase to Premium Beta – just checkout with the Premium Beta in your shopping car and the correct discount will automatically be applied. Join the Premium Beta Here!

return to contents

The Frontier Team



FRONTIER ARE HIRING! Click here to see current vacancies.

Over the past few weeks we have been explaining the main features of Alpha 4.And now it’s released!You can super-cruise through the five spectacular star systems that form part of the Boötes constellation when viewed from Earth. Taking in the awe-inspiring sights of ringed gas giants seen from inside the rings, the fierce furnaces of the 4 stars of i Boötis and the startling 400 billion system ‘night sky’.Perhaps you’ll risk your neck trading for minerals in LP 98-132, or bounty-hunt the pirates chasing them, or get involved in the mounting tension between Federation and Independent systems. You can do all of that and more.In Alpha 4, you are free to experience a huge volume of space, yet it is the merest fraction of the Elite: Dangerous galaxy.Whatever you choose to do, we want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has supported Elite: Dangerous to date – we are delighted to have you with us on this journey. And there is so much more to come…But let’s be careful out there - Alpha 4 has some surprises in store… See you in space, commanders!Massive thanks goes to the guys who sent the team Pizza this week......they couldn’t have been more welcome as you can see from this picture of Mike, Adam and John just before they got stuck in.