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Elite Dangerous 2.2 "Guardians" launch: deployable fighters, passenger missions, more

23033_the_guardians.jpg

Elite Dangerous: Horizons 2.2 patch: "The Guardians" LAUNCH TRAILER
Current Elite Dangerous OT

Release Date
  • PC/X1: 10/25/2016
PC and X1 Prices
  • Own Elite Dangerous and Horizons? The update is free, as Horizons includes 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4
  • Own Elite Dangerous but not Horizons? Pay £19.99/$29.99/€24.99 for Horizons
  • Don't own any Elite games? Buy the Commander Deluxe Edition (includes ED and Horizons/Season 2) £39.99/$59.99/€49.99

Horizons is Season (or Year) 2 of Elite Dangerous! The first update, 2.0, added Planetary Landings on non-atmospheric planets. The second update, 2.1 (or 1.6, if you don't own Horizons), was titled "The Engineers" and added NPCs who can craft custom equipment for your ship in exchange for materials. While they are the primary focus of the update. The third update is "The Guardians" (2.2/1.7) and adds the following (via reddit):

Official patch notes

Watch ObsidianAnt's FANTASTIC overview of the 2.2 update

Now, this fan site has done such a great job summarizing the changes I'm gonna repost them here. Be sure to check out the source for other Elite-related info!

I have augmented this post with screens from the launch trailer (courtesy of reddit)

SHIP LAUNCHED FIGHTERS

  • R8pX7re.png

    SdT7Zqy.png
  • Frontier initially released a short Ship Launched Fighters (SLF) teaser video that can be seen here.
  • You can see videos of SLF in action below and here:

    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Ship Launched Fighters Combat
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Ship Launched Fighters Basic
  • There are 3 SLF available to players. The F63-Condor, the Imperial Fighter and the Independent Taipan fighter. This is the new Alliance fighter, which is said to be the most powerful of the three.
  • Taipan – The most robust of the three, faster recharge for it’s shields but is the slowest and has the worst manoeuvrability.
    tapian
    tapian.png
  • F63 Condor – The most lightly armoured, has medium manoeuvrability, but is the fastest of the three.
    33LDO90.png
  • Imperial Fighter – The most fragile of the three, not the fastest or slowest, but the most manoeuvrable of any ship in the game.
    VPUmACP.png
  • Basic ethos is that SLF are ‘glass cannons’ – fragile, cheap, somewhat disposable but powerful.
  • They are available to the larger ships, giving teeth, or extra teeth to some of them, especially non-combat based trading ships.
  • Confirmed ships able to carry SLF: Anaconda, Beluga Liner, Federal Corvette, Federal Gunship, Imperial Cutter, Keelback, Type-9.
  • SLF can be fitted via outfitting screen. They will have 3 or 4 fixed load outs and utilities – heat sink, chaff and point defence. They will also have gimballed and fixed weapons.
  • Buying a fighter bay, will enable players to construct fighters whilst in flight. You will require ‘ammunition’ to rebuild them.
  • At the moment there is no destruction of the fighter bay by an enemy ship. This might change, but it’s thought possibly not due to the large punishment of doing so.
  • Pilots can give commands to SLF and tell them to either ‘follow, stay put or attack targets’.
  • Initial outlay will not be ‘trivial’. The fighter hangar will take up room as with any addition to the ship in outfitting.
  • Up to 16 SLF can be carried, depending on your ship. It’s possible to carry different SLF on the same ship.
  • They can be flown remotely by the Commander, or via AI. When flown by the Commander the ship will fly itself and will automatically use any turreted weapons.
  • SLF in the game will differ from those in CQC by virtue of the fact they will have different equipment and flight controls.
  • Some NPC ships will have Ship Launched Fighters.
  • You can’t dock your SLF in someone else’s ship.
  • At present SLF are not able to be upgraded via The Engineers.
  • You can’t land a SLF, but you can fly them to attack planetary bases.
  • Point-defence will not attack ship-launched fighters.
  • The SLF has a limit to how far it can fly away from the mothership, but this is still a considerable distance.
  • Switching to a SLF whilst it is launched, and then switching back to your ship will leave your SLF floating in space, unless you have an NPC pilot to control it.
  • Frontier are still looking at the speed at which SLF are launched once you request it.
NPC CREW

  • Up to 3 NPC Crew can be hired from the crew lounge to fly both your own ship or any SLF (via AI). However, only one can fly with you at any one time. The others will be on ‘shore leave’ until you need them.
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - NPC Crew & Crew Fighter
  • Crew can be bought to match your own combat rank. They have a backstory and individual avatars. Over time they will rank up based on the number of kills they achieve making it possible to take your NPC pilot to Elite status.
  • Players can issue orders to the NPC crew member via an in game menu. These are: Defensive, Aggressive, Hold Fire, Stay Put, Focus.
  • Issuing the orders above causes them to be given out in audio over the ships radio.
  • You can hot swap with your NPC crew member to enable them to fly your ship, whilst you fly the SLF.
  • Destruction of your ship causes the death of your NPC pilot.

PASSENGERS

  • Passengers can be expected to include “Thrill seekers, refugees and soldiers”. This will include bulk carrying missions and the transportation of VIP’s to tourist destinations.
  • Contracts will be offered by faction members, but on drilling down for further details the player will be greeted by an NPC avatar of the lead passenger in the group.
  • Passengers need to be taken care of. Time limits need to be take into account or they can leave your ship. This leads to payment failure.
  • They can use the escape pods to leave the ship. This will also lead to refurbishment/rebuying of passenger cabin before taking any more passengers on.
  • The timings for some passenger missions may we as long as three weeks.
  • Ferrying some of these people about can lead to chained missions with various objectives such as being taken to see combat zones, or places of beauty.
  • If VIP’s are not happy with your performance they might eject via a rescue capsule with the result being a failure of payment and negative impact to the player’s reputation.
  • Mission ‘wrinkles’ can be given out by passengers for extra credits – as currently happens with non-passenger missions.
  • Tourist beacons can be scanned upon reaching a destination. This will result in the player being given a variety of information including the lore behind it. In places of outstanding beauty the players who submitted the location will get their name in the message. All destinations are persistent.
  • Exploration rewards will be given for finding these spots, there may be a reason to find all of them.
  • There are a range of cabins available, but no cabin crew.
  • The passenger ships can be taken to the Engineers are per any other ship.
  • Videos of these can been seen here for VIP transportation and here for bulk passenger transportation.
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Passenger Missions VIP
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Passenger Missions Bulk
  • A video showing the new Beluga Liner (Horizons only) can be seen below. Only this and the Ocra can be fitted with luxury cabins. The
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Beluga
  • Beluga is larger than a T-9 and has 5 medium hard points, poor handling, a Class 7 FSD and a huge fuel tank.

ENGINEERS & NEW POWER

  • Four new Engineers have been added to 2.2.
  • A new power has also been added, Yori Grom.
THARGOIDS/ALIENS

  • It would appear that aliens are going to make it into the 2.2 patch with reports of a “massive, green Cylon Basestar, floating about near the wreckage of a batch of human ships it had just taken out” via PCGamesN. [Link]

QUALITY OF LIFE FEATURES


  • Module Storage & Transfer
  • Modules can now be stored for free. You can also transport them to your current location for a fee based on the cost of a module and how far away it is from your current location.

    Ship Transfer
  • Ships can be transferred from anywhere you left them to your current location, with a time delay. There will be a cost based on the value of your ship and the distance required to transport it.
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Ship Transfer

    Remote Sale of Ships
  • It will now be possible to sell any of your ships from anywhere in the galaxy!
    Commanders Log/Player Journal
  • The 2.2 Update will see the introduction of a player journal into the game. Information will be written to a local file enabling 3rd party apps access to the data. Some of the developers of these apps have already been contacted in regard to developing this feature.

    Graphical improvements to Avatars
  • Some graphical improvements have been made to the in-game faction avatars giving them a better appearance.
    Space Station Upgrades
    HRLLpvb.png
  • There are now more variations on the inside of space stations and hangars. System types and population sizes will dictates differences in ports. For example: Refinery & Extraction economies will get a more rundown and industrial type feel to them. Agricultural systems will see certain bays taken up by food supplies etc. A look at these can be seen in the videos below.
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 Port Variant Refinery
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Port Variant Tourism
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Port Variant Tech
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Port Variant Agriculture

    CQC Station
  • This CQC station below will make it into the main game as promised some time ago by Frontier.
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - CQC Environments

    Capital Ship Dockyard
  • This too will be in 2.2 and a video can be seen below, and an image can be seen here.
    0eahdbi3l5gx.png

    5OTST74.png

    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Capital Ship Dock


    Military Installations

    rnujdnxewwawuc5rgek_qbsvdzymmvbdrjy1q6hu6g8.jpg

    Courtesy of jaysetsfire
    Other locations
    3hedXNP.png
  • Frontier announced,

    “Get ready to encounter new structures in space – installations. These buildings cover a range of facilities, from comms arrays to unauthorised hideouts to prisons, and more.

    As well as making for great backdrops to meet up with other Commanders, expect appropriate traffic, from traders, to pirates to military vessels, as well as the chance to locate and collect tasty materials and cargo.”

    Planetary Map
  • Viewing planets in the system map will now show a rendered image of the actual planet you select, right down to its actual surface details.
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Planet Map

    Route Plotter
  • It will be possible in 2.2 to plan your route via multiple destinations.
  • The route plotter is dynamic and will alter its path depending upon which filters are checked by the player.
    Changes to Star Port Services Menu
  • This main menu has been given a re-working to make it more accessible and bring to the front some details that were previously hidden inside other menus.
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Port Services

    Fines & Bounties
  • At low security systems you will now be able to pay off your fines, collect bounties and hand in combat bonds via a so called, “SIN Broker”. They will charge a percentage for the service.

    Visual changes to hyperspace
  • There will be some visual changes to leaving hyperspace with the detination sun being shown during the jump. If you’re on mobile jump to 2m 42s.
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Passenger Missions Bulk

    Security System Jump Warning
  • Before jumping to a new system you will be given information about its security system level.
    systemjumpalert.png

    Security Level warning

    New Geological Structures on planets
    9P6kgee.png

    hwhqKED.png

    rZqYt3z.png
  • Some planets will now have new harvestable geological structures on them in the shape of fumeroles and geysers. Full size images of the below here and here.
  • Geysers on some planets surfaces will be active, allowing the SRV to be lifted up into the air. [Sandro Sammarco via Lave Radio]
  • Planetary surfaces have also been reworked to significantly increase quality.
    newgeologicalfeatures.jpg

    Vents on planet surface
    harvestables.jpg

    Some new form of material, or maybe Thargoid poo. Who knows?
    PAXkpZS.png

    KRrL79F.png

    FjhvVBS.png


    Planetary & Star Additions

    gZLs4EZ.png

    50HfpYl.png
  • There will be better graphical representation of white dwarf/neutron stars and ejection of material from them.
  • Additionally this will provide a gameplay opportunity for players in that whilst in super-cruise you will be able to fly close to these stars and gain the ability to supercharge the FSD allowing increased ‘one shot’ jumps.
  • The distance of these jumps is expected to be greater than the top end FSD Engineer modifications.
  • The trade off is risk of damage to your FSD and in-flight buffeting of the ship. Image below shows an in game screenshot of how they look.
    csype6vxeaa5vnm.jpg

    Screenshot courtesy of Fireytoad on Twitter.
  • Tectonic simulation is improving for when some volcanism arrives in 2.2. Fissures and geysers, more rares to be discovered.
  • Dimming of the universe via galactic dust.
    Advertising Holograms
  • A larger variety of advertising holograms both inside and outside stations.
    Paint Jobs – Ships
  • There are now wireframe are now available for the Anaconda, Asp Explorer, Vulture, Fer-de-Lance and Python. Corvette and Cutter point jobs are coming.
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Viper Mk III Paint Job
  • Paint jobs will be available for the SLF can be seen below and here, and here.

    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - Empire Fighter Paint Job

    figherpaintjobs.png

    Overview of Ship Launched Fighter paint jobs
    Paint Jobs – SRV
  • Paint jobs will be available on the Frontier Store to buy in a variety of colours.
    Elite Dangerous: Gamescom 2016 - SRV Paint Job

    Ship Kits
  • More ship kits will be available for the Python and Vulture.
    pythonshipkit.jpg

David Braben Interview #1


David Braben Interview #2

In this interview David talks about culture in Elite Dangerous, the structures in society and in particular those of the Empire. He then goes on to talk about life on a space station. The rich living on their stepped terraces, and the rabbit warrens underneath them where the masses live and sometimes revolt.

David Braben – Interview #3

In this video David largely talks about story and player narratives in the game.

David Braben – Interview #4



What's Next?
The following info is taken from this reddit post:

The Commanders 2.3
Originally scheduled for Fall 2016, now likely Winter 2016/2017.
b0e2a19a-a5c5-443e-91fe-f35feefa2065.jpg
10e43ffe-d236-4859-93eb-3da0787dce52.jpg

"Team up and stand together. Forge your own identity with the new Commander Creator, then share your bridge with Multi-Crew and fly with friends."
  • Players working together to control the different functions of a ship. One player could fly the ship whilst others would handle the sub-systems and weapons. Or a multicrew ship landing on a planet's surface could have one player stay with the main vessel, another patrol in a ship-launched fighter, and another explore in their SRV.
  • The crew limit of 4 may be increased in a future Season: "We don't know how high we would go."
  • Current instancing issues likely make more than 4 unfeasible for the immediate future.
  • Multicrew uses the Wing system, and has 4 roles: Helm (piloting), Fire control (turrets/weapons), Countermeasures (shields, tactical), Engineering (sensors, navigation, repairs). Roles are balanced so that a fully-crewed ship is on par with 4 CMDRs in a wing.
  • CMDRs can hotswap between roles, including in Solo. Uses an SRV-style UI interface.
  • No NPC Crew initially.
  • Enormous range of faces and features available using the Commander Creation "slider tool". This option will be selected via the game's interface. In combination with
  • Multicrew players will at last be able to see each other, in game. Although dev-demo shows baldness, hair is confirmed.
  • Faces will be visible as the visors will be retracted with pressurised cockpit. Canopy breach will cause Visors to appear.

"???" 2.4
"A secret to be revealed in Elite Dangerous: Horizons’ final expansion!"
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Sweet I've been putting off playing for months waiting for this. Didn't think it would ever come out.
 

Burny

Member
Slow and steady updates. Thankfully, unlike the 2.1 RNGineers, fighters in themselves don't add mroe grind. They look fun, but they're only for the bigger ships. Should be great once they add multi crew and one person is piloting the main ship while the other jumps into the fighter.
 
Slow and steady updates. Thankfully, unlike the 2.1 RNGineers, fighters in themselves don't add mroe grind. They look fun, but they're only for the bigger ships. Should be great once they add multi crew and one person is piloting the main ship while the other jumps into the fighter.

Yeah, might have to drop a little dough on a Keelback just to try it out. Maybe the newly buffed Type 9 would be fun--need to get my Fed rank up for the Fed Gunship.
 

Burny

Member
Yeah, might have to drop a little dough on a Keelback just to try it out. Maybe the newly buffed Type 9 would be fun--need to get my Fed rank up for the Fed Gunship.

The list of ships supporting SLF seems a bit arbitrary:

Confirmed ships able to carry SLF: Anaconda, Beluga Liner, Federal Corvette, Federal Gunship, Imperial Cutter, Keelback, Type-9.

When there's a Keelback on there, why not the Python?
 
How much did they nerf Sothis runs?

According to reddit, highest mission payout is around 2 million now.

The typical reward-to-tonnage ratio is now 1-2M per 100T in legal cargo transport missions, but there's a rare smuggling mission with 1M reward for 24T illegal cargo. Still it's a big nerf.

The list of ships supporting SLF seems a bit arbitrary:

When there's a Keelback on there, why not the Python?

Yeah, definitely feels arbitrary. Maybe they're working on balance or something, but I don't see why ships larger than the keelback couldn't haul a fighter bay.
 

Brazil

Living in the shadow of Amaz
Man, I really wish I had the time to invest in this. Game sounds amazing, but when you have to watch a million YouTube videos to be able to fly your first ship around...
 
Some stuff from the reddit David Braben AMA:

Improving black holes:
We have been balancing our effort across many different kinds of gameplay, 'quality of life' updates, and so on. I am personally a huge fan of the science elements, and we will continue to move forwards on them. Black holes, accretion discs, exotic star types like Beta Lyrae stars, and many other elements and features are on our list for attention, in no particular order. So yes, there are plans, but no promises as to when.

Space legs:
It is of course something we have thought about a good deal. The real challenge with walking around, EVA, etc, is not the fact of doing it - walking around is something we have done in many other games - it is what you do while doing it to make it interesting. We have nothing to announce at the moment.
One of the reasons we introduced the SRV was to allow you to get about outside your ship - travelling at up to 100 mph allows you to cover ground a lot more usefully. We have plans to do more with the SRV.

On larger "gunboat" type ships:
There are a great many things in this area we have been looking at long term. Now we have ship-launched fighters (or at least will in a few hours!), more lumbering ships can make more sense. We have also looked at more of the much larger ships in game - as NPCs and ultimately under player 'executive control' - but no promises as there are a good deal of gameplay challenges to be resolved first.

2.3?
Right now, our focus is 2.2, even though most of the team are now on 2.3 work. More info to follow.
 

kennah

Member
Jumping in tonight with some friends. Should be a good time.

Hopefully I can afford one of the larger ships with my 77 million.
 

Burny

Member
Man, I really wish I had the time to invest in this. Game sounds amazing, but when you have to watch a million YouTube videos to be able to fly your first ship around...

The new 2.2 tutorial missions are the best missions in the game. ;) And they seem to teach you all the basics.

But yeah, wrapping your head around the controls is difficult initially, but rewarding if you master it. Overall, the game is pretty arcadey though.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Man, I really wish I had the time to invest in this. Game sounds amazing, but when you have to watch a million YouTube videos to be able to fly your first ship around...

Basic controls are surprisingly straightforward though. The game may seem overwhelmingly complex, but it's not really all that daunting. I think the game has a logical control scheme and a pretty intuitive UI, especially if you configure some of your own keybindings.

If all that's stopping you is the fear of having to watch 10 hours of tutorials just to take off then I can assure you that's not needed whatsoever.
 
Yeah, I just introduced a friend to the game. She's playing on her laptop w/a 360 gamepad. There is an initial steep learning curve but once you get through that, everything clicks and sorta just "works". It's really just a matter of learning about how the game systems work. Elite isn't a simulation--it's more a simulation of a simulation :p
 

Burny

Member
Eager to see what they've hidden. The launch livestream today was full of hints that the "biggest thing" of 2.2 (or some such) hasn't been revealed, yet.


After running that through the hyperbole filter, I'd really like to see what kind of things they've hidden. More alien stuff, maybe even with a solid ingame hint to the aliens' whereabouts? Finally a hint of "The Missing"'s generation ships? And what do they refer to with "The Guardians"? The font used for the title heavily implies it's got something to do with the relics they've shown, which currently haven't been found and probably weren't in the beta, rather than the fighters being guardians of their ships. :p

Any word on the PS4 release? Haven't heard anything about it since early spring, iirc.

Nothing. :/
 

Reckheim

Member
Hmm, I think i'll stick to BF1 for the time being (i'm out in deep space anyways so wont be able to try most of the new stuff out).

Great Job on the thread Anton.
 
Kinda cool--someone took a screen before logging off last night and after logging in post 2.2:

1Jcbuc3.jpg


Other reddit stuff:

NPCs can land on planets now, apparently: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDange...apparently_npc_ships_now_land_on_planets_too/

30m credit mission to take a passenger 21k ly: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/59bnqj/explorers_will_love_this_stuff_first_class/

40m credit mission for Sag A trip: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDange...il_credit_run_1_passenger_wants_to_go_to_the/

As just a way to make money, probably not the best option--but for explorers hoping to actually make some good money from a trip? Nice bonus.
 

joecanada

Member
glad I stockpiled money before this , even though I haven't played for a week or two. got up to about 700 million with a "B" rated Conda, not on Sothis runs either. should be good to go, loading the conda up with fighter bays and heading to RES site.
 
Bought myself a Keelback to putz around in. Now just need to find a station selling passenger cabins and fighter bays...

EDIT: Gotta admit, y'all. Having a little NPC fighter zooming around, protecting you, taking orders, is pretty fucking cool.
 

The Cowboy

Member
When are the new skip kits going live?, i thought they are meant to come out the same time at 2.2 but they aren't on the store - i need me a Python ship kit.
 
When are the new skip kits going live?, i thought they are meant to come out the same time at 2.2 but they aren't on the store - i need me a Python ship kit.

They were supposed to up by now, per the stream, but maybe they're having a store issue. Some combo kit + paint packs went up today for Cobra, Eagle, and Sidewinder, I think.
 

Volimar

Member
You gonna request a lock for the other thread or are we gonna use both?


Jesus steam is updating SLLLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW
 

E-flux

Member
Man, I really wish I had the time to invest in this. Game sounds amazing, but when you have to watch a million YouTube videos to be able to fly your first ship around...

It really doesn't, as long as you get how travelling works you can learn everything on the fly. Flying around isn't that hard or getting to grips with the systems unless you want to min-max everything, at that point you need to delve into it hard.
 
Summary of the launch stream:

Grabbed some quick notes from the Release celebration stream:
---Braben---
00:11 - Most of team now working on 2.3. Direct gameplay will come to locations IE capital ship docks & CQC structures.
20:30 - Have in mind when they want to do Atmospherics. Atmospheres aren't the problem, it's the things you do within it.
---Sandro---
42:50 - Smuggling will be more than just avoiding scans and haulage. Will come when broader rebalance comes to address roles generally
53:20 - Wants to improve 'searching' gameplay of Exploration. Doesn't want to make it more difficult, wants to make it a bit sexier and cooler. Wants to make the processes feel a bit more involved without adding too much complexity.
55:31 - Some changes 'in the pipe' for PowerPlay. Going to 'fix it, then make it sexy'. No ETA yadda yadda.
---Brookes---
1:10:25 - New storyline and lore there to be unlocked. Largest thing(s) in 2.2 yet to be seen.
1:11:20 - More faces will come for contacts
1:11:45 - Asp Explorer can't have SLV, but there could be a variant in the future they could add it to. Always looking at the various chassis to see what they can change and play with.
1:13:30 - Looking at ship naming and labelling
---Adam Woods---
1:43:50 - CQC 'Installations' are themed and driven by the local economy.

EDIT: Also, FD has released their Pilot training videos for 2.2:

Fighters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r3H36eB6oM
Fighter Pilots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld7_85HuL8w
Passengers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTgPDOrbq3I
 

MarionCB

Member
There is now a persistent "Elite Dangerous 2.2" watermark on the bottom left of the screen.

Maybe it's a personality disorder on my part but it annoys the living hell out of me so much that I don't even want to play the game with it there. Is this something they do every update? I've seen it suggested that this lasts a few days after new updates then disappears--is it true? It's... aggravating.
 
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