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[Anton Sugar]

12/9 UPDATE!

Elite: Horizons is officially released on 12/15/2015! Official forum post:

Hi Everyone,

Beta is going very well – the team have been working hard and have made great progress. Thanks to all those that have been helping us - a great many improvements have been included already, with another update (Beta 5) expected tomorrow, with more tweaks and changes.

We have worked very hard to ensure forward & backward compatibility so that all players of both seasons can play in the same galaxy together.

After every Elite Dangerous release we have taken care to listen and reacted to all feedback, and Elite Dangerous: Horizons will follow exactly the same process. Included with Horizons will be multiple expansions of which Planetary Landings will be the first.

All going well, we plan to launch Horizons with Planetary Landings on Tuesday (15th December – you heard it here first!). This will initially be termed an ‘Early Access’ release to highlight our normal process to our broad audience, some of whom have been with us since the start, but many have joined our community very recently.

We’ve put together a beta gameplay trailer here, for those that don’t have yet the beta, and here is a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_E6jCGusM

Thank you everyone for your support, and your tickets and reports, and I look forwards to seeing you in the game! (I’m CMDR BRABEN).

RIGHT ON COMMANDER!

David

NEW: Horizons Beta Trailer

As a part of this, if you preordered Elite: Horizons and did not own the standalone Elite: Dangerous, you can now download and play Elite: Dangerous:

Yes that's right. With only 1 week left to go till launch we've decided to allow Horizons pre-orders the chance to get in and play season 1 while they wait.

Just the other day, Frontier released Patch 4 for the Horizons beta, which added a BIG graphics upgrade to rocky worlds, particularly icy worlds. Some screens:

credits viagero

credits CMDR Cheese Wedge

I will play this game for the next 10 years.

Look.

Getting better and better.

Well, hot damn (via reddit)

.

Holy shit at this one:

From a different CMDR, a comparison--before/after:

There will be one more big patch (Patch 5) before the release next week!

Original OT:

On 11/30, the beta for the "Horizons" planetary landing expansion for Elite: Dangerous went live! This is the beta release, with the live release going out to all Horizons owners in a few weeks. You must be an Eliteangerous or Elite:Horizons beta backer in order to access this beta!

Included in this beta:

• Land on virtually any airless planet--over 60% of the airless worlds found in the ~400 billion stellar systems can be landed on
• Alternate ship flight models that take into account the gravity of the world
• Pilot the surface recon vehicle (SRV) "Scarab", deployable from your ship
• Attack pirate and enemy bases for missions or simply to raid their loot
• Search ship wrecks for valuable materials
• Respond to distress beacons
• Explore worlds with your Wing in "combined arms" with SRVs and ships
• Find planetside materials that can be used to synthesize enhanced ship modules
• Mine valuable materials from these planets

Official Elite: Horizons site/store page

For beta owners: you can check out planetary landings in one of two ways:

• In your existing ship/life, purchase both Planetary Insertion Module and Planetary Vehicle Hangar systems OR
• Restart your current ship/life to access the pre-fab planetary landing beginning

What's NOT in this beta:

• Atmospheric planets: not a part of Horizons, will be added in later season/expansion pack
• Multi-crew ships: coming later in the Horizons season/2016
• Character creator: coming later in the Horizons season/2016
• Advanced crafting: coming later in the Horizons season/2016

For general information on Horizons, check out the Unofficial Preview to Elite: Horizons guide!

 

[Hylian7]

It's all great unless you're one of the unlucky people that can't play because reasons.

Anyone else having this?

 

[More_Badass]

So can I land on Mars and explore Mariner Valley and Olympus Mons?

 

[Felix Lighter]

Mars was terraformed. It has an atmosphere in Elite, so no landing there for now.

 

[Enter the Dragon Punch]

is this game any good if all you want to do is fight with your ship

 

[Sinatar]

So can I land on Mars and explore Mariner Valley and Olympus Mons?

Mars is terraformed in ED and they haven't implemented planets with atmospheres, plant life, etc.

EDIT: Beaten.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Just finishing up my control mappings. Like I said in the other thread, I'm mapping driving controls to my Xbox One controller instead of the HOTAS. It feels more comfortable to me.

 

[_woLf]

This doesn't have character creation yet, right?

 

[Isomac]

This is pretty cool so far

 

[Zenner]

Has there been any talk of Oculus goggles for this game on the Xbox One?

 

[Wreav]

Has there been any talk of Oculus goggles for this game on the Xbox One?

Oculus doesn't support Xbox One, so no.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Welp, this will give a new sense of scale for everything

Betelgeuse's 2nd planet

HUGE.

 

[Sinatar]

Welp, this will give a new sense of scale for everything

Betelgeuse's 2nd planet

HUGE.

Jumping into Betelgeuse is always such a panic moment, that looks insane.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Yeah, I was just going to say that I can't believe how huge the landing pads actually are from the perspective of the buggy.

 

[EGM1966]

Christ my internet is so slow!

 

[Felix Lighter]

Hanging out with my FDL on a moon in Apam Napat just outside a colony.

 

[Anton Sugar]

So can I land on Mars and explore Mariner Valley and Olympus Mons?

As already noted, Mars is terraformed in ED's universe and atmospheric planets are not a part of the Horizons season.

This doesn't have character creation yet, right?

Not yet--that is later this season.

Welp, this will give a new sense of scale for everything

Betelgeuse's 2nd planet

HUGE.

Fuuuuuuck that.

 

[Synth]

Umm....

Am I doing something wrong? This should be where the download is listed right? Halp!?

 

[~Kinggi~]

Welp, this will give a new sense of scale for everything

Betelgeuse's 2nd planet

HUGE.

Damn son. Can you circle the entire planet? Like what i mean is i know it would take forever but are they faking it?

 

[Felix Lighter]

Damn son. Can you circle the entire planet? Like what i mean is i know it would take forever but are they faking it?

Every planet is to scale. You should in theory be able to circle the entire planet though that would be days if not weeks of driving on some planets I imagine.

 

[Serrato]

Damn son. Can you circle the entire planet? Like what i mean is i know it would take forever but are they faking it?

Nope... everything is 1:1. Means that it could take you days/months/years take a run around a planet. not that you would have enough fuel.

 

[Mengy]

is this game any good if all you want to do is fight with your ship

Honestly, it's a great space combat simulator. But you will have to do a bit of flying around though because it IS a simulator. Bounty Hunting is a pretty awesome way to play the game though. Or pirating, if you want to be a space criminal. And now we do have an entire mode dedicated just to dogfighting in space arenas called CQC where you can just immediately jump into space battles to your hearts content to earn credits and rankings and such.

So yeah, if you really just want to blow shit up, Elite's actually pretty good at it.

 

[KiefbladeMaster]

So I'm getting the Alpha (8GB Model) next week and I saw this on sale on Steam. Would you say it's worth the price point now? I heard it was pretty lacking in content at the beginning and haven't been following updates.

 

[Klyka]

Damn son. Can you circle the entire planet? Like what i mean is i know it would take forever but are they faking it?

You can circle the whole thing in your ship or in your buggy. It's 1:1. It's not No Man's Sky

 

[Pachimari]

I guess it was a good time buying the game today.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Honestly, it's a great space combat simulator. But you will have to do a bit of flying around though because it IS a simulator. Bounty Hunting is a pretty awesome way to play the game though. Or pirating, if you want to be a space criminal. And now we do have an entire mode dedicated just to dogfighting in space arenas called CQC where you can just immediately jump into space battles to your hearts content to earn credits and rankings and such.

So yeah, if you really just want to blow shit up, Elite's actually pretty good at it.

Yeah, ship combat path/options is the most robust offering the game has.

So I'm getting the Alpha (8GB Model) next week and I saw this on sale on Steam. Would you say it's worth the price point now? I heard it was pretty lacking in content at the beginning and haven't been following updates.

At $15, absolutely.

 

[Caesar III]

Just finishing up my control mappings. Like I said in the other thread, I'm mapping driving controls to my Xbox One controller instead of the HOTAS. It feels more comfortable to me.

great idea!

 

[5taquitos]

You can circle the whole thing in your ship or in your buggy. It's 1:1. It's not No Man's Sky

Seems like an unnecessary slam.

This looks fucking amazing, I think it's finally time to dip my toes.

 

[Jimrpg]

I'm in two minds about this... On the one hand it's $15 on steam and cheap! On the other will have to wait at least two expansions to get like most of the other planets... Ninety bucks to just be able to land on most of the planets.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Seems like an unnecessary slam.

This looks fucking amazing, I think it's finally time to dip my toes.

I don't think it's a slam. Different design choices. There are a lot of people that would much rather have the tighter, smaller scale planets of NMS. For me personally, the 1:1 scale in Elite something that I love. It gives me that sense of insignificance when you realize how utterly tiny, a person, a ship, a planet, even a star system is compared to the size of just a single galaxy. For others, it's a waste of space.

 

[Synth]

Umm....

Am I doing something wrong? This should be where the download is listed right? Halp!?

Seriously tho, is this something that's only affecting me? How is everyone else getting their download?

I can see "1 x Elite Dangerous: Horizons - Pre-order" in the My Orders section... but there's nothing in My Downloadable Products, even though it says 1 item...

 

[Felix Lighter]

Seriously tho, is this something that's only affecting me? How is everyone else getting their download?

I can see "1 x Elite Dangerous: Horizons - Pre-order" in the My Orders section... but there's nothing in My Downloadable Products, even though it says 1 item...

Out of curiosity did you preorder the game with beta access?

 

[Synth]

Out of curiosity did you preorder the game with beta access?

Oh... Oh shit...

I didn't realise that was a different purchase option....

I need some time alone....

 

[la_briola]

is this game any good if all you want to do is fight with your ship

Best space combat of any game, imho.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Yeah, the betas typically only go a week or 2. This one is pretty massive so I'd expect a bit on the long side, but still, I'd guess the release is just a few weeks away.

 

[Digby]

You can circle the whole thing in your ship or in your buggy. It's 1:1. It's not No Man's Sky

But what do you do once you land?

 

[sirap]

Shieeet.

I'm having a blast playing the base game (got it during the sale)

 

[Hylian7]

I still can't play because it won't fucking connect in the client. Fucking Frontier. I paid money for this.

 

[Anton Sugar]

But what do you do once you land?

I'm in two minds about this... On the one hand it's $15 on steam and cheap! On the other will have to wait at least two expansions to get like most of the other planets... Ninety bucks to just be able to land on most of the planets.

Let's just one way of looking at it, though.

Elite: Dangerous is projected to have a ten-year lifecycle. Frontier certainly isn't going to just provide 10 years worth of free features for a $60 game--that's insane.

Each of the expansions or seasons (which is a year, not a single season like "Fall") is FD's way of accruing revenue. Yes, you can buy paint jobs for ships, but outside of that? No subscription fee. No immediate "Elite: Dangerous 2" plans. Very few micro-transactions (again, just ship paint jobs).

I'm fine paying $45 a year for the amount of content we're getting, quite honestly. Just a little cheaper would be the sweet spot, but it's already cheaper than a lot of season passes for AAA console games, if you own the base game ($15 loyalty discount).

You are right--you can't land on atmospheric planets yet, and won't be able to in Season 2/Horizons...but airless planets make up 60% of all the planets in the game. So for $60, you actually *can* land on "most" of the planets

 

[Mengy]

I still can't play because it won't fucking connect in the client. Fucking Frontier. I paid money for this.

You aren't alone, there is a thread on the official forums about it:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=204176&page=3&p=3168177#post3168177

 

[Hylian7]

You aren't alone, there is a thread on the official forums about it:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=204176&page=3&p=3168177#post3168177

I know, but we are such a small percentage of people and it has been hours and it hasn't been fixed. We paid actual money for this just to sit around and watch everyone else play while we get this bullshit. It's a fucking joke.

 

[epmode]

Anyone playing Elite with a 144hz monitor? I have this issue that I don't think many people would recognize. So if you're sensitive to framerate stuff, please take a look:

I can configure the game so I'm getting a perfect 144 FPS. Fraps reports no drops whatsoever. If I use the FPS view controls to look around the cabin, the game is clearly running at 144 FPS. It's incredibly smooth. The problem is that my ship seems to be updating its position at a lower framerate. Like, if I roll to one direction, the starfield around me is clearly not updating at 144 FPS. Looks more like 60 FPS.

If I roll my ship while simultaneously looking around the cabin, I can tell that the camera is moving at a perfect 144 FPS while the starfield is updating at a lower rate. It's kinda like those games where the physics objects run at a lower framerate than the rest of the game.

I wish this didn't bother me but it totally does.

I'm wondering if anyone else can confirm this behavior because it's nearly impossible to get Frontier looking at it. Prior to noticing this issue, I was dealing with a persistent microstutter problem that simply didn't go away until I got a G-Sync monitor. That was a lot more annoying but Frontier didn't help much there either.

 

[Askherserenity]

This looks great...now I want to buy it. It's still on sale? And is it playable with just a keyboard/mouse?

 

[Felix Lighter]

Anyone playing Elite with a 144hz monitor? I have this issue that I don't think many people would recognize. So if you're sensitive to framerate stuff, please take a look:

I can configure the game so I'm getting a perfect 144 FPS. Fraps reports no drops whatsoever. If I use the FPS view controls to look around the cabin, the game is clearly running at 144 FPS. It's incredibly smooth. The problem is that my ship seems to be updating its position at a lower framerate. Like, if I roll to one direction, the starfield around me is clearly not updating at 144 FPS. Looks more like 60 FPS.

If I roll my ship while simultaneously looking around the cabin, I can tell that the camera is moving at a perfect 144 FPS while the starfield is updating at a lower rate. It's kinda like those games where the physics objects run at a lower framerate than the rest of the game.

I wish this didn't bother me but it totally does.

I'm wondering if anyone else can confirm this behavior because it's nearly impossible to get Frontier looking at it.

Yes, I see this. I only notice it when moving my head independently of the my ships movement, which is frequent in dog fights because I use TrackIR. Typically it doesn't bother me but in that particular case, I do notice it.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Someone found Midgar

EDIT: I also wondering if they're trying to eliminate the Orbital>Glide transition. I've noticed in some videos, your ship does continue moving as it transitions, but it's a little jerky and seems rough/early. Other times, the ship stops completely.

EDIT 2: These are the kinds of views that I am hoping to get more of:

Goes without saying that I hope they improve the texture/LOD streaming, though.

 

[epmode]

Yes, I see this. I only notice it when moving my head independently of the my ships movement, which is frequent in dog fights because I use TrackIR. Typically it doesn't bother me but in that particular case, I do notice it.

Thanks so much for confirming. Felt like I was going crazy when trying to discuss the issue earlier.

 

[Dex815]

Look at these cayons!

I am having a blast with the beta. I just landed on a huge crater traveled with the SRV to the top of the hills and took a nice view at the huge size of it (kms) and my ship on the middle as a very small dot. Love it!

Damn I really want to continue exploring awesome planets! But I must sleep and go to work in 5 hours

 

[Astral/H3X]

Only important question for me: Did they update the Rift SDK so that it'll work on Win10 with the DK2?

 

[Anton Sugar]

This is breath-taking.

 

[Dex815]

Only important question for me: Did they update the Rift SDK so that it'll work on Win10 with the DK2?

I think it is not working yet. Is not a problem that Frontier can solve themselves as is some incompatibility between some feature of the latest versions of the Oculus SDK and the shaders that they use in Dx11, or something like that If I recall correctly.

I think there is some old version of the SDK that still works.

Oculus doesn't seem to be very stressed about solving the issue in a timely manner, even when Frontier is offering to help to solve it as quick as possible...

AFAIK Oculus software and third party relations are a mess, constantly doing changes that break compatibility and not offering solutions to stuff like this