I've just shelled out 100 sovs on the premium beta.
I reckoned £35 for the game, £35 for the expansion pack and £30 to get my hands on it a couple of months early...
Most expensive game I've bought, just hope it's good.
What are peoples guesses on when the premium beta will appear? Should be very soon, yes?
Hmm... at least a month, I'd guess. FD will not commit to a schedule, and rightly so.
News letter time.
The Alpha Phase Two is ready! We are currently testing it locally and early next week Alpha players will be able to download the multiplayer phase of our Alpha build. We will email you directly as it goes live.
In addition to the existing single player combat scenarios there will be four new scenarios in a totally new location. You can expect:
- Capital Ship Defense: Defend a damaged Federal Battlecruiser against numerous foe
- Miners and Law Men: Protect or pirate miners going about their business, you choose how you want to play!
- Free for all: battle it out in an, all against all, melee
Player can also earn credits in each scenario that can be used to purchase ship loadouts.
This is an incredibly exciting and important phase in the development of Elite: Dangerous - player stat tracking, the multiplayer networking code and associated management are all big new systems that are being tested with this build, plus it's the first time we will be able to test how the game mechanics will perform with significant numbers of players all playing at the same time.
One of the great things about having our Alpha backers (and a little later, the beta backers) playing builds is that we can test the game in a realistic environment. The downside, of course, is that things may not go quite as we expect, but that is the point of having an Alpha test phase! We are releasing Alpha 2.0 at the beginning of next week (3rd Feb) so we will have the whole team available to respond asap to any issues that might come up in the test.
The Alpha program is all about getting feedback from players and being able to respond to that feedback, fixing bugs, adding features and responding to suggestions so that we make Elite: Dangerous the best it can possibly be. We will be regularly updating the FAQs, so bookmark the pag and keep revisiting it. But if you are experiencing something that is not addressed in there PLEASE let us know, so we can fix it! The best way to give us any and all feedback related to your experience is on the private Alpha discussion forum.
Many of you have been asking us when we will be releasing the Beta.
It will be released when each phase of the Alpha has been released and we've acted on the feedback we get from it. As David mentioned in Dev Diary #10 after next week's Alpha 2.0 we still have 2 major Alpha releases to roll out before we reach the Premium Beta stage; Outfitting, Travel & Trading.
When we are happy with each phase, we will move to the next one. Don’t worry if you are still planning to join the Alpha, we will announce a Beta release date when we are getting close to the end of the Alpha phase.
Because we are staying flexible to respond to any issues that may arise in Alpha, we are not giving a specific date, but we will instead announce a Beta release date when we are getting close to the end of the Alpha phase. So don’t worry if you are still planning to join the Alpha, there is still great scope for you to have fun with the Alpha now and help us shape the game!.
Is it just me or they saying less and less about the game in these updates.
It’s not too late to join - upgrade offers
More and more people are joining the Alpha each day through our new Elite shop.We have now introduced an upgrade path for anyone who is joining us for the Beta to upgrade to the Alpha. If you go to the shop and put the Alpha product into your basket, a discount will automatically be applied to reflect the level you are already on.
So come and join us - the more people we have playing the better the game will be!
Not for £150 nicker I am not.
Really looking forward to this on Monday, even though it probably means me getting my ass handed to me by some of the other Alpha backers who claim to have mastered the flight-assist off mode.
We shall see, we shall see.
Multiplayer alpha is go!
Hey does anyone know when in 2014 ED will be released ? And does anyone know what the system requirements are?
Thanks in advance for any info.
Shadowma
Oopps sorry belay that last part of request found sys requirements at ed site, but was still curious as to when in 2014 it will come out.
Need something to hold me over till sc comes out lol!
Thanks again.
Shadowma
Oopps sorry belay that last part of request found sys requirements at ed site, but was still curious as to when in 2014 it will come out.
Need something to hold me over till sc comes out lol!
Thanks again.
Shadowma
When its done, even though virtually almost every media says the gamma phase/public release is in March.
Depends on alpha feedback, the multiplayer release broke lots of things so much I haven't played it much. Frontier are pretty driven I would expect the beta at Easter.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
When its done, even though virtually almost every media says the gamma phase/public release is in March.
Except their forum: http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9928
Alpha Phases 1.0 started December 2013 (£200) includes expansion pass
Alpha Phase 2.0 started 4th of Feb 2014 (£200) includes expansion pass
Beta Phase Premium Beta (formally 1st beta) to start after Alpha has finished. (£100) includes expansion pass
Beta Phase Standard Beta (formally 2nd beta) to start after Premium Beta has finished. (£50)
Gamma Phase to start after Standard Beta has finished. (£35)
Commercial release end part of 2014
Its pretty hard to keep up, but I guess thats just part of the process. Alot of the Elite Dangerous fiction will be coming out around Beta so you'll have something to read while you're waiting 🙂
Frontier woken up and sent their letter out on Friday, the big news bit below.
Alpha 3.0 Inbound We recently revealed that the next phase for the Alpha process which would include the two new features of docking and outfitting as well as continued development and tweaking of existing features. Alpha 3.0 is due to land on your systems in mid-March.
We’ll reveal more about the station itself in the upcoming dev diary (coming soon!), but in this newsletter we’ll focus on the design and the preparations for docking.
More about docking lets see some video of it.
The Art of Docking Docking with space stations is a major part of the game and one that we wanted to be a fun activity. Docking starts as you approach the station and requesting docking clearance. Once that is granted you fly into the station itself, and then proceed to land on the pad you have been directed to within the giant, rotating bay.
We know that many people found docking in the previous games to be a real challenge and while we think that there should still be an element of challenge/skill, we also want to ensure that players have the opportunity to get to grips with what is essentially a complex manoeuvre.
The first part to that is providing information to the player so that they can perform a good landing. To that end we have the new docking assist interface, concept for which can be seen below:
As you approach the pad (some stations will assign specific landing pads so you have to make sure you are landing on the right one), the docking interface is displayed in place of the usual scanner. This provides guides to ensure that you position your ship correctly and helps you land safely.
The docking bay rotates with the space station (the stations rotate to provide an artificial gravity effect). Some stations will provide automatic rotational assistance to make docking easier. Of course not all stations come with this luxury and for players in the alpha wanting to see this they can turn off the assistance in their in-cockpit options.
For the truly skilful player there is an art in turning off the rotational correction and flight assist for a full manual landing, it’s a thing of beauty when done correctly!
Interior Atmosphere We’re not showing the exterior of the station in this newsletter, but for docking the interior is all important - once you pass through the docking tunnel you enter a new world; one we want to have full of life of its own. In the illustration below (forum members in the Private Backers Forum have already had a sneak peek at this image) you can see early versions of some of the key components for bringing the station to life.
Some of the features are intended to help you dock, for example the holographic surround and landing pad identifiers, these will also light up when other ships enter to dock.
Space Stations can also be dangerous places to visit, especially if you don’t obey the rules, so as a warning don’t loiter in the docking port. If you’re assigned a pad then it’s a good idea to not use another pad.
And whatever you do, don’t attack the station; it is more than capable of looking after itself.
Nice to see docking back in a game it was the best thing about X2 pity the rest of the game was rubbish, Eggosoft should have brought it back for XR.
And lastly they are having a public viewing
Attention Commanders! We will be having our first public debut at the Bafta Inside Games Showcase event, where you can play the game and meet the team. There’ll be Oculus Rift units set up as well as TrackIR and 3D. You’ll also be able to play the game alongside other fans as well as the Elite: Dangerous team!
- Developer talks to be held throughout the day including David Braben
- Fantastic giveaways on our stand
- Play some of the other most eagerly anticipated titles of the year, alongside Elite:Dangerous
So Commander, come down and say hi; we’d be happy to have you on board!
For more details please check out the official BAFTA website which can be found here –
.
It's always been a bit of mystery why ED have never attracted a greater number of backer to the game although given the fact that Frontier do bugger all publicity for the game might be the main reason.
Can't help but think that the BAFTA is probably not going to get them more unless they trying to get some sort of award but you think with the number of SCIFI and gaming convention which are held in Britain and Europe would be a better bet than the BAFTA.
I'm so hyped about this game it's crazy. What excites me the most is the idea of procedural generation of planets. Braben has stated that it won't be possible to land in the first release, but he also said that they are working on making it possible for future post-release. Is it reasonable to hope that the graphics will good as good or even better than spaceengine (which to me is the reference in the domain right now)? That would be so cool. It could be like in star wars : after a fight in space you set your computer to land on a planet to have some rest and meet someone.
Also, he's shown here some quite convincing pictures of cloud generation for gas giants. Could it be that a station in one of them will look like this:
?
Ship upgrades include modules such as heat sinks and cargo scanners, a variety of weapons, and extend to the repair of any damage sustained in combat. They can also clear bounties and, once they have earned enough credits, even purchase a firm favourite from the Falcon de Lacy shipyards, and one of the most notorious ships in the galaxy -- the Cobra Mk III.
yes.pdf
That looks awesome - I've been waiting years for a docking sequence that compares to the FMV versions in Privateer 2 🙂
auryx
You look good through a crosshair.
It looks too easy. Apparently, people have no trouble doing it backwards already:
It is awesome, I can vouch for that.
Still some instability problems at the moment with buggy instances and some CTDs - but this is shaping up beautifully 😀
My first attempt at docking - a complete fail!
After a few attempts, finally got it nailed
Very cool. Bring on Beta for me!
Yea, I agree, I cant wait to see the full sized galaxy in the game, just a bit further......
Good grief, Stormprooter.......please, please tell me that horrific music track in your second docking video is not in the actual game?!?
auryx
You look good through a crosshair.
Good grief, Stormprooter.......please, please tell me that horrific music track in your second docking video is not in the actual game?!?
auryx
No no, I added that myself in a moment of madness - it seemed like a good idea at the time.
The track is called "It's Caper Time" and it's from the original soundtrack of the 1969 film "The Italian Job" - If you've seen the film, you may understand the tenuous link to the context 😀
It is the earliest film I can think of that involves hacking a computer as part of the plot ... And it's a computer that controls traffic, and in the Alpha the traffic control in the station has been very buggy and seemingly chaotic.
Anyone know if they have said anything about putting it on Steams early access when it hits the normal beta?.
Latest Post: Distant Worlds 2 Our newest member: Michaelcob Recent Posts Unread Posts
