Frontier Developments, the UK studio behind games like Elite: Dangerous and Planet Coaster, held the Frontier Expo 2017 in London last Saturday.
At the event, the developers announced the roadmap of updates coming to Elite: Dangerous going forward. This is a summary of the highlights put together on the official subreddit of the game.
- 2018's series of updates will be called "Beyond", with the first release happening in Q1 2018 and will be free for owners of Horizon.
- Planetary Tech rework - new lighting system, material rendering pass, diversification of landscape, and more.
- Planetary Terrain Rework: Addition of Rock Scatter update for larger size and scale of terrain objects, along with localized fog effects too in order to make different planet types feel more distinct from one another.
- Quality of Life improvements - Better Crime and Punishment (including better armed system authority), Better trading data for more informed decision making, Wing Missions, and Engineering to be reworked to guarantee improved equipment for players.
- Guardian Arc to be revisited, providing new content such as Guardian tech; notably new hardpoint equipment. These will need to be unlocked for players on an individual basis (through "personal narratives"), as opposed to how we are unlocking the current AX weapons through Community Goals.
- Galnet Audio: Galnet will be provided with a text-to-speech medium for its articles.
- "A lot more ships to come": So far, Type-10, Krait and Chieftain ships have been confirmed. Latter two are Lakon projects in conjunction with the Alliance.
- Squadrons - A new platform for a clan-like system offering enhanced communications for a range of players. Also offering the ability for Squadrons to purchase ship carriers, which allows players to rearm, repair, refuel and respawn.
- Mining to be revisited - Devs want to invoke a feeling of "Wild West Prospecting", giving players new tools to find and exploit ore reserves.
- Exploration to be revisited - Will be updated to add a suite of new activities to find and engage with. In addition to Exploration missions and a Codex to log discoveries and act as a sort of encyclopedia for space anomalies. With the addition of new effects, phenomenae and anomalies to discover.
- Thargoid Arc extended: Story will naturally be progressed, with the introduction of a new ship or "clan" of Thargoids.
In other Frontier news, the studio also revealed the first look trailer at Jurassic World Evolution, due to launch next year. Check it out below.
