What is Elite: Dangerous?
Elite: Dangerous is a continuation of the original Elite series, the grandfather of space simulators. The original Elite was released way back in 1984, followed by Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters. They heralded a new era of gaming, introducing 1:1 scale, dynamic star systems, and seamless freeform landings on 1:1 scale planets.
The game was released on December 16, 2014. It currently features an enormous accurate recreation of the Milky Way galaxy and about 15 ships to fly in. The exoplanets (and our neighbors) have all been modeled after actual scientific data, while the remainder of the 400 billion stars in the galaxy utilize a procedural generator to forge new worlds for players to discover.
The game is selling for $59.99 or £39.99. Future paid expansions are anticipated and will add enormous new features, but Frontier Developments plans to release free updates regularly. It is a one time fee and grants you a license to the vanilla game and multiplayer service for a lifetime.
What can/will I be able to do?
A great multiplayer space simulator gives you a variety of ways to make some money. In Elite: Dangerous, you can be a trader, an explorer, a bounty hunter, a pirate, a miner, and more. The galaxy has three major factions (and a plethora of minor ones) that change based on player influence and events that happen. For example, one of the larger factions can be trying to assimilate a system into their control, and you can either help the larger faction take over the system or aid the minor faction in keeping control over it.
The game was just released and many features are still planned. In future expansions, players will be able to step out of the pilot's chair and walk around stations or even their own ships (if they're large enough). Some (but certainly not all) future updates are as follows:
- Landing / driving / prospecting on airless rocky planets, moons and asteroids
- Walking around interiors and combative boarding of other ships
- Combat and other interactions with other players and AI in the internal areas of star ports
- Accessing richly detailed planetary surfaces
- Availability of giant 'executive control' (capital) ships to players
Frontier Developments is extremely adamant about adding seamless planetary landings and atmospheric flight to the game since it was such a huge part of the earlier games in the series. An official development roadmap has not been devised yet, so I may have missed a few things.
