Elite Dangerous: Mostly Harmless Questions

Cathy: Are there any secret societies, chivalric orders or the like planned for the Elite universe?

“Yes, secretive, certainly (which includes the Pilot’s Federation), and some only known to their members. There will be all sorts of illegal activities – even trading in illegal goods will require you to know someone who you can deal with, who is prepared to trust you – accessed through the mission structure.”

Slawkenbergius: What will the political map of the galaxy look like?

“Most (ie more than 99%) of the galaxy is unexplored at the start of the game. That is not to say that there is no politics there… Human politics is dominated by the three main powers. The Federation, based in the Solar system, The Empire, based in the Achenar system, and The Alliance, based in the Alioth system. In addition there are numerous independent worlds, and many powerful corporations, which are far more powerful than any single independent world, and a few might even challenge the big powers.”

Andrew Sayers: The Outer Space Treaty declares space to be part of the common heritage of mankind. How did that treaty break down?

Did the Americans decide the flag on the moon was a land claim after all? Did kids run off with it and cause an interplanetary incident?

“The treaty didn’t so much break down; it was simply ignored. As industry moved into space and started manufacturing there, people started living there, people started misbehaving up there, and pretty quickly jurisdictions began to be established. Initially using extensions of the laws of the sea for ships or planes in international waters/air space (where the jurisdiction that applies is the jurisdiction of the registered flag of a ship/plane), but pretty soon people started laying claim to asteroids, and then claims to land on planets and moons, or more particularly to their mineral rights, as ever more sophisticated automated mining techniques emerged.”

bedroc: Hi, If you explore far out, will there still be stations and an ability to trade?

There will be some isolated stations and bases for trading, repair and re-supply. These will be more infrequent the further you travel, although there will be some surprises for you to discover. Special equipment and supplies can be purchased to allow ships to travel further without support, but we also expect players to co-operate so that they can reach even further.

One of the key features for the evolving galaxy is that new stations (or suitable ships) can be deployed to extend humanity’s reach even further into the galaxy.

Duncan147: How will you manage and prioritise the scope of this work to ensure that you maximise the value delivered at the initial release?

There are a number of core features that defines the game as Elite (these are defined by David and the development team), the alpha test process we are currently undertaking takes each of the core features (like combat, trading, docking and travel to name a few) in isolation to ensure that each of these features achieves what we want from them. Features that are not deemed core will either be included in the beta, or in the case of significant new additions (like spaceship boarding and planetary landings) will be tackled in expansions after the game’s initial release.

Lestat: Will there be technology that you can purchase that can slowly repair damage to your ship automatically?

Some self repair systems will be available, although they will be quite specialised so will require investment from the player. The same technology can also be used to reduce wear and tear on your ship's systems. Serious damage will still need to be repaired in a traditional shipyard.

Rollo: Is the Sirius Corporation a significant player in Elite: Dangerous?

Yes, the Sirius Corporation (and it’s plethora of divisions) are the biggest corporation in human existence, as well as owning several systems outright they are also the dominating player in fuel and power technology, their products can be found throughout human space.

Moriarte: Star Citizen is using cry engine, while Elite is using an unique engine of its own. What advantages and disadvantages do you have, when using a homemade engine, while making the space simulator?

As a developer we’ve used our own game engine throughout the company’s history so we have considerable experience in our own technology. For Elite: Dangerous the game presents a number of challenges that we have to solve. The first (and most obvious) is the scale of the game, putting aside the requirements of procedural generation for a moment the spatial size of the game’s locations are an immense (pun intended!) problem. It’s quite common in space games to fudge the scale to make things look good and work, however this results in spatial locations being condensed. In Elite everything is the scale it should be, so the planets are the correct size and distances between objects are also correct. Using the Cobra engine means that we can tailor our solutions to fit the game rather than the other way round.

Luniticisi: Is Elite: Dangerous a sequel to Elite, or a sequel to Frontier, or a mix of both?

Elite: Dangerous is a game in its own right. In terms of the game history it follows on from Frontier and First Encounters, with Elite before that, but it has been such a long gap since the previous games (Frontier was released over 20 years ago) that the breadth of what we can do now is breathtaking. The term ‘Elite 4’ was used for a while internally, but we are not fans of numeric sequels, especially given the elapsed time and the fact that what we have feels all new.

Slawkenbergius: Will planets and stars be to actual scale?

Yes, celestial bodies and the distances between them will be correctly scaled, wherever possible real astronomical data is being used. To give you an idea we're currently at 116,000 stars from various catalogues and includes pulsars and black holes as well as main sequence stars. Exo-planets are the other big import which we're about to start working on!

Scot: Will the old design of the PYTHON be in the game?

The Python will be in the game.

Le-Betz: Will there be ships without hyperspace capability in the game?

Yes, some ships are too small to have hyperdrives (such as the small fighters and some shuttles).

Perrie67: How will E:D make travelling the insane distances for exploring the galaxy without making it too easy to travel around the populated systems?

There are two modes of super luminal (faster than light) travel.

Super cruise (or frame shifting) is used for travel inside systems. It was originally conceived as a sub-luminal drive, but based on the fantastic collaboration we have been having with our Design Decision Forum backers it was re-worked and is now itself a super luminal system to allow relatively rapid travel within systems.

Hyperspace drives are used to travel between star systems. Hyperdrives with different ranges, charge up times and fuel consumption parameters are available, and so your particular model of hyperdrive governs your specific ability to move around the galaxy.

Both will make their debut in Alpha 4 (not counting the early version of hyperspace in Alpha 3).

bedroc: Hi, If you explore far out, will there still be stations and an ability to trade?

Most of humanity inhabits a few hundred light year bubble around Sol, Achenar and Alioth. Beyond this are a lower density of isolated systems with small communities on them that can be used by explorers to resupply, with small/basic orbital stations. These are the “Frontier” systems. Beyond this, you will still encounter occasional ships (including other players), but no stations; not to start with at least. There will be ship-ship docking though too, so it will still be possible to resupply. The ships suited for long range exploration will require a greater degree of self-sustainability, for example fuel scoops and repair and maintenance equipment, and we expect players to cooperate to meet the challenge!

Wreckage: Is the Kepler data for planets being figured into the galaxy map?

We’re striving to make the Elite: Dangerous Milky Way as accurate as possible. As part of this we are using a variety of sources for the celestial bodies data, and that includes confirmed exoplanets from the Kepler data and many other sources.

JohnStabler: Are we going to see the return of the Imperial Trader and Courier?

The Imperial Courier is planned for initial release, the Imperial Trader isn’t, although may make a later expansion.

bsivko: I would like to ask a question about support of reality in E: D Universe. As you mentioned, you will include into release all of possible data of real Universe. But what will be after release? For example, if humanity discover thousand planets more, or find new objects like wandering planets between stars. Do you plan to change the E: D Universe according to that kind of events or not?

Yes, we will be changing the galaxy to keep up to date with the latest discoveries and observations - its one of the benefits of the connected world we now live in that we can update the game as needed! But hopefully, we won't need to update things *too* often; we think the physics we have used to predict new exo-planets is pretty good - it'll be fascinating to see how close we are!

Slawkenbergius: Will Elite: Dangerous use a physically-based shading/rendering system?

Short answer: yes it does.

Elite: Dangerous adopted a physically-based rendering (PBR) model right from the start - we want it to look as good as possible under a variety of lighting conditions (and space certainly gives you that!). We expect the visual quality of Elite: Dangerous will continue to improve as we progress through development.

It's worth mentioning though that PBR isn't a one-size-fits-all solution as much as it's the start of a discussion that could probably occupy someone for their entire career - kind of like the way "High Dynamic Range" was quickly adopted by everyone years ago but people are still arguing over the fine details!

SzaryWilk: How many commodities will be in Elite Dangerous?

We’re still refining the design, at the moment we’re testing with around 100 different core commodities, with other specialised ones based off them. Such spaecialist or ‘rares’ are a separate type of tradable item (‘Lavian Brandy’ for example). We’ve seen the recent plea for tea and it looks like we might be adding that to the list.

Brodie: Apart from freight and possibly ammo will ship components such as rare weapons or engines drop or be salvageable from destroyed NPC ships?

Currently the design is that you can salvage raw materials and data from derelict ships. An idea we’re considering is that enhancement technology from specific weapons and modules can provide temporary augmentations for your equipment.

Jant: How much freedom will there be to customise our ships from a purely aesthetic standpoint (like different cockpits, paint jobs, etc)?

The intention is to support as wide a range of customisation as possible, we’re still working out some of the details but support for skins and decals is certain, ways to customise your cockpit are also something we’re interested in. This can be expanded further when we expand the game to allow walking around ships and stations, not only with the ship but the player’s avatar as well. In other words – yes, leather upholstery is on the cards!

FS3DPete: Will explorers be able to receive recognition and a finder’s fee for discovering new bodies, such as planets?

Exploration is a form of data trading, discovering new systems and celestial bodies generates data that can then be traded for credits. Significant finds could also be reported in the newsfeeds and will also help guide the expansion of human space.

Patrick_68000: When we fly over planets, what minimum altitude will be allowed?

We will allow fuel skimming on gas giants and make sure that starports can be placed in suitable orbits. Throughout beta there will be an ongoing process to optimise and improve our already cool looking planets at ever closer distances.

Le-Betz: Will there be Generation Ships?

It would be fun to have them, certainly!

Kerrash: What is the smallest detail of the procedural content that is being considered and will we be able to customize it or will it be engine controlled?

Dust particles are probably as small as it goes – or perhaps details on procedural textures. Alpha backers will already have flown over ring systems at super-luminal speeds and then looked down and seen the billions of individual rocks hurtling by below, perhaps heading down in to them.

Listeri69: What benefits can we expect to see from becoming an explorer?

The excitement of discovering something unusual – and perhaps even staking a claim (though this has to be registered). Finding a metal-rich system that is untouched for example would be a great find – and lucrative too.

Philip Coutts: Why did you pick the Sidewinder for the basic starting ship?

It is to give us more headroom in the ship progression. The Sidewinder is much smaller than say, the Cobra. For much the same reason the Eagle was the default starting ship in Frontier: Elite 2.

insanephoton: Seeing as there should be some amazing visuals, will there be any in game screen grab /screen shot manager?

The game already supports screen capture, just press the F10 and it’s saved to your local hard drive. It’s unlikely that we’ll provide a game-specific screenshot manager, there are already plenty of image library apps available for this purpose.

Cathy: Will there be hidden societies such as secret orders to encounter in Elite: Dangerous?

Yes, there’ll be a range of characters representing a number of organisations ranging from the major power blocs, to crime syndicates and organisations with hidden agendas. Part of the appeal of the Elite: Dangerous galaxy is the breadth of human interaction that you can become involved in. The primary vehicle for this interaction will be the missions, and of course it’s something we will build on as we further expand the game, notably when you’re able to get out of the cockpit.

tluamiani: Will guilds/clans be supported and how?

Everyone is enrolled as a member of the Pilot’s Federation, and within that there will be ‘groups’ functionality that allows people to form organic associations. There are also the three major power blocs of Federation, Empire and Alliance of Independents that you can cosy up to (or act against) as you wish. Specifically created clans are something we will investigate after the first release of the game.

Davidtq: Will we be able to customise the appearance of ship interiors and exteriors?

Yes! We plan to offer extensive customization options - please ‘watch this space’ for details as we release them; you’ll hear it here first.

Arn: Will it be possible to upgrade modules such as the engine, shield and power plant?

Absolutely – in Premium Beta ships and weapons are upgradable; as we progress you will get increasing choice of which system components to use, each having different strengths and weaknesses and suitability for a particular role. You will be able to switch systems such that you can ‘downgrade’ your ship if you want to, too – whether to free up some cash, or outfit your ship for a particular job.

Serge: Can you talk about the expectations of the Mac version?

We have said that the Mac version will follow around 3 months after the PC version. Currently we have been focusing on building the fundamentals of Elite: Dangerous on PC. Now we have got to Premium Beta we have enough of the game present that it makes sense for us to start focusing on Mac specific porting and optimization tasks using our cross-platform Cobra game engine software. We have been laying the groundwork for the Mac version in the background for a while now, and have just started to ramp up the activity. We’ll keep you posted as we have progress to share!

Sloma: "Are you focused atm on Federal / Independent side? Why are we not seeing any Imperial ship designs or any content related to Imperial faction?"

The area of space we chose happens to be a long way from Imperial space, hence the focus of PB1 etc. We have Imperial content too (as in the 'Damocles' video and the Imperial cruiser and Imperial fighters), but that will come as we open up space.

Colonel Kenney: "One interesting question I have. Much of the galaxy will take us a very long time to get to. Are there any plans of implementing any sort of "shortcuts" to different parts of the galaxy such as wormholes? Like something extremely rare but there are some hidden around for us to discover etc? Like how can we explore the center of the galaxy if it would take a year of gameplay to get there etc?"

No, we're not planning to implement shortcuts. For me, one of the attractions is it IS a big achievement to travel a long distance. I like the idea of the occasional meeting of a player far far out in the galaxy as a chance encounter. We do plan to seed things of interest out there too.

Brodie: Has any (more) thought been put into Crafting within Elite Dangerous?

I'd love to mine the required resources and then deposit it them into a rented factory along with a blueprint and make my own missiles etc"

There is already a sort of crafting loop in Premium Beta 1 – for example coltan is mined, then taken to be refined into tantalum, then turned into high-tech goods. Down the line mining machines (as featured in Frontier) and similar elements will be introduced, but that will most likely be after the first release.

"Can I be found in the Premium Beta, and what is my commander name?"

My commander name is Commander Braben, and yes – I am there from time to time.

Dinbar: Will you be building any specific "role play" emotes, tools etc.

We aren"t looking at using emotes as they don"t really fit the communications system (which is one of the features we"re currently working on). Beyond the Text and Voice communications we are looking at there will be pre-defined messages that have additional game play effects, such as the ability to "declare piracy" – an act that can affect your reputation and trigger specific AI responses.

Steve Taylor: Will it be possible to find our NPCs in the finished game?

Players will be able to find starports and systems that they have named by exploring the galaxy! Named NPCs will be encountered randomly during game play.

Duvand: I really like to explore in games, will there be rewards in the game for doing this and what form will they take?

We are looking at having a variety of rewards for exploration including straightforward credit payments, access to rare or restricted ship modules, and increases in reputation which open up new mission and event possibilities, as well as increase the likelihood of favourable outcomes when dealing with NPCs and factions.

Caribou: Will there be long range scanners, or some kind of small robot scanner that can hyperspace to a distant system and return some basic info on it?

One of the aspects of exploration we are working towards does indeed have hyperspace-capable "probes" that gather and transmit useful information back to the ship.

Veep: Which ships will get multiple independent shield sections?

Ships roughly the size of the Cobra or larger will have multiple shield zones, and the ability to "push" shield power between them.

Kipper: Little has been said about the mission system as yet, what can you reveal?

Missions fall into several types, but what I suspect you mean is the sort you actively engage in through a contract. These are coming in the Beta, and can earn you both credits and status within the organisation you are working for, whether it is a disreputable criminal group or the Federation or Empire themselves. Initially these will be arranged either through direct messages or on a common message board. More details to follow.

Slawkenberguis: During the Kickstarter we were shown images of ships that were heavily damaged, but still flyable. Is that kind of damage model still something that's still being worked on? If so, have there been any further developments you can share with us?

Yes, it is still being worked on. Major damage, like we showed on the Anaconda in the Kickstarter is coming in Beta. Smaller ships will not survive anything other than minor damage, but the larger ships should still be able to fly (albeit with a "limp") as long as the damage is not to a critical system.

SzaryWilk: Is there a possibility of hiring warehouse space on space stations?

We are taking care of elements that could unbalance the game. We do plan to allow you to store ships (rather than sell or trade them in), but we want to avoid people "playing the markets" with vast amounts of cargo – and the danger is it could become the fastest way of making money, so not at first, at least.

Arn: Will the game include detailed technical breakdowns for ships, weapons, modules and other equipment?

Yes. We will be providing more information than is there now, and also more variants on each type. Most elements of your ship will also have the ability to be "tuned up" to get extra performance/efficiency/weight reduction as appropriate.

Shadowcat: Will it be possible for a player to head towards a sun to temporarily blind an attacker following behind them?

That is not planned (but it is an interesting idea). We have tried to avoid things like this that could work for AIs but might be frustrating for players. We intentionally darken stars so that you can see them, and if looking towards or flying towards the sun blinded a player, that would spoil the game.

insanephoton: Will NPC ships be generated on the fly each time you enter a new system or will they be persistent objects that you could follow on their trade routes etc?

There are a mix. Some will be persistent, some triggered by circumstances. Following an AI is something that should be possible, once we have tracking through supercruise and hyperspace.

Gimi: We already know that there will be area of the galaxy cut off for later use and no planetary landings at launch. Will these sort of limitations be incorporated into current Elite lore and fiction, and given plausible in game explanations?

Yes, to an extent. For the areas cut off, you will be prevented from going there – the drive will simply not lock on. We may add a message if we feel we need it like "Unable to lock on" or similar. For planetary landings, there may be a piece of equipment you will need to purchase, that will only become available later.

Nomadski: Will there be missions that ask questions of a pilot's flying skills that dont necessarily revolve around combat?

There will be missions that require quick transits. I like the idea of ones that amount to races between players not unlike the old Tea Clipper races from China back to Imperial Britain in the 19th century. In Elite Dangerous, it might be the first to get the latest harvest of Lavian Tree Grubs back to Earth (this way all players would start at the same time) – but I think there will be tricky issues with this sort of thing – people playing in different countries meaning the start time is at an awkward time of day.

SzarWilk: Will different types of ammunition be available for different weapons?

Yes. Many weapons like lasers don"t use ammunition, but we have already planned a wide range of missile types. It should also be possible to get ammo for other projectile weapons that is a little better, for significant extra cost.

Ben Ryder: Will we be able to buy books like the Art work of Elite and sketch books?

Yes, that would be a great thing to do, though such a book is not yet planned.

Rog: Will auto-generated missions involve interaction with, or even the destruction of actual *human* players?

Generally no, but there are some special cases. For example if a player defaults on a deal with a particularly dangerous NPC, he or she may put a contract on that player"s head. There is no reason that contract might not be taken by a player…

Mysturji: What mechanisms/procedures will there be for avoiding & reversing offender/fugitive status?

Avoiding such status comes from being careful – basically don"t be seen to break the law in the areas controlled by the regime(s) you wish to stay clean with. Reversing them is harder. They do decay with time, but the unscrupulous will find ways to "buy off" their ratings, for the right price!

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