Frontier Developments have released alpha 3.0 of Elite: Dangerous to those who backed at an alpha level, and this alpha build is actually starting to shape the game up a bit.
Alpha 3.0 is called “Docking & Ship Outfitting”, and you can likely guess what that entails. This alpha adds a bit of space station functionality, in that you can dock and then purchase ship modules, weapons, or repairs. There’s even an early version of hyperspace jumps in there.
Anyone who played Elite back in the day will likely shudder in horror at the recollection of trying to dock with a station, getting the rotation slightly wrong, and smashing into the bloody thing. Docking looks much the same here, but… well, it doesn’t look anywhere near as fiddly or difficult. It looks rather neat, in fact. You can see for yourself in the video below.
If you want to try the alpha out for yourself, alpha access can be purchased on the Elite: Dangerous store, but it’ll cost you £200. At that price, you might want to just wait.
