Don’t get roid rage.
The latest Elite: Dangerous beta newsletter may not be quite stuffed with news, but does include a few interesting details about the direction of development. According to newsletter #35 there are “many more changes to come” (you could probably guess that one,) and word that with the game now in beta “we are able to accelerate the pace of development.”
Areas of focus right now are said to be the Elite: Dangerous online mission system and the general accessibility of the game for those who, inevitably, will be coming to it without the alpha/beta background of some of the original backers. Having played a bit of the beta myself, I will say that I’d probably have been a bit overwhelmed if I’d not played the original Elite and its sequel.
“Polish” and “optimisations” are never far from Frontier’s to-do list either, and the newsletter includes a couple of screenshots (above and below) showing improved depth perception.
“You see Dougal, these asteroids are closer while those ones … are far away.”
The development team have also released a few statistics about the beta to date. Apparently, pilots have travelled a combined 4.2 million virtual light years in Elite: Dangerous Beta 1 so far. And in an indication of the dangers of flying around the universe unprepared, it’s stated that 75% of the 65,000 heat seeking missiles fired have found their targets. Better save up for some better shields.
