'Elite: Dangerous' Lets You Land On Planets With Upcoming 'Horizons' Expansion

By Rexly Peñaflorida
published

Since its launch in December, Elite: Dangerous has undergone a few changes in its gameplay. The introduction of Powerplay added allegiances to in-game leaders within the three major factions. CQC, or Close Quarters Combat, is another new feature coming soon, allowing players to participate in quick multiplayer matches, similar to first-person shooters, with various ships.

At Gamescom, its developer, the UK-based Frontier Developments, announced more changes to the game in the form of a new expansion coming in the holiday season of 2015 called Horizons.

The new expansion will provide a whole series of content, starting with planetary landings. For those who haven't played the game, Elite: Dangerous takes place in our own Milky Way galaxy, allowing players to visit each of the 400 billion (that's not a typo) systems.

At the moment, pilots can only fly to various systems and dock in space stations that orbit planets. With planetary landings, you will be able to land on a planet and use the new Scarab, a Surface Recon Vehicle to explore strange signals, find resources and investigate crash sites. With 400 billion star systems to explore, landing on each planet and exploring every inch of the surface is bound to put a significant dent in your space exploration time.

In the first quarter of 2016, Horizons will introduce a loot and crafting system to the game, and then continuous updates to the expansion throughout 2016. The details are slim at this point, but the developers should be revealing more information near the end of the year.

If you haven't bought the base game, Elite: Dangerous will cost $44.99. On the other hand, Horizons will cost $59.99, or $74.99 if you want to participate in the beta version of the expansion. Those who already bought the game will receive a $15 discount towards Horizons and will be able to unlock the Cobra Mk IV ship for purchase in the game. Frontier is also offering a Lifetime Expansion Pass, guaranteeing players access to future content, all for the high price of $195.

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Rexly Peñaflorida
Topics
Gaming
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • plasmastorm
    Bought the game at launch ad uninstalled it a week later. As a free lancer fan and a long term player of eve online (over 10 years) I found it stark, empty and pretty boring :(
    Reply
  • hitman400
    Bought the game at launch ad uninstalled it a week later. As a free lancer fan and a long term player of eve online (over 10 years) I found it stark, empty and pretty boring :(
    So like actual space? lol
    Reply
  • brandonjclark
    Elite just keeps getting better. Unlike that hype train which will not be named.
    Reply
  • DelightfulDucklings
    That price is just insane, I wish I could justify it because it looks good but maybe I'll wait until they have a sale. Also that season pass price is laughable, people rip EA and Ubisoft to shreds over their passes so I can't see who thought $195 was a reasonable price for DLC.
    /rant
    Reply
  • digitalw
    Samsung knows how to make money. And S4 mini+ is a proof. They takes iPhone strategy but on the middle of the market, sell low hardware phone for the price of the middle shelf :)
    I agree with Ohim, Windows Phone is reasonable choice.
    Reply
  • Pedasc
    Bought the game at launch ad uninstalled it a week later. As a free lancer fan and a long term player of eve online (over 10 years) I found it stark, empty and pretty boring :(

    I backed the kickstarter and I've found the same thing. It does look like they are trying hard to make up it but I still get the feeling it will still seem mostly lifeless in the end. I still think it is a good game, just not for me right now.
    Reply
  • mapesdhs
    I love the game, play it lots. Even better with private groups and TeamSpeak. People who decry it IMO just haven't bothered exploring what it has to offer. Seems to me like most of those who don't like ED are the ones who just want deathmatch in space, in which case feel free to look elsewhere.

    Reply
  • Pedasc
    I love the game, play it lots. Even better with private groups and TeamSpeak. People who decry it IMO just haven't bothered exploring what it has to offer. Seems to me like most of those who don't like ED are the ones who just want deathmatch in space, in which case feel free to look elsewhere.

    I'd be one of the others. I was one of the people who were hoping for a bit more of the single player component that was removed. I didn't become as vocal as some as I understand the decision but it made the game less attractive for me. If I had a decent group of friends who wanted to play this I can see it being better but I tend to play sporadically and odd times. I found the interaction with the universe to be a bit sterile when not dealing with real people and real people aren't always fun to deal with either. They obviously have been working on it, I may give it another shot.
    Reply
  • mapesdhs
    Pedasc writes:
    > I'd be one of the others. I was one of the people who were hoping for a bit more of the single
    > player component that was removed. ...

    Me too initially.


    > ... I didn't become as vocal as some as I understand the decision but it made the game less attractive for me. ...

    Thankfully, the private groups more than make up for this. There are large ones like Mobius, but many others. IMO the only useful extra that's missing is the option for a group to include an auto-friend linkage when a new member joins.


    > ... If I had a decent group of friends who wanted to play this I can see it being better
    > but I tend to play sporadically and odd times. ...

    Wrt when I can play, very much ditto.


    > ... I found the interaction with the universe to be a bit sterile when not dealing with real people
    > and real people aren't always fun to deal with either. They obviously have been working on it,
    > I may give it another shot.

    All I can say is you're welcome to join the private group I'm in (ChaosWulff, search for it on YT, FB, and there's a dedicated forum site, link is on the FB page), the only core rule is pvp killing is not allowed. I've gotten to know a great many very cool people worldwide, definitely recommend using TeamSpeak for excellent entertaining banter with other players (I use a Corsair H2100), whether it's just in general (since they're all over the place on the map), or in sub-groups for wing chat, etc. I can't include the URLs here (not allowed), but easily findable via Google and of course on FB/YT search. In the game, just group-search for chaoswulff from the Friends/Groups menu and send a join request, he accepts all requests by default, checks every few days.

    If you do want pvp action though, then there are other many groups. Mind you, it's not exclusive, many members sometimes play in Open aswell, as does ChaosWulff himself for some of his yt vids.

    Before joining, I only used Solo. Since joining, I've not used Solo at all. Having fun doing dodgy cargo missions (made 3M last night), sometimes wing up at a RES, saving for an Asp atm after which I'm off out to the deep dark...


    At its heart, Elite was never about combat. It was about exploration, with combat rolled into it via trading, piracy, etc. I think those who just wanted pew pew in space are unsurprisingly left feeling disappointed (even though I doubt they've properly explored what's possible in the game), though perhaps the CQC expected soon will provide what they want.

    Ian.

    Reply
  • BrutalAttis
    I am waiting for the Rift VR to release and will get back into it, I stated out during release ... have not tried it will all the changes. I enjoyed whilst I did play, but it was a bit barren and the whole unidentified single BS was not my thing after a while. I love how the ships fly, especially the smaller ones like the sidewinder upgraded. I stopped after getting getting decked out ASP for combat and Imperial Cruiser for trading. Was fun, but there were other more fun games to play. I have very few complaints about it. I got some lag after jumping into systems, or in hyper-cruise towards planets but those nearly only complaint. I am dying to play with Rift VR ... but can wait until then to get back to it. I have been following all their work and changes, the guys really seem to be working hard at it. Unlike that other crowd funded money pit, I quite liked the methodical approach these guys took. It that other unmentionable money pit ever release and gets decent reviews I may check it out too ... as I freelancer was ok. But will wait and see ... my loved had always been for Elite all the way back in the 80s.
    Reply