Frontier Developments, creators of intergalactic trading and combat title Elite Dangerous have today announced a series of expansion packs which will bring planetary landings and will offer new crafting an looting systems.
Elite Dangerous was one of the first triple-A studio release to ship with out of the box virtual reality support when it debuted with Oculus Rift DK2 support last year. Since then, the company has tirelessly updated the title, fixing bugs and fine tuning VR support as well as refining core gameplay elements.
Today, the studio is announcing a series of “major gameplay extensions” beginning this holiday season and beyond into 2016.
The ‘Horizons’ expansion series kicks off this holiday season bringing the long awaited ability to move beyond space-bound exploration to planetary exploration. The new feature will allow players to explore the surfaces of planetary discoveries on a 1:1 scale, as they descend and explore using the new Surface Recon Vehicle (aka ‘Scarab’). Players will be able to scan worlds for signs of life (hostile or otherwise), detect precious minerals or enemy fortresses. You can also join with your online friends to embark on surface ‘Raids’ to plunder your discoveries.
Planet level exploration sounds impressively implemented, offering seamless transitions between space and atmospheric scenes:
The 400 billion star systems of the Elite Dangerous galaxy are all created with a sophisticated simulation that re-creates the Milky Way in exacting detail, and that simulation continues to the surfaces of worlds. Players will seamlessly journey from space to surface, coasting over mountaintops, diving into canyons and venturing out on the ground in the SRV, without loading screens or breaks in gameplay.
The second major expansion will arrive in Q1 2016 and deliver a new looting and crafting system to the Elite Dangerous galaxy. Quite how this will be implemented is as yet unclear, however both features are mainstays of MMO’s since time immemorial and should add further depth and variety for players.
Elite Dangerous: Horizons will launch Holiday 2015 for PC and is available for pre-order now.
