Elite: Dangerous Alpha 4 has recently launched and it’s offering a lot more freedom for players to trade their way through the star systems, pirate, hunt for bounties, and become immersed in exploration and combat with a choice of ships and weaponry.
Elite’s Alpha stage 4 has five star systems, centred around the Boötes constellation, with two additional methods of travel make their full debut in Alpha 4; super-cruise for accelerated within-system travel and hyperspace jumps for travel between systems. There are also new ships available to pilots, including the Anaconda. I’m really impressed at the amount of game that’s already available in Alpha!
The five Alpha 4 star systems are themselves set within 400,000,000 star systems of the Milky Way galaxy, all of which are moving correctly; spinning and orbiting in an incredible ballet. Whilst exploration is currently limited to the five Alpha 4 systems, the ‘night sky’ is accurate wherever you travel. Just this fact alone will have me sat in my spaceship, with my music on low watching the Galaxy go by, incredible.
Trading between systems has been introduced for the first time, using a sophisticated market that dynamically evolves according to local supply and demand. The trading is one of the biggest things I’m interested in and I’m looking forwards to see how this whole stage pans out.
