Feedback will see re-balancing as time goes on. A lifetime expansion is part of the Premium Beta, and upgrades are still available from the standard pre-order for Elite.
The Premium Beta begins today and was preceded by four major Alpha releases adding new systems and expanding the Elite: Dangerous universe with new locations.
”More than 10,000 additional people, a number which is growing daily, are today able to earn credits to upgrade their ships and weapons by blazing their own trading, piracy and bounty hunting trail though five star systems covering a 200 cubic light year volume of space. There are a range of different economies and governments, ranging from Anarchy to Federal Democracies to Corporate-run systems,” says developer Frontier.
”All this action takes place around ten stars in five star systems that make up part of the Boötes constellation (when viewed from Earth) and set within the 400 billion star systems of the Elite: Dangerous Milky Way galaxy.”
The Standard Beta is available for £50 from the official website, with the Premium Beta double that at £100.
“The start of the Premium Beta phase is another exciting moment in our development – from today we have over 10,000 additional people playing the game. This is a significant and sensible step-change with which to test the next level of scaling of our cloud-based systems and servers as we move towards the very large numbers of people we will eventually have playing,” said Frontier CEO David Braben.
”I once again would like to thank all those who played such an important role in the Alpha phase, which is now at an end. We’re looking forward to continuing to collaborate with the expanded community during the beta phase as we deliver greater scale, richer content and ever higher quality.”
Some community made videos glimpse the “scale and depth” of Elite: Dangerous as they showcase, heat mechanics, super-cruise with flight assist off and voice control.