Elite Dangerous: Horizons launches multicrew update
Spacefriends
Elitists can now fly ships with their chums and create their own spaceface, thanks to the big Elite Dangerous: Horizons [official site] update today launched. The headline feature of Horizons version 2.3, nicknamed 'The Commanders', is multicrew spaceshipping, letting several players take stations on the bridge. The auxiliary roles don't sound super exciting in themselves as Elite wasn't built with them in mind but hanging with your friends is surely a lark.
Non-Horizons Elitists aren't left out. The whole game benefits today from an update adding sights like asteroid bases and roaming 'megaships'. Have a look at it all:
So! If your ship has enough spare seats, you can now welcome chums to the bridge. The three roles are Helm, Gunner, and Fighter Control, with that last one taking command of NPC fighters launched from the ship's belly. Few ships are able to do the lot. I believe players can also, if they'd rather, just hang out. Horizons does also have matchmaking to fill out multicrew roles, if you'd like to meet new spacepeople.
Accompanying this is a character creator to build your own spaceman for all the world to see.
To go along with those two features are new "vanity camera" tools letting players snap pictures of themselves and their ships from a choice of angles, fiddling with focus settings and things too.
Ever the tourist, what I like the sound of most is the new things to see. 32 bases in hollowed asteroids are now out there to visit, as are 100 new tourist beacons. And out there, somewhere, are megaship-class vehicles, offer station services as they roam the galaxy. Some of them are meant to be even bigger than stations. A bit of spectacle never goes amiss. Elite certainly does do pretty well.
Hit the patch notes for more details on all this as well as fixes and new features like naming ships and so much more.
If you're not an Elitist yet, hey, a 33% discount to celebrate the launch brings it down to £13.39/16,74€/$20.09 on sale on Steam and Frontier's store. The Horizons expansion pass is on sale too, with the same discount and at the same price.