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Adam Bourke-Waite, Designer, recently joined an official Elite: Dangerous livestream hosted by Will Flanagan, Community Manager, about Beyond Squadron. The Chapter 4 should launch at the end of the year 2018 and should be “the biggest update” we’ve seen until now, bringing multiple features to the game. Feast your eyes on our recap, and check out their replay on YouTube.

  • Squadrons will be a social feature that will enhance the current gameplay components of Elite: Dangerous. We will have access to tools, information, a communication channel, other social features and even a Fleet Carrier. The system is designed for multiplayer, and using it as a solo player will not be really useful.
  • This Fleet Carrier, should be the size of a megaship and will be a platform usable by Squadron players. The latter will be able to bring new improvements to it over time. Squadron players will be able to dock it and benefit from various services. This Fleet Carrier will be able to jump from one system to another when needed, if you have harvested certain resources. They will be visible to all players but only members will be able to dock. Nothing has been said if possible allies could dock on it or if the ship can be destroyed by other players.
  • A communication channel will be available in-game for all Squadron players, even if these players are in different game modes.
  • To create a Squadron, it will be necessary to be at least a player but some features will require several players to unlock them. You will need to choose a Squadron Name, an ID, a main language, at least a gameplay and a tag and an affiliation to a superpower.
    • About names, a system will be set up in advance so that the groups of players can reserve their names. This will avoid name snipping.
    • the ID should be 4 letters maximum and could be added to our names – to discuss.
    • Tags will be chosen from a given list, for example BST time fuse, Colonia, Roleplay…
    • Even an independent group will have to choose a superpower named “Independents”.
  • A limit of 250 members is currently set up, but our feedback will help Frontier better understand our needs. For the moment the opinions are multiples, balanced between “it is not enough” and “it is enough, it will allow for Squadrons specializations”.
  • Three roles are planned for the moment (Leader, Officer, Member) but this number could be increased as the community is currently requesting so. Frontier would like us to customize the roles’ names but currently it is not planned… let’s cross our fingers and gently shout our need for it.
  • The Leader will need to pay a certain amount of credits (tbd) to create a Squadron, but this will not be gated to Elite players. The amount of credits should reasonably allow the new players to create a Squadron as well.
  • A possible link between the Background Simulation and Squadron is not currently planned. Maybe later as they will discuss that matter.
  • Adam mentioned that it will not be possible to create internal missions. It seemed like a key feature to me..
  • The only way for the Leader to leave a Squadron is to give the lead to another player, or to be the last player in the Squadron.
  • Squadron customization should be a thing, but no further details can be shared at the moment.
  • The Squadron page GUI will be accessible from the cockpit and will bring together a lot of information like an overview of the group, its statistics, the roster, the news and the history of the group, among other features.
  • If you do not belong to a Squadron, you can search for one via the same interface, by entering various information to refine your search.
  • The leader may choose to open or close the recruitment to appear or not in the Search function.
  • A Squadron Bank has not been discussed yet, but it is subject to discussion. No idea what we could store there: materials? credits? items?
  • Squadron does not replace the Wings.
  • Will the instances be improved for players from the same Squadron? No. And yes. It could help.
  • Squadrons will not be Crossplatform. If your group has Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC players, you will need to create three groups…!
  • It would be interesting to see the Squadron members on the galaxy map. This is currently being discussed.

 

This first official livestream about Squadron might have seemed a little bit early, a lot of information could not be answered at this time. However and unfortunately, the designers seem to me once again to be a little lost in the development of the game, perhaps shared between the fear of doing it wrong and the desire to please the community. It is therefore good to get as much feedback from the community as possible early in the development to produce content that should appeal the players, since that’s what we asked for.

It’s really THE good time to send your suggestions to Frontier in order to improve the future content coming at the end of the year. To do so, go to the forums and participate in an ongoing topic, or create your own if it brings something new. Thanks for your time, your feedback is really valuable! The discussions on Mining and Exploration/Codex are scheduled respectively on May 28 and June 18.

What do you think about these first Squadron details? Let us know in the comments!