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On Tuesday, 6th of December, the developers Sandro Sammarco (Lead Designer) and Mark Allen (Gameplay Programmer) have been invited by Edward Lewis (Senior Community Content Manager) in order to answer the community’s questions regarding Elite: Dangerous’s very close future.

Here are the information I’ve gathered for you during this Q/A session.

• The Update 2.2.03 Beta will be available on Wednesday the 7th of December!
• This Beta will be maintained until Eve’s day for a release around this date. Your feedback is really important, so don’t forget to hammer the game and write your feelings about these changes, on the forums.
• Nothing on the 2.3, 2.4 or Season 3 for now.
  
• Three main axis will be developed in this update:
  • Combat – Re-balancing most of the weapons and addition of a new defensive module;
  • Powerplay – Logistic Consolidation added and re-balancing AI PP ships;
  • Engineers – Changes on the Engineers’ mods, re-balancing, and more modifications;
• The Engineers’ commodities will be temporarily removed from the recipes until a proper system is developed. We will still be able to find them in-game.
• The developers would love to implement a storage for Engineers’ commodities. No details on that matter yet.
• New mods are coming, Mark told us about Sensors and the different Scanners. For example we could increase their range or decrease their scanning times.
• Improvements will be made for the Mining and Exploration roles in 2.3 (!). They know that the Explorers don’t earn enough credits and will address this issue in due times.
• What about a mod that makes the opposite effect of Quick Fire, with slow but very powerful shots? Why not! That’s a good idea.
• Regarding the changes on the mods Focused Fire and Long Range, Mark wants to know in the beta forums if there are modules that have been made difficult or unwanted in these changes.
• The Exquisite Focus Crystals will be added in-game for us to play with the appropriate mods. If the fix goes smoothly, it will finally be fixed in 2.2.03.
• The Punishment/Karma system is still being worked on in order to reward the good pilots and hunt the unlawful pilots.
• Combat Logging is always something they want to eradicate from the game. The feature in place so far is being improved to track down the pilots quitting the game while in combat. First, a warning email is sent: it contains tips in order to improve the game’s stability and the player’s connection. The customer support team will be happy to help you if you have connectivity issues. Lastly, the email will tell you about Combat Logging and the exploit of using it. Please reply to the CS team if you really do have technical issues.
• During this Beta, every mods will be available to the community. The famous 1 Fish for each mods will be there as well. On a same note, it will be easier to grind the Federal and Imperial ranks in order to unlock the Power’s ships.
• Special Modules are being Studied. As you know, the Beluga and the Orca have some special modules allowing them to equip only cargo or cabins in given slots. Frontier would like to develop this feature further, for example special armor modules (Reinforcements / Defense packs) for the Gunship / Dropship / Assault Ship in order to further specialize these ships into their heavy-hulls roles. I had the chance to discuss with Sandro during the gamescom 2016: the idea of special cargo modules for the T9 made him rethink the ship and its actual role and true issues (lack of cargo). That could be part of the 2.3, if the idea is kept.
• The Merit points decay could be re-balanced, allowing more casual players to participate in the Powerplay feature. The total Merits of a pilot is actually halved every Thursday: the latter could be decreased.
• They like the idea of a Pilots’ Market, but not for now.
• The weapons’ colour modifier could be applied to the Missiles’ smoke trails.
• The mods “Super penetration” for the torpedoes could be expanded to the missiles.
• Railgun could have their total ammo tripled to 80-90
• It could be interesting to jump on a given star, in a system, in the case this system has more than one main star. Our FSD jump could allow a jump on the chosen star! If the developers have some spare time to develop this, they are inclined to do so; however this is not a priority.
• Ed will try to provide us with the Python’s kit release date… crossed fingers.
• The Reboot/Repair function will grant us 50% max shields, if we are under 50 m/s after the reboot. If our ship travels faster than 50 m/s, the function will stay the same as it is now, in order to avoid possible exploits in combat.
• The Turrets weapons aren’t linked to the Sensors. Only the Gimballed weapons will be linked to our Sensors rating and the new shot angles. The A rated Sensors will not be mandatory, however they will be a great tool for a fighter who doesn’t want to miss an opportunity to open fire on his target.
• Around 53 minutes during the live, Edward told us that the 2.3 will be discussed in an upcoming Q/A! There is other Q/A before this, with the Quality Assurance team for example.

Thanks for reading our article. I look forward reading your comments.

See you later on @RemlokEN or on Remlok Industries!