Outposts & gas giant animation

Newsletter #37 mentions two new features, planned for Beta 2; outposts and gas giant animations.

Outposts will be small, with only a few landing pads, and most likely will lack police and other security features. Reading between the lines, these venues will offer opportunities for refueling, specialized trade, black-markets, and/or other very specific services. You might have to wait to get a pad, and you might well find yourself a target for other players and/or NPC’s at or near such venues. I like this feature!

Gas giant atmosphere animations, whilst an amazing enhancement of the accuracy of the galaxy model, will mainly mean that you won’t see exactly the same atmosphere each time you visit the space around a particular gas giant. This helps maintain immersion by avoiding the feeling that you always looking at the same planetary texture, (since in ED, all planet atmospheres will be dynamic, including clouds, when present). Like the star atmospheric animations, however, time-lapse videos will be the best way to truly appreciate the dynamic beauty of such effects.

Video: Elite: Dangerous – WIP animated atmospheric features

I am also very pleased by the answer to a question regarding exploration:

“…we plan to seed all sorts of things across the galaxy.  Their origins will not always be clear…”

I note that Newsletter #37 also features the latest Isonina video, which I featured here, 12 hours earlier. Elitejinja got the scoop! Well, really the ED Forums got the scoop, but let’s not quibble! 😉