Calling all space truckers. Now there’s a bigger ship in the galaxy. Space flight sim Elite: Dangerous is adding fleet carriers, ships big enough to carry other ships and provide other services.
These services include:
- Trade hubs
- Mobile starships
- Repair docks
- Refueling stations
- Shipyards
A fleet carrier has 16 landing pads, with different sizes for other ships to dock in and can jump up to 500 light years.
It’s also the most expensive ship you can buy once it’s out. It costs 5,000,000,000 credits (you buy them individually), and extra services require an upgrade and more investment on top of that. Fleet carriers also need maintenance. From usual wear and tear repairs and crew salary to buying Tritium, a new fuel resource for fleet carriers.
The good news is, if you can afford it, it can be a trading hub. And you can set tariffs on goods being bought and sold on the fleet carrier. This will be the first time Elite: Dangerous allows player-to-player commerce- so expect shenanigans with the economy following this inclusion.
Fleet carriers will be on two betas. The first beta test is only for PC on April 7th. Whilst the second beta includes consoles (PS4, Xbox One) as well which will be held in May. Fleet carriers will officially be added this June.
And if you want to take a look at the fleet carriers in action, developer Frontier will be livestreaming on April 2nd, 6PM GMT (April 3rd, 2AM Malaysian Time, +8 GMT).