Elite: Dangerous Blog

News and events from the Elite Dangerous galaxy

Bringing back extinct ships

Being a fan (and Patron) of Chris Jarvis' amazing radio drama "Escape Velocity", I thought I would have a go at drawing a blueprint of some ships from Elite's earlier incarnations that have not made it into the latest game. Ships like the Krait, Moray Starboat, Osprey and from Frontier 2 and featured in the series, the Merlin fighter.

The thing is, the Merlin was very simplistic and there hasn't been much in the way of updated screen shots of late.

 The first thing I need to do is draw some basic elevations. A rough and ready update on the design.

From there, get started on a 3D model. Here we go.

Put the wings on more to match original ship configuration and added thrusters and heat vents. Drives and hardpoints next.

 

UPDATE

I have now completed both the model and the blueprint.

Where would the Merlin fit into Elite: Dangerous? Well, it would be a comparable ship to the Imperial Courier. Probably an Alliance ship. Not massive cargo space, but a good turn of speed and low radar image. A good light trader/fighter with excellent range and agility. The perfect smuggling ship.

What the PlayStation 4 Trailer let slip

Yesterday's was very cinematic, but hidden away in the folds of the advertising are gems of information on the next major Elite release.

E.V.A.

Now the first scene here, show a CMDR standing behind the pilot's chair. The ship looks to be a Cobra. While the scene looks more CG than game rendered, it depicts a pilot moving around the ship. Is this poetic licence, or a hint of what's to come in season 3? Walking around our ships and stations maybe?  Personally it might just be fluff for the trailer - a bit of scene setting. BUT... it could be an element of multi-crew. Instead of a fade-to-black screen when moving between each other's ships and chairs, we might see our avatar walk to the cockpit and sit down.

Asteroid bases

Since the Kickstarter in 2012, we've been tantalised with concept art of asteroid space stations. Either pirate bases or mining bases, built into larger asteroids. These have been high on players request list and the image at 18 seconds clearly shows "Boweens Hollow" an asteroid base. Awesome sauce!

More furniture in the room

At 49 seconds, the trailer shows a new space structure, similar to the civilian outposts we've seen added since 2.1. Not earth shattering, but nice to see more life in the galaxy.

It's not a station, but damn it's big!

With a drive section as large as Jacques stations, the ship depicted at 50 seconds is too "primitive" to be a Capital ship and it sure doesn't look Thargoid. So what is it?

Well, for those unfamiliar with Elite lore, there were, hundreds of years ago in game-time, generational ships that launched into deep space from Sol without the benefit of FSD drives. These ships would take centuries to arrive at their destination, with the great grandchildren of the original crew at the helm. In the time between, human technology progressed and ships could fly such vast distances in minutes, so present-day ships have caught up with those early pioneers.

The ship shown here is almost certainly one of the fabled generational ships. Who's going to be the one to tell their crew they could take a modern ship and be back on Earth by tea-time?

Crew-mates

Toward the end of the trailer we see a Cobra Mk III with a co-pilot. The real question here, is whether the person in the next seat is NPC crew or Human crew. We know 2.3 is multi-crew and we are going to have a commander avatar creator. Since the Cobra doesn't have a ship-launched-fighter, the other seat isn't occupied by the NPC drone pilot, so I'm fairly certain they are depicting human multi-crew.

Something fishy sneaked past at the end

Finally, in the last few seconds of the trailer, a little ship sneaks past (bottom left). It's not the Orca, even though it looks a lot like it. It's the Dolphin passenger craft. I would say that pretty much confirms the ship for version 2.3.

 

Empty blog means full game

Why no updates?

For the last few weeks I've been working on the ship blueprints to the exclusion of all else (pretty much). Corrections to the French editions today and finishing the German versions now I have more translations is keeping me busy and I may also have corrections to do to the Spanish editions as well, so the task is ongoing.

I bought CorelDRAW X8 with some birthday money, so the documents are being merged into single files with language layers.

What else?

In game, I made the trip out to the Formidine Rift and carried out some exploration towards the Community Goal. When I got back to the bubble last week, I took my Corvette out bounty hunting and let of some steam with my ship launched fighter using matching ship skins and weapon colours!

This week I have been running missions for the various factions at Jameson Memorial in Shinrarta Dezhra to raise my reputation to "allied" across the board, the reason being you only get the juicy passenger missions from factions your allied with. Since my ships are mostly parked at Jameson, it made sense to get all popular at my home base, so I can set out with my Beluga (it has blue paint, so does that make it a Blue-luga?) and get a few high-paying trips under my belt.

In other news...

Ah yes, also Frontier have just announced Elite: Dangerous for the PlayStation 4. So welcome to the Galaxy PlayStation gamers, we look forward to seeing you out there!

CMDR Cosmo on the Frontier Forums pointed out the following items of interest in the trailer:

- 0:08 the player character stands in the ship at 0:08. Spacelegs confirmed?
- 0:15 Asteroid base
- 0:46 New Capital Ship, maybe a Generation Ship
- 1:27 multi-crew with faces and rank customization on the spacesuit.

Full set of Elite:Dangerous ship blueprints

I started this in October and maybe I bit of more than I could chew, but the work has been worth the effort. I have spent countless lunch-hours and many an evening working on these, updating them and getting them translated. I hope you enjoy them.

Thanks to CMDR Aidan Abacus & the CMDRs of www.elitedangerous.de for German translations.

Thanks to CMDR Nicou, CMDR Aymerix & CMDR Duita Rider of www.elite-dangerous.fr for French translations.

Thanks to CMDR Nyra, with the help of CMDR Kimanuel and CMDR XPi2, from Corsarios de Heimdal for Spanish translations.

Craft Manufacturer 1920x1080 4096x2305
Scarab SRV Vodel
F63 Condor Federal Fighter Core Dynamics
GU-97 Imperial fighter Gutamaya
Taipan Independent Fighter Lakon Spaceways
Sidewinder Faulcon DeLacy
Eagle Mk II Core Dynamics
Hauler Zorgon Peterson
Adder Zorgon Peterson
Imperial Eagle Gutamaya
Viper MK III Faulcon DeLacy
Cobra Mk III Faulcon DeLacy
Viper Mk IV Faulcon DeLacy
Diamondback Scout Lakon Spaceways
Cobra Mk IV Faulcon DeLacy
Type 6 Transporter Lakon Spaceways
Diamondback Explorer Lakon Spaceways
Imperial Courier Gutamaya
Keelback Lakon Spaceways
Asp Scout Lakon Spaceways
Vulture Core Dynamics
Asp Explorer Lakon Spaceways
Federal Dropship Core Dynamics
Type 7 Transporter Lakon Spaceways
Federal Assault Ship Core Dynamics
Imperial Clipper Gutamaya
Federal Gunship Core Dynamics
Orca Saud Kruger
Fer De Lance Zorgon Peterson
Python Faulcon DeLacy
Type 9 Heavy Lakon Spaceways
Beluga Liner Saud Kruger
Anaconda Faulcon DeLacy
Federal Corvette Core Dynamics
Imperial Cutter Gutamaya
Majestic Class Interdictor Gutamaya
Farragut Battle Cruiser Core Dynamics

Printable Ship Comparison Chart

This is the culmination of a months work on the blueprint project, so feel free to print and re-distribute the image and PDF, but I would ask that you leave the site name on my work. Thank you.

Right-click on the picture above and click "Save Image As..."

You can also download the PDF here ship-size-comparison.pdf (7.94 mb)

Nav Beacon Blueprint

Just for fun, I've drawn up a blueprint for the Nav Beacon. Who makes them? We don't know. Do they have any intresting statistics? Also a blank. But we do know they seem to be indestructible and yet wash up on planet surfaces looking pretty beat up, so what does that? Again with the not knowing...

Federal Corvette blueprint

This is the blueprint for the Core Dynamics Federal Corvette. The superheavy fighter and armed to the teeth, it's the ship you don't want to find on your tail. Also available in black.

This ship requires the Federal Navy rank of Rear Admiral for a player to purchase it in the game.

First introduced in version 1.5 Ships expansion.

Anaconda blueprint

This is the blueprint for the Faulcon DeLacy Anaconda. Excellent trader, handy in a fight and if the loadout is right, the longest range exploration ship you can own.

First introduced in version 0.1 Alpha 4.

Type 9 Heavy blueprint

This is the bluprint for the Lakon Spaceways Type-9 Heavy. The only ship with a manoeuvrability rating of zero, the super-size freighter and foremost mining ship, the Type-9 is the cow of space.

First introduced in version 0.1 Alpha 4.