Elite Dangerous
I began playing the game Elite: Dangerous I think in late June 2015. The game certainly doesn't hold your hand in any way, and although the game manual provides an overview of the main aspects of the game, it doesn't really answer a gazillion of detail questions that pop up shortly after you begin playing.
This and other pages on this wiki attempt to organize the questions I had and their answers (as far as I have found such), together with other knowledge that I gathered about the Elite: Dangerous universe.
Wiki pages
Check out the Elite Dangerous category to see all pages on this wiki that are related to the game.
Glossary and abbreviations
- ADS
- This can mean two things:
- Aim Down Sight, i.e. the process of aiming with a weapon while looking through a sighting device (typically a scope).
- Advanced Discovery Scanner. A variant of the Discovery Scanner ship module which is no longer available. The ADS variant was removed in the Beyond Chapter Four update, nowadays there is just one Discovery Scanner ship module. See Discovery Scanner.
- AFMU
- Auto Field-Maintenance Unit
- Analysis mode
- One of two modes that the HUD can be in when you are flying your ship or driving your SRV. The other mode is Combat mode. Most non-combat modules and functions require Analysis mode to be active in order to use them. Examples: Discovery scanning, using the FSS or DSS.
- Arg of periapsis
- Abbreviation in the Elite Dangerous system map for Argument of periapsis.
- Argument of periapsis
- One of the six Keplerian elements that describe an orbit [1]. The argument of periapsis is the angle between a) the direction of the ascending node within the orbital plane and b) the direction of the periapsis, also within the reference plane. The angle is measured in the orbiting body's direction of motion. The argument of periapsis defines the orientation of the ellipse formed by the orbital path within the orbital plane. See Wikipedia for more details.
- Ascending node
- See Orbital node.
- Axial tilt
- The axial tilt, also known as obliquity, is the angle between the body's own rotational axis and its orbital axis. See Wikipedia for details.
- AU
- Astronomical Unit. Approximately 500 ls.
- AW
- Ammonia world.
- Barycenter
- The common center of mass that two (or more) astronomical bodies are orbiting around. In a very simple case with two bodies of identical mass, the bodies might follow the same orbital path. However, the typical case is that each body of the system follows its own orbital path. This is especially true if the bodies widely differ in mass. For instance, a planet that is seen as orbiting a star, the barycenter of the planet/star system is actually inside the star's body, creating the impression that the star is at the center of the planet's orbit. See Wikipedia for more details. In Elite Dangerous, if there are planets orbiting more than one star, there's an "X" in the system map that marks the barycentre that the planets are orbiting.
- Beyond
- The third season of expansions of Elite: Dangerous.
- BGS
- Background Simulation. A part of the game that simulates the political and economical changes that take place in inhabited systems in the bubble. See the EDGeneral wiki page for a bit of additional detail.
- BH
- Black Hole.
- CC
- Command Capital, a unit used in Power Play.
- CFT
- ? (something related to exploration).
- CG
- Community Goal. A "Community Goal Guide" has been published in this forum thread. Discussion about current and past community goals can be found in this sub-forum.
- CQC
- Close Quarter Combat.
- Clean
- A ship's status. Also see Lawless and Wanted. If a ship shows up as clean anywhere in your HUD, this means two things: 1) You don't know about any bounties issued against the ship's commander; and 2) You are in a lawful vicinity where you will incur a bounty if you shoot at the other ship. The latter distinguishes the "clean" status from the "lawless" status.
- Close binaries
- Two stars that are orbiting each other (binaries) and in addition are located very close to each other.
- CMDR
- Commander.
- Combat bond voucher
- See Conflict zone. Combat bound vouchers are not bounty vouchers.
- Combat mode
- One of two modes that the HUD can be in when you are flying your ship or driving your SRV. The other mode is Analysis mode. Weapons can only be used in combat mode.
- Concourse
- A public area with vendors and services where players can walk around on foot. Concourses are available only in certain large structures, such as space ports, surface ports, Megaships or Fleet Carriers.
- Conflict zone
- A zone where two opposing factions wage war against each other. Initially when you drop into a conflict zone you are neutral to both sides, but can then decide to side with one of the factions in the "Functions" tab of the systems panel. Once you have sided with a faction you cannot switch to the other faction unless you leave and re-enter the conflict zone. When you choose a faction to side with, the other faction's ship will become hostile to you. When you destroy hostile ships you earn combat bond vouchers that you can later redeem in the "Contacts" section of the local station's services menu. The larger the ship you destroy, the more valuable the combat bond voucher that you receive. TODO: Do you lose combat bond vouchers if you are destroyed? TODO: What is the effect of shooting at ships in a conflict zone? TODO: What is the effect of redeeming combat bond vouchers?
- COVAS
- Cockpit Voice-Activated System. The default voice is called "Verity", but there are other voices available for free and for purchase. The COVAS to be used can be selected in the Outfitting screen in the "Livery" section.
- CS
- Carbon star.
- CZ
- Conflict Zone.
- DB
- David Braben.
- DBE
- Diamondback Explorer.
- DBS
- Diamondback Scout.
- DBX
- Diamondback Explorer.
- DDA
- Design Discussion Archives.
- Decal
- A piece of ship cosmetics that is added on top of a ship's paintjob. Common decals are those that show which rank a CMDR has achieved in one of the thre Pilots Federation ranks (combat, trade, exploration).
- Descending node
- See Orbital node.
- DLS
- Data Link Scanner. Integrated module to interact with a large variety of targets, notably data points to download information or hack into a system.
- Discovery Scanner
- Integrated module used to perform an initial basic scan of a star system. The process is known as "honking" because of the deep resonant sound that is emitted when the scan completes.
- DSS
- Detailed Surface Scanner.
- ED
- Elite: Dangerous. The annoying ":" is sometimes also left out, i.e. "Elite Dangerous".
- ELP
- Earth-like planet.
- ELW
- Earth-like world.
- Engineering
- Players can make use of the services of Engineer NPCs to modify stock ship modules and pilot equipment so they better fit their needs. See the EDEngineering wiki page for details.
- FA
- Flight Assist.
- Faction
- There are 3 major factions, sometimes also called superpowers: The Federation, the Empire and the Alliance. There are also countless minor factions. Minor factions can be affiliated with a major faction. The player has a reputation within every faction, both major and minor. The highest reputation is "Allied". Reputation attained with minor factions is permanent, while reputation attained with major factions decays if you do nothing to keep it up. The decay will stop when you are back to friendly. See the edwiki:Factions page on the ED wiki for more details.
- FD
- Frontier Development, the manufacturer of the game. Quite often referred to under the short name "Frontier".
- FDL
- Fer-de-lance.
- FSD
- Frameshift Drive.
- FSS scanner
- Full Spectrum System scanner. Integrated module used to scan a system's signals after a discovery scan has been performed. The FSS does not appear in the module list, so it could also be argued that it is not an integrated module but a built-in ship function.
- HMCP
- High metal content planet.
- HMCW
- High metal content world.
- Honking, the honk
- Refers to the deep, powerful, resonant sound that the discovery scanner makes when you scan a star system. Honking therefore means "performing a discovery scan".
- Horizons
- The second season of expansions of Elite: Dangerous.
- HOTAS
- Hands on throttle and stick. A designation for a certain type of joysticks that is designed for flight simulation games.
- Hot Jupiter
- A gas giant in a very close orbit (less than 75 ls or 0.15 AU according to Wikipedia) around its primary star.
- HUD
- Head-up Display. Sometimes also Heads-up Display.
- Integrated module
- An integrated modules is a module that does not take up a module slot and therefore cannot be managed in the Outfitting screen. An integrated module usually does not consume any noticeable power, but it is still likely to be listed in the systems panel on the "Modules" tab. Examples: Data Link scanner, Short Range Composition scanner, Cargo hatch
- KWS
- Kill Warrant Scanner.
- Lawless
- A ship's status. Also see Clean and Wanted. If a ship shows up as lawless anywhere in your HUD, this means two things: 1) You don't know about any bounties issued against the ship's commander; and 2) You are in a vicinity where no laws exist, such as in an Anarchy system or in a warzone, and where you will not incur a bounty if you shoot at the other ship. The latter distinguishes the "lawless" status from the "clean" status.
- LHS 3447
- My starting system.
- Longitude of the ascending node
- One of the six Keplerian elements that describe an orbit [1]. The longitude of the ascending node is the angle between a) a reference direction - called the "origin of latitude" - within the reference plane and b) the direction of the ascending node, also within the reference plane. The longitude of the ascending node is one of the pieces of information that is needed to "anchor" the orbital plane in 3-dimensional space. Without this longitude, with only the orbital inclination, the orbital plane could be rotated around the vertical axis perpendicular to the reference plane. See Wikipedia for more details, especially a diagram that may be more comprehensible than the words written here ☺.
- LoS
- Line of Sight.
- LS
- Light second.
- LSS
- Life Support System. An essential module of every ship.
- LY
- Light year.
- Mm
- Mega metres, i.e. 1 million metres.
- NS
- Neutron Star
- Obliquity
- See Axial tilt.
- OC
- Orbital Cruise. A ship shifts from Super Cruise to Orbital Cruise flight mode when it drops below a certain altitude above a planet. The "Verity" COVAS calls this "Orbital Flight".
- Orbit
- To quote directly from Wikipedia: "In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet about a star or a natural satellite around a planet. Normally, orbit refers to a regularly repeating path around a body, although it may occasionally be used for a non recurring trajectory or a path around a point in space. To a close approximation, planets and satellites follow elliptical orbits, with the central mass being orbited at a focal point of the ellipse, as described by Kepler's laws of planetary motion."
- Orbital axis
- The axis around which an astronomical body rotates on its orbital path. The astronomical body's axial tilt is measured against this.
- Orbital eccentricity
- One of the six Keplerian elements that describe an orbit [1]. The orbital eccentricity,or simply eccentricity, describes how much the ellipse formed by an orbital path is elongated compared to a circle. A value of 0 is a circular orbit, values between 0 and 1 form an elliptical orbit, 1 is a parabolic escape orbit, and greater than 1 is a hyperbola. See Wikipedia for more details.
- Orbital Flight
- Alternative name for Orbital Cruise, used by the "Verity" COVAS.
- Orbital inclination
- One of the six Keplerian elements that describe an orbit [1]. The orbital inclination, or simply inclination, describes how much the orbital plane is tilted in relation to a reference plane. The inclination is an angle measured at the ascending node. See Wikipedia for more details.
- Orbital node, ascending / descending node
- An orbit lies within an orbital plane. The orbital plane is frequently viewed in relation to a reference plane. An astronomical body following its orbit will cross through the reference plane at two points that are collectively called "orbital nodes". Individually, the points are called the "ascending node" and the "descending node", in reference to the direction in which the orbit passes through the reference plane. Ascending = the orbit passes through the reference plane in upward direction. Descending node = ditto, but downward direction. If the orbital plane and the reference plane are identical, then the orbit has no nodes. See Wikipedia for more details.
- Orbital period
- The time it takes for an astronomical body to travel along its orbital path, starting from any point of origin, until it reaches again that point of origin.
- Orbital plane
- To quote directly from Wikipedia: "The orbital plane of an object orbiting another is the geometrical plane in which the orbit lies."
- PD
- Power Distributor.
- Periapsis
- The closest point on an orbital path to the center of orbit. If the orbit is circular then there is no periapsis because all points on the orbital path are equidistant. If the orbital path forms an ellipse, then the periapsis is at that "end" of the ellipse which is closer to the ellipse's focal point that marks the center of orbit.
- PG
- Procedural Generation.
- POI
- Point of interest. This is a general name for locations on the surface of a planet where something interesting can be found. Settlements or surface ports are not POIs, though.
- PP
- Power Play. Sometimes also written as a single word "Powerplay".
- Primary star
- In Elite Dangerous, the primary stars of a star system are those stars that are displayed in a vertical column on the left-hand side of the system map. The primary stars are the stars with the most mass in a system. All the other stars in a star system are the secondary stars.
- RES
- Resource Extraction Site.
- Rotational axis
- The axis around which an astronomical body rotates. The axial tilt of the rotational axis is measured against the orbital axis.
- Rotational period
- The time it takes for an astronomical body to rotate once around its rotational axis.
- SC
- Super Cruise.
- SCO
- Super Cruise Overcharge. A special Super Cruise mode that allows faster supercruise traveling at the cost of increased fuel consumption, heat production and reduced ship maneouverability. To use SCO a ship must equip a special "Frame Shift Drive (SCO)" module. This module also has increased jump range.
- Scenario
- A scenario is an event that can occur when you investigate a USS, enter a conflict zone, approach a megaship, etc.. It might involve a mission or set up a goal for you if you accept to play along. A scenario essentially provides more guidance from the game and requires less "in-the-mind-only" roleplay on the player's behalf to play through an event. Scenarios were added in 3.3.
- Semi-major axis
- One of the six Keplerian elements that describe an orbit [1]. Usually the orbital path of an astronomical body forms an ellipse. The major axis of that ellipse is its longest diameter. The semi-major axis is one half of the major axis. See Wikipedia for more details.
- Ship integrity
- A property of every ship, measured in percent. You can see the current ship integrity value only when you are docked at a station and have called up the repair facility. Ship integrity starts at 100% when you buy a new ship, then slowly decays when you fly long stretches in supercruise. When ship integrity reaches 0% nothing happens. Ship integrity is used whenever the ship takes damage. A high integrity value will protect the ship better from the damage, while a low integrity value causes more damage to get through to hull, canopy and other modules. Ship integrity can be repaired only at a station's repair facility (i.e. not by an AFMU). See this forum post for slightly more information.
- Solar mass
- A unit commonly used in Elite Dangerous to measure the mass of stars.
- Solar radius
- A unit commonly used in Elite Dangerous to measure the size of stars. 1 solar radius = 2.23 light-seconds. I calculated this from values provided by Wikipedia: The Sun's equatorial radius is 695'700 km (see Sun). One light-second is 299'792'458 metres (see Light-second). 1 solar radius expressed in light seconds therefore is 695700 / 299792.458 = 2.320605410293543808897287202602.
- SRC scanner
- Short Range Composition scanner. Integrated module used for interacting with organic or geological features in space or on planetary surfaces.
- SRV
- Surface Reconnaissance Vehicle. Used for driving around on planetary surfaces.
- SSS
- Strong Signal Source.
- Tidally locked
- An astronomical body is said to be tidally locked if during the orbit around its parent body the same hemisphere constantly faces the parent body. For this to occur the orbiting body's orbital period and rotational period must be in synchronization. Wikipedia has all the physics details how this synchronization can happen. In Elite Dangerous you can see whether an astronomical body is tidally locked in the system map: The value shown under "Rotational period" is annotated with "tidally locked" if tidal locking is in effect.
- True anomaly
- One of the six Keplerian elements that describe an orbit [1]. The true anomaly is the angle between a) the direction of periapsis in the orbital plane, and b) the direction from the orbital focus point to the orbiting body's current position along the orbital path. The true anomaly defines the position of the orbiting body at a specific time. See Wikipedia for more details.
- USS
- Unidentified Signal Source.
- Wanted
- A ship's status. Also see Clean and Lawless. If a ship shows up as wanted anywhere in your HUD, this means two things: 1) The ship's commander has at least one bounty on his head; and 2) You know about those bounties. If a ship's commander has a bounty issued by the jurisdiction that you are currently in, the ship's status will automatically show up as "wanted", presumably because the local authorities have notified everyone in the vicinity of all bounties that they issued. If a ship's commander has a bounty issued by another than the local jurisdiction, the ship's status will show up as "clean" because you were not automatically informed about the bounty, presumably because the local authorities do not know or care about bounties issued by another jurisdiction. When you scan a ship with a Kill Warrant Scanner you will find out about any bounties that were issued by another than the local jurisdiction. If there are indeed any such bounties, the ship's status will change from "clean" to "wanted" after the scan. When you kill a wanted commander, all bounties issued against him and that you know about will be awarded to you. Also, the local jurisdiction (if there is any) will not issue a bounty against you when you kill a wanted commander (as opposed to when you kill a clean commander).
- WD
- White Dwarf.
- WRS
- Wolf-Rayet star.
- WSS
- Weak Signal Source.
- WW
- Water world.
- WZ
- War zone.
Game development
The information in this section is coming from [2] and the individual season wiki pages linked from there. Version numbers and release dates since 4.0.11 () are derived from Frontier's Update Notes page.
Notes for reading the following table:
- Releases of Elite Dangerous are grouped into "seasons". Each season consists of several "expansions" or versions.
- The list of features is non-exhaustive. Things that seem minor or not interesting (e.g. all sorts of weapon changes) to me are omitted.
Version | Release date | Name | Features |
---|---|---|---|
Game launch | |||
1.0 | 16 December 2014 | Game launch | |
Season 1: Post-launch | |||
1.1 | ? | - | Community Goals. |
1.2 | ? | - | Wings. |
1.3 | ? | - | Powerplay. |
1.4 | ? | - | CQC. |
1.5 | ? | - | New ships. |
1.6 | ? | - | New mission types, Module storage, Beautiful station interiors, New navigation filters, Ship transfer. |
Season 2: Horizons | |||
2.0 | 15 December 2015 | Planetary landings |
|
2.1 | 26 May 2016 | The Engineers |
|
2.2 | 25 October 2016 | The Guardians |
|
2.3 | 11 April 2017 | The Commanders |
|
2.4 | 26 September 2017 | The Return |
|
Season 3: Beyond | |||
3.0 | 27 February 2018 | Chapter One |
|
3.1 | 28 June 2018 | Chapter Two |
|
3.2 | 18 August 2018 | Chapter Three |
|
3.3 | 11 December 2018 | Chapter Four |
|
Between Season 3 and 4: The 2019-2020 Updates | |||
3.4 | 23 April 2019 | April Update |
|
3.5 | 18 September 2019 | September Update |
|
3.6 | 14 January 2020 | January Update |
|
3.7 | 09 June 2020 | Fleet Carriers Update |
|
Season 4: Odyssey | |||
? | 19 May 2021 | Odyssey |
|
? | 27 May 2021 - 29 July 2021 | Odyssey Updates 1-6 |
|
? | 22 September 2021 | Odyssey Update 7 |
|
? | 27 October 2021 | Odyssey Update 8 |
|
? | 09 December 2021 | Odyssey Update 9 |
|
? | 25 January 2022 | Odyssey Update 10 |
|
4.0.11 | 15 March 2022 | Odyssey Update 11 | Concourses are added to Fleet Carriers. |
4.0.12 | 07 June 2022 | Odyssey Update 12 | Stability and optimization changes. |
? | 09 August 2022 | Odyssey Update 13 |
|
? | 15 September 2022 | 4.0 Engine | 4.0 engine will become the "Live" mode in which all new content and events will be introduced, 3.8 engine including console becomes "legacy" mode. |
4.0.14.0 (shown as 4.0.13.0) | 29 November 2022 | Odyssey Update 14 |
|
? | 09 May 2023 | Odyssey Update 15 | Focus on the Thargoid War. |
4.0.16.0 | 01 August 2023 | Odyssey Update 16 | Focus on the Thargoid War. |
4.0.17.0 | 16 October 2023 | Odyssey Update 17 | Focus on the Thargoid War. |
4.0.18.02 | 09 April 2024 | Odyssey Update 18.02 | Frame Shift Drive (SCO) - supercruise overcharge cuts travel time in a star system by more than half. |
4.0.18.04 | 07 May 2024 | Odyssey Update 18.04 | New ship: Python Mk II. |
4.0.18.08 | 06 August 2024 | Type-8 Update |
|
4.0.19.0 | 22 October 2024 | Ascendancy |
|
4.0.19.03 | 12 December 2024 | Cobra Mk V Update |
|
4.1.0.0 | 26 February 2025 | Trailblazers |
|
4.1.0.0 | 08 April 2025 | Gutamaya Corsair Update | New ship: Gutamaya Corsair. |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Wikipedia article: Orbital elements
- ↑ Elite: Dangerous wiki article: Development Plans