Frontier Developments has offered a closer looked Elite Dangerous’ long-awaited Fleet Carriers, which are set to join the space sim this December on all platforms.
Fleet Carriers, which will be available to all Elite Dangerous players on release, were initially announced to launch as part of 2018’s Beyond update. However, as Beyond’s fourth and final chapter neared, Frontier revealed that Fleet Carriers had been “reprioritised”. Instead, they’ll now arrive in December, a full year after their originally planned debut.
These huge, 16-player vessels essentially function as a base of operations for large groups – although they can be purchased (for a significant sum of credits) and piloted by a single player. To accomodate full groups, Fleet Carriers feature 16 landing pads – eight large, four medium, and four small – and owners can set permissions to control exactly who is able to dock.
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Once onboard though, players have access to rearm, refuel, and repair services, and owners can even to select from a number of Fleet Carriers load-outs, which, says Frontier, will govern the services, module and ship availability required to support various activities. Specifically, there are load-outs to cater for bounty hunters, mercenaries, pirates, traders, smugglers, miners, and explorers, and for search and rescue.