 This is a Witchspace News Special Bulletin, I'm CMDR Buur. Frontier are attending LaveCon, the elite focused fan convention in the UK this weekend and just dropped some details about major changes coming to the game in the upcoming September update and a massive teaser for what is coming to the game this December. We're going to talk about the September update first and go into a few of the details and then we'll run the teaser trailer for the December update and share some initial thoughts on it. You're not going to want to miss that. So, September. The first things they revealed are additions coming to the new player experience. It's no big secret that Elite can be a very daunting game to the new player, it's a huge galaxy and traditionally up until fairly recently the early stages of the game have been in danger of being somewhat impenetrable to the more experienced or frankly less determined of players. The welcome introduction of the Pilots Federation controlled starter systems at the start of the year went some way towards rectifying that issue but it's clear from the announcement today that Frontier weren't finished there and that the introduction of those zones was just the start. Starting in September new pilots to the game will have access to a new in-ship starter experience where they'll be guided by language territory appropriate voiceover in the cockpit of their starter sidewinder from a Pilots Federation instructor. These new flight lessons will cover off topics ranging from basic flight controls and scanning through to supercruise, navigation skills, combat exercises around a mega ship and then culminate in a final lesson that sees the pilot complete their first hyperspace jump and docking at a starport. The screenshots of the new scenario that Frontier have shared show what appears to be a dedicated pilot training installation in space and some training gameplay that shows the pilot following an obstacle course and flying through some targeted ring-like structures around the installation as well as an attack on a mega ships individual components which will teach skills like scanning and sub-targets all very useful and clearly a much needed addition to the game. As I've said before if Elite is to have any kind of long-term future as an entity it absolutely must bring new blood and grow its player base whenever possible and anything at all that can be done to lower the barriers to entry and give new players a step up into this fantastic shared galaxy can only be a good thing. It's worth noting as well that experienced players who wish to try out the new training scenarios can do so from their right-hand menu within any ship they own once the update goes live. So next up the livery system and importantly how you purchase and change the livery on your ship is getting a makeover in what is possibly the biggest most significant change coming to existing players in September Frontier are introducing a new virtual currency into the game called ARCS. ARCS can be used to buy skins, ship kits and other cosmetic items from the Frontier store and will be coming to all platforms PC, Xbox and PlayStation. On the consoles ARCS will replace the current Frontier points system and any Frontier points that you have in your account will be converted to ARCS when the system changes over. ARCS can either be purchased from Frontier in packs or, and this is huge, earned just by playing and interacting with the game. As a regular player of the game a number of ARCS will be earned each week and added to your account. ARCS will not be granted as mission rewards they will simply be fed into your account when you play and interact with the game. Now it's fair to assume that you won't be earning vast quantities of this new currency every week no matter how much you play. At a guess I'd say the maximum amount you can earn any week will be capped to encourage those that can afford it to continue to put real money into the game but it does mean that in theory at least given enough time you could paint up your ship, add bobbleheads, trails, coloured gunfire and a ship kit without ever spending any money over and above the initial purchase price of the game which is absolutely fantastic. Frontier paints to emphasize that ARCS will only ever be usable to purchase cosmetic items from the store as is the case with the store at the moment and the current business model of buy the game and play for free is staying put. Elite is not adopting a free-to-play model. Now on top of the ARCS announcement Frontier are also making some important changes to the livery system itself. Commanders will now be able to access the livery system from the main menu not just within a station meaning at last explorers can feed their ship kit and coloured trails obsessions without returning to civilization or any commander can place a bobblehead on their dashboard without having to roll their third lance or corvette up on the ramps in a space station first. Hallelujah! Importantly as part of these changes you'll no longer need to purchase an entire pack of skins or an entire ship kit if you're just interested in one part of it. If you just want a spoiler you'll be able to purchase just the spoiler and be charged in ARCS of course just for that spoiler. If there's a paint job in a pack of six that you want but you don't want the other five in most cases you'll be able to purchase just the one that you want. The in-game livery system will now also give better previews of the stuff you're looking to buy including multiple views of those previews so you'll have a much better idea of what the final product will look like on your ship before you push the button on it. And finally on the subject of livery Frontier have been making some improvements to the way paint jobs are rendered meaning in future they'll be able to offer sharper looking and more detailed ship paint jobs and they'll also be bringing those improvements to some of the existing paint jobs over time. So that is everything that is coming in September much needed help for new players some really nice quality of life improvements and I really like what they're doing with the ARCS currency and the livery interface but they weren't quite finished there. Finally Frontier dropped one last massive huge atomic bombshell the much promised and much delayed many thought long-lost fleet carrier system will be launching in December this year. I'll say that again fleet carriers are coming to the game finally this December. We don't really know any more than that at this time no details were given but Frontier did drop the very teesiest of teasers in the form of a trailer that seems to show a colossal fleet carrier capital ship emerging from a hyperspace frameshift cloud and under the video were the words in game footage. Originally teased at the Frontier Expo in 2017 as a feature for 2018 and then mysteriously not happening maybe possibly yes definitely not yet I don't think anyone expected to see this happening before the mysterious 2020 update at a guess I'd say we should start learning more details about the carrier system sometime after this September's update drops so in summary then this September we're getting a new in-ship voice-acted new player starter experience new livery and customization system with the ability to change cosmetic options without being a starport and a new virtual currency called arcs that you can earn just from playing the game and used to make your ship look pretty and then in December fleet carriers will finally arrive so that's it overall I have to say I'm really pleased with these announcements personally there's some really nice little quality of life improvements and it will also serve to further help bring new people into the game something I'm quite enthusiastic about suffice to say the carrier teaser is a huge deal how they're implemented and what gameplay they bring to the game we have yet to see but I don't think anyone was expecting anything this big to be introduced to the game before the end of 2020 it's also nice to see fdev communicating their intentions with elite a little bit more in advance we'll have some thoughts on the carrier teaser later this week so look out for that but until then oh seven commanders follow the greens on the way out and do keep clear of the toast rack we very much look forward to seeing you next time