Greetings Commanders,

A new update will be available for Elite Dangerous on Wednesday 7th August.

Release Schedule (All times are in BST)

6AM - In game messages commence
8AM - Elite Dangerous Live/4.0 servers offline to deploy changes
2PM - Elite Dangerous Live/4.0 servers back online and Update 18.08 available to download.

*Please note that these times are estimates and are subject to change.

18.08 ]Update Notes

Features of Note:

• Added Lakon Type-8 Transporter for early access
• In world holo-screen adverts now present for Type-8 Transporter
• Added new pre-built ships: to the store:
• Type-8 Transporter Stellar (33,000 Arx)
• Type-8 Transporter Standard (16,520 Arx)
• Passenger Jumpstart - Beluga Liner (25,500 Arx)
• Bounty Hunter Jumpstart - Vulture (25,500 Arx)
• Python MkII now included in the general Shipyard stock for Odyssey players.

Engineering Changes
Alterations made to the engineering ruleset and systems:

• Updated engineer rolls to consistently give a fixed roll depending on the grade of the recipe and the commander rank with the engineer.
• Increased Material availability/payout at Grade 4/5 farming locations by increasing sources of materials and in some cases payout per source.
• Increased Engineering material rewards across missions.
• Up to 24 depending on mission type, material and mission difficulty
• Updated unlock requirements for some engineers:
• Hero Ferrari - Settlement Defence Plans required = 5 (down from 15)
• Yarden Bond - Smear Campaign Plans required = 5 (down from 8)
• Wellington Beck - Cat Media, Classic Entertainment or Multimedia Entertainment required = 15 (total)
• Kit Fowler - Opinion Polls required = 5 (down from 10)
• Removed Power Regulators from recipes
• Reduced recipe costs for upgrading and modifying on-foot suits and weapons
• Backpack Capacity Changes:
• Maverick suit
Goods capacity 15 → 40 Assets capacity 30 → 60 Data Capacity 10 → 20
• Artemis suit
Goods Capacity 10 → 20 Assets capacity 20 → 40 Data Capacity 10 → 10
• Dominator suit
Goods capacity 5 → 10 Assets capacity 10 → 20 Data Capacity 10 → 10
• Contributing to taking a Thargoid controlled or invasion system will now reward engineering materials upon system completion.
• All Grade 4 Raw & Grade 5 Encoded/Manufactured engineering materials are eligible as rewards.
• Rewards are determined by percentile individual Commander contribution:
Tier 1 - Top 25% - 120 Tier 2 - Top 75% - 60 Tier 3 - Bottom 25% - 18
• 2 materials are picked randomly from each material category (Raw/Encoded/Manufactured) for a total of 6 different rewarded materials.
For example, a Commander within the top tier can expect to receive 20 materials of 6 different types, for 120 total.
• Materials are randomised per system, so all Commanders contributing to a system will receive the same type of materials when that system is completed.
• Rewards will take you to the microresource cap but not over.
• Any rewards which would have been over the cap will be lost. Careful monitoring of your inventory and usage of materials traders is advised.
• Rewards are issued on an hourly basis and an inbox message will inform you of your achieved tier.
• Contributions will be logged from the release of 18.08 onwards.
• Contributions will not be reset on the weekly turn, and will therefore carry over between weeks until the system is completed.
Issue Tracker
• Fixed LOD issue with Orca resulting in holes in ships model when viewed at distances.
• Fix for missile racks not firing correctly
• Fixed Python Mk2 hull & integrity being unable to be repaired
Bugs/Adjustments
• Fixed a crash while idling in the pre-built ships store.
• Updated the new CMDR packages stats to more accurately reflect the content
• Release fee for Pre-Built Ships now calculated correctly when ship has been impounded
• Fix for luxury cabins not counting as suitable for lower classes of passengers.
• Removed power draw from Experimental Weapons Stabilizer modules
• Removed SCO mass lock from small planets to be consistent with medium and large planets
• Added SCO fuel consumption stat when viewing the module
• Fixed an issue where ships could jitter whilst using AutoDock & AutoLaunch
• Fixed some visual effects not playing correctly after sabotaging dropboxes at Thargoid spire sites.
• Adjusted orbit lines to display cleaner in various instances.