For some time now, the colony-establishing players of Elite: Dangerous have tried to understand how to get the kind of in-game economy they want when they plant stakes into the metaphorical ground, but thus far it’s been less like understanding and more like wrestling an alligator in a tornado. Ideally the sandbox’s latest patch will help, as it brings a rework to how economies get established by the background simulation within colonized space.
Economic links will now be automatically created between systems based on the completed constructions within them. These links come in two varieties (strong and weak) and are generated by two classes of constructed facilities (ports and supporting facilities). Additionally, strong links can be boosted by meeting certain requirements such as building near an earth-like world to boost an agriculture economy.
Generating a link enables supporting facilities to supply a portion of their economy to ports across the entire system, thus increasing the supply, demand, and types of commodities available and altering outfitting and shipyard stock. That’s important particularly for colonizers who want to ensure they have, for example, high-tech goods instead of a tourism economy. Better yet, links will generate retroactively, so ideally players can better steer their colony’s economic ship.
Speaking of steering ships, Frontier Developments has put forth a teaser image for its next spaceship, which many players are guessing is the Panther Clipper, a massive freighter craft. More information will debut during the Frontier Unlocked livestream that premieres today, April 30th, at 1:00 p.m. EDT.
