The Fleet Carriers beta for Elite: Dangerous will kick off on April 7 ahead of the launch in June.
A Frontier stream on April 2 at 18:00 GMT/ 10:00 PST / 13:00 EST will reveal further details. Tune in to watch here.
If you recall, Fleet Carriers were delayed into this year so the team could address issues first,
“This will grant us additional time to refine the feature as well as focusing time on addressing existing reported issues. It will also ensure the state of the game is in a better position to introduce Fleet Carriers, that will provide Commanders even more opportunities to interact with the Milky Way.”
Fleet Carriers are individually owned and contain 16 landing pads of varying sizes for other players to dock their starships in, with a galaxy-spanning jump range of 500 light years. Fleet carriers are quite expensive and cost 5,000,000,000 credits.
Once purchased, Commanders can choose whether to invest and open up new services on their mobile hubs, including repair docks, refuelling stations, shipyards and more. Incorporating player-to-player commerce for the first time in Elite Dangerous, Fleet Carrier owners can also set tariffs on all goods traded on their Carrier's services to support the weekly upkeep costs, from wear and tear maintenance to crew wages and Tritium, a new fuel commodity needed to power the megaships.
And, according to the press release, you’ll be able to fully customize your fleet carrier as well. There will be two open betas before the June launch. Beta 1 is open to PC players and will commence in April 7. Beta 2 will include PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players and will take place in May.
