Spaceship likers, come hither. Long-running space sim Elite Dangerous has just unloaded a new interstellar vessel into its universe, and she’s a beaut. The new Type-8 Transporter is a medium freighter capable of hauling a maximum of 406 tons of cargo. It’s got a default jump range of 17.55 light years and two big prongs sticking out of its face like a sci-fi forklift. Cool. The catch is that this ship can only be bought with real money for now, say the developers. This is part of Frontier’s new strategy of having paid-for ships in the game. I don’t really play Elite Dangerous anymore, so I don’t have strong feelings about that. But I do have strong feelings about the space trucker advertisement the developer has put together for the new ship. Come watch it with me.
Ah, that was good. No action. No shooting aliens. No drama. Just a man and his space truck on the open space road, occasionally accompanied by the presence of large letters. LOAD MORE. God, yes. DELIVER FIRST. Maybe I will!
As for the ship’s design, some fans have playfully made fun of the fact that the ship looks a bit like Eve Online‘s ubiquitous mining ship, the Venture, simply flipped upside down and given a few slinky angles. And while some similarities do exist, it is not as close in design terms as, say, Star Citizen‘s equivalent space truck, the Vulture. Whatever the inspirational source, it looks good in my book. I will not complain about the big yellow starmobile.
But some players might, as it currently costs about £10 in real-world money (via the special in-game currency, Arx). It’s not the first time Frontier has charged for a spaceship – the Python Mk II came out in May for the same price, also locked behind that special currency. Previous to that, players saw all spaceships added to the game as free updates. Any irritation about this might now be soothed, however, seeing as that Python MK II was made buyable with normal in-game credits yesterday. The same staggered release is planned for the trucker’s delight pictured above. In November it’ll be on the “open market” for all players.
Ship manufacturing in Elite Dangerous has been slow in recent years. This year has seen the first new ships since 2018. Which helps to explain some of the frustration players may feel when they get excited about this asteroid miner’s dreamboat, only to realise it costs money now. For me, I’m satisfied just to watch the advert and soak up the atmosphere of blue collar space work reminiscent of Hardspace: Shipbreaker.