Slave revolution sparks civil war inside Elite: Dangerous; escalates to massive capital ship warfare
Elite: Dangerous is a big game; it’s set in our very own Milky Way with a 1:1 scale. With this in mind, it might not be surprising to see the number one complaint about the game, is that there’s “nothing to do”. Well, they’re dead wrong.
Frontier Development's space sim is teeming with NPC factions, all with their own stories and motives. One of them, dubbed as the “Empire”, is experiencing a civil war right now due a muddy succession struggle. It’s gotten so out of hand, that all sides have started to deploy some of the biggest ships in the game, and players can go watch (and fight) the entire thing play out in space, right now.
It all started a couple of days ago. A slave revolution has sparked in the system of Sorbago, which prompted a response from the governing faction, the Empire, in the form of a huge show of force. What’s more is that another rival faction, called the “Federation”, has sent its own forces to reinforce the anti-slavery revolution.
Now the boss of the Empire - aptly named the Emperor - is on his last legs. His succession is on all everybody's lips right now - which his only son being the natural, and only rightful heir. The problem is that his son’s daughter (the Emperor's grand daughter) is herself backing the slave revolt; she says that when her father takes the throne, he will abolish slavery in the entire Empire.
Hearing this, the Emperor quickly held a hearing, where he denounced his own son for being “insane”, removing his divine right to rule.. Now, with no clear successor, the faction is in turmoil as civil war looms on all sides. Powerful members of the Empire are contemplating who to side with, or whether to back themselves as a possible interdicting heir. And all the while, other rival factions are awaiting the inevitable infighting, to see if they can take advantage of it in some way.
Players within Elite: Dangerous can head over to Sorbago, and watch the entire war spill out into the system. They can even pick a side to determine who wins the overall power struggle, which will inevitably and permanently affect the system in terms of faction ownership, policies, laws and trading standards (including the selling of slaves).
Check out some footage from Youtuber CMDR Static Awesome of the two capital ships in action.
Have you been a part of the Sorbago civil war? Who did you side with? I'm going to pop over there tonight and see what the space jam is.
Images courtesy of CMDR Fireytoad via www.elitegalaxy.org
Hells yes this is the kinda stuff that I like about this game
I watched the stream of this on twitch. It was quite epic. He's a great guy to watch if you want to get into the game, but have no idea how to start. Very friendly streamer and a chill audience.
I just flew over 150 light years to join the battle. Free the slaves! After I sleep!
nay let them serve their masters myhahah
This is incredible stuff. I haven't purchased because of lack of HOTAS though
Still very playable with a mouse and keyboard, or an Xbox controller. I would totally start playing while you wait to get a HOTAS. The Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X is only £30 here in the UK, and something like $40 in the US. Great stick for a beginner.
Cool thanks
Well it's great that there are stories going on. It's great that I can go watch them. But if I want to watch something I'll go turn on the television.
The game starts the player out with no money (1000 credits might as well be 0,) no options on how the ship is laid out, and absolutely no guidance.
The player can do missions that maybe earn 2000 credits and will take a long time to accomplish for someone new to the game. But the payoff seems so poor that this player decided to try looking around for something else to do other than the one mission that was available.
I flew around for hours (literally) looking for something to do. Finally I got attacked by a pirate NPC, destroyed his ship, and had a little money. It was a lot of fun, and the payoff was good.
My complaints with this game are two. The first is that it takes forever to find something to do that isn't a very bad idea. The second is that it feels like Frame Shift Drive throttle control simulator 2015 50% of the time I'm playing.
I like this game. I think I will end up loving it. But the starting zone needs something to actually engage the player and 'get them started.'
The first thing I saw that interested me was 'conflict zone - low intensity.' But when I got there I was super disappointed to find there was no reason for me to join in, the enemies all frame shifted away as soon as I started doing anything to them, and I couldn't tell who the 'good guys' were at all. Not that there should be clear good and evil, but somewhere along the line I should be given some kind of idea as to who's side I might want to take. I'm not saying force a decision, but give me some reasons.
I love a high learning curve. But it seems like stuff is being obfuscated from the new player intentionally.