On Thursday, 15 September, Tuesday, 29 November 2022, Frontier will be releasing the Horizons 4.0 version of the game, with this change will be made to the Elite Dangerous launcher:
The non-horizons version of Elite Dangerous is no longer available.The old Elite Dangerous is still available, Fdev is just as good at communicating as ever.- People who own the Odyssey expansion are able to launch the game in Horizons (3.8) mode, and Odyssey (4.0) mode.
- People who do not own the Odyssey expansion are able to launch the game in Horizons (3.8 mode, and Horizons (4.0) mode.
Players who own the Odyssey expansion will not be able to launch the game in Horizons (4.0) mode.
To accomodate this changes are being made to SOP for when a case using Horizons (4.0) arrives:
- Dispatch Requests jump calls from rats running Horizons (4.0)
- If no rats running Horizons (4.0) are available, the dispatch can ask if the client already has the 3.8 version installed on their PC.
- If the client has 3.8 installed, the dispatch can ask the client to switch to 3.8 and request jump calls from rats using 3.8.
- If the client does not have 3.8 installed, is not a code red rescue, and would be able to fly to a fleet carrier in the system, an attempt should be made to dispatch a fleet carrier to their location.
- If the client cannot use a fleet carrier, dispatch may ask the client to install the 3.8 version of the game on their PC, and then request jumps when 3.8 is installed.
Changes are being made to MechaSqueak's commands to accommodate the new expansion:
- !useodyssey and !usehorizons has been replaced by !mymode e.g !mymode h3 for Horizons 3.8, !mymode h4 for horizons 4.0, and !mymode o for Odyssey.
!horizons has been replaced by !horizons3 and !horizons4, you can also use !mode <case id/client name> e.g !mode 4 h3 - The --odyssey flag for !addcase has been replaced by a --mode flag.
- The --odyssey and --horizons flags for !list has been replaced by a --mode flag.
- The -o flag for !last has been replaced by an --mode flag.
- The --odyssey flag for !announce has been replaced by an --mode flag.
- !team and !kgbfoam now will use the odyssey version of the message when used on a Horizons 4 case.
- The ratsignal now has specific highlight signals for each mode, e.g H3_SIGNAL, H4_ SIGNAL, and ODY_SIGNAL, instead of PC_SIGNAL.
- !needsrats now includes the version mode for PC cases.
dropping development of the 3.8 version of Elite Dangerous completely, labelling it "legacy mode"
As a result the following changes are made to SOP:
- Horizons 4.0 mode is now available to all players, including Odyssey owners. So now anyone should be able to switch over to Horizons and rescue the client there.
- Odyssey/Horizons 4.0 now exists in a completely separate universe from legacy mode / 3.8, which means switching the client from 4.0 to legacy mode in order to reset them to orbit or sort any other similar situation will not work.
- Frontier has added a button in the menu that will allow CMDRs on the ground to "Reset to orbit" clients may be instructed to use this instead.
- Fleet carriers are now also separate between 4.0 and legacy mode, and so to rescue a 4.0 player with a fleet carrier the carrier must be sent from a 4.0 player, and to rescue a legacy mode player with a fleet carrier the carrier must be sent from a legacy mode player.
- Console counts as legacy mode and so can send and use legacy mode carriers from PC, but cannot use carriers in 4.0.
All references in Mecha and the dispatch board to H3 and H4 now refers to them as legacy mode (LEG) or Horizons (HOR) respectively.
H3_SIGNAL has been renamed to LEG_SIGNAL and H4_SIGNAL has been renamed to HOR_SIGNAL. These changes will be made and the website updated during tomorrow's maintenance.