Today, Frontier Developments introduced the Vodel Rhino SRV in Elite Dangerous, giving commanders a new means of turning the surfaces of planets into profitable mining operations.
This vehicle, which is suitable for players who prefer extraction to exploration, offers robust performance, planetary mobility and the ability to accommodate up to three crew members. The Rhino comes fitted with a Planetary Mining Deposit Scanner, a Refinery and a Mining Rig Deployment Module, so that Commanders can locate and extract valuable resources directly from the surface of the planet.
The most recent update to Elite Dangerous also includes Surface Mining gameplay, and the Detailed Surface Scanner is now capable of detecting Planetary Mining Locations on planets.
Surface Mining has been given an initial balance approval relating to deposit capacity at various density levels, the times required for deposit replenishment, commodity weighting, and the size and number of Planetary Mining Deposits and Planetary Mining Locations. Initial balance figures have also been set for the new commodities Bastnäsite, Deuterium, Diamond, Helium, Helium-3, Iridium, Magnesite, Olivine, Periclase dunite, Quartz pyroxenite, Ruby, Sapphire, and Thortveitite.
Mining gameplay in Elite Dangerous has also been balanced across several areas, including base mining time, the maximum amount of content that can be mined, the percentage of a commodity unit contained within mined material, the frequency of additional Microresources, efficiency recharge rates and efficiency based on deposit density, and temperature effects on rig efficiency have been adjusted alongside the stats for the Rhino vessel and its mining rigs.
Several new pre-built Rhino packages are on offer. The Rhino Standard costs 16,520 Arx and comes with the Surface Mining Vehicle and the Owners Club Decal, the Rhino Stellar costs 33,000 Arx and includes an Excavation Yellow Paint Job, the Chase Ship Kit and the Owners Club Decal, and the Rhino Galactic costs 60,000 Arx and has all the content from the Stellar version plus the Motherlode Galactic Miner Cosmetic Suit, the Proximity Yellow Holo-Kit Pack and the Deflection Ship Kit Pack.
The Type-11 Prospector Galactic Mining Pack can also be obtained for 100,000 Arx, and it includes a Type-11 Prospector High Spec Galactic Mining Ship, a Rhino Galactic Surface Mining Vehicle, all the Type-11 and Rhino Stellar and Galactic content, as well as the Motherlode Galactic Miner Cosmetic Suit.
A new operation called “Under Siege” has been added, which asks Commanders to respond to a distress signal from a planetary settlement, and players must help lift the blockade and eliminate enemy forces trying to take the settlement.
Alongside the new mining content, the Elite Dangerous update addresses a range of crashes, gameplay problems, visual issues, and equipment bugs. Fixes include crashes related to creating a Powerplay Squad during a hyperspace jump and loading into the CQC menu, as well as an issue that prevented MercGear from being engineered immediately after purchase.
The ability of Capital Ship heat relays to become invulnerable has now been disabled, and several voice-over and text discrepancies affecting the Rapid Response, Firestorm Rescue, and Tactical Takedown Operations have also been fixed. Bundle icons and yellow coloring now appear correctly in the role panel, and the Scarab and Scorpion SRVs will no longer incorrectly show boarding circles when Commanders are on foot.
The Elite Dangerous update also fixes various visual issues, including SRV tire tracks and dust that appeared too dark, the blurry cockpit view on the Kestrel, decals that clashed with the Snowflake/Snowfall paintjob, and the harsh strobing effects caused by damaged settlement lights. Further corrections include the Vessel Hangar terminology, launch animation clipping, the animations of engineering weapons’ stats, placeholder text, and the incorrectly displayed Shipkit livery icons on the Nomad.
Another issue has been resolved which could have caused Docking Requests for the megaship in the Reclamation Point Operation to be rejected after the vessel had been accidentally shelled. It is now possible to engineer the Seeker Missile Rack MercGear with Petra Olmanova.
At the moment, there are three known problems with the update: the Under Siege Operation may sometimes finish early, the on-foot wing UI is currently absent, and the Rhino is currently gathering only nine chunks from surface mining instead of the 12 that are supposed to be there. Frontier Developments states that it aims to fix these issues with a hotfix as soon as possible.
Recently, the game added new ships, including the Lynx Highliner and Operations missions. For more information on Elite Dangerous: Operations and other space simulators, like No Man’s Sky, be sure to check back to Simulation Daily.
