Elite: Dangerous update adds avatars and multicrew ships

Elite: Dangerous has begun its series of promised updates for the popular space game, the first of which is the addition of customisable character avatars.

Available only for those with the Horizons version of the game on PC or Xbox One, The Commanders update focuses on the first person experience that Elite offers. Your character avatar, known as your ‘Holo-Me’, will be fully customisable, unique to you, and viewable in the game’s new third-person camera suite. Both male and female options will be available, as will a portrait that will be displayed to other players when messaging.

Your Holo-Me will also be visable when playing in ships that support multiple crew members. The Commanders update unlocks a ‘multicrew’ feature on various ships. These changes will allow multiple players to crew a single ship, with distinct roles to play.

“Multicrew co-op in The Commanders gives groups of players the opportunity to fly aboard the same ship, assuming one of three specialized roles,” developer Frontier said within a press release. “At the Helm is the pilot of the ship, while the Gunner handles secondary firing groups from a third-person tactical viewpoint and the Fighter flies into battle from the cockpit of their own ship-launched fighter deployed from the mother ship’s launch bay.”

Along with these major changes, The Commanders brings about a load of other features, including small improvements and bug fixes. Another larger change comes in the form of a new class of space station formed out of hollowed-out asteroids. Not much is known about this space station yet, or if any life will come crawling out of it.

The update is available today.