User:TheCiscoKid

Elite

Galaxy and system seeds

• System Name
• Species (either Human Colonials, or an alien species that consists of up to three adjectives and a species name):
  • Adjective 1: Large, Fierce, Small
  • Adjective 2: Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, Harmless
  • Adjective 3: Slimy, Bug-Eyed, Horned, Bony, Fat, Furry
  • Noun: Rodents, Frogs, Lizards, Lobsters, Birds, Humanoids, Felines, Insects
• Description ("Goat Soup")
• Economy: Rich Industrial, Average Industrial, Poor Industrial, Mainly Industrial, Mainly Agricultural, Rich Agricultural, Average Agricultural, Poor Agricultural
  • Market item prices and availability
• Government: Anarchy, Feudal, Multi-Government, Dictatorship, Communist, Confederacy, Democracy, Corporate State
  • If the Government is Anarchy or Feudal, the Economy can't be Rich.
  • Tech Level, Population, Gross Productivity and Average Radius are derived from Economy and Government.
• X/Y Coordinates
• Planet/Sun Position

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A sense of scale

Our ship is always at the center of the Elite universe, the planet and the sun actually move relative to us in the opposite direction to our flight path while our ship stays at the origin. Similarly, our ship's speed gets subtracted from the z-coordinates of all other ships in the bubble, thus effectively moving our ship forwards by pushing everything else back. This is also why space junk comes along for the ride when we jump, as it stays with us in our stationary local bubble.

• System: 16,777,214 cube
• Ship size (max): 510 cube
• Local bubble: radius 57,344 sphere
• Planet: radius 24,576 sphere, space station safe zone radius 49,152, distance from station 65,536
• Sun: radius 24,576 sphere, heat radius 65,536, distance from planet 65,536 to 458,752 range (based on seed)
• In-system jump: 65,536
• Speed: Units covered per game-code loop

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Equipment

Equipment

Item	Price	Tech Level
Fuel (0.1ly)	2.0 Cr	1
Missile	30.0 Cr	1
Large Cargo Bay	400.0 Cr	1
E.C.M. System	600.0 Cr	2
Extra Pulse Lasers	400.0 Cr	3
Extra Beam Lasers	1000.0 Cr	4
Fuel Scoops	525.0 Cr	5
Escape Pod	1000.0 Cr	6
Energy Bomb	900.0 Cr	7
Energy Unit	1500.0 Cr	8
Docking Computer	1000.0 Cr	9
Galactic Hyperspace	5000.0 Cr	10
Extra Military Lasers	6000.0 Cr	10
Extra Mining Lasers	800.0 Cr	10

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Market

Market items

Item	Price (base)	Economic factor	Quantity (base)	Fluctuation
0 (Food)	19	-2	6	0-1
1 (Textiles)	20	-1	10	0-3
2 (Radioactives)	65	-3	2	0-7
3 (Slaves)	40	-5	226	0-31
4 (Liquor/Wines)	83	-5	251	0-15
5 (Luxuries)	196	8	54	0-3
6 (Narcotics)	235	29	8	0-120 (steps of 8)
7 (Computers)	154	14	56	0-3
8 (Machinery)	117	6	40	0-15
9 (Alloys)	78	1	17	0-31
10 (Firearms)	124	13	29	0-7
11 (Furs)	176	-9	220	0-63
12 (Minerals)	32	-1	53	0-3
13 (Gold)	97	-1	66	0-7
14 (Platinum)	171	-2	55	0-31
15 (Gem-Stones)	45	-1	250	0-15
16 (Alien items)	53	15	192	0-7

Note: Gold, platinum and jewels don't occupy cargo space.

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Scooping

Cargo Scooping

Cargo canister	Random (0-6)
Escape pod	Slaves (3)
Alloy plate	Alloys (9)
Splinter	Minerals (12)
Thargon	Alien items (16)

Fuel Scooping

Temp.	Distance	Condition
30°	>32,768	Ambient
>224°	<32,768	Fuel scoop
>255°	22,016	Die

Flying at a higher speed = faster fuel scoop rate

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Bounty

Bounty Status

0	Clean
1-49	Offender
50+	Fugitive

Bounty Mechanics

Slaves	+2 per ton
Narcotics	+2 per ton
Firearms	+1 per ton
Killing cops	+64
Hyperspace	Halves bounty
Galactic Hyperspace	Resets to 0
Escape Pod	Resets to 0

Bounty Hunters and Cops go after Fugitives

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AI

Tactics

AI enabled
Hostile
Aggression level	0-255
E.C.M.	Has E.C.M.

Advanced tactics

Trader	Flies toward planet
Bounty hunter	Becomes Hostile to Fugitives
Hostile	Attacks on sight
Pirate	Attacks on sight, respects safe zone
Docking	Flies toward station
Innocent bystander	Station spawns cops if attacked in safe zone
Cop	+64 bounty if killed (instant Fugitive)
Escape Pod	Has escape pod

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Spawn Logic

Main Loop Spawn Logic:

Every 256 main loop iterations (if not in Witchspace):

• 13%
  • if < 3 JUNK (Escape Pod, Alloy Plate, Cargo Canister, Boulder, Asteroid, Splinter, Shuttle or Transporter)
    • 50% Trader (Cobra Mk III, Python, Boa, Anaconda)
    • 50% Non-Trader
      • 98.8%
        • 50% Asteroid
        • 48% Boulder
        • 2% Cargo Canister
      • 1.2% Rock Hermit
• 87%
  • If random (0-255) < Bounty
    • Viper
  • 0.4%
    • 96.8% Thargoid
    • 3.2% Cougar
  • If government 1–7:
    • 53% no spawn
    • If random (0–7) < government; no spawn
  • 61% Pirates (Sidewinder, Mamba, Krait, Adder, Gecko, Cobra Mk I, Cobra Mk III, Worm)
  • 39% Bounty Hunter (Cobra Mk III (pirate), Asp Mk II, Python (pirate), Fer-de-Lance)

Tactics Spawn Logic:

Every main loop iteration (applied to 1-2 ships depending on value of main loop counter in MCNT):

• Station
  • 6.2% (if Hostile) Viper (max 7)
  • 0.8% (if non-Hostile and no Transporters)
    • 50% Transporter
    • 50% Shuttle
• Rock Hermit
  • 22% Sidewinder, Mamba, Krait, Adder or Gecko
• Anaconda
  • 22%
    • 61% Worm
    • 39% Sidewinder
• Thargoid
  • 90% (if less than half Energy)
    • If random (0-31) < Missiles
      • Thargon

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Witchspace

• 0.78% chance of misjumping
• Fuel is spent prior to misjump
• Can only escape via hyperspace (or escape pod in Disc version)
• In-system jumps and escape pod (in 6502 versions) are disabled
• No planet/sun/space station, reduced stardust particles (max. 3)

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VERSION DISCREPANCIES:

Case	Cassette	Disc	6502	Later
Escape Pod in Witchspace	Death	Yes	Disabled	Disabled
Energy Bomb kills Thargoids	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Energy Bomb vs. Constrictor	Yes	Yes	No	No
Cougar Cloaking Device	-	-	No	Yes
Kill Count by Ship Type	No	No	No	Yes
Kill Count for Non-Ships	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

Elite 2 (Unreleased)

• "We had spaceships flying about, filled planets." - David Braben, 1992 The One Interview
• "I had been working on various 3D landscape algorithms on the (old) BBC Micro for the Elite sequel, each being either too slow, or not looking good." - David Braben, 1987 The Micro User Interview
  • Using Fourier synthesis to generate a 3D landscape using simple trigonometry

Elite-A

• IFF Scanner
• Encyclopedia Galactica
• Buying ships
• Special cargo missions

ArcElite

"Our philosophy behind Archimedes Elite was simple: the player should not be the centre of attention. To put this into practice, every object іп space has its own mission. A ship's behaviour in space was out of our control as soon as the game's ship ‘director’ had selected them for inclusion in a particular scene. For the first time in Elite, ships fought each other. Sometimes we'd fly out to the sun and see 30 or 40 pirates at war, only to be stopped by a band of Police Vipers with their unique white lasers. We also introduced ships flying in formations: Missionaries in herds, Mambas huddled in groups to protect wealthy pirates; Vipers in sixes and sevens." - Clive Gringras Interview, Acorn User Sept 1995

Elite Source Code Family Tree

BBC Micro (Cassette)   [1984]
├─ Acorn Electron      [1984]
├─ BBC Micro (Disc)    [1984]
│  └─ Elite-A (Angus Duggan)            [1997]
│     └─ Elite-B (Dr Beeb)              [2014–2018]
└─ 6502 Second Processor (Tube Elite)   [1984/1985]
   ├─ Commodore 64                      [1985]
   │  └─ Elite 128 (Ullrich von Bassewitz)   [1998]
   ├─ NES (PAL)                         
   ├─ Apple II                          [1985/1986]
   └─ BBC Master                        [1986/1987]

ZX Spectrum (Torus, Ricardo Pinto)      [Nov 1985]
├─ Novosibirsk Elite (Vladimir Kladov)  [1992–93]
│  └─ Elite Legend (PLM)                [2021]
├─ Amstrad CPC (Torus)
└─ Tatung Einstein (Merlin) 
MSX (Mr. Micro, Rob Nicholson)          [1987]

Design Principles

"The code is more what you'd call guidelines, than actual rules." - Captain Barbossa

• Bushnell's Law
• Intrinsic Motivation
• Tactile/Kinaesthetic Satisfaction
• Flow state/the zone
  • Why Do We Blast?!
  • Zoner Games/Zoning
• Elegance
  • Minimize Context Sensitivity
  • Maximize Gameplay Parity
• Modularity/Sandbox Design
• Gameplay Density
• Mechanical (skill-based) Progression
• Punish Inattention, not Ineptitude

Resources

• Frontier Elite II paper models
• Amtix Nov 1986 Ricardo Pinto Interview
• interview about Elite Z80 conversions (Ricardo Pinto)
• Berihn: Frontier Elite Ship Plans
• Elite ZX Spectrum GameTripper Article By Dark Blue Monkey