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
- 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
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.
- System: 16,777,214 cube
- Ship size (max): 510 cube
- Local bubble: radius 57,344 sphere
- Planet: radius 24,576 sphere, distance from station 65,536
- Sun: radius 24,576 sphere, distance from planet 65,536 to 458,752 range (based on seed)
- In-system jump: 65,536
- Speed: Units covered per game-code loop
- The space station safe zone
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
|
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
|
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. |
Condition
|
| 30° |
Ambient
|
| >224° |
Fuel scoop
|
| >255° |
Die
|
Flying at a higher speed = faster fuel scoop rate
Bounty Status
| 0 |
Clean
|
| 1-49 |
Offender
|
| 50+ |
Fugitive
|
Bounty Mechanics
| Slaves/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
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
|
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)
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
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
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
- Elegance
- Modularity/Sandbox Design
- Gameplay Density
- Mechanical (skill-based) Progression
- Punish Inattention, not Ineptitude
