User:TheCiscoKid

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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. 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

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
Lasers
Type Power Pulse
Pulse 15 10
Beam 15 0
Mining 50 50
Military 23 0

Every frame:

  • Pulse Counter -2
  • Laser temperature +8 if firing (overheats if >= 242), -1 if not
  • Energy -1

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*
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
  • Narcotics fluctuates in steps of 8 (0, 8, 16, etc...)
  • Gold, platinum and gem-stones don't occupy cargo space.

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

Mining

Destroying an Asteroid with a Mining Laser spawns 0-3 Splinters.

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

AI

Tactics
AI enabled 0-1
Hostile 0-1
Aggression level 0-63
E.C.M. 0-1
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

Spawn Logic

Main Loop Spawn Logic: 

Every 256 frames (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% ECM
|   | ├─50% Docking/Hostile
|   | ├─16-31 Speed
|   | └─0-63 Aggression
|   └─50% Non-Trader
|     ├─98.8%
|     | ├─50% Asteroid
|     | ├─48% Boulder
|     | └─2% Cargo Canister
|     └─1.2% Rock Hermit [ECM]
└─87%
  ├─if random (0-255) >= BAD
  | └─Viper [1 missile, speed 32, 4% ECM, aggression 32-63]
  ├─0.4%
  | ├─96.8% Thargoid [6 missiles, speed 39, ECM, 63/63 aggression]
  | └─3.2% Cougar [4 missiles, speed 27, ECM, 60/63 aggression, no AI]
  ├─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]
  | ├─4% ECM
  | └─32-63 aggression
  └─39% Bounty Hunter [Cobra Mk III (pirate), Asp Mk II, Python (pirate), Fer-de-Lance]
    ├─22% ECM
    └─32-63 aggression

Tactics Spawn Logic: 

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

Station
├─6.2% (if Hostile) Viper [max 7, ECM, 56/63 aggression]
└─0.8% (if non-Hostile and no Transporters)
    ├─50% Transporter
    └─50% Shuttle
Rock Hermit
└─22% Sidewinder, Mamba, Krait, Adder or Gecko [ECM, 56/63 aggression]
Anaconda
└─22%
  ├─61% Worm [56/63 aggression]
  └─39% Sidewinder [56/63 aggression]
Thargoid
└─90% (if less than half Energy)
  └─if random (0-31) < Missiles
    └─Thargon [63/63 aggression]

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)

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

Sun and Planet Size

While the sun and planet share a fixed size regardless of solar system in the original Elite, both of these values could theoretically be derived in a vanilla-compatible manner:

  • Sun size: A random number between 80 and 255 determines the size of the point on the system charts (see: TT22)
  • Planet size: The Average Radius figure on the System Data screen (see: TT25)

Of course, as the sun and planet's size, the distance between them, and the 'Goat Soup' description are derived independently, this is unlikely to yield realistic results.

Elite Source Code Family Tree

BBC Micro (Cassette)   [1984]
├─ Acorn Electron      [1984]
├─ BBC Micro (Disc)    [1984]
│  └─ Elite-A (Angus Duggan)            [1993]
│     └─ Elite-B (Dr Beeb)              [2014–2018]
└─ 6502 Second Processor (Tube Elite)   [1985]
   ├─ Commodore 64                      [1985]
   │  └─ Elite 128 (Ullrich von Bassewitz)   [1998]                       
   ├─ Apple II                          [1986]
   │  └─ BBC Master                     [1986]
   └─ NES (PAL)                         [1991]

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

Design Principles

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

Resources

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