Those who prefer a cooperative experience with friends over the more or less solo game currently offered by Elite Dangerous are in luck, since at the beginning of the year Frontier Developments will release an update in this regard.
It is currently difficult to play Elite Dangerous in co-op. In fact, unless we create a group and play in private mode, it is very difficult for us to meet players from our friends list in the open world. And once the private game has started, the game does not offer tools to quickly locate our friends, it does not allow the rewards to be shared when destroying a ship among several, and we cannot share the missions either. If two players accept a mission to kill 5 pirates in an asteroid field, even if they go together and shoot the same ships, only the player who launches the last shot will increase his counter and get the full reward.
The same happens with the Unidentified Signal Source, which are generated individually for each player, although several are flying together in a supercross through the galaxy (although in this thread on the Stellar Citizen website they give us some tricks to be able to get out of the way). And the thing about flying “together” is literal, since the game does not mark our friends in a special way on the radar or allows us to create groups within the game, so we will have to coordinate by eye. But we have good news, since all this will be possible with the addition of the Player Wings, which will debut at the beginning of 2015. Possibly, synchronized jumps to hyperspace like the one we see in this video can be performed in a simpler and more automated way.
As we read in the official Frontier forums, a wing is the mechanical ability to group with a small group of players to share the risks and rewards. Although the final result may be different, with more or less functionalities, its goal is to implement the following:
- Improved matchmaking for the wingmen
- Clearer/improved feedback on who our wingmen are and where they are located
- Information shared within the wing
- Mission rewards and shared bounties
- Support for missions inside the wings
As we have commented previously, they should be available at the beginning of 2015, and if Frontier Developments continue to be as scrupulous when it comes to respecting the dates as they have accustomed us, we have no doubt that it will be so. Is anyone joining a Rovian wing?
