Elite Dangerous is getting a full tutorial and enormous fleet carriers this year

Elite Dangerous is getting two major new features that bracket the spectrum of player experience. At one end, the September update will add a fully-voiced in-cockpit tutorial to the beginning of the game, while on the other, fleet carriers will arrive in December.

Starting with the first of those, the tutorial will give new pilots a reworked opening few hours in the game. An instructor from the Pilots Federation will guide new players through basic flight controls, scanning, supercruise, and navigation. There's a combat exercise, and finally an introduction to hyperspace and docking at a station.

Again, this tutorial will be fully voice acted, and that includes all of Elite Dangerous' supported languages. Players who have already begun their careers as Elite commanders will be able to access this tutorial via their cockpits' right-hand panel under "Training Section," so there's no need to start a new save.

In December, Frontier will be adding Fleet Carriers. These are huge ships that have sixteen landing pads: eight large, four medium, and four small. You'll be able to buy these things using (a large amount of) credits, and once you've got one you'll be able to let your friends land on them to refuel and refit.

Carriers can also be outfitted with several prefab loadouts depending on the role you want to take on. There are loadouts for bounty hunters, miners, search and rescue operations, and trading. They have a jump range of 500 light years, and will require a special fuel resource—which Frontier says we'll find out more about later.