‘We're Taking on Passengers at Persephone?’: Introducing A New Ship Class
Historically ships in Elite could be separated into one of three categories; combat ships, traders, or more general multi-role vessels. With Elite: Dangerous we will be adding an entirely new range of ships, specifically designed for transporting passengers.
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The above image represents our current direction for passenger ships, which are meant to evoke the same feeling as a yacht or luxury liner. The two ships above represent the low and middle range passenger ships, named the Dolphin and Orca Class Yachts respectively. As well as these there will also be a third Passenger-Class ship available, which will be the largest in its class and manufactured by the Imperial Gutamaya shipyards.
Passenger ships will generally be lightly armed but fast and luxurious, providing players with the lucrative potential to carry wealthy passengers (assuming you can get your passengers to their destination safely!). This could be in cooperation with other players, by them providing you with an escort, or by risking the journey alone for greater reward. We look forward to sharing more with you on Passenger-Class Ships and how they will work in Elite: Dangerous in future updates.