So, Frontier have announced something

that could genuinely change how Elite

plays at its very core. They're calling

it a feature reboot, and it's set for a

2026 release. Now, they specifically

connected this to a core system that

touches on many aspects of the game. And

that tells us that this isn't a minor

tweak. It's not a balanced past. This is

something that should go far deeper. In

fact, Monte themselves said that this

change is deeply situated in the core of

the late. And yes, that means as 2026 is

shaping up to be a very good year for

the game. With operations set to arrive

shortly and big plans for later in the

year, it sounds as though Elite is

heading in the right direction. So

today, I'm going to run through some

ranked guesses at what Frontier are

planning. And whilst I'm doing that,

please do the same. Go to that comment

box whilst I'm talking and leave a

comment. Would you feel Frontier most

likely going to reboot as a core feature

for Elite? What would you like to see?

what you most expect them to do. And as

you type in that, do keep in mind that

reboot is a very strong word. It's not

update, it's not rework, it's not even

improve. It actually tells us Frontier

going deep on this and not just tweaking

around the edges. So, let's start with

the one I think is most likely. And I

think many of you will probably agree. I

suspect it's very likely that Frontier

are going to be looking at the

background simulation of the BGS and

this is going to get a complete reboot

partially because this is a core system

to Elite almost everything expands out

from this central point and also because

if you reboot the background simulation

you effectively overhauled the entire

game in many distinct ways. And as I go

through these ideas I'm going to give

the odds for each one of them. I'd place

the background simulation, the BGS

reboot, at a 65% chance that this is

going to happen. And this is my personal

speculation. What do you think? Do you

agree? Do you disagree? Ultimately, this

is the beating heart of Elite Dangerous.

It drives the economies. It drives

factions. It even touches into

colonization, conflicts, and much more

with the game itself. And more than

that, this actually connects very well

with what Frontier said about the core

reboot being deeply situated within the

game and impacted many parts of the

game. To me, this screams the BGS. But

the bigger question is, how would such a

reboot work? Well, here's what I'd like

to see. Very simply put, I'd like to see

the background simulator and made real.

So right now it exists as kind of a

spreadsheet in the background and we see

the actions and results of that

spreadsheet each week as the tick

happens and the galaxy updates. But what

I like to see is something far more

physical. I want to move from a pure

datadriven aspect of the game to

something you can actually see and

interact with in real space. And hey,

listen. I know exactly what you're

saying here. How is that going to work?

What would that look like in game? Well,

it's pretty straightforward. it would

look physical. So if a system is in a

boom, instead of just seeing a boom on

the economy, what we'd actually see is a

whole ton of cargo ships and transport

ships inside that system. You'd see a

lot more traffic at stations and around

planets. Conflicts would be a lot more

interesting. And instead of just having

a few conflict zones, we should have

battle lines forming a front line in the

system that would change a dayto-day

with your real impact, your real

fighting actually moving that line back

or forward depending on how you sign in

with that. And rich systems, well, they

should actually feel rich. We should see

much better quality ships in those

areas. And poorer systems should feel

poor. Maybe broken infrastructure and

fewer ships, visible decay, in other

words. How does that sound to you? So

yeah, there's a lot that could be done

with the background simulation. And of

course, all of this should be built

around the idea of making the system far

less opaque than it is right now. Bit

more transparent and giving people ideas

of missions on exactly what they need to

do to achieve specific results. Next up,

I think the next most likely fix would

be a Crime and Punishment. I've put the

odds here at around about 20%.

So Crime and Punishment has been

absolutely broken for a long time now.

It's absolutely terrible in my opinion.

And that's not because Elite Dangerous

is a bad game, but it's simply because

it's very opaque, very difficult, and

well, it can quite easily make mistakes

and find yourself attracting a load of

bounties, security problems, and uh many

other issues as well. The issue with the

crime and punishment in Elite Dangerous

is that for the most part, in my

opinion, it attacks and attracts and

targets the wrong people. It targets

most players who have to play it safe

and really doesn't penalize the people

it should be punishing. Yes, it's fair

to say that Elite Dangerous is a harsh

galaxy, but how many times have you

clipped a ship exiting the docking

docking ring and uh yeah, had a fine and

then struggled to pay that off because

you've got to go to the right location,

especially if you only noticed that fine

at a much later date. You know what? I

don't suppose I need to go into too much

detail here. Ultimately, anyone who's

played Elite Dangerous for any length of

time will know that Crime and Punishment

in the game is not really a fit for

purpose. So, I put this one relatively

high up the list because it is a broken

feature, but I put it down lower because

I don't feel like Crime's punishment

ties into absolutely every aspect of the

game, unlike the background simulation.

Lower down, we come to the next

potential reboot. This would be the

mission system. I put the odds at this

at around about 10%, although I'd like

this one to be much higher. So

ultimately, for a very long time now,

many people have asked for better

missions. And whether they just want

multi-stage missions, I do feel that uh

operations is a step towards the right

direction on this. But obviously, it

does seem as though that is a completely

separate system. But let's look at it

this way. A reboot could absolutely fix

the repetition and low rewards that we

have in the mission system right now, as

well as all the clutter that's actually

there. So, couple examples here. Chained

multi-stage missions. You can start with

a data scan or investigation and then

progress to chases, combats, or even

rescue missions across different

systems. This would feel like a little

bit of a story, like a mini campaign

rather than just isolated tasks. Then

we'd have some dynamic ties perhaps with

the background simulations. Missions

here would be generated from the galaxy

station. Yes, I know they are right now,

but I feel this could be far more

apparent. But also we could see more

variety and hybrid mission types where

actually you need different ships to

achieve different targets. Smaller,

nimble ships for type of infiltration

missions perhaps, as well as the big

chunky ships where you need more armor.

There's a lot that could be done with

this and make it a lot more integrated

into how Elite actually works. And

finally, we come to the trade system.

I'd love to see a trade overhauled. This

is a thing I'd most like to see out of

all of these four items in this part of

the list, but I'd put this down at 5%

because I suspect Fontia would probably

prefer to focus on other things first.

Nonetheless, a tra improved trade system

would open up dynamic global supply

chains. For example, we'd start seeing a

real-time supply and demand that

actually shifts all across the galaxy.

Examples here would be a war of blocking

routes, booms actually creating

shortages and well, your plans actions

would then start visibly impacting the

prices and states at various different

stations and systems. And yes, this

happens right now to a degree, but is it

is simulated rather than actualized. I'd

also like to see a lot more of the

trading system tools built directly

inside the game. We really shouldn't be

relying on tools that are outside of the

game. All of that should be directly

inside the game and we should have a big

improvement to the UI system, the

trading UI interface that would really

carry all of that. Something I'd really

like to see. So, those are the systems

that I most expect to see that are going

to be changing for the upcoming reboot.

But there's also another section here,

things that we'd like to hope for. These

are the dream scenarios, the stuff that

to me would make, well, 2026 a legendary

update, legendary year for Elite

Dangerous. I'll go through each of these

very, very quickly because I don't want

to focus on them too heavily because I

feel they're probably fairly unlikely at

this point. At the top of the list, of

course, you know me, would be

exploration. I'd love to see a whole

load more stuff introduced in including

black hole accretion discs, comets,

supernovas, better and improved nebula

and many more things besides. And if we

go down on the planets and current

planets, well caves would be a good

start, but also opening up new planets

such as atmospheric worlds and added in

volutric clouds, not to mention water,

rivers, seas, all that sort of stuff, as

well as forests and other flora. That of

course is a bit much to hope for perhaps

but still something I'd really like to

see. Then we come to multi crew. Now

multi crew still could do with a lot of

improvement here. Ultimately I'd like to

see group play that doesn't suck but you

know maybe fingers crossed this is

what's going to happen with the

operations update set for the April

release. And then engineering I think

this one could do with a massive

overhaul. It needs to be pulled out of

the game and completely rebooted. And

who knows, maybe this exactly is what

Frontier are thinking of. Bless Grind

and more fun would definitely be the way

to go on this one. At any rate, there's

my take on what might be coming on Elite

Dangerous in 2026 as Frontier start

rebooting one of the core features.

Again, let me know in the comment

section below. What are you thinking is

going to be the most likely change? And

also, do you think I'm wrong in this

list here? Let me know in the comment

section below. I'd love to hear from

you. Do check out the other video on the

screen right here.