The next update to Elite Dangerous is now online and Frontier Developments have posted the patch details on their forums which you can see here. The brief version covering what I think are the notable changes:

• The Main Menu has been updated – it’s not changed much in a long time so probably deserved a refresh.
• Pilot’s Federation District – the new training area only available to new or starting players. Once you rank up and leave the area you can’t return. It’s like having a beefier training mode that takes the initial tutorials and gives players a chance to put all that they’ve learned into safe use.
• Flight Assistance enhancements – there’s the new Advanced Docking Computer module that handles takeoffs and Supercruise Assist module for controlling system travel. In addition there’s a new section on the ship tab that allows these to be toggled on/off as well as rotational correction and hyperspace dethrottle (many players will like this one).
• Training simulations from the cockpit – instead of having to exit the main game you can rerun training from within it. For players like me who might focus on specific disciplines for a long time this is a great way to quickly refresh other skills.

Over 800 bug fixes and improvements were made according to the post so the developers have been VERY busy in getting this release done. There is a very clear focus here on making that early game experience less intimidating and hopefully this helps. The new modules are a big deal – I’ve seen people lose interest in the game pretty quickly after crashing their new ship after the first 15 minutes of playing and having these would have avoided that problem. Being able to automatically decelerate after a jump is a nice addition as I still get caught out by neutron stars from time to time.

A few days ago Frontier also put a video up (jump to the 13 min mark for the start) that went into detail on what to expect in the update and you can see that below:

Elite Dangerous is out now for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Please fly safely and try to park your ship between the lines.