An upcoming update to the modern spacefaring game Elite: Dangerous will introduce what its creators are calling "Community Goals," which are custom objectives built specifically to give all players a common purpose.

It appears that these new community events will have a narrative attached to them, and could encourage players to direct their ships to the same location. Depending on the type of objective, fellow players could consider each other potential help or threats to their goals.

"Community Goals are a new type of story-driven collaborative event," said executive producer Michael Brookes, in an interview with PC Gamer.

"Already players are working together to influence the power struggles in our galaxy, but Community Goals are a shared objective we can generate to allow vast numbers of players to collaborate towards the same goal."

Community Goals will be introduced in the 1.1 patch, which will be issued to beta testers first, and then is expected to ship to the wider player base in early February.

As an model of how Community Goals could work, Brookes offers an example of a system dealing with a sudden famine: "A Community Goal will be created to supply the food within a set time limit, and if the players achieve the goal then they’ll save the population. And whether they succeed or fail will have ramifications for the balance of power in the galaxy."

The first wave of Community Goals will be centred on supply and bounties.

"For example, a faction might task our pilots with racking up a number of kills in a particular system, effectively sending massive numbers of players to war for or against particular group," Brooks said.

Other additions to the 1.1 patch includes a new shader that gives a more flattering view of the giant gas giants suspended within the Milky Way.

"You can see giant canyons in the gases of Jupiter and high level white clouds floating over Neptune," Brookes claimed.

"We also have city lights on the dark side of planets, which is something the community and the development team has been looking forward to for some time."

Elite Dangerous launched worldwide on December 16. Brookes pledged that the game would continue to benefit from regular updates and patches.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com