ANNOUNCEMENT Elite Dangerous: Odyssey Announcement

[Dagwit]

Frontier are free to add or remove features from the game.

!'m free not to buy any more cosmetics (must be getting on for £200 by now) until I get atmospheric planets and upgraded graphics on my VR (honestly, I think trying to turn ED into an FPS is a stupid idea and a waste of limited resources, but I don't care about that the way I do about better VR graphics).

Ah, the joys of the free market (includes the freedom to make our point with cash rather than calling each other names)!

 

[Old Duck]

For those who want to walk around the ship, what is the proposed gameplay purpose of this? Other than "it sounds cool".

I quite enjoy walking around my ship, depressurizing the hangar bay, deploying my SRV or SLF through a serious of panel interactions, later to bring these back and repair any damage with my welder.

Other people probably prefer cutscenes, menu "instafix" buttons, and fade-to-black transitions.

 

[FullM3talX]

looking at how horizons was implemented. im expecting the landing on foot part of odyssey to be restricted to players who dont own it, by way of modules. meaning that, those who own odyssey, will propably have access to some sort of a special suite module that will allow us to go outside, while those who dont own it, can still land on planets, watch us walk around, but not participate in the walking action. they can still participate with SRVs though, and ships, in the "sphere of combat"

now from there, you can imagine that you can take that suite module to special engineers only acceccible on foot, and have it engineered with all sorts of modifications. at least that's how i see FD doing it. pure speculation though.

 

[Ghural]

As long as it's fun, I'll pay for it.

Also watching the Star Citizen Fanbois freaking out is the best thing about this expansion so far. You'd think there was some law saying that there can only be one space game that allows you to walk on planets.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

What? CMDRs being upset in the thread that gave them a reason to be upset? What voodoo magic is this?

We anderstand your frustrations VR users, but please do realise that there is way more important things to discuss here aswell. like what sort of content are we getting? it's a little bit selfish of you guys, to keep hammering about this for 70 pages, yelling about how you're only given 1 rather than 2 options with wich to experience the game. while the massive majority of the rest of us only have 1 to begin with.


imagine being served a meal in a restaurant, and you're yelling about lack of forks, and only spoons are given, while not knowing what the meal actually is to begin with. NO FORK NO BUY, before even opening the lid on the meal itself, is what you all guys sound like in this thread. maybe let's unpack the meal first? see what it has to offer? then we look at what we gonna eat it with later. just a thought.

I love a good analogy however this is flawed ... For me at least and I suspect others.... Running with the food analogy it's more like going into a restaurant and ordering a 12oz sirloin and instead getting a few chips and an onion ring. Then when you complain getting told to shut up you can still eat your chips stop whining there are people here who are vegitarian and don't eat meat ... Think of them you selfish entitled whiner.....

(But I only came here for the steak... If I was gonna get chips and nowt else I would have gone to the chippy for £2 and not spent £20 on a sirloin)

That is how important VR is in ED for many of us, it's not the garnish on the side it is the main part.

 

[scholesey]

It is less hyperbolic than it seems. A popular comparison that non-vr players use when trying to conceptualize vr gameplay is to think of it as the same class of experience as Elite with a 3D tv or head tracking, or a giant multi-monitor display, but maybe just a little better. That is, they think of VR as something that 'enhances' the experience of playing flat screen Elite Dangerous. This is understandable, but inaccurate in an important way.

If playing Elite Dangerous on flat screen is like reading a book, then the 'enhancement' class of experiences is like reading the 'deluxe anniversary' version of The Chronicles of Narnia, with glossy pages and lenticular illustrations that move when you move your head. VR is like stepping into the Wardrobe, and coming out with your feet on the snow covered ground of Narnia.

Whether by design or by accident, Frontier's VR implementation manages to accomplish what so many other VR implementations of flat screen games have tried and failed to do, i.e. create an emergent experience that is so much more than the sum of its parts. VR does not enhance Elite Dangerous; it transforms it. The game becomes something different when played in VR, and for many that emergent experience defines their version of Elite Dangerous. For this reason, ED and EDVR are not interchangeable for many.

So yes, when Odyssey launches ED flat screen will still be available, and that is great, but the VR community has lost something valuable and important to us, and I think that it is okay for people to be sad about that.

Very well put.

 

[[VR] Mad Life Crisis]

Which is what you have, right now

You picked that one line out to repeat the same point you've been repeatedly trying to make, over and over again; to detract from the context of my post . The point of that post was in reply to another post, highlighting the stuff that David Braben said in an interview regarding VR in Elite back in April 2014. His enthusiasm as well as saying that they decided to adopt VR from the infancy of Elite's development, is the reason that I gave for the disappointment of players like myself that backed the game during development. I hope people read this and follow the links back to my original post. That may explain a few things, including the original intentions for VR pre release, and the vision that was given that inspired people interested in VR to back the game.

 

[Evil Phil]

i was thinking about getting a VR headset not just for this game I like to play DCS world as well but i have faith they will not just drop VR for Odyssey

 

[Sethiest]

I love a good analogy however this is flawed ... For me at least and I suspect others.... Running with the food analogy it's more like going into a restaurant and ordering a 12oz sirloin and instead getting a few chips and an onion ring. Then when you complain getting told to shut up you can still eat your chips stop whining there are people here who are vegitarian and don't eat meat ... Think of them you selfish entitled whiner.....

(But I only came here for the steak... If I was gonna get chips and nowt else I would have gone to the chippy for £2 and not spent £20 on a sirloin)

That is how important VR is in ED for many of us, it's not the garnish on the side it is the main part.

My post was messed up I was quoting someone else.

 

[Alshain]

If you cant afford it, dont pay for it, simple. Don't rubbish content you cannot afford. Thats like rubbishing someone that can afford a Porsche but only has finance for a Toyota.
Fdev have been giving us free stuff for 5 fricken years man

I haven't a clue what you are on about. I didn't say a thing about what it costs or that I can't afford it.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

Ah Patrick, do you not know, Frontier are never responsible for the decisions concerning their game.

But it was not an API problem with Apple ?

I am quite ignorant on this subject.

But for VR is it Oculus' fault ? ( )

Apple tried to force developers to stop using standard gaming API's and replace that with their proprietary, and only on macOS, "Metal". Frontier weren't going to rewrite their game for that API. But Apple computer owners could still play the game by using bootstrap to run a dual-boot into windows and run Elite that way, ergo their hardware wasn't locked out. Frontier pulling support for VR from the game on the other hand does render the VR players hardware (specifically the headsets) redundant with regards to elite and would be more analogous to frontier pulling support for one of the console platforms, as were they to do that, the players on that platform's games console would become effectively redundant to elite. This might on the face of it sound like a ridiculously hyperbolic analogy, but the typical VR headset is similar money to a games console, so in that context its about right.

Now, were the games support for one or other console platform revoked, there'd be riots in the forum, however, the VR players including myself aren't fully rioting, we are vociferously but politely protesting against the withdrawal of VR from Odyssey. However there are certain contributors taunting & ridiculing us, often with personal insults. We VR player/protesers are 99% sticking to fact based posts, or expressing opinions with supporting information which indicates why our opinions are credible suppositions. But, as we are only human, there will be the odd post where we get embroiled in the clanging matches the baitors seek to start.

No idea, didn't play the alpha, but I did buy the commercial release in jan 2015 when it was only released in December 2014, and there was no VR support, there wasn't even commercially available VR hardware, all that was availble was the Occulus Rift DK2 "developers" kit that cost over £600.

OCR support was patched into the comercial release sometime during 2015, but i can assure you there was no general release for it at launch or Q1 2015, that i know of. But i didnt have any hardware then so it might have been avaiable as a back door developer hack.

TBH it was still a bit of a developer hack to get it to work well in 2016 when i bought my 2nd hand OCR DK2 set off ebay. Any the change from Windows 7 to 8.1 and 10 was big issues with getting ED VR working too.

It certainly wasn't a "menu" option -plug and play in 2014/early 2015 like it is now.

It was baked into Alpha in December 2013 - I can post a youtube video of an interview where David Braben states as much if you need verification of that?

 

[DMC831]

For those who want to walk around the ship, what is the proposed gameplay purpose of this? Other than "it sounds cool".

A little creative thinking can answer that for yourself, do you really need a list of possible gameplay that could stem from players being able to move around their ships? Or even just the opportunity for personal expression, especially with no bases now confirmed to not be on the roadmap. Creating fun things to do inside the ship can be thought of by almost any of us, and simply sell the realism of the world the game inhabits even when not doing something action-y.

I don't think I'm breaking any news that once this is announced as not in the update (IF that is the case, again, I didn't see the post mentioned earlier), people won't be thrilled.

I'd personally be happy if we had new and better mission types, a more fully fleshed out criminal career path and black market interactions, better balance between the careers and engineering stuff-- basically more developed versions of what we currently have. I don't have a personal attachment to Space Legs, though if they can pull it off and actually add new gameplay it'd be neat (and very simple to think up fun possibilities, IF they can do them).

 

[Maggie_Oz]

You picked that one line out to repeat the same point you've been repeatedly trying to make, over and over again; to detract from the context of my post . The point of that post was in reply to another post, highlighting the stuff that David Braben said in an interview regarding VR in Elite back in April 2014. His enthusiasm as well as saying that they decided to adopt VR from the infancy of Elite's development, is the reason that I gave for the disappointment of players like myself that backed the game during development. I hope people read this and follow the links back to my original post. That may explain a few things, including the original intentions for VR pre release, and the vision that was given that inspired people interested in VR to back the game.

He did what he said he would and it isn't going away,

 

[[VR] Mad Life Crisis]

I love a good analogy however this is flawed ... For me at least and I suspect others.... Running with the food analogy it's more like going into a restaurant and ordering a 12oz sirloin and instead getting a few chips and an onion ring. Then when you complain getting told to shut up you can still eat your chips stop whining there are people here who are vegitarian and don't eat meat ... Think of them you selfish entitled whiner.....

(But I only came here for the steak... If I was gonna get chips and nowt else I would have gone to the chippy for £2 and not spent £20 on a sirloin)

That is how important VR is in ED for many of us, it's not the garnish on the side it is the main part.

So well put, Mad Mike.

 

[UberMeg]

VR does not enhance Elite Dangerous; it transforms it.

Exactly. And it's the difference from being outside the game looking in, to being in the game.
It's frankly a wonderful immersive experience and having used it, I wouldn't get anywhere near the same experience looking at a screen.
Still to this day I find myself reaching out to touch the interior of my ship, only to find it's not really there.

 

[Old Duck]

i was thinking about getting a VR headset not just for this game I like to play DCS world as well but i have faith they will not just drop VR for Odyssey

You might be able to pick up a used one at a good price here on the forum!

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

If you cant afford it, dont pay for it, simple. Don't rubbish content you cannot afford. Thats like rubbishing someone that can afford a Porsche but only has finance for a Toyota.
Fdev have been giving us free stuff for 5 fricken years man

People who drive porshes usually do rubbish us in our chevys and hondas. At least thats how its always been around here.

 

[Alshain]

The wording is something like "will not support VR at launch"
But.. if it doesn't eventually support VR, I'm done with ED. VR IS IT. The REAL deal. 2-1/2 D doesn't cut it.

My post isn't about VR it's about changing genres from a space fighter to an FPS. I don't have VR, and I've always believe it would fail as a niche, and I was right.

 

[Dooguk]

i was thinking about getting a VR headset not just for this game I like to play DCS world as well but i have faith they will not just drop VR for Odyssey

There are loads of good VR games. The hardest part is which headset to buy.

 

[Ian Skippy]

For those who want to walk around the ship, what is the proposed gameplay purpose of this? Other than "it sounds cool".

Have you ever watched a sci-fi movie or series, or read a sci-fi novel featuring space ships? Questions like these are the equivalent of pointing at a wheel in 2020 and wondering what possible use such a spherical object could possibly have. "Maybe it looks cool to spin around? Dunno. Must be a pointless thing."

Honestly I get people being skeptical when first confronted with a novel idea the first time someone pioneers it, but you'd expect at some point that people would be intuitively familiar with the concept on their own without needing elaborate explanations. :/