Elite Dangerous: Odyssey | The Road To Odyssey Part 1 - One Giant Leap

[zimms]

So really stupid question incoming...
Go to https://www.elitedangerous.com/odyssey/, scroll a page or so, and we have

One Giant Leap	Forge Your Own Path
Assemble Your Crew	The Sphere Of Combat

Could it be a complete coincidence that the first of the dev diaries was called The Road to Odyssey Part 1 : One Giant Leap ?

I think that's exactly what it is. Stephen also said "Stay tuned for future episodes set to dive-in to combat, missions, environments and co-operative play over the coming months."

"Your crew" here doesn't mean NPC crew, it's about co-op. Only four dev diaries is a bit disappointing after all that time to be honest. It's less than one per month. I'd have hoped they had more to show but it really looks like the bulk of Odyssey is the planetary surface overhaul and giving us exactly the same missions we already have but now on foot.

Oh, and to be fair, it looks like there will be some kind of ingam lobby to wing up and we might be able to talk to NPCs instead of simply seeing their photo on the mission board.

I was hoping for more content. Odyssey was supposed to be a single release but now we get all those "not at launch" comments.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

It stemmed from Odyssey being wishlist-able on Steam when it was revealed - some people leaped to the conclusion that it meant EDO would only be available on Steam

So you are confirming then that the oculus store will sell ED:O then. Thanks for the clarification. Will be the 1st non VR game they ever sold however

I think your sarcastic shrugging is misplaced as I think it was a perfectly reasonable question.

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

Its not Steam only unless you have a firm dev source- I think that stemmed from lack of info during the previous beta I think.

I don’t own an Oculus (thank God based on latest developments), but does Oculus store sell non-VR games?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I'm excited for the updates to planetary surfaces.
I'm excited for new planets to land on.
I'm excited for light atmospheres.

I still don't get space legs, at least not in the current iteration and not compared to so many other, more foundational enhancements to the existing game play.

Likewise here - but Frontier need features which can be made "expansion only" so that people buy the expansion and the company stays funded. They couldn't sell most of your list because it'd have to be available to everyone. (I'm just hoping that after Odyssey we get another Beyond-style free expansion to go back to those features again)

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I think that's exactly what it is. Stephen also said "Stay tuned for future episodes set to dive-in to combat, missions, environments and co-operative play over the coming months."

"Your crew" here doesn't mean NPC crew, it's about co-op. Only four dev diaries is a bit disappointing after all that time to be honest. It's less than one per month. I'd have hoped they had more to show but it really looks like the bulk of Odyssey is the planetary surface overhaul and giving us exactly the same missions we already have but now on foot.

Oh, and to be fair, it looks like there will be some kind of ingam lobby to wing up and we might be able to talk to NPCs instead of simply seeing their photo on the mission board.

I was hoping for more content. Odyssey was supposed to be a single release but now we get all those "not at launch" comments.

It is a single release. We are just not getting everything that could come with elite feet and atmospheric planets. If people expected everything from a small team of around 80-90 Devs and two years then they are living in a fantasy world.

What I expect is parts of what can be done with Elite Feet, but those parts are pretty well done and fully featured.

Whether it will be like that or not is to be seen. I like what I've seen so far, but it's a tiny amount so far.

 

[The Golden Knight]

All I want is to walk around ships and stations. Simple as that. Free or paid, I really don't care...even if I only look around for 10 minutes, it'd be satisfying to stretch those "space legs", and appreciate the hard work that's gone into making that possible.

Oh, and since the rifles are so prominent in all the promotional materials, I'm excited to put those to work!

 

[Pengman19]

What is this....??? Do we really need to destroy every planet that we explore? I mean this thing is huge... Isn't it maybe out of scale?

View attachment 184376

Yeah, I thought it looked quite large myself. Seems it is attached to the backpack, or supposed to be at least. Looks kind of like someone used powerpoint and dragged the image over next to the backpack and called it a day haha. No worries though. All the other images / vids, it seems the scale isn't so egregious.

 

[Arioch]

So you are confirming then that the oculus store will sell ED:O then. Thanks for the clarification. Will be the 1st non VR game they ever sold however

I think your sarcastic shrugging is misplaced as I think it was a perfectly reasonable question.

I’m sorry that you felt my shrug was sarcastic and directed at you MM; it wasn’t - merely that some people leap to erroneous conclusions on limited data.

A bit like taking what I wrote and then saying I confirmed something that I didn’t

To clarify my earlier post, I meant that the “Steam exclusive” posts didn’t seem to consider that FDev’s launcher doesn’t have a wish list function, and the “no VR at launch” meant the Oculus store was defenestrated as well.

 

[Pengman19]

Dear Frontier, not this post does not represent everyone who owns VR. If Odyssey lives up to these videos, I'll buy it, VR or not.

That said, please consider at least giving us VR seats on atmospheric worlds



I'm a VR boy, and I'm kinda embarrassed at how my comrades are behaving... We're not all like this!

Appreciate your attitude. Most of the people on here clamoring for VR are acting like entitled brats. I personally do not play the game in VR-- and I most definitely want Frontier to implement VR for Odyssey-- but it is an "extra" (not necessarily a gimmick), sort of an "icing on the cake" kind of thing, and shouldn't be an expectation or considered required. I think that it will be implemented eventually. I hope it is sooner rather than later so people will shut up about it, but there are FAR MORE important issues with this game the need to be resolved.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I’m sorry that you felt my shrug was sarcastic and directed at you MM; it wasn’t - merely that some people leap to erroneous conclusions on limited data.

A bit like taking what I wrote and then saying I confirmed something that I didn’t

To clarify my earlier post, I meant that the “Steam exclusive” posts didn’t seem to consider that FDev’s launcher doesn’t have a wish list function, and the “no VR at launch” meant the Oculus store was defenestrated as well.

Sorry stressed overworked and tired and pi..ed off that my most played game of all time is quite possibly becoming a game I no longer want to play after dropping the bits which make it the game I love so I guess I am a bit tetchy

 

[vinnieboJ]

It really can’t though. Not in the same way that VR can. It is a completely different level of immersion. May I ask how much playtime in VR you have?

I have already discussed one of the better examples of this: Skyrim. Playing Skyrim on a regular monitor was amazing and I felt I was really in the game. Then I got my first VR headset in an original Vive and the experience of SkyrimVR just blew flatscreen Skyrim completely out of the water.

Granted, but for someone who has only played in 2D, it is just as immersive. And saying that it isn't is saying 2D is inferior. And I strongly disagree with that notion.

 

[PRIORGODHAMMER]

View attachment 184365​

Greetings Commanders,



Make sure you are parked at the nearest Fleet Carrier or station and pour yourself some Lavian Brandy in your favourite Hutton Mug. It is time for the first Elite Dangerous: Odyssey dev diary - One Giant Leap!

We are more excited than the Far God Cult being scanned by a Thargoid to bring you the first devdiary on our road to Odyssey, check it out here:

The first in a series of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey dev diaries One Giant Leap explores how commanders can experience light atmospheres and break new ground with exploration on foot for the first time.

Stay tuned for future episodes set to dive-in to combat, missions, environments and co-operative play over the coming months.



Tonight, we will be streaming a Discovery Scanner episode at 18:00 (UTC) on the Elite Dangerous Official Twitch Channel, to take a deeper look into the dev diary with CEO David Braben, and Senior Designer Derin Halil.


o7

Hi dev,
2 questions-
will we be seeing new geological feature? Such cave, or platueas, or sand dunes, Lava pits, or Fossils

How will ship handle on atmospheric worlds? I'm more inclined towards lumbering movements aspect for Large ships

 

[Pengman19]

TBH I'm more disappointed with what I see in the Dev Diary. Tenuous atmosphere still sounds like a joke in my head and no mention of ship interiors...

It's a first iteration. They will obviously be implementing full atmo planets in the future. They aren't right now because full atmo planets have more vegetation, animals, etc. They are more involved than semi-barren, thin atmo planets they are adding in now. It's the same thing with VR. It's not something they are implementing in the first iteration as there are vastly more important things to address first, not to mention the challenges of adding VR for unseated gameplay. People need to show some respect, understanding and common sense about all of this. I want VR people to have VR. But not at the expense of more important things and definitely not by trying to bully frontier about it. Get a grip!

 

[bluecrash]

I want more elite ranks for cooking, weapon-mods, armor-mods, diplomacy, explosives, first aid, lore-master.

I want experimental mech (mods) that have diff effects for your commander depending on gameplay. Rebirth, resistances to fire, ice, gas, poison.

I want rares to matter more to the Commanders and have uses.

I want to be able to loot corpses that don't have a rebuy for their stuff to be contained for pickup.

I want King and Admiral ranks to mean something for access as well as all the factions you have built a trust with being relevant to a total unlock.

I want parachutes for diving out of the ships at high altitudes to sneak into Thargoid bases that are in the atmosphere and not on the ground.

I want a translator for other beings.

I want more ship and player damage models. You almost completed the damage models on the ANACONDA. Why did you stop there?

I want a special cargo rack that can capture those odd glowing things in space for special experimental effects on armor, weapons, and ship.

I want INRA to be great again - the mycoid virus isn't gone.

I want rare items like halfium and anti-matter containment to be used in actual engine crafting - engineers offering more unlocks.

I want to be able to sell engineered modules to players from my FC.

I want the bank of Zaonce to hold our credits, not the Pilots Federation. And those credits should be transferable and used on a auction house. Think of all the new players Chinese farmers would bring to this game.

I want training scenarios that are historical lore events - like the battle that Jacques lost his body and ended up serving drinks to pay back the investors for 100 years.

I want the CLUB to actually be in the game with a quest chain to unlock.

I want the Dark Wheel to be in the game, with a quest chain to unlock recruitment.

I want there to be unique drops in lore. Because if everyone has something and is special - no one is. Let some legends be born.

I want a grappling hook and caves to explore under the ocean.

I want treasure to hunt. Maps with real hints - no more pointless beacons that a pirate may of hidden a cache.

I want there to be a secondary ARX - legend ARX - you get for free for game completion. All the permits. King Admiral. Visiting all the Generation Ships. Having all the archived commander codex entries, all engineers unlocked, galaxy regions visited, all rares collected, world firsts, allied with 100 factions, all power play items unlocked, power play items should be able to be combined to create another object.

I want these legend ARX to be used to unlock hints to finding more lore. A way point leading to a puzzle to something of relevance.

I want Ian Bell to be funded with a team to develop his own DLC. He was part of the magic - he is missed.

I want SRV options. Passengers, gunnar, more cargo, submarine add on, ammonia resistances, stealth. wall climbing tires.

Mazes. Dungeons. Base Stars. Historical places from the books.

NPC to interact with, to get or give information that would drive a narrative.

Keep the game skill based. Group mechanics and timing, resistances, special engineered weapons and armor needed to pass gear checks in the game. Players should feel like they worked together to solve a puzzle - not that they got the best gear from zerging or time-sinks.

Give players some more badges or medals that other players can see on inspection. Bring the E-Peen envy. You have players that have been playing this version for five years now. New players should know who they can ask questions to.

Keep commander weapons non gimbals.

Have commander damage reflect what they were hit with - flame thrower - or 4A beam laser charred remlok legs left after being hit.

Allow players to steal ships, but put a detonation timer on them - that could last an hour.

Let us be able to find and board a Thargoid/ Guardian Fleet carrier.

Let us have own mining stations that we could pick up cargo once a month. Other players could take them as well if we don't pick hidden planet.

Give us end game content that effects the rest of the galaxy. And updates everyone on squads completing hard goals through the pilot federation computer.

Make things impossible to kill - without using the right tools and squad.

I want monthly side grades to slowly increase our armor or gear from quests that require a party. If you want to keep a player base on a RPG-MMO offer a reason to login monthly that's a side grade, then re-balance with the next years patch to let new players catch up with veteran ones for expansion drops. Take a lesson from Blizzard on keeping a core player group.

I see that most FDEV accounts have not logged in months. Are we forsaken as a player base despite pumping in millions to you in DLC gifts. Lot of us don't care about the DLC and were happy to support your company more given the chance. Add a monthly subscription if that means more interaction from the devs and more story-chain and side grade possibility for logging in each week.

Galaxy wide bounties should be able to be placed on commanders.

A lottery should be added we could opt into daily.

A casino should be added in Shinrata or for purchase in fleet carriers so squad members can gamble their credits among each other while not flying.

 

[zimms]

It is a single release. We are just not getting everything that could come with elite feet and atmospheric planets. If people expected everything from a small team of around 80-90 Devs and two years then they are living in a fantasy world.

What I expect is parts of what can be done with Elite Feet, but those parts are pretty well done and fully featured.

Whether it will be like that or not is to be seen. I like what I've seen so far, but it's a tiny amount so far.

"Not at launch" sounds like there might be content updates for Odyssey. Which would mean it won't be a "single release" after all.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Granted, but for someone who has only played in 2D, it is just as immersive. And saying that it isn't is saying 2D is inferior. And I strongly disagree with that notion.

You need to try it in VR before coming to that conclusion.
It's a bit like a vegatarian who has never eaten meat arguing that Fake bacon (Fakon?) Tastes as good as real bacon.
IF immersion is your number one goal and the experience of being there then VR is leagues better than flat screen (like watching a video of a person sat on a beach or being a person sitting on a beach - all be it with cataracts )
If eye candy is your goal then (up until the reverb or 8kx headsets) then a 4k screen does look nicer than VR.

Note I am trying to be light-hearted and not confrontational . You are free to disagree but you really should try it (or maybe not as it could spoil the game for you going forward)

Back to the video. I really am hoping there is a lot more meat to the expansion than just the new planets... We have only had 1 diary so it could be the case but so far I am worried about what may not be in the expansion rather than what is. (And am forgetting VR here)
Apparently this is the single biggest expansion frontier have ever made for ED. For it to be bigger than the entirity of horizons it needs far more than a couple of new planet types.
I really hope FD don't see ED:O as job done and all goals achieved for ED.

If we are having even thin atmospheres we should need atmospheric effects on our ships, each ship with its own flight model, having to get angle of reentry correct.

I hope to see an end of the fade in fade out transitions from seat to srv

I hope we get some for of EVA in space as well as deralict foraging.

I hope ED:O is expensive. As in £39.99 expensive (PC) as I want it to fund further work on ED but IF it is going to be that then it's going to need a lot of content.

 

[Rochester]

Congratulations Frontier, Odyssey looks amazing.

However, obviously 'feet' isnt going to be what many of your player base had hoped for.

I personally haven't the energy to rant in detail. Just like to say as a backer and someone who's stayed with the game since launch I'm saddened and disappointed that you've consistently missed the point.

Looks great, and Im sure in a years+ time I'll enjoy this addition. But I'm at least relieved the long wait is over so I can stop holding my breath.

What do we really know about Season 4 ED:TNG?

Season 4 - the Next Generation (new Era): Whats on the cards - do we know?

forums.frontier.co.uk

Tenuous Atmospheres: How Will They Work...?

Cursory glance at the "thin" atmosphere descriptor...there is something else at play other than pressure, and I'll have to do a deeper dive because at the low range, they are as expected...all the way down to right at 100 pascals, which confirms the 99.99 pascal limit for landable, however...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

"Not at launch" sounds like there might be content updates for Odyssey. Which would mean it won't be a "single release" after all.

I expect free updates after Odyssey maybe for a year, and then on to the next expansion one year later. I never expected there to not be updates afterwards. Odyssey is still a single release. That's what we pay for, unlike horizons.

If there is anything else after for free, then see that as an added bonus.

People keep talking about walking around your ships, bit for what purpose? We can do everything from the cockpit anyway. I wouldn't mind some small parts of the interior done, but I'm not bothered about the cargos bays and stuff like that, what's the point? Just give me the cockpit/bridge, a crew quarters, the SRV bay and a way to exit with an area to decide on equipement when leaving the ship with corridors connecting them.

For the bigger ships, I would have a turbo lift to get you around to the different parts.

The rest is just unnecessary fluff.

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

Granted, but for someone who has only played in 2D, it is just as immersive. And saying that it isn't is saying 2D is inferior. And I strongly disagree with that notion.

It is inferior in terms of conveying immersion and a feeling of actually being in the game. This is my opinion based on having played first person games both on a monitor and in VR. Even the same game in the case of Skyrim (and that was on the Vive where graphics leave a lot to be desired).

I also see that you ignored my direct question regarding your own VR experience. The only comclusions possible are that you either did not see it or you have none or next to none. In the latter case, it is quite a bold statement to claim that the 2D experience is not inferior without ever having tried the VR experience.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

It really can’t though. Not in the same way that VR can. It is a completely different level of immersion. May I ask how much playtime in VR you have?

I have already discussed one of the better examples of this: Skyrim. Playing Skyrim on a regular monitor was amazing and I felt I was really in the game. Then I got my first VR headset in an original Vive and the experience of SkyrimVR just blew flatscreen Skyrim completely out of the water.

Mate, video games are product mate by a creative industry.

They're literally an art form which in turn means they're subjective.

If you ask me, you've ruined flatscreens for yourself by obsessing over VR so much.

Again, it's not all positives. Everything, and I mean everything, has drawbacks.

Be glad your problem is merely losing sight of video game.