AMA - first edition (Arthur, Bruce, Stephen & Paul)

[Arthur Tolmie]

First up, thanks for the AMA! My burning question is regarding Powerplay unsurprisingly- its been five years of no gameplay updates, will it see changes in Odyssey? Sandro Sammarco was the last dev to openly talk about the feature but everyone else seems, well, scared of the topic. There are only so many years of "we have nothing to announce" before you get the impression its been abandoned, and every time we ask about Powerplay there is a deafening silence.

Powerplay is a huge aspect of Elite Dangerous and will be part of Odyssey. In terms of updates, as I mentioned on stream we are looking into this, but it is not a quick fix. Odyssey will be bringing a huge amount features that are the current focus. But Powerplay is not forgotten about, it is very much still on my agenda.

-Arf

 

[Arthur Tolmie]

We all know the galaxy is big, and occasionally you post updates like "0.01% explored so far". But the non-exploration side has interesting numbers too - any chance of cool stats from that side like "X million tonnes of cargo traded today" or "Y million credits of bounties collected across the galaxy" or "today's most popular mission type was Surface Salvage with Z completed" every so often?

I love this idea - let me look into it!

-Arf

 

[Bruce G]

Will tritium yields be upped when mining? They are... 'orrid right now.

We don't have plans to change Tritium yield at the moment, but are open to any suggestions you have.

 

[Bruce G]

If RAXXLA is in ED now, can it be found and accessed by any commander now.

[REDACTED]

 

[Stephen Benedetti]

Q. What plans if any do you have to support cross platform play / saves ?

We have nothing to announce about cross platform or play/saves at this time. Thanks for the question!

 

[CMDR John Riddler]

Hello and thanks for getting the AMA up and running, it's a great opportunity!

I was wondering if you could let us know about the status of a potentially broken crash site scenario at Colonia 5 e a involving the unique cargo "Unstable Data Core"?

While unique this cargo seems to have no purpose other than to sell, despite it being linked to one of the old unsolved mysteries in the game. As we don't know if this behaviour is intended, an issue tracker post wouldn't fit the issue and there is also an existing bug report about this cargo (and the location of the crash site) posted some time ago that was marked as "resolved" with follow-up questions about the nature of the fix going unanswered. We don't want to know where to take it, just if it does work as intended in the Live game.

Thank you for your time!

 

[Bruce G]

Will Dredger mega ships ever reappear? They were very nice in the 2.4 beta launch times.

We LOVE the Dredgers...maybe they'll see a comeback.

 

[govny]

1) will you ever give the possibility to buy commander slots instead of being forced to make a new account to have a new commander?

2) will there be an helmet HUD in odyssey? and will you have some kind of holographic personal display to read information when you are on foot?

3) any plan to add another rank to acknoledge the one that already have greatly surpassed the Elite rank?

 

[Sensei Jacksama]

Since I'm only allowed one question I'll revise mine and ask is Raxxla accessible for anyone in game or do we need to do something to gain access?

 

[Paul_Crowther]

Can you please share some info about any plans for an updated/enhanced version of Elite: Dangerous for the new generation of consoles, PS5 and XBox Series X?

We don't currently have plans for enhanced versions of Elite Dangerous but you can enjoy Elite Dangerous on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X via backwards compatibility.

 

[Bruce G]

Q: Are there plans to fully integrate VR into Odyssey in the future or will we only ever have the virtual flat screen workaround?

Hi Marrs, our VR plans are still as we've stated with full integration a possibility in the future but unconfirmed.

 

[SimpleDoc]

Bright stars to you, Creators!

I have studied the first changes in the pricing policy of the Mining and, along with the others, I expect further developments.

At the same time, I want to offer you an alternative option for pricing:
Experienced Commanders will be satisfied, and new players will not get a way to earn money too quickly.

The principle can be applied to all activities in the Galaxy. Here is an example of mining:

if you introduce an additional system of skill ranks in mining, the New Commander will not be able to get everything at once.

Stations will pay less to a low-skilled mining specialist.

And the Commander who spent many days on mining, and pumped his skill, will be considered an Elite and get the maximum reward for high-quality ore.

In this way, mining will be fairly paid relative to the time spent, but will not allow a novice to become a tycoon without the corresponding expenditure of time and labor.

 

[Bruce G]

Since I'm only allowed one question I'll revise mine and ask is Raxxla accessible for anyone in game or do we need to do something to gain access?

[REDACTED]

 

[TomS]

Will there be an Odyssey Beta? If yes - any indication when?

 

[gosxicotet]

Hello!
Is there news for a possible crossplay with pc, ps4 and xbox?
Thank you.

 

[Stephen Benedetti]

Bruce, Bruce, Bruce.... Greetings, just two questions if you'd be so kind in responding.

Q1
Can i ask if we will get C1 seismic charges, and C1 plasma accelerators and AX weapons so certain ships that CMDRs like are not excluded from content that's been in the game for ages now?

(namely the Type 7, type 6, Dolphin etc.)

the Small Seismic Charge foundation would love to hear from you, we have created a shrine and offering in homage to hopefully getting an answer on this deeply troubling issue.

You can most certainly ask and we will pass your feedback on to the development team.

Q2
Ship interiors, has any more thought been given on how we transition to legs, regarding the Neil Armstrong moment and actually getting up out of your chair and walking to the air lock and out of the ship rather than a fade to black. Because for me the whole Neil Armstrong moment is going to be ruined by a fade to legs.

I need to walk from my cockpit and to the door or not at all, any thoughts on this are welcome, also i understand if you cant tell us on this one!

We have no update on ship interiors or transitions at this moment and time. When we have any news or changes we will update everyone on our social channels.

 

[Paul_Crowther]

Hi all, thanks for the AMA!

Q: Are we going to see a Polish localisation of the game? It was confirmed in one of the early newsletters, but we've not seen it so far and there has been no concrete answer from Frontier whenever the Polish community asks the question. It would be good to have a confirmation one way or another. Thanks

This is something we're very aware of and are looking into but we don't have anything to announce right now.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Powerplay is a huge aspect of Elite Dangerous and will be part of Odyssey. In terms of updates, as I mentioned on stream we are looking into this, but it is not a quick fix. Odyssey will be bringing a huge amount features that are the current focus. But Powerplay is not forgotten about, it is very much still on my agenda.

-Arf

Thanks for your reply.

I have to say I read what you say as no change in EDO then with 'huge amount features that are the current focus' which, in short is disappointing after all this time. I get new features are the main focus, but, Sandos proposed changes (if you will be making them 'as is') amount to formula changes (bar one) talked about two years ago. Even looking at rank bonuses in the balance updates would be something, but it seems even that is asking the impossible.

 

[Bruce G]

Hello and thanks for getting the AMA up and running, it's a great opportunity!

I was wondering if you could let us know about the status of a potentially broken crash site scenario at Colonia 5 e a involving the unique cargo "Unstable Data Core"?

While unique this cargo seems to have no purpose other than to sell, despite it being linked to one of the old unsolved mysteries in the game. As we don't know if this behaviour is intended, an issue tracker post wouldn't fit the issue and there is also an existing bug report about this cargo (and the location of the crash site) posted some time ago that was marked as "resolved" with follow-up questions about the nature of the fix going unanswered. We don't want to know where to take it, just if it does work as intended in the Live game.

Thank you for your time!

We don't have information about that particular site to hand. If the bug was resolved but the secret of the content kept secret, it would seem to be working as intended and left for you to investigate.

 

[optiplex]

Any news on a fix for the PWS