ANNOUNCEMENT Odyssey Update 2021

Hi all,
So, I bought the game from the Frontier website long time ago, now I want to pre-order the Odyssey expansion, but the link re-directs me to Steam. How I`m supposed to buy it non-Steam? Thanks.
 
Greetings Commanders,


We wanted to share an update with you regarding the ongoing development of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey.

2020 was a difficult year for many, but in spite of those challenges we are pleased with our progress towards what is a truly ambitious new era for the game. We’ve been delighted with the excitement and positive response to our development diaries, interviews, streams and trailers and want to thank all of you for your continued support.

The ongoing impact of the pandemic however, including the renewed lockdowns in 2021, continues to put added pressure on our teams and ultimately our development timeline. We have therefore had to make the difficult decision to make some adjustments and changes to our existing development roadmap.

Our PC plans have only been affected by a small amount, however our plans for the console release will unfortunately see a larger development shift. Please do know that these difficult decisions have been made with a focus on making Odyssey as incredible as it can possibly be for all our Commanders regardless of their platform, while also respecting realistic project deadlines for our teams during this difficult global situation.

We would like to sincerely apologise to all of our community. We know you have been waiting patiently and how disappointing and frustrating this must be. With that in mind, we would like to share with you our latest roadmap so that you are fully aware of our plans.


Alpha – early spring 2021
We are continuing with plans to bring Alpha access to our PC players and get boots on the ground. This will now be a little later than originally planned, in early spring.

Much like our original Elite Dangerous release, we will be taking a phased approach to our Alpha, bringing new features and systems online throughout the period. This will allow us to focus and best consider our community feedback while also providing vital user testing on key areas of the game. We will be sharing further information including details of feature drops and Alpha plans as we get closer to release.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey Deluxe Alpha and Lifetime Expansion Pass holders will get access to this release.


PC release – late spring 2021
Following the completion of our Alpha phase we are targeting a full launch on PC in late spring.

As with every era in Elite Dangerous’ history, we will be closely engaging with our community and continuing to react to feedback refining Odyssey through to the console launch.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey pre orders will be able to access the game with this release.


Console release – autumn 2021

After continued feedback, iterations and balancing, we are targeting our release on PlayStation®4 and Xbox One in the autumn of this year.


We understand that for many, this additional delay will be frustrating. Once again, we would like to apologise wholeheartedly to our community, especially our console Commanders. However, as mentioned previously, we feel it is vital to ensure that the content being released on consoles meets the highest standards and this will require this additional extension to our roadmap.

Throughout this time we will continue to bring more news, videos and content of the development in progress. We would like to thank you all for the ongoing support and we are very excited to bring in this new era to the game with you. Your feedback, support and involvement is a vital part of this process and we are looking forward to a shared Alpha experience, which will be touching down very soon.

o7 Commanders
Greetings Commanders,


We wanted to share an update with you regarding the ongoing development of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey.

2020 was a difficult year for many, but in spite of those challenges we are pleased with our progress towards what is a truly ambitious new era for the game. We’ve been delighted with the excitement and positive response to our development diaries, interviews, streams and trailers and want to thank all of you for your continued support.

The ongoing impact of the pandemic however, including the renewed lockdowns in 2021, continues to put added pressure on our teams and ultimately our development timeline. We have therefore had to make the difficult decision to make some adjustments and changes to our existing development roadmap.

Our PC plans have only been affected by a small amount, however our plans for the console release will unfortunately see a larger development shift. Please do know that these difficult decisions have been made with a focus on making Odyssey as incredible as it can possibly be for all our Commanders regardless of their platform, while also respecting realistic project deadlines for our teams during this difficult global situation.

We would like to sincerely apologise to all of our community. We know you have been waiting patiently and how disappointing and frustrating this must be. With that in mind, we would like to share with you our latest roadmap so that you are fully aware of our plans.


Alpha – early spring 2021
We are continuing with plans to bring Alpha access to our PC players and get boots on the ground. This will now be a little later than originally planned, in early spring.

Much like our original Elite Dangerous release, we will be taking a phased approach to our Alpha, bringing new features and systems online throughout the period. This will allow us to focus and best consider our community feedback while also providing vital user testing on key areas of the game. We will be sharing further information including details of feature drops and Alpha plans as we get closer to release.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey Deluxe Alpha and Lifetime Expansion Pass holders will get access to this release.


PC release – late spring 2021
Following the completion of our Alpha phase we are targeting a full launch on PC in late spring.

As with every era in Elite Dangerous’ history, we will be closely engaging with our community and continuing to react to feedback refining Odyssey through to the console launch.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey pre orders will be able to access the game with this release.


Console release – autumn 2021

After continued feedback, iterations and balancing, we are targeting our release on PlayStation®4 and Xbox One in the autumn of this year.


We understand that for many, this additional delay will be frustrating. Once again, we would like to apologise wholeheartedly to our community, especially our console Commanders. However, as mentioned previously, we feel it is vital to ensure that the content being released on consoles meets the highest standards and this will require this additional extension to our roadmap.

Throughout this time we will continue to bring more news, videos and content of the development in progress. We would like to thank you all for the ongoing support and we are very excited to bring in this new era to the game with you. Your feedback, support and involvement is a vital part of this process and we are looking forward to a shared Alpha experience, which will be touching down very soon.

o7 Commanders

I'm just verifying but I assume that all the money the ships everything that you accomplished prior to the Odyssey expansion you will be able to keep, just verifying.

I'm asking because I'm assuming there's going to be lots of new things to purchase and people will be walking into the new expansion with a trillion dollars how are you going to handle that? Are you planning on having some new form of currency?

Thanks
 
Why not take the time to polish up the game by pushing back pc release on par with consoles ? The first few weeks are going to be mess anyway due to all the bugs.
You don't want another petition.

It would have to be in a really bad state for them to defer all that revenue for another 6 months. They've done it this way because of the financials. I don't think they give two hoots about petitions given the majority of players are on PC.

I don't like it either, but that's the reality of it.
 
I wonder if the fallout from "recent other high profile games being released" has caused the approving committees of consoles to demand a longer time for approval.

Nope. Console certification simply doesn't work like that. The platform holders don't do any testing or QA of games - certification is only a vehicle to demonstrate that a new game doesn't brick the console or disable critical functionality.
 
One thing I am confused about and has not been explained, most likely on purpose is why the console releases need 6 extra months of work? What could possible be so very different?

The most likely explanation is that PC is the primary dev platform, and that building and testing against all the different console models they have announced for Oddysey at the same time as building for PC for is simply too much work to do at the same time whilst everyone is working from home.
 
Interesting question: With Odyssey other Commanders are now physically in your ship with multicrew. What happens if they log out? Are they still sitting in my ship like in other mmos where there bodys just laying around sleeping? Right now if we log out we are at the last location we where, even on a planet or in space. But in our ships. With odyssey we don't need our ships anymore, does that mean if someone is logging out while in my ship he will stay there until he comes back or is he just respawning on the last space station or his ship which could be anywhere in space. For example, if we want to explore with another player in multicrew and we are near sag A, then we log out and later back in the game he is lightyears away back in his last location?
With Odyssey we should be able to fly together with friends who are more into walking around than flying a ship, but how does this work when he or she is part of my crew?
 
Last edited:
The most likely explanation is that PC is the primary dev platform, and that building and testing against all the different console models they have announced for Oddysey at the same time as building for PC for is simply too much work to do at the same time whilst everyone is working from home.
Maybe they have to negotiate with the console owners, and it isn't going as well as they would like, hence later delivery date for consoles and no PS5 or new xbox versions in the pipeline.
Maybe.
Pug
 
Hi,

what about hotas/ pads with Odissey? May we have the ability to switch, in game, from a controller to the other one?
You can already do this with key mapping I use a controller for my map, hotas for flight and keyboard for everything else.
Pug
 
Maybe they have to negotiate with the console owners, and it isn't going as well as they would like, hence later delivery date for consoles and no PS5 or new xbox versions in the pipeline.
Maybe.
Pug

One thing we know for sure is that Odyssey isn't feature complete yet. They're way behind schedule based on what Braben said in june.
 
Hi,

what about hotas/ pads with Odissey? May we have the ability to switch, in game, from a controller to the other one?
You can already do this with key mapping I use a controller for my map, hotas for flight and keyboard for everything else.
Pug

He was probably talking about switching controllers on PS4/Xbox.

Since you can have multiple controllers for console games (e.g. local multiplayer) it should be possible to do this. Frontier has gotten that question before and only replied that they will look into it and answer that question later.
 
Wait, there's a HOTAS that works on Xbox? Which one? I feel like I looked this up a year or two ago and found nothing
Thrustmaster VG Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS One - Xbox One
Yep, bought my first (2017) and wore it out, bought another; Thrustmaster has replaced both when various parts failed - their customer service is outstanding. The real problem with HOTAS use in Elite is it is addictive. And once you have used their Warthog HOTAS/Throttle/Pendular Pedals on a PC you really cannot go back. Now, with Warthog setup, TrackIR headtracking and VoiceAttack, I'm looking at high end Gaming PCs (liquid cooling and GTX 3090 graphic card) and I'm afraid to even think about 6D motion simulation. Did I say I love this game? Retired USN ship driver - this is an affordable hobby if you can avoid playing on both PC and console. And yes I pre-ordered Odyssey for my PC account though I have no interest in FPS pew pew, and am hoping I don't have to buy another controller, oh wait, maybe I'll get to use my Xbox Elite Series II controller now.
 
1612453777203.png
 
He was probably talking about switching controllers on PS4/Xbox.

Since you can have multiple controllers for console games (e.g. local multiplayer) it should be possible to do this. Frontier has gotten that question before and only replied that they will look into it and answer that question later.
That makes more sense.
Last console I had was a PS4 do they still have 2 usb ports? as you get 2 key bindings per action.

Or do they only recognise 1 controller per game?
Pug
 
Might not be the right place to ask this but I have a question for the dev questions. I am wondering if on foot players will be able to spot for ships? i.e. Ships would be able to target the area or whatever the on foot points out for them? Cross play maddness... Also... Will rockets or other weapons have splash damage from ship to land? Thanks for the awesome game!
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom