Odyssey trailer - thoughts?

That's true. The incoming FPS gamers will be critical about the gameplay as well.



If you don't like what someone else says, you can ignore it instead of moaning that people shouldn't give negative feedback.
It works both ways - If you didn't like what you saw you can ignore it instead of shooting down a very early gameplay build which was only shown because everyone wanted to see it so much. It wasn't polished or finished, but that's fine because they said its an early, unpolished build and has been cut together from many clips.
 
Classic computer game logic - install surveillance system that detect and personalize illegal discharge of weapons, don't install surveillance system that goes WAAAA when someone trespasses where they aren't meant to go. :D

(not really complaining about that detail tho, computer games need to be entertaining and you need this kind of loopholes).
In the demo, we did see that they got bounties for tresspassing. I am not sure without looking closely if it occurred right when they passed the 'restricted area' banner or when the NPC was killed inside.

All that being said, it's not impossible to add future mechanics to allow hacking the panel they cut open to fake their clearance to the restricted area. It would be a higher difficulty task with greater risk of failure, but the reward would be extended time undetected to complete the mission and get away. The hacking mechanic might also include disabling the weapons-fire detection and possibly escape acquiring a bounty (a welcome improvement to Elite's general mechanics to support smuggling and clandestine attacks).
 
It wasn't polished or finished, but that's fine because they said its an early, unpolished build and has been cut together from many clips.

With how fast they're pushing for alpha testing and their current release schedule, there's enough to worry about. Yeah it works both ways. People can ignore the feedback and believe in miracles that it'll have great FPS gameplay when it's released. Or maybe be more realistic.
 
Of course it is, and has, by the bucket full.

Would it have, in your opinion, been better just to announce the 29th as the beginning of alpha and leave out the 'abysmal Pre-Alpha gameplay' and the following information the livestream gave us?

Whatever the collective 'we' expect to see is going to be met with a reception of "good" or "meh" regardless, as is demonstrated so aptly in the couple of threads discussing the trailer and livestream.
TBH yes, I think it would've been better. If you don't show off your best you're setting yourself up for criticism and a greater level of negative feedback.

I'd have liked to have seen the footage at the time it was a pretty recent build, that's when you show it IMO. Then you might get people interested and the clunky parts won't worry them because there's plenty of time to deal with them. Showing it now though just leaves people wondering why that's the version that's being shown now.

My own personal position is actually one of ambivalence towards Odyssey. I'm looking forward to better-looking planets, what I'm really hoping for at some point is a more living, breathing universe going about its business rather than "here's some more stuff to shoot at" without it having too much of a sense of being there for any other reason, but if that isn't coming, well, a bit more stuff to do will be welcome enough anyway (my biggest concern being that I play in VR).
 
Yeah it works both ways. People can ignore the feedback and believe in miracles that it'll have great FPS gameplay when it's released. Or maybe be more realistic.
Oh I am being realistic! I'm listening to what they say, not just watching the video. There was alot more than just what was shown. And like I said, I'd be happy playing what I saw - it looks fun, and as I've said on another thread, it looks alot closer to what I was hoping for than what I expected (I'd much rather a fallout clone (slightly clunky, but fun with lots of variation) than a Cod clone (smooth and polished, but there's literally nothing to do other than shoot people)!
 
With how fast they're pushing for alpha testing and their current release schedule, there's enough to worry about. Yeah it works both ways. People can ignore the feedback and believe in miracles that it'll have great FPS gameplay when it's released. Or maybe be more realistic.

Pre-alpha feedback does also give FD two or three weeks to tweak (or be prepared to buff) up the AI levels, if that's what people want, so we'll see.

That doesnt mean some kind of hacking activity cannot happen in the no-fire star ports...

Of some kind, no it doesn't. I doubt you'll be able to take down the entire power grid of a docking area like you could with this base though .. hopefully .. or at least yet .. Imagine the scene, various ships on autodock, T9's and Belugas maneuvering when the lights go out? Total carnage! (+1)
 
(my biggest concern being that I play in VR).
Likewise, although not exclusively (RL dictates otherwise) so with Odyssey having only partial support for VR (at launch ;)) is a shame - although it will affect others much more than I, as I am aware that we do have others who play VR exclusivley.

We'll see if the positivity from the CMs in the livestream for the alpha of Odyssey is justified in a few weeks, it will be 'interesting' to see how VR is integrated into the alpha, I'm quite looking forward to the 'new planet tech' myself, too.
 
TBH yes, I think it would've been better. If you don't show off your best you're setting yourself up for criticism and a greater level of negative feedback.

Mind you we have had hyped up updates before, with people's first impressions of the mechanics coming during beta. What can happen then is people are distracted from testing or looking for bugs by debates about what could have or would have been instead. I think people are more likely to make the best of "what is" if more familiar with it beforehand.

So giving us this look ahead is a new tactic but I'm definitely not convinced it's necessary to be a bad one. FD get a couple of weeks headstart to change a couple of low hanging fruit possible before the actual beta/alpha arrives and if expectations are held in check hopefully there's an atmosphere of pleasant surprise on the drop. Under promised, over delivered.

Beta hype trains aren't necessarily all good things if realities (of a 1.0 update) don't quite meet people's (often genuinely optimistic) expectations for a do-everything update.
 

Deleted member 182079

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It works both ways - If you didn't like what you saw you can ignore it instead of shooting down a very early gameplay build which was only shown because everyone wanted to see it so much. It wasn't polished or finished, but that's fine because they said its an early, unpolished build and has been cut together from many clips.
That is very true but the problem is all we've seen so far is FPS gameplay.

As for what FDev is telling us what else will be in the game, remember Fleet Carriers what we were supposed to get and what we ended up with? Don't get me wrong I like FCs as they are but they could've been so much more based on the initial reveal years ago.

The lack of footage for other non-FPS gameplay could (but doesn't have to) indicate that there'll merely be placeholders (Frontier has a track record here too) and the most/only meaty gameplay option ready at launch will be indeed FPS gameplay. Sincerely hope I'm wrong and which is why my impatience towards the Alpha release grows and grows. But it is a possibility all things considered - which may influence some players' buying decision accordingly, worst case Odyssey bombs sales wise and it's not like don't already have a number of game features that are left to rot on the vine so the track record is proven.

Disclaimer - this is for sure the absolute most negative outlook and I hope it won't turn out that way, but there is precedent i.e. I'm not making this up but simply apply what happened in the past with Horizons could happen here again. So cheeky me reckons that with any luck we'll have the full feature set in 2025 but settlement raids are bugged to oblivion and can no longer be completed;)
 
That's true. The incoming FPS gamers will be critical about the gameplay as well.

And so what?

ED's own players craptalk the game all the time (just look at this depressing forum), and it still sold very well.

Do you actually believe some Doom player is going to buy ED expecting the shooting gameplay and combat mechanics to be as good as in Doom Eternal? Of course not.

In fact I doubt anyone is going to purchase and judge ED based only on on-foot action alone. Games with subpar gunplay like the Fallout series, Mass Effect and others sold millions of copies, the Fallout series sold even more than most first class FPS games out there, not because it had the best shooting mechanics surely, but because the sum of their parts is a lot better than if you just look at specific bits under a microscope.

Did you ever seen someone purchase GTA5 and then moaning than the airplane flying is so much worse than MS Flight Simulator, or that the car physics are so much worse than Assetto Corsa, or the ballistics are so less detailed than Sniper 3? And yet, GTA5 is one of the top sellers in gaming history, even though it's not the best at anything in particular.

ED is also not the best flying combat game, certainly not the best flight sim, nor the best trading game, not the best buggy driving game, and not the best exploration game. But the sum of it's parts results in a fantastic, unique game. Expanding it with on foot gameplay will turn it even more unique and special, make it's universe much richer, alive. It doesn't have to be the best fps game in the market not by a longshot to be successful.
 
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Do you actually believe some Doom player is going to buy ED expecting the shooting gameplay and combat mechanics to be as good as in Doom Eternal? Of course not.

I was talking about Odyssey (please read the title of the thread again). Do you actually believe FPS gamers are not gonna compare Odyssey to other games with FPS features?

In fact I doubt anyone is going to purchase and judge ED based only on on-foot action alone. Games with subpar gunplay like the Fallout series, Mass Effect and others sold millions of copies, the Fallout series sold even more than most first class FPS games out there, not because it had the best shooting mechanics surely, but because the sum of their parts is a lot better than if you just look at specific bits under a microscope.

Mass Effect's gunplay is a lot better than what they showed for Odyssey.

Yes ED is an amalgamation of different game genres. This thread is specifically about the Odyssey trailer / expansion. It's better to make it great before release versus deliver a half-baked expansion which takes years to polish (see Horizons).
 
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I was talking about Odyssey. Do you actually believe FPS gamers are not gonna compare Odyssey to other games with FPS games?

They may well. Though, if they're going to be fair in their own minds, they might also struggle to compare that's game's interstellar mechanics (xeno design and flight model) with Elite's at the same time?
 
The issue with all the cover was it was 90s cover, not 2020 cover.

In the 90s, cover was evenly spaced crate boxes at full height. In stacks and with surrounding explosive barrels.

These days, cover is half height so you can still see what you're shooting at, and people make some effort to disguise the cover in the scenery, not just a crate object.

Look, you can still play games as a bonding activity with your children. Time to catch up if the last game you played was in 2003.
The cover should be more consistent with Elite's current mechanics and models (items are hauled in standardized, cylindrical containers for interstellar shipping). There should be a number of the containers standing near the landing pad (recently received shipment waiting on workers to move them to a warehouse or specific building). Spreading a few of the same containers further inside the base near building entrances would be appropriate (gathering containers that need to be delivered to the landing pad for shipment away from the base).
By my estimation, the standard cylinder containers would provide crouch-cover if they were grouped and stood on end.
 
I was talking about Odyssey. Do you actually believe FPS gamers are not gonna compare Odyssey to other games with FPS games?
No, because Odyssey is not an FPS game, it's an expansion to a large, already-existing game, which is much, much more than "just an FPS". FPS gamers also don't compare FPS games with Fallout's DLCs.

Even just Odyssey is much more than "just a FPS", if you care to listen to what the devs have already said several times. Although I grant you that they could have done a much better effort to actually show something else other than the combat, rather than just talking about it.

Mass Effect's gunplay is a lot better than what they showed thus far for Odyssey.

Try playing the trilogy again from start, especially the first 2 games, and see how clunky and unresponsive the combat is... ;)
 
The cover should be more consistent with Elite's current mechanics and models (items are hauled in standardized, cylindrical containers for interstellar shipping). There should be a number of the containers standing near the landing pad (recently received shipment waiting on workers to move them to a warehouse or specific building). Spreading a few of the same containers further inside the base near building entrances would be appropriate (gathering containers that need to be delivered to the landing pad for shipment away from the base).
By my estimation, the standard cylinder containers would provide crouch-cover if they were grouped and stood on end.
Weighing in at a ton, I'd expect to be fully hidden by a single container (in my head they are about the same size as a bottle-bank at a recycling centre)
 
Pre-alpha feedback does also give FD two or three weeks to tweak (or be prepared to buff) up the AI levels, if that's what people want, so we'll see.



Of some kind, no it doesn't. I doubt you'll be able to take down the entire power grid of a docking area like you could with this base though .. hopefully .. or at least yet .. Imagine the scene, various ships on autodock, T9's and Belugas maneuvering when the lights go out? Total carnage! (+1)
I am not suggesting that you can knock out power to an Orbis station. But other hacking missions are reasonable (stealing information, disabling security scanning to allow hostile or criminal players to dock at the station - do not forget to coordinate the hack on the way out or have a fast ship to blaze away under fire).
 
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