Two Galaxies

Old Duck

Old Duck
I'm curious how Frontier will handle the existence of two galaxies in ED once Odyssey drops on PC but not console. Specifically, there will be new outposts on PC, along with new planetary POIs, that will not be available on PS4 / XBox. Even for those who don't by the DLC, I'm pretty sure these new assets will exist, we just won't be able to interact with them the same way.

Where this really gets interesting is when it comes to BGS. For example, if two factions are warring over a new installation / outpost that's in the PC galaxy but not the PS4 galaxy, what will that mean? Will these assets be referenced on PS4 despite not actually existing on PS4?

And then there are things like first footfall, biological POIs, etc. In fact, as I think of this, it seems that Frontier will need to basically have TWO Stellar Forges - one to generate planet surfaces and POIs the "old" way, and a different one to generate these things the new way (which, as I said, will be the same on PC whether or not a person buys Odyssey).

It just seems like a recipe for a BGS disaster, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. What are your thoughts?

ps - I actually kind of envy you, because I'm not so sure that the Odyssey we're getting in May on PC is going to be an Odyssey worth playing due to all the bugs and half-baked features. At least when you get Odyssey, it should be a better product.
 

Aeorath

Aeorath
Old Duck said:
I'm curious how Frontier will handle the existence of two galaxies in ED once Odyssey drops on PC but not console. Specifically, there will be new outposts on PC, along with new planetary POIs, that will not be available on PS4 / XBox. Even for those who don't by the DLC, I'm pretty sure these new assets will exist, we just won't be able to interact with them the same way.

Where this really gets interesting is when it comes to BGS. For example, if two factions are warring over a new installation / outpost that's in the PC galaxy but not the PS4 galaxy, what will that mean? Will these assets be referenced on PS4 despite not actually existing on PS4?

And then there are things like first footfall, biological POIs, etc. In fact, as I think of this, it seems that Frontier will need to basically have TWO Stellar Forges - one to generate planet surfaces and POIs the "old" way, and a different one to generate these things the new way (which, as I said, will be the same on PC whether or not a person buys Odyssey).

It just seems like a recipe for a BGS disaster, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. What are your thoughts?

ps - I actually kind of envy you, because I'm not so sure that the Odyssey we're getting in May on PC is going to be an Odyssey worth playing due to all the bugs and half-baked features. At least when you get Odyssey, it should be a better product.
Click to expand...

I was having this conversation with a friend a couple of days ago, how is this going to even work? Two galaxies, for two different platforms, consoles and PC?

One might think that after the release of Odyssey on consoles this will be solved, but it will not; because not a lot of people might buy EDO for consoles, and they'll keep playing Horizons. So for how long will FDEV support Horizons-only gameplay world on consoles and PC as well, because I don't think every PC player will rush and buy it.

And that thought that Odyssey on console will be better because it will launch later... I am not sure about that one either. FDEV will have a lot to fix on the PC side before they're going to consider giving the consoles a closer look. People paid money for EDO, you cannot give them the runaround for too long before you gotta get a move on with fixing what players paid for.

Unless, at some point, maybe sometime next year, they will include EDO in the main game as they did with Horizons, or if not, drop support for Horizons and people would be forced to buy EDO? Any way we look at it, it'll be pretty interesting.
 

Snowymonk

Snowymonk
Old Duck said:
I'm curious how Frontier will handle the existence of two galaxies in ED once Odyssey drops on PC but not console. Specifically, there will be new outposts on PC, along with new planetary POIs, that will not be available on PS4 / XBox. Even for those who don't by the DLC, I'm pretty sure these new assets will exist, we just won't be able to interact with them the same way.

Where this really gets interesting is when it comes to BGS. For example, if two factions are warring over a new installation / outpost that's in the PC galaxy but not the PS4 galaxy, what will that mean? Will these assets be referenced on PS4 despite not actually existing on PS4?

And then there are things like first footfall, biological POIs, etc. In fact, as I think of this, it seems that Frontier will need to basically have TWO Stellar Forges - one to generate planet surfaces and POIs the "old" way, and a different one to generate these things the new way (which, as I said, will be the same on PC whether or not a person buys Odyssey).

It just seems like a recipe for a BGS disaster, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. What are your thoughts?

ps - I actually kind of envy you, because I'm not so sure that the Odyssey we're getting in May on PC is going to be an Odyssey worth playing due to all the bugs and half-baked features. At least when you get Odyssey, it should be a better product.
Click to expand...
We'll see but I suspect it'll follow similar logic to the way Horizons did.
Players will have something like
A) a Planetary landing module or
B) an Advanced Planetary landing module.

Players with Base+Horizons game will have the A) and can land on certain planets
Players with the Odyssey DLC will have B) and can land on additional planets or planetary locations.

Where there are a mix of settlements on a planet, Odyssey players can land at all of them, non Odyssey players can only land at a sub-set (docking will be refused). You will be able to land outside these settlements either way.

With regards to BGS interactions, Elite already validates whether you can take certain missions by ship size and it used to validate whether you had Horizons or not. This will continue. It will be quite possible for a dominant BGS PS4 faction to take over a 'foot' settlement through influence, just not be able to physically do anything there until the Autumn.

BGS is bean counting by another name within a system - buying / selling at a market, cashing in bounties for a respective faction in a system, completing missions as requested. PC 'Foot' players will just have additional locations to pick up these opportunities.
 

Snowymonk

Snowymonk
Old Duck said:
Horizons came out at the same time for all platforms that supported ED. Even people who didn't buy Horizons were still exposed to Horizons content - they saw landable planets, engineering materials, special ships, etc, they just couldn't interact with these things.
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it didnt - Horizons came to PC 6 months before it came to Xbox. PS4 came with optional Horizons a year later. Have you not kept up with the Cobra MkIV argument? ;)
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
Old Duck said:
I'm curious how Frontier will handle the existence of two galaxies in ED once Odyssey drops on PC but not console. Specifically, there will be new outposts on PC, along with new planetary POIs, that will not be available on PS4 / XBox. Even for those who don't by the DLC, I'm pretty sure these new assets will exist, we just won't be able to interact with them the same way.
Click to expand...
.... in the same way as base game players could not land on planets that Horizons players could. Ships without the requisite hardware installed won't be able to land on planets with tenuous atmospheres.
 

Snowymonk

Snowymonk
Old Duck said:
But was ED "vanilla" on XBox during this time? If so, then I guess this has happened before. Any XBox vets around here?

Having CMDRs both on PC and PS4, I guess I can do some experiments when the day comes to answer my specific questions.
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yes - it was.

Elite PC - Launch Xmas 2014
XBox Launch - Summer 2015 (as part of the GPP programme - announced at E3 2015)
Elite PC Horizons - Xmas 2015
XBox Horizons Summer 2016
PS4 launch (base game + Horizons) - Summer 2017
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
Robert Maynard said:
.... in the same way as base game players could not land on planets that Horizons players could. Ships without the requisite hardware installed won't be able to land on planets with tenuous atmospheres.
Click to expand...

I get that, but the planets they CAN both land on will be radically different, including type, number, and location of POIs. And let's say there are two factions warring for control of an installation on an atmospheric world, how does that come across on console where it doesn't even show that atmo world having POIs?
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
Old Duck said:
I get that, but the planets they CAN both land on will be radically different, including type, number, and location of POIs. And let's say there are two factions warring for control of an installation on an atmospheric world, how does that come across on console where it doesn't even show that atmo world having POIs?
Click to expand...
The planet would be unlandable for those who don't have Odyssey - although I suspect that the existence of POIs on tenuously atmospheric planets (TAPs) may be known to base game players.

The faction war would likely be handled as it is at the moment - as I don't expect space-based CZs to be removed completely in favour of TAP-CZs.
 
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