Looks like I'm buying Odyssey....

[the100thmonkey]

You won't be able to fix the lighting or framerate issues - that kind of stuff has to come from the developers.

With that said, there's plenty about the game to like - I just completed a base ... cleanup operation. It took me about an hour with boots on the ground. It was involving and absorbing. I need to upgrade the Executioner with the accuracy mod though; the random bullet deviation is a bit too high for my tastes.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Try really REALLY hard! I genuinely want to know your unbiased opinion. I'm far too engaged with the community to have remained uninfected by the opinions of others. I'm pretty sure 90% of my dissapointment with Odyssey is my own but I'm just not sure ay more. Negativity is so infectious.

Got to agree - I tried to remain positive until the live release, but now it feels the flood gates have opened and I'm just letting it rip now. My patience has run out, and I think the critical point of this was the fact we were promised a much better live version not very long ago, when the reality was it's even worse than what I've seen in the Alpha. As such I'm not bothering anymore trying to remain positive, as there's not much to be positive about. 'Fool me once/twice' springs to mind. Though I still want to give parts of the game credit where it's due - it's just that right now it's slim pickings.

Perhaps the way to approach it is not as an "upgrade" to a game you already love, but as a brand new game. If you'd never played Elite, if you'd never learned to accept and even love the foibles of its existing UI, if you hadn't grown used to the lightning of Horizons and the look of its existing locations (tip: do NOT go looking for your favourite old locations, they won't make you happy) ... what would you think? An impossible task to imagine of course but I genuinely wish you the very best.

It's an approach I've considered myself over the past days, and sometimes it works, other times it doesn't ... and yes, regarding re-visiting old favourite locations - that way lies tears and disappointment.

It does still manage to entertain now and then though - when you successfully sneak around a settlement, or take out enemies against all odds (and those odds are stacked against you, at least outside CZs). Or CZs themselves - I do enjoy them a lot, especially now that I found a pre-upgraded G3 Aphelion with fast reload mod and a G3 Dominator suit. Makes quite the difference. The lag, stutter and jank is still diminishing the experience though, unfortunately.

 

[Zeeks]

EDO is not life changing. It's a video game that you will like, not like, or like a little bit. That's the only outcome.

 

[WeComeInPeace]

Source: https://youtu.be/ZXsQAXx_ao0

 

[Kzak]

Join us, join us, join usssss...

 

[Fizzatron]

Duck, Can I suggest you wait till Friday and see what the roadmap says? If you like what's on the roadmap, buy the game then as an endorsement of the new message, if you don't like the roadmap, maintain your vigelence. I bought Odyssey to get access to the VR to make an informed decision, and in many respects I regret doing it. Now that it's not a pre-order, you won't be getting the pioneer skin, so there is nothing to lose or create FOMO by stalling.

How about you let a grown man makes up his own mind like he himself said he was going to do... This post does no favors in dispelling that Odyssey is under a coordinated brigading and review bombing attack. Again: Odyssey has major issues, not white-knighting, but not dooming either.

There's a refund button in Steam, people can see for themselves and then judge.

 

[umbabrahattasil]

I was recently gifted the funding to purchase Odyssey, so it won't cost me any of my own money, and yet I'm not much excited about buying it. I am curious, mainly because I just want to experience for myself all that Odyssey is and is not. I also have this vain hope that I might be able to "fix it" on some level, at least the lighting. But all in all, I'm almost grimacing at the idea of giving Frontier any money, even someone else's money, for this DLC in it's current state. I hate rewarding bad behavior. Though once I buy it, I can leave my own Steam review, so Frontier may rather I don't buy it!

I am going to try to experience Odyssey "untainted" by all the negativity surrounding it, forming my own opinions separate from the "mob". Who knows, maybe I'll end up loving Odyssey? I've seen videos and livestreams that make me think I'll be very disappointed in Odyssey, but I've also seen videos and screenshots that makes me think it's not so bad after all. Like Horizons, if I can find a subset of gameplay loops to enjoy from the "buffet" of options, that would be good.

Still, I should feel more excitement rather than apprehension about buying the "New Era" DLC from Frontier. If I hadn't been gifted the funds for this specific purpose, I would not be spending my own money on it. I think this is a pretty damning commentary on just how bad the PR around Odyssey is at the moment. Frontier, you really screwed the pooch on this release.. You can't say I didn't warn you!

I'll update this thread after I download Odyssey and play with it a little bit. I'm going to wait until the next major patch (which I hope will come out this week) before committing to this purchase. Until then I'm playing other games, because even Horizons has lost its appeal due to the overall "sadness" in the community right now.



.... One should not have buyers remorse BEFORE pressing the "buy" button ....

Nooooooo, don't do it! This giving in is why this stuff continues to happen over and over. Even if it's not your own money, don't reward Fdev for doing this the way they did.

Bide your time, wait for a huge sale or better yet, until they fix it with a huge patch addressing issues. Don't give in. I was hoping I was wrong when I said everyone here would buy it anyway even if it killed their best friends, because y'all are in some serious stockholm syndrome.

Hold out, for consumer friendly behavior and holding companies accountable for their actions! I implore you.

 

[Rat Catcher]

I’m probably on your block list so you won’t see this.

Most of us are, it would appear
The unusual is not being on it!

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Most of us are, it would appear
The unusual is not being on it!

Yeah we should have an old duck block list party in his thread. Does mentioning @Old Duck get through the block list?

 

[J Michaelson]

.... One should not have buyers remorse BEFORE pressing the "buy" button ....

For whatever my two cents are worth, I have just finished a 22,000 ly exploration round trip and enjoyed it just as much. The background skybox scenery wasn't as nice, but I have grown to appreciate the new planet tech. It can make some truly beautiful planets along with the genuine dogs. Now that I know what to look for hunting the plants has its moments as well. I've hardly touched the FPS portion and couldn't care less about doing more than futzing around until they fix things.

 

[Mr T]

I can't get over the fact someone else bought it for you. There's no way I would buy a "friend" Odyssey in the state it is now, I'd be so embarrassed.

 

[Zinegata]

How about you let a grown man makes up his own mind like he himself said he was going to do... This post does no favors in dispelling that Odyssey is under a coordinated brigading and review bombing attack. Again: Odyssey has major issues, not white-knighting, but not dooming either.

There's a refund button in Steam, people can see for themselves and then judge.

If Elite was under review bombing attack the Steam reviews would be mainly one liner memes, not multiple paragraphs of actual issues.

Indeed, in Odyssey's case the positive reviews are generally vague one liners.

Really, trying to defend a publisher with the "all games are broken" excuse hasn't been in the vogue for the past five years. The lesson of Cyberpunk wasn't that games being released broken is now the norm (thats the people here showing how sheltered they are). Instead Cyberpunk's lesson is that even the most beloved publisher and developer will still get called out for publishing a broken product. Literally every "beloved" publisher - from Bioware to Blizzard - has had this humbling experience.

 

[Shaele]

noone says you have to spend the money now

 

[Jazzy]

<Snipped>

.... One should not have buyers remorse BEFORE pressing the "buy" button ....

I had this with Odyssey, even though I have the LTP........... heh!

but I shall hold hopeful they fix the issues over the next 6 months leading up to the console release. I am treating it as an Early Access title, since I am quite sure it is. Even though FD won't admit it.

 

[StanleyDunkan]

This is like reading a diary of a virgin girl before her wedding night.

 

[Vandaahl]

So, any stuffz to be hazzed yet?

 

[Crank Larson]

Most of us are, it would appear
The unusual is not being on it!

Some people really only want to see their own words.

 

[Viajero]

You probably have me on ignore as well but I'll respond to this as I thought about this last night when playing the game, and touching upon it with @Rubbernuke.

There is a LOT of copy/paste in EDO, even more so than the base game. You have 1 layout each for Starport, Outpost and Planetary Port; you see the same pieces of garbage at exactly the same places (I believe this is state/security dependent?). A tube there, a pizza box there. Copy/paste. The mission NPCs (who stand in exactly the same spots, everywhere) give me the same handful of lines each time I pass them - top 1% anyone?

The shops are the exact same layout and look, the bar looks the same. The only difference is some slight colour variation, maybe a different banner (PP related usually). Weapon choice, while broad enough, isn't as varied as in other games.

The settlements show a certain level of variation but I still think they're all the same layouts i.e. 27 of them (?) in total - but they use the same building blocks so visually they're extremely similar in their appearance. The visual fidelity is alright - not fantastic, or even great. Just alright for a game in 2021. It's good enough from an immersion viewpoint for me, but there's a lot of repetition.

What I'm trying to (long-windedly) say is, I'm not sure how much work it really was to come up with all that - if I compare this with Night City (CP2077) or any Bethesda or Rockstar map (interior and exterior environments), it's rather on the light side of things in terms of variation and detail.

EDIT: one more example I forgot, you know there's the status panel in the hangar, next to the lift that gives you the (UTC) time and days until shift change - that's 26. Everywhere. Every day. How hard could it have been to track that variable at each location? It's a very small thing but when I played the Alpha I thought 'wow, neat little detail'. Nope, hard coded it seems. Copy/paste.

About the settlements gameplay side imo it is probably one of the nicest little hidden gems in EDO to be honest. The variation and themes in them is large enough to not bother me too much, you have industrial, military, touristic, research, mining, farming etc, and then multiple sizes for each with varying threat levels. In addition, the states they can be in add a new variation layer (active, abandoned, damaged etc) as they look and play in totally different manners.

I think FDEV´s settlements solution for a 1:1 scale galaxy (even if limited to the bubble) is quite elegant and with a bit of hindsight... logical. The solution for solid mission content in such a vast galaxy is obviously not to author or script content but rather to come up with a procedural system based in some authored building blocks that presents you with tons of permutations and action/consequence variations that make every encounter literaly very different from the previous ones.

The stealth elements in particular are great.

Even if you go back to the same settlement the time of the day may be different and your visibility (and NPC detection range) may be different, you may now be wanted in that jurisdiction and may need more precautions and take less risks, the state of the settlement may have changed, the rank of the NPCs may be higher and react faster to your moves, that patrol guard there may be a few meters ahead and prevent you from cloning a scientist ID at the right time and force you to retreat and hide, different gravities will prevent you or allow you to reach that ledge in time etc etc.

Also the way to achieve your goals is quite broad, cloning ids, arc cut, gun them all down, follow a LVL2 NPC along its patrol inside a building etc. All these actions have reactions that can be countered etc turning these settlements into really cool puzzles to unravel that allow for tons of creativity, especially when in a wing, and every time the combination to get there will be different and force you to adapt. They have significant replayability imo.

I think it is probably one of the best solutions for content in a 1:1 scale galaxy, and FDEV have delivered it very elegantly, imo, especially when we consider it all is integrated with the BGS.

 

[Kemo]

(tip: do NOT go looking for your favourite old locations, they won't make you happy) ...

So very much this..

I have several planets bookmarked with names like "potato planetoid", "crazy canyons" etc - went to a couple in Ody, so disappointing. There are some good looking planets out there, but the ones you loved will have changed beyond recognition.

 

[Valorin]

So very much this..

I have several planets bookmarked with names like "potato planetoid", "crazy canyons" etc - went to a couple in Ody, so disappointing. There are some good looking planets out there, but the ones you loved will have changed beyond recognition.

All planets have been recreated. Even if they did that using the Horizons tech they wouldn't be the same.
In Odyssey we also see that in the planet they used for the representation where it's a snowy, blue-sky wonderland. Then it seems they had another go on planet creation and it looks much different, while there are a lot of snowy blue-sky wonderlands out there elsewhere.