Odyssey Going Forwards

[Sylow]

I might be the oddball here: new features are actually right now not even high up on my priority list. Fixing problems (there's still enough of them around) is what i very much appreciate, though.

What i value most: the change of course. Not any more "now we go for the consoles sale, for the quick money there, and care for problems later", but actually focusing on the actual problems. (Which might also result in a much better launch experience for consoles. )

 

[fishevi]

As a ps4 cmdr, I have no illusions whatsoever that Odyssey will come out for ps4, or for consoles in general.

With that said, just leave me Horizons to play with, offline single player will be fine.

 

[oscarolim]

Kind of. It's still planned, it just no longer take priority over the quality of the game. Honestly, it's a good thing, that's how it should have been for PC too.

Remember Mac support. Eventually got axed because it wasn’t viable anymore. Who’s to say a year from today they don’t decide the same with consoles? And while with Mac there was the ability to dual boot to windows, at the cost of a windows license, on consoles you don’t have such a thing.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Hey, we don't set the dates. We aren't the ones marketing content that is nowhere near what "pre-alpha in game engine lawyer rubbish fine print" shows.
We aren't in charge of the alpha forums where paying customers were told "don't worry, this build version is oooold."
But yeah, pin it on the customers who dared to believe FD.

That's not what I said. But sure, not interested in an endless discussion again so reread it or not.

 

[Darth Ender]

I can simplify the road significantly.

Release the servers so players can host their own server and thus, instance of characters, and galaxy state. Then update the client to allow connecting to a unofficial server.

Then implement a mod system that allows overriding nearly all aspects of the game. The servers can limit which mods are allowed.


Boom, pathway found. Peace can exist in the playerbase. The forum would be filled with creative postings and such ...fdev can incorporate community content as it sees fit into the official game. Cats would rejoice everywhere.

 

[Nerix]

Thanks for the clarity. As a PS5 commander I'm obviously very disappointed (already was after the first delay), but can absolutely understand the decision after the (justified) criticism from the community after Odyssey's release.

I really do hope that you think about ditching support for old-gen consoles (PS4, XOne) and go for current gen only (PS5, Series X), as the old gen is the major cause for technical headaches. With a console release in 2022 the old gen will become irrelevant quite fast anyway, so it's questionable if the decision to release on PS4/XOne does still make sense with the new release window.

Elite Dangerous Odyssey is an important step on a complicated journey, and we must get this right, before we can consider moving on to these new platforms.

Probably just formulated a bit unclear, but I find this sentence regarding "new platforms" interesting. Could this already hint towards PS5, Series X, as PS4/XOne are not really new for ED (just newer than PC). Not a native speaker here, probably David just meant newer platforms compared to PC.

 

[Pigletslastand]

David,

I am a PC and a console commander, and while I can't obviously speak for everyone who has been frustrated, I can at least say that seeing this come from you has definitely helped with my view of Elite, and your company/staff. A lot of us believed that you and your company no longer cared about the game or us, and this kind of post means a lot to us. It is difficult for some of us on the consumer side to see exactly what goes on over at FDev, and while I have been active on the forums stating my disappointment, I don't want the effort that your team has put into Elite to go unnoticed. Thank you very much for all of your work.

Lastly, while I and others may disagree about design decisions, or anything else about the game, remember that we love your game as much as you do, and want the best for it. A complicated road indeed.

Hear Hear!! Very well said

 

[ninjaspeed]

Greetings Commanders.

With the release of Update 5 on 1st July plus a few smaller server updates since, and Update 6 currently in development, I wanted to take a moment of your time to talk about the next steps for Elite Dangerous.

We are aware and fully accept the frustration that many of our players have had with their experience of Elite Dangerous Odyssey. The community have spoken, we have heard the feedback clearly and we will act on that feedback.

As you may remember in our recent development article, the significant amount of updates and development effort that has been done to fix and improve issues since the launch of Odyssey has meant work on our console release has not progressed as quickly as we had hoped. What’s more, we can see that the strides we have made through the last five major updates are positive, but we must continue on with this progress to give the experience that you and we expect on PC.

With those things in mind, we have spent a lot of time discussing and re-evaluating our previous plans and we have made the decision to prioritise the core PC experience for Elite Dangerous. Ultimately, we believe it is right to focus our efforts on the core Elite Dangerous Odyssey experience for the platforms that we have released on, before opening up to more. We know that the work that we do to improve players’ experiences of Elite Dangerous Odyssey on PC will benefit other platforms in the future, but the dates and details of the console platforms are going to change. We do not want to rush into confirming any dates or changes this has on our console release, as we must remain fully focused on the core Elite experience. Only when we feel that the foundation of the PC release is solid, will we be able to re-lay our console roadmap on top.

Elite Dangerous Odyssey is an important step on a complicated journey, and we must get this right, before we can consider moving on to these new platforms.

So what does this actually mean for Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous Odyssey?

It means that we will see more game updates over the coming months. We will continue to work through Issue Tracker, fix bugs and improve performance, but we will also be able to explore and add additional features, content and improvements into the game.

We will continue to give open monthly development updates where we discuss WIP content, challenges, the issue tracker and more. We know that the previous levels of detail for the roadmap and developer update have not met expectations, but we are grateful for your patience while we shift and adjust plans, in the face of such clear feedback.

Please remember that our team here at Frontier are working hard to support the game and our community. Behind every bug fix, design decision and community post is a person who cares a lot about giving our players best possible experience. I would ask that everyone remains calm and respectful when sharing their thoughts and feedback.

We all have the same goal and we will get there, together. Please bear with us.

o7 Commanders.

Come on! This is the good way, first solve PC, after that focus consoles. Really, very good job and continue your efforts

 

[Wendake]

The most logical choice after the bumpy launch. Hope all these words will come true and that we'll see steady updates / improvements to the core game.

o7

 

[STARVOID]

Great! Thank you very much for this. I'm playing Odyssey whille many others prefer horizons. But I think the state of Odyssey today is at least playable. Yes it's far from release, looks like open beta, but more important is the fact that you're improving it after each update. And I like to watch and feel those improvements in game. I still believe in you.
P.S. Add those alternade hud colors after all.. I think it's not so hard for you. Shield percentage gave me more hope. Please...

 

[ADAMtheWELSHMANz]

It'll be interesting to see how much content that was originally intended to be in EDO at release ended up on the cutting room floor in order to hit its release date.

By the sounds of it, despite been promised that it would be a single DLC installment, we're looking at another 12 month period of bug fixes and content drops ala Horizons.

PC players can look forward to been drip fed improvements that should have been available at launch, clearly showing EDO was released at least a year before it was ready.

What about the story? Can we look forward to another dry spell of Galnet as the game is put into a holding pattern pending console release?

Either way you've probably just decimated your console communities, and I echo the sentiment that in a year the dwindling console numbers will be used as an excuse to pull console support.

We had a good run, but for me at least, Elite will always be the game that sadly never lived upto its almost limitless potential.

 

[Darth Ender]

It'll be interesting to see how much content that was originally intended to be in EDO at release ended up on the cutting room floor in order to hit its release date.

By the sounds of it, despite been promised that it would be a single DLC installment, we're looking at another 12 month period of bug fixes and content drops ala Horizons.

PC players can look forward to been drip fed improvements that should have been available at launch, clearly showing EDO was released at least a year before it was ready.

What about the story? Can we look forward to another dry spell of Galnet as the game is put into a holding pattern pending console release?

Either way you've probably just decimated your console communities, and I echo the sentiment that in a year the dwindling console numbers will be used as an excuse to pull console support.

We had a good run, but for me at least, Elite will always be the game that sadly never lived upto its almost limitless potential.

aside from maybe thargoid foot gameplay, i dont see how any other aspect of the narrative would depend on foot activity.

console still has horizons....and thus-far, nothing seems like it would be limited to tenuous atmospheres or walking around.

Plus, odyssey was always intended as a dlc, so narrative content wouldn't be able to be dependent on it.

 

[Apryde6226]

To highlight improved communication, this would have been great to pair with a new roadmap.

A real roadmap, not a series of bullet points.

 

[Paul - HCS VoicePacks - COVAS]

o7
That is all

 

[wrmiller]

This sounds like damage control to me. No one can convince me that DB and the executive staff didn't know just how bad the game was prior to Oddity's release. And they did (release) it anyway. Why? I have my suspicions, based on my experience at the corporate executive level, but I'll keep them to myself so as to not get banned.

If they (corporate) DIDN'T know just how bad this game was/is, then visions of lunatics running an asylum comes to mind.

So now their actions have caused this massive dumpster fire that they desperately need to contain. If possible. First, attempt to placate the faithful, to maybe reduce the vitriol justifiably being thrown at this game and the corporate decisions that got us here. Then, promise (yet again...) to fix things that need fixing, and adding things that somehow didn't make it to release. Yea right. I've heard this song before.

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[PStewart]

This announcement provides a glimmer of hope for the game, but only that. It was very general and non-specific, and players have become conditioned to a Lucy and the Football syndrome.

The core communication just isn't there: after 6 weeks, still no one knows whether FD even recognize all the features that have been broken, because few specific issues have been acknowledged by FD. Therefore, there is a lack of confidence they will be addressed. Phrases like "planetary tech not working as intended," or "lighting will be addressed" are so general that it is no guarantee that all the things that are broken will be fixed. Just on the graphical front alone, there are so many specific items that aren't working and that haven't been acknowledged. I'm not going to list them all here but have some examples.

This is why people have low confidence that they will be fixed. The time for broad general statements by themselves has passed. These need to be supplemented with a clear acknowledgement of the broken features - specifically - and a pledge that they will be fixed.

 

[yorky3093]

Commitment to an ongoing series of updates and postponing the console releases really was the only logical next step, but nonetheless the clarity provided here is very much welcome.

Thanks @David Braben.

I suppose that if the launch had been delayed until August for the PC version it would have been a disaster for the share holders. Oh dear, but the launch may well have been a resounding success. Also more commanders would have had the opportunity to sign up and log in. Worrying about the lack of in house programmers and designers developers, also speculation that the board wants to move on and let it die, something new for next year's meeting maybe?.
I began playing ed on the Amiga in the late 80s and have always been a fan, do hope it lasts a few more rounds yet

 

[CMDR Yama Kinoko]

Thanks David, So many of us are here because we share your dream for this game.

 

[zipline]

Do you expect us console second class citizens to applaud you?

 

[Cmdr Bracher]

VR needs to be added back on the list.