7 months away, and I’m back for Odyssey… here’s my thoughts

[Bantha]

Ok so a little history.

I backed ED on Kickstarter and have played exclusively on VR for the last 4 years. I have an i7-7700k, 16gb ram, 1080Ti and Oculus Quest 2. I run settings generally set to High. HOTAS for flight and SRV, Voice Attack, and now Xbox game pad for walking.

I love this game more than any game I have ever played before. However, being uninspired and somewhat disillusioned by Odyssey and the direction the game was heading (even though I pre-ordered it), I haven’t played since it was released.
Until now…

After setting up all my bindings again (grrr!) and the new ones for legs, I put the Oculus on, and dived in.

My very first thought was, this is dark! Seems a lot darker than I remember and I am certainly using night vision more than I did before. I’m actually ok with this because it is outer space after all, but I can see why others aren’t keen. Graphics are definitely better in my opinion though, and seem sharper too.

No performance issues whilst flying apart from when I enter a mail slot, at which point the screen sticks a little until I get through. This happens every time in Odyssey. Not a game breaker, but it is a little jarring.

SRV is fine. No changes there, other than the improved planetary graphics. The atmospheres look very nice indeed. I like this! And the surfaces are improved too. Tidy.

Graphically, Odyssey has improved the game.

Now then, space legs. When I disembark and get the black screen (of course I want ship interiors, of course I want to walk down my ship steps…) my VR headset turns in to a flat cinema screen. This definitely takes the immersion away from space legs. I mean, it’s actually not that badly implemented, but I’m still disappointed. That “Armstrong moment” is just no good at all - black screen AND I lose VR… It feels like I’m starting a different game, that isn’t as good as Elite.

I have zero performance issues walking around stations, bases or combat zones. Everything runs fine, which actually surprised me a bit given the issues that I have seen reported by some other players. Happy enough with this.

I tried the First Person Shooter. Absolute pants! Really really terrible. It is basic and outdated. And copying the ship combat mechanics (lasers for shields and kinetics for body) and pasting in to an FPS is just plain stupid. Awful. Awful. Awful.

I have zero intention of playing ED’s FPS again. So there’s no point me grinding out engineering for suits or hand weapons. I am never going to do that, ever. The problem with this is, where does that leave me now? There’s not much for me to do on foot at all, and if Frontier’s focus is on this, which it seems to be, then they are taking a different direction to where I want to go…

I still enjoy flying my ship and using my newly acquired, and discounted, Fleet Carrier (perfect timing to save 1.5 billion. Very lucky lol). So I’m back to enjoying the game in itself, but the expansion (apart from the graphics) has been, for me, a complete waste of time and money. I know it’s a cliche, but it really does feel like a new game unnecessarily bolted on to Elite. Something I didn’t want that has been poorly implemented.

I would have preferred, and been willing to pay for, quality of life improvements instead. Powerplay, engineering, material gathering, NPC chit-chat (it’s STILL in the top 1% of all liners out there. I mean, lordy!!), better narrative that I can actually play rather than just read about, proper missions that follow on from each other to lead the player towards some kind of storyline, the Thargoid war (remember them?), Imp and Fed rank that actually means something and has consequences, and most importantly the absolute necessity to use third party sites like Inara and EDDB, just to play the game. Flesh the game out please. Add some meat to the skeleton.

I will continue to play, and enjoy Elite. Like I said at the start, I love this game. But I would not recommend Odyssey to anyone. £30 for a crappy FPS when a lot of the base game is still in dire need of some TLC is not good value at all.

I believe that this is the most crucial point in ED’s history, the game is on a knife edge. They have made some very poor decisions and now they have to put things right. Unfortunately, their track record suggests that this might not happen, but I sincerely hope they do.

For me, I am now, for the first time, keeping an eye on Star Citizen. It looks top drawer, and some well known content creators say things like it’s more immersive on a flat screen than ED is in VR, and I find that incredible! It’s nowhere near ready, and is still a long way off, but when it comes, I am afraid that ED will die.

And that breaks my heart…

o7 Commanders, and see you in the black

 

[karamu]

With the caveat that I'm on PS4 so obviously haven't played Odyssey yet, this post hits the nail on the head for me:

I have zero intention of playing ED’s FPS again. So there’s no point me grinding out engineering for suits or hand weapons. I am never going to do that, ever. The problem with this is, where does that leave me now? There’s not much for me to do on foot at all, and if Frontier’s focus is on this, which it seems to be, then they are taking a different direction to where I want to go…

I hate FPS games, like really can't stand them so the above applies for me 100%. This is not the direction I hoped and imagined Elite Dangerous would go and if it keeps going in that direction I will never bother with Odyssey (assuming it actually does make it to console).

 

[Bantha]

I actually quite enjoy an FPS blow-out, they can be great fun. But Odyssey’s version is so poor, that if I wanted to play an FPS, it really really wouldn’t be that!
Plus, I expected more from my space legs than just an FPS, which is all we seem to have at the mo.

 

[Riverside]

Sunsets in odyssey can be nice

I largely agree with the OP, particularly about the increased need for night vision. My GPU is rendering this theoretically amazing scene, then the lighting is so low I can't actually play the intended gameplay without night vision (a CZ for example) which looks awful. An odd kind of progress in the games development.

Looking forward to finding out what the next DLC/PDLC will contain.

 

[karamu]

Sunsets in odyssey can be nice

Atmospheric landings and station interiors do appeal but def not enough for what is basically the price of a full game.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Ok so a little history.

I backed ED on Kickstarter and have played exclusively on VR for the last 4 years. I have an i7-7700k, 16gb ram, 1080Ti and Oculus Quest 2. I run settings generally set to High. HOTAS for flight and SRV, Voice Attack, and now Xbox game pad for walking.

I love this game more than any game I have ever played before. However, being uninspired and somewhat disillusioned by Odyssey and the direction the game was heading (even though I pre-ordered it), I haven’t played since it was released.
Until now…

After setting up all my bindings again (grrr!) and the new ones for legs, I put the Oculus on, and dived in.

My very first thought was, this is dark! Seems a lot darker than I remember and I am certainly using night vision more than I did before. I’m actually ok with this because it is outer space after all, but I can see why others aren’t keen. Graphics are definitely better in my opinion though, and seem sharper too.

No performance issues whilst flying apart from when I enter a mail slot, at which point the screen sticks a little until I get through. This happens every time in Odyssey. Not a game breaker, but it is a little jarring.

SRV is fine. No changes there, other than the improved planetary graphics. The atmospheres look very nice indeed. I like this! And the surfaces are improved too. Tidy.

Graphically, Odyssey has improved the game.

Now then, space legs. When I disembark and get the black screen (of course I want ship interiors, of course I want to walk down my ship steps…) my VR headset turns in to a flat cinema screen. This definitely takes the immersion away from space legs. I mean, it’s actually not that badly implemented, but I’m still disappointed. That “Armstrong moment” is just no good at all - black screen AND I lose VR… It feels like I’m starting a different game, that isn’t as good as Elite.

I have zero performance issues walking around stations, bases or combat zones. Everything runs fine, which actually surprised me a bit given the issues that I have seen reported by some other players. Happy enough with this.

I tried the First Person Shooter. Absolute pants! Really really terrible. It is basic and outdated. And copying the ship combat mechanics (lasers for shields and kinetics for body) and pasting in to an FPS is just plain stupid. Awful. Awful. Awful.

I have zero intention of playing ED’s FPS again. So there’s no point me grinding out engineering for suits or hand weapons. I am never going to do that, ever. The problem with this is, where does that leave me now? There’s not much for me to do on foot at all, and if Frontier’s focus is on this, which it seems to be, then they are taking a different direction to where I want to go…

I still enjoy flying my ship and using my newly acquired, and discounted, Fleet Carrier (perfect timing to save 1.5 billion. Very lucky lol). So I’m back to enjoying the game in itself, but the expansion (apart from the graphics) has been, for me, a complete waste of time and money. I know it’s a cliche, but it really does feel like a new game unnecessarily bolted on to Elite. Something I didn’t want that has been poorly implemented.

I would have preferred, and been willing to pay for, quality of life improvements instead. Powerplay, engineering, material gathering, NPC chit-chat (it’s STILL in the top 1% of all liners out there. I mean, lordy!!), better narrative that I can actually play rather than just read about, proper missions that follow on from each other to lead the player towards some kind of storyline, the Thargoid war (remember them?), Imp and Fed rank that actually means something and has consequences, and most importantly the absolute necessity to use third party sites like Inara and EDDB, just to play the game. Flesh the game out please. Add some meat to the skeleton.

I will continue to play, and enjoy Elite. Like I said at the start, I love this game. But I would not recommend Odyssey to anyone. £30 for a crappy FPS when a lot of the base game is still in dire need of some TLC is not good value at all.

I believe that this is the most crucial point in ED’s history, the game is on a knife edge. They have made some very poor decisions and now they have to put things right. Unfortunately, their track record suggests that this might not happen, but I sincerely hope they do.

For me, I am now, for the first time, keeping an eye on Star Citizen. It looks top drawer, and some well known content creators say things like it’s more immersive on a flat screen than ED is in VR, and I find that incredible! It’s nowhere near ready, and is still a long way off, but when it comes, I am afraid that ED will die.

And that breaks my heart…

o7 Commanders, and see you in the black

You call Star Citizen top drawer? 10 years of production and you can't even save your game.

 

[Mersozz]

Ok so a little history.

I backed ED on Kickstarter and have played exclusively on VR for the last 4 years. I have an i7-7700k, 16gb ram, 1080Ti and Oculus Quest 2. I run settings generally set to High. HOTAS for flight and SRV, Voice Attack, and now Xbox game pad for walking.

I love this game more than any game I have ever played before. However, being uninspired and somewhat disillusioned by Odyssey and the direction the game was heading (even though I pre-ordered it), I haven’t played since it was released.
Until now…

After setting up all my bindings again (grrr!) and the new ones for legs, I put the Oculus on, and dived in.

My very first thought was, this is dark! Seems a lot darker than I remember and I am certainly using night vision more than I did before. I’m actually ok with this because it is outer space after all, but I can see why others aren’t keen. Graphics are definitely better in my opinion though, and seem sharper too.

No performance issues whilst flying apart from when I enter a mail slot, at which point the screen sticks a little until I get through. This happens every time in Odyssey. Not a game breaker, but it is a little jarring.

SRV is fine. No changes there, other than the improved planetary graphics. The atmospheres look very nice indeed. I like this! And the surfaces are improved too. Tidy.

Graphically, Odyssey has improved the game.

Now then, space legs. When I disembark and get the black screen (of course I want ship interiors, of course I want to walk down my ship steps…) my VR headset turns in to a flat cinema screen. This definitely takes the immersion away from space legs. I mean, it’s actually not that badly implemented, but I’m still disappointed. That “Armstrong moment” is just no good at all - black screen AND I lose VR… It feels like I’m starting a different game, that isn’t as good as Elite.

I have zero performance issues walking around stations, bases or combat zones. Everything runs fine, which actually surprised me a bit given the issues that I have seen reported by some other players. Happy enough with this.

I tried the First Person Shooter. Absolute pants! Really really terrible. It is basic and outdated. And copying the ship combat mechanics (lasers for shields and kinetics for body) and pasting in to an FPS is just plain stupid. Awful. Awful. Awful.

I have zero intention of playing ED’s FPS again. So there’s no point me grinding out engineering for suits or hand weapons. I am never going to do that, ever. The problem with this is, where does that leave me now? There’s not much for me to do on foot at all, and if Frontier’s focus is on this, which it seems to be, then they are taking a different direction to where I want to go…

I still enjoy flying my ship and using my newly acquired, and discounted, Fleet Carrier (perfect timing to save 1.5 billion. Very lucky lol). So I’m back to enjoying the game in itself, but the expansion (apart from the graphics) has been, for me, a complete waste of time and money. I know it’s a cliche, but it really does feel like a new game unnecessarily bolted on to Elite. Something I didn’t want that has been poorly implemented.

I would have preferred, and been willing to pay for, quality of life improvements instead. Powerplay, engineering, material gathering, NPC chit-chat (it’s STILL in the top 1% of all liners out there. I mean, lordy!!), better narrative that I can actually play rather than just read about, proper missions that follow on from each other to lead the player towards some kind of storyline, the Thargoid war (remember them?), Imp and Fed rank that actually means something and has consequences, and most importantly the absolute necessity to use third party sites like Inara and EDDB, just to play the game. Flesh the game out please. Add some meat to the skeleton.

I will continue to play, and enjoy Elite. Like I said at the start, I love this game. But I would not recommend Odyssey to anyone. £30 for a crappy FPS when a lot of the base game is still in dire need of some TLC is not good value at all.

I believe that this is the most crucial point in ED’s history, the game is on a knife edge. They have made some very poor decisions and now they have to put things right. Unfortunately, their track record suggests that this might not happen, but I sincerely hope they do.

For me, I am now, for the first time, keeping an eye on Star Citizen. It looks top drawer, and some well known content creators say things like it’s more immersive on a flat screen than ED is in VR, and I find that incredible! It’s nowhere near ready, and is still a long way off, but when it comes, I am afraid that ED will die.

And that breaks my heart…

o7 Commanders, and see you in the black

Thanks for your thoughtful post.

I've personally found some of the stealth ground missions to be interesting. It somewhat reminds me of the old Tom Clancy Rainbow Six games I've played in the past. But no doubt, when it comes to enjoyment, to each their own.

I agree with your comment about how dark it is. Others have noted this is a contrast problem, and I think they are right.... at certain points, it is nearly impossible to see the outpost I'm docking at... the next minute, the light and glare overwhelms me. The Horizons "look" is much better... EDH has a warm glow in the cockpit, with much better shadows and lighting in general. Again, I think it's a contrast problem, and I hope they get it fixed asap.

I'm really hoping many of the issues you raised are successfully resolved with Update 8. I'm lighting a candle and hoping that among other things, my GPU won't be running nearly 80C while I'm docked.

 

[Old Duck]

I tried the First Person Shooter. Absolute pants! Really really terrible. It is basic and outdated. And copying the ship combat mechanics (lasers for shields and kinetics for body) and pasting in to an FPS is just plain stupid. Awful. Awful. Awful.

This is what killed my interest in the FPS side of Odyssey. I actually like first person shooters, but this ridiculous switching back and forth between two weapons constantly is, as you say, pants. (I love you Brits and your fun sayings!) Even the idea that everyone has a personal Dune force field seems silly to me.

That's not to say I don't sometimes switch weapons in other FPS games like RDO - there I use my long-range rifle to snipe bandit hideouts for as long as I can, but when someone rushes me from behind, I drop the rifle and pull out the shotgun or pistol instead. But that is very different than having to switch back and forth between weapons to take out a single target, rinse and repeat ad nauseam.

 

[Mersozz]

This is what killed my interest in the FPS side of Odyssey. I actually like first person shooters, but this ridiculous switching back and forth between two weapons constantly is, as you say, pants. (I love you Brits and your fun sayings!) Even the idea that everyone has a personal Dune force field seems silly to me.

That's not to say I don't sometimes switch weapons in other FPS games like RDO - there I use my long-range rifle to snipe bandit hideouts for as long as I can, but when someone rushes me from behind, I drop the rifle and pull out the shotgun or pistol instead. But that is very different than having to switch back and forth between weapons to take out a single target, rinse and repeat ad nauseam.

I’ve noticed this becomes an even greater hassle when fighting multiple opponents. Bring down one guy’s shields, switch to bullets, and then a 2nd shielded opponent strolls in…. Ack!!

To this day, DOOM (and Quake) stands out as the best game I’ve played with respect to weapon variety. My kingdom for a hand held rail gun.

 

[Ian Skippy]

So we have a post from someone who says he doesn't like FPS, is primarily interested in flying ships in VR (all fine opinions), and therefor is keeping an eye on Star Citizen.

lol.

Beyond that, not a big fan of the weapon switching myself either, it seems a contrived a dull way to connect the gameplay with the ships. A typical outcome of design by committee. I get around it, like most others, by using plasma weapons. But it is daft and FD should rethink this. Other than that, this has been coming for a decade. Its not a new direction, its just one thing they have been openly talking about since the very start. Whether you like it or not, there is nothing wrong with adding station/base FPS given that was one of the DLC they explicitly mentioned as a target all the way back in 2012.

 

[CMDR Ylion]

if the visuals are the only thing you like about the dlc thats sad.
because they will get implementet in the base game.

the problem with the fps part is that people that do play such games are used to a higher standard,
while people that do not play fps games don´t care at all.

i barely touched any fps in a decade, and even i think odysseys approach is outdated.

 

[TheChosen]

I love FPS games... That's why I will never play Odyssey. I wanted to play some sci-fi FPS, saw some videos of Odyssey, didn't buy it .. Bought for 3EUR Deus Ex - Human Revolution (9 year old game) instead. Much, much better than anything I saw in Odyssey.

I am happily playing Horizons though... Just a pity the community has been broken and the number of players has basically flatlined below 5000.

The whole grind fest for it? Are you kidding me? There may be some grinding for the ships.. but guess what.. flying those ships, just the flying itself is quite thrilling. Walking around resetting bases or whatever for 100s of times.. not so much.. I can walk in RL, don't need a game for that.

 

[Bantha]

the problem with the fps part is that people that do play such games are used to a higher standard,
while people that do not play fps games don´t care at all.

This really sums it up for me.
Odyssey is, at the moment at least, just an FPS bolt-on.
Those that like FPS think it’s bad and won’t play it, those that don’t like FPS won’t play it.

I’m glad I’m back flying though, and I have to say I’m enjoying owning a Fleet Carrier more than I thought I would. My own station for my ships is great.
I have a home

I think FDev are making FCs walkable. I’m very much looking forward to strolling around my own station!

But I will not, now or ever, grind for a crappy FPS!

 

[here_it_comes]

All of my non-ED time is spent playing FPS and I wouldn't engage in EDO's FPS play unless it paid me hourly. That's not hyperbole. Barring not bolting on a FPS in the first placed, the next best decision FD could have made would be bringing in some talent with experience in modern FPS development. Putting graphics aside, I would peg this game as being early 2000s and, even then, mediocre.

Bolting an FPS onto ED was the worst decision I've seen in my gaming life. I'm really hard pressed thinking how they can salvage EDO. I won't be making ED purchases again until they resume developing it for CMDRs, and honestly loathe the idea of having to get EDO in order to get whatever comes next, if there is something after EDO.

o7

 

[Cohen the Worrior]

Ok so a little history.

I backed ED on Kickstarter ...

Now then, space legs. When I disembark and get the black screen (of course I want ship interiors, of course I want to walk down my ship steps…) my VR headset turns in to a flat cinema screen. This definitely takes the immersion away from space legs. I mean, it’s actually not that badly implemented, but I’m still disappointed. That “Armstrong moment” is just no good at all - black screen AND I lose VR… It feels like I’m starting a different game, that isn’t as good as Elite.

... For me, I am now, for the first time, keeping an eye on Star Citizen. It looks top drawer, and some well known content creators say things like it’s more immersive on a flat screen than ED is in VR, and I find that incredible! It’s nowhere near ready, and is still a long way off, but when it comes, I am afraid that ED will die.

And that breaks my heart…

o7 Commanders, and see you in the black

To be fair, I watched the original Armstrong moment

and it was black and white, grainy picture and not VR either. So perhaps FDev got it right after all.

No? Ok, I'll let myself out.

 

[Terry Daniels]

To be fair, I watched the original Armstrong moment

52 years ago, we landed on the moon - and still haven't colonised Mars... Wow! a company that's actually slower than Fdev /s

At least he got to climb down the ladder to reach the surface, and I'm guessing he got up out of his seat and walked over to the space-door, looked out over an alien horizon then started down the ladder - 60 seconds or thereabouts, an Armstrong moment!

 

[Ian Skippy]

I still feel the moon has almost no content at all. Miles wide, inch deep. It's basically just a heightmap, not even any caves or nothing.

 

[zombieapocalypse]

I still feel the moon has almost no content at all. Miles wide, inch deep. It's basically just a heightmap, not even any caves or nothing.

And it makes a rubbish golf course.

 

[Vingtetun]

Well. The S of FPS is ONE element of the FP bit

There are of course other bits.

FPE
FPM
and my favourite FPR
And sometimes bljust the FP

Odyssey isn't a FPS and I suspect people who think it is might be getting their knickers in a twist a little bit.

Oh. And if it was. It is a fun one! But it isn't. It contains elements of the S bit.

 

[St0rmFury]

So we have a post from someone who says he doesn't like FPS, is primarily interested in flying ships in VR (all fine opinions), and therefor is keeping an eye on Star Citizen.

Nah, he said he didn't like ED's FPS.