Discovery Scanner [Weekly Update] - 09/05/2022

[rOmiLaYu]

Hm, I'm starting to suspect the "key feature overhaul" might actually be exploration, or at least exobiology. At least, as far as current plans would go. "I hope it will help allay some concerns that there is no more content coming to Elite Dangerous", and a lack of new content isn't a common complaint about PowerPlay, Engineering, CQC and all - except the obvious comment about the astonishing lack of new ships in the game - but it is quite common with exploration. Even though the problem there is mostly of mechanics: not just the lack of them, but also how both the new and old mechanics work poorly for exobiology.

The point-and-click sampling is as minimal as it gets, and while the FSS was problematic even at its inception (and by Frontier's own released numbers, people explore less than they did before), it got even worse with Odyssey. Why? Because you have to grind the FSS to completion to find any thin atmospheric planets you might be interested in, and a key design goal of the FSS when they discussed it on stream was that players should be able to look at the FSS bar and see if there's anything they might be looking for in the system. If not, then just move on and jump. Well, the only time that works now is if you're in a system that has no possibly landable body types. So, exobiology (a key Odyssey feature) needs a big overhaul, but doing it without touching body scanning would be doing less than is needed.

I could also see why they wouldn't announce well in advance that exploration might be getting an overhaul. Not just because FD might change their minds and choose something else instead, but also because if they said that "hey, we're overhauling exploration next year", many people would go "cool, I'll stop exploring until then". So that would be an announcement to make soon before the overhaul is done and goes out for testing, not a year before.

Or hey, maybe it will be something else. That still wouldn't change the fact that both exploration and exobiology really need an overhaul. Not that PowerPlay and CQC don't, but those weren't key features for the latest expansion.

I would love to see this, but my suspicion is that the "key feature" is going to be engineering. Given the six month old thread asking for input, my bet is that it is going to get tweaked...which, to me - a five year old CMDR - is relatively meaningless.

 

[Rochester]

Just putting this out again…

Source: https://youtu.be/-WzS-n0EiCI

 

[TrollhunterX]

Greetings Commanders,

A new week begins in the world of Elite Dangerous, so grab a seat, and let's talk about everything happening right now within the game.

Console Account Transfers
As announced in our post last week, we're very happy to be able to tell you that console account transfers are making progress behind the scenes, with the dev team hard at work to make sure as much as possible is transferred over should you wish to copy your Commander from console to PC. Secondly, if you've purchased Elite Dangerous on consoles, we'll be giving you a free copy of Elite Dangerous on PC. This will all be done in a limited-time window and the exact details are still being confirmed, but we'll be giving you plenty of heads up so you can prepare if needed.

The team are also gathering the most frequently asked questions about console account transfers so that we can provide you with the answers all at once.

The Rest of 2022
Another thing we spoke about last week was the remainder of the year and what that looks like in terms of structure for Elite Dangerous updates. Our first upcoming update, Update 12, is due this month. The main focus of Update 12 is on optimisation and fixes as we continue to improve Odyssey based on your feedback and Issue Tracker reports. There'll also be a new mission variant added, which we'll share more on in the coming weeks!

Moving forward, Updates 13 & 14 are currently aiming for August and November respectively. As well as continued performance improvements, these updates will be focusing on exciting new narrative threads for you to engage with. I know that you're all itching to hear more about what this specifically means, but rest assured that this is more than solely the continuation of GalNet. The closer we get to those updates, the more we can reveal, but it's too early right now. I would very much recommend that you keep up to date with the current happenings in the Elite Dangerous universe, as the Azimuth Saga continues to evolve.

2023
I can't say much about 2023 right now, in fact, I can't say anything other than what you already know! The team are currently looking at a key feature overhaul for 2023, and although I cannot give you any hints as to what this is, I hope it will help allay some concerns that there is no more content coming to Elite Dangerous. There's a lot still to come, and the new major narrative phase will have a part to play in the future, too.

Frameshift Live
As you will have heard if you tuned into last week's show, Frameshift Live will now air once every two weeks on Thursday's at 4PM BST. We're looking to revamp the show based on your feedback, specifically, your ask for more insight from the development team. What this means is that there are around 16 shows left in the year, and for each of those shows, we're looking to give you something you can't get somewhere else, and I don't just mean Twitch Drops! We're currently finalising our plan for the rest of the year's shows, and once that's concrete, we'll begin sharing with you our upcoming schedules, so you know what to expect before you jump into a stream. These subjects will likely range from ship design, ideas behind core gameplay elements, concepts and more. With this in mind, is there anything in the game currently that you'd like to know more about from a development point of view?

This doesn't mean the community elements of the show will stop, though! The Elite Dangerous community continues to be one of the best things about the game, and we're keen to highlight the fantastic things you do both in and out of the in-game galaxy.


Community Event Calendar Spotlight: On The Rocks (Magic 8 Ball)
We have another Buckyball race this week! This time, it's the On The Rocks race. This one involves delivering Buckyball Beer Mats to five asteroid bases in and around the bubble in the fastest time possible. Check out more information right here.

View attachment 305816


Commander Creations

https://twitter.com/x/status/1522963190975537161

First up this week, CMDR Rheeney has framed this majestic storyboard work from CMDR Dasjav, showcasing the 'Little SRV' that caused a big explosion...

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/ugnc4v

As always, it's impossible to ignore the incredible artwork of BeetleJude, who once again astonishes with this piece, highlighting CMDR Exorcist's adventures.

---

That's all for this week!

o7

My interest was piqued by the heading, but after several perusals, I still can't see anything about Discovery Scanners. Am I just missing it, or is 'Discovery Scanner' some kind of buzzing in-forum short-hand for 'update' (which is then followed, redundantly, by the word 'update')?

 

[Giogi]

You missed the new mission in update 12 and the new content based on the narrative post update 13 (the livestream hinted that this will be a big deal). From the previous announcement they are also looking at additional content to release in 2022 outside of that, perhaps based on spare development capacity availability.

Yes I have read, but they say a lot of things that then collide with reality.
I remain confident about the optimization, I know that for the contents I will have to wait a little longer.

 

[Kenjiro]

Greetings Commanders,

A new week begins in the world of Elite Dangerous, so grab a seat, and let's talk about everything happening right now within the game.

Console Account Transfers
As announced in our post last week, we're very happy to be able to tell you that console account transfers are making progress behind the scenes, with the dev team hard at work to make sure as much as possible is transferred over should you wish to copy your Commander from console to PC. Secondly, if you've purchased Elite Dangerous on consoles, we'll be giving you a free copy of Elite Dangerous on PC. This will all be done in a limited-time window and the exact details are still being confirmed, but we'll be giving you plenty of heads up so you can prepare if needed.

The team are also gathering the most frequently asked questions about console account transfers so that we can provide you with the answers all at once.

Zac, some friends who already play on PC but also have a commander in console are asking:

1- said transfer means they will have to create a new account on PC?
2- or could they overwrite the commander they already have on PC (in case the progress in the console is more advanced)?
3- or could they get both commanders (PC and console) merged (in case they have lots of progress and assets in both platforms)?

 

[texasp8]

Since Elite Dangerous was released, Frontier have developed several other games; notably Planet Coaster/Zoo and the dinosaur games. My dev question is; did any of the work done for those games become useful for Elite Dangerous (for example, new tools or capabilities in the COBRA engine, new techniques that were useful for planet surfaces, on-foot or future gameplay)?

 

[Rubbernuke]

Exactly, I feel the same.
On the other hand, however, I wonder what powerplay players are thinking, instead!

Those right minded Powerplay individuals only have wholesome, balanced thinking. Goodness knows what goes through the minds of those other sick thought pervs.

 

[aRJay]

My interest was piqued by the heading, but after several perusals, I still can't see anything about Discovery Scanners. Am I just missing it, or is 'Discovery Scanner' some kind of buzzing in-forum short-hand for 'update' (which is then followed, redundantly, by the word 'update')?

Discovery Scanner is just the name for the weekly what’s happening/coming up post like Frameshift Live is just the name for the fortnightly live stream.

 

[TrollhunterX]

Discovery Scanner is just the name for the weekly what’s happening/coming up post like Frameshift Live is just the name for the fortnightly live stream.

Thanks. I thought it might be something like that...

 

["Red" the Pirate]

The team are also gathering the most frequently asked questions about console account transfers so that we can provide you with the answers all at once.

On that note, will we be able to transfer our console cmdr to an already existing pc client? I already have a Steam client with Odyssey and a noob cmdr that I'm more than willing to delete save data for to replace with my main save, and I'm not so willing to pay for Odyssey a second time.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Nothing more needs to be said, because all right thinking players know instinctively what that feature will be.

Powerplayers want only one thing, and its disgusting!

 

[Z4VOS 9000]

Zac Cocken said:
The team are also gathering the most frequently asked questions about console account transfers so that we can provide you with the answers all at once.

1) Do I have to unload and sell all cargo and tritium stored on my XBOX fleet carrier before decommission for transfer to PC or get automatic fair market value credit when the fleet carrier decommissions?
2) Can I decommission my FC in any system, not just the FC service systems?
3) Can I keep my XBOX cmdr name assuming it is not taken on PC?
4) I already have a PC cmdr and want to transfer the XBOX cmdr as an alt. How does that work?
5) Can you sell the limited time rare livery items such as ship paint schemes (like midnight black) so I can burn the arx I accumulated?

thanks

 

[WINGBACON]

Will my Ps4 bookmarks carry over to Odyssey on steam? Z4vos & Red the pirates clearly asked questions I was trying to ask. It'd be great to get answers for those as well.

 

[Zac Cocken]

@ Zac, Will console account copy only be for Horizons or will it count also for Odyssey? If I create an account with my frontier store account now will the transfer take place when I do this? Edit: I have Odyssey deluxe edition on steam & a playstation 4 account. I use Inara. Can you find out? Thanks!

It will be a Horizons (Elite Dangerous base game) copy only. The transfer won't take place now, we'll announce when the window will be open for it!

 

[Gleitfrosch]

Nothing more needs to be said, because all right thinking players know instinctively what that feature will be.

Thargoids will be included in powerplay?

 

[CMDR Yates]

Hm, I'm starting to suspect the "key feature overhaul" might actually be exploration, or at least exobiology. At least, as far as current plans would go. "I hope it will help allay some concerns that there is no more content coming to Elite Dangerous", and a lack of new content isn't a common complaint about PowerPlay, Engineering, CQC and all - except the obvious comment about the astonishing lack of new ships in the game - but it is quite common with exploration. Even though the problem there is mostly of mechanics: not just the lack of them, but also how both the new and old mechanics work poorly for exobiology.

The point-and-click sampling is as minimal as it gets, and while the FSS was problematic even at its inception (and by Frontier's own released numbers, people explore less than they did before), it got even worse with Odyssey. Why? Because you have to grind the FSS to completion to find any thin atmospheric planets you might be interested in, and a key design goal of the FSS when they discussed it on stream was that players should be able to look at the FSS bar and see if there's anything they might be looking for in the system. If not, then just move on and jump. Well, the only time that works now is if you're in a system that has no possibly landable body types. So, exobiology (a key Odyssey feature) needs a big overhaul, but doing it without touching body scanning would be doing less than is needed.

I could also see why they wouldn't announce well in advance that exploration might be getting an overhaul. Not just because FD might change their minds and choose something else instead, but also because if they said that "hey, we're overhauling exploration next year", many people would go "cool, I'll stop exploring until then". So that would be an announcement to make soon before the overhaul is done and goes out for testing, not a year before.

Or hey, maybe it will be something else. That still wouldn't change the fact that both exploration and exobiology really need an overhaul. Not that PowerPlay and CQC don't, but those weren't key features for the latest expansion.

That would be nice, but my gut feeling is it'll be an overhaul of engineering. If I remember, there was a thread a few months ago asking for users' thoughts on engineering and its future.

If it's just another re-jig of the actual dry mechanics involved in upgrading modules... if the changes involve tweaks to what happens in the engineering hangar and changes to drop rates... that's fine but I'm not particularly excited by that.

If it involves overhauling engineering by expanding and deepening salvage and scavenging gameplay... hunting and analysing high value wrecks, mining them for modules, entering exploded husks on foot and carefully extracting components, facing danger and adventure and the unexpected to further your engineering goals... THAT would have my attention.

 

[stormyuk]

Thanks for this reassuring info Zac!

For console account transfers - 3 of the most common questions are:

1) Will I be able to transfer into existing PC Odyssey account? (Replacing current progress with the console one)
2) Will I be able to transfer into an existing PC Horizons account? (Replacing as above)
3) Is the gifted Horizons copy on any specific platform (steam, epic) or is it not connected to any platform?

Any chance you can find out please?

I personally hope it's not Steam or Epic and a stand alone Frontier account especially if it appears it won't be possible to use an existing PC account.

 

[WINGBACON]

It will be a Horizons (Elite Dangerous base game) copy only. The transfer won't take place now, we'll announce when the window will be open for it!

That sounds unfortunate but thanks for clarifying, Zac. There's 'option 2'. Create an Odyssey cmdr then, Send in a ticket?

 

[Flimley]

Hooray for everything. \o/
although, i can't say what everything is currently.

Flimley

 

[JR250]

IMHO, the feature that needs the most rework is engineering. New content is great and much appreciated but the deep engineering loops tend to discourage many users. Just unlocking an engineer can be a pain at times, not to mention gathering mats to apply the mods.

Don't mean to sound negative. This is a good post and it's appreciated. Looking forward to the new content next year.