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... I guess FDev may be calculating that the increase in players that move to Odyssey due to being able to test drive part of it, and in order to experience multiplayer, will be greater than the players that will lose interest.
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This release is a courtesy and free upgrade for non-Odyssey owners. They now get to try the 4.0 codebase with all the perks that contains as well as engage with future content and narrative updates at no additional cost where this wasn't possible before. Of course, we still hope they will upgrade to Odyssey for the full experience the game has to offer.

ok, I get this ...
basically Horizon 4.0 is a marketing tool...... a taster for Odyssey.

but do you not see the issue?

if Im a new player, one that does not come to the forum here...
I decide to (initially) buy Elite Dangerous (base) off Steam, to see if I like it... and I'll then think about the added DLC later (Odyssey).
Im not going to see these subtle differences, Id just run Elite ... id ignore the 3.8 'old version', assuming the latest is what I want.

ok, so far its going according to plan for Frontier's vision...

BUT now I go into OPEN, and I'll see very few people there... so Elite multiplayer looks 'dead'.

since all the existing OPEN players are being told... play in Horizon 3.8!!
I come to the forums looking for 'why', and get told , play 3.8.
which perpetuates the situation... no one on in Horizon/Odyssey 4.0 in open.

is this likely, absolutely, when I bought Elite just a month ago... I seriously considered buying just the base and adding Odyssey later...
because, to a player of other games... you just assume Odyssey is an expansion/dlc, you have no idea that the player base is fragmented as it is by versions.
 
The real issue is it puts a lot of pressure on multiplayer. The pool of players for multiplayer interaction on PC was already hit by the split of Odyssey and Horizons (as well as people leaving the game as a result of this and other issues associated with the launch). It's now to be further split. For people who enjoy multiplayer it feels like removing more reasons to play. I guess FDev may be calculating that the increase in players that move to Odyssey due to being able to test drive part of it, and in order to experience multiplayer, will be greater than the players that will lose interest.
The biggest reason people didnt buy Odyssey looking at comments was anticipated performance hit and visual quality from the negative publicity at launch, if your entire business plan rests on hitting numbers of sales that are not reached then you need to react, people on here seem to be utterly clueless about business. I thought Frontier might instead go all in on a new DLC and put Odyssey behind them but it appears that getting more players onto Odyssey is still a strategy, or more importantly focussing on streamlining development (we had console development and Windows 7 testing removed and now concentrating on a single codebase) plus enticing people to part cash for the DLC is.

After all they did sell 8 million Horizons units, mostly on the free Epic giveaway. Thats a huge number of potential customers for an upgrade and dwarfs this idea that people suddenly will stop playing because they are not in the same instance when in fact we have had that very situation of split instancing for well over a year now. Looking at the types of discounts that Frontier often do on their products it really is a bit pathetic to suggest that if instancing is so important for some that they can not pay the price and if they really are stubbornly against it then nothing stops them playing together on 3.8. So its not like you can never go back!
 
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You know what I mean. Holding CMs accountable for a release/patch/DLC is just plain silly. :)
Well, you know how humanity handled it in the past: If the message of a certain party wasn't liked by the other party, only the messenger's head was sent back as a sign of disapproval. "Don't shoot the messenger" is a rather novel concept in historical timescales. That's not to say we should roast the the CMs, but humans being humans one can fully expect we will.
 
This release is a courtesy and free upgrade for non-Odyssey owners. They now get to try the 4.0 codebase with all the perks that contains as well as engage with future content and narrative updates at no additional cost where this wasn't possible before. Of course, we still hope they will upgrade to Odyssey for the full experience the game has to offer.

You guys should have started to hype the Horizons 4.0 launch with this. 👆
And also put it at the top of the Patch notes for today's release 🍻

Edit:
A lot of Odyssey owners, yours truly included, felt a bit frustrated for not getting Horizons 4.0
This post however clears the things a bit
 
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As a ps4 cmdr and now a pc Cmdr, I am happy Frontier is giving me all of this, I have received my game for free on pc + a test run on 4.0 so I can see what it all looks like, hell, I even get the new SRV. Someone better is waiting at home for the CM people, they deserve a good foot massage for real. I wouldn't be able to do that job hell no. So for what it is worth, Sally, Bruce, and all of the people involved thank you.
 
Well, you know how humanity handled it in the past: If the message of a certain party wasn't liked by the other party, only the messenger's head was sent back as a sign of disapproval. "Don't shoot the messenger" is a rather novel concept in historical timescales. That's not to say we should roast the the CMs, but humans being humans one can fully expect we will.
Still silly. :)
 
Not really.

Why should people partake in content they haven't paid for? Horizons was released 7 years ago. There comes a point where you end the ability for an old game to continue playing with newer releases for free.

It's common sense.

Surely you didn't expect to be able to do it all for free forever.
Indeed.
I will add one more thing.

We should ban all non ody owners, how they dare reject buying shiny new dlc!

Sorry, but yes "you bought game, but you cannot instance with people which bought new dlc" is scummy. And I'm saying it as ody owner. I just havent my head deep in black hole.
 
4.0 Horizons has never been on sale. It has only been made available to non-Odyssey players as an optional upgrade to try the 4.0 engine.
Which I personally think is a good idea. VR player here, which makes Ody/4.0 already a risky proposition with respect to FPS (forget about 60 FPS - I need 90 FPS at 2k+, times two). Just got a solid FPS boost by switching from a 1080 TI to a 6800 XT, but haven't tried the SRV since.
Second point for "try before you buy" is the graphics driver - still need to check for myself whether 4.0 works on my rig with the AMD setup (using the "recommended" driver, whatever its version number is).

Currently downloading, let's see what's up later today or tomorrow. If it works, I'll need to look out for sales - both at FD and at Steam - for Ody. Or start thinking about which of my accounts will get Ody.
 
I do think there is a DANGER by making Horizons 4.0 appear to be the default / latest version in the launcher. First, new players download 3.8 from Steam, which of course takes time. They launch the game, and Horizons 4.0 is top of the menu. They assume this is the version they want, so they click that and then have to wait while a much bigger version of Horizons installs. Frustration begins. Then they are finally able to get into Elite, and if they run into any performance issues (because they are running a much more demanding version of the engine than described on Steam), they'll assume this is a problem with the game they just bought. Frustration boils over. A few weeks later, and Horizons Steam reviews are plummeting because what people are really reviewing is a demo of Odyssey and they don't even know it.

Just thought I'd point that out.
 
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sallymorganmoore

Senior Community Manager : Elite Dangerous
You guys should have started to hype the Horizons 4.0 launch with this. 👆
And also put it at the top of the Patch notes for today's release 🍻

Edit:
A lot of Odyssey owners, yours truly included, felt a bit frustrated for not getting Horizons 4.0
This post however clears the things a bit
I'll fix it for you. Hold please.
 
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