2020 Anniversary Recap

Zac Cocken

Junior Product Manager
Frontier
Greetings Commanders,

Last week we celebrated the sixth anniversary of Elite Dangerous with a bumper stream full of news, races, screenshots and Twitch Drops! First of all we'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who joined us on stream and watched along, we definitely couldn't have done it without your support!

You can catch up on each part of the stream here:


A look back on Elite Dangerous in 2020

2020 has been a unique year in more ways than one, but even throughout trying times, the incredible Elite Dangerous community have provided plenty of highlights for us to choose from (too many for us to talk about in the show)! From Hutton Truckers' Operation HOTMess and a virtual Lavecon, to various amazing charity streams from Commanders like CrispyTaytortot, it's been a truly memorable year. If you haven't already, head over to our stream and watch our recap of 2020 for a short overview of some of the main events of this year.

We'd also like to say a massive thank you to the brilliant development team, who are working tirelessly to make Odyssey the best experience possible. The team have also been working hard to implement important game balancing changes to improve Elite Dangerous for everyone. Looking further back on the year, it's easy to see the hard work they've put in: The beginning of 2020 saw the Fleet Carriers Beta and release, with many Commanders taking the opportunity to have a home away from home. Along with the Odyssey announcement, Elite Dangerous also welcomed an influx of new Commanders from the Epic Games Store, as well as the Horizons expansion becoming accessible to all!

September saw the return of GalNet and Community Goals, which wouldn't be possible without the development team dedicating time and resources on a regular basis, and since then we've been hard at work producing dev diaries for Odyssey, so Commanders can get a glimpse into the future of Elite Dangerous.

Finally, we want to say a special thanks to you, Commander. It's been a difficult year for everyone, and the entire team at Frontier appreciate the support and patience you've shown during our transition to safely working from home. We look forward to a brighter 2021, where things can hopefully return to normal and enjoy the future of Elite together!

Now to talk about last week's stream!


Community Racing


The Community Team were lucky enough to take part in some fantastic races last week, first of which was the Buckyball Race around Napier Installation!

This was helmed by CMDR Alec Turner from the Buckyball Racing Club & CMDR BlackMaze from EliteRacers (Join their Discord server here), so a special thank you to them. If you'd like to give this type of racing a try, there's plenty of videos online to get you started, and you can check out the race from CMDR Blackmaze's POV here:


Who knew canyon racing Type-9's could be so much fun? CMDR Ascorbius certainly did. We'd like to say another big thank you to him for organising a spot of Cow Racing during last week's stream, and if you'd like to see more Type-9 racing, check out this video from The Buur Pit:




The Road to Odyssey Part 3 - The Sphere of Combat

After a brief and unexpected news report from the O7 News Team, we shared the next part of our Road to Odyssey series, this time focusing on ground combat.


Within this part, we really wanted to highlight how getting out of your ship forces you to change your mindset and approach to the game. There'll be plenty of environments to fight in, both indoors and outdoors, and making use of SRV's and ships will certainly be important in tactical combat. We also heard from the fantastic audio team on how they are bringing the weapons of Odyssey to life, and helps to support you with vital information during combat.

There will be a variety of weapon types in Odyssey, and each one has been designed to feel different, not only in their impact, but how they affect you when you wield them.

After the Dev Diary, Community Manager Arthur sat down with Lead Designer Gareth Hughes to answer some of the most-asked questions regarding Odyssey. In case you missed it, we also posted some answers to frequently asked questions on the forum early last week. That's not all though! The Dev team are going to be answering even more questions - so we'll have another forum post for you soon.


Stellar Screenshots - SPVFA Hall of Fame

The anniversary stream also saw 10 of the finest screenshots of the year inducted into the SPVFA Hall of Fame! We'd like to thank CMDR's OrangePheonix & Exorcist for joining us on the show to discuss their selections, as well as the fine art of photography in Elite Dangerous - and a big thank you to the rest of the SPVFA judging panel!

Congratulations to all the Commanders featured in the Hall of Fame, and thank you to everyone who entered an image into #StellarScreenshots this year! Here are the stunning top 3 images from last week's show:

1st_CMDR_Jetsukai.jpg

2nd_CMDR_Nagasano.jpg

3rd_CMDR_Infinity_Spectre.jpg


You'll be able to check out the full top 10 on our Instagram!

Once again, thank you all for a great year, and we can't wait to share more about Elite Dangerous: Odyssey in 2021.


o7 Commanders
 
Excellent stream guys and gals! I really enjoyed it. The news bit is hilarious, keep it going! I’m super excited for the new year and what’s to come in ED. Keep up the great work!
 
Oh, Zac, I've almost forgot! I can't remember which of your colleagues told that, but he told us that you will tell us today when Odyssey will be released. Can you do it, please? :)
 
Hah... have a stellar shot on the 'Gram. I never use Instagram though. Nor Twitter. In fact, I think my FB account is dead too... they're all so 23rd century!

:ROFLMAO:
 
After the Dev Diary, Community Manager Arthur sat down with Lead Designer Gareth Hughes to answer some of the most-asked questions regarding Odyssey.
Any plans to post this video somewhere? At the moment it's only available buried in the livestream, and it's got a lot of great info.

Thanks for the recap!
 
Any plans to post this video somewhere? At the moment it's only available buried in the livestream, and it's got a lot of great info.

Thanks for the recap!
I know it's not exactly what you mean but here's the timestamped section from the main livestream (i.e. less buried).

 
Thanks for sharing that @Zac Cocken - it was a terrific livestream and I feel honored to have been able to contribute.

If anyone fancies a go at that SRV, SLF, Keelback Triathlon race themselves then we're currently hosting it somewhat informally over on our Discord in the #napier-triathlon channel. Current best time to try and beat is Cmdr @sgurr who managed to complete the course in 4 minutes and 59 seconds!
 
Thanks Zac and all the team at FDEV. Make sure you all have a great Christmas and safe New Year celebrations.....well, as good as you can at least, given the current COVID situation I guess. Here's hoping 2021 is a better year......and as few hiccups for Odyssey as possible.
 
I don't want to be a complainy cat, but any chance you could give us a way to get those twitch drops again? Y'all streamed at 6am on the first day I had off in months lol

it was a great stream, but... Look, I just like the color purple <3
 
Yeah, dang, currently at 1:22 and I thought I had the drops to look forward to. Didn't realize you had to watch it live.

Only wish the "Ugly Christmas Sweater" skin was available for the big guys. Being able to gussy up the FC with lights and tinsel would be pretty cool too. Ideas for next year :)
 
Any clue as to when the deluxe preorder folks for odyssey will get access to the Alpha and Beta version on the expansion?

Supposed to be early in the new year, I am hoping sometime early January, it will have to be if they are going to run Alpha and Beta before first quarter release!
 
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