YT vid
NB: they’ve chopped 7 minutes off the start of the vid now, so -7m off any timestamps.
Known stuff from Polygon article:
Interview with Luke Betterton (Designer)
Walkthrough of a scavenger mission:
Q&As
Q&A with Luke [45m30s+]
Q&A with Arthur & Stephen No 1:
Q&A 2 [1h17m00s]
Oscar Biggs Q&A - Assistant Producer [57m]
NB: they’ve chopped 7 minutes off the start of the vid now, so -7m off any timestamps.
Known stuff from Polygon article:
- Social Hubs: 3 types (spaceports, outposts, ports) [16m50s]
- Careers: Similar roles as in space. Combat, Explo, Scavenging. [17m50s]
- Suits: Extra suits for explo, combat, scavenging. Are upgradeable. Will be a special show just on this. [19m+]
- Settlements: Will be different if agricultural, mining based etc. Some will be harder to combat if the faction is strong. You might have a bad experience if you have a bad rep with the minor faction, or a good experience if have good rep. [20m45s]
- Apex Interstellar [taxi service]: Could play Odyssey without ever owning a ship. The travel distances & times etc still being balanced. Will be based in 'sim roots'. [22m30s]
- 'Personal narrative': Don't nesc need a mission. Can 'make your own story'. (IE in same way as ships). [23m50s]
Interview with Luke Betterton (Designer)
- Big change to work on Odyssey? 'Core of Elite is still there'. The base stuff, the BGS etc. Odyssey involves working in a completely different scale though. Going down a scale means you need missions that point you to the correct places, need compelling reasons to go to them, reasons to do things for people. [30m20s]
- Suits: Can upgrade them, can modify them to make them more appropriate to your game style. As with ships you can buy multiples. Can modify identical ones in slightly different ways. They're 'the ship of Odyssey'. [32m30s]
Walkthrough of a scavenger mission:
- You pick up missions via current mission board, or people that you talk to.
- Occasionally they'll know about an abandoned ship or wreck. They'll get your attention, and try and make their case for why you should go there.
- When you're talking to a person you get to have 'your side of the argument'. You negotiate. If they're offering '10k' for example, and you think, not enough, this is a bit risky, you can push for a bit more, a chunk more, or loads more. Whether or not they respond well will depend on your rep with that faction, the people that they work with and if they like you, your reputation/skill in that area. If it doesn't go well... He doesn't say what happens.
- You get to location, the way that you want. Find the wreck, if you're good with your scanners.
- Rifle around through the wreckage. When stuff crashes, boxes get thrown around, contents will be scattered about. Some boxes will need to be broken open. Some will need special tools to break open. Can use SRV to pick up bigger items,
- The person who sent you only wanted one thing. The rest is yours.
- Head back, chat, give them their item. Then drop off the rest at a drop off store.
- If someone follows you down they could steal stuff off you (?). Equally you could tail someone else.
- Can of course scavenge without a mission.
- Mission effects on the BGS: It's still alive and well in EDO. If you attack or help a minor faction, that will be reflected. There are 'helpful' missions. Scavanging has an effect. Every time you find a faction, they will have representatives in the starports etc. All the guys on the mission board, you can meet them. [41m45s]
- What most excited about? Missions of course! But there's nothing like ED out there, so if it wasn't missions, just excited to see everyone getting stuck in to the on foot version of it. [44m30s]
- Will EDO work with Wings, Multicrew or Squadrons? Yes, it's built onto the base game, so all that stuff will work. You'll be able to walk around with a Wingmate, do missions at settlements together etc [48m]
Q&As
- Q: Can I be attacked by NPCs without provocation? A: Yes. [21m20s]
Q&A with Luke [45m30s+]
- Nothing to announce for SRVs
- What happens when you die? Answering in future.
- Will the NPCs be 'voice active'? Yes. They'll be chatting to you.
Q&A with Arthur & Stephen No 1:
- Will all planet ports have the same hubs? Says they'll be varied based on local economy, but you won't be slogging around for miles. They'll be very similar in layout, but not identical. [52m15s]
- Will there nefarious missions? Yes. Luke alluded to quite a lot to the things you can do in settlements. Will give another example mission later. You can be very nefarious. You don't necessarily have to have a mission to create a 'moment'. [53m30s]
- Will walking around inside be seamless? Yes it's seamless. You can walk into a hangar, walk around your parked ship in the hanger, all seamless etc. [54m30s] (NB comment below about airlocks not being hidden loading screens too).
- What's Genomics (sp). That's where you sell off exploration data from planets. The exobiologist role that you can rank up in etc. [54m55s]
Q&A 2 [1h17m00s]
- There will be a CQC style mode for on foot. [1h17m00s]
- This is the largest add-on that ED's ever had. There's a lot to discuss.
- Does social hub mean cross-platform? No, not discussing that.
- NPCs will differ in social hubs based on the factions that control them [1h19m40s]
- Mission givers will be affected by the BGS.
- Can't go outside without a suit. Will need to 'manage' your suit.
- Nothing to report on Fleet Carrier interiors at the moment. (Kept emphasising 'at the moment', but it's kinda like a game).
- Will NPCs respond differently to you depending on your faction status? Yes. (Can't say more for now, or David Braben's ethereal hand will descend and choke him for accidentally divulging too much. Not allowed to answer.)
- Suits will have battery-powered shields. They're a huge subject. They're as important on foot as the ship's shields are in space. Customisable etc. Can't say more due to future surprises. [I'm guessing shielding against different environmental effects may be part of this?]
- Will NPCs interact with each other? Yes.
- Inside you don't need a suit, there's an airlock. But it is seamless, it's not a hidden loading screen. [1h23m]
- Can settlement factions change or be taken over? Yes, "they play a huge role in the tone and timbre to the given system", and this plays out most clearly in settlements, which can be taken over etc / affect & reflect BGS etc.
- All of the footage is 'in-engine' and not 'pre-rendered'.
- Has never seen NPCs standing on tables.
Oscar Biggs Q&A - Assistant Producer [57m]
- Oversees with character team, social hubs etc
- Character team = artists, animators, couple of conceptors, & 1 coder. [59m]
- One thing the animations etc bring = 'people watching' / making up stories about the AI you see walking around. [1h1m]
- Sitting watching the ships fly by = a great aspect of the hubs. Could see a friend arrive. (Or land badly
). It's quite hypnotic etc. - Mocap helps to get 'weight' behind actions. Hard to get when hand-keying. They use a layer of hand-keying over top of mocap. [1h3m]
- Fun animations gone wrong as with other games? Sure, characters glitch through the floor etc, but it's usually an easy fix.
- Can we talk to a bartender? Can't announce at this time. [1h7m40s]
- Excited for the community 'to have this new experience'. It's not required, but it's a new awesome dive into a different experience. Space is inherently lonely, but community balances that. Being on foot, on planets, in hubs, brings those elements together for him.
- Will animations in the cockpit be changed? No plans as yet. Feel that they're all very fit for purpose.
- No answer on emotes. Will say more later.
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