An Odyssey to Delphi: A Pictorial Journey

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

Evelyn's Star or Evelyn's Light is one of the most beautiful places in Elite Dangerous. If you listen to the poem on this Listening Post and the audiobook put together by Drew Wagnar that accompanies the system... its emotional. I won't spoil the visit for any reader who has not yet made the trip but believe me... its well worth it.

I've updated my PC since my last post... and I am now running with the beast that is the GTX4090 on a 4K screen. What a difference is all I can say.... Elite looks beautiful at this resolution (as does any game) and runs like a dream with 100+fps anywhere I go. Sure there are odd drops here and there when running in Open in a CG system - even all that power cannot do anything about lag- but my gaming experience has been transformed.

I hitched a ride home on an FC that was making its way to Sag A and then the bubble. This took about a week or so. Here I am looking out from its bridge from the Colonia region. Its good to be back after such a long time out in the black. I'd missed the CGs and seeing another CMDRs. Time wasn't in the offering though, so I did a little fighting in Tavgi and Pichch to get my eye in on my new rig. All these sudden flair ups between the superpowers got me thinking... Is someone pulling the strings with these unexplained assassinations and squabbles. Especially with the news that Salvation may be still alive... Is he back pulling the strings behind the scenes? I suppose only time will tell there.

First port of call after that was the Maelstroms. I was surprised how easily my AX-Fighter Falchion survived the harsh environment. After several play sessions I was able to gather enough materials to unlock the Caustic sink. Something I had missed out on in the black.

The maelstroms are an un-nerving place and well realised by FDev. The sound was of course first rate as always and the place looked suitable oppressive. Chatter in Galnet says we are soon to pierce the inner sanctum of these strange place. My guess in the grelics will play a part here... I'm glad I have a stash aboard my FC from last time though I am wondering if a trip out to guardian site might be prudent to manufacture some more...

Collecting the Caustic Shards, tissue samples and mechanisms was thrilling. I loved how the Thargoid vessels routinely scan these generators and can catch you out quite quickly of you are not careful. I had never done tissue sampling before and it was fun to learn to do so. Even after all these years of playing, there are still skills I need to develop in-game. I've never got the inch deep accusation about the game.

COL 285 Sector AF-E B13-5. A Thargoid assault was raining down on Pelt Base in system. I'd longed to contribute to the ongoing war and this was to be my first taste of the conflict. It was exciting stuff alright... exhilaratingly so. Fighting with other CMDRs. Bringing down many cyclops, a medusa and a couple of hydras. Of course there were a great number of scouts too.

I prefer to fight scouts. You can fly fast and deadly fighting these, especially with the advanced weapons and the ability to add an additional weapon with the AX stabiliser. Here I am in the Falchion swooping down on a pair. They didn't last long...

After fighting through Thursday and Friday, the Thargoids have been beaten back and are in retreat around Pelt Base... It seems I must set my sights elsewhere now.

o7 CMDRs

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

Like many other CMDRs I have unlocked the new Pulse Neutraliser and pierced the Cocijo Maelstrom. The following documents what I discovered within so SPOILERS lie ahead to anyone who hasn't access this content yet. Hence why I am beginning with this nice shot of the Falchion onboard my Fleet Carrier prepped and ready to go.

I knew it would be a one way mission.

Leaving the Delphi. Actually getting to the Maelstrom was a struggle tonight with near constant hyper and interdictions for Thargoids. I had to turn back at one point as my FSD was so damaged. But in the end I broke through the energy pulse. The first thing I noticed was how calm it was inside. Then I spotted so asteroids just floating about. As I was playing with the external camera to photograph these I saw it...

The Thargoid mothership...

I quickly changed course and piloted my ship towards it. These things are immense.

It dwarfs my tiny ship...

Getting too close saw my ship pelted by red fire. Not as damaging as I was expecting and I was able to complete a few fly pasts like this.

The new glaive ships attacked me at this point...

I am loving the new lightning attacks...

Well done FDev!

By this point, my FSD gave up. So I self-destructed the ship and fled. What an experience!

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

Hey its been a few months....

I've just completed a long, meandering journey around the material hotspots of the Bubble and beyond. After tackling the Maelstrom I felt that I needed to fill up the old reserved for engineering materials. Subsequently I have travelled a considerable distance and spent many hours collection Raw, Encoded and Manufactured materials... seen a few sights too. Like many of you, I began this journey at Dav's Hope.

I got to visit rather obscure locations like Research Facility 5592, which are almost as useful as Dav's Hope for collecting materials. A change is as good as a rest.

I sought out the crystalline forests across the Sanguineous Rim to track down those elusive raw materials.

Finally found an electricae too... I was happy about that. Strangely, this was the very first thing I discovered when I got Odyssey but never found another one until now. Nice payout as well.

Elite at its most beautiful.

Fire effects...

Prefer the shot without a CMDR in it?

Braintrees were also very useful in my quest to gather selenium.

The Jameson Crash Site is fantastic for encoded data.

I updated the game to day. Update 16 is here... discovering the Dedicant was atmospheric and the audio was outstanding again. There is a considerable amount of it to be discovered here... but do they hint at on foot Thargoids at last. Go listen ...

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

After update 16, I spent a little time attempting to explore the maelstroms some more. I was quickly distracted by exploring the abandoned settlements that dot the Thargoid controlled star systems. I was doing okay, unitl I met a Glaive. My ship wasn't quite equiped with enough firepower to defeat it or my skill level was too low... and so I was trounced. Here I am in my AX ship skirting the clouds of Oya... a location for me to return too for another run soon.​

Of course I was distracted by the news of the discovery of another Thargoid/Guardian battlefield. So I plotted a course and made the journey in the Delphi for a little exploration. It had been a long while since I had done anything like this so took a few snaps of the remains of the interceptors and checked out the ruins.​

It had been a long while since I did any Guardian sites and I was a little rusty in fighting off the sentinels. But like riding a bike, it quickly comes back.

Turning on the lights is always impressive...

I do hope more is done to bring the Guardians back into the story soon...

To get my hands on those all important Guardian data logs I needed a key....

Scooping these up was a lot easier than when I first did it years ago...

As I type I'm docked in Laedla having just completed the latest gold rush. Literally too, as the commodity is actually gold for some Imperial Noble's idea to build gold statues of Imperial worthies. Poor old Otto, hope you haven't bankrupted yourself!

Here I am in my trusty T9, Orion's Onagar, which has earnt me another 3 billion credits. I dumped two of those into the Delphi's fund to ensure she stays commissioned for another year.

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

I followed the message received this week to Wishbone point. A fantastic location deep within a crater. Here you can find out the 'truth' about Zachary Rackham and pick up a fair bit of loose change.

Its a lovely handpicked location well worth a visit.

I've also been exploring the new Barnacle Matrix sites. I was attacked by the Thargoid reverents and lost my SRV so need to return soon in a scorpion to make more of an investigation.

These new sites are really rather atmospheric, especially if you make landfall during the night. With the teaser trailer of update 17 appearing online during the weekend I'm intrigued to see what these develop into.

Three Invasions have been defended at Unktety, Bi Dhorora and Vucumatha this week. I am pleased to stay I fought in all of these conflicts and had a whale of a time doing so. Here a thargoid scout explodes underfire during the Battle of Unktety not far from Florine Prospect.

An imperial class interdictor, Hadrain Duval I think, defends the settlement of Stott Laboratory below during the Battle of Bi Dhorora. This part of the Thargoid war is notable for me as its the first battle in which I earnt over a billion credits in a single session. Many a hydra fell during this engagement.

The Batlle of Vucumatha saw this station, Champlain Orbital, at the centre of the conflict.

o7

 

[Alec Turner]

Wow! Only just discovered this thread but what an absolute gem. Great adventures, stunning photography and all tied together with some really nice commentary. Subscribed and looking forward to following this more closely from now on.

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

Its been a long time since I have had the opportunity to update this record. Its not like I haven't been playing Elite, its just that other games have been taking up much of my time. I've been contributing to the Thargoid War every week though, and the odd CG. My combat ranking is now teetering on the edge of ELITE at long last. Only a few more days of combat to go and I'll be there after all these years.

Like many, the sudden outpouring of information form FDev has seen me return to the game in a more serious fashion. New ships, features and an end to the war have all be promised. tired of fighting, I tried something fresh and sought out a giant green gas giant - having never seen one in game before. It was a relaxing trip after months of slugout brawls with glaives.

I visited several to earn the confirmations in the codex. Despite having spent the bulk of my game time around the Bubble my actual discoveries have left much to be desired.

I've enjoyed hauling as always, with a crop of recent CGs requiring my services.

Even took the plunge last week in visiting a Thargoid Spire site to help collect coral sap.

FDev certainly came up trumps with creating an eerie environment for our flowery foes. Outstanding sound as always. They should be respected for this kind of world-building.

These spires, though inactive, were breathtaking pieces of design.

I'm out exploring again at the moment. Enjoying a slower pace to the game.

Even though I am only a few hundred light years from the bubble I'm finding much to claim and stamp my name on. These braintrees are today's discoveries. I was pleased with these as I never found a planet with them on personally until now. Showing, that even after many years this old game can still offer new experiences and rewards.

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

I quick post to celebrate a milestone. I've returned to the Bubble and cashed in my latest bounty of credits for exobiology. I was surprised just how many worlds there are without first footfalls all around human space. Its not hard to find somewhere that fellow CMDRs have hardly explored, beyond the odd scan and scram.

I am up to Geneticist now... the final rank before Elite so I thought a picture was at least deserved...

I am currently at the Tourist Beacon about Rhea 3. There is still plenty of tourist traffic and taxis visiting the place but I expect by this time tomorrow the rescue efforts with be underway and this system will be full of CMDRs.

Makes me wonder if there is more to this earthquake than a mere natural disaster? (;

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

The Second Thargoid War has stretched its flower shaped shadow over Elite for sometime. I've learnt to fight them over the last year. Having not had the same amount of time available to play I've spent what little time I have had defending stations, bases and outposts in all eight Titan theatres. That's a lot of scouts and interceptors... thousands of them according to my CMDR codex. And its paid off....

I'm finally combat elite. And triple elite with that (even though there are other elites to be)... I was pleased with my new decal and immediately applied it front and centre on my Mamba. Much of the leg work chasing the rank was done this week in YZ Ceti... I had a small chunk to go and defending the deliveries for Clement Orbital really helped out and put me in the top 50 so securing those useful engineered hull modules. Eventually, I got the message just after dispatching a thargoid scout and the final 'elite' journey was done. Something I set out to complete nearly 4 years ago is complete. And with it, a change in the way I play Elite.

I need to see more of it....

First choice for a visit was an active Thargoid Spire site. With the end of the war looming, its hard to determine the fate of all of these new assets. What will happen to the Titans? Will they still be visitable in game? What about these spire sites? Will they change again? I picked one at random from the spreadsheet on the Cannon website and ended up plotting a course for HIP 22350.

This shot shows my initial descent into the site. I was struck by the rebooting defence missiles a few times but managed to land securely on one of the large 'petals' that surround the top of the major spire.

Exploring on foot was marvellous. I really wish FDev created more experiences to get us out of our ships gaming like this. I found myself stopping to just stare up into the sky to observe the ballet between the Thargoid scouts and the Orthrus. I've never had the time to just watch these creatures go about their everyday existence before.

Here, an Orthrus translates into witchspace after emerging from one of the spires. Are these ships 'made' in locations such as this?

When I previously explored the deactivated spires I'd noticed a way down to a strange series of platforms. With this spire active, it was fascinating to traverse the series of 'steps' down inside the spire. The ambient sound and other effects were top notch, as I have come to expect from FDev.

I didn't realise you could scan the spires as you can biological traces on planet's surfaces.... Just look for the strange, green patterns it seems.

Descending the platforms led to this beautifully realised chamber, open on one-side to the elements. I liked how you could continue to observe the comings and goings of the Orthrus and watch the missile trails launched from the ground.

Here's the view from the platform in the previous photograph. You can see the strange clusters down there. Zapping these with one of the tools causes they to change their colour to a reddy orange...

Producing some spire sample. Wonderfully put together material gathering this... just a shame there aren't more opportunities to do things like this.

Having collected my sample I got a message that my ship was under attack. Initailly, I thought it would be another CMDR but its turned out that a couple of scouts had spotted by ship and were taking pot shots at it. Time to leave, and teach them a lesson, though I am planning to return soon to explore more of the ground area and take on some Thargoid drone things.

If you are reading this and haven't visited a spire site yet... do it. I left it far too long to do so.

o7

 

[DjVortex]

I've not touched Horizons for months and now play exclusively with Odyssey and I'm a little confused by much of the negativity I read about it. I hardly have a beefy rig (GTX 1650 super) but get decent framerates mostly and the game is very playable.

FDev did the mistake of publishing Odyssey in an extremely poorly optimized state and, well, as they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

While the vast majority of the issues have been fixed, years ago, eg. the Steam page for the expansion is still full of reviews about how slow and unstable the game is. Very few people go back and change their reviews even after the issues have been fixed.

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

FDev did the mistake of publishing Odyssey in an extremely poorly optimized state and, well, as they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

While the vast majority of the issues have been fixed, years ago, eg. the Steam page for the expansion is still full of reviews about how slow and unstable the game is. Very few people go back and change their reviews even after the issues have been fixed.

Which is why making your own opinion on things is always a wise choice. I must be lucky, I never witness the numerous bugs other comment on. The only thing that I notice is when server traffic is heavy and the instances go awry. But loads of online games do that with Elite being no different.

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

I've spent a little more time with the Spires of late... this time mostly on foot on in a SRV. The alien environments are just as good down here as they were up top of the spires.

I loved the zapping of the clusters again to produce the pure spire element - I forget its exact name at the moment.

They are pretty big mind you. I wonder how Palin and co were able to store so many when they were delivered for that recent CG?

I am glad I visited in a Scorpion. I had a real fright when it came to engaging with the Thargoid scavengers again. Those revenants were fairly easy to dispatch but the banshees! They are indeed well named, but with a little luck I was able to destroy three of their number in frantic firefights.

A Banshee.... a scary thargoid!

I spent much of the last week or so either shooting pirates around Clement Orbital or delivering goods there. Managed 50% for the protection part and top 10% for deliveries. I was pleased with this as those re-enforced hull sections are now in the Falchion ready for the Battle of Taranis.

A scout leaves Taranis on patrol early in the battle....

CMDRs cool their ships in the distance as I set up another torpedo attack run.

A nanite torpedo surges towards one of the heat vents of Taranis.

Exposing the core and giving the extracted element a good pounding certainly pays in credits. Nearly a million a go. With Taranis taking areal pounding at the moment I wonder what the morning will bring. Is this Titan close to destruction or will some secondary challenge await us before the end?

Hope I get my decal too

o7

 

[dm06]

I've updated my PC since my last post... and I am now running with the beast that is the GTX4090 on a 4K screen.

Is your girlfriend still away?..

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

Taranis has fallen.

Here be SPOILERS.

I completed my last bombing run shortly before the Titan went into a catastrophic meltdown of some kind.

I came home from work early to take part and was pleased to see that there was about a half a heart remaining when I reached the combat zone. I can get decent credit returns when attacking an exposed core but take blistering damage from Thargoid craft afterwards. So I need a little more skill development to last longer in the field.

Other more skilled CMDRs do a fantastic job and its a joy to watch some of them at work.

I am getting better at landing the nanite torpedoes too.

Upon my return to Taranis there was a very different feel to the place. The sound was very off, almost unhealthy and there was no pulse wave to repel assaulting ships as there has been for many months.

The Titan is much changed... as you can see from this photograph. Its hanging lifeless with smoke spewing from its heat vents.

Thargoid vessels seem to be fleeing the area but iI engaged in combat with scouts and interceptors just the same.

The interior of the Titan seems to be burning as smoke and debris can be seen seeping from the vents we have been hitting since Monday.

The core, or whatever this 'pineapple' as other CMDrs are calling it is, is now static and burning. CMDRs still take pot shots at it as we speak.

If you are up for a visit be wary... the Thargoids still pack a punch and will pursue ships that get too close. According to FDev... this Titan is now beginning to break apart. 6.55pm tomorrow something is going to happen to this burning wreck... but what?

I notice that it is sitting above a planet... so will we see a Titan crash and have a new wreck to explore just like the meta-alloy days of yore?

Find out soon.

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

Well I missed Taranis exploding. I was expecting just to log in and find it a ruined shell or that it had crashed into the planet below. I was not expecting a near caustic death thanks to the strength of the cloud around it. Thankfully, I escaped (just) and made it back to the Delphi with a hefty repair bill. But with some experience fighting the Titans under my belt I threw myself in again with the battle against Leigong and now Oya.

Leigong... massed interceptors lurk above the Titan's protective shielding.

The lighting effects, along with the sound, are brilliant. FDev really have a talent for this type of work - hope they didn't have to loose too many of these talented people recently.

Scouts flee the stricken hulk of Leigong.

Starlight seeps through the sickly clouds surrounding the ruins of Taranis. I enjoyed collecting the Titan Drive Components during the recent CG as it was a nice change of pace from bombing runs.

Dead interceptors float amongst the shattered ruins of Taranis.

These debris fields are full of useful materials for the budding engineer. Salvaging these wrecks has become a new career choice in Elite.

Leigongs thermal core burns in its final minutes. Having missed Taranis I made sure I was in game to witness close at hand.

And I wasn't disappointed at all! Even if the explosion pushes you well out of the way.

Leigong destroyed and now a mass of toxic caustic gas. It won't be long until Oya goes the same way. One heart remains at the time of writing but I find that since this weeks update the game keeps freezing up on me. Too many players in the instances perhaps? As during off peak times I have had no such problems.

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

So Oya has fallen and the Thargoid War shifts its focus elsewhere again. I found the third Tiatn far more stable in regards to the instances though there were multiple cases of my game just freezing up and crashing out earlier on. I assume that this was just sheer weight of numbers playerwise as things settled down after a while and my bombing runs were better than ever from a technical point.

I lost three ships early on when the swarm of scouts that surrounded Oya just turned on me. They inflicted horrific damage in no time at all and I was surprised to see so many swarming around Oya. But then again, we have to expect that that Thargoids will change tack and try new ways to destroy us.

I managed to make back the 21 million credits the three rebuys cost me with a little effort...

And I got to see a Titan explode from a more distant viewpoint this time too.

With the news or big changes to the way Elite is approached released yesterday I note that some folk here on the forum have responded in bizarre ways. I've seen the plans to provide 'starter' ships as paid DLC as well as trying out the Python mk2 for ARX if you want it early.

Hardly pay to win!

How do you even 'win' Elite anyway?

Anything that keeps the lights on with this decade old game is fine with me and I'll be happy to support the developers if they produce a product that interests me.

o7