Newcomer / Intro Maybe returning after over three years and need an overview of state-of-play

[Roblex]

I stopped playing ED not long after they introduced factions (first question: is that what you refer to as 'Powerplay'?). At first I loved the idea but after a while it just became a grind and I lost interest.

I know there have been expansions but as I had stopped playing I ignored them so don't know what they brought. I think I saw 'Horizons' & 'Engineers' and now Fleets. Is that right? I get the idea that Odyssey is bringing the ability, 2021, to walk around the planets. Does that mean you will also walk around inside your ship or can you already do that?

Perhaps someone could just give me an overview of what the expansions brought (and why 'Horizons' seems to be a Pass rather than a one time expansion purchase)?

 

[Kirth]

Is Google broke

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Horizons gave us planetary landings and engineers.

There's been an overhaul to mining and exploration.

Fleet carriers went live yesterday.

And yes, you're right - Odyssey is Q1 next year.

 

[Roblex]

Thanks. So Horizons let you land on planets but not go out. Why would you land ie what can do after landing? Switch to a ground vehicle? Anything else? Why am I seeing it as a Season Pass? What is 'Engineers' about? Sorry but the info given by Steam is all flashy videos and hyperbole without actual details.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

When you've landed on a planet, you can drive around in an SRV (provided you've fitted the right module) and explore the surface. This is great for places like Dav's Hope and there are missions you can do that require scanning settlement beacons - an awful lot to explain Also, you can find POI's such as places where there are great areas for picking up resources (like geological sites).

These resources, and others, play a major role in engineering. Engineers enhance the modules on your ship. For example, Feleicity Farseer can improves you FSD so it has (much) greater range.

 

[Para Handy]

Thanks. So Horizons let you land on planets but not go out. Why would you land ie what can do after landing? Switch to a ground vehicle? Anything else? Why am I seeing it as a Season Pass? What is 'Engineers' about? Sorry but the info given by Steam is all flashy videos and hyperbole without actual details.

Suggest you read the "Comprehensive Beginners' Guide" pinned at the top of this forum - it is up to date and, as it says, it is comprehensive.

Failing that there is always the Wiki - good for info:

Elite Dangerous Wiki

The Elite Dangerous Wiki is a community site that anyone can contribute to. Discover, share and add your knowledge!

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

 

[aRJay]

What we can and cannot walk around in Odyssey is not revealed yet.

Exploration has been changed a lot, new modules and different mechanics plus lots of new bindings.
Some ships can carry a Ship Launched Fighter that can be flown by you or an NPC hired by you, these SLFs are essentially remotely piloted drones.
You can wing up with up to 3 other commanders to share missions and rewards or just shoot things as a group.
There is an additional suite of mining tools that expand the original mining method and there are new valuable things that can be mined.
You can now fit passenger cabins and get annoyed out of your skull by their demands as you take them places, some of them will get you blown up.
Crime and Punishment has been changed a lot one of those changes is that you can find yourself in a prison ship light years away from where you were.
Conflict Zones have been made tougher and more involved.
There are now Thargoids in the game as well as ancient alien sites to visit.
Several ships have been reworked some to add the ability to carry an SLF hanger others to improve them and I think eight new ships have been added since you were here.

 

[Alec Turner]

When you've landed on a planet, you can drive around in an SRV (provided you've fitted the right module) and explore the surface. This is great for places like Dav's Hope and there are missions you can do that require scanning settlement beacons - an awful lot to explain Also, you can find POI's such as places where there are great areas for picking up resources (like geological sites).

These resources, and others, play a major role in engineering. Engineers enhance the modules on your ship. For example, Feleicity Farseer can improves you FSD so it has (much) greater range.

To expand on that - one typical ground mission might go like this.

You get a mission to scan a ground beacon at an opposing faction's base. First you fly to the system and drop into the Nav Beacon to get more information on the system. That might give you the body in the system where the ground installation with the beacon is located. You supercruise to that planet, orbit around it and locate a signal giving you the approximate position on the ground. You drop down through orbital cruise and glide mode, chasing the ground signal which jumps around and eventually hones in on a small base. You fly down and land nearby, avoiding the security perimeter which can otherwise lead to fines and then bounties (with ground defences attacking your ship). You deploy your SRV and drive towards the base, hopefully locating the beacon which you'll need to approach and scan. The bases can be small (in which case this will be easy) or large (in which case you may have to deactive security gates and take out other ground defences such as fixed guns and skimmers). Eventually you get close enough to scan the beacon (often setting off the alarms in the process), race back to your ship and high tail it out of there before either your SRV, or worse your ship, is attacked and possibly destroyed.

To be honest tho' - just landing and driving around is a pretty darn awesome experience in itself before you even get into stuff like this.

As well as all the built-in missions and material gathering and stuff (and I haven't mentioned Thargoid bases you can drive inside of and ancient Guardian ruins to explore) there's loads of terrific player driven planetary activity including races ..

.. planetary circumnavigations (planetary explorers spending days, weeks or even months driving around entire planets) ..

The First Great Planetary Expedition

.. and even Thargoid donkey rides!

Planetary activity doesn't even have to be in the SRV. People spend hours just doing low altitude flying around canyons or racing around the planetary cities.

 

[Roblex]

Thank you all (well almost all ) Good info.

 

[Esteban]

...and the "season pass" name is a misnomer. It's not for a season or a set period of time (unless we're all about to be blind-sided).

apologies if I missed where this was explained in a post before mine.

Welcome back, CMDR. Have fun.