Not looking to get into any rants or arguments, just some fun idle speculation chit-chat! Sure, Odyssey is all about the space legs, but it wouldn't be an Elite Dangerous update without some new ships or mechanics, right? We haven't heard or seen (afaik?) any hints of new ships or new SRVs or anything like that, so what sort of things do you guys hope or speculate might be lurking out there for future dev blog reveals?
For me personally -
A Ground-Specific Module
When Horizons brought in planetary landing, it as something every ship could do. Every ship can carry an SRV and plop it down on the surface. There's nothing unique/special about that. But then Ship-Launched Fighters came along, and that became something that was special. Only certain ships could do it, and suddenly that became part of the pro/con balancing mechanic of how we decide what ships to choose. It's too late to go back and change SRVs now (please, for the love of Braben, don't go back and change SRVs now!) but it would be cool if Odyssey added some sort of trait or feature that made certain ships better at doing ground/surface/landing type things. A new variable for us to play with and consider in our builds.
It sounds like only "thin atmospheres" are coming in Odyssey to begin with, so aerodynamics probably aren't going to play a part (yet). But in the meantime, I think it would be cool to have some sort of ground-specific equivalent of the Ship-Launched Fighter. Something only certain ships can have, something that adds a new element of gameplay, and something that gives us a new variable to think about when we're working on our builds. Bonus points if it is retroactively applied to some existing ships that could use a little love - like the Federal Dropship for example, which I think provides the perfect option/excuse. What I'd like to see is some sort of "dropship" module, that gives you the option to spawn in soldiers or skimmers when you have landed on a planet. I don't know how sophisticated the Odyssey AI is going to be, but some sort of basic SLF style commands would be good. Pick defend, and your squad/skimmers set up a perimeter around your ship. Pick attack, and they attack your selected target. Pick follow, and they form up and follow you to whatever pew-pew mission objective you are dealing with.
The Federal Dropship is an ideal candidate: it fits with what the name suggests the ship is for, and with the idea of needing Federation rank to "command" those soldiers. The Alliance equivalent (Crusader?) is another good option, perhaps the Imperial Courier too, and maybe a couple of the other shuttle/lander looking ships - Adder, Diamondback, Dolphin, Type-7, etc. To make things interesting, I think this should be implemented selectively, so that certain ships deliberately can't slot this module and so we don't all end up using the same options we always do. Maybe the Krait Phantom can, but the Krait Mk II can't, for example. Or, maybe none of the Faulcon DeLacy ships can because they're "neutral", and these dropship modules come with a particular faction affiliation. That handily excludes the Python and Anaconda, which are good at pretty much everything else. Also, the combo of dropship and SLF should be a rare thing, perhaps with the Corvette, Cutter, and Type-10 being the only ones that can?
A Ground-Specific (Non-Combat) Task
We're already getting pew-pew missions to bring the combat role to the surface, and the new space gardening mechanic is bringing elements of exploration to the surface - although with a whole new bio progress bar to fill up, it sounds like. But while that potentially / hypothetically scratches the itch for combat players and explorers, there's not necessarily anything new there for the buy-and-sell folks.
What if we got a new kind of mining? Yes, I know, boo, etc. There's already too much mining, it's already too much of an OP way to earn money in the game, etc. But it's also an aspect of the game that has a few different ways of doing it (surface mining, deep core mining, etc), and adding some sort of planetary mining might be a cool way to go, especially if it adds a version of mining that is more varied and enjoyable for folks who dislike or are bored of the current approaches. We need look no further than the 1998 cinematic masterpiece Armageddon to see how that might work: a mining SRV, a drilling mechanic, an ore deposits equivalent of ring hot spots and core asteroids. It even plays into the realism vibe that Elite aims for, because drilling into planets is already something our rovers are doing, and finding exploitable materials on the Moon / Mars / etc is a big foundation piece for future exploration. If it potentially yields raw materials as well as commodities, then that starts to offer an alternative to the usual grind there as well, and even potentially plays into the survival aspect that they've hinted at for Odyssey: if iron and nickel can refill your life support via synthesis, or sulfur and phosphorus makes SRV fuel, this could be a neat way to replenish/recharge your suit.
Plus, it's a new SRV. Who doesn't want an SRV? Call it an Ant or a Cicada or something (something associated with digging/burrowing), and voila.
Ships That Are Specifically Good At Ground Stuff
Something interesting about the implementation of SRVs and SLFs in the game is that there aren't any ships explicitly designed for the role of carrying/deploying them. Or rather, they're designed for that role in terms of game balance, but not necessarily in terms of aesthetics. Certain ships can carry ship-launched fighters, but no ship is a "fighter carrier". Ships can land on planets and carry an SRV, but no ship is explicitly designed as a "lander". Some ships are close. The Dropship sounds like it should be good at landing. The Hauler, Adder, and Fer-de-Lance all look like next gen space shuttles. The Alliance C-ships have a bit of a V-22 Osprey vibe to them. But it's hinted at, rather than all-in.
I know asking for the Panther Clipper is a bit of a meme at this point, but that - or any of the Lion / Tiger / Puma big cat ships, really - could be a cool way to lean into that aspect of the game. Perhaps they have dedicated slots that can only fit an SRV bay, but it is a bay that holds two or more, and instead of a hatch out of the bottom of the ship, you start out in a little garage where you can see the other SRV(s) and have a little ramp to drive up and down instead of the elevator mechanic. The Tiger as a small option with one SRV; the Lion as the medium with room for two; the Puma Clipper as a medium/large option that's maybe got some range and makeshift explorer vibes; and the Panther Clipper as the big beefy hauler?
There's also the Imperial Explorer from the older games, which kinda looks like an old school Klingon Bird of Prey with its wings folded up for landing. That has the look of a ship that is designed for landing, and while functionality-wise the Empire doesn't necessarily need another ship in the mix there, it's worth noting that the Federation gets four rank-locked ships while the Empire gets only three. If things were done to turn the Federal Dropship into a more ground-orientated ship, the Imperial Explorer (or something with that vibe) could be a good way to provide similar content for Imperial-leaning characters, but potentially in a very different way. Plus, it kind of looks like Serenity.
We don't know enough yet about the mechanics of Odyssey, so how (again, aside from aerodynamics, which might not be a thing yet with only thin atmospheres) to make these ships functionally better at landing on planets is a bit of a shot in the dark, but even something like them having a really good vertical thrust speed ("they have powerful thrusters to help them lift off from planets") could be an option, and it's something that players could potentially adapt into a fun quirk if they were to try and use them in combat.
Ships That Are Specifically Bad At Ground Stuff
The fact that every ship in the game has a planetary approach suite is kind of weird. Mechanically, I understand why it's there: it's something that ships have in the Horizons version of the game that they don't in the base version, and it controls whether or not they can do the planetary landing stuff. But it's just... there, consuming no power, expending no fuel, in a magical extra slot. There's no reason to ever remove it, it's just a glorified tick in a box.
But what if you could pull it out of that slot, and stick something else in there instead? Or, what if there were ships that were deliberately designed to not be able to do planetary landings because they are too heavy, or have impractical designs, like the Imperial Trader with its spindly under-nacelles, or the Mantis with its weird butt sphere? I commented in another thread about how the advanced docking computer is a really important accessibility feature for me: I would happily sacrifice my PAS in order to put my ADC in there instead, because if I'm having the sort of day where I don't feel up to manually landing a spaceship, I sure as heck don't want to contend with orbits and glide angles. Perhaps planetary landing is a feature that you don't need/want on your mining ship, and pulling out that landing suite and plugging your Detailed Surface Scanner in there instead could be a really valuable option, especially on smaller miners where space is a premium.
I know that not being able to put other things in that slot is an important balancing issue, and absolutely there should be some restrictions on what goes there. But in the same way that sacrificing your advanced docking computer and supercruise assist frees you up to do more creative things with your build, sacrificing your ship's ability to access Horizons and Odyssey content in order to squeeze out a tiny bit of extra potential elsewhere could be a neat new tidbit for the folks who have had the exact same best-in-meta build for the last five years, while at the same time making those low end starter ships like a Mining Adder a tiny smidge easier to customise.
Plus, it gives the designers the freedom to cook up some ships that don't have to look as if they could practically land on the surface of a planet, which could add all kinds of interesting creativity options.
For me personally -
A Ground-Specific Module
When Horizons brought in planetary landing, it as something every ship could do. Every ship can carry an SRV and plop it down on the surface. There's nothing unique/special about that. But then Ship-Launched Fighters came along, and that became something that was special. Only certain ships could do it, and suddenly that became part of the pro/con balancing mechanic of how we decide what ships to choose. It's too late to go back and change SRVs now (please, for the love of Braben, don't go back and change SRVs now!) but it would be cool if Odyssey added some sort of trait or feature that made certain ships better at doing ground/surface/landing type things. A new variable for us to play with and consider in our builds.
It sounds like only "thin atmospheres" are coming in Odyssey to begin with, so aerodynamics probably aren't going to play a part (yet). But in the meantime, I think it would be cool to have some sort of ground-specific equivalent of the Ship-Launched Fighter. Something only certain ships can have, something that adds a new element of gameplay, and something that gives us a new variable to think about when we're working on our builds. Bonus points if it is retroactively applied to some existing ships that could use a little love - like the Federal Dropship for example, which I think provides the perfect option/excuse. What I'd like to see is some sort of "dropship" module, that gives you the option to spawn in soldiers or skimmers when you have landed on a planet. I don't know how sophisticated the Odyssey AI is going to be, but some sort of basic SLF style commands would be good. Pick defend, and your squad/skimmers set up a perimeter around your ship. Pick attack, and they attack your selected target. Pick follow, and they form up and follow you to whatever pew-pew mission objective you are dealing with.
The Federal Dropship is an ideal candidate: it fits with what the name suggests the ship is for, and with the idea of needing Federation rank to "command" those soldiers. The Alliance equivalent (Crusader?) is another good option, perhaps the Imperial Courier too, and maybe a couple of the other shuttle/lander looking ships - Adder, Diamondback, Dolphin, Type-7, etc. To make things interesting, I think this should be implemented selectively, so that certain ships deliberately can't slot this module and so we don't all end up using the same options we always do. Maybe the Krait Phantom can, but the Krait Mk II can't, for example. Or, maybe none of the Faulcon DeLacy ships can because they're "neutral", and these dropship modules come with a particular faction affiliation. That handily excludes the Python and Anaconda, which are good at pretty much everything else. Also, the combo of dropship and SLF should be a rare thing, perhaps with the Corvette, Cutter, and Type-10 being the only ones that can?
A Ground-Specific (Non-Combat) Task
We're already getting pew-pew missions to bring the combat role to the surface, and the new space gardening mechanic is bringing elements of exploration to the surface - although with a whole new bio progress bar to fill up, it sounds like. But while that potentially / hypothetically scratches the itch for combat players and explorers, there's not necessarily anything new there for the buy-and-sell folks.
What if we got a new kind of mining? Yes, I know, boo, etc. There's already too much mining, it's already too much of an OP way to earn money in the game, etc. But it's also an aspect of the game that has a few different ways of doing it (surface mining, deep core mining, etc), and adding some sort of planetary mining might be a cool way to go, especially if it adds a version of mining that is more varied and enjoyable for folks who dislike or are bored of the current approaches. We need look no further than the 1998 cinematic masterpiece Armageddon to see how that might work: a mining SRV, a drilling mechanic, an ore deposits equivalent of ring hot spots and core asteroids. It even plays into the realism vibe that Elite aims for, because drilling into planets is already something our rovers are doing, and finding exploitable materials on the Moon / Mars / etc is a big foundation piece for future exploration. If it potentially yields raw materials as well as commodities, then that starts to offer an alternative to the usual grind there as well, and even potentially plays into the survival aspect that they've hinted at for Odyssey: if iron and nickel can refill your life support via synthesis, or sulfur and phosphorus makes SRV fuel, this could be a neat way to replenish/recharge your suit.
Plus, it's a new SRV. Who doesn't want an SRV? Call it an Ant or a Cicada or something (something associated with digging/burrowing), and voila.
Ships That Are Specifically Good At Ground Stuff
Something interesting about the implementation of SRVs and SLFs in the game is that there aren't any ships explicitly designed for the role of carrying/deploying them. Or rather, they're designed for that role in terms of game balance, but not necessarily in terms of aesthetics. Certain ships can carry ship-launched fighters, but no ship is a "fighter carrier". Ships can land on planets and carry an SRV, but no ship is explicitly designed as a "lander". Some ships are close. The Dropship sounds like it should be good at landing. The Hauler, Adder, and Fer-de-Lance all look like next gen space shuttles. The Alliance C-ships have a bit of a V-22 Osprey vibe to them. But it's hinted at, rather than all-in.
I know asking for the Panther Clipper is a bit of a meme at this point, but that - or any of the Lion / Tiger / Puma big cat ships, really - could be a cool way to lean into that aspect of the game. Perhaps they have dedicated slots that can only fit an SRV bay, but it is a bay that holds two or more, and instead of a hatch out of the bottom of the ship, you start out in a little garage where you can see the other SRV(s) and have a little ramp to drive up and down instead of the elevator mechanic. The Tiger as a small option with one SRV; the Lion as the medium with room for two; the Puma Clipper as a medium/large option that's maybe got some range and makeshift explorer vibes; and the Panther Clipper as the big beefy hauler?
There's also the Imperial Explorer from the older games, which kinda looks like an old school Klingon Bird of Prey with its wings folded up for landing. That has the look of a ship that is designed for landing, and while functionality-wise the Empire doesn't necessarily need another ship in the mix there, it's worth noting that the Federation gets four rank-locked ships while the Empire gets only three. If things were done to turn the Federal Dropship into a more ground-orientated ship, the Imperial Explorer (or something with that vibe) could be a good way to provide similar content for Imperial-leaning characters, but potentially in a very different way. Plus, it kind of looks like Serenity.
We don't know enough yet about the mechanics of Odyssey, so how (again, aside from aerodynamics, which might not be a thing yet with only thin atmospheres) to make these ships functionally better at landing on planets is a bit of a shot in the dark, but even something like them having a really good vertical thrust speed ("they have powerful thrusters to help them lift off from planets") could be an option, and it's something that players could potentially adapt into a fun quirk if they were to try and use them in combat.
Ships That Are Specifically Bad At Ground Stuff
The fact that every ship in the game has a planetary approach suite is kind of weird. Mechanically, I understand why it's there: it's something that ships have in the Horizons version of the game that they don't in the base version, and it controls whether or not they can do the planetary landing stuff. But it's just... there, consuming no power, expending no fuel, in a magical extra slot. There's no reason to ever remove it, it's just a glorified tick in a box.
But what if you could pull it out of that slot, and stick something else in there instead? Or, what if there were ships that were deliberately designed to not be able to do planetary landings because they are too heavy, or have impractical designs, like the Imperial Trader with its spindly under-nacelles, or the Mantis with its weird butt sphere? I commented in another thread about how the advanced docking computer is a really important accessibility feature for me: I would happily sacrifice my PAS in order to put my ADC in there instead, because if I'm having the sort of day where I don't feel up to manually landing a spaceship, I sure as heck don't want to contend with orbits and glide angles. Perhaps planetary landing is a feature that you don't need/want on your mining ship, and pulling out that landing suite and plugging your Detailed Surface Scanner in there instead could be a really valuable option, especially on smaller miners where space is a premium.
I know that not being able to put other things in that slot is an important balancing issue, and absolutely there should be some restrictions on what goes there. But in the same way that sacrificing your advanced docking computer and supercruise assist frees you up to do more creative things with your build, sacrificing your ship's ability to access Horizons and Odyssey content in order to squeeze out a tiny bit of extra potential elsewhere could be a neat new tidbit for the folks who have had the exact same best-in-meta build for the last five years, while at the same time making those low end starter ships like a Mining Adder a tiny smidge easier to customise.
Plus, it gives the designers the freedom to cook up some ships that don't have to look as if they could practically land on the surface of a planet, which could add all kinds of interesting creativity options.
