Odyssey ties play loops together well

[Rakk Jackham]

I am amazed that Odyssey has gotten so much hate - and I say that as someone quite critical of ED as a whole. The space-based play loops have very serious design flaws, and for whatever reason, players will defend those flaws as virtues. So, when I see that Odyssey does not recreate those mistakes I wonder, I hope, that FDev is learning.

I really appreciate that Odyssey blends together multiple loops in one experience, while still keeping locations distinct and separated through player-involved travel. In example, you scan a planet, get bio signals, geologic signals and POIs that may all overlap. You then go through the landing process which is significant. Unlike space ports, which are broadly identical and can be jumped in/out of in seconds - planet landings require the player to familiarize themselves with the POIs on the planet and decide how to proceed. Maybe they’d like to maximize opportunities on the planet and pick a location with overlapping POIs or maybe a quick in and out. They then have to do the flight mini game which further orients them to the macro-geography of the planet and then find landable terrain in the micro geography.

All of this information makes the planets feel experientially distinct even if the actual maps are just randomized templates. You decided to go to a planet for a reason - you chose your POI for a reason - then you chose a specific landing spot for a reason. Whatever you find on the planet this is a specific, individual planet in your mind.

Once you’re on the planets the gameplay loops are not sequestered like they are in space. This is great because it means that even if you don’t find the rare exobio you hoped for, you can still gather mats on the surface through mining and POIs without. Thus, the trip down to the planet never has to be wasted.

This design philosophy is much better than the design of the space loops. I hope this signals a change in direction for frontier.

 

[metatheurgist]

This design philosophy is much better than the design of the space loops.

Yep.

I hope this signals a change in direction for frontier.

Doubt it.

 

[lemon407]

I find the gameplay loops of Odyssey to be quite good, but the biggest issue is that odyssey loops are isolated from the rest of the game which to me is the biggest issue odyssey suffers from, and i have been pointing that out since launch.

What i mean by isolated is that odyssey only servers odyssey content. If you go out and do say 60 hours of Horizon content, that ultimately leads back into your ship, you do horizon content, to upgrade your ship via engineering, so that you can do other activates better. Doing Horizon content will make your ship stronger, faster, jump further, punch harder ect ect, which i think is important because it ties the expansion back to the core game.

Odyssey on the other hand does not do that, its self serving. If you do 100 hours of Odyssey content, what does that get you as a whole? The ability to odyssey content better, but it does not tie back to the ship.

Would have been nice if with the odyssey content it added the ability to get new and unique modules or upgrades to modules. Even something simple like, if you do Odyssey content you can gather materials and currencies that let you buy modules for you ship that are like say and ammo store that lets you carry more ammo based on the size of the module, or maybe allows you to craft specific types of fighters, or specific types of SRVs or something.

 

[metatheurgist]

I find the gameplay loops of Odyssey to be quite good, but the biggest issue is that odyssey loops are isolated from the rest of the game which to me is the biggest issue odyssey suffers from, and i have been pointing that out since launch.

That's been an issue with the whole game since the beginning.

 

[Rakk Jackham]

I agree, but I also actually like that if you play mostly Odyssey content your ship just becomes well… a boat again. It’s a vehicle. I like my ship but it isn’t me.

If I get griefed otw home after, say, clearing an entire settlement of enemies and looting everything, - it’s just that my boat got blown up otw home by a superior boat. It’s not even that much of an inconvenience and it doesn’t prod me to stop playing the parts of the game I like and go grind just to compete with some basement dweller who will always have more time to grind.

I agree it is disjointed, but at least Odyssey is there and accessible.

I really think there should have been much more emphasis put on salvage and including some space walk stuff.

I would imagine there’d be a violent cacophony of nerd rage if some new ship modules was locked behind Odyssey content.

 

[Miscellaneous]

I dig it

 

[lemon407]

That's been an issue with the whole game since the beginning.

I think its exacerbated with Odyssey though. Like if you do nothing but odyssey content, you cant do anything else better but odyssey, vs horizon you can do other core activities better.

 

[aRJay]

I am getting confused.

If you just do Odyssey specific activities your on foot ranks/standings etc increase but your ship based skills don’t, and this is a bad thing?

If you just do Horizons specific activities your ship based ranks/standings etc increase but your on foot skills don’t, and this is a good thing?

 

[lemon407]

I am getting confused.

If you just do Odyssey specific activities your on foot ranks/standings etc increase but your ship based skills don’t, and this is a bad thing?

If you just do Horizons specific activities your ship based ranks/standings etc increase but your on foot skills don’t, and this is a good thing?

I mean yeah, it kinda is a bad thing when you think about it.
The intent of an expansion is that it should be adding to the over all Elite dangerous experience, and weather you or anyone likes it or not, elite dangerous is a game about flying space ships and doing things with space ships.

Odyssey content is completely disconnected from the rest of ED, you are doing it purely because you want to do it. Which hey that's not bad if you are having fun you are having fun right on go forth and have fun.
But it added nothing back to the core aspect of Elite dangerous which is, your space ship.

Anymore the horizon and Odyssey content should and do blend together a lot more since they are very closely related, but the new things that came with Odyssey dont add back into the core of ED. If you completely ignored Odyssey content, your experience with the core aspect of ED would not change.

 

[metatheurgist]

ED is not about spaceships. It's about being a commander in a galaxy. The spaceship part just happened to come first because that's what Elite players expected. Sometimes I think the flow of the game would've made more sense if they started on foot first and you had to earn your first ship. Maybe at the least the costs of stuff might make more sense.

 

[nemolomen]

ED is not about spaceships. It's about being a commander in a galaxy. ...

Yes x1000...

 

[lemon407]

ED is not about spaceships. It's about being a commander in a galaxy. The spaceship part just happened to come first because that's what Elite players expected. Sometimes I think the flow of the game would've made more sense if they started on foot first and you had to earn your first ship. Maybe at the least the costs of stuff might make more sense.

While i understand what you are getting at, i have to disagree, we are commanders in the PILOT federation. Elites entire point of existence is space ships and their relation to their place in the galaxy.
I think the game would have been worse off if that was the case.
Though either way, I personally think there is a strong disconnect between on foot game play and ships that is horribly lacking at the moment, as ships in relation to on foot are nothing more then a glorified taxi, and offer no real connection. Though i think a good amount of that lack of connection has to do with how impersonal ships feel at the moment since you just teleport on and off of them.

 

[nemolomen]

While i understand what you are getting at, i have to disagree, we are commanders in the PILOT federation. Elites entire point of existence is space ships and their relation to their place in the galaxy.
I think the game would have been worse off if that was the case.
Though either way, I personally think there is a strong disconnect between on foot game play and ships that is horribly lacking at the moment, as ships in relation to on foot are nothing more then a glorified taxi, and offer no real connection. Though i think a good amount of that lack of connection has to do with how impersonal ships feel at the moment since you just teleport on and off of them.

I find that the on foot gameplay has both expanded the galaxy, by creating more locations in it, and given me even more reasons to use my spaceships, not less...

 

[lemon407]

Pretty fair assessment one I cant disagree with, but also one thats not really the issue I have with it.
Its that the game play loops of Odyssey while good, are self serving. They only make it so you can do more odyssey content better.
I think personally thats a major issue with odyssey, is that its game play loops and content dont serve any other aspects of the game. Does not make you trade better, haul more, jump further, or fly faster.
That's something Horizons did better that Odyssey does not do at all. Horizons added activities that ultimately led back to your ship and added to it, odyssey does not.
If it made the ship interaction more personal, I could at least see how it adds back to the ship aspect of elite dangerous, but since all we do is teleport on and off, it just seems like a bolt on set of mini games rather then a proper expansion, that's not to say those mini games can not be fun.

 

[metatheurgist]

Again, that's been the case with all the gameloops since the beginning. Frontier seem incapable of creating a cohesive game. CQC is an actual separate game. Powerplay barely affects anything except for some minor effects even though you'd think having a murderous pirate lord run your bit of space might be a bit interesting. There is only one in-game reason to ever use a wake scanner and that basically never happens. There must have been trillions of Ts of "precious" gems mined by now and yet the price never goes down. I wouldn't even know there's a Thargoid war going on if it wasn't in Galnet. Superpowers seem fine with PMFs taking everything over in a weekend. There was a time when all the ships in a system belonged only to the factions in the system, that's just how siloed the thinking is at Frontier.