I just read that the game flops has directed the company to pick up Elite development. It's pretty obvious that Odyssey was just slapped in with minimal effort, and I would love to see it flourish. With that, my suggestions to help you get more money and players back into Frontier's bottom line.
Ironically, the ships and suits work opposite in reality. The idea that you add a scope to a rifle and now it's permanently attached, but you can swap out a hyperdrive in a starship without an issue is ludacris. The idea that a suit is locked to one role due to the fact it comes with a handheld tool, like a genetic sampler, in a universe where any ship can be outfitted with any device and you can build a pirate ship out of a type 9, or a galactix exploration ship out of an Eagle... Odyssey makes no sense. I'd suggest
The suits don't matter. The Artemis would have the best life support, Dominator best strength, Mav in the middle but the tools are interchangable. Just like ships, make the suits have "slots." A rifle is 3 slots big, pistols and tools are 2 slots & grenades are 1. Each suit has slots and you put whatever you want in them. Say, the back has a size 3, the hips and legs have 2 each, and belt has 3 size 1 on a Mav. So you can slap on 3 grenades, 2 pistols and a genetic sampler and a scanner, and one rifle. Say a Dominator has 2 size 3 etc. and just have a drag & drop interface to put any tool into whatever you want. Want a suit with 6 ID scanners and no weapons? fine. Or load it all up with grenades? No problem.
Next is that engineering has to be undone, and when it comes to guns not permanently undone, just parts removed. Again, slot system, take off the scope and store it, take off the night vision and store it, etc. Make the suits work the same way the ships work: slots, storage.
And for combat zones... ditch the "capture the flag" and go with either massive battles of attrition, so long that you won't see the end of it you just play and leave as you want, with damaged buildings etc OR combat with objectives with results, for example the zone A is the command post where if you win it all the base's defence systems work for your team, B is the power station, C is the anti-aircraft system or something like that. Ships overhead should be part of the battle, not just background noise, and the battles need to be much bigger in terms of land-space.
Mission givers in stations need to move around randomly: the static model is terrible, and they need to have much MUCH better awards. What's the point in wasting time walking into the station if they have nothing better than what's on the board? Also, just call it "artificial gravity" in outposts and fleet carriers. I don't know why you didn't program zero G environments into Odyssey. Sure, TV and movies have artificial gravity or "mag boots" because they're filmed on earth, but you can make real zero g environments in a game and didn't. I don't mean just walking either, people sitting, sleeping with jaws open, plants growing, trash on the floor, cables hanging... that's ALL indicative of gravity. So just make it lore that we have it or make the space environments actually look zero g.
MAKE FDEV MONEY! Real cash, you guys need real money and you refuse to make it. Yeah, shipt kits and paint jobs (yawn) you want real money via micro-transactions where people will GLADLY pay you? SHIP INTERIORS. Now I know you didn't build the ships out correctly so actual interiors can't be done for most of it, but you can cheat if by the "teleport at the door" mechanic you already have. The ships might be hard but carriers and stations wouldn't be. Allow players to rent out an apartment in a station, and lock the camera into a random window on the station, and let them buy actual furnishings etc. Same with a carrier, they're huge, add more rooms, particularly bedrooms with trophy cases and the like. People want it. Let them pay you for it.
Ironically, the ships and suits work opposite in reality. The idea that you add a scope to a rifle and now it's permanently attached, but you can swap out a hyperdrive in a starship without an issue is ludacris. The idea that a suit is locked to one role due to the fact it comes with a handheld tool, like a genetic sampler, in a universe where any ship can be outfitted with any device and you can build a pirate ship out of a type 9, or a galactix exploration ship out of an Eagle... Odyssey makes no sense. I'd suggest
The suits don't matter. The Artemis would have the best life support, Dominator best strength, Mav in the middle but the tools are interchangable. Just like ships, make the suits have "slots." A rifle is 3 slots big, pistols and tools are 2 slots & grenades are 1. Each suit has slots and you put whatever you want in them. Say, the back has a size 3, the hips and legs have 2 each, and belt has 3 size 1 on a Mav. So you can slap on 3 grenades, 2 pistols and a genetic sampler and a scanner, and one rifle. Say a Dominator has 2 size 3 etc. and just have a drag & drop interface to put any tool into whatever you want. Want a suit with 6 ID scanners and no weapons? fine. Or load it all up with grenades? No problem.
Next is that engineering has to be undone, and when it comes to guns not permanently undone, just parts removed. Again, slot system, take off the scope and store it, take off the night vision and store it, etc. Make the suits work the same way the ships work: slots, storage.
And for combat zones... ditch the "capture the flag" and go with either massive battles of attrition, so long that you won't see the end of it you just play and leave as you want, with damaged buildings etc OR combat with objectives with results, for example the zone A is the command post where if you win it all the base's defence systems work for your team, B is the power station, C is the anti-aircraft system or something like that. Ships overhead should be part of the battle, not just background noise, and the battles need to be much bigger in terms of land-space.
Mission givers in stations need to move around randomly: the static model is terrible, and they need to have much MUCH better awards. What's the point in wasting time walking into the station if they have nothing better than what's on the board? Also, just call it "artificial gravity" in outposts and fleet carriers. I don't know why you didn't program zero G environments into Odyssey. Sure, TV and movies have artificial gravity or "mag boots" because they're filmed on earth, but you can make real zero g environments in a game and didn't. I don't mean just walking either, people sitting, sleeping with jaws open, plants growing, trash on the floor, cables hanging... that's ALL indicative of gravity. So just make it lore that we have it or make the space environments actually look zero g.
MAKE FDEV MONEY! Real cash, you guys need real money and you refuse to make it. Yeah, shipt kits and paint jobs (yawn) you want real money via micro-transactions where people will GLADLY pay you? SHIP INTERIORS. Now I know you didn't build the ships out correctly so actual interiors can't be done for most of it, but you can cheat if by the "teleport at the door" mechanic you already have. The ships might be hard but carriers and stations wouldn't be. Allow players to rent out an apartment in a station, and lock the camera into a random window on the station, and let them buy actual furnishings etc. Same with a carrier, they're huge, add more rooms, particularly bedrooms with trophy cases and the like. People want it. Let them pay you for it.
