Odyssey trailer - thoughts?

[Winterwalker]

(the way the characters run in Odyssey - gawd awful!)

Strikes me as a bit interesting that a major prob with the first person view is what avatars look like from a third person pov.

More seriously human animations are notorious because we're all so attuned to human beings in the real world? The question about how good the animations are though, I suggest is not the critical eye test. The real test is how they work in periphery when you're no longer scrutinising but you brain just says 'there's a person there but my mission is x'. Personally I think the animations are good from this point of view because they're not over stylised, there a weight to them (not surprising with those backpacks) and in reality very few real people move like Rudolf Nuryev.

It also seems pretty plain to me that avatar polishing is and was a work in progress in the build we saw. There was no ragdoll shown (one we did see glitched out a bit) and I'm sure there's work ongoing on all three, the character animations, the stellar forge environment and where the two meet, the footprints. This is refinement and finishing work though. The main development deal to date being "all the stuff" (hit boxes, ammo counters, HUDs, BGS calls ... and about a thousand more)?

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

Character animation running looks like last generation.

Considering it's console availability is last gen, what do you expect?

Remember, no ps5/xbsx native version. These being current gen consoles now makes elite dangerous a last generation game.

 

[Bantha]

Heck, I’d even suggest a Ready Brek glow instead of the Blue Man Group

Lol showing your age their Commander!

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Considering it's console availability is last gen, what do you expect?

Remember, no ps5/xbsx native version. These being current gen consoles now makes elite dangerous a last generation game.

That's pretty harsh on last gen - I played games on PS2 and PS3 that had better animations.

The issues in the demo aren't technical limitations, they're simply lack of polish.

 

[CMDRAnadon]

The complainers miss the fact that for Elite the FPS component is secondary and not the core of the game. And again, people forget how much Elite is a hybrid game between strategy, economy and action.
It will never have consistent elements of any one of these aspects.

Plus we're talking about a DLC that will still be updated over the years as it was for the base game and horizon features.

Reading judgements on a pre-alpha version is pretty childish without reading what has been announced.
It was also declared that an older version was used for the presentation than what the developers already had.

There is every reason to wait and see how the game on release and in the following months will be updated with new features. What we will see at the release of the game will only be the basis for more extended gameplay.

For those who are complaining and don't want to take note of what the developers said after the gameplay presentation, I suggest you reflect on what they said at this post

Things that deserve reflection on the gameplay and nature of Elite the game framework set on the BGA are:

Settlement Variation:

• 27 unique settlements
• 6 different themes: Agriculture, Industrial, Extraction, Tourism, Research, Military
• Latter have unique building types, that can facilitate unique mission types.
• More generic missions work across all types.
• BGS factors like minor faction ownership.

NPC responses (It's already been said by DEVs that the high reputation with the faction allowed them to access facilities without being involved in confrontations or controls):

• Guards or civilians are the two main types.
• Settlement doesn't have a 'hive mind'. If you're detected doing something illicit, the message has to be radioed out to the wider settlement. There's a window of lower, local response.
• Pointing weapon at them prompts warning at first
• Will ask you to stop for a scan if they see something suspicious, and don't like it if you flee. [22m]. The scan will pick up on existing criminality. (Scanner works same for us). It can also detect if you have cloned IDs, illicit goods, stolen items. [25m]
• Civilians etc will tell you to 'get out' in prohibited areas as a warning. Rather than 'instant fail state'

Building Gating:

• Gating to some of the buildings.
• The arc cutter is one way in.
• The number on the door (3) was the required authority level to access.
• Could clone authorisation by scanning an NPC that has it.
• The AI don't like you doing it, so you have to be sneaky. (NB if you're scanned with a cloned ID, they'll spot that).
• Expensive authority override consumable buyable. (NPCs don't like even seeing it in action - it's illegal)

Disabling Defences:

• Pulling the power core takes all defences offline.
• You can target alarms, turrets etc specifically, at certain consoles. Particularly in the command building. [28m20s]
• If you gauge patrol routes etc, or use stealthy suit and weapon mods like silencers etc, you can get to those consoles.

Some other mission types:

• Sabotage is a mission type. Messing up a mining production line etc.
• Some missions have 'don't get caught' or 'no killing' requirements.
• Trying to give missions direct from NPC mission givers more 'flavour'.

Suit management & Survival

• Survival starts to become a thing you consider. Rarely in settlements, because you can breath + recharge in buildings.
• Extreme temperatures use up energy as suit battles them.
• Can take physical damage almost immediately in some extreme environments. Some planets ruled off limits. It's possible to disembark in an area that's 'acceptable', but quickly find yourself in extreme environment due to planetary rotation etc.

Miscellaneous:

• Keen to stress this is just one locale version, of one aspect of EDO, and in total it adds up to a lot more.

Unfortunately there is none so deaf as those who will not listen.

 

[here_it_comes]

[insert_press_brief]

whince
Ya aren't foolin anyone mate.

 

[Linnunrata]

Reading judgements on a pre-alpha version is pretty childish

I don't think you need to go to full martyrdom mode just because people voice their opinions on the trailer. I mean, the very topic of this thread is what kind of thoughts people had on that pre-alpha footage.

Either way, it worries me that the state of the FPS is like it is in the gameplay footage just months before release. If they truly polish that lackluster example of pew pew to a good one in this time, hats off for FDev. But before that is proven, I'm glad that EDO won't be all about FPS combat.

 

[Katie Byrne]

meh - i've never really been all that interested in the FPS aspects - I just want the blue skies and better looking planets tbh - the parts that can be enjoyed in VR

My biggest concern is that the bugs that have gone unaddressed now for years are likely never to be corrected - because adding more content just means adding to the scope of what the developers need to maintain. And if they didn't have the time to fix thins before all the new content gets added there's no chance of them having time afterwards... So Anaconda repair limpets, thargoid heart bug and other such bugs - most likely here to stay

that said i did preorder alpha access so maybe i'll get more enthused in a few weeks when the alpha drops

 

[Deleted member 182079]

It gives me zero pleasure to voice my negative observations believe me - I want Odyssey to be a roaring success but based on what we've seen I'm becoming increasingly sceptical.

Also the point some here seem to be missing is that the issue isn't about seeing ropey pre-Alpha footage, but the timing of it i.e. less than 3 months before the finished (lol) product is scheduled to be released. That has me genuinely worried about getting a bit of a trainwreck instead of a (at least visually) slick DLC, which I sort of took for granted until last week.

 

[CMDRAnadon]

I don't think you need to go to full martyrdom mode just because people voice their opinions on the trailer. I mean, the very topic of this thread is what kind of thoughts people had on that pre-alpha footage.

Either way, it worries me that the state of the FPS is like it is in the gameplay footage just months before release. If they truly polish that lackluster example of pew pew to a good one in this time, hats off for FDev. But before that is proven, I'm glad that EDO won't be all about FPS combat.

I agree with you.
But my post is like this because there are 16 pages where some users would like the quality of a COD or BF.
There will never be such a thing and making judgements on a pre-alpha version without taking into account official statements is like participating in a debate and just doing monologues. At that point even if it's right to pursue your own idea you can't consider it objective.

I've always been very critical of FDEV when they haven't fixed important bugs or left features that had great potential to rot.

I've read that some users are waiting for ObsidianAnt and Yamiks' opinion and I'm not surprised. Are these the references? Players playing screenshots? How many know all the implications of BGS and PowerPlay in Elite's dynamics and gameplay? Yet this is ignored on a daily basis but the game is built around BGS. Despite this people want a game that can never be there due to the very nature of Elite.

Having said that I didn't want to respond to your comment out of controversy but just to point out to many how you can't always waste too much time on a community that wants a game that has never been there and won't be mail.
It can be corrected but that is the nature of it.
A bit like when they compare SC, NMS, EVE and ED.
All space games but with very different nature and purpose.

 

[Shaele]

It gives me zero pleasure to voice my negative observations believe me - I want Odyssey to be a roaring success but based on what we've seen I'm becoming increasingly sceptical.

Also the point some here seem to be missing is that the issue isn't about seeing ropey pre-Alpha footage, but the timing of it i.e. less than 3 months before the finished (lol) product is scheduled to be released. That has me genuinely worried about getting a bit of a trainwreck instead of a (at least visually) slick DLC, which I sort of took for granted until last week.

Not only that these are what they are showing mere weeks before public access, but that they thought these were good enough to show ie the best they had to offer.

 

[CMDRAnadon]

Not only that these are what they are showing mere weeks before public access, but that they thought these were good enough to show ie the best they had to offer.

No.

They stated that the community managers who shot the video used an older version of what they currently have.
I also wrote this in my post.
You keep reiterating untrue information.

 

[askavir]

Unfortunately there is none so deaf as those who will not listen.

That's ok, there's still freedom of speech and in the end we don't have to listen to them either. We are happy, they are not, so sucks to be them.

I'm not particularly hyped for settlement raids (although I'll probably do it every now and then), but I think Odyssey as a whole will be great, and experiencing ED's universe from a person's eyes perspective will feel truly fantastic, the galaxy will finally feel alive and inhabited, and not just a bunch of sparse infrastructure.

Sure there are better "fps" games out there, but none of them allows me at any moment to get on a ship and fart off to somewhere else in the milky way to do something else, so such comparisons don't even make any sense (to say the least). Mass effect 2 and Fallout 3 as "fps" were very meh and clunky, yet as a whole they were fantastic games, for those who cared to see the forest beyond just the tree in front of them.

I think some people still don't understand (or pretend not to) why some other project made 300 million dollars, and still believe (or just cling on to hope) that nobody wants the kind of game that Frontier set out to do from the very start. But again its their prerogative.

 

[Winterwalker]

people forget how much Elite is a hybrid game between strategy, economy and action.

I'm saluting that one. A pretty much perfect three/four word description : strategy, economy and action hybrid. +1 and o7

Right. That's enough intellect. Open fire!

 

[Shaele]

No.

They stated that the community managers who shot the video used an older version of what they currently have.
I also wrote this in my post.
You keep reiterating untrue information.

you miss the point and confirm the other points.

They thought that this old out of date demo was worth the time and effort to make multiple runs of this and that it was good enough to demo.

Clearly for a lot of people it was not good enough, and yet more wasted time on their part. Why would they waste time on this if they had anything better to show?
They couldnt even show getting back onto the ship because it bugged out so they edited it out.

They edited out other parts showing things going wrong, but had to leave other poor animations simply because they had nothing better to show.

So, this was the best they had to show, its still badly implemented, public access is in a few weeks and they had to show this anyway.

 

[CMDRAnadon]

That's ok, there's still freedom of speech and in the end we don't have to listen to them either. We are happy, they are not, so sucks to be them.

I'm not particularly hyped for settlement raids (although I'll probably do it every now and then), but I think Odyssey as a whole will be great, and experiencing ED's universe from a person's eyes perspective will feel truly fantastic, the galaxy will finally feel alive and inhabited, and not just a bunch of sparse infrastructure.

Sure there are better "fps" games out there, but none of them allows me at any moment to get on a ship and fart off to somewhere else in the milky way to do something else, so such comparisons don't even make any sense (to say the least). Mass effect 2 and Fallout 3 as "fps" were very meh and clunky, yet as a whole they were fantastic games, for those who cared to see the forest beyond just the tree in front of them.

I think some people still don't understand (or pretend not to) why some other project made 300 million dollars, and still believe (or just cling on to hope) that nobody wants the kind of game that Frontier set out to do from the very start. But again its their prerogative.

I do not understand.
The post started with someone who didn't even inquire and made judgments. From there multiple users agreeing with misinformation. Just now another similar post where incorrect information is given.

Am I being accused of not respecting other people's ideas?
I have responded with what the developers have stated and to those who don't want to take any official information and throw it into sterile controversy.

Let's wait for the REAL ALPHA which will also be corrected and then the RELEASE. From then on there will be more corrections and additions in the months to come.
They are making judgements on fragmentary information.

 

[Rat Catcher]

you miss the point and confirm the other points.

They thought that this old out of date demo was worth the time and effort to make multiple runs of this and that it was good enough to demo.

Clearly for a lot of people it was not good enough, and yet more wasted time on their part. Why would they waste time on this if they had anything better to show?
They couldnt even show getting back onto the ship because it bugged out so they edited it out.

They edited out other parts showing things going wrong, but had to leave other poor animations simply because they had nothing better to show.

So, this was the best they had to show, its still badly implemented, public access is in a few weeks and they had to show this anyway.

Never mind...
There are other games to play - might I suggest you try No Man's Sky - it is REALLY, REALLY, EXCELLENT!!!!one111!!

 

[CMDRAnadon]

you miss the point and confirm the other points.

They thought that this old out of date demo was worth the time and effort to make multiple runs of this and that it was good enough to demo.

Clearly for a lot of people it was not good enough, and yet more wasted time on their part. Why would they waste time on this if they had anything better to show?
They couldnt even show getting back onto the ship because it bugged out so they edited it out.

They edited out other parts showing things going wrong, but had to leave other poor animations simply because they had nothing better to show.

So, this was the best they had to show, its still badly implemented, public access is in a few weeks and they had to show this anyway.

As mentioned, the demo was prepared not by the DEVs but by the CMs.
They had access to an older release than the pre-alpha itself. In Braben's message he himself says that more things will be shown between now and the official release.
I would like to mention that many things related to their but with gameplay were never put in any beta or alpha of the game.
So it's all to be taken with a grain of salt how much is shown and how much is ready.

 

[Rat Catcher]

So it's all to be taken with a grain of salt

The "Jilted Boyfriends" don't do a "grain of salt" they have to mine mountains of it...
It is 'normal'...
Misery hates being alone

Average the reactions over the threads discussing the stream and demo and you find that it is positively neutral rather than otherwise.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I wish I could be more positive in terms of hoping for Frontier to turn the corner by May, but then I remember how Megaship looting is still bugged to oblivion for what, over a year now, meaning an entire gameplay loop is impossible to complete because of a simple hitbox issue (canisters getting stuck in the cargo hatch).