Odyssey - what's the point?

[Deleted member 182079]

Make sure you can watch some no commentary video's and be excited to play it. x games are an acquired taste, definitely not mainstream games. Having said i lost 100 hours in rebirth, probably would have done more if it wasn't for elite. If you need a rebound relationship, will definitely work, and will show up the game you're breaking up with in spades.. but don't get hyped about it, its not that good. For x4.. i think series history (kinda like elite) carries it. I still recommend rebirth as cheaply as possible as your first entry. Because it was mine. And the gameplay that series vetrans hold dear i don't care about. Playing starcraft in a spacegame doesn't interest me... the "first ship" perspective that everyone hated was perfect imo. If you like rebirth, then get x4 when its cheap enough for sure, because that way it will add features to something you already like. The no commentary playthoughs can ultimately allow you to measure it though.

Rebirth to me felt like felt like starlancer / freelancer if chris roberts had the skill to build in depth.

Thanks for the tips - although I think I will go straight into X4 as I liked what I saw, it's the latest version and most likely to be updated as a result. I might also stop watching videos as I made up my mind at this stage - I really want to eventually play with that Raptor even if it's just for a few hours.

I get your sentiment around going for an older version to begin with, but I've done the same with the Witcher series (jumped straight into 3 without any knowledge of the books or older games) and no regrets.

 

[Erei]

Make sure you can watch some no commentary video's and be excited to play it. x games are an acquired taste, definitely not mainstream games. Having said i lost 100 hours in rebirth, probably would have done more if it wasn't for elite. If you need a rebound relationship, will definitely work, and will show up the game you're breaking up with in spades.. but don't get hyped about it, its not that good. For x4.. i think series history (kinda like elite) carries it. I still recommend rebirth as cheaply as possible as your first entry. Because it was mine. And the gameplay that series vetrans hold dear i don't care about. Playing starcraft in a spacegame doesn't interest me... the "first ship" perspective that everyone hated was perfect imo. If you like rebirth, then get x4 when its cheap enough for sure, because that way it will add features to something you already like. The no commentary playthoughs can ultimately allow you to measure it though.

Rebirth to me felt like felt like starlancer / freelancer if chris roberts had the skill to build in depth. I've never played "x games"

I can't play rebirth. The "only fly one ship" is very annoying to begin with, and the UI is a nightmare.
Plus the walk on station is bad. Unless you have a grandma fetish.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I think I had my fair share of UI nightmare experiences at this point

 

[Old Duck]

Thanks for the tips - although I think I will go straight into X4 as I liked what I saw, it's the latest version and most likely to be updated as a result. I might also stop watching videos as I made up my mind at this stage - I really want to eventually play with that Raptor even if it's just for a few hours.

In Rebirth you are stuck to one ship IIRC. I actually just put Rebirth VR on my wishlist because now that I'm "in" the X universe, I want to experience how things look in VR, but I still think X4 will be my mainstay game for some time to come.

FWIW, I'm not expected to get the same amount of hours out of X4 that I have put into Elite. I've invested years in Elite, mostly thanks to Stellar Forge (something no other game comes close to matching) and community events, but I have zero doubt that X4 will give me many, many more hours of enjoyable gameplay before I grow tired of it. It's definitely worth the $29 I spent on it! It doesn't sound like you can say that about Odyssey at the moment..

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Thanks for the tips - although I think I will go straight into X4 as I liked what I saw, it's the latest version and most likely to be updated as a result. I might also stop watching videos as I made up my mind at this stage - I really want to eventually play with that Raptor even if it's just for a few hours.

I get your sentiment around going for an older version to begin with, but I've done the same with the Witcher series (jumped straight into 3 without any knowledge of the books or older games) and no regrets.

Sounds like you're on it. With egosoft its probably more the other way around though, years of patches is much better than work in progress. Doesn't seem to be many complaints though having said. In the odd chance you give up on x4.. give rebirth a go on the way out Also, in a good way, x games are pretty deep if you haven't seen them before, so expect to be very overwhelmed with all the text and table rows etc. Just like elite once you know it its easy.

I can't play rebirth. The "only fly one ship" is very annoying to begin with, and the UI is a nightmare.
Plus the walk on station is bad. Unless you have a grandma fetish.

Didnt you mod that out? I modded it out. Just for the record, an indie team almost a decade ago created vastly more complex station interiors. The graphical fidelity isn't too far off elite dangerous odysee either, with the one exception of the skybox. Never played x games. Didn't have a problem with one ship or yisha. They even included an armstrong moment, and i don't even think it was a headline feature.

... x4 does look tempting.. hmmm..

 

[Deleted member 182079]

In Rebirth you are stuck to one ship IIRC. I actually just put Rebirth VR on my wishlist because now that I'm "in" the X universe, I want to experience how things look in VR, but I still think X4 will be my mainstay game for some time to come.

Yeah that doesn't appeal to me tbh - and I don't own VR either.

FWIW, I'm not expected to get the same amount of hours out of X4 that I have put into Elite. I've invested years in Elite, mostly thanks to Stellar Forge (something no other game comes close to matching) and community events, but I have zero doubt that X4 will give me many, many more hours of enjoyable gameplay before I grow tired of it. It's definitely worth the $29 I spent on it! It doesn't sound like you can say that about Odyssey at the moment..

Same here - I was on a bit of a downer as a result of the messed up EDO launch, and how it's panned out gameplay wise (personally I do not believe it will get a lot of additions beyond Goids-on-foot, even beyond consoles versions launch), simply because NMS is the only other "space" game in my library and I don't really enjoy it that much... but looking at the features of X4 it is actually ticking a lot of the boxes that I'm in the market for; it's not quite the same as Elite and that's a good thing.

I don't have any plans to abandon Elite, unless perhaps Frontier keep it largely in the state it's currently in (and even then - I still get some level of enjoyment out of it as it is, but it takes effort turning a blind eye to the avalanche of issues). They will be installed side-by-side, and maybe as Ian suggested earlier it may give me a fresh outlook on Elite making me play it differently going forward. Though my Arx wallet will remain permanently closed now.

I might even pull the trigger on resetting my account eventually and get rid of all the legacy baggage that's attached to my main CMDR, for good or bad. We'll see and I'd have to become a bit more desperate trying to squeeze more fun out of EDO than I currently need to to go that far.

 

[PureEvilPie]

On second thought, what's the point of this thread.

Never mind.

EDIT - right maybe removing my OP wasn't such a good idea, basically the gist of it was that I feel there's a distinct lack of purpose playing EDO content, unlike Horizons (i.e. ships) gameplay loops. There's only engineering of weapons/suits but you don't really need that per se, as I found that even just G2/3 level gear (I'd argue even stock) is more than sufficient for pretty much anything EDO throws at you.

On top of that the time investment vs reward is completely out of whack compared to Horizons, even though (and also because) EDO gameplay loops are meatier now - and yet they feel shallow mini-games bolted onto the main game, with no real synergies between EDH & EDO.

(at least now it's not a wall of text anymore!)

My same sentiments, We have two different games now - connected by a single thin thread. I would echo trying your hand at X4, once you get past the atrocious UI and the complete lack of guidance on how to do anything, it is quite a deep game.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

A very bad idea. That would be a no-brainer and would immediately be considered a "must have" by most biologists.
Hopefully our devs are professional enough not to repeat such a mistake again.
After all, they have done this in the past, and in a big way (and can't roll back now): no-brainers are one of the biggest sources of imbalances and other problems that engineers have brought into the game.

What would you suggest then? Keep things as they are?

They got rid of the silly mini-game altogether rather than refining it, frankly I don't care either way although just holding a button is a bit silly all the same - but they seem adamant enough to consider the 'collect 3 samples of one type in a row' loop as worthwhile gameplay, even though it makes no sense to bin up to 2 samples you've taken already if you come across another different plant type in the interim. So I doubt they'll massively re-design the core loop of sample collecting, hence my suggestion to salvage it and make it less tedious via an engineering option.

Edit - and as for the "must have" engineering option - you mean like the backpack extension for the Maverick?

 

[Amy Pendergast]

A very bad idea. That would be a no-brainer and would immediately be considered a "must have" by most biologists.
Hopefully our devs are professional enough not to repeat such a mistake again.
After all, they have done this in the past, and in a big way (and can't roll back now): no-brainers are one of the biggest sources of imbalances and other problems that engineers have brought into the game.

Thats not a no brainer or over simplification.
How about making it actually interesting instead of tedious as it is now? We are 1300 years in the future but I need exactly 3 samples to identify a plant? I think I want the 21st century back, where we do the same with a single fiber of a plant.

And then I can't just collect samples and analyse them later, no, I have to analyze one after the other on the go. Sorry, no, this whole loop is just bad design.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Thats not a no brainer or over simplification.
How about making it actually interesting instead of tedious as it is now? We are 1300 years in the future but I need exactly 3 samples to identify a plant? I think I want the 21st century back, where we do the same with a single fiber of a plant.

And then I can't just collect samples and analyse them later, no, I have to analyze one after the other on the go. Sorry, no, this whole loop is just bad design.

Exactly - my suggestion was merely to polish a turd of gamedesign because I do not expect Frontier to go back to the drawing board when it comes to the entire exobiology loop, unless it's a placeholder and quite frankly the game is full of them as it is, so one more of them wouldn't look out of place if you know what I mean.

Engineering your suit as I described would hit two birds with one stone - provide a suitable engineering option for the Artemis (which doesn't really require any engineering at all) and make the existing gameplay loop less tedious/add a QoL feature whichever you prefer to call it, and with minimal effort in terms of development time (i.e. no new assets required).

 

[Deleted member 182079]

It's not my job to come up with good ideas, besides, developers don't usually accept users' suggestions (though they don't complain about keeping that illusion alive either). But that's no reason to make it worse and just continue as before while ignoring the mistakes from the past.

It's not my job either, and yet I did it anyways because it only took me 10 seconds to come up with it

If I made it as a serious suggestion I would've dumped it into the Suggestions sub-forum, where it could continue to get ignored in peace and quiet, but that wasn't the point of my post anyways.

 

[Episparh]

I would quote the chorus of the Space Shanty

Spoiler

Source: https://youtu.be/CoSJzfTuCI0

"We'll fly and drive and run and gun"

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Really? It takes me 2-3 seconds to come up with crappy ideas. But ten minutes to translate them into English.

Yet you have delivered none.

Talk is cheap. And arguing like a toddler is rather weak sauce.

But it's ok, I'm no longer interested in what you have to say.

 

[Lone_star]

I'd also recommend X3 (Terran War Pack - which is like 5 bucks a lot of the time) in addition to X4. It's had about 10 years of patching so it's very solid and has tons of fully fleshed out mods. Graphics are still quite good. The gun combat is WW2 in space... but missiles (esp in AP) add another entire layer and missile defense is quite important (and missiles have relatively long range... many over 50 km and some over 100)

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I'd also recommend X3 (Terran War Pack - which is like 5 bucks a lot of the time) in addition to X4. It's had about 10 years of patching so it's very solid and has tons of fully fleshed out mods. Graphics are still quite good. The gun combat is WW2 in space... but missiles (esp in AP) add another entire layer and missile defense is quite important (and missiles have relatively long range... many over 50 km and some over 100)

Have to say, a few years (decades?) back I would've likely looked at the price you quote and went for it - now with more disposible income but less free time I'm a lot more choosy in terms of what games I spend my money on, simply because I won't have the time to play them all... X4 will be the first proper game after CP2077 that I bought this year for example...

It does sound like great value for money though.

 

[Amy Pendergast]

This thinking leads nowhere, certainly not in a game. Because 1300y years later, our manual activities will be down to an absolute minimum. To simulate such a life would be the most boring thing imaginable.

Sorry, I should have made myself clearer.

I find it fascinating how people invent excuses for something that's just tedious unfunny game design masquerading as "content" and "gameplay loop".

At least having the scanner upgradeable would add a bit to the incentive to do anything more than buying a dumb suit with the new content for non pew-pew people.

 

[Amy Pendergast]

Have to say, a few years (decades?) back I would've likely looked at the price you quote and went for it - now with more disposible income but less free time I'm a lot more choosy in terms of what games I spend my money on, simply because I won't have the time to play them all... X4 will be the first proper game after CP2077 that I bought this year for example...

It does sound like great value for money though.

If you start to like X4 and "finish" it, then X3 will still be there

 

[Deleted member 182079]

If you start to like X4 and "finish" it, then X3 will still be there

By that time who knows, maybe EDO is in a more playable state... eternal optimist that I am!

 

[Deleted member 182079]

So easily butt-sore

Thanks for proving my point, even though it wasn't really necessary.

 

[Erei]

If you start to like X4 and "finish" it, then X3 will still be there

Played x3 for half an hour. Decide to go to the terran to grind rep so I can buy one of their ship.
Get smashed into a station trying to dock.
Didn't save since he started.

Laugh. Uninstall.