Spaceships vs man?

[Helvellyn]

I've no problem with expanding the game to do things you couldn't before as long as they seem a reasonable part of a universe that was always really an open sandbox right from 1984, just limited by the technology of the time. It's the disjoints and shallowness that bother me, and have done from the start of E. A new feature is released that looks like a good basis for building something great from, and is then left there as they move on to the next thing, rather than having both cosmetic and gameplay depth added to it.

 

[SergMx]

Nope. Merc rank is for on foot kills

 

[Valorin]

As correctly noted here, I would like to combine modes. Why in the end to get 5 defense plans I can not exchange them for 10 hearts of Thargoids?

Mainly because Odyssey is a DLC and the ones who do not own it, aren't supposed to get on-foot stuff, and the ones who do aren't supposed to get their normal loot partially substituted with on-foot stuff.
I guess that's the idea.
Imagine all you want is those Modular Terminals, but because you own Odyssey, some of the material rewards are substituted with on-foot stuff and the chance for the MTs to show up is lower because of that. And if you'd get stuff on top of the regular rewards, people would go wild with pay-to-win claims. Pay for dlc, get more stuff.

 

[SergMx]

Mainly because Odyssey is a DLC and the ones who do not own it, aren't supposed to get on-foot stuff, and the ones who do aren't supposed to get their normal loot partially substituted with on-foot stuff.
I guess that's the idea.
Imagine all you want is those Modular Terminals, but because you own Odyssey, some of the material rewards are substituted with on-foot stuff and the chance for the MTs to show up is lower because of that. And if you'd get stuff on top of the regular rewards, people would go wild with pay-to-win claims. Pay for dlc, get more stuff.

Exactly. It's just DLC.
I paid for the DLC and now my ingeneers ships are gathering dust on my Fleet Carrier. Everything that came before is no longer needed...
And it's a space simulator, not Destiny 2.

 

[Drelthar]

Mainly because Odyssey is a DLC and the ones who do not own it, aren't supposed to get on-foot stuff, and the ones who do aren't supposed to get their normal loot partially substituted with on-foot stuff.
I guess that's the idea.
Imagine all you want is those Modular Terminals, but because you own Odyssey, some of the material rewards are substituted with on-foot stuff and the chance for the MTs to show up is lower because of that. And if you'd get stuff on top of the regular rewards, people would go wild with pay-to-win claims. Pay for dlc, get more stuff.

Easy fix though, allow commanders to choose what materials they want as rewards (within the current value ranges that already exist) and only show the ones relevent to the expansion levels they have, to choose from.

There, fixed it while keeping the two games linked, and not causing expansion disparity problems.

 

[Frankymole]

Another old timer here... been playing Elite on Commodore 64 back in the day. No other game left such an impression on me as Elite did!

Fast forward to today... I still love it to pieces but with Odyssey I've had similar thoughts. I am curious how I will play once the novelty of being on foot wears off. I am an explorer most of the time, which means a heavily engineered Asp Explorer so can get around in the Galaxy. When Odyssey arrived, I find myself doing the "On foot" missions most of the time. Does it feel like another game? Yes and no. Yes because it is so new, the ability to WALK around the Elite Universe, and No because it is still the same old galaxy with it's wonders.

Dunno, really, but you do have a point saying that the goods obtained in one mode of playing should be useful in the other. Interchangeable.

Good point. I've done some exploring on foot now and scanned some life forms. To an explorer outside the Bubble it's all just one game. But if I start getting physical materials as well as data, e.g. from some abandoned sites I've found, it would be good to be able to use them for something - especially exchanging for materials I actually want.

 

[SergMx]

Easy fix though, allow commanders to choose what materials they want as rewards (within the current value ranges that already exist) and only show the ones relevent to the expansion levels they have, to choose from.

There, fixed it while keeping the two games linked, and not causing expansion disparity problems.

The first time I saw the Odyssey I was surprised. Two separate mission boards in different places. Why the ship's onboard computer can only connect to the station's network halfway.
Although the map of the system and the galaxy seem to be the same

 

[Valorin]

Easy fix though, allow commanders to choose what materials they want as rewards (within the current value ranges that already exist) and only show the ones relevent to the expansion levels they have, to choose from.

There, fixed it while keeping the two games linked, and not causing expansion disparity problems.

I wouldn't mind at all.
Buuut you know how it is. People would complain that they can't have both and start fires on the forum and elsewhere because they don't get that this would be an additional option to get stuff and that they'd lose nothing in the process.

I'm also pretty sure they want us to play the stuff.

 

[Winterwalker]

The first time I saw the Odyssey I was surprised. Two separate mission boards in different places. Why the ship's onboard computer can only connect to the station's network halfway.

Perhaps these can be migrated together at some point. You can easily imagine an NPC mission giver giving you a commodity haulage, or mining mission too. The tendency to lean toward mission segregation is probably for the benefit of new players though. Until you can build up obvious ways for new players to tell which is which, keep them seperate. It's not that silly imo.

I've been playing since way back too - more FE2 for me - the big kids rarely let me get my hands on Elite. My feeling is Odyssey is very much Elite Feet 1.0 and I don't have a problem with that at all. Or with the idea that EVA might be a specialist skill that does not require you to be an ace pilot. That engineering ships and being an expert spacewalker, being two skills, have two seperate paths to becoming expert at, sounds 'true' to my brain.

 

[SergMx]

Perhaps these can be migrated together at some point. You can easily imagine an NPC mission giver giving you a commodity haulage, or mining mission too. The tendency to lean toward mission segregation is probably for the benefit of new players though. Until you can build up obvious ways for new players to tell which is which, keep them seperate. It's not that silly imo.

I've been playing since way back too - more FE2 for me - the big kids rarely let me get my hands on Elite. My feeling is Odyssey is very much Elite Feet 1.0 and I don't have a problem with that at all. Or with the idea that EVA might be a specialist skill that does not require you to be an ace pilot. That engineering ships and being an expert spacewalker, being two skills, have two seperate paths to becoming expert at, sounds 'true' to my brain.

No one disputes that if you're at a station on your feet, you're only shown missions for your feet.
But if I then buy a ship, why do not I show missions for the feet inside it? What in the odyssey can somehow get rid of the suit?
Why run every time from the airlock of the ship Anaconda to the elevator and then the same station to take the mission for the feet and then run back?
Who does not have a ship and who like to run let them do it. No one forbids them to do it.

 

[here_it_comes]

With your attitude we'd never get walking in ships.

Nope, we would have gotten it in Odyssey and I would have left FPS to all the stellar FPS titles out there that are actually good.

 

[Winterwalker]

No one disputes that if you're at a station on your feet, you're only shown missions for your feet.
But if I then buy a ship, why do not I show missions for the feet inside it? What in the odyssey can somehow get rid of the suit?
Why run every time from the airlock of the ship Anaconda to the elevator and then the same station to take the mission for the feet and then run back?
Who does not have a ship and who like to run let them do it. No one forbids them to do it.

I think it's partly technical complexity of putting the game together. The missions could be ported to the ship (to the new pop up mission screen; choose missions, passenger missions or foot missions) OK but the devs get a small pass from me when it comes to organising both the UI and the databases. They're splicing new mission, BGS and materials entry types (in a pandemic don't forget) into an existing game people are playing .. as well as producing the entire FPS environment, including planets, bases and personal inventories.

I'm not saying you're wrong but I think your idea is QoL, Stage 2 and (personally) don't have a problem it's not been put in yet. Odyssey 1.0's big and complicated enough to be going on with imo.

 

[Drelthar]

Why do the missions even have to be "on foot missions"

why can't they just be missions, which, sometimes, need a ship to do stuff in space, and sometimes need a base to be broken into - often, multiple things for the same mission.

Oh right, because get the doodamaflip 500 times is the only design in the office.

K.

 

[MacIntoc]

I do not know why, but I have the impression that now it is two separate games.

Yes, it's intended. FDev hoped that would grab some FPS players that may don't want to have to use ship.

 

[Valorin]

Yes, it's intended. FDev hoped that would grab some FPS players that may don't want to have to use ship.

It's kinda cool that it is possible to not have a ship.
I mean, I play Elite because of the ships and actually didn't shoot at anyone on foot so far (SRV turret is a different matter...), but I like that it's possible.

 

[CMDR Rabbit]

the 'simplest' fix to at least start integrating the two would be at least having a tab in the ship UI to accept Odyssey missions and on the spaceport terminals to take ship missions.

Greyed out or unavailable according you your current game mode (Odyssey vs Horizons) just like how Horizons content was labelled and separated from non Horizons when i started.
Even better if the mission giver NPCs sometimes offered ship missions too.

That should be an easy QoL implementation that at least starts to put the two in the same fundamental 'space'.

Step two, a (mostly) cosmetic enhancement to build on step 1: new rooms in the stations for the various 'contacts' (authority, blackmarket, interstellar factor, powerplay, material trader, tech broker), on the concourse if possible, new areas accessible by the lifts if not. This would require some new assets, but shouldn't represent a major challenge in terms added code to the game engine.

Step three, a functional improvement beyond steps 1 & 2:
option a) integrate material trading. Let us trade foot stuff for ship stuff and vice versa, and remove the arbitrary trade restrictions between space mats. Balancing the trade values might take a trick or two.
option b) Get rid of the existing mat trader system and let players trade mats between themselves using some kind of offers post/vault system. "Selling 15 military grade alloys, Accepting 30 cat memes".

Option b should in fact be easier to implement since it requires no balance from fdev and what you'll accept for X quatity of Material Y is up to you. It could however represent significant database resources. Also helps reduce a certain amount of grind complaints, you can focus on the mat gathering parts you enjoy more and 'sell' the extra to buy the ones whose game loop bores you.

Obviously there's more (EVA, on foot interior ship salvage, etc, etc) but i think the 3 ideas above at least gets it started going where it needs to go.

 

[SergMx]

It's kinda cool that it is possible to not have a ship.
I mean, I play Elite because of the ships and actually didn't shoot at anyone on foot so far (SRV turret is a different matter...), but I like that it's possible.

There must be translation difficulties.
I do not mind that someone does not want to have a ship and play Elite.
I'm against the fact that having a ship need to run to the station for missions for the legs.
I'm against the fact that you can not aypolnit missions on the ship and get materials for the legs
And so on and so forth.
Maybe again I do not write clearly