Last Author Review 22/07/2022 (Update 12)
Removed and Missing Information / UI Functionality in Elite: Odyssey
Preamble
Greetings Commanders o7
In light of the upcoming narrative and recent announcements about the future development plan for Odyssey and Elite: Dangerous in general, I have decided to reactivate this project. Please help me out, if you can.
What is this thread?
Back in May of 2021 several community leaders and myself have compiled a comprehensive list of UI features and information on display which was available in Horizons, but not in Odyssey. Over the upcoming weeks, hundreds of community members contributed with submissions and helpful insight. As a result the list eventually expanded to cover existing Horizons issues and Odyssey suggestions related to missing information in the game, almost all of which could be traced down to UI functionality in some way.
Looking back at the original list, I am happy to see that many, if not most of the crucial problems with the original release of Odyssey have been addressed.
Why is this still relevant?
As of now, there are still a few features of the Horizon UI that are not currently present in Odyssey. As always, these points will be listed in their own category at the start and remain the priority of the project. I earnestly hope that the UI team or Game Designers will have a look at them, as they did back in May 2021 before. My hope is that this effort can make their lives a bit easier by summarizing and categorizing feedback from across the community in a encyclopaedic format.
The other two lists once again cover information-related issues and suggestions for existing Odyssey and Horizons content respectively. These will be a lot longer, more subjective, and at least in part harder to implement. The focus of the project remains with the first category.
I already made a review of things back in October in a
separate thread. I now intend to do this every few months, using and updating the original post, rather that piling up more threads.
How can I contribute?
Without the massive community input, the effort and knowledge of one person would not have been enough to create and maintain such a comprehensive list. A game as versatile as Elite caters to a range of different playstyles, but we are trying to accommodate them all. Please spread the word among your community of Explorers, Miners, PvPers, Traders, Powerplayers and BGSers, Thargoid Hunters or Mercenaries, so that we can help identify issues for every audience. You can contribute personally or as a group, by replying to this thread with submissions, by opening and linking issue tracker reports on entries, and by screenshotting or creating video evidence. Discussions of individual points, suggestions to improve format and simple checks to keep things up-to-date are also welcome.
Special Thanks to:
CMDR Dwarden
CMDR Erimus Kamzel
CMDR Maligno
CMDR ObsidianAnt
CMDR 100.Rub
The Pilots' Summit (discontinued)
The BGS Server (
https://discord.com/invite/PZwERyb)
FleetComm HQ (
https://discord.com/invite/0hKG2qb9ODixa7Iz)
All forum contributions and other feedback threads on these issues
Legend / Instruction
The three major categories:
- List A) Information and UI Functionality that was available in Horizons, but is not in the current Odyssey version.
- List B) Lack of information and UI functionality that is detrimental to Odyssey-specific gameplay, the flow of such or even just overall quality of life.
- List C) Same as B, but for Horizons content only. This category may include some older issues too.
Some entries in
orange require verification or investigation after an update has dropped. Search for "
HELP" on the page to find these quickly. You can help me with those by replying to the thread or by contacting me directly.
Disputed entries will be removed until discussion or investigations have been resolved to keep the list as clean as possible.
Colour Legend:
Outright Hindering Gameplay / Frustrating
Quality of Life (sometimes separation from gameplay is blury)
Likely a Bug
Possible Design Choice / Subjective
Flavour / Immersion
Issue addressed (now listed separately in
List D)
Not including obvious design decisions. Including false and misleading information.
A: Information and UI Functionality that is no longer available (but was in Horizons)
Missions (Mission Boards, Mission Panels in Ship and On-foot)
- All mission details in mission selection when prerequisites are unfulfilled Player can not see the mission details to decide, whether to switch to a suitable ship
- System Map Button (only the Galaxy Map is available) Let players open the system map directly, so they can plot to the destination port before going there. A button to plot to destination port in one click would also be nice.
- Mission boards only displays one faction state per mission giving faction. We know multiple can be active from the right-hand panel. Horizons still displays multiple. Galaxy and System Map also display only one system state.
Signal Sources and Surface POIs
System Map
- "fined/hostile at location" indicator next to ports/settlements/etc... This was added back in for "wanted" already, when hovering over the port on the map.
- List of illegal commodities in system-wide jurisdiction Prohibitions in ports can vary with controlling faction, but system-wide prohibitions are in effect away from ports and listed in Horizons
- Faction BGS States other than primary As we know from the right-hand factions panel and the game files, multiple states can still be active. This information should be displayed correctly. Same issue affects mission boards and galaxy map.
- Pressing "esc" in the map now always opens the main menu, instead of just closing the map
- Precise population numbers of high population systems Arguably the least important, but most picky point on this whole list.
Galaxy Map
- Filters for Economy are now influenced by Odyssey Settlements, making search for space port economies outright impossible Space ports economies are the only that matter for outfitting, and many other services, which is what this filter was used for. Odyssey settlements are so numerous (with many systems having nearly all economy types represented) that this feature is not worth the trade-off. It makes it harder to find the right ports without third party tools.
- Powerplay
- "Open Power Overview" now only shows the main power screen, rather than opening the system in question in the control overview
- 15LY Control System Range indicator sphere selected exploited systems used to show all control spheres conflicting over it (grey/blue spheres)
- Information on systems available for potential preparation/expansion (other than on the few systems already being prepared)
- distance to power HQ
- expansion cost
- radius income
- upkeep cost
- potential loss/profit
- amount of contested systems
- Filter for Fleet Carrier presence (old fleet carrier filter was removed, private ownership government filter does not seem work, private enterprise economy filter is non-existent now)
- "Wanted/fined/hostile in system" We need to open the system map for this, but even there we only see port-specific status for "wanted"
- Pressing "esc" in the map now always opens the main menu, instead of just closing the map
- Engineers markers have the same colour as bookmarks and don't stand out as when they were purple I can't find the engineers among my 300 bookmarks unless I disable their display.
- Stored ships marker has the same colour as Community Goals The old red colour did stand out.
- Some system descriptions do not load at first selection of a system
- Bookmarked Carriers appear as Bookmarked Systems in bookmark list (including Squadron bookmarks)
- The government filter option "Imperial" is not a type that exists in the game world as of now
Settlements
- System controller instead of port controller falsely displayed as jurisdiction around settlements when in ship Unless the settlement itself is selected, this causes confusion over whom players are dealing with or attacking, what jurisdiction they are in - in worst cases the falsely indicated (or not) jurisdiction is from the mission giver
Shipyard / Inter Astra
Ship Outfitting
- Legacy Modifications Indicator
- Pop-up Warning for selling highly engineered modules There is a warning on the module now at least
- Weapon Stats
- Weapon Boot time
- Breach Damage and Minimum/Maximum Breach Chance
- Modification information tab needs to be reselected, every time we hover over non-modified equipment
- Context Ship Specs Data (bottom line) used to show shields when hovering over shields, capacity when hovering over cargo rack, etc...
Ship Engineering
In-Ship UI
- Certain mission when completed, but not yet handed in, can not be shared again. Even if a team member participates in a mission, a disconnect or other issue might kick him out of the team, leaving him with no reward. HELP Reports of instances and issue tracker tickets are advisable to players suffering from this issue
- Contacts Panel
- Selected commodities in space not showing "galactic average" value
- Pilot Rank Progression percentages
- Incorrect port and settlement controllers sometimes listed for selected target (see settlements)
Port UI
- Only displays one faction state for port controller. Same problem with mission selection, Galaxy and System map.
SRV UI
Fleet Carrier Management
Port Graphics
Not including obvious design decisions. Including false and misleading information.
B: Missing Odyssey-related Information and UI Functionality
On-foot Missions
- Steal, sabotage and other illegal mission types do not list settlement owners as target faction They probably will issue bounties and whose BGS is harmed. Players need to fly to the target port or navigate through system map before knowing who they commit crimes against.
Galaxy Map
- Bookmark Browser
- Squadron Bookmarks do not name their system on card (like regular bookmarks at the bottom of the card)
Signal Sources and Surface POIs
- New Odyssey "Irregular Markers" have the same name as Horizon ones (despite different content)
System Map
- Landing Pad Size of Ports and Settlements These are not always apparent, especially to new players
- POI list issues (Ports, Landfall Planets, Ground Ports, Horizon Settlements, Odyssey Settlements)
- Too many entries without means of filtering (there can be +50 settlements)
- No filters for economy type (especially for Odyssey settlements, economy matters) Economy symbols have somewhat addressed the later
- No filters for controlling faction
- No way to identify Anarchy controlled POIs
On-foot UI
- In-Sight Hub
- Inventory
- Detailed Description of
consumables, assets, goods and data Including info where to get them, what type
- System Factions and Reputations (as in ship status tab) BGS player's need to access this information, also relevant for some mission locations. This can now only be accessed at ship or SRV.
- Can only be a hold, not a toggle
- Object Interactions
- context information of assets and goods Making it difficult to prioritize what to pick up and to tell the two categories apart
- rarity/value
- type (what is it useful for? trade, engineering, junk etc.)
- current amount in inventory
- required for the blueprint I need?
- foyer mission givers
- allegiance I need to talk to everyone first to find my factions' guy. If not a faction display next to the name, perhaps different clothing based on faction government type and superpower could be used, like with existing Horizons mission boards. More on the latter further below.
- Ship/SRV health (hull and shields)
- Exobiology
- Genetic Samples Collected (this is only viewable at Vista Genomics (now alsoSystem Map) Have not heard about this in a while, have to re-confirm and assess after recent updates.
- Sampling progress per planet (this has to be counted manually)
- Message when completely sampled (like FSS completion)
In-Ship UI
- Storage
- Detailed Description of assets, goods and data
- where/how they can be obtained
- purpose/type (for engineering, trade, junk, other).
- Home
- Engineering
- Progress bars for Odyssey engineers (old ones have these)
- The new engineers are not listed separate from Ship Engineers (there are a lot of engineers now)
On-foot Outfitting
- Weapon DPS (rather than only "damage") Damage per shot? What kind of damage? This information was available in the Odyssey Open Alpha.
SRV / SRV UI
- Mirrors to see the back of the vehicle or warning indicator for people behind the vehicle (would make it harder to run over NPCs or teammates in Odyssey)
Odyssey Settlement UI (HELP: This section needs an update)
- Data Ports don't contain or highlight properties of data such as:
- rarity/value
- type (what is it useful for, can it be traded, junk etc.)
- current amount in inventory
- required for my blueprint?
- Facility Numbers to tell similar facilities apart (4x the same "Habitation" in Tourist Settlement for example) No distinction between similar buildings makes it very hard to find stuff.
- "Current facility" not highlighted when using settlement computer inside a facility
- Indicator what facilities have active fires in them other than only the same room the terminal is in being highlighted
- UI shows system control faction next to settlement name and settlement controller in the bottom This is confusing players about settlement jurisdiction
- UI shows symbol of economy, but does not name it anywhere
- Only displays one faction state (same issue as with regular ports, mission selection system map and galaxy map)
On-foot Outfitting and Customization
- Weapon damage per second (rather than only "damage", does it mean damage per shot?) This info was available during Odyssey Alpha.
- Complete inventory of owned suits and weapons (when upgrading)
On-foot Engineering
- Blueprints at engineers or upgrades can not be pinned Players can do this in Horizons, hopefully too for Odyssey at some point.
- Details and description of assets, goods and data in an upgrade blueprint (where can this be found? how rare is this? etc...)
- Details and description of assets, goods and data in an modification blueprint (same as above for engineers.)
Apex Transport
- Warning when booking, while cargo is still on ship (there is no means to sell cargo remotely)
Bartender
- More categories for things to sell (engineering, junk, etc.)
- Some goods still refuse to stack for no apparent reason This is now only an issue for stolen goods
On-foot Conflict Zones
- Conflict Zone (difficulty) viewable from Frontline Solutions, but not from Map or Navigation
- Falsely displays Influence gain or losses upon completion Influence is actually locked during war
Death Screen
Squadron UI
- Management > Members
- No info on mercenary and exobiology rank
Codex
- Knowledge Base
- Lore entries on major corporations (that were newly introduced with or since release) Thinking of Pioneer Supplies, InterAstra, Apex, etc.
Foyer Immersion (not UI, Visual/Audio)
The following points maybe mostly for immersion, but they would give players vastly more context of what where they are and who they are interacting with,
- Difference in appearance/voice lines to tell Mission-givers apart when Imperial, Federal, Alliance, Corporate, Anarchist, Communist, etc. (as in Horizon mission boards)
- Difference in voice-lines from mission-givers depending on faction/superpower relation with the player Why are you rude to me, I have supported your Imperial faction for years!?
- Visual port style distinctiveness based on Allegiance (Anarchy, Communism, Superpowers, etc.) in addition to Economy. Communists and Anarchists feel particularly wrong with billboards everywhere.
- Music distinctiveness when Federation, Empire, Anarchy, Communist port, etc. (as currently in Horizons-era soundtrack for ships)
Settlement Immersion (not UI, Visual/Audio)
- Difference in voice-lines based on faction relation with the player or previous mission completion "I literally just did a mission for you and now you... "
- Difference in appearance/voice lines depending on kind of control faction (anarchist, superpowers, etc.) Anarchist Guard: "You stick to the law around here!". Currently there are at least four visual variations for security based on superpower, which can be expanded upon.
- Difference in appearance/voice lines depending on economy work-related conversations This would feel more authentic and immersive, less like a "generic settlement".
Category C: Some of these may be by design or for technical reasons.
C: Information and Functionality that was already unavailable (Horizons and general content)
Missions (in general)
- Indicators on whether missions will count influence within the current BGS conflict state (War, Election) In a war state, only combat missions count for the war progress and all inf movements are locked anyway. This is not reflected in the mission boards. To the contrary: Trade missions have war-related names, indicating that they would make the faction win the war. This is not the case however and misleading for everyone who does not know how this part of the BGS works
- Indicator for when fulfilling mission terms would get player wanted in jurisdiction of mission-issuing port This is caused by the port and the system/area the illegal mission takes place in being in the same jurisdiction, handing in the mission may now be impossible before the "wanted" status has ended. HELP: I have not encountered an example of this problem in a while, please submit any example in the thread and ideally post an issue report, if you find one.
- Target Faction Allegiance (Superpower) "I came here to support the Federation, not sabotage another Federal faction..."
Galaxy Map
- No way of combing filters Third party tolls required to find "Federal systems in boom state" for example. This information is needed to find certain materials for engineering.
- Secondary system states do not show on filters and are not listed as active Makes it much harder to find systems in the right state without using third party tools
- Non-controller faction states These states still determine the appearance of CZs etc
- Name of Bookmarks when selected on map
- Ability to create a squadron bookmark, without creating a personal one
- Other allegiances/governments present in system
- Locations of inhabited space outside of Bubble (when not already known by player)
- Locations of other squadron members (need to add all to friends as workaround)
- Thargoids, Guardians and Pilot's Federation are allegiances, but show up as "none" and can not be filtered for
- Barely any systems have descriptions PMF home systems are a rare exceptions. Not even lore important systems from previous games, such as Gateway have descriptions.
- Location of Hyades Cluster (the other star cluster settled other than the Pleiades)
- Location of Star clusters in general
System Map
- Landing Pad Size of Ports and Settlements These are not always apparent, especially to new players
- Positions of POIs such as Combat Zones, Pirate activity, Scenario-Megaships and Installations etc. which are BGS-sensitive and are necessary/useful to work the BGS (this is already done for ground CZs, why not others?)
- Orbit Installations and Megaship locations (non-dockable ones that trigger scenarios / don't trigger scenarios) Scenarios also deserve better integration into the game overall on that note, maybe missions?
- Way to advertise fleet carrier trade and services In example: trade request signal, owner's message ("Buying Commodity at X Price, 10k profit for you", etc). Currently carrier names are sometimes used as work-around
- Fleet carrier clutter in popular or servicing systems This looks a bit silly and needs some sorting mechanics, many don't even allow docking
- Bookmarked carriers (squadron) wrongly highlight the entire planetary system and all other carriers are also shown as bookmarked
- Bookmarked bodies highlight every fleet carrier or station orbiting the body
Planetary Map
- Not accurately displaying day/night side of planets (HELP, should be investigated again)
- No visual distinction between the huge circular city ports and other (smaller) types of ports
In-Ship
- Chat
- Chat does not memorize all tab for quick-access hotkey (standart enter) This is annoying when I try to respond to the chat players are using (such as system chat)
- Can not tab-cycle through direct message contacts This is annoying when players try to respond to a particular person
- Info Log
- Info Log History can not be accessed to see past entries, or operation updates When in a scenario, the window is actually blocked, so updates can not be read. This would also be useful to check on issued bounty-payouts, actions by other players, changes to factions, etc.
- Contacts
- Indicator when selected material is in blueprint
- Indicator which limpets are yours
- Disable limpet button
- Navigation Menu
- Facility List for selected port (so opening the map is not necessary every time)
- Method to only show certain fleet carriers (the ones I need for trade; own and friends, etc. - workaround: bookmark carriers excl. Squadron bookmarks)
- Tourist Beacon Indicator when not yet scanned for Archive
- Navigation Target Selected (Bottom Left)
- Targeted Systems don't show Economies (when not inside system)
- Targeted Systems don't show Allegiance (when inside system)
- Way to advertise fleet carrier trade and services In example: trade request signal, owner's message ("Buying Commodity at X Price, 10k profit for you", etc). Currently carrier names are sometimes used as work-around
- Modules
- Legacy module mods not highlighted as such
- Synthesis progress only visible in right-hand-tab
- Fire Groups
- No Separate Fire Groups for Combat / Analysis Mode
- Ship > Statistics
- Lack of Ship Statistics Information such as Total Mass (Right Panel -> Ship -> Statistics)
- Inventory > Synthesis > Rearms
- No information on which weapon is rearmed different classes and mods of multi-canons are all just called "multi-cannons"
- Suitable/Affordable Rearms should be at the top The scrolling is painful, order of modules is not alphabetical either
- Synthesis progress only visible in right-hand-tab
- Info Log
- Info Log History (to check bounty-payouts, actions by other players, etc.)
SRV / SRV UI
- Ship health indicator
- Turret view
- Acceleration/speed indicator
- Discernible fire groups left/right position as in ships
- Not showing data link scanner / comp scanner when selected
Port UI
- Contact
- Powerplay (systems in turmoil) - always displays 0 progress towards fortification
- Local News
- Start date of conflicts/elections in Local News
- Local News are not sent to Journal (would be good for our beloved third party tools)
Ship Outfitting
- Secondary damage types and damage distribution among them only primary damage type is shown
Ship Engineering
- Several mod blueprints have outdated descriptions (HELP to come up with a precise list would be appreciated)
- Detailed/accurate description of materials and more useful info on where to obtain it Where can this actually be found? Descriptions of high-grade manufactured should list the system states that increase spawn chance, such as "Boom" for "Core Dynamics Composites" (Currently just says Federal systems). High-grade emissions could be an alert to assist player decision to look for signal sources there - otherwise third party tool knowledge is essential to find the right systems.
- List of Thargoid/Guardian/other materials not yet obtained Normal materials are shown as 0 from the start, these ones only show up after first pickup)
Combat / PvP
- Engineering mods of enemy ships or estimated amount and strength of mods) Do I even have a chance against this ship or is this fight uneven?
- Use of "Premium" ammunitions by hostile players (synthesized ammo) Really useful for tournaments or just "fair fights" in which you are not supposed to synthetize
Thargoids
- Progress counter to fight incursions (global progress + personal contribution) The Galnet reports don't indicate concrete progress that has been made. At worst players work a day longer than necessary. Maybe this could at least be done hourly, like Powerplay on galnet.
BGS
- UI
- Ability to turn in bonds only in part like exploration data
- Local BGS Information
- Transaction traffic in systems and distribution among factions (how much is done for my opponents enemy?) there could be local news articles on this
- Effect of individual transaction types in overall traffic (Am I even causing a dent or wasting time?)
- Active players in a system (who is doing transactions/missions against me?)
- Global BGS Information
- Official Server "Tick" (would be good for our beloved third party tools and put players at ease)
- Conflict Zones
- Falsely displays Influence gain or losses upon completion (influence is actually locked during war)
Powerplay
- Control Tab
- List is not alphabetical, no sorting mechanism generally difficult to navigate / find what you are looking for
- fortification progress updates only every 30 minutes not good enough to inform myself where to go, wen I am there these numbers may be out of date and I am wasting time / effort, because the system was already fortified
- Details for fortification trigger calculation of Control Systems (Favorable, Unfavorable, Neutral Government Types)
- Plot to system / open system map buttons
- systems in turmoil always display 0% progress, no matter the actual fortification progress tested with Mahon's delivery-based system
Fleet Carriers
- Way to advertise fleet carrier trade and services In example: trade request signal, owner's message ("Buying Commodity at X Price, 10k profit for you", etc). Currently carrier names are sometimes used as work-around
Community Goals
- Ability to turn in bonds only in part
- (current) size of contribution per contributor tier
Squadron UI
- General
- Highlighting squadron's current objectives / required actions (+highlight on galaxy/system map)
- Allegiance
- System that is the source of expansion (tied to point two)
- "Happiest" system is misleading information (it does not influence expansion, only influence does)
- Open system in galaxy mao button is all the way bottom (scrolling past 50-100 "locations" takes time)
- No system map button
- No plot route button (would also be useful behind locations)
- "Happiest" system is not in line with Security and Economy states what is it based on?
- Leaderboards
- No information on how ranks are calculated does political include supported factions other than the one selected as allegiance?
- No way to "pot out" of leaderboards
Scenarios
- Conflict Zones
- Falsely displays Influence gain or losses upon completion Influence is actually locked during war and there is otherwise no information what happens with this influence.
- Immersion
- Difference in Voice lines to tell Alliance/Imperial/Federal navies, Anarchy factions apart
- Different decals/paint jobs/kits for different factions/superpowers/pirates
- Mega-Ships and Installations
- No way to identify scenarios-spawn sources from non-sources via navigation players can still memorize the classes by name as work-around
Codex
- Discoveries
- Does not list mega-ships, historical locations, mysteries, etc.
- Pilot's Handbook
- No articles on BGS (faction support) and Powerplay
- Hub > Commander > Archive
- Entries not alphabetical Should be sortable by date and alphabet, maybe type.
- Hub > Codex
- Several individuals do not have articles on them
- Hadrian Augustus Duval
- Octavia Volkov
- Nakato Kaine
- Several (historic) organisations have no entries
Multiplayer-related Information
- Let players find find what's going on more easily.
- Centres of recent player activity (24h - 1 week) Where are all the players?
- Most active systems + ports
- Highest risk systems interdictions, PvP, warning upon entry in Open?
- Most active trades routes
- Most active wars/elections And superpowers/minor factions/squadrons involved. Show players where they can support their power / grind their rank in a fun way. Sometimes these can evolve into small events that come close to story-driven community goals.
- etc... Right now all of this information is available in third party tools, where newer players will not find it.
- Major minor factions of the galaxy (minor factions with giant populations, hundreds of systems and assets)
Lore and Mystery
- Locations of lore and mystery locations not seen yet by the player Lead players towards unique locations (such as generation ships) with one-time "story missions", "tip-offs", possible "rumours" such as exploration discoveries in codex or by other means.
- Tourist Beacon Indicator when not yet scanned for Archive Tourist Beacons could be seen as lore-pieces that payers can collect, so this mechanic would make sense.
