I spent a good few hours on Odyssey on Saturday, meandering my way home from Colonia, (where I’ve been since before it dropped) checking out anything that I thought might be interesting, and I must admit, since Update 5 I’m really, really starting to enjoy it. I know the planetary geography ‘isn’t working as intended’, but I’ve found some beautiful areas so far, as well as a fair bit of new biological stuff and for me that’s been really cool. Some of the atmospheres and ‘sunsets’ have been breathtaking too. I’m about half way home now and starting to pick up the pace a little. I’m going to forgo planetary landings in favour of forward progress so I can see what’s happening on foot around the Bubble once I’m back. It’s been a few months since I was there.
The rumblings from many of the ED YouTubers and a lot of this community has understandably (up to a point) been getting more and more negative over the last couple of weeks with people like Hawkes, ObsidianAnt, Yamiks and others all claiming Elite is dying. I seem to remember a similar kind of discontent in the build up to Lavecon two years ago when there’d been not a lot happening for a while. Over the last couple of years though, there has been plenty of stuff happening, and from my (possibly naïve) perspective this now feels to me like the very shaky first footsteps of a potentially much bigger expansion than it currently is. I know the game wasn’t release-ready, and it’s going through damage limitation exercises at the moment, and Frontier haven’t been the best in communicating historically etc etc, but we all know that things will improve. They have already started to.
I just don’t get why, if those negative naysayers are so passionate about the game, they’re so ready to dismiss it, citing this (admittedly pretty significant) bump in the road as if it’s the final nail in the coffin of what is a still incredible, awe inspiring and beautiful game. Maybe it is that very passion and a feeling of being let down by the Odyssey launch, and FDev that’s making people feel so aggrieved, or maybe we’re all just a fickle bunch
.
To pick one bone of contention, the ‘ship interiors’ argument doesn’t feel a worthy reason to sound the death knell to me. I know they were initially spoken about as something that was coming (soon™) in the future, but as it is, we’ve never had them and yet we’ve managed to enjoy the game and build an amazing community around it. Now we have the much demanded Space Legs, and no ship interiors and people are throwing their toys out of the pram over it? There’s still a vast galaxy out there, and this is still a great community, but now with the addition of those all-important (to some) Space Legs to wander around on so you can punch unwitting Imperial Eagles to death.
My experience and musings will not be indicative of most Odyssey players, I get that. Being in Colonia when it dropped, never engaging in ground combat (there wasn’t much to be found out there and I’m not that bothered about it tbh), but that doesn’t mean I can’t see or experience some of the improvements that have been made so far. Since the updates my frame rates have been fine, but my VR headset has been pretty much dormant since Odyssey launched, and that really did affect my gameplay. I’ve adapted back to flatscreen for now and I’m happy to continue until VR whilst on foot is feasible again once the frame rates improve, which I'm sure they will. I had a break for a while and waited until the patches were applied so I could set off back home with the possibility of seeing some new things on the way. I'm glad I did, it's been worth it.
Everyone's experience of Elite will differ from the next person's, along with the reasons they play it, their style, goals and level of commitment, and this meandering post isn't at all meant to diminish anybody's version of that, positive or negative. Personally, I'm someone that has had an overwhelmingly positive experience both in the game and in the community and I guess I’m probably venting a little because I'm passionate about Elite and want to celebrate every step forward, rather than trying to hold it back with negativity. I have faith that some of us will look back in six months, a year, and celebrate how far Odyssey has come from it’s apparent rushed and difficult birth. I’ve not played anywhere near as much as many CMDRs, (3000hrs across few accounts/platforms), but I will have played a lot more than some. I’ve had many fantastic experiences, but I’ve still got so many things I’d like to do in the game. I’ll certainly be around for the next 3000hrs doing just that. Hope to see you out in the Black.
o7 CMDRs, keep the faith.
CMDR Caelum Incola/Battybat99
The rumblings from many of the ED YouTubers and a lot of this community has understandably (up to a point) been getting more and more negative over the last couple of weeks with people like Hawkes, ObsidianAnt, Yamiks and others all claiming Elite is dying. I seem to remember a similar kind of discontent in the build up to Lavecon two years ago when there’d been not a lot happening for a while. Over the last couple of years though, there has been plenty of stuff happening, and from my (possibly naïve) perspective this now feels to me like the very shaky first footsteps of a potentially much bigger expansion than it currently is. I know the game wasn’t release-ready, and it’s going through damage limitation exercises at the moment, and Frontier haven’t been the best in communicating historically etc etc, but we all know that things will improve. They have already started to.
I just don’t get why, if those negative naysayers are so passionate about the game, they’re so ready to dismiss it, citing this (admittedly pretty significant) bump in the road as if it’s the final nail in the coffin of what is a still incredible, awe inspiring and beautiful game. Maybe it is that very passion and a feeling of being let down by the Odyssey launch, and FDev that’s making people feel so aggrieved, or maybe we’re all just a fickle bunch
.To pick one bone of contention, the ‘ship interiors’ argument doesn’t feel a worthy reason to sound the death knell to me. I know they were initially spoken about as something that was coming (soon™) in the future, but as it is, we’ve never had them and yet we’ve managed to enjoy the game and build an amazing community around it. Now we have the much demanded Space Legs, and no ship interiors and people are throwing their toys out of the pram over it? There’s still a vast galaxy out there, and this is still a great community, but now with the addition of those all-important (to some) Space Legs to wander around on so you can punch unwitting Imperial Eagles to death.
My experience and musings will not be indicative of most Odyssey players, I get that. Being in Colonia when it dropped, never engaging in ground combat (there wasn’t much to be found out there and I’m not that bothered about it tbh), but that doesn’t mean I can’t see or experience some of the improvements that have been made so far. Since the updates my frame rates have been fine, but my VR headset has been pretty much dormant since Odyssey launched, and that really did affect my gameplay. I’ve adapted back to flatscreen for now and I’m happy to continue until VR whilst on foot is feasible again once the frame rates improve, which I'm sure they will. I had a break for a while and waited until the patches were applied so I could set off back home with the possibility of seeing some new things on the way. I'm glad I did, it's been worth it.
Everyone's experience of Elite will differ from the next person's, along with the reasons they play it, their style, goals and level of commitment, and this meandering post isn't at all meant to diminish anybody's version of that, positive or negative. Personally, I'm someone that has had an overwhelmingly positive experience both in the game and in the community and I guess I’m probably venting a little because I'm passionate about Elite and want to celebrate every step forward, rather than trying to hold it back with negativity. I have faith that some of us will look back in six months, a year, and celebrate how far Odyssey has come from it’s apparent rushed and difficult birth. I’ve not played anywhere near as much as many CMDRs, (3000hrs across few accounts/platforms), but I will have played a lot more than some. I’ve had many fantastic experiences, but I’ve still got so many things I’d like to do in the game. I’ll certainly be around for the next 3000hrs doing just that. Hope to see you out in the Black.
o7 CMDRs, keep the faith.
CMDR Caelum Incola/Battybat99
