Postives
Want to mention some things I feel are working for me as player and dont need much in the way of tweaking, but more variety and options in gameplay are always welcome! I feel the noisy negative voices out there might end up being force for the worse particularly in terms of difficulty.
Difficulty Level
I am really enjoying the "difficultly level" and really hope it is not flattened as happened in the base game over the years. Odyssey is the first time Ive felt the title "Dangerous" has some real in-game meaning. The complaint of missions being too difficult is ridiculous in a game full of easy non-dangerous credit making activities, the game has always needed more challenging content! The feeling of a mission unravelling in unique ways is brilliantly emergent as is the flight or fight decision. I've heard a few mentions of typically non-violent players end up massacring a settlement after a mission unravels but I have found that escape plans are even more revelvant and it is a shame people are not chosing this option.
I feel the retreat angle should be promoted and enhanced with further gameplay strategies:
Dynamic Settlements
Security Scanning
I have heard a lot of people complaining about the scan frquency but I would like to see the scan frequency become part of a strategy in how you approach a settlement rather than just reduced across the board:
Alternatives to Violent Response
Anarchy Systems
Only being able to buy those illegal hacking things in Anarchy systems is really a much needed and great touch, it is probably the only thing in the game that has personally given me a concrete feeling of the politcal types of Systems and interacting with them in a strategic way although I knew is existed in terms of commodity supply and demand.
Would love to see Anarchy systems become more visceral and extreme:
Want to mention some things I feel are working for me as player and dont need much in the way of tweaking, but more variety and options in gameplay are always welcome! I feel the noisy negative voices out there might end up being force for the worse particularly in terms of difficulty.
Difficulty Level
I am really enjoying the "difficultly level" and really hope it is not flattened as happened in the base game over the years. Odyssey is the first time Ive felt the title "Dangerous" has some real in-game meaning. The complaint of missions being too difficult is ridiculous in a game full of easy non-dangerous credit making activities, the game has always needed more challenging content! The feeling of a mission unravelling in unique ways is brilliantly emergent as is the flight or fight decision. I've heard a few mentions of typically non-violent players end up massacring a settlement after a mission unravels but I have found that escape plans are even more revelvant and it is a shame people are not chosing this option.
I feel the retreat angle should be promoted and enhanced with further gameplay strategies:
- The numeric advantage of the guard NPCs should be tougher, is it realistic for solo destruction of a multiple guards to be the default outcome every time?
- When you trigger a base alert at least a couple of guards should work their way slowly ie clearing the area back toward your ship to guard it, maybe even working to add some sort of incapacitation device that takes x minutes to set up and x minutes to deactivate leaving in you a race situation to get back to your ship first or a potential wait by your ship before you can enter it again. This would also play into the strategic decision of whether to land at the base of leave the ship further away, thus making you more vulnerable due to its distance and potential for more chase action of pursing drones and NPCs.
- The loss of the mission is the bare minimum for being fatally wounded, there needs to be some pain for risking a gung-ho/careless approach, the conflict zones are where you can have your cake and eat it.
Dynamic Settlements
- Loving the feeling of scouting each settlement and the NPCs especially when trying to clone a security profile
- Windows are great, great inside-outside dynamic coupled with potential for scanning security profiles or just reconnaissance
- With the sheer variety of settlements and missions and desire to see different types of planets with the new tech I'm finding Im spending much more time getting to know individual Systems now rather than just go through the motions of visiting and leaving like before. Im even using the Orrery view for the first time because of it!
- The NPC patrol/walking routes feel decently varied but more variety here would always be welcome
- Guards should be distracted by landing ships causing them to go off patrol briefly, maybe this could be randomised or weighted toward the base type and even the ship type, a military ship landing at a military or industrial base might warrant more concern from the guards. Maybe hear some radio chatter about a suspicious signal or a lack of voice comms.
- Not sure if this is a thing but it would be great to get a big benefit from approaching and navigating a settlement on the dark side of a planet when it comes to stealth, plus moving around with your light turned off should enhance this. It would really create a tangiable benefit to something that is looked on as just an aesthetic inconvenience "for science".
- As mentioned before I think there should be more pro and cons with where you land your ship which could tie in with amount of scanning you get mentioned in the next section.
Security Scanning
I have heard a lot of people complaining about the scan frquency but I would like to see the scan frequency become part of a strategy in how you approach a settlement rather than just reduced across the board:
- Faction reputation and Suit type and even the ship you land in (if within sight of the settlement) and landing outside of the landing pad ie in a large ship should have weightings on Settlement security attitude.
- Being Allied with the Settlement faction plus ship on the landing pad with authorisation (more incentive to use a smaller ship) should mean that you will not be scanned at all at non-military settlements as they will be aware of your Allied state already.
- Guards at Military settlements should approach you when you leave your ship and request a scan. Allied status should leave you with no further scans.
- Arriving in Pilot pjs or an Explorer suit plus a non-combat ship should also result in no scans unless at a Military Base, this would leave non-Allied CMDRs fairly protected against mistaken harrasement with legal mission types like transport missions to pick items up from 0 security Habitat buildings. Chosing a Maverick suit for the illegal "tools" should be a strategic decision and weighing up the pros and cons of increased security scanning if not Allied.
- Chosing a low profile suit like Pilot or Explorer suit should also allow you to do illegal missions but more trickily, ie access to higher security zones should be possible via tail-gating through doors (but make sure you are only trailing a worker!) but being inside higher security areas would then leave you open to scanning and punishment once again.
Alternatives to Violent Response
- Time gameplay - I would like some bases to be more hardened security-wise, such as military bases, unless Allied or Friendly I feel, once spotted by the guards they would ask you to leave in x minutes. This would add a timer to the mission but it would only be valid if you are actually spotted again once the time has dissipated, maybe it would involve a couple of the guards patrolling your ship at the end of the time period so that you have to also sneak past them to escape.
- Multiple instances of Annoying behaviour registered by NPC comments such as being seen jumping around roof tops or crouching in front of NPCs or spotted staring through windows of high security buildings should raise the amount of scanning and would also end up with a request to leave the base in "x" minutes.
- Requesting to leave could also be a response to some non-violent illegal activities such as cutting panels or being seen with illegal tool modes, this would then give you a chance to leave or risk it and try and complete the mission within the new time limit.
- Allied status would give more more ley-way for being spotted doing something illegal and being just being asked to leave rather than a base-wide alarm being triggered and a violent response. This would really tie tangiable gameplay strategies to faction status which is something missing from the game.
- Spotted Violent actions would always throw all these nuances out of the window of course.
Anarchy Systems
Only being able to buy those illegal hacking things in Anarchy systems is really a much needed and great touch, it is probably the only thing in the game that has personally given me a concrete feeling of the politcal types of Systems and interacting with them in a strategic way although I knew is existed in terms of commodity supply and demand.
Would love to see Anarchy systems become more visceral and extreme:
- Visually unique social hub interiors and layouts
- NPC mission givers offering gambling style missions, ie double your investment if you manage to complete a mission or triple if you complete two successfully and lose your money (even ship???Meaning more use for small ships!) if you fail.
- Chance of not being paid for completing a mission
- No scanning at Settlements but a very big chance of guards deciding to attack you for the way you look, maybe being in a Maverick or Explorer suit being seen as vulnerable, very edgy but high mission rewards.
- Anarchy system settlement missions, far more weighted toward not being spotted as a strategy for all mission types. Maybe that brings us to the sort of landing and scouting a base from a distance as seen in the Odyssey reveal trailer.
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