Update 13, Narrative and Access to 4.0

Have they said it's specifically a one-off, one-time event? That seems odd, especially with players all over the world. For me, the servers are supposed to come on at 7am and I'm on the east coast of the US, imagine being farther west!
As far as i know they havent said anything about how the event is gonna go so thats why im asking since for me the update is gonna drop around 14 and im at home by 15
 
As far as i know they havent said anything about how the event is gonna go so thats why im asking since for me the update is gonna drop around 14 and im at home by 15

There are plenty of player on slow connections that will have to wait well over an hour to download and install the update, I assume they know not everyone will be on at the same time, I expect the event whatever it is takes this into account.
 
Never let wishful thinking cloud your judgment. Odyssey is just as optional as Horizons was when the base game had no planetary landings, no holo-me, no engineering etc. Now Horizons is the base game, and the original base game is gone. This has been Frontier's mode of operation all along: DLCs are optional until they get rolled into the base game.

Oh, and the official confirmation that ship interiors won't be added was given months ago. None of this is new or "huge". Ship interiors without gameplay get boring quick, and fleet carrier interiors actually proved that.
The game is still beta, slightly further ahead than the other game ;). Its barebones, as on foot is without real gameplay loops and gets boring even quicker. Collecting biologicals, cutting open doors and poor mans fps is not engaging for long term gameplay, apart from a few minority types of players.

Maybe they will expand now using the new version of the codebase. I look forward to version 1 of the Odyssey DLC.
 
Ok so in response to the original thread - 4.0 replaces our current Horizons, what does that mean.

Essentially FD are stating, much as they did around consoles, that the current iteration of Horizons will not receive any new narrative updates.

In other words if you want to engage you have to upgrade to Horizons 4.0; which essentially is odyssey, but without legs.

You can play the previous iteration much like consoles but 4.0 is effectively the base code. It’s a clever compromise as FD know EDO didn’t go down well and they can’t now force it on people, so they turn Odyssey the base game into Horizons 4.0. Maybe in 1-2 years they will make EDO legs free and it will be the base game.

The inherent obstacles to some who still run potatoes is they likely will fall foul of the same limitations EDO presents to them.

Contextually this is a technical update with FD clearly promoting their desire to roll out a technical upgrade and retire the older redundant code which if still accessible wont get any new fixes.

So they are using the narrative as a carrot, upgrade now and you get to ‘see’ the narrative, don’t and you won’t.

If you’re PC has the requirements then it’s a no brainier, and likely that upgrade will sit in the inbox indefinitely, but your problem is when you upgrade you will receive all the negative aspects of EDO as well as any positive’s.

I for one don’t give two halfpennies about the current narrative, which is just a protracted story and not actual game play, my potatoe can’t fun EDO and by all accounts I don’t especially care about EDO either, if I could run it I would install it, as I have a lifetime pass, but not at the detriment of my hardware.

I’ll wait it all out, I won’t be missing anything. I can read it all here on the forums. When I can sanction a new PC I will, but not for just 1 game, and not a very good game either, I’m happy with ED.

This is after all a PR stunt, this update is simply about 4.0, the ‘big reveal’ won’t be for some time after. 4.0 might resolve to something, maybe increasing combat situations etc, or some narrative reveal but FD history tells me to always bet on the lowest common denominator, and generally this is just going to be a technical upgrade phase; followed by the ‘big’ reveal later on which will be Thargoid legs, and maybe something else, but I doubt it.

Every upgrade or patch is inherently followed by delays and bug fixes, if FD has a big reveal they need everyone upgrade first before that occurs, so expect delays.
 
a couple of thoughts:
1) the Big Bang won't happen the second u13 goes live. simply because we're not all on the same timezone, and they want us to watch Twitch streamers playing the big bang thing. it will happen late tuesday or wednesday, and will be a process, not a "bang and the dirt is gone" event.
2) couple of patchnotes mention stations not catching fire when they're supposed to, and sounds missing from stations on fire. so yeah... it's going to be bad lmao
 
Install patch, troubleshoot any initial problems. Release another patch for the critical stuff. Then do the big story ending stuff. When the servers come back up there will still be another day on the CG left to run.

Other MMOs have tried big story scale stuff that only happens once. It tends to be a lot of hard work, somewhat difficult to troubleshoot and fix bugs while players are in the content, places a huge load on servers, and has little to no replayability once finished. Guild Wars 2 has the one I'm most aware of (the Scarlett Briar living story).
 
I think you might need that armband again. One of the upgrades for Horizons players will be the Odyssey "planet rendering" on airless worlds. I've interpreted that as being the "realistic" landable planets as seen in Odyssey as opposed to the freaky surfaces of old.

View attachment 316356

Personally I want my wall-like cliffs again as seen in the Odyssey Alpha. Bring back my wall please. 🥺
Here's a better version:
1660036288848.png
 
But that's pretty standard routine in ED, because time passes in real time events that happen in the past aren't replayable, they're gone, only available as stories told by old players and news reports/youtube videos. Once an event has ended that's it, it's in the past.
I know its standard routine in ED because there isn't a personal narrative. Though if I'm not mistaken much of the Azimuth story will remain discoverable for folks who want to experience it for themselves by following a guide.

I'm pointing out that a large development effort into a transitory event is difficult to sustain, and detracts from efforts placed elsewhere. Lets say HIP 22460 loses a planet because of the Proteus wave: a one-off animation of that destruction is transitory, while the consequences of losing that planet are a permanent change to that system, there for all to see after the fact. If you're doing the transitory experience then you also have to do the permanent change. But not the other way around. There is an implied development choice/cost there.

By contrast the Guild Wars 2 MMO runs a personal story centred around you, the player, known as "The Commander". The first season was transitory in-game events and, while the experience was great, buggy and server stressed, the remainder of the content became episodic and replayable. Only now, over six years later, are they repackaging that first season in an episodic format because of the gap it leaves in the story (and a pretty big one, given they are launching for a first time on Steam for a new audience).
 
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I think you've misread the post. Nothing is changing for Horizons as v3.8. You will still be able to do everything in that version that you can do in Horizons right now. You will be given a choice to use Horizons as a v4.0 if you wish. It's not being forced on you. You don't have to use it... Well, of course, unless you want to participate in the narrative from now on that is...
At least that's how I'm reading it anyway. To enjoy narrative after the Azimuth Saga, you'll need to use Horizons 4.0, and 3.8 won't(?) get any. Buuutttt... I could be wrong about that part, that's just my interpretation of the original post. 🤷‍♂️
It's the "unless you want to participate in the narrative from now on" part I don't really understand.
I mean, the currently ongoing "narrative" you can participate in is something like "go kill thargoids and hand in combat bonds at a specific station".
How will 3.8 players be unable to participate in a similar "narrative" in the future? They cannot kill thargoids, cannot hand in combat bonds or what?
 
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It's the "unless you want to participate in the narrative from now on" part I don't really understand.
I mean, the currently ongoing "narrative" you can participate in is something like "go kill thargoids and hand in combat bonds at a specific station".
How will 3.8 players be unable to participate in a similar "narrative" in the future? They cannot kill thargoids, cannot hand in combat bonds or what?
My guess is FDev will start organizing CGs for EDO content (on-foot thargoids for example).
 
It's the "unless you want to participate in the narrative from now on" part I don't really understand.
I mean, the currently ongoing "narrative" you can participate in is something like "go kill thargoids and hand in combat bonds at a specific station".
How will 3.8 players not be able to participate in a similar "narrative" in the future? They cannot kill thargoids, cannot hand in combat bonds or what?
Well if the EDO on ground animated mission givers are used in 4.0 to animate the narative mission giver at the ship mission boards they dont exist in 3.8...
So yep 3.8 will not be ale to run the animation as 3.8 does not have that feature set...
EDH 4.0 will run the hole EDO4.0 client you just can't access what you never paid for but you can expect to SEE EDO content and EDO product placement... advertised so that you buy the digital unlock token....
If you multi crew with friends who have EDO expect to See EDO exclusive Flight suits on them...
 
Yeah but if that was the case that would exclude 4.0 Horizons players as well, not only 3.8 ones.
Another guess, EDH 4.0 players might be able to sort of take part in ground thargoid combat by providing air support or with SRVs but will be locked out of deeper interaction (like entering new thargoid or maybe guardian structures on foot).
 
Other MMOs have tried big story scale stuff that only happens once. It tends to be a lot of hard work, somewhat difficult to troubleshoot and fix bugs while players are in the content, places a huge load on servers, and has little to no replayability once finished. Guild Wars 2 has the one I'm most aware of (the Scarlett Briar living story).
Arenanet learned the hard way how much that puts players off your game, too, when they saw the continual dropoff of players who missed one chapter of the saga and could not get back onto the story train without scouring wikis so ditched the game instead, and so the devs pivoted hard into permanent content. Eventually (this year) finishing a long-term project to revamp all the season 1 content into the season 2-5 format of permanent replayable instanced content and open world events.
 
Arenanet learned the hard way how much that puts players off your game, too, when they saw the continual dropoff of players who missed one chapter of the saga and could not get back onto the story train without scouring wikis so ditched the game instead, and so the devs pivoted hard into permanent content. Eventually (this year) finishing a long-term project to revamp all the season 1 content into the season 2-5 format of permanent replayable instanced content and open world events.
I'm playing and enjoying that, but as having played the original as it was ongoing, the restoration is still a pretty barebone restoration of only the key elements. Sadly so far it has not allowed players who never saw it before to explore the full maps as they previously existed and were permanently altered all those years ago.
 
Another guess, EDH 4.0 players might be able to sort of take part in ground thargoid combat by providing air support or with SRVs but will be locked out of deeper interaction (like entering new thargoid or maybe guardian structures on foot).
Well tbh I'll be happily excluded from such content since I've never been interested in FPS gameplay in ED, there are way better games for that.
It's just the combination of performance loss and visual downgrade I'm concerned about.
 
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Yeah but if that was the case that would exclude 4.0 Horizons players as well, not only 3.8 ones.

It's more likely that future story content will require the new planetary tech that applies to both the non-atmospheric and atmospheric planets, so bases and structures could appear on the Horizons 4.0 planets but not the 3.8 planets, hence the 3.8 players missing out on future narrative content, but that's just a guess, we really will have to wait and see.
 
I'm playing and enjoying that, but as having played the original as it was ongoing, the restoration is still a pretty barebone restoration of only the key elements. Sadly so far it has not allowed players who never saw it before to explore the full maps as they previously existed and were permanently altered all those years ago.
I managed to miss it first time round and only joined between the rebuilding of Lion's Arch and the introduction of their first expansion. The remnants of the Living World were all I ever saw, and is only an echo of having lived through it.

I heard good things (and some of the bad) from the friend who introduced me (and without any irony I met them through the Elite Dangerous community). Something I enjoy and appreciate about Guild Wars 2 is a story with recurring characters, and it scratches an itch that other games with a complex lore rarely manage to do.
 
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