What is Wrong with Odyssey in the Tradition of the Elite games?

[Hooplah]

I mastered Horizons with 8,200 hours of game play over 7 years making 23 billion credits in trading, owning every ship and engineered them all. Others made a lot more credits into hundreds of billions. For me maybe that was the end game as I played it. Then I wonder around the Galaxy making friends, helping my Ghost Squadron now and then and looking for something else to do. I miss earlier promotions like with Edward Lewis setting up races around a Dodo station in Sidewinders.

Odyssey comes along and having a Lifetime Expansion Pass I get one for free including the Pioneer suit. My second PC account in Colonia I had to purchase. My third PlayStation account we'll see if I go with Odyssey.

The problem with Odyssey is it is all about combat. I'm not into that but OK let others have their fun. So maybe if not into Combat this DLC is not worth purchasing.

Where is the DLC where I can land on six major Earth cities so easily accomplished in Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters? When will I be able to land on an Earth moon station? Add this to Odyssey then it is worth a purchase. Add Louisville, KY to a landing point and I'll pay $2000.00 to make this happen. Want another Kick starter? Others with desires may also pay.

We don't need the best graphics we just want to land there. Use your current station graphics. Later you can do something like this...

Until then Let us LAND on Earth and walk into a bar in the Concourse. Have a pint with a live player seeing them from Scotland to Australia I've played with them in many instances but never meeting them. Do we have to go to a bar outside of Sol to have a brew together?

​

 

[MacIntoc]

Later you can do something like this...

 

[Riverside]

I struggle to see why my Cmdr would have any motivation to pick up a hand gun in a game that has armed & armoured spaceships. The salad hunting seems to have been deliberately made to require the player to go on foot & if the SRV/ship had a bio scanner, and I could sell my bio-data from the cockpit I'd be happy to never need to go on-foot & use it because I wanted to. As a slower mode of transport for tight spaces & rough terrain feet are okay but really I want reasons to fly my ship(s), not reasons not to.

But I am happy to accept that on-foot play isn't aimed at me & I don't really mind what features get added (although how long it's taking & how little forward planning there has been are issues for me). Looking forward to a rapid series of DLCs and/or PDLCs that expand of the new foundations of planetary play that make use of ships, SRVs & feet once the Odyssey mess has been fixed.

Everything takes longer when you have to do it twice.

 

[Hooplah]

View attachment 248139

I know Frontier is years from pulling this off. Sad. Seems Frontier's proprietary Cobra Engine didn't go this far. We'll see.

 

[MacIntoc]

I know Frontier is years from pulling this off. Sad.

Yep, and still obvious repeat of patterns

 

[hunvagy]

View attachment 248139

The red circle.. isn't that Cloud City from Empire?

 

[Erei]

They can't render a simple settlement with a dozen people in it, on an empty planet, without putting the majority of current GPU to their knees, begging for a merciful death.
And you want Earth cities^^

I mean, I'd like that to. But yeah...

Right now I'd settle with a working game with good performance.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

They can't render a simple settlement with a dozen people in it, on an empty planet, without putting the majority of current CPU to their knees, begging for a merciful death.
And you want Earth cities^^

I mean, I'd like that to. But yeah...

I mean, right now I'd settle with a working game with good performance.

Sadly I agree, I don't think we'll ever get ELWs in Elite (I was hopeful but skeptical in the past, now I'm convinced after seeing what you described already).

If you want highly detailed ELWs best stick to MSFS. Which runs and looks better as well in July '21.

 

[Frop]

I mastered Horizons with 8,200 hours of game play over 7 years making 23 billion credits in trading, owning every ship and engineered them all.

​

Seeing that this thread is really about your masterings and not Odyssey, I checked your profile and at first glance I'm already missing the Asp Scout, the Type-7 and the Type-9.

 

[Hooplah]

Seeing that this thread is really about your masterings and not Odyssey, I checked your profile and at first glance I'm already missing the Asp Scout, the Type-7 and the Type-9.

And your point is not currently owning them but did in the past? Well except the Asp Scout. I never bought it. The Explorer was so much better. Still I like an NPC flying it out of a station with it's one engine firing up. I would never take it into harms way.

 

[Terekhov]

I mastered Horizons with 8,200 hours of game play over 7 years making 23 billion credits in trading, owning every ship and engineered them all. Others made a lot more credits into hundreds of billions. For me maybe that was the end game as I played it. Then I wonder around the Galaxy making friends, helping my Ghost Squadron now and then and looking for something else to do. I miss earlier promotions like with Edward Lewis setting up races around a Dodo station in Sidewinders.
.....

I'm very much of the same mind that EDO is extremely heavily on-foot combat focussed (a game mechanic that does not interest me in the slightest). For me, add to that that you also need to become a dishonest kleptomaniac to do anything at all with the on-foot engineers. As both of my main commanders are lawful good, that is a serious issue for me (to the point where if I did decide to engage with the scavenging from warm settlements I was contracted to repair, I'd personally feel really personally uncomfortable doing it). I appreciate also that we hoped for so much more in EDO - whether or not other main features of EDO were ever planned, but either got dropped or deferred because of time pressure we don't know (lots of speculation, but that's pointless).

I did pre-order EDO for both my mains. I still feel that the enjoyment I've got from over 2000hrs in EDH far exceeds three discounted copies of EDH I purchase and even including the cost the two EDO expansions, I have had good value for money, however in some ways I feel misled by the marketing hype around EDO. Sure they didn't say things that were strictly untrue, but i feel they did imply some things, as well as not disclosing some things that It's fairly clear they knew much ealier (the console release). One thing that ticks out to me was Piers Jackson's assertion (in 1st, so called Dev Diary) that they had extended all ED gameplay roles into on-foot. I fullly expected Combat to be the most fleshed out there, but I did expect far more for Explorers and traders (which have been my main gameplay loops until I recently took up Fuel Ratting).

What did I get in EDO? Practically nothing for trading, Planetary tech that shows promise, but I'd have got that anyway later, Exobiology as an exploration mechanic which had that stupid twitch based mini-game, no intellectual aspect, and now has the broken heat-map.

Oh, and significantly reduced wing mechanic reliability in EDH, which often causes real issues when fuel ratting (Accept a wing request and the wing does not create, re-logging client and or rats usually resolves).

I'm still semi-hopeful that the new 'more open' comms strategy will be a good thing, but it's still unclear how far that will be allowed to go. This time around we did not get a peek into future plans, and it's unclear whether eweever will. I appreciate that at this precise moment there are fires to put out that are more important than hypothesising about future plans, but soon that will no longer be a valid reason. Will other major on-foot gameplay be added (outside of combat) in future slices of Odyssey? Who knows, we don't even know if there will be other significant slices of Odyssey.

One thing was let slip, and that is that atmospheric bodies will get further upgrades - predumably more types becoming landable. Beyond that, no real hint anything is coming.

I don't see bodies that we know well now becoming landable - Too many continuity and historical issues to deal with.

To be honest. I have logged into EDO very infrequently. Mainly to forage for some pre-upgraded suits/weapons. I logged into EDO on the way back from a long range rescue over the weekend. I decided to fly back in Odyssey to see how well the exploration held up. Graphics were OK, Couple of first footfalls (not really bothered about them) no way to find plants. Bio-heat-maps pretty useless. Found some fungus, only managed to find two samples, so wasted effort there... Obviously no SRV on my specialised mid-range ratship, so i was having to eyeball the exibiolobals whilst flying low, then land and walk over. That experience did nothing for me.

I fear for what Odyssey has done, and will do to ED. Currently player numbers seem lower than before release (published Steam numbers, and here-say inference from rat caseload), additionally major content creators are finding other subjects to stream about - Even Drew is taking time away from ED now. Part of that wil be relaibility/performance issues, part maybe due to the scope of the content added. For me, I'm continuing to play mainly in EDH. AS EDO becomes the norm, whether it will make sense for me to continue, I can't say for now. <sigh>

(edit: typos only)

 

[Rebel Yell]

"The problem with Odyssey is it is all about combat. I'm not into that but OK let others have their fun. So maybe if not into Combat this DLC is not worth purchasing."

NPC combat, NPC...

 

[rootsrat]

I mastered Horizons with 8,200 hours of game play over 7 years making 23 billion credits in trading, owning every ship and engineered them all. Others made a lot more credits into hundreds of billions. For me maybe that was the end game as I played it. Then I wonder around the Galaxy making friends, helping my Ghost Squadron now and then and looking for something else to do. I miss earlier promotions like with Edward Lewis setting up races around a Dodo station in Sidewinders.

Odyssey comes along and having a Lifetime Expansion Pass I get one for free including the Pioneer suit. My second PC account in Colonial I had to purchase. My third PlayStation account we'll see if I go with Odyssey.

The problem with Odyssey is it is all about combat. I'm not into that but OK let others have their fun. So maybe if not into Combat this DLC is not worth purchasing.

Where is the DLC where I can land on six major Earth cities so easily accomplished in Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters? When will I be able to land on an Earth moon station? Add this to Odyssey then it is worth a purchase. Add Louisville, KY to a landing point and I'll pay $2000.00 to make this happen. Want another Kick starter? Others with desires may also pay.

We don't need the best graphics we just want to land there. Use your current station graphics. Later you can do something like this...

View attachment 248134​

Until then Let us LAND on Earth and walk into a bar in the Concourse. Have a pint with a live player seeing them from Scotland to Australia I've played with them in many instances but never meeting them. Do we have to go to a bar outside of Sol to have a brew together?

​

I'd personally prefer they added more interior variations and expanded on Exobiology gameplay

I think (pure speculation) that what you are describing will come in a separate DLC down the line.

 

[Dack Janiels]

ye... they're going to add Elite VI-X ranks in staring at plants, enjoy
With devs' current skill , don't expect anything else

 

[Ted Striker]

I know Frontier is years from pulling this off. Sad. Seems Frontier's proprietary Cobra Engine didn't go this far. We'll see.

I think it's actually impossible for the engine to handle it. The devs can't even get barren planets to perform well.

Not sure even the USS Enterprise D's computer could render realistic populated ELWs in Elite

 

[hunvagy]

I'd personally prefer they added more interior variations and expanded on Exobiology gameplay

I think (pure speculation) that what you are describing will come in a separate DLC down the line.

Question is how many will buy it, given how EDO turned out to be on release.

 

[TNTDany]

Where is the DLC where I can land on six major Earth cities so easily accomplished in Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters? When will I be able to land on an Earth moon station? Add this to Odyssey then it is worth a purchase. Add Louisville, KY to a landing point and I'll pay $2000.00 to make this happen. Want another Kick starter? Others with desires may also pay.

The earth cities in old versions of Elite II or 1st Encounters were much less complex and costly to implement (like most old games) since they didn't need to be so "realistic" to be believable. Implementing something of that kind in ED is a highly demanding task not only from a technical aspect but artistic also. But who wouldn't want to travel to a planet and land on a city like that... The thing is dreams vs reality.

 

[Ydiss]

The problem with Odyssey is it is all about combat.

​

It's not though. Except for unlocking one engineer (Hero Ferrari) and the combat specific missions, you can do most things without firing a single shot. Sure, it's often faster to shoot stuff but your statement isn't true at all. You dislike combat and combat is a significant part of EDO, sure. But then that's true for Elite in general. The only thing EDO doesn't add much to at all is trading and, given you amassed 23bn via trading, I can see why EDO isn't interesting for you.

You can still trade in EDO (and it technically opens up a new layer there, albeit one I've never tested, with settlement trade) and I think it could be cool if they added an on-foot variation of trading using a system akin to stocks trading that exists in the real world (you don't necessarily transport the goods, you just meet with traders on foot to barter for stock and then go sell it elsewhere). But the sum of EDO's content goes a long way beyond combat. I thought all I'd be interested in was combat with EDO but I was very wrong. There's a lot more to it than that - quite a bit of that new stuff doesn't even exist in EDH at all (actual smuggling, actual stealth, actual variations to do an objective, actual exploration).

 

[Ronzer]

View attachment 248139

Spot on. I wish they were able to add more than one type of everything, The blue ones are condo's, the green are banks, the red are stadiums. How about 3 types of condo's, etc?

Seeing how they've implemented ground bases etc, I am looking forward to cities, at some time, but not sure if that was on the list of things from the kickstarter. I do recall DB saying he's expecting to go hunting, etc, so Im expecting that too.

Since EDO looks to be at the engines extends, Im also expecting a new, or highly upgraded, version of cobra to handle it, too. Get to work, FDev.

 

[jafergon]

I mastered Horizons with 8,200 hours of game play over 7 years making 23 billion credits in trading, owning every ship and engineered them all. Others made a lot more credits into hundreds of billions. For me maybe that was the end game as I played it. Then I wonder around the Galaxy making friends, helping my Ghost Squadron now and then and looking for something else to do. I miss earlier promotions like with Edward Lewis setting up races around a Dodo station in Sidewinders.

Odyssey comes along and having a Lifetime Expansion Pass I get one for free including the Pioneer suit. My second PC account in Colonial I had to purchase. My third PlayStation account we'll see if I go with Odyssey.

The problem with Odyssey is it is all about combat. I'm not into that but OK let others have their fun. So maybe if not into Combat this DLC is not worth purchasing.

Where is the DLC where I can land on six major Earth cities so easily accomplished in Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters? When will I be able to land on an Earth moon station? Add this to Odyssey then it is worth a purchase. Add Louisville, KY to a landing point and I'll pay $2000.00 to make this happen. Want another Kick starter? Others with desires may also pay.

We don't need the best graphics we just want to land there. Use your current station graphics. Later you can do something like this...

View attachment 248134​

Until then Let us LAND on Earth and walk into a bar in the Concourse. Have a pint with a live player seeing them from Scotland to Australia I've played with them in many instances but never meeting them. Do we have to go to a bar outside of Sol to have a brew together?

​

I spent a significant amount of money in the original Kickstarter, and seeing where all the promises have ended up (Basically FD ignoring they ever existed) I'd never put a single cent in a new one.