Predz

Frontier has released their roadmap for the immediate future, with 3 updates coming out over the next 3 weeks - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/elite-dangerous-odyssey-roadmap.580527/ After Update 2, Odyssey does feel more playable than at launch, with some bugs still persisting.

Yeah, there's been a 2nd hotfix since I last posted, so at the very least, they're doing their best to rectify issues. However, another thing that happened that I didn't mention, is that with the influx of players, turned out fleet carrier jumps were causing crashes, so they've suspended all carriers from plotting jumps, on top of a temporary increase of maintenance costs going back up to their original amounts when they launched (the 2nd hotfix did fix that). I would say that it does need more fixes before jumping in. I also think they should have done more before releasing it so soon after the "Alpha" ended (more like "Early Access", am I right!). When it's working as intended, it's good. When it's not, it's a mess.

Well, apart from the expected bugs (both new & returning) that comes with the average Elite Dangerous update, it's been up and down thus far. I've had the first ground conflict zone bug out the AI of the NPC's, leading them to stand in one spot for the whole battle. I've played a couple more since the first hotfix and they started moving around. The new lighting is hit & miss, and I've had the environment disappear when entering a building. I've also had issues with some missions not completing, despite the objectives being marked as complete. I've also seen floating NPC's & mission terminals in station hubs. The plasma weapons are nice, especially the pistol. With the slower fire rate, you have to lead the target if they're moving to get hits. There is a definite need for more patches to sort out the issues present atm, but seeing as Odyssey has broken the previous peak for Steam players since the game launch, it's got that going for it.

Yeah, once the phases start rolling out, the alpha should (hopefully) get more interesting. The tools are nice (especially the arc cutter), good for scavenging, bypassing security/defenses & stuff like that. We're yet to access the other tool for exploration which is added in Phase Three. It's Phase Two I'm looking forward to, being the combat-focused one, that supposed to add 'combined arms' faction warfare (essentially ground-based conflict zones). In the first phase, combat has been a disappointment. The gunplay definitely needs more polish & enemies sometimes feel a bit 'spongey' for my liking. I hope with the combat suit & possibly some more weapons, it might make it better, but only time will tell. The guns available atm are alright, but some of their physical appearances are meh. The kinetic guns look like nerf guns & the laser guns look like some obscure artist designed them. Considering what ship-mounted kinetic & laser weapons look like now, it would be nice to see the handheld guns take some design cues from them at some point. (And yes, I want a handheld Multi-Cannon!)

FDev had a starport tour stream earlier this morning & they posted the tour of a orbital station's hub as a standalone vid, And the alpha rollout has been posted. The phases are planned to be released weekly, but could be extended if they need more feedback - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/elite-dangerous-odyssey-alpha-rollout-plan.567846/

I timed it last night, loaded from the main menu into Online, it took 1 minute 21 seconds (game is on an SSD), so the fix is legit. And it's a shame that he's underage and couldn't have taken a job offer. If he could fix this, imagine what else could be improved! At the same time, $10k ain't nothing to be sneezed at.

FDev dropped som pre-alpha Odyssey mission gameplay. Also, the alpha is due to be released on the 29th of March.

The combat CG is over, making it to Tier 5. I ended up in the top 25% with about 32 mil in total bounties, with another 30 mil on top of that. The food CG is still ongoing (Tier 3/5), but I grabbed my reward money & jumped the carrier back to LHS 215. Apart from that, I'm still planning to do a Guardian site trip with the carrier at some stage.

Did some more today, ended up with around 30 mil in bounties. Managed to push to the Top 10% for the CG (as of when I logged off earlier), which is currently on Tier 2/5. My carrier is in HIP 23155 (about 5LY from the CG system). If I don't do more tonight, I'll probs do a bit more tomorrow.

I signed up for the combat CG earlier today, managed to get around 3 mil in bounties, which was top 25% (at the time the screenshot was taken). I'll be taking the carrier out there again to do some more over the weekend.

Two new community goals have started. One is food deliveries (Trade) & the other is defending the shipments (Combat). Both are based out of Stillman Hub in HIP 22550 https://inara.cz/galaxy-communitygoals/ There's also a reward for both goals - 'If successful, the Free Marlinists of Carinae in conjunction with other Marlinist factions will give the top 75% of pilots a fully engineered, focused and lightweight point defence module. The module will be placed in storage at Stillman Hub in the HIP 22550 system by the 23rd of January 3307.'

So, I've got the carrier back after the temporary decommissiong in November. The majority of the modules have been re-installed (no Shipyard, Outfitting or Black Market). It's back in LHS 215, with the same name as before. Found the old one still sitting in the Kruger 60 system (one of the carrier seller systems). Kind of weird seeing the old one, then get the new one and deck it out again. Also, I'm travelling along in my Vette, when I got interdicted by a random pirate in a Fer-De-Lance. Having not played the game for a while, I decided that he needed to be blasted into oblivion. Now, this was the first time I had played the game since they made changes to payouts for different activities (combat included), and after I wrecked his shit, the bounty voucher was just shy of 300K credits... Wait... WHAT!? That's what destroying a Conda was roughly worth. Speaking of the game balancing changes, here are the links to the forum posts, showing the changes they have made, https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/game-balancing.558895/ https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/game-balancing-pt-2.559734/ https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/game-balancing-pt-3.560418/

Here's the gameplay reveal trailer for the Odyssey expansion,

I didn't mind paying full price on GOG (all goes to the devs). Here is the release times, Done the pre-load, now just need to wait for 10AM tomorrow (or after the 'Day One' patch is downloaded upon release)...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/elite-dangerous-horizons-fold-down.557256/ Horizons has now been added to the base game for free if you didn't own it previously. If you owned it prior, you will now have a new paint job for every currently available ship/fighter (a few examples below). Also, I have removed the Shipyard & Outfitting from my carrier to reduce it's upkeep, managed to get about half a billion credits back from that (feel somewhat rich again after the trip & the whole Tritium saga made me go through all my funds). Speaking of Tritium, I have stocked up a couple thousand tons, as at some point in the future, I'll be taking the carrier to the Guardian sites for unlocks (which are less than 1,000LY away, so no long ass trips for them).