Is It Time to Return to Elite? Update 12 Thoughts

 

Quite some time ago, back in February 2020 to be exact, I wrote that I was starting to have grave concerns about the future of my favorite (space) game of all time: Frontier Developments' Elite: Dangerous.  As I wrote then, while Elite had the most successful launch of the then current crop of space games, other games, particularly No Man's Sky, were quickly catching up to Elite. While NMS' developer, Hello Games, was constantly innovating with content drops that seemed to go from strength to strength, Frontier had routinely shown a lackadaisical attitude when it came to its space game's development, often to the extent that it seemed like Elite was not the company's flagship title but a nuisance.  Not surprisingly, this negligent attitude led to a lot hurt feelings on the part of the game's rabid fanbase.

Then, in December of 2020, Frontier revealed the launch teaser for the long-anticipated "New Era" of Elite: Dangerous, entitled Odyssey.

This trailer did it's job: excitement amongst the core faithful exploded - so-called "space legs" had been a long desired feature for the game, and one necessary to keep up with competitors -  resulting in the game's population swelling to an astounding 27000+ peak players as of April of 2021, the month prior to Odyssey's release. Things never looked brighter for the franchise.

However, even during those halcyon days, there were those who cautioned against the hype.  After all, did not the previous years demonstrate a less than stellar handling of the game?  What grounds were there to believe that suddenly Frontier would be able to successfully tackle such an ambitious expansion?  Sadly, the cynics were proven correct.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey would launch in May of 2021 and succeed in little else than shattering the vibrant community.  The expansion that so many were excited for arrived not in glory but disgrace. Instead of getting the long-teased "New Era," fans of Frontier's game instead received a bug-ridden and underdeveloped product that varied little from the closed alpha test that was conducted mere weeks prior to the official launch of the game.  In a move that would anticipate EA/DICE's equally cynical move to sell an unfinished, unoptimized Battlefield 2042, Elite Dangerous: Odyssey arrived as a shadow of a product, one that ran so poorly that even high-end hardware struggled to maintain playable framerates, and contained content that often resembled a work-in-progress.  For many, it was the last straw.  Over the years Frontier has burned through a lot of goodwill with their seeming detachment from the community's desires for the game, as well as their penchant for releasing buggy, partially developed content and then abandoning it after release. In the final analysis, Odyssey wasn't so much a "new era" for the game but a doubling-down on prior Frontier sins.

Frontier would pay a price for this disreputable launch.  The lofty player counts of May crashed to earth as players fled in disgust (myself included), and content creators ditched the game in protest.  Things only worsened from there as Frontier dug itself an ever deeper hole by initially suggesting that only a few people were experiencing problems running the game - a bald-faced lie Frontier would later spin in its financial report as launch day "connectivity issues."  Nobody was buying this smoke-and-mirrors show, and by the end of the month, Odyssey was notorious with a "mostly negative" review score on Steam and the butt of many jokes elsewhere.  It looked like the end of the line for Frontier and its tempestuous relationship with its own product.

But the story didn't end there.  To their credit, Frontier didn't cut and run but instead promised to make things right.  Over the course of the next twelve months, Frontier would release a series of updates, approximately one per month, that would address many of Odyssey's launch problems.  

And that brings us here.

Roughly marking the one year launch of Odyssey, Frontier has released Update 12 for the game.  A lot of players, some of whom shelved the game after its disastrous release, and others who sat on their wallets in the wake of the disastrous launch, want to know: is now a good time to get on the Odyssey bandwagon?

Well, let's address some salient points.  I don't usually do this, but I think the quickest way to handle this is in a question and answer format.  

• I heard that the game runs poorly, even on high-end PCs! And that Frontier is unable to fix this problem. Is that true?
• If you peruse discussions concerning the "optimization" of Odyssey you will find that opinions run the gamut from "The game runs as poorly as it did when it was released!" to "I am seeing significant improvement!" Which is it?  Well...probably both!  And everything in between.  The problem when discussing the optimization of a game is that everybody is rocking different hardware: different monitors, different video cards, different CPUs. Are they using VR gear (note: VR is not officially supported by Odyssey)? What graphic settings are they using?  The combination of these factors determine what sort of performance you are going to get from Odyssey.  One thing is clear, Odyssey, even after twelve updates, remains a much more demanding program than Horizons (which proved to be a wonderfully optimized piece of software - but that is idiosyncratic Frontier for you!). On this point all I can do is offer my experience: I am running Odyssey on "ultra" settings using a nVidia 3060 paired with a Ryzen 5600X processor, on a 60hz full HD monitor, and with 16 gb of memory. With that configuration, I get a consistent 60 FPS (locked), even at planetary settlements, which is where most framerate issues seem to occur.  For a point of comparison, I also run Odyssey using nVidia's cloud gaming service Geforce Now.  At the mid-tier level of service (which is the equivalent of a 2080 Ti from what I understand), I get a near consistent 55-60 FPS (locked) everywhere except at planetary settlements, on all high settings.  There, framerates can vary between 45 fps to 60 fps.  This is an improvement from around Update 10 where I saw framerates dip as low as the mid to low 30s while walking around settlements using Geforce Now. Progress is being made, but planetary settlements clearly need further optimization. Having said that, on my local hardware, as well as via Geforce Now, the game is thoroughly playable.  Fortunately, Frontier plans further optimizations with forthcoming updates. 

• I play Elite for spaceships, not for "space legs!"
• Then continue to play the spaceship portion of the game and ignore the space legs! It is important to point out that nothing was removed by Odyssey. Everything you liked about Horizons is still part of Odyssey.  There is nothing in Odyssey forcing you to engage with its content.  You never have to leave your ship if you don't want to (I would even say that Frontier might have gone too far in segregating Horizons content from Odyssey content, but that is a discussion for another time).  However, I bet you will try spacelegs at some point.  Why? Because being able to leave your ship and step on the surface of some moon or newly discovered planet will be too enticing not to.  Granted, Frontier never did deliver that Bethesda-esque "Armstrong Moment" but did a lazy fade-to-black as you leave your ship.  Be that as it may, being able to walk on an alien world and see things from an eye-level perspective is a lot of fun even without combat. This is enhanced by the new terrain that has some really nice details (regolith on ice worlds can twinkle with embedded ice crystals, for example). There are also different types of flora to discover, and settlements offer a wide range of missions. And even if you don't want to take a stroll on a moon, you can always just take a walk to the local station concourse and relax a bit.

• 

  I found this specimen just outside of a planetary settlement!
  
  

  Point is: everything you loved about Horizons is still present in Odyssey, but it now also includes some nice enhancements to Horizons content, such as your ship's shield strength being displayed as a numerical value, a much requested feature, and the supercruise wakes for other starships being greatly toned down so as to not resemble comets (huzzah!).  

• I heard that space is now too dark!
• I honestly can't see a difference (and I had over 700 hours in Horizons alone).  But if it is darker, that is actually okay by me because one of the charms of Elite is how it keeps space noir!

• I also heard that they ruined planetary surfaces! That many of the cooler planets in Horizons are now gone, and planetary tiles repeat much too frequently!
• This is going to take some explaining.  Yes, Frontier has changed the system by which planetary surfaces are generated. An unfortunate side effect of this is that many of those iconic planets with the wild geography in Horizons are now gone. It is unfortunate. On the other hand, I think most players would agree the new planetary terrain is more realistic and more interesting for ground-level (i.e., "space legs") exploration - which is why the system was changed.  As for the repetition of planetary tiles - this is true, but it is not as big a problem as some would have you believe.  In my over 100 hours of gametime with Odyssey there was only a single time where the repetition of terrain caught my eye because it was unmistakably obvious.  I have found that unless you go deliberately looking for the repetition, you will not spot it.  Be that as it may, Frontier has made it clear that to revise the system now would be too cost intensive, so it is what it is.

• 

  An example of the new planetary terrain - here, a snowy ice planet
  
  

• I don't want to play a first-person shooter in Elite! And I heard that the mechanics are awful!
• As with my space legs answer above, there is nothing forcing you to play a shooter in Odyssey.  In other words, if you don't want ground combat, that is fine as there are other uses for space legs.  As for the combat itself, it's not the greatest, but it is also not the worst. It is...Frontier mediocre.  It gets the job done and little more.  My biggest gripe with the combat is that the player is often forced to switch weapons mid-combat. That is, NPCs (as well as the player) have personal shields - something I hate on a conceptual basis! - that force the player to first knock down the shields with energy weapons, and then kill the target with ballistic weapons. To say this is awkward is an understatement.  While it is true that as you get better weapons, either through purchasing or engineering them, this is less of a problem and less switching will be required, it is nonetheless a silly system. Be that as it may, I have found ground combat to be enjoyable in small doses. The NPCs aren't the brightest in the world, but they do put up a good fight. So if you just want to let off some steam one day, taking a combat mission can be just the thing for a fun diversion. But if you aren't into that, there is nothing in Odyssey forcing you to take those missions! However, I do think that Frontier need to add more non-violent missions. Right now, the majority of missions that are guaranteed not to involve combat are simple fetch/deliver missions that get repetitive fast.  Surely, we can have more variety than that! There are other type of non-combat missions, including those that prohibit combat on pain of failure, but those can still get violent if things go wrong. 

• I heard that the engineering grind is even worse in Odyssey!
• Yes.  I mean...yes. No long explanation here.  I have been working all week long trying to get enough mats to engineer my weapon for the first time and I still don't have enough.  Engineering is a pain in this game that needs to be rebalanced as Frontier did with Horizons so long ago. It just takes too long to engineer anything.  Fortunately, you can purchase higher quality gear and avoid the need to grind, but it is still a pain in the backside. If it has taken me a week just to engineer my rifle, how much longer will it take to also engineer my pistol and suit? Too long! And this is just for the first engineer! In short, if you try to grind engineering in Odyssey you will go mad. Don't grind. Just play. Truth is, engineering suits and weapons is not essential, so there is no real rush to do so.

• I also heard that the new atmospheric planets are underwhelming.
• This is generally true. You can see one such planet at the top of this blog post. They can be very pretty with their colored skies, but they don't add anything major to the game, just some new vistas (which, admittedly, are always welcome). Don't expect No Man's Sky content.

• They lied about giving us ship interiors!!!1!!!!
• There are two ways to answer this.  First, Frontier never promised ship interiors. Outside of a game vision video the devs did a few years back where Braben mentioned ship interiors in passing, there has never been an official place on the roadmap for ship interiors.  And there certainly was no mention of ship interiors coming in Odyssey.  So, get over it.  Second, Frontier has recently delivered ship interiors - specifically, fleet carrier interiors! And, honestly, they did a really good job with it! There is your first ship interior. Pick the answer you like best.

• Is it true that Odyssey is not coming to consoles?
• Yes.  Despite initially intending to bring it to the consoles (as they did with Horizons), Frontier announced that in order to move the narrative along they needed all their resources focused on PC.  Whether this is the case, or they simply could not get the game to run well on consoles, who knows what the truth is. But that is where we stand at the moment.  

I think that addresses the most pressing questions. 

Is Odyssey "good" now? 

The expansion is in decent shape now.  Mind you, that is not to say all is perfect. In addition to the problems mentioned above, the game has rough spots that stretch from an anti-aliasing system that Frontier somehow found a way to make even worse than Horizons' minimalist effort, to a lengthy list of bugs that touch upon almost all aspects of the game. You know, standard Frontier fare.  But despite all that, Odyssey is a lot of fun right now.

The truth is that Odyssey retains and expands on the magic of Horizons. When it comes to having the freedom to explore 400-billion individual star systems, all realistically modelled, Elite is unmatched. What is more, Elite has that film noir quality that few other space games possess. In Elite, it is just you versus a vast galaxy filled with "scum and villainy," and Odyssey actually enhances this feeling in a number of ways.  Here's a good example:

I had pulled into a Lefshetz Gateway in the HP 2725 system. After a tiresome trip delivering 34-tons of cobalt to some refinery station, I wanted nothing more than to stretch my legs and get a drink at the local concourse bar.

Arriving at Lefshetz Gateway

 After being safely berthed in the station's hangar, I left my Cobra Mk IV and stretched my legs, taking a moment to admire my ship's size.

I feel so small next to my ship! Can you even spot me?

I headed into the (messy!) elevator room and grabbed a quick ride to the station's concourse.  As I made my way to the bar on the lower level, I was beckoned by a fellow who sported a white beard and wore a black jumpsuit.  Surmising that I was a pilot, he asked me if I might be interested in a delicate job. I didn't come here to start working again, but having just upgraded a few components of my ship, I could use some extra credits. I told him that I was listening.  Well, it turned out that he had gotten into the homebrew narcotics business and needed someone to smuggle a batch into a planetary settlement by the name of Anand Cultivation Estate.  Apparently, the bioengineers who cultivate plants at that site needed some Push to get the party started, so to speak.  I shrugged my shoulders and figured, sure, why not, especially when the fella offered me almost 150K!  

I agreed and he slipped me the stuff.  As I left the concourse, I am amused by the public announcement system reminding visitors that the administration of Lefshetz Gateway is not responsible for stolen items. I had a baggie full of narcotics in my flight suit, and they're worried about petty theft! Clearly, they don't know their own crowd!  Or maybe they did...

Getting to Anand was easy enough - it was only 100-odd light seconds away - and my landing was uneventful.  Because of the, er, sketchy reason for my visit, I eschewed the settlement's landing pad and instead set down about 400 meters away from the settlement's perimeter.  I boarded my SRV and drove the rest of the way, enjoying the dark night sky as I approached the settlement.  I rode the SRV to a natural chokepoint formed by two buildings and a random assortment of crates and other gear. Just in case something went wrong - real wrong - I switched out of my flight suit and donned my combat gear, and then exited the SRV.  It was a cold night at Anand Cultivation Estate, but my suit kept the worst of it at bay.  As I crunched my way into the base on the rocky regolith of the moon, I could see that there were a lot of guards patrolling about. The last thing I needed was to get caught with drugs in my pocket, so I took things slowly and cautiously. I activated my jetpack and took advantage of the low gravity to propel myself on top of what I later learned was the agricultural research building.  Anand Cultivation Estate was a decent-sized base, so finding my buyer was not going to be easy. What I needed was access to a terminal to track them down.  Checking my scanner, I could see that there was a terminal inside the agri building I was standing upon but that I needed Level 1 security to get into it.  From where I was crouched on the roof I could see that the agri building had a dome with large windows just behind me.  Hopefully, I would be able to spot someone inside and clone their security pass.  Which is precisely what happened. Sucker!

With a forged security clearance in hand, it was now time to gain entry to the agricultural building.  When the area was clear of guards, I jumped from the ledge of the roof and landed in front of the airlock.  The airlock swung open and who is standing there? A cop! A freakin' cop was coming out as I was going in. He looked at me and said, "Hold it right there, commander. I just need to do a quick scan...."

Do you know it is possible to start perspiring in a spacesuit on a frozen planet? It is! Ha! I was trapped, so I did the only sensible thing: I ran!  

Alarms rang out across the base and guards started taking shots at me. Fortunately, I made it to my SRV and hightailed it out of there. I boarded my vessel and blasted off.

There is an interesting fact about frameshift drives. When engaged at low altitude, they have a tendency to wipe memories at planetary settlements. 😁So, using this ability (i.e., game exploit), I reset the instance and tried again.

Rinse and repeat: drove to the settlement; jumped on the agri building roof; cloned an ID and so forth. Fortunately, this time when the airlock opened, the wasn't a guard waiting for me; I only found a lone tech who paid me no mind as I used the terminal inside. Whew! 

With a quick search of the terminal I discovered that my contact was nearby to the agri building.  Good! Checking my scanner, I made sure no guards were around and headed out into the night.  I jumped back onto the roof and headed towards my PUSHer contact but had to stop because I noticed a settlement guard checking out my SRV (I honestly don't know if this was a case of the NPCs patrol just happening to stop in front of my SRV or if he was really curious about it!). Just when I started to get nervous about by SRV getting impounded, the guard moved off and I was free to get going again.

It turned out that my contact was just a few dozen feet away from my SRV, but to its left instead of right where the agricultural building was. I admit to being alarmed by the contact hiding in shadow. Was this an ambush? When I got closer, I could see my partner is crime was...a guard!  

My pusher contact worked security at the base!  Ha!  I think this facility has some serious issues that need to be addressed.  Eh, it wasn't my problem. I handed the baggie off and strolled out of the base.

I arrived back at Lefshetz Gateway and collected my reward from the happy pusher.  The day now truly over, I sat at the bar and ordered a well-deserved rye on the rocks.

That was just one mission from Odyssey. Prior to the release of this expansion, such a story could only be imagined because we could never leave our ships and SRVs.  Odyssey frees us from that limitation.  We can now get out and about in Elite's vibrant galaxy that is so filled with noirish character.

The real tragedy of Frontier's short-sighted decision to release Odyssey before it was ready was that they set a worthwhile expansion up for failure. Instead of doing the smart thing, the ethical thing, of either delaying the release or releasing it with an "early access" apology, they kicked it out the door and played dumb about its woeful condition. Now with the game in much better shape than at release, Frontier finds itself in the position of needing to overcome a year's worth of bitterness that their shady released has engendered.  How do you go about doing that when so many feel betrayed (and rightly so)?  How do you overcome a year's worth of review bombing by angry customers on Steam?  I have no answer for Frontier.  They dug themselves this hole, and they need to find a way out.  One thing is clear: incremental improvements with quarterly patching is not going to do it. They need something big, something irresistible to their former fans. Hopefully, the teased Update 14 that will launch the next phase of the Elite narrative will be just that.  

Be that as it may, I am finding Elite Dangerous: Odyssey to be a worthwhile addition to the core gameplay experience.  It is still buggy at time, still suffers (reduced) performance issues at planetary settlements, and still retains Frontier's penchant for questionable design decisions, but taken at a whole, I am now enjoying the heck out of it.  If Odyssey was released now, in the condition of Update 12, I suspect its overall rating would be somewhere between "mixed" at worst and "mostly positive" at best instead of the cringeworthy "mostly negative" that it now enjoys as fallout from its failed launch.  Frontier is on the right track.  Things are getting better.  More needs to be done, both on the technical end as well as the community end, but the game is starting to level out.  And I am glad for it as Elite remains a rather unique game in the genre, one that captures a more sober-minded approach to adventures in space than many other games, all within a thoroughly unique 1:1 recreation of the Milky Way galaxy.  The trick now for Frontier is to reverse declining player numbers due to a demoralized base, an entirely unforced error on their part.  I hope they can find a way to do it because Odyssey no longer deserves the scorn it has received.  All things considered, Odyssey is the gameplay experience I was hoping for when it was announced back in December of 2020.  I hope others discover the same.