As you may be aware, all servers are now offline as we power up our engines in preparation to launch of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, our largest release to date.
Your feedback during the Elite Dangerous: Odyssey Alpha has been invaluable in shaping and improving what you will experience today.
To get you in the mood for this new era of exploration, combat and much more, we have collated the following patch notes detailing the changes introduced since the Alpha build, ahead of today's launch.
ADDITIONS
GALAXY
Added 400K+ settlements to the game
Added 8K+ new planet ports
Updated memorials
TUTORIAL
Added tutorial, created flows for new and existing Commanders
ENGINEERS
9 new Engineers added to the Bubble
Added cost by manufacturer to weapon and suit mods
SETTLEMENTS (NEW FOR ODYSSEY)
Increased unique Settlement count from 10 in the Alpha to 28. Themes include Agricultural, Extraction, Industrial, Military, Research and Tourism across a variety of sizes
Added new plants at Agriculture Settlements
Added new rotating ‘growlab’ prop at Agriculture Settlements
Added pipes under floor grilles
Added a dirt and scratch overlay pass to the explosive canisters
Added two new variants of the shower and toilet in Habitat buildings
Added new Agricultural Settlement clutter assets
Additional detail added to interior hanging lights
WEAPONS
Added Manticore plasma weapons to game: Tormentor, Intimidator, Oppressor, Executioner
SOCIAL SPACES
Added Detention Centre
Added some distortion to the glassware seen in bars to improve and help visibility
Added pipes under floor grilles
MENUS
Added suit and weapon customisation
Added log notifications when other players board or disembark the vessel you are in
Added better tracking of the cause of death and hostility reasons across the whole game, but specifically for on-foot deaths, in order to display better info on the death report screen
Added a fines panel to Interstellar factors
Added title to low oxygen warning notification. Also fixed the missing icon for out of oxygen alert
Added new icons for pilot's handbook sections
Add clear stolen authority option in item wheel
Added new icons for vessel and humanoid store on the main menu
Added a new icon for generic news
Added the new controls icons to the separate controls menu
Added a walk toggle button binding
A.I
Added criminality chances to some dead NPCs - this allows certain corpses to be flagged as criminals, displaying the criminal symbol on their nameplate
Added addition personal space warning lines for physical contact
Added additional blocked warning line for a final warning
Added special personal space warnings for interrupting conversations
MISSIONS
Added the ‘requirements’ panel to mission details screen
Added reward digest to mission listings for depot and completion
Added calls to action for completed missions and progress to the depot
Added a partial complete button to partially completed missions
Added a new 'Professional' assassination mission which tasks the player with taking down harder-than-normal targets
Added a new 'Clean' assassination mission which tasks the player with taking down targets without causing any collateral damage
CHARACTERS
Added in a new walking animation for NPCs in social spaces
Added sway to weapons hip fire, ADS, and in/outs of transitions
Added in more variety to NPC faces/heads
Added rank progression decals and skins
CONFLICT ZONES
Added victory animations for the winning team
Added ‘cheer bark’ to conflict zone celebration behaviour
Added alternative greetings and global cool-down for conflict zones
COSMETICS
Added livery module slots to every suit item
Added the new shoulder decal model items to the relevant models
INTERACTIONS
Added the ability for players to free-look whilst using the terminal. Players can also look away from the terminal to break interaction
CODEX
Organics added with details and reporting structure
FIXES / CHANGES / IMPROVEMENTS
ARX
Converted the Shop Hangar materials to be PBR compliant
Re-enabled ARX purchasing
AUDIO
Fixed the mix (particularly weapons) sometimes going muffled unexpectedly, particularly in conflict zones
Fixed a low drone in the galaxy map and other mix improvements
Fixed the excessive landing pad touchdown ‘clunk’ in social spaces
Fix for reverb being too audible during vessel transitions
Fixed some engineer and bar area ambience issues (too many high frequencies)
Improvements to planetary and settlement ambiences
Improvements to the mix when engaged in a conversation with a vendor or NPC
Mix improvements on lockers
Various mix improvements on ambiences
Improvements to landing area announcers
Improvements to landing area reverbs
Improvements to turrets
Improvements to skimmers – should be less static and persistent and should be softer when stationery
Helmet deploy and stow sounds and mix changes (mix goes muffled for a moment on deploy and goes bright for a moment on stow)
Improvements to the mix inside your helmet
Mix improvements on jump assist
Various mix improvements on NPC speech and conversations
Mix improvements when interacting with a console at social spaces
Improved the ship rumble when inside a building, as it could be overpowering sometimes
Tweaks to panels and glass rattles when ships fly over buildings/social spaces
Improvements to settlement mining drills
Improvements to reverbs generally
Improvements to vessel transitions
Improved interplay between planet, settlement, and external building ambiences
Improvements to suit ventilator audio behaviour
Boosted volume of many Odyssey sounds to be more in-line with the existing ED mix
Numerous social space mix tweaks
Mix improvements to organics
Fixed overpowering LFE on supressed weapons at distance
Fixed various issues with broken audibility on rocket explosions
Numerous weapon, explosion and ‘whizz-by’ mix improvements
Plasma crackle ‘sweetener’ added to plasma weapons
Improved audibility of long range weapons at distance
Made weapon reloads less ‘thumpy’ to other players and NPCs
Fix for social space consoles triggering a persistent ‘hum’ in the cockpit panel
Fixed various issues where some weapon sounds would retrigger on entering vanity cam
Fixed numerous issues with the audio options, volume sliders and mute buttons
Fixed various issues with reverbs not working correctly in surround sound speaker configurations
Fixed the mix often being broken in smaller ships, caused by the changes made to the cargo bay for the conflict zone deploy sequence
Fixed various mix and audio on the various types of player death and asphyxiation that can occur
Fixes for various issues with external building spot sounds
Various audio fixes and improvements on the vendor interactions and dialogue flow
Reverbs should remain audible for the sounds you can hear, rather than being faded out with sound effects slider
Turrets have movement audio
Improvements to social space announcer implementation
Improvements to pipe ambient sounds
Improvements to capture point audio
Fixed broken audio on agricultural grow wheel in settlements
Improvements to oxygen replenishment gasps
Improvements to reactor sequence
Some fixes to adverts to ensure that they sync properly, rather than playing different ads at once
Laser weapons now produce ‘whizz-bys’
Added continuous Apex and Frontline ads at their booths/banners
Settlement terminals now have unique ident audio per faction
Audio added for big broken fan
Audio added for cargo canister rack interactions
DTS headphoneX feature (in audio options) should now work with some on-foot sounds
Improvements to internal and external building alarms sounds & behaviours
NPCs ‘call for backup’ voice lines now audible at distance over radio comms
Improvements to radio comms voice treatment to be more effected and feel less dry
Improvements to settlement voice
Removed some repetitive social space crowd sounds
Improvements to combat crowd, when small numbers of combatants present
Replaced various lines on the Horizons 3.x COVAS Russian and Spanish localised voices, as flagged by the community
Fixed some stealth music with incorrect intensity
Fixed the conflict zone victory music sting always playing twice in succession
Fix for the social space music sometimes wobbling in rotating starports
Music score audio replaced with ‘final mix’ for on-foot music suite
Improved various music transitions in the on-foot music suite
Set up in-world music at settlements (bars at tourist settlements, and the music tablets at various settlements)
Set up music interaction and mix behaviours so the non-diegetic music score does not clash with in-world music emitters in settlements
Turbo lift music is less full range and should not hard-pan as much on headphones
Turbo lift music should random seek, so we no longer always hear the start of the music tracks
Improved the way the music fades during important dialogue
Should now get tension music if observing (but not participating in) a combat scene
CHARACTER
Fixed issues with jump animations
Fixed issue in third person where players would pop between crouching and standing
Fixed issues with all weapon animations
Fixed issues with all tool animations
Improved stair climbing animation
Improved conserving momentum when airborne, so that releasing the sprint input or relaxing the directional inputs does not slow the player mid-air
Updated head look on NPCs
Updated eye look on NPCs
Shortened shield break animations
Updated certain facial expressions
Shortened NPC dodge times
Balanced eye textures
Updated all engineer clothing
Codex Discoveries
New Organic life has been added to worlds with tenuous atmospheres
Players can report and confirm new organic lifeforms using the Composition Scanner just as they could in Horizons
Improved Organic Placement for v3 planets
Organic Colour Variants introduced and will be driven by the environment they are found in
CONFLICT ZONES
Fixed issue where AI would remain aggressive at the end of a Conflict Zone
Improved AI control point awareness
Improved AI prioritisation of targets in capture zones
Disabled watch behaviour for AI, post conflict zone
AI will no longer leave their team at the end of a Conflict Zone
Increased control point capture credit reward bonus to 3,000cr
Reduced kill and control point capture reinforcement damage to 5 and 50 points, respectively
Idle vessels no longer count to the team count in on-foot conflict zones, and only humanoids count during the final phase of the conflict
When in the shuttle booking planetary map, selecting conflict zones should now give a more descriptive reason for why the ‘book’ button is greyed out
Prevented melee attacks from dealing any damage against Ships, SRVs, and anything that is not a humanoid
Restricted personal space warning to physical contact, post conflict zone
COSMETICS
Fixed issues with items remaining previewed in store/livery
Fixed an issue with the flight suit for its default black look
Fixed vendor suit images
Fixed incorrect avatar settings on the flight suits
Fixed incorrect materials that were in engineer avatar settings
Rebalanced emissive values on cosmetics to fit with new shaders and lighting
Bobbleheads adjusted so they are brighter
Cosmetics are now available for suits and weapons
Suit livery changed to go through the object refresh rather than the cosmetic
Previewed items are now added and removed as expected in the suit livery/store
Updated the customisation visualisation system to be able to deal with being used in both the livery and loadout browser
Removed the lighting rig from being attached to the camera in the vessel store
Store packs are now initially sorted alphabetically
Removed shoulder pads from the base exploration suit
Removed resetting the camera when in main menu and exiting the store
SRVs can now spawn and be viewed in the game store
COMBAT
Fixed an issue where, while reloading a weapon, the AI would get stuck
Fixed an issue where collisions would reapply their damage for every frame they were colliding (resulting in instant death if two ships rammed each other)
Fixed an issue where dying humanoids would be treated as environment objects and deal huge amounts of damage to colliding SRVs
Fixed an issue where certain NPCs detectable by humanoid sensors did not show their nameplates
Fixed an issue where AI would not perform their ‘death bark’ when being tazed
Fix for a rare Kinematic crash
Fixed some situations where AI would incorrectly think they had weapon line of sight when close to nearby obstacles
Fixed an issue where Humanoid corpses and certain NPCs did not have their nameplate attached to their head
Fixed erratic weapon aiming when AI were very close to their target
AI will now engage vehicles at a longer range
Improved AI behaviour when their combat target is a long distance from a settlement
Improved AI behaviour when their combat target is in an unreachable location
Various improvements to ship AI
Various further improvements to combat AI
When seeking cover, AI will no longer hide behind their ‘friends’
AI vision cones are now correctly tied to the third person model
A rework of the AI's ability to utilise grenades and the frequency thereof
Improved AI grenade throwing so that they will now flush targets from rooftops
Non-physical contact personal space warnings are remembered in the area around them, preventing multiple AI talking over each other
Personal space vocalisation cool-downs are now remembered between behaviours
Reworked the cool-downs for personal space warnings
STABILITY
Fixed a crash when the cargo bay is not available when attempting to enter the cargo depot
Fixed an issue where player ships bounced when landed
Fixed an issue where if you book a shuttle and then cancel the booking before the shuttle goes live, the pending shuttle object would remain
Fixed a crash whenever a player died while participating in CQC
Fixed a crash when another player in your session disembarks from their vessel
Fixed a crash in the on-foot tutorial when opening the system map (also disabled access to the system and galaxy maps from the navigation panel)
Fixed a crash caused by adding suit modules to the loadout
Fixed a crash in visualising a new loadout
Fixed failures seen in the carrier fuel contact
Fixed a crash when the UI is not being shown
Fixed a crash if the player gets a fleet carrier update while on the main menu
Fixed a crash when upgrading laser ship weapons at an engineer
Fixed a crash caused by getting shot by a Guardian sentinel
Fixed a potential crash when trying to turn suit shields off when entering a social space
Fixed a crash when loading in at a particular planet
Fix for error when setting 3D mode to Anaglyph in VR
Fix for error when changing 3D mode from "Off" to "Anaglyph", "Side-by-Side" or "HMD" in VR
Fix for an error often seen when accessing the System Map
Fix for an error seen when filtering by ship type in Inter Astra
Fix for an error occasionally seen when entering supercruise
Fix for an assert seen when fading planetary rings, based on whether they're seen through atmospheres
Fix for a crash often seen when in a Dropship
Fix for an error seen when exiting the livery
Fix for crash seen when changing resolution
Fix for crash occasionally seen on load up
Fix for crash sometimes seen when using terminal
Fix for a crash seen on occasion in social spaces
Fix for a crash seen when closing the game via the "incident report screen"
Fix for a crash occasionally seen on start-up
Various data port fixes - now ensures the game closes without crashing
Put a safety check around the commander data when declining applications to prevent a crash
Improvements to how corpses handle their physics skeletons
Avoiding crash for old or non-existent resources sent to us by server when someone's inventory is very out of date
Stopping data transfer on death to avoid upload crash
ENGINEERS
Fixed floating rocks outside of the Long Sight Engineer Base
Fixes and polish to the engineers donation flow, and some adjustments to how on-foot engineers are displayed in the Known Engineers UI
Fixed an issue where Engineers would animate in the wrong place
Fixed an issue where Engineer progression was not being set correctly
Improved height map for Felicity Farseer Engineer Base
Balanced Engineer pad holograms to use the same brightness settings as the other landing pads
New engineers focus on applying modifications to suits and handheld weapons
Each new engineer will specialise in certain types of modifications
A requirement must be met before commanders are invited to dock at a new Engineer’s base (just like existing Engineers)
When invited to dock at a new Engineer’s base, commanders will be able to engineer with them right away
Completing a certain task for a new Engineer will have them refer you to another Engineer that focuses on different types of modifications
Existing Engineer Bases updated to allow commanders to disembark and meet them in person
Increased Resistances Suit mod should now immediately come into effect when applied
Applying mods now consumes credits
Prevented players from disembarking at Engineer bases they do not have access to
Prevented players from interacting with the Engineer if they do not have access
EXPLORATION
Fix for organics sometimes appearing incorrectly in highlighted areas of the Heatmap overlay
The DSS Heatmap no longer displays with "hot" or "cold" areas, but with an overlay where organics/geologicals highlighted should appear
Emissive properties of DSS Heatmap rescales based on light/dark side of the planet to retain visual fidelity in all light conditions
The 'All Filter' for the DSS Heatmap has been removed
Genetic Sampling will no longer require the player to complete a timing-based interaction - sampling will be an automated process
Sampling an organism now adds a marker to the Commander's compass
Different types of life will require the commander to sample subsequent specimens at a different distances from a previous specimen
Commanders can view the typical range of an organic colony in the codex - this is how far Commanders may need to travel to find a specimen, genetically diverse from what they have sampled
Rewards for logging organics with Vista Genomics greatly increased
‘First Logged’ bonus for being the first to log an organism with Vista Genomics greatly increased
SYSTEM AND GALAXY MAP
Fix for System Map acquiring a grey overlay on planets
Visual improvements and removal of visual artefacts in the System and Galaxy Map
Changed name of Eskimo Nebula to NGC 2392 in alignment with NASA's official change
Planet icons have been updated in the ship radar so that they are now much more visible
Sol planets updated to more accurately reflect real-world data
ECONOMY
Adjusted sale prices of some Goods, Data and Assets to the Bartender
Adjusted recipes for Upgrades, Suit and Handheld Weapon Engineering
Improved negotiation balance and feedback in the UI
FLEET CARRIERS
Fix for the skybox becoming increasingly over-exposed with every Carrier jump
Fleet Carrier colour schemes work with new shaders
INTERACTIONS
Fixed an issue which sometimes resulted in AI spawning in spawn cupboards at abandoned settlements
Fixed an issue where locked lockers would display an ‘interact’ prompt when they could not be interacted with
Fixed a number of settlement assets that were not visually powering down at Offline and Offline Damaged Settlements
Implemented a number of changes to ensure ‘cuttable’ panels fall outwards more consistently when cut
LIGHTING & VFX
Fix for Shuttle Cockpits appearing overly dark
Fix for broken suit thruster lens flare
Fix for the player flashlight
Fix to prevent overly orange-tinted social spaces and removal of "cone" effect seen above area
Fix for incorrect placement of Apex projection light
Fix to balance the organic scan VFX as well as the motherlode asteroid scan VFX
Fixes and improvements to reflection probe placement in Settlement rooms
Fix for the Life Support asset not turning light off when powered down
Fixes for lighting seams observed in some rooms
Fix and visual improvement of framing for weapons and humanoids in livery
Fix for light leaking outside of specific room
Fix for lighting of specific room not turning off when the Settlement if offline
Fix for station exterior lighting changing as the player approached
Fix for visual artefact caused by over-bright fire VFX
Fix for an effect caused by Thargoid probes
Fix for visual artefact caused by over-bright grenade explosion VFX
Fix for steam VFX clipping through box in specific Settlement room
Visual improvement to the chimney VFX
Visual Improvements to lighting at all Station Lobby Types, including Engineers
Visual Improvements to lighting at Horizons Engineer Bases
Visual Improvements to lighting at Odyssey Engineer Bases
Visual improvement to lens flare that can be seen when navigating down to a Settlement
Visual improvements to the appearance of other ships whilst in supercruise
Visual improvements to lighting in Engineer Bases
Visual improvements to lighting in all turbolifts
Visual Improvements to lighting for all "Under Repair" hangars
Visual improvements to lighting for Damaged Stations
Visual Improvements to lighting for all inner docks and hangars
Visual improvements to Ship Exterior lighting
Visual improvements to lighting of full body commander portraits
Visual improvements to lighting in selected buildings and Settlements
Visual improvements to livery lighting
Visual improvements to exterior lighting of all Megaships
Visual improvements to all ship lens flares and emissives (VFX)
Visual Improvement to the VFX of hyperspace sequence
Visual improvements and further balancing of all human weapon bullet impact decals
Visual improvements and additional balancing of all ship weapon and skimmer weapon bullet impact decals
Re-balancing of the Thargoid Portal VFX for the new lighting scheme
Atmospheric VFX (steam) added back into hangars
Updated lighting for Thargoid structures
Weapons thumbnails updated to frame correctly in Outfitting view
Canopies at Settlements now have working lights
Dim light mode setup for use in the livery as the "Lights off" mode
Reduce flashing on exterior of damaged stations
Improvement to ship shield material and VFX when hit with a humanoid weapon
Trails of DSS Probes have been re-balanced for new lighting and will now rescale to various lighting conditions, so they are always visible to the player when probing a planet
Fires now cast more light in rooms
LOCALISATION AND TEXT
Fixed government type not being localised properly on the conflict zone vendor panel
Updated localised string on the on-foot CZ death screen from "Killed by" to "Defeated by"
Replace hard coded "RANK" with the correct rank string for ‘wingmates’ when on foot.
MEMORY AND OPTIMISATION
Fix for memory stomp when generating planetary nebula information
Fixes and stability improvements to the portalling system
Correction of the video memory streaming budget to prevent Out of Memory crashes
Multiple improvements and fixes to reduce memory spikes
Replace excessively large and wide spotlights with something more visually fitting, and which is more performant
Additions to the portalling system (Kinematics) that further increases performance
Optimisation for shadows as directional shadows now included in the portalling system
MISC
New Ident created
MENUS
Split up the control binding menu into 4 parts: general, ship, SRV and on-foot - each part can be set to its own preset.
MINING
Fix for ice asteroids changing colouration when being detonated
MISSIONS
Fixed a softlock in the mission board
Fixed the conversation camera snapping abruptly at the end of conversations
Adjusted how modified micro-resources are added/removed to/from the locker or backpack by missions to prevent errors
Updated mission-giver mission counts on the mission board, depending on the number of missions available, removed text that could become incorrect due to this value changing
Made illegal missions display purple in mission-giver details panel (to match narrative panel)
Disabled mission help button on mission board, except in specific panels (the mission details panels)
Odyssey missions no longer always fail if the player is critically injured
Missions that do not have specified locations no longer fail on critical injury
If the player is at the location where the mission takes place then being critically injured will cause the mission to fail
If the player is heading towards the mission location, or has successfully completed the objective and then left the mission location, a critical injury will not cause the mission to fail
Mission payout balance changes
Missions will now correctly appear in the incident report when relevant
Missions now apply fines if an item they entrusted to you for the purpose of that mission is not then used to complete the mission
Harder missions have had their pay-outs increased - this mostly affects missions that require the player to perform illegal actions or adhere to a strict condition
When a mission rewards an item, the value of the items or quantity offered should now more closely scale with the value of the mission's credit reward
Negotiation balance changes
Mission negotiation is now slightly easier when requesting the smallest option
Negotiating on a mission that rewards an item should now more consistently result in higher quantities of that item
Very successful negotiations can now result in up to twice as many items being offered as a reward
Resolved some networking issues that would cause a mission from one player to update or block progress on another player's mission when they were both performing similar missions in the same instance
Poor negotiation attempts will now cause more of an impact on your reputation with that faction
Text changes and fixes
Fixed various items of text failing to translate or translating incorrectly
Improved some wording on HUD objectives
Improved the feedback and clarity of several missions' transaction panels
Fixed depot-related missions in Dromi, Matet, and Otegine not opening the depot immediately
Fixed some instances where a mission could be abandoned to either dodge or increase influence unfairly
Fixed some passenger missions at damaged starports being inaccessible
Donation missions no longer display high threat levels
MULTICREW
Fixed physical multicrew role icons not displaying correctly for players not in instance
Changed players in physical multicrew passenger roles (idle or gunner) to use the multicrew icons
Restored behaviour where outfitting and livery are only disabled in ships when you have people aboard your ship: not the whole time you have a crew
NETWORKING
Fixed several instances where transferring cargo between your ship and your SRV could cause the client's inventory to become out of sync with the server
Killing humanoids in multiplayer sessions should no longer leave apparently living humanoids in the ragdoll state for some clients
NEW PLAYER TUTORIAL
Fixed the "Disembark" button not working at planet port at the end of the on foot tutorial
Fixed the starter package details location display to show the correct location instead of just Matet
Change icons for tutorial start flow buttons
ORGANICS \ GEOLOGICALS AND SCATTER
Fix for rocks snapping into position on terrain as the Player travels towards it
Fix for bullet decals not displaying correctly on some organic types
Fix for ‘Horizons Organics’ canning incorrectly
Fix for mineable objects not appearing on some Organics
Hitcheck fixes and improvements for all organics and geologicals
Geologicals frequency of firing update to be able to change based on planetary conditions (e.g. volcanic conditions)
Update and improvements to how organics and geological receive colouration, based on in-game planet and star parameters
Multiple Visual improvements to the organics billboards seen at distance
Large amount of improvements & additions to the organic and geological shaders for new assets
Large amount of improvements & additions to the ‘Horizons Organics’ and Geological shaders, including Thargoid Barnacles
Large amount of visual improvements to organics and geologicals - including texture changes, model tweaks, LOD improvements and colouration improvements
Visual improvements to Thargoid Barnacles
Improvement to the weapon decals able to spawn on scatter rocks
Efficiency improvement to the organic billboards seen at distance
Geologicals and organics all updated and balanced to respond to all wind strengths
Organics no longer clip into scatter rocks
Scaling changes for some organic types
New Fumerolas updated to have spouting VFX
OUTFITTING
Modules browser: Replaced Filter button with sort dropdown
POIs
Fixed some hitcheck issues on the Crashed Type 9 POI
Wrecked Sidewinder model updated so the doors at the back are closed
Wrecked SRV model updated so there is no longer a hole behind the large salvage panel
Player collision fixed for the wrecked Federation Fighter POI, to prevent players getting stuck
Overclockers UK Pyrite Gaming PC – Intel Core i5 with RTX 3060 GPU
3rd Prize
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This monster of a competition has already started so head here to enter! We’ll also have many other amazing opportunities to win prizes throughout the next few weeks so keep an eye out for those.
Tomorrow, Elite Dangerous will change forever. Odyssey marks the next step in our vision for the game, and a new era in space simulation.
In honour of this, we’re delighted to present to you our Odyssey launch trailer:
“This is the next step in what has already been an incredible journey and labour of love with Elite Dangerous since the Kickstarter over eight years ago. The team have pulled off a fantastic achievement here across a mind-bending scale – from the detail within a human footprint to the vast distances across stellar systems and beyond is breathtaking, in a rich, detailed and accurate recreation of the Milky Way in 1:1 scale. For me it is not just the detailed exploration and combat, but the gothic beauty of watching stars, planets, moons, moons-of-moons rise and fall or slowly pirouette in their often complex paths in the night sky, while each tiny dot or nebula in that sky is really there and can be visited.”
- David Braben, CEO and founder of Frontier
As a reminder, all Elite Dangerous servers will be down for maintenance and preparation of the update from 07:00 UTC / 08:00 BST tomorrow for approximately 11 hours. This means an estimated launch window of 18:00 UTC / 19:00 BST.
Thank you all for your comments and feedback on the recent announcement regarding Odyssey and Horizons compatibility. We understand that the post left some aspects unclear which we'd like to address below. We've also included some additional details.
Instancing and Graphical Improvements
To clarify the circumstances under which instances may be shared across versions of the game, and when visual changes will be seen, we've made the following tables. The first applies to the time between PC and console launch, and the other to the time following console launch.
From PC Launch to Console Launch
After Console Launch
Landing on planets with tenuous atmospheres is ONLY available to Odyssey owners.
Other Aspects of Horizons and Odyssey
Galaxy State
The galaxy's background simulations (including Powerplay, factions, commodity markets and outfitting) will continue without disruption and be shared between all players (Horizons and Odyssey) across all platforms.
Squadrons may be contributed to and administered across both Horizons and Odyssey.
Fleet Carriers will function and be manageable across Horizons and Odyssey.
Odyssey Settlements will not appear in the system map or navigation panel of Horizons players.
All planet ports and settlements on tenuous atmosphere planets will not appear in the system map or navigation panel of Horizons players.
First footfall tags will only be displayed to Odyssey players.
Missions will not transfer between Horizons and Odyssey, and their timers will count down as if you were not logged into the game when you are on the other version.
Matchmaking & Social
The online status of Friends will be visible across Horizons and Odyssey, but locations will be displayed as "ED: Beyond" or "ED: Odyssey" if you are different versions.
System text channels will be shared across Horizons and Odyssey.
Direct text messages can be sent between friends across Horizons and Odyssey.
Players in Horizons will not be able to form wings or crews with players in Odyssey and vice versa.
The CQC matchmaker and crew finders will not place Horizons and Odyssey players together.
Voice communications will not be available across Horizons and Odyssey.
Squadron members playing Odyssey will appear offline to those viewing them from Horizons and vice versa from the Squadron management screen. This is so they cannot be invited to join a wing or crew from here.
Switching From Odyssey to Horizons Mode
Under some circumstances, your Commander location will need to be reset. For example, if you try to load into the game from the main menu in Horizons mode after playing Odyssey and meeting the following conditions:
If you were disembarked from your ship or SRV and logged out when on foot in any location.
If you logged out in a ship, SRV, or on foot in any location on a tenuous atmosphere planet.
If you logged out in a ship docked at an Odyssey settlement on a planet without an atmosphere.
If you logged out when on a ship piloted by Apex Interstellar or Frontline Solutions.
In these cases, your Commander will be placed into your most recently used ship and, if necessary, position it in orbit around the stellar body it was landed on, or docked on a settlement on. As with Horizons, the reset option will not available to you if your ship was destroyed at the time you logged out. Instead, a message encouraging you to re-access Elite through the Odyssey client will appear.
In addition, due to the terrain changes in Odyssey, the following will happen when switching over while landed on a planet without an atmosphere:
If you logged out in an SRV, then your ship will need recalling from orbit.
If you logged out in a ship, then you will load in a short distance above the planet's surface.
Crime
When playing ED: Odyssey after playing ED: Horizons:
Crimes on players’ ships will be transferred to their commander, superpower bounties will be generated accordingly
When playing ED: Horizons after having played ED: Odyssey:
Crimes committed in the vessel will stay with the vessel, and superpower bounties for vessels will be regenerated
Crimes committed on foot will be transferred on vessel with biggest bounty for specific jurisdiction, or to active vessel if no other way
Impounded ships will be released, but the impound cost will be added to the bounty for that vessel
Avatars & Liveries
New suit livery items introduced with Odyssey will only be accessible in Odyssey.
When playing Horizons after having played Odyssey, Commanders will receive a default avatar and flight suit.
When returning to Odyssey after playing Horizons, avatars will be re-equipped with their Odyssey suits.
The default 'opaque helmet' avatar image will be displayed when viewing Odyssey players from Horizons in screens like Recently Encountered players, or Squadron Members.
Any new ship livery items purchased in Odyssey should still be accessible in Horizons.
Odyssey suit and weapon livery items will not be available for purchase through the store in Horizons.
Any purchased items will remain in Odyssey for when you next log into it.
ARX earned by playing Odyssey can be redeemed in Horizons and vice versa.
Inventory Items
The contents of Odyssey players’ backpacks and storage will only be available whilst playing Odyssey. They will not take any inventory capacity away from Horizons.
Codex
Any new organics species introduced for ED: Odyssey will only be present in players’ codex whilst playing ED: Odyssey
Local options storage
Odyssey uses different files to Horizons in %localappdata%\\Frontier Developments\\Elite Dangerous\\Options to save configuration options, such as Audio, Graphics and Custom Key Bindings.
Odyssey shares some files with Horizons, such as visited star systems.
Thank you for your feedback and patience as we navigate through the huge transition for Elite Dangerous marked by Odyssey. We hope this follow up has gone some way to clarifying the details raised after the initial announcement. If you have any further queries, please leave them in the replies.
We hope you are as excited as we are for the launch of Odyssey! This expansion marks Elite Dangerous' biggest ever update, and as such we'll be taking the servers offline in preparation for the launch.
Server Downtime
All Elite Dangerous servers on all platforms will be taken offline at 07:00 UTC / 08:00 BST on Wednesday 19 May and will be down for approximately 11 hours, returning 18:00 UTC / 19:00 BST.
We look forward to taking that one giant leap with you all next week!
We hope you enjoyed the recent alpha for the PC version of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey
Thank you once again for your feedback and suggestions which will have a lasting impact for all future Commanders. This only marks the beginning for Odyssey. After the game launches on 19 May, we’ll continue tweaking and balancing according to your experiences, just as we have done in the past.
We know there are still a number of questions from the community, and today we’d like to give more information on the shared galaxy between Elite Dangerous: Odyssey and Elite Dangerous: Horizons.
From PC Launch:
All Elite Dangerous: Odyssey players will gain access to the new features, including planetary improvements, enhanced lighting, and textures.
The differences will mean that Elite Dangerous: Horizons players cannot share a gameplay session with those playing Odyssey. However, Odyssey owners will be able to share a session with and play with those in Horizons by launching the game in Horizons mode – though if they do this, they will temporarily not have access to the new Odyssey features.
Console Launch Onwards:
In line with the console launch, we plan to update Elite Dangerous on all platforms (PC/PlayStation/Xbox) to allow Odyssey and Horizons players to reunite and play together with other users on their respective platform.
All Horizons players will also receive the new graphical updates, including the new planetary tech, lighting, and organics, free of charge, but will not be able to get out on foot or enter Odyssey’s tenuous atmospheres.
If you have any questions please leave them in the equivalent post on our forums, and we will answer them as quickly as we can!
Thank you all for all the amazing feedback and reports you've sent in throughout the Alpha. Our developers have been reading and reviewing your comments as we continue towards release. The Elite Dangerous: Odyssey PC Alpha will end at 15:30 UTC/16:30 BST on Wednesday 5 May 2021 with full launch scheduled for 19 May 2021.
Once again, we are incredibly grateful for all of your feedback and reports, and we can't wait to bring you the full game for PC later this month!