What is Elite Dangerous Odyssey right now? The expansion has changed a fair bit since it launched in May 2021 and in this video I'm going to talk about how the expansion has evolved, what features are now in the game and where it might all be heading in the near future. To make sure you don't miss any of our videos hit like and subscribe and remember to click the little bell icon and select all notifications and if you'd like to help directly support this channel you can also join our Patreon via the link in the video description. Before we take a look at what and where Elite Dangerous Odyssey is now just over a year since its launch in case you're new to the franchise here's a brief outline of Elite Dangerous, the foundation layer of the game. Elite Dangerous or Elite Dangerous horizons as it's often referred to by the player base is quite simply a colossal choose your own adventure space trading exploration and combat sandbox set in a procedurally generated one to one scale recreation of our Milky Way Galaxy containing around 400 billion stars. With the tools the game provides you are free to go wherever you please in the galaxy and do pretty much whatever you please. If you're on PC the base game can now be expanded upon with the Odyssey expansion. Odyssey allows players of the base game to leave their ships on foot and continue to fight trade and explore. Whilst the Odyssey expansion was originally planned for consoles as well, earlier this year Frontier reversed that decision and announced that going forward updates to the game would affect the PC build only with the console version of Elite Dangerous receiving just critical patches. As the game is constantly evolving and expanding I've linked on screen right now to our playlist of videos which include other more detailed summaries of both the base game and the Odyssey expansion with its features as it was at launch. Following a full year of updates and patches then Odyssey whilst not yet perfect is in a much better place than it was at launch and it's generally accepted that the version of the game we have now is probably what the game should have been at launch. There are still some performance issues but they are nothing like the colossal frame-tanking that have been witnessed by many particularly around Odyssey surface settlements over the course of the last year and Frontier have assured that optimisations continue for the title. As far as additional content is concerned the last 12 months has finally seen the addition of a new willed vehicle into the game in the shape of the combat-centric Scorpion SRV. The new SRV also features a multi-crew capability with it for the first time in a surface vehicle in Elite meaning one player can act as a driver and a second can act as a gunner. The vehicle features two weapons in the form of a guided missile launcher that can also be done fired and a slightly more unusual surge repeater cannon. The surge repeater fires a wide spread of machine gun style rounds that increase inaccuracy the longer the gun fires for. Heavily armoured but lacking the jump jets and wave scanner of the Scarab the vehicle is extremely effective at dealing with skimmers, ships and other large targets. It is less effective against on-foot personnel but still a force to be reckoned with and the original Scarab SRV really picks up the slack there meaning it very much still has a place in the combat arena. Speaking of combat arenas aerial combatants were also added to Odyssey's surface conflict zones as were the game's equivalent of anti-aircraft artillery to help combat them. However the NPCs lack any apparent desire to actually engage with the surface conflict making them little more than active scenery which is a damn shame. Away from conflict zones Frontier have started adding mission givers NPCs to the game's mini surface settlements. Currently the NPCs don't tend to any missions of a type that can't be gathered anywhere else or indeed reward anything that can't be gained anywhere else but the company have stressed that they are at an initial implementation of the feature and so it's possible that may change in the future. Frontier also added a neat feature giving NPC and assassination targets the ability to call down a ship and flee the scene if they get wind of the fact that they're in danger. The event on foot emotes system was added allowing commanders to point wave and salute amongst other things instead of crouching and standing repeatedly to say hello when crossing paths with another commander. Away from planetary surfaces undoubtedly one of the big headline features since Odyssey's launch has been the addition of fleet carrier interiors not only adding surface equipment vendors to the carriers but also vista genomics outlets and the ability to trade Odyssey's many engineering materials at the bar and the must have feature that players have been asking for since fleet carriers launched two years ago a functioning bridge area where the fleet carrier owners and their passengers can watch the jump sequence. Alongside fleet carrier interiors Frontier also deployed on foot interiors to some mega ships offering similar functionality to a star port or fleet carrier with this new feature and a good deal of player participation in a string of community goals the colonial bridge was built meaning there is now a permanent line of mega ships and stations all with interiors leading all the way from the bubble to colonial near the centre of the galaxy. And recently Frontier added a duo of new mission types that sees the player defending some volatile cargo in the grounds of a settlement on foot either from criminal types or from omniple police units who even arrive in black and white themed drop ships sporting search lights sirens and flashing police style emergency lights. One singular feature that actually entered the game before Odyssey launched but is only now rising to significant importance is that of narrative. The in game Galnet new service was relaunched in September of 2020 and with its relaunch Frontier promised it would feature a multi arc narrative that would extend into the Odyssey period and that that story will be shaped by the players. Little did we know what we were in for. The ongoing narrative has overseen the rise and fall of the NML a terrorist organisation, the arrival of the Adamaster Ghost Ship numerous in game events, discoveries and community goals and the rise and rise and rise of the mysterious anti-thargoid would be Messiah known as Salvation all the while seeing to the demise of the Aegis thargoid research and defence agency. As the narrative progressed Frontier promised that it would at some point reach a crescendo and it does appear that as of this recording we are on the cusp of that crescendo. A previously landable planet containing twin thargoid surface installations has been permit logged and Salvation has assets in the system and is deliberately attracting what he calls the bulk of the thargoid fleet to the system where they will then be met with the deployment of the Proteus wave super weapon that he's been further claiming will see the end of the threat they pose. Speculation in the community is rife covering everything from the advent of thargoids on foot combat to thargoid mega ships to the complete burning of the bubble and everything in between. With the publishing of a lightweight top level road map in May it became apparent that Frontier appeared to be using the ongoing living narrative of their gigantic sandbox as a vessel for the delivery of new content and events into the game. With the expected resolution of the Salvation and Azamoth saga right on our doorsteps Frontier have already committed to a further narrative arc for Elite Dangerous Odyssey into 2023. The beginning of which is expected to start around November with update 14 and they further promised that early 2023 will see the overhaul of an existing key feature in the game. If you've been holding off buying Odyssey waiting for the technical issues to iron out or had perhaps left the game in the early days of Odyssey due to all its initial problems a question we often get asked is now a good time to give it a try. Whilst Frontier remain relatively tight-lipped around specifics not wanting to spoil anything they clearly have plans going forward for the title. In my opinion the rebirth of Galnet and the Azamoth saga has been one of the shining lights in the game's continued evolution and with the culmination of the saga upon us right now it is a good time to get back into the game. All issues aside Odyssey still has some odd design choices but there is a lot to enjoy in the on foot experience and as most players now seem to agree the expansion is really now at the point it should have been at launch. With the cancellation of the products development on consoles Frontier have now said that they will be offering a full account copy over to the PC side of the game together with a free copy of the game should anyone playing on consoles wish to move over. You can draw from that that there is clearly still a long term commitment for Elite Dangerous going forward which is very encouraging to hear. What is waiting at the Thargoid shaped junction we find ourselves at now I can't say but Frontier have stated publicly that they have been working on something special behind the scenes that they have never attempted in the game before. It certainly feels like we are on the cusp of something big. If you have been hovering over Odyssey up until this point now might be the perfect time to take the plunge. Are you considering a move from consoles to the PC what do you think is waiting for us at the end of the Asimoth saga and what is waiting for us narrative wise in the year to come? Let us know in the comments below. That's it for now thanks very much for watching if you enjoyed this video consider subscribing to the channel and maybe take a look at one of our other videos linked on screen right