I'm currently on my way to Hutton orbital (in Horizons of course), and that gives me a lot of time to think. Everybody knows Odyssey is bad. Disappointing, overpriced, uninspired, and the parts that have the potential to be good are executed extremely poorly. Lots of its issues can't just be fixed with spit and polish, but many small changes could be made to make playing Odyssey a much more enjoyable experience. So here are some small changes to fix Odyssey for the better.
- The Armstrong moment. It's easy. You don't even need interiors. just a simple animation for onboarding and offboarding, one for every ship, like the SRV deploy animation.
- More suit oxygen. It's the future, dammit, and you expect us to believe that suits have LESS oxygen than modern suits? I don't buy it. The suits need at least four times the oxygen, or better yet, their own life support system that just needs electricity.
- Fix the UI. You're supposed to be better than this. Elite is the one space game I trust to have a good UI, and this one is awful.
- Less grind. You shouldn't need to grind for seven hours just to get out of your ship without dying.
- More low atmosphere planets. Look at real life. we have Mars, Europa, Enceladus, Pluto… and that's just in our solar system alone.
And here are a few things not really related to Odyssey, but I would like to see them in the game as well, and maybe they could come included with Odyssey. Raxxla knows it needs more content.
- HUD colors. It could be an ARX purchase, part of a ship's livery. "HUD DETAILING" in the "cockpit accessories" category.
- Flags. Maybe I've just played too much Kerbal Space program, but I want to be able to plant a flag on a planet. You would be able to apply a decal to them and change their color in customization.
- Make size 4 SRV bays size 3. It just makes sense.
- More SRVs. I propose six SRVs. The "Scarab." Your bog-standard, multipurpose SRV. 5000cr. The "Rhino." This SRV is slower than the Scarab, can't fly as well, and has less powerful weapons, but carries twice as much cargo, and has two seats. it also takes up both slots in a size 3 or 4 SRV bay. Weak shield, strong hull. For transport. 7500cr. The "Mantis." This SRV has more firepower than the Scarab, better armor, and shield, but half as much cargo space. Imagine an armored truck. 7500cr. For fighting. The "Cockroach." Much faster than the Scarab, with more powerful thrusters but no weapons or cargo space. powerful shield, weak hull. For exploration. 7500cr. The "Dragonfly." Scarab with wings. can fly on planets with atmospheres. 10000cr. requires a size 3 or 4 SRV bay. The "XGS2 Dart." Scarab that's slightly better in every way, but not enough to make it better than one of the other specialized SRVs at their job. 10000cr, requires guardian tech. any paint job purchased for one SRV is available on all of them. Perhaps different companies could make different variants of the SRVs, or maybe one (non spacecraft) company has a monopoly on them.
- Fighters can fly over and land on planets. if a fighter is released by a ship over a planet, the ship will remain stationary in the air until dismissed, at which point it will go to orbit. If a ship is recalled from a fighter on a planet, instead of landing it will hover over the surface at a height of 100-ish meters, and open its fighter bay. Fighters, like SRVs, can be used to enter restricted airspace without fines.
- Fighter paint jobs. Because yes.
Odyssey had and still has the potential to be great, but the devs need to be willing to make some big changes to make it good. I'm not saying my answers and suggestions are perfect, they're not, and I haven't covered a lot of the biggest problems. But something like this is a good start. Feel free to leave any of your own suggestions in the comments, in the unlikely chance that any of the devs actually read this. But hey, at least we'll get to interact about imaginary features. o7 commanders.
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