4Game

My favorite thing about Elite has always been that feeling of being out in the middle of nowhere. Out exploring beyond the influence of humans. Getting first system/planet discoveries is always exciting. I found some various neat sights but never anything "special", and that was fine. It was just the vague feeling of being way out there that did it for me.

After getting Oddyssey and still being out in the middle of nowhere from a long explore trip I've been on for several months, I almost immediately found a bio scan and then found a structure on the planet. I was real excited – I've only ever found barren planets way outside the bubble, never any signs of habitation. Finally found something! This would be perfect for my first on-foot planet landing.

I make the landing, and hop out to find a couple small nondescript buildings and a pair of defense turrets. Still got first footfall, which seemed strange on a planet clearly already visited by mankind with some relatively mundane structures on it, but okay. Game mechanics are game mechanics, things happen like this sometimes.

Then as I wandered around a bit more trying to discover the purpose and possible backstory of this incredibly far-flung tiny outpost I thought about the timing of it – this happening immediately after installing Odyssey. Then the sinking feeling that this might be the new normal way out in the middle of nowhere. Am I going to be frequently bumping into random-generated signs of human habitation on planets that I've traveled for great lengths of time to reach exactly because I wanted to get away from the feeling of being in space already inhabited by mankind?

Is this going to be the new normal? I haven't had the drive to play much more since, and I wanted to see if others have had a similar experience.