4Game

After 6-8 hours of "syncing files" in the ED launcher to transfer to Horizons 4.0, the only thing I've noticed is an extra 50GB of storage has been taken up by ED, my entire game profile has reset to default (settings/graphics/audio/resolution/key mappings, luckily not save files – still have to remap all my voiceattack commands) and my PC has taken a noticeable graphical hit to performance/visual fidelity.

I almost considered buying Odyssey until I saw the reviews on Steam show an Overwhelmingly Negative response, but the notification on the ED Launcher suggested that synchronising with Horizons 4.0 would upgrade my game version to be compatible with Odyssey players, minus the extra content (aka. Legs).

However upon further investigation (reading reddit posts, forums and the Horizon 4.0 Access FAQ), it appears that player instances within ED are completely independent based on their version, thus:

• ED: Horizon players can only interact with ED: Horizon players.
• ED: Horizon 4.0 players can only interact with ED: Horizon 4.0 players.
• ED: Odyssey players can only interact with ED: Odyssey players.

So essentially, I just spent half a day downloading a 50GB update that is more than twice the size of the base game (nearly quadrupling the ED folder from 20GB > 70GB), to install content I can't access without paying for DLC that is more expensive than the price of the base game*, whilst simultaneously locking myself off into 1 of 3 different versions/instances of the game that will only allow me to interact with players who share that same version.

What in the name of JFC is this absolute nonsense? Why would any sane person design their game like this? Why does a DLC expansion require an update that is nearly 3 times the size of the base game, let alone split the playerbase into DLC and non-DLC servers, then split the DLC player server into DLC accessible and DLC non-accessible versions?

After doing some reading while writing this post, I can see that Frontier informed the ED community that Odyssey and Horizons would be running on two different codebases, but what I don't understand is why? If Odyssey was built using a standalone codebase to be able to support the introduction of new features (aka. "Legs"/1st Person Exploration, FPS Combat Scenarios and a massive overhaul to the graphical/visual interaction of individual worlds – and was thus incompatible as a simple update/expansion on the base architecture), then why didn't Frontier sell/advertise Odyssey as Elite Dangerous II ( or at least ED 1.5) – let alone even inform their playerbase (and morons like myself) that Odyssey isn't actually a DLC expansion of the base game, but is in essence, a "revamped" version of the game.

What's even more confusing and actually insulting is the fact that Odyssey requires the base game version of Elite Dangerous in order to function. Which means that while Odyssey is a seperate, standalone version that is not compatible/interacting with Horizon players, you still have to buy both the base game and the Odyssey Expansion (ie. 2 different versions of the game).

It's like buying tickets to a sporting event for the same price as everyone else, then when you arrive at the venue the doorman asks if you want to keep your general admission seats in the back of the stadium, whether you want to be seated right next to the VIP section so you can see what you're missing out on, or whether you want to the pay an extra free to sit in the VIP section – bearing in mind that unlike a regular stadium/venue, there are giant transparent walls between each section so you can sort of see what other people are doing, but you can't cross the wall or interact with each other. I've never seen any DLC/Expansion in the history of gaming released in this manner.

After everything I've read and at the end of writing this rant, it seems the most likely explanation is that Odyssey was originally designed as "Elite Dangerous II" – hence why it was built on a different codebase, contains the basegame and horizons code, with a large enough number of upgrades/changes to the play-stayle of the original to warrant calling it a sequel. But for whatever reason, it got downgraded to being called an expansion, despite the fact that all expansions simply add content to the base game and don't require the implementation of multiple game instances to facilitate being able to run.

TLDR: Should I just uninstall 4.0 and go back to Horizons 3.8 (saving myself 50GB of wasted space?)