So FDev have finally launched Odyssey, and it's undercooked to put it mildly. We've got this roadmap coming soon which will hopefully put a lot of our fears to rest regarding their plans for fixing Odyssey, and maybe outline some further content they have planned for the expansion.
But what about the rest of game?
Elite Dangerous has been more or less in maintenance mode for over 2 years, during which the only updates we got were Squadrons and Fleet Carriers. Squadrons released to a lot of feedback which FDev apparently chose to ignore, and Fleet carriers are a 'nice to have' for endgame players, but don't substantially affect the game. Even with the upkeep changes and solo ownership, there is stil no reason squadrons couldn't still share one, which would also share the labour of fueling and jumping. FDev have not expressed any interest in returning to this.
Going back further, multicrew is still utterly broken, and needs a serious overhaul so that players can even connect for a session. It could also use some new features – like letting us man the turrets while our co-pilot takes the helm. They can already take the helm when we use a fighter, why not let me use the turrets? There's a whole 3rd person UI built for using turrets & missiles that many players have never seen. I know I haven't, despite many attempts. Hell it would help sell ship skins if nothing else.
Powerplay is another one, weren't there discussions about overhauling it like 3 or 4 years ago? And still no changes have been made. I doubt it will be part of this roadmap. Which is such a shame because I still think Powerplay could be the ultimate community feature with a bit of work.
I personally would also like to see a general rebalancing of engineering and ship combat, but I don't think that's a popular opinion so I'll leave it there.
My point is, a lot of people were disappointed when core ED development went on hiatus, but we kept the faith that FDev were working on something glorious for their next expansion, and would get back to the core game once it was out. Now it's here, and it may well be glorious one day, but it still needs a lot of work. Is the core game to be neglected even further? Or have Fdev just decided that these old features are to be left as they are?
There is so much potential for amazing content in Odyssey, like ship boarding actions, Thargoid combat, xeno-archaeology and lord knows what else. But before all that, I really hope FDev are willing to go back and look at some of their old code, features and design choices, and bring them up to date. They could set them up for better Odyssey integration while they are at it, creating a much more unified and complete game.
