So Odyssey's been out for well over a year now, and it's greatly improved since its initial release. The on-foot conflict zones are where I have the most fun (and also make the most credits), though it still feels that the entire expansion is too combat-focused. It could do with more weapon variety and engineer mods, sure, but it also desperately needs other careers, and to expand on exobiology. With that in mind, here are some ideas, in no particular order:
- Station search & rescue: We already have the ability to perform limited search and rescue at ground settlements, cutting open doors and lockers to retrieve lost goods, restoring power, and putting out fires. What if we could do that on board damaged stations? Take a mission to go into one of the residential areas and find survivors or anything important they left behind, putting out fires along the way. This could greatly add to the atmosphere (or rather vent it, ha ha).
- More varied NPC behaviour: Currently, if you use the handheld scanner on a wanted NPC in a settlement, they immediately proceed to light you up and have their friends join in. This would be all well and good if this didn't happen every time – surely not every settlement's full of wanted criminals or sympathisers? So I propose NPCs react differently depending on how well armed you both are, what your standing is with their faction, and just their temperament. Some may run away, others might try to call for reinforcements but instead get shot for being wanted.
- More interactivity: There's not really much to do at settlements other than loot and kill. Uploading certain types of data (say, malware) should at least have interesting effects such as scrambling authorisation levels on doors, or turret IFF, or just messing with the lights. Research and agri settlements could play into exobiology – loading genetic sampler samples into containers and running them through a machine should yield higher payouts or something. Technicians might want some epoxy adhesive or other material that they've run out of, and offer a reward for any you have spare. During the Odyssey pre-release streams, there was even mention of factions allowing you into (some) restricted areas of settlements if your standing with them was high enough.
- Let us drink at bars: Self-explanatory. I've got credits to burn and I'll probably want to forget encountering Thargoids on foot.
This is ultimately little more than wishful thinking, but Frontier aren't actually all that averse to large updates and even overhauls – Beyond and the period shortly after Odyssey's release spring to mind. If memory serves, we're still awaiting another balance and quality of life pass on ship engineering, too. So here's hoping.
Also I cannot stress this enough, more guns would be nice. Maybe a flechette mod for rocket launchers so we can damage a ship's hardpoints directly.