Frontier has just given us a closer look at Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, the upcoming game-changing expansion that the company confirmed will be landing (pardon the pun) at some point in early 2021.
In the first episode of a new dev diary series, we got to find out a bit about planetary exploration. The focus is on taking players out of the cockpit and putting boots on the ground. On-foot gameplay is the new focus, and players will be able to visit planets with thin atmospheres (we didn't see any cities or anything like that in the trailer, rather it looks like we will be exploring barren-looking planets).
During the dev diary, director Piers Jackson and a number of other key designers joined in to tell us about the features players can expect early next year. Specifically, however, Jackson wants players to have a "Neil Armstrong moment" when they set foot on a planet for the first time, and for that moment to have an emotional resonance with players.
When out and about on their travels, players will be able to grab samples of DNA from the local flora (we didn't see any fauna), taking it back to space stations to earn money. With billions and billions of planets waiting to be explored, it'll be interesting to see just how much variety there is on these strange planets. We'll find out more in due course.