Frontier recently released a developer diary for Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, and it’s really quite exciting. We knew it was all about space exploration, and finally getting out of the ship to explore a planet on foot, but it sounds like it’s going to revolutionise space exploration altogether.
This update is all about landing on planets, getting out, and exploring all of the worlds in the Milky Way on foot. It might seem like a colossal task, but I think the Elite Dangerous community is up for it. After all, they’ve been exploring the galaxy for long enough at this point that they’ve mapped an incredible amount of it.
Walking around planets though, that’s something entirely new. On top of that, there are plants to sample on some of these planets, which can provide you with a way to sell new data. I think that, more than anything, Odyssey is going to open up a new, possibly unintentional, job in Elite Dangerous. This job will be something along the lines of a Botanist, specialising in finding new species of plants and collecting all of their data, whilst also surviving on the credits that they make from selling that data.
I can see a real gap in the streaming market for someone who does this with the majority of their time in the game. I don’t think it would be that interesting to watch, but I do think that it would make for something really unique. Frontier has gone above and beyond to provide billions of new ways to discover in the game, even though a lot already has been discovered. It’s mind-blowing just to think of how much extra gameplay this will add.
The Elite Dangerous community is one that is extremely dedicated. I think that Odyssey will see an influx of new players, as well as some returning ones, but it’s the option to simply be a space Botanist that I think will be the secret draw of the game. I’m intrigued to see what else Frontier is adding to Elite Dangerous with the Odyssey update, and whether it will expand the game’s lore at all.