Elite Dangerous Drops A Shipload Of Information In Last Week’s Odyssey Q&A Livestream

last week’s mission playthrough video and revealed a number of interesting details about settlements, settlement types, factions, mission objectives, equipment loadouts, and more.

According to the devs, available ground missions and the variations of these missions depend on a number of factors such as the settlement type, the faction controlling the settlement, the player’s relationship with the controlling faction, and the planet on which the settlement is located among others.

The team also talked about the varying difficulty of NPC guards and how weapon accuracy, dodging, and equipment scales with higher-tier AI. Players will be able to scan NPCs to determine how strong they are and then decide if they can take them on. The more challenging the mission, the better the rewards.

Speaking of gear, the weapons and tools that a player will be able to carry will depend on the type of suit they’re wearing. Players will have the ability to customize their loadout based on the mission and their role within the group. They’ll also have to manage various aspects of their spacesuit, including power-usage, life , and whether the suit will be able to stand up to the planet’s temperature and how long it takes before the temperature causes internal damage. Various tools and recharging stations will be available to help players take care of their suits.

As for dying, all items in a player’s backpack will drop upon death and the mission will automatically fail. They will then have the option to respawn at a nearby port or outpost or in their ship if they have one. Players will respawn with the ship in orbit if they die while the ship is on the ground.

The Odyssey expansion is scheduled for release late this summer. Alpha tests kick off on March 29. If you’re interested, there’s loads more information to digest in the full livestream below.