The expansion, which launched last week, has suffered from performance issues, server outages and a raft of bugs. “First and foremost, I would like to apologise wholeheartedly to those who have been suffering from these problems,” Braben said in a post on the Frontier forum. “I would like to reassure you that we take these issues very seriously and that they are our top priority and focus.” Braben said a second hotfix (the first came out soon after Odyssey launched) is due out soon, which Frontier hopes will sort out more of the reported bugs and improve stability. “We will continue to work on updates which will resolve more bugs and improve stability further,” Braben added. One of the big issues with Odyssey is that some players have reported poor performance on machines where players would expect good performance. “We are trying to get to the bottom of this,” Braben said. “I would like to thank you all for your patience and support,” Braben continued. “The Elite Dangerous community has always been at the heart of the game. We understand that there are a number of players who have had problems accessing and playing the game and I can assure you that we are focusing fully on improving this for those affected and communicating with you openly and regularly about how these issues are being addressed.” ORIGINAL STORY 23/5/21: Unhappy Elite Dangerous: Odyssey PC players are hitting developer Frontier where it hurts - Steam reviews. The new content, Odyssey, released on 19th May, is allegedly causing all kinds of problems, with reports of crashes, poor performance, bugged missions, and poor optimisation according to recent reviews left on the game’s Steam page. The feedback now aggregates over 3000 reviews, 2.2K of which are deemed “mostly negative”, despite a second hotfix that rolled out on Friday in a bid to address the game’s stability (thanks, NME). “This is a genuinely pathetic display of FDev’s ‘competence’ at putting forth something worth paying for,” complained one player. “I’m sick of the ‘it can be patched later’ mentality by Steam’s keyboard warriors. I paid money, its advertised as ‘finished’, and it should work. Plain and simple. Don’t buy this garbage.” “Bugged foot missions, poor performances (between 20 an 30 fps on rtx 3090), connection probs, unplayable atm,” said another. “I suggest to wait a few months until considering people to buy it.” Frank, on the other hand, is a little more positive: “Many issues right now but a dream has come true.” “Don’t write it off yet,” opined another. “I would recommend to wait a bit, till patches have fixed the most severe bugs and improved optimisation. At least a month or two, though better would be to buy the game when it releases on console in fall at which time most [of] the problems should be sorted out.” As for what may be in store for Elite Dangerous beyond today’s launch? Frontier isn’t saying. “I don’t think we’re in a position where we’re ready to talk about what comes after Odyssey,” Piers Jackson, game director, recently told Matt in an interview with Eurogamer. “You know, there are a number of ideas floating around but we’re very, very focused on launch right now. We will get launched, take a breath, see what comes next.” As Jackson sees it though, Odyssey’s new on-foot gameplay will continue to be a core part of the Elite Dangerous vision in the future. “In the same way ships are important to Elite,” he confirms, “it’s now important to Elite as well.”
