Greetings Commanders,
Last week we celebrated the sixth anniversary of Elite Dangerous with a bumper stream full of news, races, screenshots and Twitch Drops! First of all we'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who joined us on stream and watched along, we definitely couldn't have done it without your support!
You can catch up on each part of the stream here:
A look back on Elite Dangerous in 2020
2020 has been a unique year in more ways than one, but even throughout trying times, the incredible Elite Dangerous community have provided plenty of highlights for us to choose from (too many for us to talk about in the show)! From Hutton Truckers' Operation HOTMess and a virtual Lavecon, to various amazing charity streams from Commanders like CrispyTaytortot, it's been a truly memorable year. If you haven't already, head over to our stream and watch our recap of 2020 for a short overview of some of the main events of this year.
We'd also like to say a massive thank you to the brilliant development team, who are working tirelessly to make Odyssey the best experience possible. The team have also been working hard to implement important game balancing changes to improve Elite Dangerous for everyone. Looking further back on the year, it's easy to see the hard work they've put in: The beginning of 2020 saw the Fleet Carriers Beta and release, with many Commanders taking the opportunity to have a home away from home. Along with the Odyssey announcement, Elite Dangerous also welcomed an influx of new Commanders from the Epic Games Store, as well as the Horizons expansion becoming accessible to all!
September saw the return of GalNet and Community Goals, which wouldn't be possible without the development team dedicating time and resources on a regular basis, and since then we've been hard at work producing dev diaries for Odyssey, so Commanders can get a glimpse into the future of Elite Dangerous.
Finally, we want to say a special thanks to you, Commander. It's been a difficult year for everyone, and the entire team at Frontier appreciate the support and patience you've shown during our transition to safely working from home. We look forward to a brighter 2021, where things can hopefully return to normal and enjoy the future of Elite together!
Now to talk about last week's stream!
Community Racing
The Community Team were lucky enough to take part in some fantastic races last week, first of which was the Buckyball Race around Napier Installation!
This was helmed by CMDR Alec Turner from the Buckyball Racing Club & CMDR BlackMaze from EliteRacers (Join their Discord server here), so a special thank you to them. If you'd like to give this type of racing a try, there's plenty of videos online to get you started, and you can check out the race from CMDR Blackmaze's POV here:
Who knew canyon racing Type-9's could be so much fun? CMDR Ascorbius certainly did. We'd like to say another big thank you to him for organising a spot of Cow Racing during last week's stream, and if you'd like to see more Type-9 racing, check out this video from The Buur Pit:
The Road to Odyssey Part 3 - The Sphere of Combat
After a brief and unexpected news report from the O7 News Team, we shared the next part of our Road to Odyssey series, this time focusing on ground combat.
Within this part, we really wanted to highlight how getting out of your ship forces you to change your mindset and approach to the game. There'll be plenty of environments to fight in, both indoors and outdoors, and making use of SRV's and ships will certainly be important in tactical combat. We also heard from the fantastic audio team on how they are bringing the weapons of Odyssey to life, and helps to support you with vital information during combat.
There will be a variety of weapon types in Odyssey, and each one has been designed to feel different, not only in their impact, but how they affect you when you wield them.
After the Dev Diary, Community Manager Arthur sat down with Lead Designer Gareth Hughes to answer some of the most-asked questions regarding Odyssey. In case you missed it, we also posted some answers to frequently asked questions on the forum early last week. That's not all though! The Dev team are going to be answering even more questions - so we'll have another forum post for you soon.
Stellar Screenshots - SPVFA Hall of Fame
The anniversary stream also saw 10 of the finest screenshots of the year inducted into the SPVFA Hall of Fame! We'd like to thank CMDR's OrangePheonix & Exorcist for joining us on the show to discuss their selections, as well as the fine art of photography in Elite Dangerous - and a big thank you to the rest of the SPVFA judging panel!
Congratulations to all the Commanders featured in the Hall of Fame, and thank you to everyone who entered an image into #StellarScreenshots this year! Here are the stunning top 3 images from last week's show:
You'll be able to check out the full top 10 on our Instagram!
Once again, thank you all for a great year, and we can't wait to share more about Elite Dangerous: Odyssey in 2021.