 Frontier just dropped this month's much anticipated developer update and a video detailing some of the new features coming to surface conflict zones in update 7 as well as some more details of incoming fixes and new future features currently in development for Odyssey. In this video we're breaking down everything we now know. To make sure you don't miss any of our videos hit like and subscribe, remember to click the bell icon and select all notifications and to help directly support this channel you can also join our Patreon via the link in the video description. So the monthly developer update is here and it's a doozy. The report starts by closing off some of the issues that were listed in the recently published issue report. I won't go through each one of those individually but you'll find links below to the dev update itself and also Tuesday's live stream archive from Frontier where they themselves went through each individual issue listed on there. There are a couple of standout entries on there that I'd like to point out for this video though. The top item listed on the update is lighting and illumination. Frontier have stated that after updates they've made recently to specific areas like ship cockpits, game object materials, starlight and station interiors they are deploying further changes with update 7 to areas like fleet carriers and station exteriors and then closing off the lighting bug report in lieu of further more specific feedback. Frames per second is still a hot topic for many and Fdev have acknowledged that saying that more optimizations are being deployed with update 7, they have also stated on the dev update that what they're calling more substantial optimizations will be included in update 8. The company is also saying that they have identified a cause for the ever persistent invincible thargoid heart bug that has plagued anti-zeno instances since time immemorial. You've heard from Fdev before that they thought they'd squashed the big bug bug but they are expressing a renewed confidence this time that they've finally found the issue. So we'll see what happens when update 7 drops, if successful there will no doubt be a palpable sense of goid flavoured glee from the AXI. As I mentioned there is quite a list of incoming fixes in the dev update so take a look at the link in the video description if you're after more specific information. One of the more unexpected but nonetheless welcome headlines from the rest of the update was the news that a bug fix and quality of life update will be coming to all versions of horizons PC and console in September. There's no details yet on what specifically will be in the update or when to expect it but as soon as we know those details we'll let you know here. The dev update then goes on to speak about new features for Odyssey that are either being deployed in update 7 or are in development for a future update. The items for update 7 then, perhaps the biggest headline for update 7 is the addition of an entirely new turret defense system that is being installed into surface combat zones that will target commanders ships overhead whenever they engage with any of the ground or dropship units. The new turrets are an entirely new unit that is deployed just for the conflict zone so it's not one of the regular turrets that you'll have seen associated with settlements and they are apparently quite deadly. According to Arthur on the Tuesday livestream they can be deshielded and made vulnerable to attack by a lone commander in a maverick suit cutting their panels off and overloading their shield array. In addition to the new turret, surface conflict zones will now also feature dedicated NPC ships engaging in air to air operations adding a further layer of obstacles for anyone entering a zone in a ship intent on aerial bombardment and NPC rocket launcher wielding enforcer troops on the ground to deal with incoming SRVs. The video that accompanied the announcement yesterday certainly makes the new combat zone environment look much busier and noisier and definitely much closer to the vision that was sold with Odyssey prior to its launch. I am of course speaking of the much vaunted but not yet fully realized sphere of combat. Upon seeing the impressive visuals from Frontier yesterday we were curious to understand how many commanders actually take a ship into a combat zone intent on using it as a weapon of war and thereby justifying the requirement for the new layers of defensive infrastructure both on the ground and in the air in order to deal with them as a combatant. Honestly our perception was somewhere around probably not that many at all and whilst it is by no means a scientific survey we did conduct a quick poll on YouTube to see if our perception was anywhere near the reality. At the time of recording of the 800 or so respondents to the poll only 16% say they actually deliberately take a ship into a combat zone. So our perception was right Frontier will know that. They'll have way more accurate figures than we can generate and I can't believe they would waste valuable development time particularly at the moment on such a feature unless it had some intrinsic value to the gameplay experience they are clearly trying to build yet our poll and indeed personal experience would seem to suggest the opposite. So what's going on here? The addition of the NPC ships rocket launcher troops and the turret defences clearly shows that Frontier aren't yet done with conflict zones. The sphere of combat was a headline selling point of odyssey and it was conspicuous by its absence in any meaningful way in the initial release of the expansion. And we've pointed at that issue on this very channel a few times. Whilst Frontier obviously aren't saying so at the moment I would suggest that they are still planning on making the conflict zones at the very least much more of a multi-discipline environment and these additions are part of that ongoing plan. We wouldn't be surprised if we saw the introduction of NPC SRVs in the future. I would suggest in fact that if Elite Dangerous Odyssey is ever to truly feature the sphere of combat then they are a necessity particularly for solo players. So we think the turrets and air to air engagements are a step on the road towards a fully featured sphere of combat gameplay but time will tell I guess. Next up the update post goes on to talk about the visual changes coming to starport concourse areas. As well as adding colouration to make the type of station more immediately identifiable the stations will also see changes to objects like planters, railings, roof features and objects like crates etc. Additionally wealthy and high tech stations will show less rubbish on the floor whilst agricultural, industrial and asteroidal stations will be more untidy. The much requested Apex Shuttle redirect feature will be appearing in update 7 allowing commanders to turn a shuttle flight around or redirect it to a different destination mid flight and as we reported last week module and bookmark storage will be increased to a maximum of 200. And be sure to look into your graphic settings again when update 7 drops as the AMD Fidelity FX CAS system is being re-added by popular request. Finally the developer update post goes on to speak about future updates that are being worked on for additions sometime after update 7. Horizons existing commander cosmetics are being overhauled to be available in Odyssey about time too. People myself included have paid money for those and whilst we never doubted they would eventually make an appearance their exclusion from Odyssey does carry a bitter twang. The post then speaks about features that we knew of already most notably showing work in progress screenshots of 4 person multi crew and an elite dangerous Odyssey engineer destined for the Colonia region complete with a detailed bio for the latter. And finally something that drew a lot of attention from those that read it the company is actively working on bringing social spaces to megaships note this is not for fleet carriers but the NPC controlled megaships that are sprinkled throughout the galaxy allowing frontier to in their words position a base for on foot services such as vista genomics and pioneer supplies anywhere in the galaxy quite what that will be used for specifically we don't yet know. During the revelation the subject of fleet carrier concourses was brought up by the viewers of the live stream as I'm sure you can imagine all Arthur would say on the subject is that they are aware of commander's desires for fleet carrier social spaces but he wouldn't elaborate further I'll leave it up to you to take from that comment what you would like to take from that comment. We don't yet know when the update for elite dangerous horizons is scheduled but we do know it's being slated for some time in September elite dangerous Odyssey update seven is expected around the middle of September. So what do you think of the plans for conflict zones and what gameplay do you think FDF has planned for megaships and will we see fleet carrier concourses at some point let us know in the comments below that's it for now thanks very much for watching if you enjoyed this video consider subscribing to the channel and maybe take a look at one of our other videos linked on screen right now.