 This is a Witchspace news Odyssey bulletin, I'm CMDR Buur. In this week's show, Frontier livestreamed an interview with lead designer on Elite Dangerous Odyssey Gareth Hughes as well as an 8 minute Odyssey gameplay trailer last night. In today's show we're going to run through what we've learnt from that interview. If you enjoyed this video remember to hit like and subscribe and if you'd like to help support the work of this channel you'll also find us on Patreon, links to everything you need are in the description below. During the interview livestream last night the team were at pains to point out that that mission shown is just one mission type on one specific planet in one specific settlement type and importantly is being executed in one specific way. Odyssey as with all things Elite is all about choice and as such in Odyssey there is usually more than one way to relieve a hapless feline of its winter coat. The settlement shown was one of 27 different types and layouts of settlements that spans a total of 6 different themed installations. Those themes are industrial, agricultural, military, extraction, research and tourism. Populating these settlements are a number of AI NPCs but they essentially break down into two categories civilians and guards. The background simulation will be ever pervasive as with the rest of Elite and how you sit with the faction that owns the installation you're walking through will determine how they react to you. If you're standing with them is perfectly cordial then they're less likely to treat you with suspicion. If you're an unknown to them you can expect to be stopped and scanned by the guards and they'd better be okay with what they detect on you and if you're a criminal in the eyes of that organisation you can expect the base to light up in response to your presence. If you do have good standing with the faction however there's a chance that you'll also find more unique mission givers in a settlement offering less generic missions that have a little more flavour to them. Your reputation with the faction can of course change significantly while you're in the settlement which will change things up again people do get funny about murdering or stealing. It's important to note however that the settlement AI don't have what Frontier called a Hive Mind just because one individual guard knows that you're a no good type that doesn't iron their socks or wash up their mug in the work canteen if you can quietly stop them from making a radio call to their colleagues then well that guard will be the only one that ever knew about Sockgate. The guards and civilians won't react well to a number of stimuli as well continually pointing a gun at someone's face for example will raise their eye significantly but they will issue warnings and tell you to stop rather than just reaching for the automated lead dispenser and then letting RNGs sort it out. As was shown in the playthrough heist video access to some buildings and equipment is gated by an authority level a large number printed on the readout for a door or console and you can gain access to those gates via a number of different means all of which come with their own plus and minus points. The heist video shows a door access panel being cut away with a new cutting tool and then the door mechanism overloaded with another new power siphon and delivery tool but you're not restricted to that to gain access. Every AI you encounter can be scanned in a similar way to how you scan a ship in the main game currently and in doing so you get to see their access level it's possible to clone their credentials and then use them to gain access to areas or kit that were locked off to you previously don't get caught cloning them or get caught with the cloned credentials however they won't react well and you may be forced to flee prematurely or persuade them to quietly lay down and take a long duration dirt nap while you continue your dubious deeds. Likewise if the AIC's evidence of your ill-doings like the cut panel and overloaded door or frank from accounts taking a sudden and unexpected horizontal perma sleep they will react adversely to your presence and attempt to negotiate your forced ejection from the universe. Overall the vibe frontier we're attempting to convey is that despite the predominantly run and gun approach shown in the necessarily action packed promotional video there are in fact a number of different approaches you can take and Gareth also described how it would be possible to for example modify your weapons and equipment for a more stealthy approach infiltrate the base deactivate alarms and defences etc and then perform your nefarious actions without anyone ever knowing you were there. Until of course they go to get their salad from the shared canteen fridge and someone has clearly had a dip in their mayo already. Oh and Jeff the maintenance guy is slumped next to the coffee machine with a brand new still smoking third eye socket in the middle of his forehead. When the team went on to describe more of the mission types we'd be engaged in one of the more interesting to me personally was in fact the exact reverse of what was shown in the heist video instead of infiltrating and disabling a perfectly functional installation after stealing a power regulator will be given a power regulator and tasked with installing it in a disabled damaged and abandoned base to bring it back online. These installations may be on fire or may have criminal types ransacking them or be visited by scavengers half way through your mission. But if successful you'll be bringing the installation back to life again which sounds like a really cute twist on the usual video game trope of make that thing not work anymore. The subject of death in Odyssey was finally addressed last night and the solution is actually simple. If you're on foot and don't own a spaceship if you didn't know by the way you don't need to own a spaceship to play Odyssey then you'll be respawned at the nearest starport or space station. If you do own a ship then you'll get the starport choice or the choice to spawn in your ship. If your ship is in a station you're spawning the ship there, if the ship was on the ground it'll be pushed to orbit and then you're spawned on the ship there instead. If you had anything in your backpack the on foot Odyssey equivalent of your ships hold then unsurprisingly you'll lose it. We've seen some comments online that the AI shown in the demonstration had a weapon accuracy that seemed to imply that they've learned to shoot at the same place as the stormtroopers from Star Wars and that they didn't evade fire much if at all. Fair criticism but the community team were keen to stress what we suspected that for the purposes of the demonstration they didn't spawn in the most competent and deadly AI and that in the final game you can expect all sorts of different levels of AI competency driven by the nature of the installation, the faction in control and various wobbles in the BGS etc and scanning the AI before you engage with them will tell you what you're up against. Other details that came out in the discussion, rewards as you'll expect will scale with mission difficulty, the hacking into systems that were shown uses a consumable called an e-breach and these are apparently quite expensive to buy which will need to be balanced against the mission rewards to determine how you'll approach the mission. Players will be able to take on diverse roles based on the balance and modification of their suits, weapons loadout and equipment and the team reiterated that base anti ship defences are very strong and a full frontal aerial assault on the base that was shown would mean your ship lasting between 15 to 20 seconds or so before becoming an expensive fiery lawn dart. And two very cool final details, as we reported yesterday your ship's docking computer will have the ability to auto land you on a planet's surface, not just a landing pad, doing away with the embarrassing dirt shuffle that often accompanies that particular manoeuvre. And whilst frontier have stated before that certain ambient conditions on a planet that are lethal will prevent you leaving your ship entirely, I'm speaking particularly of temperature, those conditions can change and whilst it might be safe to leave your ship on a given planet in darkness while the sun is down you are still orbiting a star and as we know daylight can cause things to warm up considerably in elite and if you don't pay attention to the conditions and where you are in those conditions daybreak could mean you becoming a charcoal flavoured french fry. So there you have it that's one very small portion of the Odyssey experience expanded upon, we still know almost nothing about exploration and scavenging in the upcoming paid expansion and I suspect there's a whole bunch of stuff that we don't yet know that we don't know. How are you feeling about Odyssey now that you've seen this slice, what sort of approach can you see you taking when assaulting a base like the ones shown and what sort of mission type has you most excited, let us know in the comments below. The Elite Dangerous Odyssey Alpha launches on the PC on the 29th of March, this is going to be a very long month indeed. That's it for now, thanks very much for watching, we'll be back later this week with more videos until then, O7 commanders follow the greens on the way out and do keep clear of the toast rack, we very much look forward to seeing you next time.