 This is Witchbase news for Friday the 2nd of October 2020 I'm CMDR Buur In this weeks news, Horizons becomes part of the base game Community goals continue thick and fast with unique rewards Developer Diary 2 lands and blows the doors off of station interiors And there's a revealing developer interview online If you enjoyed this video remember to hit the thumbs up and subscribe to the channel So that you don't miss any of our future updates It's a bumper week of Elite News this week Here we go In a surprise post to the forums earlier this week Frontier announced that the erstwhile paid expansion to the Elite Dangerous base game, Horizons Was being what they describe as folded into the main game And would no longer be a separate paid expansion If you're one of the few Elite Dangerous commanders who hasn't taken the plunge with Horizons yet And there are people out there who haven't Then you're about to gain access to planetary landings, ship launched fighters, engineers, guardian technology, SRVs and more The decision to fold Horizons into the main game before the Odyssey expansion makes absolute sense for Frontier and for the player base At the very least it serves no one to have the players fractured across three different distinct products With space being the only common zone we'd all share The Horizons expansion becomes a free update on the 27th of October And when the change happens, pre-existing Horizon owners will be getting a free Azure paint job That fits every single ship in the game including the SLFs by way of a thank you When Frontier promised the return of Community Goals a few weeks back here at the pit We figured we'd see maybe one a month and honestly be happy with that Having gone from months of... let me just check the figures again Do you want to carry the two? Yeah, none a month It appears though that FD ever keen to keep the CG's coming at quite the pace And are currently at least frankly hosing the thirsty community down with CG's And not only that, they're paying out much more than just money As I speak these words, the CG that just ended to furnish the memorial ceremony of Harold Duvall with Rare Goods Is about to grant a 20% discount on all Gutamaya ships for a week Starting today, the 2nd of October And also pilots are being granted a system access permit to the Akanar system The very heart of the Empire without the need to gain reputation with the Imperials first We're betting here that there's a reason for that last bit A reason we don't yet know but a reason nonetheless There's clearly a story being played out here and Frontier want everyone to have access To whatever is about to happen in Akanar Pretty much as soon as last week's CG ended another one Continuing the plot sprung up with the engineer Liz Ryder Being linked to the Thargoid enhanced explosives That took down some Imperial stations at the start of all this This time around it's a combat focused event with two sides vying for power To either protect Liz or incarcerate her There is a unique and likely unavailable ever again missile rack Being offered for the protection of engineer Liz If you're in the top 75% of commanders participating As well as financial rewards The Imperial half of the event is just offering credits So the CG could go one of two ways But it's fairly evident what way Frontier would prefer it go And as of my speaking these words The CG's progress bar would seem to indicate That it is indeed going the way of protecting Liz The current CG runs until next Thursday Unless its goals are hit before then I wouldn't wait too long to get involved Just saying The first of a new series of developer diaries in the run-up To the release of Odyssey dropped just over a month ago now And whilst it made a splash It was generally agreed that the splash could have been bigger Clearly keen to ensure that they make a somewhat bigger splash Frontier released the second dev diary to a hungry community this week And without a shadow of a doubt A bigger splash was most definitely what they got The opening moment of the diary goes straight for the jugular And shows a bar area in the social space of an asteroid star pool With commanders standing and sitting around And ships flying overhead Oh thank you We're then quickly treated to armed commanders Walking toward an almost western style settlement town On a planetary surface And numerous internal shots of the settlement And star port sprinkled with concept art And work in progress animations and spacesuits And yeah that's a bit more like it The dev diary wasn't due to go live until Wednesday afternoon Local time But due to a slip up by one of Frontier's partners The diary accidentally leaked on Tuesday Rather than wait And then try to pretend it didn't happen The team were very quick to react And instead not only released the diary But went live on Twitch with an impromptu And actually really funny and quite self aware live stream Talking with the community about what they were seeing And answering some questions Of the printed press that did pick up on the release of the dev diary Most of it was honestly fairly forgettable But one article from Polygon appeared in the form of an interview With Odyssey's lead designer Gareth Hughes That is definitely worth your eyes Divalging as it does some very juicy details Suffice to say we've linked it below Frontier also answered a bunch of questions On their regular Thursday live stream last night And here at the pit We've also been granted access to some answers to commonly asked questions Which will be collating with everything we now know And breaking down in another video as soon as we humanly can So make sure you stay tuned for that Without a shadow of a doubt The hype train for Odyssey has left the station And is now solidly thundering towards its early 2021 release window What the next couple of diaries will reveal We can't wait to see That's it for now Thanks very much for watching We'll be back later this week with more videos Until then, 07 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