After keeping us crammed inside spaceships and planetary vehicles for years, Elite Dangerous will let us stretch our tired space legs in its next expansion: Odyssey. You'll be able to drop down to worlds, hop out of your ship and go for a wander, or maybe a fight, in first-person.
Elite added planetary landings and a ground layer back in 2015, with the Horizons expansion, and naturally that's getting a lot more fleshed now you'll soon be hoofing it around the planet in your sci-fi sneakers.
You'll be able to undertake ground missions that, much like their cosmic counterparts, include diplomatic gigs, commercial ventures and combat. You'll find work, assistance and shops in social hubs all across the galaxy, meeting your fellow pilots in person rather than peering at them through the window.
Just like your ship, you'll need to equip yourself before striking off, picking different loadouts depending on what kind of mission your undertaking. These ground fights don't take place in a vacuum either, so you'll need to watch out for SRVs and ships. You'll probably want to bring some mates.
There's mention of new tech powering the worlds, and you'd assume there'd have to be some significant changes to the countless moons and planets dotted around Elite's vast galaxy to make them engaging places to wander around and fight on.
Odyssey is coming early 2021, but there's a big new addition coming this month, as well, with the arrival of fleet carriers. These incredibly expensive ships serve as mobile stations with landing pads and all the kinds of services you'd usually find at an NPC station. Not for broke space tourists like me, unfortunately.
