The very first Dev Diary for Elite: Dangerous Odyssey is out: One Giant Leap!
Let’s have a look to these first details.

 

A few additional details taken from these interviews, Journalists/Developers (itw 1 & itw2):

  • Our suits (and us) will need Oxygen
  • There will ne procedurally generated bases (industrial, military, small outposts, …), points of interests and ports on the surface
  • Flora and Fauna will be available, both scannable from the orbit
  • No flight model for now (no answer from the devs)
  • No ships interiors at launch for Odyssey
  • Not sure if the transition from ship/SRV to pilot will be a fade to black or another transition.
  • No port to Xbox Series X and PS5.

 

The developers want to deliver on the promise they made at launch, to allow the players to stroll on the surface of billions of planets in-game and to explore the new worlds, outside of our ships. We will be able to land on more planets and explore them on foot. So again, every planets in-game may not be ready for exploration on foot.

Odyssey will add a new dimension to the game and to all gameplay currently available, to make it deeper and more interesting.

A special suit will need to be worn to explore on foot. The latter will be more resistant in order to counter the hostile effects and the surrounding vacuum of space.

The planets and textures have been reworked, as can be seen in the video with a rocky planet and an icy planet. The maximum viewing distance on the surface has also been increased and we will be able to see flora on the surface.

Hopefully it won’t destroy all the tracks players created with canyons, craters and everything.

Many species of plants may be seen on the surface, and we can also use a Sampling Tool to extract samples of this flora, to resell them on various stations for rewards.

There will be a new Rank to xp: Xenobiologist and you can even tag the planet with your name if you explore it first!

No details about the regularity of these Dev Diaries, but hopefully… they will be regular! 😉
The Dev Diaries from 2014 were in a video format, 5 minutes every months. I find it very short, but at least that’s something.

See you soon on Discord and Twitter!

 

Source

Official thread in the Elite Dangerous forums

Thank you Kralone for the additional bits of information discovered in the interviews.