Elite Dangerous aims to take one giant leap with its upcoming Odyssey expansion. This new content will not only allow players to disembark their ships, but also open up the far reaches of the galaxy, allowing players to be the first to step onto undiscovered planets and explore on foot.
As part of the Odyssey expansion, Frontier will also introduce the First Footfall system, which revolves around the first player to set foot on a newly discovered planet. This system will work similarly to the First Discovered By and First Mapped By features, but on a planetary level, rather than smaller points of interest.
The developer has answered a few questions about this new system via a blog post. Ironically, one of the more notable points from this Q&A is that you won’t be able to disembark on every planet you encounter. “The ability to disembark however is subject to the survivability of the environment, with temperature and gravity both playing a part in the length of time you can survive. In extreme conditions the ability to disembark will be blocked completely,” says the post.
The Odyssey expansion has expanded the galaxy exponentially. According to Frontier, the number of new planets you’ll be able to land on will range in the billions. To give you a more precise estimate, based on the regions the developer has tested so far, the expansion will have around 20% more landable planets than the base game.
New players will be happy to know that the First Footfall system won’t rely upon how much time you’ve spent in the game. “Elite Dangerous is a huge and expansive galaxy containing more than 400 billion star systems. To date, our players have traversed just 201 million of these systems which equates to around 0.05%.” This means that there are a whole lot of undiscovered planets for players to explore and achieve a First Footfall experience, even if you start right now.
The blog went on to answer some more minor questions about the system. The First Footfall achievement will not have any limits, you’ll be able to claim it each time you’re the first to disembark on an undiscovered planet. However, Frontier will be monitoring in-game ‘firsts’ and won’t hesitate to revoke these achievements if they are obtained via illegitimate means.
To keep in sync with in-game lore and history, these firsts are recorded with the Commander's name at the time of discovery, so changing your name will not retroactively change the name listed during earlier discoveries of planets and locations.
Lastly, Frontier wants to make sure that this galactic level land-grab is fair. In accordance with that, the blog post concluded, “In the same way that Buzz Aldrin made way for Neil Armstrong to be the first man on the moon, the control to disembark is for an individual commander and there will always be someone first down the ladder, this accolade will not be shared between commanders.”
Elite Dangerous: Odyssey was set to release early this year, however, it has been delayed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown imposed in the UK.