Frontier Developments has kicked out the September development update for Elite: Dangerous, and this one is full of tidbits for the upcoming Update 8 for the Odyssey expansion and beyond, which is not only bringing more optimizations and navmesh improvements to heighten performance but is also bringing gameplay features to the table as well.
Among these new features is the addition of several emotes; interiors for megaships; four-player multicrew features for specific spacecraft; the addition of Odyssey engineers in Colonia; and new gameplay elements to missions such as hostile agents attempting to intercept players while en-route, contacts that can meet at settlements, and NPCs attempting to use shuttles to flee to hyperspace. The post also provided a look at future features beyond Update 8, including a new two-seater combat SRV, Fleet Carrier interiors, and the promise of further mission variety and elements.
A timeline for Update 8’s release and other future content plans hasn’t been tied down right now, but the September post has quite a few things to chew on. In the meantime, Update 7 on PC has seen some adjustments of note and several fixes for Horizons on console have also recently deployed.
