Elite Dangerous: Odyssey's new settlement promises a powerful blend of foot and spaceship combat, but don't expect to be able to destroy a town as easily as loading an Anaconda full of missiles and riding into its front gates.

In a Reddit Q&A, developer Frontier detailed the planet-side settlements that Odyssey will explore when it lands later this spring. From the description, these interstellar settlements are likely to be a pushover for one inquirer's plan to bring in an Orca loaded with mines.

"The settlements' defenses are pretty strong," the Frontier staffer replied." If we don't stop that first, we may suddenly find ourselves without orcas: ......."

Besides shooting down tour boats, this post goes into the details of how the settlements work. Yes, while you can shoot down everyone in town, the settlements will gradually bring in more and more formidable reinforcements. These are not unlimited, and given enough time, a ghost town can be created.

The "abandoned" state is just one of the many states a settlement can be in, with various states indicating whether the town is active, at war, damaged, or offline. If a settlement is intentionally powered down, it can sneak into restricted areas. On the other hand, hacking a settlement's defenses can render it helpless against reckless air strikes by its peers.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey may have been delayed, but only briefly. Alpha Access. will be battened down the hatches later this spring. Andy Kelly, who sent a probe into frontier space for a preview, estimates that Odyssey could be "the most dramatic, game-changing Elite Dangerous update yet."