What do you expect from Egosoft? (next game)

General discussions about X Rebirth.

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quick poll about your expectations

X:Rebirth 2 (X:R conception)
47
31%
X4 (X 1-2-3 conception)
105
69%
 
Total votes: 152

Artean
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Post by Artean » Fri, 4. Sep 15, 16:42

Bernd wrote:
Artean wrote:And, lastly, I wish for more exploration in 'outer space' - abandoned pirate bases, ship wrecks, nebula and such!
May I ask how much you played The Teladi Outpost?
Cause that was the main priority of this DLC. What do you miss in TTO in particular (in the regard of exploration in a dangerous nebulas etc.)

-Bernd
Yes, I've owned TO since release and enjoyed it. I just wish that the original sectors had just as much exploration value as TO. The dangerous regions looks really good and would be perfect for at least one in Devries as well!
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move." - D.N.A

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Post by mr.WHO » Fri, 4. Sep 15, 17:59

Bernd wrote:
Artean wrote:And, lastly, I wish for more exploration in 'outer space' - abandoned pirate bases, ship wrecks, nebula and such!
May I ask how much you played The Teladi Outpost?
Cause that was the main priority of this DLC. What do you miss in TTO in particular (in the regard of exploration in a dangerous nebulas etc.)

-Bernd

What I'd love for the next game is something similar to "Unfocused jump drive" sector, but instead the sector the whole system would be randomly generated from pre-defined parts (backgrounds, sectors, zones, pirate bases, xenon bases, wrecks and crates to explore).


Let say we use something like UJD on our capship (carriers and Arran style montherships would be handy) - we prepare ourself for the expedition (fuel, ammunition, fighters and other stuff).
We pack it on to our UJD equipped ship and jump. then the UJD system is randomly generated:
- background is picked
- sectors are randomly created
- zones are randomly created
- zones are randomly filled with content (pirate bases, Xenon infestation, treasure crates, wrecks, abbandoned ships to claim, nebulas)
- since most of these systems would not have highways there should be some kind of long range scanners that could "ping" for nearby sectors/zones. Each "ping" could have a chance to reveal the zone/sector, but also has a chance to lure local pirates/Xenons to your position.
- once you think you explore enough or exchausted your expedition too much you use UJD again - you go back to normal space and the temporary UJD system dissapear.


Basically every time you jump you have chance to explore something new - new system, new dangers, new treasures.
This offers METRIC TONS OF FUN AND REPLAYABILITY.

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Nikola515
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Post by Nikola515 » Fri, 4. Sep 15, 18:18

What i actually want to see in explaining is random generated events..... TO was pretty good looking but after you see something there is no reason coming back. FTL did pretty good job with this as well as SPG1 and SPG2...... Alos SC have pretty good idea too....
It's not world hunger because we can't feed poor,it's because there will never be enough to feed the rich .....

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Post by Boringnick » Fri, 4. Sep 15, 18:20

Bernd wrote:I am always hesitating to reply to such threads, but here I go anyway...

The question of the poll is not very helpful, because everybody who votes has a different understanding of what the two options really mean. Yet I like to read the replies in this thread.

The only real simple to understand difference between XR sequel and X4 as you guys call it would be the technological engine we use. These two are fundamentally different and with that I do NOT mainly mean the graphics engine. DX12 DX9, Vulkan or OpenGL can be put over any of our game engines. But the game engine in itself is a lot different and we put our main development effort in the XR technology both for a new game as well as a bug update and DLC (see recent video explaining this a little).

Other than that however, it is the game features that matter and they are really independant from the engine we use. From just following threads here I am pretty sure that some features would get very clear vote results (Should player be able to fly many ships? Should player be able to command cap ships more directly from a bridge? Should we add more advanced fleet management?). So yes, we know which direction to work in for the forseeable future and before there will be a new game, there will be a lot more cool things also happening in the form of DLC and (free) Update.

Please just give us a little time and continue to support us.

Thanks!

-Bernd
Sheesh, guys, no one cares about the engine. X-Rebirth is a scaled back thing that puts it somewhere between Xtension and Freelancer.

When the fans say they want a "X4" they mean:

Empire-building!

That's what the standout feature of X was.

-The ability to build hundreds of factories and complexes
-Huge fleets
-HUGE everything (lots of factions, weapons, ships, sectors)

What X4 should add to the above:

-Streamlined interface to accomplish all this without having two-dozen menus. Note: PCs have a mouse.

-More interactions between the factions (diplomacy and stuff).

-Putting all the fleets you're building up to good use. Like some massive enemy in the galaxy that you need to destroy as a long-term goal (with a fleet, not by completing a few quests). The Litcube's Universe mod shows how that could work.

If you guys would have added these features on-top of those X3 already, and beefed up the graphics, you would have had a top-product on your hands, guys.

You're sometimes in deep denial about your user-base (a good example of this were the wisecracking teen-characters in X3)

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Post by Tamina » Fri, 4. Sep 15, 18:32

Bernd wrote:
Artean wrote:And, lastly, I wish for more exploration in 'outer space' - abandoned pirate bases, ship wrecks, nebula and such!
May I ask how much you played The Teladi Outpost?
Cause that was the main priority of this DLC. What do you miss in TTO in particular (in the regard of exploration in a dangerous nebulas etc.)

-Bernd
The Teladi Outpost is a perfect "prototype" how the rest of the X universe should look like imho (the one without any highways).

Removing the highways made this sector really "big" and "dangerous" because you couldn't just jump into the next highway and boost far away when getting in contact with Xenons.
Also the fact that you had to discover every zone first (instead of just flying along the highways) made it even bigger and more dangerous and the exploration part was really fun.
Finding new stations after a long search or following another ship to do so gave me personally a big feeling of happiness and success.

Another cool thing is the "active environment" in this sector, speaking of hull-eating nebulas. Made it even more unique, dangerous, interesting and neat looking.
Notevery system needs something like this but some variety with this active environment in some sectors would make for some interesting gameplay.

I only wished every sector in the XR universe would have been like this one. :( :)


Things I would like to see:
1.) Superhighway entrances/exits and gates to be more centered in the middle of a sector somewhere. I would expect an economy to revolve around such spots for obvious reasons and not develop only in one direction.
Giving the advantage that you can explore a system upon entering it in every direction.
Not saying that all gates and all super highways should be located (always) in one spot.
2.) More interesting stuff to explore or some spots of interest. TO had two interesting stations (besides missing gameplay and interaction with those stations (the pirate station was like every other station, nothing special)).
In XR there is not much happening between zones, there are no fights, no pirate raids. The only thing happening is some randomly spawned capitals placed into zones.
Giving pirates their own "economy" like gameplay and making them grow by raiding first some ships travelling outside of zones and when they have the firepower raiding whole zones would make for a very interesting pirate-gameplay.
3.) Capitals with their boosters and especially the cheap-to-use jumpdrives kind of destroyed the whole system a bit by replacing the non-existend (and also in other sectors "existend") highways.

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Post by UniTrader » Fri, 4. Sep 15, 18:39

Nikola515 wrote:What i actually want to see in explaining is random generated events..... TO was pretty good looking but after you see something there is no reason coming back. FTL did pretty good job with this as well as SPG1 and SPG2...... Alos SC have pretty good idea too....
Not so much events but I think my Jump script goes a bit in this direction: If there is no jump beacon in the destination sector (or you choose not to use jump beacons) my script selects a random object in the destination sector as one-time JB - so you could end up near a pirate base you didn't know it existed when using that jump type (probability depends on object size - bigger ones are more likely but everything over 1m in size is possible)
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Nikola515
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Post by Nikola515 » Fri, 4. Sep 15, 19:04

UniTrader wrote:
Nikola515 wrote:What i actually want to see in explaining is random generated events..... TO was pretty good looking but after you see something there is no reason coming back. FTL did pretty good job with this as well as SPG1 and SPG2...... Alos SC have pretty good idea too....
Not so much events but I think my Jump script goes a bit in this direction: If there is no jump beacon in the destination sector (or you choose not to use jump beacons) my script selects a random object in the destination sector as one-time JB - so you could end up near a pirate base you didn't know it existed when using that jump type (probability depends on object size - bigger ones are more likely but everything over 1m in size is possible)
Thanks :D Ill definitely check it out ;)
It's not world hunger because we can't feed poor,it's because there will never be enough to feed the rich .....

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Post by mr.WHO » Fri, 4. Sep 15, 19:34

Boringnick wrote: When the fans say they want a "X4" they mean:

Empire-building!

That's what the standout feature of X was.

-The ability to build hundreds of factories and complexes
-Huge fleets
-HUGE everything (lots of factions, weapons, ships, sectors)
You do realize that this is completely untrue? X1-2-3 allow you in theory to have this, but in reality when your empire start growing the game become less and less playable.

You could build compex with hundred station, but then you cannot visit that sector anymore and it will give noticable CPU stress even when OOS.

Same with huge fleets you can have them but it then become menu-spam nightmare (without mods) to manage them and still with huge fleet you cannot enjoy directly (in sector) as their combat will kill your CPU (single-core support only).

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Post by Boringnick » Fri, 4. Sep 15, 19:44

If this is not possible, how have people completed the hub-plot?

Complexes are managable if you build with care. You can also split them up using the CLS-script.

Besides, this is something that is perfectly improvable. I for one had no OOS-problems with complexes and the in-sector issues happen because every complex-component gets rendered like a single station.

It should be possible to simplify the rendering once the game detects a complex. Simplyfing the tubes alone would better things by far I think.
mr.WHO wrote:Same with huge fleets you can have them but it then become menu-spam nightmare (without mods) to manage them and still with huge fleet you cannot enjoy directly (in sector) as their combat will kill your CPU (single-core support only).
That's what they should improve in X4. They could very well use an modified X-R engine for it.

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Post by vukica » Fri, 4. Sep 15, 22:41

Earth Ultimatum IV. wrote:I loved exploring TO zones and then working for pirates.
But yes, got to agree with the above. It was a bit too temporary.
Maybe if those pirate stations, nebulas and xenon territories were added to non-DLC systems?
word

the original sectors were basic at best. more danger on the outskirts would have been better and more interesting.
Split say NEED MORE FIREPOWER!!

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Post by Artean » Fri, 4. Sep 15, 23:34

vukica wrote:the original sectors were basic at best. more danger on the outskirts would have been better and more interesting.
Exactly.
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move." - D.N.A

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Post by Santi » Sat, 5. Sep 15, 01:04

I agree with all those that say that The Teladi Outpost is the way to go, none of the highways showing you the way and delivering you door to door with very little input.

It was thrilling locating one of the nav buoys and then making my way to the first unexplored zone while my hull was being chewed by the Nebula, making decisions like trying to go around it or fly straight in and hope for the best, or simply going deep into space trying to work out where the next zone was located, top stuff.

One thing I would prefer is an alternative to Gates, as in my opinion they bottle neck too much the Universe. Or have really massive Gates where whole fleets could go through at the same time.
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Nikola515
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Post by Nikola515 » Sat, 5. Sep 15, 01:15

Have anyone fly in TO with cap ship and cap ship mod ? I must say it was pretty epic especially when flying trough nebula with those lightings and sounds when they hit hull :D That was amazing but too bad that we can't use cap ships to explore in XR....
It's not world hunger because we can't feed poor,it's because there will never be enough to feed the rich .....

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Post by Snafu_X3 » Sat, 5. Sep 15, 01:33

Earth Ultimatum IV. wrote:Maybe if those pirate stations, nebulas and xenon territories were added to non-DLC systems?
Nebulas everywhere would make a certain amount of sense.. but irrritating for newcomers IMO unless the highway system is kept (finally a reason for highways that makes limited IG sense!).. but limiting in where players can exploit 'Empty sectors'

Pirate 'stations' already exist with the TO DLC (assuming you mean 'landable' stations; I agree it would be good to have more..
Wiki X:R 1st Tit capping
Wiki X3:TC vanilla: Guide to generic missions, Guide to finding & capping Aran
Never played AP; all X3 advice is based on vanilla+bonus pack TC or before: AP has not changed much WRT general advice.

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Nikola515
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Post by Nikola515 » Sat, 5. Sep 15, 01:35

Have anyone fly in TO with cap ship and cap ship mod ? I must say it was pretty epic especially when flying trough nebula with those lightings and sounds when they hit hull :D That was amazing but too bad that we can't use cap ships to explore in XR....
It's not world hunger because we can't feed poor,it's because there will never be enough to feed the rich .....

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Santi
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Post by Santi » Sat, 5. Sep 15, 01:35

If in the next game we do not get a couple of flyable ships with dock space for smaller ships I will be severely disappointed. It is one of the coolest things in space games and add so much to gameplay.
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Post by Gligli » Sat, 5. Sep 15, 10:41

About TO
santi wrote:I agree with all those that say that The Teladi Outpost is the way to go, none of the highways showing you the way and delivering you door to door with very little input.
+1
santi wrote:It was thrilling locating one of the nav buoys and then making my way to the first unexplored zone while my hull was being chewed by the Nebula, making decisions like trying to go around it or fly straight in and hope for the best, or simply going deep into space trying to work out where the next zone was located, top stuff.
It's true, but only the firsts times.
Plus, following the highway is not the only solution to expect sectors positions:
You can simply look at arrangements for holes...
Or more accurate, look at numbers on their name.
That's not enough for exploration

One good idea close to stretched sectors, which can make highways useful, is to put Huuuge 'nothing' between sectors.
But please, randomise a bit all of that. It is way too much predictable :)

If clusters have defined amount of sectors, it's no good.

Finally play more with "Z-axis". There are attempts in OL but evidence finally take the advantage. Maybe it's human :) (I don't talk about fight here)
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Post by algoc » Sat, 5. Sep 15, 13:37

Many great suggestions has been given already but here my list:
- Strong emphasis to what X series is famous of, especially; empire building and trading.
- More simulation, less randomization. Every ship and NPC has a purpose and they are doing something meaningful and for a reason (X: Rebirth did relatively good job already)
- Missions could have a meaning and impact, and not just be "fillers" that player would have something to do and to get some money.
- Deep and even relatively complex game mechanisms. Something that you need to work on and have experience to master (Paradox Development Studio's grand strategy games)
- NPCs could have more personality by giving them skill levels, motivation and history. More emphasis to lore and make "universe" more living.
- No voice acted NPCs but only text. It is cheaper and much more flexible.

Well, of course many of the suggestions are enormous for a small team but maybe some day in X series at least if not in next game :)

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Post by MegaJohnny » Sat, 5. Sep 15, 22:27

I wouldn't mind seeing highways go in favour of boosters. But it would be a pre-requisite that they fix up the borders between zones, which are currently a bit screwy.

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Post by A5PECT » Sun, 6. Sep 15, 05:07

I really like the layout of TO space, but I don't want to scrap (non-super)highways completely. I definitely think they should be made less prominent. I'd like larger sectors to have a simple highway layout connecting two or three of the most active, civilized, and established zones, with 3+ "independent" zones spread out across open space.

Highways and superhighways would connect beginner zones: well-defended population and industrial centers where new players can find basic trade opportunities, minor enemy encounters, and lots of low-level mission offers. Off the beaten track you'll find advanced zones: where the player will find more lucrative trading, more dangerous enemies and environments, and more difficult and elaborate missions that offer greater rewards. All of this is so players starting a new game can still find missions and make money to buy their first capital ship. Once they have that, they'll be able to strike out into the "wilderness."

As for navigating these un-highwayed zones, just place navigation beacons at and leading to them. Then have them register a ping when the player performs a long range scan; it'd be a very clever application of a mechanic that plays a relatively minor role in its current state. An alternative method would be to re-introduce the ability to purchase map data from previous games, or even automated/hireable scouts and surveyors to fill a similar role as explorer software from X3.

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