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I wish X4 could add some deeper in terms of exploration. What could we have in this sense, within the X universe. Any suggestions?

And please, I'm not referring to the scanner used in X-Rebirth, although it could be used.

Be cool if exploring found hidden relics you can sell for decent money, hidden one of ship types that look well cool and higher than normal specs, natural space phenomenon you can scan to unlock some sort of benefit maybe hidden pirate station in a dense nebula that sold something special and unique. Stuff like that. Instead of exploring as in the basic sense of just seeing new areas which are mainly identical to others with just different background and music. As that's not exploring to me. Maybe finding long lost races could be good like where's the gonar gone to, or find a never seen before faction of race dedicated to that one area and offers unique missions there or buys and sells something only found there.

They could add many things in this sense, black holes, nebulae, hidden outposts, asteroid bands forming corridors (this could be very interesting to break the monotony of empty space), clusters of large complex debris, electromagnetic interferences, abandoned wrecks ... But I think the most important thing is that these phenomena should be present in a random way, so as to ensure variety not only in the most intense areas of the sectors, but also in the most extreme edges, in the empty space, where until now there was never anything to look for, except for a few abandoned containers or ships that were not very interesting

The major problem for exploration is the space itself.

I mean space is large, very large and has 3 dimensions. You can not just fly in a direction and hope for the best.
So you need an entry point. A signal, coordinates or visual clues. But if entry point and following points are to obvious it is not an exploration.

Next thing. What did you expect to explore? Abandoned stations and ships? Then what is your reward? The station must be far away from any trading route (otherwise it is not an exploration). So you can't use it. Sure you could find equipment but then it is just a special item container. Only the ship seems usefull. What else?

There are so many problems with exploration and a good implementation must be handmade not random. Because randomized exporation stuff must hit you in the face with clues or you would never noticed.

Hmmmm lets see exploration /curiosity ,ideas .
(1) UFO base, I wonder where those ships got to and from?..
(2) Gate builders ,where do they manufacture those things in the first place?.there must be a factory somewhere and ships. to carry those things..??
Sorry about my spellings.bye all .

Exploration begins with a map.

X-series really hasn't had a decent map of anything.....it's just a area simulator. Enter one scene then the next. It's NEVER felt like I'm in space! I'm stuck in a 'scene'...No freedom.

Just a top down map of what's in the star system would help!!

https://ulario.deviantart.com/art/The-A ... -273361499

https://maxvolnutt.deviantart.com/art/E ... -147229401

I like the new map of X4, if I have to be honest, it seems well done

Exploration is one of the big features in the "other" game and quite fun, albeit the ever attendant risk of stuffing up and losing all your data. I'm currently on the way back in from Saggy-A and contemplating setting out for Beagle Point once I've got an Anaconda and rolled a few FSD mods with Farseer.

Now quite how you could adapt that into the semi fictional galaxy of "X" would be challenging. We certainly don't have anything like the distances found in ED (I think Beagle Point is 65k LY from the Bubble) but it could make for an interesting campaign mission if done properly and less of a grind than doing the Hub in TC was.

BigVern wrote:for an interesting campaign mission if done properly

In a sandbox, any exploration concept that requires handcrafting plots and locations will simply fail. Because you need so many locations and things to discover (because you have to assume that people will not find them and make it so they are not always there becasue you have to assume people play multiple games)

Exploration of the X3 universe was fun - the first time you did it. Now you know the sectors - what next? Exploration only is a viable game concept if there is always something new to discover -> infinite automatic content creation (or rather placement) required.

Map generated randomly, and beyond becoming an infinitely long-lived game, solve all the problems of exploration

@ Karvat: "Map generated randomly ...".. That is not happening in X4:

Q. Will the universe be a set universe like other X games or is it procedural / randomized?

A. The map itself is not random or procedural but some of the content within it may be.

I know, but maybe in X5 it could be an excellent solution to the problem, since many want something more to explore, and there can not be much more interesting than a whole new system to explore every time

Try to think if one day, with a randomly generated map the possibility will become infinite, this series would completely reach another level and would no longer pose the problem of manually inserting elements to explore

X3 is an awesome game, but "exploration" was only a wonder at the first playthrough. All my other subsequent playthroughs pretty much use remote ships to to do exploration just to open up the map, mainly because of that "Godly" knowledge of sectors.

So why not have a combination of pre-made and random sectors to enhance replayability? We get the certain core sectors pre-generated, but there would be a limited number of outlying rim/unknown sectors randomly generated that would be different each playthrough. To add to the randomness, the connecting sectors to those random places would also be random. It makes sense at starting a game that we may have knowledge of the core sectors, but unknown sectors could be anywhere ready for exploration.

This would open up new gameplay, like missions to find a long lost exploration ship, locate a notorious pirate base, discover new artifacts/anomalies, or maybe even disturbing a hostile alien race that would start an invasion

I'm fairly certain in ED most of the systems are procedurally generated. So I assume the game only generates the planet system the first time a CMDR arrives in the system. With over 40 billion star positions represented it would be impossible to hand design each one!

Of course the attraction for explorers in ED is getting a "first discovered" tag on a star or planet which quite surprisingly I was getting even on relatively well trodden paths out to Colonia and Sagittarius-A. That has less of an appeal in a single player game where no-one else is going see your achievement. We certainly don't want X4 going down the path of an always on-line environment, with the attendant rebuy etc. baggage that comes with it.

Perhaps another option for Egosoft is expanding "space legs" so in addition to the limited walk around stations in Rebirth we can do likewise in planet surfaces (within limited area) to find quest items or materials.

Home of Light had excellent exploration. If they put material of that quality in x4 i'll be very happy.

X2 had "some" nice exploring aspect like - huge asteroids with mysterious tunnels inside, very distant outposts hidden behind local gas clouds, hidden crates here and there. That was a very good direction.
In X3 they added lost ships and removed asteroids, outposts and crates (duh!).

IMO problem with exploration from X3 and onward is not with the scale of the world but with ridiculous scanners detecting anything within their range.

There are lots of possibilities for exploration actually, you just need to have a bit of creativity and manpower/money to pull it off.

To me the main part of any feature is having a point.
If you explore and find a relic but nothing comes of it, then it really shouldn't be there.

A good example is Fallout NV. I loved stumbling upon a lone person wandering about to find my self then following a side quest with a deep and rich story telling.

In that vein, I would like to find a pirate station somewhere deep in space cloaked from Radar and have some sort of quest, or mission or special ware for sale, or maybe it would be the source of all pirate presence in the nearby sector and destroying the station will eliminate that presence and would get your a personal thank you and recognition from Galactic authority, or you could choose to work with them and lure trader to them for pillaging.

Maybe you could find a relic of some sort that would provide you with blue prints to a unique weapon or improvement to a weapon / ship / system?

Possibilities are endless but all need to have a purpose other than just visual presence.

Sandalpocalypse wrote:Home of Light had excellent exploration. If they put material of that quality in x4 i'll be very happy.

Ah yes, chasing down anomalies. Just a shame the rest of the game was still a bit broken, though it did get better after the final patch.

good example is Fallout NV. I loved stumbling upon a lone person wandering about to find my self then following a side quest with a deep and rich story telling.

Sadly I usually ended up killing them...

And I also agree exploration needs to have a purpose. Hate to keep referencing ED, but once you get to Sagittarius-A all there is to do is 600 jumps back to civilization and the hope you stay intact, as rebuy doesn't protect your exploration data.

I posted so many times about this than all I can say now that haven't said before is:

+1!