[Request] Random universe start

[SirConnery]

This would increase replayability by a lot. Just have a disclaimer when starting "This is experimental and will not produce a balanced universe".

Having a randomly generated universe out of the current sectors would be amazing. I don't care so much if it's balanced, it would be fun. You could include options for tweaking such as

1) Terran sectors always connected
2) Being able to tweak how many starting zones for each faction

[CBJ]

The current level of randomness, with the starting positions and states of many stations and ships not pre-defined, was relatively easy to achieve. Randomising the underlying universe layout would be quite a bit harder to set up for a number of technical reasons, regardless of in-game issues such as the economy. And it's not just the economy; having no reliable layout would definitely break story missions, but might well break other missions too, and a number of other internal systems, such as those that handle faction behaviour, manage the normal ships that fly around, and so on, would likely also break.

Judging by people's ability to read sticky threads, I don't think relying on people to read a disclaimer would prevent people from complaining about the game being "broken", and leaving negative reviews, if we did this entirely randomly as you suggest! However, a more viable scenario might be to have "known" areas of the universe that remain fixed, but add "unknown" areas that can vary from game to game. This would solve most of the above problems, while still allowing for more exploration and extending replayability. None of this would be likely to happen any time soon, though, as it would require quite a lot of major changes.

[chew-ie]

[..]
However, a more viable scenario might be to have "known" areas of the universe that remain fixed, but add "unknown" areas that can vary from game to game.
[..]

*cough*unfocusedjumpdrive*cough*

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I like that idea - we need more unkown space exploration / deep space expeditions to find McGuffin(s).

[Uwe Poppel]

*cough*unfocusedjumpdrive*cough*

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I like that idea - we need more unkown space exploration / deep space expeditions to find McGuffin(s).

We actually don't even need the "UFJD" for that, it would be enough if warp anomalies or dead jumpgates were suddenly active - maybe only for a few hours/days??? (Information for example about GalNet messages or special missions).
And if the Boron really managed to activate a dead jumpgate now (KE-DLC??), the player could use their technology for a final activation of jumpgates...

Well, maybe only for X5...

[LandogarX4]

[..]
However, a more viable scenario might be to have "known" areas of the universe that remain fixed, but add "unknown" areas that can vary from game to game.
[..]

*cough*unfocusedjumpdrive*cough*

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I like that idea - we need more unkown space exploration / deep space expeditions to find McGuffin(s).

I loved that part of X3. Hopefully we can get something similar in X4/X5.

[-=SiR KiLLaLoT=-]

My dream is to have an option that can make the universe more or less empty, even with the original layout of sectors, yards and warfs.
It would be nice to be able to raise everything from scratch, even with the initial absence of Xenon which, after a certain number of hours, would slowly appear.

[Imperial Good]

Some layout randomness could be possible without breaking storylines and the like, especially for any future entry in the X series built with the mechanic in mind. The idea would be to have some static layouts, such as those needed by storylines and faction economies, connected together randomly with random "filler" sector sections in a way to fulfil constraints, such as specific factions being near each other.

An example could be that a sector like Turquoise Sea, a currently non storyline critical sector that was added in a patch, could be connected to any inactive jumpgate that is not intended to be used for DLC content. Several such sectors could exist meaning that the location of Turquoise Sea varies between playthroughs.

[Tharrg]

I can't see this ever being part of the main game, but it does sound like an excellent idea for a mod. Good luck with it, I will certainly give it a try when it's done,

[SirConnery]

My dream is to have an option that can make the universe more or less empty, even with the original layout of sectors, yards and warfs.
It would be nice to be able to raise everything from scratch, even with the initial absence of Xenon which, after a certain number of hours, would slowly appear.

Same, this is would actually be a nice compromise. All factions start with just a few miners, a wharf and 1 of each station. Delay Xenon appearance for like 10 hours. Would be nice to impact the early faction building more heavily and see the universe get together.

[Falcrack]

My dream is for Egosoft to provide a start where they said forget lore, forget storyline, forget plots. Forget Boso Ta, and especially forget Dal Busta. There are dynamic relationships and each faction can choose to ally or go to war with other factions based on the strategic situation.

The player starts off as a faction owner, in their own sector, with their own set of blueprints, as do the other factions, surrounded by unclaimed sectors, with just enough ships and stations to start their economy and allow it to grow. Each sector a faction claims provides a steady supply of credits to the faction owner, based on the population level of the sector. Factions would use their credits to purchase wares from other friendly factions and to maintain their ships and stations, so the more sectors a faction owns, the larger sized fleet it could afford to maintain.

You could terraform planets in order to increase the population, and thus the amount of income generated from each sector, which would be necessary because initially only the starting sector for each faction would be populated.

Research would be changed so that you could continuously improve ships chassis, engine, weapons, and shields, and the AI factions could also do research to improve their ships. You could build research modules to increase the rate at which you do research on a single item, or do research on multiple things at once. You could reverse engineer ships and components from other factions if you want more ship variety.

Basically, a more 4X style of game. It would be closer to Stellaris where you can fly and fight in ships.

[st3k]

There was a great mod, to create random galaxy. It was stopped working, but author promised to release new version when Boron will come to the game.