mobile mining not working yet !

[Tinky]

I'll be glad to get X3 tomorrow or the day after, or the monday after... without mining because I'm pretty confident in the after release support. Also we are lucky to even get a response from these guys unlike most other games released these days.

However I'm a little dissapointed that there was no clear notification that the mining feature did not make it into the game. Mining is mentioned in the manual and in-game help desks (I have read) but no one has yet point out where there has been a notice informing us that the feature has not made it except in this thread and after a few people have spent time trying to get it to work.

I hope that mining is the limit to the incomplete features which made it in the manual and ingame help-desks. It would really suck spending a few million credits on something to find out you wasted your money.

[SteveMill]

Everybody really has to relax here.

Call me nostalgic but even with all the problems with the initial release of X2 there was nowhere near the level of "whinyness" on these boards. Even from people that have been around for years there's the sense that the developers have purposefully left things out of the game to screw you over. Grow up!

In the same way that X2 got fixed, what makes you doubt the resolve of Egosoft to fix X3?

In a perfect world, the game would be polished to within an inch of it's code. Things didn't turn out that way, did they? Stop taking it so personal and give a little leeway here, alright?

Things obviously got a little out of hand with the release date and a decision that probably had to do with the financial viability of Egosoft and it's future prospects got in the way of your cockpits and mobile mining.

A small developer in a niche market. Some real world decisions got in the way of your entertainment pleasure. Real world decisions that will ultimately decide whether games so finely tailored to a small market will be even made.

I don't know, folks. If some sacrifices had to be made for the game even to be released, who are we to judge without stepping up with the money or resources?

Ultimately, it's just a game, boys (and girls).

I don't know about other people but it's the whole 'not being told that mining, HQ's etc etc etc' aren't in the thing that irks me. A simple sticky of these features and a promise to implement them in a patch would do me fine.

As it is i see too many things from promised new features like HQ's & GOD Module to old features that were good - cockpits, internal docking, decent number of factories in each sector, variety in ship models - sacrificed on the altar of publication dates and graphics quality few can actually run on full settings.

I'm enjoying the different feel of X3 but the more I play the more I see X3 is a cut-down X2 with much better graphics. Everything slimmed down and simplified, like the reduced variety in the economy to the re-use of ship models, in an effort to raise performance to an acceptable level on machines that exceed the recommended spec.

I'd have preferred X3 to be X2 graphics engine with more content under the hood. I'd happily hve paid full price. The graphics engine was fine. would be even better if the X series lost the pointless and processor hogging 'clouds in space' stuff as well.

[Chips]

I don't know about other people but it's the whole 'not being told that mining, HQ's etc etc etc' aren't in the thing that irks me.

Eh? Only tried mobile mining once, but I take it that it will be instigated at a later date right? Oh well, nothing I'm going to miss, although I can understand the disappointment by some. But it's not permanently gone is it? It will be coming back...

As it is i see too many things from promised new features like HQ's & GOD Module to old features that were good - cockpits, internal docking, decent number of factories in each sector, variety in ship models - sacrificed on the altar of publication dates and graphics quality few can actually run on full settings.

Eh? Whats this about HQ's and GOD modules now? Don't remember anything about GOD modules at all, but info would be nice on what the feature is, and where it was promised.

I'm enjoying the different feel of X3 but the more I play the more I see X3 is a cut-down X2 with much better graphics. Everything slimmed down and simplified, like the reduced variety in the economy to the re-use of ship models, in an effort to raise performance to an acceptable level on machines that exceed the recommended spec.

Eh? Reduced variety in the economy? I was led to believe that there weree a few more items to trade, and along with less space traffic - the fewer factories means that it's all more realitistic than ever before. Of course, I understand people want realism, then they don't - then they do... argh!

re-use of ship models? Eh? I am not with you on this one, what? I haven't seen any of the same models yet, which I thought was funny because this IS the X universe, and just like you see classic cars being driven about, I would have thought I'd see some old ship designs being flown around - especially by pirates.
As for slimming down? EH? Better combat, better flight sim model, more weapons, better shield variations and physics, new docking method so that the larger scale freighters can be docked to the stations as well (okay, granted Trade stations aren't working at the mo - looking forward to this), the movement of the gates from generic to non generic layouts, the change in size and scale of sectors (note some are huge, others tiny?), the change in pirate behaviour and skill, the change in the sectors behaviour, the change in the races relations and intelligence, as well as activities towards each other??

So cockpits are gone, mobile mining is still to come, you cannot dock inside every station (in all honesty, how many people actually did this everytime instead of using autodock and seta followed by Esc?? Not many I would imagine - you only miss something when you don't have it anymore. The only reason why i hoped we'd still have the old style docking was to implement theft of ships a la X2 opening scenes), and there are fewer AI flying around and fewer stations.

So how is this a slimmed down release? Once again, as Bruce Lee said "It is like a finger, pointing away to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger, or you miss all that heavenly glory".

In other words, people are so hung up/caught up on the odd feature that is no longer a part of the game, that they simply REFUSE to see all the new features and improvements. A VERY sad affair in my opinion when this occurs.

[Hachiman]

Just been busting my chops hauling Cells,Ore and Soja Beans to increase my rank so that those nice Parinid would let me buy a Demeter Miner.I come back to the Forum after a while in space to find that I was wasting my bl***dy time. Even the docking computer they sold me was a dud?...After 10 hours into the game that just about runs on my machine with all those nice new graphics features turned off, my impressions of X3 are not too favourable,for most of the reasons already aired on this Forum...regards 'Hachiman the Hud Hater'

[heg0b0]

Its a little bit of topic ...

I am just wondering here ....
(and i am not specificly talking about x3 here)

Its no secret that the gamers industry attitude towards its customers is bad. Alot of times developers are pushed to release a game way before its finished.

That leaves us with spending alot of money on something thats often
a) unplayable
b) half of whats promised

Now there are two kinds of people behind the games ie the developers in most cases i recon.

The ones that finish the product giving excellent customer support and patches. Like egosoft has done with x3 and like EA did with BF2.

And the ones that from my point of view dont give a rats ass and leave things as they are.

In my recent years of playing games i have come across games that i had to shelve after a couple of tries because of the last kind ..

- Battlecruiser 2000AD
- there was this game with soldiers in wwII turnbased .. such a dread..

I am sure there are more but they are so easilly forgotten.

Then there are those games that get released unfinished and buggy and which are corrected over time.

- X3
- Bf2
- Starwars battlefront

Just to name a few...

My point in all this is .. when a product isnt supposed to do what it promised , here in the netherlands you can take it back ! And get a money refund by the store who sold it. As it's broken.

Kinda like a vacum cleaner that isnt removing the dust from the floor.
You get it back and they either give you a working one or you get your money back. Or like a digital camera thats supposed to have 5m pixels and turns out to have only 4.

There are alot of laws in the European union that protect customers and i recon they are even more established in the US.

Now i was wondering about legal actions , wouldnt it be possible to form a front as game consumers and sue a publisher for what they released ? Stand up against them and make a point ?

Or is the only point we can make to ignore that publishers games in the future ?

[CBJ]

...GOD Module...

I'd just like to point out that this particular feature is very much a part of the game. It isn't something you can pick up or interface with though. As its name suggests it is in the background, invisibly controlling a number of aspects of the game.

[Vikinger]

Taking legal actions is to go a bit far i think

Even if they left out the mobil mining. (a feature a miss a lot) I asume they have a very good reason for doing so.
In fact we havent heard any reason yet here why they left it out.
( Only a statement that they have left it out.)
Maybe that would explain it better for us to understand and accept.

BUT we shouldnt accept the feature to be left out of the game forever.

We had 3 ways of getting credits.

By trading ( back and forth, back and forth) and that is much harder in X3 now also coz there is less stations, NPC competition is much better. And you have to go thru 2-3 sectors just to make some profit. But this is a good change and i like it

By fighting. Fly around a just fight and hope you can claim some ship to sell.

or by doing mobil mining.

later on in the game you get credits by your factory as well.
But to support and buy thos u need a lot of credits.
And therefor Mobil mining was a good and different way to get credits.


Egosoft is well known for listen to thier fans and community and iam sure we will se this feature soon in the game BUT, I, like many others dont accept they way they took it away whit out any notice to us.

I just wish CBJ could give us a clearer answer IF they plan to make this feature aviable and perhaps when we can se this happend. And the actually reason why they left it out.

[Titaniumplanck]

- i respect egosofts support
- i respect the new games graphics and gameplay
- i like having no cockpits despite reservations before release
- i like the new ship designs, someone said theyd expect older ships flying around. theyd look a little graphically inferior dont you think compared to the new ones
- i love the new economy
- the list goes on...

but...
- i dont respect egosofts implementation of mobilemining to the point where you can do everthing apart from collect.

its the fact you can spend a good 200000ish on mobileminining equipment and not get a penny back. At least disable the information board, because that was new code. that annoys me, because unlike many other issues being discussed, this was clearly egosoft error.

i know very little about programming, but to get to the point where everything but collecting can be done, must leave very little left to do relative to what had already been done

[Fendalis]

Okay, here's my thoughts...and maybe its not feasible, but what the heck.

-Keep setup as is at the moment wherein you blow up the asteroid and have un-mineable chunks.

-set up the asteroids to spawn mineable chunks of silicon or ore in cargo containers (so there's no need to alter coding) and set the containers to use the mesh for for small asteroid chunks. A semi-random number generator could be used to give an appropriate amount of silicon, ore, or nvidium if that's still around.

-Throw in a chance to get a few random pieces of ore or a random chunk of nvidium...doesn't have to be a huge chance, but it would give the indication that the asteroids are made up of more random things.

-The above would (at least in my naive and perfect world) minimize alterations to coding. Leaving the unusable chunks would add some danger, you'd have to fly around carefully to pick up the valuable stuff, and would also leave you more vulnerable to Khaak/Pirates (assuming they'll make a run at ya).

Thoughts? Flames? Declarations of Eternal Adoration? (huh?)

Just my nickel's worth.

ah, a duh moment on my part. It was Khardur and myself that worked out this theory...

[Titaniumplanck]

Sounds like a nice theory, at least the bit about leaving uncollectable chunks and a mixed mineral asteroid... not a programmer so dont know about the rest, but sounds good.

[The Rook]

Even if they left out the mobil mining. (a feature a miss a lot) I asume they have a very good reason for doing so.
In fact we havent heard any reason yet here why they left it out.
( Only a statement that they have left it out.)
Maybe that would explain it better for us to understand and accept.

Time maybe?

If Egosoft lacked the time to properly disable the feature for X3’s release, it doesn’t surprise me that they didn’t have time to properly implement the feature with their new flight model.

[Vikinger]

I dont think it has to do whit their new flight model.

Check thos new roids. They are HUGE And differs a lot from them we saw in x2. And there are not so many of them either as it was in X2.

So my guess is that they couldnt properly implant how to break up thos huge roids whit all lightning and shader effects etc that is new in X3.

From the begining i think they had the vision to have mining but at the end they found out it was much harder to implant than they realized and therefor just simply put it aside.

I also think they plan to put it back when they have a proper system that works. or els they could removed all stuff that have to do whit mobile mining.

but all this is just guessing. I would like some kind of confirmation that they WILL implant it again and that they are working on it. Or if they just simply have gived up to have mobile mining in X3.

CBJ have only said that he also hope it will be back in the game

I think the community deserve an stright answer in this matter

[heg0b0]

I think you have a point vikinger

[999-JAY-999]

It’s knowing what we have here and where we are going with it….

Have we purchased software that guarantees to grow in all directions we the general gaming public hope for? (no actual guarantee stated, we but just hope here) or have we got something here that claims to be one thing out the box, says it on the tin but has not quite made it for one reason or another ?

We know this isn’t an add-on, so this a successor to X2 then right?

To me X3 is a combination of an ADD ON (originally scheduled) and NEW game that was to be the follow up to X2 being developed at the same time I believe...

Before anyone says, its all very well saying that these things will show up later in a patch. Its been shown on the X2 pages that not everything that was said that was going to be released (ie. Scripts) will indeed be released. Indeed why we have X3 now and not an add-on for X2 !

Therefore because there are no guarantees at all once we the general public have made a purchase for this software, I base this post and views on the product here and now only.

Now any follow up or building block from one game taking it to the next generation should in my eyes have all that was great and game tested from before, and have in all those glorious new ideas that were mentioned and displayed in proud previews long before the game was released I read so much about.

Now for example to me something that was available in the X2 game play to make money is important enough to keep in I would have thought...Mobile Mining was another option to make money. You TRADE, FIGHT and THINK... it’s this diversity in how a player makes a profit that makes the X series what it is. Not to expect it in an X game is like saying don’t expect to fight any space ships in space! - You have the asteroids therefore logically you should be able to by choice mine the things right?

I can see they THOUGHT about the mining, but didn’t THINK about completing it for what ever reason for actual release…reasons we will never know.

Its a little unnerving that they make a game for there key customer base the X fan club, plus hoping to introduce the new players breaking into this theme... yet seem to be chopping or leaving out the raw elements that originally made the X game great and kept us ‘X players’ hooked in the first place.

All I am saying is no matter how trivial something sounds to one player, it was used and probably capitalised on in many ways by another, and it’s this diversity of game play to say manually dock or mine asteroids or not, that makes the X game what it is.

Its all about the free will to do what any individual pleases to do in there own game and universe.

Please make the graphics grand and add in new stuff, but don’t take away the essence of what we feel makes an X game and what we come to expect from it…..

[The Rook]

I dont think it has to do whit their new flight model.

Check thos new roids. They are HUGE And differs a lot from them we saw in x2. And there are not so many of them either as it was in X2.

So my guess is that they couldnt properly implant how to break up thos huge roids whit all lightning and shader effects etc that is new in X3.

Maybe you are right, but my point was that if Egosoft simply didn't have time to disable the feature properly, then it is hardly surprising that they lacked the time to incorporate the feature correctly.

Anyway, hopefully when they have some time mobile mining will make a return.

[heg0b0]

Damn jay , well spoken

[heg0b0]

Is it working yet ?

*lol*

[Goatboy]

Ok. Feeling a little bit gyp'ed here.

I am pretty sure we were told this feature would be in the game, and the manual certainly implied it, but I have spent the last 49 hours in game trying to get a cup of tea and all I have to show for my efforts are the crumbling remains of my once great trading empire.

These mysterious 'tea making facilities' we were promised are at best, buggy, and at worse, a damn right lie!

I know I seem somewhat worked up over something that could generously be described as superficial, but I feel if I was promised something I should damn well get it. After all, I paid good money for this game, and this is a clear case of false advertising.

I purchased my 'Goblin Teasmaid' from a Teladi Trading station for what I thought was a steal at 25k. Ha, they must have been laughing the moment my back was turned! What a gull I feel. Installation, I must say, was a right bitch. I had to pull one of my shield generators and my strafe drive just so I could get enough output from the engines to power the dang thing, and believe me, the product from that fiasco was not fit to be called 'tea'. Not in Blighty at any rate (though I have heard that across the pond they drink their tea cold, without milk. I imagine this slop tasted something like that).

Anyway, I sent that 4 ton piece of crap on a slingshot around the sun on a course that will cause it to intersect with that disreputable hive of villainy in about 507 years at a decent portion of c. Ha, who's laughing now?

So, I say to myself, who in this universe makes a decent cup of tea? The Paranid? Split? Boron? None shone forth as the type of folk who like to retire after a hard day of cruising the space lanes to a nice cuppa. That's when I had my epiphany. The Goners! They're a chilled out bunch of hippies. They must love a brew! Straight down to the temple I went. Why didn't I do this sooner? All it took was a nod and a wink and the transfer of my assets in Red Light and I had my tea making facilities! I just knew Egosoft would come through for me (you snuck this into the 1.2 patch after my class action suit didn't you, you sneaky dogs?). By this time I was gasping, so when they told me I had to disconnect the bi-polar transducing conduits on the relay feeding the weapons racks, I didn't think twice. I mean, these are upstanding citizens, and what upstanding citizen would push their lame hippy-pacifist propaganda on a decent fellow who just enjoys a relaxing cup of char on occasion? On reflection, I can see how you might think me foolish, but believe me, I just wanted to go on my merry little way, pinky raised to the sky as I downed another pot.

Anyway, I feel justified in saying I was distracted by the bombshell they dropped on shortly after install: apparently the only good Assam to be had is at the UFO base in the khaak sectors.

Haha, what a fool I was, and rightly do you laugh at me, but what was I to do? I had sunk my time and capital on this and I had the need on me. The hankering for a decent cup of tea was on me and I wasn't going to back out now.

The tales of my heroism, bravery and flying skill are long and inspiring, but I won't bore you with them here, as I am a modest man and this about Egosoft, broken promises and tea making facilities, not me.

That said, after an odyssey of epic proportions, there I was, on the cusp of victory, mouth salivating and hands trembling, in sector with khaak strewn behind me, shield and strafe drive gone, no weapons and the need heavy on me. The UFO base before me, shining with an ethereal light from the nearby twin moons. I could almost smell the leaves as I flew in to the docking gate.

I suppose you can guess what happened next. An invisible force field across the opening! I mean WTF? No manual docking? This must be a joke. A cruel malicious joke. So, no problem. The khaak are regrouping and I just took a 20% hit to my hull, but I am here now, and I am going to get my damn tea.

I open communications to the base and say 'Look mate, I'm not mucking around. Let me in and let me at your tea supplies. I'll pay you fair market, but believe me, if you don't let me in there right now I am going to put on my steel capped space boots, drift over there and start putting some holes in some of those pretty windows of yours.'

Anyhow, not to make the whole thing anti-climatic, but that’s when I got my CTD, and I came here to find that the whole thing is allegedly some kind of un-enabled feature!

By God, if I spoke German, right now you would by wiping my saliva and glottal stops from your faces as I raved my anger and Teutonic fury in your perfectly chiseled aryan features.

I WANT MY TEA MAKING ENABLED IN 1.3 DAMN YOU. I AM UNINSTALLING THIS GAME IN DEFIANCE UNTIL I GET MY DAMN TEASMAID!

[mbv]

Nicely put together, but a complete waste of effort

[Goatboy]

It was this or rebuild the server.