mobile mining not working yet !

Umpa Lumpa · Post by **Umpa Lumpa** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 00:50

Yes but they did have time to programme:

The asteroids, each with a value of resources
The ability for some ships to mount the mining laser
The mining laser graphics/noise
Exploding asteroids
Mineral scanner
Ore collector

All that was needed was the ability to pick up bits of asteroid. After all the time it must have taken to programme the above how much longer would it have taken to implement this?

JayJay · Post by **JayJay** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 01:00

All that was needed was the ability to pick up bits of asteroid. After all the time it must have taken to programme the above how much longer would it have taken to implement this?

Think it this way. You already finished the listed stuff and now you get into time struggle. So you have to decide which is more important to complete, even if its nearly finished.

Titaniumplanck · Post by **Titaniumplanck** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 01:02

I can see your point, but without actually knowing what benefitted from mobile mining not being finished no body can really make a educated judgement on whether leaving mobile mining unfinished was really worth it.

modified: i think this sentence makes no sense... but im to tired to work it out!

<TANK> · Post by **<TANK>** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 01:18

Perhaps im nieve or just jaded....

But if u bought a tv .. and the guy in the shop said .. dont worry the remote control will be along shortly.. oh and maybe if ur lucky u might get an on/off button if we decide to release one.............

Selling an unfinished product of any sort is a travesty .. no matter what the reasons are ....

No amount of justification, no matter how eloquent, removes the fact that EGO have released a half finished project due to no doubt economic factors.... long term .. this will no doubt have some repercussions

JayJay · Post by **JayJay** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 01:30

First of all Egosoft dont sell it, it does the publisher. And the second is youre not buying a tv, youre buying software. Of course there is no reason to sell an unfinished product. The problem here is more like this: You bought an encoder for digital tv, but the start of digital broadcast is delayed... Problems that shouldnt happen, but they do. People can get their money back or just wait until its done.
And X3 might be unfished, but its still playable and is a full game. There are just missing features.

Dhore · Post by **Dhore** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 01:35

I have to say ive been really positive about the game in all my posts so far - but Im grossly disappointed in this.

If it was a feature planned to be implemented later and not on release then why does the cute station help desk woman tell you extensively how to mine and that the equipment is buyable/installable.

I do not believe anyone official if they tell me this was/is not a bug they didnt know about - otherwise I then would have expected the Readme to include a part saying this wasnt working atm.

Its a bug - the public customers have found it, and yuo guys should just admit it and say sorry and fix it asap. Not argue and claim we shouldnt expect it to work yet. Thats undermining confidence and inteligence.

Sad this is my first negative post in many

The Rook · Post by **The Rook** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 01:39

karoliussen wrote:Yeah, I totally agree.. If you ask me.. if there is anyone to blame for any flaws at this date, it's obviously not the hardworking core devs at Egosoft..

The problem is that over 99% of us really don’t have a clue about what happened at the negotiating table between Egosoft and Koch/ Enlight. It is fashionable for everyone to bash the publisher when premature releases occur. After all, they are the money people, the men in suits, they decide the final deadline and they aren’t known for their input in the creative process.

The developers are normally cast as the victims, the artists, the creatives that lack the business acumen to handle the wily publishers. Often this is true, if a developer is being subsidised for a title directly by the publisher then obviously the publisher will define a clear deadline for the developer to meet. However, not all games are publisher subsidised. If the developer is self-subsidised then it is likely that they will have more control over when the game hits the market. From memory X2 was almost entirely (if not entirely) subsidised without the aid of a publisher. It wasn’t until very late in the day that the publishers for each region were confirmed. Now ultimately the release date would have been the publisher’s decision. However, Egosoft approached the publishers knowing the game was a long way off completion. They must have understood this move would effectively get their game on the shelf within weeks (if successful), but they did it regardless, and that was the catalyst for the notorious V1.0. I’m not bashing the developers at Egosoft, putting food on the table for their wives and children must come ahead of the politics of premature release dates.

It seems that X3 has the same publishers as X2, so I don’t know what terms (if any) would have been negotiated over the subsidy during the development cycle. The fact that X2’s successor changed from an expansion to a new game somewhere in the middle of the cycle suggests that there was some flexibility. So maybe Egosoft were bullied by their publishers and contractually obligated to deliver a product for October 2005. Or perhaps Egosoft have good publisher relations, self subsidised X3, and approached their "allies" when they felt their product was nearing completion. You can’t blame a publisher for putting a game on the shelf prematurely. That’s like blaming a lion for eating its keeper.

Anyway the aforementioned scenarios are speculation, and most of us are not in a position to do anything more than speculate. The remaining few are not likely to divulge the finer details of publisher/developer relations, irrespective of Egosoft’s position.

JayJay · Post by **JayJay** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 01:42

f it was a feature planned to be implemented later and not on release then why does the cute station help desk woman tell you extensively how to mine and that the equipment is buyable/installable.

I dont think it was "planned" at all, but as I posted earlier they had to concentrate on other things. Simple question. What is more important: 1. Information about mobile mining, etc that doesnt exist yet Or 2. Delay of the 1.2 patch of one or more days (days people cant you joysticks!)?
Egosoft arent stupid... they would if they could deactivate/finished it, because it makes people angry.
EDIT:
@The Rook
Very good point. Im not blaming the publisher. Im just defending Egosofts handling with the deadline.

mysteriouskeke · Post by **mysteriouskeke** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 01:49

I brought X3 knowing the support it has after they release a game.

considering the content from vanilla X2 to the latest patch, have faith for X3. Dispite what complaints i get from here, im still enjoying the game, alot of people are enjoying the game.

Feel sorry for games with EA or Atari as a publisher. At least we have devs on the forum, and very good support which is rare.

cleggs · Post by **cleggs** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 03:39

sad do you thik this is going to get fixed or left ? i used to love the mining

JayJay · Post by **JayJay** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 03:50

A statement from egosoft:

CBJ wrote:Anyway, yes, I agree, mobile mining is an important feature, and like you I sincerely hope it makes a return in a future patch.

So I think it will be fixed.

Deleted User · Post by **Deleted User** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 04:12

How annoying. I spent a lot of credits on the equipment, went to ore belt and proceeded to "try" and mine for hour upon hour. I thought I was doing something wrong or that I had not installed something vital to the process. It was only after the third visit to an argon space equipment dock that I realised that I had just been "featured."

A simple read-me or sticky could have saved a lot of hassle to myself and many others. On that note I wonder how many other asteroid miners who don't happen to visit forums (I know a couple) are stuck in ore belt trying to figure out why their mining operation is a non-starter.

Elenkis · Post by **Elenkis** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 06:21

And X3 might be unfished, but its still playable and is a full game. There are just missing features.

Yes, missing features like being able to actually finish the half-assed plot they wasted time implementing. Another thing people can't currently do.

And they didn't even have the common decency to mention that mining wasn't finished in the readme.txt or on these forums until people actually wasted in game time and money trying to make this advertised feature work.

Donar · Post by **Donar** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 06:39

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).

bobioman · Post by **bobioman** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 06:41

I backup egosoft on most things....but I agree that this was poor planning on thier part...either include the feature or don't.....don't include a broken feature....this mining "half-finished feature" is going to cause ALOT of people to become extremely frustrated and maybe I'm one of the impatient ones out there....but one or two things like this can turn me away from a game if i'm not reading a forum like this.....spending 3 hours trying to mine and not being able to would probably make me explode with anger and frustation....not because this feature is "missing" but beacuse "OMG I KNOW YOU CAN MINE!!! it tells you how to do it, and i have the equiptment INSTALLED in my ship, WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING WRONG!!!!"

..... sorry egosoft but you get a

on this one....if you weren't going to include this in the game remove the equiptment and the explanations telling you how to mine. don't just expect your customers to try mining, have it not work and say (oh well...i guess they didn't have time to finish this)......this would be the last thing that would come to my mind if i hadn't read this forum.

Tinky · Post by **Tinky** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 07:55

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 · Post by **SteveMill** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 08:35

Donar wrote: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 · Post by **Chips** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 09:20

SteveMill wrote: 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...

SteveMill wrote: 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.

SteveMill wrote: 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 · Post by **Hachiman** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 10:25

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 · Post by **heg0b0** » Wed, 2. Nov 05, 11:31

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 ?

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

mobile mining not working yet !