Friendly suggestions for Next Egosoft era

[Sn4kemaster]

A long time ago used to have a game called Colony Wars (cant imagine anyone here has heard about it as it was on the PlayStation 11 years ago)

Can't think why, given the average age that shows up in forum polls. I certainly remember it .

anyway in Colony War 2 they introduced the idea of specific target damage on ships (just capital ships in that game )

It was also used pretty extensively in Freespace 2, iirc.

Fair point, it was more to do with it being on the Playstation really, never played Freespace as i had a 22 year gap in computer games from Elite on my BBC computer (now i am showing my age ) to buying this computer 4 years ago.....and Purchasing X3R at the same time just in case it was similar to that old game

a wise purchase

[ont101]

I think "Colony Wars" on Playstation has allot of things that

warrents a remake or copying, cough cough X-Universe.




"This series, (made in 1997-2000 for the Playstation, yes, the first one)

was an advanced space shooter with a

fiendish level of difficulty and intricate missions.


Sure, it is stone age technically with Lego textures etc. But

it had intense space combat with awesome weight and physics, three

views (third person, cockpit and plain view) and multiple story threads.


The first puts you in the seat of a rebel star fighter, the second

as the opposite (an empire soldier).


The third one even has planet based missions (yes, in canyons!!!)."

[mrbadger]

i had a 22 year gap in computer games from Elite on my BBC computer (now i am showing my age ) to buying this computer 4 years ago.....and Purchasing X3R at the same time just in case it was similar to that old game

The exact reason why I bought X3-BTF, the first installment.

[boast mode on]

I got to Elite rank twice. God that game was great. By that I mean Elite 1. I never liked the later versions.

[/boast mode off]

Played Elite for five years, it was why I bought the BBC model B in the first place. I haven't played an individual X series game for that long, but the whole series has kept me happily entertained for ten years

[sentinentbeing]

Elite on the C64 made me the gamer I am today. I'd been playing games since Pong but Elite didn't just open my eyes to new possibilities in games, it tore the freakin eyelids off! Considering when it was made, Elite is still one of the most mind boggeling games ever made.

And the only recent game that has been able to capture that Elite-feeling is X3 (no, Terran Conflict really isn't my cup of tea).

I do however want to second the thoughts on Colony Wars. Sure, it didn't have an open universe, but it was an awesome space shooter with epic battles and a true sense of grandeur in the storyline. CW and Freespace 2 are probably my two favourite space shooters of all time (with X-Wing Alliance fully modded coming in a close third). And no, X3 doesn't count in that list. It is so much more than a shooter.

[The_Lost_Marauder]

A long time ago used to have a game called Colony Wars (cant imagine anyone here has heard about it as it was on the PlayStation 11 years ago)

Can't think why, given the average age that shows up in forum polls. I certainly remember it .

IIRC chapter 2 or 3 was named Vengeance and there was something like a Tractor Beam. Funny enough you could use it with almost everything...

anyway in Colony War 2 they introduced the idea of specific target damage on ships (just capital ships in that game )

It was also used pretty extensively in Freespace 2, iirc.

not to mention X-Wing Alliance...

[The_Lost_Marauder]

very odd request: can you add a clock script ingame? When I play I lose control of how much time has passed and when it's night I can't see the clock which stands near the screen...

[efernal]

I do however want to second the thoughts on Colony Wars.

Great story, good graphics, decent controls, But damn hard to play. I also got the third one Red Sun I think its called ( It is Just checked my disc binder). That one I got a little more along in that game.

The one game I keep going back to though is freelancer. Yea I know not too many people out there like it. For me it was a real eye opener. So many mods to play and if you look online there is a whole community still supporting it for online play.

And if you can find it ( I made a copy of it on a cd ), The Privateer mod Was one of the best sp mods out there. Over 300 systems And you got butt handed to you very fast in the game.

Weird thing is you can download the original for free. I just didn't find it very fun though.

What else too add... Eve online was fun till I realized all I was doing was sitting in a chat room talking and adjusting my mining ship every so often.

edit* deleted some run on crap and added the following.

#1. No more flame throwers or make a new item called long range scanners. 10 km should be long enough to scan, look and decide if you want to engage.

Real cut scenes. World in conflict has some good examples. There was a few that were cgi, But most were just pictures with people talking. Those cutscenes made a lot of people teary eyed. They picked the right music to set the tone and what you saw made your emotions go for a loop.

[RWolf]

Didnt Bernd Lehahn say that X-Online was the main goal for a future project?

Anyways, I really hope Egosoft doesnt drop their dynamic approach and space sim games. I would love to see what other kind of game they could develop as long as its dynamic like their X series, however I feel they also have already been perfecting the flight sim game.

Needless to say, there are very few space sim developers anymore. Egosoft is really the only hope for the genre. There has to be a way to increase the genre's popularity so that the company can grow and take on bigger projects.

I think part of the problem is that for many gamers, they do not like playing the role of ship rather than character. In other words, putting more focus on who the player is and how they are seen in that universe (or how they relate to other types of human/oids in that universe or its societies.) Another important factor I believe is how the levels are broken up... I dont feel like X has been a universe as much as it has been a series of boxes you find stuff in.

I would consider freelancer a success, as it creates larger almost seemless feeling universe connected by smaller universes. The jump tunnels you actually travel through in real time was also a nice touch for enhancing the effect.

Another issue concerning possible issues with space sim popularity has to be the over all desire (but lack of options) to really explore and know a planet or space station. You see games like Infinity Universe getting attention because they seek to combine space with planets, with their landscapes and cities (many of which you can build yourself).

Furthermore how to convert any features into something that appeals to the RPG player, the Action FPS player, the Strategy player, and yes even the console player. In addition, how to capture that epic quality that every player is drawn to. The StarWars universe is a key example of how a massive universe is turned into something epic in scale and timeline.

Anyways I look forward to whatever Egosoft is able to develop and I hope they do not give up the dynamic and open features they are known for.

[mrbadger]

Didnt Bernd Lehahn say that X-Online was the main goal for a future project?

The only barrier is money.

Then there's the fact that they have an established customer base, and many of them aren't really keen on the changes that a mmorgeger version would require.

That wouldn't stop them if they got the funding, but it remains true that a fair number of loyal customers wouldn't like it.

[Poobah]

I really do not like mermorpergers, but I might play and pay for a while just 'cause it's Egosoft.

[ajsarge]

Just something I thought of that needs to be addressed:

Wings

Instead of making wings act like a bunch of individual fighters flying together, make wings have a "forced" formation. Whichever ship is slowest in a wing is how fast the wing goes, and the largest ship is the default wing leader. Unless getting into a dogfight against ships equal (or one step above the largest in the wing) to the wing, they do attack runs together. If in a dogfight, they then act like individuals, but have priorities.

Same for player wingmen. Even if a ship is traveling a little bit faster than its max, make them stay in formation a little more tighter than the current "group of individuals" setup.

Also subsections. have First-Tenth fleets (that stay in formation unless gating or somesuch) and Red, Blue, etc. wings within each fleet.

And Wing/Fleet Leader/Flagship selection. IF you pre-named your whips before sticking them into a wing (or the system makes an M7 be squaddie to an M4) allow the player to set the wingleader instead of hte game setting it.

I think that's all I have for wings currently. There's also details that can be gleamed off of other games that use wings, like Homeworld 2.

[The_Lost_Marauder]

Having smarter wingmen can only be a good thing.
About this problem, I'd have a question: in X³R you can assign as "Wingman" -- "W" -- the ships you like.

Let's say I have a Thor and a Nova, with 3 Mjollnir and 3 Busters.
While staying in my Thor I assign as Thor wingmen the Mjollnirs. Still staying in my Thor, can I assign the Busters as Nova Wingmen?


Changing topic, does anyone know "Cowboy Bebop" anime/manga?
Someone before was talking about space highways and that anime has an interesting idea of that.
Unlike TOA, you can move your ship while traveling in that highway and another difference is that it's not a connection between A and B, but i links alla planet of the Solar System.

[ajsarge]

You can't assign "wingmen" to ships other than yourself, but you can set a combat stance (protect, attack target of, etc.) for them on the main ship. At that point, they act like wingmen, but without the shortcuts that you have.

Also, I'd bet that the TOAs in X3 and the gates in Cowboy Bebop act the same. It's just that CB shows ships moving within them while TC does not.

[The_Lost_Marauder]

You can't assign "wingmen" to ships other than yourself, but you can set a combat stance (protect, attack target of, etc.) for them on the main ship. At that point, they act like wingmen, but without the shortcuts that you have.

thanks

Also, I'd bet that the TOAs in X3 and the gates in Cowboy Bebop act the same. It's just that CB shows ships moving within them while TC does not.

Mmm--- but IIRC the anime shows the ship of the protagonist running between other vehicles like in F1 races (no autopilot I'd say).
Don't TOAs send you from A to B at incredibly fast speed?

[Nazgutek]

One thing I'd love to see is an overhaul of stations/factories.

Stations are built out of structure units, and each structure unit can be fitted with various station modules. External docking clamps, internal fighter bays, bulk warehousing (think equipment dock/trading station), defence turrets/launchers, factory facilities, solar panels, mining equipment, additional shielding generators, and so on.

Instead of purchasing factories and having to link them, the player would build a structure unit to start a station and then fill with necessary modules. Expansion would require building more structure units attached to existing structure.

Complexes would just become large stations, with multiple factory modules installed. "External" elements would be attached adjacent to structure units (solar panels, docking), "internal" elements would be allocated inside structure units, and the whole spatial arrangement could be done on a plain 3D grid.

Limiting station size could be done with a basic hard limit (eg, 10 structure units maximum). Alternatively, applying diminishing returns to additional structure units would make squeezing in yet another chip plant more and more expensive, not to mention weakening the shielding as the megastructure grows and grows (resulting in more shield generators needed, taking up even more space).

[Poobah]

Too complex, too time consuming and potentially unbalanced. Again "who decides what factories the NPCS get?".

[mrbadger]

Then thought occurs that a useful thing for complexes would be a warehouse station. No product, just storage, so you could add warehouses to a complex and increase the amount of end product you could have. I'm thinking particulerly of flail and hammer production complexes, so you could increase the max storage capacity without needing to add more production stations.

[Nazgutek]

Too complex

Building a station would involve building a structure unit in space, which would be just as complex as building a single station is now. Structure units would work in a cubic grid, so extending the structure would be as simple as telling the extension to build on the N, S, E, W, top or bottom of existing structure. No positioning, no rotating, no manual aligning needed. Adding internal modules to the structure would be just as complex as equipping a ship; TL next to structure opens up a menu, selects a carried module, and selects 'Install'.

In fact, I think it would be simpler. Linking seven extension structures to an initial structure would be very simple. In my head I can think "link #2 to top-side-#1, #3 to N-side-#1, #4 to E-side-#1, #5 to N-side-#2, #6 to E-side-#2, #7 to top-side-#4, #8 to N-side-#7" would give you a 2x2x2 cube of structure, and that's without using a 3D view interface to help. With a 3D planner window, even easier.

Now you've got a rather sizeable station core, you use the 3D planner to attach the externals (docking, solar panels, for example), and then fill the internals with factories and other facilities. The internals don't need to be placed; the structure provides room for <x> amount of factories the factories go in. You don't have to arrange your cargobay when loading up with goods, and the same can apply here.

too time consuming

Probably quicker than aligning <x> number of factories. Especially considering that there's a nice potential frame-rate saving to be had. In fact, this whole idea came about from the Complex Cruncher script/mod.

and potentially unbalanced

About as unbalanced as the current system is (like 60 chip plant complexes). With an upper limit on station size, and no station linking, players would probably end up having to have multiple stations for megafactories, and using transports to 'connect' them, just like the NPCs have to.

Again "who decides what factories the NPCS get?".

The same people using the same methods as they do currently for what factories the NPCs get.

[Gazz]

very odd request: can you add a clock script ingame? When I play I lose control of how much time has passed and when it's night I can't see the clock which stands near the screen...

There is a function to (somewhat) query the system date but I can't say offhand if there is a system time instruction, too.

How about you get a cuckoo clock instead? You can hear that at night.

[The_Lost_Marauder]

How about you get a cuckoo clock instead? You can hear that at night.

not a bad idea, but I should be able to suppress him otherwise it can be heard by my parents too, and this is NOT nice!