X-Tended - Terran Conflict (XTC) (Update: 01/22/10)

[enenra]

X-Tended - Terran Conflict (XTC)

The X-Tended Team have been working on a new mod since before X3: Terran Conflict itself was released. Things have been pretty silent from us for quite a while now, but the project is not dead. We were merely waiting for the right time to say something about it.

The mod certainly hasn't been finished, and is still far from completion, but we have already done a lot of work and invested months of time in it. We have good reasons not to release too much information just now, one important thing we decided back in autumn is that we are not going to promote any feature which hasn't been fully implemented yet. That way we believe we can stay true to the things we announce and avoid disappointment for the fans because a promised feature didn't make it into the release version.

We do not have a concrete, or even an approximate, release date set yet. Looking at the amount of work we have already done, and looking at what we still want to complete before the first release, we think that we are going to get a release in the fourth quarter of 2009, but with a project of this size that could slip a little.

While we cannot tell you much about what particular features are going to be included in the mod, we can of course state the obvious:

• There are going to be new sectors
  
• There are going to be new ships

Furthermore we have set ourselves several goals which we want to complete: In the original X-Tended Mod's core there were many new ships, above all the M7 class (as The X-Tended Mod's original name, the M7 Mod, indicates).

As many of the ships were included in X3: Terran Conflict through many of the original X-Tended Mod's creators becoming co-developers with EGOSOFT themselves, and with all the remaining X-Tended ships gifted to the team by their creator Mox, we have more time to invest in other areas while still featuring new ships. This allows us to focus upon areas which the original X-Tended Mod didn't as a general rule: Storytelling and general game play.

X-Tended - Terran Conflict will feature a new setting created from all the information we could find in the games and polished by detailed information we picked from the various X-universe books available from Helge himself. Like the original X-Tended Mod, we strive to keep the X universe's authentic feeling intact, and we will only add new content that is fitting and expanding upon this unique game-universe.

Gameplay wise we have decided to make it more challenging for the player. The games of the X-series have always been games in which the player has to invest hours and hours. Sadly, this aspect was weakened in X3: Terran Conflict. We will aim to make it more challenging again while keeping the game in balance.

Now for some eye-candy. A few early development shots. (All content subject to change as we develop the mod further)

(Click a picture to see the full size version.)









That concludes what we're willing to release in terms of information just now.

Please feel free to use this thread as a place to discuss the mod in general, as all news we're going to release will be in this topic.

The X-Tended Team

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• When will XTC be released?
  As soon as it is done. We are doing this as our hobby and aren’t being paid, so our progress is not as fast as one you’d expect from a software company.

• Do I have to start a new game?
  Yes, XTC includes a completely new universe with roughly 190 new sectors and many other new settings and scripts. There is no way to avoid a new start.

• Can I play with my old savegames?
  No. As there is a completely new universe, new ship and factory layout and major edits to all game files, every non-XTC savegame will not work.

• Can I return to the old universe from inside XTC?
  No. The old universe is not available within the XTC. However, you will have 190 completely new sectors to explore. This was done for performance reasons as well as lore and integrity. There is no hope of ever having the old sectors back.

• Can I use XTC together with mod / script XYZ?
  There is currently no way to know this. XTC makes changes in nearly every game file, thus installing any other mod or script will most likely lead to an incompatibility. It is up to the authors of these mods to release a XTC-compatible version of their work. Scripts can be problematic in one or another way, but currently we simply don't know what will be compatible and what won’t. XTC itself comes with a ton of features and scripts, so a good part of third-party scripts will be redundant anyway. We will not make XTC compatible with the hundreds of scripts out there. If you want XTC to work with XYZ, please contact the author of XYZ, not us.

• Will I be able to play the Terran Conflict Plots?
  No. But we plan to do our own plot(s).

• Will the ships, weapons and missiles be rebalanced in the XTC?
  Yes, we are putting a huge effort into balancing everything from scratch to give a better feeling to gameplay.

• Will there be new weapons?
  Yes, there will be a large number of new weapons, which will be re-divided in sets that only certain races are able to use, each race having its own set of weapons compatible to their ships. Additionally we have generic weapons, which are available for every race. Most of the old weapons will undergo serious changes and can thus be considered “new” as well.

• Will there be new ships?
  Yes, there will be new ships. Most of the ships from XTM (X3R) will be included, some of them improved specifically for X3TC. W have also created a number of new ship designs.

• Will there be new sounds?
  Yes, there will be new sounds: A large variety of new ambient sector tracks, completely new weapon-sounds and new battle tracks as well as a few other improvements sound-wise.

• Will cockpits be included in XTC?
  No.

• Will there be ships of other mods or SciFi-TV-movies included?
  No. We only use models created by our team and imported from the XTM. There will be no ship included that you have already seen in any other mod (apart from XTM).

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We have set up an X-Tended - Terran Conflict Blog!

You'll find it here: The X-Tended - Terran Conflict Developer's Blog

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Current News

X-Tended - Terran Conflict News. 22nd January 2010


It has been far too long since the last news. The first announcement in the new year is a great opportunity for us to look back at what has been accomplished by the team in the past year and to slip in some new stuff which we haven't told you about before. Of course we cannot tell you everything but this announcement will be a long one so let's get started.

First off, 2009 has been a busy year. We have finished a number of parts which the final modification will be built up from and are progressing fast with many more - but it is not only the game that has undergone many changes, our team has done so as well. This is why we would like to list our new team members before the main content of this announcement begins.

• Dragon Dream - General Modding
  
• Jens Ka - Mission Director Scripting
  
• spacefueladdict - Sector Design/General Modding
  
• Killjaeden - Modeller
  
• u24j7x5 - Mission Director Scripting
  

Now on with the actual news. We have already released information about some of our features, examples being a completely new map with over 190 sectors neatly integrated into the lore of the X-universe, a custom difficulty system allowing players to adjust various difficulty settings on the fly, completely reworked weapons about which you will be informed more later in this announcement, and a new factory size (XXL) which enables you to build complexes with higher productivity while using less factories, thus resulting in a performance gain. Those are just a few of the features that will be in the final mod, and in this announcement we will inform you of a few more of those features.

Let's begin with the foundations of the mod. One of the main reasons why the development of X-Tended - Terran Conflict takes quite a while is because we approached the modification with a different mentality than with the original X-Tended Mod. We didn't limit ourselves to expanding the game (although this is of course still a major part of the mod), but decided early on to rework the very base structures of the game. An example for this would be that we didn't just add new weapons - we reworked the whole weapon system and implemented a new structure into it - the result is that we were able to neatly integrate 31 new weapons into the game, raising the amount of weapons to 61 in total.

TShips has received a similar treatment and so has TShields, resulting in the addition of military shields for each shield type. As you may have guessed a number of further basic files have undergone and are undergoing reworks. These basic structure changes provide us with more possibilities in balancing and introducing more variety into the game, which in the end will result in the game being more enjoyable for the player.

There have been further changes to the game which cover a different area but are just as basic. A good example of this is the custom difficulty system mentioned in previous announcements. This pulls together a number of different background systems into a simple to use menu, which allows the player to change some of the very basic behaviours in the game depending on the difficulty level specified. One example of this is the XTC bailing system, which will (in combination with the difficulty system) allow the player to specify the bailing chance for different ship types in percentages. The custom difficulty system also uses new equipment libraries designed and built by the team which will equip NPC ships with different load-outs based on the difficulty specified, the race of the ship, and the class (size) of the ship.

Click images to enlarge:


Of course scripting work is not limited to the custom difficulty system alone. Some of you may remember the Goner Mobile Shipyard (GMSY) from the original X-Tended Mod, while most will know it under its Terran Conflict name - "Aran" (the ship that can be found in the unfocussed jump drive sectors). In XTM, it had the ability to build ships much like the player HQ, and this will again be possible in XTC; But we didn't stop at that. Of course the Aran is a possibility for the player to build ships and thus an alternative to the HQ, but a Mobile Shipyard is very special and will be limited - so we took it a step further. In order to increase your ship production, you will be able to obtain your own shipyards!

Another area we decided to tackle was the property menu. As the property menu is quite messy and unintuitive to use, XTC will feature a new, powerful tool for empire management as an alternative to the property menu.

Click images to enlarge:




There are a number of further features on the script editor side which we would like to mention, but we have managed to restrain ourselves and we will cover them in later news posts.

With two new mission director coders joining the team, you are probably asking yourself "What is going on on the MD side?". "A lot." is the answer. For XTC, all generic missions have been adjusted and rebalanced. This was achieved by attacking the MD with the same mentality as described before: Changing the base structures. The MD also has basic libraries (like the 'Opponent Balancing System' library, or OBS for short) and these have been adjusted and partially rewritten for XTC, providing us with far more control over the system than would have been possible had we used the default structures provided to us in TC. Of course this is not everything that is happening in this area, XTC will also feature a number of new generic missions introducing some more variety into the game. Also as no vanilla plots will be available we are working on our own plot which will serve as an introduction into the setting of the modification. More about this later.

A major part of any of the larger mods is the visuals; It was the case with XTM, and it will be the case with XTC also. The Terran Conflict forum has seen a number of modifications improving and changing the visual quality of the universe before. Some eliminated the 'sector fog', some increased the viewing distance, others concentrated on sector backgrounds creating them from telescope pictures, and some even painted their own backgrounds. Not wanting to buck the trend, XTC will feature a number of completely new backgrounds with the same, if not better, quality than the original ones.

Click images to enlarge:


Of course improvements to the map weren't limited to that, as you may have noticed from the screens released so far planets have also received various visual improvements.

Another large part of most major mods are the ships. The X-Tended Mod introduced 95 new ships for X3: Reunion. Some of these were included in X3: Terran Conflict when the original X-Tended Team joined with Egosoft to work on the new game. As the successors to the X-Tended Mod, we have access to all of the XTM ships which were not included in TC and all of them will be in X-Tended - Terran Conflict.

Many of the XTM veterans will remember the mighty M0 class: The Argon Leviathan, the Paranid Olympos, the Terran Valhalla, the OTAS Castrum, and the Sohnen Incubus. You will encounter the M0 class ships again in XTC, although they will not be as strong in order to maintain balancing. Now the XTM M0's are not anything new to all our veterans, so here is something to whet their appetites: The Split now have their own M0 - the Taipan.

Click images to enlarge:






Work on our OST is progressing well. We already have a number of new soundtracks finished and more are work in progress. Another part of the work in the sound area is sound effects, which includes weapon and explosion sounds. Those 31 new weapons need new sounds, and so there's a lot of work to do here as well.

Finally it is time to introduce you a little more to the setting of the modification. One of the - if not the - main principle of XTM was that everything which was added had to fit into the existing lore of the X-universe, the same is true for XTC - There will be no dimensional rifts opening up gateways to the Star Wars or Star Gate universes in X-Tended - Terran Conflict. A lot of time has been invested in creating a new scenario for this modification which allows for a new map and can still be integrated into the lore known from previous games and books. In brief, XTC is set after the events of Terran Conflict and the Aldrin Expansion Missions. The mod takes up the story thread left by the end of TC's main plot: Aldrin has been re-discovered and connected to the universe by a pair of terran gates. In XTC this process has continued, using Aldrin as a jumping off point, old gates have been found and re-activated within the old gate network. XTC begins three years after Aldrin has been re-discovered, and in these few years the situation has changed completely. Whether that is for the better or for the worse you will learn about in due course.

Some extra eyecandy. Click images to enlarge:














That's all for today.

The X-Tended Team.

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Links

The X-Tended - Terran Conflict Forum (EN)
Das X-Tended - Terran Conflict Forum (DE)

The X-Tended - Terran Conflict Thread at Egosoft.com (EN)
Der X-Tended - Terran Conflict Thread auf Egosoft.com (DE)

X-Tended - Terran Conflict News Archive (EN)

The X-Tended - Terran Conflict Developer's Blog (EN)

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Released Content

XTC Safe Undocking Scripts (Standalone Version) (EN)

The Galactic News System (BBS 2.0) (EN)

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Wallpapers

1600x1200:

Argon:


Boron:


Paranid:


Split:


Teladi:


Aldrin:


Terran:


Xenon:


1920x1080:

Argon:


Boron:


Paranid:


Split:


Teladi:


Aldrin:


Terran:


Xenon:


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Development Screenshots

[Thufar]

Anxiously awaiting this mod and am generally drueling all over my keyboard at the prospect that tomorrow starts the 4th quarter (not asking/expecting delivery, it's just every day gets us a bit closer).

[surferx]

[Aragon Speed]

A quick update on our release. It doesn't look like it will be this year as we still have a lot of work to do and time is rapidly running out.

[Gavrushka]

Looking at what you are expecting to include in it, I am not suprised, and all things are the sweeter for waiting.

If you need any coding doing, I'm a dab hand with COBOL, FORTRAN, LISP....

[Aragon Speed]

[vbruzual]

[Gavrushka]

[enenra]

[TTD]

This seems to be the Mod I am waiting for .
Well done guys.

[Duzzit]

Drool

[Axeface]

[Gavrushka]

[BlackCoffee]

This is awesome! I'm going to run out and start lots of new families just so i can give you guys all my first borns! No, not kidding, freaking awesome!

[Aragon Speed]

XTC News 5th October 2009

We realised recently that we have never given a list of team members, or what roles they fill within the team. As we have just had a few new people join us, we feel that this is an appropriate time to do so. So this is us (In no particular order):

Aragon Speed: Team leader. Whip cracker, eye poker, and general toy taker away-er.
Sartorie: Script Editor Scripter. The teams meanie, and the anti-Christ for players. When you get your ass blown up yet again in XTC, this is the guy to blame. He also hosts our repository on his server - so we are nice to him.
Trickmov: Script Editor Scripter. The numbers man and event manager, will give you all the statistics you will ever need, also working on the background life of the universe.
Xelonir: Script Editor Scripter. Likes creature features and hunting Dragons.
Kevso101: Mission Director Scripter. Likes coffee (A lot) and is busily coding the plots and missions. The teams MD sorcerer.
Badman76: Mission Director Scripter. The sorcerer's apprentice. Also working on mission coding while dodging random spells cast by Kevso.
DSE (AKA enenra): Graphical improvements and setting development. Likes playing with skin(s). He is also our pedantic lore master, making sure we stay within the X-Universe lore and don't have things like pink elephants as a new enemy. Also works on plot and mission design and layout.
Alex Vanderbilt: Sector design. Mr. Universe. When you fly into a sector and go 'ooo' and 'ahh', Alex is the person to thank. On the other hand, if you don't like a sector, he is the one to poke with sharp pointy things.
Axeface: Modeller. Makes new stuff that we can blow you up with.
Jeff: Modeller. Makes extra new stuff that we can blow you up with.
Mishra: Modeller. Likes the Borons, so makes stuff that is nice and friendly, and will hug you before it blows you up.
Pink Floyd: Modeller. Likes things that go boom, so he can blow you up in style. Hates Borons, except for when they go squish.
Eliah (AKA X2-Eliah): Background work/Lead Tester/Jack-of-all-trades. Eliah proved he had what it takes as one of our testers, and is now a part of the team. He deals with a lot of the text work like sector and ware descriptions, and is also responsible for creating the new manual.
Galder: Weapons, ship and economy balancing. We have heard a lot of frustrated shouting, screaming, and table gnawing from Galder over time, and it's normally when we change something. We put up with it though because he is the only person mad enough to take on the monumental task of balancing the mod, and keeping it that way no matter what we do to frustrate him.
KRM398: Writer. He writes our plots and news stories, while constantly complaining that the mod isn't 'Realistic enough'. Like flying in space in your own personal spaceship is realistic...
Stemardue: Music. Creates the music for the mod. He is our local noise-maker and keeps threatening to slip ABBA music in because we keep telling him he is annoying the neighbours.
Mokonzi: Silent Joint Team Leader. He, who walks behind the pages. While Moko doesn't involve himself in the mod as much as he would like to due to time restraints, he is our host and provides us with the forums, dev areas, and ftp space we need to develop the mod. Without Moko making a mod like XTC would be a lot harder, and possibly not do-able at all.


As we have already mentioned, it does not look like we will get a release this year due to the amount of work we still have to do. Some of you may have been wondering exactly how much work is going on for such a long development time, and so here are some facts and figures to show that we haven't been slacking off and drinking beer or something.

While we do not want to give too much away let us present you some numbers. There have been some fluctuations, but on average there are 15 people on the team, and they have been working on the mod for over 46 weeks now. After 1000 commits to our repository, 6000 file changes have been made. There are 15,000 new words purely in the new sector descriptions alone, and currently the mod consists of just over 2500 files, with more than 400 of them being scripts. By the time we have finished this will have grown considerably though.

Working on the mod we have seen strange things, slain (station) Gods and forced many a thing into submission. This has been frustrating at times but exploring the possibilities and adding our content has been, and still is, one heck of an interesting ride.

The GNS (Galactic News System) will soon be out of the beta stage and released in a final version. In the final version we have added a new function that allows the player to save any news story to a personal 'clipboard', allowing the news story to be recalled at any time and read at the players leisure. Additionally the mod version (As opposed to the standalone version) will have a high number of new static articles added for XTC.

We have added fully usable equipment docks for the player. This means the player will be able to buy equipment from his own EQD's and will also be able to add ship upgrades to them.

A lot of work over the last few weeks has gone into completely overhauling the underlying weapons system and the weapons themselves. We laid strong emphasis on race specific weapons, and while the older weapons that have been around for some time can be used by most of them, the races recently developed new weapons to match their personal tastes.

Work continues on the new universe, and quite a lot of the new sector names and descriptions are now in place. Just as a little teaser, here is one of the new sector descriptions. This is still WIP and hasn't been proofread yet, so sorry for the slightly bad grammar.