EGOSOFT and Deep Silver announce X Rebirth

[Argonaught.]

Multiplayer in X would be a disaster.

For proof take a long look at the amount of griefers in any other MMORG type games ie: EVE

There are way more griefers out there wanting to ruin your day than there are of good folks who would lend you a hand.

Lan based might be fun but only for those who have the ability to join one of them....and thats only if you know enough people whio play the same games as you do and invite you in etc.

For me I'm the one and only that I know of in RL that plays the types of games that I play.

I'd rather have the time that would need to go into making it Multiplayer be put into making single play better instead.

Grief players make me sad...they can have my carebear tears if they like too.

Argo.

[Nanook]

And a supernova effectively destroying the entire galaxy? Hmmm, as an amateur astronomer, i happen to know that is entirely unfeasible, unless all those 170-odd systems were in the same plane as the stars polar gamma ray burst. So you need to flesh that little idea out a bit more guys.

I may be wrong, but my understanding is the supernova didn't destroy the entire galaxy. Rather, it caused the gate system to shut down.

If it did destroy the entire galaxy, then there wouldn't even be an X-Universe left to play in. Unless it's a game about non-corporeal entities flying around in the cinders of former solar systems. Hmmm.

[Mad_CatMk2]

On the second page, the (limitations of google translate ) seems to indicate a plot and free roam element akin to Freelancer?

'Finish the plot and then free to roam the universe' seems like what Freelancer was.

I wouldn't mind a focus on the plot, but I sure to hope we can still be free while taking a break from the plot, etc.

[hawat]

uh oh did they remove capital ship control from the game ?

That' s what I get when I use google translation.

"Krawall.de: At what point have you cleaned out?

Bernd Lehan: For this I must not have much to say. An example: In the past it was possible the Capital-Ship control of the bridge. That is no more. It was a game content that has simply not made a lot of fun. Sure, it was cool. Exactly what led us back then also to do it. But ultimately it was something that only a small part of the players got to see at all ever, and those who have come so far, it will have done not too long. Such things we have not this time precisely with it."

[X2-Eliah]

Maybe it just means you are no longer the ship's pilot, but the ship's admiral. Or maybe it means you only issue orders to ai-controlled capitals.

In either case, it does help if ES is trying to make capitals, well, capital instead of oversized fighters with a few turrets.

[Nanook]

...
'Finish the plot and then free to roam the universe' seems like what Freelancer was...

And similar to all the past X games, too. It's just that the X games didn't force you to finish the plot before allowing you to roam free, unlike Freelancer. I don't see Egosoft going down that road, personally. Being able to take a break from the plot(s) and build up your empire is too much a part of the games. I could be wrong, but I sincerely hope not.

[X2-Eliah]

A lot depends on what actually they mean by 'plot' - tutorial-purpose missions with a few freebies, slightly elongated combat instances, or something more purposeful...

[hawat]

Maybe it just means you are no longer the ship's pilot, but the ship's admiral. Or maybe it means you only issue orders to ai-controlled capitals.

In either case, it does help if ES is trying to make capitals, well, capital instead of oversized fighters with a few turrets.

I hope you are right, making them act more like this would be great but removing them from possible controllable ship would remove a big part of many players motivation to make money in the game once the plot ends.

But I have some doubt why would he say that if it is just changing the control.

"But ultimately it was something that only a small part of the players got to see at all ever, and those who have come so far, it will have done not too long. Such things we have not this time precisely with it"
can anyone speaking german translate this part please?

Krawall.de : An welcher Stelle habt ihr ausgemistet?
Bernd Lehan : Dazu darf ich noch nicht zu viel sagen. Ein Beispiel: Früher konnte man die Capital-Ships selbst von der Brücke aus steuern. Das wird es nicht mehr geben. Es war ein Spielinhalt, der einfach keinen großen Spaß gemacht hat. Klar, es war cool. Genau das hat uns damals ja auch dazu bewogen, es zu machen. Aber letztlich war es etwas, das nur ein kleiner Teil der Spieler überhaupt je zu sehen bekommen hat, und diejenigen, die so weit gekommen sind, haben es dann auch nicht allzu lange getan. Solche Sachen haben wir diesmal eben nicht mit dabei.

[Legionnaire]

As VincentTH pointed out, there were two more pages, which i had missed, heres the second one, From which i start to get the feeling we may be in one ship throughtout the game but that, that one is upgradeable.

Krawall.de: At which place have you had a clearing-out session?
Bernd Lehan: In addition I may not say yet too much. An example: Earlier one could steer the Capital-Ships even from the bridge. There will be this no more. These were play contents which have simply done no big fun. Clear, it was cool. At that time exactly this has brought us also to do it. But, in the end, it was something, which to see only a small part of the players generally has ever agreed, and those which have come so far have done it then also not too long. We have such things this time just not including.

Krawall.de: Why you have selected yourselves exactly this time to venture a new start. Was there there last the feeling, the row would be taken up no more completely so warmly by the fans? There were also a few problems with bugs …
Bernd Lehan: Oh well, maybe … I believe, latter was much worse with "Reunion". We had to finish this at that time under such pressure of time. You can never optimize of course 100% everything in such a way as you want it, but with "Reunion" was already a real problem. We have done the whole play within one year. A year! And the company was big there half as as now.
Today we are 20 people what festival employee concerns in Aachen. After international standards we are still very small, but for us this is gigantic.

Krawall.de: What you have also reworked, are the user interface and the play entrance. This should become more simply accessible everything. If your fans must immediately be worried that you trim the play „ at mass market “ or it – oh God! – appears even for console?
Bernd Lehan: No, it does not come for console. It is complicated simply less, not less complicated. But I cannot expect from everybody that he sits down like the hardcore fans and studies for the moment dozens sides in the manual. One should play a play and must not learn.

The play entrance should fall in "Rebirth" lighter. However, all-clear for Hardcore-Zocker: In the complexity it was not saved according to Lehan.

Krawall.de: Thus, plainly: You did not have to drive back the complexity at all? Not even a little bit?
Bernd Lehan: The play has become even complicated in many areas. I have just already indicated it: With the construction is that what you can build now, not at all comparably with him what was possible in earlier parts. This has become much more complicated.
Also with the Capital-Ships, by the way – that there is still, one steers them only no more directly from the bridge. What is there, no comparison is likewise too former. Not only in graphic regard, but in view of the functions of the ships. We distribute now, however, for instance, better, while we do not kill the player immediately with the whole range of the play.

Instead, we switch all that better steered bit by bit freely and introduce the player also about the story missions better in the universe and his possibilities.

Krawall.de: A word: Multiplayer?
Bernd Lehan: No.

Krawall.de: No? Again?
Bernd Lehan: We have this thought always in the back of the head. We would do loving with pleasure a kind of MMO. But this is not up to now simply realizable.

Krawall.de: Not even in the small frame? So two, three, four … sixteen players in a kind of Koop mode or such?
Bernd Lehan: We have often thought about a smaller solution, some good ideas also had there certainly, but, unfortunately, the answer had to be: Now not.

Krawall.de: Is there an innovation in the play about which the fans can already be glad? Something that they have always demanded and agree now, finally?


This time there will not be a multiplayer also. For it one promises a being tight history.

Bernd Lehan: Yes, something. But also this is still under fastener. Maybe so much: The detailed degree of own ship, as one steers it what happens in it and what one can do there this is something new, and with it we fulfil wishes which were often expressed in the past, I think. In addition we will also say surely soon more.

Krawall.de: Has the main focus of the play moved in one or other direction? Are there, for example, in the story more missions rich in action which appeal to new players maybe rather?
Bernd Lehan: The plot is nice and is important, just for new beginners. Whether his main focus, however, now in the fight or in the construction has … I could not exactly say at the moment yet sometimes. We just want to reach also that all Gameplay areas are great fun, no matter whether trade, construction or fight. They are only brought together by the story missions to tell a being tight history. Thus I see this. Of course this does to us an amount of work, of course we present ourselves a lot of trouble to tell nicely. But just the X fans say to us: „ Yes, nicely, but the plot goes only 10 to 20 hours.
So, do not buy I, nevertheless, the play. “ One must understand there that we are nowadays really a special case. With our play are 100-hour useful life and more not the exception, but the rule. 20 hours which the plot takes of it do not fall for most players at all in the weight. And otherwise everybody can freely decide where he puts his main focus. At the end of the history the player will dismiss still in the free universe – and then it goes off only properly.

Legionnaire

[Legionnaire]

And here again not perfectly translated, but enough to get the general idea of whats being said i believe is page 3. Of course i would still prefer someone who is fluent in both German and English to have a go manually translating as they would likely be better at translating things so they read more easily in english.

Krawall.de: You are alone basically on wide hall meanwhile. There is real competition virtually no more. Is that also a reason, why one "gets stuck" maybe light? Because there is no competition which demands one by which one can also orientate himself?
Bernd Lehan: In certain way already. It was of course a home-baked problem of "Space Games" that they have stopped from the play principle on the state of the 90s. Now exactly of it we try to get away. Interaction also signifies to plays always. Now, so, we want that the locomotion becomes in the play an experience and one sails not only from A after B without doing really what. The fact that the fight insists not only on selecting his weapon system, on finding the right timing and on configuring his ship.

Krawall.de: Yes, but where you look if it is a matter of finding inspiration or maybe also a challenge. Then a Shooter designer looks, for example, " Gears of Were “ and says: „ Super, what for cool ideas! But this is still better, this should be different. “ But what do you do?
Bernd Lehan: Yes, they simply have it there of course damn. They look her competition and polish details.
There it is already an innovation if the play has a new kind of Pumpgun. Clear that is more difficult for us. However, on the other hand, one must also see: There has been nothing not already somewhere. Just the science fiction literature is so full of ideas, the whole genre lives on great ideas. Even the play innovations are not often taken there. There one said with us quite fast: „ Oh, oh! You have, Gates' in your plays. Nice from, star gate ’ pinched, what? “.

Krawall.de: Is it more difficult to develop these innovations from itself out without being able to orientate itself by other? Is that maybe also a reason for the shutdown in the genre? When you have started, one could at least even say: "Privateer" and "élite", they are great, thus in the play should possibly be!
Bernd Lehan: One does mistake during the development which one would not maybe have done if they had done other before one. This is supposed also one of the reasons, why we have used four years.

Krawall.de: If we still check off the questions with which we a lot of „ m I say not yet “ expect. What do you betray about the story?
Bernd Lehan: It plays in the future of the X universe.
Between the events in part three and this something has done itself. Among the rest that the gates of the old people which connect different areas of the universe have suddenly shut.
All people always use, indeed, these gates to bridge distances, however, nobody knows how they function. Also nobody knows how one could step with the old people in contact. One knows only that this far advanced race exists, and one supposes that a supernova could be responsible for closing the gates. But one never sees them. Now some regions are completely isolated suddenly, other from important goods cut-off et cetera. One can imagine that that offers many new possibilities for the player.

Krawall.de: However, you do not break with the canon and tell everything anew, ¡á߬«½ý¬« is this sometimes done with Reboots?
Bernd Lehan: No, we have laid only a lot of time between ourselves and the last part to have the necessary freedom in the creation.

Krawall.de: In the video we have seen many different modules in the stations, hothouses and such. Are of all elements with which I come as a player also to contact?
Bernd Lehan: Of course.
This time we have huge space stations which are much richer in detail than everything what there was in the past ever, and which also have to act even more with the economy.

Krawall.de: Examples of that what I can do there everything?
Bernd Lehan: Extremely a lot. Only already as trade runs off now, is absolutely different. Now one must land no more at a place, take up there goods and unload this somewhere else again. Now one flies about the station and has directly the possibility to check his offers. If one builds up his own station, however, one can fly just also about other stations and try to spy out them, while one scans them. Besides, some variations of the Scannens are legal, other illegally, and if one is got with latter, one gets annoyance. Then scanning helps, by the way, also in the fight. Earlier it was same still in such a way that it made no difference where one shot. Today the player can identify important systems and attack tactically wisely.

Krawall.de: Mod-Support is preserved?
Bernd Lehan: Yes, from the principle we want to change in our philosophy nothing. We will openly form the play and also listen to our fans and cooperate with them.
In addition we have created already before long the conditions: with our forums and the Devnet embedded in it about which the users can participate in the development.

Legionnaire

[A5PECT]

Ack, I don't want to read the interview until a good human translator gets a shot at it.

The potential miscommunications are staggering.

Edit: Bah! I couldn't resist.

This quote struck me quite positively.

For instance, when and how I get a spaceship what I can do with it et cetera. Up to now it was easy in such a way: We have asked the fans what they wanted to have. And as an answer we agreed: „ More! More! More! A new race! Bigger ships! This and that! “ Thus the row has terrifically developed of course quantitatively, but the play quality became thereby not better. So, it was important, themselves once subjoin and everything on the test bench to put.

Less is more.

We have done the whole play within one year. A year! And the company was big there half as as now.
Today we are 20 people what festival employee concerns in Aachen. After international standards we are still very small, but for us this is gigantic.

This also piqued my interest. As I understand it Deep Silver/Koch Media has been doing well in recent years. I guess Egosoft's getting some fringe benefits.

Bernd Lehan: No, it does not come for console.

I can actually hear the sighs of relief of a thousand anxious fanboys.

That was a good interview; it gives a lot more information into the game than I expected. To be honest I was expecting nothing.

[dougeye]

interesting regarding capital ships, I think as mentioned we will have one ship that we fly but have some sort of VR interface that lets us control Cap ships etc. As long as i can command cap ships in some way im happy, physicly flying them in combat im not worried about as long as the AI is good and the fights drawn out.

This also points to the earlier comment about having 1 cockpit, again i think we will have one ship hence one cockpit but im sure when upgraded it will be badass.

also i believe in terms of the plot that completing the plot will actually "unlock" the main universe, mabye you need to unlock a brand new part of the gate network.

[Striker304]

can anyone speaking german translate this part please?

Krawall.de : An welcher Stelle habt ihr ausgemistet?
Bernd Lehan : Dazu darf ich noch nicht zu viel sagen. Ein Beispiel: Früher konnte man die Capital-Ships selbst von der Brücke aus steuern. Das wird es nicht mehr geben. Es war ein Spielinhalt, der einfach keinen großen Spaß gemacht hat. Klar, es war cool. Genau das hat uns damals ja auch dazu bewogen, es zu machen. Aber letztlich war es etwas, das nur ein kleiner Teil der Spieler überhaupt je zu sehen bekommen hat, und diejenigen, die so weit gekommen sind, haben es dann auch nicht allzu lange getan. Solche Sachen haben wir diesmal eben nicht mit dabei.

Krawall.de : On what points did you muck the game out?
Bernd Lehan: I mustn't say too much on this. One example: In previous games you could steer the capital ships on your own, from the bridge. You cannot do this any more. It was some content which didn't make lots of fun. Of course, it was cool. That was why we did it in the previous games. But somehow it was something what could only be seen by a small part of the players, and those, who had got so far, didn't do it (steering the capital ships) for a long time. And such things won't be included this time.

I tried my best, it's not perfect but it should be enough to show what he meant.

mfg
Striker

[Sahvion]

Ok, if it's true we are restricted to ONE ship and one ship only.. then that is going to be a major blow in my opinion. I really am hoping it's just a translation error (still, would be nice if ES would post a translation foru s.....)

[GeminiFire]

BUGGER... My first disappointment.....

I LOVE driving CAP ships....
I guess i need to get my fill of it before 4th quarter.....
Does that mean M6 & M7 too??
I cannot believe that they took it out...
That was one of the unique features you do not see in other games.

I hope we are not limited to one fighter (like every other game),
that would SUCK IMMENSELY!!!! If I wanted to be limited to one ship and boring gameplay, I would play FreeLancer or FreeSpace2 or IW2.
(I guess i will need to load those back up) They have been removed from my system for the last couple of years, because i am spoiled by X3 and they bore me now.

I hope they have not gone too far to emulate FreeLancer or Evochron.
X Games are unique, and that is why i spend half my life playing them.
It will be a sad day, if we find they have "Dumbed it down" and removed too much of what is an X game.... I wasn't too worried about that, until I started to read the latest interview. I quit reading (in disgust) when i saw that. After I adjust my Attitude and relax a bit, I will re-read that interview and see how much other X features have been removed.
(!@#$%^&*)

I do not care about MMO, cockpits or many of the other "wish List" items discussed in these 80 pages, but the Feel and Environment mean everything to me. If they have "cheesed out" this game, I will just stay with X3TC and MODS. I want to support ES, but if they have killed my favorite game, that will change....

Oh well, I guess I must trust Bernd, and hope they haven't castrated any more unique features.. (crap)

BUMMED...
GF

[hawat]

Thanks for the translation striker304.

A big part of x for me used to be collecting all kind of capital ship then pilot and equip them after the plot.
If that wont be part of x rebirth then it will remove a huge chunk of playtime after the end of the plot for me since I don't see the point of making a bunch of money with stations etc.. If I cant spend it on those ships at the end to make those big and playable fleet. I doubt it will keep people playing for as long as current x games.

"It was some content which didn't make lots of fun. Of course, it was cool. That was why we did it in the previous games. But somehow it was something what could only be seen by a small part of the players, and those, who had got so far, didn't do it (steering the capital ships) for a long time. And such things won't be included this time."

Most of those that are still playing x are the people who got that far I believe.

[amtct]

Krawall.de : On what points did you muck the game out?
Bernd Lehan: I mustn't say too much on this. One example: In previous games you could steer the capital ships on your own, from the bridge. You cannot do this any more. It was some content which didn't make lots of fun. Of course, it was cool. That was why we did it in the previous games. But somehow it was something what could only be seen by a small part of the players, and those, who had got so far, didn't do it (steering the capital ships) for a long time. And such things won't be included this time.

[SeaBee-T]

This is sad...I've always enjoyed sailing through empty space slowly but gracefully in my M6/M7/M2/M1..talk about walking slowly and carrying a super HUGE stick.

[Mail_Man]

That was one of the key features for me as It gave me something to aim for in the later game and keep me playing along with the setting up of my own fleet.
This is a sad day indeed for Capital ship fleets!

[notaterran]

Who knows, maybe they packed so much content for an M3 that we won’t really miss the capital ships.