Research and development?

[delray]

Do we have to start with everything researched, do we have to begin at that funny point in the history of the universe after all the technology was already discovered and being right after the last breakthrough, player can use all the benefits of it without sharing any costs?

Wouldn't it be nicer if everyone started with less modern toys, and races, corporations and the player would have to work towards reaching new technological levels via missions and using their resources?

Imagine you have to service research stations with everything they desire like they were the Hub for each race for some game time before they design advanced kind of fighters for the race, so you only get your Adv. Skate and then Skate Prototype at shipyards and in race patrols if you've worked with that race for a considerable amount of time.

Imagine you get to do missions but also manufacture goods and finance the research so it continues and then revolutionizes the universe. Imagine all the basic concepts of the game, like those highways could be improved via research, so you can travel faster on them. Imagine all your ships and all the race's or corporation's ships can benefit from technological upgrades if you help them outpace other races and corporations in their pursuit of new technology. Imagine you can work to make your factories more efficient and profitable with research, but you first to invest in that research.

Wouldn't that be nice?

[dougeye]

i expect the campaign missions may cover this sort of area of advancing in technology. What would be realy sool is if the player had a choice system through the campaign which lead to the universe being a different place after the campaign. Each time you complete the campaign in a different way with a different outcome a new start becomes available. Similar to unlocking the different starts with X3 but with Rebirth the consiquences are much greater and can change the dynamic of the universe.

[ZSedlacek]

That's an awesome idea. The results of research could for example lead to upgrades to ships engines, shields or weapon compatibility. You could also reverse engineer ship or weapon prototypes etc to come up with new hybrid technologies, maybe ships that can only be built by the player? obviously they'd be pre-designed by egosoft, but I like the idea. You could also find rare/mysterious technology hidden in derelict hulks in the void, or stolen from research facilities during missions or WHATEVER, there are so many possibilities I love the idea, and I think it would lead to lots of variation in individuals' playthroughs of the game, and make it different each time.

[AllIWantisaXenonK]

I'd just be happy with the classic TS, TP, TL, M1, M2, M3, M4 and M5 configurations of vessels. Missile Frigates and Bombers are slow-moving (read: boring) and over-powered. Most of the ships on the maps in the later X-games are essentially spam.

If we could research or earn upgrades for our factories and ships then that would be cool, but so many classes of ships on the map makes gameplay murky and difficult to enjoy, imho.

I'm personally more big on customization, and also the idea of losing crewman in ship battles much in the same way in X-Com you lose squaddies that you train and invest in in battles with those aliens.

If we can train our crewman onboard our ships to give better advantages in ship speed, manoeverability, shield regeneration, and combat...then that would be cool. If we lost a ship with crew onboard then it adds a dimension to gameplay.. its not just an auto-controlled ship that you lost, its your own valued people and members of your tribe.

my 10 cents worth.

[delray]

I'd want to just get a shell for the ship, and then be able to use the insides as I choose. So starting with a Nova template, I could add extra shields, guns and cargo space, but that'd cost me in speed with every piece added. Thus making Novas I can build range from quick scout versions, lightly shielded and lightly armed, to heavy tank-ish versions with a lot of shield and guns but not much speed. And of course cargo version which would maintain either shields or speed, but instead of being heavily armed they'd feature more cargo space.

This way you could tune the ship exactly to your needs producing the kind you need for your tasks. And research could be used to enable more and more components to choose from, allowing for more cargo space or shields at same speed ships eventually.

[shadowrunner85]

Upgrading ships stats like speed, acceleration, maneuverability and cargohull, by crewmen or ship updates, has no different effect, just an addition to original stats. If the crewmen ads abilities that's one thing, but this doesent differ from ship upgrades either. Only thing is, it can some time be more interesting to "imagine" that there are crewmen at work not software/machinery.

I'm ok with one or the other, or bought. As long as AI's has the same opportunities. I don't what an unfair advantage.

As fore R&D sure, like the idea of research, but not before you really have a huge corporation in your pokit. I what to start out as literally a smaltime nobody, and whold seam wrong if the universe is in a stand stil to you come along, than the game will center you, instead of a sandbox were you are just a small peace in the howl. "this huge empire needs resources to make a new death ray, hey theres a guy with a small ship, he'll solve this for us, and we give him te tec. As tnx." don't seam right...

[Hektos]

I could see something like this being in the game. Nothing wrong with adding another layer of achievement for those completionists among us

This actually reminds me of EV Nova. Many of the plot arcs had some kind of R&D side missions where you would discover new tech for the race you sided with. Things such as new ships, cloaking devices, super jump drives, a jump gate system, ect. I remember I would always troll the bars hoping for the next mission in the series so I could unlock that juicey new piece of tech

As for why everyone has access to everything in the past X games; according to the X-Encyclopedia, information in the X Universe travels extremely fast and "new" tech isn't new for very long. Between the ease of access (jump gates) and corporate spies, mizuras after a new tech is discovered someone halfway across the X Universe knows about it.

[AllIWantisaXenonK]

[AllIWantisaXenonK]

[delray]

Yes, GalCiv, but without having to actually put hull elements together to make for the hull itself. I want Egosoft to make their beautiful models, just leave customization of what's under the hood to the player, instead of providing a bunch of pre-set ships like they've done before.

Rather than having Vanguard, Sentinel, Raider, you'd just have your own Nova with the insides you researched and want to put under the hood.

[Jumee]

^^^^^ well that appears to be the case with capitals (since we were told that they are modular and as far as I remember we can build our own capitals) but I am not sure that you will be able to do the same thing with fighters and smaller craft (at least in the first release)

[Spero]

[delray]

[Spero]

[danpaul88]

From the development perspective, it might be nice if we could take ships we have built early on and retrofit improvements that we couldn't afford / were otherwise unable to procure during the initial construction of the ship. Thus we could start with a relatively weak, cobbled together capital ship built to a budget and develop it into a powerful flagship as we progress through the game.

To some extent I think this might be possible with the player ship based on some of the stuff I have read from Egosoft, but hopefully it is also possible with constructed ships too.