Rebirth release date. - Part 2

[Alan Phipps]

@ Fallent: I think it is fair to say that Egosoft do understand that and have expected and surely received 'a little sarcasm' from the fans. I am sure they were also as disappointed about missing out on release in 2012 as the rest of us. The thing is that even you would now think twice about making pick-up promises in future to your girlfriend that you might not be able to keep.

The good news is that we can surely hope that Egosoft have learned from all that and that when their MD and spokesperson each express with some confidence that a 2013 release is seen to be as certain as that industry ever can be, backed by visible progress in the volunteer game-testing front, then we can be somewhat reassured, I think.

This is all just my personal opinion as an X-player of course - and rehashing the 'look at what they said in 2011' argument all over again will do little to change my opinion there.

[Fallent]

That's fair enough. If the game isn't out until by 2014 though I stand by my promise of making an annoying vapourware thread

[The Q]

but why did they continue to tell us over and over that it was almost ready for release if it was a lie, or something major broke?

Well, what would have been the alternative? IF something major was broken, which the devs denied more than once, how would telling this to the community improve anything? Would it build up more hype? Nope. Would it get them more customers? Nope. Would it tone down the requests for new information about the game? Nope (well maybe for a week or so). Would it convince those, who say X Rebirth is not going to be released anytime soon (if at all)? Nope.

And now think about another thing: What IF the devs told you really the truth all the time? Maybe it were a number of little things that made the release by now impossible, as all together it took / takes more time to develop and test these things.

Why the contest to win a signed copy... in September of 2011.

You mean the X-Universe Forum Quest? It's still running. It's not organised by Egosoft, but by volunteers though, who don't know anything more about the release date than we do. In September 2011, I think the official release date was still Q4 2011 (whereby the gamescom videos already mentioned "2012" instead). So, they probably thought, hey let's make that quest to entertain the users for the next few months.

Do you deny that to be "almost ready for release" you would be implying some form of testing of a final or close to final product?

Nope, I don't deny that. I really don't know, whose idea it was to announce that release date and from my point of view it was the biggest mistake they could do. But that's the past now. Not sure, how long they should be blamed for that mistake. And honestly, I failed to meet some of the deadlines I had to meet in my life as well.

However, what I deny is the false statement you made that they clearly said betatesting would have been started in 2011 already, which is simply not true.

I just don't get blind faith like yours.

I just don't get, why you always have to get personal, why you constantly ignore, what the devs say and why you have to claim things that simply aren't true.

[Alan Phipps]

@ Fallent: I'll hold you to that!

[Cowski]

If I told my GF I'm picking her up from work, estimated 8pm. Then arrived 1am, and told her it was only an estimated time of arrival, I doubt it would pass with her.

I think I could understand and expect a little sarcasm from her...

Agreed.

After reading & rereading a lot of the messages posted here regarding all this (and thank you BarrenEarth for hanging in there against the "overzealous supporter"s) this has sadly gone no where. egosoft allows this thread to stay opened but yet shine little or no light on the topic at hand. And what little light they do privilege us with is very obscure and has to be interpreted. CBJ is noted for saying, somewhere, that all is on schedule & proceeding. On schedule for what?? A 2013, 2014....2015 release YEAR?? Who knows? Heck...THEY DON'T KNOW. Well that's fine & dandy. And totally understandable.

So tell us that. The X:Rebirth home page states: "X Rebirth for PC is expected to be released in 2013." Cool...ok...narrowed it down to 2013. Will we be slapped again with another push-back because of a big "oops"? Too early to tell. Too early to tell.

And again, those in the know can't, again due to some NDA they signed, shed any light on the subject other than "proceeding". And the "overzealous supporter"s clamp onto that, are happy with it and will wait till whenever. Fine...that's your decision. A number of us evidently are more anxious than others.


I don't get it. Never will. What's the harm in tossing some info our way, a screenshot, anything with a note next to it stating, "This may or may not represent actual game play of the new game X:Rebirth by Egosoft. The final released gameplay may differ greatly from this information/screenshot." ??
I bet you you guys do something like that, once a week, you'll find the natives calming down. But no...you hide behind a NDA, let your fans bicker amongst themselves and in some cases...leave all together because of the consistent delays. "Fine!! We don't need 'em!" is how I see your thought process. Excuse me...without fans buying your software what are you? More programmers/qa/whatever working somewhere else.

I'm really curious to know what the harm is with giving us some substantial information with a sidenote stating something to the affect of what I said above. Perhaps we can be enlightened? If the game comes out & you have fans complaining, "This isn't what the screenshots/information said you put out xx months ago." You can refer them to the side note & be done with it.

[Nanook]

... And the "overzealous supporter"s clamp onto that, are happy with it and will wait till whenever. ...

Stop referring to people who are patiently waiting for the game as "overzealous supporter"s [sic]. That's an inflammatory statement and is likely to provoke other flames. Enough. Have a little respect for those who disagree with your position. If you can't, don't post.

[The Q]

CBJ is noted for saying, somewhere, that all is on schedule & proceeding.

CBJ's last two posts on the topic are just two pages back. If you don't bother to read the recent official posts in this topic, why should we bother to constantly link them back to you?

[pjknibbs]

You've got to admit going from 2011 to 2013 is a pretty damn big opps!

And perhaps the big "oops" was announcing *any sort of date at all* when they were so early in the game's development--strangely enough, people seem to pick up on dates like that and use them as sticks to beat the developers with when the game doesn't ship at the specified time.

[Sibilantae]

Lol you guys, chill. This is embarrassing >.>

[A5PECT]

I'm not an Egosoft employee and I'm not an investor funding X Rebirth. Egosoft and Deep Silver are under no obligation to give me any information about the development process.

I am a consumer, and as such I am entitled to information relevant to my purchase of the game. X Rebirth is not for purchase right now, ergo, Egosoft is not obligated to give me any information.

Would I appreciate it if they did tell me about the development process? Somewhat. But honestly I don't care how they get to their final product; all I care about is the final product. I am a consumer.

[Probe1]

ich konnte es nicht glauben. i check in every few months and its always the same posts T_T.

At least Klohunters name has changed.

[Sibilantae]

ich konnte es nicht glauben. i check in every few months and its always the same posts T_T.

At least Klohunters name has changed.

Variety is the spice of life, my friend.

Ich kann nicht viel Deutsch sprechen, aber soll das nicht "kann" (statt konnte) sein?

edit - never mind, I decided it makes sense either way =P

[TonyEvans]

ich konnte es nicht glauben. i check in every few months and its always the same posts T_T.

At least Klohunters name has changed.

Variety is the spice of life, my friend.

Ich kann nicht viel Deutsch sprechen, aber soll das nicht "kann" (statt konnte) sein?

edit - never mind, I decided it makes sense either way =P

Konnte would be past tense, if I'm not mistaken. So it makes sense being konnte more so than kann imo

[Sibilantae]

Konnte would be past tense, if I'm not mistaken. So it makes sense being konnte more so than kann imo

Personally I think kann would make more sense, hence "I can't believe it!" as opposed to "I couldn't believe it!", but to each their own etc~

[BarrenEarth]

OMG... the entire development process of Rebirth was found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeZ9HhHU86o

When will then be now? Soon.

[NeroEST]

Thank you, CBJ, for answering to this topic.
I can now go mind my business somewhere else.
The game is done when its done and what CBJ hinted, is that the next info
we will get about the game, means the beginning of the marketing campaign, which also means that the release will be 1 or 2 months away by then.

So, all good news, I personally don't care, if it is 2013 or 2014, it will be good/great nevertheless. And I can go mind my own business, do other stuff, play other games knowing that whenever some info pops, it meas a coming release. Good.

In other news, i wanted to ask, is it made certain that this time the scaling of things will be correct? That human in space suit will be around 2m tall? And would scale accordingly next to the space ship?
In X3 it feels as if human in a space suit is half the size of the space ship...
And nevermind the other stations, that feel much more smaller than they were intended. I am sure people have asked the same question many times over, i just do not know how to search for this topic, so any pointing with a link would be much appreaciated.
Thank you!

[Alan Phipps]

@ NeroEST: I think your best chance in asking about in-game scaling would be in the 'Ask Bernd One Question' thread here. It is not really relevant and will not be noticed in a Release Date thread.

EDIT: I should not have doubted the power of CBJ's sensible post detector!

[CBJ]

In other news, i wanted to ask, is it made certain that this time the scaling of things will be correct? That human in space suit will be around 2m tall? And would scale accordingly next to the space ship?
In X3 it feels as if human in a space suit is half the size of the space ship...
And nevermind the other stations, that feel much more smaller than they were intended.

This is a difficult question to answer. Scaling in X3TC and X3AP is actually pretty accurate. If you take an external view and look at the comparative sizes then you'll see that the human is appropriately tiny compared to the ship and everything but the very largest capital ships is tiny compared to the stations. What can make things feel small is the FOV, i.e. the "zoom" level of the camera. In a space game you have to strike a balance between "epic scale" and distortion, and there is no perfect solution that works for everyone. That's why there is an option to adjust the FOV in those games. In addition to personal preference, monitor size makes a difference here, and those with bigger screens may find that they get a better feeling of scale with a different FOV setting compared to those with smaller screens.

So in other words there is no perfect solution to this, and there's nothing we can do in X Rebirth that will magically make things feel bigger on a small screen. It really is a case of playing with the FOV until we get the best compromise we can.

Edit: Oops, sorry Alan, I did notice!

[NeroEST]

This is a difficult question to answer...

Wow, I was not expecting answers so quickly, even more not from egosoft ppl.
Thank you very much!
I took some quick, rough pictures and actually I am very surprised. I remember messing around in space suit and coming next to a stations window, feeling that the space suit is too huge.
This time it actually feels correct, the Mercury's flight deck is actually small and there wont be any walkable space on this ship i guess?
And the small Discoverer seems to fit only the pilot, which is also intended i guess. I can't say, why I remembered it wrong, but thank you again with the quick response and pointing it out that it is only the matter of perspective. ( I am really surprised that the scaling is so accurate, maybe my memories date back to x3 reunion era)
[ external image ]

In other words, indeed, this is not an actual issue and needs not to be looked into, as the scaling in Albion Prelude already is correct.

With best regards

N.

[A5PECT]

(Almost) all of the objects in X3 are scaled properly; the problem is that the movement mechanics trivialize the dimensions of the game assets.

Sure, a Teladi Phoenix being over 2km long sounds impressive when you read the numerical value in this post. But when you're actually in game, traveling the length of such a ship can be done very, very easily. Within the X3 environment, 2km is not a significant distance.

On the opposite end, fighters are very small, but they never interact with larger objects in a way that effectively conveys their relative scale. Even a large fighter can fit into may of the struts and cavities around a Phoenix's hull. But the game never really gives you a reason to get that close to a Phoenix while flying a fighter; the closest you'll ever get is probably 1km, because that's how close you have to be to hit it with your weapons. 1km out, a Phoenix doesn't really seem as impressive as its objective dimensions would have you believe.

To get a really good sense of scale in X3, I suggest getting a bunch of fighters (maybe throw in a corvette or two) to attack a capital ship, sit about 5-10km out from the battle, and zoom in on it using video enhancement goggles. At that low of an FOV, the relative sizes of the various ships are made extremely apparent.