Ok even I admit it's a turd now

[chikatilo]

Having enjoyed 20+ hours of exploring and shooting things I figured I steal some small ships, problem is, you can't, they don't bail and if they do (one in 15 hours or shooting ships) one bullet too much and the ship is gone.

Well then, I have to get some trading action, need a trading ship, two options : grind the long range scanner for cash - which I refused to do - Or board one.

I'm currently in the middle of trying to board a HOSTILE trading ship as I prefer not to piss off factions, took me an hour to find one.

The copilot says "lets make sure there are no nasty suprises first, take out the jump drive" ... I take out the jumpdrive

"Now take out the engines" she says, I take out the engines.

Then she repeats "lets make sure there are no nasty suprises first, take out the jump drive" I take it out again, one shot was enough this time.

"Now take out the engines" she says, I take out the engines, again, one shot was enough.

After repeating this seven times, SEVEN TIMES, I felt so r******* I finally ragequit and uninstalled the game.

/joined the this game is shit crew.

Hello

[Divinity1990]

I told you.

[FuryFlex]

Hi chikatilo, welcome! Have a tissue...oh, crap, I used them up already.

[Jibjob]

Yep.

Here have a user video. Maybe it will cheer you up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvKZnyvBDVI

[vahadar]

the explanation is simple

Npc are repairing stuff you destroy, and some are repairing it very fast

so you need to shoot fast. The basic weapon is not good enough for that, you should buy the ultra fast gun that does a lot of dps

basically you need to destroy those as fast as possible.

after your pods are lauching and you will also need to destroy some more turrets/generator/engines (if the last repairs) to help with diversion while your soldiers advance. Sometime you are even required to use Trojan drones in the process for boarding (to disable a turret or other things). In all case you will be directed what to shoot.

[loxen]

It seems some ships have Scotty, Geordi laforge, and Barkley working hard to repair systems as you take them out.. But really its the ships engineer repairing systems..

[Matticus88]

Yes, the game has problems, Yes those problems are very big problems and in quite a few cases, game breaking problems. However, i have faith and i trust Egosoft to fix those problems and make this a great game that will become better even than the previous X games.

From what i know, X3 had problems when it first came out, but over time, it became a fantastic game, and with terran conflict it became even better. I believe this will happen for Rebirth, it will get better, people just need to understand that fixs do take time, and they need to be more patient and wait for these fixes to arrive.

Just look at Simcity as an example, when it first came out, the game was damn near unplayable, non of the online stuff really worked as it should have, but over time they did fix many of the big issues, yes it still has issues now but things are getting fixed.

The key word is PATIENCE.

[chikatilo]

the explanation is simple

Npc are repairing stuff you destroy, and some are repairing it very fast

so you need to shoot fast. The basic weapon is not good enough for that, you should buy the ultra fast gun that does a lot of dps

basically you need to destroy those as fast as possible.

after your pods are lauching and you will also need to destroy some more turrets/generator/engines (if the last repairs) to help with diversion while your soldiers advance. Sometime you are even required to use Trojan drones in the process for boarding (to disable a turret or other things). In all case you will be directed what to shoot.

NPC's fixing it as you go about shooting it makes sense mate, but,

I had a big gun and I managed to do it very fast once, the pods did launch but gave me zero response as to what to do from there, I spent all that time blowing off shields and turrets until there was nothing left, eventually the ships hull hit 0% and it blew up.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, i'd appreciate you telling me, a LOT, but in any case, the game should give some proper feedback

the marines on that ship didn't say/do anything for aprox 15 minutes while I was blowing off every turret and shield on the ship. Just green triangles in the proximity of the ship's destroyed engines.

[gruff83]

I found a xenon cap ship in free play mode, i flew up to it, shot out the jump drive and engines, sent a boarding crew on (16 marines and 4 elite marines), nothing happened after that - eventually the little green pods that stick to the ship just disappeared, and ship was not captured; there were no comms from the boarding crew advising what was going on. bit crap really. the fact that the alien ship also didn't fire one shot was also a bit crap.

[Swallen]

I had a big gun and I managed to do it very fast once, the pods did launch but gave me zero response as to what to do from there, I spent all that time blowing off shields and turrets until there was nothing left, eventually the ships hull hit 0% and it blew up. [...]

You would think the crew would prioritize closing hull breaches rather than keep repairing shields and engines to the point were this could happen...

[ragod]

Yes, the game has problems, Yes those problems are very big problems and in quite a few cases, game breaking problems. However, i have faith and i trust Egosoft to fix those problems and make this a great game that will become better even than the previous X games.

From what i know, X3 had problems when it first came out, but over time, it became a fantastic game, and with terran conflict it became even better. I believe this will happen for Rebirth, it will get better, people just need to understand that fixs do take time, and they need to be more patient and wait for these fixes to arrive.

Just look at Simcity as an example, when it first came out, the game was damn near unplayable, non of the online stuff really worked as it should have, but over time they did fix many of the big issues, yes it still has issues now but things are getting fixed.

The key word is PATIENCE.

People keep saying things like this...

Yes, X3 had problems when it was launched. But those problems were BUGS, BUUUGGGSSS, not the fundamental horrible design decisions that are behind XR.

XR will needs a massive re write of core game concepts to get it to the point where X3 was at launch, and note it took them SEVEN YEARS to get to the point they are at now. Let that sink in for a few minutes. Seven years, to deliver this.

[chikatilo]

I found a xenon cap ship in free play mode, i flew up to it, shot out the jump drive and engines, sent a boarding crew on (16 marines and 4 elite marines), nothing happened after that - eventually the little green pods that stick to the ship just disappeared, and ship was not captured; there were no comms from the boarding crew advising what was going on. bit crap really. the fact that the alien ship also didn't fire one shot was also a bit crap.

I tried again because vahadar gave me some hope that it is in fact possible, same happens to me, after the marines board, zero response, I blew off every single turret, shield and whatnot off the ship, managed to do it without touching the hull too much, 15 minutes later the pods (which are displayed as "wrecks") just vanish.

No message or response of any kind, targeted ship just floats around, I tried going to the crew part of the skunk to talk to the marine recruiter old lady about it, she was gone, when I got back in my seat the targeted ship was magially repaired instantly and fully.

This was the gamebreaker right here for me, 30 hours into albion prelude I had an empire, 30 hours in rebirth bugs prevent me from capping my first trade ship -& doing my first trade with it.

[Monkeyfister]

It's a pity our OWN Engineers can't even begin making minor repairs.

How do we get NPC Engineers to bail, so we can get them on OUR crew?

Heck, my hired hands won't even show me their skills-- just "?????",, which seems EXACTLY right, and perfectly appropriate.

[vahadar]

our own engineers can repair sysem but not hull

to repair hull you can dock on another of your capship with an engineer and speak to him

as for the boarding not behaving correctly, it happened to me the first time (marines launched but the copilot wasnt giving any direction after and i was shooting all stuff with zero success)

i also read somewhere else this can be bugged, and that you need to fire your marine officer if that happen and take a new one

i accidently did that just for cosmetic purpose (cuter officer) not knowing that before, and since then all my boarding are ok, the copilot once the pods are launched and all landed on the target give order for what to shoot next to help marines progress better.
also the previous officer was zero star in boarding while the new one came with one star, dont know it it was another possible fix

Marines wont take the ship at all without you doing all those sequential destruction orders given by the copilot

EDIT : on a side note, boarding was the first thing i did in the game, even before starting the plot
i was taking those mission to kill lone cartel boss, or criminals and so on, basically every missions that involved a cap ship. Boarding the cap ship also make the mission successfull.
(though the reward is ridiculous compared to the sale of ship at ship dealer)
in short before starting plot i had 100millions in account with boarding ships, since i knew Plutarch would be red after, and that friendly shipyard wont be found anytime soon early in the plot.

some easy targets :
Heavy Sul and Light Sul : first thing to do is to blow the drone launching bay (which is inside the ship) before starting the boarding (in general the ship dont have time to turn hostile when you do so)

then go for the reactors as close à possible, for those 2 ships (and the Balor) turrets cant reach you.

nitiate boarding and follow guidance, use strafeing with speed at zero to shoot jumpdrive and engines, go back in safe spot (engines) if you need your shields back up(the sides of the Heavy Sul also are a safe spot against turrets)

For Taranis its more dangerous, the engines arent 100% safe zone, and you will need to keep strafing a lot to get the job done without taking too much shield damage

When the marines are launched, distract the flak by letting them aggro you instead of the pods, so your pods will survive the boarding approach.

I havent tried bigger ships yet
I never used veteran or elite marines, just packs of recruit marines, it works all time (got my first ship a Heavy Sul with 25+ marines, now i'm full team)

So far i boarded successfully 4 Heavy Sul, 2 Ligh Suls, 2 Balors, 2 taranis and 1 Reaver freighter (dont remember the name though its pretty cool ship and very powerfull for its class)

Also if you see that the target dont repair very fast, just kill it, because by the time the boarding isover it wont have the time to repair its engines or drive, and you NEED them working to get the ship repaired after. So prefer targets that repair fast, they are much harder, but since the game is broken as how to repair ships with engine dead, its a valid solution for now

[ND89]

Yes, the game has problems, Yes those problems are very big problems and in quite a few cases, game breaking problems. However, i have faith and i trust Egosoft to fix those problems and make this a great game that will become better even than the previous X games.

From what i know, X3 had problems when it first came out, but over time, it became a fantastic game, and with terran conflict it became even better. I believe this will happen for Rebirth, it will get better, people just need to understand that fixs do take time, and they need to be more patient and wait for these fixes to arrive.

Just look at Simcity as an example, when it first came out, the game was damn near unplayable, non of the online stuff really worked as it should have, but over time they did fix many of the big issues, yes it still has issues now but things are getting fixed.

The key word is PATIENCE.

People keep saying things like this...

Yes, X3 had problems when it was launched. But those problems were BUGS, BUUUGGGSSS, not the fundamental horrible design decisions that are behind XR.

XR will needs a massive re write of core game concepts to get it to the point where X3 was at launch, and note it took them SEVEN YEARS to get to the point they are at now. Let that sink in for a few minutes. Seven years, to deliver this.

I know what you mean and I did at one point think the game was completely doomed.

We cannot truly determine what they worked on for 7 years though. Perhaps the game environment took them a rather lengthy period of time. The implementation of the whole interiors and NPC may have eaten up a fair chunk of that time too.

Most of the terrible design decisions are related to UI. Maps, menus, hotkeys, targeting, etc; it all needs to be overhauled. A complete UI overhaul will indeed take some months but shouldn't take over a year.

Then we have some issues that are simpler to fix:
- If we can trade and interact with NPCs from inside our ship via an interface like before, that would fix a lot of problems too. There is a mod that already allows for this apparently, if that is true this shouldn't take them much time at all then.
- Removing cockpit visuals that are getting in the way should as well be a simple fix, as many are complaining they can't enjoy flying at all with the view being only partial.

At that point the main issue becomes fleet command and the fact that we are stuck on this single annoying ass ship. If they cannot solve those issues I'd agree the game would still be quite broken. We need to be able to command our fleet properly and it would be nice to either be able to
a) Fly any ship in the game, or at least a wide variety.
b) Be able to upgrade our ship to be anything from a fighter to a cap.

If they are committed to the changes above I do think it can be done in under a year and would make the game actually playable and enjoyable, barring any more game breaking design decisions appearing in the future.

[chikatilo]

our own engineers can repair sysem but not hull

to repair hull you can dock on another of your capship with an engineer and speak to him

as for the boarding not behaving correctly, it happened to me the first time (marines launched but the copilot wasnt giving any direction after and i was shooting all stuff with zero success)

i also read somewhere else this can be bugged, and that you need to fire your marine officer if that happen and take a new one

i accidently did that just for cosmetic purpose (cuter officer) not knowing that before, and since then all my boarding are ok, the copilot once the pods are launched and all landed on the target give order for what to shoot next to help marines progress better.
also the previous officer was zero star in boarding while the new one came with one star, dont know it it was another possible fix

Marines wont take the ship at all without you doing all those sequential destruction orders given by the copilot

EDIT : on a side note, boarding was the first thing i did in the game, even before starting the plot
i was taking those mission to kill lone cartel boss, or criminals and so on, basically every missions that involved a cap ship. Boarding the cap ship also make the mission successfull.
(though the reward is ridiculous compared to the sale of ship at ship dealer)
in short before starting plot i had 100millions in account with boarding ships, since i knew Plutarch would be red after, and that friendly shipyard wont be found anytime soon early in the plot.

some easy targets :
Heavy Sul and Light Sul : first thing to do is to blow the drone launching bay (which is inside the ship) before starting the boarding (in general the ship dont have time to turn hostile when you do so)

then go for the reactors as close à possible, for those 2 ships (and the Balor) turrets cant reach you.

nitiate boarding and follow guidance, use strafeing with speed at zero to shoot jumpdrive and engines, go back in safe spot (engines) if you need your shields back up(the sides of the Heavy Sul also are a safe spot against turrets)

For Taranis its more dangerous, the engines arent 100% safe zone, and you will need to keep strafing a lot to get the job done without taking too much shield damage

When the marines are launched, distract the flak by letting them aggro you instead of the pods, so your pods will survive the boarding approach.

I havent tried bigger ships yet
I never used veteran or elite marines, just packs of recruit marines, it works all time (got my first ship a Heavy Sul with 25+ marines, now i'm full team)

So far i boarded successfully 4 Heavy Sul, 2 Ligh Suls, 2 Balors, 2 taranis and 1 Reaver freighter (dont remember the name though its pretty cool ship and very powerfull for its class)

Also if you see that the target dont repair very fast, just kill it, because by the time the boarding isover it wont have the time to repair its engines or drive, and you NEED them working to get the ship repaired after. So prefer targets that repair fast, they are much harder, but since the game is broken as how to repair ships with engine dead, its a valid solution for now

Thank you, will try tomorrow, probably my last attempt to get something done in this game having explored the entire map (which, I have to say, I did enjoy)

So I'll fire my officer, get a new one with a bucketload (20 okay?) of cheap marines and go after the crappy freighters to start off as you suggested. Hopefully I can start trading then what with all the exploring of trade posts I have done before, pull in some cash and get this game running.

[bluenog143]

Yep this game is a turd that'll just keep on reeking and reeking...


The only reason why I haven't left the EGOSOFT forums yet is because I'm having WAAAY too much fun reading the posts and commenting myself!

[vahadar]

if you arent sure about the new officer you can edit its stat in the save file

search for his name in the xml file, make sure its owner="player" because sometimes many npc have identical names

and you can modify its statistic, like putting combat to 3, leadership to 4 and boarding to 1-2

for example my boarding marine officer (she was already very nice stat, i just change the leadership a bit)
the "<skills visible="1">" is to allow you to see the skill when you speak to officer
you just need to modify/add some entries in the <skills> block
like this :

<skills visible="1">
<skill type="boarding" value="2"/>
<skill type="combat" value="4"/>
<skill type="engineering" value="3"/>
<skill type="leadership" value="4"/>
<skill type="management" value="2"/>
<skill type="science" value="2"/>
</skills>

the full code (wont be the same for you of course^^) :

<connection connection="connection_npc02">
<component class="npc" macro="character_ar_female_dv_b_macro" connection="commandroomslot" name="Kaylen Sillarne" owner="player" page="10110" id="[0x1ea6]">
<listeners>
<listener listener="[0x1e2f]" event="killed"/>
</listeners>
<offset>
<position x="1.65574" y="0.552128" z="-3.30702"/>
<rotation yaw="-140"/>
</offset>
<skills visible="1">
<skill type="boarding" value="2"/>
<skill type="combat" value="4"/>
<skill type="engineering" value="3"/>
<skill type="leadership" value="4"/>
<skill type="management" value="2"/>
<skill type="science" value="2"/>
</skills>
<entity type="marine" control="1" customconversation="1"/>
<account id="[0x3d]" amount="39638492"/>
<blackboard>
<value name="$@exp_progress" type="integer" value="104"/>
</blackboard>
<npcseed bodyparts="3620927114" bonescales="3905071028" morphtargetweights="1594358638"/>
<npcanimation currentsequenceid="40" nextsequenceid="40" currentanimation="idleaa03"/>
<connections/>
</component>
</connection>
</connections>
</component>
</connection>
</connections>
</component>
</connection>

you can obviously change the name too

the macro="..." at the start is the appearance of your officer, basically you can find any npc you like by searching his name (even plot npc) and copy/paste their macro to your officers.
Try putting plotcharacter_karen_stringer_macro there for a sexy officer
macro="plotcharacter_karen_stringer_macro"

the <blackboard> shows the level of experience of the marine officer after multiple boardings

the npcseed bodyparts is just to size the npc

[vahadar]

Thank you, will try tomorrow, probably my last attempt to get something done in this game having explored the entire map (which, I have to say, I did enjoy)

if you cant manage to get a ship that has engine working you can fix this in the savefile by editing the xml

i give some guidance in that post (check in the end)

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=350080

[Litcube]

Yep.

Here have a user video. Maybe it will cheer you up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvKZnyvBDVI

Holy shit I lold hard at the end.