[Mod-AP][In-Dev] X-Timelines: The Syndicate

[Falcrack]

Just a request, if and when XTL gets released, could you include a "billionaire" start, just so folks such as me could play around with some heavy station building/fleet purchases right from the start? You know, have a chance to get our hands dirty and make a big dent in the universe from the start?

[Jack08]

Just a request, if and when XTL gets released, could you include a "billionaire" start, just so folks such as me could play around with some heavy station building/fleet purchases right from the start? You know, have a chance to get our hands dirty and make a big dent in the universe from the start?

That sounds like a BIG dent, ordering to much to fast from an allied shipyard could be bad for that shipyard.

But sure, we dont have any game starts yet ill add that to the list. Keep in mind ease of fleet management isn't going to be in the first release. Tho ordering things shouldn't be too bad with the template and batch ordering system.

[TTD]

Ok, so "starts" are not, erm, ...started yet.

But I think it would be nice to have...

an Explorer start
a merchant start, and
a fight start.

I think that would cover the basic elements of gameplay that most pilots here go for.


btw... more info on the mighty Python , please.

[Jack08]

btw... more info on the mighty Python , please.

What would you like to know? Python is a scripting language, it has been at the very core of XTL's development since nearly day one... Just today i started running out of good asteroid fields to place into sectors, so i wrote a python script that takes a set of pre-existing asteroid fields, selects random elements and generates a brand new one from it

[Falcrack]

Another question, will the Xeonon/Khaak also be required to mine asteroids for raw materials to build ships? I recall a while back you decided to not have the Zenith faction (or whatever they were called) be in the game.

I would imagine in order to keep the economy humming along with orders for new ships and weapons driving the economy, there would need to be a certain steady level of ships getting blown up in order to create space for new ships to be ordered. The Xenon/Khaak could nicely fill that role, alongside any wars between factions being fought.

Finally, regarding credits. Is the player going to be the only entity in the game for which credits matter, or will certain NPCs also have a finite amount of credits and need to earn them in order to expand their operations/purchase ships?

[TTD]

....

Finally, regarding credits. Is the player going to be the only entity in the game for which credits matter, or will certain NPCs also have a finite amount of credits and need to earn them in order to expand their operations/purchase ships?

Now there's a concept...actually play against the various npc's competitively.
In such a way as you are playing against a coputer generated character or race, much as you would play against another human player.

It's often done in other games.Armada 2526 springs to mind.
But I am not sure if it would be possible in an X-game.

[Jack08]

Another question, will the Xeonon/Khaak also be required to mine asteroids for raw materials to build ships? I recall a while back you decided to not have the Zenith faction (or whatever they were called) be in the game.

I would imagine in order to keep the economy humming along with orders for new ships and weapons driving the economy, there would need to be a certain steady level of ships getting blown up in order to create space for new ships to be ordered. The Xenon/Khaak could nicely fill that role, alongside any wars between factions being fought.

Finally, regarding credits. Is the player going to be the only entity in the game for which credits matter, or will certain NPCs also have a finite amount of credits and need to earn them in order to expand their operations/purchase ships?

For the initial release the Kha'ak / Xenon will be the only entitys allowed to spawn ships from nothing-ness, however they do have to obey a build rate that is majorly limited over the build-rate of other races. These two races are on the list of things to re-implement post release, giving them micro-economies, there is no point giving both of them full blown economy that require 15+ sectors to run, as it doesn't make sense for there design,

Everything kha'ak is Nividum, an element thats been exhausted from the universe, So the kha'ak will mine normal minerals and convert them to Nividium at a not yet defined rate, which they will use to manufacture there forces.

The Xenon are Machines, as such they can employ technologies beyond our understanding to build things - they will also employ the same style of micro-economy, requiring only raw materials to create things.

Neither race holds any space, When deep space exploration is implemented, that is when the Kha'ak/Xenon can truly be implemented properly.

Both of these entity's will constantly be on the lookout for the "Omega" asteroid, when it is implemented, which is used to create Prototype and Advanced variant ships. If the Xenon or Kha'ak manage to get there hands on enough of this resource, it will be a very bad day for someone.

---

On the topic of credits, The player is the only one at the moment who deals with credits, but the features planned in R2 will change that, implementing Privateer corporations that act as mercenary's, bounty hunters or free traders.

[TTD]

The connection between the Kha'ak and Nividium was something iI supositioned on in my "Tutorial Story" when a scientist worked on this theory while in the employ of my my main character.

Not sure if I was the first to put the theory into print though.

But thanks for the continuation.

[Jack08]

For some reason when i entered this sector i had a very strong moment of super-surreal immersion as i exited the gate, im not sure why.. But i also had the strong urge to take screenshots of it to!

Screen 1
Screen 2

im not sure what it was but something was just like "Whoa..." when coming through the gate.

Am i going crazy? lol

[TrixX]

Dayum, looks great!

[firestorm79]

succinct and patient explanation

wow... this is so damn interesting... who knows maybe one day I'll get into mod development myself and I shall remember the point at which the world opened up for me...

[TrixX]

....

Finally, regarding credits. Is the player going to be the only entity in the game for which credits matter, or will certain NPCs also have a finite amount of credits and need to earn them in order to expand their operations/purchase ships?

Now there's a concept...actually play against the various npc's competitively.
In such a way as you are playing against a coputer generated character or race, much as you would play against another human player.

It's often done in other games.Armada 2526 springs to mind.
But I am not sure if it would be possible in an X-game.

Not long ago that would have been a problem. Though I believe Jack08 (or is that Hack08 ) has managed to solve the Race Limit problem that was causing that particular issue. It won't be in the first iteration but it is definitely on the list to get done

[all_other_names_taken]

It won't be in the first iteration but it is definitely on the list to get done

Can't wait!
It's amazing how your idea of what a space game should be like and what it should contain is so similar to mine.
Makes me wonder, if you two (with some help, of course) should create a game from scratch, what would come out of it.

[Vayde]

I think they already are

[Mad_CatMk2]

Now I really want this..so impatient

[Jack08]

SETA

The bane of everything in X, and a highly controversial topic.
I am currently contemplating locking SETA to 6x, and not allowing it to go any higher. This may sound crazy but hear me out first.

SETA's purpose in the vanilla game was to allow you to get from place to place faster, and speed up the economic functions of the game so factories with cycle times of "1hr 45min" didn't seem too bad.

However, in XTL - these two problems are mitigated, Ships are at least 3x faster then vanilla, and the cycle times of the economy, cross the board, are all close to 15 minutes.

Why lock seta? Why not let the user choose?
It is human nature to go as fast as possible, however in this one case faster isnt always better. 10X SETA will likely be a detriment to your game experience in XTL then an asset, due to the low cycle times of the economy and fast ships, When going at 10X its the equivalent of going close to 30X when it comes to Travel and Economy speed.

There are a few reasons i want to lock seta to max 6X, and ill list each of them:

• 1. Performance: While my computer can pull off seta 10 with 20,000 tasks at a nice 30+ FPS (for the most part) - alot of peoples cannot, Preventing SETA from going any higher then 6 will solve the performance issues of lower end computers, hopefully, and give us more room to expand the game, adding more entity's - The Main reason i want to limit SETA is to allow use to cram more things into the universe then ever before, where the standard game has 10,000 entity's, and could barely handle it when you reached 13,000 - XTL already has 15,000 and i would much like to push that number far higher, but this is only possible by limiting SETA.
• 2. Autopilot: Lets face it the autopilot sucks, we all know it, and its not somthing we can fix. However, if your not running seta above 6x, your ship wont randomly accelerate and ram the ship your following killing you in the process, at 6x the game has a chance to correct and veer you off course.
• 3a. 8x or 10x Are No Longer Necessary: No other mod can claim this, XTL is unique in its economic redesign, Because of the relval system holding other mods back changing the cycle time of factory's drastically enough to make this claim is just out of the question in a vanilla based mod. XTL doesn't suffer the limitation of RelVal's, we can set the cycle time, input products and output products of a factory independent from either, at any time. This means we have been able to create an economy that can process much faster then Vanilla. Because cycle times are almost 15 minutes across the board, and not over an hour - There is no need to sit in seta 10x for a prolonged period of time waiting for your weapons to be built.
• 3b. 8x or 10x Are No Longer Necessary, Continued: Ship Speeds. Your average M3 in vanilla is 100m/s - thats crazy slow... Your average M3 in XTL is 300m/s, and your average M5 is 600m/s+. Faced with these speeds, you no longer need to use seta 10x to travel across the universe fast, Also obtaining a jump capable mini-carrier (TM class) is quite easy.
• 4. Blink and its gone: Seta has this effect on everything, values like 8x and 10x result in you missing things you would otherwise enjoy by preventing effects from playing, or generally making things go to fast to realize whats going on.
• 5. Combat: SETA is the ultimate cheat tool. It allows you to survive what would otherwise kill you, In 6x there's allot less of a chance of you surviving the impossible, because 6x gives turrets and main weapons a chance to fire, it also gives bullets a chance to hit, rather then passing right through you.

All in all, i see limiting seta to 6x as nothing but a benefit, however i would like your opinions?

in every mod i've played, and vanilla - i've never once been able to survive the boredom of 6x, there economics are just too slow and thats a limitation of the game, not the mods fault - however as that limitation of the game has been removed in XTL, is there any reason to still allow 8x/10x? Considering lowing it will increase what we can do with the game im strongly leaning twords locking seta to 6X.

Thank you for reading, i know its a wall

[bluenog143]

^ No objections on my part, I agree with your post 100% and you know what you're doing.



Some quick questions though about the mod:

1] Will the Xenon and Kha'ak be hostile to each other?

2] Will there be any Kha'ak or Xenon starts?

[Jack08]

1] Will the Xenon and Kha'ak be hostile to each other?
2] Will there be any Kha'ak or Xenon starts?

They will be hostile to each-other, yes.
There will not be any starts, or at least there is not currently any plans for them - perhaps if we can come up with some clever way of playing them then we can make them an R3 feature.

[bluenog143]

Thanks for the fast reply!

I always found it weird that in vanilla X the Xenon and the Kha'ak were not hostile to each other.

[firestorm79]

I personally play at x6 SETA since any faster is just pointless. Half the time I'm doing something with my property list anyway so don't need to even hit SETA...

Can't wait for this... Any ETA?