Simple suggestion for X Rebirth highways

[Ovni]

One of the main attractions of space games is sightseeing, and while on a highway your view is partially obscured by particle effects. I suggest removing those and just putting some kind of luminous dotted line at the highway's center.

My ideal highway ride would be composed of sightseeing, managing my stuff through menus and targeting objects along the way to check them out. So far only the managing part is possible.

[ajax34i]

IMO, unfortunately sightseeing is nice the first time, and then those "features" get repetitive and annoying fast. Like the minigame, chatting with NPCs, and even the cockpit that was novel at first but then ended up blocking my view during combat.

I feel that we need the highway wall, so we can dodge around traffic but still be able to stay within the highway.

Incidentally, I use the "no local traffic on the highways" mod, and I noticed that after installing that mod, the local traffic started flying at normal speed next to the highway.

So I'd like to propose the following alternative:

- Leave the highways as they are (actually, please make all paths two-way, so we don't have to go around the big circle to return to the previous spot).

- Include the "no local traffic" mod and keep the fake traffic off the highways.

- Have the fake local traffic fly next to the highway lane, at about capship booster speed.

- Include fake L-sized personnel transports in the fake local traffic, so we can hitch a gravity well ride on them. This ride would be at the boost speed rather than the much faster highway speed, allowing for sightseeing, and travel speed options. Get on the highway, or catch the bus.

- Or alternately, have a drag effect around the highways so when we approach the outside we get sped up to booster speed. This way we can actually use the current highway wall as your "center line", following the tube but on the outside of it. Or perhaps just make the booster not drain the shields when near the highway.

[BrianPaone]

One of the main attractions of space games is sightseeing, and while on a highway your view is partially obscured by particle effects. I suggest removing those and just putting some kind of luminous dotted line at the highway's center.

My ideal highway ride would be composed of sightseeing, managing my stuff through menus and targeting objects along the way to check them out. So far only the managing part is possible.

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=4211519

[Ovni]

Thanks for the mod link. No a big fan of them as they tend to be buggy and lag behind updates, but for a purely visual mod like this the risk should be low.

Still hoping Egosoft will do something about it... entering a new sector and slowly drifting through it in X3 was so majestic, with its own music and look. Now you can't see crap and the music is randomized, not to mention you're mostly listening to the highway loop. (I know, I know, more mods... sigh)

[UniTrader]

Still hoping Egosoft will do something about it... entering a new sector and slowly drifting through it in X3 was so majestic, with its own music and look. Now you can't see crap and the music is randomized, not to mention you're mostly listening to the highway loop. (I know, I know, more mods... sigh)

just looked it up: each Cluster has a diffrent Set of 6 Soundtracks which are chosen randomly. Technically a Soundtrack (Set) per Sector or maybe even Zone is also possible, but in the Sectors the related lines were commented out (and the reference was only pointing to a single track) - not all Sectors have such lines though, just about a Dozen.

[Ovni]

just looked it up: each Cluster has a diffrent Set of 6 Soundtracks which are chosen randomly. Technically a Soundtrack (Set) per Sector or maybe even Zone is also possible, but in the Sectors the related lines were commented out (and the reference was only pointing to a single track) - not all Sectors have such lines though, just about a Dozen.

Thanks, good to know that at least each Cluster has unique music, thanks. From what people were saying I thought that music was randomized over the whole universe.

I saw a mod that does just what you say i.e. assigns fixed music to each sector. I guess it's a matter of taste at that point.

As an aside, the highway music doesn't even loop properly... it would take anyone skilled with basic music composing software an hour at most to fix.

[BigBANGtheory]

My suggestion would be for Egosoft to explain how they intend to use highways in the next game, listen to feedback and tweak as required... before the game is released

[UniTrader]

As an aside, the highway music doesn't even loop properly... it would take anyone skilled with basic music composing software an hour at most to fix.

if it were just one track which were always the same it may be that easy, but the Highway Music is a layered Soundtrack where each layer is chosen from 3 diffrent Tracks (or they are looped randomized, not sure) and the faster you go the more layers are added - so you probably never hear exactly the same snippet twice

[Ovni]

As an aside, the highway music doesn't even loop properly... it would take anyone skilled with basic music composing software an hour at most to fix.

if it were just one track which were always the same it may be that easy, but the Highway Music is a layered Soundtrack where each layer is chosen from 3 diffrent Tracks (or they are looped randomized, not sure) and the faster you go the more layers are added - so you probably never hear exactly the same snippet twice

That's cute, and pretty cool from a technical standpoint, but the end impression is that you're listening to a bad loop. I'm not the only one to have pointed this out. In the end it doesn't matter if you're using rocket science to play the music, if it sounds bad.

[RAVEN.myst]

Besides the annoyingly short and repetitive looping of the highway music, I really wish it weren't consistently at about double the loudness of other music - there you are, enjoying some smooth atmospheric ambient sounds, then hop into a highway and right out of your chair, clapping hands to ears (also most inconvenient when playing late at night in a cohabited environment, I imagine.) Personally, I would love to see a separate volume slider for the highway music, or at least an on/off toggle (in which case I would immediately set it to 'off').