X4 - ten questions for developers

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Santi
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Post by Santi » Fri, 16. Jun 17, 20:59

seePyou wrote:One can still hope for one though!

Can we get any official comment on whether or not we will be able to fly all of the ships in the universe, from the lowest M5 (or lesser if it is made) to the biggest M1/TL (or equivalent)?
For X4 you will be able to fly ships of the Small and Medium Class, so far there is no specific number to the amount of ships you can fly. It was posted some time ago that the number will be "more than 3". Maybe we can get an update in that statement.
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Post by Xenon_Slayer » Sat, 17. Jun 17, 00:16

Santi wrote:
seePyou wrote:One can still hope for one though!

Can we get any official comment on whether or not we will be able to fly all of the ships in the universe, from the lowest M5 (or lesser if it is made) to the biggest M1/TL (or equivalent)?
For X4 you will be able to fly ships of the Small and Medium Class, so far there is no specific number to the amount of ships you can fly. It was posted some time ago that the number will be "more than 3". Maybe we can get an update in that statement.
whimsical friday statement incoming
More than 4.

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Post by seePyou » Mon, 19. Jun 17, 10:03

I do hope this changes in the future. While it is an improvement on X:Rebirth, it is a much greater downgrade to X3:TC / X3:AP. Many people have weighed in that they do want the freedom offered by X3 to pilot massive ships, and that includes me. Piloting only S and M ships (which number can be 5 or bigger) means no flying in a TS, no flying in a TL, no flying in an M6 or M7 as most people who ever played X3 had been using as their personal ship. Means not seeing up front and personal a large engagement with enemy forces, not being able to help the M1 into battle with all the support M2s, M7s playing fighter screen and M7Ms and M8 destroying caps while your interceptors launched from your M1 handle the enemy fighters... and you being RIGHT IN THERE, in the lead ship, leading!

Just trying to convey how great X3 was and to urge everyone at Egosoft to remember that.

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Post by GCU Grey Area » Mon, 19. Jun 17, 11:34

seePyou wrote:Piloting only S and M ships (which number can be 5 or bigger) means no flying in a TS, no flying in a TL, no flying in an M6 or M7 as most people who ever played X3 had been using as their personal ship.
Why do you assume no TS or M6? Ships equivalent to these classes exist in XR - small freighters with around 10-15k cargo (e.g. Gigurum), Katana & Xenon P. These are all classified as M ships, so they may well be available to fly.

As for bigger ships, not really all that interested in flying them personally - M6 was always my favourite combat class (bigger than that they tended to get too sluggish & didn't find them much fun to fly), so as long as ships equivalent to the old M6 class are flyable I'll be happy.

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Post by seePyou » Mon, 19. Jun 17, 13:00

Well then what is small and medium? If they go up to M6 and cover TS, then we have: M5, M4, M6, TS.

That's four classes of ships, and the official word is that we will be able to fly "more than four" ships. So one of each and a second, maybe a TP? What about a TM? What about a TS+, or M6+?

What about an M7? We are already way past the "more than four" minimum of 5 ships.

Finally, while everyone's opinion needs to be heard and counted, it is not in the interest of the game to simply ignore other people's views on the game. If I'm ok with only flying one ship, then my comment "I'm fine with only flying one ship, never understood what flying more would bring me, bigger ships are boring anyway" does not further the game or the discussion. It is a perfectly valid opinion for me to hold, or for whoever else holds this opinion, but there is also in there an inherent disparagement about the opinions of others that do want to fly more (or in fact all of the) ships in the game.

We should expect more of our favorite games! It's not good to hear that the next Far Cry will have "more than four" weapons. It's not good to hear that the next Grand Theft Auto will let you steal and drive "more than four" vehicles. It's not good to hear that the next Eurotruck Simulator will let you drive "more than four" trucks!

Especially when each game's previous instalment had the capability to use any and all of their respective tools.

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Post by Commander_K » Mon, 19. Jun 17, 13:46

seePyou wrote:Well then what is small and medium? If they go up to M6 and cover TS, then we have: M5, M4, M6, TS.
In terms of X:R: Every ship that has a pilot and not a captain.

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Post by CBJ » Mon, 19. Jun 17, 14:02

seePyou wrote:It's not good to hear that the next Far Cry will have "more than four" weapons. It's not good to hear that the next Grand Theft Auto will let you steal and drive "more than four" vehicles. It's not good to hear that the next Eurotruck Simulator will let you drive "more than four" trucks!
You do realise that was a tongue-in-cheek comment, right? We're not ready to announce precise details of numbers, or even types, of ships, so please don't try to over-analyse this kind of thing. :)

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Post by seePyou » Mon, 19. Jun 17, 15:37

There go my dreams of over analysis!!!...

Foiled again!...

I'll hold my breath till there is an announcement!

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Post by Skeeter » Mon, 19. Jun 17, 16:29

I hope the ui is more stylish like it was in x2, no minimal ui but full screen. Also please bring back x2 bulletin board system. With the stories, some things actually happening and missions through it. Any chance of space to planet transport ships like from x2 in x4?

Also will modding be better in x4 as I've not seen a lot of modding with total conversions in x rebirth, with replacing art assets such ships, cockpits, textures etc.
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Post by UniTrader » Mon, 19. Jun 17, 16:38

Skeeter wrote:Also please bring back x2 bulletin board system. With the stories, some things actually happening and missions through it.
The only stuff in the BBS which had any relation to actual Gameplay were the Mission Offers, all the other stuf was, while interesting, just shown randomly without any relation to happenings in the Game... that was partially done in X3 afaik (there some BBS messages had a relation to stuff happening in the Game)
Skeeter wrote: Any chance of space to planet transport ships like from x2 in x4?
when you mean geamepla-wise used like in X2 then i wonder why, because they were only used in Story Cutscenes and had never any relevance in Gameplay.
Skeeter wrote:Also will modding be better in x4 as I've not seen a lot of modding with total conversions in x rebirth, with replacing art assets such ships, cockpits, textures etc.
Thats not a problem with the Modding Interface.
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Post by mr.WHO » Mon, 19. Jun 17, 17:05

While "the number of flyable ships in X4" has been done to death, I have a question in regards to multiple flyable ships.

Will be have class or even ship specific cokpits, interiors or bridges?
I mean in X-R there are already several nice cokpits (except vanilla Skunk cokpit - I despise that abomination) and interiors are already build with modular parts - therefore it should be easy to have something with low effort but still some minimum quality.

E.g:
S size - Fighters: cokpit only
M size - Corvettes, Bomber huge fighters: Cokpit + interior (like Skunk)
L, LX size - Capships: Bridge + interior + hangar


That way we would have some feature that is superior to X3 or even X2.

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Post by Nanook » Mon, 19. Jun 17, 22:44

UniTrader wrote:
Skeeter wrote:Also please bring back x2 bulletin board system. With the stories, some things actually happening and missions through it.
The only stuff in the BBS which had any relation to actual Gameplay were the Mission Offers, all the other stuf was, while interesting, just shown randomly without any relation to happenings in the Game... that was partially done in X3 afaik (there some BBS messages had a relation to stuff happening in the Game)....
I think his point was that things could be done that way in X4, i.e., expand the usefulness of the BBS to include real happenings. IMO, the old BBS was also useful for the 'color' stories which helped to give the universe more life, and it's absence in later games is what led a lot of players to describe the universe as 'lifeless'. In many ways, Rebirth suffered from the same lifelessness.
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Post by ZaphodBeeblebrox » Tue, 20. Jun 17, 07:39

Something along the lines of.

Haarold Mckyntyre a prospector, had just located a rich asteroid field, he was staking a claim when he was unfortunately killed during a Xenon incursion.

His widow Maria Mckyntyre can be found at station XXX in zone YYYY.

Anybody rediscovering this asteroid field should inform the relevant authorities.

Giving rise to a mission to find and exploit the asteroid field.
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Post by linolafett » Tue, 20. Jun 17, 11:55

mr.WHO wrote: Will be have class or even ship specific cokpits, interiors or bridges?
Each flyable ship chassis has its own cockpit.

Cockpits are modeled with a tight fit into the ship hull, therefore a modular approach is not simply possile.
Every cockpit therefore has a unique look.
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Post by mr.WHO » Tue, 20. Jun 17, 13:24

Nice!
I really hope these will be the quality of cokpits added by patch (2.0?) rather than vanilla Skunk cokpit.

I mean the worst part of Skunk cokpit was that it obscured most of the view without showing that much of an information.
The patch cokpits in other hand provided same information, but with greater visibility and less details to distract you.

I alsolutely love the cokpit that has no glass, but instead it use (LCD?) screens to simulate the cokpit windows - that's the only thing for which I still like the "enter the Skunk cokpit" animation - you enter the cokpit with screens powered down, but when you are stitting the screen power up - that kind of immersion is much better than vanilla cokpit.

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Post by Skeeter » Tue, 20. Jun 17, 13:52

UniTrader wrote:
Skeeter wrote:Also please bring back x2 bulletin board system. With the stories, some things actually happening and missions through it.
The only stuff in the BBS which had any relation to actual Gameplay were the Mission Offers, all the other stuf was, while interesting, just shown randomly without any relation to happenings in the Game... that was partially done in X3 afaik (there some BBS messages had a relation to stuff happening in the Game)
Skeeter wrote: Any chance of space to planet transport ships like from x2 in x4?
when you mean geamepla-wise used like in X2 then i wonder why, because they were only used in Story Cutscenes and had never any relevance in Gameplay.
Skeeter wrote:Also will modding be better in x4 as I've not seen a lot of modding with total conversions in x rebirth, with replacing art assets such ships, cockpits, textures etc.
Thats not a problem with the Modding Interface.
1. BB system as its implimentation, its visual style, its stories, some were suppose to be tied to the universe iirc, could we get this back and maybe expanded on, elite has done ok wise with its news system iirc so cant see why x4 cant and maybe beat.

2. it was used for story but why cant it be used for gameplay? link that ship to certain planets so when u go in u are say transported to a hanger/bar where you can deal with unique planetary resources. Actually involve planets for once without the need to fly direct onto planets, this would be a easier impliment of landing on planets with aid, any opening what a planet exports and imports instead of relying purely on space stations to trade.

3. So modding ships in say mesh and textures unique not reused assets will be possible so a mod can change all stations, ships, planets, asteroids etc to be something from star wars etcc? will that come with a 3ds plugin and documentation for things like texturing, setting up ships animations, joints, etc? instead of just a scipting tool and support as most mods seem to do just scripts to make more complex stuff in the game which i thought is because its limited to just that type of support. Otherwise i would have thought we would have a few decent big mods by now for rebirth changing the skunk or stations or npc ships to something else by now. Hopefully x4 can do more modding wise soa b5 or star wars total conversion can be possible like u see in sins or homeworld in x4.

Can a dev talk about if x4 will be more focused on x2 ui or more x3 ui, what are yoou guys going with with the ui. Personally i hope x2 style comes back.
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Post by seePyou » Tue, 20. Jun 17, 14:14

Cockpits, where the "windows" are screens, would be great, allowing for much better interaction and an explanation (practical) of why the "window" has ammo information, targeting reticle, speed gauge, gravidar etc...

In essence, it is Augmented Reality, showing the world (universe) around you but also the important information I need to do my work.

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Post by UniTrader » Tue, 20. Jun 17, 16:28

@Skeeter

Regarding1&2: your wording suggested that the way these points were done in X2 were enough and nothing more needed, which obviously is not the case ;) (i think i stated earlier in this topic that the worst thing which can happen to ideas stated in a single sentence is that they get implemented exactly as posted, which certainly was not what you wanted ;) )

regarding 3: not sure if something will com from EGO, but a mesh conversion tool between EGOs XR mesh formats and dae files has been available since early 2014. as fas as i know only 2 or 3 people ever published mods which used those. so even though there is no official support the possibilities exist ( the same as with X3 btw :roll: for this game there is also no official conversion tool.)
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Post by mr.WHO » Tue, 20. Jun 17, 19:52

seePyou wrote:Cockpits, where the "windows" are screens, would be great, allowing for much better interaction and an explanation (practical) of why the "window" has ammo information, targeting reticle, speed gauge, gravidar etc...

In essence, it is Augmented Reality, showing the world (universe) around you but also the important information I need to do my work.
I imagine something like mech powering-up sequence (from Mechwarrior series) where you jump into your fighters, the display screens start to activate and betty read status report like "engines on-line, shield on-line, navigation on-line, all systems nominal".

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Post by Player » Tue, 20. Jun 17, 20:03

linolafett wrote:
mr.WHO wrote: Will be have class or even ship specific cokpits, interiors or bridges?
Each flyable ship chassis has its own cockpit.

Cockpits are modeled with a tight fit into the ship hull, therefore a modular approach is not simply possile.
Every cockpit therefore has a unique look.
WOW!

Great to Know that. :D

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