Exploration and Universe-Lore

[Phinixa]

So after watching the latest livestream, I started more and more to think about the universe's lore and exploration in general.
The previous X games always felt huge but when you really look at it, its just a gigantic economy/battle universe. Though there are hundreds of sectors, all of them usually feel boring in an exploration-wise sense.
Usually its like this:

Enters sector -> checks map -> hmm no shipyard or anything else worth -> Flies to next gate -> Repeat.

Come on, thats boring after the 20th time.

One of the best examples to date is Freelancer. Yes please hit me now if you want, but its true.

Everytime you enter a sector, it has something to offer. A gigantic asteroid field with hidden stations, nebulas filled with a jump hole or ancient ships and cool weapons. Heck, even pirate bases where some of their patrols get engaged in a cool fight inside the nebula. And Lorewise, most asteroid fields, stations and everything have their own little lore-info. Also some nebulas in FL had super cool thunderstorms. I always felt nervous.

I miss all this in X. For me, the X series should not only focus on having bazillions of credits or simply the biggest fleet/empire but also on exploration and lore. Lets take the Xenon for example. They have their mysterious solar power plants or shipyards or stations. The description is always mysterious but thats it. Theres never a deeper thing, no exploration on these stations. I'd love to discover something there, something cool and mysterious.

What about lost or empty stations? What about missing ships or neutron stars or black holes?

The X lore has soooooo many possibilities. The Sohnen, Outsiders and Old Ones, the Khaak(maaaaah bugs <3) and finally the Xenon.

Its not like X never had anything of that. I remember the story about the CPU ships. That was amazing. Or the Xenon HUB or the X3 Reunion story in general was awesome.

Maybe im just hoping for something that should never be a thing in the X series but there are simply way too few games out there that have these kinds of things...

EDIT: And I wanted to say that if there would be such features, I never expect them to be as fleshed out as they are in other games like Freelancer. At least a bit is enough to make me smile and who knows, DLCs are a perfect opportunity to expand on that. And I will try to mod things in if its possible!

[RAVEN.myst]

There are many, many (too many) dangling loose ends in the X lore - every one of them an opportunity to flesh out, to deepen some aspect. For me, X2 had a bit of the feel you describe (it came out just months after Freelancer, so they were contemporaries) - gradually, that element of mystique evaporated over the next titles (for me, I think the abandonment of true campaigns [ie. with video cut-scenes and engaging, memorable NPCs] in X3TC, and the change to a "brighter" universe in X3R are probably the main culprits.)

[RainerPrem]

There are many, many (too many) dangling loose ends in the X lore - every one of them an opportunity to flesh out, to deepen some aspect. For me, X2 had a bit of the feel you describe (it came out just months after Freelancer, so they were contemporaries) - gradually, that element of mystique evaporated over the next titles (for me, I think the abandonment of true campaigns [ie. with video cut-scenes and engaging, memorable NPCs] in X3TC, and the change to a "brighter" universe in X3R are probably the main culprits.)

Exactly.

I hope that - now the game engine seems to work - Egosoft will take the coming 12 months (assuming that X4 will hit the pre-Christmas market 2018) to write at least one real compelling plot.

One can hope, or?
Rainer

[quarren]

I agree with the sentiment. Egosoft did a good job with more exploration-oriented gameplay in the two DLCs for X Rebirth (Teladi Outpost sectors come to mind as well as Koroni in HoL), so I am confident they will improve on that.

[Vandragorax]

They could do with a few hidden gems dotted around for sure, and lead us to them via clues using the 'scan' feature similar to the yellow pings that could be found in Rebirth with rare containers hidden deep in dangerous Xenon territory.

Use this feature to lead interested explorers on a wild goose chase following anomalous readings, or sometimes finding amazing interesting things. Empty stations to dock on and explore, even if nothing there besides some mini-story contained to the station only about its existence and why it's drifting empty now. Or maybe finding a hidden cache crate attached to the back of a giant asteroid, or a new rich mining field lightyears away from anything else where you can send a fleet of mining vessels and get rich from a jackpot of unexplored minerals.

There are so many possibilities, and I'd definitely love to see some of this sort of thing too They did some interesting things with this system in its infancy in Rebirth, so hopefully they do flesh it out a little bit more!