Highway gameplay improvement

[lyubarskiy]

When XR came out it had the worst mini game possible of you being the slowest ship in the tunnel getting sucked into the backs of other, faster moving ships that then block your view completely.
I remember suggesting that you play it the other way and avoid other ships as you fly though "if you have to have a mini game mechanic". I haven't played since but I believe that it was changed to be something of that nature.

I, unlike many, like the idea of highways. I think it's an organic way to streamline travel within "sector style" X Universe. It makes sense to zip through sectors on a fast lane vs the time manipulation system in other X games.

Implementation is key. I think the way to please everyone is let these highways be highways. Lets call them acceleration void tubes and they work by helping you along vs actually controlling you. What I mean is, let us get in there and choose our own speed and control within it. If I want to go slow let me, if I want to go fast, why not. basically this tube will just increase my speed limit and that is it. So If a discoverer can go 500 in open space, maybe it can not go 1000. If freighter can go 100, maybe it can now go 200. Additionally, let me shoot in these highways. Maybe I want to follow a freighter as far away as possible from populated area and take it out for it's cargo.
Another cool part is let me jump out of it maintaining my speed. What I mean is, you are going at 1000 and jump from the top. Your ship doesn't magically and instantly reduce speed to 500, but either slowly decreases at a normal rate to 500 or keeps that speed, say if you are using Newtonian flight system without assists. I can see very fun and strategic game play scenarios where you can sling your self our of a tube to reach a far off station, or get into a fight quicker, or through a hostile environment etc.

tldr; Highways should be treated as speed multipliers. Highways multiply your possible speed but don't limit your control in the them or the speed that you fly at. You can additionally sling out of them without loosing speed and shoot at ships while in a highway.

[Killjaeden]

*mumbles something about tailgating and M5 going splat when TS overtake each other with velocity delta of 1m/s*

^thats the most likely reason at least, why you dont have free controll and speed differences are small

[Falcrack]

My feeling is, all traffic in the highways should go the same speed, player ships and NPC ships. Please let X4 be the end of bumper cars in space!

[Skeeter]

Maybe if they made em so it's like a game of wipeout it would be more fun. No things above or below but more stretched out side to side, introduce a normal lane and a overtake faster lane. Make the tunnel gfx more like a road tunnel with arrows and monitors or such no wobble gfx. Stick a sorta announcer playing to say where you are like X is approaching exit point A b or c. Or just say a stop like argon prime or what not and section a of it which has say trading station there. Maybe a few fun announcers saying. Susie's parents have crashed in Omicron lyrics sector b or traffic jam coming up in sector c. Lol. Just make it fun with little things like that.

Maybe to exit places u can have traffic signals so when ur at sector b it has a red light so all ships stop for about 10 seconds so u can exit if u want or wait till green and continue on till when u really want to exit.

[GCU Grey Area]

let me shoot in these highways

This can already be done in XR, hopefully it'll still be possible in X4.

My feeling is, all traffic in the highways should go the same speed, player ships and NPC ships. Please let X4 be the end of bumper cars in space!

Sounds terrible to me. Much prefer current implementation to that. Like to have full control over where my ship flies in the tube (normally right at the top, not all that much traffic up there) & how fast I go (as fast as possible generally, often using boosters).

[Vandragorax]

I do like the idea behind highways, and I'm glad they have confirmed they will be much reduced, useful for getting from one side of a sector to another for using gates, but we'll still have to go off the beaten track to find stuff.

I'm pretty sure I heard Bernd at some point saying that it was possible to keep some speed coming out of a highway then go straight into the "high speed travel mode" they have planned, so that kind of answers one of your points (Can't remember which video this was in though).

I'm with other people in saying lets have all traffic move through them at the same rate thanks. Nobody likes the bumper cars effect, and honestly I don't want anything like a highway for cars because that doesn't make any sense in space at all - and I'd just go and play Euro Truck Sim for that experience

Let's be honest here, to make highways work they have to be thought of in their most basic form and purpose. What is their purpose? Fastest travel from one area to another, but being able to exit/enter at any point along it. Having to play dodgems inside the lane and possibly getting knocked out by other slower traffic gets frustrating and hinders the main purpose of the 'tube'.

I'm all for having 'visual' traffic only, moving past us slowly, or overtaking us, but have the player ship rooted firmly in the middle with this other traffic around us so it doesn't impede.

[lyubarskiy]

let me shoot in these highways

This can already be done in XR, hopefully it'll still be possible in X4.

My feeling is, all traffic in the highways should go the same speed, player ships and NPC ships. Please let X4 be the end of bumper cars in space!

Sounds terrible to me. Much prefer current implementation to that. Like to have full control over where my ship flies in the tube (normally right at the top, not all that much traffic up there) & how fast I go (as fast as possible generally, often using boosters).

My thoughts exactly. Same speed traffic is boring and eliminates a lot of game play potential.

I want to go fast and I want to control it.

[lyubarskiy]

I do like the idea behind highways, and I'm glad they have confirmed they will be much reduced, useful for getting from one side of a sector to another for using gates, but we'll still have to go off the beaten track to find stuff.

I'm pretty sure I heard Bernd at some point saying that it was possible to keep some speed coming out of a highway then go straight into the "high speed travel mode" they have planned, so that kind of answers one of your points (Can't remember which video this was in though).

I'm with other people in saying lets have all traffic move through them at the same rate thanks. Nobody likes the bumper cars effect, and honestly I don't want anything like a highway for cars because that doesn't make any sense in space at all - and I'd just go and play Euro Truck Sim for that experience

Let's be honest here, to make highways work they have to be thought of in their most basic form and purpose. What is their purpose? Fastest travel from one area to another, but being able to exit/enter at any point along it. Having to play dodgems inside the lane and possibly getting knocked out by other slower traffic gets frustrating and hinders the main purpose of the 'tube'.

I'm all for having 'visual' traffic only, moving past us slowly, or overtaking us, but have the player ship rooted firmly in the middle with this other traffic around us so it doesn't impede.

I don't agree with the same speed thing. You don't need to have a bumper cars scenario if traffic is moving at different speeds. You can have a soft dampening system where you automatically glide around slower traffic, or avoid it if you want. But I do want the ability to catch up to that freighter / pirate in the tunnel. Or slow down to jump out at a specific point or just assess the current situation of things outside, or even escort a slow moving freighter to destination.

[Observe]

It might be OK if everything in the highway is a sort of 'ghost ship', in the sense that nothing in the tube, is entirely physical and therefore no actual collision is possible. Faster ships would just 'pass through' slower ones.

[lyubarskiy]

It might be OK if everything in the highway is a sort of 'ghost ship', in the sense that nothing in the tube, is entirely physical and therefore no actual collision is possible. Faster ships would just 'pass through' slower ones.

Or think of opposite magnets kinda deal. The closer you get to each out the stronger the opposite force and you kind of slowly glide around the other vehicle.

Could actually work in general and would prevent a lot of self destroyed AI.
I think a similar system was used in a mod of some sort. Made the game that much better.

[Falcrack]

Okay fine, different ships can have different speeds, but I hate in X Rebirth that the Skunk was always the fastest thing in the tube and that I was always bumping into the back of fake ships (you know, the ones that only existed in the highways in order to give the illusion of "life" to the universe)

[Buzz2005]

highways should not have any minigame at all, it should be enter and forget, manage your property and if you like enjoy the sites, just like X3 when you autopilot some gate or station and do a little management until you get there

[MegaJohnny]

My experience with highways in XR is quite schizophrenic. Most days I will go through them and never interact with any ships, masstraffic or not. But some days, I'll keep hitting masstraffic ships that fling me 10km out of the highway.

I'm okay with how highways are now as long as the risk of janky collisions is reduced.

[GCU Grey Area]

highways should not have any minigame at all

There is no minigame these days. They got rid of the silly "tailgate other ships to go faster" thing years ago.

[ajime]

Didn't particularly liked the highways since the only time you can be invulnerable from thrown out is to open the map while in highways. A stack of ships will be on ur hud.
I'm fine with the same speed if it is so.

[LittleBird]

I don't agree with the same speed thing. You don't need to have a bumper cars scenario if traffic is moving at different speeds. You can have a soft dampening system where you automatically glide around slower traffic, or avoid it if you want. But I do want the ability to catch up to that freighter / pirate in the tunnel. Or slow down to jump out at a specific point or just assess the current situation of things outside, or even escort a slow moving freighter to destination.

Why do you want to catch up inside the highway?
If everything has the same speed it is just a matter of a few seconds after everyone leaves the highway. In fact the distance you had before the freighter entered is the same when he leaves.
So I like the same speed idea. It eliminates collisions and you can leave ship controls for fleet management etc.

[Tonsilgon]

And regardless of the speed in highways, make the autopilot and the navigator calculate directions without only using them.
For example, if you are in HOL District 8 and want to go to District 7, it should not point you into the highway to go all around the big circle.

Or make all highways 2-way. But please one above the other, so you can see, which to use.

[GCU Grey Area]

Why do you want to catch up inside the highway?

When I'm doing an escort mission prefer to follow the freighter into the highway, then overtake & leave the highway before the client, preferably with enough time to deal with any hostiles at the far end.

Not a fan of this same speed idea. Like to go as fast as possible through the highways, even if there is a risk of collision with slower moving traffic. Anyway there are a couple of options for people who want to fly slower, either adjust throttle or set autopilot to follow a slower moving ship. Hammering through the highways at full speed is not mandatory.

[Vandragorax]

Or make all highways 2-way. But please one above the other, so you can see, which to use.

- I'm pretty certain Bernd has said that they are making (almost all?) highways two-way in X4. They will be designed as actual highways now, a quick travel path through the middle of sectors in both directions, not a spaghetti path leading past all the stations in an area.

Not a fan of this same speed idea. Like to go as fast as possible through the highways, even if there is a risk of collision with slower moving traffic. Anyway there are a couple of options for people who want to fly slower, either adjust throttle or set autopilot to follow a slower moving ship. Hammering through the highways at full speed is not mandatory.

- But if everyone goes the same speed in a highway, then you WILL be going "as fast as possible"... just so will everyone else Nobody wants to move slower in a highway, it's just a thing to get in and get out at the right points, the rest is like autopilot.

[X2-Illuminatus]

From the Q&A thread:

Universe Design

• If it is possible to add a second lane that goes in the other direction. In addition to a visible construction like the freelancer, it would be great if I could change the direction at any moment, if necessary as in real life highways.
  No, there were good reasons for making any given highway one-way. Where we need bidirectional traffic we can just place two next to one another.
  [...]
• I'm curious about the travel system how all that is gonna work?
  Travel will be similar to XR, whereby the highways will be mostly in straight lines or single radius curves. Not all zones will have highways and you will be able to boost over longer distances. This is following the steps we did in the Home of Light DLC. Additionally, using a feature called "Teleportation" you will be able to teleport between your ships, to travel much more quickly.