Please, do complex. PC-complex.

[madcow]

Thank god that was on the onion, because being forced to use that would make me literally slit my wrist.

[Ludicer]

No other controller than mouse can give one the possibility to literally interact with every single pixel on a 2D space with the same speed. That's only limited by human perception, precision and coding. (I indeed still exclude move and kinect which actually seem to somewhat provide the same ability within 3D space, despite their unsolvable precision issues.)

That gives us literally close to thousands of easily accessible interface options when combined with different buttons on the mouse, keyboard and the semi 3d world the screen presents us. (we can look right or left etc. in the game, which provides us with thousands of more easily accesible pixels.)

Try achieving that with a controller stick. PC complexity is good, is more accessible than any console interface. I actually think that console accesibility is an excuse for laziness, as they sacrifice alot while removing the dependance on a space where the mouse can operate on, so that we can do stuff from our comfy sofas. (I am literally in love with my console though, don't take me wrong )

The best would be a precise speech recognition interface . I wish there was one which didn't require us to pronounce each word like an elementary school teacher, and integrated into X or similar games. (that, and a Verbal bot plugged in to betty would be a really dangerous combination )

edit: typo

[madcow]

Speech recognition would really have to be optional, I'd go if I had to vocally tell the game what to do all the time.

Also, I'd prefer it if it wasn't called PC complexity, but PC depth. It's not strictly complexity that we want, it's depth. Or, at least that's what I want.

[Chris0132]

Perhaps I should rephrase.

Not everything should be on a controller, but designing for a controller is a very valuable exercise, it FORCES you to think about making a well designed inerface.

For an example, take black and white, the original. The entire game was controlled with a mouse and two buttons, but it had plenty of things it in to keep it engaging, and the incredibly simple interface added to the game's appeal, the simplicity made it immersive.

So, saying 'the game is too complicated to work on a conroller' is a huge lazy excuse. You could probably fly a 747 with an xbox controller if you wanted, most of the controls are just there to give information and control non-critical systems, the basic plane controls are only slightly more complicated than a car, and you could certainly drive a car with an xbox controller.

This mirrors X3, in that all you really need are aiming and thrust controls, you don't need things like specific buttons for accessing the jumpdrive, docking, cycling targets, cycling missiles, activating and deactivating particular weapon slots, opening the universe map, etc. Most of these are buttons you will only press once in a while, so they don't need their own button, you should instead stick these functions on simple, categorised menus with good iconography to help memorisation and interpretation without having to actually read any of the text, and which you can access while flying around. Don't stick them nested five levels deep in a text interface where everything looks the same, and which you can only access by effectively pausing the game and navigating the frontend.

Design an interface that will work on a controller and you will also design an interface that makes the game more fun, you will find ways to make controls easily accessible and not require sifting through menus or memorising half the keyboard in order to perform tasks. You don't have to neccesarily put it on a controller once you're done, but the exercise is a good one, and will improve your PC interface.

The only things PCs can do with regards to 'complex' games are increased raw computing power, which is usually used on graphics rather than anything gameplay related, and the use of a keyboard, which is just an excuse for lazy interface design. Just because you have dozens of buttons doesn't mean you should be using them all. Egosoft seems to be emphasising this which I'm very happy about. There is little more annoying than having to crawl througn menus and mash the keyboard to find that one obscure command you almost never use but need in this specific situation.

[dAkshEN3]

I would just like to say that Bernd has explicitly said that there will not be a console release of X-R.

http://www.egosoft.com/x/xnews/201105_1_44News.html

[Skeeter]

It was going to try to be on consoles initially i think but they dropped the idea for some reason. The way the game is looking though is that it definitely could go on a console now compared to the old x games due to the more streamlined approach and got rid of most of the sector blocks and therefore the out of sector ai stuff tho there still is a degree of that it is probably alot smaller footprint now so consoles could handle it.

[madcow]

[Chris0132]

[Shootist]

[Chris0132]

[caleb]

[Chris0132]

[caleb]

[Chris0132]

Well if you're releasing for a mouse and keyboard then yeah, I'd include an RTS interface as well, but AFTER I stripped it down to the most simple controls possible.

I'd design for a controller first, then add in keyboard features as needed, not just so 'ah stuff it we've got buttons, just map it to a key'.

[madcow]