EGOSOFT if you making new game i would like to ask only one thing.

[InDigital]

Please! No highways!

[Lander1979]

I like highways and the current maps a heck of a lot better than the old grid network of gates in previous instalments of X. In those days you had to use your imagination to determine the connections between zones.

I would like to see some form of orbital mechanics when navigating around though, something like a solar system with an ore belt ring where a planet failed to coalesce for instance, would be epic.

[InDigital]

I would like to see real trading and combat space game not a cartoon about impossible space highways. i loved X3 Terran Conflict. It was the best X game ever. X Rebirth have nice graphics, but Terran Conflict felt more realistic.

[GCU Grey Area]

I would like to see some form of orbital mechanics when navigating around though, something like a solar system with an ore belt ring where a planet failed to coalesce for instance, would be epic.

Agree with that - also would prefer a map where highways are used for fast travel between zones in geosynchronous orbit around a planet, it's moons & lagrange points (with superhighways used for travel between different planets in a system), rather than the fairly arbitrary placement of zones we have now, with planets etc mostly just used as background.

As for the highways themselves, have changed my opinion. Originally disliked them intensely (particularly in their first iteration with the silly tailgating minigame), but since then have become more accepting of them & even use them on occasion.

Only change I'd like is for them to be made invisible at OOZ distances (still feel they spoil the view a bit), though perhaps with a HUD view mode added to make them visible again if desired - can sometimes be useful to see them to help with orientation, but most of the time would prefer not to have to look at the whole network, just the IZ section.

[Gligli]

Replace Blue one by Yellow. (go out and re-enter)
Discard 'old' Yellow

[UniTrader]

Replace Blue one by Yellow. (go out and re-enter)
Discard 'old' Yellow

that may sound awesome to you now, but believe me: you dont actually want it. recently made a test with InCluster-Boosting and aborted after multiple hours with 100x Time Accel (guess about a week non-accelerated Game Time), because i travelled only about 1/3 of the Disctance between those 2 Sectors.

[ezra-r]

Warp/Boost and jumping would be good enough for me.

If any of you remember Earth & Beyond?

* warp would need to stay still for a few moments (so risky if you want to use it to escape a fight)
* You would be able to warp/Boost in a straight line, ideal to explore.

If highways stay, I want to be able to drop out of super highways and explore (and be things for it out there in space)

[swatti]

Non-combat usable "warp" or boost would be nice. Stops if you get hit etc and cant use it if near hostiles.

Highways, between certain points would be nice as shortcuts. Freelancer had a nice idea there. Also gave pirates a good way to cause mischief

[Nanook]

IMO, highways, if they're used, should be straight, point-to-point lines, not these silly, curvy things that bounce you all over, in empty space, no less, just for the sake of bouncing you all over. No one in their right mind would ever design such a system.

[Gligli]

Replace Blue one by Yellow. (go out and re-enter)
Discard 'old' Yellow

that may sound awesome to you now, but believe me: you dont actually want it. recently made a test with InCluster-Boosting and aborted after multiple hours with 100x Time Accel (guess about a week non-accelerated Game Time), because i travelled only about 1/3 of the Disctance between those 2 Sectors.

Ah! ammmh...
Oooooh, I understand now... L and XL will suffer
Hem... Highways for CAP ships then ?

Designing them shall very much more be railway inspired (very low curved)... Adding switch to this mini-game could be interesting...

[edit] Finally, I'm not sure to get you CAP are jumping, fighters use the Highway...
If I compare with 'old' universe, travelling from an opposite to another without jumping could take a very long time...

[werewolves?]

IMO, highways, if they're used, should be straight, point-to-point lines, not these silly, curvy things that bounce you all over, in empty space, no less, just for the sake of bouncing you all over. No one in their right mind would ever design such a system.

Agreed, the swirling is overplaying it a bit.

[UniTrader]

[edit] Finally, I'm not sure to get you CAP are jumping, fighters use the Highway...
If I compare with 'old' universe, travelling from an opposite to another without jumping could take a very long time...

had a small accident in my movement Scripts so instead of Jumping my Test Vessel Boosted towards its Destination Sector. Wanted to see what happens so i continued for a while but in the end i lost my patience.
Distances between Sectors are often under-estimated - they are really gigantic (Map Zoom Effect is actually to scale here). Even if you placed a thousand Objects near the Tube from Far Out to Ascendancy with the same distance between they would be farther apart than the diameter of a whole Vanilla-Sector

@Nanook and Werwolves
i partially agree - slight curves are imo ok because completely straight tubes are plain boring, but the sharp turns in some Sectors are not.
Examples where the curves are imo ok are all of Maelstrom, Barren Heart, Glaring Truth (except the curve in 42) and commerce Core (except for the southern Loop)
the Connections (which tubes connect to where) are a diffrent matter though. thats where DV (except for Glaring Truth), Ascencency and Inner World are good, the rest not so much...

[mr.WHO]

IMO, highways, if they're used, should be straight, point-to-point lines, not these silly, curvy things that bounce you all over, in empty space, no less, just for the sake of bouncing you all over. No one in their right mind would ever design such a system.

Agreed, the swirling is overplaying it a bit.

+1
They would be much more design and gameplay friendly if they would be the straight line (or more or less straight e.g. they could curve a bit near planet due to their gravity).

Then they could bring back th lanes, but not as a mini game but as a feature - closer to center you fly faster, closer to edge you fly slower (when you want to leave highway).

[Gligli]

Distances between Sectors are often under-estimated - they are really gigantic (Map Zoom Effect is actually to scale here). Even if you placed a thousand Objects near the Tube from Far Out to Ascendancy with the same distance between they would be farther apart than the diameter of a whole Vanilla-Sector

We need inter-sector then...
Something between old unknown sector and sole lost coordinates...

[werewolves?]

IMO, highways, if they're used, should be straight, point-to-point lines, not these silly, curvy things that bounce you all over, in empty space, no less, just for the sake of bouncing you all over. No one in their right mind would ever design such a system.

Agreed, the swirling is overplaying it a bit.

+1
They would be much more design and gameplay friendly if they would be the straight line (or more or less straight e.g. they could curve a bit near planet due to their gravity).

Then they could bring back th lanes, but not as a mini game but as a feature - closer to center you fly faster, closer to edge you fly slower (when you want to leave highway).

I was just thinking about that... the internal lanes actually made it feel more like a "space highway"—the mini-game wasn't that fun, but the internal structure was actually a good call in hindsight.

[BigBANGtheory]

I tend to agree also, the principle issue with the original highway was the failed mini-game not the segmentation.

[henkbein1]

if you making new game i would like to ask only one thing ... Please! No highways!

You ask very little: removing highways - and then calling it X4 - will lead to an even bigger failure than XR.

i would ask only one thing: make it more like X3 series.
Put control of player assets where it belongs: the player.

Pilot any of your ships, assign any of your 10 different fleets to 10 different tasks, ....

[DiArmada]

sorry, but I fail to see the point.
using the highway from zone to zone is an option.
there's also the option to boost towards your destination.
in a lot of cases boosting is even faster then going around on the highways.
especially once you've upgraded your engines.

[TheXHypex]

I'd like to be able to "connect" stations or assign one manager to another one, so that station 1 supplies station 2
Just make it easier to build self sustained complexes/stations, as that's the thing bothering me the most at the moment when playing X Rebirth : /

[ezra-r]

this last post made me think that highways could just remain for gigurums and the likes, while we travel boosting, just like cap ships.

Also straight line highways would be better, maybe some curves to avoid asteroid belts, that would certainly make them more "spot-on"