Interior walking

[blotunga]

No. It's a useless feature which just diverts effort unnecessarily from more important stuff. Also what do I hear, that the Borons are out because of this? Hell no!

[euclid]

An optional feature similar to fps, including 3rd person view, character customization etc. , would open the game to a much larger player base. It would also add to the individual game play and immersion.

Just imagine you could have your own living quarters, showrooms/hangars for displaying captured ships, crew quarters etc. all as a part of your HQ.

However, it would require an entire new big chunk of code and I doubt it will be feasible.

Cheers Euclid

[lostProfitssssArrgh]

50 + Yes! At this point.

For the sake of transparency, I'd be curious to see if a bunch of accounts created today voted for this poll (maybe Mods already check for that). The results wouldn't have to be made public of course.

lpa

<There wasn't, and we would see it if some party excessively tried to use multiple or spurious new accounts just to influence a forum poll - which seems rather farfetched anyway. Alan Phipps>

[Premislaus]

There is some oportunity for constant milking game via DLC (Paradox DLC policy):

- FPS mini game, maybe boarding enemy ships, station.
- Our base - similar to home from Fallout or Skyrim.
- Craft your garage through asteroid.
- Some ships randomization... Like posters with Boron playmate .


For a moment I played Eve Online, unfortunately I do not have time for MMO games. I really liked the fact, that you could set up your own character.

BTW interiors and aliens looks great in upcoming X4.

[7V4sDuCq]

Vote to nope.
Because Egosoft small dev, shouldn't waste resource on pointless walking. if they realy want to do that, try make it smaller, maybe 2-3 chambers like bar or shop just nearby the parking area, it should be enough.

I'm kinda surprised that over half people vote yes.
If Egosoft is a big company with over 200 employees, the interior area is good idea. but people should know the dev is small group who has only limited time and resource, if they've work on interior area, which means other funtions would be ignored or cancelled.

[CommanderTM]

Vote to nope.
Because Egosoft small dev, shouldn't waste resource on pointless walking. if they realy want to do that, try make it smaller, like 2-3 chambers like bar or shop just nearby the parking area, it should be enough.

I'm kinda surprised that over half people vote yes.
If Egosoft is a big company with over 200 employees, the interior area is good idea. but people should know the dev is small group who has only limited time and resource, if they've work on interior area, which means other funtions would be ignored or cancelled.

In next game we are getting capital ship bridges and other ship interiors. That would be wasted without the walking aspect so i think people, like me, who voted yes for it, voted because of the possibilities the next game could have instead for how the XR handeled it.

[GCU Grey Area]

I like walking around ships & stations. Makes me feel more like a pilot & less like a sentient spaceship (which, incidentally, was the primary reason for picking this particular username back in the days of X2 - ships had cockpits & bridges but no crews). On balance enjoyed this aspect of the game in XR, though think it could have been better. Main gripe for me was the random distribution of NPCs & having to wander aimlessly until I found the particular NPC I was looking for. Think it would have been MUCH better if it had been easier to predict where specific NPC types would be located - e.g. if ship crews were always found in the barracks, mission contacts in the bar, traders in shops, etc.

[Graaf]

In next game we are getting capital ship bridges and other ship interiors. That would be wasted without the walking aspect so i think people, like me, who voted yes for it, voted because of the possibilities the next game could have instead for how the XR handeled it.

We already had capital ship bridges and cockpits in X2. Even without walking it isn't wasted.


The only reason your're getting "interiors" is because they still want walking to be in the game. So you probably also get minigames to have something to do other then walking around for no reason. IMHO wasting time and resources (interiors) to support the waste of time and resources (walking).


Having the Boron back I find a far better use of time and resources. And it's a lot easier without the ability to walk.

[Player]

In next game we are getting capital ship bridges and other ship interiors. That would be wasted without the walking aspect so i think people, like me, who voted yes for it, voted because of the possibilities the next game could have instead for how the XR handeled it.

Exactly!

[dingbat91]

I'd personally say yes, simply as it induces a level of scale that I adore and why I loved the capital ship bridge mod for XR and the "open top" docking area's (with forcefields). it gave a way to see the true size and scale of ships and stations. if you can have a parallel observation deck along the shipyard that would be AMAZING!

However I'd prefer to make sure I wasn't punished for NOT walking around the station. If I need to talk to someone On-station I'd prefer a more lore based reason (even something as simple as a deal/mission that they don't want broadcast over comms but "you've been a pal so I'm giving it to you") occasional kind of thing rather than just a flat bonus simply for doing it

It gives a feel of validity to the purpose of it rather than "Because I can see your face in real life compared to on a comm screen and you said some things about the Xenon I'm going to give you a 5% discount!"

[Santi]

Voted yes, something that a lot of people asked for, was for more compact stations, it makes a lot of sense. X4 platforms look like everything is integrated in one place and it is easy to navigate, same for Capital bridges as CommanderTM said.

Walking around is a good feature, think about it, your Capital ship is being pounded by enemies and is going to explode, mad dash to the hangar to get into that fighter ship and get out of there. Of course you probably can teleport too, so everybody is a winner.

[Nikola515]

It is a good feature but it is not good by it self. Perhaps if they add more features it would make it more useful.

[ajeffco]

Please, PLEASE, make it optional. There are those of us who are physically unable to take walking in stations due to motion sickness.

[Morkonan]

What do you think?

I think the question is meaningless...

"Would a walkable station be better for the game?"

That's the question that has to be asked. You simply can't add a major feature just because "it's cool."

So, if there are walkable stations, what does that do for the game? It makes part of the game either a "walking simulator", which players did not sign up for, or it gives players a ginormous, really big, number of "GNDN" junk in their game. (Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing)

In my opinion, designing a game like this, and many others, is like writing a story. There is absolutely nothing in a good game or good story that does not somehow add to the value of that game or story.

Do walkable stations bring added value? Maybe...

Then, the question is - Should developers devote a lot of time and resources towards "forcing" walkable stations to be a value-added portion of gameplay?

If the answer is "No" then they shouldn't be there. If the answer is "Yes", then either the game should be more focused to include walkable-station gameplay, which isn't its current focus, or somebody better think of a bunch of really good reasons why this is a valuaable gameplay asset and how they can make it work well.

How this works - If walkable stations were really "a thing" in gaming, then Egosoft making a game about a Terran Private Investigator looking into the death of a Boron friend would make a heck of a lot of sense and people would really enjoy the a sort of FPS-Sci-Fi-Gumshoe-Mystery-Romp as they traveled from station to station, looking for clues... THAT is the sort of game that absolutely demands that you create space-stations that the player will then get to walk through.

An X4 game isn't, presumably, about a guy trying to solve a murder mystery which will, necessarily, require him to visit space-stations and interact with their residents, perhaps exploring abandoned ones for clues.

However, if the devs put a lot of effort into making space-station walkies "fun" and "enjoyable" and these things don't detract from the game's experience, then that's just fine and I'm all for it.

I just think it's a heck of a bigger question than just whether or not they "should."

[lostProfitssssArrgh]

@Morkonan
Well put.

Looking at it that way, it seems like walkable stations would be a good candidate for DLC material.

In that case, it boils down to:
- (as per Morkonan) walkable stations greatly add to the 4x experience and are thus justified. The questions remains as to how (separate thread?) and at what cost (dev time, studio budget).
- players want walkable stations for the heck of it. In which case, it can be done through a separate budget (read: dlc).

I'm off to start a new thread...

[gbjbaanb]

I'll agree with that - if you want walking in station, make it a DLC. Not only does that mean the base game can have more effort expended on it, making a better quality game. It means the station walking aspects can be improved too - and there is nothing less enjoyable that repetitively boring stations that all look the same and have the same few areas and NPCs to interact with.

Something like stations requires you to "go big, or go home". Building it into the base X4 is not a good idea.

Look at Stare Citizen, they have these things, but they also have millions upon millions of dollars and 3 dev teams to do it. they've still not delivered after many years either.

[Nikola515]

I think it would be more interesting if player could build their own interiors. For example have some sort of map maker or do something what NMS did with their capital ship interior building. Another thing would be interesting to share those station/ship interior builds on Steam workshop.

[lostProfitssssArrgh]

We've also been discussing station walking more in depth here.

The discussion linked above tries to narrow down how walking could best be implemented and how feasible that implementation can be. It might be worth a read if you're looking to get more info on the subject.

-lpa

[caleb]

I personally do not like it. X is a space simulator, economy simulator, but not a space station walking simulator. It takes resources to set that up, so I would prefer those resources are spent to make a better space simulator.

None of the X games before XR had the feature, and I never missed it. I don't think the game needs it at all. Does not make it better in my opinion.

[Morkonan]

...Look at Stare Citizen, they have these things, but they also have millions upon millions of dollars and 3 dev teams to do it. they've still not delivered after many years either.

More importantly that they "have it" is the question of whether or not they "need it."

There's gotta be something to "do" with it that is meaningful, worthy and can be a part of gameplay that the player will enjoy. That's not impossible to do, but it's a heck of a lot more than just "station interiors."

**********

Important Note:

I've though on it a bit more. There's something that needs to be considered: Criticism.

If X4 stations don't have any interiors, then how will the community, general gamer base, and critics respond?

The opinions of those who have never played the game, have only played it for a few minutes, or just got home from daycare and loaded up a game for which they had expectations that were not represented on the "the box", yet expected anyway, only to find these things weren't in the game and felt that justified their horribly misspelled rants... Well, these opinions are important to devs/publishers, these days. (More important because they're just so darn loud, really. They're usually not very substantive, otherwise.)

For that reason, and that reason alone, I think some attempt should be made to provide "station interiors." Publicity and initial public reaction matter a great deal when releasing a new title.

Station interiors should be present. Should be nice, but smaller versions of what will eventually appear in a future content expansion pack/DLC.

Each area should have a large, very visible, doorway with signs that read "Authorized Personnel and Visitors, Only" or "Under Construction" so that players will be pleasantly reminded that a future content pack and patch will be coming.

There should be a basic services NPC or two located in the accessible parts of these mini-interiors. Those seeking "immersion" can get that, here, too. There will be windows that look out, nicely done lighting and textures and such, inside. NPCs will be pleasant to talk to, etc. (Players are not required to access these interiors in order to contact these NPCs, but they can if they wish to.)

BUT, everything will point towards a future, and obviously entirely optional, Expansion/DLC.

Paired with this will be highly publicized, within Egosoft's normal abilities, statements concerning station interiors and their plans.

How this proposal works...

A) What has been developed up to the X4 release:

1) Egosoft has put in station interiors for their fans to enjoy and to increase immersion for those who want that sort of experience.

2) Egosoft interviews/press'es - Admits it's a smaller dev house than some who attempt to produce a game the size and complexity of an X game. But, reminds all that it has a stable of highly regarded X games. Then, it details its upcoming plans.

3) Egosot will be working, after release, on expanding station interiors. (After any critical bits and content issues are successfully resolved with X4.)

4) Once completed, the new DLC will be released. It will expand, greatly, the physical station interiors already present in the game. It will also add new mission types, new story-missions, expanded NPC offerings and "special" NPCs, and the ability for the player to actually use station interiors meaningfully to visit "taverns", shops, offices and even seedy little places no self-respecting entrepreneur would hazard to go, but goes anyway...

5) In keeping with Egosoft's tradition of giving all it can to its players, players who already own the game will get a limited version of the DLC for free. They will get all the expanded station interiors, but they will not get the extra missions, special NPCs, new ships/sectors connected with them, etc... (Not difficult to do.)

B) The end result and benefits:

1) Egosoft doesn't have to spend time and money they don't have, right now, in developing station interiors properly. They can, instead, short-stroke a workable station interior with some basic NPCs, in order to avoid release-critics and their often unjust criticisms.

2) Egosot gets good press by announcing they will, however, be working on a content-expansion pack, not just simple "DLC." The development will be done either while or after the first few bugpatches come out, if necessary, and, since they're a small house, they'll be using some of the proceeds from X4 to fuel this.

3) When the expansion is released, it will be obvious that Egosoft loves its fanbase and good press coverage will demonstrate that. Owners of the game will get all the station interiors for free. They won't get all that the expansion offers, though, but they will get to benefit from Egosoft's support of its fanbase. They'll also get whatever new technical/scripting/game mechanics that Egosoft has added since release and that Egosoft is planning on using in the future for X4. (To keep "version problems" from cropping up and to, once again, demonstrate Egosoft's commitment to its fanbase.)

4) Egosoft creates a lure for owners to buy the expansion, since they'll have seen good things with the rather limited, but functional, station interiors so far. They'll be excited to see how much more can be done with them. Players who have since stopped playing will likely begin playing again, and buying, once the expected content release is live.

Conclusion - Egosoft gets as much good press and hype for its upcoming expansion as possible during an initial X4 release while avoiding some of the pitfalls, but not all of them, for releasing X4 without a huge amount of development for station interiors that may, after all, not even be necessary, needed or desired. Players will not feel "cheated", since they'll get these interior spaces for free, without having to buy the expansion. They just won't get allthe really creative bits that take a lot of time, money, effort to script/put together and to plan for. (And to write so they make sense!)