Interior walking

[RAVEN.myst]

a half-polished (model, animation, wakling-AI quality) would likely do X4 more harm than good for initial release imo.

I completely agree.

I would be totally ok if they focus on interior with a dlc to flesh it out gameplay wise and also optically.

Ditto here. Also, I believe that seeing how the game is played while the additional content is being developed would help to focus its direction better, as greater understanding of what players want to use it for and expect from it can only lead to a product that better meets needs and expectations.

[lostProfitssssArrgh]

The NPC's in XR looked like from 2004 or something like that.

Doesn't everything in xR look like 2004? Doom 3 UIs, Doom 3 frame-rates and all



But the X crowd knows better than to fall for shiny graphics, right..?

[lostProfitssssArrgh]

Just in case my previous comment wasn't taken with a HUGE grain of salt, please allow me to straighten things out :

I played through Doom 3 once, it bored me to tears. It boiled down to:

1. Enter room.
2. Lights go off.
3. Wall panels burst open.
4. Clobber monsters to death with your crappy flashlight because ammo was ridiculously scarce.
5. Lights come back on.
6. Door unlocks, walk through door.
7. Goto 1.


It's not a commonly know fact, but id was at least as much into licensing their engines than making bleeding-edge-graphics-twitch games. Hence the focus on innovation. Their games were basically tech demos, with maybe thew exception of q3a (for which SMP support was announced in 1999 btw, hint-hint ).


Now, Egosoft may not have shiny gfx engines, they may not have Carmack's arguably-insane genius but they certainly know how to make a good game. I started playing X since X3-R back in 2005 and I still play X3 to this day. Nobody else in the game industry has that kind of mileage, especially for comparatively non-existent price tags, and nobody beyond a f'ing doubt has the same devotion towards their costumers and community. NO ONE ELSE, period.

And if anyone tries to convince my otherwise, they can take their crappy, shallow, dumbed-down games and shove them. I know I'm a much happier gamer, having -and still enjoying- the same game-base for ~12 years, and still rocking a 2011 rig.

[Killjaeden]

The NPC's in XR looked like from 2004 or something like that.

Doesn't everything in xR look like 2004? Doom 3 UIs, Doom 3 frame-rates and all
But the X crowd knows better than to fall for shiny graphics, right..?

ES goal always also was to bring people from outside the x crowd on board. And with 2004 graphics and animations on NPC's this is more than likely result in putting a good part off. I can do with 'non up to date graphics'. But when the graphical aspect is the only thing the 'walking on station' has going for it, it better be good - because 'immersion' that comes from the graphics falls apart quickly when human faces look arkward, the humans and aliens alike move like weird marionettes or stuff like that.

Flying in a space ship this issue is less pronounced. But as person on foot you walk up close to ships and players and generally get much closer to things than you ever would with ships. Plus making humanoid characters move and behave believable is hard - especially since they can't rely on tried and true systems like common game engines offer.

So, imo, they should not focus on something that offers little value other than 'graphics', when the 'graphics' isnt as good as one would expect from a recent game. This will likely only hurt it for non-x-crowd and critics.

I'm not opposed to walking on stuff. It's simply a matter of priorities to me. To me it's not "yes" and "no", but of "now, for first release" or "later".

Regarding Doom 3 Gameplay - yes it's dumb i quit Quake 4 after 3 levels bored to death. Same game essentially... Now imagine you couldn't even shoot and there would be no doors to open and close. Just a platform. That's what walking on station as we currently know would be.
Why would you want to do that more than 5 times, when the actual game is not on foot but in a ship?

[DaMuncha]

I like station walking. But I want it implemented better.

[gbjbaanb]

The NPC's in XR looked like from 2004 or something like that.

Doesn't everything in xR look like 2004? Doom 3 UIs, Doom 3 frame-rates and all



But the X crowd knows better than to fall for shiny graphics, right..?

there's graphics that represent something that are usually described as "poor" when really they're glyphs not trying to be 100% accurate renders. And then there's graphics that just look bad.

[SimB]

I would really like to know what the "Why" is for ES to implement station walking again.
What does it bring to the table? 10% more immersion - but at what cost?

I think they should keep interior walking, but ONLY if it is used in a meaningful way and adds GOOD gameplay parts with it.

But since they said it is more Sandbox and less story, I guess it is not even used for cutscenes / important plot parts.

[Santi]

One of the main reasons I presume is the Capital Ship Bridges, no point to it if you are going to be static. So once you have to implement it, may as well add some stuff to it.

Then there is a cluster of gameplay features that already existed or were asked for, things like "proper docking", "proper shops", persisten NPC's, station hacking, box hunting etc...

Main complaints by forum feedback was being forced to land of them and that they were too big, too empty, all the same, not a lot of things to do on them and the visual aspect of NPC's.

Apart from that it does have as many people that do not like it, as people who like it. Personally it is good that they keep working on it because everybody is doing it and is a nice addition to the game.

[Kulin]

I heard about X4 at the gamescom and also saw the trailer. As many others seemingly i'm also a bit concerned that there is still "walking on stations". And to me the used assets immediately remember me about the always similarly looking stations in X:R. That really puts some fear into me, that this will be going in the same direction.

At the moment i just hope station interiors will be limited. I don't want to dock for every piece of trade good, to watch the bulletin board or to hire personell.

I would be ok with some kind of bar or social hub, where you can do optional things you don't need all day. Or as part of the story. Especially if this bars are unique and don't look all the same. Every race could have their own atmosphere, drinks and so on.

Generally i would prefer if they'd invest the time they use for this interiors for things like a deeper exploration/scanning system, interesting, hand crafted side missions and loads and loads of hidden stuff, like secret sectors, wrecks and so on.


Edit: Post split from thread about X3 features for X4 - Sparky

[spacecoyote99]

At the moment i just hope station interiors will be limited. I don't want to dock for every piece of trade good, to watch the bulletin board or to hire personnel.

Luckily that's exactly how Bernd described it during the announcement stream. Limited walking on the landing platforms, although some missions might open up part of the station interior for a specific reason.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

Now this is a very important question.

If walking is mainly constrained to docking platforms....

Will I be able to walk up to friendly ships and board them?

Effectively will I be able to hitchhike around the universe?

Now where did I leave my towel...

"Hey Ford, Trillian lets just try this Paranid ship for a change..."

[Memnoch]

I don't think its a simple yes/no answer.

Yes, if they do it properly this time, without cookie cutter interiors and NPC's that seem more believable.

No, if they can't improve on X:R.

[spacecoyote99]

Will I be able to walk up to friendly ships and board them?

It would be interesting but my guess is: no. Once you're on board how do you get off? It may be a long time before the ship docks again. Presumably SETA will still be limited to when you're flying your own ship. (That is, assuming you can't teleport yet)

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Will I be able to walk up to friendly ships and board them?

It would be interesting but my guess is: no. Once you're on board how do you get off? It may be a long time before the ship docks again. Presumably SETA will still be limited to when you're flying your own ship. (That is, assuming you can't teleport yet)

I don't remember it being in the livestream but I suppose, if they were present in X4, XR-style crew delivery pods could transport the player to another ship or station.

[DaMuncha]

Well if you could spacewalk you could just eject.

[plynak]

No, because first it takes too much resources that could be better spent elsewhere, second Egosoft is unable to make good looking interiors and NPCs and third all previuos good X games were fine without any interiors.