The most important thing for you in an X game

[zanosg]

As I have said. If there is no "classic mouse mode" for us with mouse and keyboards im not buying the game. I dont care how good it will be. Its unplayable for me without this basic function.

[DJC]

As I have said. If there is no "classic mouse mode" for us with mouse and keyboards im not buying the game. I dont care how good it will be. Its unplayable for me without this basic function.

Would I be correct in saying that you do not want the ship to react like it does in Rebirth, but would rather have the ship react like it did in the previous games. No curser, move mouse - move ship? If that is what you mean then I completely agree I cant stand the "new" steering method most games space games have adopted as of late.

[Challenge]

I prefer to fly with a joystick, at least with small and medium sized ships, although it works for bigger ones as well. That's an important consideration for me, but not a deal breaker necessarily.

I don't particularly mind the highways, but I mostly used them moving between sectors. I found it more entertaining and profitable the few times I opened up X:R to move between zones in open space playing what many called the scanning "mini-game." Using the scanner was a bit repetitive (tedious? at times), but if you're going to be a scavenger you do what you gotta do.

Definitely want to fly everything. Was very disappointed in X:R when I couldn't push my huge freighter around myself.

I'll be interested in seeing what specialists I can get to work on board my ships.

And last, what someone mentioned earlier about being able to choose my own direction, write my own story, is the essence of what a sandbox game should be. Looks like X4:F is heading that way, so I'm in.

[vkerinav]

Definitely the most important thing is to replace Betty's voice ;)

Biff.

Hey McFly! Go attack that Xenon XL. Or are ya chicken?!?!

BAWK!

And we have this awesome little twitch minigame where we're constantly trying to adjust its personality by hitting it with a spanner.

You know, I think I'll wait for X5...

[JSDD]

The most important thing for you in an X game

the fact that it's a space sandbox with beautiful environment in which not all is about trading, fighting, building or thinking, but a mix of it, YOU choose how much of trading, fighting, building or thinking you want to do ... plots guide you through the gameplay features and missions of all sorts (generic, corporation-offered, war, plot) are available. AND mods of all sorts tried to improve some aspects of the game ...

the most disappointing fact(s): the AI (in X3R/TC/AP) was very stupid in terms of path finding / flight control (especially in combat situations), and there was no such thing like "intelligent adversaries" with a bigger "plan". and the interaction between player and NPCs was limited to

1. where is the next shipyard ?
2. where is the nearest equipment dock ?
3. go f**k yourself, dude !

nothing more ... regardless if you are boarding the ship, doing a mission for it, want totrade stuff or whatever .. no other options, but so many other ships ...

[gbjbaanb]

Procedural generated universe

What exactly do you mean with this?
A universe that keeps expanding the more you fly in one direction with potentially an unlimited amount of sectors, or a universe where the amount and names of sectors are fixed, but the order/distribution is randomized at the games start?
If it's the former, i think while procedural generation of sectors is interesting, it has the danger of making each sector less unique and less memorable. If you have a million procedurally generated sectors, chances are you won't remember many of them, if any. On the other hand, if you have only 50~100 uniquely crafted sectors the developer can create alot of unique designs that are memorable.

I mean that the sectors have the ability to change every time you play, possible based upon a seed. If the races, starting locations, systems and inter species relationships are randomised it will give X4 unlimited replayability as each and every universe will be unique (well, based upon the seed ofc). This could also be based upon size values that you enter, customise a small or large universe, large universes for those with the hardware to handle them, and smaller for those with lesser machines. A small densely populated universe where you can jump right into the thick of it, or a sparsely populated universe that would grow and develop over time, akin the the Game of Life computer modeling.

free flowing station design (think massive structures that can build carriers from base materials to rolling out the spacedock, fully armed)

So you want a shipyard that builds carriers made out of Bofu?
But to be serious : Do you mean a shipyard that takes energy cells, iron ore, silicium and spits out fully crafted carriers? The idea is interesting, but what would be the point of other stations if a single station can singlehandedly produce fully armed carriers, without needing any supplies from other stations? It would practically make any other station useless, since almost all stations purpose is to be part of the ship and weapons production chain.

I mean a station that you can bolt on until you have the required result. So if you are planning a station to produce a certain ship type you would need that station to provide each and every component the finished ship would require. For example, for a space station to produce small fighters you could have ore processing, metal plate fabrication, hull construction. That would just be for the hull, then you would need the engine, electronic systems, weapons, so you would require modules for each of these.

If the stations are fully modular, you could start of making just ore till you can afford to purchase the next module, then you space station could then produce ore or the metal fabrications. Further on you purchase the hull construction factory, then your station could produce raw metals or hull fragments. Each part of the station would require crew/resources like power/water/food, and these would have to be built along side the factories.

Stations could also have other facilities like crew training, mercenaries/marines, station defence and shield modules, ect ect... I am thinking long term planning/building of massive player run stations.

Regards
Flea

a bit like X3 then - where you could clump stations together, but expand on X3 to allow all stations to be extended. So instead of a bufu fab that also had a solar panel plant attached to provide cells, your shipyard that requires hull plating could add a refinery that took ore and generated its own plating (with excess sold by your trade ships)

The more I think about it, X3 was pretty much perfect as a game, Egosoft just needs to expand on all the features in it to remove all the restrictions that were there due to technology of the time.

[zanosg]

As I have said. If there is no "classic mouse mode" for us with mouse and keyboards im not buying the game. I dont care how good it will be. Its unplayable for me without this basic function.

Would I be correct in saying that you do not want the ship to react like it does in Rebirth, but would rather have the ship react like it did in the previous games. No curser, move mouse - move ship? If that is what you mean then I completely agree I cant stand the "new" steering method most games space games have adopted as of late.

That is correct. I have given up on Elite due to this very thing. I cant even beat smaller NPC ships when in fights due to the ship being totally uncontrollable. I have made a mistake with Elite because I assumed that the simple basic mouse function would be available and Im not making that mistake again.

[DJC]

As I have said. If there is no "classic mouse mode" for us with mouse and keyboards im not buying the game. I dont care how good it will be. Its unplayable for me without this basic function.

Would I be correct in saying that you do not want the ship to react like it does in Rebirth, but would rather have the ship react like it did in the previous games. No curser, move mouse - move ship? If that is what you mean then I completely agree I cant stand the "new" steering method most games space games have adopted as of late.

That is correct. I have given up on Elite due to this very thing. I cant even beat smaller NPC ships when in fights due to the ship being totally uncontrollable. I have made a mistake with Elite because I assumed that the simple basic mouse function would be available and Im not making that mistake again.

I completely understand, I am not sure how many other people feel the way we do on this matter. But, I just watched the most recent Twitch video "#3" and it does seem to show that they have incorporated a choice for this option. They call it "Flight Assist" apparently turning it off will give us the steering we are looking for. However they did also indicate that this is an option in Rebirth that not many people know about. I have not gone back to Rebirth to find out yet, so I do not know for sure if it is as they have indicated. Personally I would find it hard to believe that I would have missed this option in the first place. But the video does seem to indicate the return to the classic flight style you speak of.

[immortalfrieza]

The two most important things about an X game for me are the ability to fly any given ship in the game and the ability to acquire any given ship in the game by capturing it intact somehow, the first is already confirmed but I can't find anything about the latter. Ship capping was the thing that got me into the series in the first place and was the primary reason I didn't even touch X:Rebirth, among other things.

If that's not in the game you can count me out. I still haven't gotten through X3: Reunion but most of the mods I've got are based around capping in some way, like the Bail Signal Extension and Salvage Claim Software.

[Killjaeden]

The more I think about it, X3 was pretty much perfect as a game, Egosoft just needs to expand on all the features in it to remove all the restrictions that were there due to technology of the time.

X3 wasn't perfect. But there was so much potential to build upon the core that was already there (which is also what inspired so many modders and scripters).
Unfortunately when rethinking your game its tempting to revamp it all, change it all "for the better" - or so you think.

To me, the sandbox nature is no longer the only important factor, but also the consistency of plot and art or better said - the setting/world building. I have played and worked on X3 so long i embraced it. This is also one big reason i despised XR. Not just because of the reduced mechanics, lack of flyable ships. But in terms of the world its not "X" for me. It's "Y" - something that feels and looks totally different. X4 is on the best way to do so again - retconning how the universe works (teleporters vs jumpdrives etc) and the art is once again completely different. So it will feel once again alien to X3 and XR when you look at the world itself, and not just game mechanics and names.

[CorruptUser]

Ability to actually alter the entire universe through becoming an economic powerhouse; this means more than just lots and lots of profitsss

Oh, and obviously, ability to fly any ship I want.

While we are at it, can we have some gosh darn respect? If we manage to make it to X-Treme fighter class, if I see a pirate in some beaten up blastclaw, I should be able to say "hey, do you know who this is" and the pirate should immediately turn tail.

[Hector0x]

This moment - when you're about to fight with your personal ship alongside the fleet that you built, equipped and customized from humble beginnings.

As long as this is a part of X and X alone, i will continue to play X.

Let's be honest. There are many games out there that perform better on the individual parts of this formula (space sim and strategy game). But none of them bring those parts together like X does.

[JSDD]

most important:

artificial life (by far!), the "intelligence" of npcs, the flight/fight behavior of npcs (including autopilot), possibility to choose friends/foes (playing as pirate/xenon), enemies with a bigger plan on how they build their empire ...

2nd most important:

beautiful, dynamic environment, possibly visible star constellations from the real world

3rd most important:

plots, dynamically generated missions that serve a purpose

...

least important:

walking on stations, "personal" interactions with npcs

[zanosg]

As I have said. If there is no "classic mouse mode" for us with mouse and keyboards im not buying the game. I dont care how good it will be. Its unplayable for me without this basic function.

Would I be correct in saying that you do not want the ship to react like it does in Rebirth, but would rather have the ship react like it did in the previous games. No curser, move mouse - move ship? If that is what you mean then I completely agree I cant stand the "new" steering method most games space games have adopted as of late.

That is correct. I have given up on Elite due to this very thing. I cant even beat smaller NPC ships when in fights due to the ship being totally uncontrollable. I have made a mistake with Elite because I assumed that the simple basic mouse function would be available and Im not making that mistake again.

I completely understand, I am not sure how many other people feel the way we do on this matter. But, I just watched the most recent Twitch video "#3" and it does seem to show that they have incorporated a choice for this option. They call it "Flight Assist" apparently turning it off will give us the steering we are looking for. However they did also indicate that this is an option in Rebirth that not many people know about. I have not gone back to Rebirth to find out yet, so I do not know for sure if it is as they have indicated. Personally I would find it hard to believe that I would have missed this option in the first place. But the video does seem to indicate the return to the classic flight style you speak of.

Flight Assist only gets rid of "atmospheric flight". Its got really nothing to do with "Classic mouse mode" control. Im not sure about X4 as I dont really have any answers to go by. But in Elite flight assist when turned off would make your ship behave like a true spaceship, not a F16 fighter. So if you want to travel sideways you can or if you want to travel in one direction and flip a ship and still travel in same direction you can.
My concern with Classic mouse mode is how the "crosshairs" of the ship are tied to mouse XY axis.

[Litreb]

I hope there will be extra-vehicular activity, being able to leave the ship to make some repairs for exemple, or floating towards a derelict ship to try to claim it... that has alwas been a very important feature to me