X4 meaningful crafting (ideas) ?

[Killjaeden]

Good idea, will ask Peter to get this sheduled!

Excellent. My secret plan worked. Space Golf is all i wanted.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

Fairly Recent inventions by a single person.

WORLDWIDE WEB

Invented: 1989
Inventor: Tim Berners-Lee

HIP REPLACEMENT

Invented: 1962
Inventor: John Charnley

ELECTRONIC PROGRAMMABLE COMPUTER

Invented: 1943
Inventor: Tommy Flowers

TELEVISION

Invented: 1925
Inventor: John Logie Baird

STAINLESS STEEL

Invented: 1913
Inventor: Harry Brearley

[JSDD]

Good idea, will ask Peter to get this sheduled!

Excellent. My secret plan worked. Space Golf is all i wanted.

why not adding a packman/bomberman/snake3D tounament as steam achievements, the best player will get a cool ship as reward (thats not a joke! maybe this can be scripted ...)

[Killjaeden]

STAINLESS STEEL

Invented: 1913
Inventor: Harry Brearley

in 1912, Harry Brearley of the Brown-Firth research laboratory in Sheffield, England

The Brown-Firth research laboratory was founded by two Metallurgy companies John Brown & Company, and Thomas Firth & Sons. Brearley was leader of the institute. And not some random guy in his garage. It is result of a collaborative scientific efford. It's attributed to him because he is boss. How much if it is directly his work and how much of that is from his subordinates is unclear...

Please name me one groundbreaking invention of 2000 that had to do with metallurgy and was not result of leading scientists collaborating and researching in their very specific fields of knowledge?
You will have trouble finding anything, because metallurgy has matured and any further progress will take exponentially more experience and work in research.

Electronics started later than metallurgy, but it now too has matured. The propability of random garage guy discovering something new is practically nill. IT is where innovation in industrial use is still more likely by garage guy, but the propability of that is shrinking at increasing rate.

[Nikola515]

I think people assume that crafting will be same as station production. I'm pretty sure that this is not the case and it will probably be based on player items(not cargo items). I wouldn't like idea of making fusion reactors from dirt with hammer

Also I would love to see micro crafting and than transition to macro crafting. Here is how I would do it.... I get plasma cannon MK 2 and i take it to my workshop in HQ to check what i can do with it. I tinker with it and increase speed of projectile and range but i had to sacrifice rate of fire. I like that weapon so i want it get it for mass production and equip all of my ships. I save blueprint and tell my manager to build those weapons and NPC's can buy them and equip their ships if they want.

[Skeeter]

So customisation kinda like car stuff in NFS underground 2?

[Sahvion]

Adding in crafting elements should be something that falls in line with the game's lore, it'd make no sense for the player themselves to craft the items (with one exception: being able to repair your own ship, as it would make sense for a pilot to have at least some basic knowledge on how to fix their ship)

To that end I think being able to expand upon the building elements of the game (which, FYI, are synonymous with crafting) isn't a bad thing and should be done. Being able to build actual ships, weaponry, components, systems and equipment. Even going so far as being able to build the actual station modules themselves, instead of having to buy them from NPCs.

[Nikola515]

So customisation kinda like car stuff in NFS underground 2?

Something like that. If I want to improve something there is also coast on other things (like double edged sword).... At same time I want something that is not OP for player but it also helps make things easy/convenient . For example modify sensors to show cargo on map. In XR we had to inspect every wreck of ship visually to see if there is any cargo in it. Adding status effect would give 10% ion damage to weapons for short period of time. This will not be powerful as real ion weapon it will get the job done. I just hated how bad it sucked in X3 switching weapons in middle of fight all the time (especially when boarding and trying to keep shields down and not get my marines blown up). This would be more convenient way of switching weapons without actually doing it.

[adeine]

expand upon the building elements of the game (which, FYI, are synonymous with crafting)

This is how it should be, but unfortunately not what people are talking about when they say crafting in this thread.

Other than that, I completely agree. The player should theoretically be able to produce every single ware or object in the game if it can be produced. If the economy in X4 (as promised) runs without magical intervention the systems can and should allow a player to build a self sustainable faction. Getting there might be extremely tricky and not very practical, but it would make for a neat endgame goal and challenge.

[Santi]

Also I would love to see micro crafting and than transition to macro crafting. Here is how I would do it.... I get plasma cannon MK 2 and i take it to my workshop in HQ to check what i can do with it. I tinker with it and increase speed of projectile and range but i had to sacrifice rate of fire. I like that weapon so i want it get it for mass production and equip all of my ships. I save blueprint and tell my manager to build those weapons and NPC's can buy them and equip their ships if they want.

I like this, it is taking the really good weapon mod system from X Rebirth further and instead of relying on chance, it is fully integrated into the game and can be applied as a global setting.

[CtMurphy]

To be honest, I really like the idea of crafting in the X-universe.

Though I don't agree, that one time use consumables should be the final products. Maybe, moddified weapons such as a High Energy (don't remember the full name of weapon) plasma thrower (not the flame thrower), that has a lower power consumption rate.

Orr, maybe entirely different weapons that are made out of non standard material, such as a Nvidium based weapon or maybe a vessel with alternate armour composition. I'm honestly excited for crafting in X-universe.

[Silla]

If it would be possible I would implement crafting as a form of variable wares that can be produced and sold. Not only could you craft but also your competitors would do so. The effect would be for example shields with varying stats or even variable recourses for production itself. Ships, weapons ect. might show different stats too when produced from higher quality parts. This would mean that crafting is not necessary as you might find other products of similar quality in store from your competitors but it could give you an advantage doing it yourself in tactical as well as in financial gain if the value of a product is not only decided by the overal price but also its stats compared to other similar products.
The challenge however could be to keep track of wares with different stats as every product would need to have an ID attached to link it to the according production outcome. Of course several wares could share the same production ID. And on top of it, it might increase the calculation time a little.

For me this would be the next logical step after having a dynamic universe there could be dynamic wares It would add another level of gamemechanics from R&D (production crafting, potentially even from rare recourses) to espionage, reverse engineering or tuning (also eventually with rare components) by exchanging components to stay on top of the competition .

It could even go so far that most if not all products are a result of „crafting“ based on production manuals/blue Prints. Basically all products that are not base products can be categorized in group products that are made from base products, grouped products or both, like food, energy weapons, balistic weapons, warheads, missile systems, platings and so on .... So instead of varying certain given products like a pulsebeam Mk1 you would instead have a blueprint for this pulsebeam Mk1. Through research you might create a new blueprint that hasn’t been discovered yet and hence you developed a totally new weapon that you even can give a name of your own. On top of that even products of the same blueprint might vary in stats depending on the used quality of products it is made of. Or take food for example ..would it not be fun to produce a „Double split pizza“ that the universe hasn’t seen yet. .. pizza connection here I come!

[Nikola515]

Also I would love to see micro crafting and than transition to macro crafting. Here is how I would do it.... I get plasma cannon MK 2 and i take it to my workshop in HQ to check what i can do with it. I tinker with it and increase speed of projectile and range but i had to sacrifice rate of fire. I like that weapon so i want it get it for mass production and equip all of my ships. I save blueprint and tell my manager to build those weapons and NPC's can buy them and equip their ships if they want.

I like this, it is taking the really good weapon mod system from X Rebirth further and instead of relying on chance, it is fully integrated into the game and can be applied as a global setting.

This would work pretty much on anything that could be equipped from capital to s/m ships... My only concern is how far will they go with production? Will engines,shields,weapons be produced by economy/stations or will we equip them just like we did Skunk? In XR engines,capital shields and all weapons and shield on S/M ships wore coming built-in with ships..... I hope egosoft can give us more info about this....

[X2-Illuminatus]

In XR engines,capital shields and all weapons and shield on S/M ships wore coming built-in with ships..... I hope egosoft can give us more info about this....

At the moment, it is possible to change a ship's

engines,
thrusters,
shield generators,
weapons,
turrets (if a given chassis has turret hardpoints),
and software.

With present plan, front-mounted weapons on capital ships that have them cannot be replaced because they're built into the hull.

For the most part, these components have separate models that will be mounted on the ship, so if you come to recognize certain engines or weapons, you can visually identify ships that have those components fitted.

No plans for further visual customization at the moment.

All components are size-limited. That is, it is not possible to mount L-sized engines on S-sized engine mounts.

Not sure yet if it will be possible to mount any M-sized turrets on any M-sized hardpoints or if there will be limitations for missile turrets or further subsets.

And before you ask, yes, NPC ships that you encounter in the universe do have varying loadouts.

Source

[Nikola515]

Thank you. Is there any info on how will weapons/shields be produced in X4 ? Are they going to be produced by stations just like in X3 or we will just buy them without being produced like in XR ?

[CBJ]

It won't be quite like either. There won't be separate stations that produce and sell them, but the station you buy them from, and fit them to your ship at, will need to have the necessary resources to assemble them.

[Graaf]

What does everyone else think how crafting would improve X4 ?

By removing it.

[Nikola515]

It won't be quite like either. There won't be separate stations that produce and sell them, but the station you buy them from, and fit them to your ship at, will need to have the necessary resources to assemble them.

Thank you CBJ. So weapons will be built from weapon components ( or something like that) on site rather than on stations like in previous titles ? I assume same will be with stations weapons when we build them ? This is simple but efficient ( I like it)

Edit: Just to make sure I understand this correctly There will be station or module that build parts like weapons components (just example). Those components will be used to make any weapons in shipyards or equipment docks ?

[JSDD]

It won't be quite like either. There won't be separate stations that produce and sell them, but the station you buy them from, and fit them to your ship at, will need to have the necessary resources to assemble them.

i hope we can add separate multiple "docking port" station modules (or "hangar modules") at our structure so that we can dock and refuel/rearm bigships directly at the producing structure ... that was always a problem in X3, you had to transfer product from factories/complex hub to bigships via freighter + transporter device OR via freighter + equipment dock ...

[Skeeter]

Won't that what cbj said make things like that more limited in supply compared to dedicated factories with dedicated time building just weapons or XXX etc. As if say a trading dock that sells say gamma ire lasers has to build in house if it has none in stock then what if it already had a sell order for something else it doesn't have in stock and has to build that for someone else before your order is started, then there's the issue does said station even have resources for that other object so it can't start even building that thing for the other person before yours is even started, and does said station have resources to build yours after it's done building the other thing.

Least with dedicated stations it 1. Fills the universe with other stations so more variety of places to dock urself if bored of just going to fewer. 2. Has dedicated build times to that item, and dedicated ships to fetch resources to build it. Hopefully meaning more of them made and easier to buy.

I don't think I'd like too many places trying to build every item it potentially sells especially if it's a big list of sellable items that struggles to build each themselves and keep a good stock level for all it's items.

Now if it's a hub of modules supporting said station that might help but tbh I hate hubs like joining stations together I've always preferred it with many separate stations so u can fly to many different places and admire their unique designs like in xbtf. I'm not going to win that argument tho because too many want that as they like doing it tho I always found it weird egosoft did it as it's more building gameplay than is needed for what is essentially a space adventure shooting game (based on what it said on the box of xbtf). And why I like the way the early games were made instead of later ones like x3 and above.