Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

[BrasatoAlBarolo]

Can we get any hint on how shipyards are going to work?
1) How can we get "blueprints" of ships / equipment.
2) Are NPC going to be customers of our shipyards and equipment docks?

Thanks for the awesome job!

I would imagine blueprints would be obtained the same way we get modules now, by purchasing from faction reps. When you talk to faction reps currently, several items relating to ship modules are greyed out, and I suppose these will become available when we have shipyards.

The post by CBJ mentions having NPCs purchase ships at your shipyards.

Yes, I noticed the modules "disabled" at faction reps'.

I was wondering if we can get some module / equipment / ship blueprint as mission rewards, in the future.

[Cinderelli]

So far, you've introduced one "unique" reward for the Ventures when you've launched them. AFAIU, only those Windows players who played the game at the time got a chance to acquire it. Seeing as you're going to work on Ventures more before the Linux version, I assume you may do something similar again. Now, so far it was just a skin, but still, seeing as the game costs the same no matter the platform, players should get equal opportunity to get un-**modified** content into their games, no? Especially given the fact that some of us physically can't participate in such "special" Ventures yet.

Ah, I see what you mean now. As you say it's just one skin; we'll have to see closer to the time what we can do for you.

However I see the lack of note on two important issues:
- what about turrets doing tiny dammage in general?
- If resupply ship with resupply other ships then what is the point of having carriers? Please consider to make carriers more useful!

As already explained, there will be other bug-fixes and improvements to existing features, both in these major updates and in between. This is just a list of some of the key points.

Just a heads up, this doesn't show in the Steam News (I see from the link it's a "discussion" topic).

We're aware of that. We can't post it up as an actual news until we release something, so it will go up when the 1.60 patch goes live. Thanks anyway.

Thank you for posting this roadmap. Unlike other game developers, you are keeping your player base informed. Kudos to your whole team.
Could you please clarify if we will ever get multiple GPU support? There are many of us running SLI setups that want very much to play this game with the full utilization of both of our graphics cards.

Up to now we've not specified a particular version of Vulkan, and supporting SLI would mean we'd have to require Vulkan 1.1 for everyone. Not only that but because of the nature of Vulkan, we'd have to do all the work of supporting multiple GPUs; work that is done almost entirely by the drivers when using other APIs. So, this is a tricky one and we can't make any promises on it.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. Hopefully someday in the future you will take the time to enable multiple GPU support.
Have a great day and thanks for all your hard work.

[Seathal]

Good job on keeping us to speed and the good hard work on improving X4.

[BigBANGtheory]

thanks for the info Egosoft.

I've stopped playing for a bit cos I "need" what v2.5 has and I'm pleased to see it coming.

[gschultz]

Glad to see this although I haven't felt the lack of communication as I read (or at least glance) forum posts, sit on discord and participate in the beta testing.

CBJ: This is going to be posted in news on Steam too, right?

oh dear. ive got to be on the egosoft forum, the steam forum, the gog forum, the discord, the reddit......to get some feedback on a finished product I bought at a premium price and wasn't debugged, then it was hobbled.......oh and i also get to pay more money for the "dlc" content coming down the pipe (i think split is free). whatever.....just one mans opinion.

[gschultz]

Excited to hear 2.0 is aiming for February!

Any insight on when 3.0 is coming? Any timeline, including quarter or year granularity would be nice

As it says in the announcement, we're aiming for February for 2.0. If things take longer than expected then we are not guaranteeing it.

As we go further down the list, the number of unknowns increases so giving dates would be extremely unwise.

Any news on MacOS support? Pleeeease? My go to gaming laptop is a brick I can’t afford to replace or repair thanks to my wife buying a brand new iMac. So I’ll wait... patiently...

I'm afraid there are no plans for MacOS support, for the simple reason that MacOS does not support Vulkan.

These updates and the DLC sounds good to me for sure, but at this point, I'm more interested in more basic feature fixes.

As it says in the announcement, there will be lots of fixes, both in these main updates and in between. Which ones exactly get included in which patch depend on various factors, making it very hard to give specifics far in advance.

CBJ: This is going to be posted in news on Steam too, right?

It was posted on Steam a few minutes after it was posted here.

is it possible at this stage to advance some of the thoughts future features for the ventures ?

We've already talked about adding different types of missions, and we have various ideas, but we're very much seeing how things go with Ventures before we make firm decisions about other additional features.

Are there any plans to bring us players-in-waiting on par with Windows players in terms of Venture missions and unique rewards?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. If you're asking whether the Linux version will support Ventures, then I see no reason why they shouldn't.

Vsync off option avail in new update please ?

This option has been in the game since release. There was (and may still be) a problem with the labelling of the VSync options in the NVIDIA driver interface, that means the option to turn it off is actually shown as "Triple Buffering".

thanks for the communique. Good to know the next two updates for the game. Confident you guys will get the game up to the standard of previous games. But, next time - in X5 - dont do this. Its a monumental task this game, and that comes with monumental risks. If things fall short a consumer like myself, who is a long time supporter of the products, wants real talk not damage control. Herein lies the friction; Egosoft is a developer that loves making games - but needs to make business decisions; and we are consumers that love the games and value our money.

[kosh03055]

Some thoughts for the future. Once we get our own shipyards and have our own faction, how about adding the need to keep the crew loyal. Have luxury items we can produce that we need to provide for the crew. Maybe loyalty can also increase with successful battles. If we don't keep crew loyalty above a certain level for a given period of time , there is the risk of a revolt on board and we loss ownership of the crew. Going further, if we have a ship in our fleet that is produced and crewed by another faction, and we go to war with that faction, there would be the risk that the crew of that ship may revolt against you if loyalty is not high enough. This would add so much more to ones thinking about when and against who we go to war with.

Anyway, just a thought about where this game can go. Enjoying it now but can see so much potential once better fleet and trade control is implemented.

[malimber]

Hey guys are there any plans to fix the faction missions? The argon vs xenon mission has been broken and reported since launch. Am I going to have to restart?

Once again, we've not mentioned every individual fix. Fixes will be continuing both in, and between, the major updates.

Well, almost what I was thinking about. It's posted in discussions, but I want it in News so potential buyers see that progress is happening.

See my previous reply.

Thanks for the reply. To be honest I got tired of waiting and fixed it myself. Not to be all negative but if I can fix it in my own save by adding a word with a number after it in notepad of all things, its disappointing that you haven't been able to resolve it. Reading these forums it seems like you guys are the Bethesda of flight sims, push it out and get your modding community to fix the bugs. You can see how well that's worked for them lately....

[adeine]

Thanks for the reply. To be honest I got tired of waiting and fixed it myself. Not to be all negative but if I can fix it in my own save by adding a word with a number after it in notepad of all things, its disappointing that you haven't been able to resolve it. Reading these forums it seems like you guys are the Bethesda of flight sims, push it out and get your modding community to fix the bugs. You can see how well that's worked for them lately....

Egosoft has always been a little like that; previous games launched in less than optimal states as well, and modding is what made games like X3 live up to their fullest potential. Heck, Albion Prelude was in part a community effort.

Worked quite well for the Bethesda of old, when they made games that were a bit of a mess but had lots of potential and community attention. The big difference with modern Bethesda is the greed and tone-deafness, sacrificing what made their games stand out to try and cash in on industry fads.

[DJC]

Egosoft
All these things are great and I applaud you for your continuance to update and upgrade.
But I see no evidence in this update (1.60) or in the future updates that you list, that you
have any intention of reinstating "Classic Bore-sight steering/fire" as requested by many of us
long time players. Just to show one example viewtopic.php?f=146&t=403775&start=60s
for me it's been 14+ years . Can you please inform us of your intentions for this in the future

[MurryChang]

Egosoft
All these things are great and I applaud you for your continuance to update and upgrade.
But I see no evidence in this update (1.60) or in the future updates that you list, that you
have any intention of reinstating "Classic Bore-sight steering/fire" as requested by many of us
long time players. Just to show one example viewtopic.php?f=146&t=403775&start=60s
for me it's been 14+ years . Can you please inform us of your intentions for this in the future

Seconding this!

[reanor]

Thanks for the update! I side with those who asked to please fix all the major game bugs before releasing anything new, especially the ones that largely affect faction wars, war effort missions, Xenon and Kha'ak logic and power (too weak right now), faction logic and war logic - the end-game stuff in other words. Releasing new things into broken code will only introduce more new bugs and you will be stepping on your own toes. You've probably heard 25 different variations of bugs and issues related to the end-game already, so no need more of my whining. But thanks again for the roadmap. It gives me some hopes for X4 distant future.

[DJC]

Thanks for the update! I side with those who asked to please fix all the major game bugs before releasing anything new, especially the ones that largely affect faction wars, war effort missions, Xenon and Kha'ak logic and power (too weak right now), faction logic and war logic - the end-game stuff in other words. Releasing new things into broken code will only introduce more new bugs and you will be stepping on your own toes. You've probably heard 25 different variations of bugs and issues related to the end-game already, so no need more of my whining. But thanks again for the roadmap. It gives me some hopes for X4 distant future.

I posted here only because there was no mention of the replacing of something that
already existed in previous games for the next 3 updates. Updates in part that have nothing
to do with fixing things. Of course I want them to fix issues that exist but this request
existed long before the release of this game. Going back to XR. I just want to know If
those of us who want this will ever be able to play this game in an enjoyable way.

[spankahontis]

I’m one of the biggest fans of the X series and I am very, VERY happy with X4. One question though: Will there be Borons in the near future? (not talking about the Boron in HQ) I miss those guys!

Keep up improving and expanding this fantastic game!

I'm looking forward to seeing them too! I want to see what solution they come up with for them being aquatic and walking around on stations. Or if the solution is even weirder and you end up being underwater on a boron docking platform instead of being in an atmosphere. Maybe you would only be able to hire boron crew for boron ships to make sure they have the proper atmosphere for them to live in.

Geez, that's a lot of mess. I wouldn't be surprised if the devs just skip them.

One of the Timelines you discover at a hidden Data Vault, there is artwork of a Boron standing alongside a Paranid and the Boron is sitting in some levitating glass bowl.
So it looks like they maybe going that route? Unless it's something only the rich own?

[sh1pman]

Hey guys are there any plans to fix the faction missions? The argon vs xenon mission has been broken and reported since launch. Am I going to have to restart?

Once again, we've not mentioned every individual fix. Fixes will be continuing both in, and between, the major updates.

Well, almost what I was thinking about. It's posted in discussions, but I want it in News so potential buyers see that progress is happening.

See my previous reply.

I actually want to see some planned individual fixes mentioned. I don’t know, maybe like “Top ten issues that we’re aware of and are planning to fix by 2.0” or something like that. That would be great.

[EliteLex]

Thank you for posting this roadmap. Unlike other game developers, you are keeping your player base informed. Kudos to your whole team.
Could you please clarify if we will ever get multiple GPU support? There are many of us running SLI setups that want very much to play this game with the full utilization of both of our graphics cards.

Up to now we've not specified a particular version of Vulkan, and supporting SLI would mean we'd have to require Vulkan 1.1 for everyone. Not only that but because of the nature of Vulkan, we'd have to do all the work of supporting multiple GPUs; work that is done almost entirely by the drivers when using other APIs. So, this is a tricky one and we can't make any promises on it.

I think all AMD and Nvidia GPUs support 1.1 given they have updated drivers
source: https://vulkan.gpuinfo.org/

so even if I pick an old Nvidia GT 630 and have a driver 411.63.0.0 or higher installed, you will have for example Vulkan 1.1.82 capabilities.
According to this page even some Intel based GPUs would support 1.1

From a programmers perspective: The support check for the all GPUs in the system (regardless of SLI or not) you probably already have in place (checking supported queue families etc.). All you really have to do is setting up a device group.
And from here everything is abstracted anyways, as you only deal with logical (sub-)devices thereafter. So for executing command buffers for example you really don't need to do much different, as the drivers will take care of where to execute it.

[tomchk]

I actually want to see some planned individual fixes mentioned. I don’t know, maybe like “Top ten issues that we’re aware of and are planning to fix by 2.0” or something like that. That would be great.

I would appreciate this as well!

[waynetarlton]

Thanks for the update, great to hear a little more about what's in the pipe, and that 2.0 is still in the February end of the timeline.

Really can't help but feel like the split expansion/DLC announcement is in really bad taste though. A lot of us have purchased this game knowing your (egosoft's) release model of essentially, release a really broken game, and gradually fix and improve it into something good, that becomes truly great with the addition of mods. We understand this, and we're happy to support the continued development of the game into what we hope it can be. However, at this point, so much of what we would consider basic functionality for an actual full release of the game is still being worked on, or isn't even listed in your timeline. Things take time, I understand, but it really sounds like you're favouring pushing out additional paid expansion/DLC content, before the game is even in a proper full release state. Now, I'm not saying specifically that '4-5 months is too soon', or anything of the sort. Rather that, releasing expansions before the intended base content is complete, is too soon.

Definitely appreciate the quick progress on bugs and patches though.

I fully agree with this.

[Sephiros]

Looking for more action here, having only economy to worry about made the game dull for me. The end product of X-Universe economy is ships, but there's no use for them in the end. My fleets have never seen a bigger threat than 3 Xenon destroyers and 10 fighters. Massive scale battles to protect systems from total wipes, sector capture and evolving Xenon which can build stations and hoard ships for massive attacks - this is what would make this game interesting for many. Inherently all players are looking for challenge when playing games, X4 so far offers little to no challenge, there's a room to grow when the game starts but after one explored all systems and built his empire there's nothing to do. There are no economy wars between corporations, there are no gun wars between factions, conflicts are on scale of a local skirmish...

Patiently checking forums and updates to see where this game goes or if someone started making a mod like Litcube's Universe for X3.

[Falcrack]

Looking for more action here, having only economy to worry about made the game dull for me. The end product of X-Universe economy is ships, but there's no use for them in the end. My fleets have never seen a bigger threat than 3 Xenon destroyers and 10 fighters. Massive scale battles to protect systems from total wipes, sector capture and evolving Xenon which can build stations and hoard ships for massive attacks - this is what would make this game interesting for many. Inherently all players are looking for challenge when playing games, X4 so far offers little to no challenge, there's a room to grow when the game starts but after one explored all systems and built his empire there's nothing to do. There are no economy wars between corporations, there are no gun wars between factions, conflicts are on scale of a local skirmish...

Patiently checking forums and updates to see where this game goes or if someone started making a mod like Litcube's Universe for X3.

While a challenge in terms of fending off invasions can be good, I feel that if stuff like this were to happen, it would need some sort of trigger action by the player, basically to indicate that they are ready for some sort of massive military adventure, with factions waging massive wars and conquering territories. Otherwise, you may get stuff like this happening to someone who has not been quite so ambitious in their game and is not prepared for military conflict and all of a sudden finds the game turned totally upside down on them.