Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

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Falcrack
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by Falcrack » Sun, 27. Jan 19, 23:18

hort_wort wrote:
Sun, 27. Jan 19, 22:15
Wesley Franken wrote:
Sun, 27. Jan 19, 20:36
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. :|
My guess is Boron will need to wear some sort of aquatic powered suit around stations and ships. Even with boron ships, it would make sense for them to wear these suits there because having an interior filled with air is far less mass to move around than an interior filled with water.

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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by DaMuncha » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 04:53

So it sounds like I'm not going to bother starting the game up again till 3.0 drops in 6 months. *sigh*

Ego made the game that we all wanted, and its far superior to any X game before it, Except for one thing... theres no direction, no need to do anything, no mission chain, no story, no reason to keep playing.
Just... another... bug.

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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by Falcrack » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 04:58

When we have 3.0 with the improved gameplay features surrounding sector control, I think an interesting gamestart may be that of a faction owner. You basically start as the leader of one of the factions, and you have to defend your territory from rampant Xenon threats or invasions from other factions, or try to invade and take over territory from other factions. An RTS gameplay, of sorts.

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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by shahman76 » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 07:42

Falcrack wrote:
Mon, 28. Jan 19, 04:58
When we have 3.0 with the improved gameplay features surrounding sector control, I think an interesting gamestart may be that of a faction owner. You basically start as the leader of one of the factions, and you have to defend your territory from rampant Xenon threats or invasions from other factions, or try to invade and take over territory from other factions. An RTS gameplay, of sorts.
Ooooooo! Yes please. This. I want this. Make it so.
And I want the functionality where other factions can surrender entire sectors or completely to you becoming your vassal, especially if you hammer them enough either economically or militarily.

That and an end to world hunger. Of course.

Graaf
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by Graaf » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 07:44

Can we get Trade back as it was in X3 please. This Fight-oriented trade mechanic from Rebirth doesn't work for a real successor of X3. Trade orders just aren't interesting with the low quantities requested.

And I fully support the request to implement a NESA-like interface. Walking is just a time-sink.

As for your intended target points....yeah, bug fixing is good, shipyards are nice, not much interesting further. I'm sorry I don't see much need to try out the game in 2019 with these fixes and updates. Make sure X4 is interesting for those interested in old X3 Trade. Trade now, just like Rebirth, is just a minor addition to the game to support the overal (imo boring) Fight-focussed design.

Helmut_AUT
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by Helmut_AUT » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 12:24

Graaf wrote:
Mon, 28. Jan 19, 07:44
Trade now, just like Rebirth, is just a minor addition to the game to support the overal (imo boring) Fight-focussed design.
Interesting how different perceptions are. As someone who's not into trading and wanted a space fight and flight game, I had the impression that trading was much more developed than combat.

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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by shealladh » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 12:33

Starman01 wrote:
Sat, 26. Jan 19, 10:18
Sounds great to me :) Only sad thing is that I have to wait even longer for my beloved borons. Never was that much of a split fan, usually I mostly stayed out of their sectors, just likes some of their ships
Split are good, Borons are cooler imho too

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Re: My Improvement List

Post by shealladh » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 12:56

megapowa wrote:
Sun, 27. Jan 19, 11:35
TonganJedi wrote:
Sun, 27. Jan 19, 01:01
1. Fix the bugs
Until these get squashed, I see no reason to add more content (and potentially more bugs).

2. Improve the AI
Between the behavior of boarding pods and the exploration command, there's a lot of room for improvement here. There's no point in having player-owned shipyards if small ships can't be managed effectively, let alone large fleets. Trying to get a subordinate fighter to land on my frigate can be comical at times.

3. Fix the economy
I need to break this down a bit. I feel this is the core of the X games. If we wanted to focus on space combat, we could just play Elite: Dangerous. We're here for something more.

3a. System Economies
We need end-user resource consumption for the economy as a whole or none of this works. Planets benefit from ore and gas, right? Tie the trading posts to the local system economy and use them as a resource sink. The larger the population, the higher the demand for consumer goods. (Which means we need different consumer goods to trade!) Fluctuate demand of certain goods. Maybe there's a pandemic in a system and medicines are worth more during the outbreak. Certain luxury goods could be in high demand due to an upcoming cultural festival. Certain missions could unlock illicit contacts on trading stations where you can move illegal goods. And why do wares have hard minimum and maximum price caps? Shouldn't station owners determine what their caps are? What if I want to put the other energy suppliers in a sector out of business by subsidizing my dirt-cheap energy cells with mission credits and mining profits? What if I want to offer discounts on bulk purchases. So much could be improved here.

3b. Supply, demand, and risk
Right now, I can send a couple of ships to mine nividium and make a fortune without doing much of anything but waiting. If it's so easy to obtain, why it is worth so much? Where's the risk? Where's the scarcity? Why is silicon worth more than ore if they are both in abundance? None of this makes any economic sense. And where's the motivation to smuggle illegal goods? What are the consequences? Where's the risk/reward? I piss off a single police fighter for a short time before they forget it ever happened?? What sense does that make? All of this needs a complete rework.

3c. Operating costs
Why are stations free to operate? There should be maintenance and labor costs. If you want to run a station, you should expect to manage its economy. Is everything automated? You still need to pay for repairs. Do people work there? You need housing, food, and wages. If station owners (player and AI) can't make a profit or at least break even, those stations should cease to operate. Then we have demand for new stations and demand for resources. Players could even purchase a defunct station and try to make it profitable. What about ships and crews? Shouldn't they require wages? If a full service crew improves efficiency, that should come at a price (and not just an initial "I buy you forever" slave price). If you're serious about X4 being an economic simulator, then let's get serious about how production systems work.

4. Optimize code
If there are lags from operating one ship, how is this game going to behave when their are dozens?? My buddy told me his computer can run Elite: Dangerous just fine but when he tried X4, it struggled. He refunded it. He'll try again when things run smoother. This should be high on the improvement list--long before you introduce MORE content.

5. Ship Overhauls
The lack of variety in ships, weapons, and equipment is staggering compared to X3. We probably don't need it to be that extreme, but more choice would be appreciated. Also, if you can shove any weapon or engine onto any ship, you lose the uniqueness of the ships themselves. They just become a measure of how many weapon hardpoints they have and those with fewer will get ignored. Seems like a waste of work designing those models. Compatibility would go a long way in making ship purchases a meaningful decision. Maybe I want those fast travel engines, but they don't work on that heavy fighter with the six weapon hardpoints. Right now, it doesn't matter. Retool all of this.

6. Station scanning
What is the point of this and why is a full station scan so cumbersome to obtain?? Why are successful section scans so arbitrary? Not sure why this system even exists. Did it come from Rebirth? (Never played.)

7. Walking around
This is a complete waste of time. If you like being able to walk around because it "immerses" you into the universe, your immersion is immediately ruined by vast stations that are mostly empty. The ones that do have the occasional personnel floating around are plagued by the the disjointed behavior of these models. It's all unnecessary. Please allow us to interact with all facets of a station from our cockpits so we don't have to waste time traveling to offices that look the same regardless of faction and talking to faction reps sitting at their office desks with helmets on. That's not immersion worth bothering with.

8. Sector size
I see no point in bragging about how much larger these sectors are compared to previous games if there's nothing to them. It's just empty space. Unless there's a reason to explore this space, what's the point? Either make that extra space meaningful or get rid of it. How much would removing it improve game performance?
0. End world hunger
9. Feed the Rich
mopz wrote:
Sun, 27. Jan 19, 06:30
8. Sector size
I see no point in bragging about how much larger these sectors are compared to previous games if there's nothing to them. It's just empty space. Unless there's a reason to explore this space, what's the point? Either make that extra space meaningful or get rid of it. How much would removing it improve game performance?
Totally agreed. And what´s even more important - please provide a fix to "un-discover" alle the ruined maps, where explorers bugged 1000 km out of the sectors center - in deed I fear this is creeping my performance which is even with AA off like 5 to 25 FPS only...
The way in which the AI deploys the stations in the sector doesn't seem to be efficient either.

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Vandragorax
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by Vandragorax » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 13:23

CBJ wrote:
Sat, 26. Jan 19, 01:18
[*]An early gameplay feature that 3.00 will improve is the ability to dock directly at station with a spacesuit and to get other NPC ships to transport you, by offering missions to them.
I'm actually wondering what 'gameplay problem' you are trying to solve with this idea? Is this a pretext to addressing the 'game over' screen problem, so that our starter ship could be blown up but we can escape to a nearby station in our suit?

Considering the fact that we can remotely request a scout ship to be produced at a shipyard, then piloted to us for 'pick up' I don't see any other real use case for this feature idea otherwise. Has anyone been requesting this directly?
Admiral of the Fleet.

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Old Drullo321
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by Old Drullo321 » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 14:37

While adding more / new features is always nice, there is no reason to play the game at the moment. Besides the bugs, there is virtual no explanation of basic features (e.g. pilot levels and how to gain them, my pilots never gained anything!, resource drone explicit usage) and the UI is very clunky. Are there any plans to improve the UI in the next major and minor patches?

I'm only talking about things that were already in X3 and in general could be reached faster, more intuitively or are completely missing from X4:

- Better renaming of ships (One click "m", add single letters in between words)
- More and easier to use ship/station sorting, grouping or hiding functions
- Improved log, more categories (fight, trade, etc.)
- Better displaying ship and stations of only one sectore (atm it is very annoying to use)
- Far more options for managing stations (like X3)
- Best buy / sell finder software

Other things that would be nice:
- Change station modules build order
- Better / complete manual, encyclopedia
- Blacklisting sectors, stations, races
- Docking Mk3 for autodock at 5km range

All that is far more important for me then any dlc or own shipyard. Those things stop me from playing the game

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Phlt
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by Phlt » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 15:50

Old Drullo321 wrote:
Mon, 28. Jan 19, 14:37
there is virtual no explanation of basic features (e.g. pilot levels and how to gain them, my pilots never gained anything!, resource drone explicit usage)
Please, have a look here. :)

BrasatoAlBarolo
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by BrasatoAlBarolo » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 16:01

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!

Falcrack
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by Falcrack » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 16:08

BrasatoAlBarolo wrote:
Mon, 28. Jan 19, 16:01
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.

Buzz2005
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by Buzz2005 » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 16:11

emp bombs on ships make leaks that after scanning give you blueprints
Fixed ships getting spawned away from ship configuration menu at resupply ships from automatically getting deployables.

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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by theborg921 » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 16:18

Hi, I have a few Q related to the topic...
CBJ wrote:
Sat, 26. Jan 19, 01:18
Our rough timeline is to have an expansion based on introducing the Split race, their ships, a new Split economy and of course a large new area of space shortly after releasing 3.00.
Q1: Do you have any planes for a good plot to introduce the Split ?
CBJ wrote:
Sat, 26. Jan 19, 01:18
The next bigger update will bring, among other things, the ability to set up your own shipyards. Compete with the faction shipyards by selling ships to the war factions or build your own fleets.
Q2: Will selling of ships to a faction actualy influence the balance of power ?
CBJ wrote:
Sat, 26. Jan 19, 01:18
With 3.00 we aim to build upon this with a number of features to help you benefit from sector control. You can then basically become your own faction with your own set of rules.
I had an nerdgazem when reading this part!! \o/ can't wait for this 1

Q3: Is there a plan to introduce a totaly new alien race (frend/foe) in the game ?

Q4: I red a lot of post about the fact that X4 is to safe (love all aroud) and I agree. So, do you plane for any big invasions or wars in the future ?

tnx, and keep up the good work!

BrasatoAlBarolo
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by BrasatoAlBarolo » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 16:22

Falcrack wrote:
Mon, 28. Jan 19, 16:08
BrasatoAlBarolo wrote:
Mon, 28. Jan 19, 16:01
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
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by Cinderelli » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 17:35

CBJ wrote:
Sat, 26. Jan 19, 17:38
radcapricorn wrote:
Sat, 26. Jan 19, 13:58
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.
mr.WHO wrote:
Sat, 26. Jan 19, 14:38
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.
ei8htx wrote:
Sat, 26. Jan 19, 17:20
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.
Cinderelli wrote:
Sat, 26. Jan 19, 17:26
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.

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Seathal
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by Seathal » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 18:04

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

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BigBANGtheory
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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by BigBANGtheory » Mon, 28. Jan 19, 23:45

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.

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Re: Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

Post by gschultz » Tue, 29. Jan 19, 00:44

peteran wrote:
Sat, 26. Jan 19, 05:29
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.

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