Not another DLC without any highways

[Matthew94]

Highways are a great idea. The DLC sectors are an absolute pain to navigate given how long it takes to traverse them. I get that it fits thematically because pirate sectors are a no-man's-land but I doubt thematic consistency was the driving force for their absence.

[Artean]

I too like highways in civilized space.

[Clownmug]

At least there are some new pretty backgrounds to look at...

[Tamina]

In the interview Bernd said that there aren't many new sectors. Nothing in comparison to CoH or even SV. There is a special one and he hasn't talked about the others much. I doubt that highways or a lack thereof will be much of a hassle, either way.

[mr.WHO]

In the interview Bernd said that there aren't many new sectors. Nothing in comparison to CoH or even SV. There is a special one and he hasn't talked about the others much. I doubt that highways or a lack thereof will be much of a hassle, either way.

I hope they put these precious few sectors to make proper pirate alleys, albeit it's hard to put them anywhere in current galaxy to make alleys.

[Buzz2005]

In the interview Bernd said that there aren't many new sectors. Nothing in comparison to CoH or even SV. There is a special one and he hasn't talked about the others much. I doubt that highways or a lack thereof will be much of a hassle, either way.

I hope they put these precious few sectors to make proper pirate alleys, albeit it's hard to put them anywhere in current galaxy to make alleys.

look at only base game sectors as they will be connected to them

[jasonbarron]

The highways are a terrible system. I understand why Ego put them in to appeal to the folks with short attention spans, but I think adding dlc without them is a big improvement to the universe.

[LameFox]

The idea wasn't too bad... the execution, though? They're just these weird, static things we can't interact with except to drop in and be sped around, like speed boost arrows on a Wipeout racetrack. Freelancer did it better years ago. If they could be tampered with for things like piracy, blockades, etc. then they would have added a whole new strategic level to things instead of just making it harder for the AI to fight Xenon that go whipping past.

[Axeface]

HIghways need to be used more that much is certain, imo. You cant have interesting systems without structure. No idea how anyone can think its a bad idea.
I hope the dlc systems have some.

[jasonbarron]

I can think it's a bad idea because it looks terrible and cartoony and, in conjunction with Travel Drive, it turns the game world into a teensy little kiddie park where ships get from one end to the other in the blink of an eye.

[Falcrack]

Highways make sense in a game where many of the ships lack travel drives, Like Rebirth. In X4, they feel redundant.

[Imperial Good]

The highway ring is a good concept as it adds unique mechanics to the core sectors. Maybe some of the branch highways to nowhere such as in ianamus zura, company regard and tharkas cascade should be removed as they are not really used much and do not bridge sectors.

For some sectors there could be storylines to build highways. For example constructing a highway from Scale Plate Green to Trinity Sanctum. These could be limited to a few select branches, which could include DLCs. These could fall into terraforming projects and take significant resources to do, possibly a lot of Nividium.

[Omni-Orb]

Being able to permanently or temporarily destroy the highway or sections of it would be very good. It needs clear "sections" that can be disabled/destroyed. Not sure who would get the task to repair/rebuild it though. Its a good feature however needs more gameplay elements to it. I see no reason why players shouldnt be able to build highways at some time in the future.

[grapedog]

I like the highways as is.... shows core sectors are more core, more connected, more established. Would I care if they added more? Not at all, either way. Highways don't change the way I play the game, and I rarely spend any time on them... so add em, or not, if it seems cool/fun/appropriate.

[Axeface]

I can think it's a bad idea because it looks terrible and cartoony and, in conjunction with Travel Drive, it turns the game world into a teensy little kiddie park where ships get from one end to the other in the blink of an eye.

It is the travel drive, yes, that destroys all sense of scale or exploration. Scale means nothing, ships and stations feel tiny all because of a game designed around travel drive (And ships are faster in X4 cruise than ALL 'ww2-style' space sims).
Highways are not the problem, in rebirth highways were everywhere yet travel felt meaningful, it took time, ships and stations felt massive (even the smaller ones) and highways existed...
In the absence of travel drive highways are a tool to create structure, just like asteroid fields or large stations. Nowhere in the history of X games has felt more real than any sector in Rebirth, but travel drive destroys all of this and makes everything feel tiny. Sectors are fishbowls where you just float around randomely, you dont move from point of interest to point of interest, you just point in a direction and hey presto, you are there. Nothing takes any effort.

[LameFox]

I can think it's a bad idea because it looks terrible and cartoony and, in conjunction with Travel Drive, it turns the game world into a teensy little kiddie park where ships get from one end to the other in the blink of an eye.

It is the travel drive, yes, that destroys all sense of scale or exploration. Scale means nothing, ships and stations feel tiny all because of a game designed around travel drive (And all ships are faster in X4 cruise than ALL 'ww2-style' space sims).
Highways are not the problem, in rebirth highways were everywhere yet travel felt meaningful, it took time, and highways existed...
In the absence of travel drive highways are a tool to create structure, just like asteroid fields or large stations. Nowhere in the history of X games has felt more real than any sector in Rebirth, but travel drive destroys all of this and makes everything feel tiny. Sectors are fishbowls where you just float around randomely, you dont move from point of interest to point of interest, you just point in a direction and hey presto, you are there. Nothing takes any effort.

I don't disagree but having both of them together only compounds it, and I can't picture them deciding to make such a drastic balance change as removing travel drives in this game—yet it already functions fine with highways turned off.

[Omni-Orb]

travel drive destroys all of this and makes everything feel tiny. Sectors are fishbowls where you just float around randomely, you dont move from point of interest to point of interest, you just point in a direction and hey presto, you are there.

They really got the 'feeling' of cruising around in travel drive perfect with toggling flight assist to steer. However i agree that the scale of it is off and doesnt make the universe feel like it is vast and mostly empty with stations and ships being great bastions of life and important points of interrest.

[Axeface]

travel drive destroys all of this and makes everything feel tiny. Sectors are fishbowls where you just float around randomely, you dont move from point of interest to point of interest, you just point in a direction and hey presto, you are there.

They really got the 'feeling' of cruising around in travel drive perfect with toggling flight assist to steer. However i agree that the scale of it is off and doesnt make the universe feel like it is vast and mostly empty with stations and ships being great bastions of life and important points of interrest.

It feels great, I totally agree, but at what cost?
How big do you have to make a ship to make it feel big when the player is traveling at 1000 m/s? Its a very simple problem, and the only answer is to make ships slower. Because ships of 2-5km are already unwieldy and frankly bordering on ridiculous.
Captain collins pointed out the other day that a Nimitz class aircraft carrier is 300 meters long... we think an X4 Behemoth is small... doesnt 'feel like a destroyer' anymore, feels like a 'frigate', its 400 meters!! it is HUGE! It is the speeds we are traveling at that destroy the sense of scale, and that sense of scale impacts everything including combat (projectile speeds).
Rebirths (effective) sectors were far bigger than x4's, but they had much smaller areas of interest and moving around them was very different, it made everything seem huge. I miss that.

I also like a bit of realism, enough to be somewhat plausible. In X4 I can travel at 10k m/s, flight assist off, turn around, re-engage flight assist and be at 10k m/s again in 3 seconds. That is like 800g's of force. People paste.

[grapedog]

I can think it's a bad idea because it looks terrible and cartoony and, in conjunction with Travel Drive, it turns the game world into a teensy little kiddie park where ships get from one end to the other in the blink of an eye.

It is the travel drive, yes, that destroys all sense of scale or exploration. Scale means nothing, ships and stations feel tiny all because of a game designed around travel drive (And ships are faster in X4 cruise than ALL 'ww2-style' space sims).
Highways are not the problem, in rebirth highways were everywhere yet travel felt meaningful, it took time, ships and stations felt massive (even the smaller ones) and highways existed...
In the absence of travel drive highways are a tool to create structure, just like asteroid fields or large stations. Nowhere in the history of X games has felt more real than any sector in Rebirth, but travel drive destroys all of this and makes everything feel tiny. Sectors are fishbowls where you just float around randomely, you dont move from point of interest to point of interest, you just point in a direction and hey presto, you are there. Nothing takes any effort.

You can't blame travel drive like it didn't exist in x3... people just used SETA to accomplish the same goal. Travel Drive as a mechanic is infinity times better than SETA.

[Omni-Orb]

It feels great, I totally agree, but at what cost?
How big do you have to make a ship to make it feel big when the player is traveling at 1000 m/s? Its a very simple problem, and the only answer is to make ships slower. Because ships of 2-5km are already unwieldy and frankly bordering on ridiculous.
Captain collins pointed out the other day that a Nimitz class aircraft carrier is 300 meters long... we think an X4 Behemoth is small... doesnt 'feel like a destroyer' anymore, feels like a 'frigate', its 400 meters!! it is HUGE! It is the speeds we are traveling at that destroy the sense of scale, and that sense of scale impacts everything including combat (projectile speeds).
Rebirths (effective) sectors were far bigger than x4's, but they had much smaller areas of interest and moving around them was very different, it made everything seem huge. I miss that.

I also like a bit of realism, enough to be somewhat plausible. In X4 I can travel at 10k m/s, flight assist off, turn around, re-engage flight assist and be at 10k m/s again in 3 seconds. That is like 800g's of force. People paste.

I agree now that i see it written like this. I see that the speeds (Especially with a modded scout ship) are what makes it feel this way. However a different way of saying it would be this: The distance between stations and gates isnt far enough. A good balance exists between those two points.

And also yes i also reacted to 180 degree flight assist turns being so efficient that the crew would be paste. Its too much.