Multiverse Team Seasons: Season 1 Beta ends, preparing for the next steps

[Gregory]

Update (June 14, 2023):

With the end of the first beta season of our Multiverse Team Seasons today, here's a short update from Egosoft founder and Managing Director Bernd Lehahn:

Hello Everybody,

First, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the Multiverse Team Seasons public beta. We have learned a lot from this initial large-scale test, in terms of both gameplay and technical infrastructure. In the Season 1 Beta, a total of 373,965 ventures were started, and during these ventures there were 38,729 ship encounters, resulting in the destruction of 1,913 ships.

The development of our online mode, while not being a top priority, will continue over the next few months. During this time, we will implement some drastic changes, which are based on what we learned from observing this public beta and from all the feedback you guys have provided! Thank you very much for that.

Given that some of the planned changes are quite substantial, it will take a while before we are in a position to start the next public beta. Any rewards you have gained through playing the beta will remain available, even in new game starts. Please note that you will need to stay in the Multiverse Team Seasons Public Beta branch until we publicly release the 6.10 update for X4: Foundations, hopefully in the very near future, in order to access these rewards and to continue using any savegames you've made during the beta.

So, to reiterate, you can now have an extended break from Multiverse Team Seasons and will be able return to your other duties in the X universe - or, if you really must, other games

Thank you for testing!

-Bernd


Original post (April 18, 2023):

Our new Multiverse Team Seasons Public Beta is ready for you to test. In this evolution of the earlier ventures feature you will get access to multiverse ships, and other exclusive rewards, by joining a coalition and embarking on exciting asynchronous team-based operations. With the brand-new Multiverse Team Seasons we're expanding the social aspect of X4: Foundations. You can now join a coalition, interact with your teammates and, most importantly, pursue a common goal as a team.

>> Bernd explaining Multiverse Team Seasons (Video)
>> Multiverse Team Seasons Public Beta Forum
>> Multiverse Team Seasons Public Beta Rules

Earn team loot, such as exclusive limited ships
At the end of a successful Season, loot will be distributed among your team. Rewards can include exclusive ships and paint mods, not available elsewhere.

The Yasur (pictured above) is a light fighter that will amaze you with its agility and speed. But don't let its small size mislead you; for a ship of this class, it is extremely well-armed and powerful. You can expect Multiverse Team Seasons reward ships to have quite an impact, so you'll only be able to have a limited number of them in your game, and no blueprints will be available.

Every player joining a team will earn at least one ship at the end of a Season, but the better your team the more loot you can gain!

Warning: any savegames created with this Multiverse Team Seasons Public Beta will NOT be compatible with the current public version of X4 (6.00).

FAQ
How do I join?
We've prepared a step-by-step guide to explain how to join the Multiverse Team Seasons Public Beta. It is included beneath this FAQ section.

How are Teams and Coalitions formed?
To join a Season for the first time, you will need to choose which Coalition you want to side with. Coalitions are political groups in the X multiverse, and to start with there will be a choice of two. When choosing one coalition over the other, you will be deciding who your enemies are.

The next step is to choose your inner circle, in other words your Team. Teams are groups of players who have all joined the same Coalition, and who will pursue a common team goal by playing missions or online Ventures.

Building a Team can be as simple as joining a random one, or alternatively you can set up a party and invite friends. You will be able to send invitations to your friends, so that you will end up in the same Team, but any remaining free slots within that Team will be filled up automatically with other players.

How does my Team win? How is the score tracked?
By completing Ventures in the Operational Goal chapter, you will earn Team Shares. These will count towards the Season score, not only for your Team, but also for the Coalition you are associated with. At the end of the Season, the accumulated rewards are handed out to the Team - it's loot time! The more successful you, your Team, and your Coalition were during the Season, the more interesting the loot.

What does a Season look like? How long will a Season last? What can I get out of it?
During this Public Beta, a Season will last for approximately two months. During this time, players will play to increase their rank within a Team, as well as globally within their Coalition, and to achieve common goals. By contributing to your Coalition's win during a given Season, you can gain access to unique multiverse ships.

A Season is broken down into Operations; you can think of an Operation like a chapter in the overall story of a Season. Each Operation offers a selection of missions and online Ventures.

What are online Ventures? How do I play during a Season?
Each Season brings with it new missions, similar to those you know from the X4: Foundations plot. The Season also offers online Ventures, which are played by sending your ships into the multiverse. Ships at your Venture Dock can jump into the multiverse to visit other players' universes. Online Ventures can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours to complete. During a single online Venture, your ship may travel to many different players' universes. These online Ventures are essentially tasks that your ship executes while in these universes, and can include attacks against opposing players. For example, your ships might attack stations or ships belonging to your rival Coalition, or they might support your own Coalition's forces.

Both local missions, that you play by yourself, and online Ventures can increase your standing within your Team, and may also increase your Team's chances of earning more loot at the end of the Season.

The Operation Overview menu shows which missions and online Ventures (marked with a red "v" icon) are available to play. You can also see which Ventures are currently being played by your teammates on the Multiverse Map.

Will I be able to play an unlimited number of online Ventures per Season?
There is no fixed limit; the limiting factor is the time taken by each online Venture. A single Venture Dock can only host a single ship at any one time, so if an online Venture takes an hour, the dock is blocked for that length of time. By using Brane Fuel, you can accelerate your Venture and finish them faster.

What is Brane Fuel, and how does it work?
Brane Fuel is a resource that your ships can mine in the multiverse. Brane Fuel can then be invested to accelerate your Venture, helping to complete them faster.

Will Multiverse Team Seasons feature stories or generic missions?
Yes! The idea is that each online Season can bring new stories, and new unique items, including exciting ships and upgrades.

Why can't I join Multiverse Team Seasons with my modified savegame?
Multiverse Team Seasons are a competitive activity, allowing you to make use of some of your achievements in your local universe to help in your online fight against other players. For this reason, we cannot allow modified games that potentially change the game balance, or give a player an unfair advantage.

As mentioned in the build up to the 6.00 release, we are looking into signing a selection of popular quality-of-life mods, so that activating these won't flag your game as "modified" any longer, and thus would give you access to Multiverse Team Seasons. This, however, is an ongoing process, and we will update you on it as decisions are made.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause some players, but we would like to encourage everyone to try out the Multiverse Team Seasons with an unmodified savegame. This does not prevent you from playing modified games in offline mode.

Step-by-step guide on how to join the Multiverse Team Seasons (Public Beta)

Step 0: During the Public Beta phase - join the mts_public_beta

STEAM

• Make sure that your savegames are backed up!
• To start using the Public Beta version, right-click X4: Foundations in the Steam client
• Select Properties and go to the Betas tab
• Enter the password IBackedUpMyOfflineSaves
• Select mts_public_beta from the dropdown list
• To return to using the non-Beta version, select NONE from the same dropdown list

GOG GALAXY

• Make sure that your savegames are backed up!
• Select X4: Foundations in your GOG Galaxy game collection
• Click on the "Settings" icon
• Click "manage installation" and "configure"
• Select "Add Private Channels" in the Beta Channels options
• Enter the password for the "MTS Public Beta" channel: IBackedUpMyOfflineSaves
• Select the "MTS Public Beta" channel
• To return to using the non-Beta version, click on the "Channel" dropdown and select "default"

Step 1: Create an Egosoft forum account and register your game
Create an Egosoft (forum) account at https://forum.egosoft.com/
Afterwards, register your game by following these platform specific instructions:

- Steam: Visit ucp.php?i=-egosoft-settings-ucp-gamereg ... de=gamereg and click the "Sign in through Steam" button. Follow the process and sign in using your Steam account. Your copy of X4 should automatically show up in the list of game registration codes.

- GOG: Visit https://www.gog.com/account and click on X4. Navigate to "more" and "Serial Keys" to find the serial key you will need to register your purchase. Continue on to ucp.php?i=-egosoft-settings-ucp-gamereg ... de=gamereg and enter the serial key you found on GOG.com into the "Game Registration Code" field at the bottom. Click "Submit" to register your game. Your copy of X4 will afterwards show up in the list of game registration codes.

Step 2: Enable the Multiverse Team Seasons updating mechanism in X4: Foundations
In the X4 main menu, visit the "Online Features" menu and enable the "Check for Downloads" entry. This must be enabled for the automatic updating mechanism to download and verify the Multiverse Team Seasons data on gamestart.

Step 3: Log in using your Egosoft (forum) account
In the X4 main menu, select "Online Features" and log in using your Egosoft forum username and password.

Step 4: Load any of your existing (unmodified) X4 savegames or start a new game

Step 5: Build a Venture Dock and Venture Platform on a station
Building the dock is a relatively cheap and quick process, and once it is finished you have a shiny new Venture Dock. You can visit the Venture Platform from any elevator on this station, and from there you can see and control the dock.

Step 6: Convert your savegame to an online save
Selecting the "Show Multiverse Map" button in your game will trigger a message asking you to convert your savegame into an online save. This is mandatory to participate in Multiverse Team Seasons. There can be only one online save at a time on your account.

Step 7: Join a Coalition
This is as simple as pressing a button, but you should first read what each Coalition has to offer for this season. The stories and rewards shown here can change from season to season.

Step 8: Join or create a Team
Joining a Team can be as simple as clicking on the Join Random Team button, but you can also choose to create a party or accept invitations from your friends, in order to play with people you know.

You are now all set and ready to play local missions, as well as online Ventures with your teammates, and battle for the rewards the multiverse has to offer.

[Lord Dakier]

Any system that includes content that cannot be achieved in the full offline singleplayer experience is nothing short of a failure.

I assume the intention is to eventually monetise this.

[mr.WHO]

Any system that includes content that cannot be achieved in the full offline singleplayer experience is nothing short of a failure.

If it's like a paint mods - and it's hard to imagine otherwise - venture ships will be in game files, so just like paint mods it will be accessible via mods.
Since mods will make you game modified anyway, ventures and mods do not intemix, so it should be fine for both Egosoft and modders.

Unless...

I assume the intention is to eventually monetise this.

...this.

Remember there were Egopoints in venture code and Brane Fuel reeeks of basic mobile trash mechanics.
Wouldn't be a first company to succumb to microtranction money allure.

However, given that X-series is a niche game, for already niche customers who eventually get bored and goes with modding, I don't expect much of a success with ventures (we get along fine without them for almost 2 years).
This will most probably be short live fad, just like ventures 1.0 were.

[Otas Elite]

I really really hope they will fall flat on their face. Then there is not even the temptation of doing any bull.

[Ormac]

Two Questions

1. Is all DLC required for participation?

2. Do we need the Yasur before we begin?

[iHaku]

yeah that... doesnt sound very promising.

x4, as a game, isnt that exciting to play on a 2 month bases with leagues like diablo/poe i think.
its a game i pick up for a few weeks, play extensively and then take a long break before coming back to it. having content you can "miss out on" really turns me off from even playing the game in the first place. i dont want this to be a job where i have to log in every 2 months and play a bunch so as to not miss out on exclusive stuff. that's one of the worst things gaming has ever introduced into the space.

[CBJ]

1. Is all DLC required for participation?

2. Do we need the Yasur before we begin?

No to both.

[st3k]

Hello,

My 5 cents.
As person who has 3600 hours in X4 game, and played almost all previous games, I cannot see locking ships and special items behind timewall as a good idea. I hope mods will help us to solve this issue.

Thank you.

[Harkster]

How do the seasons work. Do you have to have a new save for each new season or does when a new season start you can opt in on the previous save?

[lefonty]

For the people being a bit rude, how else could they have added multiplayer and given atleast a small reward for participating? and all of this as of now is free, literally a free new feature with free new stuff.. lets wait and see where it goes before you guys poop all over it... also every game has things hidden behind effort... its still free to try the venture... nothing is behind a paywall yet (hopefully ever i agree transactions would suck). I just find the vibe really annoying when egosoft has made a dope game, never charged ridiculous prices and have updated the game to a point where its substantially better than day 1.

[xant]

If it's like a paint mods - and it's hard to imagine otherwise - venture ships will be in game files, so just like paint mods it will be accessible via mods.
Since mods will make you game modified anyway, ventures and mods do not intemix, so it should be fine for both Egosoft and modders.

I hope for this.

On the one hand I wish Egosoft all the success in the world, to be rewarded for their great work on what is probably the game I played most in recent years. But on the other hand I love my old save, which has the modded tag. I won't start a new game just for the online component now. So having content unaccessable to me, in an offline singleplayer game no less, feels a bit weird.

I really don't want to sound rude or anything, but I do hope the experiment with this limited online component won't be a big enough success to warrant further investments in time and money. And that Egosoft focuses entirely on offline singleplayer again.

Which is why I wish you, dear devs, moderate success. Not as little as to cause you frustration or a monetary loss, but not enough to keep this side project going any further. I wish all efforts would go into offline singleplayer, enjoyable by everyone, modded or not. That's the best I can do for now.

[Torlo50]

So, in the poll a while ago, the community voted in favor of co-op, not this. However, I don't mind this. Though maybe games that haven't opted in and signed up, have these ships given to a faction? The new ship looks almost Yak-ish, they could use another ship. Then after the season is over, have the ship be available without it's bonus' for next season.

I know that's the reward for "winning" but no one seems to like it. So, maybe another reward? Early access to a new game start?

[MakerLinux]

No direct interaction with other players? You just check some boxes to subscribe to a team and some time later get some rewards, is that it?
Sorry, but what's the appeal in that? Seems terribly boring. And what are the risks? Can you lose a ship you send to the new Ventures?

[Gregory]

We have just uploaded a detailed video in which Egosoft founder and Managing Director Bernd Lehahn introduces the new Multiverse Team Seasons mode in detail and explains what it is all about: https://youtu.be/QafAmFaAzrg

[mr.WHO]

This doesn't looks or feel fun, more like generic mobile timer observation simulator.
Yasur feel either like a fad ship or Pay to Win ship (collector edition free ship with Brane fuel bonus).

Seriously, if I'd find something like this appealing, I wouldn't be playing Egosoft games in a first place, but milion other avaliable mobile trash games.

[LameFox]

Brane Fuel sounds like it should be an obscure energy drink that exclusively comes in 'tropical' flavour and which you only ever find discounted and unrefrigerated. Somehow I could see this in my mind the moment I read it.

With that aside, I feel like the emphasis on trying to add exclusive rewards and seasons is just... out of place, in this game. Maybe Egosoft expect it to draw in a whole new audience, rather than appeal to their current one, but honestly I think there are a very specific kind of people who can even play this without screaming in frustration or dying of boredom. Now don't get me wrong here, I actually like loot*, and it's sad how little this game offers in that regard—you can't even pick up a good weapon or shield off a dead enemy, and there's very little variety in them anyway after you're familiar with the different races—but the idea of having to keep up with 'seasons' to get things like ships that don't come with a blueprint? That just recalls negative feelings I have toward other games that try to keep you playing longer than you really enjoy by appealing to your fear of missing out on something.

And I don't think it even has to be that way. The idea of other people sending ships into your universe, even if it's not real multiplayer in the sense that they don't control them, has a lot of potential to inject variety and interest into stale late game universes where basically nothing new ever happens or will ever happen otherwise. Which is to say, the ventures themselves ought to be a better reward than a fighter you can't build. Letting people send all kinds of different ships, fleets, etc. in all the configurations they can muster has enormous potential IMO. If that appeared to be their focus, I'd be a lot more hopeful about the future of this. Right now the 'seasons' thing kind of reminds me of that time about a decade ago when every game under the sun thought they were gonna be the next e-sport, pushed out some silly competitive mode that flopped, then quietly gave up on it.

I'm not entirely off the idea yet, but I hope they lean more toward using it to enrich the variety of experiences in the sandbox game, rather than trying to lever some kind of "competitive" "multiplayer" into a game that is not really either of those things.



*in the sense that you get it from missions and combat, not winning some kind of match.

[LameFox]

But seriously, please don't call it Brane Fuel.

[mr.WHO]

...and now a word from our sponsor B-Fuel...

[Mourn_Bringer]

Damn it! That's not what I want in X games. Why devs did this? Who needed this? It's a step in wrong direction both to singleplayer and multiplayer experience!
If the multiplayer mode - go for arena type with prebuild ships of same category (or various in other modes).
If the singleplayer mode - go for that story of 2 factions but in completely offline and free from checklist of shit.



Yeah, had to register to write that.
IMHO

[x30n]

Only Egosoft would manage to come up with a multiplayer mode that requires an hour long explainer video

Interesting concept. You obviously put quite a lot of thought into not breaking the experience while adding a potentially game changing feature. Looking forward to giving it a try.

Damn it! That's not what I want in X games. Why devs did this? Who needed this? It's a step in wrong direction both to singleplayer and multiplayer experience!

As with everything in X it's your choice. You can use or ignore this feature and enjoy the game either way. So your preferred game play should not be disrupted in the slightest.