Should X be Multiplayer? (Poll) I wan't to make egosoft see how many people want this

[CBJ]

Yep, that makes sense.

Actually, no. As I've said quite a few times, the only way it is going to happen is if someone stumps up some hard cash. No matter how personally obsessed anyone becomes, it doesn't change the fact that it will cost money to develop. Developers would have to eat, at least occasionally, during the several years that it would take before the game saw the light of day.

[fiksal]

Yep, that makes sense.

Actually, no. As I've said quite a few times, the only way it is going to happen is if someone stumps up some hard cash.

Well I didnt think it is the only reason.
I think it's kinda implied that you always need a sponsor. And of course they'll need to 'know' that X-multiplayer(or online) would attract (more) people and make money for them, otherwise even if it's the best game ever and no-one plays it - it's no good.
And when they have capital, they could then afford spending time and money rewriting the game from bottom up.

Is this better then?

Contrary to what some other people say, I still think it's possible to make a multiplayer game that will be pretty close to the existing gameplay, given enough resources. As far as Online goes - there are ways to make that work too, but it probably would move further away from the type of the gameplay we see in X3.

[CBJ]

And when they have capital, they could then afford spending time and money rewriting the game from bottom up.

It sounds like you've never tried getting a sponsor for a big project. If someone gives you a big wad of money to develop a product then they are not going to sit around for years waiting to see some return on their investment. In fact the way finance works these days, you are very lucky indeed if you manage to get funding for a project that won't be completed in the current financial year. Finding that kind of funding for a high-risk project like a game is even more difficult.

[TBV]

As has been explained any number of times, it has never been a question of whether people want multiplayer or not. The issue has always been about about the time and cost of development, and finding a backer prepared to put that kind of money up front.

It would seem then that if they could, they would.

So it's probably best to just trust them not to ruin the character of the game.

In the same way that X2 is not the same as X3. Similar yes, but not the same.
So by the time we get an online game maybe we'll have had X4 and X5.
each one different but unmistakeably X and still enjoyable for the long term fans.

May i remind you that most of you are looking at an X multiplayer the way X3 is now. Of course that wont work, the gameplay isnt suited for that. However the basis is, there would just need to change some (ok, maybe a bit more) things.
And im sure that half of those who said "No" will play it anyway if its done properly... (MMOG then).

It's amazing what is considered acceptable if changes are sufficiently gradual.


Then again, if the worst happens at least we'll all still have X3. Just
might have to run it in XP compatability mode eventually.


EDIT: I still voted no btw.

[fiksal]

And when they have capital, they could then afford spending time and money rewriting the game from bottom up.

It sounds like you've never tried getting a sponsor for a big project. If someone gives you a big wad of money to develop a product then they are not going to sit around for years waiting to see some return on their investment. In fact the way finance works these days, you are very lucky indeed if you manage to get funding for a project that won't be completed in the current financial year. Finding that kind of funding for a high-risk project like a game is even more difficult.

No, I have not.

So how did Egosoft develop X3 then? Wasnt that a high risk game too?
Or how did EVE was developed, I wonder - it took those guys close to 5 years - who sponsored them?

I can see how you can be right, that sponsors won't like to wait for years for games to be developed, but is this how it works in the whole industry? What kind of games are developed within 1 year now? It seems like there could be sponsors that give more time than just one year, otherwise are you saying that most of the games are developed out of their own pocket?

[CBJ]

Games that have a strong franchise (and often the franchise is owned by a publisher, not a developer) are commissioned and the developer is often just a contractor, delivering the goods. Those projects can take longer because the publisher can assess the risk and the costs in advance.

Larger development companies that have cash themselves can fund the initial stages of development without needing help, and present a product that is nearly ready to publishers who then just foot the bill for the final stages, the publicity and the distribution.

Smaller developers have a choice of working on contract to publishers, or trying to copy the larger developers but without the funds in the bank. The latter only usually works once, sometimes with the individual programmers generating money to feed themselves by doing other work on the side, because once a company established it has overheads and running costs that stop it from working on a shoestring.

All this explains one reason why there are so few small, independent development companies around, and even fewer working on their own pet projects rather than on contract.

When games could be developed for a few thousand pounds, there were lots of garage developers producing lots of different games. Now games costs hundreds of times as much to produce. There are a few big companies churning out identikit games while smaller companies occasionally pop up with something original, then either disappear if it flops or get swallowed up if it is a hit.

Just to be clear, the point of this is not to paint a picture of general doom. It is to explain why the decision whether to create a multi-player game, and if so what kind of multi-player game, will be decided on the basis of tough business decisions and financial circumstances. Votes on a forum will barely come into the equation, I'm afraid.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

Most complicated systems evolve out of something much simpler.

In this way most useful software and games are evolving. The 1st players of computer games could not have predicted X3.

Trying to get funding for a game as complicated as X3, would probably be near impossible today. However this game evolved from something simpler too.

[Tracker001]

The day's of ppl bringing in truck loads of money and telling you to spend it . Are over.

Also know as the great "dot com" bubble burst.

[blazer1121]

I haven't read what everyone has said so far, but in my opinion, a multiplayer X would be much better than EVE

I'm wondering if you still want Egosoft to listen to the poll results, as you asked in your OP.

By that do you mean that now that the results are about twice as many votes to NO I wan't egosoft, to look the other way and pretend they didn't see the results?

If so the answer is no. A good company must listen to what their buyr's say, or else they'll fall apart. But space does get awfully lonely, and it wouldn't hurt to incorperate a multiplayer OPTION!!!!, many people seem to think that by saying X multiplayer, people mean, X as an MMOG. It doesn't have to be. Meltiplaer can just be incorporated into the game for those people that don't want to spend all their time hanging in space by-themselves. The servers can just have a few people playing on them at a time, maybe 5-10 people at max. It'd keep the freedom, but also you'de get some action every so often. X is a big place. Unless someone has advanced satalites stationed in every sector in the universe, it'd be mighty hard to pinpoint someones position, then chase them down and take them out.
But it would be good to have some friends to help you wipe out entire races in the blink of an eye. Similtanious attacks form different points in a sector would confuse the sector defence personel a lot, then to have all these ships controlled by more than 1 person, it'd be fun.

[blazer1121]

I just remembered.
Everyone talks about SETA as though it's a big problem. I just wanted to say "In X SETA is wrong!!!" A bold statment, I know. But SETA is based on a flux in the movement of time in space, if I remember right, and it is hooked directly to the ships engines. Now it creates a time warp around the ship. Which means the SHIP speeds up, NOT the rest of the universe.
It is physically impossible to make the rest of the universe move at ridiculous speeds, while you still move at a normal speed. What should be happening, is the SHIP moves faster, and everyone in the area can see the ship moving very fast, because its been sped up! So SETA isn't a problem at all, *no offence* but egosoft got it backwards when they invented SETA. The SETA makes the ships time move faster, not the rest of the universe.

[Cycrow]

SETA doesn't speed up time.

it speeds up your preception of time. The universe still runs at the same speed.

its kinda like when you have fun and time seems to move faster.

SETA only effects the cockpit of the ship, not the ships engines

[blazer1121]

Well exactly, that just makes my argument stronger!!
coose its the ship thats moving faster, not the rest of the universe!!
It's impossible to make the entire universe spped up around you!!
So SETA isn't a problem at all!! If we could actually see SETA in action, on anouther ship, we'd see it moving fast, but the rest of the universe would stay the same.
And before you say it, the whole thing where the universe moves really fast when SETA is upgraded. It's easy to fix that. "The Argon Scientists have redesigned the SETA device, so that it no longer causes strange illusions when activated. They have also tamepered with the saftey mechanisms, alowing a player to work in their ship menu and order commandes, while SETA is activated." Easy
Although I am wondering howmany people are going to say something about how "that won't work!"

[Kymura]

Well exactly, that just makes my argument stronger!!
coose its the ship thats moving faster, not the rest of the universe!!

NO!!! SETA is just like fast forwarding a movie, it goes faster but it doesnt mean the actors were moving faster, so when u use SETA EVERYTHING moves at same speed, ur just fast forwarding the game

[CBJ]

coose its the ship thats moving faster, not the rest of the universe!!

No, it isn't. Just look at the ships around you, or the production time of a factory. Everything moves faster.

[BlackRazor]

[...]and it wouldn't hurt to incorperate a multiplayer OPTION!!!!, many people seem to think that by saying X multiplayer, people mean, X as an MMOG. It doesn't have to be. Meltiplaer can just be incorporated into the game for those people that don't want to spend all their time hanging in space by-themselves. The servers can just have a few people playing on them at a time, maybe 5-10 people at max. It'd keep the freedom, but also you'de get some action every so often. X is a big place. Unless someone has advanced satalites stationed in every sector in the universe, it'd be mighty hard to pinpoint someones position, then chase them down and take them out.
But it would be good to have some friends to help you wipe out entire races in the blink of an eye. Similtanious attacks form different points in a sector would confuse the sector defence personel a lot, then to have all these ships controlled by more than 1 person, it'd be fun.

If you had bothered to read all the pages of the thread you started you would know by now that practically everybody says that it is impossible to add multiplayer to X3 or to any other future X game that keeps the same gameplay. So yes it would hurt to have the multiplayer options because Egosoft would have to create a completely different game to enable multiplayer as the current gameplay negates this possibility.

[CBJ]

Yes, making it an option would, of course, magically solve all the problems that have been discussed over the last few pages.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

Well when I win the lottery, instead of investing it in a retirement fund, I'll start a new company to develop Networked X.

However convincing my bank manager that the lottery in X3 is actually worth anything may be a slight problem.

[blazer1121]

oooook then... That was just gay,,, not funny....

Besides, It's impossible to make the universe speed up! you can make things move faster or slower. But it's IMPOSSIBLE to make the universe move faster!!! Why does it seem that i'm the only person that see's this? YOU CAN NOT MAKE THE UNIVERSE SPEED UP!! IT IS IMPOSSIBLE SETA CAN ONLY SPEED YOUR SHIP UP!! BECAUSE IT IS HOOKED INTO THE SHIP!!!! SETA USESS AN ANOMILLY IN THE RELATION BETWEEN TIME AND SPACE WHICH ALLOWS YOUR SHIP TO GO FASTER!!! NOT THE UNIVERSE!!!!

[jlehtone]

many people seem to think that by saying X multiplayer, people mean, X as an MMOG. It doesn't have to be. Meltiplaer can just be incorporated into the game

There is a fundamental difference between single-player and more-than-one-player. The difference between two-player and MMOG is nothing compared to that.

Current X2/3 has sort of two games: FPS "I fly this ship in this 3D scenery" and RTS "I control this (OOS) fleet and stations". Some players wish a Homeworld style user interface for the RTS part or complain about the difference between IS and OOS (FPS and RTS). There are multi-player flight simulators for a player to fly his plane against others. There are multi-player RTS click-click-clicks. I think. Never seen either.

If the combation of IS/OOS in a single player game is akward, how do would you implement them in multi?

[CBJ]

Besides, It's impossible to make the universe speed up! you can make things move faster or slower. But it's IMPOSSIBLE to make the universe move faster!!!

What are you talking about? First of all this is a game, so just about anything is possible. Second, if you want a fictional explanation then SETA affects your personal perception of time, so your perception of time changes so that it appears to pass more quickly for everything around you. The rest of the universe won't notice. In fact they'll just perceive you (not your ship) as moving extra-slowly.

Typing in capitals doesn't change anything; that is what SETA does in the game.