EGOSOFT and Deep Silver announce X Rebirth

[perkint]

Unless postage stamps are a major gameplay aspect in Rebirth, this discussion should move to the off topic forum.

What I was trying to hint at is that stamps are not required even for the thing s9ilent mentioned (L5).

But that is still drifting OT somewhat...

Tim

[handzon]

wondering will we get more options to start with, ie play from terran,borron even yaki and also pirates both male and female characters
also varying fleet sizes maybe a station ?

[Galaxy613]

As a former X2/X3 modder. I am so freaking happy that Egosoft has finally decided to go and restart the engine from scratch for Rebirth. Even in X3 there were TONS of leftovers and call back to older code/methods that made no sense. The GUI even in the latest X3 isn't as fluid as it could be although majorly improved from X2. X3 still felt very connected to X2, and I hope Rebirth will breathe new life into the franchise and isn't afraid of trying new ideas.

wondering will we get more options to start with, ie play from terran,borron even yaki and also pirates both male and female characters

I feel like Egosoft should play to their strengths and not even release a main storyline starting position, but instead focus on providing rich experiences for all starting positions, and have at least 3 completely different positions. The best part of the X series is how big and varied the universe is and the number of factions. The more ways you can experience their dynamics the better.

Egosoft simply needs to implement the brilliant system Freelancer used. Egosoft dedicates a matchmaking server to linking players together for a guarenteed 5 years. That would not require much bandwith just to link people to a server hosted by a fan.

1. I demand multieplayer (even if it's Red fleet v Blue fleet space fights and nothing else)
2. I demand fully destructable ships similar to the buildings in Red Faction Gurilla.
3. I demand a secretary to manage my paperwork.
4. I demand a highly pissed off A.I. that gives a dam and fights back without mercy.
5. I demand to be able to play as a pirate hijacking the space lanes and hated by all.

1. They would have to rewrite the engine completely to do what Freelancer did, it was a fairly good system but 90% of Freelancer was static unlike the X series. Regardless, it's not something you just "implement", it's something you can take years on. Don't underestimate multiplayer.
2. Why does X need this again? It would make combat more interesting but would add a whole new world of headaches for the ship modellers and texture artists.
5. You can already do that, unless you are talking about actual space lane structures to disrupt like in Freelancer.

Multiplayer brings it own world of problems. Nevermind you can't simply "implement" multiplayer in a month, but just like graphics engines you need to stress test and personally craft your network engine to fit a game like Rebirth. I have no doubt if Egosoft pledged to have multiplayer in Rebirth, it would be pushed back 2-5 years. And that's not a knock on Egosoft's programmers.

[T.S.Zatoichi]

I've been curious to know at what point during development Ego realized they were they were going to set this in the X-Universe. What I mean is, were they mostly done with the game, or was it earlier before ships/stations were modeled?

None of the four (three?) stations in the trailer looks like anything I've seen in the 'verse before. I'm really hoping It's set far enough in the future to have a completely different feel. (Fingers crossed )

[LTerSlash]

What the game needs is a good base, so fans can make excellent mods and missions. For example, i never ever see something similar as "Silent Threat: Reborn" or "Inferno" or "Blue Planet" mods for FSO, on any X game... not even close... after a few months or a year of the game launch, the game needs to live on fan material, thats thats where X fails... while there are some great fan scritps and addons, they cant do anything even close as similar to what FSO fan can make with FRED, on a much more limited engine.

[Eloking]

Egosoft simply needs to implement the brilliant system Freelancer used. Egosoft dedicates a matchmaking server to linking players together for a guarenteed 5 years. That would not require much bandwith just to link people to a server hosted by a fan.

1. I demand multieplayer (even if it's Red fleet v Blue fleet space fights and nothing else)
2. I demand fully destructable ships similar to the buildings in Red Faction Gurilla.
3. I demand a secretary to manage my paperwork.
4. I demand a highly pissed off A.I. that gives a dam and fights back without mercy.
5. I demand to be able to play as a pirate hijacking the space lanes and hated by all.

1. They would have to rewrite the engine completely to do what Freelancer did, it was a fairly good system but 90% of Freelancer was static unlike the X series. Regardless, it's not something you just "implement", it's something you can take years on. Don't underestimate multiplayer.
2. Why does X need this again? It would make combat more interesting but would add a whole new world of headaches for the ship modellers and texture artists.
5. You can already do that, unless you are talking about actual space lane structures to disrupt like in Freelancer.

1- Actually, how big I hope it'll happen (rewrite the engine completely). The X-series engine is old, too old. They can't stick with it forever. And in my opinion, the sooner they'll upgrade, the best it'll be.
2- I agree with Galaxy613, while this would be fun, it need a LOT of work for such a simple feature that, let's be honest, isn't that important. Egosoft doesn't have the man-power of EA or Square-Enix, don't ask them the moon.
3- Er, the heck?
4- Actually, I think the problem come from the dogfight that are too "slow-paced". The space fight of the X universe need a major overhaul.
5- Yep, I wouldn't hate if the pirate career get a some new things.

[Mysterious Mr. M]

wondering will we get more options to start with, ie play from terran,borron even yaki and also pirates both male and female characters

I feel like Egosoft should play to their strengths and not even release a main storyline starting position, but instead focus on providing rich experiences for all starting positions, and have at least 3 completely different positions. The best part of the X series is how big and varied the universe is and the number of factions. The more ways you can experience their dynamics the better.

Egosoft simply needs to implement the brilliant system Freelancer used. Egosoft dedicates a matchmaking server to linking players together for a guarenteed 5 years. That would not require much bandwith just to link people to a server hosted by a fan.

1. I demand multieplayer (even if it's Red fleet v Blue fleet space fights and nothing else)
2. I demand fully destructable ships similar to the buildings in Red Faction Gurilla.
3. I demand a secretary to manage my paperwork.
4. I demand a highly pissed off A.I. that gives a dam and fights back without mercy.
5. I demand to be able to play as a pirate hijacking the space lanes and hated by all.

1. They would have to rewrite the engine completely to do what Freelancer did, it was a fairly good system but 90% of Freelancer was static unlike the X series. Regardless, it's not something you just "implement", it's something you can take years on. Don't underestimate multiplayer.
2. Why does X need this again? It would make combat more interesting but would add a whole new world of headaches for the ship modellers and texture artists.
5. You can already do that, unless you are talking about actual space lane structures to disrupt like in Freelancer.

Multiplayer brings it own world of problems. Nevermind you can't simply "implement" multiplayer in a month, but just like graphics engines you need to stress test and personally craft your network engine to fit a game like Rebirth. I have no doubt if Egosoft pledged to have multiplayer in Rebirth, it would be pushed back 2-5 years. And that's not a knock on Egosoft's programmers.

1. did you hit your head? rewriting an engine just for multiplayer? that's the most absurd thing i have heard so far for the anti-multiplayer crowd.
2. why x needs multiplayer?... maybe, just maybe, because it's friggin FUN!
maybe because for most people the fun of playing multiplayer doen't fade away nearly as fast as singleplayer.
3. wtf? "whole new world of headaches for the ship modellers and texture artists."
isn't multiplayer something that consists 100% out of programming?
since extra models and textures as well as visual customization of ship are NOT mandatory, multiplayer won't change anything for the artists.
4. "can't simply "implement" multiplayer in a month"... yes you can, it would still be very basic and rough requiring more refinement but it's certainly possible.
5. "I have no doubt if Egosoft pledged to have multiplayer in Rebirth, it would be pushed back 2-5 years." allow me to correct you, it's 2-5 months, not years.
2-5 years would be required for a single novice programmer who is seriously procrastinating.

the thing is, multiplayer is completely possible. the people at egosoft just have to want to add it.
another funny thing is, all over the internet people are hoping and begging for x-rebirth to have multiplayer, but these boards are to ONLY place i have found so far where some people actually are against multiplayer, just an interesting fact i would like to mention.

so egosoft... do you know how many people really want multiplayer?
i'll tell you: A LOTT! and a lot of those people won't buy the game unless it has multiplayer... i know i won't if it doesn't (i'm not trying blackmail here, just stating what a lot of people think).
they just aren't on these forums so data from polls are pretty much worthless.

slightly offtopic here: did you know modders made some very basic multiplayer for oblivion?
and that without any access to the engine itself but merely using external scripts! now that's some amazig work!
see for yourself: http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~mloxto01/

[Deadbeat_Spinn]

so egosoft... do you know how many people really want multiplayer?
i'll tell you: A LOTT! and a lot of those people won't buy the game unless it has multiplayer... i know i won't if it doesn't (i'm not trying blackmail here, just stating what a lot of people think).
they just aren't on these forums so data from polls are pretty much worthless.

Hate to break it to you but do you know how many people really don't want multiplayer?

A whole lot more than those who want it. And the data from polls aren't worthless, if the people aren't present on these forums to give their thoughts then....

Plus multiplayer would probably kill the S&M community.

This is in regards to MMO.

[Mysterious Mr. M]

so egosoft... do you know how many people really want multiplayer?
i'll tell you: A LOTT! and a lot of those people won't buy the game unless it has multiplayer... i know i won't if it doesn't (i'm not trying blackmail here, just stating what a lot of people think).
they just aren't on these forums so data from polls are pretty much worthless.

Hate to break it to you but do you know how many people really don't want multiplayer?

A whole lot more than those who want it. And the data from polls aren't worthless, if the people aren't present on these forums to give their thoughts then....

This is in regards to MMO, not LAN.

the people who don't want to play multiplayer can just happily continue with singleplayer, multiplayer is an additional feature, not a replacement.
the multiplayer most people are talking about is the classic dedicated server multiplayer where like 15-30 people can play in the same game.

MMO is indeed simply out of the question.
also LAN is something different again as it's only on a local network, meaning it's co-op actually, not multiplayer (unless you have a lan party with a lot of people or something).

[DarthVain]

Hi again,

Enter a young adventurer and his unlikely female ally traveling in an old, battered ship with a glorious past

ever wondered if we are only going to be able to fly that ship like in X-BTF?

Yikes, that would ROYALLY suck. I think if that happens it would be a deal breaker for me, not that it's probably that important to them. I'm a pretty new player to the game after all.

But flying ALL the ships (unlike some games that let you fly fighters... but not capitals... such as Space Force Rogue Universe) is a major reason I play. Being able to fly just one ship would make me feel like I'm playing Starfox or something.

That's alright, just get Cycrow to create a Cheat for it

[Deadbeat_Spinn]

the people who don't want to play multiplayer can just happily continue with singleplayer, multiplayer is an additional feature, not a replacement.
the multiplayer most people are talking about is the classic dedicated server multiplayer where like 15-30 people can play in the same game.

MMO is indeed simply out of the question.
also LAN is something different again as it's only on a local network, meaning it's co-op actually, not multiplayer (unless you have a lan party with a lot of people or something).

Ok, and what about those who use scripts/mods? A sizeable number of the X community use them, are they just SOL when it comes to MP?

[StarSword]

I'll also add that those who think the game could be improved, should stop whinging and do some modding to make it better.

Depends. Have you ever heard that sound of a modder crashing into hardcode?

Thus, there are things that should be changed and things that could be changed. Clear difference between those bins, there is. However, at this stage we only know that there is supposed to be things later, and we therefore cannot yet bin them in any way, not even to the "best thing ever" bin.

And this is the sound of you running that "bins" metaphor into the Aldrin planetoid:

the thing is, multiplayer is completely possible. the people at egosoft just have to want to add it.
another funny thing is, all over the internet people are hoping and begging for x-rebirth to have multiplayer, but these boards are to ONLY place i have found so far where some people actually are against multiplayer, just an interesting fact i would like to mention.

so egosoft... do you know how many people really want multiplayer?
i'll tell you: A LOTT! and a lot of those people won't buy the game unless it has multiplayer... i know i won't if it doesn't (i'm not trying blackmail here, just stating what a lot of people think).
they just aren't on these forums so data from polls are pretty much worthless.

And how many people who want X-Rebirth to have multiplayer (usually read as MMO) have actually played an X-game before?

Once again, I make a distinction between an X-series game with a multiplayer option, which I don't mind as long as you can use it with a LAN (it'd be cool to have somebody on a computer next to you flying one of your fighters or manning a turret), and an X-MMO, which I, along with better than 80% of the people who actually play the games, am totally, utterly, and implacably against because:
<rant>

• First and foremost, it would poison the friendly X-gamer community we all love with n00b-pwners, braggarts, and folks who use the game as a chatroom (I used to play RuneScape, but not anymore; last time I checked people were too busy using it in place of their goddamn telephones to actually play the game). The latter two waste time, bandwidth, and oxygen, and the former turns new players away from the game. I don't know about you, but if I was a noob and had just finished my first factory, logged off for the night, and woke up the next morning to find that some spaceweed-for-brains asshole with a zillion M2s had blown up my entire trading empire of one factory and three TS's purely for PvP kill stats, and then added insult to injury by bragging about it on a public channel ... they'd be able to hear me swearing in Afghanistan, and that n00b-pwner would shortly receive an armed SQUASH mine or equivalent in the mail.
  And yet this happens regularly in games like EVE Online and World of Warcraft, and there's nothing we can do about it except boycott them.
• An X-MMO (or any multiplayer without LAN compatibility) would be unusable for the ninety-plus percent of the world's population that doesn't have high-speed Internet. We exist. A lot of us are the folks in rural areas (still about half the people in the United States alone) for whom the cable companies deem it "too costly" to bring service to. You talk about expanding X's audience? MMO is a bad way to go about it.
• An MMO would be completely unmoddable. Not really important to me, personally, but very important to many people here.

And you're failing to think of one thing: this forum would seem to represent the X-series' core audience. The player who really enjoys X-games is in for the long haul. This is one of the big reasons why it probably wouldn't work on a console; those are typically more pick-up-and-play, whereas the X-series can take days to learn. And I know of no other game where you can spend literally months playing a single savegame and yet never run out of things to do.

By contrast, I beat the single player campaign for Halo inside of two days, and Halo 2 inside of one, after which there's nothing but multiplayer, which I can't use due to the aforementioned lack of high-speed Internet. I beat Oblivion inside of two weeks, and there's literally nothing left apart from mods after you beat all the plots. Neverwinter Nights 2? Love the D&D gameplay, but after beating Storm of Zehir five times, I kinda got bored, and a sizeable majority of the third-party modules stink pretty bad. (I've tried many of them. A few are good, many are bad, and some, in the words of Alan Bradley in the original Tron, "have more bugs than a bait shop.")

In short, the X-MMO is, and should be, dead. Stop trying to resurrect it; it's bad for my pocketbook to keep shooting Shadow missiles at it.
</rant>

[Mysterious Mr. M]

In short, the X-MMO is, and should be, dead. Stop trying to resurrect it; it's bad for my pocketbook to keep shooting Shadow missiles at it.

well... i was NOT talking about MMO but classic multiplayer with dedicated server.
how may time do i have to repeat it for it to penetrate some apparently thick sculls?
classic multiplayer as an additional feature which makes it possible for people the play the game with multiple people (like 20 or so).
it's almost exactly like singleplayer, though some things will need rebalancing (so the players won't outsmart the game) and a few additional features (for interaction between players, respawning etc).

Ok, and what about those who use scripts/mods? A sizeable number of the X community use them, are they just SOL when it comes to MP?

mods will obviously be possible, but it will depend on the server.
this means the mods you're running must match the mods on the server, or if the server has none you must have none running as well.

[Familiar]

To implement Multiplayer (even LAN) you need to scrap SETA.
New travel system needed.
And LAN multiplayer is suitable only for FIGHT.
Trade Build without SETA will be .... pain.

MMO X-Rebirth - no thanks.
Direct ship control requires so LOT from server and connection, so NO WAY.

Those who hunger for multiplayer have options:

Freespace Open
Freelancer
Black Prophecy
Eve Online
Miner Wars

So... Lets assume that X-Rebirth will be Singleplayer ONLY and stop further flood.

[Mysterious Mr. M]

To implement Multiplayer (even LAN) you need to scrap SETA.
New travel system needed.
And LAN multiplayer is suitable only for FIGHT.
Trade Build without SETA will be .... pain.

MMO X-Rebirth - no thanks.
Direct ship control requires so LOT from server and connection, so NO WAY.

Those who hunger for multiplayer have options:

Freespace Open
Freelancer
Black Prophecy
Eve Online
Miner Wars

So... Lets assume that X-Rebirth will be Singleplayer ONLY and stop further flood.

replacing SETA isn't so hard at all, just rip off the cruise drive from freelancer xD.
and like i said before MMO is out of the question and we all know it.
but classic multiplayer is not so it's open for discussion.

for example, if multiplayer were to be added, how would it handle logging in and logging out?
would you ship just appear out of nowhere and than disappear again? or would AI take over the ship and dock it at a station?
what if the station your ship is located gets blown up?
what happens if you die? do you respawn with the same ship and equipment or do you have to pay for something like insurance?
or maybe you'll end up losing the ship and equipment and respawn in a super cheap ship?

[Familiar]

All this is pure off-top and has nothing to do with X-Rebirth

but classic multiplayer is not so it's open for discussion.

not here

[ryeeson]

i just can't wait for X-Rebirth.

More video on gameplay please

[PTR]

All this is pure off-top and has nothing to do with X-Rebirth

but classic multiplayer is not so it's open for discussion.

not here

Since all of the speculation is based on previous X-games and nothing is known yet about the gameplay of X-Rebirth I agree for the time being.

BTW after watching the trailer last week I've got the same feeling when watching series and the episode ends in a cliffhanger. The problem is that with tv series you a) only have the feeling for a week or b) forget about it untill next season. But now I think I'll have this feeling untill release, since every now and then you get an update, wanting to see the final result even more. It's really very distracting.

[CBJ]

Lot's of stuff that's been said before about multiplayer

I am not going to comment on X Rebirth, but many of the arguments you have put forward (LAN mode is "easy" to do, you don't have to rewrite the engine to add multi-player, those who want to play single-player have no reason to argue against it, Egosoft just have to "want" to do it) are quite simply incorrect, and the reasons have been explained in great detail in the past. Please go back and read those threads rather than discussing it again endlessly in this one.

Edit: Typo.

[s_mak]

when will it be release in North America, is it a worldwide same release date?