EGOSOFT and Deep Silver announce X Rebirth

[apricotslice]

@apricotslice Seriously...
Can you please stop blaming both Digital Anvil (Freelancer) and Egosoft because you can't fly the ship. In Freelancer you can steer the ship with the chepaest mouse in the market PERFECTLY WELL.

Not when you have spent 25 years playing space games with joysticks. The mouse controls were opposite the instinctive reactions. So every time I needed a very specific delicate course adjustment, I'd do a joystick move and the mouse would send me the opposite way and I'd miss the ring.

Imo, the only way mouse control worked was for people who had never owned a joystick.

For any company to put out a space ship game without joystick support was imo complete lunacy.

X3 Reunion missions is the way that Egosoft have to follow. They are both challenging and unique. Mission inside a base, Spy with camera drone within an asteroid ... ... ...

Both of those missions I couldnt do. In the drone mission, the very fact they didnt allow saving whenever you wanted to, doomed it to being impossible. That WAS the point where I abandoned that plot. The mission inside the base was by definition impossible for me, and I didnt even bother just by reading the walkthrough. Like the treasure hunt and New Home plots were impossible just based on their walkthroughs.

To date, all the missions in X3 have been do it once, forget. If the sandbox depends on missions in the future, then it will get boring very quickly.

@Walkop - If "hard to develop" hadnt been part of the design decisions, then it would not have been mentioned. The very fact that it was said, tells us that they deliberately didnt fix things that were broken in TC that we all wanted fixed, simply because it was "too hard" and therefore easier to cut it out and do something completely different.

[Argonaught.]

Showing my age here:

I can't really comment on Joysticks as they have never been apart of my gaming, I was introduced to PC gaming when Elite was the best thing going (no joy sticks for that one) keyboard only.

Anyway no matter what they do I only hope if they have the same setup as they do in X3TC for fighting that they make both mouse control and bore sight share the same targetting hit rate and not have one better then the other as it is in X3tc atm.

Argo.

[jasonbarron]

@Fraggle Rock, that struck me as an awfully sexist thing to write. First off, who said anything about a "bed-warming relationship", besides you, with the female character? So the first thing that strikes me is that you are quite unnecessarily sexualizing this female partner, and secondly, you are basically saying that a woman isn't qualified to be a decent co-pilot (or, presumably, even a pilot). I think most people are able to evaluate the worth of a "partner", male or female, without turning it into a sex thing. Not very cool

[apricotslice]

@Fraggle Rock, that struck me as an awfully sexist thing to write. First off, who said anything about a "bed-warming relationship", besides you, with the female character? So the first thing that strikes me is that you are quite unnecessarily sexualizing this female partner, and secondly, you are basically saying that a woman isn't qualified to be a decent co-pilot (or, presumably, even a pilot). I think most people are able to evaluate the worth of a "partner", male or female, without turning it into a sex thing. Not very cool

2 points.

1. I'm all for an r rated version of these games. I always wanted a pleasure planet add-on to Privateer, and when they did love scenes between characters in Privateer 2, I wished it was r-rated instead of M.

I am in favour of the lead characters having a love relationship. I'm also in favour of the damsel in distress you save from the pirates bonking you to say thanks properly.

I'm glad someone had the guts to come out and say it !

2. I've been a long advocate of games with plots making them switchable, so the lead character could be female and other characters change depending on the sex of the lead and the relationship. I'm even in favour of plot character sex being definable fully, so all sexual orientations can play it how they would prefer.

It cant be that hard to do, just no-one has wanted to do the extra video for it.

[softweir]

I was introduced to PC gaming when Elite was the best thing going (no joy sticks for that one) keyboard only.

Not if you were playing on a BBC Model B - that had an analogue joystick port, quite unusually for those days.

So... I have been playing joystick games for 27 years. Am I unusual in finding I could easily adapt top Freelancer, and later to Terran conflict? I simply used my desktop-icon-following braincells for mouse control in those two games. That made it seem perfectly intuitive to me.

[apricotslice]

Am I unusual in finding I could easily adapt top Freelancer, and later to Terran conflict?

Yes, that makes you unusual.

[sthakker]

I am confused... do you people actua;;y fly the cap ships directly in TC? What do y ou sitthere holding th ejoystick and flyign through a gate??? For the most part, I am usually just using the sector or universe maps, or jumping directly... either way... I agree with stopping this stupid speculation...... I amguessing they will release mor einfo after E3

[apricotslice]

I am confused... do you people actua;;y fly the cap ships directly in TC? What do y ou sitthere holding th ejoystick and flyign through a gate???

Yes.

But I dont beleive in the philosophy that capital ships have to be slow moving and clumsy. Movement in space is a matter of power and menuevering thuster placement, so my idea of a design for capital ships has them pretty well handling the same as fighters.

Besides, there is nothing boring about approaching a gate at 750 in an M2 on manual. But as it happens, most of the time in cap ships, you point to point jump, not use the gates.

[amtie]

1. I'm all for an r rated version of these games.

If you want an r-rated game, go buy porn games. Not everyone lacks the decency to want sexual material in their games. Mass Effect sucks for this reason too. Although it isn't actually explicit.

Sexuality in games kills the fun for most players, especially if said players are married or minors. You wouldn't want to find your wife/husband/parents finding out you're playing a sex game when all you wanted is to play a space sim, would you?

[NetHawk]

My 50 cent:
About that female character...as long as it's story only...don't care. I do understand that some would want male characters, but folks you gotta realize we can't have everything. I am on your side, that having diff. characters would be more fun, but it's a PITA to implement and lot's of money spent for acting. Be patient and let's see about that.

About the capital ships:
IF the caps were to fly fast...where the fsck is the point of having fighters then?
Capitals are supposed to be slow to keep any balance to the game. While this may not be perfectly realistic and simulation style, it's good for a game. BIG ships == SLOW, small ships == fast. if we'd be talking realism a M2 can easily hunt down an M5. So where's the point of having an m5 then?

The thing with not steering our Capitals, well, I don't know about you, but for me a capital ship is my strategic position. When I'm in battle I choose to be on a capital ship to coordinate my other forces. Thus I don't steer it myself. If they are to implement a tactical screen for capitals it's worth more to me then being able to control it directly. Having a good sector map (or 2 XY, ZY) or even a 3rd person vied (C&C style) to coordinate ships would give battles another dimension, and Capitals would have a higher priority.

The REAL question according to me:
For those of you not in software developement, 2 years isn't much time.
On the one hand, I'd love for all the promises to come true, on the other, I am confident 2 years are not enough time. Either the folks at egosoft are genious programmers or they'll go for multiple releases. E.g. making a base, releasing it and then in 2-3 addon releases include the rest of the features (still better then to "cut down" on stuff).
We will see what we get, but most of the decisions I saw make sense.
I just really hope they went for "quality" rather then quantity. Especially with the Scripting engine, as we all know that one of the more intriguing features of the X-Series is the user-created content, which kept this games alive and on the top for a long time.

[strude]

... for most players, ...

While I have no opinion on the content of this sub discussion, why do people feel inclined to suggest that their point of view applies to "most players", but never show any evidence of that conclusion?

The forums are full of "most players this" and "a large percentage of players that", but never with anything to quantify their claims. I get the impression that it's supposed to make the argument appear strong, backed by the force of majority so to speak, but in my mind, it makes the argument appear weak, uninformed and without substance.

Drives me mad and happens all the time.

[dougeye]

Fraggle rock

2bh who cares what gender the co pilot is no matter the players sexual orientation.

making i fuss about the gender of an "imaginery" co pilot in a game is worse than a school kid saying urrrghhh im not sitting next to a girl!!! (or a boy for that matter).

its a non issue realy unless there is a major romance theme in the game but if that is the case why don't you just role play for a few hours that your strait! Think of the amount of female players that play alot of games that have had too on many occasions romance female npc's playing as a male protagonist.

This topic is guna become like the dragon age 2 forums otherwise with numerous threads kicking off about gender and sexuallity development decicions the creators made, and not focusing on the core elements of the game itself. Fight , trade , build think etc.

ill give you the benefit of the doubt and asume you were not just making a mountain out of a mole hill to try and make a point but all to often i see on game forums minority groups kicking up a stink over nothing!

when there is a serious issue please voice your concern!! but the gender of an imaginery character who for the most part will just be a co pilot is not an issue worth raiseing in terms of gender discrimination.

its the same as a strait bloke like me self saying i demand a six foot blonde bird with huge bazooka's and extremely tight clothes on or im not guna buy this game!!!

I would be laughed out of the forum lol

P.s before anyone throws wild accusations at me i am not , homophobic i would say the same to anyone else making an issue out of nothing!

[THE_TrashMan]

About the capital ships:
IF the caps were to fly fast...where the fsck is the point of having fighters then?
Capitals are supposed to be slow to keep any balance to the game. While this may not be perfectly realistic and simulation style, it's good for a game. BIG ships == SLOW, small ships == fast. if we'd be talking realism a M2 can easily hunt down an M5. So where's the point of having an m5 then?

Acceleration?
While there technicly isn't a "top speed" in space, accelerating a bigger ship is more difficult than a smaller one. Hence why a capship could not easily catch a M5.

But having capships zoom around like fighters would create antoehr problem - capship combat would end up being jousting matches, as slow acceleration impleis slow de-acceleration too.
And, if that by some miracle wasn't a problem, ship design would go all fighter - all weapon in front. It only makes sense if you're gonna joust wiht it anyway....

[Rednoahl]

My 50 cent:
About that female character...as long as it's story only...don't care. I do understand that some would want male characters, but folks you gotta realize we can't have everything. I am on your side, that having diff. characters would be more fun, but it's a PITA to implement and lot's of money spent for acting. Be patient and let's see about that.

Agreed, and just because the character is female, it doesn't mean that she's an attractive human or even humanoid (probably will be though imo.) Not seen anything that says she stays with you after the plot finished either, so I'm assuming that eventually you can crew your own ships as you wish. I reckon, she will just be there for a bit of narration and backstory to assist in getting you immersed in the game, in a similar way to Cortana in Halo. For all we actually know though, she could be a talking pizza.

Quick edit: X-R has been in development for over four years I think, with parts of the engine started a few years before that.

[dougeye]

i need a release date for this!!! need to plan my winter schedule lol!!!! too many great games out at once in Q4 this year!

[Apsody243]

Well lets be honest they never said that the female co pilot would even be human.

And I don't even want to think of the mechanics of a sexual relationship between a human and a boron.

[THE_TrashMan]

racial bed talk:

"You want some Split? You know you do!"

"Unholy creature! I have graced you with the amazing opportunity to serve me!"

"Give me your Profitssssss!" .. .hhmm..would teladi even do it without being paid?


Ok, now htat your mind is broken enough...


MHOAR news. We crave it!

[Noimageavaiable]

Well lets be honest they never said that the female co pilot would even be human.

They said that in the German version of the original announcement, that she and the player will both be human

And btw, X2 had fast capitals that could easily catch up with a fighter, but it didn't make them horribly unbalanced, just less painful to fly.

[Virtualaughing]

Well
In X or FL all the main female characters wear tight and less n less dress. So cut the crap. I can not imagine a men who didn't staring at them.

I can tell you for sure that the hardest part in development is the testing and not the actual creation of new content. Organise 2-3 developer is a HARD JOB so i can imagine how hard can be for egosoft. Just look at the credits how long it is ...
As a retired freelancer mod developer I can be patient to wait for 1.1, 1.2, 1.x, bugfixes I was a player rather than to develop new stuff.
A i see the problem is some of us play and some of us work with/on a game. That leads to some misunderstanding between both party.

[dougeye]

i have a theory about there only being one player flyable ship etc etc

now bare in mind i have not read any X lore/literature beyond the events of x3tc.

I think due to the supernova the races of the commonwealth and terrans have had to start using AGI again to help them re build what was lost.

with that in mind mabye the player ship starts off as a classic ship but is upgradable as you go along. like building an rpg character as you level up but building a ship. for example you can choose to upgrade to a massive lazer or opt to have a missile turret etc.
And at higher levels your ship basicly becomes mabye an M7 size ship once upgraded,

this imo would explain the one cockpit but would enable the player to effectivly build a new ship suited to there play style. I know that i personnally when i have played x games only used one ship after i have a ship i like. i hardly ever swap to bigger / smaller ships unless i have a special trade mission etc so remote controling capitals etc wouldnt bother me that much just aslong as we can give them orders by remote. And hopefully the ai is better so this will be more rewarding.