Unbiased Poll about The Pride of Albion vs multiple ships - Part 1

[Skillzfire]

oh this is gonna open a whole can of worms

i personally don't care and i wont till they release the game, no point speculating about things we barely know anything about

personally all the ships in X felt the same, there where no quirks with ships (ok maybe the taladi ships perhaps) but they all felt the same so in reality all you where doing is swapping the paint job

[Muad'Dib]

If you didn't notice a difference between an M5 and an M2 you were doing something wrong.

[A5PECT]

I think given the choice absolutely anyone would prefer having the ability to fly multiple ships over being stuck in one.

But as a developer, Egosoft has to pick and choose what it spends its resources on. So by sacrificing the multiple pilot-able ships concept, they free up resources to improve on other areas of the game.

So we'll just have to wait and see if Egosoft makes a profit out of the cost.

Look at it this way:

If Egosoft works on giving a single ship more depth now, they can simply adapt that gameplay model to other ships afterwards and then we'll have a bunch of flyable ships and more interesting/immersive/upgradeable ships.

If Egosoft just goes back to adding as many ships as possible, we'll have a bunch of flyable ships, but be stuck with TC-style cockpits (a camera dummy, a bunch of guns, a command console, and nothing else) with little room to improve anything.

Remember, XBTF started out with one ship and Egosoft expanded upon that in subsequent games. I'm guessing that that's exactly what they're planning to do this time around.

Back to basics.

[Skillzfire]

If you didn't notice a difference between an M5 and an M2 you were doing something wrong.

i ment within there respective classes, and M5's apart form a few execption all the ships feel the same.

[Muad'Dib]

I've always liked the idea of having much more interactive ships than we've seen in the past, but just having one is a lot of pressure if you ask me. If it is not really well done (and I mean REALLY well done) it will not have justified removing so many other options.

I get what you're saying about ships in the same class feeling the same but that's not really the point here. There is a big difference between saying the Argon and Paranid M2's aren't much different from each other and now saying that you can only ever fly the Vidar.

I'm hoping they succeed though and then expand upon this concept in future titles to include battleships, carriers, fighters, etc. because that is ultimately the direction I always wanted space sims to go. Well that and for them to be able to incorporate disembarking on planets and stations to complete the experience but we are nowhere near that far along at this point.

BTW, does anyone know what is supposed to be so groundbreaking about this upgrade system? I've played a lot of games that featured ship upgrades and there was never anything really that interesting about them. Are they supposed to be magical power ups or something?

[Geek]

I wanted to create a poll a bit less bias than a previous one.

Good try, but remember we can upgrade ships in the existing games.
Maybe upgrading will have visible results in XR, but that is a minor difference.

[Nanook]

If you didn't notice a difference between an M5 and an M2 you were doing something wrong.

i ment within there respective classes, and M5's apart form a few execption all the ships feel the same.

Then you obviously didn't spend much time flying different ships of the same classes. Because if you did, you'd notice large differences in weapons loadouts, laser energy, cargo bay, shielding, speed, etc., etc., etc. None of them ever felt the same to me, not even the variants of a given race's ship classes.

[Atmus]

In X3, I pretty much only flew one ship ever anyway (after I got it, that is), and treated the few times I got into another ship basically the same way that it is implied that docking to capital ships will work in Rebirth.
Usually that was just to make a slow trip to some sector somewhere on autopilot while I went and watered the garden or whatever, and I'd let my 'crew' handle things if I ever got attacked.


I'm not really AGAINST being able to fly every ship available, but I'd rather my home ship had a lot of customization and upgradability.

[Logain Abler]

I wonder if player ships will be added as paid DLC?

LA

[greypanther]

I wonder if the sun will rise tomorrow morning?

[Muad'Dib]

Good try, but remember we can upgrade ships in the existing games.
Maybe upgrading will have visible results in XR, but that is a minor difference.

They also need to avoid upgrades being a simple progression with no tactical/strategic significance. Just getting upgrades in sequence with the next one always being "better" isn't going to accomplish anything other than make the player feel like they never had a choice in the matter and will come off as contrived.

There need to be tough choices that have a direct impact on gameplay. For example maybe have different engines that use different energy sources or something along those lines. One may be a high performance engine good for combat situations but really energy inefficient and bad for long trading runs (requiring you to refuel much more often). Another might be much more efficient but use a more costly and/or rare source of energy so you could travel for longer periods but would have more trouble finding fuel.

Not saying that they would incorporate things like this but these are the kinds of decisions I think the upgrades should revolve around rather than just saying next is better.

[Treelor]

I voted for multiple ships, not because I am disappointed, but because I prefer it. However, I'm curious - I really want to see just how far ES takes the Pride in this game.

[Chris0132]

Your poll wording is far from unbiased.

[caleb]

If you didn't notice a difference between an M5 and an M2 you were doing something wrong.

i ment within there respective classes, and M5's apart form a few execption all the ships feel the same.

Then you obviously didn't spend much time flying different ships of the same classes. Because if you did, you'd notice large differences in weapons loadouts, laser energy, cargo bay, shielding, speed, etc., etc., etc. None of them ever felt the same to me, not even the variants of a given race's ship classes.

Well, I believe he's right in some points. While I agree there are differences between ships, in shields, armor, weapons, etc, in the end, the X game is made of up fighters of different sizes. We have M5 small fighter, up to M2 big fighter.

You controlled them all the same way. Line up weapons, strafe to avoid weapon fire, and that is it. Flying an M5 is slower than flying an M5, but the tactics were pretty much the same.

I prefer capital ships to behave like capital ships, and fighters like fighters. And I think that's what Egosoft is going back to.

For this post, the one ship approach can be good if they offer plenty of options, and the drone combat is fun. Let's see how it goes.

[Skillzfire]

If you didn't notice a difference between an M5 and an M2 you were doing something wrong.

i ment within there respective classes, and M5's apart form a few execption all the ships feel the same.

Then you obviously didn't spend much time flying different ships of the same classes. Because if you did, you'd notice large differences in weapons loadouts, laser energy, cargo bay, shielding, speed, etc., etc., etc. None of them ever felt the same to me, not even the variants of a given race's ship classes.

oh no i have, you missed the point, fighters feel interchangeable they barely feel different, lets say to have a ermm buster then you switch to a scorpiion there is bary any difference they turn the same, fight the same

and M7's feel the same as carriers or destroyers, in reality i would not wanna be in a M7 when itt turns they turn to fast, the capitals dont feel like huge machines of war

[Geek]

That is totally wrong.
If you fly a Mamba the same way than a Falcon, you will die.
If you use a PSG Deimos and a PPC Thresher the same way, you will run into trouble.
Etc.

[Skillzfire]

That is totally wrong.
If you fly a Mamba the same way than a Falcon, you will die.
If you use a PSG Deimos and a PPC Thresher the same way, you will run into trouble.
Etc.

pfft hardly, ally ou need ot do is turbo boost and strife thats all, trust me ive been playing a while ive used most of the ships they all feel the same to me

[X-Logic]

Ok so cockpits are really hard to model so there's not enough time to make one for every ship.

In my opinion that should not prevent us from flying any other vessel. Simply don't make cockpits for those other vessels and put an excuse in until the modding community or a followup game can add more.

Perhaps that damn zipper keeps getting stuck on your space suit and so you can only see out the view screen? Or maybe with the new interior layout you can't find the lightswitch? Or just say it as it is, if we tried to make more than 1 decent cockpit it would take us a bazillion years so you only get 1 for now.

I don't see why we would need to be restricted from some ships, especially if the NPCs can fly them because that means the models are already there and working.

Maybe we will be able to fly any vessel (except capital ships and maybe a few exceptional cases) but if not I can only see that as a step backward. With capital ships I see no reason to remove the option to fly, if players find it boring they can simply command the captain instead.

At the same time I like the idea of upgrading ships. Although "upgrading" lacks a clear definition here. I see no reason you can't have upgrades as well as the ability to fly every ship. As for the crew simply leave them behind whenever you change ship but have some leeway for a mod or expansion to make it so they can come with you later.

[Laden Swallow]

Ok so cockpits are really hard to model so there's not enough time to make one for every ship.

In my opinion that should not prevent us from flying any other vessel. Simply don't make cockpits for those other vessels and put an excuse in until the modding community or a followup game can add more.

Perhaps that damn zipper keeps getting stuck on your space suit and so you can only see out the view screen? Or maybe with the new interior layout you can't find the lightswitch? Or just say it as it is, if we tried to make more than 1 decent cockpit it would take us a bazillion years so you only get 1 for now.

I don't see why we would need to be restricted from some ships, especially if the NPCs can fly them because that means the models are already there and working.

Maybe we will be able to fly any vessel (except capital ships and maybe a few exceptional cases) but if not I can only see that as a step backward. With capital ships I see no reason to remove the option to fly, if players find it boring they can simply command the captain instead.

At the same time I like the idea of upgrading ships. Although "upgrading" lacks a clear definition here. As for the crew simply leave them behind whenever you change ship but have some leeway for a mod or expansion to make it so they can come with you later.

The excuse that you will control the other ships by remote control (as in you pilot it like you currently do - from a terminal into the game world, except now the terminal exists in the game world in the form of the player ship) via a VR helmet?

[X-Logic]

The excuse that you will control the other ships by remote control (as in you pilot it like you currently do - from a terminal into the game world, except now the terminal exists in the game world in the form of the player ship) via a VR helmet?

All information so far indicates VR only works for drones. I hope this isn't the case. Perhaps all ships are drones (except capitals)? But this wouldn't make sense because a drone seems to have been defined as something without a cockpit and NPCs need cockpits. Also this doesn't let you get out and fly around in a space suit, or physically get into other ships.