No news from devs since March. Maybe devs are up to something big?

[DeathMade]

Hi, so yeah the title pretty much tells it. What do you guys think? Do you know some info about future of XR or possibly X4?

[A5PECT]

No ES employee has outright stated "We are currently making the sequel to X Rebirth," but...

With XR there are clearly some things that are not as good as you, or indeed we, would like them to be, but there is plenty of scope for improvement within the framework that has been created.

I obviously can't say exactly what's in the works right now; just that we are working beyond the confines of the XR 3.60 patch.

...

There is stuff to look forward to, some stuff which will bleed into XR patches, others not.

Our main development focus at the moment is on adding new features to the game engine. The result of a lot of this work is likely to find its way into a new game rather than an update to XR, but that by no means rules out further updates to XR nor future DLC for it.

We are using the XR engine, yes, and we are working on adding features, such as flying different ships, that will take various aspects of the gameplay more in the direction of the previous series. We have taken on board the feedback we've had since the release of XR and we hope that the new game will appeal both to those who enjoy XR and to those who preferred the previous series. That's what we mean by working "towards" a more X4-like game.

Before you start jumping to conclusions, "X4-like game" =/= "X4." The devs are pretty insistent about the terminology.

[mangar]

Well this is the best post I have seen since sliced bofu.

Now this gives me hope and wish it nothing but the best results because I have been bored out of my mind looking for something worth while since. And I hope if all goes well the original fan base comes flocking back like it once was with new friends in tow.

So does this mean the original follower base can make a wish list to Santa again? or wish that something is really coming down the pipeline?

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

No news since March?
Uhmm... A new beta update came out just recently.

[DeathMade]

No ES employee has outright stated "We are currently making the sequel to X Rebirth," but...

With XR there are clearly some things that are not as good as you, or indeed we, would like them to be, but there is plenty of scope for improvement within the framework that has been created.

I obviously can't say exactly what's in the works right now; just that we are working beyond the confines of the XR 3.60 patch.

...

There is stuff to look forward to, some stuff which will bleed into XR patches, others not.

Our main development focus at the moment is on adding new features to the game engine. The result of a lot of this work is likely to find its way into a new game rather than an update to XR, but that by no means rules out further updates to XR nor future DLC for it.

We are using the XR engine, yes, and we are working on adding features, such as flying different ships, that will take various aspects of the gameplay more in the direction of the previous series. We have taken on board the feedback we've had since the release of XR and we hope that the new game will appeal both to those who enjoy XR and to those who preferred the previous series. That's what we mean by working "towards" a more X4-like game.

Before you start jumping to conclusions, "X4-like game" =/= "X4." The devs are pretty insistent about the terminology.

Thanks! And do you know if they are going to improve the engine graphicaly? I mean if XR launched in 2011 it would look great but now we have UE4 and DX12. Any news about this kind of technical stuff?

[Xenon_Slayer]

Some of the later post by linolafett here have some info on graphical upgrades.

[A5PECT]

XBTF = DirectX 7
X2 = DirectX 8.1
X3 = DirectX 9

Egosoft is very familiar with updating graphical APIs while iterating upon a game engine. It's a pretty safe bet that there will be sizable improvements to visual fidelity between XR and whatever lies ahead of it.

[Patholos]

[ external image ]

At present, I'm pretty much like that until until anything official comes out, which most likely will result in me still being like that until reviews/gameplay are out for anything that Egosoft might be working on right now.

*cough*X4 confirmed*cough*

[A5PECT]

*cough*X4 confirmed*cough*

X4 confirmed

X4

[ external image ]

[nielsw]

No ES employee has outright stated "We are currently making the sequel to X Rebirth," but...

With XR there are clearly some things that are not as good as you, or indeed we, would like them to be, but there is plenty of scope for improvement within the framework that has been created.

I obviously can't say exactly what's in the works right now; just that we are working beyond the confines of the XR 3.60 patch.

...

There is stuff to look forward to, some stuff which will bleed into XR patches, others not.

Our main development focus at the moment is on adding new features to the game engine. The result of a lot of this work is likely to find its way into a new game rather than an update to XR, but that by no means rules out further updates to XR nor future DLC for it.

We are using the XR engine, yes, and we are working on adding features, such as flying different ships, that will take various aspects of the gameplay more in the direction of the previous series. We have taken on board the feedback we've had since the release of XR and we hope that the new game will appeal both to those who enjoy XR and to those who preferred the previous series. That's what we mean by working "towards" a more X4-like game.

Before you start jumping to conclusions, "X4-like game" =/= "X4." The devs are pretty insistent about the terminology.

They may be insistent about the terminology, I'm not. If I can pick and choose my ships to fly, I'll take it by whatever name they want to call it

Well, and I hope the UI will at least have the old, rapid keyboard functionality as an option...

[Troubleshooter11]

Whatever the Egosofties are working on, i am guessing it is something that takes X-Rebirth as foundation and builds upon it and adds more of the freedom and features we are "used to" from X3, but still keeping it distinctly X-Rebirth 2 rather than X4.

Time to come up with sequel names! X-Afterbirth?

[nielsw]

Whatever the Egosofties are working on, i am guessing it is something that takes X-Rebirth as foundation and builds upon it and adds more of the freedom and features we are "used to" from X3, but still keeping it distinctly X-Rebirth 2 rather than X4.

Time to come up with sequel names! X-Afterbirth?

That sounds icky

Even X-Aftermath would be better lol


How about:

X-
Resurrection
Insurrection
Lightspeed
Citizen
Rise of the Teladi
The Old Boron Republic
Grand Theft Starship
Antigravity
Paranid Sky
Horizon
The Split Kings
The Goner-Cthulhu Alliance
Wrath of Bandanna
Kilrathi Empire discovered


What I'd really like to see is a return to the whimsical animations on your ship's video screen, showing Boron, Teladi, Split and Argon talking to you from XbtF and Xtension... I've missed those ever since.

[mr.WHO]

I like that the working on the new game base on X-Rebirth. Despite total failure that the first year of XR, they patching up the game in good speed.

With remote call to shipyard they will introduce next patch, the last two thigs that we need is better fleet interface and meaningful objective for empire building (e.g with undestroyeable stations I simply cannot go and conquest PMC even if I have hundreds of Arans).

Oh I forgot - player HQ/Shipyards station is a must!

If they also give you more ships to fly (in whole fighter-corvette range, exept that Skunk abomination) and better capship interiors (like Bridge mod) then they got me and my money (they don't have much of a competition with Boring Elite and "will be ready in 2020+, for PCs that not yet exist on the market" Star Citizen)

[nielsw]

I like that the working on the new game base on X-Rebirth. Despite total failure that the first year of XR, they patching up the game in good speed.

With remote call to shipyard they will introduce next patch, the last two thigs that we need is better fleet interface and meaningful objective for empire building (e.g with undestroyeable stations I simply cannot go and conquest PMC even if I have hundreds of Arans).

Oh I forgot - player HQ/Shipyards station is a must!

If they also give you more ships to fly (in whole fighter-corvette range, exept that Skunk abomination) and better capship interiors (like Bridge mod) then they got me and my money (they don't have much of a competition with Boring Elite and "will be ready in 2020+, for PCs that not yet exist on the market" Star Citizen)

Agreed on your statement on a new X-something

But why are there so many people misinformed about Star Citizen?

Arena Commander even runs on my laptop (Razer Blade, i7, 8GB, GTX870m) On my Desktop, It does run more smoothly, but frankly, I was surprised that I can play it on the laptop.

Sure, that's not the whole game, but their internal QA tests it with high-end but *existing* computers. They're expecting to release Squadron 42 around the beginning of next year. If I see it only next Summer, I won't be bothered.

You gotta give developers a break, they only started to ramp up the team towards the end of 2013. So they're still below the average of 4-5 years for an AAA title. SWTOR took 7 years IIRC and look how long we had to wait for GTA 5 and X Rebirth.

It takes time to make all that stuff.

[mr.WHO]

Arena Commander is not everything - you should know it right from X2 where tutorial sector ran smoothly even on low end PC, but when you loaded the entire universe with (70+ sectors) it was entire diffrent story.

Now Star Citizen want something like this + landing on planets + FPP combat on ships + ships/station interiors + multiplayer = are you really that naive to think that it will run OK on (present day) high end PC?

[Alan Phipps]

If you want to debate SC further then move over to the Off Topic forum thread for it please. This forum is for Rebirth/Egosoft discussions thanks.

[Len5]

Whatever the Egosofties are working on, i am guessing it is something that takes X-Rebirth as foundation and builds upon it and adds more of the freedom and features we are "used to" from X3, but still keeping it distinctly X-Rebirth 2 rather than X4.

Time to come up with sequel names! X-Afterbirth?

If I have to give the new game a name that also explains the way I think ES is looking at it, I would call it "X Evolution".
The X series can only survive if they take the best of both worlds. Seen the reactions to XR it'd be unwise to call it either XR2 or X4.

[Graaf]

The X series can only survive if they take the best of both worlds.

So from Rebirth we should get: Engine; Station building; Shipyard (read X3 PHQ) mechanics; Cockpits.
And from X3 we should get: Everything.

But thats only my opinion.

[Troubleshooter11]

Whatever the Egosofties are working on, i am guessing it is something that takes X-Rebirth as foundation and builds upon it and adds more of the freedom and features we are "used to" from X3, but still keeping it distinctly X-Rebirth 2 rather than X4.

Time to come up with sequel names! X-Afterbirth?

If I have to give the new game a name that also explains the way I think ES is looking at it, I would call it "X Evolution".
The X series can only survive if they take the best of both worlds. Seen the reactions to XR it'd be unwise to call it either XR2 or X4.

Yeah, i think Evolution would be a cool name for a "XR2" kind of game.

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

Name "Evolution" sounds very boring to me and the word itself is terribly overused.
Also, all X games carried a name that was connected to the lore:
X: Beyond the Frontier, because Kyle crossed the known borders of space and reached the far beyond.
X2: The Threat, because the Khaak threat was rising.
X3: Reunion, as Terran space was re-discovered.
X Rebirth, because the universe is shaking off the damage done by supernova and is advancing once again.

I really can't think of a good name for upcoming X game (I believe that they'll keep their fashion - that the name of the next game will have something to do with the lore), I'd have to know some of the planned story and atmosphere, and know more about gameplay.