I rebuilt the map of the X4 presentation video

[-Dna-]

Hi all!

As the title says, i rebuilt the current universe map using the English presentation video (17:00)

Following, there are my speculations and personal idea.

It looks like Egosoft went back to the universe structure of the X Games, where the main component was the sector (the current big hexagon). Each sector is composed by smaller hexagons (16 for each side, I'll let you count them all...) and they are similar to the current X Rebirth zones. I see three types of these zone:

• blue are already explored;
• gray are zones covered with "fog-of-war" (so blue zones could be where we can see stuff inside );
• red zones are the one where we can't build stations because there are obstacles like asteroids (in the video) or resources (nebulae? Gas? Enemies? Aliens?).

To move across sectors there are the Jumpgates. To move fast inside a zone there are the highways. Jumpgates are "connected" by gray lines, while Highways use the X Rebirth dashed/moving/yellowish lines. In this map the highways connects the two side of some sector (but not all! Maybe not yet explored).

A X/Z coordinate system exists to identify the position of the sectors. I don't see any Y so it could be that the current map is flat (sorry Elite guys, no bubble in this universe but there are many aliens ).

I also noticed some sort of colors and details on the sectors "borders": the hexagons have two frames, the internal is colored by the race (?) color (Argon are soft blue, Paranid soft pink/purple); the external frame has holes where two sector touch together.

Finally, some lore details

The right panel shows a list of Jumpgates, where they go and where they are located. Unfortunately - or to hide some infos - some gates are covered with the presentation camera. What you can find in the map, is what I found comparing start and end gates for each sector and checking the whole map part of the video. Unluckily, the German presentation didn't show the same portion of the universe

To conclude this post, three interesting facts:

1. Argon Prime and Pontifex's Claim have Shipyards, while True Sight has a Defense Platform (a fortress-like station?). True Sight is near the Argon space. After many years - and a former alliance - these two races are still at war? Also, Equipment Docks are there.
2. (BIG SPECULATION) In the final part of X-Encyclopedia there is a description of how the Alliance of Words begin: many years after the gate shutdown, a drone from Terra Paranid reach Argon Prime and re-established the communication between the two races. This could be the "Second Contact" event (while the first contact was in the 2300/130NT, 30 years after the foundation of Terra Argon as capital-planet, again with the Paranids) that gives the name of the sector. This is also a border between Argon and Paranid space.
   
   Fun-fact, in the German video, Second Contact is owned by the "Antigone Republic" faction. So, after the Antigone Memorial that commemorate the death during the First Xenon War, they have a new monument to commemorate a new birth
3. Someone is a huge fan of The Expanse... and I think they also added a Rocinante-like ship

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[Sandalpocalypse]

Cool stuff. It does make me wonder if some sectors are bigger than other sectors....

[Skeeter]

the german version of the vid on egosofts utube has alot more gameplay with the map incase u didnt know.

[Juggernaut93]

Cool stuff. It does make me wonder if some sectors are bigger than other sectors....

If I'm not mistaken, Bernd said that sectors have different sizes

[-Dna-]

the german version of the vid on egosofts utube has alot more gameplay with the map incase u didnt know.

Yep I also checked the German video (quickly, I have to admit that) but unfortunately the map that they showed was composed by only an hexagon (First Contact? I'm not sure, I have to re-check that).

But from one German Q&A I discovered that the "sectors" could also be "clusters", so bigger sectors. If they keep the XR denomination, a cluster is composed by multiple planets and zones together, but in the same system. Does that means that they are simply bigger sectors? In TC/AP we had sectors with different size and many sectors share the same background (for instance, think about the sectors around Omicron Lyrae)

[UniTrader]

In TC/AP we had sectors with different size and many sectors share the same background (for instance, think about the sectors around Omicron Lyrae)

iirc there are about 30 backgrounds in TC. and they all use exactly the same background star pattern. their only difference is the nebula painted on them..(this was quite helpful for me in the x3 sector quest )

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

That second ship picture looks like an Argon Centaur to me.

[linolafett]

Just for dev language clarification and to get a better communication going by using already the correct terms:

We call the big hexagons "clusters".
Eacht cluster has a unique background.
Clusters are connected via gates.

Inside of a cluster can be several sectors.
Sectors have the cluster background but can be closer to a planet/moon. They are connected with super highways.

In Sectors are no player visible zones.
Zones are still in for dividing teh space into areas and view distance culling (performance) reasons.
You as a player will not see any named zones though. You are just in cluster/sector.

The small grey hexagons displaying the fog of war are not zones. They are just a purely abitrary grid layed on top of the map.

[Général Grievous]

Just for dev language clarification and to get a better communication going by using already the correct terms:

We call the big hexagons "clusters".
Eacht cluster has a unique background.
Clusters are connected via gates.

Inside of a cluster can be several sectors.
Sectors have the cluster background but can be closer to a planet/moon. They are connected with super highways.

In Sectors are no player visible zones.
Zones are still in for dividing teh space into areas and view distance culling (performance) reasons.
You as a player will not see any named zones though. You are just in cluster/sector.

The small grey hexagons displaying the fog of war are not zones. They are just a purely abitrary grid layed on top of the map.

Can we say that a cluster is like a "solar system"?
If yes, it sounds logical.

[BurnIt!]

Can we say that a cluster is like a "solar system"?
If yes, it sounds logical.

Yes.

[Tamina]

This hexagon style map looks neat. For some reason it makes me really excited for X4 just by looking at it.

I am still struggling to find the "big hexagons" (clusters) on the picture. Those colored hexagons are sectors, right?

[-Dna-]

I am still struggling to find the "big hexagons" (clusters) on the picture. Those colored hexagons are sectors, right?

In my initial idea, yes but after what lino said I think they are all clusters since they are connected via Jumpgates. Then, in the image I used we can see a bunch of solar systems

@linolafett: in the German video, Bernd said that these "hexagons" have different sizes, however to me they look the same size in the map. It is because at each level of zoom the stuffs inside are rearranged (so each clusters seem to have the same size and you have a very nice and clean map) or because for the demo you used clusters with the same size?

[boreas.real]

If i understod bernd correctly, than they are scaled differently, so that they all appear as the same size, so the map doesn't become a mess.
So one of these hexagons may be 1200km per edge while the other is just 800km, but they still appear the same size on the map. Note that these are just random numbers to make the point

[linolafett]

@linolafett: in the German video, Bernd said that these "hexagons" have different sizes, however to me they look the same size in the map. It is because at each level of zoom the stuffs inside are rearranged ...

Correct, the "zoom" level is not fixed per tile to keep the "logical" layout of the map.
There are clusters wich habe more than one sector in them. Probably then not shown in the presentation.

[Phlt]

Any idea of how many Clusters Map would contain?

[Artean]

And, speaking about maps, how big is the X4 universe compared to XR and X3?

[CommanderTM]

And, speaking about maps, how big is the X4 universe compared to XR and X3?

They already answered that one.... with "no spoilers"

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Any idea of how many Clusters Map would contain?

CBJ recently addressed this and didn't want to give spoilers away.

[Sandalpocalypse]

if the map is correct there are at least 9 paranid clusters.


if we assume that every race has roughly equal territory, knowing that there are argon, teladi, split, and paranid, that's at least 36 government clusters.

then throw in, idk, another 5 for pirates and 5 for xenon (/khaak?).

which is 46 clusters but damn that's a lot

I presume many clusters will be 1-2 sectors to reduce art team seppuku

It's also possible that pirates and maybe even xenon won't have any clusters at all, but may feature more in particular sectors within a government cluster.

[mr.WHO]

I'm a bit confused about big hexagons - most of them are connected via gates, so this indicate they are entire Systems.

There are small hexagons which are zones. There are normal highways going across entire big hexagons.

Therefore there is no trace of "Sectors" connected by "super highways".

What is even more interesting that CBJ when asked about said that he can't answer it because it would be a spoiler.


Maybe X4 region has less advance highway technology than X-Rebirth region, so there is no superhighways yet?