Alternative uses for transporter

[Falcrack]

With X4, we will be able to use our teleporter to transport from one owned ship to another. But there are a wide variety of different potential uses for teleporters, which I wonder if they will be a part of X4 somehow.

-Ship to ship transfer of cargo. X3 had this.

-Ship to station transfer of cargo. X3 did not have this, though I see no technical reason why it could not have been a thing.

-Boarding marines to take over ships. X3 did not have this, although the current version of the Mayhem mod does use this.

-Scooping floating crates from space. X3 had this (at least LU/Mayhem has it, haven't tried unmodded X3 in a while).

-Teleporting fighters inside and outside of carriers. X3/Mayhem does this kinda sorta, as a way to speed up the long landing process with tons of fighters.

-Teleporting explosive warheads aboard enemy ships. I saw this in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, where they transported an armed photon torpedo on board a Borg ship and detonated it, destroying the ship from the inside. It was one of those moments that makes you wonder why the writers didn't think of that idea years ago.

[Alan Phipps]

[OT]
"-Teleporting explosive warheads aboard enemy ships. I saw this in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, where they transported an armed photon torpedo on board a Borg ship and detonated it, destroying the ship from the inside. It was one of those moments that makes you wonder why the writers didn't think of that idea years ago."

It was a major tactical theme in some later parts of the Stargate series too. [/OT]

[Skeeter]

Dont forget teleport down to planets wink wink as a possible use, that way no need to do landing on planets no need to model an entire planet tho do need to make some buildings and interiors and interesting npcs to chat to like ud find in a rpg i.e quest givers or important people to make deals legal or otherwise.

[Tomonor]

Dont forget teleport down to planets wink wink as a possible use, that way no need to do landing on planets no need to model an entire planet tho do need to make some buildings and interiors and interesting npcs to chat to like ud find in a rpg i.e quest givers or important people to make deals legal or otherwise.

Why are you so obsessed with planets? They simply don't fit the narrative of the current X universe, because if they were accessible, the entire point of vast space cities, space factories, and asteroid mining would become completely pointless.

Plus, the fact that teleporting to a planet would be the most anticlimating thing that could happen to a space game.

[Skeeter]

Because I want more things to trade such as what planets can produce or need like desert planets could make a fortune selling water to em. Etc.

[Tomonor]

Because I want more things to trade such as what planets can produce or need like desert planets could make a fortune selling water to em. Etc.

So, you basically want an oversized space station with no other purpose than trading?

I mean, I get it that planet landing is so hot right now, but even in those games (Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous) it's rather a chore than something of a thrilling experience. Or see Freelancer for example. That game had planetary landing, but in that game planets pretty much replaced space stations (and it makes sense actually, but that's a blander approach than space cities to be frank).

If Egosoft was to introduce planetary landing, they would have to apply the same principles as they do in the space part - Trade, Fight, Build, Think. To each every individual planet and moon - that's at least 8 planets per system, minimum. That's a tremendous amount of work. There's only one game I can think of that did the planetary combat part just right (as similar as Egosoft would do it as I imagine): Battlezone II. And that's just a futuristic combat simulator.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that a team of good coders could pull of a proper planetary landing feature in the form of a modification. But it would still be an anticlimatic oversized space station, as you originally suggested it.

[Zloth2]

I'm actually wondering if I'll end up leaving tiny ships all over the `verse as teleport stations.

Teleporting explosive warheads aboard enemy ships. I saw this in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, where they transported an armed photon torpedo on board a Borg ship and detonated it, destroying the ship from the inside. It was one of those moments that makes you wonder why the writers didn't think of that idea years ago.

Star Fleet Battles (the most complex game I've ever played by far) had them long before Voyager. They aren't trivial to use as shields stop transporter beams but, if your opponent is nice enough to rip them down for you, send those T-bombs out! You couldn't beam them directly into a ship but you could certainly beam mines close to ships. (Or forget the transporter and just roll them out the airlock. Romulans loved doing that.)

[spankahontis]

[OT]
"-Teleporting explosive warheads aboard enemy ships. I saw this in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, where they transported an armed photon torpedo on board a Borg ship and detonated it, destroying the ship from the inside. It was one of those moments that makes you wonder why the writers didn't think of that idea years ago."

It was a major tactical theme in some later parts of the Stargate series too. [/OT]

'Nukie Nukie Boom Boom' has always been the first option of a tactical strike.
Independence Day, (Your right) a few episodes of Stargate and the first movie. Even Mars Attacks mocked the overuse of a "Nuke em'" approach.
It's become pretty cliche.

[gbjbaanb]

Because I want more things to trade such as what planets can produce or need like desert planets could make a fortune selling water to em. Etc.

You get that with a planetary trading dock. Nobody in their right mind will want to land on a planet, the gravity makes taking off pretty hard, so you land on the space station orbiting it to do the trading, and let some local operation handle the tiresome up and down stuff.

Now that doesn't mean the planet shoulnd't be part of the economy, producing goods (that make economic sense, no point spending a fortune lifting cheap water when you can mine it from asteroids or comets far cheaper), but luxury stuff yes - and as a resource sink (eg water, much easier to take it down to the surface where it disappears)

But as far as the gameplay is concerned, the station is the place where all this happens, in the form of varied goods for sale or to sell.

[Falcrack]

As far as this off-topic conversation goes, I am perfectly happy to have wares disappear from trade stations, in order to simulate the population acting as a resource sink. But I would prefer it to be a bit more nuanced, such as having the rate of disappearing goods be dictated by planetary population, demand (ie if they get very little of a certain good, it disappears faster and pays better), and also have some reciprocal effects where the more the needs of the population are satisfied, the more the population grows. Not just a simple set rate of disppearing goods that never varies, but a rate that fluctuates according to supply and demand.

Anyways, still no answer from devs as to whether the transporter will do more than simply transport you to your ships, which is what I was hoping for when I first posed the question!

[Seanchaidh]

As far as this off-topic conversation goes, I am perfectly happy to have wares disappear from trade stations, in order to simulate the population acting as a resource sink. But I would prefer it to be a bit more nuanced, such as having the rate of disappearing goods be dictated by planetary population, demand (ie if they get very little of a certain good, it disappears faster and pays better), and also have some reciprocal effects where the more the needs of the population are satisfied, the more the population grows. Not just a simple set rate of disppearing goods that never varies, but a rate that fluctuates according to supply and demand.

Anyways, still no answer from devs as to whether the transporter will do more than simply transport you to your ships, which is what I was hoping for when I first posed the question!

Yes, I really hope consumer demand independent of "you have to feed your workers" is a thing in X4.

[pgllrdp]

I wonder if we can test the transporter by using it on admiral archers pet beagle

[Tomonor]

I wonder if we can test the transporter by using it on admiral archers pet beagle

That just reminded me, if we have such technology to teleport anything/anyone anywhere in the universe, why use spaceships at all?

[mr.WHO]

I wonder if we can test the transporter by using it on admiral archers pet beagle

That just reminded me, if we have such technology to teleport anything/anyone anywhere in the universe, why use spaceships at all?

For X4 teleporter, you need to have "receiver teleporter", thus ships are not obsolete, becasue they carry the teleporter.



I wonder if teleport will only be limited to player avatar, or can we teleport crew NPCs as well?

[Honved]

If the player character can teleport, then there should be no valid reason why NPCs can't teleport from station to station. There's also nothing to explain why they can't teleport goods from one station or ship to another.

This would render about 90% of the spaceships irrelevant, other than those for exploring new areas and transporting teleporter receivers to their eventual destinations. Basically, an unlimited range teleporter like has been described for X4 is FAR more broken and immersion-breaking than the jump drive.

X3 allowed some teleportation of cargo and passengers over short distances, which was short enough not to break the underlying assumptions of the game. Unlimited range would seriously trash all of that.

[sd_jasper]

There could be TONS of reasons why only the player character can teleport. Till we get info on the game's lore we won't know what the devs came up with.

Per the official website:

Research new technologies like TELEPORTATION from an ancient Terran installation.

So, this is a lost technology, the player will have to discover and research it to make it work. Maybe there is a key component that can't be reproduced that moves with the teleported person. In that case the player would want to keep that "key" on them and thus would be the only person or thing to be able to teleport.

In another thread I speculated on many other reasons. It doesn't take that much imagination to come up with plenty of story reasons why teleportation might be limited to just the player.

[Sandalpocalypse]

Long range teleportation of cargo definitely wont be a thing. Short range maybe...?

[Varyah]

There could be TONS of reasons why only the player character can teleport. Till we get info on the game's lore we won't know what the devs came up with.

Per the official website:

Research new technologies like TELEPORTATION from an ancient Terran installation.

So, this is a lost technology, the player will have to discover and research it to make it work. Maybe there is a key component that can't be reproduced that moves with the teleported person. In that case the player would want to keep that "key" on them and thus would be the only person or thing to be able to teleport.

In another thread I speculated on many other reasons. It doesn't take that much imagination to come up with plenty of story reasons why teleportation might be limited to just the player.

But then why will it be possible to teleport to any station and any ship, even those that were built before the player finds that technology?

Did the shipwrights and station architects think to put a teleporter room everywhere just in case somebody rediscovers that lost technology? Let's stick with the teleporter room with significant power requirements, nobody can use, even on the smallest fighter instead of a rear turret, maybe someone gets lucky and finds out how to use those things again.

Or maybe everyone has forgotten why it's there but you know, as long as the government is paying for those ships might as well bill them extra for that expensive closet that has always been there? Maybe the ship won't even fly without it?

[gbjbaanb]

Long range teleportation of cargo definitely wont be a thing. Short range maybe...?

If you can teleport the player with clothing (who is no doubt a big fat, gamer type.. oh just me?) then you can surely teleport the equivalent of cargo - whether that be precious gems or delicate electronics.

So teleporting cargo should be a thing... even the worst case, the player could teleport while holding a bag full of cargo.

[Honved]

Granted, a lot of the cargo types fall into the "tons per unit" category, but a few (Computer Components, Silicon Chips, etc.) seemingly have a high enough value per unit of mass to be worth teleporting. If there's no cost for teleporting, then it should even be viable for bulk cargo, just a very small amount at a time. If there is a cost, it should still be a viable alternative for a few tech goods and luxury items that justify the expense, and the player should be charged something (credits or resources) for using teleportation.

"The old system didn't make logical sense, so we replaced it with a NEW system that doesn't make logical sense either."