THIS HAS BOTHERED ME SINCE X3ish. (not politically correct, this thread)

[PlayerWon]

thats when it occured to me. im playing a mentally challenged space pilot. that is the only way i can figure this out and make it work....

why in the name of all that is whatever does my character not know a dang thing about the world around them? are they super low iq? do they have amnesia? did (s)he just suffer massive head trauma?

these are some of the only reasons that i can think of that a person could live in an area long enough to mature to the point that they own their own vehicle and still not know the basic sector that are living in.

in the case of a person who was introduced to me as a trader (humble merchant start), you would think they would know a few sectors by now.

SO WHY DO I HAVE TO EXPLORE EVERY INCH OF THE SECTOR I STARTED IN? like really, even children map their areas in their heads, and retain a lot of that information forever. having said that....

its fun being a (insert politically correct/current term for mentally handicapped person) space pilot.

people should be more understanding when i shoot at them just for fun though.

[Ranix]

Your character has been living on a planet.

[PlayerWon]

Your character has been living on a planet.

a valiant effort, but it doesn't jive with all the game start descriptions thus far.

[Ranix]

new ship, no nav data

[DKay47]

If I understand your rant correctly, you want to have a sector or two without fog of war for whichever relevant starting point you chose? If so, sure, sounds fair to me.

No idea why you're trying to shoehorn the youtube philosophers you've been binge watching into that particular topic though.

[Socratatus]

We assume EVERYONE goes into space, but when you think about it, only a small fraction of people actually explore space. The greater number will be living their lives out happily on planets, making only the odd journey for holidays or small business. Some probably never leave their homeplanet. I mean space is still a pretty dangerous and relatively lawless place.

It`s much like in old days (perhaps even today)- Many people never leave their home country.

So it makes sense that some people , like a simple homeplanet man (who perhaps is given a ship and a few credits from a relative) might know very little about the huge universe.

[pjknibbs]

The reason it works like this is because it's a game. Certain unrealistic things are going to be in there to make it more entertaining to actually *play*. If you already knew the entire universe map and where everything was then you'd lose the fun of exploration, which is a significant part of the game!

[kmunoz]

The reason it works like this is because it's a game. Certain unrealistic things are going to be in there to make it more entertaining to actually *play*. If you already knew the entire universe map and where everything was then you'd lose the fun of exploration, which is a significant part of the game!

This is the only real answer.

Consider what we are able to detect from Earth-bound telescopes *right now.* There is no future universe that makes any sense where the "map" is obscured in any way. Realistically, it should be fully known.

But it's a game, and there are a great many things that must be sacrificed in order to make game progression a thing. We should have to worry about fuel consumption; we don't. We should be able to detect ships millions of miles away; we can't. We should be able to fire lasers light-seconds away; we can't. We should be able to constantly accelerate to near light speeds; we can't. The maximum speeds of various vessels make no sense. Not that they're the wrong speeds - the fact that there are maximums at all. Big lumbering cap ships should be able to reach the same velocities as a fighter, it should just take longer. And there's no reason in physics why pitch/yaw/roll of a cap ship should be any slower than that of a fighter. Just use bigger thrusters! It's freaking capital ship! I'm sure there's room.

But all of these limitations are built into "space games" in order to make progression in the game more noticeable. If you started the game with Google Universe Maps, there would be no feeling of exploration, as pjknibbs says. If you started with the ability to reach any speed you want or turn at any rate you want, you'd be less interested in buying different ships.

[PlayerWon]

If I understand your rant correctly, you want to have a sector or two without fog of war for whichever relevant starting point you chose? If so, sure, sounds fair to me.

No idea why you're trying to shoehorn the youtube philosophers you've been binge watching into that particular topic though.

thats pretty much the gist of it, yeah.

just out of genuine curiosity, what youtuber am i sposed to have binge watched?

lol about the only thing i watch on youtube is "how to play" guitar videos. and those are rare.

edit: i wasnt aware that i was trying to shoehorn anyone in... just trying to ask a question in an amusing way. if you knew me irl, you would get it fast. thats just my personality.

[PlayerWon]

The reason it works like this is because it's a game. Certain unrealistic things are going to be in there to make it more entertaining to actually *play*. If you already knew the entire universe map and where everything was then you'd lose the fun of exploration, which is a significant part of the game!

you are correct and it is a game, and certain unrealistic things will happen. like, oh say... space travel.

and the other guy is correct, this is the only real answer so far.

having said that...

there is a lot of fun in exploring. once. not every time i want to start a new game. not enough of the map is procedural to make it enjoyable more than a couple times at most.

one or two or one and the directly connected sectors or something... enough room to start for those of us that know the franchise without having to spend a couple hours going through the fun tedium of scanning every station...

it would take away from the exploration aspect of the game (wich, in all actuality, is a very small part of this game. once you've seen the map, you've seen it. its the events that unfold on that map that are the significant part of the game).

having also said that...

thanks for taking time out of your busy day to condescend to me.

id love to see an egosoft person take a poke at this question.

[PlayerWon]

The reason it works like this is because it's a game. Certain unrealistic things are going to be in there to make it more entertaining to actually *play*. If you already knew the entire universe map and where everything was then you'd lose the fun of exploration, which is a significant part of the game!

This is the only real answer.

Consider what we are able to detect from Earth-bound telescopes *right now.* There is no future universe that makes any sense where the "map" is obscured in any way. Realistically, it should be fully known.

But it's a game, and there are a great many things that must be sacrificed in order to make game progression a thing. We should have to worry about fuel consumption; we don't. We should be able to detect ships millions of miles away; we can't. We should be able to fire lasers light-seconds away; we can't. We should be able to constantly accelerate to near light speeds; we can't. The maximum speeds of various vessels make no sense. Not that they're the wrong speeds - the fact that there are maximums at all. Big lumbering cap ships should be able to reach the same velocities as a fighter, it should just take longer. And there's no reason in physics why pitch/yaw/roll of a cap ship should be any slower than that of a fighter. Just use bigger thrusters! It's freaking capital ship! I'm sure there's room.

But all of these limitations are built into "space games" in order to make progression in the game more noticeable. If you started the game with Google Universe Maps, there would be no feeling of exploration, as pjknibbs says. If you started with the ability to reach any speed you want or turn at any rate you want, you'd be less interested in buying different ships.

a lot of these things ive been able to explain to myself... ships behave the way they do for passenger comfort, or due to some regulations regarding the maximum velocity allowed by a sentient pilot. of course that teleportation exists renders the trade aspect of this game obsolete... i could go on too.

im not asking for the whole map. that would be a little too self indulgent.

but a sector or two? comon... who doesn't know their own neighbourhood? and for those that know the game, that would save hours of repetitive nonsense on game starts.

you are correct that thus far, this is the only real answer.

[PlayerWon]

new ship, no nav data

and in the land of profitsssss why is nobody selling maps? if anyone is, i haven't found them yet. a $10m trade license doesnt even come with station locations you havent found yet lol.

[PlayerWon]

We assume EVERYONE goes into space, but when you think about it, only a small fraction of people actually explore space. The greater number will be living their lives out happily on planets, making only the odd journey for holidays or small business. Some probably never leave their homeplanet. I mean space is still a pretty dangerous and relatively lawless place.

It`s much like in old days (perhaps even today)- Many people never leave their home country.

So it makes sense that some people , like a simple homeplanet man (who perhaps is given a ship and a few credits from a relative) might know very little about the huge universe.

there are game starts that specifically mention people giving up one space career to go in to whatever the start is...

i barely leave my home province, but i have quite a map of it in my head.

just one or two sectors, thats pretty reasonable...

[DKay47]

If I understand your rant correctly, you want to have a sector or two without fog of war for whichever relevant starting point you chose? If so, sure, sounds fair to me.

No idea why you're trying to shoehorn the youtube philosophers you've been binge watching into that particular topic though.

thats pretty much the gist of it, yeah.

just out of genuine curiosity, what youtuber am i sposed to have binge watched?

lol about the only thing i watch on youtube is "how to play" guitar videos. and those are rare.

edit: i wasnt aware that i was trying to shoehorn anyone in... just trying to ask a question in an amusing way. if you knew me irl, you would get it fast. thats just my personality.

Sorry bud, I mistook you for a very different type of person

And it's especially weird for The Explorer start, since you can't very well be an explorer who doesn't know where anything is!

[RTest]

Speaking about unrealistic things. The ship are realy slow in X games even the real life ISS move at a speed of around 7,7 km/s (well it fall in reality) without need of an engine ^^ except for orbite correction. In real life as long as you got the engine on in space you accelerate in X game there is a max speed even if the engine still power on.

Well it's an game not a space simulation, most of space movie do unrealistic things too even worst sometime. That doesn't brother me a lot.

[Kadatherion]

This is where we differ: you are playing a mentally challenged pilot. My pilot is a squid shapesifter alien bent on galactic conquest after being teleported in this new galaxy because of some technobabble singularity. He has no notion of the sectors around him, and he can't buy a travel guidebook because he can't yet use human fingers well enough to actually unfold the evilly folded paper map. This issue with his newly shaped fingers also explains why the ship controls are so incredibly messy and unintuitive.

That's immersion, bro!

[StormMagi]

On one hand I do agree. You would think that your ship's navigation computer would have a standard map (similar to foldable roadmaps can buy) of inhabited sectors. But that does take away from the exploration aspect. It is a tossup on game design. Personally I would love having at least the sector locations known, but not the contents. Treat the sectors like towns, you know where they are, but not what they have.

[Tomonor]

Sounds like a gamestart for the mentally challenged.

[luci]

My pilot is actually pretty smart.
And also handsome as f**k!

[Tomonor]

My pilot is actually pretty smart.
And also handsome as f**k!

You are talking about yourself, aren't you?