Questions to Egosoft about ventures

[mr.WHO]

Will we see L-size venture platform?
Will we see XL-size venture platform? Will we be able to send fully equiped carrier with it's fighters on venture?
Will we be able to have more than one venture platform of the same size?
What will be the use for Ego Credits?



Idea:
Wouldn't be nice to be able to send ships on "pirate mission"? Currently Venture ships are treated as "neutral friendlies" protected by normal factions - this means you cannot attack them outside pirate/xenon sectors. If we would have "pirate ventures" this would be fun challenge.

[CBJ]

I'm afraid none of those questions can be accurately answered. We do plan to expand on the current venture feature, but the directions and the details are undecided. Having more different types of venture missions is, however, fairly high on the list of things we want to do.

[Falcrack]

I'm afraid none of those questions can be accurately answered. We do plan to expand on the current venture feature, but the directions and the details are undecided. Having more different types of venture missions is, however, fairly high on the list of things we want to do.

But I probably won't see any of it, because you won't let us do ventures if we have even one mod. As there are some mods which I feel are essential, if I had to choose, I would choose mods over ventures.

[Nafensoriel]

I'm afraid none of those questions can be accurately answered. We do plan to expand on the current venture feature, but the directions and the details are undecided. Having more different types of venture missions is, however, fairly high on the list of things we want to do.

But I probably won't see any of it, because you won't let us do ventures if we have even one mod. As there are some mods which I feel are essential, if I had to choose, I would choose mods over ventures.

I quote the first rule of development hell.

1] "If you make it... They will find a way to break it. Often in a way you'd never expected."

In a year there will be a mod for that. Mark my words.

[Morleond]

I have a question. I decided to try out a mod and decided that I didn't like it so I removed it. Is there a way to reschedule enable ventures now that the mod is gone? It I am no longer modded and it says I can't send ships on ventures

[CBJ]

But I probably won't see any of it, because you won't let us do ventures if we have even one mod. As there are some mods which I feel are essential, if I had to choose, I would choose mods over ventures.

There are so many ways in which mods can break ventures or make them completely unfair to those playing without them, that allowing mods simply isn't viable. The only thing we could do, at some point, is to allow specific types of mod (e.g. text-only mods) that cannot possibly break ventures, or to sign certain mods that we have reviewed and checked to ensure that they don't affect ventures. The latter is probably the only thing that would help in your case, but the overhead required for us to do that is something we simply do not have time for at the moment.

I have a question. I decided to try out a mod and decided that I didn't like it so I removed it. Is there a way to reschedule enable ventures now that the mod is gone? It I am no longer modded and it says I can't send ships on ventures

No. You may have removed the mod, but the game has no way of knowing what effect it had on your savegame, so it cannot mark it as unmodified. If you start a new game, however, then it won't be modified and you will be able to send ships on ventures.

[Silla]

Hmm if it can’t be used with all modded games the development of ventures indeed seems unpractical to some degree. It would be good to know how many people actually are using not modded games. If they are in a tiny minority why even bother with the further development? Could mods be tested for being venture friendly somehow in an automatic fashion?

[CBJ]

People playing the game unmodified are in no way a "tiny minority". And no, you cannot automatically test how a completely unknown mod will affect the game.

[Ezarkal]

People playing the game unmodified are in no way a "tiny minority".

Amen to that. I used to play XR "blueberry-maple with chocolate syrup and cherry on top" flavored as opposed to "vanilla", but I have yet to install a single mod on X4.
(Some are very tempting, but still...)


Kudos to the team for removing most of the tedious aspects present in the previous games that made people use mods as sanity-savers.



Back to topic, thanks for confirming venture will be expanded, even if there are no details available.
I'm really hoping for multiple venture docks. I'd open a new franchise: "Ezarkal's multiversal travel agencies."
(That would actually make for some fun missions: Some VIP wants to visit other universes. You have to get him aboard a ship and send him along on a venture. Payment upon successful return.)


I also saw from the beta changelog that the completion sound is to be toned down. Many thanks.

[Morleond]

I wonder what they will do to further development ventures Because right now they are just ships that show up in your sector and they have no real impact on your game.

[Ezarkal]

Not entirely true.

The other day, I was in a small ship and got jumped by 2 xenon M at the end of a boost. (Careless of me, I know.) My shields were already low and they gave me no slack to recharge until I got a fair amount of hull damage and realize they may actually end up killing me... until a venture nemesis that was hanging around jumped in and tore one of the two xenons to shreds, which allowed me breathing room to recharge my shields a bit and help taking the second one out.

Ok, it's not your common event, but it was fun.

[Artean]

In the future, I would love to see venture fleets taking on

* military missions against a faction of choice (including player factions)
* support missions as handing over resources to a faction of choice (including player factions)
* trading missions (goods for goods or goods for credits)
* sharing/exchanging map information

[Techedge]

Not entirely true.

The other day, I was in a small ship and got jumped by 2 xenon M at the end of a boost. (Careless of me, I know.) My shields were already low and they gave me no slack to recharge until I got a fair amount of hull damage and realize they may actually end up killing me... until a venture nemesis that was hanging around jumped in and tore one of the two xenons to shreds, which allowed me breathing room to recharge my shields a bit and help taking the second one out.

Ok, it's not your common event, but it was fun.

Something similar happened to me. I like almost peaceful games so I've never killed so many ventures, however I decided to never kill ventures again from the moment that one saved me.
And then I thought It would be nice to send, or receive, more significant help in the future (because at the moment 1 ship at a time would be useless...nor that you need so much help in the actual game).

[adeine]

But I probably won't see any of it, because you won't let us do ventures if we have even one mod. As there are some mods which I feel are essential, if I had to choose, I would choose mods over ventures.

There are so many ways in which mods can break ventures or make them completely unfair to those playing without them, that allowing mods simply isn't viable. The only thing we could do, at some point, is to allow specific types of mod (e.g. text-only mods) that cannot possibly break ventures, or to sign certain mods that we have reviewed and checked to ensure that they don't affect ventures. The latter is probably the only thing that would help in your case, but the overhead required for us to do that is something we simply do not have time for at the moment.

Why not just enable a simulation of the venture system in modded installs? Distribute the same rewards at the same risk(s) without actually sending their ships to other players' games? It's been suggested before but as far as I remember there hasn't been an official response.

Right now it seems like you're needlessly excluding people running modded games from gameplay features (and a viable source for modification components?), which might give the impression you're trying to incentivise people not to mod the game or punish them for doing so. I don't think that's what the goal is here but it's not a good look, and X4 absolutely needs a thriving modding community if it wants to replicate the success of earlier titles and stay relevant.

[lordmuck]

I wish ventures would allow the player to be teleported to some random unknown sector with random enemies that we can farm for some decent ship mods. We could take a fleet or small group or solo

[Nikola515]

I would like to know if there are any plans to make offline ventures ? It is pretty good concept but it is useless for anyone that mods (pretty much everyone) or someone that dont have internet connection... I just dont like idea of someone destroying my ships or someone invading my universe. I think Brend was saying something about adding new features where someone can send fleet and attack your assets in your game... I find this extremely annoying as I like enjoy my single player game

Edit: By offline ventures I mean to be able to do ventures without connecting to server. You send ships and game calculate probability of survival based crew/equipment. Metal Gear V and Mass Effect Andromeda would be perfect example how to do it right...

[CBJ]

There are no plans for "offline ventures". The whole point of them is that they provide some level of interaction with other players.

Regarding the issue of some players not wanting other players to come and attack their assets, we have already thought about this and it will be optional. If you send "aggressive" ventures to other players' universes then you will be warned that this will mean that they can do the same to you. If you don't, then you also won't receive any aggressive visitor ships.

[Inchronoth]

I wish ventures would allow the player to be teleported to some random unknown sector with random enemies that we can farm for some decent ship mods. We could take a fleet or small group or solo

That would be awsome!!!

[EmperorDragon]

Being able to send out ventures between friends only would also be great. I'm not that big on online features but, it would be awesome if I could rent out a fleet to a friend who may be struggling with a war effort for example, or allow a friend to rent a few freighters from me to get a head start. EgoCredits could be used for such transactions if there's not a use for it already.

I also use a few simple mods that I find essential. A mod for moving the PHQ, the location of which should be the player's choice in the first place. A mod for disabling the random encounters script that really doesn't fit in an X game, a mod that increases weapon range so that they can at least outrange medieval gunpowder weapons and I also added a few additional sectors because the universe is just too small. Perhaps if a friend use the same mods, ventures between the two of you could be possible? I can live without the weapon range mod and additional custom sectors but, I really need to be able to move/deploy my HQ to my capital sector and that silly random encounters script is a cardinal sin, AI ships should be able to spread out through the universe by themselves, especially pirates (when we do eventually get proper pirates, that is).

Of course, such additions to the venture system will come later down the line when the game is fixed up properly.

[CBJ]

I wish ventures would allow the player to be teleported to some random unknown sector with random enemies that we can farm for some decent ship mods. We could take a fleet or small group or solo

That would be awsome!!!

That's basically what the UFJD in the later X3 games. Something like that might also be possible in X4 but it would have nothing whatsoever to do with ventures.