Announcing X4: Split Vendetta and update 3.0

[Tamina]

We will see about that

[Lazerius]

I’m going to start off this post by saying I have 3-4+ thousand Hours in X3 (all versions) and nearly 900 hours in this game (for X4 - minimum Seta, all ATK).

Problem is in X4, practically none are within the past 3 months.

There’s dozens of major game breaking and enjoyment destroying issues in the game right now that’s keeping players from playing as it is, most of which have existed since launch. Looking at the current Steam trends: https://steamcharts.com/app/392160 I’m curious, at what point did you guys decide a near full info blackout was a good idea?

This isn’t the story of Shawn Murray of No Man’s Sky (who’s communicated 10x as much as ES on X4).

This is Egosoft/X4. You guys are pissing off your long term fans, and if you don’t give us something to actually rebuild some confidence in you and bring us back to your side, Egosoft and the X series aren’t going to have any loyalist left come Q4 19. At this point, I wouldn’t pay a dime for DLC, and judging by the activity on the forums, Reddit and Steam, there aren’t many out there who would either.

Please hire somebody for Marketing and community relations. As it stands, your current approach is demonizing you to those of us who had full faith in the past.

[Senar]

We have this text in the last news issue

"For the first time ever, EGOSOFT will have its own booth at gamescom in Cologne, the world's largest event for computer and video games. You can meet us from August 20 to August 24 2019 in the new "Indie Village" in hall 10.2. Drop by and take a first look at the "X4: Split Vendetta" expansion and the big 3.0 update to "X4: Foundations" before they are released together in the fourth quarter of 2019. We are looking forward to meeting you at gamescom!"

So, in a week or so we will have some information about 3.0 and Split Vendetta DLC.

[Blower68]

Please hire somebody for Marketing and community relations. As it stands, your current approach is demonizing you to those of us who had full faith in the past.

This already took place. There ist now somebody hired for Marketing. I asume to hear more during and after the current GamesCom

[Tamina]

1. They got a marketing guy recently (Gregory)
2. They are on Gamescom starting today until 24.08 (Indie Village at booth E028b):
You can play a demo of Split Vendetta and 3.0 at the booth
3. On Friday 23rd, at 14 o'clock they are live on stage of Gamestar (biggest game magazine in Germany)
4. At 17 o'clock they are live at RocketBeansTV (also German)
5. On Saturday 24th, author Helge Kautz is going to hold an autograph session and is there to talk

With Gregory, Egosoft's Twitter and other social media accounts got way more active, have a look, but of course they seem to be extremely busy with Gamescom at the moment.

Don't panic and keep calm Let's see what Gamescom and the days after is going to reveal, shall we?

[teleportationwars]

1. They got a marketing guy recently (Gregory)
2. They are on Gamescom starting today until 24.08 (Indie Village at booth E028b):
You can play a demo of Split Vendetta and 3.0 at the booth
3. On Friday 23rd, at 14 o'clock they are live on stage of Gamestar (biggest game magazine in Germany)
4. At 17 o'clock they are live at RocketBeansTV (also German)
5. On Saturday 24th, author Helge Kautz is going to hold an autograph session and is there to talk

With Gregory, Egosoft's Twitter and other social media accounts got way more active, have a look, but of course they seem to be extremely busy with Gamescom at the moment.

Don't panic and keep calm Let's see what Gamescom and the days after is going to reveal, shall we?

What social media accounts do they have beside Twitter and Youtube?

[chew-ie]

What social media accounts do they have beside Twitter and Youtube?

Instagram & FB

[MegaJohnny]

1. They got a marketing guy recently (Gregory)
2. They are on Gamescom starting today until 24.08 (Indie Village at booth E028b):
You can play a demo of Split Vendetta and 3.0 at the booth
3. On Friday 23rd, at 14 o'clock they are live on stage of Gamestar (biggest game magazine in Germany)
4. At 17 o'clock they are live at RocketBeansTV (also German)
5. On Saturday 24th, author Helge Kautz is going to hold an autograph session and is there to talk

With Gregory, Egosoft's Twitter and other social media accounts got way more active, have a look, but of course they seem to be extremely busy with Gamescom at the moment.

Don't panic and keep calm Let's see what Gamescom and the days after is going to reveal, shall we?

Excited! I hope we get a few more scraps of footage.

[Axeface]

Is recording allowed at the booth? Can we expect vids on youtube from it?

[Cabrelbeuk]

I hope so. But I am surprised it is already playable when the public beta is not on yet.

Really excited !

[spankahontis]

Yey!! More pre-alpha footage mixed up as post-release graphics arguments on the forums! My parts are practically tingling with anticipation!

[chew-ie]

1. They got a marketing guy recently (Gregory)
2. They are on Gamescom starting today until 24.08 (Indie Village at booth E028b):
You can play a demo of Split Vendetta and 3.0 at the booth
3. On Friday 23rd, at 14 o'clock they are live on stage of Gamestar (biggest game magazine in Germany)
4. At 17 o'clock they are live at RocketBeansTV (also German)
5. On Saturday 24th, author Helge Kautz is going to hold an autograph session and is there to talk

With Gregory, Egosoft's Twitter and other social media accounts got way more active, have a look, but of course they seem to be extremely busy with Gamescom at the moment.

Don't panic and keep calm Let's see what Gamescom and the days after is going to reveal, shall we?

Excited! I hope we get a few more scraps of footage.

You guys might want to check this thread on reddit - Shehriazad visited the egosoft booth & asked some questions.

[Axeface]

1. They got a marketing guy recently (Gregory)
2. They are on Gamescom starting today until 24.08 (Indie Village at booth E028b):
You can play a demo of Split Vendetta and 3.0 at the booth
3. On Friday 23rd, at 14 o'clock they are live on stage of Gamestar (biggest game magazine in Germany)
4. At 17 o'clock they are live at RocketBeansTV (also German)
5. On Saturday 24th, author Helge Kautz is going to hold an autograph session and is there to talk

With Gregory, Egosoft's Twitter and other social media accounts got way more active, have a look, but of course they seem to be extremely busy with Gamescom at the moment.

Don't panic and keep calm Let's see what Gamescom and the days after is going to reveal, shall we?

Excited! I hope we get a few more scraps of footage.

You guys might want to check this thread on reddit - Shehriazad visited the egosoft booth & asked some questions.

"Will the Borons return as a real faction at some point?
We want the Borons in the game so eventually yes, we want to do it. But we also want to do it right. So every Boron ship would need something like an aquarium/fish tank and we also want the design to "be" Boron which will take time."

This is infuriating... talk about creating hurdles for yourself. Every ship currently in X4 has a button that npcs on the ship press and get magically transported to an unreachable invisible room, some ships have crews of hundreds that are in this magic room - and they still are set in the 'boron need a tank' mindset............ so upsetting for someone thats obsessed with Boron. Sick of this.

[chew-ie]

'boron need a tank' mindset

Quite reasonable in my book. At the end X4 is the next step of the series - not just X3 with better graphics.

That also implies that the representation of the X lore will evolve - not just be there for the sake of having everything in place in order to have nice ships.

[Axeface]

At the end X4 is the next step of the series - not just X3 with better graphics.
That also implies that the representation of the X lore will evolve - not just be there for the sake of having everything in place in order to have nice ships.

Tanks are being quoted as a hurdle towards getting the Boron which means they are essential in the eyes of their game designers, no? Adding a simple room to a ship is nothing, the art side of it is not the problem (one of the games interior corridors, the white one, was made in a couple of days). A lot of assumptions can be made from this. It implies that in their mind a tank is essential for a Boron to exist on one of their ships - this brings with it a whole host of other possible implications that seem to put the whole idea of them even being added at all (and playable) questionable... Playable Boron gamestart for example, that I really really want is doubtful. I also dont want to have them as a 'half race'... always hidden behind a tank with little interaction, I want to talk to them and see them moving around, I want to hire them as crew for my ships, I want to play one (I almost exclusively play boron in x3). Just the statement that a tank is an issue raises red flags everywhere for me. Have you seen the art book that came with X4? Their concept people have already devised ways for boron to exist without tanks... Ide hope that their game designers are paying attention.
My point is, it doesnt need to be complicated and by implying it is tells me that they think it is complicated.

I agree wholeheartedly that X4 should move the lore forward though, but this to me means boron existing without aquariums being necessary.

[chew-ie]

My point is, it doesnt need to be complicated and by implying it is tells me that they think it is complicated.

Got that so far - and I understand your concerns. But every time Egosoft was asked about the Borons they stated they'd love to have them - but it isn't that easy. Despite a lot of people thinking Egosoft is just implementing random decisions they actually work on problems like that and try to find solutions [within their reach].

We already discussed that topic on how to bring Borons into the game at the german forums and had quite different opinions about that. It seems indeed to be a complicated issue.

[mr.WHO]

The answer about Borons seem like indication that they won't be the DLC2.
I'm fine with this as long as DLC2 will be Terran.

[Alee Enn]

The way I read it was, that the problem isn't so much the Boron needing a tank, but how do you, as a player who can walk around without needing a tank, share a cockpit with a Boron who does need a tank? How does a newly hired Boron pilot fly your non-Boron ship?

[Axeface]

We already discussed that topic on how to bring Borons into the game at the german forums and had quite different opinions about that. It seems indeed to be a complicated issue.

I started a thread about it too and we came to many conclusions, all of which confirmed my idea that they dont need to be complicated at all. For example they can breathe air, its in the books. Essentially, adding the Boron (if you dont create artificial hurdles and make it harder than it needs to be) is exactly the same as adding any other race. You just have a character model that floats, thats it, thats the only difference - its just some animations. The art can handle the rest of the implied lore (such as making the internal geometry of their ships imply that the boron can flood it with liquid if they so desire).

Maybe all this is me spouting hot air and im juming the gun, but I dont think so. Im worried. And yeh every time they have been asked they have given another example of why they think its complicated - such as the 'its hard to animate them flapping around on the floor' . I think the truth is they havent done it yet because they simply dont like the boron as much as the other races.

The answer about Borons seem like indication that they won't be the DLC2.
I'm fine with this as long as DLC2 will be Terran.

INDEED.

[DaMuncha]

I dont see why this is a problem, Have only Borons on Boron Ships and Stations. Except for the docking bay. Its not like we can actually walk around on stations anyway.