Any plans to update the X encyclopedia or provide other forms of literature?

[ZeroAffex]

Greetings gentle devs!

I am a huge fan of your game and find that I haven't been able to enjoy anything but X4F since I got back into it a few months ago. It really caters to all I crave in my sci-fi/space games and just video games in general. One of my favorite aspects that I love about X4 and the X series as a whole is the delicious lore it has to offer! The world building in your games is on another level. It's so good and well put together. I don't think I would have enjoyed this game nearly as much as I do if not for the great writing in this game. It's top notch and on par with another favorite of mine; the Witcher series. I just can't get enough of it.

As a treat for myself this Xmas, I bought the complete X series bundle on Steam to get access to all the older games but mainly for the extra goodies like the X Encyclopedia/Artbook that I haven't been able to check out since I bought the game back in 2019. And I gotta say, I LOVE the X Encyclopedia.. It was way more elaborate and detailed than I ever could of imagined and went way above my expectations.

However, I did notice that some of the newer content added in X4 is noticeably missing entries. I would imagine someday you guys have plans on updating it (I pray!) but I felt compelled to come here and ask regardless. Are there plans on updating it with the new content/changes that have been made since the last update to it? Any ETA on when that might happen?

Also, I really wanted to start reading the books for the series. Fortunately, the Steam bundle gave me a single book; Nopileos by Helge Kautz which looks epic. I haven't started it yet because I was hoping to get my hands on the others before it but that's proven to be quite difficult to do being I am from the USA. Are there any plans to make the previous books more accessible for those in the states? Would be awesome if we could buy them digitally off Steam or maybe something like Audible/Kindle. My guess towards them being hard to find here is that they're written in German and it's related to issues with traslations but am not sure. Just guessing.

That reminds me too. Are there plans to make more books for the series someday? If I remember correctly, the few books out there were written around the time of X3? Could be wrong but would be neat to have some books for more present day (X4) or maybe even leading up to X5. I'd definitely buy them up if I am able to even if I have to wait or pay extra because of the headache of getting them translated.

Main thing is I would be in heaven if I could buy the other books currently out to read somehow. Holy moly I just want to soak up as much as the lore as possible. I love the X universe so damn much <3

Lastly, since we are kind of on the subject.. But wait!

First I want to acknowledge that I know you guys are super busy with creating new content (upcoming Boron content has me over the moon with excitement!!!), bug fixes and polish right now for X4 and that I and many others appreciate that fully. Even still, I know I'd be so freaking happy if the in-game Encyclopedia received some love someday.. There are quite a few missing entries in it, the biggest offenders that come to mind off the top of my head would be for the ships. I love just being able to nerd out and read all there is to read in the in-game Encyclopedia but find myself bummed out sometimes when I come across an interesting looking ship or whatever and there's no information on it.. I know it's not really feasible, but I'd gladly pay for it, that's how much it means to me to have done haha.

So a small'ish request would be that if you guys could find the time somehow someday, it would be super appreciated if you could fluff out the in-game Encyclopedia a bit more. My hope is that you can transfer a lot the Encyclopedia from X4 to X5 so that way it's not a complete waste of time to do that for us. I know at the end of the day; most people could care less about it and would rather see you guys work on fun stuff and that's totally understandable. But for me personally and all the other people like me who are infatuated with the lore of this game, it would mean a lot to see the in-game Encyclopedia get more attention. Please consider gentle devs!

That's all. Sorry for the long read!

Thanks for your time in checking out my post and big THANK YOU for all the hard work and post-launch support over the years. I can't even begin to express into words how much I appreciate all the joy this studio has brought me over the years playing your games. Vielen Dank für all die Freude, die Sie mir im Laufe der Jahre bereitet haben. Ich liebe euch und hoffe, dass 2023 euch allen Wohlstand, Ruhe, Liebe und viel Glück bringt. Keep up the hard work my friends! Take care

-ZeroAffex

PS: If you guys ever consider going to Patreon, I'd love to buy you guys a coffee every month. I don't have much to give but I would love to contribute in keeping development going in any way I can for X4 and beyond!

TLDR:
1. Will there be updates made to the X Enclopedia as some of the newer content is missing? Any ETA if so?
2. Any plans to make the previous X series books more accessible to fans? Primarily, English reading fans like myself in the USA?
3. Any plans for new/upcoming books pertaining to events in X4 and beyond, possibly leading up to X5?
4. --Request--Would love to see the in-game Encyclopedia get updated someday as well as it's missing entries for some big things like certain ships and things like that.

Text size reduced to proper forum format - Nanook

[thegreybetween]

I'm also a big fan of the in-game encyclopedia and welcome any updates, expansions, and improvements it receives.

And while I know the underlying reasons for the change, I'll always take an opportunity like this to state that I'd really love a return to full-BETTY narration of the encyclopedia.

[X2-Illuminatus]

2. Farnham's Legend, Nopileos, and Yoshiko were translated into English and are available as Kindle ebooks. Translations of the other two books "Hüter der Tore" (Keepers of the Gates) and "Wächter der Erde" (Watchers of the Earth) were supposed to be worked on, too. But there hasn't been an update by Nathan Haines in quite a while.

[Ormac]

The only book of the series that I'm aware of that is close to the X4 period in the timeline is "Plutarch Rising" for the X-Rebirth game. It was in German though.
I was waiting for a translation of that into English.

[X2-Illuminatus]

Plutarch Rising was never finished nor released. While the German collectors edition of X Rebirth came with an extract of it, Helge later mentioned he didn't finish the book due to various reasons.

[ZeroAffex]

2. Farnham's Legend, Nopileos, and Yoshiko were translated into English and are available as Kindle ebooks. Translations of the other two books "Hüter der Tore" (Keepers of the Gates) and "Wächter der Erde" (Watchers of the Earth) were supposed to be worked on, too. But there hasn't been an update by Nathan Haines in quite a while.

That's odd. I tried looking for them on Amazon the other day and couldn't find them. I'll have to check again! Thanks for letting me know. I really hope the other books--Keepers of the Gates and Watchers of the Earth get finished up. The names of them alone have me drooling at the possibilities of what they'll contain :> Really appreciate you taking the time to let me know all this. Have a great weekend! <3

[taztaz502]

I wish they would update encyclopedia and description boxes.

They're there, there is just nothing in them.

Would take about a week to write descriptions and with some help to translate.

[CBJ]

Would take about a week to write descriptions and with some help to translate.

I get a bit tired of correcting baseless and factually incorrect claims like this, especially ones that suggest things wouldn't take much work (with the implication that people are just being lazy by not doing it) when that simply isn't the case. I have explained on a number of occasions why writing descriptions takes a lot more time and effort than that, not to mention that "some help" is a massive understatement when it comes to translating them into 12 languages.

That said, yes, we continue to work on adding descriptions for items in the game. I won't go into detail, but suffice it to say that we've added quite a few already, including both items in the base game and in the new expansion, which will be released correspondingly.

[Alan Phipps]

Heh, it takes more than a week just to independently proof-read, edit and approve draft text submissions (for each localisation), plus the time needed to draft the inputs and then to add to and submit the revised text files. Then somebody else wanted Betty to vocalise all the encyclopaedia descriptions (in each localisation ?) That needs employment of the same voice actress(es) if available.

I'm not saying that it cannot be done, just that it is non-trivial and involves dev time, cost for voice acting if necessary, and a lot of dedicated volunteer effort too.

EDIT: Dang! Ninja'd by CBJ - again.

[taztaz502]

Would take about a week to write descriptions and with some help to translate.

I get a bit tired of correcting baseless and factually incorrect claims like this, especially ones that suggest things wouldn't take much work (with the implication that people are just being lazy by not doing it) when that simply isn't the case. I have explained on a number of occasions why writing descriptions takes a lot more time and effort than that, not to mention that "some help" is a massive understatement when it comes to translating them into 12 languages.

That said, yes, we continue to work on adding descriptions for items in the game. I won't go into detail, but suffice it to say that we've added quite a few already, including both items in the base game and in the new expansion, which will be released correspondingly.

Care to elaborate? I also never said anyone was lazy just maybe it's not a priority.

I honestly don't get how writing a simple description is such a huge undertaking. If it's that difficult give us an out of game encyclopedia in German and we'll translate it ourselves.

[CBJ]

As I said, I've already explained it before on multiple occasions. It's not just a case of quickly writing a couple of lines of text, and there are many hundreds of items to write descriptions for.

I'm not sure where you get the idea that we'd have something to give people in German. All the text in the game is written in English first; German is just one of the many languages it gets translated into.

[Newinger]

I want to take the opportunity of this thread for pointing again to my X4 fan fiction screenshot comic I made last year (and whose 2nd part is still in the making):

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=445781&p=5111395#p5111395

[ZeroAffex]

I want to take the opportunity of this thread for pointing again to my X4 fan fiction screenshot comic I made last year (and whose 2nd part is still in the making):

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=445781&p=5111395#p5111395

Thanks @Newinger for sharing this! You did a great job on your comic and was a fun read. Looking forward to reading the 2nd part when you get time to finishing it.

To the gentle devs @CBJ and co., I know you guys are working really hard on so many different things and even I am a bit guilty in thinking how work on the in-game Encyclopedia was conducted with assuming it was written in German then translated, not the other way around and not into 12 different languages at that! Admittedly, I also haven't really used these forums until recently and didn't realize that topic had already come up and explanations for it given. I hope I didn't offend you or anyone else in some of my requests in regard to those things, I know I tend to get a bit overzealous at times in my excitement for stuff I am passionate about. If I did, please forgive me! <3 It was not my intentions at all. I totally understand it takes up a lot of time and want you to know as a fan, you can count on my upmost support and patience in this matter. It's just really important to me as you know but I am willing to wait as long as it takes. With that said, I can't wait to see what all you have in store for us in the future. So far in 2023 you guys have been moving at a blistering pace and I love it! These are very exciting times for X4 right now. Just hope you guys are able to get some rest in and don't work too hard with everything that's going on! Anyways, thanks for checking out my post, I appreciate it and wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors. Much love!

Oh and before I forget.. Good news @X2-Illuminatus!! I was was able to purchase 2 of the X series books on Amazon to use for Kindle! Woo hoo! Thanks for the help! I grabbed Farnham's Legend and Yoshiko Abyss of the Stars. I started reading Farnham's Legend last night and it's already epic. So I'm very very happy now! The only thing that could be better is to be able to buy physical copies of the books to have on display but truly I am just so happy to be able to read the first few now.

That's it for me. Have a great rest of the week! Take care ^_^)_//