Devs please read! | An Old Dog that doesn't like the new tricks

[Dreamora]

I know that people are going to hate on me for this post but I'm going to post it anyway.

I have been a customer of Egosoft since the first X game was released. I distinctly remember fighting my best friend over getting computer time on his dads old intel pentium computer to play this with a voodoo graphics card. I have remained a loyal customer of Egosoft specifically because they never went as far as to exploit their customer base with marketing gimmicks trying to milk every penny from their customers. The relationship Egosoft has with its customer base is special, and has become somewhat of an endangered species among the gaming community.

I own everything egosoft has released, and I had planned on continuing to support the company until the day I die. But I am beginning to question some of the things they are doing lately. One specific thing that has now pushed me over the edge of making a decision is this new “Mini DLC”.

Egosoft, for nearly 30 years you have been a great company that I am proud to be supporting. I have enjoyed your products, and even though you change things around, for the most part I have been on board. The last few years beginning with X4 you changed your marketing strategy to only release chunks of the game at a time, making each race and sector an expansion that carries a price tag, a reasonable fee to support development, or so you pitched it this way. I did not like this, but I kept paying anyway thinking maybe we got something better with this model.

I am afraid now you have seen the willingness of your customers to pay this extra “fee” for compartmentalized pieces of the game and are now getting too greedy by releasing this “Mini DLC”. I also know that you have one of the lead Developers from Star Citizen who has recently joined you. As a 13 year backer of SC, I can hands down tell you what a dumpster fire that game and its marketing strategy is, and if you continue down this road, you will alienate ALL of your customers for a few pennies rather than 30 years of loyalty.

You are at a crossroads, Are you going to milk pennies from us and have high turnover fans, or are you going to choose loyal fans willing to stick with you for life because you treat us right.

Please make the right decision.

-Sincerely a 26 year loyal customer.

[Falcrack]

And as another loyal player here of X games for many years, I see absolutely nothing wrong with mini DLCs that offer a handful of ships. If Egosoft wants to create content in the form of ships, I am more than willing to pay them for that content if it is good.

[LameFox]

I'm tentatively optimistic about the smaller DLCs. It's certainly something that can get out of hand if done extensively, and I think when you go down the Paradox route it can be a barrier to getting into a game when you see it's like 6+ years old and costs hundreds of dollars in DLCs. But I do also want more ship variety in the game, and so far they've done that by expanding it outwards—new factions, new sectors, a greater population of entities being tracked. That obviously can't go on forever without tanking performance, and I think at some point it becomes necessary to expand inwardly instead. Whether that's by smaller DLCs focused on adding a few new ships here and there, or working on building a more refined version of the game to release in a stand-alone way like they've done in the past. Or first one and then the other.

[flywlyx]

a handful of ships.

Just a minor correction—it will be a single ship.
I’m still waiting for the price tag before deciding how I feel about it.

But I do also want more ship variety in the game,
...
Whether that's by smaller DLCs focused on adding a few new ships here and there, or working on building a more refined version of the game to release in a stand-alone way like they've done in the past. Or first one and then the other.

This is the way.
Adding more ships for both players and NPCs will significantly expand the game's potential.

[Hector0x]

Free patches don't put food on the table. My guess is that they don't want shrinkflation but their next big priced content is too far out so they have no choice.

[Thomas2052]

You raise a valid point, op, about the direction of gaming - where companies commodify and paywall features that arguably should have been covered by the base cost of the game, all for a cynical cash stream or cash grab.

Having said that, I do not think this is the case with Egosoft.

Patch 7.0 came with a wealth of new features that arguably could have been a DLC in its own right. But they did not charge.

Patch 7.5 is shaping up the same, with new sectors, a whole new engine, and whatever else, with again no charge.

These are only the last two I can recall, and I recall how much I hated X4 when I first tried it at launch, to the (rookie) 1000+ hours I have spent on it now, thanks to those improvements, all without charge.

The only other game I can think of with such a committed approach to post-development growth is HelloGames with No Man's Sky (maybe we should pool together to buy a billboard outside Egosoft's offices too!)

I think we forget we are quite a niche market, and they are not exactly an AAA company, and do need funding.

I didn't really like Timelines, but I bought it because it was brave of them to take it in a new direction, and ultimately I want to keep this game, universe and company going.

I will reserve judgement on the cost of this mini DLC (I'm hoping for sub £5 GBP but that is just a random number), but I will gladly buy as it seems to offer something that interests me. And the fact that you seem to miss nothing if you decide is not for you in your day to day play is admirable to me.

Regards

[alt3rn1ty]

You won't get any flack from this community. People here as you probably know with your long experience are a good crowd, above average intelligence and kind.

I think similar thoughts have crossed the minds of all of us long term fans of Egosoft and their games at one time or another. But I dont think there is anything to be concerned about.

Egosoft are doing things very nicely, its already been mentioned that we get more free content added over the course of the literal years of development, the DLCs are well worth the money spent, and I think the same is going to be for this new Hyperion mini DLC, its not like Horse Armour for Oblivion, its a really nice ship (Linolafett on his own probably put many many hours just into the 3D design/creation/artwork of the model) in its capabilities, its balancing, plus Quest programming plus new sector.

After all the years supporting Egosoft who have never financially risen to the dizzy heights of a triple A, but rather have moderated excellent products development and considered fans of the game above any greed or aspirations. They keep a complex game and its company afloat in a very challenging market.

I'm of the same opinion as Thomas2052 ..

[Gregory]

First of all, thank you for your dedication and support over the past 26 years. It truly means a lot to us to have such passionate and long-time players in our community.

With regard to the Mini DLC, our goal is to continue expanding X4 in a way that offers meaningful content while maintaining our commitment to long-term support for the game. We know that our approach has evolved over the years, and we want to reassure you that our core value remains the same: delivering deep, long-term gameplay experiences without aggressive monetization practices.

As outlined in our roadmap news, our primary focus in 2025 is on delivering consistent and impactful improvements to the base game. Just as in the past, these base game updates will be free for all existing X4 players. At the same time, purchases of the Mini DLC, such as the upcoming X4: Hyperion Pack, will help support our ongoing development efforts.

If you haven’t seen it yet, we shared more details about our short- to mid-term plans for X4, including both free updates and Mini DLCs, in our roadmap update from November 2024. You can find it here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... 8304123197

[linolafett]

[...] Linolafett on his own probably put many many hours just into the 3D design/creation/artwork of the model [...]

Just to chime in as well, the ship was made by my beloved coworkers Jerzy and Yasmine.
I am doing the art direction to just nudge them onto the right design path

[alt3rn1ty]

Wowser, so 3 specialists wages involved in just the design of one ship (regardless of all other development aspects of this mini dlc).
I'll be supporting

[vvvvvvvv]

You are at a crossroads, Are you going to milk

I sort of see where you're coming from, but I've seen games where things are far worse, and from the looks of it X4 situation isn't one of them.

Space Engineers: They (used to) release minimum effort decorative packs, with few objects each.
Elite Dangerous: Pay 2 win. New ships are announced as a grand event, released first as "early access" where for months they can be only bought with in-game currency. Purchased ships are can be rebuilt for free, giving advantage to donation players.
Paradox (Stellaris): Sneakily makes game unplayable without DLCs. Bazillion DLCs.

I'm not listing SC, because I never played it.

This does not, at this moment, resemble what X4 is trying to do. For now as long as the ship is good, this look like a good buy. Though I do hope this thing has continuous interior. Continuous interior is the reason why I played astrid.

[adeine]

You are at a crossroads, Are you going to milk

I sort of see where you're coming from, but I've seen games where things are far worse, and from the looks of it X4 situation isn't one of them.

This is not a good way of looking at it, there's always worse in terms of monetisation.

[Raptor34]

I didn't see anyone complain when Egosoft gave us 4-5 FREE L class ships. Might even have been more because I don't really remember non-combat ships.

[chew-ie]

@Raptor34 Excellent point!

[mr.WHO]

I didn't see anyone complain when Egosoft gave us 4-5 FREE L class ships. Might even have been more because I don't really remember non-combat ships.

I complain about missing Gannascus - once again owners of Tides of Avarice lack ships.

[Raptor34]

I didn't see anyone complain when Egosoft gave us 4-5 FREE L class ships. Might even have been more because I don't really remember non-combat ships.

I complain about missing Gannascus - once again owners of Tides of Avarice lack ships.

Thanks for reminding me that we actually got 10+ free ships.
Also on further thought, the CV redesign is frankly wasted effort imo, would have done better as other ship types instead. After all, since the build portion is separated out from TLs, you don't really use CVs for anything.

[Feloidea]

Also on further thought, the CV redesign is frankly wasted effort imo, would have done better as other ship types instead. After all, since the build portion is separated out from TLs, you don't really use CVs for anything.

I would have to respectfully disagree. It's not a big change, nor is it something you particularly often look at yourself, but just cruising through the universe doing my stuff and just seeing these builders in the process it looks better with them having faction-specific looks instead of all being the same.

This sort of attention to small details really adds up to make a not insignificant difference to how the universe looks and feels.

[vvvvvvvv]

This is not a good way of looking at it, there's always worse in terms of monetisation.

Well, the ways I listed are ones I'm not okay with, and current one is the way I'm okay with. Unless that hyperion will be priced at SC level, of course.

[Alan Phipps]

As the thread often diverges from the OP's topic, it would be interesting to get the OP's view of the given dev response.

[flywlyx]

I didn't see anyone complain when Egosoft gave us 4-5 FREE L class ships. Might even have been more because I don't really remember non-combat ships.

People complain that Timeline adds significantly fewer ships compared to other DLCs, but I’d say it’s the same situation. The manpower was allocated to developing the free update, which explains the smaller number of new ships.