NEWS: X3: Terran Conflict news, all in one place for your convenience - 22-10-08

[Cycrow]

Anyways, the PPC is a disapointment. It remained the same (slow speed, crappy looking projectile). Even a Discoverer could beat the PPC bullet in a straight speed race. If they only at least made it faster.......

how can you know that the PPC's are exactly the same ?

besides, the PPC's are designed to hit larger vessels, not M5's Speed doesn't really matter when you are aiming at a target that hardly moves

[Sandalpocalypse]

There's a lot of PPC shooting in the trailers. The bullet does look better, but I think it's from shaders. There are also PPC-like weapons that look different.

I find slow PPCs problematical on a number of levels... it makes dodging pretty easy, it makes kiting enemy capital ships pretty easy, and it has a sometimes-radical impact on performance because of the number of projectiles.

we'll see

[bounty_hunter66]

yea i know PPC's are for capitals but i wached all trailes and the PPC doesnt look cool if it moves that slow(in most of the games and movies, lasers usualy move fast, giving the battle more epic looks and dynamicity (i think its not spelled right). How can an energy projectile move so slow? its <ENERGY> Guess well just have to sort that out by modding

[Algoran]

yea i know PPC's are for capitals but i wached all trailes and the PPC doesnt look cool if it moves that slow(in most of the games and movies, lasers usualy move fast, giving the battle more epic looks and dynamicity (i think its not spelled right). How can an energy projectile move so slow? its <ENERGY> Guess well just have to sort that out by modding

I agree. Of course they made them like that so they couldnt hit small ships.. but wouldnt it be better to have a weapon whose turret is very large and tracks slowly, thus meaning it cant hit fighters while still having a fast moving projectile... Think HW1 ion beams

[jlehtone]

My biggest fear is: Having the new mission interface and more missions is acctualy hiding the fact that there is no PLOT, only side little missions.

What is a "plot"? Do you remember how the X3:R pre-release announcements said X3:R to have a more professional story and improved interface than in previous games? X3:TC is now told to have more elaborate story and improved interface. Progression, isn't it? (Says a pilot who preferred Scimitar in the original Wing Commander.)

Previous "teasers" have stated that you can follow the story from different starts, even as different characters. X3:R has only one start (Julian) that does one set of missions. So it seems that from different X3:TC starts one could get different sets of missions.

What is not clear whether the story remains exactly the same (and you just see it from different viewpoint), or will the story change depending on who you are. If the former, once the "plot" is over we will all have the same sandbox. If the latter, choosing the start really makes a difference.

[Paranoid66]

Jlehtone that is a very interesting point regarding Deepsilver. I guess we need to be very careful about our expectations, myself included. I was under the assumption the video releases came direct from Egosoft with approved scripts.

I indeed also recall the poor wording used to sell features in X3R. However I do believe reading between the lines from all that has been said (little though it is) that the signs are still better with X3TC.

Importantly ES are building on X3R not shifting track from one engine to another part way through game development as happened last time.

Confession I naturally assumed it would be difficult to play the exact same plot using a Terran compared to an Argon. Although I suppose he could be a defector or they could be in a firm alliance. Guess I need to remind myself about the danger of assumptions.

Speculation is fun, but nothing is certain until people are playing the final product. I was encouraged by the blog that ES had brought back that fellow who worked on the early games. A lot of good stuff (people have talked about plot wise here) seemed to have got lost from those early games despite other advancements.

I admit I have gone from being patient to eager to find out what the definite business is with X3TC. Still I would nonetheless rather wait than see ES unleash another game that badly needs patched.

Mention was made long ago about the plot so I wouldn't worry about it just being BBS style missions. Personally unless ES have radically improved the plot mission play I would be inclined to give them a miss if that option remained available to us. Conversely I would very much like to play the plot if its execution had been improved. Plot missions providing much needed extra immersion.

As change is almost always a little bit painful I'm sure their will be something lost in the mix that some of us liked. We should probably get prepared for that. All we can do is hope it isn't anything too drastic.

I noticed on utube - I think it was with the build video - some people thought X was an RTS or EVE clone. The cost of losing the cockpits and not replacing them with some other (by feel at least) obvious first person perspective home for the player?

[Tycow]

Like the better looking slim new gate

I'd hazard a guess that the slim gate is one of these "trans-sector" gates we've been hearing about...

[nirwin]

Like the better looking slim new gate

I'd hazard a guess that the slim gate is one of these "trans-sector" gates we've been hearing about...

Wasn't it trans-orbital?
Anyway, the think trailer has really got me excited about this game. As the concluding part of this particular story, I am expecting a really intense final confrontation with the Xenon.
Wonder what happened to the Kha'ak, not seen or heard about them in any of the promotional material. Perhaps peace was made, perhaps they are still a threat? I think I would prefer a little Kha'ak closure at the beginning of the game, then cue the last great Xenon war.
Should be less than a month to wait now.

[mad_axeman]

A couple of things I like about the new trailer:
1) the menu bar down the side hides itself when not in use.
2) Zuran time appears to have been dropped in favour of days, hours and minutes (I know the equivalents were the same unit sizes, but they were just hard to remember).
3) Accepting missions anywhere (presumably you get commed, or have to comm someone for this).
4) Difficulty ratings on missions.

[Tycow]

Like the better looking slim new gate

I'd hazard a guess that the slim gate is one of these "trans-sector" gates we've been hearing about...

Wasn't it trans-orbital?

That's the one... couldn't remember the exact name.

Still looks cool though! Getting very excited about X3TC... roll on the release date!

[jlehtone]

2) Zuran time appears to have been dropped in favour of days, hours and minutes (I know the equivalents were the same unit sizes, but they were just hard to remember).

Loss of cockpits or internal docking is nothing compared to loss of Zuran time. Totally kills the immersion if one cannot complete missions in Mizuras.

(I hope the Terran time-units are shown only for the Terran character. Or at least user-selectable. )

[Skeeter]

It is nice to see something new in the x games i must admit. Like large sectors have trans orbital gates to travel from north to south or somit which im guessing is like earth to mars or somit unless there diff sectors we don't know yet how its all done but its nice to see ships can go faster than max speed in systems now through these devices.

The interface while not the great x2 interface is alot better than the console looking x3r version. I think we can safely say this isn't going to console since it relies alot on the mouse now for interface and gameplay.

If only it had cockpits and interior docking i would be in heaven i think with x3 tc. I wonder if they would be up to doing a exp pack for tc just for adding in cockpits and interior docking (nothing else is needed imo).

Also its really nice to see a new fully developed race (terrans) in the x universe. I haven't finished x3 plot yet but hope to one day just to get it out of the way as i wana see the story. I might get TC but i duno all depends how long till final patch is and when its for less than a tenner. As i said if it had cockpits and interior docking it would be straight to play.com for pre order. (hint hint )

But all in all it is a breath of fresh air to see something new to the game other than better economy model or new gfx, with a new interface that looks usable still not perfect tho and more missions and a branching story arc i believe and new race added and loads more classes of ships thanks to xtm i think there called. X is finally getting a decent update that has long been needed since x2.

[pjknibbs]

I noticed on utube - I think it was with the build video - some people thought X was an RTS or EVE clone. The cost of losing the cockpits and not replacing them with some other (by feel at least) obvious first person perspective home for the player?

Probably more likely that most of the trailer takes place from a third person view so you can see the shiny shiny ships. Even without a cockpit it's not hard to tell you're in a space ship when you start shooting at something from the main cockpit view!

[bounty_hunter66]

its nice to see ships can go faster than max speed in systems now through these devices.

Are they? Or that is still a gate but with different looks (terran i guess). Meaning that if you go from Earth to Moon, using that trans orbital thing, you are not heading twards the Moon with high speed, you are actualy entering the gate and then the game loads and then, BOOM, Moon Sector.
Just like the normal X-universe gates. Yea it will be nice if the Sol System was only one sector and you could fly urself to mars or jupiter using that oribtal accelerator or just flying in open space....but i dont think so

So its a gate with another name i think....

Even without a cockpit it's not hard to tell you're in a space ship

Actualy yes it is pretty hard. You have to IMAGINE ur in a space ship. In x2 you didnt have to think of anything....cause you rly felt ur in a space ship

[MegaJohnny]

its nice to see ships can go faster than max speed in systems now through these devices.

Are they? Or that is still a gate but with different looks (terran i guess). Meaning that if you go from Earth to Moon, using that trans orbital thing, you are not heading twards the Moon with high speed, you are actualy entering the gate and then the game loads and then, BOOM, Moon Sector.
Just like the normal X-universe gates. Yea it will be nice if the Sol System was only one sector and you could fly urself to mars or jupiter using that oribtal accelerator or just flying in open space....but i dont think so

So its a gate with another name i think....

Even without a cockpit it's not hard to tell you're in a space ship

Actualy yes it is pretty hard. You have to IMAGINE ur in a space ship. In x2 you didnt have to think of anything....cause you rly felt ur in a space ship

Cockpits would be nice, but even if we don't get them in the vanilla I'm sure the Reunion mod will be converted without much hassle. But as long as you can see a part of the ship, works for me. X3 doesn't make me feel I'm in the ship, rather I AM the ship.

Also does anyone else hope there aren't any forced ship transfers in the TC plot? Yeah, compared to a Buster, the barracuda is a nice ship, but come on, my main ship is a PNR now - better in pretty much every way. Ambushed by paranid M3s and M6s? Not a problem for a PNR. The Barracuda will just have to run away, 6 BIREs durr. Maybe Saya doesn't like how my cockpit smells or something.

[nirwin]

its nice to see ships can go faster than max speed in systems now through these devices.

Are they? Or that is still a gate but with different looks (terran i guess). Meaning that if you go from Earth to Moon, using that trans orbital thing, you are not heading twards the Moon with high speed, you are actualy entering the gate and then the game loads and then, BOOM, Moon Sector.
Just like the normal X-universe gates. Yea it will be nice if the Sol System was only one sector and you could fly urself to mars or jupiter using that oribtal accelerator or just flying in open space....but i dont think so

So its a gate with another name i think....

I dunno, I'd say it's more likely a freelanceresque 'trade lane' system. My reason for saying this is that.
A: The terrans were petrified of making more Jump Gates because they are all linked and they didn't want the Xenon coming back. So they probably wouldn't have made 20 odd gates in the Sol system.
B: The gates don't tend to lead to neighbouring systems, whereas if they did in the Sol system, this would be quite a departure. Not an unreasonable one, but a departure nonetheless.
C: There is no visible jump-event in a trans-orbital ring. Haven't seen any in a gate either in any of the previews, but think they will still be there.
D: If they are in fact gates, why do they have a different name? The Terrans can make gates, so the only reason the devs would have given these things different names is because they behave differently. Maybe it's to do with the multi-destination bit, and maybe it's not.
E: Personal taste, I think an accelerator would make sectors feel much larger than they currently do, and the feeling of sectors being small is a criticism Ego have had to deal with for a long time.

Just my thoughts, can't wait to find out.

[Tycow]

I think they're meant to be like the freelancer-esque trade lanes, but probably due to system constraints, the game will have to load up the "orbit" (read: sector) that you are going into, exactly like the current gate system. I can't see how they would manage to get around the constraints of the X3 engine seeing as they've built off it in X3:TC.

In short, lore-wise, they'll be internal sector gates, propelling you to another part of the same sector, but PC equipment/game engine wise, you'll probably have to wait for things to load when entering one of these gates.

Hey, I could be wrong (and I sincerely hope I am, as transiting from one orbit to another without loading would be awesomesauce), but that's my take on things. Until we see a video of a ship entering one of these transorbit gates and coming out again, or the game is released, we won't know the true answer.

[MegaJohnny]

its nice to see ships can go faster than max speed in systems now through these devices.

Are they? Or that is still a gate but with different looks (terran i guess). Meaning that if you go from Earth to Moon, using that trans orbital thing, you are not heading twards the Moon with high speed, you are actualy entering the gate and then the game loads and then, BOOM, Moon Sector.
Just like the normal X-universe gates. Yea it will be nice if the Sol System was only one sector and you could fly urself to mars or jupiter using that oribtal accelerator or just flying in open space....but i dont think so

So its a gate with another name i think....

I dunno, I'd say it's more likely a freelanceresque 'trade lane' system. My reason for saying this is that.
A: The terrans were petrified of making more Jump Gates because they are all linked and they didn't want the Xenon coming back. So they probably wouldn't have made 20 odd gates in the Sol system.
B: The gates don't tend to lead to neighbouring systems, whereas if they did in the Sol system, this would be quite a departure. Not an unreasonable one, but a departure nonetheless.
C: There is no visible jump-event in a trans-orbital ring. Haven't seen any in a gate either in any of the previews, but think they will still be there.
D: If they are in fact gates, why do they have a different name? The Terrans can make gates, so the only reason the devs would have given these things different names is because they behave differently. Maybe it's to do with the multi-destination bit, and maybe it's not.
E: Personal taste, I think an accelerator would make sectors feel much larger than they currently do, and the feeling of sectors being small is a criticism Ego have had to deal with for a long time.

Just my thoughts, can't wait to find out.

If these trans-orbitals do work like the tradelanes do in Freelancer, connecting planets when you could also fly yourself, I think I'll explode.

[bounty_hunter66]

Yea Terrans dont build gates anymore i know. Its not a gate but it behaves like a gate. Why?

To use the orbital accelerators to travel from point A to point B without loading it will be necesary that the same points are in the same SECTOR!
Now....in one of the trailers (or the Leipzig videos) there was a part when the Universe Map was shown and you could see that there isnt ONE sector, there are many terran sectors (Jupiter1 Jupiter2 etc.). HOW can you travel from jupiter1 to jupiter2 (for example), WITHOUT ur game loading up? they are 2 diferent sectors not one sector.

So my guess is....its a terran trans orbitall accelerator, BUT....it behaves like a normal gate

[Demotruk]

Didn't one of the things that were translated from German mention the ability to go to deep space between sectors? Perhaps the layout of sectors has changed, so that the boxes are not closed as they are in X3.