what i want in X-rebirth

[hawat]

No, I haven't but now watching some videos on youtube. thank you
I'm going to look at the online retailers, I think this might be a good pass time while waiting for x rebirth.

[Legionnaire]

I tried nexus a while back, but it sort of feel by the wayside, think that was about when i discovered X-tended for X3, was having a root through my games earlier on and found it again, so i might have to re-install and see if i can finish it this time.

Legionnaire

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

The ability to create custom game starts from the menu.

love this idea.

[THE_TrashMan]

Software that acts like software - you don't have to be docked to buy it, and you can remote install it on all of your ships.

How much better would it be if yo ucould jsut use the trading system extension to purchase Fight Command Mk2 for all of your fighters with a single click.

[builder680]

Meh, software gets to be a hassle. I think even with better software installation ability and such (remote and multiple installations at once), it'd still be a hassle. I'd prefer ships just came preloaded with the commands, even if it means losing some gameplay options (ala M6 traders). Yeah, it would cost some flexibility... but as it stands I just don't engage in battles that may have major attrition because of the pain of reequipping every ship with software. For me at least, that limiting factor outweighs the limiting factor of just designing ships for certain jobs to begin with. I'm probably in the minority in this respect though.

[Progress-M]

I see where you are coming from, yet the thing is I really like the little things that make X that much more complex.

[builder680]

Absolutely. In some ways I like this particular aspect too. I guess it could be a case of cognitive dissonance. It's fun to have the options, but I don't like the tedious nature of those options when multiplied by dozens/hundreds/thousands of ships.

[Progress-M]

Yes, of course. I guess it's then becomes a matter of developing tools for the player to keep things streamlined despite the exponential growth in volume...advanced resource management. Of course, the easier way is to just make things simpler from the start. I just hope they're not going to do that.

[CutterJohn1]

The software/upgrades were badly handled in X games. It was treated in a method that defied all sense. It couldn't be bought in bulk and transported like a normal ware. It couldn't be transmitted like software. It couldn't even be manufactured by the player.

So.. Yeah. I don't mind the complexity of having those upgrades, but I should also be able to send a ship out(or go myself) and purchase stocks of them.

[frankzappa]

I like Terran Conflict. The only tweaks I would like for Rebirth are these:


1) I need more complexity and depth to combat. Lots of different weapons, blast with one lazer to slow them down, then another to disable shields, then shoot a damage over time beam, then a big blast etc.. Use the really good RPG battles you can get in some games, as a guide for good combat. Buffs (resistance to different things / protection), debuffs (remove their protection), damage over time, direct damage, crowd control, utility, fear/enfeeblement/cripple/charm/etc.. see AD&D. Also combat that requires balancing something. For example if you unload too much, you anger all nearby enemies, you overheat, you use lots of power, etc... So the player has to balance things, do you unload to get rid of someone quick? Or do you attack carefully and make sure you can last for a long fight?

2) I need there to be a reason to progress. It's no good becoming a billionaire if there is nothing to do with it besides build even more boring stuff... I like Space Rangers 2 because first you trade, then you do some good missions and get even richer, and then eventually when you are really rich, you can finally start taking on The Dominators which are really difficult to fight. But whenever I re-play the game, I like knowing that there is a reward to my hard work - the big end game battles against huge dangerous dominator ships in their controlled sectors.

3) Ideally I would like to be able to go to planets like you could in Elite. But this is only a wish, not really a need. I expect this might be too hard to achieve without a new engine / far bigger budget. Unless the planets were mostly barren and desert like perhaps. But whatever, it's mainly 1 and 2 I am interested in.

[98abaile]

Rapid fire dumb rocket pods.

[BlitzPig_Ham]

I just hope the move away from the current sectors to somewhere new. I have had my fill of re-exploring Kingdoms End etc all again and again when I had been there previously.

I also hope this is a large leap rather than just a cosmetic facelift as was between the last two games.

Still it looks nice but so did / does X3.

[THE_TrashMan]

I like Terran Conflict. The only tweaks I would like for Rebirth are these:


1) I need more complexity and depth to combat. Lots of different weapons, blast with one lazer to slow them down, then another to disable shields, then shoot a damage over time beam, then a big blast etc.. Use the really good RPG battles you can get in some games, as a guide for good combat. Buffs (resistance to different things / protection), debuffs (remove their protection), damage over time, direct damage, crowd control, utility, fear/enfeeblement/cripple/charm/etc.. see AD&D. Also combat that requires balancing something. For example if you unload too much, you anger all nearby enemies, you overheat, you use lots of power, etc... So the player has to balance things, do you unload to get rid of someone quick? Or do you attack carefully and make sure you can last for a long fight?

2) I need there to be a reason to progress. It's no good becoming a billionaire if there is nothing to do with it besides build even more boring stuff... I like Space Rangers 2 because first you trade, then you do some good missions and get even richer, and then eventually when you are really rich, you can finally start taking on The Dominators which are really difficult to fight. But whenever I re-play the game, I like knowing that there is a reward to my hard work - the big end game battles against huge dangerous dominator ships in their controlled sectors.

1.)
Space is not AD&D or a MMO. I love AD&D, but I dont' want to see it in space. Different weapons with different effects? Yes.

Look at FS2 ithat regrad, not MMO's.
You got the morningstar, a weapon that impacts random momentum, effectively pushing and twisting the enemy.
Flail, a weapon that slows hte enemy down, drainign it's engines. Excellent for slowing down fast enemies.
Disruptors, that are used to knock out subsystems, but are pretty much useless agaisnt anything else.
Maxims, that rip the hull apart with ease but are ineffective agasint shield.
Banshee, which is a reverse.
Etc...


2.)
Space Ranges 2? Decent game...nothing more. Gets boring and repetetive really fast. The little text adventures where the highpoint.

[Legionnaire]

With regards to upgrading ships, i feel that certain types should come with basic software already fitted to make them useable, modify whats installed through the S/M/L screen, so when you buy 10 fighters( for example, assuming you can still bulk buy) the small option would give you basic shields and weapons like now, and fight command 1 the medium gives mid range shields and guns, and mid level tunings, and has fight 2 installed, plus a duplex scanner, and the l has max weapons and shields triplex scanner etc.

Or give us the option to be able to say what software/hardware we want on the ships and then charge us appropriately, one of the things thats bugs me about the current game engine is how long it takes to setup/replace a carrier and all its fighters, we need options for equip like this or mass equip or similar so all fighters of the same type are equipped the same way on the same ship. but might be slightly differently equipped the same way on another ship.

I would also like to see the ability to get our own shipyards where we can setup aramaters for how ships are equipped when built. ie build me 60 of these equipped this way, yes it should take a while not be instant, but it would make things more believeable. At least i believe it would.

I'm also hoping that internal docking is back in, i loved being able to provide stations with their own defense force that actually meant when you attacked a station, it would launch fighters at you ( unfortunately no longer used after X-2)

with regards to things like missiles, i was very disappointed with them in x3:TC the swarm was a nice idea, but at times it feels like they were a waste of time, due to them swirling round as they go, they miss ships, then turn and miss and turn and miss, eventually running out of fuel and self destructing. a lot of the other missiles are too slow to be of any use against their targets, and if something is fast enough to hit, it normally doesnt have enough payload to do damage to what it has hit. Not sure how it would work, but i would like to see (for example) fifferent ships being able to carry fewer types of missiles, based on their size class, so m5's would be things like mosquito and wasp, disruptor and rapier/poltergeist for example, or the new 'equivalents'

I would also like to see a new enemy that is a threat again like when the Khaak first appeared, or to pull an idea from freespace 2 the Shiva, a race so advanced, their ships totally outclass you and it takes a lot of skill or multiple to be able to take them down to start with, then add in newer weapons that are available as you progress through the plot, dont have everything available right at the beginning.

I have plenty of other things i would like to see but i think thats enough for 1 post

Legionnaire

[BlitzPig_Ham]

Not saying Mass Effect as that is a seperate entity but the story line is excellent.

We could have more station interaction so there is a true feeling of story rather than go hear..drop this...pick this up...destroy this. Just to give a certain level of immersion.

As for the AD&D comments this is NOT an MMO!

[CutterJohn1]

As for the AD&D comments this is NOT an MMO!

Neither is AD&D.


While there are many ideals from a diceroll rpg that may not fit into a space shooter, certain ideas are not bad, if handled appropriately. For instance, the idea of buffs and debuffs can be handled just fine, in the form of EWAR ships, or command ships. One messes with enemy targetting, the other buffs. Homeworld dealt fine with the concept of group bonuses derived from ships present in the fleet.

[WindsOfBoreas]

Or give us the option to be able to say what software/hardware we want on the ships and then charge us appropriately, one of the things thats bugs me about the current game engine is how long it takes to setup/replace a carrier and all its fighters, we need options for equip like this or mass equip or similar so all fighters of the same type are equipped the same way on the same ship. but might be slightly differently equipped the same way on another ship.

I would also like to see the ability to get our own shipyards where we can setup aramaters for how ships are equipped when built. ie build me 60 of these equipped this way, yes it should take a while not be instant, but it would make things more believeable. At least i believe it would.

What you are suggesting with having your own shipyard you could also be able to do with a NPC shipyard. Say you buy one or two ships from them every now and again, the management there isn't going to pay you much attention. However, if you're buying ten Novas at a whack and equipping them all the same, they might want to make your transactions easier in the future by allowing you to setup an account with them. This would enable you to save preferential specifications to ships.

with regards to things like missiles, i was very disappointed with them in x3:TC the swarm was a nice idea, but at times it feels like they were a waste of time, due to them swirling round as they go, they miss ships, then turn and miss and turn and miss, eventually running out of fuel and self destructing. a lot of the other missiles are too slow to be of any use against their targets, and if something is fast enough to hit, it normally doesnt have enough payload to do damage to what it has hit. Not sure how it would work, but i would like to see (for example) fifferent ships being able to carry fewer types of missiles, based on their size class, so m5's would be things like mosquito and wasp, disruptor and rapier/poltergeist for example, or the new 'equivalents'

As far as missiles go, they did not have great efficacy against fighters. The Windstalker Missile, however, was perfect for its homing with decent turning and payload against M4s and M5s (it could just about down a M3 with the shields down). I've always taken this missile and modded in a multiple warhead missile with slightly less damage to take out groups of fighters - especially Kha'ak clusters as the released ships always have a few seconds of idle time before they begin attacking.

____________________________________________________________


Another thing that would be a good addition, I think, would be allowances for friendly fire on stations. In X3TC, when a station hired you to protect it from a group of pirates or Xenon, the fighters generally would reach the station before you could deal with them all. Once there, many of the fighters would just ram themselves into the station's hull, but some would still maneuver properly as to keep attacking. Now when I always got to the station to shoot the remaining fighters, I would have perfectly aligned shots but could not take them as some of the bolts would hit the station (or hit neighboring stations if the lifetime was long enough) which would, of course, turn them into an enemy saying that some race ships were on their way. The owners of the station, however, should know that if I'm trying to stop a greater damage from being done, they're probably going to get hit by the odd stray bullet.

To the suggestion, if you hit the station and there's still say 25% of the shield remaining, you get a warning from the station to be careful, but nothing ultimately happens. If it's below 25%, the bolt may actually get through to the hull and once the mission is done, they'll take a percentage of the damages out of your pay.


Edit: Another suggestion...

Make modding the stats of assets - ships, stations, missiles, guns, bullets - be easier as well as adding new assets. An XML format could work. Example: you have the directory "ships" and inside could be a XML file for each ship like this:

Code: Select all

<ship name="Nova">
  <race>Argon</race>
  <class>M3</class>
  <model>whatever_it_is.iforget</model>
  <shipyards>
    <shipyard>Argon Prime</shipyard>
    <shipyard>Omicron Lyrae</shipyard>
  </shipyards>
  <turrets>
    <turret name="Front">
      <gun name="High Energy Plasma Thrower" />
      <gun name="Impulse Ray Emitter" />
      <gun name="Ion Disruptor" />
      <gun name="Particle Accelerator Cannon" />      
    </turret>
    <turret name="Rear">
      <gun name="Impulse Ray Emitter" />
      <gun name="Particle Accelerator Cannon" />     
    </turret>
  </turrets>
</ship>

There would be more in there, but that's enough to get the general idea. The format could also be a simple one of "race=Argon". In this way, adding a new ship into the game is as simple as just adding a new file.

[frankzappa]

I like Terran Conflict. The only tweaks I would like for Rebirth are these:


1) I need more complexity and depth to combat. Lots of different weapons, blast with one lazer to slow them down, then another to disable shields, then shoot a damage over time beam, then a big blast etc.. Use the really good RPG battles you can get in some games, as a guide for good combat. Buffs (resistance to different things / protection), debuffs (remove their protection), damage over time, direct damage, crowd control, utility, fear/enfeeblement/cripple/charm/etc.. see AD&D. Also combat that requires balancing something. For example if you unload too much, you anger all nearby enemies, you overheat, you use lots of power, etc... So the player has to balance things, do you unload to get rid of someone quick? Or do you attack carefully and make sure you can last for a long fight?

2) I need there to be a reason to progress. It's no good becoming a billionaire if there is nothing to do with it besides build even more boring stuff... I like Space Rangers 2 because first you trade, then you do some good missions and get even richer, and then eventually when you are really rich, you can finally start taking on The Dominators which are really difficult to fight. But whenever I re-play the game, I like knowing that there is a reward to my hard work - the big end game battles against huge dangerous dominator ships in their controlled sectors.

1.)
Space is not AD&D or a MMO. I love AD&D, but I dont' want to see it in space. Different weapons with different effects? Yes.

Look at FS2 ithat regrad, not MMO's.
You got the morningstar, a weapon that impacts random momentum, effectively pushing and twisting the enemy.
Flail, a weapon that slows hte enemy down, drainign it's engines. Excellent for slowing down fast enemies.
Disruptors, that are used to knock out subsystems, but are pretty much useless agaisnt anything else.
Maxims, that rip the hull apart with ease but are ineffective agasint shield.
Banshee, which is a reverse.
Etc...


2.)
Space Ranges 2? Decent game...nothing more. Gets boring and repetetive really fast. The little text adventures where the highpoint.

You totally missed the points of my post, both of them. I'm not asking for D&D or SR2.

The D&D point is that I want thoughtful combat. Pew pew pew lazer fights can only take me so far, and for those of us who grew up playing the Wing Commander, Xwing, Elite, and Freespace games, it's a tired old kind of gameplay that I would like to see evolve. It seems to me that the best way to take it forward is to look at the RPG genre. I'm not saying turn it in to an RPG, I'm saying look at what they do to make combat thoughtful. It should still be fast paced real time shooting combat, but I would like to see a variety of weapons that have different effects, and the player has to choose to use the best ones for the best situation. That is what RPG combat is all about.

As for Space Rangers 2, I didn't say anything about it being a decent game or more, and that isn't even relevant. I am only specifically talking about how it gave you a long term objective, and I liked that. For my first weeks of playing, it was just a typical space trading game with text based missions etc. But even after getting good weapons and upgrading my ship, there were large parts of the galaxy that were instant death for me. I liked that, because it gave me motivation. Whenever the trading started to feel tiresome, I was motivated to continue because I wanted to progress to the point that I could go in these dangerous places. After more weeks of playing, when my gear got REALLY good, I could finally venture in to the Dominator controlled regions of space, and the battles were extremely difficult. I never got bored of the game, because I constantly had a goal to strive towards. Even when I was fighting the Dominators successfully, I still wanted more money and better ships with better gear, because I wanted it to be less deadly.

That's what I want for the new X game. A criticism of the current games is that you get richer and richer and richer but there is no real point to it, and no real enemies to challenge you when you get to that point. So I would like to see regions of space that are filled with huge battleships and swarms of powerful enemies that I am scared to even go near. Then only after playing it for months or more, when I'm super rich and have my own battleship and fleets of fighters to help me, can I survive in these dangerous places.

I hope you can understand that. I don't want to see any more replies about mmo's..

[THE_TrashMan]

As for the AD&D comments this is NOT an MMO!

Neither is AD&D.


While there are many ideals from a diceroll rpg that may not fit into a space shooter, certain ideas are not bad, if handled appropriately. For instance, the idea of buffs and debuffs can be handled just fine, in the form of EWAR ships, or command ships. One messes with enemy targetting, the other buffs. Homeworld dealt fine with the concept of group bonuses derived from ships present in the fleet.

Thanks, but no thanks. I don't want no activated "special powers".
Keep it simple - flying, shooting, trading.

[THE_TrashMan]

You totally missed the points of my post, both of them. I'm not asking for D&D or SR2.

The D&D point is that I want thoughtful combat. Pew pew pew lazer fights can only take me so far, and for those of us who grew up playing the Wing Commander, Xwing, Elite, and Freespace games, it's a tired old kind of gameplay that I would like to see evolve. It seems to me that the best way to take it forward is to look at the RPG genre. I'm not saying turn it in to an RPG, I'm saying look at what they do to make combat thoughtful. It should still be fast paced real time shooting combat, but I would like to see a variety of weapons that have different effects, and the player has to choose to use the best ones for the best situation. That is what RPG combat is all about.

The combat in the games you mentioned is thoughtfull enough. I played WC and Freespace and X-Wing and I like them for what they are.
I'm not tired of that kind of gameplay and never will tire.

I don't want the game to turn into rock-paper-scissors or some other monstorosity.