What we know about X-Rebirth [Updated 09/09/11]

[perkint]

There are a few hints that the devs don't really like you leaving SETA on whilst not playing. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it was taken out!

Tim

[heratik]

There are a few hints that the devs don't really like you leaving SETA on whilst not playing. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it was taken out!

Tim

I have only done that once for marine training (and that was only for about an hour )

But even beyond overnight extravaganzas, it still has many short use applications whilst you are playing, like boosting factory production briefly, getting AI ships into position and other uses I can't think of right now

[festa_freak]

I haven't SETA'd at all in X3TC. I did in reunion to get my first M6. I left it on over night and had over 40 million credits!!!

If the ships are fast enough and station production is tweaked I don't see any reason to have SETA in the game. Really, all I used it for was those long journeys but I would have to reload anyways because of asteroids getting in the way.

[Merroc]

To lose SETA will be huge, it's practical application goes way beyond getting from a-b faster.

That's because the game is designed to have SETA. If you design the game from the ground up without SETA, there are other techniques, that can be used in a theoretical multiplayer game as well.

[Nanook]

To lose SETA will be huge, it's practical application goes way beyond getting from a-b faster.

Maybe so, but the reason for SETA, why it was put in the game, is to speed up real travel times so the player doesn't get too bored with the slow spaceflight. It was never intended as a tool to speed up real time money making. That's simply a side effect, and whether it's good or bad is highly debatable.

[heratik]

To lose SETA will be huge, it's practical application goes way beyond getting from a-b faster.

Maybe so, but the reason for SETA, why it was put in the game, is to speed up real travel times so the player doesn't get too bored with the slow spaceflight. It was never intended as a tool to speed up real time money making. That's simply a side effect, and whether it's good or bad is highly debatable.

Like I said in my last post, I am not personally interested in get money quick SETA exploits, it has other uses too...

[nasty one]

Seriously what They should do at first place rather than mutter about some minor changes is
-kill the game engine with a wooden stake and make new one that enables some proper combat with lots of ships even in sectors with complexes
-create new OOS combat from scratch
-make more stuff to trade in bigger quantities
-make docking on sattelites and planets finally possible
-make biger space with more solar systems/sectors
If nothing from that list gets to Rebirth than I think They should not bother really...

[perkint]

Well, you've got a new engine.

New engine probably means new OOS. If such a thing even exists - bear in mind OOS combat compared with IS was to save CPU. That's not as critical with multi core support. Not saying it don't matter...

No real info on trade yet.

No docking on planets. Depends what you mean by satellite - if you mean eg moons, pretty sure that's out as well.

Amount of space is confusing. Both infinite space has been said, as has fewer sectors. My take on that is probably fewer jump points (or whatever system we end up with) but bigger areas in each one.

So, you've got a couple, at least

Tim

[cmdnenad]

My translation of said passage:

Die Reisen zwischen den Sprungtoren hält er für langweilig, die Möglichkeit, den Zeitablauf im Spiel zu beschleunigen, war für ihn immer nur eine unschöne Notlösung. Außerdem ist es im Leerraum oft langweilig. All das sind Dinge, die man in Rebirth anders machen möchte.

Bernd regards the travel between gates (in sector) as boring. The possibility to speed up time (with SETA) is an ugly makeshift way to remedy that. Also, space is often boring (?). All these are things that they want to do differently in Rebirth.

I hope I'm wrong, but this sounds like a brainless space shooter game. Sectors have to be huge, with lots of empty space. Sensor range should be drastically increased, with bigger ships being able to carry much better sensors than a small ones (forget a triplex on a kestrel) ). That would create more room for tactics in combat. If you have small sector, and no "boring" parts, 2 seconds after you detect a ship it is already firing at you.

IMO it should take at least an hour for an average ship to fly from one side of the sector to another (without SETA ).

[Virtualaughing]

To lose SETA will be huge, it's practical application goes way beyond getting from a-b faster.

Most excellent point
Sometimes it is actually takes weeks to see the long term progress of a factory complex. Docking computer is a short of cheating but without it the docking is boooring. ....I can do manual dock.....

[Shootist]

Never like SETA. Only used it for travel, and then only in the early game, as late game too many bad things happen, as the processor cannot keep up with the script engine.

If a better/different system is in place, that allows for skipping the slow traveling parts, I'm all good.

Rebirth isn't X-4, it is X-Starting all over again.

[mrscribbler]

Never like SETA. Only used it for travel, and then only in the early game, as late game too many bad things happen, as the processor cannot keep up with the script engine.

If a better/different system is in place, that allows for skipping the slow traveling parts, I'm all good.

Rebirth isn't X-4, it is X-Starting all over again.

I'm with you on that. As it happens, I've given up on traveling normally with ships, using Cycrow's Jumpdrive/FTL Drive alternate instead. It's the same reason why I used Asteroid Fusion to turn a bunch of rocks into one and then used that to build mines on. At some point it's time to try to minimize the limitations/silliness of the game.

At a guess, I'd say it's a fixed X Shuttle that we'll be flying, with the travel drive being explained as the point-to-point jumpdrive system.

What I really would like to see is more things to make the game personal. Like, instead of adding engine tunings, you replace the engine. And then you could have the engine tuned up.

Plus, wear and tear would make your ship need regular maintenance.

Plus time periods where you sleep. This one, literally, would change the way you play. Imagine being unable to shoot straight if your character hasn't stopped to get some shut-eye. Heck, could be circumstances where you go into cold sleep for months, letting your budding empire build up over time in a more realistic fashion. I mean, if the ROI on any company were as good as the ROI an investor would get for lending most players 10 million credits in X3R and X3TC, no one would bother investing in anything but the player.

[Virtualaughing]

Never saw anyone guessing that the AP gunner.
X shuttle does not seems to be designed for two perosn

I'm bored to death with start a new game.Till some traders, factories and at least one ship that can carry some fighters.... Advancing is booring enough.... Without SETA it is even more.......

[perkint]

OK - finally got a few minutes to update.

New sources:

Video from Gamescon Courtesy of ShotglassSam (video), EuRoKa & mrscribbler (translation & subtitles)
Interview with Bernd by PC Games (translated by Google) page 1 & page 2 and tech details

Not sure if it's new, but there's a picture of the player ship on the Egosoft X:Rebirth page

And finally:
A site with all the screen shots, vids, etc, gathered together, courtesy of Commander SAMU

Next post, the details we now know...

Tim

[perkint]

OK - from gamescon:

• Only one playership
  Interchangeable turrets/shields for cap ships and stations
  Drones you can take control of remotely (same as flying it except can't die?)
  Space highways & roads. Roads between local places (eg stations) which are fast but can be entered & exited at any point. Highways between further distances (eg planets) which are much faster and can only be entered & exited at predefined points.
  Jump drives for travel between solar systems.

From interview:

• Multi-core, with separate processes (can be separate cores) for AI, the pathfinding, physics, and rendering
  The engine is based on DirectX 9

From tech details:

• Spaceships collide and bounce off of each other physically
  Not too sophisticated physics simulation
  Egosoft want to offer a rolling demo-benchmark (not sure about translation - want to, or will?

Have I missed anything?

Tim

[e1team]

Only one player ship? How should we understand that? Please no Darkstar One crap???
I mean, no big deal. But I'd hate to stuck in same *cough* coffin *cough* ship for entire game... Reminds me of ME too... More RTS than Space Simulation.

[Nanook]

Drones you can take control of remotely (same as flying it except can't die?)

So, no risk, no challenge? Somehow, flying disembodied in a remote drone just doesn't sound as much fun as taking your life in your hands in a fast M5. Maybe that 'dozens of hours' of playing time from the original announcement is more accurate than we think, compared to the hundreds or even thousands of hours many of us put into TC alone.

So we're getting one ship to actually fly, a limited number of lego-style ships and stations to play with and some prettier graphics. I also wonder if we'll be stuck playing just a human character, given the player ship is Terran/Argon and that 'female copilot'. I'll reserve final judgment until the game comes out, but it's not sounding all that epic and great to me right now.

[pixel]

frankly the more I see of the game the more I'm loving it.

Emphasis more on close in interaction with huge stations rather than them being distant objects you SETA to and then autodock.

Emphasis more on your ship and drones rather than huge fleets which were unmanageable in X3 and TC.

Emphasis more on things happening close up rather than far away.

Emphasis more on fun rather than long bouts of flying in unpopulated areas.

[TTD]

Emphasis more on your ship and drones rather than huge fleets which were unmanageable in X3 and TC.

Actually I found fleet management ,especially when it comes to OOS battles , much easier in Reunion than TC.

I'm with Nanook on this.
It is looking more like hours of play in a console environment , rather than months or years in a PC environment.

I still think that despite certain advantages of flying remote drones , I will be one of the last to convert , like some pilots who still have not got round to playing TC a lot, preferring Reunion , The Threat or even BTF.

[SpidaFly]

Only one playership
Drones you can take control of remotely (same as flying it except can't die?)

This is really depressing

I liked "collecting" ships, getting the "feel" for them, enjoying differences. It never felt like I was "remotely" piloting something and I don't want to feel like that. Drones? I want a fleet. I loved the "feeling" of having fleets at my command. Better management would be welcome, but... one ship, and remotely controlling drones?

I hope that at least the economic sandbox is intact and more advanced... but even that is only entertaining for so long. Combat, collecting, exploring, the feeling of being in control of military and trading fleets stretched across the universe... these all brought the epic feeling to X.

Something is giving me the unpleasant nagging feeling that we're being locked into a plot as opposed to being given a sandbox with some plot arcs in it to enjoy while doing a million other things too.