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

[Nanook]

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.

I can see we enjoy rather different game styles.

[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.

I can see we enjoy rather different game styles.

hehe

[pjknibbs]

I can see we enjoy rather different game styles.

The benefit being, of course, that you *can* play both those styles in the existing game...not sure about the new one!

[brucewarren]

That would be a shame. although I suppose we can't expect everything to
be included in a single game or it would never be finished.

It would have been nice to bulid up a fleet of destroyers and give them
the order to invade a sector and get on with something else while they
intelligently laid waste to it and the survivors reported back afterwards.

It would also be nice if the OOS insta-kill by a Q was dealt with.

[pixel]

I can see we enjoy rather different game styles.

The benefit being, of course, that you *can* play both those styles in the existing game...not sure about the new one!

tbh I am optimistic on both counts.

We know there are less sectors, let's say 50. Within those there are going to be, effectively from what I have seen, sub-sectors with stations round moons and planets and so on that you travel to. i.e. entire solar systems to explore.

We know you can own other ships and stations, but only fly one of them and drones.

So I think the exploration side is still there, slightly different but arguably more fun as SETA won't be required.

When I say 'know' obviously that is for a given value of knowledge, which isn't much right now

I think that we are returning to an xbtf style game but with station owning and economy of the later game, and that was arguably the most fun of the lot, though X2 remains my favourite.

[perkint]

It would have been nice to bulid up a fleet of destroyers and give them the order to invade a sector and get on with something else while they intelligently laid waste to it and the survivors reported back afterwards.

It would also be nice if the OOS insta-kill by a Q was dealt with.

You should still be able to do that, by the sound of it. You just can't fly the lead battleship yourself. You might be able to hop into a combat drone to help the fleet along tho

And there's nothing to say that Q's even still exist. Or different rules for OOS combat

Tim

[perkint]

Had a bit more time this evening, so I've gone through the gamescon video again:

Fast travel
SETA is dead
Small streets moon to moon/planet to planet, Highways (no details) & Super highways (Super highways can only be joined/exited at pre-defined points)
Jump gates still there (from star system to star system instead of sectors)

Player Ship
You can move within the interior
It has a cockpit & crew
It is altered throughout the plot

Drones
Not all drones are controllable by the player
Mining (all drones?) work better when controlled by the player
Torpedo Drone
Station scanning drones (really small & invisible(?)!)
Combat drones (Mk1 & Mk2)
Remote guided torpedos (can be done with the system – doesn’t actually say has been done)!
Collection drones (mining)
Shield drone

Turrets
Missile turret
XL turret (Big Bertha! Anti Capital ship weapon) Station mount only?

Capital ships
NPC captains for capital ships
Can (don't have to) order (capital?) ships to attack specific parts of targets
Localised damage and shield effects
Engines or jump drives individually targetable and damageable

Stations
On stations up to hundreds of localised points - suggestion is that each point can be customised (eg shield/missile/laser turret/shield generator/communications)
Complexes as you know it are dead (I think)
Rather than a single monolith a station is made up of modules eg production components or storage components. These components are "only one small tiny part of these huge stations". "Stations are gigantic and all these modules can be added individually"
A station component is the equivalent of a factory "Station component, a factory that can be built". Not sure about translation/how explicit the actual statement was.
In the past we had factory complexes [produce resource, use resource for end product] This is now possible in every single factory
Control of ships is linked to your communication capabilities (communication components on stations give "you the ability to control more ships") - just for the station in question?
Station managers have skill levels
Can improve production in station by hiring engineers for optimisation!

Greater economic credibility
Races are split into sub groups

Tim

[Santi]

There was some stuff with a subsystem for Stations, an antennae thingy that will affect the ships intercourse.

It the last video is mentioned that Stations and the player in general, will create their own highways (fast travel), so probably that is a feature of the game. It makes sense to be able to develop a fast lane for your station.

[Azzkicka]

all sounds really cool except for the "one player ship" thing...

So unless i am misinterpreting this we can only ever pilot the one ship we start off with? Instead of being able to pilot any ship we buy from any of the races? This seems very limiting...

[perkint]

That's basically the way it works, yeah. Altho you can remotely pilot drones (mining, combat, etc - possibly even torpedoes!).

It obviously isn't adding anything in it's own right and all things being equal it's a big step backwards (& it's definitely causing the most whinging!) but then all things are not equal - it's a brand new engine and everything. I am still looking forward to the game. I trust Egosoft to give us something fun and the other gameplay elements we hear about sound good (to me).

Still looking forward to some real info tho (ie a review or playable demo or summat!).

Tim

[Coupaholic]

I'm unsure about how I feel about Rebirth.

One ship would be difficult to swallow, but I love the idea of it being upgraded as time goes on (hopefully that means 'customise') and also being able to command a crew (if you get a crew, surely you can do a Picard impression!) and wander within the ship interior.

As for the Drones, meh - I personally haven't used them at all yet. I do hope you can stick to just taking your vessel into battle without having to fight from a pathetic little robot instead.

The environment sounds great too, rather than a uniform grid of smallish sectors have pockets of settlements interconnected with highways, bigger sectors and less jump gates.

Just see what it looks like I guess, just because it is a departure from the norm doesn't mean it'll be awful.

[cdcryx]

As for the Drones, meh -

More options means much better. Everyone has its own play style.

[dalin80]

As for the Drones, meh -

More options means much better. Everyone has its own play style.

The one ship step backwards has removed more options and play styles then drones could ever add.

[TTD]

Just see what it looks like I guess, just because it is a departure from the norm doesn't mean it'll be awful.

Yes.I agree with this.
Just because I said I would probably continue with TC for some time , does not mean I won't buy Rebirth.

I will buy it.
I will try to play it on my rig.
If it is essentially unplayable , I will have to wait until I can afford another upgrade kit.
I won't make a final judgment on a game that's taken years to develop , until I can play it properly.

Take TC for example.
Virtually unplayable on my old rig until they adjusted the game a bit.
So I continued with Reunion + mods until I could play TC on that old rig.

[Azzkicka]

I think the main reason i played the X-series so much is because it gave the player total freedom to do almost anything they wanted. Not sure if i am going to like this new X where i cant even decide which ship I fly.

[Paranoid66]

To me in a way flying a Drone remotely can have more consequences for a player character than flying an M5.

You die in a M5 you restart the game from the beginning or a save point you have no choice about that. If you lose your drone you can play on but with the loss of an expensive asset - that is a real consequence.

I thought the whole you are dead - game over - thing never really worked especially well in 'X' unless you are playing dead is dead. I would have preferred your ship going down but with you surviving in a rescue pod or vacuum suit due to emergency transports.

Such systems would mean losing your player ship really meant something in game. I would have been happy to see a lot of npc pilots survive their ships going boom too. I rather like the idea of killing material assets rather than people it is more civil competition.

[brattbags01]

Let's face it shall we, I know people are waiting to see what Egosoft ultimately brings out and giving them "The benefit of the doubt" as it were, after all, these are the people that bought us the X series in the first place but I think only having one ship to pilot stinks, I don't care how detailed the cockpit is or how much I can roam the interior, ultimately, speaking purely for myself, I'm gonna get bored. .
Maybe that's why the release date was pushed back, have they realized that they dropped a bit of a clanger using the one ship option ?

[perkint]

Maybe that's why the release date was pushed back, have they realized that they dropped a bit of a clanger using the one ship option ?

I doubt it. I would be surprised if they are going to change anything that relates to info that has been released.

I don't mind the one ship things really. So long as the AI is up to scratch! If I don't like anything about the new ship, I simply won't play vanilla. Quite sure you'll be able to mod the hell out of it. I did it with X3R in early days. I had an M6 (Nemesis I think) which had surprising similar stats to the Hyp, before the Hyp was added. I rarely change ship much, so if I don't like something about the player ship, I'll simply change it

Tim

[Greyhawk1]

I'm in my Springblossom 90% of the time. However I really needed the other 10% for specific jobs plus a change of pace.

So the new ship will need to be able to do everything or the universe will have to be dumbed down so that one ship can do everything.

Going by the screenshots it doesn't look dumbed down so I can only assume your ship is able to do everything the game requires of it.

I'm hoping that the modular aspect will take place of the multiple ship aspect - so that if you buy a tractor beam then you get a "tractor beam control room" or something in your ship as a new environment.

I know that something will have to be done along those lines because it will be a tough call for X heads to go from everything pilotable to nothing pilotable without at least some variety.

[Merroc]

The way I see it is that they probably brought the modular aspect of stations over to that one ship as well. Need a trader? Hook up a caravCargo Bay. Need something that packs a punch? Hook up a space equivalent of a MLRS. Need something fast? Hook up that power train. etc.

In that way, that one ship will be able to fill all roles, but not at the same time.