X-Tended - Terran Conflict (XTC) (Update: - Manual available! - 12/10/10)

[Majonese]

maybe you dont need CODEA in XTC, maybe theres something that works like CODEA^^
I think that XTC will be awesome and i´ll dont miss CODEA

[EmperorJon]

[Shameless self promotion]On this subject, planning to make the STFUnit fully compatable, which shouldn't be to hard because I expect XTC will be out before it's fully released.[/Shameless self promotion]

[stemardue]

AFAIK we haven't been contacted by Lucike for info on the mod in perspective of an integration of CODEA or any other scripts/add-ons, so i doubt he is working on something in that direction.

Repeating once more that the core files of the game - all but the hardcoded ones - have been substantially changed, you can consider XTC as a new game under the add-ons profile: in other words NONE of the current 3rd party add-ons are likely to be compatible. If some will be, it'll be by pure coincidence.

On the other hand, we deem it to contain all you should need for playing the game and struggle to survive/grow/become a universal 'someone'

[The-Last-Communist]

how hard is combat? have you found a way to get the AI harder ?
i dream of a X game where 1 on 1 is realy hard , and the big battles are just so epic you have to pick your targets and never do anithing stupid...but i gess i can dream...

[KRM398]

Make the AI harder ti kill? I don't know anything about that but I DO know for sure that a certain someone that shall remain nameless,(unless he takes a bow) worked for a LONG time balancing the ships in XTC...so I guarantee that all the combat you are used to just changed a LOT. There are absolutely no mega killer ships that are safe from destruction in this mod, for every great ship...there's an enemy ship just as tough...just you wait and see combat will be more different than you can imagine..I'll wager.

[EmperorJon]

Why remain nameless? Tell us who it was so we can praise their work!

[The-Last-Communist]

Make the AI harder ti kill? I don't know anything about that but I DO know for sure that a certain someone that shall remain nameless,(unless he takes a bow) worked for a LONG time balancing the ships in XTC...so I guarantee that all the combat you are used to just changed a LOT. There are absolutely no mega killer ships that are safe from destruction in this mod, for every great ship...there's an enemy ship just as tough...just you wait and see combat will be more different than you can imagine..I'll wager.

i hope. i play my X3 with over tuned xenon/pirat/and ka`ak. they all go at aprox (400ms for an m3 and turn at 450 and even m5 have hepts.)

[Triaxx2]

Well, the reason I asked is because CODEA is complex, but it's sufficiently modifiable that if I have to alter it to work I can, but it's always good to find out if there's going to be a specific problem with it.

So it's basically down to reworking weapon and ship types? And rebuilding the military transport scripts then.

One other question: The first version should not require a restart you said, does that mean there will be a link between the X-verse and the custom universe, or that there won't be a custom universe in the first version?

[Trickmov]

We can't give any informations regarding third party scripts, because we simply don't know, what works and what not.
Nothing except the stock ES-scripts were tested together with XTC.
This applies for Codea as well as for any other third party script out there (including the ones in the BP).
The authors will have to answer questions regarding compatibility - this is not our concern.

For restarting and universe-link: We already said in the past and also in the trailer, that this is a new universe. Thus there is (and will be) no link between X-Verse and XTC-universe. [EDIT: and of course a new universe needs a new start]
Restarting will be required for a later released second major version of XTC, but as this is far in the future, we won't discuss that now.

[aka1nas]

Have you guys altered/retuned the stock combat scripts at all?

[Trickmov]

Slightly - the big difference is from rebalancing all ships.

[Sorkvild]

Slightly - the big difference is from rebalancing all ships.

I'd love to see M6 more useful and dangerous in combat

[X2-Eliah]

The M6 (and MM6) are role-focused. So they are a bit worse in some areas, and a lot better in other - and this varies from race to race. It will be up to you to find out the distinctions, and if you don't, then you will probably have a wrong impression

Also, guys, a lot - a whole lot - of the last stuff was already answered in the very first page, on the faq section. If you don't want to read some 100 words, then honestly I don't know what you'll do once you see the manual

So please, read first, ask questions later.

[Nova Scotia]

how hard is combat? have you found a way to get the AI harder ?
i dream of a X game where 1 on 1 is realy hard , and the big battles are just so epic you have to pick your targets and never do anithing stupid...but i gess i can dream...

Over the many years I have heard many ask for harder AI but when things get hairy ,they fall back on save and reloads to accomplish there goals.

DiD makes for hard AIs and sometimes short battles



Glad to hear that time was spent on better balanced ships though,some are definitely a wee bit wacko IMO

[zazie]

Over the many years I have heard many ask for harder AI but when things get hairy ,they fall back on save and reloads to accomplish there goals.

+1

I remember several whining threads about the LX in X3R and the Xenon-Invasion missions in X3TC before 1.4 . I also remember my own somewhat frustrating experience (read it as "WTF " - ) when I first encountered the PBE-equipped and missile-spamming Xenon in X3-XTC.

[Aragon Speed]

how hard is combat? have you found a way to get the AI harder ?
i dream of a X game where 1 on 1 is realy hard , and the big battles are just so epic you have to pick your targets and never do anithing stupid...but i gess i can dream...

Perhaps some mildly edited (so as not to give too much info away) quotes from our latest RC thread would help here, I'm sure the authors won't mind.

It's worth noting that up until now we have had our testers very specifically focussed on testing one thing at a time for bugs as we introduced new things into the mod. This is the first time they have just been able to play the mod as a player would.

Yeah, this is quite a bit harder than vanilla, and reminds me strongly of X2's start-stage, which imo was excellent.

Since your ship is rubbish (well, lacking shields and upgrades, in any case), you are vulnerable and have to pick missions carefully - I had to reload from 2hrs of game play due to dieing to an M5 swarm in a 'protect sector' mission. Very nice.

*snip*

Encountered my first M4-opponent in a patrol mission, sporting PBEs. Luckily I had picked off his M5 escorts as he was tied up with sector police or something. Whoa, that was a scary fight - 15MJ shields on my ship melted away crazily fast - they got down to 10% or so when I zipped past him and got on his rear - then, of course, it was not a problem anymore, but if there had been just one more ship shooting at me, I'd have had to reload.

*Snip*

PACs are at least possible to dodge (even then it is hard as hell if you have multiple enemies).

... my first impression? I'm lost!

No one tells me what to do or what is mine. It took a few minutes to find out what I have and what I need.

Conclusion 1: I need more credits!
Conclusion 2: I need MUCH more credits!

*snip*

...but suddenly I was attacked by a M5 called 'Bountyhunter'. That was surprising! I had no weapons to return fire and only my thick shields kept me from turning into space dust. I was to slow to give this bastu a full body check with my TP and noone around was willing to help me. I saw my shields going down slow but steady. A M5 can be a real threat now. I decided to go for my luck by cruising around a bulky space station. And there he lost it. His shield went down and all that was left from his hull were less than 10%. Now his fate was sealed. I hit that bastu with my full 172 m/s speed right between his yellow eyes. Take that!

I haven't played X for a while but the old feeling is coming back...

I wanted to chime in very quickly and say: THANK YOU for the difficulty system. It really works. I've had to reload several times. (So my "in-game" time is only like 1.5 hours so far, despite playing about 3 hours last night after work.) I've always been a trader, and I'm trying combat this time around. I stink at it. LOL. (Well, I've done plenty of combat in capital ships, but I'm talking about fighter-to-fighter.)

But then I remembered that you guys added a REAL difficulty system. I dialed it down to easy. Now I can actually survive a fight, and I'm starting to claw my way up. Thank you!

(P.S. I am not ashamed!!)

No one to fight?? There's a Yaki Akuma battle group shooting up everything that moves in my universe, at only about 3 hours game time. I had to fly around him in my Discoverer in order to squeeze through a jumpgate... it was pretty tense!

I almost wish I had chosen an "easier" start than I did. I'm still stuck in an M5, and starting to wonder how I'll ever graduate to an M4, much less anything bigger. Even with my whopping FOUR 1 mj shields that I now have (yay?), getting an M4 to bail is a pipe dream. Right now, I'm following the Akuma around, hoping SOMETHING will bail, lol.

Anyway, I sure am having fun, even if it is a little slow going (compared to vanilla TC).

Checking the various missions, I started with fight missions. Assassinations mainly, at the beginning. With 2 PACs and 1 MJ shield, but 602 m/s, the split Jaguar Raider is a suitable, but fragile fighter. No problems on the first 6 assassinations. The ship is fast enough to catch any victim, but it's also fast enough to present me some really close encounters with a heart attack, when on autopilot. Therefore I named it "Nervous Breakdown". Fighting another ship head to head, regardless which one, is resulting often in some hits. Any hit is lethal, if you just have 1 MJ shield... so i tend to engage them head to head with only concentrating on dodging incoming fire, and toasting them afterwards from behind, as the Jaguar can stay behind any other ship. As long as there are no M4s with deadly PBEs, or ships with rear turrets, everything is fine.

I now am about 15.5 hours in, spent last 5 hours just trading, that's really a far more lucrative endeavour. During these 5 hours, went from 20k to 792k in bank account. Trading is slightly different now, yes - where in previous games I looked at wares that sold below avg price, raced there, bought and worried about selling later, now it's really a case of a) looking for wares required, then checking where to obtain them, or b) snapping a really good 100% full product deal. Buying/selling to/from the trading station is actually a very solid tactic now (which is really nice, as the trading station actually feels like a trading station).. Secondary resource market is quite open - of course, giving lower returns, whereas primary resource market is an incredibly fierce competition.

Long story short, trading is actually improved a lot compared to vanilla. It is exciting, it is dynamic, it offers a solid overall profit, and it doesn't require crazy amounts of cargospace - so major kudos to Galder for reworking the economy, manual trading has really received the much-needed boost as a gameplay strategy.

Let's say it this way, for fighting, you live on missions, for trading, (at least for me atm), you couldn't care less about those icons - the game itself gives you plenty of action for that.

Oh, yes. Also, these last 5 hours were the most fun I've had in this playthrough. Finally something where you need to think and not follow the golden arrows for minutes on end.

Took a few escort freighter missions - now these I like- just follow the guy to his destination, usually a nearby sector, explode a few hunks of junk and be done. Well.... sorta. Ended up on one where the freighters were attacked by Xenon - instead of pirates. The first couple of waves were fine, but the third appeared right as the last ship docked. The xenon lost their target, and decided I was next on the lunch menu. Fought that battle NUMEROUS times but died in every one and it seemed to happen every time. Still, a good experience. Combat is now reasonably lethal. Well done!

Finally said the heck with it, damaged the last xenon badly and left him, which let the last freighter dock and me get outta dodge

Few mins later a Kraken and Hydra showed up, and the Kraken started launching 40k out. What must have been hundreds of missiles I slowly approached shooting all the missiles as I did, but once I got close it become quite difficult to shoot the missiles and the Kraken too so I had to bug out Didn't look like he was running out of missiles. Very nice guys! M7M's used to be cake to kill, now it's more tricky.

It's much harder to get money than in the vanilla game.

Had my first run-in with a *name removed*. What the hell did it do to my ship!! "Laser Malfunction! Shields Manfunctioning!"
"Attention... increased radiation in cargo bay detected.... "
Ok I'm bailing.... Is my ship going to explode? Fun!

Sorry to be so late to make a report... no, I didn't die, but my PC did. Spent most of the weekend trying to fix it and eventually just reinstalled Win7.

ANYWAY, now that that's done, I'm back to playing. I finally passed the 6-hour mark. (I'm not using SETA as much as I could, I guess... but the scenery is so pretty, I like looking at it while I'm en route!!)

I started as Split, in that little Jaguar, and I'm still in an M5 after all this time. I appreciate the increased difficulty curve... I'd like to think that in Vanilla, I'd be in an M3 by now. Well, of course I would... I'd have grabbed the "derelict" Advanced Perseus, lol.

I am worth about 1.3 million, according to the "total asset value" in the new asset menu. (Which is a nice feature, thanks!)

I am being offered about 4,000 to 8,000 credits for fight missions now, and am thankfully still only facing M5s (although two at a time now). Most of my profits have come from the three M5s that have bailed for me so far. (I have difficulty set to easy, so they do bail slightly more often than on medium.) Now, for the thing I'm most proud of:

The last ship that bailed was a Xenon N. Which is now my personal ship.

I have to say, the weapons it has equipped (Alpha Neutron Gun) are significantly more punchy than the PACs I was stuck with up to now. I can wipe out another M5 in a single pass pretty easily.

It was hard not to sell the N... even banged-up, it was worth something like 370,000 credits. But with 5x 1MJ shields and the Neutron Guns, I'm glad I switched to it.

Anyway, you guys are all further along than me I guess, and I would have spent more time with it this weekend were it not for the PC fatality. But I have to say, even being "stuck" in an M5 for as long as I have been, I am really having fun. I never, ever flew an M5 in vanilla, unless it was to scan asteroids or something. I certainly never, and I mean NEVER, engaged in combat in one. I never thought they were real ships, if you know what I mean. But in XTC, I'm seeing that every ship class has a valid place. I mean, seriously, I have "moved up" to my third ship, and it's STILL AN M5! And I still really feel like I moved up!! This is phenomenal, and it beats the pants off vanilla.

One last impression... escort missions are more interesting now. One TS I was following actually made a STOP along the way! He diverted from his course and docked at a PBE Forge, of all things... then after about 2 minutes, undocked and head onwards. Also, since freighters now have 500 MJ shields, and since Autopilot actually WORKS now (you can follow an AI ship, even at SETAx10, without worrying about crashing), escort missions are generally much more bearable.

Don't ask questions about that lot, you won't get any answers, just let your imagination roam instead. ^^

[Triaxx2]

I did read the FAQ. I just asked in case someone had tried it.

And if the first version does include the new universe, then a restart will be required. That's what I wanted to know.

[KRM398]

Hehehe...some great comments there,freighters with 500 meg in shields, great for the traders. But some M5 with only 1 meg in shields but faster than Hades? Sounds like fun...and that Alpha gun thingy, definitely a new weapon for M5..or new all around...bigger more powerful than pacs..great...pacs were my favorite weapon for capping..might have to reconsider that..lol. And M7M's that are actually a serious threat, I love the game already and haven't played it yet...good work guys, these comments just added fuel to the fire....

[mr.WHO]

So the old "Alpha, beta, gamma" caliber system is back? Or is it like:
Alpha- M5, M4
Beta- M3, M6
Gamma - M7, M1, M2

???

[Aragon Speed]

So the old "Alpha, beta, gamma" caliber system is back? Or is it like:
Alpha- M5, M4
Beta- M3, M6
Gamma - M7, M1, M2

???

Don't ask questions about that lot, you won't get any answers, just let your imagination roam instead. ^^