About our ongoing work - Patches, Updates, Bugfixing on X Rebirth

[Guest]

he time has come: after seven long years of development, X Rebirth is finally available.

X Rebirth marks a new beginning in the history of the X Series and draws fans new and old into an unbelievely large, living and richly detailed universe, just waiting to be explored.

Once again, underpinning X Rebirth are the four long-standing and familiar cornerstones of the X Series.

TRADE! A fully simulated economy in which every action has consequences. Every ship you see has a task. Stop a freighter from reaching its destination and its cargo will be stopped too, causing prices to rise.

FIGHT! From small scale skirmishes to epic fleet encounters, battles in the X Universe know no limits. Choose to fight for the military, work for the police or be a lawless pirate, or if you prefer just fight when you need to defend yourself - it's up to you!

BUILD! Create your own empire! From trading stations to large factories, farms to high-tech military complexes, everything can belong to you.

THINK! A rich, detailed history and a deep complex plot await you, but you are free to decide when and where to take part.

Action-packed space battles, a realistic trading system and many opportunities for exciting discovereies as you travel the universe, mean you can enjoy a unique space opera with countless hours of gameplay.

This release is the start of a whole new journey, and we hope that you will join us in populating and shaping the universe over the years to come. We have a long history of working with our player community, through rough and smooth, and doing our best to turn their hopes and ideas into reality. We hope that you will share your views and feedback with us and help us to improve and expand the new X Universe as we add new features as well as solving any problems you may run into.

In the next few weeks we will also be reopening our DevNet Ideas forums, where you will be able to show us your ideas for the future.

But enough talk. To your cockpit, and may your deeds restore the "Albion Skunk" to its former glory as the "Pride of Albion"!

they promoted it as the greates 4x game ever so please
stop talking you fanboy bull about how it's not a x game!

[Baconfortress]

Bernd,
I have been a huge fan of this series and logged a solid 400 hours into x3. I felt with rebirth a new direction was being taken with which I was ok. I also seem to be extremely lucky as my system has managed to run the game smoothly (excepting crashes), guess it is because it is not super high end.

With that said, I want my money refunded to me and steam will not do so. I do not want it back because this isnt an "x" game, though that doesnt help.

I was sold this product for $50. I was told I could control a vast empire of ships and stations. Now forgiving that I am due a refund purely on the technical failure of the product, as the core story is literally unfinishable, your gameplay does not reflect what was advertised.

I cannot tell a ship to do anything but follow me. some can do contextual things near a trade post or asteroid, but the travel time to get there is absurd.

It is 2013, the interiors are unacceptable. I do not care about your team size, or indie anything, you released a product at full price. As a graphic designer one person could easily model 100's of station interiors in the 7 damn years you guys took, you have 1. The character models are laughable, and you all know it.

As I stumbled into hour 11 of x rebirth (having lost 5 due to a crashathon that ruined my saves) I realized, I had no motivation to continue. I could trade to make money....to buy ships I cannot command. I have so little control.

oh and I get one ship with fewer weapon options than an m5 from previous games, if im flying it for 300+hours I need more than a mk3 of the same gun ive always used.

The game is not ready for release, it is bug city and doesnt function as intended. The control scheme is awful, and lacks the ability to "CONTROL". The non space graphics are sub-par the voice acting laughable, this game is a fighting and driving game and that is it.

I want someone held accountable. I have been cheated, not as a fan, as a consumer. If this were any other product I would be entitled a refund as it is literally not functional. Sadly digital works dont seem to work that way.

I want an honest answer, do YOU personally feel this game was ready for our purchase? Are you comfortable with a current metacritic score of 4? If you can tell me that you are proud of NPC character models and feel they are acceptable for a modern game I will be shocked.

You know this is unacceptable, I want some accountability. You cannot possibly be happy with this product, and I am certainly not.

you have sold me a car with no wheels, a captain without crunch. I want my money refunded and feel the community of 10,000 you blatantly cheated out of their money deserve more than this token apology. I could care less if you fix the bugs, if your game worked 100% it would still be a lie.

we all make mistakes, just want people held accountable when I pay for something

your ships, stations and skyboxes look so pretty. it is pity they are held together by a charlatan's promise

[Baconfortress]

I can supply my steam information to a representative or will accept some sort of arrangement. I could care less what you do with this game, I just want my money back.

[eldyranx3]

Bernd, I've already mentioned what has awed me on initial launch over Skype, but I want to comment here as well.

I took some time off this weekend away from the game to spend some time with the wifey after a pithy FB comment. Afterwards I watched Nightwatch (2004) after seeing Daywatch (2006), (backwards I know).

I've come back now on Sunday to play some more before work tonight, and I there is yet another patch downloading. Thank you so much for your hard work preparing for launch, and your continued work over the weekend. I know some of you (if not most) at Egosoft have put in 10 (or more) hours a day recently.

Change is hard. Painful sometimes. but I (and I suspect the silent minority) have faith in you and your vision for the next stage of X's evolution.

Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!

[Msahn]

Hi guys
usually i don't rant, but honestly that's a second time this year i got duped. First time was with the new sim city... which now after 8+ patches i can enjoy for a degree , while playing with my wife. I'm an old timer , starting with X btf back in the day, I had to buy a better gfx only to play that awesome game. After watching the trailers of x:r i've had high hopes for the title, even after i read you'll make the game less complex, the same thing sim city done....
But this is just wrong, I can forgive many things and I'll wait another 6+ month until the game will be ready for another try but i ask that you be honest bout it. Don't talk about bugs, but be honest and admit that you ware unable to create the experience that your fanbase was waiting for, you don't even have to give us a reason for it. To end this on a high note i just saw that the best modding community on this planet is already helping you with proper damage control, in example with the remote npc talk. So i have hope for this game, but i'm still upset that you decived us. I salute the community thou.

[Alewx]

They said that they will add a tactical interface.
That means, that they will add it in future via patch. Not at release.

The plan behind the game is to refund the money of the publisher that was invested into the development of the game, so they will promise everything.
You can't patch gameplay.
I really feel with the people that think they are cheated with this thing.

[Zefninja]

Are you serious " huge success " I am playing on a new PC and there is very little wrong in the way of bugs, the problem is the game itself . Did you not think that the high number of people playing is just because they, myself included are trying to get something for their money .

I hate the game so far and I am a huge fan of X series, I am one of the " 10,000 active users on Steam " I wish I never bought the game, I have forced myself to play it in the fading hope I might find something I do like .

Here is some stuff I hate about your big success story

1- The stations are total copy and paste garbage when you land .
2- The NPC's are horrible to interact with .
3- The trade ships just follow you and never go to the commanded area, my trade ship has 6 destinations on it and will not go to any .
4- I was trying drop cargo, you cant .
5- No external view of ship .
6- No nearest target, I would let you off with that since it was on your list but there is no reason why the game should not have launched with the feature .
7- My character must have a neck brace on because he cant move his head .
8- Having to manually go to trade locations so you can tell your ship to go there ( genius )
9- The target reticule is massive and obstructs view of enemy ships .
10- The text in many areas of the game is tiny and unreadable .
11- Pressing multiple number comands to do simple stuff .
12- The cockpit is useless, it should have had interactions on it for easy access to menus etc by clicking mouse on them .
13- The Map is terrible and is of no use whatsoever .
14- The main character and the chicks voice acting is horrible .
15- No weapons menu .
16- No cargo on your own ship .
17- Horrid tutorial that explains nothing, well nothing that makes sense in game on first play .
18- Not being able to change ship .
19- The much hyped drones suck, I will have the capital ships back any day of the week .
20- Trading full stop .
21- I doubt I will ever manage to " Build trade fight think " in this dissaster of a game .
22- The fact it is clearly made for next gen console, or at least last gen and you failed and repackaged it for us .
23- Zero respect for the people who pay your wages, yes us the hardcore X fans .
24- 20+ hours in and not a singlre thing interesting to do outside the campaigne .
25- No idea whats even happening in the campaigne .
26- STUPID way to start the game .
27- Severed many interesting races from previous games .
28- I waited for this for years and want to delete it the same weekend I bought it .
29- The lanes suck .
30- No seta or jumpdrive .

I could go on and on, I fear I will never get even half of the things I want added to this game but if I do not get some of it I will never buy anything from you again, I have purchased ALL of the previous titles and spent a lot of money supporting you and this is how you thank me and all the other core gamers . I am £40 out of pocket and to be honest I could not care one bit about the cash, I am devastated the game I waited so long for has been butchered in this way .

I will be willing to bet the 10,000 active users is nowhere near as high in a weeks time .

OMG It's like you read my mind

Lets not lose track of this post... Bernd, the above is very important as most of the points are VERY true. I have now officially played through the game this weekend and 95 % of these comments are very accurate. See them objectively, minus any subjective opinion and get to work fixing this game otherwise you will lose your member/fan base to Star Citizen as they are making a true space simulator successor

[Alewx]

Edited to Get to some POINTS in the "speech"

I would like to say how amazed we all are here by the huge success of the game.

How can you say this? You know there a loads of people that LOVE your games do not try that "O dear me we did not think it would be so big" that's a load of BS.

Great though it is to see that the game is so successful and that many people are having a lot of fun with it, it pains me to see every case where the game causes problems. Sorry folks, I can only apologise for that.

Bugs and hardware issue are understandable- you guys have done this before and "we fans" know that a game will not be perfect at the start but the problem is this game seems like it was put together by people that have never done this before- you have YEARS of people giving you feed back on games, what they liked what they did not like- you have gone through what works and what does not work. Fine you got a new engine and wanted to make a DIFFERENT game that's all fine and good GREAT even but you did not need to toss 25 YEARS of experience out the window to do it.


1) Language bugs -

3) AI bugs with trade ship

4) Performance improvements:

These 3 are nothing more then POOR TESTING and lack of care- Did anyone play this game. did you not take a few hours a week to at least PLAY with what you where making? I HOPE you did not PAY "tester"


- Improved joystick support -

This is more BS how could this have been missed? it is a SPACE FLYING GAME ****** people are going to use a joystick. the key binds in game are ONLY set for the controller, the section for setting the key binds is called Joystick/controller.
you know very well NO ONE on your team had a joystick plugged in to there computer.

If you and the other Devs read this then I HOPE you all take a few minutes and be honest with your self; really stop and think - did you really put your heart, your blood, sweet and tears into making this game OR was it nothing more then a way to keep a pay check coming in and try out some new programming tricks?

If your answer is the first option then I look forward to a long and hard climb out of the hole you have dug and I hope you are active on the forum getting feed back from your fans. If your answer is the last part then tell us now! don't be shy come out and say it- "The game is what we wanted to be, we want to clean it up but dang gum it we like they way it plays right now."

Just tell us now, no more BS.

Are you serious " huge success " I am playing on a new PC and there is very little wrong in the way of bugs, the problem is the game itself . Did you not think that the high number of people playing is just because they, myself included are trying to get something for their money .

I hate the game so far and I am a huge fan of X series, I am one of the " 10,000 active users on Steam " I wish I never bought the game, I have forced myself to play it in the fading hope I might find something I do like .

Here is some stuff I hate about your big success story

1- The stations are total copy and paste garbage when you land .
2- The NPC's are horrible to interact with .
3- The trade ships just follow you and never go to the commanded area, my trade ship has 6 destinations on it and will not go to any .
4- I was trying drop cargo, you cant .
5- No external view of ship .
6- No nearest target, I would let you off with that since it was on your list but there is no reason why the game should not have launched with the feature .
7- My character must have a neck brace on because he cant move his head .
8- Having to manually go to trade locations so you can tell your ship to go there ( genius )
9- The target reticule is massive and obstructs view of enemy ships .
10- The text in many areas of the game is tiny and unreadable .
11- Pressing multiple number comands to do simple stuff .
12- The cockpit is useless, it should have had interactions on it for easy access to menus etc by clicking mouse on them .
13- The Map is terrible and is of no use whatsoever .
14- The main character and the chicks voice acting is horrible .
15- No weapons menu .
16- No cargo on your own ship .
17- Horrid tutorial that explains nothing, well nothing that makes sense in game on first play .
18- Not being able to change ship .
19- The much hyped drones suck, I will have the capital ships back any day of the week .
20- Trading full stop .
21- I doubt I will ever manage to " Build trade fight think " in this dissaster of a game .
22- The fact it is clearly made for next gen console, or at least last gen and you failed and repackaged it for us .
23- Zero respect for the people who pay your wages, yes us the hardcore X fans .
24- 20+ hours in and not a singlre thing interesting to do outside the campaigne .
25- No idea whats even happening in the campaigne .
26- STUPID way to start the game .
27- Severed many interesting races from previous games .
28- I waited for this for years and want to delete it the same weekend I bought it .
29- The lanes suck .
30- No seta or jumpdrive .

I could go on and on, I fear I will never get even half of the things I want added to this game but if I do not get some of it I will never buy anything from you again, I have purchased ALL of the previous titles and spent a lot of money supporting you and this is how you thank me and all the other core gamers . I am £40 out of pocket and to be honest I could not care one bit about the cash, I am devastated the game I waited so long for has been butchered in this way .

I will be willing to bet the 10,000 active users is nowhere near as high in a weeks time .

OMG It's like you read my mind

[helios]

Dear Bernd,

Though I do not agree with all of the design goals that are incorporated in this game, I'd specifically like to comment on one part of your post:

Anyway... Of course we will also improve the AI and add more possibilities to control your ships. However the goal is to not achieve this with just adding more and more command options.
(...)

In my oppinion a part of the problem is, that the interface (and with this I include walking up to NPCs and talking to them, as that concept actually is part of the players' interface to his assets) does not promote lots of command options, which is why I would really like to see drastically improved automation. No matter whether you wanted to implement 'fire and forget cash cows' or not: The truth is that X:R NPCs that act less smart than a cheap piece of software in previous games ... well, it just does not work out.
Though I 'also' mean things like Sector Taders, Universe Traders etc. I as well would like to point my finger at our Co-Pilot, whose piloting skills presently are limited to reducing the ships speed to 0 as soon as I look at some fullscreen interface. (Drone control, Map, etc.) automobile companies call that "brake assist". (Sorry couldn't resist. ^^)
Or to elaborate: Essentially there were automation features in X3. One might argue whether there were too many or not, but that's not the point. Vast parts of the software and control-interface complex where replaced by NPCs and as long as they act less efficient and do less for us than a Trading Software Mk 3 we ... or at least I can not possibly grow to like them as 'partners' of my player character. As it stands they are just bloated replacements for menues.

Regards
Helios
(Still hoping for the best for future developments of X:R and and some point X4. )

[jdowner78]

Bernd, I hope you understand that the credibility of Egosoft is at stake here, just as the credibility of any company is at stake when they release a new product. It's understandable that you have a close connection to your team and that as the CEO there are certain politics that prevent you from speaking freely but the X buying games community has you under the microscope here. By ignoring criticism of the design decisions that have been taken you may present the impression that you and your current team of people have produced a product that meets your own standards and from that we, your loyal fans, may come to the conclusion that you and your team no longer have the expertise and sophistication to meet our expectations.

I urge you to present a more balanced front that assures us that you recognize that some of these design decisions do not result in a product that meets your own standards so that the fans can relax and grant you the time and space to refine the game.

There are few companies like Egosoft that have the luxury of second chances and it's no exaggeration to say that it's vitally important to the wellbeing of Egosoft to react to this second chance in a carefully planned out manner.

Personally as long as my copy of X3 boots up I will always consider myself a fan but I hope that in future years I'm not looking back at X3 as the remaining high point of Egosofts output.

[pirke123]

I don't like how the game turned out overall (from the livestreams I've watched, haven't purchased at the moment), but I must say that some comments in this thread are shocking.

Everybody uses the term "horrible design flaw", and then throws into that bag everything they don't like including bugs, and season the whole thing with personal insults. At least stay respectful and try to have an open mind and understand why some choices were made. For instance, having to move around stations to find trading opportunities and missions encourages exploration instead of doing everything remotely. And having your trading ships follow you around is obviously done to center things around the player instead of making the game a remote-programming one.

Controlling a bunch of ships from a text menu was always the worst part of X games. On top of that some people especially script makers kept pushing for more automation, until the supreme abomation happened: the Universe Trader. Which is basically the game playing itself, eating CPU cycles while you watch your credit count go up. I'm glad they god rid of this nonsense.

Bernd already said above that if they expand the possibilities of control they'll put a kind of map interface, for battles. Maybe they could actually put a true 4X game interface (think Master of Orion) inside X Rebirth? Not sure if it would really make the game better to be so hybrid, but at least it would achieve what some people have been asking with a good, proper UI that keeps the player involved at a larger scale.

+1

[zigelmind]

What the hell have you done to this game, it's poor to say the least and I am being polite about it. For years you have been building this game and it seems you have gone backwards. I HATE IT, your company deserves to be sued for producing utter rubbish. 3 hours and that's it, I have given up totally, :evil: :( :( :(

[Cascinova]

Bernd, have you ever seen how angry people get when you give them something and then after they have used it and grown to like it, even love it, and rely on it, well then you take it away?

Riots have begun for this reason, governments have actually fallen for the same reason! Look at the riots in Europe when governments try to take back benefits which people have grown to rely upon!

Well this some problem is the underlying issue with Rebirth, you have given us X players certain tools which we have grown to love to rely on.

Automation of trade, detailed information and maps, the ability to manage fleets, the ability to buy and sell ships at many locations, a huge universe with many species, the ability to automate trade, the ability to give many different commands to squads, to create multiple squads, the list goes on and on.

And Bernd, now with Rebirth you suddenly say, "well X fans, you are going to have to do without all these great tools, we are taking them away, time to start over again from scratch".

Bernd you can't do this to people, you cant take back wonderful tools which people have grown to love and rely on. For us those same abilities are what made X games unique, they are what made us huge fans, they are what distinguished your game from so many other space sims, and now what we are left with is just another generic space sim without anything distinguishing it. Again my example that even governments have fallen for the same reason.

[squicker]

Thank you all for the huge success!

-Bernd

I've done some research on your 'success'.

548 people recommend X-Rebirth to their friends, not many is it?
10,000 people playing the game on release weekend? A success?

I'll show you a success: Skyrim, 40,000 people playing the game this weekend nearly three years after release.

Let's how many people recommend Skyrim to their friends...172,000 people.

That's a success story.

Civ 5: 50000 people playing this weekend even though it was released 3 years ago. 75,000 people recommend it to their friends.

XCom Enemy Within was also released this weekend, how's that doing?

Ah, 30,000 players right now and 27,000 recommendations to friends.

Let's recap on X:Rebirth: only 10000 people playing on release weekend and a mere 548 recommendations to friends, and that pitiful number counteracted with literally hundreds of 'do not buy this game' posts wherever you look.

Perhaps the meaning of the word 'success' got somewhat lost in translation.

[Rastabob]

I have to offer a hearty congratulations to you, Egosoft!!!!

You have managed to out do your predecessors and record the most embarrassing launch in recent memory...and it only took 7 years of planning!!

I would like to challenge you.....If the game was such a huge success as you stated....and the number of dissatisfied purchasers are soooo small, then it shouldn't hurt to offer a refund to those that want it right? A drop in the bucket so to speak. that way all the unhappy folks will go away and you and the fanboys can self-gratify each other.

Seriously....save what honor you have left and do the right thing.

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

548 people recommend X-Rebirth to their friends, not many is it?

That is completely unfair. I am one of those people "recommending" the game to friends. Specifically, I recommended that people wait until tit is fixed before investing in it.

Steam doesn't do well at tracking if a recommendation is for or against a particular game so it is possible that a few/some/many/most/all of the recommendations are like mine.

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

548 people recommend X-Rebirth to their friends, not many is it?

That is completely unfair. I am one of those people "recommending" the game to friends. Specifically, I recommended that people wait until it is fixed before investing in it.

Steam doesn't do well at tracking if a recommendation is for or against a particular game so it is possible that a few/some/many/most/all of the recommendations are like mine.

[Eagle22]

malfunctioning eddie





Joined: 16 Nov 2013


Posted: Sun, 17. Nov 13, 19:16 Post subject:

Quote:

he time has come: after seven long years of development, X Rebirth is finally available.

X Rebirth marks a new beginning in the history of the X Series and draws fans new and old into an unbelievely large, living and richly detailed universe, just waiting to be explored.

Once again, underpinning X Rebirth are the four long-standing and familiar cornerstones of the X Series.

TRADE! A fully simulated economy in which every action has consequences. Every ship you see has a task. Stop a freighter from reaching its destination and its cargo will be stopped too, causing prices to rise.

FIGHT! From small scale skirmishes to epic fleet encounters, battles in the X Universe know no limits. Choose to fight for the military, work for the police or be a lawless pirate, or if you prefer just fight when you need to defend yourself - it's up to you!

BUILD! Create your own empire! From trading stations to large factories, farms to high-tech military complexes, everything can belong to you.

THINK! A rich, detailed history and a deep complex plot await you, but you are free to decide when and where to take part.

Action-packed space battles, a realistic trading system and many opportunities for exciting discovereies as you travel the universe, mean you can enjoy a unique space opera with countless hours of gameplay.

This release is the start of a whole new journey, and we hope that you will join us in populating and shaping the universe over the years to come. We have a long history of working with our player community, through rough and smooth, and doing our best to turn their hopes and ideas into reality. We hope that you will share your views and feedback with us and help us to improve and expand the new X Universe as we add new features as well as solving any problems you may run into.

In the next few weeks we will also be reopening our DevNet Ideas forums, where you will be able to show us your ideas for the future.

But enough talk. To your cockpit, and may your deeds restore the "Albion Skunk" to its former glory as the "Pride of Albion"!

This was all propaganda and LIES.
o when you say Albion Skunk you mine Albion JUNK

TRADE (with all the ships in the game)

FIGHT (with all the ships in the game)

BUILD (all the ships in the game)

Riliy pace flight simulator game represent that you are able to flay all the ships in the game and do a lot off other tings. Special for the X GAME

but it was too hard for you to make it happened.
You have changed the game from simulator to a Shooter space game.

t would be better to make a FREELANCER 2 ore somting instead of x the rebirth.

[squicker]

548 people recommend X-Rebirth to their friends, not many is it?

That is completely unfair. I am one of those people "recommending" the game to friends. Specifically, I recommended that people wait until tit is fixed before investing in it.

Steam doesn't do well at tracking if a recommendation is for or against a particular game so it is possible that a few/some/many/most/all of the recommendations are like mine.

OK, I take your point, I can see how that might be tracked incorrectly. It seems unlikely however, that with 40000 people playing Skyrim right now, they have 172000 'non-recommends', as it were.

Disregarding this then, the playing figures on release weekend are pretty shoddy, and I don't care for the disingenuous post from Egosoft when the game is clearly anything but a success.

[Eagle22]

What the hell have you done to this game, it's poor to say the least and I am being polite about it. For years you have been building this game and it seems you have gone backwards. I HATE IT, your company deserves to be sued for producing utter rubbish. 3 hours and that's it, I have given up totally,


+10