EGOSOFT and Deep Silver announce X Rebirth

[apricotslice]

or because they couldn't solve the problems of TC satisfyingly.

That is what bothers me the most.

The whole "couldnt solve it for TC so cut it out" mentality in a development stage for a new game would be heartbreaking for many of us.

If I am forced to command them from some ****** little corvette it will kill all immersion and fun of that.

If it is the AP-Gunner, then I agree. Running a whole game out of that tinpot little ship would be a total turn off.

So far, everything I've seen suggests that if I buy it, it wont last longer than the time it takes to play the plot, or to get stuck in the middle of the plot because of some rediculous reason ala freelancer where not having joystick made it impossible for me to get past a completely stupid race mission. (And lets not mention that stupid X race mission, where I had to cheat in some 'extras' to get past it.)

What really worries me is that I didnt finish the X3 plot at all. So if the new plot has any of the mindset of the X3 plot, then the game will get binned uncompleted (like so many other games before it). At least with X3, the plot was irrelevant ! But in spite of the sandbox, with half of what I'm used to removed, and nothing new to add to the sandbox to make it worth playing on, this could be a really short game for me.

It occured to me yesterday, that the reason for removing the script editor, was partly to stop the modding community automating the game as we were doing, and partly because the new game is going to be completely mission oriented. I gave up on missions years ago, so if its mission based, I'm bored before it already comes out, with only a plot to keep me occupied, and a 50/50 chance I wont complete it anyway.

*sigh*

[the old one]

would it be possible for a modder to some how copy the script editor and put it it rebirth ? the old one

[jlehtone]

would it be possible for a modder to some how copy the script editor and put it it rebirth ? the old one

Probably not. Seems pointless to me anyway.

[amtie]

You guys really should stop the negative speculation until clear gameplay info has been released.

Just because we can command ships via NPCs, doesn't mean we have to be stuck in one ship. It could be akin to Starshatter's capital ship navigation, where you're in the capital ship, but give coordinates to where you wish to move to. We just don't know for now.

Same goes for "Can't build stations 'cos they won't fit into a TL". Who said TLs exist anymore, anyway? Maybe there's some other way of building stations. And since the PHQ is quite big, I doubt it would fit in a TL, but hey, look! It does!

If this speculation was on a game that was based on the same engine as X-BTF to X3:TC, then I'd be more likely to agree with you. But since it's a new engine, who knows what Egosoft has come up with. Give them a chance. If they screw up, then so be it.

[euskai]

As long as there´s a solid control panel to control all the ships I´m not flying I´ll be happy.

It would be fine controlling fighters/bombers/medium ships, while you order the rest of your ships around.

It´s funny that someone said that this will limit the chance of having big carrier battles, as it´s the opposite, having to babysit your carriers because they won´t do crap if don´t control them willl be bad for big battles.

As long as the fleet control options are good I will be happpy with the no capital control thing.

Another idea, I´ve been thinking about what was said about carriers battles, and I wonder how will they deal with payer death. In a big battle, it´s normal that a lot of ships will be destroyed, and small ships will be cannon fodder.

It would not be good if you had to fly a fighter but you couldn´t because it´s too dangerous out there

[grhluna]

omg this game will suck so hard like a 95 year old grandma without her false teeth
i'm just messin
no this is like the greatest year of all time for games
we will have skyrim soon (finally the most decent rpg ever made)
and we have the best space sim upcoming my 2 fav genres
i can imagine where this is heading in the future
for rpgs even more massive sandbox worlds full of interaction aka skyrim
(already topping the rpg genre pretty soon)
and massive space sims with planets and npcs and ship interiours
right now im def happy with where skyrim is today and x3
x3 videos look totally awesome they say there will be even a copilot
they are both going to be a challenge for my -already in trouble- social life tho lol

[grhluna]

btw imhappy i upgraded not long ago! a new huge hdtv
and connected with a powerfull pc and a new gts450 through hdmi!
all custom parts
beats the *** out of consoles
if you wanna game seriously or other stuff u really cant do without such good setup

[Walkop]

Okay, I like speculation just as much as the rest guy - but this is just getting ridiculous!. I'll take out a few points:

1. Being only able to fly 1 ship - likely the AP Gunner. Where did this even come from? I remember a vauge quote from Burnd about it, but it didn't imply that you would only be able to fly one ship! Besides - what POSSIBLE reason could ES have to make that happen? They don't!

2. Plot based, with little "meat" gameplay and a small sandbox. That is absolute pure and compltely unbased speculation - it doesn't even make sense! Representatives specifically mentioned that they are keeping the core sense of gameplay, to the best of my memory. This would kill their fanbase, kill the game line, and likely kill the company (or a large portion of its profits). Why on Earth would they do this? Think about it.

3. Removal of the script editor to make the game mission oriented, and less "automated". In my opinion, this is borderlining on paranoia (no offense intended). There is not even a hint of an implication of this in the information we have, and it doesn't fit wit the facts we do have. For instance, they developed an enitrely new game engine to allow them to do things that they couldn't before. THAT is a fact. They mentioned that modding WILL be a part of Rebirth (at least eventually). THAT is a fact - here is a quote from FEDCON:

We can’t do it so openly like we’ve done it before in the earlier games, there was a basis, where you not only changed the technology basis, but also the gameplay basis from game to game. Everybody could understand immediately what the changes are and what to work with. The present game is very different and the technologies that are applied in it are different and that’s why we can’t invite Modders and involve the community. But this is definitely our goal.

About the plot - another quote, from FEDCON.

And when I play through the before mentioned plot, so to say the story of the game, it is just an introduction, because we want to keep the sandbox-character of the game, a game where I set my own goals, where I can freely develop, nevertheless the plot is an important beginning and it shall be exciting and great and when it has at some point reached its top, when it has reached its goal, then it releases the player in an even greater universe with more opportunities to change the universe

So, I said it once and I'll say it again: X:Rebirth will be of the SAME quality as we have come to expect from Egosoft - and I expect none less. They spend 4 years on it already! It's a lot of work, and they put a lot of effort to build a whole new engine. It must be a great concept to be worth all of that work You don't spend 4 yars making an entirely new game that you don't even want to play!

Look at another quote as regards modding, too:

Yes, we're not changing our philosophy. We'll open up the games to the fans and work with them. The foundations of this have long-since been established through our forums and its embedded 'DevNet'.

AND the plot/sandbox mode:

The story is good and important for newcomers, but we want to ensure fun gameplay in all areas. 'Yes, the plot might only last 10-20 hours, but that's not why I buy the game,' say most X-fans, because there's at least another 100 hours of gameplay beyond that... once the story is over, the player is free to do as he likes in the universe. We're keeping the sandbox.

So stop all this negative speculation; at once! It doesn't have a base - it's speculation based on speculation. Reliability really starts to break down at that point; and its no fun at all.

For more info, read this page. It expains a lot about X:Rebirth.
http://www.egosoft.com/x/xnews/201105_1_44News.html

[blue fox]

It is nice to know that Egosoft is continuing to produce interesting and open ended games. I've been a fan since X-2 The Threat.

It seems strange thou that Egosoft has not released the PC Specs for X-rebirth!
I am sure they know by now what is going to be needed, since they are in or near the finnal stages of the game.

I know I would like to know sooner than later. So if I need to up grade a graphics card or add more memmory I would have time to do it.

The most dicouraging factor of the past games has been about PC not being able to handle the frame rates needed to play the game. Paticulary in large battle scenes or Heavely populated areas. and if they are going to have these huge space stations. I can not imagine what kind drain it will put on a pc. So if I have up grade I would like to beable start as soon as possible.

Thanks for these great games

[StarTroll]

It seems strange thou that Egosoft has not released the PC Specs for X-rebirth!
I am sure they know by now what is going to be needed, since they are in or near the finnal stages of the game.

I know I would like to know sooner than later. So if I need to up grade a graphics card or add more memmory I would have time to do it.

The most dicouraging factor of the past games has been about PC not being able to handle the frame rates needed to play the game. Paticulary in large battle scenes or Heavely populated areas. and if they are going to have these huge space stations. I can not imagine what kind drain it will put on a pc. So if I have up grade I would like to beable start as soon as possible.

Thanks for these great games

How do you release infos on computer requirements when the game itself is stil in late Alpha / early Beta ?
And its not strange at all anyway, you usually know the specifications for a game about 1 month to a few weeks before release. When it is disclosed before, it is most of the time because it reuses the same engine as a precedent game.

[Walkop]

By the way - I can safely say wih 100% certianty that what was said below is not the case.

The whole "couldnt solve it for TC so cut it out" mentality in a development stage for a new game would be heartbreaking for many of us.

There was a quote from FEDCON addressing this exact question.

What features have been left out from previous series? - Things haven't been left out just because they're hard to develop, rather we've concentrated on bring in gameplay features that are 'cooler'.

So rest with confidence that things won't be taken out because they're hard to do!

[blue fox]

Would you build as house without a foundation or knowing what materials you were going to need to finnish the project or it's cost? Would GM design a new car and put into production with out knowing what was required? Egosoft would not I'm sure.
They have aready mentioned a new engine. That alone would imply they aready had the required pc spec

[Walkop]

It's more like this: "Would GM build and design a new car, and 6 months before it is put into the mass market divulge MPG numbers before they have even begun major road-tests?" Its not fair to want PC specs as of yet. Simply expect they'll be a fair bit higher than both TC or Reunion, and plan accordingly. We'll get them soon

[softweir]

There are too many differences between car production and game coding for the analogy to be valid.

Car engineers are very rarely surprised by bizarre MPG figures. The engines will have been in development for years before the design of any given car design starts, so they have a very good idea of the performance characteristics of the engine. They can also test car body shapes in wind tunnels long before they marry them to any particular engine, so they have a very good idea of how much to allow for a given body when filled with a given engine. This allows the executives to say "we want a car that can do X, Y and Z", and the engineers to say "not until the new crank-spin engine is ready - but if you are willing to compromise on X then we can do one with the existing engine".

The final MPG tests very rarely lead to huge surprises - they almost always land well within the specified ballpark the executives asked for.

Sorting out mass production, funding and distribution of a new car takes time. During this time prototypes can be sent of for road tests, MPG certification and road-safety tests. Very little redesign goes on at this stage. We, the public, only hear about the MPG figures towards the end of this hiatus. By the time we see the car in the ads it will be 18 months old or more.

Games are NOT the same. Marrying a new graphic engine with the final graphic resources, scripts, universe map and so on CAN AND DOES lead to surprises! An engine may perform sweet as a nut with a few graphics from the old game, but may crunch badly when it tries to render everything in the new "universe". Tiny tweaks to code can have alarming consequences on framerate.

So, while game developers do work to some assumed hardware specs, there is always a good chance that the final game will demand a significantly more powerful machine, or alternatively (rarely) cope well on a lesser machine.

Because of all this, developers rarely know the actual specs of a game until well into the beta testing stage, and much prefer to leave announcing the specs until the end of the beta test stage.

[uxnhoj123]

I can't say I understand anything about making games, but other companies seem to release minimum requirements close to release time. Presumably they want to hold it back until they've had time to optimize the engine so they aren't just throwing staggering system requirements at the public.

Crysis 2 and Witcher 2 were two big name titles I looked up and they both had their specs released a month and a half before they actually came out - I'd expect the same for X:R.

[Remover_Dave]

I thought I'd just budge in here with a slightly off-kilter query.

I know that the stations look to have changed a lot, but I wonder what work will have been done to the actual resources traded.

X-Universe News 43:
In the video are lots of massive stations and modules with greenhouses etc. Are these interactive to the player? - "Of course. Stations will be gigantic and much more detailed than in the past but it's not just about the visuals, there are many more ways to interact with them now and they are much more important to the economy."

Point 1: I don't how having bigger stations will have changed the economy, especially if people are talking about the likeliness of still having major trading between sectors, have they changed what we trade? (See point 2.) Not that I mind that much. We shall have to see about this when later news arrives.

Point 2: I wonder if they have made (are still making.) some new resources. Apart from e-cells, ore, silicone ect, I wonder if they could have added something like "Workers," or "Civilians," who when moved around would actually change the rate of production for a station/area. I'm quite eager to see what they have changed in terms of resources. If they are still working off the same basic combination of resources, then I don't know why they bothered with the major reform. (or whatever you want to call it.)

Lastly, having an economy that will take major amounts of 'stuff' out of the loop to actually feed it's people would be nice. Taking your co-pilot and team out for a slap-up feed at a space restaurant after a long battle would be quite unique... (yeh, dream on!)

Anyway, just some points to ponder on.
R.D.


Edit: Probably should have put that "Workers," or "Civilians," would be non-consumable.

[Fraggle Rock]

The issue I have is the female co pilot we're going to be stuck with apparently.

As a gay player of the X Series and a potential purchaser of X Rebirth, I demand the right to choose the gender of our future co pilot! I want a male co pilot dag-nabbit!

There is no way I would ever pick a woman to be my co pilot/life partner/bed warmer/whatever-you-wanna-call-it......

Plus there must be a few real-life women that play these space games, not just us socially-inadequate males...I'm sure they would appreciate the option to have a male co pilot as well.

[StarTroll]

Would you build as house without a foundation or knowing what materials you were going to need to finnish the project or it's cost? Would GM design a new car and put into production with out knowing what was required? Egosoft would not I'm sure.
They have aready mentioned a new engine. That alone would imply they aready had the required pc spec

See the above answers for detailed answering but I'll add this. Developpers use big rigs to develop games so of course the have the specs, but that doesn't mean those are the required ones to play the game. I doubt you'll ever see a game requiring the same hardware that is used to test non optimized betas in production, or you'd lose a huge chunk of the market with people thinking they'd have to buy a new machine just for the game.

And in the end, there is no use to prepare a new PC right now just for X : R, since the game won't be out for a while, and even if your rig is ready the day of release, all the better for its baptism as the first game you'll launch on it .

PS : Forgot to add that waiting is always good for building a PC,price for current pieces will go down by the end of the year so no need to hurry when you can gain something.

[VincentTH]

The issue I have is the female co pilot we're going to be stuck with apparently.

As a gay player of the X Series and a potential purchaser of X Rebirth, I demand the right to choose the gender of our future co pilot! I want a male co pilot dag-nabbit!

Calm down, they said there is a female copilot, nothing about a romance going between the main char and the copilot!!!

Realistically, what you expect them to do? As a co-star in the game, the copilot would require voice acting, so you want them to double the budget just to satisfy a statistically low population of the player base?

[Virtualaughing]

@Fraggle Rock
This was hell of a honest confession and your request has a point. Even I'm a Straight Men i have to admit it could be interesting if i swap character to a female and my co pilot a female aswell When still the ship computer with the PERFECT female voice Lets Play, Roll

@Walkop Very well said. Thank You. Lets get out with the wrong line of rumours here coz it will just mess up our mind wth FALSE information. All i hope for to keep X as a simulator. That will be dissapointing if some kind of EVE Online clone we have to face in the Rebirth (even i got that from the Fed Con interview about battleships) ... No offence to Eve Lovers

Whoever got the idea i can not imagine to use gasoline fuel in a hydrogen fuelled car so even I have no idea about modding in X (except some adjustment in the turbo booster / thruster script) i can not imagine how to put the old script editor into the Rebirth's new game engine.

@apricotslice
Seriously...
Can you please stop blaming both Digital Anvil (Freelancer) and Egosoft because you can't fly the ship. In Freelancer you can steer the ship with the chepaest mouse in the market PERFECTLY WELL. (wired mouse for sure, I have them both so i can see the difference) My "HQ" in one of the best Freelancer server where you can go on events to do Race with other players. It is EPIC. The cruise spped is 50% more than the vanilla but still you can make it. Or if you not then you eventually explode in the minefield surronding the race tracks ;P Per pixel precision with any joystick is impossible. (Wonder which one is that FL server then PM Me for details)

X3 Reunion missions is the way that Egosoft have to follow. They are both challenging and unique. Mission inside a base, Spy with camera drone within an asteroid ... ... ...

All i want is if Egosoft adjusting the mouse settings to steer the ship please this time get it right. EK i don't wanna see any pop up menu and/or slide bar every time i press the space just because i wanna release the mouse
...and to be able to adjust the sensitivty aswell.
Not to mention that you can not steer the ship with mouse (X3 TC) when the map is open. In Freelancer you can use any map and steer the ship same time and if you fast enough you can even click on the objects on any window without the annoyance of (press space, adjust, press space, adjust, press space ........)
... and the unguided auto pilot (FL) that can avoid any object on route without desired destination given to the auto pilot. ( Clear target, press Go To )
btw: Did any of you try to zoom in and steer with mouse for more precise steering. (X3 TC) Now that is the only feature which better than FL