X3 + Mass Effect +StarTrak Bridge Commander, could be a nice combo :)

[Andaius]

Oh wait I didn't play that! Wow Would love to see X4 look like that!

[Seathal]

How about the commanding system of Silent Hunter 3 and 4? you have to give orders to your offciials and crew in order to get the thing moving. ANd it achieves the highest grade of immersion I've ever seen. COuldn't imagine mixing it with the X3 environment. You could just switch to the pilot's place or the turrets (like you do now) or assume the captain role.

Also... for immersion... 3D cockpits (like the ones from FSX) would be such a good thing. Imagine to be flying in your fighter and being able to turn your head around without changing course seeing your cockpit details and indicators as you scan the space... Dunno, I'd love it.

[frymaster]

Average fully loaded pay per employee: £120,000
Number of employees: 50
Number of years development: 4

£120,000 pay per employee? Hey, I'll come and work for you when you start a game company paying that much!

Seriously, that's a massive over-estimate. Typical programmer salaries are in the £30-40k range, and that's for the top end guys who really know what they're doing; someone straight out of university might get half that.

Fully loaded pay is the total cost of employment including benefits, office, computer etc. but 3 times salary (assuming they're all top-end employees) is perhaps a bit much, though I'd expect that to be higher for developers than other employees (they have a legitimate need for lots of expensive kit and screens and pizza^H er, other things )

[weezl]

Average fully loaded pay per employee: £120,000
Number of employees: 50
Number of years development: 4

£120,000 pay per employee? Hey, I'll come and work for you when you start a game company paying that much!

Seriously, that's a massive over-estimate. Typical programmer salaries are in the £30-40k range, and that's for the top end guys who really know what they're doing; someone straight out of university might get half that.

Ahh.. The numbers for US are: 90K-120K for excellent software guys (making fully loaded close to 160).. UK<->US exchange rates are 1.4 ish range, and my numbers are for FULLY LOADED, which would put the actual end point salary around 90 or so (health costs, other benefits, etc.) If the normal top salaries are in the 50ish range, then figure fully loaded at 1.25 to 1.3 above that (off the top of my head).. so probably .5 multiplier on all my numbers gets the REAL numbers for the UK..

Ahh.. the wonders of exchange rates and job markets!

Thanks for the correction .

[Deathgeese]

Ahh.. The numbers for US are: 90K-120K

Umm...even I have to say that that still seems like a huge overestimation of pay rates. Most programmers don't get over 80k USD, and that type of pay is reserved only for project leaders and such. Also, Egosoft isn't a huge company, they probably don't bring in near as much money as the top businesses that employ computer professionals and therefore can't afford to pay top salaries. The people at Egosoft, being in a niche market, most likely do what they do because they love it, not necessarily due to pay. So, it's reasonable to assume they don't get over 70k on average.