Feature request: paint jobs on custom starts

[chew-ie]

There is a way to obtain all paint mods on start. But it might be considered "slightly illegitimate".

Simply save (export) a custom gamestart, it can be either creative or budgeted. Then open up the file in notepad (or some other text document editing software (I highly recommend Notepad++))

The file can be found in This PC -> Documents -> Egosoft -> X4 -> Some number id -> customgamestart
The file's name is whatever you chose to name it.

Once it's open, find wherever it says <inventory> and </inventory> you must paste the following text (below this) anywhere between those two statements, or it will not work, and your file will most likely be unloadable in game.

[.. snip ..]

Once you've done that, save the file. And load your custom gamestart in game. If you're playing on a budgeted gamestart, your game will NOT be marked as modified

You will see the paintmods in your list of inventory items. Feel free to adjust amounts as necessary. Be careful though, if you remove the item from the list it will disappear, and you'll have to reload your custom gamestart file. I hope this helps.

Egosoft, if you're reading this, and you're not planning to add the feature being discussed in this topic, please don't fix this bug, at least not for the creative custom gamestart.

Just an update on this - it doesn't work anymore for the budgeted custom gamestart. The GUI will show them, but Egosoft filters the added wares out before the game starts. @Tranxalive - if you added this to the Wiki, could you update the section accordingly? https://www.egosoft.com:8444/confluence ... ustomstart
Seems to still work - might ocuur in combination of being logged in and the game syncing the online inventory.

I didn't test the creative custom gamestart.

[Tranxalive]

Ah. So they finally “fixed” it. No, I did not add it to the wiki, someone else did. Thank you, by the way.

I regret to inform you, that I will no longer be sharing my knowledge in this area, as they now have a source.
Plus, I doubt EGOSOFT would be happy if I told everyone how to get them, and then the MTS would be significantly less popular. However, I recently tested it before the public beta of the MTS, and it worked fine. I’ll have to test it today. If it works for me, then I guess I have a free pass.

But don’t worry! I have a surprise for you. Did you know that there’re now a ton (you’ll have to find the number yourself. ) of new Paintmods to obtain? Some of them have quickly become my favorites.

[chew-ie]

Ah. So they finally “fixed” it. No, I did not add it to the wiki, someone else did. Thank you, by the way.

I regret to inform you, that I will no longer be sharing my knowledge in this area, as they now have a source.
Plus, I doubt EGOSOFT would be happy if I told everyone how to get them, and then the MTS would be significantly less popular. However, I recently tested it before the public beta of the MTS, and it worked fine. I’ll have to test it today. If it works for me, then I guess I have a free pass.

But don’t worry! I have a surprise for you. Did you know that there’re now a ton (you’ll have to find the number yourself. ) of new Paintmods to obtain? Some of them have quickly become my favorites.

Might I kindly ask for a PM about that last part? Gotcha - happy flying!

[Tranxalive]

Might I kindly ask for a PM about that last part? Gotcha - happy flying!

You can, but you might not get the answer you're looking for.

Also, can confirm: I do, in fact, have "authorization" to start with all paintmods. Everything works perfectly for me.
If a Dev can clarify if this is the case, just so we know if this is an actual feature, or the result of syntax errors, I'd be very grateful.

[chew-ie]

All good - did some datamining. About the new ones - you are right, some are downright epic. Shame so few people will ever see & use them as they are gated behind RNG & artificial shortage

[Tranxalive]

It is a shame, but at least they'll hopefully be obtainable during the MTS.
Maybe they'll hand out a few sets during X-Mas.

[Flippi]

In all honesty, paint mods are one of the reasons I play modified. I use one of the paint job trader mods for that. Plus some additional paint job mods and other stuff. I ain't gonna grind those through missions or "Multiplayer". Although buying them manually from a trader does feel a bit 'grindy' too. All that button pressing to buy a few of each paint job....

[Tranxalive]

In all honesty, paint mods are one of the reasons I play modified.

Yes, but the multiplayer amuses me, so I'll keep my saves mostly vanilla. Though, I still need to do a save with FOCW enabled.
I think asynchronous multiplayer is for the best, at least for right now. The "X-Perience" would honestly be kind of destroyed with multiple players in one save. That's what I think, anyways. Though of course, I'm not saying it shouldn't be added, I'm just saying that it might not be the best type of multiplayer for now.

[Flippi]

Yes, but the multiplayer amuses me, so I'll keep my saves mostly vanilla.

The multiplayer thing does sound a little bit interesting to me too, but not enough to ever return to vanilla again. However, the season thing with "pvp" doesn't interest me as much. If I feel like playing against others, I launch Planetside 2 for that. I even get to play an actual MMOFPS with that too.

I think asynchronous multiplayer is for the best, at least for right now. The "X-Perience" would honestly be kind of destroyed with multiple players in one save. That's what I think, anyways. Though of course, I'm not saying it shouldn't be added, I'm just saying that it might not be the best type of multiplayer for now.

Full Multiplayer was something I wished for in the past. But today, I'd rather not have it. Too much of a hassle, and I would end up playing with randoms anyway, since no one I know plays the X-series any more (or never has). Especially the X3 TC / AP modders I used to work with don't seem to play any more.

I'd rather see more done to the single player part of the game. I might even take a look at modding in X4 too. Although I never was much of a code writer anyway. Especially not with the MD scripts X4 uses.

Anyway, since this is about paint jobs: My current favourite paint job is called "Frozen in Time", which is a new addition to the game I think and not a modded one I am sure. It looks rather fancy on my Discoverer Sentinel. And as far as I have seen, paint jobs aren't created equal either. Some don't look good, or only on specific ships. While others kinda work most of the time.

[Tranxalive]

My current favourite paint job is called "Frozen in Time"

How funny! That's my favorite one too.
For some reason, "Patient Zero" makes me laugh. I just like that it looks like the paint is infecting the ship.

[chew-ie]

"Nachglühen" (afterglow?) is awesome on my Boron Orca =)

[Flippi]

For some reason, "Patient Zero" makes me laugh. I just like that it looks like the paint is infecting the ship.

That one is interesting too. But I think for the 'infected' vibe, things like "Corrosive" or "Eternal Hunger" might be viable too. Haven't tried those yet, but on a few ships like fighters or corvettes, they could be really good looking.

Also, Boron ships kinda look the best with the Foundation colours you get from the CE (or as a useable paint job from the modded trader). At least for me. Some paint jobs make those Boron ships look a bit... extreme I guess. Although I haven't tried many Boron ships yet. Will take a better look at some point.

"Nachglühen" (afterglow?) is awesome on my Boron Orca =)

Yeah, that one is also good. I also like paint jobs that give a "racing ship" vibe.

Currently, I also have 4 Odysseus Vanguard and 4 Odysseus Sentinel, coloured in their faction specific paint jobs (Order Wrath and Godrealm Pride for the base designs, and the camo versions 1,2 and 3 for the military look). Those paint jobs help make those Star Trek TOS hand phasers look acceptable at last. I don't know how Egosoft could butcher the X3 Hercules this much when there were so many other X3 ships they could have used as a Destroyer (Agamemnon would have been dope and fitting, just not with an M ship dock. Or either the Deimos or Ares).

Anyway, paint jobs for the win. Vanilla looks really bland without them. It's also probably one of the best features of X4 for me. Even though I wish that, instead of copy/paste Paint jobs (like the factions camos), we would have the ability to adjust the hue and saturation of every pattern we get access to. That way, Egosoft (or modders) could create new patterns, while players could give them the colours they want. So a mix of X3 and X4 customisation options.

[mrwuggles]

Please add for both the budgeted and the cheaty custom start editor the ability to add previously earned paint jobs.

A big hug if you also include the unique paintjobs (pre order / collectors edition) as well [for those who normally have them added to a new game].

General infos on available paintjobs (X4 Wiki, switch to english language)

Never for the life of me can I understand why they have done things in this manner. People will want to paint their ships it's a given and locking them behind content,.it just doesn't make sense to me. It's like the new asteroids they put in, with the bombs on them, it isn't fun, not the way they have designed things, but they put It in anyways and for what purpose I can't even say, these decisions just cause frustration to the player and while that's fine when your plans go awry or what have you because you have some semblance of control there but with these design choices you have no choice or even recourse, your forced into a single path. You must play ventures for paint jobs, you must deal with these annoying rocks, yea it's gonna eat into your time, and it's laborious to deal with but we don't care about that anyways.

Why take choice and options away from players, the system exists let us use it in our own way instead of forcing to take part in content were not interested in and as an added bonus it's probably even easier to code due to not having to add in all these artificial limitations. To me it's like entering a sandbox and having the shovel only be usable from the hours of 7 to 8 because the dude who made the sandpit has control issues. Shit even look at this thread with people happy to learn you can just add these thing in via an XML tweak or observe the popularity of the add paint jobs to traders mod, it really doesn't take that much effort to see what folks are looking for and why they don't simply provide it to us instead of these convoluted systems just doesn't make sense to me.

[Tranxalive]

[Stuff}

I don't disagree with what you're saying entirely, but personally I'm okay with the way things are. I do think they should give out more paintmods at once, for Ventures, or increase the quantity given.
But I enjoy the Multiplayer and Ventures, it is very fun, and not convoluted at all. Perhaps it's simply because I'm already happy with what I'm given. After all, when I'm busy pushing back Xenon, coloring my ships is the least of my concerns.

Also, nobody forces you to play the Ventures. You could modify your game, but then you'd miss out on interacting with other players. Which is more valuable to you?

[Socratatus]

I was an early buyer to this game on release, and to this day, I've never understood why paintjobs are so difficult to get!

I only ever have 4-6 or so. I basically gave up on even bothering. And just made my own personal logos to offset things.

That being said, the skins I did have never really stood out or looked markedly different on a ship.

[mrwuggles]

[Stuff}

I don't disagree with what you're saying entirely, but personally I'm okay with the way things are. I do think they should give out more paintmods at once, for Ventures, or increase the quantity given.
But I enjoy the Multiplayer and Ventures, it is very fun, and not convoluted at all. Perhaps it's simply because I'm already happy with what I'm given. After all, when I'm busy pushing back Xenon, coloring my ships is the least of my concerns.

Also, nobody forces you to play the Ventures. You could modify your game, but then you'd miss out on interacting with other players. Which is more valuable to you?

It will take me approximately 100 missions, which do not spawn all the time In order to outfit a single carrier battlegroup in paints, and yes painting my ships is important to me, it creates a sense of ownership and I can use the custom logos I have made in tandem to create a nice little story and breath some life I to this husk, it's why we were given these tools in the first place. But really 1 paint per mission it will take me weeks of mission. Grinding to get the laints I need, I dont have time for this as you said there are xenon to kill right, never mj d that I have a life with work and responsibility and dont have time to grind out repeat content when I'm at the stage of the game were I should probably be empire building. Ok so fine, we see that this is annoying to deal with well what are my alternatives in game, oh look ventures give paint rewards, but then I see what it is, "interacting with players" wink hahahah don't make me laugh, we can't chat in game, we need an external program, we can't fight directly only send out pokemon, but we don't even get to watch the battle or influence anything.your interacting with a computer at all stages of this system, let me be clear there is no human input involved at any stage of this experience it's a farce and all you can do is go on the forums later and say hey I saw your ship, or hey I killed your ship, you didn't beat them, no exchange of wits occurs, there is no fight tactical or otherwise you are engaging with the same content the base game gives you and the only change is that some of the ships now have player names attached to them and they can't even help you like death stranding system, lol interacting with people, we just interacted here more now then We will ever do with the ventures system, congrats I'm glad you enjoy this crap.

[Tranxalive]

It will take me approximately 100 missions…

Exactly 101 missions if using a Raptor. Been there, done that. I even divided the fighters into squadrons of 4, with a wing leader, gave them unique names, and unique paint mods.

…painting my ships is important to me, it creates a sense of ownership and I can use the custom logos I have made in tandem to create a nice little story and breath some life I to this husk, it's why we were given these tools in the first place…

Of that, we are agreed.

…"interacting with players" wink hahahah don't make me laugh, we can't chat in game, we need an external program,

It’s kind of hard to make you laugh, when you’re already laughing. Also, wrong. You do not not need an external program. If you’re playing on the MTS Public Beta, you can chat with your team members, and you can expect a general chat option to become available at some point.

…we can't fight directly only send out pokemon, but we don't even get to watch the battle or influence anything.your interacting with a computer at all stages of this system, let me be clear there is no human input involved at any stage of this experience it's a farce and all you can do is go on the forums later and say hey I saw your ship, or hey I killed your ship, you didn't beat them, no exchange of wits occurs, there is no fight tactical or otherwise you are engaging with the same content the base game gives you and the only change is that some of the ships now have player names attached to them and they can't even help you like death stranding system,…

Perhaps it would be best if stayed away from the multiplayer aspect, as you so obviously plan to do. Not all multiplayer mechanics are about PvP. PvP is great and all, but it’s really only fun for the first 5 minutes. Though judging from your tone and general demeanor, it would take you significantly longer. About an hour or two. Let’s see. I’m order to remedy your obviously ravenous hunger for “wit-battling,” and tactical combat, I’d recommend a healthy dose of Stellaris. Except you wouldn’t have time for that. How about… oh yes, StarCraft. But, alas, it might be too difficult for you to handle. Perhaps you should just stick with whatever game you play that clearly isn’t enough to sate your PvP hunger.

lol interacting with people, we just interacted here more now then We will ever do with the ventures system, congrats I'm glad you enjoy this crap.

Ah yes. Perhaps you’re right. This feature should stay in the metaphorical oven for longer, as it’s clearly too underdone to be consumed by anyone. And I’d recommend you seriously consider joining it, as your mental state is borderline raw. At the very least, you should hide because Gordon Ramsay won’t be happy at all if he finds you as you are. Your parents will be in for quite the scolding, I’m afraid.

But of course, what do I know? I’m just a mindless crap consumer with no taste. The sad part is, is that my taste is permanently damaged due to political stupidity. Food for thought.

[Caedes91]

Please no. Remove the current paintjob system and just give us the ability to use sliders to color our ships.

Homeworld, a game more than 20 years old offers a better system. This is bad.

No stupid consumables you have to grind for, the majority of them you can't even get now. FOR 5 years now!

Directly at the build menu and the color shall be saved directly into the custom presets/loadouts.

[Tranxalive]

…give us the ability to use sliders to color our ships.

I would actually like to see that feature return at some point.
I’m not sure why it was removed in the first place anyways.
If it does get added in, it’ll certainly look better than it did in X3.

…How about this? Instead of getting paintmods, you get patterns for the painting feature. You could have a primary and secondary pattern, and maybe even a tertiary. You could mix and match them, and color them differently. It’d be a nice compromise to have some exclusiveness, while also satisfying the larger playerbase.

[Eyeklops]

But don’t worry! I have a surprise for you. Did you know that there’re now a ton (you’ll have to find the number yourself. ) of new Paintmods to obtain? Some of them have quickly become my favorites.

64 new. I added their paint code and name to the Wiki tonight. I don't have the rest of the information to fully fill them out. It's a start tho.