What we know about X-Rebirth [Updated 09/09/11]

[temetvince]

...I'd wager that the reason nobody lets you walk around your entire ships interior is much more due to how much work it would be. It's not easy stuff to handle freely moving objects moving around on other freely moving objects...

Sure it is. Object a is moving inside object b. Object c is moving on object a. Every time there is a screen update, program object a to not be moving and object c to move. Then make object c part of object a and let object a move.

Basic programming. And I probably described the absolute worst way to implement it.

I feel like I've taken this thread off topic. Sorry everyone. I initially just meant to ask a question.

[AkrionXxarr]

Sure it is. Object a is moving inside object b. Object c is moving on object a. Every time there is a screen update, program object a to not be moving and object c to move. Then make object c part of object a and let object a move.

Well described like that I guess one could say it's easy to do anything as far as programming is concerned. It's also easy to generate complex lighting with a ray tracer, that doesn't mean it's something that should be done.

Either way, I've definitely said my piece. Ultimately if some people don't like the game then they don't like the game and will simply have to put up with X3:TC and prior until Egosoft's next release or do something else. But for the people who insist on hating the game before the game has even been released, you're being silly. :3

[temetvince]

Sure it is. Object a is moving inside object b. Object c is moving on object a. Every time there is a screen update, program object a to not be moving and object c to move. Then make object c part of object a and let object a move.

Well described like that I guess one could say it's easy to do anything as far as programming is concerned. It's also easy to generate complex lighting with a ray tracer, that doesn't mean it's something that should be done.

Either way, I've definitely said my piece. Ultimately if some people don't like the game then they don't like the game and will simply have to put up with X3:TC and prior until Egosoft's next release or do something else. But for the people who insist on hating the game before the game has even been released, you're being silly. :3

Very true. I'm not sure any of us truly hate the game. In fact, I think we are all looking forward to it, even if a little skeptically. We're just upset and kinda feel like our favorite company let us down after a decade of amazing service. Basically egosoft had reached that "can do nothing wrong" godlike status in the minds of its consumer base, and now a lot of us feel slightly betrayed. Nothing major, just slightly annoyed. We'll see, maybe this game will be amazing!

[SpidaFly]

Very true. I'm not sure any of us truly hate the game. In fact, I think we are all looking forward to it, even if a little skeptically. We're just upset and kinda feel like our favorite company let us down after a decade of amazing service.

You hit it on the head there. The messages they've been sending about X:R moved it from the very top of my to-play list to somewhere near the bottom... below Dark Souls, below Skyrim, below Mass Effect 3, below RAGE, certainly. But it doesn't mean the game is OFF the list, I'm just heavily skeptical. I've gone from wondering how I'd find time to play those other games... to thinking Dark Souls is going to be filling that "go-to" highly repayable game that fills 100+ hours this winter.

I'll certainly be watching these boards to see what people say about it before I buy it. If it's combat and trading and empire building intensive, and will drive me to play for hundreds of hours, I'll buy it. If they turn it into a 40 hour RPG with stale and forced "character development", I won't.

The mistake they are making, I think, is making this game sound a lot more casual-friendly. X players historically have not been casual gamers - or at least not casual about X. They might be trying to pick up a larger market and cutting some losses. Or it might be an amazing game. Who knows? Time will tell.

[Clock_Work]

"Only one player ship"... The capital ship part is alright. I mean as long as you at least can be on your ship and give it orders (kinda like a captain. I mean what captain drives his ship directly right?). But taking away owning more than one ship is taking away the thing that distinguishes the X series from the other space sim's out there. As a business man myself, I admire Egosofts courage on this, but as an x fan I weep at the next game in the x series taking a giant leap (not even a step anymore) towards being like every other space shooter/rpg. Its a sad day the day that Egosoft decided to jump on the bandwagon and decided to give us something that is shiny and sells rather than something with a soul.

[e1team]

We still don't know how this whole thing of "one player ship" works. So I guess no need to get crazy about it (although it makes me nuts not to know a thing). Anyway, even before we knew about Rebirth, Ego clearly said that they are done with X games but still not done with X universe. We'll have to face the fact this is NOT X game anymore. Just a different game set in X universe. So I guess we can't expect too many similarities with previous sandbox style games.

[Gazz]

It's not a completely hopeless situation, yet.
While Bernd said in the Gamescon interview that you will only be able to fly one ship in the game, he did not specifically say that you can not "move in" into a destroyer hull and make that one "the one ship".

That you can walk about the interior of the ship is no argument against this because rooms are rooms and corridors are corridors, no matter if your ship is 100 or 1000 m long. The rooms would still be human-sized so the model for the entire interior can stay the same on every ship type.
It would not be required to have a unique interior for every ship in the game. One size fits all.
Kinda like the "cockpits" in TC were the same on every ship and equally usable on all of them.

Walking around inside your ship is certainly a neat feature but I sure hope it's not required to access the "controls", like managing cargo, navigation, etc.
This having to run back and forth the same corridor (waiting for the "door opens" animation several times) to reach the different game controls was one of the more infuriating features in Mass Effect.

Besides, there is no point whatsoever in allowing the player remote control of a beefy capital ship if he is stuck in his comparatively vulnerable starter ship during the same battle.
That would be like a corvette being the flagship of a naval battleship taskforce.
It wouldn't matter if you brought zero or 20 destroyers to the battle if the enemy only needs to take out the one smaller playership to win through a game-over.

Limiting trading ships to remote control is reasonable. An autopilot can fly from A to B just fine without me holding it's electronic hand.

Limiting it in the same way for fighting ships forces XRB down to the scale of an I-War, where you might remote-control the occasional combat or cargo drone but would never physically be riding in anything but your starter ship.

[rwhiteruff]

Limiting trading ships to remote control is reasonable. An autopilot can fly from A to B just fine without me holding it's electronic hand.

Reasonable for you. For some people this is their main point-of-play, having loved the personal trade aspects of Elite, Privateer, etc. X3:TC completely supports this playstyle with things like the "best buy" and "best sell" trade softwares, allowing you to play your own merchant captain.

Of course in Rebirth you no longer apparently even dock at stations to exchange cargo so...

[Shootist]

Of course in Rebirth you no longer apparently even dock at stations to exchange cargo so...

No. Several of the translations say you don't have to dock to trade. Not, you cannot dock. Another translation says the player will be able to walk around on stations: I do not know how one can accomplish walking without docking.

[rwhiteruff]

No. Several of the translations say you don't have to dock to trade. Not, you cannot dock. Another translation says the player will be able to walk around on stations: I do not know how one can accomplish walking without docking.

So yes, what I said.

[Shootist]

No. Several of the translations say you don't have to dock to trade. Not, you cannot dock. Another translation says the player will be able to walk around on stations: I do not know how one can accomplish walking without docking.

So yes, what I said.

Apologies, I thought you needed some cheese.

[Vayde]

Of course in Rebirth you no longer apparently even dock at stations to exchange cargo so...

No. Several of the translations say you don't have to dock to trade. Not, you cannot dock. Another translation says the player will be able to walk around on stations: I do not know how one can accomplish walking without docking.

The English language is full of hidden little meanings and these can all be interpreted differently. Eg Walking around on a station as opposed to Walking around in a station. One needs the ability to dock the other does not.

[temetvince]

It's not a completely hopeless situation, yet.
While Bernd said in the Gamescon interview that you will only be able to fly one ship in the game, he did not specifically say that you can not "move in" into a destroyer hull and make that one "the one ship".

I hope you're right! But after reading here http://www.egosoft.com/x/xnews/201105_1_44News.html,

it says:

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'. Previously, for example, it was possible to pilot a capital ship from its bridge. No more. It took many players a long time to get to the point where they would own one and it wasn't a huge amount of fun to fly. If we'd included this, it would have put us back a bit.

[Gazz]

Yah, the intention is definitely to go back to the scale of X1.

The real question is whether they built in any obstacles to prevent this situation from being... modified.
What vanilla Rebirth can and can not do is barely worth considering.

The oneandonly playership could be modified with reallyreallybig addon modules that just happen to provide the shape and capabilities of a destroyer, the drone controls might end up controlling a reallyreallybig drone that happens to appear in place of one of your capital ships, effectively giving you direct control over what walks like a capital ship and quacks like a capital ship, the engine might even have the ability to flat out allow the player to enter different ships... and simply not use that ability in the vanilla game.

It doesn't matter in the least if the game can do a particular thing or not. It only matters if you can make it look like it does.

[perkint]

As Gazz says (effectively) - we know next to nothing about the actual capabilities of the engine. To be fair, we know next to nothing about how the game will play.

Which, in my opinion (note - in my opinion. I am not trying to start an argument or cause offence, but...) makes comments like the following, hugely premature!!!

the only sandbox space sim genre is now dead.

How can a company with roots so deep as egosoft turn their back on everything they've accomplished? Progessionism yes, but not at the price of destroying what people love.

We know so little about the actual gameplay yet. Whinge about the few released explicit details if you like, but writing off the whole game, considering how little real info has been released? You gota be kidding me!!

Tim

[perkint]

Speaking of released info - here's a few more snippets and hints...

Is this the Co-Pilot? The German forum announcement thread suggests it is. This was at the Gamescon event.

Polish preview from GRY Online (courtesy of Skeeter)

Google translations - Page 1 and Page 2

The only new bits of info really:

• Confirmed corridors as well as rooms on the player ship
  Confirmed can walk on stations
  When talking about the gravitational affect of cap ships, suggests you can actually land on them:

  When we come closer to the so-called "capital ship" will change the system of attraction. Thus we can fly between the systems on the hull of the vehicle (like in the final scene of the fourth episode of Star Wars), and even land on it.

Sounds cool

Tim

[TTD]

Company issue standard uniforms are back?
re...

Is this the Co-Pilot?

That pick is now my desk top

[SpidaFly]

So they're forcing another over-sexualized buddy-character into the plot. Hmm. That's the cheese of mediocre RPGs.

[TTD]

So they're forcing another over-sexualized buddy-character into the plot. Hmm. That's the cheese of mediocre RPGs.

Well , playing TC ,we've become a bit homesick without Saya Kho

[SpidaFly]

Well , playing TC ,we've become a bit homesick without Saya Kho

But at least we could get away from her and do our own thing. If she's the co-pilot, it might be even more annoying than the computer.

Hey, maybe they'll give us an airlock! xD