X-Rebirth No piloting Capital ships!!??

[Deal]

Long time lurker here. :)I would love to see the larger ships converted into a commander role with officers taking over the roles.So you have a few pics of differnent officers on the bottom of the screen.You click on them and their functions pop up.Say an enemy ship has approached you and you can then click on the individual officers to tell them how the ship will react and all their functions will pop up when clicked on.

Captain...........
all stations on combat alert/launch full fighters(carrier)

Helmsman.......
keep targeted enemy to starboard/set speed to full battle

weapons........
full shields to starboard side set cannons to 75% power/launch XXXX missle

then you have ability to get in a fighter and join the batle if you like letting AI take command of tyour fleet or stay on the deck and play the game as commander/

More realism added with tactics like....missles that do not penetrate shields so you must first weaken the shield emmiters then can launch missles.....makes the enemy then have to manuever themselves to move the side that has lost the shield away from line of fire.

Just what I hope XR will be like.

[BlueShade Zero]

Hi guys,

ok lets be a bit more precise about the capital ships then. Piloting a huge capital ship from the seat of the pilot is boring, therefore we left that out.

ON THE OTHER HAND: The player can own and can command ships and he can use them for a lot more different things than before.

Stations as well as large ships have a lot more ways to interact with them now and your own as well as other factions ships are much more interesting to play with.

Instead of sitting in the cockpit you will assign people to command ships for you.

Hope this clears things up...

-Bernd

Alright fine. Though this doesnt offer much comfort... So are we going to be able to sit in them at all? I'm not looking forward to having to flee for my life from a massive capital class battle so i can stop being blown up long enough to tell my caps what to do. One of the reason i liked being in a carrier is that i had an entire defense force in my ship, and i didnt have to worry about being shot up. Maybe not just waltz around all casually, but it wasnt like i'm sitting in a fighter waiting for a lone PPC round to get lucky.

I know i grind on egosoft alot, sorry, but this is a major concern for me. I played X3 for a long time and discovered my favorite roll to be a captain, and i never had more fun then when i was piloting my capitals. Some clarification as to what "exactly" your planning for this would really help to set things at ease.

Will we be inside capital ships at all?

Will it be like docking at a station, where we just sit blankly looking at a wall and issue commands?

Seriously, this is a major disappointment for me. I dont know what you've planned, but it 100% sounds like its not me in the captains seat.

[Gazz]

It all depends on how we give orders to this helmsman.

With pure autopilot control, only being able to set a single waypoint as in TC, this would well... suck.
Your ship traveling in a nice, straight, and predictable line? How stupid is that?

The only real alternative to direct control is setting waypoints.
For every waypoint you'd have to assign the yaw / pitch / roll / speed values for the severity of course change and then either a duration of the maneuver... or simply a destination.

If you cannot order something like 50% yaw, -100% pitch, roll to -45°, full speed ahead, then you cannot control the ship in a battle.
That the autopilot would magically become capable of flying the ship in a tactically meaningful way is wishful thinking.

[nitro2500]

Seems goofy to not be able to directly control capitol ships. Even a admiral gets to ride in his flag ship and give orders.

[Jawms]

There has to be a reason behind this. I highly doubt that something would be included that will instantly kill you in the middle of an epic battle.

It would also be safe to assume that the way capital ships are commanded has been greatly improved to remove the need to spend 5 minutes plotting courses, setting speeds, and waypoints..

From what i have been reading it sounds alot more action oriented than the previous games.. Im optimistic, and awaiting what Egosoft has prepared for us with open arms.
I would also bet its way too far into development to change anything now..

Not like they've ever failed us tho eh?

[BlueShade Zero]

Not like they've ever failed us tho eh?

We'll see. They havnt failed because they have a very solid foundation and merely expanded and enhanced it. They made the smart decision and realized that their game was pretty much at its maximum capacity for what the engine could take, and this is their first delve into dangerous new waters.

I've never NOT enjoyed one of X's new games, but i'm deeply worried about being left with an empty feeling at endgame. This is a big thing for me really. Huge ships, huge guns, massive amounts of power. My fingertips, the fate of entire sectors. I dont want to feel like the back seat spectator in these events. I want to be at the controls.

Even if i can tell my ships "go here and just kill the shit out of things", it wont be as satisfying as if i'm sitting in the ship myself, watching my PPC broad side tear down a station with 2-3 other capitals in formation. Thats the feeling of power that, as it sounds right now, i'm going to miss.

Even if i wasnt directly involved, like when i flew my carriers, i still felt safe and secure behind my massive wall of shields and firepower. I felt like i could afford to sit back, issue commands to my fighters and destroyers. With out being in a capital, you'd never have enough sanctuary, except maybe on the edges of the map to sit back like that.

Sorry if it seems like i'm bashing, but it feels like i've been told that your not gana give me my desert, and not only that but proud of it. Honestly, i'm more sad then anything else.

Rebirth could, and probably will be awesome, but i'll always, seriously miss what i enjoyed most about it. The ability to actually fleet a field of capitals is what set X3 apart from free lancer, and those other space combat sims where your always that fighter pilot in over their heads (or with a really, really over powered ship)

[ZaldronTheSage]

If this is on par with a Freelancer game successor, count me in! Cap ships can eat it for all i care! I mean, what made freelancer FUN after all, the cap ships?....NOPE

Just because it's not fun for you doesn't automatically make it not fun for everybody else. I personally didn't find Freelancer the holy grail of space games, the control scheme wasn't enjoyable for me (Therefor everybody else should dislike the controls according to your logic, right?), and what made the game more fun for me was the Discovery mod (which brought in Capital ships) and RP community.

For a strictly fighter based space simulator, I personally feel that Evochron is by far the best, but that doesn't mean it's an appropriate replacement for the X series nor does it mean that the X series should be more like it.

I found Egosoft entirely becasue you could buy, own, and pilot capital ships. They have been by far the only game to really get behind this other than Eve Online (And it's not at all the same on Eve). So I honestly wish they would let us know already whether or not you can reside aboard one as passenger/fleet admiral. Because it is rather immersion breaking, for me and clearly for a number of others, to be the owner and fleet commander of a capital ship fleet and to do your commanding from a fighter.

Your missing the point here brah,
While I did compare it to freelancer, it by no means states that I do not love the X-Series of games. Don't get me wrong, I love to pilot a fat and sassy cruiser/frigate/carrier/battleship/star destroyer/doomsday ship like the other guy, but if by means they focus on the game mechanics more which in turn decentralizes the focus on capital ships...more power to them...when has Egosoft ever put out a crappy game? hrm?

Evocron Mercs is another fav of mine btw...and there is talk of cap ships there too

[strude]

Seems goofy to not be able to directly control capitol ships. Even a admiral gets to ride in his flag ship and give orders.

True, but I wouldn't define an admiral riding in his flag ship and giving orders "direct control" of the ship either.

[AgamemnonArgon]

This is a very much an X Universe game.
I feel confident that the next X Universe game, will be as excellent as Terran Conflict has been, and is.
Either that or it may sit on the shelf whilst I continue to play Terran conflict.

[Gazz]

We'll see. They havnt failed because they have a very solid foundation and merely expanded and enhanced it.

With regard to cap ship flying it's more because they didn't need a good autopilot or control / waypoint scheme... because you could fly it yourself.

[MadMan983]

my take on the capital ship piloting debate.

whilst piloting a fighter at the begining of the game is fun by the time I had an M7or M2 at my command i realy enjoyed the feeling of commanding a huge battleship in slow motion combat across huge distances, then i installed CMOD4 and the capital ship combat became a thing of beauty and devine balance, with occation auto-pillok shnanigans.
after amassing a small fleet (an M1, an M2 and 3 or 4 M7s) i found myself useing the smaller, faster M6s (Heavy nemisis FTW) and giving my fleet a general "kill em all" order whilst i moped up fighters and had a good time fighting xenon M7s

rammbling aside i realy think that egosoft should give us the OPTION to chuse there new and no doubt awsome capital ship control system or the classic X3-TC methord.

i also think that the weapon damage values should be closer to CMOD4 levels as the combat was way to quick in X3-TC hense CMOD4 which makes the game 25% more awsome.

my wandering mind has given up now, enjoy my opinion and remember that your thuth is not everyone truth, think about it.

[Burneyx]

this M2 discussion gives me the feeling that many players are afraid to loose their main-weapon, their source of "player-power".......

To be honest, for me, the players strongest weapons are ***THINK*** and ***BUILD*** in exactly this order!

So i think the player will still be able to dominate the new Rebirth-Universe in a long term, like it has been in every part of the X-Series

I dont worry about it, Egosoft will do a good job, like always.

greetings

Burneyx

[Gazz]

this M2 discussion gives me the feeling that many players are afraid to loose their main-weapon, their source of "player-power".......

Im lobbying for the complete removal of the strafe drive from capital ships.
Either that or reduce it to something like a 1m/s parking aid, not the 112 m/s it is now.

That is the source of player power. M2 are quite fragile if they can't dance around the bullets matrix-style. =P

[Burneyx]

this M2 discussion gives me the feeling that many players are afraid to loose their main-weapon, their source of "player-power".......

Im lobbying for the complete removal of the strafe drive from capital ships.
Either that or reduce it to something like a 1m/s parking aid, not the 112 m/s it is now.

That is the source of player power. M2 are quite fragile if they can't dance around the bullets matrix-style. =P

Well,
i wanted to avoid naming the strafe(cheat) drive thing, but agree with you in that case.

that is one of the reason's im never using M2's myself.

and it's more then easy to build up an strong player-corp. without driving them, at least in X3-TC.

greetings

Burneyx

[cobra mk2]

I know there hasn't been that much info released about X-R yet and we cant help thinking or worrying that the game will be dumbed down e.g. no piloting cap ships.

We should remember ES have been making X games exclusively since the beginning and have been working on X-R for the past four years. They know what works and what doesn't.

It shouldn't really matter anyway 'cos no doubt there will be mods out within the first week or so that change how the cap ships are controlled.

[Trialbyfire]

I know there hasn't been that much info released about X-R yet and we cant help thinking or worrying that the game will be dumbed down e.g. no piloting cap ships.

Personally, I think eliminating ability to jump in the seat and pilot a Capital ship like a tinker toy is about as dumbed-down as it gets. Sounds to me Egosoft is "smarting-up" the game in this respect.

[Stars_InTheirEyes]

Vader gets to sit in the super star destroyer.
Emporer gets to sit in the death star.
Goa'uld gets to sit in their supersized ha'tak.
Admiral Adama gets to sit in the Galatica.
Prophet of Truth gets to sit aboard his Covenent carrier.

Where do we sit? on the nose of a damn fighter.

[pjknibbs]

Where do we sit? on the nose of a damn fighter.

And you know that for a fact, do you? Because I don't see anything in the statements made so far which says that. Not being able to PILOT a capital ship is not the same as not being able to be ABOARD one!

(Usual caveat: I know no more about this than the statements already in the thread, so don't take the above as some sort of Word from God).

[Catra]

Can we stop equating no flying = no sitting into a chair.

[Lc4Hunter]

I ever loved playing space-games like the good old wingcommander or freespace.
One thing i ever wanted was to fly the caps.
I know that it is not possible to control everything of the ship.
BUT, how many peaople preveously told, it´s a feeling to control a cap.
I ever loved to command a carrier fleet with my carrier as command ship i´m sitting in, 2 or 3 m2/m7 which guard me and sending out fighters into the battle.
Being able to move my cap is very important for this feeling. turning it to the enemy that he gets a broadside of the sideweapons and so on. Turning the ship away to minimize the attack surface.

If you, the developers, don´t see that THIS a important feature for a "you can do everything in the whole universe"-game ... well, than nobody can help you and i´m sure many lovers of the x-series will not buy the game...

For me it was this ability why i bought X2, X3 und X3TC. i loved the series for that...
I hope you find a GOOD solution for that...

if this feature die, the series is dying for me to.
just my 2 cents

(sorry for bad english, but it´s not my strenth on sunday evening)