Just to start off, I am fairly new to the ‘X’ franchise, I first bought X3: TC and Albion Prelude last summer. I have always had a deep fascination with space and space exploration; the scenery, vast expanses of emptiness, and the epic space battles. I sought to find a simulator that could encapsulate all the aspects of space and put it into a product ranging from 40£ – 50£. I first tried MOO3, a good game; took up most of my time a few years back (heard MOO2 was better, but I don’t believe them). MOO3 was probably the closest thing I found to a game that encapsulated the vastness of space; it was a solid empire 4x. Then I tried my hand at Sins of a Solar Empire. Not the greatest game, felt more like a kiddy version of Sid Mier’s Alpha Centauri (played that too). Recently I tried playing E.V.E. but, as my friend warned me, it was more of a pay to win simulator than a space simulator. Finally, I hit upon the X series in 4chan’s /v/ board (after a lot of being trolled of course). The X series was simply amazing, steep-ass learning curve but I had come into it after attempting E.V.E. so it wasn’t too bad. The aspects of TC and AP I loved were the trading, the scale of everything, and the combat. I had a couple disagreements with how “G.O.D.” handled things in terms of stations and fleets, but other than that it was a game that slaked my thirst for space sim. Of course, I looked forward deeply to X Rebirth. I told all my friends about it, even people I didn’t know online. Everyone was promptly notified of what a great game X Rebirth was going to be. I had every reason to believe that Egosoft would deliver me the game that I wanted.
I bought X Rebirth immediately when it came out (I never pre-order anything on steam, since availability is always there, and I’m not to big on pre-order bonuses). I played it extensively, whenever I could, since. When I first started it up, I was giddy with excitement, eager to explore the vast space constructs and work my way from lowly smuggler to corporate magnate.
To be honest I didn’t do much research on the game before I bought it. I had no idea that you were limited to one ship, I didn’t even know that there weren’t jump gates anymore. I guess that speaks for my own ignorance or how much I trusted Egosoft, the reader can make their own judgment call. I do know, however, that around the 13th hour in, and after the 7th crash to desktop, there was something blatantly wrong. So I took off my Egosoft fan-boy goggles and decided to look at the game critically. I did not like what I found.
You’re limited to 1 ship and the customization to this ship is even more limited. I will miss piloting my Aquilo and basically roflstomping anything ever, but I can live with that. I’ll miss seeing my beautiful ship in third person, but I can live with that. I’ll miss that unique—indescribable feeling you get when standing at the helm of a Valhalla armed with a consortium of deadly weapons, I’ll miss that too (terribly so) but I can live with it. What I can’t live with is being stuck inside a rinky-dink craft for 300+ hours of gameplay. Please, at least allow us to modulate our craft, maybe not to Chromehounds level (we need a sequel) but at least enough to keep things fresh. Give us some replay-ability. No one wants to fly a “skunk”.
The trading system isn’t too terrible. I did drive a freighter around extensively in AP and TC, but I don’t think I’ll miss that terribly much. I understand what you were trying with when you removed a lot of automization. I myself am guilty of using universe trader and leaving my computer on over-night. Looking at the income graphs were quite fun (where did those go?). The only problem is that the capital ships’ trading is simply broken. The actions I queued up wouldn’t execute and it wasn’t until the 4th attempt at trading that I noticed the U.I. for trading was global and not station specific. The counter-intuitive U.I. along with the malfunctioning trading script caused me to stop playing for the first time. I am also having a hard time seeing how one can fit an empire with so little automation. Bug-fix time c:
Eventually I went back at it, telling myself “I don’t have to trade for money, I can just crawl around in vents… because people seem to leave cases with thousands of CR in there. As well as space fireflies… whatever those are…”(this is me telling you to remove this).
The U.I. is simply terrible. ‘Nuff said. I apologize to whoever designed it. It is god-awful for a PC users. It wouldn’t be as bad if I could zoom through it by mashing keys and memorizing certain menus but you even force me to wait for the damn sub-menus to pop up. The side menu where you turn around is cool though, helps immersion if a little clunky and glitched out.
The interiors of the stations remind me of Dragon’s Age 2. Where most of the game was the same map with other sections revealed. It’s only day 1, and I assume you people ran outta cash so I understand the thinking if that was the case. Do try to release a modding tool so the community can expand on it c:.
I realized combat was broken as well… I took out a Plutarch cap ship by parking myself inside their docking bay (the same structure as on the Rahanas) and scrolling through my weapons, firing at the interior of the ship. I don’t think I lost a single point of shield during that, took bloody forever though. The second point is… the a.i. is not intelligent enough to prevent the user from exploiting the super-structure or the super-structure is too exploitable. It would make more sense if shooting that particular section of the ship could only do so much damage, or if that section were to come off. Split cap ships into 3 body parts and treat them like special hardpoints.
That being said when I was fighting drones or fighters it was really really fun. Felt like I was playing Ace combat without the missiles and the epic music.
Of course this didn’t make me hate the game, I thought I was pretty damn awesome. Then I flew into some space-mines and got my arse blown apart. I didn’t even know those things existed. Which brings me to my third point, let the player know things… I’m a pretty stupid guy ☹ tell me things please ;w;! The mines were little more than black dots that could be easily mistaken for debris, its fine if you wanted it that way (in fact I think its good) but at least make someone mention their existence in game (Ayisha).
Another thing I found that was quite annoying was the faction system and the sh!t they say. Stuff like “Further action will blah blah blah dire consequences”. Well, what the shit!?!, you opened fire on me first!?!?!! I guess greater dialog variety would fix this problem. People complaining over voice acting can go and “boil their head”, be happy you get voice acting at all. Ever played Arma 2? Anyone?
Of course there are many other things that I didn’t like about the game, and you can find them between the rage and QQ-ing (mostly justified) of your fans and X-fans (excuse the pun).
What you did well, you did very well. The space stations are simply spectacular, I think. Nothing more can really be said. Although do try to make the docking ports more… obvious. The new scanner modes are really cool, and I love most of the effects. But most of the game is just graphics. They’re good and add to the overall experience, but when the experience is bad to begin with it doesn’t do much.
Which brings me to another point (this whole thing is kinda convoluted now ☹ ). I am a strong believer of sandbox games being released by the game company and are really created by the community through the use of mods and what-not. Skyrim or any of the Elder-Scrolls, I think, would be complete shit without the fan-base pumping out high quality content (in some cases better than what the devs give out themselves).
The release of Rebirth was a painful experience for me, in terms of gameplay and my expectations. But the most painful experience was having to stop my friends from making the worst purchase of their gaming year. That was not fun.
To close let me say this. I read every single comment in this thread (there’s quite a lot and I laughed out loud at some of them; they were quite funny). Kudos to Roenie for alluding it to D3, because I felt exactly like this when I realized how much of a bugged-out-misinterpreted game Rebirth was, and I guess its’ thanks to the disappointment of D3 that I can keep a cool-leveled head and not ask steam for a refund. Actually now that I realize it… I’ve been duped so much recently I don’t think I care anymore. After Sim City and D3, as well as Arma 3 (which I did not enjoy) I think I’ve sort of built up a disappointment-resistance. But one thing I’ve learned in being successively robbed is that complaining doesn’t fix anything. Kudos to those of you who actually gave constructive criticism. To those of you who are disappointed, I understand completely. I think you are all entitled to a refund by Egosoft or Deepsilver or whoever has the money. I also think those of you who want to support Egosoft are awesome. Egosoft is one of the few companies that are (or were) still serious about space-sims. I would hate to see this franchise die completely. To the Egosoft devs, I personally feel it was a money-grab, a desperate last-attempt to keep the company from dying. If that’s what it takes to keep you guys going for the next big thing, sure… I don’t really mind. You could’ve just asked though, start a kickstarter or something. Hiding behind a veil of secrecy and failed console ports does not a happy community make. I still have every faith that Egosoft can make Rebirth into a game that I can love. The proof here lies with TC and AP. The question is will they? I can’t answer for you but, you have my full-undying-(depends on how deep my wallet is)-support. Just don’t pull a Terraria on us C:
~FreakingBarbarians
PS. People who say shit like “You have failed… go die in a fire”.
Can collectively ****-off. From what I know an update has already been released. These people made some pretty brain-dead mistakes but they’re trying to remedy it. Stop throwing salt in their wounds.
PS.S. I think keeping in contact with the community would help you Bernd. Blake’s Posion Tree poem basically sums up what’s going on here. And if you truly meant what you said by “big success” consider a job in politics.
PS.S.S. Please PLEASE make Yisha look more like this
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =195109375
(credits go to chobittsu, Go chobittsu!)
