About our ongoing work - Patches, Updates, Bugfixing on X Rebirth

[DJC]

I dont recall mentioning bugs, sorry I did not make myself clear but if you want to go that way then use x3 as an example for that if you want. Even still in Albion prelude ships fly through some stations, so what it is a good game. my point was that it was dif. then anything I had expected considering I just finished freelancer. The bugs will be fixed they have always been before. at least the ones that matter.

Sorry DJC, wasnt trying to undercut your post, just responding to eventus. Im in agreement with you on the continuing support for the game and I share your confidence with the devs getting the game in order.

You know I read this soon after you wrote it. But I did not get it until just now I am slow sometimes But I must say that I dont think i was responding to you at all just to eventus so no harm no foul

[DJC]

There's another part of me that just wonders if they plainly ran out of money for development in the alpha stage. If you look at the engine they are running it on, that's new and rather heavily untested from the looks of it.

I would really hate to go there, I hope you are wrong about that

If it had to be then I would hope that it was forced upon them somehow.

[thedesertwolf]

The bank man is about as nasty a motivating factor as there can be. No additional funding means no additional assets put into a game means no further development until an alternate means of income presents itself.

The more you pick and scratch at it, the more it seems to feel that way. A heck of a lot of odd/quirky design choices left in, entire pages apparently left out (See working autopilot) and a sudden rush to patch the ever loving heck out of it within the first week.

Think of it from that perspective. Lofty goals, not enough capital. It really, really feels like the case.

[perry_106]

Look what happened with a similar botched launch for 1C's Cliffs Of Dover..it was just like this.

[marshb]

The bank man is about as nasty a motivating factor as there can be. No additional funding means no additional assets put into a game means no further development until an alternate means of income presents itself.

Lol, and they dont care about any lofty speachs or promises you made in public before they cut you off at the knees.

[Wartraveler]

I was prepared for Bugs.
Thats standard nowdays...

I was prepared for stuff with Static NPCs missing Voices and even the German version showing several weapons as an scriptname due to missing tags is not an serios problem...


Main problem for me Currently is that its just not X anymore....


You have one Ship which looks stupid is named skunk and which you can neither redesign nor change...

You played a bad joke at your Fans there.
I start the Game and the moment I somewhere see my own Ship as an Picture or inside a Dock or when I just dock somewhere Yisha asking for Docking clearance for the Skunk I am shutting the Game since its bugging me....


I am seeing awesome Ships having Turrets and Guns around
Smaller Frigates and Massive Battleships but I cant do anything with them...


Wont take long till I uninstall this Game.
Sorry mate but the idea of having one Ship to actually Play is an real funkiller and to make it this ugly and stupid on top is just keeping me outside the game.
Even more so when theres so many awesome ships around which you cant fly....


I startet the X Series with X2 and since then I always moved towards an M3 and then made my way up to an M6 using it only till I got an M2

In Rebirth I am sitting in something thats
well whatever it is its ugly and absolutely NOT satisfying to play....



Greetz

[thedesertwolf]

I'm actually seeing most of the repair/rebalancing here going to the modders community Wartraveler, they seem to actually be where the best bang for the buck goes. Just give it some time, 2-3 months, then come back and see what's here.

[bravoman]

I'm actually seeing most of the repair/rebalancing here going to the modders community Wartraveler, they seem to actually be where the best bang for the buck goes. Just give it some time, 2-3 months, then come back and see what's here.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna take an X-break for a while. My disappointment's running a little high and maybe a few months I'll actually enjoy the game...

[Wartraveler]

Problem is thats not how this should usually be...
The Modding Community is part of X thats true.
But its usually there to fill needs of additional content and to provide alternatives to the Gamers keeping the Game Interesting.

They are not meant to provide basic features like availablity of different Ships and or Designs of Ships...


In the First Place.
Its going to be pretty hard to implement an Mod which will allow you to directly Command other Ships than the Skunk when Egosoft did not include the needed controls for that.

[JClosed]

Problem is thats not how this should usually be...
The Modding Community is part of X thats true.
But its usually there to fill needs of additional content and to provide alternatives to the Gamers keeping the Game Interesting.

They are not meant to provide basic features like availablity of different Ships and or Designs of Ships...


In the First Place.
Its going to be pretty hard to implement an Mod which will allow you to directly Command other Ships than the Skunk when Egosoft did not include the needed controls for that.

Well - that's not entirely true.

Al lot of us have forgotten the state X3 was in at release. There where a lot of things that where broken, and the combined effort of Egosoft and the modding community has made the game playable in a later stage...

The situation now is not that different from that time. I must say that the game community as a whole is far less forgiving these day's than it was those days. The outrage we have seen here is way over the top. There are even people spotted that want to physically hurt the publisher/programmers. Insane! That was unheard of at X3 launch time, but sadly seems to be becoming common these day's.

The game is not playable for some. That's right. This is not good and Egosoft is working on it. Because they are trying to do a lot of things in a short time, chances are they are braking things. They do not have the time to do weeks of testing, so that things will bound to happen.

However - I think for the majority the game is playable (although not everyone likes the new direction the game is going - I do like it, but that's another discussion). I have a reasonable frame rate (30~45 fps measured with fraps), and no - I do not have the "Highway crash" (and believe me - I tried to get this crash several times, because I am curious what causing it). Anyway - the cause seem to be found and is working upon.

The plot is broken in some places at this moment, but that is also nothing new. We had plots broken in earlier games too. The game economy (trading, building) is buggy also - and again, nothing new. All those things where present in earlier games too, but where also resolved in a combined effort like that is taking place now.

And lastly - do not underestimate the capabilities of the new game engine. If you take a look at the mod forum you will see they think the flexibility and possibility’s it offers is really good.

It would surprise me if the game would not be improved hugely within a few months. What we need now is to calm down and be constructive. Negativity is understandable, but it will not do anything to make the game more playable. It is completely contra-productive, because possible solutions that people found, are drowned in all the negativism. It only makes the forum unreadable, and does not give the input that's needed to compare those solutions and their effectiveness. Only constructive criticism will help in this situation.

[Gregster6]

I loved X3 and spent a long time playing it.

I browsed the forum here yesterday to see when XR is released and got a nice surprise to see it's out already.

After checking out for feedback I was amazed to see the amount of negative feedback and griping. Clearly something is very wrong.

My money is staying in my pocket this time around. Maybe I'll check-in 12 months from now to see where things are up to.

I have to thank Egosoft for messing this one up. The hundreds of hours that I won't be spending playing XR + the hundreds of pounds that I won't be spending to run it might be put to better use...maybe.

[Piorn]

While I've given up on the plot for now, the free play has lots of potential.
I played this game for a while now, and even though it still leaves a lot to be desired, I believe there is a lot to come in the future.
The messy launch is unfortunate, sure, but the basic game and concepts are already there, they just need to be fixed.

[Wartraveler]

Dont get me wrong.
I played Gothic 3 on day one so you can assume I know what an Bugfest looks like

I dont really care for that.
Its annoying but not Gamebreaking.


Gamebreaking is the Gamesystem.

1 Ship which always looks exactly the same
Thats already an Death Penalty for about 10% of the former Fanbase.

Massive Micromanagement for small tasks.
X always had alot of Micromanagement once you had an Bigger Empire below you.
But Rebirth has friggin Micromanagement the moment you start playing.
The Menus are blocking the Game and your Options and are totally confusing in general and hardly got any value.

Scanning Stations is an requirement if you want to do profit at all while trading cause there is no working economy at all in the Game.
I dont know if NPCs just dont have any Moneylimits to buy an Sell warez but in the first place I never even saw em actually loading or unloading warez.

But the Scanning Range is low and you only get info on the station if you hover over the icon with your Mouse so you cant even scan it while flying by it....


And the possiblitys of an Game are not only dependent on the Game Engine.
Theres also the Hardcoding and other Factors to be considered.
If Egosoft wants to have only one Ship flyable you can at the very best try to use another ship by an mod but ingame Ship switching is nearly impossible and if ever possible will take months or years....



As an sidenote
just now I noticed they dont even friggin update the safegames
my safegame was on version 1.12 and was unplayable due to trading always freezing my screen
I restartet and you cant even skip most of the talking
you cant get rid of the tutorial....
and then my Game Crashed with some serios error upon leaving an Highway.

Congrats
Egosoft can be happy that I am too lazy to ask for an refund on Steam since its always a pain in the ass to get an refund from them...
Otherwise this Game would have been gone from my Computer already....



to the guy who decided not to buy the Game
Good Decision.
This Game is just not X.....
Its Freelancer 2 nah I take that back even Freelancer offers to improve your Ships
I got no idea what it is
But its not worth the Money I spend on it....

I am an great fan of the X Series
I got X2 and X3 twice cause I bought the X Superbox despite already owning these two.
I dont mind at all since it was an great Series
And the Great Series ended with X3

I refuse to call this Stillbirth failure an X Game....
Its an failure currently living off the X Saga and dragging its repuration down....



Greetz War
ps seriosly guys dont buy this game....
its not worht 10 dollars....
Freelancer is less flashy in graphics but aside from that its the better Game
and its not on a level were it could be compared to X3 that would be like comparing an Char B2 Tank with an Leopard 2 Tank....

[Roenie]

Secondly, I would like to say how amazed we all are here by the huge success of the game.

Sucess = give people what they want or you might be dead before they want what you've got.

[DJC]

I refuse to call this Stillbirth failure an X Game....

Sucess = give people what they want or you might be dead before they want what you've got.

Please lets try to stay away from this kind of language. I can see you are upset and I understand. But you dont prevoke the devs to do anything with this kind of talk, but what you do do is offend people in the comunity with words like above. let us all continue to use constructive langusge to express our feelings.

[marshb]

Removed by marshb

[Zorvan]

The bank man is about as nasty a motivating factor as there can be. No additional funding means no additional assets put into a game means no further development until an alternate means of income presents itself.

Lol, and they dont care about any lofty speachs or promises you made in public before they cut you off at the knees.

Then customers need to start following the "bank man's" example. Maybe eventually developers would not feel like they can release a pile of dung simply because they know they're going get paid regardless, as Egosoft does. You want finished games? Turn off the free money spout. Let the developers with the talent to get the job done survive, and the "we'll patch it later" leeches die off.

[marshb]

Then customers need to start following the "bank man's" example. Maybe eventually developers would not feel like they can release a pile of dung simply because they know they're going get paid regardless, as Egosoft does. You want finished games? Turn off the free money spout. Let the developers with the talent to get the job done survive, and the "we'll patch it later" leeches die off.

Where is this place where free money is loose in the world because I would like to live there. Development houses dont work for you nor do they recieve much in the way of compensation from the players. Dev house are financed by investors usually in the form of publishing houses. They determine how much to finance these projects and for how long. And they in turn are affected by the usual pressures of Market Forces.

"What do you mean the devs dont get my money, and even if thats true surly they make royalties dont they?!?

Depends on the country and its laws. Unlike book publishing say, royalties are not payed up front ie with the initial sales of the book while its hot and selling well. Instead game developers must wait for the investors to make back there investment and then some before the devs start to see anything.

To make matters worse, PC price points have an incredibly short half life. After all the price cutting, sales, etc... it could be years before the devs see anything and by then your talking pennies on the dollar. Big whoop!

Remember those market forces I mentioned? The above is only part of it. You know those big triple A games we all know and love? Where do you think all the investment dollars are flowing to, and the affect it has on smaller outfits like Deepsilver and Paradox trying to find financing and the decisions they make regarding those investments?

This phenomenon is not unique to games. Even Hollywood is getting warnings from Stephen Spielberg and David Geffen of all people that the giant blockbusters are ruining the finaces of the studios. This is what is fuelling the indie movement.

Right now the indie movement is also sucking dollars away from the traditional financing putting more pressure on development. I can even see the day when projects like Chris Roberts will have a detrimental affect on other crowdsource projects of other smaller developers. And so it goes. Nobody said capitalism was perfect.

So what am I rambling on about? Oh yeah, why egosoft had to release so early when it obviously wasnt ready. Bernd and company aren't the first devs to get cut short like this and get left holding there dicks in there hands, scrambling to make the best of a bad situation. By the way, do you ever notice that the publishing house never make claims about the games they publish? Why? Investor Rights. They have to be protected. Only the devs get the honor of getting egg on thier face.

These are some of the reasons why I try not to disparage either egosoft or Deepsilver.
Contract Law prevents anyone from really knowing what happend. To know would require either the collapse of civilization in which case, would anyone be around to care? Definitely not my favorite method. Another would be if there was a falling out between egosoft and Deepsilver, not something I would want to see either. Or, get a job at Deepsilver or egosoft but then you would fall under contract law and be unable to say anything.

*looks up at the rambling* Okay, thats enough. I dont think I'm making sense anymore if at all.

[SteveMill]

I refuse to call this Stillbirth failure an X Game....

Sucess = give people what they want or you might be dead before they want what you've got.

Please lets try to stay away from this kind of language. I can see you are upset and I understand. But you dont prevoke the devs to do anything with this kind of talk, but what you do do is offend people in the comunity with words like above. let us all continue to use constructive langusge to express our feelings.

That is not in any way a threatening statement. It is a saying that means you will have to wait so long you'll be dead before people will actually want what you are trying to sell them in place of what they want.

Jeez. Drama Queen much?

[Hob Anagerik]

I never read that as a threat either. DJC, I think you inferred more than was implied.