NEWS: X3: Terran Conflict news, all in one place for your convenience - 22-10-08

[Sandalpocalypse]

we'd all love a full-scale mousedriven interface nplack... but most developers have trouble making good UI for just one style of game. Egosoft making both a flightsim and RTS UI in the same game....ugh. tall order.

Still... one of these days, it'd be awesome.

[Aro]

Also about sector collisions, I've found that the more powerful your computer the less they occur.

[KennethX3Freak]

Also about sector collisions, I've found that the more powerful your computer the less they occur.

true, the only collisions i get are the ones when im flying a capital ship and i happen to jump in sector with a freighter INSIDE me.

other than that the only collisions i get are pirate lasers against my freighters

more often than id like.

[nplack]

I don't think CPU power is an issue, last time I ran the game was on a 3.9GHz Core 2 Duo. Although if memory serves correct, it mainly happened when i activated SETA with fighters following me or some such. Do things get much more inaccurate when in SETA? I do remember I had 5 or 6 fighters kitted to do 500m/s and maxed steering. Moved so fast they would run into darned near everything. Pass too close to another ship, BOOM. Sometimes pass too close to an asteroid, BOOM. Change direction or speed, BOOM. Sometimes just cruising through space and they would run into each other.

Am I the only one this seems to happen to?

-Plack

[Aro]

Indeed speed is a factor is crashes.

Last time my main computer went down had to use my lappy, far more collisions on it. SETA dumbs down the universe to do things at the speeds requested (most of the time for me 10x).

Did your program attempt to dock or just move? Getting something to move is easy (done things on more recent machines/languages though). Getting it do so something complex like docking is much different. Seems simpler to give a guide and docking berth, then let the object navigate to the area and make small adjustments. Now multiply that say 3 or 4 times for ships that could be docking/undocking at the same time. Oh, and collisions. Of course a human could zoom around a station then drop speed to 40 and quickly dock. But I'd expect a "real" future would frown or have laws against such a thing.

[A5PECT]

But I'd expect a "real" future would frown or have laws against such a thing.

That's what makes it totally bad-ass.

[Xamino]

Indeed speed is a factor is crashes.

Yeah - in X2 too... Sinza = on -> docking port on other side -> crash into station

Sinza = off -> perfect landing

I guess that the PC can only check collision "every now and then" - which means faster PC equals more calculations (per frame / second) equals less BOOMS.

At least that's my experience...

[jlehtone]

I guess that the PC can only check collision "every now and then" - which means faster PC equals more calculations (per frame / second) equals less BOOMS.

Yes. Each object has position and velocity. Position is updated at fixed intervals, and new position is naturally the old plus velocity times the timestep. Time is discrete, and so are positions. And when SETA is on, the timestep has to be longer (as there is not enough CPU to update the positions more frequently).

PBE shots can "pass" a ship even at normal speed, as they are very fast.


Personally, I did remove the hotkey for SETA. I simply do not have time to turn it on any more.

[jordan kirwan]

that orbital accelerator sounds pretty cool

also found this sound track by alexi zakharov it supposed to be a track from TC
who is Alexi Zakharov his music sounds amazing!

[Cycrow]

also found this sound track by alexi zakharov it supposed to be a track from TC
who is Alexi Zakharov her music sounds amazing!

well, not a "her" for a start

hes the one that did most of the music for the previous games

[jordan kirwan]

really
i was just going by the name i cant really imagine a man bring called alexi
just edited my post

[esd]

really
i was just going by the name i cant really imagine a man bring called alexi
just edited my post

There's always Alexi Sayle, a reasonably famous comedian.

Some people would say what you said about Alexi, about Jordan, aka Katie Price

[PowerPC603]

I'm a big fan of the X-universe and have played X3 and X3 already (still playing X3)

I read some posts about some people who have pre-ordered X3:TC already.

Where can i find this?

I looked everywhere (I hope), but no sign to pre-order X3:TC.

[Lord Kellmar]

I pre-ordered my copy on amazon.co.uk (to be delivered in France )

[bounty_hunter66]

I'm a big fan of the X-universe and have played X3 and X3 already (still playing X3)

"played X3 and X3 already (still playing X3)"?

[esd]

"played X3 and X3 already (still playing X3)"?

It's called a typo - I'm sure you've never made one of those, have you?

[Incubi]

It will probably be quite some time before I have a chance to play this game as I will only have my laptop (1.6GHz Core2 + 8400GS = weak) until sometime around March of 2009, and I doubt that the system requirements are any lower than X3. That said, I am extremely stoked that they are coming up with a remake/mod/expansion whatever you want to class this new game as.

I love the idea of the X games, and have always wanted more from them. I used to play this game a ton, but was always left more peeved at the game than anything.

If these main issues can be fixed, then this will quite possibly be the best game ever:

1) A complete overhaul of the UI is required (and is supposedly going to be in the new game). Make this game have the ease of use of any RTS game made in the past 5 years and you will have a winner. I have read that some of you love the challenge of using the CRAP UI of X3, but I for one do not. I use crap programs all day long and the last thing I want to do is come home to relax and be faced with the same backwards crap. Make it easy to select the ships I want. Give me pulldown menus, history of other ships, even F1-F10 to select fleets like any other RTS game. I know this is not an RTS game, but everything other than the FPS aspect of flying the ship SHOULD run like an RTS. Big overview modes, nice maps, easy to select units, easy to select enemies. This is an econ/empire building game after all.

2) I don't want my ships to explode every time i enter a sector with asteroids/stations. Is is that hard to make code to NOT have everything explode in the game? This issue is probably even more annoying than the UI issue. I don't know how many times I have lost ships FOR NO GOOD REASON because the AI ran them into an asteroid or a station. I want to build huge swarms of fighters, but I don't want to limit them to only open sectors.

3) Docking sucks I made a robot use four degrees of motion at the same time using ISA cards and x86 assembly language, and yet ships in this game can only go one direction at once? Come on, with everything else that X3 had to offer, you can surely do better.

4) Just make the game easier to get in to and figure out what is going on I know this is a complicated game, and I love that part of it, just dont make it complicated to use! At one time I found it cool to have a binder full of spreadsheets and maps just to play this game, but sometimes I just want to sit down for a half hour and play the game without spending two hours deciding what ship to buy, and what sector to fly to. Some of this could have easily been built into the game. I played EVE for quite a while after getting peeved off at this game, take some pointers from them. Market screens is the biggest thing I can think of off the top of my head.

Give us custom ship/equiptment lists, not just a single property menu that must be changed each time I try to find something in the universe.

My biggest complaints are just in how I control the game, not so much the game itself (other than the r******* collisions). Make it easier to play, but don't dumb down any of the economy, scale or open-endedness of the game. To date I have never found a game that comes close to this one on the amount of stuff avail. for selling, buying, or production (I still play Supreme Commander a lot, but even the largest RTS cannot hold a candle to this one). I love the idea of the fully open market, as well as the ability to buy real items, and use them in production to make other items or ships. Besides that, even the graphics of this game are top notch. They looked great the last time I had it 1080P on my 37" monitor.

Make the game enjoyable to play rather than a chore, and you will draw the world (including myself again) to this game.

-Plack
...hoping that the new X3 is everything I want it to be...

1. Just a little search on X3tc news and you will see this has been done.
2. Been more than a few patches since that has been a problem for most people. Only now really exist with ships flying over 350 ms or somethign like that.. inertia.
3. you do nkow you can use the wasd keys to do this right?
4. There are some quick ways to get into the game. maybe not quick ways to a Destroyer armada, but you are supposed to ewarn those.


Sounds like you stopped playing a looong time ago. And never really took the time to learn the ropes. I hope you are more satisfied with X3tc. BUt WHatever bugs I am sure tehy will continue to work on it untill it as smooth as the current version of X3 plus bonus packs.

[AleksMain]

According this source.

Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (German Voluntary Monitoring Organisation of Entertainment Software) or USK - Germany's software rating organisation rated X³: Terran Conflict as PC game released to age 12 or older.

Note: The information serve only to illustrate the test versions and not all versions that are also involved in the trade.

[dayidmcd]

Oh look the release date has gone back to /03/10/08 - 10/03/08 ah just like the last 2 installments i suppose now when it does come out it will be as bugged as the last one, way to go Egosoft

[The Zig]

Uh... To the best of my knowledge, there is no official release date yet.
Dunno where you're getting your info, but I'm pretty sure it isn't definitive. The info given at Amazon or Game is NOT definitive.