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

[ajax34i]

So why did you do this then? You are the friggin CEO, people do what you tell them to!

You do know that that's not how it works, right? Companies don't just go back and forth willy nilly, and funding doesn't keep coming in unless the product that was funded gets made. "Yeah you gave us money to make X-R, but we're making Tetris instead, cheers." No.

In any case, to the rest of your post, 7 years in development means they started developing it after X3 Reunion was released, and then they supplemented the long waiting time (and their income) by releasing X3TC and X3AP, both of which had numerous expansions and content, while working on X-R.

So, obviously, the popularity of X3TC and X3AP didn't convince them to scrap X-R and work on continuing the X3 series. To me that says something about the profitability of X3TC and X3AP: despite being popular, they apparently weren't profitable enough for them to scrap this other project.

A few posters here and on the Steam forums seem convinced that this was a console project that for some reason got rejected and got ported to the PC. I guess that makes a bit of sense, and goes with the whole "these PC games have not been profitable" theme. You try console or MMO, and both options suck.

[mielgato]

CCP tried console with Dust, and ate dust.

[WDUNN]

Are you serious " huge success " I am playing on a new PC and there is very little wrong in the way of bugs, the problem is the game itself . Did you not think that the high number of people playing is just because they, myself included are trying to get something for their money .

I hate the game so far and I am a huge fan of X series, I am one of the " 10,000 active users on Steam " I wish I never bought the game, I have forced myself to play it in the fading hope I might find something I do like .

Here is some stuff I hate about your big success story

1- The stations are total copy and paste garbage when you land .
2- The NPC's are horrible to interact with .
3- The trade ships just follow you and never go to the commanded area, my trade ship has 6 destinations on it and will not go to any .
4- I was trying drop cargo, you cant .
5- No external view of ship .
6- No nearest target, I would let you off with that since it was on your list but there is no reason why the game should not have launched with the feature .
7- My character must have a neck brace on because he cant move his head .
8- Having to manually go to trade locations so you can tell your ship to go there ( genius )
9- The target reticule is massive and obstructs view of enemy ships .
10- The text in many areas of the game is tiny and unreadable .
11- Pressing multiple number comands to do simple stuff .
12- The cockpit is useless, it should have had interactions on it for easy access to menus etc by clicking mouse on them .
13- The Map is terrible and is of no use whatsoever .
14- The main character and the chicks voice acting is horrible .
15- No weapons menu .
16- No cargo on your own ship .
17- Horrid tutorial that explains nothing, well nothing that makes sense in game on first play .
18- Not being able to change ship .
19- The much hyped drones suck, I will have the capital ships back any day of the week .
20- Trading full stop .
21- I doubt I will ever manage to " Build trade fight think " in this dissaster of a game .
22- The fact it is clearly made for next gen console, or at least last gen and you failed and repackaged it for us .
23- Zero respect for the people who pay your wages, yes us the hardcore X fans .
24- 20+ hours in and not a singlre thing interesting to do outside the campaigne .
25- No idea whats even happening in the campaigne .
26- STUPID way to start the game .
27- Severed many interesting races from previous games .
28- I waited for this for years and want to delete it the same weekend I bought it .
29- The lanes suck .
30- No seta or jumpdrive .

I could go on and on, I fear I will never get even half of the things I want added to this game but if I do not get some of it I will never buy anything from you again, I have purchased ALL of the previous titles and spent a lot of money supporting you and this is how you thank me and all the other core gamers . I am £40 out of pocket and to be honest I could not care one bit about the cash, I am devastated the game I waited so long for has been butchered in this way .

I will be willing to bet the 10,000 active users is nowhere near as high in a weeks time .

OMG It's like you read my mind

[Cam CROW O>]

Bernd I have a high spec machine and have very few issues with the game's graphics I think the graphics are great, I doubt a majority of high spec users are complaining about this. First and foremost in a majority of cases people are very frustrated with the appalling trading system (the menus and the ncp's are my biggest gripe)

Do you remember the manual that was sent out with each boxed copy of x3tc? Why couldn't egosoft do that for rebirth? The information for the new players in the manual really isn't up to scratch its difficult to know what to do at the beginning if you choose free play mode.

I was really excited and looking forward to this game the only thing I like doing at the moment is flying around and admiring the massive stations and complexes and beautiful graphics but that's about it, don't like trading, fighting, not sure I want to build anything and definitely don't know what to think

still loyal X fan

[Deleted User]

good luck with all those pointless moaning. hope that some constructive criticism can get through.

what kind of optimizations can we expect? CPU, GPU or both?

do you also plan to add new content/functionalities?

[RegisterMe]

Denial, and ignoring the fan base .

[Playbahnosh]

To me that says something about the profitability of X3TC and X3AP: despite being popular, they apparently weren't profitable enough for them to scrap this other project

To me it says X3 and the sequels were so damn profitable, that they could afford to develop not only one, but two big projects simultaneously. This is where the "PC games are not profitable" argument falls apart. They've been developing Rebirth for 7 years, and TC, AP and all the expansions in patches weren't made in a day either. Egosoft was doing well for more than a decade despite being a PC-only developer of a VERY niche game genre. Plus, they had the most dedicated player community I've ever seen in any game series so far. They worked so closely with the players to bring them exactly what they wanted along the years, and it apparently all paid off for them.

That is why it so mind boggling why they suddenly turned their backs on their own friggin community, who supported them for years, and released this horrible console port that's broken in every way imaginable.

[khub]

Bernd,
Thanks for coming here and taking time to answer posts, it must be a stressful time for your team. I'm glad to have been able to play the X series, up to and including this one. I would like to see you take ownership of the whole of X-Rebirth. You've responded to the bug reports. What about things like the missing Gravidar, is that a conscious design decision or a feature not yet implemented. The map, is it finished did you expect customers to be happy with that? Answers to a few of that type of question would help more than not acknowledging them at all. If you do not have the answer, address the issue, recognise it and perhaps reply that you shall find out the answer. This is of course your business and you may respond however you choose.

On a separate note although I do not know the structure of your business, whether you report to shareholders, how your debt is structured or your financial position as a company. I would have paid your company some money to participate in a beta, perhaps not the whole retail price. This could only have been a win-win situation, you alleviate some cash flow issues, get customers involved and improving your game prior to release, instead of a deluge of negativity you get a loyal and invested fan base hopefully spreading the word about how great the game is/will be. I would have done this to keep a game I was excited about in production.
Thanks to the whole Egosoft team past and present, I look forward to the future of the X franchise.

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

The answer to this is complicated: Of course we do not intentionally alienate old fans. But X Rebirth is not X4 for a reason. I know many of you would have preferred a true X4 where we just take X3 and make it better, add more on top.

Actually you can believe me that I wished many times in the past 7 years we would have done just that. Not because I lost faith in the different design goals of X Rebirth, but because of the financial risk in developing this huge monster over 7 years.

Thank you for that.

I confess: I don't understand the decision. It sounds like you knew intuitively that X:Rebirth is not what was wanted, but here it is.

[SkunkedAussie]

Hey, I really hope you guys and gals at egosoft get a chance to read this:

It's a great game and a really nice change from the others, you have tried to do it differently and I'm sure in a few patches it will be great.

I honestly love how busy space is now and the highways are very clever, both in getting around and sector layout, way to spice things up a little

That being said there are some things that need to come back to the game.

Theres only 1 pilotable ship? Thats not what X games have been about since X2, we had a choice to fly anything from a little M5 all the way up to our massive M1 and M2, now they are just eye candy for us to own, never fly. Every ship should be flyable again.

Trading is (when its working(I know you're trying your best to fix it)) completly silly now. Before where I could dock at a station and buy what I wanted and then leave to selll it at another station. I now have to go around all the stations and find one that MAYBE sells the goods I want (Chances are it doesn't sell anything and only buys energy cells or plasma) And then I have to wait 20 minutes for my freighter to finally arrive and transfer the cargo. And then repeat this agonising process for selling. It's a massive pain and a total step backwards, ignoring the bugs regarding trading. It was a far better experience trading in XBF then in XR. A trading system the same as X3 etc needs to come back asap. (If we could pilot the freighters it maybe wouldn't be so bad as is)


And my last major point is Software. It needs to come back, not the OP trader mk3 or anything but we NEED navigation back, this is an absolute must to make the game even playable in the longrun. Add to squad and follow me aren't enough options for managing over 100+ ships which is what you want to do in an X game. Long distance trading command would be great too


I'm not going to draw up a huge list as these are my 3 main concerns. Hell I can even live with the new controller designed UI but, Without the ability to take control of our ships you're making us not have the desire to go get that massive cruiser, without the software its just a massive "Fleet, follow me, lets go this way EVERYBODY" Without the old indepth trading and market system it isn't an X game at all.


I know you're trying to basically dumb down the game so all the genuises on console can work out how to strafe but please for the love of god without these changes the games dead.

There are many many awesome new features and clever and brilliant new ways of doing old things that would really make you keep playing this game. But theres too much change away from what made the X games great and too many things implemented completely wrong(ignoring the bugs) that make you want to not play this game.



TLDR:

Great game, love it but:
1. Bring back all ships are pilotable
2. Bring back old trade (at least let us pilot freighters)
3. Bring back Navigation and trader software (not mk3 though)

[Deleted User]

Can you add FXAA and SMAA, rather than mere MSAA?

[XBWarlord]

For over 3 months, almost every week I would look up the X Rebirth Trailer alone, as the anticipation of it's release date was very exciting. I would share with many of my gamer friends and co-workers alike how neat this game is by showing them the first trailer. To my disappointment, after the game was released I asked a hardcore fan (friend of mine):

"It depends on what your looking for, if you're looking to fly around maybe with a small group of ships and stuff like that then it's fun. If you're looking to manage a large business/military empire like you could in the previous X games then I suggest waiting. You have little control over your other ships otherwise it is just like the previous X games but with much better looking stations you are also locked into a single ship so you cannot fly capitals but it does pretty well in combat."

In conclusion, I am extremely disappointed and sadly you have lost a new customer & as it seems many other veteran fan's due to comments like my friend and other's who thought we would be able to fly any ship or multiple ships (big capital ships), clearly know a defined way to build an empire as indicated in the trailer video and game features not just aesthetics alone!

TRADE, FIGHT, BUILD, THINK... in the X Universe - the biggest ***BROKEN*** sandbox this side of the galaxy.

I truly hope the developer's can quickly make a come back with a patch or 'X' developer's they will be....

[Demonsss212]

Shocking that's all I can say, like many many others have loved the game.. I have not been a hard core x3 player just somebody who spends many hours playing x3 for the sandbox that it is ... but this as many hoped was something I was really looking forward to... were do you start.. well I don't know all I know is I paid £50 gave my support and all I get is something that even a console would be ashamed of some 5 years ago.. i would never put my money with you so early again... in fact with Sc and also elite coming out soon, they could well take X3 off the map. I'm not sure if you are even bothered with what we say.

[J. Spartan]

Bernd, I appreciate what you and the team are doing, and I personally like the atmosphere of Rebirth. But please don't stop / tunnel vision at fixing the issues you listed when there are other gamebreaking issues present. To list a few:
1, Commanding ships is not only a nightmare due to the lack of ship commands (other than 'take me to...' which doesn't do anything even when properly executed), but actually impossible, as ships don't do what I tell them to do. Other than trading, what others have already mentioned, adding / removing ships to / from my sqaud does nothing. Ships keep folloing me regardless, whatever I do. I just can't seem to be able to tell people what to do and it is really frustrating, kinda takes away the point of having other ships to begin with... but why would I play this game then?

2, Trade: trade locations (sales / offers) seem to disappear randomly from the trade menu. I'm ok with having to micromanage trade ships manually, but how on earth should I do it like this?! There's no way of checking prices in advance, add to this the fact that the trade ship rarely follows ordes (previous point) and again, there's not much point in trying to trade.

3, Ship repairs in every form are broken. The Skunk is the only ship that can be reparied at the moment. "Cap ships need drones". Ok, so how should I get the drones on a captured ship that has no engines, no jumpdrive when I cannot trade the Skunks cargo with it directly? Engineers DO NO WORK. Period. Not only that, but shipyard repairs seem to be bugged for other ships too. Hell I can't even get a fighter to show up in the repair menu. How the hell do I repair those.

4, While at the subject of fighters... there should be an option to get them to dock in their parent ship for repairs / rest. Every time I assign one of my capped fighters to my trade ship, it seems to either
a, wander off in a random direction
b, disappear completely 3 sectors away
c, follow me around instead
and all this with 30% hp, cause I can't for the life of me figure out how to repair the damned thing!

So to the point: even if the performance issues and gamebreaking bugs are fixed, these issues are JUST AS gamebreaking, as they take the whole point away from playing this game... please include them in the patch.

Thank you for understanding.
A long-time X fan.

[SteveMill]

My Steam purchase is part of that 'huge success' and I've asked for a refund.

[Deleted User]

My Steam purchase is part of that 'huge success' and I've asked for a refund.

then why do you post here? this thread is for those who will continue to support the game, not for those who give up.

[Playbahnosh]

then why do you post here? this thread is for those who will continue to support the game, not for those who give up.

I don't see that written anywhere. This, and all other threads are for people who want to express their opinions, whatever that might be. Stop trying to stonewall people.

[SteveMill]

My Steam purchase is part of that 'huge success' and I've asked for a refund.

then why do you post here? this thread is for those who will continue to support the game, not for those who give up.

1. Mind your own business
2. I'm stuck with this purchase and I'm going to take every opportunity to give my opinion of what's wrong with it and what needs doing. And that includes pointing out flaws in specious and vainglorious assertions.
3. Steam gives me my money back and i'm gone. You want to give me £40 I'll be gone also.

[Deleted User]

then why do you post here? this thread is for those who will continue to support the game, not for those who give up.

I don't see that written anywhere. This, and all other threads are for people who want to express their opinions, whatever that might be. Stop trying to stonewall people.

common sense would allow an average individual to see that. want to criticize without being constructive? make a thread, and whine like all others.

want to make some proper criticism? do it, without sounding like a cretin.

@SteveMill: Ha. I wouldn't trust you with £1, let alone 40. besides, you're not pointing out anything. just saying "Want my money back and I'm outta here".

[bendead]

Good thing to know that Egosoft does not feel shame. How on earth could you release such a buggy game, and I am not speaking about the bugs that are hard to find or to reproduce, no, but the one that everyone will see after 5 minutes of gaming.

I don't blame the beta tester at all, but the devs, who could not say "well guy, we gonna report the game 2 month because it's not really playable and we will look like a bunch of amateurs".

I suspect that your "highly probable" Xbox 360 port failed, so you had to find a way to save the furniture. 60$ is a high price for a pre alpha "gold" game...

Expect really bad review from the critics, yes you deserve it, who review game on the release status not on what could happen in a few weeks, month. About the same as people when they buy your game pre or just when released.

Anyway I'm going back to the best game ever, X3:AP