EGOSOFT and Deep Silver announce X Rebirth

[A5PECT]

We're looking at FedCon right now. It's in two days and Deep Silver has two time slots for an "Exclusive game preview." We don't have any more information, so we're waiting for the day of the convention to roll around.

[VincentTH]

I second the destructible ship systems and ships with actual crew for repairs. And maybe randomly generated pilot names for fighters, too. But I don't think a ship should be able to keep shooting if its entire back half is gone; that's kinda silly. (And most ships seem to have the engineering section, with the main reactor, in the back half of the ship, so unless the ship has massive emergency power generators that wouldn't be possible.

And I would like to again renew my call for a DVD release; not everybody can use Steam, or wants to use Steam for that matter. Also, a well-written paper manual. The included documentation for X3 is PDF only, and it sucked anyway. X3 gets away with it because there are plenty of veteran players on the boards, but when X-R is released, even the vets will be noobs again.

I don't mind the PDF manual at all, but I do mind the fact that the background of the PDF is BLACK, and as such, not printer friendly.

[MegaJohnny]

Play as its meant to be? You mean bugged? lol. Sry but alot of the x games have been very bugged well forums usually say they are i never really noticed but i heard x3 came game stopping bugs when it was launched and yeah there was a day 1 patch iirc but what about those with no net?

You're reading a bit too much into what he said. As far as I can see it was just a comment on the misconceptions of how fun beta testing is.

[Tycow]

Play as its meant to be? You mean bugged? lol. Sry but alot of the x games have been very bugged well forums usually say they are i never really noticed but i heard x3 came game stopping bugs when it was launched and yeah there was a day 1 patch iirc but what about those with no net?

You're reading a bit too much into what he said. As far as I can see it was just a comment on the misconceptions of how fun beta testing is.

Indeed, and his comment really highlighted what I was getting at in my last post too.

[notaterran]

Speculation is fun! We can find examples of sequels that proved a disappointment (Godfather 3, Deus Ex: Invisible War) but at this point ES have proven that they stand by their games. Even if there are bugs in the initial release, XR will probably achieve greatness as well.

[jlehtone]

Naturally, it has never ever happened to any beta tester that when they have found a bug or imbalance and (in their opinion) clearly explained it to the Devs ... priorities left the feedback into the "to do later, maybe" bin.

But it is good to remember that anyone complaining about insufficient beta testing is the fellow, who should have done that testing.

[Skeeter]

I think your confused. Open betas or closed betas are very good because i participate in a few. What you get is players playing the game and discovering bugs as they play and the majority of players report these in the hidden beta forums. Much of the time the devs never listen to the bug reports and some bugs stay in the game not for the lack of been told about them but just lazyness.

I wonder which egosoft would fall under. Listen to the beta testers or be like some others and have a open/closed beta and get tones of bug reports and do naff all.

[TTD]

But it is good to remember that anyone complaining about insufficient beta testing is the fellow, who should have done that testing.

Totally agree.
I'll also add that those who think the game could be improved, should stop whinging and do some modding to make it better.

[perkint]

I wonder which egosoft would fall under. Listen to the beta testers or be like some others and have a open/closed beta and get tones of bug reports and do naff all.

Ego have opened it up in the past for anyone with a registered game to register for beta testing (L3). And they certainly do not ignore any of the reports (and I really, really doubt laziness even comes into it!). But that doesn't mean all the bugs get fixed! There are lots of reasons why a bug may not be fixed (discussion about which should be either PM or in the off-topic forum, not in a thread about a new game announcement...) but laziness is not one I would believe in many cases and certainly not with Ego!

But it is good to remember that anyone complaining about insufficient beta testing is the fellow, who should have done that testing.

Totally agree.

I'll also add that those who think the game could be improved, should stop whinging and do some modding to make it better.

Agree with jlehtone's comment, but not your addition - complaining that things are not as they should be or could be better is fair game. It's a paid for product and should always reach certain standards without you having to fix (or improve) it yourself!

Altho, I agree a lot of people ask too much and expect those standards to be either higher than is reasonable or exactly what they want (ignoring any other potential opinions), but that's a different matter

Tim

[s9ilent]

w.r.t Beta testers, not explaining problems
Unfortunately, lack of clear and concise explanations is a common occurrence on the internet... How many times have you seen a "help this script doesn't work" on the s&m forum - where sometimes the script isn't even mentioned.... (I imagine you've seen quite a few jlehtone)


Although, if you do hope to generally improve the quality of information, you may want to consider something more complex than a forum. e.g. something with individual boxes with the required information (basic stuff like os, dxdiag upload section, version, category etc.)
Providing a template in the stickies is never quite good enough. (From s&m forum experience at least..)

By requiring L3 access it does provide barriers to entry (weeding out some of the lower end candidates) it isn't very difficult to get L3. L5 access would be better imho (even thou alas, I am not L5, mostly because I didn't want to sign a sheet of paper and mail it half way around the world.....) although, I suspect ego would not have the required administrative staff to handle L5 forms for a beta test (given the q4 release date...), I'd imagine they would be tasked to capacity.


Perhaps more temporary forum moderators?

[Skeeter]

I should point out that some of the beta's i have been in have very little communication with the players from the devs. So that is one of the larger factors.

I am a lvl3 on the forums here it is level 5 that is the better one for testing. Level 3 can do so much and this is for games that are out not unreleased games which i think only lv5 are the ones who get that tho im not sure on the specifics. Even then its a very limited player base testing all features trying to find a bug.

I think ES would do a better than most beta but only if they communicate more. Something like STO devs communication level on their forums. That would be good in other games.

And cryptic isnt a huge studio about 10-13 people i think workin on sto. About the same as ES.

[perkint]

Yeah - games not yet released require you to be bound by an NDA, which is the difference between L3 & L5.

@s9ilent - mail? Putting things in an envelope and paying for a stamp? Who does things like that, now days

Tim

[supakillaii]

Yeah - games not yet released require you to be bound by an NDA, which is the difference between L3 & L5.

@s9ilent - mail? Putting things in an envelope and paying for a stamp? Who does things like that, now days

Tim

I, for example.

[jlehtone]

I'll also add that those who think the game could be improved, should stop whinging and do some modding to make it better.

Depends. Have you ever heard that sound of a modder crashing into hardcode?

Thus, there are things that should be changed and things that could be changed. Clear difference between those bins, there is. However, at this stage we only know that there is supposed to be things later, and we therefore cannot yet bin them in any way, not even to the "best thing ever" bin.

[Skeeter]

I dont think i have posted anything in a few years.

Some opens betas dont need NDA usually closed ones do.

[Mr. Reeves]

Egosoft sould have multieplayer and not pay for bandwith. I happen to have a server at my house! 16 GB memory, 1 mb per secound. I could host 2 or 3 players. And if lag is an issue we will have a war and see who wins!

Egosoft simply needs to implement the brilliant system Freelancer used. Egosoft dedicates a matchmaking server to linking players together for a guarenteed 5 years. That would not require much bandwith just to link people to a server hosted by a fan.

Whoever hosts the server gets to limit the amount of people who can join and password protect login just like any other server.

Think mindcraft only in space!

Oh and just to state it till I'm blue in the face.

1. I demand multieplayer (even if it's Red fleet v Blue fleet space fights and nothing else)
2. I demand fully destructable ships similar to the buildings in Red Faction Gurilla.
3. I demand a secretary to manage my paperwork.
4. I demand a highly pissed off A.I. that gives a dam and fights back without mercy.
5. I demand to be able to play as a pirate hijacking the space lanes and hated by all.

[perkint]

@s9ilent - mail? Putting things in an envelope and paying for a stamp? Who does things like that, now days

I, for example.

It wasn't really a dig at people using snail mail - it was a subtle hint

Tim

[s9ilent]

But with inflation and downturn of the economy (not to mention the economic collapse of the Paranid Empire) the 5c increase in stamps was just too much for me.

[perkint]

Not quite what I meant. The price of stamps can be irrelevant. There really are less reasons these days to use a stamp than there used to be...

Tim

[A5PECT]

Unless postage stamps are a major gameplay aspect in Rebirth, this discussion should move to the off topic forum.