Two questions about ship modularity, factions and their economy

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

First of all, ship modularity.

Ships also offer a variety of upgrades. Engines, weapons and other equipment can be added in a graphical editor and actually seen on the ship.

How much deph can we expect from this? Will we see a deeper outfitting system like in elite dangerous, with many viable paths like shield cell bank tanking, raw MJ capacity tanking, regen tanking, long range sniper ships, or even armor/hulltanks? What about something like energy redirecting (I got addicted to Elite's power distribution AKA pips).
Will there be an option to disable flight assist completly, like in X Rebirth or Elite?


Second, the economy:

X4 will be the first X game to allow our races and factions to freely build and expand their empires; the same flexibility the player enjoys in creatively designing space stations from modular building blocks is also available to them. Races expand their empire based on supply and demand, which leads to an extremely dynamic universe where every action the player makes can influence the course of the entire universe.

Does this apply to the xenon and pirates aswell?

[BlackRain]

I don't know the answer to this so I am just taking a wild guess, but I feel like the customization won't be that in-depth

[Saquavin]

This depth would be amazing. Slots with different sizes for weapons, generators, capacitors, shields... Ex you can mount full PPC (remember X3), but you shot 1 time or 2 and then you have to wait for capacitors to replenish

But If at least they get to x3 weapons customization, I will be very happy

[Ricemanu]

Hopefully those designs, as simple as they may be, can be saved as blueprints for mass production.

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

But If at least they get to x3 weapons customization, I will be very happy

I hope not, it felt too straight forward to me. Rebirth at least had a few choices like quick shield regeneration VS huge capacity, or fast engines VS strong strafing. And all weapons were viable, so it was down to your personal taste, instead of the X3 system where you always had a weapon that was the best for your ship, you maxed out the engines/cargo and got some rudder upgrades and was done with it.

[mr.WHO]

Hopefully those designs, as simple as they may be, can be saved as blueprints for mass production.

Egosoft already confirmed there will loadouts/blueprints for mass/quick ship equipping in X4 (see X4 ten questions for developers topic).

[Saquavin]

Rebirth at least had a few choices

That's the point. Big shield low regen, low shield big regen, or average/average.
Not very modular in my opinion.
Talking about weapons, the only choice we had was equip / do not equip. I don't know anybody who buy a ship without all weapons, unless he has no money.

I'm not agree with what you say on x3 weapons. I can't see how a capital ship can be suitable with only one type of weapon. Mixity is the key, and full choice of weapon on each slot is awesome.
And the equipment part was fun too. "Hey, you want 2 PPC for each side of your M2 ? Then go f*** off and search it in the entire universe, because I only have 1 out of the 8 you're asking for"

[Sandalpocalypse]

Rebirth at least had a few choices

That's the point. Big shield low regen, low shield big regen, or average/average.
Not very modular in my opinion.
Talking about weapons, the only choice we had was equip / do not equip. I don't know anybody who buy a ship without all weapons, unless he has no money.

I'm not agree with what you say on x3 weapons. I can't see how a capital ship can be suitable with only one type of weapon. Mixity is the key, and full choice of weapon on each slot is awesome.
And the equipment part was fun too. "Hey, you want 2 PPC for each side of your M2 ? Then go f*** off and search it in the entire universe, because I only have 1 out of the 8 you're asking for"

the lack of available weapons was because x/x2/x3 were primarily designed around being the brave space captain, venturing from port to port...same reason why it was hard to get all the software etc you wanted from the same dock, because you're supposed to fly around to different places and get things during the adventure... that aspect of the balance translates really poorly to empire building.

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

You can equip almost all weapons at once, but you can't have all weapon mods at once. More importantly, you can't use all the weapons at once, from talking to my friends who play XR I noticed that pretty much everyone has their different favorite weapon combinations. That's what I want in X4, create a loadout you like with no restriction. I don't want any "this is too weak" or "this is a low-tier weapon", I want any weapon to be viable on any ship (except bigger ships get bigger sizes so it's balanced), so the weapon choice is entirely on player's preference. Same with shield, I fell in love with the supercharged engine + two fast regen shields combo, in flight assist off for jousting and brawling, while others prefer different combinations or even combine different types of shield generators (like behemoth + dashing), with the Plasma Accelerator Mk3.

In X3, generally it was a lot more straightforward, there were some side choices sometimes but weren't usually that good.

Also, I'd love to see some form of hull/armor tanking in the X series. Just a dream.