[question] Spacesuit for .. Space ?

[Dawud]

Will we be able to be in space in a space-suit like in the X³ series ?

I really liked leaving the cockpit boarding empty ships and telling the autopilot (yes not pilot .. future and stuff) to dock my M3+prototype.

Also i loved repairing the hull with my wielder.. well.. on small ships

[RAVEN.myst]

I've been wondering the same. I'd rather spacewalk than station-walk, to be honest I also remember a point in X3 Reunion's campaign where the player is in the suit, out is space, and the visor is cracking - the player has a limited amount of time to make it to a nearby ship (not difficult - but still quite exciting.)

[ADMNtek]

from the Q/A

Can I fly around in zero-G suit, or am I limited to move on surface of ships/stations?
We're still discussing the possibility of space-suit EVA.

[Crimsonraziel]

I'd rather spacewalk than station-walk, to be honest

This seems odd to me, 'cause there is even less purpose/benefit in doing so.
How often did you 'spacewalk' within 100h of playtime?

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

Maybe they could make a space walk the only way to claim abandoned ships.

[Crimsonraziel]

Maybe they could make a space walk the only way to claim abandoned ships.

We already had this in the past. And I can't remember someone being sad, he wasn't forced to EVA in order to claim the ship. Actually it was more the other way round.

[antoniut]

It would be nice to have the space suit mechanic in X4, because due to the possibility to fly many ships, instead of game over, the player could escape from the ship, before it explodes.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

Yes I know, in Rebirth you needed to carry a pilot with you to claim an abandoned ship.

If the ship was L or XL sized you had to initiate a boarding operation.

I'm just wondering how they are going to do this in X4

[Skeeter]

If its now seamless with no loading time to get in ships from docking platforms it seems to me capturing ships by making their pilots leave as u do from older x games it then seems a good way to use the Eva suits to unboard ur ship and go in the captured ship from its hanger door maybe with a hacking tool to for the door open and go in and either fly it urself or install a ai pilot or simply go to the pilot chair and sit in it to reprogrammed the computer so when u leave u can remote control it.

That seems a good mechanic and reason for Eva free floating gameplay.

There will be a level system for hacking. You find or buy, find might be better via a mission or something. So level 1 will be for only smallest ships. Either u can use it more and more to level it up to get a better tool to capture bigger ships or you do more say pirate missions and claim a upgraded tool to get bigger ships.

Now do we want one tool or two. One to hack the ganger door to get in captured ship or two, one to get in and one to hack the cockpits computer to allow it to take remote commands after you leave the ship to go back in your original ship.

I think that would be fun and realistic to a degree. But the hacking should be good and not a cheesy mini game. Think of hacking terminals in fallout 3/4 type games. Not a trigger game with the mouse etc. Or for door ones, look at the lockpicking from skyrim but alter it with a computer circuit where u have to alter path ways or something.

[danyof]

This seems to be the most logic / realistic gameplay.

Finding an empty ship / abandoned for some reason. Then leaving your ship in EVA and approaching slowly to that ship. Then hacking the entrance system to manage to enter inside.

Once inside, hack the system to start the engines and/or make the needed reparations in order to make the ship to work.

Once it is working, it would be automatically linked to your ships network and you will be able to give it orders.

Then you can go back to your ship or just stay in the new one.

[X2-Illuminatus]

This seems to be the most logic / realistic gameplay.

Is it really that realistic? Even today it is possible to hack a (modern) car from afar. Thousand years from now I would assume that this possibility exists and has been improved to takeover an abandoned ship in space, too.

[RainerPrem]

This seems to be the most logic / realistic gameplay.

Is it really that realistic? Even today it is possible to hack a (modern) car from afar. Thousand years from now I would assume that this possibility exists and has been improved to takeover an abandoned ship in space, too.

Well, *I* hope that a thousand years from now, people are more security aware than today, and the network in ships are more hardened.

But the zillions of successful boardings in SF series tells me something different.

cu
Rainer

[RAVEN.myst]

...
Once inside, hack the system to start the engines and/or make the needed reparations in order to make the ship to work.

Well, this is an important aspect - regardless of the "remote hackability" of the vehicle (and I'm with RainerPrem here in hoping that not only hacking capabilities improve, but so also do their countermeasures), there may well be "hardware" aspects that can't be accomplished by remote - maybe some cables have been physically pulled, or a key component is broken or missing, or a hardware security device needs to be physically bypassed - low-tech is sometimes the highest security: think of a locksmith with fancy tools and lockpicks - no matter how sophisticated these are, he's going to have to take unusual and extreme measures to deal with a simple deadbolt, which is the simplest and oldest of locking mechanisms. (I live in one of the most crime-ridden cities in the world, with very high carjack and housebreaking rates - we think about things like this, unfortunately - and most houses have pretty high walls - another low tech security solution...)

[Dupin]

It's just one of those features that I really hope to be back in the game. Complete seamlessness in general that's what I want to see in X4, X5, X6 etc (I mean the landing on planets too ).

[RAVEN.myst]

Complete seamlessness in general...

Solid point. I think that EVA would enhance the "seamlessness" that ES profess to be going for. I really enjoyed that aspect (however superficial it was) in X2, where one would dock in a parking space in a station's docking bay, and then in a cut-scene would be seen to EVA to the station proper to go talk to Ban Danna or whoever.

[Nanook]

This seems to be the most logic / realistic gameplay.

Is it really that realistic? Even today it is possible to hack a (modern) car from afar. Thousand years from now I would assume that this possibility exists and has been improved to takeover an abandoned ship in space, too.

"Realistically speaking", if we can remote hack a small ship, we should be able to remote hack a big ship. Hence there's no need for boarding, either.

Having to go EVA would be a lot more fun, IMO. Potentially, you might have to dodge enemy fire, there might be booby traps on the target ship to disable, as well as locks to bypass. And once you're through all that, you might have to perform some emergency repairs. That's what I'd call fun gameplay.

And if Egosoft doesn't want to implement full space walking, we could do it like in Rebirth, using little capsules, you know, like how we transfer our employees in that game. That would also be a logical way for us to transfer ourselves to other ships in space.

[Morkonan]

For myself, I see abandoned ships as powered-down hulks. They require manual boarding because their systems have gone on auto-shutdown to conserve power, sort of like "Sleep Mode" for a present-day computer.

Their interiors are frosted-over, frigid environments, with stale atmospheres, no lighting and no energy use other than that completely required to keep the ship viable for future use.

In that case, there's nothing listening for an external signal that can then be hacked. The ship is effectively "dead" until someone boards and hits the "Wake" button and brings its systems back online.

If people wanted to expand on this, then it could be possible for ships in which the player has caused the pilot to "bail out" to be captured remotely, since the pilot simply hit the eject button and all critical systems are online.

Then, for ships that are spawned in the game which are "abandoned", the player would have to manually enter the ship in order to revive its systems. I'd like to see it possible for the random generation of such ships. They would be extremely rare, but the player could always decide to go hunting for them and there could be limits to how many of these randomly generated hulks could be present at any one time in the game.

A player that can search the entire galaxy for these things isn't going to have their game experience broken by being able to gain a few interesting ships for free. It'd be a roleplaying "enrichment" experience.

[euclid]

Many of you will remember the intro of X2 where they went EVA to steal a ship from a berth, in X3 the EVA in Could Base Southwest to be rescued in the last second and finally the awesome EVA in Presidents End.

Imho going EVA to enter a ship, to repair it etc. would be a immersive additions to the game play.

Cheers Euclid

[RAVEN.myst]

For myself, I see abandoned ships as powered-down hulks. They require manual boarding because their systems have gone on auto-shutdown to conserve power, sort of like "Sleep Mode" for a present-day computer.
...
In that case, there's nothing listening for an external signal that can then be hacked.

Well, in X3 there's the System Override (illegal) upgrade that allows remote hacking - but it's a specialized item, and I suppose one can pretend that maybe its use launches a probe/drone (perhaps carrying an auxiliary power unit) that penetrates the target ship to effect direct physical access.

If people wanted to expand on this, then it could be possible for ships in which the player has caused the pilot to "bail out" to be captured remotely, since the pilot simply hit the eject button and all critical systems are online.

This is how ship capture was handled in X2, but it led to all sorts of problems - for starters, suddenly there is an owned (and therefore aligned - in opposition to its original owners), active but shieldless and banged-up ship in play in the middle of a furball, and these seldom survived to be pressed into service. (Also, not relevant here but merely a historical observation: NPCs could also make ships bail. I remember once fighting some pirate ship in X2 which was also being attacked by an Argon Centaur - the Centaur forced the pilot to bail, gained control of the ship, which was then blown up by my fire - and of course, at this point the Centaur and his buddies got upset with ME, hahahahah. Well, I wasn't laughing at the time...)

I like the distinction you suggest here: different "levels" of abandonment - on one hand, a merely "parked car" which will respond to is owner's (or a hacker's) remote unlocker (*bleep-bleep!*), and on the other end of the spectrum an old neglected rattletrap that needs some petrol, an oil change, fresh radiator water, and possibly some work under the hood to get it going.

Then, for ships that are spawned in the game which are "abandoned", the player would have to manually enter the ship in order to revive its systems. I'd like to see it possible for the random generation of such ships.
...
A player that can search the entire galaxy for these things isn't going to have their game experience broken by being able to gain a few interesting ships for free. It'd be a roleplaying "enrichment" experience.

This would be a part of the "exploration" aspect of the game, with a scavenger/salvager/archaeologist flavour to it.

-various geometries-

Agreed. Historically, to greater or lesser extents EVA has played an integral part of the X-perience (with the sole exception of the latest installment, where it was omitted - unfortunately, in my opinion.)
Btw, I take it you mean Heretic's End, and the EVA gate-traversal? Hmmm, I don't think I've ever tried gating in my suit of my own volition (/me makes mental note: do this! )

[hargn]

The strong point for implementing EVA is that you always can eject from your ship just before it blows up and so you can quickly teleport yourself to another ships you own.

And at early game, it always usefull to EVA to repair ships whose you forced the pilot to eject from. Not very exciting to wait for the hull of your captured TS is fully repaired but it is very usefull in order to sell them the good price or to have new ships at early game.

But later, I agree that it's not a used feature.