Beyond Foundations.

[Net-FX]

These questions may have been discussed elsewhere, my apologies if they are:

1 - Looking forward, beyond foundations. Have the DEV team discussed the possibility of a multi-player iteration of X?

2 - Could we see planet-side landings? Seems that as we already have 'space legs'. Why not ground based vehicles... imagine the possibilities.

And yes, I am aware that SC and ED have these but hey, they ARE popular features so again, why not?

[Solflame]

One, ED doesn't have space legs, and the planetary landings are pretty sad. Like... it's not worth it.

Now, SC does have space legs. And the moons and planets are AMAZING to land on. But it's also taking forever to make, with way more money and resources than Egosoft has. I mean, I'm one of the few people here who'll say they actually really like Star Citizen: I'm in the game right now headed to Hurston for Day 2 of the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo. That being said, I've been a backer for the last 5 years. I've watched them completely tear apart the engine to make it work. Even now it's definitely still an "Alpha" product. Hell, they still haven't finished the *singleplayer* game, and that's a linear campaign ala Wing Commander or FreeSpace, not an open world like X!

Not saying Egosoft couldn't do it, if they had the money and time. Thing is, realistically, they can't do it and keep food on the table.

As for multiplayer, they've said there's lots of reasons why they can't do that, but CBJ will probably pop in and he/she/they (I don't actually know come to think of it) knows them better than I do.

Beyond this first release, they said they want to make expansion packs for X4. At least two they've got planned so far, one for 2019, one for after. I'd love to see them build up this universe ala X3:TC and X3:AP, while not having to rebuy the game each time. Paradox model is nice.

[csaba]

While it's nice it's hard to make it working properly and not boring in the process.
Look at the Ship Internal thread for Egosoft's thoughts on such "fluff".


It's not like the other way around doesn't happen as well.
I bet CIG and Frontier programmers will be tasked to disassemble the X4 economy scripts on the next weekend and have it on the table the following Monday.

[Tomonor]

These questions may have been discussed elsewhere, my apologies if they are:

You have no idea how frequently these questions are asked

1 - Looking forward, beyond foundations. Have the DEV team discussed the possibility of a multi-player iteration of X?

Would you believe there was an attempt already, right after X2-The Threat? X2 Online. Not much was known about it in reality, other than that it was listed in the games section Egosoft is working on, had some promotional images of a centaur with rotating engines while doing a roll, and basically the page telling you to sit tight. But we don't talk about that here

2 - Could we see planet-side landings? Seems that as we already have 'space legs'. Why not ground based vehicles... imagine the possibilities.

This is a bit of a complicated problem. Space legs refer to fps mode I believe, but that alone isn't enough for a full scale planetary feature system. For instance, fps mode alone could indicate personally boarding other ships real time, but still not happening. There's a larger problem with planets however.

Before Egosoft ever gets to add planetary landing as a system with features, first they have to redesign the entire economy pretty much. What are planetary bodies? Giant natural resource banks. They can contain every possible resources that can be mined and processed. And not just in traces amount of quantities, nah. It would take hundreds of years of gameplay to depleet a planet from resources, so they might aswell slap an infinite amount of resources for planets into the game's coding. This is the first problem.

The second problem is the way the X Universe's society is structured. Hundreds of industrial space factories orbiting the planets that are processing raw materials. So again, why? What would the point be of these factories, if you could deploy them onto the planet surface right next to its raw material mining operation? Why would the people decide to hang out in space factories, surrounded by solar flares, zero G, vacuum, extreme cold, extreme hot, paranids, and whatnot if they can pretty much just stay on their local planetary body and find work there?

As long as these problems aren't addressed, it would be really problematic to add planets into the X-Universe equation, not even as a visitable, feature rich area, but as a theorically existing phenomenon. But believe me, I (and many others) would LOVE to have this feature, to combat other NPCs Battlezone-style on planets or just to hang around in the cantina and witness Han Danna shooting Greedious Meepelious III first.

And yes, I am aware that SC and ED have these but hey, they ARE popular features so again, why not?

So as you may see (in case you read my post until this point), the X games aren't structured to support planets just yet. It would take a major "Rebirth" of it, so to say.

[nemesis1982]

These questions may have been discussed elsewhere, my apologies if they are:

1 - Looking forward, beyond foundations. Have the DEV team discussed the possibility of a multi-player iteration of X?

2 - Could we see planet-side landings? Seems that as we already have 'space legs'. Why not ground based vehicles... imagine the possibilities.

And yes, I am aware that SC and ED have these but hey, they ARE popular features so again, why not?

@1: Noooooooooo!. Please keep it single player oriented. There are enough games out there for the multiplayer crowd.

@2: If that can be done then yeah. If not ow well.

[wrmiller]

If this game goes multi-player, I'll throw it in the trash.

Having to deal with the MMO 'balance' crap in ED is barely tolerable, thanks.

[LittleBird]

2 - Could we see planet-side landings? Seems that as we already have 'space legs'. Why not ground based vehicles... imagine the possibilities.

Imagine? I experienced it in Elite.
Planetary landing sounds good on paper but gameplay wise it's just extremely booooring.
The reason is simple. It's a huge dam planet. Nobody can create content for an entire planet. So you have to do procedural content and to this day nobody did it right. Sooner or later you have repetitions.
If planetary landing should be a thing, I hope it's an instance. There the creator can build stuff and give this place a function and meaning.

[TempestZ]

Planetary Landings are best done like in Freelancer, basically a hub where you can pick missions, trade some stuff see the nice background. That is enough.

[peschinl]

ED forumites trollin the X forums, jup.

[ZombiePotatoSalad]

Mentioning multiplayer is something of a fandom Berserk Button.

You have to look no further than Fallout 76 to see what can happen when they make a normally single-player game multiplayer. And Bethesda is a huge company worth millions of dollars. Egosoft is a small team, and their projects are labors of love.

X4 doesn't need multiplayer. If you want to share your experiences with your friends, talk to them as you play, or livestream. Even record videos of your favorite moments.

[Combat Wombat]

Planetary Landings are best done like in Freelancer, basically a hub where you can pick missions, trade some stuff see the nice background. That is enough.

Yep, having dozens, hundreds, thousands of empty pointless random gen planets like some shittier space games have is a giant waste of time for everyone involved.

[26072013]

Yeah, I too wouldn't participate in a multiplayer X-game, it just doesn't fit the core game for me. And unless we have very sophisticated procedural generation, planets will always be boring after a few hours. Even "No man's sky" with its impressive technology can't fool the human pattern recognition, so all the variation looks the same to us after a short time.

Also, just my opinion, a big reason why I play space sims is because I'm fascinated by 'space'. Hence I don't get the appeal when space games introduce planets, cars, tanks, etc. I'd rather play a really great space game than a chimera with mediocre FirstPerson-Shooting and the next floaty Buggy-Sim on a proc-gen planet.

So, beyond X4 I'd be happy if we get better core gameplay (there's always something to fix/improve regarding AI, collision detection, OOS simulation, user interface, mod support, etc.) and in parallel maybe more interesting things in space. Alien ships and structures, sentient energy phenomena, maybe a small variation of other lifeforms in a sector... ideally all coupled with additional mini-plots and some rewards for the player.

[Drzator]

Why not X4 + NMS, then someon will come and suggest Factorio on planet surface and another one whit The Sims on HQ station

[Gnorog]

Please no multiplayer and no more "walking". Dev-Ressources should be spent on a better AI and the improvement of the core X-gameplay. Just my 2cent.

[MrMikey]

Please no multiplayer and no more "walking". Dev-Ressources should be spent on a better AI and the improvement of the core X-gameplay. Just my 2cent.

Agree, core first... if feasible extras later

[mr.WHO]

LOL - the OP posted two most hated question on this forum.
Simple question - if you like Multiplayer and planet landing then why are you here? Why aren't you playing Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen?

[VALERIVS]

Wow, the OP asks two perfectly legit questions, and right away the usual suspects go berserk. Yes, these aspects have been discussed before, but this is just sad.

1 - Looking forward, beyond foundations. Have the DEV team discussed the possibility of a multi-player iteration of X?

2 - Could we see planet-side landings? Seems that as we already have 'space legs'. Why not ground based vehicles... imagine the possibilities.

And yes, I am aware that SC and ED have these but hey, they ARE popular features so again, why not?

1 - So far there have been no real indications of the X series (or a spin-off) turning into a multiplayer game. It had been discussed, yes, but various arguments were posted why multiplayer might not fit the X series and/or might not be possible due to balance issues, game engine restrictions, dev and/or company capabilities and whatnot. Most of these arguments were speculations by users, but if I remember correctly, there were some posts here and there from Egosoft which confirmed these assumptions.

2 - If implemented correctly (meaning: if the gameplay benefits from it), this could be indeed a cool addtion to the game. I am pretty sure though that we will not see this in X4. Maybe the engine cannot handle it, maybe the core game concepts are fixed so it would be too much of a reorganization of the game, maybe it would need to many ressources to develop, who knows. This could be a feature in a future X game though. Remember: Since the days when X1 and X2 came out, people wanted to visit stations and walk around there, and today we can do this in X Rebirth and X4. So there is at least a chance that we will see more possibilities to interact with objects in space, which of course can include planets at some point. Maybe in X5? Maybe in X6? Who knows...

[peschinl]

hilariously people apperently think that games are made by committee.

[Gnorog]

hilariously people apperently think that games are made by committee.

I would love to agree with you but just as an example, why do you think "walking" was added?

a) Because it was Egosofts vision from the very beginning of the X-series and only with XR they had the ressources to implement it or
b) a vocal part of the community asked for it and nearly no one spoke against it?

I tend to b)

[MrFiction]

2. NMS already has planet landing. It's mostly boring in that game, think of the repetitive staion interiors of X:Rebirth but stretched out over an entire planet. I'm not a fan of this, I'd rather see resources put in features in space where the game really shines.