Is walking in station/ship/wherever required to play?

[CBJ]

Just to stop some of the wilder speculation and rumours, while there will be some activities that require actual walking around, moving from one of your own ships to another is something we have indeed provided a shortcut for. You will need to get out of your chair to initiate it, and you'll need to sit down again when you get there, but the long bit involving actually walking across the dock area can be avoided if you want to. From my own experience, being able to do it on foot really helps with the immersion, but clearly if you are playing for many, many hours then it could get tedious, hence the provided shortcut.

[26072013]

From my own experience, being able to do it on foot really helps with the immersion, but clearly if you are playing for many, many hours then it could get tedious, hence the provided shortcut.

Best of both worlds, everybody can be happy! It's great that you think of and implement "quality of life"-shortcuts like this before release. Thanks!

[Vandragorax]

Just to stop some of the wilder speculation and rumours, while there will be some activities that require actual walking around, moving from one of your own ships to another is something we have indeed provided a shortcut for. You will need to get out of your chair to initiate it, and you'll need to sit down again when you get there, but the long bit involving actually walking across the dock area can be avoided if you want to. From my own experience, being able to do it on foot really helps with the immersion, but clearly if you are playing for many, many hours then it could get tedious, hence the provided shortcut.

This would be good to add to the sticky Q&A somewhere I think

[gbjbaanb]

Just to stop some of the wilder speculation and rumours, while there will be some activities that require actual walking around, moving from one of your own ships to another is something we have indeed provided a shortcut for. You will need to get out of your chair to initiate it, and you'll need to sit down again when you get there

Why keep those bits when a shortcut to go straight to the other pilot chair would be more than sufficient? After all, if you're using a shortcut, you want it to be as quick and simple as possible.

[CBJ]

Because sitting in the chair puts you in control of the ship, requiring a whole different set of menus and shortcuts. In some cases there are also things you might want to do on the destination ship that don't involve sitting in the chair, and it would be a nuisance to be dumped there and have to get up again. This gives the best compromise.

[Player]

Just to stop some of the wilder speculation and rumours, while there will be some activities that require actual walking around, moving from one of your own ships to another is something we have indeed provided a shortcut for. You will need to get out of your chair to initiate it, and you'll need to sit down again when you get there, but the long bit involving actually walking across the dock area can be avoided if you want to. From my own experience, being able to do it on foot really helps with the immersion, but clearly if you are playing for many, many hours then it could get tedious, hence the provided shortcut.

+1 by immersion.

I am one of those who love this new implementation of allowing to walk from one ship to another and be able to sit in my chair. Glad you implemented that in the game.

[atavistuk]

On a slightly related tangent... will we have an office on our owned stations?

By the 'end game' (I guess) I tend to sit back somewhere and pull strings from afar. It'd be nice to have somewhere fancy to pull strings from, instead of lazily idling in a ship somewhere.

[BlackDog]

On a slightly related tangent... will we have an office on our owned stations?

By the 'end game' (I guess) I tend to sit back somewhere and pull strings from afar. It'd be nice to have somewhere fancy to pull strings from, instead of lazily idling in a ship somewhere.

Honestly ive kind of been hoping this will be true, a little office where we can potentialy change the deco, id build my HQ station in such a way that while in my office looking out the window i can see my entire setup.

Kind of like the Mass Effect 3 Citadel expansion, you get a nice appartment where you can swap out various decorations for others to suit your taste.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Just to stop some of the wilder speculation and rumours, while there will be some activities that require actual walking around, moving from one of your own ships to another is something we have indeed provided a shortcut for. You will need to get out of your chair to initiate it, and you'll need to sit down again when you get there, but the long bit involving actually walking across the dock area can be avoided if you want to. From my own experience, being able to do it on foot really helps with the immersion, but clearly if you are playing for many, many hours then it could get tedious, hence the provided shortcut.

The Mount & Blade approach, then. Enjoy the scenery when you want to, skip it when you're in a hurry. I can accept that. ^^

[Graaf]

Because sitting in the chair puts you in control of the ship, requiring a whole different set of menus and shortcuts. In some cases there are also things you might want to do on the destination ship that don't involve sitting in the chair, and it would be a nuisance to be dumped there and have to get up again. This gives the best compromise.

I don't understand. If I only want to change ship I have to do 3 actions. While having the other approach would have me do, at most, 2 actions if I wanted to do something different then fly the ship. And I have no idea why I would do anything then fly the other ship.

[CBJ]

Short of announcing that we're removing the entire walking on stations element of the game because you don't like it, Graaf, nothing I say is going to satisfy you, so I'm not even going to try.

[LittleBird]

You will need to get out of your chair to initiate it, and you'll need to sit down again when you get there

Sounds like using the teleporter... for a few meters.
Well we did invent the remote control and at work we call people the room next to us. So using a powerful transport device with galaxy reach to bypass some seconds walking seems legit

[Tenlar Scarflame]

You will need to get out of your chair to initiate it, and you'll need to sit down again when you get there

Sounds like using the teleporter... for a few meters.
Well we did invent the remote control and at work we call people the room next to us. So using a powerful transport device with galaxy reach to bypass some seconds walking seems legit

I 100% expect that if we ever invent an elevator-sized physics-defying instantaneous teleportation device, within days we'll be using it to grab something from the refrigerator without getting out of bed.

[Graaf]

Short of announcing that we're removing the entire walking on stations element of the game because you don't like it, Graaf, nothing I say is going to satisfy you, so I'm not even going to try.

It would help if you didn't force us to do something we don't want to do just to change ships. Like the logical approach to change ship with just 1 action instead of 3. But no, lets stick to the dubious design choice that a large portion of the player base doesn't like, and force them to use it.

[Clownmug]

Short of announcing that we're removing the entire walking on stations element of the game because you don't like it, Graaf, nothing I say is going to satisfy you, so I'm not even going to try.

It would help if you didn't force us to do something we don't want to do just to change ships. Like the logical approach to change ship with just 1 action instead of 3. But no, lets stick to the dubious design choice that a large portion of the player base doesn't like, and force them to use it.

I know what you mean. It's very annoying when one person unanimously decides what everyone else wants.

[eRe4s3r]

I got no problem with it if it's a single button press after docking to get not just -to- the chair but -into- the chair of the "parent" ship, I do have one if it's a confirmation dialog though. X Rebirth did that right, the cutscene notwithstanding. If there are interesting rewarding things to actually do on the ships, now that is another matter entirely. I would not mind walking in those situations at all And option to skip is good enough for me. Maybe even make it a setting we can toggle... but that can wait till later.

Let's be realistic here though, it won't be Mass Effect level of interactions right? Shooting ranges, armory, medical center, gunnery platform, map room, bridge, cap and 1st lt. quarters etc.... kinda don't see how you could even design that to be fun with no characters we care about (in a sandbox). So anyhow, good to know you think of us who consider walking a "hassle" no matter what, but just remember it won't be a hassle if there is a *reason* for it.

[DaMuncha]

Mind you, When Egosoft finally put the feature to talk to NPCs from your ship into XR I did use it, alot. To hell with navigating those stations looking for a dealer that sells drones that may or may not even be on that station. Station walking was neat for the first 5 mins. But not being able to find a NPC that could sell you trade software upgrades got realy frustrating realy fast.

[spankahontis]

Short of announcing that we're removing the entire walking on stations element of the game because you don't like it, Graaf, nothing I say is going to satisfy you, so I'm not even going to try.

It would help if you didn't force us to do something we don't want to do just to change ships. Like the logical approach to change ship with just 1 action instead of 3. But no, lets stick to the dubious design choice that a large portion of the player base doesn't like, and force them to use it.

It gets tiring listening to you go on about the same mundane things, with the same doom and gloom forecasts, followed by the same Parlour trick views that you are the voice of the Community and that Egosofts future falls upon your predictions and that you've assumed the mantel of our spokesperson.
Seriously, try sharing some impartiality, some constructive criticism instead of "NO GET RID OF IT!", reading CBJ's response to you speaks volumes, that's the personality you portray to people and even those that agree with you on some things are saying "Steady down Graaf!".

Fair enough you hate walking on stations, but it's not a good enough excuse to throw the Baby out with the Bathwater.
There are features of X3, X:Rebirth and highly likely X4 that I will hate! But there is a ton more features that I personally will like that make up for the wrong design decisions, your arguments just don't convince me personally that X4 is going to be a colossal failure, quite the opposite.
Time to evolve mate.

Just to stop some of the wilder speculation and rumours, while there will be some activities that require actual walking around, moving from one of your own ships to another is something we have indeed provided a shortcut for. You will need to get out of your chair to initiate it, and you'll need to sit down again when you get there, but the long bit involving actually walking across the dock area can be avoided if you want to. From my own experience, being able to do it on foot really helps with the immersion, but clearly if you are playing for many, many hours then it could get tedious, hence the provided shortcut.

Besides, there was Hotkeys where you could avoid walking around from ship to NPC and back. The argument of it being "too grindy" can be resolved.

When you look at it, it was the exact same argument for manually landing ships at a Station in X3, along came the Docking Software MK1 and those complaints vanished.

If there is no Hotkeys (Which I think I heard? I'm sure Egosoft can be persuaded to reintroduce them) I mean look at everything they said wasn't going to make it into X:Rebirth like SETA, the Unfocussed Jumpdrive Etc.
They listen if there is large enough demand for it.

[Alan Phipps]

… and we will leave all the analysis of other posters now and get back onto thread topic thank you.

[Graaf]

Besides, there was Hotkeys where you could avoid walking around from ship to NPC and back. The argument of it being "too grindy" can be resolved.

From what CBJ describes Walking is mandatory, even with hotkeys.

When you look at it, it was the exact same argument for manually landing ships at a Station in X3, along came the Docking Software MK1 and those complaints vanished.

I can assure you I didn't ask for that. I prefer the manual docking.

If there is no Hotkeys (Which I think I heard? I'm sure Egosoft can be persuaded to reintroduce them) I mean look at everything they said wasn't going to make it into X:Rebirth like SETA, the Unfocussed Jumpdrive Etc.
They listen if there is large enough demand for it.

But it's always in hindsight, even when discussed in their previous title.
And no, that doesn't include Multiplayer!