A Bit of Gameplay for Your Viewing Pleasure

[Chris0132]

Station scanning would be OK if it were automatable, don't mind adding a distinction between just looking at a sector and thoroughly mapping it out. But it's something you probably want to use other ships to do rather than doing it all yourself.

Though I admit I'm not super sure what the point of it is otherwise.

[Alci]

Not really a big fan of station scanning from X Rebirth, especially if the scanning requires you to get right up close to it. I hated the need to fly super close to all the modules of a station in order to unlock stuff, I would be bummed if that was in X4.

Seems we are back to scanning "I". Very engaging gameplay and fun - not!

this was said: scan gameplay has changed. It's not 100% decided yet, but we do not have this whole gameplay with flying from info point to info point to collect information for a station. There is still information collection and you will have to fly or you have an opportunity to fly over the surface of a station sometimes, but it is not necessary to do that all the time. It's a special thing usually done in missions only and it works differently, but more on that later.

[Gnorog]

this was said: scan gameplay has changed. It's not 100% decided yet, but we do not have this whole gameplay with flying from info point to info point to collect information for a station...

A lot of things weren't decided during the 2017 Q&A session.

If Egosoft really would like to get preorders it may be a good idea to update the Q&A.
At the moment the only bonuses are the paintmod (we have no idea what that is) and a discount (which is negligible compared to normal Steam-Sales). Without any further clarifications about the core gameplay, that for myself is not good enough.

[Tomonor]

Not really a big fan of station scanning from X Rebirth, especially if the scanning requires you to get right up close to it. I hated the need to fly super close to all the modules of a station in order to unlock stuff, I would be bummed if that was in X4.

Imo, scanning wasn't the annoying part, but that you needed to scan a small floating icon (instead of the station module itself) that's either visible relative to you or not.

[radcapricorn]

You didn't need to scan anything. Other than for specific plot missions, scanning was completely optional.

[Tomonor]

You didn't need to scan anything. Other than for specific plot missions, scanning was completely optional.

Discounts?

[sd_jasper]

You didn't need to scan anything. Other than for specific plot missions, scanning was completely optional.

Discounts?

...are not required. And could be gained in other ways.

[Chris0132]

Creating a poor mechanic and then justifying it by saying you don't have to do it isn't a very good design decision.

[Solflame]

For reference, this is from the "30 Years of Egosoft" stream I think.

[Drewgamer]

[...]
You can make a drinking game of "Spot the Reused Asset" across Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
[...]

Are you trying to kill us?

[sd_jasper]

Creating a poor mechanic and then justifying it by saying you don't have to do it isn't a very good design decision.

How is it a poor mechanic? Just because you don't like it? Do all the games you play have to have all mechanics that you personally approve of or they are bad design?

edit:
For example if you didn't personally like stealth mechanics, then any game that included them (even games where they were optional) are bad design?

[ZombiePotatoSalad]

Creating a poor mechanic and then justifying it by saying you don't have to do it isn't a very good design decision.

How is it a poor mechanic? Just because you don't like it? Do all the games you play have to have all mechanics that you personally approve of or they are bad design?

edit:
For example if you didn't personally like stealth mechanics, then any game that included them (even games where they were optional) are bad design?

Perhaps they meant "badly implemented." The mechanic itself makes sense, it's just implemented in a poorly thought-out manner. The idea was there, but it fell flat on the execution. I've played my share of games that had half-baked stealth mechanics, for example. Even seen some where main elements were poorly implemented (I'm looking at you, Alpha Protocol).

[DaMuncha]

Im hoping we get the option to turn off enviroment sounds so I dont get police sirens in space.

[Falcrack]

Regarding scanning stations, what I would prefer, is that anytime your ship or one of your owned ships gets within radar range of any station, whether in station scan mode or not, all modules on the station are revealed. I hated feeling forced to scan each information point on stations.

Another thing I really disliked in Rebirth is that I could never figure out how to target a station. I could target ships, and that would make it so I could get an indicator on my cockpit where to turn my ship to face the ship. But I could never target a whole station, or even a part of a station, so I would always have to guess by looking at my map where to turn my ship to head towards a particular station on the map. Was I missing something to be able to do this, or was this other folk's experience as well?

I hope X4 will allow us to target whole stations, or parts of stations, like X3. I couldn't tell from the video whether this would be the case or not.

[Chris0132]

Creating a poor mechanic and then justifying it by saying you don't have to do it isn't a very good design decision.

How is it a poor mechanic? Just because you don't like it? Do all the games you play have to have all mechanics that you personally approve of or they are bad design?

edit:
For example if you didn't personally like stealth mechanics, then any game that included them (even games where they were optional) are bad design?

I am dubious that a mechanic where you have to rub your spaceship all over every station until it decides it's happy in order to produce better trading margins, and you have to do it to every station yourself if you want access to this, is an enjoyable mechanic for very many people at all.

On the same basis I would describe getting off your spaceship and wandering around a space station to find someone to play a click-in-time minigame with in order to figure out whether or not they're worth paying for to provide basic functionality to another ship, as a "poor mechanic" and I don't think that would find much contention.

It offers no challenge, doesn't really make sense in that you as a player can quite easily tell what things are by looking at them with a little practice so why can't your ship? And doing it constantly is repetative and is basically a menial task, it's like doing the same trade run repeatedly without any obstacles but making you have to hold the "go forward" button down all the way there in real time. No, we allow you to automate that because it gets boring.

Rebirth had a lot of mechanics that amounted to padding, and many of them were patched out or seem to have been replaced by map commands in X4, which is good. I sincerely hope that station scanning goes the same way.

[sd_jasper]

doesn't really make sense in that you as a player can quite easily tell what things are by looking at them with a little practice so why can't your ship?

Well, this is a misunderstanding of what the discount unlock is. When you unlock a discount is is because you have identified some bit of "insider" information that grants you the discount. The method you gain that information is scanning the station modules, but identifying the modules isn't the goal. Once you've scanned one, it's in your ship database, there is no reason to do it again... other than the chance to find a discount.

And again... this is all optional. Don't like it... don't do it.

[Alci]

And again... this is all optional. Don't like it... don't do it.

at least not for every station. It was worth doing for very few juicy trades. Not for every energy transport.

[Chris0132]

Ok, lovely, the rest of my post stands. "don't like it don't do it" doesn't make it a less poorly considered mechanic serving only to pad gameplay.

[ZombiePotatoSalad]

If I recall, it's only in your database for a limited time. The market is in constant flux. That's why someone came out with a "Trade Agent" mod for Rebirth. I think it constantly keeps track of the prices on a station, and keeps your info updated, so you never have to do that again.


That's why I'm not worried about station scanning. If it isn't done in a way I like, I'll just roll along with it. Someone will make a mod that will fix it.

[reanor]

Not really a big fan of station scanning from X Rebirth, especially if the scanning requires you to get right up close to it. I hated the need to fly super close to all the modules of a station in order to unlock stuff, I would be bummed if that was in X4.

Imo, scanning wasn't the annoying part, but that you needed to scan a small floating icon (instead of the station module itself) that's either visible relative to you or not.

I think that's exactly what changed. You will be now scanning modules not the icons. Pointing at module will now give update. I don't find either a fun gameplay, to be completely honest. I understand it's a mini game for explorers and traders, perhaps, but maybe it could have been done in a different more engaging and less boring way. But yeah, if it's something boring or not fun, there will be mods to make it more fun or more automated.