Next steps in the evolution of X4: Foundations

[Novia Star]

Cant wait for the Split to come back. Was one of my fav ship styles. That and the poor Boron. YAY for Space Wales! But having a fleet of my own Xenon ships was always fun.

Could use some Pirate sectors though. With their wonky ships slapped together from junk.

Is it wrong to want a pirate slave market again in 2019? lol.

[fico74]

Any idea about 3.0 release planning?

[mr.WHO]

Hey, CBJ recently said that soon there's going to be a new X game, a third-person shooter!

Great news! Will it have multiplayer??

WHAT??? No Lootboxes!?

Actually there are lootboxes in X4, they are called lockboxes and you need to ping them with the scanner. They are random, but fortunately you don't have to pay for them with the real cash.

However the phrase "Ego credits" that is in Venture menu really show there is a backdoor for microtransactions in X4 future.

[Myrolite]

Any idea about 3.0 release planning?

[Elvenwolf]

Great news! Will it have multiplayer??

WHAT??? No Lootboxes!?

Actually there are lootboxes in X4, they are called lockboxes and you need to ping them with the scanner. They are random, but fortunately you don't have to pay for them with the real cash.

However the phrase "Ego credits" that is in Venture menu really show there is a backdoor for microtransactions in X4 future.

Perhaps for logos and ship skins?

[mr.WHO]

WHAT??? No Lootboxes!?

Actually there are lootboxes in X4, they are called lockboxes and you need to ping them with the scanner. They are random, but fortunately you don't have to pay for them with the real cash.

However the phrase "Ego credits" that is in Venture menu really show there is a backdoor for microtransactions in X4 future.

Perhaps for logos and ship skins?

That's how it starts.

[spankahontis]

Great news! Will it have multiplayer??

WHAT??? No Lootboxes!?

Actually there are lootboxes in X4, they are called lockboxes and you need to ping them with the scanner. They are random, but fortunately you don't have to pay for them with the real cash.

However the phrase "Ego credits" that is in Venture menu really show there is a backdoor for microtransactions in X4 future.

Awaits the (In Jim Stirling voice)... "It's just cosmetic"
Slippery slope, I hope Egosoft doesn't go down.

[adeine]

Awaits the (In Jim Stirling voice)... "It's just cosmetic"
Slippery slope, I hope Egosoft doesn't go down.

I don't think they would do this unless things really get desperate.

Having any sort of meaningful microtransaction would require them to lock down the game and/or modding, which would almost certainly doom any hope of X4 being a success. Not to mentioned they published on GOG, so would probably run into major trouble on that front (either by deprecating the GOG version with all the negative PR such a move would entail, or having it removed from the storefront altogether).

[spankahontis]

Awaits the (In Jim Stirling voice)... "It's just cosmetic"
Slippery slope, I hope Egosoft doesn't go down.

I don't think they would do this unless things really get desperate.

Having any sort of meaningful microtransaction would require them to lock down the game and/or modding, which would almost certainly doom any hope of X4 being a success. Not to mentioned they published on GOG, so would probably run into major trouble on that front (either by deprecating the GOG version with all the negative PR such a move would entail, or having it removed from the storefront altogether).

I bloody hope not! I bought X4 from GOG, first time I actually used GOG Galaxy.
Didn't want Steam having a sole monopoly over my games.

They will probably follow so many independent publishers and go the route of Epic Games, they give a better cut of the profits from distribution sales than Steam does.
Problem is the Epic Games .exe is barebones, I don't even think it has a Shopping Cart feature yet?
Plus it's being funded by some Chinese subsidiary that is buying all the Exclusives up to try and cripple Steam which I don't like. Steam, GOG, Epic, they should be sharing their libraries.
Netflix used to do that, now everything is chopped up and to get one particular show, you have to sign up with their service to get it. And they wonder why people risk it with piracy? A bad business model ends up losing them money.

[Alan Phipps]

Well the 'Next Steps' in the title of this thread have been better explained here now. Also we do *not* want to see a discussion of generic micro-transaction or other marketing methods in this thread thanks. It was already discussed long ago here.

Whatever Egosoft might do in the future with their 'Ego credits' will no doubt be implemented in their own bespoke style and in a way that best supports player involvement and retention. They will tell us in the forums when there is anything to know about that aspect. Let's leave it there for now.

[AquilaRossa]

Adding Split and a bunch of new sectors is great, but there is a problem. The game engine can't handle the content it already has to process.

So, if Egosoft are expanding the X4 universe, does this mean they have found some solutions for the performance issues?

[ColManiac]

Note to developer. Can you please at some point add ship capture to Khak & Xenon ships, you can add functionality buy docking ships and having cockpit upgrades to make them pilot able. I am disappointed that we cannot capture these ships. As advertised before game came out "all ships pilot able\capture able" or words to that description. I loved the other X games as this was possible, atm this game is dead to me.

[morikaane]

I know this sounds like (and is) a silly immersion request--but could we get an organisation / faction name field added to the player information and have that displayed when we click on our owned ships and stations as our faction instead of our pilot / player name? The player assumes the role of a person--and it's weird to name a person the name of their faction.

Have I been playing far too much X lately?

Cheers,
M.

[CBJ]

I know this sounds like (and is) a silly immersion request--but could we get an organisation / faction name field added to the player information and have that displayed when we click on our owned ships and stations as our faction instead of our pilot / player name? The player assumes the role of a person--and it's weird to name a person the name of their faction.

I don't think that's a silly idea at all. In fact I think it's a great idea, and really simple to add. With any luck it should be in the 3.0 update.

[Artean]

I know this sounds like (and is) a silly immersion request--but could we get an organisation / faction name field added to the player information and have that displayed when we click on our owned ships and stations as our faction instead of our pilot / player name? The player assumes the role of a person--and it's weird to name a person the name of their faction.

Have I been playing far too much X lately?

Cheers,
M.

+1!

[tomchk]

We need to come up with some more ideas that are this agreeable and easy for them to implement!

[csaba]

While were are on simple changes.

As pirates cause a lot of issues (namely angering a whole faction at you) despite many attempts fixing this, how about a "Protection money" subscription at the pirate bases that basically makes your ships invalid targets for piracy?

I just find it silly when my 20 million Shuyaku drops it's freight for a SCA Kestrel just because I set global orders to comply to avoid said situations

[AdrianB1]

I am coming back to this forum from time to time, but I cannot keep up with reading everything that was written; I own and I have played X2 and X3 in all variations and I do from time to time replay some X3's, but I was never attracted to the newer games in the series, they are technological more advanced but they seem pointless.

They miss a story. A good example is The Witcher 3, it has a great story, it plays like an interactive movie. X universe is like a sort of Battlestar Galactica, but with no story. It is a kindergarden sandbox where a kid can play ... alone. Fun for the first 5 minutes, boring for the rest of your life: it feels like you are the last living person in the universe and everybody else is a realistic looking robot. Fake. False.

In real life I am a sport pilot. I fly small planes, small enough that are fun to fly; not fully, official aerobatics because of legal restrictions in my country, but as much aerobatics I can pull without getting caught. Because of this, I cannot play flight sims (they feel retarded in comparison with the real thing), so space sims were my last flight game genre. This is why I loved X2 and X3 and this is why I am coming back, again and again, looking for something worth playing. And it is not there. In the world of planes where a cheap radio is $1000 and a good GA headset is $1000 (Bose A20), $50-100 for a good game is peanuts. Going back in time, I would pay $250 or more for the X3 series, that much joy it brought me in the past decade. But I see nothing worth paying for, not even $1. I am trying to convince my son (junior pilot too, just finished his flight school and now he is scheduling the exams for the license) to play space sims, but there is no current game to recommend.

So, going back to the point: bring a story. Make people live a fantasy, not play SimCity in space, or Master of Orion. Fun, in a way, but in no way close to X3. Make a story that requires 100 hours of meaningful play (not the weird farming for the Xenon Hub), eventually with a few twists that ensure replayability. A cinema ticket is $10 for 2 hours, nobody will pay $250 for a game directly, but with a great story many people will pay $50 for the equivalent of a season of a TV series. Good TV series can pull 5-8 good series (ex: House MD), a game can pull $400 from each fan and these people will be happy to pay for it. But make them happy to open the wallet and ask you to take their money. Sell them what they want.

[Nort The Fragrent]

I am knocking on the door with 60 Billion to spend, yet there is nothing of that value in the game.

Can I suggest some sweet huge value objectives to aim for with our bulging loot vaults.

A completely new set of personal station modules, these are to be extremely expensive and thus hard to get the loot for. ( game Objective )
Your new personalised station modules have opulence dripping from them indicating your massive wealth and game time.

Then a new range of vastly expensive ships you can dream for, Not battle ships or fighters, NO, high quality sport ships that only the very wealthy can afford. The Bugatti of the sky.

It would make a nice addition to the game, yet have little impact on the game mechanics.

Please give us something to strive for, as for the moment I am just building more stations and pilling in more and more loot, and do not know what for,,,,, !

[Angsaar]

I am knocking on the door with 60 Billion to spend, yet there is nothing of that value in the game.

You old digi-materialist

More toys is all fine and dandy, but there has be more significant things to be introduced, like better rivals to keep the player in check.

I assume one of the Split families could act as such, but what I'd really like to see is player-sized companies as minor factions, evolving along with us. Some friendly, some unfriendly (maybe you piss some of them off stepping on their business, and some are just aggressive in nature and want to take our turf).

Now that the game is in much better technical shape and needs less ease of progression to help testing I hope Egosoft will turn the difficulty up