Announcing X4: Split Vendetta and update 3.0

[teleportationwars]

1. They got a marketing guy recently (Gregory)
2. They are on Gamescom starting today until 24.08 (Indie Village at booth E028b):
You can play a demo of Split Vendetta and 3.0 at the booth
3. On Friday 23rd, at 14 o'clock they are live on stage of Gamestar (biggest game magazine in Germany)
4. At 17 o'clock they are live at RocketBeansTV (also German)
5. On Saturday 24th, author Helge Kautz is going to hold an autograph session and is there to talk

With Gregory, Egosoft's Twitter and other social media accounts got way more active, have a look, but of course they seem to be extremely busy with Gamescom at the moment.

Don't panic and keep calm Let's see what Gamescom and the days after is going to reveal, shall we?

What social media accounts do they have beside Twitter and Youtube?

[chew-ie]

What social media accounts do they have beside Twitter and Youtube?

Instagram & FB

[MegaJohnny]

1. They got a marketing guy recently (Gregory)
2. They are on Gamescom starting today until 24.08 (Indie Village at booth E028b):
You can play a demo of Split Vendetta and 3.0 at the booth
3. On Friday 23rd, at 14 o'clock they are live on stage of Gamestar (biggest game magazine in Germany)
4. At 17 o'clock they are live at RocketBeansTV (also German)
5. On Saturday 24th, author Helge Kautz is going to hold an autograph session and is there to talk

With Gregory, Egosoft's Twitter and other social media accounts got way more active, have a look, but of course they seem to be extremely busy with Gamescom at the moment.

Don't panic and keep calm Let's see what Gamescom and the days after is going to reveal, shall we?

Excited! I hope we get a few more scraps of footage.

[Axeface]

Is recording allowed at the booth? Can we expect vids on youtube from it?

[Cabrelbeuk]

I hope so. But I am surprised it is already playable when the public beta is not on yet.

Really excited !

[spankahontis]

Yey!! More pre-alpha footage mixed up as post-release graphics arguments on the forums! My parts are practically tingling with anticipation!

[chew-ie]

1. They got a marketing guy recently (Gregory)
2. They are on Gamescom starting today until 24.08 (Indie Village at booth E028b):
You can play a demo of Split Vendetta and 3.0 at the booth
3. On Friday 23rd, at 14 o'clock they are live on stage of Gamestar (biggest game magazine in Germany)
4. At 17 o'clock they are live at RocketBeansTV (also German)
5. On Saturday 24th, author Helge Kautz is going to hold an autograph session and is there to talk

With Gregory, Egosoft's Twitter and other social media accounts got way more active, have a look, but of course they seem to be extremely busy with Gamescom at the moment.

Don't panic and keep calm Let's see what Gamescom and the days after is going to reveal, shall we?

Excited! I hope we get a few more scraps of footage.

You guys might want to check this thread on reddit - Shehriazad visited the egosoft booth & asked some questions.

[Axeface]

1. They got a marketing guy recently (Gregory)
2. They are on Gamescom starting today until 24.08 (Indie Village at booth E028b):
You can play a demo of Split Vendetta and 3.0 at the booth
3. On Friday 23rd, at 14 o'clock they are live on stage of Gamestar (biggest game magazine in Germany)
4. At 17 o'clock they are live at RocketBeansTV (also German)
5. On Saturday 24th, author Helge Kautz is going to hold an autograph session and is there to talk

With Gregory, Egosoft's Twitter and other social media accounts got way more active, have a look, but of course they seem to be extremely busy with Gamescom at the moment.

Don't panic and keep calm Let's see what Gamescom and the days after is going to reveal, shall we?

Excited! I hope we get a few more scraps of footage.

You guys might want to check this thread on reddit - Shehriazad visited the egosoft booth & asked some questions.

"Will the Borons return as a real faction at some point?
We want the Borons in the game so eventually yes, we want to do it. But we also want to do it right. So every Boron ship would need something like an aquarium/fish tank and we also want the design to "be" Boron which will take time."

This is infuriating... talk about creating hurdles for yourself. Every ship currently in X4 has a button that npcs on the ship press and get magically transported to an unreachable invisible room, some ships have crews of hundreds that are in this magic room - and they still are set in the 'boron need a tank' mindset............ so upsetting for someone thats obsessed with Boron. Sick of this.

[chew-ie]

'boron need a tank' mindset

Quite reasonable in my book. At the end X4 is the next step of the series - not just X3 with better graphics.

That also implies that the representation of the X lore will evolve - not just be there for the sake of having everything in place in order to have nice ships.

[Axeface]

At the end X4 is the next step of the series - not just X3 with better graphics.
That also implies that the representation of the X lore will evolve - not just be there for the sake of having everything in place in order to have nice ships.

Tanks are being quoted as a hurdle towards getting the Boron which means they are essential in the eyes of their game designers, no? Adding a simple room to a ship is nothing, the art side of it is not the problem (one of the games interior corridors, the white one, was made in a couple of days). A lot of assumptions can be made from this. It implies that in their mind a tank is essential for a Boron to exist on one of their ships - this brings with it a whole host of other possible implications that seem to put the whole idea of them even being added at all (and playable) questionable... Playable Boron gamestart for example, that I really really want is doubtful. I also dont want to have them as a 'half race'... always hidden behind a tank with little interaction, I want to talk to them and see them moving around, I want to hire them as crew for my ships, I want to play one (I almost exclusively play boron in x3). Just the statement that a tank is an issue raises red flags everywhere for me. Have you seen the art book that came with X4? Their concept people have already devised ways for boron to exist without tanks... Ide hope that their game designers are paying attention.
My point is, it doesnt need to be complicated and by implying it is tells me that they think it is complicated.

I agree wholeheartedly that X4 should move the lore forward though, but this to me means boron existing without aquariums being necessary.

[chew-ie]

My point is, it doesnt need to be complicated and by implying it is tells me that they think it is complicated.

Got that so far - and I understand your concerns. But every time Egosoft was asked about the Borons they stated they'd love to have them - but it isn't that easy. Despite a lot of people thinking Egosoft is just implementing random decisions they actually work on problems like that and try to find solutions [within their reach].

We already discussed that topic on how to bring Borons into the game at the german forums and had quite different opinions about that. It seems indeed to be a complicated issue.

[mr.WHO]

The answer about Borons seem like indication that they won't be the DLC2.
I'm fine with this as long as DLC2 will be Terran.

[Alee Enn]

The way I read it was, that the problem isn't so much the Boron needing a tank, but how do you, as a player who can walk around without needing a tank, share a cockpit with a Boron who does need a tank? How does a newly hired Boron pilot fly your non-Boron ship?

[Axeface]

We already discussed that topic on how to bring Borons into the game at the german forums and had quite different opinions about that. It seems indeed to be a complicated issue.

I started a thread about it too and we came to many conclusions, all of which confirmed my idea that they dont need to be complicated at all. For example they can breathe air, its in the books. Essentially, adding the Boron (if you dont create artificial hurdles and make it harder than it needs to be) is exactly the same as adding any other race. You just have a character model that floats, thats it, thats the only difference - its just some animations. The art can handle the rest of the implied lore (such as making the internal geometry of their ships imply that the boron can flood it with liquid if they so desire).

Maybe all this is me spouting hot air and im juming the gun, but I dont think so. Im worried. And yeh every time they have been asked they have given another example of why they think its complicated - such as the 'its hard to animate them flapping around on the floor' . I think the truth is they havent done it yet because they simply dont like the boron as much as the other races.

The answer about Borons seem like indication that they won't be the DLC2.
I'm fine with this as long as DLC2 will be Terran.

INDEED.

[DaMuncha]

I dont see why this is a problem, Have only Borons on Boron Ships and Stations. Except for the docking bay. Its not like we can actually walk around on stations anyway.

[CmdrUlukai]

I'm really looking forward to Split Vendetta but I really hope to see the Boron soon. I know they could be annoying at times but for me at least, they are an integral part of the X Universe; the race you have to meet before you get to find the Argon after dumped in Sizewell. Maybe have a very limited interior for Boron ships and stations, just tubes for air breathing aliens to get from A to B.

Personally, I would rather see the Boron before the Terrans because of the X:BTF nostalgia.

[Chris0132]

Larger space is probably the biggest addition I'd like for the game because a lot of the strategic stuff

I really can't imagine how to use more space. What it gives to you? Currently in vanilla there is like half of sectors, which you do not fly into after first exploration. And now with this DLS this number of "useless" or rare visited sectors will be even more.

My biggest gripe with the current universe is that it's all very occupied and largely centers around the highway loop. There's no big chains of sectors into the heart of an empire, such as you might enjoy in X3. There aren't really any "border" sectors or neutral sectors, or any remote reaches of the universe.

There's nopileus of course, but it's right off the main highway loop and isn't really on anyone's borders.

If the warring factions had larger webs of territory to fight over, expand into, lose, reclaim, rebuild, and lose again, the war system could be a lot more effective, I think. Currently all the factions are basically fighting over each other's core territories and for some reason have a big highway running directly through them?? I appreciate having the highway but it's a strange choice for some areas, especially the HOP. Why does the HOP keep their bit turned on?

So I am hopeful for the prospect of more areas perhaps like the eastern sectors of X3. Weird chains of sectors with a variety of levels of colonization, actual pirate branches on the edge of the gate network, pockets of rogue xenon that don't border directly onto a core sector. Space, essentially, that can be contested without signaling the collapse of an entire empire. Potentially a place for the player to position themselves between other factions, or hostile to them.

And the travel drive really makes the highway kind of unnecessary as well, so I'm hopeful that there will be more wide open sectors for conflict to occur in.

Especially with the removal of jump technology (though teleporting the player, I think, is an absolutely excellent addition, as it allows you to travel to wherever your attention is needed while preserving the difficulty of moving assets around) I would be very excited to have a universe more on the scale of the X3 one. I don't ever expect it to get quite that big in X4 of course, but that sense of distance was something I really liked in X3 and combined with things like actual sector contesting and ownership, I'd really like the chance to battle my way across a wider universe, or watch other factions do the same.

More ships, guns, modules etc would also be nice but if you added those to the current universe I think they would not reach their potential. If I had to pick one thing to add it would be sectors, because there are things the game can sort of do at the moment that feel very hampered by such a tightly packed universe map.

[DaMuncha]

Like i've said before. Adding new sectors would be easy. Its mostly empty space. All they need is a few stations here and there and a couple of gates. I realy dont see why they cant make the game vastly bigger than it is.

[Wehrwolf_10]

The answer about Borons seem like indication that they won't be the DLC2.
I'm fine with this as long as DLC2 will be Terran.

I can't wait for ATF fleet to destroy Argon Prime system. There must be retribution for a stab in the back

[spankahontis]

Like i've said before. Adding new sectors would be easy. Its mostly empty space. All they need is a few stations here and there and a couple of gates. I realy dont see why they cant make the game vastly bigger than it is.

More isn't always better.
They could add 100 more Sectors, but if they are just Copy and Paste with a change of shading/size/colour to planets? then it's just fluff; time better spent on new features and getting the Boron back in the game.