X4: Cradle of Humanity (Release Date March 16, 2021, 6pm CET; Livestream at 5pm CET)

[tomchk]

Not really - there is ony 3 months if they aim for Christmass time release.
3.0 was beta for nearly 3 months, so they should roll 4.0 beta in October.

AMA said probably not BY October, but that could mean not before October ... ? Hopefully it'll be in October or at least early November!

[Shehriazad]

Eh a Beta patch in October would be cool...but I still kinda doubt it? I mean I can only "win" if I'm wrong so I wouldn't mind being wrong.
I mean 4.0 and DLC are separate entities, anyway...I still have this looming feeling of the next DLC being a christmas present and not a Halloween spook

[palm911]

so here is a question :

what about the posibility of relocation HQ? that was initially promised for 3.0 ? do you guys think it will be possible to see that feature at 4.0 ?


i can think of something very easy, see what they did with the venture module? i can just be dismantled and rebuilt using the limit module, and wherever the science module goes . the boron and the argon guy goes. XD

[Raevyan]

so here is a question :

what about the posibility of relocation HQ? that was initially promised for 3.0 ? do you guys think it will be possible to see that feature at 4.0 ?

We probably will never see that feature.

I’d also like to see them actually fixing the god damn game before adding new half baked poorly implemented new features. Some mechanics are still not working since Rebirth/X4 release. Sure new features sound great at first but the more you play the more problems become visible to you. Almost every aspect of the game is riddled with bugs. They should really stop adding features and go fix them and completely overhaul the whole AI...

[palm911]

We probably will never see that feature.

i am sure it will, they promised it . they will do it.

egosoft is a great company , they stick with their games. also , this one is also a very complex game, what i can say is i have seen non stop improvements since launch.

since is a single player game , in my books i can have more patience than a game that could be abused by others in multiplayer.

[tomchk]

Agreed, palm!

[g04tn4d0]

New pirate faction! Oh, boy! I only had half my small trading company waffle-stomped out of existence by current marauding pirates and Xenon shortly after officially having a stable revenue source. Can't wait!

You know how delicate it is to balance between players who do not have enough to shoot at, the players that are already shot at more than enough, and the players that ... (gosh, there are so many fundamentally different viewpoints).

It would be neat if there was an option to enable/disable aggressive pirates (roaming, station hacking). That way, everyone could get what they want and enjoy the game in whatever way they like best. But it seems like the popular stance is all-or-nothing these days. I don't really think I'd like there to be no pirates at all, but maybe just less or possibly a much more effective police force that keeps them under control. Or something.

[surferx]

Almost every aspect of the game is riddled with bugs.

This is hyperbole. I'm not saying it is perfect by any means, but each of the many patches has a load of bug fixes. I haven' t seen a true game-breaking bug since last year, also a lot of players who reported "bugs" are using mods that could be at fault.

[Raevyan]

Almost every aspect of the game is riddled with bugs.

This is hyperbole. I'm not saying it is perfect by any means, but each of the many patches has a load of bug fixes. I haven' t seen a true game-breaking bug since last year, also a lot of players who reported "bugs" are using mods that could be at fault.

Just as an example: All new plots introduced with 3.0 were impossible to complete when the dlc was released. Traders ignoring blacklisted sectors while searching for trades, pilot skill system did not reward stars (yes miners did not get any xp), assigned escorts still fly ahead instead of flying in convoy (that one actually worked back in Rebirth if I remember correctly). Just look at the patch notes and all those bugs that were fixed in the last year. It might seem impressive how much they have done but it also shows in what kind of state the game is, that it still, almost two years after release, needs that much fixing. I’m also 100% vanilla.
Don’t get me wrong I almost got 1000hours into X4 but if you play long enough you come across many many bugs and systems that are flawed by design and sometimes completely broken.

[surferx]

Just as an example: All new plots introduced with 3.0 were impossible to complete when the dlc was released. Traders ignoring blacklisted sectors while searching for trades, pilot skill system did not reward stars (yes miners did not get any xp), assigned escorts still fly ahead instead of flying in convoy (that one actually worked back in Rebirth if I remember correctly). Just look at the patch notes and all those bugs that were fixed in the last year. It might seem impressive how much they have done but it also shows in what kind of state the game is, that it still, almost two years after release, needs that much fixing. I’m also 100% vanilla.
Don’t get me wrong I almost got 1000hours into X4 but if you play long enough you come across many many bugs and systems that are flawed by design and sometimes completely broken.

I'm 100% that if Egosoft only continued to focus on fine tuning the first release and postponed all DLC, this board would be filled with posters slamming ES for not fulfilling their promised additions. I think they are balancing fixes and DLC pretty well, and they know that they can't please every player. I have over 2000 hrs in X4, even have a couple of small mods, & I find the game completely playable and enjoyable. Looking forward to the Terran CoH chapter, while I'm confident they will continue fixes to make it even better.
[edited ]

[Raevyan]

Well the fact is, they shipped an unfinished game (release and dlc) that really lacks a lot of polishing. X4 felt like a beta at release and sometimes even does so now. I do enjoyed those 1000hrs and I would like to play more, but the game mechanics and design flaws that are still not fixed keep me from doing that.
The least I, as a paying customer, can expect is that the advertised content is working from start to finish. That was not the case for weeks for almost all the dlc plots. They really need to ramp up QA.
I’ve already wrote in one of the wishlist threads that I would opt for fixing the core game in favor of new content. The list of bugs does not seem to get smaller and they add even more with every patch. Yes it’s nice to have some new highly anticipated functions/features but if the core is not working too well, that doesn’t matter.

[Alan Phipps]

All that follows comes from my personal understanding and opinions as an X4 player and forum user.

I know that the devs spend as much time on bug-fixing as they can given other commitments (such as being able to invest in new releases to pay the bills and wages). Given that most of the devs work with few others in their specialist areas, and that the issues thrown up by beta testing kept them all fully occupied anyway, I doubt that testing and reporting much above what was done would have made that much difference in terms of bugfix output - apart perhaps from delaying release dates even further. The old quandry of 'Do you want it right, or do you want it now?' - and there is still the devs' onward financing to consider by keeping to scheduled release dates.

I have greatly enjoyed playing X4 since I started doing so seriously at the release of 3.0 (and now at over 780 hours in-game). Yes there are some issues and bugs still around, and new ones that appear with updates despite extensive public beta testing of those, yet I find that (with some help from the forums) I can generally work around them or just shelve that activity until later on perhaps after a fix.

What I find impressive about X4 other than just the sheer scope and beauty of the game, is that it is perfectly stable and with quite playable performance on my 2012 budget component self-build system. I find AAA games that tend to crash a lot or drive the cpu/gpu temperatures through the roof quite annoying, but X4 is (surprisingly?) not one of those.

Those that may think I would say the above just because I am a forum official are actually looking at it quite wrongly. I remain a forum official because I enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, X games.

[hxsgame]

'Do you want it right, or do you want it now?'
……
yet I find that (with some help from the forums) I can generally work around them or just shelve that activity until later on perhaps after a fix.

totally agree

The current game elements, to a large extent, can satisfy the imagination.

New game elements, and some bugs that can be bypassed. elements are likely to improve the experience more.

[hxsgame]

The list of bugs does not seem to get smaller and they add even more with every patch.

I haven't counted it, but the game experience is much better. So I think this may be little bit biased.

Accept, and ignore some detailed bugs, maybe helpful to the game experience.

[BaronDeKalb]

really looking forward to this and the new features of 4.0.

[mr.WHO]

Will we get more footage? Or does the two trailers is all that we will get before release?

I'd really like to see Terran M and XL size ships.

[Wehrwolf_10]

Will we get more footage? Or does the two trailers is all that we will get before release?

I'd really like to see Terran M and XL size ships.

I'd really like to see at least something

[Alan Phipps]

Heh, if I recall correctly, the last time Egosoft did an impromptu (non-advertising) early Alpha footage show-and-tell for an expansion, they were ripped to pieces by some posters using comments such as lame, incomplete, retarded, outdated, poor quality, etc. I think they may have some caution about doing that again at too early a stage.

[Wehrwolf_10]

Heh, if I recall correctly, the last time Egosoft did an impromptu (non-advertising) early Alpha footage show-and-tell for an expansion, they were ripped to pieces by some posters using comments such as lame, incomplete, retarded, outdated, poor quality, etc. I think they may have some caution about doing that again at too early a stage.

I don't think developers need to pay attention to people who are always unhappy => . They never buy anything anyway, and if they do, they will yell about it at every corner

[Blake00]

OMG!!! How did I miss this!!! This is what I get for visiting the forums and forgetting to check the main news page haha.. wow! This is awesome!!! Mega excited for this one!! Well played Egosoft.. well payed!

Although I'm kind of surprised that you guys didn't do a Boron expansion (using fan suggestions on how to achieve their look and mobility in non-liquid environments) and then put in a bit of a cliffhanger story ending with a Terran tease, so you could then save the Terrans for a big stand alone game with a new story like you did back in the day with Terran Conflict (same engine but separate to X3 with a sexy cliffhanger to bridge the games). Reckon you would have made more money in the long run IMO even if some fans would have hated having to buy a new game again though of course haha.