Voice of the X4 community (because your opinion matter!)

[Alan Phipps]

These are my personal observations and nothing 'official'.

Bug fixing is done anyway as a continuous process in a priority sequence determined by several factors of which these are just some examples:

• Issue attribution (gamecode, modding/editing or system-specific),
  accuracy/credibility/completeness of reporting,
  significance of issue on gameplay,
  ability/ease of replication on the devs' system,
  availability of necessary dev(s),
  pressure of other scheduled work,
  coffee/pizza availability,
  etc.

You don't really need any further external prioritisation advice for bugfixing.

Refinement of existing features and new content development go on in parallel and are not by definition mutually exclusive. (Indeed they *must* be kept compatible.)

Gameplay changes/tweaks and QoL improvements are often more subjective and compete with each other and other things for dev investigation and resources.

Scheduled/intended improvements, additions and fixes are usually subject to internal and public testing and thus should attract feedback and adjustments within expected timescales for using those processes. After release, the general forums also provide feedback.

Suggestions from the userbase on potential new content and priorities are generally trawled over by devs in advance of major work scheduling and rarely have an immediate effect if offered after that point.

[dtpsprt]

Think, Trade, Build, ( Fight as a last resort )
This is the preferred order.
The game is flawed, as they have the order wrong.

Your argument is flawed, as the preferred order, or no order, is determined by the player. By your logic a pirate playthrough where you don't trade or build anything is a flawed choice. Don't assume how other people choose to play this game.


Also, to the OP, there is no poll option for being happy with the current rate and/or direction of development.

As you may be right about the overall order, I personally believe that THINK should always come first...

EDIT: As for the "missing" options, I believe that the OP's purpose was about things that need to change (or differentiate a bit)

[dtpsprt]

Just a reminder that Egosoft did actually ask for players' opinions on development priorities: see here.

And here says that the survey was sent to those who had subscribed to X-News only... it was not an open survey to the members of the forum

[Alan Phipps]

Well, not subscribing to X News is generally taken as 'Please don't bother me.'

Besides, they didn't want to ask all the spammers and bots.

[dtpsprt]

Well, not subscribing to X News is generally taken as 'Please don't bother me.'

Besides, they didn't want to ask all the spammers and bots.

Don't subscribe to ANY news is the best way to keep spammers and spam mail off.... as for the spammers and bots in the main Egosoft Forum? Microsoft might be having an issue with them... even Google... not an Indie Game Firm...

[CBJ]

You are joking, right? We have a dedicated moderator who just deals with spammers and bots. That's why you don't see them.

[hxsgame]

Very lucky, the 3 items that I care about are ranked high.

Improving the actual game mechanic.
Games need playmates and challenges.This is the lowest level thing that will make the existing and newly added game elements more fun and more playable.

Improving the "quality of life" design in game.
This provides more "building blocks" to further release players’ starry dreams.

Graphical overhaul of the current ingame asset.
Just like Windows and Linux, a good graphical interface is always very important for market share.

[Tamina]

My vote was for "Quality". I just think many existing features could be better implemented into the first-person environment then just thrown into yet another submenu on the map. Just my 2 cents.

Just a reminder that Egosoft did actually ask for players' opinions on development priorities: see here.

Do you know by any chance if the results were ever shared? There were two surveys, and the results of the first one were published but I don't think I ever saw the results of the second one.

[oddible]

As a user researcher, your survey design leaves a little to be desired so hopefully ES won't put too much weight in it but it is fun so I voted! (turned out my vote was in the lowest number of responses). Personally I LOVE the variety in this game and accept that the game won't satisfy everyone... WHICH IS WHY THERE IS A MOD ENGINE. Anyone complaining about their niche feature or a specific balance request not being in the core game who isn't using mods can just exit the conversation as far as I'm concerned. The devs included a way for folks to get what they want in mods, use them. Stuff that can't be modded is where I want to see their focus.

[hxsgame]

Furthermore, choosing the last option is not a contradiction?

[Imperial Good]

Honestly it is very hard to choose just one of the categories as each of them has so much potential to enhance gameplay.

In the end I voted for "Adding even more content. (ship/system/faction)". The reason for this is because one of the more obvious less polished aspects of X4 are the construction ships. Although each race technically has their own construction ship, they are all ultimately the same physical ship design with minor reskins, cost and stat variations. Given how diverse the other ships of races are between races this really stands out. Having racially unique construction ships would fix this as it would mean that each race would have a completely different looking set of ships from other races.

In addition to that currently both ANT and HOP do not run any XL carrier in their fleets. This would allow the Colossus Sentinel and Zeus Sentinel to be removed and replaced with brand new XL battleships exclusive to those factions for more diversification. This would especially fit HOP's current design well as their destroyer fleets could replace some of the L destroyers with one of these XL battleships. ANT could also use them to help fend off Xenon attacks in The Void. More Battleships are a commonly requested feature by players in general, with many mods having been made solely for the purpose of adding them.

[capitalduty]

For me, the most important point is to improve AI in general (improve behaviors, improve basic AI behaviours, add new commands for ships and fleets, improve docking and pathfinding, etc. Future games of Egosoft depend on it, the content is also important ... but the focus IMO should be to improve the AI, the game has been improving this part bit by bit, but there are still relevant problems that need to be solved before moving forward with the new content.

DLCs for new content is the way for supporting Egosoft in this endeavour. Egosoft could do roadmap and ask players to trust in their game development experience based on their tracked records, roadmap should show improvement on AI and new content with clear objectives and goals.

[Tempest]

top of my personal list would be: performance optimisation / improvement

but it seems to be missing.

[dtpsprt]

Honestly it is very hard to choose just one of the categories as each of them has so much potential to enhance gameplay.

In the end I voted for "Adding even more content. (ship/system/faction)". The reason for this is because one of the more obvious less polished aspects of X4 are the construction ships. Although each race technically has their own construction ship, they are all ultimately the same physical ship design with minor reskins, cost and stat variations. Given how diverse the other ships of races are between races this really stands out. Having racially unique construction ships would fix this as it would mean that each race would have a completely different looking set of ships from other races.

In addition to that currently both ANT and HOP do not run any XL carrier in their fleets. This would allow the Colossus Sentinel and Zeus Sentinel to be removed and replaced with brand new XL battleships exclusive to those factions for more diversification. This would especially fit HOP's current design well as their destroyer fleets could replace some of the L destroyers with one of these XL battleships. ANT could also use them to help fend off Xenon attacks in The Void. More Battleships are a commonly requested feature by players in general, with many mods having been made solely for the purpose of adding them.

According to the one that designed the Terrran battleship, it took a good two months to do it... Now... let's see... 3 races (one will keep the existing Construction Chip) times 2 months = 6 months for the Construction ships alone... add one battleship per faction 4 x 2 = 8 months, total 14 months just to design and take the "kinks" out of them!!! If you put inside the other 2 categories that are seriously missing, personnel transports that can double as boarding ships (x3 style) and the in-between the Frigate and the Destroyer (sorely missing) that is plus 8 minimum ships = 16 months if my math are not outdated like X3... Do I need to sum it up?

This is why I voted for mending (politely improving) the AI before anything else... Just for the fun of it... can you imagine this unmovable thing that is the Terran Battleship trying to go around asteroids with the current pathfinding?

[Lord Dakier]

Looks as though improving the current content and mechanics seems to generally take the cake. I hope after CoH we see a good 6 months of redesign, rework and revamping of current features.

[Graaf]

What it needs? Less Rebirth and more X3. The return of all factions and a lot more systems.

Unfortunately Foundation is the successor of the game that wasn't designed to be an X-game but tried to be one anyway. Starting anew from scratch is also what it needs. Make the true successor of X3 like you told us Foundation would be. Not the continuation of Rebirth.
We don't need a time sink like Walking in Stations. We don't need online Ventures. We don't need oversized systems and cruise engines.

I stopped playing because the game is boring and annoying. And I haven''t seen anything that changes that.

[chew-ie]

I don't need a time sink like Walking in Stations. I don't need online Ventures. I don't need oversized systems and cruise engines.

Fixed that for you, because:

I stopped playing because the game is boring and annoying. And I haven''t seen anything that changes that.

[grapedog]

What it needs? Less Rebirth and more X3. The return of all factions and a lot more systems.

Unfortunately Foundation is the successor of the game that wasn't designed to be an X-game but tried to be one anyway. Starting anew from scratch is also what it needs. Make the true successor of X3 like you told us Foundation would be. Not the continuation of Rebirth.
We don't need a time sink like Walking in Stations. We don't need online Ventures. We don't need oversized systems and cruise engines.

I stopped playing because the game is boring and annoying. And I haven''t seen anything that changes that.

I think walking in stations is a great feature, but needs expansion, most stuff to do in stations.

Ventures i am Meh about... i use it, but i dont play the X series for any kind of multiplayer, so i am with you there.

I think cruise engines/travel drive was awesome. I always hated using SETA, and now i dont have to.

One mans trash is another mans treasure.

[Slashman]

What it needs? Less Rebirth and more X3. The return of all factions and a lot more systems.

Unfortunately Foundation is the successor of the game that wasn't designed to be an X-game but tried to be one anyway. Starting anew from scratch is also what it needs. Make the true successor of X3 like you told us Foundation would be. Not the continuation of Rebirth.
We don't need a time sink like Walking in Stations. We don't need online Ventures. We don't need oversized systems and cruise engines.

I stopped playing because the game is boring and annoying. And I haven''t seen anything that changes that.

Well its a good thing that you are very much in the minority.

[xant]

What it needs? Less Rebirth and more X3. The return of all factions and a lot more systems.

Unfortunately Foundation is the successor of the game that wasn't designed to be an X-game but tried to be one anyway. Starting anew from scratch is also what it needs. Make the true successor of X3 like you told us Foundation would be. Not the continuation of Rebirth.
We don't need a time sink like Walking in Stations. We don't need online Ventures. We don't need oversized systems and cruise engines.

I stopped playing because the game is boring and annoying. And I haven''t seen anything that changes that.

That's your opinion, but you're part of a minority then. What I loved in Freelancer was the idea of travel mode and accelerators that allowed for far bigger sectors. I always wished for X to have those, because it allows for bigger sectors. It was kind of depressing to have so many beautiful systems, but each had just a few stations and that's it. Now we can have huge sectors that consist of multiple huge areas that aren't impossible to reach.

And I kind of like walking around stations. In Rebirth it was a bit too much (and repetitive), now we have the right balance. Would be nice to have some kind of PHQ office in which you can play a selection of sector music, but well... we can't have all for now. Overall it adds to the game and that's the most important thing. It makes the game feel more alive with people walking around.

X3 was a good game for its time, but no matter what you did, it had no consequences. Everything was spawned or despawned anyway, war didn't matter, station destruction didn't matter, nothing did. With X4 everything does and that's a huge win in my books.