X4 - ten questions for developers

[Snafu_X3]

So IMO (player) mod production priorities seem to go as follows:

• Art (as that takes the longest time to get 'just right'), both for external & internal (NPC/station) models. Combine with below for suitable 'hidden stash' 1P, 2P & 3P placement spots as necessary
• AI, as it's the most often player encounter
• Scripting (tools/additions/modifications), as this allows modders to fine-tune their creations better. Possibly combined with AI above..
• Mapping/routing/pathfinding (possibly combined with 2 & 3 above)

Ofc playtesting & balancing take lots of time, but unless the tools are in place for the creative cognoscenti to take advantage of, there won't be any content to balance/playtest!

This is not meant as a generic list, simply a guideline/roadmap. Anyone care to add things I've missed..?

[UnknownObject]

You do realise that was a tongue-in-cheek comment, right? We're not ready to announce precise details of numbers, or even types, of ships, so please don't try to over-analyse this kind of thing.

But linolafett wrote that ships would still be classified as S/M/L/XL (source). It may be changed, mayn't it?

[CBJ]

Apparently you didn't read the last clause of that sentence.

[mr.WHO]

One more question on minor features:
Will we be able to do the spacewalk in space suit like in X3?

[linolafett]

Will we be able to do the spacewalk in space suit like in X3?

That is currently not planned. If any good gameplay reasons for this feature appear, this decision can be changed.

[mr.WHO]

Well this is rather forced idea, but what about walking on ship hull (via magnetic boots) to perform emergency subsystem repairs (kinda like nerfed repair laser)?

Other that that I'd just like to feel the size of the ships comparing to tiny astronaut.

[vkerinav]

Other that that I'd just like to feel the size of the ships comparing to tiny astronaut.

Worth having for this reason alone, presuming there aren't any technical challenges.

I can think of some other possibilities, too--a way to sneak onto hostile stations through the service airlock, for purposes of sabotage, or say, bribing a docking official to temporarily add your freighters to the friendly list, which would allow you to trade(or even a single freighter).

Exploring the inside of some wrecked station or ship that you come across, to recover some small item, or information.

Nothing must-have, of course. But spacewalking in a sandbox game is a definite should-have, in my humble(and extraordinarily representative of Egosoft's playerbase) opinion.

[mr.WHO]

I can think of some other possibilities, too--a way to sneak onto hostile stations through the service airlock, for purposes of sabotage, or say, bribing a docking official to temporarily add your freighters to the friendly list, which would allow you to trade(or even a single freighter).

Exploring the inside of some wrecked station or ship that you come across, to recover some small item, or information.

- Breaking into station avoiding police crafts and patrol drones
- Exploring wrecks

I think that in addition to my "manually repair subsystems" would actually make interesting spacewalk application.

Albeit all 3 could be done with remove control drone.

[UniTrader]

i dont think thats feasible because it would require a massive increase in the details of the Ships/Stations Hull. or do you think this is detailed enough: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hdvg6sd47d5do ... 1.png?dl=0 (i turned a hull section into a walkable interior there)

[Skeeter]

A good reason to spacewalk in a suit is repairing ship/subsystems. Sabotage like place explosives to docked ships perhaps. Capping ships like in old days.

Scoop up dead bodies after ships blow and label it as black market meat lol.

[mr.WHO]

i dont think thats feasible because it would require a massive increase in the details of the Ships/Stations Hull. or do you think this is detailed enough: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hdvg6sd47d5do ... 1.png?dl=0 (i turned a hull section into a walkable interior there)

Ship models in X2 and X3 were also not detailed much and yet it doesn't bother the spacewalk.
Also the Teladi Outpost from that distance would looks crap no matter if you are in suit or a ship. I assume devs never planned you let player so close to those 2D trees (ahh this brings the good ol' 90s memories back ).

[UniTrader]

i dont think thats feasible because it would require a massive increase in the details of the Ships/Stations Hull. or do you think this is detailed enough: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hdvg6sd47d5do ... 1.png?dl=0 (i turned a hull section into a walkable interior there)

Ship models in X2 and X3 were also not detailed much and yet it doesn't bother the spacewalk.
Also the Teladi Outpost from that distance would looks crap no matter if you are in suit or a ship. I assume devs never planned you let player so close to those 2D trees (ahh this brings the good ol' 90s memories back ).

i dont think many bothered spacewalking near caps, and those who did to repair them were masochistic anyway, so the low detail was not an issue for them But if being this close to Capships would turn into a regulary used feature i doubt this Level of Detail is enough. and upping the Level enough to be reasonable (not necessarily on par with the curent interiors) is an unreasonable amount of work imo (i think we would get only one or two capship types in that case) and has another downside: walking the distances of Ship Surfaces on foot is plain boring. i think to get to the border of the aforementoined interior ( here a screensho from its end overseeing the whole thing ) took about 5 minutes running, if not more. (and yes, it changes your position relative to the Ship/Station as whole)
so i think in practice it would be better to make multiple interiors for a Ship which are connected by a fast transport system and implement the repair/sabotage/spoinage functions in these interiors instead. Maybe add a few Outside Secttions, too. like Turrets and Shield Generators for example.

[vkerinav]

I was partly thinking modified interiors for exploring wrecks--battered, twisted corridors. Gaps through which you can see stars. No gravity. Ravenous alien parasites jumping at you from every shadow.( <-- Joke )

Anyway, they can advertise the spacesuit as a bonus ship.

[Snafu_X3]

A good reason to spacewalk in a suit is repairing ship/subsystems. Sabotage like place explosives to docked ships perhaps.

This is already implemented (altho naturally difficult) via the 'control screen' UI for neutral ships at least; perhaps expand upon that game mechanic to make it a possible strategy for hostiles?

Again (extrapolating) this would fall back to the X3 method of marine hacking skill; using the current mechanic of MO, perhaps increase their Mechanic/Science priority for a successful hack? (I'm trying to avoid FPS sim here..)

[patient zero]

On topic: X4 question for devs
Has it been decided how many CPU cores the X4 engine will need to run?
2 or 3 seems inadequate. 4 or 6 would be good. 8 or 10 would lock me out of the market unless the price comes way down before X4 is released.

Off topic comment:
I used spacewalking in X3 to measure CCK node locations so I could get perfect alignment between stations. I expect this will be useless in X4 but there might be other good uses for spacewalking and I vote in favor of it.

[CBJ]

X4 currently has similar threading requirements to X Rebirth. This may change, however. It certainly won't require an 8 or 10 core CPU as that would lock pretty much everyone out!

[Killjaeden]

require an 8 or 10 core CPU as that would lock pretty much everyone out!

Including propably the entire Egosoft team... "sry guys our *thing* got so power hungry we have to stop work and save money for new machines"

[patient zero]

I heard Intel plans to release their 8th Gen CPUs soon which means the 10 core i7-6950X should drop below $1000 when they do. It might not be long before such things become commonplace.

[Zetoss]

Something I've been itching to find out is what mining will be like in X4, care to scratch that for me? No excessive detail required, just whatever little nuggets you can toss for the hungry masses. The drones in XR were gosh darn heartwarmingly cute in that they made mining feel so much more alive but frankly X3 was far less of a pain in the tailpipe since a giant mine drilled directly into a big asteroid had no fragile little drones getting blown to bits by nasty ships with red names causing unpleasant trips to shipyards. Additionally it was possible to relocate a mine but relocating an asteroid field is somewhat less... possible, practical and flat out sane. My core question is probably shorter; "Will our stations somehow be able to soak up resources without us manually replenishing ships and/or drones?" While automation may be the bane of the worker, I'm not in the X universe to work; I'm there to kick Xenon hulls and ferry contraband!

Maybe this has been covered already at some point a while ago but if so it still wouldn't hurt with an update, right? Information and vegetable are best served fresh.

[Skeeter]

Mining could do more imo. It would be nice if there were multiple resources per asteroid in random amounts which could all be mined. Also more in depth scanning of asteroids would be good.

For example.

You have a basic geological scanning device which picks up 1 material say ore. So u can place a ore drilling rig to mine it. But.. It could contain multiple things like precious gems, or siilicon or iron etc. To find out the mining possibilities you need a better scanner which would be a mk 2 scanner which can scan and show potential yeilds of say 2 or 3 minable things. You could get multiple rigs digging for multiple things on 1 roid then. Or invest in a multi dig rig which can get more than 1 thing at a time but these would be very expensive so save for really decent roids.

Make mining more detailed and multilelved basically and realisitc.