Boron DLC

[Blake00]

@Blake: Or they could say the Boron evolved to be able to breathe air. The Boron are also mostly scientists if I remember correctly so they could have bio-engineered themselves to be air breathing by now. Since it's far in the future of X3 they could make up many explanations.

Absolutely! The bioengineering route works too.

Or maybe in X4 we find a gate to the Boron sectors and find out they have all been made into barbecue by a few split who were left in their sectors. It would save egosoft the debate

lmao great now I'm wondering how good a Boron BBQ tastes! We love a good seafood BBQ here in Australia haha!

I feel like they are one, if not the defining race of the X-series.

Agreed! It's a real shame.

[Fedora01]

This is just something I've been mulling about (since I first saw this topic some... 20 days ago) while starting my second play through of TC, of how the Boron could be implemented on a technical/gameplay level so that they could be more than just "another race", so to speak.

Faction Relations: Unlike the other factions the Boron would be non-aggressive in their relations to other races, avoiding offensive wars and, preferably, only fighting defensive ones. Although there would always be high tensions between Boron and Split factions.

Stations: The Boron would sell station modules for exclusive use with Boron populations (I think it'd be cool to have a massive space-fish tank ). They also sell 1 time purchase "conversion kits" that can be used on a station to make it compatible with Boron modules (although this probably wouldn't mix well with a Split station).

Ships: The small ships only come in 2 flavours: Boron only (these wouldn't show up in a buy list) or Humanoid refits. Capital ships (or any ship large enough) on the other hand would be able to simultaneously be able to house Humanoids and Boron. All stations would be encased in small bubble-like structures with tube openings at the bottom (or top) that are filled when in use by a Boron and are emptied out when not.

These ideas are far from complete but it's just my thoughts on the subject, oh, and here's a suit "idea" https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/en ... 0614193745

[TheBaykon]

Hello,

I understand the decision for not having boron as this would need a lot of thinking/design etc.

Thought would give some ideas which may help with thinking how boron can be introduced in the future

The Boron always remind me of the mon calamari from star wars.

They use suits to walk around like normal humanoids and the ships themselves are not full of water most likely because it would have cost more for production to add it in.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GmxeodZpZ5E/T ... lamari.png

Another idea is it could be like the Xindi-Aquatic from star trek enterprise where some sections of the ships are air but the main ship holds water.

http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads ... quatic.jpg

Of course i'm not saying these should be copied but give some ideas to how a water species could be introduced.

Interested in what other ideas people have?

[Alan Phipps]

@ TheBaykon: Oversized images replaced by links and topic moved into existing active discussion thread.

[Axeface]

Or, as said a hundred times, they could just make them float and excuse the whole water thing with advanced suits... Its actaully EASIER to animate a floating Boron than a walking one, legs are hard to animate. The only difference is IF they are walking they can reuse the human RIGGING and that cuts the workload because you are reusing existing animations. If they are to introduce the Boron in a DLC it should be done properly and not use shortcuts like completely re-writing the established lore.


It REALLY isnt a big deal that they are aquatic. Us humans, in our ineptitude manage to go underwater by putting a tube in our mouths.... Boron as the most technologically advanced species in the commonwealth are surely able to overcome this limitation.

[TheBaykon]

@Alan Phipps Thanks for updating.

[Blake00]

Hello,

I understand the decision for not having boron as this would need a lot of thinking/design etc.

Thought would give some ideas which may help with thinking how boron can be introduced in the future

The Boron always remind me of the mon calamari from star wars.

They use suits to walk around like normal humanoids and the ships themselves are not full of water most likely because it would have cost more for production to add it in.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GmxeodZpZ5E/T ... lamari.png

Another idea is it could be like the Xindi-Aquatic from star trek enterprise where some sections of the ships are air but the main ship holds water.

http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads ... quatic.jpg

Of course i'm not saying these should be copied but give some ideas to how a water species could be introduced.

Interested in what other ideas people have?

Lets not even mention what happened with our favourite mon calamari in the latest film. #robbed lol!

But anyway I too thought of the xindi and how their ships had air sections. I'd forgotten about the mon calamari though. Good examples.

[Morkonan]

...Honestly? All I care about is that the Boron ships are still around, even if the race itself isn't. The Boron ships are generally pretty useless but still, I like how they look.

I'll miss the Boron and their ships. The Octopus is a fine, fast, scout, if an expendable one.. The Thresher, though, that thing is a fun capital-killer, even if it handles like a cow. And, it's pretty.

One of the things I most valued in X3TC were the unique ship designs for each race and not only the way they tended to differ in appearance, but their design differences as well. Those designs and capabilities largely reflected the cultures of the races, themselves. That was awesome! Ships had restrictions and the player had to pick the best ship for the desired job if they wanted... the best ship for the job. They couldn't just stick with on faction's ships if they wanted the best of everything. (Well, unless one was dedicated to the Terran Empire, PRAISE THE EMPEROR! )

[Riccardoman]

Ships had restrictions and the player had to pick the best ship for the desired job if they wanted... the best ship for the job. They couldn't just stick with on faction's ships if they wanted the best of everything. (Well, unless one was dedicated to the Terran Empire, PRAISE THE EMPEROR! )

Maybe they could fix this problem by giving only one specific weapon/shield/engine made specifically for one ship class for each race (with not standardised design but a specific design that could aestetically fit only with the race that it belongs to), this upgrades could be used on ships from different races but there are downsizes, less power or durability for example, or it could drain energy/damage directly the ship!

[Sandalpocalypse]

lets say you have resources to do 3 races at the quality you want

you have to have argon because humans

you want a war system, so you have to have either split or paranid as a nemesis for argon groups.

then for a third race, you can't really add borons. they would naturally ally with argon against either paranid or split.

teladi make more sense because they offer a peaceful border when war is on between the other two, though they can still be justified as engaging in war from time to time.

split could work, but they would make for a more violent 3-way-war universe than teladi would.

TL;DR For borons to work politically you probably want 5 races

unless you change borons into f***-you neutrals who're gonna let the galaxy burn

[Riccardoman]

I'm pretty sure ego has the resources to make at least 4 races
The 4th race being the xenon, also fully playable, because if you see the screenshots they have modular stations, a fully fledged economic cycle

[Vandragorax]

Personally I'm not bothered in the slightest that the Boron won't be in X4 at release. I understand the technical difficulties with the race implementation and commend Egosoft on their decision not to tackle that beast until at least after launch.

I do not agree with those saying that it won't be a "real" X game without the Boron. Egosoft could make X4 with only one race in it and it would still be a real X game, there is no way you can shoehorn the argument that unless every X game contains every single story element from every previous X game that it's not a real X game. Nonsense!

The Boron need a lot of conceptualising to fit into the game now that we have things like external camera view showing cockpit/pilot, walking around stations with other NPCs, and all that stuff. Better sort that out later once the rest of the game is made, since the Boron are the anomalies here that do not fit in like the rest do.

[Marco Nero]

Will miss , as an appropiate playable Faction with stations and ships the Split and Terran too if i do not misunderstanded? Hope i understand wrong

[GhengisKhan]

Or, as said a hundred times, they could just make them float and excuse the whole water thing with advanced suits... Its actaully EASIER to animate a floating Boron than a walking one, legs are hard to animate. The only difference is IF they are walking they can reuse the human RIGGING and that cuts the workload because you are reusing existing animations. If they are to introduce the Boron in a DLC it should be done properly and not use shortcuts like completely re-writing the established lore.

It REALLY isnt a big deal that they are aquatic. Us humans, in our ineptitude manage to go underwater by putting a tube in our mouths.... Boron as the most technologically advanced species in the commonwealth are surely able to overcome this limitation.

i agree, floating is far more realistic, as none of the showed ship designs would have gravity anyway (planetary gravity is too weak to walk in and for artifcial gravity the ships would need rotating sections which i havent seen in the stream), so everyone should be floating around. though all humanoids are probably wearing some sort of suits, so walking would be possible thorugh magnetized boots or something like that. in the books the borons are always described as having special suits for being in airated ships, etc. so in ships or stations, the borons would be able to float around freely, which i am sure should not create massive game design problems.
as for piloting ships, the pilot seat could be "folded in" so the boron pilot has enough space to be floating in the cockpit, holding on to various controlls with their tentacles. that would probably be a pit work to implement, but not impossible either.

personally, it would be a shame if the boron dont make it into x4 at all. i always liked their ship and station designs over all other races, especially in X2 as they are unique compared to all other races. most other ship and staion designs felt a bit generic at times.

[rafezetter]

In the old X games the different races were really just different ship and station models so adding a race in didn't really change any game play. In the new X universe they are trying to flesh the races out to make them actual characters rather than just a concept that influenced ship design.

For the Boron that means some gameplay choices. Boron ships are full of water so can other races pilot boron ships? how about work as crew on them? Boron need the mech suits to move around that is fine for getting around on stations but will it let them fly the other races ships? Speaking of stations will the air breathing races be able to use them or maybe just regulated to Dry visitor sections.

Honestly I can imagine more than enough work to justify splitting the Boron out as a DLC race, Plus I'd rather get the base game sometime in 2018 rather than waiting another year or two for them to get the Boron done right.

Does it HAVE to be water? Even though the lore says it's a gas - it could also be mineral oil or some sort of electronically neutral ectoplasm, like in Eve Online, for the support / mobility mechanism inside thier ships, while they use the membrane suits (Xrebirth says the old clunky spacesuits don't really exist anymore and are more "membrane like") for the life support system.

It would be easy to fix the whole Borons "station walking" problem. They don't. The reality would be that the Boron ships would dock on a platform, and have dry cargo areas in the ships, they get loaded up as normal and whatever happens in a Boron station can be left to speculation - one of those "not much is known how the boron handle cargo from the other races, once it reaches their stations, but it's believed..... blah blah"

it would also be reasonable to assume that the boron only traded in a limited number of items, because of the whole "living in water" aspect.

Maybe they have a particular penchant for Split Chelts, who iirc were bred in space aquariums.

[Karvat]

Put them in the game in the simplest way possible without creating more complications than other races, then think of adjusting them by adding details once they are already implemented, same thing for the splits

[Skeeter]

If borons turn out to be a dlc I wonder how much it will cost and will there be enough content. I myself might consider it if along with a set of ships and stations we get a plot arc which is a mini story of say how they have come back and why it's important for their return with a series of missions that involve NPC borons to interact with during missions/plot. If it doesn't have some sort plot to have fun with and is just the bare stations and ships I dunno. I mean a basic boron pack we could say a fiver for or the basic plus sub plot story with say 7-10 missions I could see paying 10 for.

[Crimsonraziel]

And I would gladly pay 10 Bucks just for Borons and their ship/station designs. Even without any story or missions at all.

[BigBANGtheory]

I'd much rather pay $20+ for a proper re-introduction of Boron's to an awesome base game. Get the base game right and I'll pony up for updates....

[adeine]

I'd rather wait another year for X4 to come out fully-featured, but I understand that might not be possible from a budgetary point of view. It does make me worry though.

It's always a problem when you launch with significant missing content, since it requires you to make the game functional with what is there, i.e. having to balance things around the content that you launch with. Then later on when you add the missing content via DLC it's difficult to be interesting with it or make it a fully integrated addition to the game because it's something bolted on to a "complete experience". Not only that, but because it's DLC, you can't even properly rebalance or change the main game to help with that because not everyone will buy it and maintaining so many different versions of the game would be a nightmare.