Hopes and fears for X Online

[RustiSwordz]

Hopes, that it will be as big and as detailed as X2
I like this modular business where you can take parts of various ships and makke your own

IE: Paranid Nemesis chassis, Split engines, argon cockpit arrangement, boron instruments etc or whatever. I hope this is the same for space staions.

My fear is that i may not want to be online to play a game, i'd like to see all the advancements for XOL incorporated into a patch for X2, or indeed if there is an X3 in, however long, incorporated into that.

There are those gamers who are either unwilling, or unable to spend 10=20 quid a month, or have the time because of jobs and family to go online.

And it would be nice for all the advancements that Xol would bring being shared will all the X community. On and offline.

I took one look at Eve online/ SW Galaxies and saw that they charged for being online with no off line option and i though. No thank you, box back on shelf.

I feel no matter how XOL works out i may do the same myself if its online ONLY.

[Avis]

you could have summed your hopes and fears up as follows.

HOPE
To not cost too much, and be worth the long long wait.

FEARS
THE EMPIRE!!!

[P88]

id prefer the majority of XOL features to be implimented into X2 with patches etc so it will be really good and outclass any other effort to make a game like this...as ppl are expecting this game to really kick arse, just like people were expecting matrix revolutions to rock....and look what happened; got more negative reviews than good.

[Oldman]

Hopes, that it will be as big and as detailed as X2
I like this modular business where you can take parts of various ships and makke your own

IE: Paranid Nemesis chassis, Split engines, argon cockpit arrangement, boron instruments etc or whatever. I hope this is the same for space staions.

My fear is that i may not want to be online to play a game, i'd like to see all the advancements for XOL incorporated into a patch for X2, or indeed if there is an X3 in, however long, incorporated into that.

There are those gamers who are either unwilling, or unable to spend 10=20 quid a month, or have the time because of jobs and family to go online.

And it would be nice for all the advancements that Xol would bring being shared will all the X community. On and offline.

I took one look at Eve online/ SW Galaxies and saw that they charged for being online with no off line option and i though. No thank you, box back on shelf.

I feel no matter how XOL works out i may do the same myself if its online ONLY.

I have to agree with what you're saying Rusti, if X2OL was released as a single player game with the option to go online then I think (rightly or wrongly) that maybe it would be financialy better for Egosoft.
It could be released as a 'new' game as compared with X2 if it had added components in the way of ships, equipment and missions, also it would serve as a 'buffer' effect in as much as there would be extra revenue for X2OL, with the added advantage that if X2OL was not as popular in it's online form at least there would be money coming in from the single player aspect game.
I think that to put all your eggs in one basket might be a little risky.
Just my own personal thoughts having delved a little bit into the information (public) of the cost's needed to run online games.

Edit...just as an afterthought, if people, and I'm refering really to 'new' people/players to the game, get an insite into the game to start with then I would have thought that they would be more inclined to 'maybe' want more after they've played it through.
If the option is there (just a click or two of the mouse) then I would have thought this might be more tempting than just jumping into the Online game 'cold'.
Just bearing in mind also that AFAIK X2OL could be quite some time in the future before it's released, how do you keep peoples interest in a game, or more to the point the time frame between X2 and X2OL?


Oldman

[the old one]

With Rusti and the options shoul be included into X2.it would mean certian parts of the online version being beta test through X2 Dennis

[pjknibbs]

I think the online game is likely to be a heck of a lot larger than X2, to be honest with you. One of the disadvantages of single-player X is that the CPU has to process all the AI and stuff for out-of-sector operations as well as help render graphics, play sound etc--in X2OL almost all of that remote sector burden will fall on the server, and since the server isn't having to do any fancy graphics it will be able to support a much larger universe than the current X games.

[nobbystyles]

Say it is popular. how much money does it take to run servers for say 30k people on constantly. god knows you'll have people walking away fromt heir PCs macroing or scripting themselves to trade eating up alll that server space.
and how many different universes would you have to run to stop the place becoming the worlds most clogged chatroom or swamped with ships bumping into each other trying to get through gates.

Hoping thy make lots of little servers for free. didnt freelancer do that?

[Reverend_Vader]

you could have summed your hopes and fears up as follows.

HOPE
To not cost too much, and be worth the long long wait.

FEARS
THE EMPIRE!!!

oh they shall fear us

[cappedup]

I dont normally stray 'on-topic' but here goes..:

There are those gamers who are either unwilling, or unable to spend 10=20 quid a month, or have the time because of jobs and family to go online.

This is surely the sticking point for a really succesfull online spacegame... we all know how many hours can be lost behind BTF or XT, but how many would pay regularly for the privelidge???? i wouldnt.. then again i dont have the spare time or cash.. so i'm probably in a minority...

If X2 is a fantastic success, which i sincerely hope it is, then Egosoft have a prime opertunity to clean up with an online universe..... if they can suss out the marketing and pricing and the tech stuff i dont understand..

As i see it you have a few types of interested parties, which are distinct, with shallow crossovers:

Die hard space sim/X fans.... who will be online whatever the cost..

Die hard space sim/X fans.... who would like to be there but cant afford (time/cash) to shell out (me)

interested parties who have an interest but not £20 a month's worth - perhaps freelancer types.. need converting..

Online game fans - necassary for Ego to target these..


I see a great opportunity but a load of big hurdles.. i'm all for looking big and overcoming big hurdles, go Egosoft go!! remember me when your all worth millions....

[[WP]HellFire]

Hoping thy make lots of little servers for free. didnt freelancer do that?

NOOO - thats why FL is dying! (And MS host no servers - all FL-Servers r Fan-Driven)

[hedg70]

I think the online game is likely to be a heck of a lot larger than X2, to be honest with you. One of the disadvantages of single-player X is that the CPU has to process all the AI and stuff for out-of-sector operations as well as help render graphics, play sound etc--in X2OL almost all of that remote sector burden will fall on the server, and since the server isn't having to do any fancy graphics it will be able to support a much larger universe than the current X games.

and thats where ur money go's each month to pay for quality like that! and a un laggy game!

trust me all try a MMO game of some sort including you 56k users the software takes a long time but then you will love the online gameplay

its not like trying to play normal multyplayer games its got unique codeing where a 56k player can see upto 100 players on the screen before worrying about lag

[crunn]

I fear what happens when you are not online.
If a station comes under attack when you are there you can jump in yourself or send reinforcements from elsewhere or ask for help or negotiate with the attackers or whatever.
If you are not there the station gets it. A human player probably wouldn't attack a station unless they knew they could kill it, even if it takes them a little while it's going down.
I'd be a work all day thinking/worrying "oh no, I'll bet there are some criminals tying to break into my station right now." I'd get no work done.


Perhaps a bigger worry is what if you have to stop playing/paying for a bit.
Say your work takes you out of the country for a month or two, or the money is needed more urgently elsewhere for a month or two, or any number of things that might take you away from XOU for a while (wife/baby/newgame/AoD2)
What happens to your properties/character when you stop paying?
Deleted?
Frozen?
What?
You come back four weeks later to find you no longer exist?

Jumpgate is fine, you only have the ship you are flying and your cash.
You dock at a station then logoff, that is you 'safe'.
I quit (stop paying) for 1.5 years. When I started up again my ship and money were exactly as/where I left them.
XOU will have to work differently. But how?

[[WP]HellFire]

Perhaps a bigger worry is what if you have to stop playing/paying for a bit.
Say your work takes you out of the country for a month or two, or the money is needed more urgently elsewhere for a month or two, or any number of things that might take you away from XOU for a while (wife/baby/newgame/AoD2)
What happens to your properties/character when you stop paying?
Deleted?
Frozen?
What?
You come back four weeks later to find you no longer exist?

U pay for "Put all my crap into a save hangar till i want it back" to the XENOS

Or even better - u give it to SE - we work with all ur Stations till u r back. Oh and the fee for us is just that what we made in credits

I call it "Save Holyday-Service" u v to pay nothing for it - we just take all the production till u r back - and u ll get back what u gave us - is that a cool deal?

[Unimaginative]

Well, I'd imagine that aside from the system patrol ships, guilds would be the solution to that. If the system alerts all online guild members when a member's installation is under attack, even if that player is offline at that time, the rest of the guild can bring arms to bear. Just imagine... you go offline, after a couple of hours a factory-killer starts attacking your wheat farm, and when you log back in there's 5 M2's parked outside it after having done away with the aggressor ^_^

[[WP]HellFire]

correct - and an allied guild has killed all the stations of that agressor

[Unimaginative]

I'd think that we'd have both offense and defense guilds set up, since it'd be obvious that the PK-FK's will need backup in case of a guild response, kind of like the hunter-killer packs you get in some online rpg's.

Who needs the Khaak when you have guild wars? ^_^

[crunn]

Sounds good.

But what of the folk that are not in guilds?
Pay the system security AI ships a little something to be extra vigilant?

I like the "Save Holyday-Service" idea.
But would people really be willing to give all their worldly goods to someone they don't know?

[[WP]HellFire]

I like the "Save Holyday-Service" idea.
But would people really be willing to give all their worldly goods to someone they don't know?

I m sure we r well known in a very short time. And if u sign a contract with us u ll get what u pay for.

SE_HellFire (SE-Leader since 4 years).

[[WP]HellFire]

Who needs the Khaak when you have guild wars? ^_^

Guess the Server-AI needs em to attack the biggest guilds

[crunn]

And if u sign a contract with us u ll get what u pay for.

And you will replace anything lost during your time of occupation?