Online Universe - PC Gamer UK

[Taymar]

and I have just read the article in this months PCG about OU.

Autum next year !

Just enough time to get into and around X2 before the whole world gets to join in with what I believe to be the greatest online community around.

That news alone is worth a round of Argon Ales, me thinks just a couple of questions for likes of Steel and the other Ego dudes -

I'm assuming that the engine and economic system used in X2 are going to be the basis for X:OU does this mean that elements from our own single player universe could be incorperated ?

Will you guys, as you normally do be asking for community input into the X:OU project as it progresses ?

Finally I would just like to thank the team at Ego you've brought the dreams of an old Elite player to life.

[Al]

Autumn next year???

I have some serious doubts about particularly if Egosoft are going to be working on the EU release of X2 until early in the new year. Perhaps they are just guessing but of course a little confirmation of the status from Steel wouldn't go astray.

Al

[fireblade]

autumn next year

hmm

no i think someone has their facts wrong again

[SteveMill]

Autumn next year???

I have some serious doubts about particularly if Egosoft are going to be working on the EU release of X2 until early in the new year. Perhaps they are just guessing but of course a little confirmation of the status from Steel wouldn't go astray.

Al

Serious doubts!!! You are as ever, a master of the understatement AI. There just ain't enough salt in Christendom.

[Al]

Serious doubts!!! You are as ever, a master of the understatement AI.

Why thank you sir, I'll take that as a compliment



Al

[Medic279]

I would more expect X:OU sometime autumn 2005 (at the earliest) rather than autumn 2004

[Pumpkin10]

I can bet it will come around early 2006 to 2007 that is if XOU is completely Different then X2

[carran]

In fairness to EgoSof, some of the technologies implemented within X2 are reusable for any future games, the script engine springs to mind as one, the position keeping / collision detection another. The graphics engine will still reside on the client PC receiving data from the servers.

If you consider how the various components could be migrated to separate servers then scalability becomes less of an issue, particularly if they move to a Unix platform, then within a relatively short period of time - assuming appropriate skills and funds are available - Online Universe could be a reality.

[Pumpkin10]

But the Idea of having 1 sector for every player is a little bit much in my opinion.

in the X universe hundred's of thousands of colonists usually live in 1 sector , not just one of thousands of players.

[GnatB]

Seems 'bout right to me... 1 year to basically add on-line component to X². If they took much longer, they'd probably have to completely redo the graphics engine to take advantage of new hardware. The current ships "appear" to incorporate the modular ship structure that is supposed to be part of X:OU, so that modelling aspect already looks more or less ready.

[Adamskini]

i dont care when it is .. i just happy that it is

[-TD-13-]

Seems 'bout right to me... 1 year to basically add on-line component to X². If they took much longer, they'd probably have to completely redo the graphics engine to take advantage of new hardware. The current ships "appear" to incorporate the modular ship structure that is supposed to be part of X:OU, so that modelling aspect already looks more or less ready.

Yep, I can definatly see it like that. The only thing now is that Euro release date push, which may complicate things. But then again I don't see Egosoft working 4 months straight just to add little features to the European release. So they might take a little break, check to see how the US version is going, do a few other things and then get on track to XOU. So there is a very real possiblity that Xou may come out next year.

But don't put any money down on it though....

[Avatar]

OU release date? huh? what? thats interesting... I think this calls for clarification (especially in the light of current events *cough* )

We have never stated a date for OU.

Thats because there is no date.

It`s way too early to even predict the right year of release.

I thought you might want to know before getting hopes up a few years too early


cheers,
Chris

[carran]

I'm not sure changes to the graphics engine will be necessary, Bernd has gone on public record stating that certain DX9 features are interesting but not essential, bear in mind the typical hardware people have - no-one in their right mind would develop a graphics engine for only the most up to date hardware.

I still use a GF2 and the only reason for upgrading is X2, even then I'll check out how it performs first.

Assuming it takes 2-3 years for XOL to come out, I believe the current graphics engine will be adequate, maybe tweaked but not necessarily a rewrite from scratch as, IIRC, happened for X2.

I think the real question is whether I would be prepared to wait 2-3 years using the same graphics engine or 3-4 years using a new engine for for the next incarnation of the X series - I think the answer is pretty obvious.

[MarkB]

I suppose there could be a something happening around the end of next year concerning the bare bones of X-OU. Maybe an alpha server with 8-10 Devs able to access it to try out the net code and stuff.

As for players, well, I would be amazingly surprised if we get our hands on something playable before the middle of 2005, what with all the problems that are inherrent in an online game. Even then the space game to end all space games would still be a fair way from completion.

For my money I won't bank on X-OU until Summer 2006.

[giskard]

Thanks Chris.

I was started to think it was christmas already

I would also like to remind the readers in this forum that all mag news is atleast 1 month old before you read it. Which puts that rumour at around the beginning of october which as you remember would have been the original release data for X2 if things worked out.

Giskard

[Taymar]

As with all things in print, one has to take them with a large pinch of salt so seeing that PCG are saying that Q4 of 2004 for X:OU I'm working on the european salt mountain as we speak.

I'm guessing that X:OU greatly depends on the success or failure of X2 as a commercial venture for Koch but I'm sure that once the playing public get their sweaty little hands on X2 things will become clearer.

:rant:and I still can't wait tho.

[SteveMill]

As with all things in print, one has to take them with a large pinch of salt so seeing that PCG are saying that Q4 of 2004 for X:OU I'm working on the european salt mountain as we speak.

I'm guessing that X:OU greatly depends on the success or failure of X2 as a commercial venture for Koch but I'm sure that once the playing public get their sweaty little hands on X2 things will become clearer.

:rant:and I still can't wait tho.

It's my understanding that work has been done on XO and it does have x2 code at it's base but we have to remember egosoft are a small, talented enthusiasts, dev team that rely on fan input, not a big commercial team. If they were we'd never get a labour-of-love thing like x2, it'd have been cut down and shovelled out the door a la Freelancer, 18 months ago.

Under such circumstances and adhering to their standards, XO will be ready when it's ready. Not for at least two years is my guess.

[Taymar]

Cheers Chris and I second that sentiment.