X-Tended - Terran Conflict (XTC) (Update: - Manual available! - 12/10/10)

enenra · Post by **enenra** » Wed, 30. Sep 09, 15:20

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X-Tended - Terran Conflict (XTC)

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Current News

The first trailer of X-Tended - Terran Conflict

It has been a long time since we released anything to the public, and as we are now in the release candidate stage for the mod, we felt we should reward everyone's patience with something a little bit special. Enjoy.

Download Trailer 1: http://downloads.thexuniverse.us/XTC_Re ... r_1_LQ.zip

We have also uploaded the trailer to YouTube: The X-Tended - Terran Conflict Trailer on YouTube

For those of you who do not wish to download it, you may also watch it over at our ModDB page.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/x-tended-terran-conflict (slightly worse quality)

The X-Tended Team.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

When will XTC be released?
As soon as it is done. We are doing this as our hobby and aren’t being paid, so our progress is not as fast as one you’d expect from a software company.

Do I have to start a new game?
Yes, XTC includes a completely new universe with roughly 190 new sectors and many other new settings and scripts. There is no way to avoid a new start.

Can I play with my old savegames?
No. As there is a completely new universe, new ship and factory layout and major edits to all game files, every non-XTC savegame will not work.

Can I return to the old universe from inside XTC?
No. The old universe is not available within the XTC. However, you will have 190 completely new sectors to explore. This was done for performance reasons as well as lore and integrity. There is no hope of ever having the old sectors back.

Can I use XTC together with mod / script XYZ?
There is currently no way to know this. XTC makes changes in nearly every game file, thus installing any other mod or script will most likely lead to an incompatibility. It is up to the authors of these mods to release a XTC-compatible version of their work. Scripts can be problematic in one or another way, but currently we simply don't know what will be compatible and what won’t. XTC itself comes with a ton of features and scripts, so a good part of third-party scripts will be redundant anyway. We will not make XTC compatible with the hundreds of scripts out there. If you want XTC to work with XYZ, please contact the author of XYZ, not us.

Will I be able to play the Terran Conflict Plots?
No. But we plan to do our own plot(s).

Will the ships, weapons and missiles be rebalanced in the XTC?
Yes, we are putting a huge effort into balancing everything from scratch to give a better feeling to gameplay.

Will there be new weapons?
Yes, there will be a large number of new weapons, which will be re-divided in sets that only certain races are able to use, each race having its own set of weapons compatible to their ships. Additionally we have generic weapons, which are available for every race. Most of the old weapons will undergo serious changes and can thus be considered “new” as well.

Will there be new ships?
Yes, there will be new ships. Most of the ships from XTM (X3R) will be included, some of them improved specifically for X3TC. W have also created a number of new ship designs.

Will there be new sounds?
Yes, there will be new sounds: A large variety of new ambient sector tracks, completely new weapon-sounds and new battle tracks as well as a few other improvements sound-wise.

Will cockpits be included in XTC?
No.

Will there be ships of other mods or SciFi-TV-movies included?
No. We only use models created by our team and imported from the XTM. There will be no ship included that you have already seen in any other mod (apart from XTM).

Thufar · Post by **Thufar** » Wed, 30. Sep 09, 17:49

Anxiously awaiting this mod and am generally drueling all over my keyboard at the prospect that tomorrow starts the 4th quarter

(not asking/expecting delivery, it's just every day gets us a bit closer).

surferx · Post by **surferx** » Wed, 30. Sep 09, 19:13

We will aim to make it more challenging again while keeping the game in balance.

Bring it on!

Aragon Speed · Post by **Aragon Speed** » Thu, 1. Oct 09, 13:10

A quick update on our release. It doesn't look like it will be this year as we still have a lot of work to do and time is rapidly running out.

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Thu, 1. Oct 09, 13:45

Looking at what you are expecting to include in it, I am not suprised, and all things are the sweeter for waiting.

If you need any coding doing, I'm a dab hand with COBOL, FORTRAN, LISP....

Aragon Speed · Post by **Aragon Speed** » Fri, 2. Oct 09, 07:33

Gavrushka wrote:Looking at what you are expecting to include in it

Something about having only seen the pointy bit of an iceberg springs to mind here.

Kapakio · Post by **Kapakio** » Fri, 2. Oct 09, 11:23

Aragon Speed wrote:A quick update on our release. It doesn't look like it will be this year as we still have a lot of work to do and time is rapidly running out.

Thanks a lot, that's all I was asking in my post (on the old thread)

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Fri, 2. Oct 09, 12:17

Aragon Speed wrote: Something about having only seen the pointy bit of an iceberg springs to mind here.

Well we know

It is a an entirely new universe created from scratch.

There is a selectable in game difficulty system

There are new ships, XXL factories and pre-packaged complexes

Capital ships explode causing collateral damage and have crews that try to escape... Oh how I love that one.

And you say this is the tip of the iceberg? The only thing I can think of then is you've managed to capture a real live Alien to perform the grand unveiling...

I guess it wll require a more powerful CPU than basic TC needs to run smoothly?

enenra · Post by **enenra** » Fri, 2. Oct 09, 12:49

Gavrushka wrote:
Aragon Speed wrote: Something about having only seen the pointy bit of an iceberg springs to mind here.
Well we know

It is a an entirely new universe created from scratch.

There is a selectable in game difficulty system

There are new ships, XXL factories and pre-packaged complexes

Capital ships explode causing collateral damage and have crews that try to escape... Oh how I love that one.

And you say this is the tip of the iceberg? The only thing I can think of then is you've managed to capture a real live Alien to perform the grand unveiling...

I guess it wll require a more powerful CPU than basic TC needs to run smoothly?

We're doing what we can to actually have better performance than vanilla TC in the end.

P.S. Who let that bit about our Alien slip?

^^

TTD · Post by **TTD** » Fri, 2. Oct 09, 15:20

This seems to be the Mod I am waiting for .
Well done guys.

Duzzit · Post by **Duzzit** » Fri, 2. Oct 09, 16:57

Drool

Axeface · Post by **Axeface** » Fri, 2. Oct 09, 20:45

enenra wrote: P.S. Who let that bit about our Alien slip? ^^

*Whispers to his earpiece* "The cat has left the basket, the cat has left the basket! Situation Red-X0141. Defcon 4!" *Pulls out a smg and runs off*

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Fri, 2. Oct 09, 21:10

Axeface wrote: Situation Red-X0141. Defcon 4!" *Pulls out a smg and runs off*

Situation Red-XO141 sir? Traffic Wardens shouldn't wear rubber armbands on Tuesdays. I can't see how that's relevant sir.

BlackCoffee · Post by **BlackCoffee** » Sun, 4. Oct 09, 08:52

This is awesome! I'm going to run out and start lots of new families just so i can give you guys all my first borns! No, not kidding, freaking awesome!

Aragon Speed · Post by **Aragon Speed** » Mon, 5. Oct 09, 12:32

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XTC News 5th October 2009

We realised recently that we have never given a list of team members, or what roles they fill within the team. As we have just had a few new people join us, we feel that this is an appropriate time to do so. So this is us (In no particular order):

Aragon Speed: Team leader. Whip cracker, eye poker, and general toy taker away-er.
Sartorie: Script Editor Scripter. The teams meanie, and the anti-Christ for players. When you get your ass blown up yet again in XTC, this is the guy to blame. He also hosts our repository on his server - so we are nice to him.
Trickmov: Script Editor Scripter. The numbers man and event manager, will give you all the statistics you will ever need, also working on the background life of the universe.
Xelonir: Script Editor Scripter. Likes creature features and hunting Dragons.
Kevso101: Mission Director Scripter. Likes coffee (A lot) and is busily coding the plots and missions. The teams MD sorcerer.
Badman76: Mission Director Scripter. The sorcerer's apprentice. Also working on mission coding while dodging random spells cast by Kevso.
DSE (AKA enenra): Graphical improvements and setting development. Likes playing with skin(s). He is also our pedantic lore master, making sure we stay within the X-Universe lore and don't have things like pink elephants as a new enemy. Also works on plot and mission design and layout.
Alex Vanderbilt: Sector design. Mr. Universe. When you fly into a sector and go 'ooo' and 'ahh', Alex is the person to thank. On the other hand, if you don't like a sector, he is the one to poke with sharp pointy things.
Axeface: Modeller. Makes new stuff that we can blow you up with.
Jeff: Modeller. Makes extra new stuff that we can blow you up with.
Mishra: Modeller. Likes the Borons, so makes stuff that is nice and friendly, and will hug you before it blows you up.
Pink Floyd: Modeller. Likes things that go boom, so he can blow you up in style. Hates Borons, except for when they go squish.
Eliah (AKA X2-Eliah): Background work/Lead Tester/Jack-of-all-trades. Eliah proved he had what it takes as one of our testers, and is now a part of the team. He deals with a lot of the text work like sector and ware descriptions, and is also responsible for creating the new manual.
Galder: Weapons, ship and economy balancing. We have heard a lot of frustrated shouting, screaming, and table gnawing from Galder over time, and it's normally when we change something. We put up with it though because he is the only person mad enough to take on the monumental task of balancing the mod, and keeping it that way no matter what we do to frustrate him.
KRM398: Writer. He writes our plots and news stories, while constantly complaining that the mod isn't 'Realistic enough'. Like flying in space in your own personal spaceship is realistic...
Stemardue: Music. Creates the music for the mod. He is our local noise-maker and keeps threatening to slip ABBA music in because we keep telling him he is annoying the neighbours.
Mokonzi: Silent Joint Team Leader. He, who walks behind the pages. While Moko doesn't involve himself in the mod as much as he would like to due to time restraints, he is our host and provides us with the forums, dev areas, and ftp space we need to develop the mod. Without Moko making a mod like XTC would be a lot harder, and possibly not do-able at all.

As we have already mentioned, it does not look like we will get a release this year due to the amount of work we still have to do. Some of you may have been wondering exactly how much work is going on for such a long development time, and so here are some facts and figures to show that we haven't been slacking off and drinking beer or something.

While we do not want to give too much away let us present you some numbers. There have been some fluctuations, but on average there are 15 people on the team, and they have been working on the mod for over 46 weeks now. After 1000 commits to our repository, 6000 file changes have been made. There are 15,000 new words purely in the new sector descriptions alone, and currently the mod consists of just over 2500 files, with more than 400 of them being scripts. By the time we have finished this will have grown considerably though.

Working on the mod we have seen strange things, slain (station) Gods and forced many a thing into submission. This has been frustrating at times but exploring the possibilities and adding our content has been, and still is, one heck of an interesting ride.

The GNS (Galactic News System) will soon be out of the beta stage and released in a final version. In the final version we have added a new function that allows the player to save any news story to a personal 'clipboard', allowing the news story to be recalled at any time and read at the players leisure. Additionally the mod version (As opposed to the standalone version) will have a high number of new static articles added for XTC.

We have added fully usable equipment docks for the player. This means the player will be able to buy equipment from his own EQD's and will also be able to add ship upgrades to them.

A lot of work over the last few weeks has gone into completely overhauling the underlying weapons system and the weapons themselves. We laid strong emphasis on race specific weapons, and while the older weapons that have been around for some time can be used by most of them, the races recently developed new weapons to match their personal tastes.

Work continues on the new universe, and quite a lot of the new sector names and descriptions are now in place. Just as a little teaser, here is one of the new sector descriptions. This is still WIP and hasn't been proofread yet, so sorry for the slightly bad grammar.

“Necessary Tribute”

“With a population score nearing the 100 million mark, this is one of the most heavily settled sectors of the new Boron territory. Originally inhabited by a species named Ghwaark, a vicious sea predator, the Boron had almost dismissed the planet as unworthy for colonization. However, a better solution was found, and a massive barrier has been built surrounding a small region where the beast has been herded. Unwilling to exterminate whole species, the Boron are now planning a full-scale move of the population to nearby uninhabited water planets. By now, the small enclosure has been breached twice already, but fortunately there were no casualties. The other races have expressed their disbelief of the amount of credits required for the repositioning of a whole species. The Boron spokesman said that this is a necessary tribute and the Boron are happy to carry it out all the way to the end."

A news post wouldn't be complete without some eyecandy, so here are some updated shots on the universe work we are doing. (All content subject to change as we develop the mod further.)

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And finally the more observant (and bored) among you will have spotted that we have someone making music for the mod. As a taster, here is our new main menu music for you to enjoy.
XTC Main Menu Theme

That's all for today folks, have a good one.

The X-Tended Team

unknown1 · Post by **unknown1** » Mon, 5. Oct 09, 16:29

OM freaking god.. these last 2 screenies are just staggering.not even in most recent science fiction movies you don't see such a beautyful space sceenery.The X-Universe is such an awsome place to live in

.
We must all be thankful to the XTC team for what they do..Oh and one small question::::

Will the mod be signed by egosoft ,as i don't want to see the nasty modified tag.It always tempts me to cheat...

Kapakio · Post by **Kapakio** » Mon, 5. Oct 09, 16:36

unknown1 wrote:Will the mod be signed by egosoft ,as i don't want to see the nasty modified tag.It always tempts me to cheat...

Mods cannot be signed by definition. A mod is a big modification of the game, and this being a major mod is more like a totally new game.

unknown1 · Post by **unknown1** » Mon, 5. Oct 09, 17:12

yes , i am aware that it will be like a totaly new game.my point is about the modified tag..it is very unpleasant.At least for me

Trickmov · Post by **Trickmov** » Mon, 5. Oct 09, 17:34

unknown1 wrote:yes , i am aware that it will be like a totaly new game.my point is about the modified tag..it is very unpleasant.At least for me

Signing means, that the script is tested and localised for working with the Vanilla-game and together with other signed scripts without problems. Also it means normally, that there is no content that allows cheating or changes the game behaviour in general.

As nearly every mod (including XTC) changes one or more parts of the game itself, i doubt that there will be ever any mod, that will be signed.
For XTC we have (beside many other features) about 190 new sectors, which alone would be a reason not to sign it. Also other features are not compatable with certain Vanilla-features, or are (better said) improved.

So i am sure, XTC will not be signed

But as the modified-tag is only one entry in your personal statistics and nothing more, i don´t see a problem with it. If you don´t want to cheat, don´t activate the SE

(EDIT: or don´t use a cheat-script)

lardybloke · Post by **lardybloke** » Mon, 5. Oct 09, 19:25

What you guys did with X3R was so awesome. Now you are doing it again for X3 TC! I can't really express my admiration. I'm going to need a mop and bucket for all the drool.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

X-Tended - Terran Conflict (XTC) (Update: - Manual available! - 12/10/10)

X-Tended - Terran Conflict (XTC) (Update: - Manual available! - 12/10/10)

XTC News 5th October 2009