If you could have a proper Companion App...

[Veeshan]

I don't really see how or why an offline game could utilize an app but one thing id love is a nice compact and ad free encyclopedia/wiki. Something with a sensible mobile layout, a bonus would be comment sections in each entry.

[sd_jasper]

I really like how Fallout 4 added the "pipboy" app. This is just basically your menu system on your phone.

Being able to keep trade screens up, or the property window (to monitor ships) would be great.

[The Q]

I prefer no companion app. Why? Because my phone is 10 years old and I prefer playing an actual game instead of getting touched in all the wrong places because it's a cool thing to do atm.

Love the level of selfishness here, "My phone can't handle apps so no one else should get the shinies!" I feel for you, but that doesn't mean that you stomp all over something for everyone else lol.

Actually, if you reread hisazul's post, you will notice that he didn't say anything like that. He made it rather clear, by starting his sentences with the personal pronoun 'I', that this is his personal opinion. And after all, this is what a forum is all about: sharing personal opinions, which can be positive (i.e. are in favour of a suggestion) or negative (against it).

I don't really see how or why an offline game could utilize an app but one thing id love is a nice compact and ad free encyclopedia/wiki. Something with a sensible mobile layout, a bonus would be comment sections in each entry.

There is already an X wiki utilizing Egosoft's confluence server. I can't really say anything about its mobile layout, but it can be edited by anyone and has the desired comment feature.


As for the initial question, I don't have a mobile device which I could use (smartphone is quite old and rather slow) nor did I ever use a mobile device while playing a game. Nevertheless, I can imagine that it can be quite useful seeing certain pieces of information on a separate device, especially if those are otherwise stored in sub menus, which are hard to reach. Personally, what I would really like to see though is a graphical representation of either the ship I'm sitting in and controlling right at the moment, the object which attacks me or the one I'm defending right now (or other interesting target objects). This view should give me additional graphical information about the status of that object and how it interacts with its environment. For example if I'm sitting in a ship's cockpit flying an attack run on a target (e.g. a capital ship) and I'm getting attacked, this app could show me on my mobile advice what kind of ships are attacking me, how far they are away, from which direction they are coming and what part of my ship they are aiming at. These are all information which I have access to, but for which I would have to open the map or a different menu, or turn my ship around to see them. But ideally I don't want to interrupt my attack run. Another example would be a station defend mission, during which I cannot fight enemies and always check which enemy is closest and the biggest threat to the station.
In any way, the information should be clear graphical presentations. I don't want to read texts. Also, and this may be clear to some, the app itself shouldn't be immersion breaking. That means its design and interface should be similar to what I have in my ship in the game.

[Nanook]

I prefer no companion app. Why? Because my phone is 10 years old and I prefer playing an actual game instead of getting touched in all the wrong places because it's a cool thing to do atm.

Love the level of selfishness here, "My phone can't handle apps so no one else should get the shinies!" I feel for you, but that doesn't mean that you stomp all over something for everyone else lol.

Actually, if you reread hisazul's post, you will notice that he didn't say anything like that. He made it rather clear, by starting his sentences with the personal pronoun 'I', that this is his personal opinion. And after all, this is what a forum is all about: sharing personal opinions, which can be positive (i.e. are in favour of a suggestion) or negative (against it). ...

Exactly. Alandauron, personal attacks are not acceptable forum behaviour around here. Please refrain from such personal comments in the future.

[Alandauron]

Exactly. Alandauron, personal attacks are not acceptable forum behaviour around here. Please refrain from such personal comments in the future.

And I apologized for it in my next post.

[Alandauron]

Actually, if you reread hisazul's post, you will notice that he didn't say anything like that. He made it rather clear, by starting his sentences with the personal pronoun 'I', that this is his personal opinion. And after all, this is what a forum is all about: sharing personal opinions, which can be positive (i.e. are in favour of a suggestion) or negative (against it).

I read it and reread it several times and while I was wrong to get offensive he was definitely saying "I don't want it so no one else should have it."

I just don't like that mentality, he gave no legitimate points or reason why except that, "...my phone is 10 years old..." which to me means that since he doesn't have something that can handle a decent app he doesn't want others to either. If he were to present an argument against being that, "They are never done right" then that is a discussion point that can be touched on. "How do you do it right?" "Where did other apps you tried go wrong?" etc.

This isn't something that the devs are currently spending any time on, even so I have no issue of arguing against wasting resources on it, that's a legitimate thing to take into consideration. In regards to this, though, I am considering to personally start working on unofficial companion apps for games I'm interested in during my own time. What I work towards may or may not be possible without working directly with the dev teams for said games but that is something to be figured out as I go. This thread was simply trying to figure out what others, that have been playing X Universe games longer than I, would like to see created if they had any say.

As for the initial question, I don't have a mobile device which I could use (smartphone is quite old and rather slow) nor did I ever use a mobile device while playing a game. Nevertheless, I can imagine that it can be quite useful seeing certain pieces of information on a separate device, especially if those are otherwise stored in sub menus, which are hard to reach. Personally, what I would really like to see though is a graphical representation of either the ship I'm sitting in and controlling right at the moment, the object which attacks me or the one I'm defending right now (or other interesting target objects). This view should give me additional graphical information about the status of that object and how it interacts with its environment. For example if I'm sitting in a ship's cockpit flying an attack run on a target (e.g. a capital ship) and I'm getting attacked, this app could show me on my mobile advice what kind of ships are attacking me, how far they are away, from which direction they are coming and what part of my ship they are aiming at. These are all information which I have access to, but for which I would have to open the map or a different menu, or turn my ship around to see them. But ideally I don't want to interrupt my attack run. Another example would be a station defend mission, during which I cannot fight enemies and always check which enemy is closest and the biggest threat to the station.
In any way, the information should be clear graphical presentations. I don't want to read texts. Also, and this may be clear to some, the app itself shouldn't be immersion breaking. That means its design and interface should be similar to what I have in my ship in the game.

That's a great idea as well!

[Nanook]

Exactly. Alandauron, personal attacks are not acceptable forum behaviour around here. Please refrain from such personal comments in the future.

And I apologized for it in my next post.

Not to hisazul, you didtn't. No further discussions of moderator actions on the open forum, please. If you wish to continue discussing this, kindly do so via PM. Forum rule 9.

And any more discussion of other forum members, such as in your post above, will result in this thread getting locked. Keep to the topic, please.

[Alandauron]

And any more discussion of other forum members, such as in your post above, will result in this thread getting locked. Keep to the topic, please.

No need to lock it I think your last post killed it. Anyway, thanks to everyone that posted their thoughts on this topic!

Who knows maybe X4 will have some form of limited network coding that can be tied into fairly simply, most likely not though and I wouldn't be upset about that in the slightest.

[Nanook]

And any more discussion of other forum members, such as in your post above, will result in this thread getting locked. Keep to the topic, please.

No need to lock it I think your last post killed it....

You were warned about violating rule 9. So be it.