Story/Lore thoughts and predictions

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Story/Lore thoughts and predictions

Post by sd_jasper » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 16:40

Just FYI, this post is going to have spoilers for the campaign in X:Rebirth.

I don't know if the events of XR are going to play directly into X4 or not, but assuming they are, several things can be gleamed from those events on what the state of the X universe is at the start of X4.

As the events of the main campaign in XR unfold, we have several factions that have form alliances. These may end up merging to become some sort of new faction, or just remain allies. I think we are seeing a transformation where the old governments of Argon, Terran, Split, etc. are less meaningful, and new factions that merge people from different races and backgrounds are appearing.

Heart of Albion (a group defended from former Argon military) and the Republic of Cantera (Terran colonist) have become close allies with Cantera offering shelter to Albion refugees and both sides working on economic and military operations together.
(there is a bit of back story here that isn't every fully explored on weather or not one side or the other forced this alliance by leaking info to Plutarch... but I don't know if that sort of thing would get resolved and play out before X4 starts)

Plutarch Mining Corporation has now become a military power itself, and at some point joins with the Reivers (a pirate group). I'm not sure how strong this alliance is (or even how it happened... maybe there is some more story there... or just "enemy of my enemy"). But at the end of the events of XR they are dealt a huge blow by their own drones turning on them due to them using Xenon[/n] components.

I could see this leading to a fall of the PMC and maybe even destroying that faction... or having them join with the Reivers to become a pirate faction.

The Argon Government at least that which is based out of Omicron Lyrae, always come off as a bit in shambles. The real powers are Jonferson Space Systems. I'm not sure what the actual state of the "government" is but the corps seem to hold a lot of power, but still don't control the military. That is run by a hot-head that (while successfully leading a major attack on the Xenon), leaked the location of Cantera and Albion to the Xenon which has lead to attack in those areas.

I would think that at BEST the HoA and RoC are going to be angry with the Argon, and relations strained.

On the other end Family Ryak seems to have some pretty good relations with the Argon (well as good as Split have relations with anyone). The joint op against the Xenon may have strengthened that even more. They did take claim to the whole system after the defeat of the Xenon, but gave permission to the Argon to settle one sector. This may have lead to an interesting alliance.

Of the many remaining factions, the one that stand out as maybe important to the events after XR are the Heretic Vanguards. They don't play much of a role in XR and are pretty much just another pirate faction, but their main cause is "pro-Argon", which puts them at odds with just about every other faction that is making allies and joining with non-Argon groups.

Anyway, maybe I'm off base here, but I feel that we may see more "new" governments that are make up of people and races that were once enemies. On the other hand, maybe the gate shutdown/re-activating didn't have the same effect elsewhere. Maybe the old factions still plot along as they always have, but I'd find that highly unlikely (and boring).

I wonder if the Paranid were split up and what effect that had on their theocratic society? I wonder how the Teladi Union's acceptant of the criminal activities of the Cartel and Uguras Armaments is seen by what remains of the Teladi Company? There are a ton of interesting divergent paths that the gate shutdown may have caused, and I hope that ES takes full advantage of showing off how these new factions may have developed.

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Post by X2-Illuminatus » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 16:45

From the Q&A thread:
How does the Story of X4 connect to X Rebirth or X3?
In X4 you play a new story, which is not directly connected to XR or X3. Lore-wise, however, it plays in the same universe. And time-wise after the events in X Rebirth.
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Post by birdtable » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 17:02

So we will not be meeting any descendants of Otani after drunken nights out with deaf grannies oblivious to is suave small talk.... "Show me your wares" was never a good chat up line.....

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Post by Alith-Ahnar » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 17:14

The Rebirth Plot should be all together irrelevant to what happens to the X4 plot for certain reasons.

Many moons back there was mentioned that researchers from Paranid Prime managed to triangulate the position of Argon Prime in the Galaxy.
Followed up with establishing slow and most basic communication.

Having a collapsed Gate Network no accurate Starmap of the Galaxy Paranids and Argons Started joined research in carthograph and extrapolate the positions of lost Colonies.


How much of what i just wrote is still is or actually was fact i don't know but that was something spilled before the Rebirth Launch as background drama what happend to the X Universe and how certain powers reacted.

If EGOsoft is going through with something like that we would see two major power block the Paranid and Argons that might have fastly improved relations to each other.
But those two Factions would only represent the Core Sectors from X-BTF and X² maybe some missing and others added into the mix depending on where the physical position in the Galaxy happens to be.

The Position of a Sector in X up to X³:AP in relation to each other was not physical accurate to where a Solar System would be but how the gates would connect.
Last edited by Alith-Ahnar on Mon, 18. Sep 17, 17:16, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by sd_jasper » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 17:15

birdtable wrote:So we will not be meeting any descendants of Otani after drunken nights out with deaf grannies oblivious to is suave small talk.... "Show me your wares" was never a good chat up line.....
Apparently, it worked, based on the all the responses of "Can I show you anything else? And I do mean anything."

But seriously, yeah I don't think ES saying this is a new story means anything other than we are done with the life and times of Ren Otani. But with it "in the same universe" means that the effects of XR may have long lasting effects that will effect the rest of the setting and factions.

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Post by Morkonan » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 17:22

Just a note:

"Story Missions" in a presumably X4 title that follows in the path of the X3 "sandbox" style can be... anything. They're not the "plot" of the whole game. So, for instance, it's possible to play X3TC without doing any of the Story Missions. There are a few assets that won't be available, however, but even those aren't critical to the player's experience of the game.

X4 could have several main, complex, Story Missions, each with significant impact on the player's experience of the game. And, none of them have to have any connection to each other in terms of story, lore, setting background or even location and scope of impact.

That's one thing I really like about X3TC - There are completely separate Story Missions that I don't ever have to pay attention to unless I want to.

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Post by Kitty » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 21:09

Well well well.
As a player who could not play XR for more than an hour, I can say that I would not cry if they just dropped all XR story line with the game, into the deep void of the oblivion.
Well well well.
If it's not the case, I would like to have a good story to read, explaining what arrived between X3AP and X4 (well, an official vision of X3 story line would be nice, too... should already exist... where ?)

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Post by ajax34i » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 21:42

Kitty wrote:an official vision of X3 story line would be nice, too... should already exist... where ?
There's a timeline here, and owners of the X Superbox have access to download an extended PDF Encyclopedia that contains the timeline and plots, as well as other lore.

As far as between X3AP and X-Rebirth, it's explained in the opening sequence for X-Rebirth: the gates shut off, all at once (the PDF Encyclopedia explains why), and various colonies of the Argon, Boron, Teladi, Paranids, and Split were suddenly by themselves in the galaxy, without any sort of FTL technology (because nobody bothered to research other means of travel when they had the gates easily available).

So X-Rebirth is the story of how a small pocket of "civilization" survived, and X4 and its expansions can be about how different pockets of "civilization" survived.

According to the lore, most of the X3 sectors were in the vicinity of populated planets, so a high percentage of them SHOULD have survived. Just under different government structures, which can be anything from Argon-style democracies to "under the rule of the Yaki", one of the pirate factions, or, who knows, even some sort of Xenon-controlled and -harvested setup.

The plot of the next game can really be anything. The only thing we can expect, I think, is a similar engine to X-Rebirth, and thus possibly similarly huge capital ships and sprawling stations.

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Post by Kitty » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 22:35

ajax34i wrote:
Kitty wrote:an official vision of X3 story line would be nice, too... should already exist... where ?
There's a timeline here, and owners of the X Superbox have access to download an extended PDF Encyclopedia that contains the timeline and plots, as well as other lore.
Forgot the X SUperbox goodie. Shame on me. Thank you for reminding this, and for the short XR summary.

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 23:49

What would make the most sense to me would be if the X4 story began entirely separately from (but parallel to) that of Rebirth, but somewhat directly following on from X3AP (making Rebirth and X4 both branches of the same tree), and then later in the campaign a lateral connection to Rebirth concepts (and perhaps locations) could take place, to reflect the start of gradual re-consolidation of the universe (if such is intended.)
@birdtable: Yes, "show me your wares" strikes me as only really appropriate/applicable to transactional situations, whatever they may be... :D
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Post by mr.WHO » Sat, 23. Sep 17, 13:28

SplitBoy wrote: Having a collapsed Gate Network no accurate Starmap of the Galaxy Paranids and Argons Started joined research in carthograph and extrapolate the positions of lost Colonies.[/i]
Well, Omicron Lyrae would be very high on the "extrapolation list" as it was more or less second most important system in Argon Federation.

I'd alson not be suprise with DLC that will connect XR region to X4.
Last edited by mr.WHO on Sat, 23. Sep 17, 21:09, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by hc-9 » Sat, 23. Sep 17, 20:00

well HoL and X:R showed us atleast that basically
Corporations "took over" in there homesectors. So i feel that X4 will
focus on Races but alot more on Corporations and there global agenda/
interests and probably come with there "specialised"/adapted race ships.

Already reveald in X:R
PMC - Argon
JFSS - Argon
Terracorp - Argon

possible reveals

-Otas - Argon

is a private defense contractor that excels in research, development and production of advanced defense technology. OTAS isn't afraid to use its own products and influence to further its aims.

-Strongarm - Split

This Split corporation exists only to manufacture and sell weapons. Ethically depraved, the company isn't particular about who pays top credit for its armaments.

-NMMC - Teladi

Still known by many as PTNI, the Nividium Mining and Manufacturing Corporation[...]. [...]Hunt for Nividium and the profit it brings.

Duke's - Paranid

Outwardly a non-governmental security organization, the activities of this outfit suggests that they don't always subscribe to Paranid ideologies and ethics.

Atreus (Boron so out of question for now)

Additionally we might see a new one for the player corp we build in X3:AP
(i think the one in X3:TC was hinted to go bankrupt [Avarice sector])

The other big question will be what happens with the Earth SOL Sectors and if they will hold a grudge after the rampage of the second Terraformer war. (#deca? no information after boarding[might get used]).
Terrans where paranoid after the first TF war. I can see them going now all out and trying to fully dominating the former colonies and enforcing there anti AGI rules and Space laws to the letter.

Obviously
-Khaak coming back to invade
-Xenon trying to agressivly expand after the leave of #eefa and #deff
and there truce with them.

Piratefactions ? (i hope this time we will see a full fledged pirate economy)

With all that there is enough room for alot of interactions backstabbing and fun!

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Post by Nick 031287 » Mon, 2. Oct 17, 05:36

i dont wanna sound mean or anything but egosoft are horrific at making story missions lol. altho they do have interesting lore. but in game it is so bland and cringy lol but thats probably budget limitations.

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Post by Boringnick » Mon, 2. Oct 17, 16:59

A great plot twist would be, if the player would find out during the campaign that the gates were shutdown due to sabotage and conspiracy by the big corporations as a means to take control of the core sectors (as seen in XR).

Would add some Deus Exy feeling to it.
Last edited by Boringnick on Mon, 2. Oct 17, 17:06, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by -Dna- » Mon, 2. Oct 17, 17:01

I can see people like Owen read these topics and taking notes to have some ideas on the new plot(s) :D
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Post by mr.WHO » Mon, 2. Oct 17, 17:41

There was some Lore publicated to fill the gap between X3:AP and XR story.

If you look carefully on both stream videos you will notice hints, that they are making X4 along that story:

The dominant force will be "The Alliance" (Argon Federation, Paranid Empire) which reestablished contact after gates system collapse - the alliance is mentioned in Station Billboard, Posters of the first stream.

In the lore there is mentioned that shortly before the gate collapse there were rebel movement in Commonwealth space called Hatickwas' Legue while was battling with Argon Federation.
In second video stream (presenting map combat) you notice that enemy are argon ships with HAT tag. Therefore I assume some systems are/were former Hatickwas Legue territory and there are still resisting (or maybe some kind of rebels).


This somehow give me Firefly vibes where the Alliance was power hungry, authoritarian goverment that "enfore democracy", while rebels were the people who didn't want to be opressed by the goverment.

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Post by -Dna- » Mon, 2. Oct 17, 19:08

mr.WHO wrote:The dominant force will be "The Alliance" (Argon Federation, Paranid Empire) which reestablished contact after gates system collapse - the alliance is mentioned in Station Billboard, Posters of the first stream.
Small notes: the complete name is Alliance of Worlds.
mr.WHO wrote:In the lore there is mentioned that shortly before the gate collapse there were rebel movement in Commonwealth space called Hatickwas' Legue while was battling with Argon Federation.
In second video stream (presenting map combat) you notice that enemy are argon ships with HAT tag. Therefore I assume some systems are/were former Hatickwas Legue territory and there are still resisting (or maybe some kind of rebels).
The X-Encyclopedia states that Hatikvah Free League is neutral and has 10 planets (versus the 28 of the Argon Federation). In games, both factions are under the Argon Federation flag.

I don't remember their hostilities against the Argon Federation. Where is that mentioned? :gruebel:
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Post by Alan Phipps » Mon, 2. Oct 17, 20:07

This post has some further information on the lore of the Alliance of Worlds.
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Post by DaMuncha » Tue, 3. Oct 17, 15:08

I'm pretty sure the story is going to revolve around some chick sneaking on board your ship, and then the whole galaxy goes hostile against you and you have to warp to another universe and join the refuges who end up taking on your enemy for you and all you gotta do is hack a station and the game is finished. tada.

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Post by UnknownObject » Tue, 3. Oct 17, 17:50

I would be glad if the player would meet a Sohnen and discuss reunion of lost colonies with him.

Dear developer team, if you made the universe more unpredictable, what about making the main storyline more branched, with multiple more or less good endings?

For example, if a quest-related object is destroyed in existing X-games, the plot is failed.
As for X4, what if it would not break the plot but would instead start a new branch of the plot with a more dark ending?

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