Research

[Kevin2202]

Returning X player here... I totally forgot about Egosoft until one day, I decided to search if there's any such thing as "X4". After watching and reading, boy... I can't wait for this game to be released.

Research aspect is going to be very interesting and has a lot of potential for a game of this scale.

Things I would like to know about it (for now) are:

How is research going to affect AIs and their empires? Would they have their own research?

Research could be bought, sold or traded?


Things I would like to see about it are:

Some really game-changing technologies, like the more advanced FTL drives for example. A warp drive technology would no doubt be very powerful and valuable, potentially making AI empires envious of it.

Reverse engineering. If a player happens to capture a technologically advanced ship, we should be able to break it down and reverse engineer to gain some sort of progression on advanced technologies.

Again, game-changing technologies that could potentially unlock more features as research progresses - features that would help players have easier time in the game. Teleportation is one, and maybe even include computer systems that allows traders to have easier time in some ways, as an example. Another example would be more advanced targeting systems for their automated guns on their ships...etc.

An industry solely focused on research and development, if buying and selling technologies or patenting it exists.

Industrial research (better products and efficient production?)

[X2-Illuminatus]

Relevant questions and answers from the Q&A thread:

The player will have the ability to research new technologies. Will the player do it in specialized research modules as part of sandbox gameplay, or is it scripted part of story line (chain of missions where you acquire tech)?
Research is currently fairly limited in scope, so not really a "sandbox" feature in itself.

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So is there Research and Development aspects in the game or is it just scanning stations and making teleporters?
Research is part of the game, with teleportation being one of the features you can research.

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Can the player only teleport to ships or can you also teleport to stations?
Yes, the player can also teleport to stations, even to NPC stations. The limitation is the range, which has to be extended. That is a big part of the plot of the game via research in the player headquarters. But once you have stations in range, then you can teleport to them.

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The teleporter: I can see this being a great quality of life tool late-game, even if on the face of it it seems a bit over-powered based on what we know now. Once the tech is researched, do you plan to limit it in any way? I.e. only ships of a certain class can be transported to. So, if the player just had a light fighter (aka Scout) in the Zone, then such an asset to too small to hold a teleporter. However, if they had an M-class ship with docking for a fighter, the player could teleport to said M-class ship, then jump in the fighter. Basically, the player has to have a somewhat more advanced asset in the area to take advantage of teleportation.
You will start with more restrictions and research will help you reduce those restrictions. I don't want to go into more detail than that.

Also an existing discussion about this feature can be found here.