Does X4 have or will it be able to create/generate new universe maps?

[Malakie]

I am wondering if the DEVS have thought about giving X4 the ability to generate new universes/maps etc to give us pretty much infinite playability?

What would be cool is the ability to set parameters for the universe you want and the game auto generate a new playable universe that CAN BE traded or mod loaded via Steam or other means. Plus it would be nice to have a basic editor that would allow us to move the objects around in the generated universe to make our own unique designs, setup custom missions and such that people could play as well.

We are seeing a lot of game do things like this so am wondering if that has been a consideration for X4? (Star Trek's mission generator, Star Citizen will have personal servers and mission generation and some others of course)

[Karvat]

I think it would be amazing, always if done by setting parameters though; (It would be nice something similar to what is present in "Sins of a solar empire"); or even better without parameters if the map is self-generated randomly, that would really be an INCREDIBLE goal
I do not really like the idea of editor instead, I think most of the results will turn into disruptions and buggy missions, completely avoidable

[CBJ]

Will the universe be a set universe like other X games or is it procedural / randomized?
The map itself is not random or procedural but some of the content within it may be.

[Malakie]

Will the universe be a set universe like other X games or is it procedural / randomized?
The map itself is not random or procedural but some of the content within it may be.

Thanks.. Playing catch up on everything myself.. Is an actual 'generator' or editor been something on a list for possible things in the future?

[TonyEvans]

I would love a sub-questline along the lines of

"After unknown thousands of years of near-continuous gate activity throughout the galaxy, rifts in Subspace-Time are starting to form, creating temporary and unstable pockets of space. The entrances and exits to these are temporary, and the regions inside potentially deadly"

The entrances and exits wouldn't be the only thing unstable, either, as the pocket itself could collapse and destroy everything inside of it. So, whilst the resources or potentially ships inside could be valuable, unsupervised activity could result in loss of a fleet, and building stations or outposts would be futile.

Similar to Eve wormholes, but different in that the sector itself would eventually be destroyed.


In a twist, it could also be a way to somehow introduce the player to the ancient ship builders. Maybe their race is dying or warring ( which could be used to explain the great Gate shutoff in XR ), and their pre-existing non-interference policy may have changed.

[Sandalpocalypse]

that was a theme of the HoL DLC, in broad strokes, though.

[punish0815]

Will the universe be a set universe like other X games or is it procedural / randomized?
The map itself is not random or procedural but some of the content within it may be.

Really?!
That's true for x2 to XR and dosn't scratch the initial question....

[X2-Illuminatus]

Will the universe be a set universe like other X games or is it procedural / randomized?
The map itself is not random or procedural but some of the content within it may be.

Really?!
That's true for x2 to XR and dosn't scratch the initial question....

Yes, it does. The question was whether the game can autogenerate a map based on a few parameters. However, as the map is mostly manually created, this won't be the case.

Assuming that the map structure remains the same as in X Rebirth, modding the map (adding systems or creating a new map altogether) should be rather easy. (See Observe's modding tutorial for how it works in XR.)


Edit: typo.

[Alan Phipps]

Well, in my opinion, there were two main question areas in the opening post and CBJ has replied with probably all the information that the devs are prepared or able to give just now:

Q. Can a different X4 start map be player-generated by entering different parameters in-game?
A. No.

Q. Can a player move start-state content objects around within the map framework?
A. Some content for specific map areas *may* be randomly or procedurally generated. [In-game content modding capabilities for such areas under development are unlikely to be discussed fruitfully until the basis for generating those areas is decided.]

EDIT: Ninja'd by X2 while I was thinking about it!

[Karvat]

So a fully self-generated Minecraft style map (maybe still limited in size) remains a dream in this game for now

[Clownmug]

I know in X:Rebirth it was somewhat possible to create new star systems (presentation clusters), though they were only used behind the scenes for mission briefing videos and encyclopedia videos. Maybe in X4 that feature could be expanded so that you could generate any cluster rather than just the presentation cluster. With the ability to generate a cluster, you could then design a few with modular parts and create a script that manipulates the cluster in random ways.

[gbjbaanb]

Shame really, it would be better if we coudl have some form of auto-gen.

If we can't have a fully autogenerated universe, then one where the sectors have their furniture randomly placed, or one with core sectors placed explicitly but outer sectors randomly generated (even if randomly generated with fixed furniture) would be nice.

I guess the biggest problem is the highways, you can't auto-gen a sector if you have a highway that has to be laid out connecting things. Another reason to get rid of highways

[Karvat]

If we could have the possibility of an automatically generated universe, the highways would become very expendable in this case

[Killjaeden]

The only thing that stopped scripters from creating procedural randomizer with the universe in X3 is that the map layout itself (position of sectors) was defined in a static model file, as far as i remember.
Spawning stations, setting owner race was easy. Changin sector backgrounds and planets, spawning and connecting - i dont exactly remember if that was possible but i think so.
If they are providing script features for X4 to modify the universe (planets, nebulae, ...) and don't hardcode in stuff like the map and highways, a procedural generator could be added by the community. This would work also much better now, since the universe is dynamic -> the AI would be able to handle random situations much better