X4 An idea for a somewhat multiplayer experience...

[CBJ]

In addition to OP idea I would like to add something where we can share station blueprints. Some people just don't like building stations manually so this way they can build one that is already designed (this would have ben life saver in X3 ).

Let's just clarify some terminology here. Blueprints are the thing that allow you to construct a given type of ship or station module. Everyone has those and sharing them with other players would serve no purpose other than allowing them to effectively cheat at their own single-player game!

What you're referring to are Construction Plans, which are the definitions of what modules you fit together and in what order and position, in order to create a station. Both Construction Plans and Loadouts (the definitions of what weapons, shields etc. are fitted on a given ship or station module) can be saved locally and shared with other players.

As Lino says we don't yet have precise plans regarding specific ways to do that, but they are just XML files so even if we don't provide any special tools, you'll be able to just upload them somewhere and provide people with a link.

Edit: Typo.

[MegaJohnny]

Woah, I assumed those would be embedded in the save file. If they're individual files, that's very cool!

[Ezarkal]

Yup! I can already feel a lot of construction plan databases coming ahead for everyone to enjoy! XD

And I honestly like the OP's idea, although there's so much stuff to do in any X games that I don't see myself sending that much time in a player HQ, unless it's mobile...

[Simpelton]

I think we need to know what shape the economy of the new game will take before we can really discuss what multiplayer components the game might have.

But I do like the concept of the ability to hotjoin another player's game and sign up as one of their pilots. With permission of course.

The ability to have an ongoing code on the Cloud that was a corporation operated by several players at once, would be fascinating but obviously pose some structural and technical issues.

[Tamina]

Let's be honest here, this is the internet!
While this community is relatively modest, young players* would soon start to fill those boards with racial slurs, hatred, trolling and lots of stuff that needs to be moderated all the time.

Everyone who wants to be pinged ingame everytime some 12year old called like xXxEpikPwngxXx, 69Boss69 or Xenon_Slayer replies with fag, raises his or her hand.
At first all those ideas sound pretty neat, but then think about the steamcommunity being involved into this.


*and adults with a weak psychological developement beyond their childhood

[Simpelton]

You raise a valid point. That's a huge problem, as anyone who's played multiplayer games as a regular thing can testify. The competitive multiplayer game World of Tanks had to literally stop players from being able to talk to the other team for this reason.

[koyuka]

Make some kind of planet dock, then allow players to advertise wares to other gamers from those docks.

No ship would have to be docked to 'simulate' the idea of where the goods were coming from, the reasoning would be that one could pretend the goods were produced on the planet itself by companies (player names) and delivered instantly when a purchase was made to the planet dock. This would also provide huge strategic importance for planets, as lets face it they should genuinely have.

It always ruined the immerson for me that planets literally produce nothing in X4, there is no tangible evidence of production/goods coming from a planet, yet a little station in the same solar system is pumping out loads of goods. Always seemed unrealistic to me.

Even allowing planets to automatically produce a number of credits (tax revenue) (quite a substantial amount based on population) which the owner/race of the planet could then spend on fleets/ships/stations to provide goods and security to protect the planet. Similarly planets could also have a demand for certain goods which provide a legitimate place to actually sell goods as this is where the majority of the universe population live!


So many ideas, so little chance of implementation

[Slashman]

I think we need to know what shape the economy of the new game will take before we can really discuss what multiplayer components the game might have.

But I do like the concept of the ability to hotjoin another player's game and sign up as one of their pilots. With permission of course.

The ability to have an ongoing code on the Cloud that was a corporation operated by several players at once, would be fascinating but obviously pose some structural and technical issues.

Dude. Multiplayer of any kind where people are flying together in the same universe is simply NOT coming. X games are single player. This is not changing no matter the number of different ways it is asked for.

Now the original idea for an in-game, universal chat is pretty good and could serve as a way for inexperienced players to ask for help with understanding game mechanics without the need to log out of the game and make a forum post. I've seen it work in a few other single-player games before and it is usually more helpful than not and also gets the community to talk to each other more. So I'm all for that one as an option for all players.

[Nikola515]

Let's be honest here, this is the internet!
While this community is relatively modest, young players* would soon start to fill those boards with racial slurs, hatred, trolling and lots of stuff that needs to be moderated all the time.

Everyone who wants to be pinged ingame everytime some 12year old called like xXxEpikPwngxXx, 69Boss69 or Xenon_Slayer replies with fag, raises his or her hand.
At first all those ideas sound pretty neat, but then think about the steamcommunity being involved into this.


*and adults with a weak psychological developement beyond their childhood

Perhaps we can add who we want to be on our boards ? Something similar to Facebook (we can add and remove friends).

[Alan Phipps]

@ Nikola515: whilst that is a valid consideration, how would you see these private boards adding particular value in these situations?

1. The relatively new player who wants to be helped along but is not much known by any of the experienced players.

2. The stigma and backlash associated with removal of somebody you probably know from your 'private friends board' even if it is just you trying to keep the number of members to more manageable proportions or just based on recent in-game activity.

3. Players who are recognised as devs or having specific game expertise being bombarded with 'add me' requests.

4. How this improves upon say a private Skype group chat running in the background.

Not criticisms, just interest in seeing how you think these aspects might be implemented or handled.

[Ezarkal]

4. How this improves upon say a private Skype group chat running in the background.

That's a very good suggestion. An X4 discord channel would just do the trick. Sure, you lose the in-game interface, but it's still pretty easy to access, especially with anyone who got 2 screens. In could be the place for quick Q&A, and even voice chat if needed.

Of course, that's not private... but you get more people in than skype.

[salawinder]

@Sparky Sparkycorp - This seems like it would be relatively easy to set up:

Effectively one player is playing, with another player able to view what is happening remotely on their screen (kind-of Remote Desktop with chat), when they want to hand over it would be just a case of transferring a save file between them (probably best to have the save files stored on a cloud system).

The process would be entirely client-side (so no resources provided by Egosoft), the big limit would be the bandwidth needed for viewing the remote session in good-enough quality to allow gameplay to be watchable.

Personally, I don't like multiplayer, and I know implementing true multiplayer would be beyond the possibilities for Egosoft to fund - but for those that want the collaborative experience, this would be fairly easy to develop (I think!).

[linolafett]

Effectively one player is playing, with another player able to view what is happening remotely on their screen (kind-of Remote Desktop with chat), when they want to hand over it would be just a case of transferring a save file between them (probably best to have the save files stored on a cloud system).

This is already possible with steam. You can stream your game to friends. If you are done with it, you can send your friend the savegame and then he can play.

[Nikola515]

@ Nikola515: whilst that is a valid consideration, how would you see these private boards adding particular value in these situations?

1. The relatively new player who wants to be helped along but is not much known by any of the experienced players.

2. The stigma and backlash associated with removal of somebody you probably know from your 'private friends board' even if it is just you trying to keep the number of members to more manageable proportions or just based on recent in-game activity.

3. Players who are recognised as devs or having specific game expertise being bombarded with 'add me' requests.

4. How this improves upon say a private Skype group chat running in the background.

Not criticisms, just interest in seeing how you think these aspects might be implemented or handled.

1) Make option in boards where everyone have access unless they are blocked for whatever reason (public). Also there should be another option for private board where we can talk with friends. If people don't want to use public they can ignore it and focus only on private. There are always going to be someone who will abuse public. But they can also be reported by players and mod can always ban them for x amount of days or permanently.


2)Well they need to get over it How about have something like shadow blocking where you can block someone and it will not show messages anymore from that person (like hide all posts in facebook but remaining as friends). But personally I would chose my friends well so I wouldn't need to worry about deleting them.


3) I hate to be them They can always play under different name or turn off board. Or there should be ignore all button

4) This way you dont need to change bettwen skype and game all the time to see what someone wants I would be more convenient for new players who are now well known in our community.


Another thing it would be nice to have is online market where players can trade for goods. For example I have station that produces wheat and my game is short on water and you have stations that have too much and don't know what to do with it. Now you can sell that water for credits to me or I can give you refined metals or whatever I have extra that you need. This way station boards would have some uses and not just in game chat.

[Alan Phipps]

@ Nikola515: Thanks. I can see how this might all fit together now although I'm not sure that Egosoft's infrastructure would particularly wish to design, manage or moderate such a system while the game is still under development or evolving (and the traditional forum system will be quite hectic).

[Nikola515]

Perhaps in X5 or X6 they might be able to do something like this. Do you think it would be possible to transfer this forum it self in game ? For example everything we post here would be seen in game as well and other way around (under new forum UI in game ) ? This way mods don't need to play game in order to police forum That is if Ego server can take that much trafic....

[Doomdog19]

Perhaps in X5 or X6 they might be able to do something like this. Do you think it would be possible to transfer this forum it self in game ? For example everything we post here would be seen in game as well and other way around (under new forum UI in game ) ? This way mods don't need to play game in order to police forum That is if Ego server can take that much trafic....

This would be a cool idea that they could implement into the game! Maybe whenever you go to a large station, there's a internet relay that you can access that'll take you to the X4 forums!

[CBJ]

Sorry to disappoint you, but that's simply not going to happen. It would require a full embedded browser engine with script support, which apart from anything else would introduce unacceptable security risks for players.

[Tamina]

Sorry to disappoint you, but that's simply not going to happen. It would require a full embedded browser engine with script support, which apart from anything else would introduce unacceptable security risks for players.

What about Discord integration? They have an open source API, servers are free and what is left is an ingame visualization of the chat.

Then again this is already provided with Steam chat o_o Despite not being available for gog users and not directly ingame.

[CBJ]

As mentioned at the start of the thread, some form of chat is technically feasible. The question is really whether it adds enough value when you weigh the development and maintenance overhead against the benefit of having an in-game chat as opposed to one running alongside it. That's debatable, but not beyond the realms of possibility.