Futuristic Wishes

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1stRaymond
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Futuristic Wishes

Post by 1stRaymond » Mon, 26. Sep 22, 16:14

I have been playing the X-Series for many years and while I have greatly enjoyed all of the games - I cannot say the same for X-Foundations. Do not get me wrong, I still play X-Foundations but I do so without scanning any stations. I just cannot tolerate playing with the Boron being involved. If you want the Boron, reconnect the race in a future game but having a single insufferable individual is torture. (One that I will not play with - yes, it makes the game harder but to me, much more enjoyable.)

What I would like to see instead is a future game where instead of the Boron being the only true genius in the game. The player has to develop at least 2 stations (one with a HQ) and then search for and recruit a talented team of scientist and engineers for the various technological improvements being brought into being by the Boron.

One team for teleportation, one for scanner improvements, one for ship improvement, one for weapons, etc... You get the picture.

Another is to bring back the need for specialized station engineers (agricultural technology, energy, metallurgy, etc...) these would be separate from having a qualified station manager.

Time for me to get off the soap-box and back to playing. Thank you for your consideration even if you don't implement any for these suggestions.

Smart_Bomb
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by Smart_Bomb » Tue, 27. Sep 22, 17:52

I agree with that sentiment, depending on the race you choose should determine who your scientist helper is.

I don't even mind if they reskin and use a different voice actor to read the same exact lines.

In other X games I would always choose to go to war with Boron because of how annoying they can be lol
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LughC
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by LughC » Thu, 29. Sep 22, 16:05

I always hated the hq because of how contrived it is. Boron or not I would of much rather needed to build a research facility and not had some magical teleporting super base just fall into my lap.

As for needing to hire specialist for stations in general. That's just needless tedium and the job of a station manager.

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RaksitYar
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by RaksitYar » Mon, 10. Oct 22, 21:02

LughC wrote:
Thu, 29. Sep 22, 16:05
I always hated the hq because of how contrived it is. Boron or not I would of much rather needed to build a research facility and not had some magical teleporting super base just fall into my lap.

As for needing to hire specialist for stations in general. That's just needless tedium and the job of a station manager.
Guys, are you reading my mind?
I completely agree with you.

Imperial Good
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by Imperial Good » Tue, 11. Oct 22, 11:21

X games have story driven aspects. It degrades the story value having "the scientist" rather than a named individual.

The player has always been at the middle of strange chance and powerful things, at least since X3. In X3 they could take over the hub to allow changes of the gate network, get their own sector and even obtain some unique ships.

GCU Grey Area
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by GCU Grey Area » Tue, 11. Oct 22, 13:05

LughC wrote:
Thu, 29. Sep 22, 16:05
I always hated the hq because of how contrived it is. Boron or not I would of much rather needed to build a research facility and not had some magical teleporting super base just fall into my lap.
Not how I'd characterise it at all. Invariably find I have to build quite a lot of stuff on my HQ to turn it into a research facility or make it capable of jumping anywhere. This is what my current HQ looked like at the point it finally became jump-capable: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9qnop8pcuwryt ... 1.jpg?dl=0. Took about 3½ in-game days to get it to that stage & the only part of it which 'fell into my lap' was the part which is pretty much useless without a substantial amount of supporting infrastructure (docks, storage, production modules, etc).

LughC
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by LughC » Tue, 11. Oct 22, 13:12

GCU Grey Area wrote:
Tue, 11. Oct 22, 13:05
LughC wrote:
Thu, 29. Sep 22, 16:05
I always hated the hq because of how contrived it is. Boron or not I would of much rather needed to build a research facility and not had some magical teleporting super base just fall into my lap.
Not how I'd characterise it at all. Invariably find I have to build quite a lot of stuff on my HQ to turn it into a research facility or make it capable of jumping anywhere. This is what my current HQ looked like at the point it finally became jump-capable: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9qnop8pcuwryt ... 1.jpg?dl=0. Took about 3½ in-game days to get it to that stage & the only part of it which 'fell into my lap' was the part which is pretty much useless without a substantial amount of supporting infrastructure (docks, storage, production modules, etc).
But you don't build a research facility... it just wants goods to complete the research. The only facility in all of the x universe capable of advancing technology just happens to be owned by a random guy and his pet fish. For no reason other than luck.

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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by GCU Grey Area » Tue, 11. Oct 22, 14:15

LughC wrote:
Tue, 11. Oct 22, 13:12
But you don't build a research facility... it just wants goods to complete the research. The only facility in all of the x universe capable of advancing technology just happens to be owned by a random guy and his pet fish. For no reason other than luck.
Definitely always feels like I'm building a research facility, indeed quite a big one. In that screenshot of my current HQ in my earlier post there are 295 modules that most definitely didn't 'fall into my lap' & only 1 that did. At absolute minimum to have a functional research facility in X4 it's essential to build docks & storage modules to hold all the stuff necessary to conduct research. However would strongly recommend also building production modules too. Would take an eternity to obtain the vast quantities of resources needed for the higher levels of research otherwise. Certainly not something I'm willing to wait for anyway (generally in quite a rush at the start of a new game to shift my HQ to somewhere I can build my pilot & marine training facilities). As for the luck factor, that's hardly unusual for the main protagonist in a story.

LughC
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by LughC » Wed, 12. Oct 22, 06:57

GCU Grey Area wrote:
Tue, 11. Oct 22, 14:15
LughC wrote:
Tue, 11. Oct 22, 13:12
But you don't build a research facility... it just wants goods to complete the research. The only facility in all of the x universe capable of advancing technology just happens to be owned by a random guy and his pet fish. For no reason other than luck.
Definitely always feels like I'm building a research facility, indeed quite a big one. In that screenshot of my current HQ in my earlier post there are 295 modules that most definitely didn't 'fall into my lap' & only 1 that did. At absolute minimum to have a functional research facility in X4 it's essential to build docks & storage modules to hold all the stuff necessary to conduct research. However would strongly recommend also building production modules too. Would take an eternity to obtain the vast quantities of resources needed for the higher levels of research otherwise. Certainly not something I'm willing to wait for anyway (generally in quite a rush at the start of a new game to shift my HQ to somewhere I can build my pilot & marine training facilities). As for the luck factor, that's hardly unusual for the main protagonist in a story.
First it doesn't take long to get the required materials if you don't build them at the hq. In fact it tends to be more efficient not to until you can jump it. And by then you've done most of the research.

You're better off investing in a more lucrative location and using the profits to just buy what you need. Assuming your games economy isn't borked the orders fill rapidly.


There also is no reason to tie research to the singular facility to begin with. Nothing about research needed to require a fish wizard and a magic rock. The only saving grace is that the entire thing can just be completely ignored assuming you're willing to deal with an extremely slow start grinding money for blueprints.

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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by GCU Grey Area » Wed, 12. Oct 22, 10:37

LughC wrote:
Wed, 12. Oct 22, 06:57
First it doesn't take long to get the required materials if you don't build them at the hq. In fact it tends to be more efficient not to until you can jump it. And by then you've done most of the research.

You're better off investing in a more lucrative location and using the profits to just buy what you need. Assuming your games economy isn't borked the orders fill rapidly.
Has not been that way in any of my games. Every one I've played has always had a significant shortage of the required materials at the start, particularly Adv Electronics. Need around 30k of those in total, but can usually only buy (at most) a few hundred of them at a time from NPC stations. Suspect this may be because I'm in direct competition with every shipyard, wharf & station construction site in the universe which also need them. Even with 16 production modules to make them (as well as buying all that I could from NPC sources) still took many hours to obtain enough in my current game.
There also is no reason to tie research to the singular facility to begin with. Nothing about research needed to require a fish wizard and a magic rock. The only saving grace is that the entire thing can just be completely ignored assuming you're willing to deal with an extremely slow start grinding money for blueprints.
Suspect singular facility is just more efficient, in terms of dev time, than giving the game multiple ways of conducting research. Blueprints tend to be by far the least important aspect of HQ research for me & are almost invariably left until last. Generally only use station blueprint hacking in circumstances where it's effectively impossible for me to buy them (e.g. during my ZYA Split game for role-playing reasons wanted a large Argon workforce on all of my stations, however also had -30 rep with both ARG & ANT). Much more interested in modding my ships & being able to train my pilots & marines in batches of 100, & for that research cannot be ignored. Indeed tends to be my main priority for the first few days of a new game.

Shehriazad
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by Shehriazad » Wed, 12. Oct 22, 11:56

My futuristic wish is being able to save the game instantly and load the game in under 5 seconds ;)

LughC
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by LughC » Wed, 12. Oct 22, 17:41

GCU Grey Area wrote:
Wed, 12. Oct 22, 10:37
Suspect singular facility is just more efficient, in terms of dev time, than giving the game multiple ways of conducting research.
So... you think that just adding a research module would have some how required more dev time than the hq?

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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by GCU Grey Area » Wed, 12. Oct 22, 18:01

LughC wrote:
Wed, 12. Oct 22, 17:41
So... you think that just adding a research module would have some how required more dev time than the hq?
Yes, adding a second research module to the game would require additional effort from the devs, which could otherwise be better used on other aspects of the game.

Smart_Bomb
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by Smart_Bomb » Wed, 12. Oct 22, 23:08

Shehriazad wrote:
Wed, 12. Oct 22, 11:56
My futuristic wish is being able to save the game instantly and load the game in under 5 seconds ;)
Install the game on a 9,000+ MBps read speed M.2 drive on a PCIe gen 4 or 5 mobo. Problem solved.
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Imperial Good
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by Imperial Good » Thu, 13. Oct 22, 12:27

Smart_Bomb wrote:
Wed, 12. Oct 22, 23:08
Install the game on a 9,000+ MBps read speed M.2 drive on a PCIe gen 4 or 5 mobo. Problem solved.
Anything above a SATA SSD gives very little improvement to saving and loading times. The process of saving/loading is entirely CPU bottlenecked, possibly with memory performance having a large affect.

LughC
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by LughC » Fri, 14. Oct 22, 07:26

GCU Grey Area wrote:
Wed, 12. Oct 22, 18:01
LughC wrote:
Wed, 12. Oct 22, 17:41
So... you think that just adding a research module would have some how required more dev time than the hq?
Yes, adding a second research module to the game would require additional effort from the devs, which could otherwise be better used on other aspects of the game.
My point was they shouldn't of made the hq at all...

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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by GCU Grey Area » Fri, 14. Oct 22, 10:03

LughC wrote:
Fri, 14. Oct 22, 07:26
My point was they shouldn't of made the hq at all...
That would have been a pity in my view. HQ has been a feature of several previous X games. It tends to have broadly the same design (big & circular) & there's usually been a Boron involved in acquiring it. My only issues with the X4 version is that when you get HQ it appears to be unfinished (& plot does not include any way to build the missing pieces) & there's also a noticable misalignment between 3 snap points on one side of it & the remaining 2 on the other side. Aside from those minor gripes damn glad they included it in the game, it's one of those things I've come to expect as a feature of X games. Indeed think it's my favourite HQ of the lot since I can bolt a frankly absurd amount of stuff onto it, seemingly limited only by the framerate I'm prepared to tolerate when near it. This is how my current one ended up: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k9ik4u7yq1yey ... 1.jpg?dl=0

ahostofissues
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by ahostofissues » Sun, 16. Oct 22, 22:41

GCU Grey Area wrote:
Fri, 14. Oct 22, 10:03
LughC wrote:
Fri, 14. Oct 22, 07:26
My point was they shouldn't of made the hq at all...
That would have been a pity in my view. HQ has been a feature of several previous X games. It tends to have broadly the same design (big & circular) & there's usually been a Boron involved in acquiring it. My only issues with the X4 version is …
Hard disagree. Having restarted many, many games I hate Boso especially with a visceral loathing now, and less so the entire player HQ implementation. It has exactly one benefit (research) and many, many drawbacks (bad location for travel, lack of distinctiveness (just a broken down Terran ring, hardly interesting or unique), etc.

In previous games, the HQ meant something, joining the big boys/girls club by getting your own HQ like the other big players. In X4, no faction has an HQ that’s an interesting/distinctive/unique thing, so the entire concept of HQ as “special” has basically been removed. But to get research — which you can’t do any other way by any means — you have to sit through the “oh god kill me now” 27th rendering of the damn Boso idiotic ramblings and condescending bull crap. I hate that little blue bastard so, so much. It was amusing the first time. Maybe the second. Now it’s just an ice pick the the brain every time.

The player HQ was something the game for some reason felt had to be included, but it’s so poorly done, so uninteresting, so un-special in every way that it imho in no way justifies the annoyances and bother it creates.

I want a player HQ. But I want it to be something hard, something magnificent, something special. Not just some broken-down Terran crap leftover that is, essentially, a big cross-connection structure with attachment points and a room for the little blue bastard to condescendingly take “requests” for research. Take away the research option, the player HQ as implemented is 100% useless broken down crap.

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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by GCU Grey Area » Sun, 16. Oct 22, 23:19

ahostofissues wrote:
Sun, 16. Oct 22, 22:41
I want a player HQ. But I want it to be something hard, something magnificent, something special.
Depends what you do with it. Here's a selection of my favourites:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wsaohvq3yd9xp ... 1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hb944m6rlrtby ... 1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kbhorq0b439pd ... 1.jpg?dl=0
Had a hell of lot more fun building those than any of my X3 HQ's. One of the reasons I prefer the X4 version is that I get to choose what it looks like (different in every game), along with it's precise location, which I can change whenever I want to. In the old games almost always ended up building my HQ's inside the Hub (to keep it sort of mobile). However the lighting was somewhat less than ideal in there, rather gloomy & the background was always the same.

ahostofissues
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Re: Futuristic Wishes

Post by ahostofissues » Mon, 17. Oct 22, 17:26

GCU Grey Area wrote:
Sun, 16. Oct 22, 23:19
ahostofissues wrote:
Sun, 16. Oct 22, 22:41
I want a player HQ. But I want it to be something hard, something magnificent, something special.
Depends what you do with it. Here's a selection of my favourites:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wsaohvq3yd9xp ... 1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hb944m6rlrtby ... 1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kbhorq0b439pd ... 1.jpg?dl=0
Had a hell of lot more fun building those than any of my X3 HQ's. One of the reasons I prefer the X4 version is that I get to choose what it looks like (different in every game), along with it's precise location, which I can change whenever I want to. In the old games almost always ended up building my HQ's inside the Hub (to keep it sort of mobile). However the lighting was somewhat less than ideal in there, rather gloomy & the background was always the same.
Nothing personal, I’m glad you like what you’re doing… but my reaction is “meh”. It’s a big factory. Like every other factory, like any factory you could build anywhere in any sector. All the same.

My point is there’s nothing to strive for, no “cool!” factor at all when the only thing that distinguishes the “headquarters” from every other factory in the game is (a) a research room, (b) the fact that you call it Headquarters.

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