Farnham's Legacy map?

[Sorkvild]

Can you elaborate a bit more on the universe map? In first minute of a trailer we see a map with an animation leading through sectors, is this a complete FL map?

[TVCD]

This is to illustrate the sectors exploration of the USC Winterblossom. This is not the FL map.

[Klord]

I think we get to have all the sectors in TC and AP and in addition there maybe few new sectors. Looking forward to discover !

[CBJ]

That's not quite how things are.

[Bozz11]

I think it"s after the gate shutdown so I expect a completelly new map and some big chaos following the gate shutdown

[MegaBurn]

The Sohnen maintain the gate network, presumably they did a remote shutdown plus some sort of disruption effect which prevented both Terran gates and jump drives from functioning. If that remote shutdown could be overridden locally by gate hacking, then maybe maintaining the gate network is an ongoing part of gameplay. Maybe the Sohnen play wack-a-mole with primitive races hacking gates, so gates only remain active for days per hack.

Another possibility is high level diplomacy with the Keepers in the Hall of Light, some arrangement with the local Ancients to keep part of the gate network active.

Another possibility is the unresolved thread from X3-R, Sargon wanted to get to another planet, not Earth, once this plot was foiled Sargon disappeared. Maybe Sargon could be contacted and bargained with, trade a means to seize control of segments of gate network in exchange for building another gate pair.

Next question, does the post-main-plot game world adhere to the canon?
If this post-plot game state is not canon, then it could use the entire old AP map, with some changes, as a sandbox.

If this post-plot state is canon, then "rural" sections of the old AP map could be used, cut off from major faction core sectors, and add new sectors to eventually grow to the size of the old AP map (similar to Ketraar's Random Sector Management, or XTC's map expansion). In this scenario, this new gate network would exist in the X4 universe, and be a future point of expansion for X4 (or X5??)

Or maybe something else...

-Burn

[Karvat]

That's the 1.000.000$ question that makes the difference between reinstalling x3 or not.

If somehow we get a bigger map than x3 Ap
If we don't

[CBJ]

Really? That's your one and only criterion? You're not bothered about new gameplay features or a new story, just chalking up how many sectors there are? Each to their own I guess...

[Karvat]

Really? That's your one and only criterion? You're not bothered about new gameplay features or a new story, just chalking up how many sectors there are? Each to their own I guess...

Yes, that's my most important criteria because the way i personally like to play an X game the most is trough exploration.

So if the map is too small and you immediately find all the gates and know the entire map, that's the end of my journey, because the thing that keeps me playing any X game the most is not knowing if there's another sector to explore or not.

Other aspects are still valid of course, but less important to me.

[CBJ]

Great. So the new exploration gameplay that is at the top of the new feature list should be right up your street.

[hubse]

this sounds great. I too like a bigger universe with more sectors.

of course I know, that this engine is 32bit and single core, but there have been advancements such as 64bit OS and really beefy multicore-computers, so X3 FL gets the full 4gb and full core (no sharing with the OS, the antivirus software, sharing the ram-adressing with the graphics card.)

hopefully, there were tweaks made to the original engine code to allow more than the 20x20 sector grid in X3AP (I know, that 20x20 allows for 400 sectors, but why not just fly 10 sectors into one direction. just for fun.

[Ketraar]

The actual grid of possible sectors has been 24x20 (480) for a long time.

MFG

Ketraar

[sonicfan]

In the Gameplay-Trailer you can see a very small part of the map. Strangely, there are "Kingdoms End beta", gamma and delta, and other Sectors now parted in beta, gamma, delta, etc.

[AdrianB1]

there have been advancements such as 64bit OS and really beefy multicore-computers, so X3 FL gets the full 4gb and full core (no sharing with the OS, the antivirus software, sharing the ram-adressing with the graphics card.)

Is IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE set? I know a decade ago there were discussions about it in order to use 3GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows XP of that time, but I don't remember if it was really implemented and ever optimized for it; even if you enable it, but the code is still trying to fit in 2 GB of RAM there is no benefit.

The "full-core" part is not working that way unless you pin the process to a specific core and that is not a great idea, the OS is usually doing a better job of deciding what is running where.

[Nort The Fragrent]

Been cleaning my old X3 goggles, made sure the antenna is facing forward.
Dusted off the old worn-out seat, and flushed the space toilet several times to Clear the blockage.
I have one of those everlasting sand-wedges to eat,
my compass needs a nudge now and then to stop it from getting stuck.
Windows are a little dirty, but the cold space ought to freeze that off once outward bound.
Engines are chocking,

Hand ready on the brake !

Where am I going ?

[Ketraar]

Where am I going ?

To infinity and beyond? Boldly go where no man has gone before? Magrathea? So many choices...

MFG

Ketraar

[Nort The Fragrent]

What are the chances of the X3 FL players not publishing any Maps on line?
Keep it to your selves, as an unwritten rule.
So to keep the mystery alive.

[hubse]

What are the chances of the X3 FL players not publishing any Maps on line?
Keep it to your selves, as an unwritten rule.
So to keep the mystery alive.

a much weirder thought: what would happen, if the locations of jumpgates are randomized to a certain extent? or if the sector map gets created dynamically at gamestart?

means: no spoiler-maps, because it's literally random...
requires just a few scripts to make sure that gates don't end up in other stuff, and that corners of the universe do not form rings that aren't connected to the main part. oh, and of course no shortcuts to the old sectors (if they even exist)

[Ketraar]

a much weirder thought: what would happen, if the locations of jumpgates are randomized to a certain extent? or if the sector map gets created dynamically at gamestart?

That has already been done RSM and I think XTC uses that, at least partially. The thing is, this would go against established lore and X3FL stays within the lore (as much as possible).

MFG

Ketraar

[Betelgeuse97]

a much weirder thought: what would happen, if the locations of jumpgates are randomized to a certain extent? or if the sector map gets created dynamically at gamestart?

That has already been done RSM and I think XTC uses that, at least partially. The thing is, this would go against established lore and X3FL stays within the lore (as much as possible).

MFG

Ketraar

Since FL takes place during the jumpgate shutdown, wouldn't that mean that the game could randomly have certain gates shut down either oevr time or at the start of the game (potentially making a couple sectors (initially) inaccessible)? Or change gate connections randomly over time? (It is also noted in X4 that the gates were reconnected but to different locations after the gate shutdown.)