OK, some thoughts (v1.22, so pre content addition)

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snafuR

snafuR avatar
Level badge Tropguey (5)
Posted 10 years ago.

Despite all the stuff I've listed below I (mostly) like the game; it has great bordering on incredible potential, but like most of ES's releases it'll need several months to tweak to 'excellent' status, plus 'bonus pack' equivalents from modders - cf the previous BPs and how they came into being!

My gfx card is slightly below-par (ATI Radeon 4770HD, 512MB), so I can put up with occasional CTDs. As always I'm using MKB controls only

I've had no gameplay problems completing the plot missions up to building the station, which I haven't started yet. I've been trying to figure out the new combat system ('FP' & boarding) in order to make money, since I can't yet automate trading

Automtion is desparately needed in a game of this size and scope, just as it was in the previous offerings! The X2/3 BPs (CAG/CLS specifically) came about because it was effectively unplayable for fleets of ships to be micromanaged to the extent that was needed (to make them effective) in the game universe; while this sort of thing has been taken over by the station's manager (so I hear) it doesn't help with ships you've just picked up: you can't even tell them to move to somewhere & park unless they have a captain or (at least) pilot, and you run out of available places too soon on unless you sacrifice another spot

I really miss the old property system where it was easy enough to find/select an asset, give a brief order directly and leave them to carry out the order. With the new system, even finding the asset is a PITA; once there you can give them orders which will only be carried out if the correct crew are onboard, and you can't specify remote orders other than "follow me", "stay put" or "go trade at "

Does anyone know if there's a way I can "store" assets so they're less likely to be attacked!? Attacked while travelling, fine; attacked while sitting there looking like military straw dummies 'cos I've no-one to move/repair them to a safer place, or simply no use for them atm.. not so fine Cry I can't even move them to a shipyard to be sold AIUI untl I buy a pilot/captain, transport them somehow to the new asset, do some dock-juggling with crew to get them onto the new ship then give the asset orders Cry What happens to the crew I've put on board when I sell: do I get my money back?

FP combat system: once I worked out that the /mouse/ cursor needs to be the positioning for your guns (onto the predictive cursor) things became a lot easier (I miss the boresight auto-targetting of X3). However the real problem for me was lack of all-round vision: at least you could /see/ where the wares dropped were, and target them if necessary: this new method seems to rely on you stopping quickly enough (not usually possible in a battle) in order to target tiny circles that you can't see most of the time (you're out of range)

My selected target keeps losing its 'selected' status with /every/ enemy ship destroyed; hopefully this'll be fixed now 1.23beta is looking at targetting systems

Tiny circles.. hell, tiny anything/everything! Tiny fonts with little definition between different targets makes things exceptionally difficult to judge long-range enemies.. especially when fighting in DeVries where the background is mostly yellow/red

Sound system appears to be pretty much fully immersive; I can only check this while wearing cheap headphones (which cause me headaches after a few hours), but I can imagine full 3D sound is very impresive and useful. If I have the 'phones on the correct way I can hear (eg) shots striking the hull /from the direction they came!/ - this is new to me, but prolly old-hat for those of you with custom gamer rigs Smile However, I'm not sure how the LR scanner is meant to work. The volume goes up/down depending upon distance (fair enough) but the pitch varies too.. what is that meant to signify?

Talking about scanners.. what's the difference in game terms? If you buy a police scanner how will it affect your LR scans (if it does?) Actually, what are /any/ of the diferences to gameplay WRT the starting scanner? (I think there's an encyclopaedia mention of range difference, but since there's no other info it's difficult to make a judgement)

I've gotta go to bed; maybe I'll pick this up tomorrow with some good points (I still like the game though! Smile)

Roguey

Roguey avatar
Level badge Trueguey (22)
Posted 10 years ago.

I think for a lot of us, a lot of the depth and options we had have previous games has been either nefted, removed or dont make sense. Its not as easy as making a mod to fix everything (most of the mods Ive seen remove things).

The plot basically guides you through the game, until you get to the end. At this point (maybe its just me) I dont know what to do any-more. I never really felt there was much challenge, apart from getting pass the bugs. Even taking down a Xenon capital isnt that hard work, just get in its bind spot and shot-away for 20mins. I have posted videos of both on youtube.

It doesnt help that player-owned-property is kind-of dumber than before (even know you hire people). In previous games you could tell a ship to do universe/sector trading, and it got on with it. Now even basic trading you have to add to group, search for deals - which all make it harder work. But this isnt limited to just trading, but mining, defence, patrols etc.. as you said, there needs to be automation in the game, and thats not something they can add over-night. Something every previous x-game had.

The thing is for me, I been in the testing-team for awhile and I havnt seen a lot changed (believe it or not). So this makes me sceptical of seeing large changes, very quickly. Maybe months (or more), but its took them weeks to add a log-book and targeting options. Something really needs to change... whether it will, is another question.

snafuR

snafuR avatar
Level badge Tropguey (5)
Posted 10 years ago.

Well, I can understand the reasoning behind the way they've introduced the patches: performance & gamestopping bugfixes must come first, and these took a little while. Now we're abbout to see v1.23 with some (much needed) content additions, and I expect more content depth in the next few patches.

I don't expect major content overnight, nor have I ever, but it's nice to see it finally being rolled out. Certainly I disagree with some of the design descisions and lack of features in the versions up to 1.22, but its good to see it finally happening Smile

Roguey

Roguey avatar
Level badge Trueguey (22)
Posted 10 years ago.

Yea I understand bugs 'n that come first.. but you only get one launch. For many that is the most important time. Now having to wait for the large problems to be fixed hurts the game and ego's reputation. I think the high price tag didnt help matters, people expected a lot for their money.

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