Do you like what you have seen of Rebirth so far?

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Miltaguey (15)

Posted 12 years ago.

bridge interplanetary distances.
- DmytroRudoy

Hang on... interplanetary. Is thie meaning between systems (urmm hello ego... they're called gates) or do the mean you can visit planets in each system for example in Three worlds there are three planets. Can you visit each one, and each one has some stations round it.. etc

martimus

Boneguey (9)

Posted 12 years ago.

Before a sector was a small maybe 200km x 200km x 200km cube, now it looks like they are going for entire systems rather than small areas like they currently have it. It seems similar to the large expanses between things in Eve, but with these fixed highways set to get you between them rather than a warp drive that you can use to go anywhere. I am not sure i like the idea of set highways, but it is a step in the direction of a larger universe.

Seygantte

Instruguey (13)

Posted 12 years ago.

I'm not liking much of what I'm seeing here. Egosoft is using ideas that have proved successful in other space games, but in doing so are cutting out what made the X series different. What's the point of getting a game which is just like every other? There are plenty of games where I can fly around space in my one ship, upgrading it with different parts, but very few where I can manage an entire space empire. That to me is the point of playing X games.

I also don't see how they expect to cut things that were crucial to previous games with a reason that makes sense to the universe. E.g if the X universe were real, why would anyone stop using SETA, regardless of whether or not there are shipping lanes? It would still be ridiculously useful.

It seems to me that with the loss of SETA, and the constriction to just one ship that's not a cap, this is Egosoft trying to nudge the series towards a conventional multiplayer. Many people have asked for multiplayer to be part of the X games, but I don't think that this kind of implementation that they wanted. I predict this will lead to a lot of long time X gamers, the fan base the series really relies on, being dissatisfied in the end. I could be wrong, and Rebirth could succeed, but imho it's more likely to be a flop with Egosoft taking a big hit from the community.

à² _à²°à³ƒ My monocle and I disapprove â™‹

Triscopic

Fightguey (6)

Posted 11 years ago.

The way I read it, you can still pilot any ship in the game, but you do it virtually instead of transferring to the cockpit. That means (a) you don't have to fly accross the galaxy to take control of the slow capital, you just transfer helm contrl to your personal ship and (b) fly into a dangerous sector without worrying about dying. Okay, this might upset the DiD players, but DiD sucked anyway with the crash-happy auto pilot.

So far I like it all, apart from the loss of SETA which I worry will slow down some of the less interesting tasks (like making credits). Space highways don't bother me - they've been worked into the lore well enough now and to be honest they're gates on steroids: gates jump you from point A to point B. Highways take you from A to B to C to D and you can exit anywhere in between. Sounds better to me. Pilot ships remotely, dieing doesn't kill you, sounds better to me. Modular space stations? Sounds better to me. etc etc.

I'm not that worried. But of course big changes can lead to problems. Still, it's about time we burnt the old asteroid-happy auto pilot and got it rebuild from the ground up. Here's hoping.

Seygantte

Instruguey (13)

Posted 11 years ago.

Highways take you from A to B to C to D and you can exit anywhere in between. Sounds better to me.
- Triscopic

Not quite. As far as I'm aware the plan is to have two kinds of highways. The first kind will be as you said, where you can exit at any point, but there will be another larger kind when you can only enter and exit at fixed points. Either way I dislike the idea of removing seta and sticking you in lanes. It cuts away the freedom the X games are renowned for.

à² _à²°à³ƒ My monocle and I disapprove â™‹

Roguey

Trueguey (22)

Posted 11 years ago.

It does sounds like highways are trying to make you conform in a set area (even know we are in space). I do think its catch 22 with it all. Ego wants to make it easier, and increase the traffic density (so ships arent just doing their own thing), however doing so could make space feel restricted.

Not sure how I feel about losing SETA for highways. SETA has so many other useful functions, naming skipping/shorten the boring times. Even the old Elite's had SETA as such.

Seygantte

Instruguey (13)

Posted 11 years ago.

I've just had an unhappy thought. I've been thinking about why SETA has been cut from the plans for Rebirth, and there are many good reasons that can be presented e.g. It would make X games more open to the possibility of multiplayer in the future. Now this is all fine and dandy, but it also means that without the additional strain that SETA puts on the system, ES will be freeing up a whole load of processing power for use in other things. Methinks this has played a part in why Rebirth looks so fancy ass in the visual department compared to it's predecessors, and this I think, was certainly a factor in the decision to cut SETA.

The consequence of this though is that, contrary to my earlier assertion that modders will put SETA back in, we may be saying goodbye to it for good. Coding problems aside, it might be just too much for our rigs to handle running the universe at 10x speed on top of all upgrades X:R will have. It always saddens me to see a game cave to this concept of graphics being more important than game play.

à² _à²°à³ƒ My monocle and I disapprove â™‹

Roguey

Trueguey (22)

Posted 11 years ago.

Well I thought the main reason for SETA being cut was due to the way it was done. When running at x6 or x10, it can cause things to behave differently, ie. the autopilot doesn't respond in time. Maybe a better solution would of been limiting SETA back to x2, or even x3. That way we can speed up the boring bits a little, without going crazy (basically x6,+ is too fast).

Seygantte

Instruguey (13)

Posted 11 years ago.

Again that's showing the SETA as the resource hog that it is. The step length had to be increased while SETA was engaged to reduce the amount of calculations per second. It just wasn't possible to keep the universe simulated with the same accuracy during SETA, and that causes the problems. I do agree that it should be scaled back somewhat. 6x is fast enough for sure, and 10x doesn't even work properly on my setup causing it to actually take longer than 6x. I wouldn't even mind if the times where SETA could be use are restricted, i.e. only during non-combat. My point was though, is that people like SETA and despite the other reason, I don't think ES would cut it unless they also wanted to tap that well of unused resources.

à² _à²°à³ƒ My monocle and I disapprove â™‹

Triscopic

Fightguey (6)

Posted 11 years ago.

Not quite. As far as I'm aware the plan is to have two kinds of highways...there will be another larger kind when you can only enter and exit at fixed points.
- Seygantte

You're right of course, but those are just gates with new graphics.

I'm also sure you're right about the reasons for getting rid of SETA. I don't believe it can/will be modded back in: I'd be amazed if something like that didn't need to be built in to the engine at a very low level. SETA was great but it was a hog. Still, I'm trying to think what I really use it for, and I think it comes down to three different things, namely travelling (e.g. exploring, doing trade runs, etc), waiting for more money to roll in (most of which is waiting for other slow transport ships to make deliveries), and waiting for anything involving the Aran.

I fear the loss of SETA will harm the game. I hope it won't as most of it's uses are travel related.

Also I seem to have a surplus of rose-tinted spectacles. Anyone?

Seygantte

Instruguey (13)

Posted 11 years ago.

Youre right of course, but those are just gates with new graphics.
- Triscopic

Surely gates aren't being replaced entirely?! This must be a case of someone just tagging the name highway onto a gate flippantly, because there's no way of replacing gates or their mechanics without completely destroying the lore. It would be like removing the force from Star Wars, or the TARDIS from Dr. Who and replacing them with sorcery or H G Well's Time Machine. Sure it would be functional but it just wouldn't make sense.

To be honest I'm not sure how great the loss of SETA will be. Certainly less than I originally thought. Someone informed me that one of the new features will be the ability to instantly "jump" to another ship and pilot it remotely. This will make it possible for you to personally do many things at once and cut down on the boredom time. The start of the game will still be dull unless they give you access to a few ships though.

à² _à²°à³ƒ My monocle and I disapprove â™‹

Sha1hulud

Stickguey (8)

Posted 11 years ago.

On a completely unrelated note to anything but a brief mention in the last post, did you know that Time Travel as envisioned in the two concepts you talked of are practically impossible for a really neat reason? The Earth is constantly moving, right? So if you went back in time, the Earth wouldn't actually be where you time machine was when you began to go backwards, i.e. you would spend the rest of your days however many years in the past floating through the blackness of space, dead. XD

Seygantte

Instruguey (13)

Posted 11 years ago.

I can't speak for Wells, but I can point out that the the IS in TARDIS stands for "In Space". It can shortcut through all 4 dimensions (and occasionally more by accident) so your argument wouldn't affect it.

à² _à²°à³ƒ My monocle and I disapprove â™‹

Roguey

Trueguey (22)

Posted 11 years ago.

I fear the loss of SETA will harm the game. I hope it won't as most of it's uses are travel related.
- Triscopic

I guess purely when you get a boring section, atleast you can whizz pass it (like the fast-forward on a recorder). No whizz, more boring sections... afterall it cant be big battles and fun all the time?

Triscopic

Fightguey (6)

Posted 11 years ago.

Perhaps I didn't explain myself. Something you fly a ship through that - in game terms - takes you instantly from the enge of one area to the edge of another is the same as the current gates. In lore terms they're totally different but in terms of play I expect them to be very similar if not identical.

It has been stated that gates are not "gone" but that they are all offline at the start of Rebirth:

Gates still exist, but right now.... they do not work. However, there are signs that this may soon change!
- Bernd

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