They could learn alot from I-War 2's interface, that was just perfect for this type of game.

Now, I-War 3 I would absolutely love to see. I never beat the second one, but it was a fantastically polished gem to paly. Unfortunately, the developer got bought my Argunaut which promptly destroyed themselves so I don't know who owns the property now or if we'll see another one. Despite my desperation to find any good space games anymore, I could never get into the X series. Not sure why, but I just had a hard time picking them up. Creston, do you think I'd like this one any better or are the basics of it pretty much the same?

Parallax Abstraction
Founder of StateOfGaming.org - Coming Soon
Commentary & Discussion About the Video Game Industry and Its Future

But is it as good as Universal Combat ?

...not bloody likely. In fact, they're different games entirely. The only thing they share in common, is the space theme.

The X series are a glorified trading sim; in much the same way Eve Online is a trading sim set in space.

The BC/UC games are military based games, with trading thrown in as just another 'feature' that bears no relevance to the game's premise. But its there if you want to use it.

Nah, most are hand signed NDA's these days, Guildwars Alpha made you mail in the contract signed plus a photocopy of your drivers licence / passport.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!

But is it as good as Universal Combat ?

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i want to see more detailed ship-to-ship interactions, with more random encounters and such... that would be really good for immersiveness

________________________
music from space captain:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/6/errantways_music.htm
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/4/invisibleacropolis_music.htm

Still cant go to planets eh, that was one of the best parts of Frontier

It's been often debated on their forums, and it's perhaps something we'll see in the NEXT version of X. This time around they figured they really didn't have anything to DO on planets for a player. However, planets are far more prominent in a system now, as shown by the screenshots. At least you get the idea that the planets are actually important to that system, rather than everyone living in fabs and the planets are uninhabited.

Creston

Still cant go to planets eh, that was one of the best parts of Frontier, passing through the atmosphere and visiting the space port, comming in for a landing, then opening fire and running from the police mwhahaha.

Except for the running part because your dead in 2 seconds.

Btw ATI Cat drivers 5.8 are out

Just modded them to run on my mobility set. Runs a charm


_____________________

Oh and I want a pony!

i was extremely dissapointed with x2 - even more so because of the potential they had... but the elements were just too disparate - as many (including me) have said, it was like playing a spreadsheet with graphics

hopefully x3 will be vastly different - im assuming it will since they have like hundreds of fan created mods to look at and so on

________________________
music from space captain:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/6/errantways_music.htm
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/4/invisibleacropolis_music.htm

I want a hooge ass Elite MMO!!!!!

Or at least Multiplayer

Elite was teh w1n

X2 is on White Label in Game for 10 quid or so. tempted but im held back by lack of MP options.



_____________________

Oh and I want a pony!


This comment was edited on Aug 16, 16:47.

Man did X2 suck complete ass or what? One of the worst space sims I've ever played

Ya the cut scenes were hurtin and also large parts of the dialogue lol. Loved X2 anyway.

I'll be buying this for sure

All right, screw the NDA, that's a bunch of crap

It's a bit legalese, but what they mean is that a lot of the Devnet guys (ie players who want to contribute) will write new missions, new bulletin board articles, etc, and that they (Egosoft) then have the right to use those missions you wrote for their next game without you being able to sue them.
Also, pretty much everything in the scripting bonus pack was designed by players, then submitted to Ego for inclusion in the game as an Official Script. Without such a provision, those authors could then go back and say "Hey, you owe me money!"

Another example, the assassination missions that got added in 1.3 were written by Apoch, who was a Devnet member. I believe he also wrote the Xenon Invasion missions in 1.4. As a reward, he's been hired by Ego to work on X3 (and he's done the new UI).

There have also been some bulletin board articles that were submitted on devnet and that made their way into patch 1.4.
So as you can see, Devnet is definitely adding tons of content to the game, you can understand why Egosoft need to protect themselves legally, right?

Btw, I don't think it's saying that anything you've ever made can be used by Egosoft without compensating you for it, but if you write something specifically for the X series, it's theirs to use. Those are the rules you have to follow, if you don't like it, either don't join Devnet, or don't specifically write stuff for the game.


Plus sending snail mail to Germany is the biggest bullshit I've ever seen, what happened to signing NDAs online like every other beta test does?

I'm not sure, but I believe that's due to German law. I think that a contract is only legally binding in Germany if it has your actual signature on it. Hence an online NDA wouldn't be worth much.

Creston

Has X3 got any Multiplayer?

No, none.

This comment was edited on Aug 16, 14:15.

All right, screw the NDA, that's a bunch of crap

1. DEVELOPER grants to EGOSOFT the world wide exclusive right to modify, reproduce, distribute, incorporate into its own products or use in any other way for commercial or non-commercial exploitation, all code submitted by DEVELOPER into the Quest development database.

2. DEVELOPER does not receive any license fee or other payment for his submission. Any special offers or prizes which EGOSOFT may see fit to award DEVELOPER for his submission are not considered as payment under the terms of this contract.

Hold on... NO. Plus sending snail mail to Germany is the biggest bullshit I've ever seen, what happened to signing NDAs online like every other beta test does?

Has X3 got any Multiplayer?


_____________________

Oh and I want a pony!

Okay now how the hell do you become a DevNet member?!

Don't bother, as the beta is only going out to people who already have their NDA in, and Devnet is closed. They'll open Devnet up again after X3 has been released.

As for what's new, let's see

- Far better graphics. Obviously.
- Redesigned ships and stations for everything.
- 4x longer story, better scripting, more cohesive plot (the plot was truly horrible in X2).
- CGI cutscenes rather than engine cutscenes.
- bigger universe.
- no more 100km by 100km sectors with standard N, E, S, W gate layouts. Sectors will be more 3d, and be much more varied in size and looks, gates will be more appropriately placed.
- Completely new UI, as well as the old UI for those who want it.
- Completely redesigned economy, with help from some of the Devnet guys who already made several mods that made the economy more challenging. It's purportedly far more dynamic.
- NPCs will now build stations of their own, and your stations will actually be in danger now from time to time (rather than in X2, where they were NEVER in danger, post 1.0)
- You can play as Julian, but there are now also start points for all the other races, apparently together with some goals for said characters. Ie, more varied starting options.
- Revamped combat, changes to ship classes and their underlying power. Reportedly, kai helped with the new AI, dunno whether that's true or not. (he's the author of the fabulous kai's AI script, which made combat REALLY good, almost, but not quite, to the level of Freespace, in my opinion).

So all in all, I'd say that there's plenty of new stuff in the game. I'm sure I've forgotten some stuff, but I think this is it in a nutshell.

I want it YESTERDAY.

Must make more profittsssss.

Creston

yo - dem graphics is sick, son

________________________
music from space captain:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/6/errantways_music.htm
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/4/invisibleacropolis_music.htm

http://www.egosoft.com/support/faq/faq_answer_en.php?answer=535&version=0

Freespace 2: Lost Souls
http://www.sectorgame.com/aldo/

Okay now how the hell do you become a DevNet member?!

That would be awesome if they would make another Freespace type game with updated graphics and damage. I Remember playing the last one and seeing all the beam weapons in battle while flying around and all I could say was "damn", there was so much going on it was just insane. Multiplayer was even pretty fun.

Freespace 2: Lost Souls
http://www.sectorgame.com/aldo/