X Rebirth

Skybird · 11-05-14, 07:31 PM

Almost precisely it is one year ago, that I played X Rebirthz last year, and after some days and weeks abandoned it, waiting for patches and updates and mods to add their impact.

And now, as I predicted

, in this foggy and dark time of the year I got appetite again to try what the passing of one year may have done in change and imporvement, or not. Since some days I am playing it again, with a fresh gamestart, and version 2.51, while version 3.0 is looming at the horizon.

I did so since the videos I saw on youtube about Elite Dangerous, did not really hook me. Also, their business model seems - seems to need getting used to. Its not cheap. However, the space seqeunces, the exterior design of stations and spacecraft gave me more memory of the computer era twenty years ago, than I feel comfortable with in 2014. I just do not get hooked.

In X Rebirthz now, a lot has changed. The whole game is 64 bit now, runs smooth and stable for me. The menus, still not optimal, have been improved a lot. Trading interctions I tested via the m enus instead of running around on the stations, worked reliable so far. The economic functions of the whole world system, before somewhat broken, seem to work now. The AI has been given much more competence and aggressiveness in fighting, before, every shot-out was a piece of cake. Now, it became drama battles quite frequently. There are many more details that have been chnmaged or added, and they all did their share to improve the general quality. It actually makes sense now to start to build a fleet of traders, defence forces, and finally: stations.

The status now shows what the game should have been like on release day 1. There is still room for improvement, and indeed they are working on it., but it would be malicious to claim that the game has no future and sees no chnage for the better: it does, and quite substantially already.

I got hooked again, and will play this now for quite some time to come. I only hope that the upcoming version 3.0 is downward compatible. Rumours say it is.

I also added some mods tweaking some details, scanners, trading, comms, AI, and faction policies. There actually now is war raging between factions, and I found that it depended on my actions whether I was seen as a neutral observer, or a participating fighter that was seen as a valid target. There is much more life, traffic and battle in the universe.

To me, the game concept offers more than the game concept of Elite Dangerous, I admit. And the exterior views of space stations in XB I prefer any time over those to be seen in Elite videos. I wonder whether Elite will offer an as-complex economy simulation as XB does.

So: the trend-indicator for XB points upwards, definitely. Those of you who had, like me, shelved it to wait and see, consider to try it again now or when 3.0 is out at the latest. The disastrous start last year - is a thing of the past now. All objects of criticism indeed have been worked on and still are being further tuned and improved.

Dowly · 11-05-14, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skybird

Also, their business model seems - seems to need getting used to. Its not cheap.

Eh? Give them x amount of money, they give you the game. Just like X Rebirth.
As for price, the pre-order is 40e and you get the mercenary edition. X Rebirth on Steam is still priced at 49,99e.

Skybird · 11-06-14, 01:35 AM

Access to the beta they list for 60 Euros over here. Plus the remark that any further content is not included but costs separately. And if you want other ships included, you pay again, 2,50-4 Euro per ship model. And skin packs cost 12,50 Euros.

That is steep, imo.

Dowly · 11-06-14, 04:20 AM

Yes, the beta is 60e. It includes Mercenary Edition + access to the beta.
Standard pre-order is ME minus beta access, 40e.

There are no additional ships you can purchase, those are all custom skins.

NeonSamurai · 11-06-14, 11:13 AM

That is one of the things I love about Egosoft. They really do support their titles. Plus they often add all kinds of bonuses and other things, that other companies would try to sell as DLC.

I also love how Elite Dangerous is charging more money for beta access. It is normally the other way around. But it could be worse, it could be Star Citizen...

Skybird · 11-06-14, 11:42 AM

With version 3.0 in Decembre, there comes a first addon as DLC that will be free for players who had bought X-R before November 1st. The Teladi Outpost will add two completely new sectors and a new storyline (for which I will care as much as for the main quest: not at all, that is

), and must be logged for early order already now however, from the game's Steamshop site, since the subscription must be made before a certain date that already has been moved back (originally the offer ended on Nov. 1st). After that it seems to cost money even for those who bought the game before November.

So if you already own the game, make sure you check that you have the Teladi Outpost early-ordered in your Steam account.

I'm still enjoying my second visit in the X-B universe. It is far more active, there far more events and movements, far more action, raids, battles. The new menu system works still not ideal, but much better than originally, one can work with it. No more repetitive running through the station tunnels.

Oh, and the zombie-looks of the faces are gone as well.

The whole universe interacts far more dynamically than before. And boy, is it running super-smooth now!

Memory may fool me or not, but there is more environment sounds, I think. Unrealistic in space, IknowIknow, but so is thecolourful Blade-Runner-looks of the giant space stations as well. It all adds tremendously to the atmosphere.

New cockpit variations available as well, from fighter pits with extra vision and as little cockpit obstacles as possible, to transporter bridges. Every refit costs coins, however.

Arclight · 11-07-14, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeonSamurai

I also love how Elite Dangerous is charging more money for beta access. It is normally the other way around. But it could be worse, it could be Star Citizen...

I'm... confused. SC is actually cheaper, starting at $30,- for the game up to $45,- for alpha & beta access.

At any rate, I'd guess that the extra cost is due to the need to set up the server infrastructure early. Without it those costs would have to be covered by funds that would normally go towards development. Considering they don't have publisher backing, it seems reasonable, though indeed rather counterintuitive.

Skybird · 11-08-14, 03:49 PM

Today I got a taste of how much has changed indeed. I flew into a new sector - and stumbled right into a huge space battle between 8 or 9 capital ships by Plutarch and Alliance of Free Worlds. These capital monsters - and their attached fighter wings. If you never have experienced something like that in X-R, then it is hard to describe and even harder to believe. Remember the huge, the really huge battles in later seasons of Babylon-5? It looked like that. Tracers and missiles from here to the horizon, at all vectors. Bombing drones humming by and getting shot down before they could impact. Huge beam weapons by the capitals. The huge ships maneuvering to get alongside their enemies, exchanging kind of broadsides, or trying to get their monster beamers aiming alongside their axis on their enemies. Fighters criss-crossing back and forth everywhere, hushing over the hulls of the big ships, avoiding Flak-laser and trying to get rid of swarms of Hydra missiles in their necks, while firing at other fighters. It was colourful, it was chaotic, it was different from any battle I have seen before. Since the scene was away from a station, the capitals could freely maneuver without getting deadlocked when slamming into station structures.

Later, when Plutarch gained the upper hand, new enemies fell out of the cosmic highway slipstream: a huge number of ultra tough and ultra-fast Reaver fighters engaged Plutarch and unfortunately also me. Then another Plutarch carrier arrived, launching more swarms of missiles, Flak, and fighters. I escaped with burning ship and into the arms of Plutarch fighters who engaged the Reavers while I landed on the flightdeck of a Plutarch carrier seconds before my hull would have collapsed, from there I went to the gate and watched the battle outside. It was breathtaking. Before I escaped the battle, fighters hang in my neck like vampires, I have a relatively good equipped ship and a Nivell-4 drive, but these beasts I have never met before, they had hilarious speed, acceleration, agility and sturdiness. I did nit fight, I fled and desperately tried to stay alive.

Nice to see that it was possible to hide between the burning dead hulls of big ships, or break the enemy's lockon by racing into the huge smoke clouds left by big ships that had exploded earlier. No physics, please. Discussing physics is forbidden in this thread.

You may need luck to see such things happening, and they may not happen on that scale too often. But when it happens, don'T play: lean back, watch and enjoy the show. Its breathtaking and shows what the game is capable of and what shine hides under its dusty surface.

The huge final battles in the ending episodes of Babylon-5 - take me by my word.

If needing to estimate how many ships, big and small, were participating, I would dare to say that it were probably around fifty, I would say. I use several mods, to what degree they are responsible for this or not, I cannot say. But all objects, particles, salvos beams, laser shots were on screen as well, plus debris, ejected cargo, rocks...

Frames were not always super-smooth, but always remained absolutely playable. Stuttering means in this context: frames that I felt to be around 30, maybe.

Its nice to see that the various factions now actively wage war against each other, in regions that are close to both of them. Or that they launch surprising raids into the heart of the enemy.

The Xenons I can deal with. But those Reaver fighters - I need better - I do not know what I need. A sixth sense to avoid them, maybe.

After it all was over, space around was a graveyard, and a scene of chaos and destruction. I launched, and went into a good observing posiiton, then monitored how the remaining three Plutarch giants gathered their surviving fighters, maneuvered and charged their jumpdrives. Then they warped away, and I suddenly was alone.

After that furious action the 5 minutes before, that felt strange, I tell you.

NeonSamurai · 11-09-14, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arclight

I'm... confused. SC is actually cheaper, starting at $30,- for the game up to $45,- for alpha & beta access.

That is for the cheapest (crapiest) ship though (and just one ship). Throw in nicer ships, insurance, etc and you are talking a whole lot of money.

11-05-14, 07:31 PM	#1
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 42,721 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	Almost precisely it is one year ago, that I played X Rebirthz last year, and after some days and weeks abandoned it, waiting for patches and updates and mods to add their impact. And now, as I predicted , in this foggy and dark time of the year I got appetite again to try what the passing of one year may have done in change and imporvement, or not. Since some days I am playing it again, with a fresh gamestart, and version 2.51, while version 3.0 is looming at the horizon. I did so since the videos I saw on youtube about Elite Dangerous, did not really hook me. Also, their business model seems - seems to need getting used to. Its not cheap. However, the space seqeunces, the exterior design of stations and spacecraft gave me more memory of the computer era twenty years ago, than I feel comfortable with in 2014. I just do not get hooked. In X Rebirthz now, a lot has changed. The whole game is 64 bit now, runs smooth and stable for me. The menus, still not optimal, have been improved a lot. Trading interctions I tested via the m enus instead of running around on the stations, worked reliable so far. The economic functions of the whole world system, before somewhat broken, seem to work now. The AI has been given much more competence and aggressiveness in fighting, before, every shot-out was a piece of cake. Now, it became drama battles quite frequently. There are many more details that have been chnmaged or added, and they all did their share to improve the general quality. It actually makes sense now to start to build a fleet of traders, defence forces, and finally: stations. The status now shows what the game should have been like on release day 1. There is still room for improvement, and indeed they are working on it., but it would be malicious to claim that the game has no future and sees no chnage for the better: it does, and quite substantially already. I got hooked again, and will play this now for quite some time to come. I only hope that the upcoming version 3.0 is downward compatible. Rumours say it is. I also added some mods tweaking some details, scanners, trading, comms, AI, and faction policies. There actually now is war raging between factions, and I found that it depended on my actions whether I was seen as a neutral observer, or a participating fighter that was seen as a valid target. There is much more life, traffic and battle in the universe. To me, the game concept offers more than the game concept of Elite Dangerous, I admit. And the exterior views of space stations in XB I prefer any time over those to be seen in Elite videos. I wonder whether Elite will offer an as-complex economy simulation as XB does. So: the trend-indicator for XB points upwards, definitely. Those of you who had, like me, shelved it to wait and see, consider to try it again now or when 3.0 is out at the latest. The disastrous start last year - is a thing of the past now. All objects of criticism indeed have been worked on and still are being further tuned and improved. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert.

11-06-14, 01:35 AM	#3
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 42,721 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	Access to the beta they list for 60 Euros over here. Plus the remark that any further content is not included but costs separately. And if you want other ships included, you pay again, 2,50-4 Euro per ship model. And skin packs cost 12,50 Euros. That is steep, imo. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert.

11-06-14, 11:13 AM	#5
NeonSamurai Ocean Warrior Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Socialist Republic of Kanadia Posts: 3,044 Downloads: 25 Uploads: 0	That is one of the things I love about Egosoft. They really do support their titles. Plus they often add all kinds of bonuses and other things, that other companies would try to sell as DLC. I also love how Elite Dangerous is charging more money for beta access. It is normally the other way around. But it could be worse, it could be Star Citizen... __________________ SH3 Newbie Guide Links and other helpfull stuff

11-06-14, 11:42 AM	#6
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 42,721 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	With version 3.0 in Decembre, there comes a first addon as DLC that will be free for players who had bought X-R before November 1st. The Teladi Outpost will add two completely new sectors and a new storyline (for which I will care as much as for the main quest: not at all, that is ), and must be logged for early order already now however, from the game's Steamshop site, since the subscription must be made before a certain date that already has been moved back (originally the offer ended on Nov. 1st). After that it seems to cost money even for those who bought the game before November. So if you already own the game, make sure you check that you have the Teladi Outpost early-ordered in your Steam account. I'm still enjoying my second visit in the X-B universe. It is far more active, there far more events and movements, far more action, raids, battles. The new menu system works still not ideal, but much better than originally, one can work with it. No more repetitive running through the station tunnels. Oh, and the zombie-looks of the faces are gone as well. The whole universe interacts far more dynamically than before. And boy, is it running super-smooth now! Memory may fool me or not, but there is more environment sounds, I think. Unrealistic in space, IknowIknow, but so is thecolourful Blade-Runner-looks of the giant space stations as well. It all adds tremendously to the atmosphere. New cockpit variations available as well, from fighter pits with extra vision and as little cockpit obstacles as possible, to transporter bridges. Every refit costs coins, however. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert.

11-08-14, 03:49 PM	#8
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 42,721 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	Today I got a taste of how much has changed indeed. I flew into a new sector - and stumbled right into a huge space battle between 8 or 9 capital ships by Plutarch and Alliance of Free Worlds. These capital monsters - and their attached fighter wings. If you never have experienced something like that in X-R, then it is hard to describe and even harder to believe. Remember the huge, the really huge battles in later seasons of Babylon-5? It looked like that. Tracers and missiles from here to the horizon, at all vectors. Bombing drones humming by and getting shot down before they could impact. Huge beam weapons by the capitals. The huge ships maneuvering to get alongside their enemies, exchanging kind of broadsides, or trying to get their monster beamers aiming alongside their axis on their enemies. Fighters criss-crossing back and forth everywhere, hushing over the hulls of the big ships, avoiding Flak-laser and trying to get rid of swarms of Hydra missiles in their necks, while firing at other fighters. It was colourful, it was chaotic, it was different from any battle I have seen before. Since the scene was away from a station, the capitals could freely maneuver without getting deadlocked when slamming into station structures. Later, when Plutarch gained the upper hand, new enemies fell out of the cosmic highway slipstream: a huge number of ultra tough and ultra-fast Reaver fighters engaged Plutarch and unfortunately also me. Then another Plutarch carrier arrived, launching more swarms of missiles, Flak, and fighters. I escaped with burning ship and into the arms of Plutarch fighters who engaged the Reavers while I landed on the flightdeck of a Plutarch carrier seconds before my hull would have collapsed, from there I went to the gate and watched the battle outside. It was breathtaking. Before I escaped the battle, fighters hang in my neck like vampires, I have a relatively good equipped ship and a Nivell-4 drive, but these beasts I have never met before, they had hilarious speed, acceleration, agility and sturdiness. I did nit fight, I fled and desperately tried to stay alive. Nice to see that it was possible to hide between the burning dead hulls of big ships, or break the enemy's lockon by racing into the huge smoke clouds left by big ships that had exploded earlier. No physics, please. Discussing physics is forbidden in this thread. You may need luck to see such things happening, and they may not happen on that scale too often. But when it happens, don'T play: lean back, watch and enjoy the show. Its breathtaking and shows what the game is capable of and what shine hides under its dusty surface. The huge final battles in the ending episodes of Babylon-5 - take me by my word. If needing to estimate how many ships, big and small, were participating, I would dare to say that it were probably around fifty, I would say. I use several mods, to what degree they are responsible for this or not, I cannot say. But all objects, particles, salvos beams, laser shots were on screen as well, plus debris, ejected cargo, rocks... Frames were not always super-smooth, but always remained absolutely playable. Stuttering means in this context: frames that I felt to be around 30, maybe. Its nice to see that the various factions now actively wage war against each other, in regions that are close to both of them. Or that they launch surprising raids into the heart of the enemy. The Xenons I can deal with. But those Reaver fighters - I need better - I do not know what I need. A sixth sense to avoid them, maybe. After it all was over, space around was a graveyard, and a scene of chaos and destruction. I launched, and went into a good observing posiiton, then monitored how the remaining three Plutarch giants gathered their surviving fighters, maneuvered and charged their jumpdrives. Then they warped away, and I suddenly was alone. After that furious action the 5 minutes before, that felt strange, I tell you. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert. Last edited by Skybird; 11-08-14 at 05:20 PM.

11-06-14, 04:20 AM	#4
Dowly Lucky Jack Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Finland Posts: 25,056 Downloads: 32 Uploads: 0	Yes, the beta is 60e. It includes Mercenary Edition + access to the beta. Standard pre-order is ME minus beta access, 40e. There are no additional ships you can purchase, those are all custom skins.