X Rebirth

[Skybird]

An interesting posting by a business insider.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/2870/d...2304912217764/

And this seems to confirm that the game is a console port (xbox360)

http://roguey.co.uk/xrebirth/news/single.php?id=443

Finally, their reply to the console port allegations, and some more official comments by them:

http://www.ez-guild.com/news.php?readmore=867

[CaptainHaplo]

OK let me deal first with the concerns about Egosoft....

The "financial" thread looked at one statement that is over 2 years old, and is not exactly "complete". Simply put - if all the "OMG they were broke" statements you were to read in that thread were true, the company would not have survived to release Rebirth.

We know that there was a MINIMUM of 15k purchases of Rebirth, at ~$50 a pop. That alone is $750,000.00 in sales. Granted you have some overhead, but even Egosoft has already stated the game is - sales wise - a "success". This means they have already hit their "break even" number - and long term sales are now profit. Which, btw - is what insures the historical continued support.

Remember - I said MINIMUM of 15k. We have no real data as yet on what their total sales are. We simply know that nearly 15k players were playing on launch day at one time. It is extremely likely that the number is much higher.

So the "financial solvency" issue is really a red herring - just one more way for some people to try and run down a good company.

Now, on to the console port issue....
Yes, Rebirth was initially started as a "dual platform" game. What Egosoft learned was that the idea was too ambitious for the console platform. Everyone wants to scream about this being in development for 7 years. It was - but when was it ANNOUNCED? Not 7 years ago! Try 2. They were well into the development cycle when reality set in - if they made it a real X game, it wouldn't work on a console. So they took what they had and ran with it. Control setups are one of the first things worked on, because they are how the player interacts with the software. By the time the decision was made that this would be PC only, the control set was already established. All the devs had the controllers and that is what they used to play and test. So other control schemes were neglected. Not wise, but not suprising.

With a lot of base code already written that would have served a dual platform purpose, they chose to use what they had instead of trash it all and start from scratch. Does that make them evil and underhanded? Not at all. Its a smart business decision - or at least it would have been, had the "finished" product met reasonable standards to its purchasers.

Is it an "aborted" console game? No. But it does share a development history that would have MADE it a dual platform game had that been possible. The fact that the engine is what it is today demonstrates that Egosoft recognized the futility of a dual platform product and went forward with a PC platform only. Did they get it right? Not yet.

But as we say here in the US, you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. They missed seeing the gap they were creating by using console controls and a partial console mindset during the development. They are working to fix that. Mark my words - Rebirth will be a gem in due time.

[CaptainHaplo]

OMG I had an epiphany.

The light just came on for this game. I was flying around, saying a few bad words at the (lack of) design, when I suddenly figured I would "try" something. So I did. Menus suddenly make sense. Well - sort of. I went to the map and figured out how to navigate.

These two things make the game playable and worthwhile.

Now don't get me wrong - the interface is really a horrid thing - but it DOES work and that has made the game much more enjoyable.

[Skybird]

There will be changes to the interface, and a 3D-radar, they confirmed. Plus functionality of the menu will be added and changed. the current one works, but is not nice to handle.

Like you, I now have come to fully enjoy it, no matter the state it is in. I now chas eth cash to upgrade shields to MK4 level. After that I start to save to embark on freighter operations. This is one of the fields that I so far have not touched in the game. The other major operations I avoided so far was taking over ships with boarding commandos. Some problems there, in parts already adressed in hotfixes, in other parts remaining to be problematic.

I have the impression that the lion'S share of the reported hate is because of the broken campaign. I cannot understand everybody's fixation with the campaign. Hell, ignore it.

[CaptainHaplo]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I have the impression that the lion'S share of the reported hate is because of the broken campaign. I cannot understand everybody's fixation with the campaign. Hell, ignore it.

A lot of "new" players were brought into the X universe with this game. As such, they saw pretty graphics and heard it was going to be easy to understand - so they load the game, have no clue what to do so they play the campaign. Which is - initially at least - a tutorial of sorts as well.

For a new player, when the tutorial won't even work right - the dev/pub group deserve to get screamed at. For those of us familiar with the history of the groups - well we were not surprised by the bugs.

Once you get to understanding exactly what is going on, then it works rather well - though yes boarding is still an issue. But when a person - new or not - can't figure out how to do things, there will be lots of screaming. I know - I was one of the voices yelling!

[Skybird]

I was one of those new x-players. And when realising how porked the campaign was, I skipped it and went to freeplay mode.

I ran into questions, yes. It did not take a tutorial to answer them, but using the search button in their forum. I plan to do like this again regarding freighters, boarding, ship building.

I find tutorials unpractical most of the time.

[Lionclaw]

X3 Reunion was the game that pulled me in to the series. Had a pretty big "transport company" going.

Some spaceweed station... Hey, easy money.

Made quite a lot of money with universal traders and some stations.


A couple of years before that, I tried X2 The Threat which I got with a graphics card. But it felt too complicated at the time.

Bought Albion Prelude after reading the first impressions of Rebirth.

[CaptainHaplo]

X3:AP is good, though honestly I like Terran Conflict better. I can't really articulate why though. All three of the X3 variants are good. I have X BTF and X2 as well, though I feel X3TC is (for now) the best of them. Maybe I will go give AP another try (with mods, of course) while I wait for a few more Rebirth patches.

FYI - patch 1.16 came out today. 1 week - 6 patches. That is NOT taking your money and running. Egosoft is showing why they have such a loyal following - real care about getting it right - and in a niche market that is phenomenal.

[Lionclaw]

I've been thinking of trading in a couple of console games and getting Rebirth, depends on how much GameStop is charging for it though.

[Skybird]

Give it some more time, Lionclaw. The patches so far are mostly urgent hotfixes of game crashing stuff that sends people back to desktop. Game mechanisms, which also are bugged in parts, so far have not been touched, but will be. Also interface changes are promised. A first big update is announced by the CEO, but he said it will take several weeks. After that, there will be more.

Possible that in 3 months or so you also get it cheaper. Saw it advertized for up to 50 Euros, I feel that is a bit too much, considering the aged looks. 35-40, I say. I payed 45.

I see no disaster, as some spell it, if having bought it already now and payed the money. However, I also see no need to rush the buy right now if you haven't already. If having the choice again with my knowledge now - I would definitely buy the game, but not now, but a bit later.

The good news of all that bitter opinion fighting is that the feedback made me aware of this thing called Star Citizen. It dropped off my radar screen some time ago, when the kickstarter was announced. Seems to have the potential to blow all other space games out of the universe once it arrived in full in a year or so. The kickstarter earned them 23 Million so far, I read, instead of just the targetted 2 Million. Wowh! There definitely is a market for this kind of games.

[CaptainHaplo]

I will agree with Skybird - if you don't own it right now, wait a month or two. While I don't regret the purchase, most people will find the game frustrating as is - and I would rather other consumers have a good experience and keep the series (as well as egosoft) moving forward.

[Skybird]

Egosoft sits in Germany, and over here it is weekend, Saturday night. They nevertheless released a 50 MB patch just hours ago - and currently I download another small one of 7 MB or so. It is 22:25 on the clock.

Far from a weekend break!

Media Control, a German platform logging the sales numbers for DVDs, albums, games and so forth and publishing the charts, have X Rebirth after this week on number one, and the collectors edition of it on three, behind Battlefield 4.

[Skybird]

A 23 minutes review done in a very moderate tone and with quite some attempt to be fair and balanced. I agree with most, but not all what he says, but I give him cudos for trying to be fair and especially for telling people what bad a mess their behavior is that shout and yell and call each other names in a way they would not dare to do in real life.



My own biggest complaint so far is that bad balancing and the lack of challenge in fights and dogfights. The Albion is an über-equipped ship-killing monster already at the beginning, outclassing everything of its size and smaller, and even bigger ships. Some people say the combat AI actually were pretty well scripted, but doe snot have the opportunity to shine because the ships it controls die too fast. I use to blow my dogfighting enemies out of battle within one second of encounter. And that is what makes it tiresome and pointless.

I agree with most what the guy says in the video, maybe not with all, but he gets it right, all in all. But currently I have the game in sleep-mode a bit, until fighting has been beefed up, the trading works, and the problems being encountered in boarding procedures and ship building are sorted out. It is buggy, yes, but like the guy in the video it has not stopped me from playing and enjoying it until here.

[Aramike]

As a HUGE fan of X3:TC and X3:AP, I bought this one on day one. I haven't played it since due to the well-known issues. That being said, I'm confident that within a few months much of the problems will be addressed and the game will be at least somewhat playable.

My MAIN problem with is was the way the lead developer (Bernd?) has approached some of the criticism. Yes, he has been EXTREMELY responsive for a developer, but I think he's lost sight of some of the soul of the series. I have no problem whatsoever with a reimagining, as it were. But I don't like how he found certain ways of playing a SINGLE PLAYER, HIGHLY MODDABLE experience to be the "wrong" way. An example of this was how he stated that he believed that autopilot was not how the game should be played.

I used autopilot nearly CONSTANTLY in X3, because my game was focused around running a trading empire. I can fly ships with crappy physics in any number of games. The point was that it was MY choice how to play the game and what my style would be.

X:Rebirth seems to have lost the series' soul. However, I do believe they can get it back.

[McBeck]

Ill be keeping it on my whishlist....and wait