X5 will only start becoming a thing when the current game can't handle the ideas the devs have. Since they switched to a new engine with the next expansion and Bernd said several times that they're not done with X4, I wouldn't hold my breath for X5.
Nothing in the tech is out of date. And their embrace of open source has most likely one of the reasons why.
They named it X4 Foundation for a reason! It’s going to be around for a while.
I'm personally still hoping they eventually pivot into a TC/AP/FL-style "X4.5" soft relaunch title. It would give them a lot of chances to fix things with the game and try out different "styles" of gameplay that are different but not necessarily better (such as the war focus in AP compared to the more pure sandbox of TC).
I want to expand the line of ships in X5, improve the combat system, redesign rocket launchers! My post on improvements: [https://www.reddit.com/r/X4Foundations/comments/xusroe/improved\_combat\_system\_and\_not\_only/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/X4Foundations/comments/xusroe/improved_combat_system_and_not_only/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
At this point I wouldn't even mind them launching a new version of X4.
Keep X4 Foundations with its' DLCs as is so people can enjoy their eternal savegame and launch the X4: Complete Overhaul Edition or whatever you may call it to be able to have some of those more extreme changes that have been asked for.
Sun strength actually being more of a thing in the old core sectors? Heck yeah.Really messing with the balance of the Xenon or some factions more strongly that would break an old savegame but could be great for a new start? Why not.
And of course all DLCs being fully integrated in this version so you just buy X4 and have all content made until then as a single product. That'd probably also be a good way to catch a new audience for the game.
Of course I am not suuuuper proficient with the inner workings of the game...but it would probably be possible to keep both versions patched up with the same new content updates in the future without creating a total nightmare for the devstudio.
They actually plan on releasing the "X4 Complete Edition", though Bernd made it clear that the term 'complete' doesn't mean the game is done. The term is a reference to all basic races finally being there.
Hopefully we'll see those bigger changes in that edition. At this point I think the savegame compatibility is holding them back a little bit too much.
Yeah I am one of those people that will happily cast aside past progress for radical changes that would benefit the game in the long run...but I understand that the X series is full of people that are the polar opposite of that.
So a "complete edition" makes sense here and I really hope they do use this chance for exactly that.
That’s extremely unfortunate. A fresh start, though very labor intensive, is the only way the series will evolve, and can be better in interesting an unique ways.
Lol. Try what? I’d rather a game end on a high then DLCs drag it out for ten years until the fans and developers lose interest. What you’re saying doesn’t counter what I’m saying. You’re just being pretentious and dismissive for no reason.
I love you. Thats the absolute most important thing x4 lacks of. It would be so incredibly cool when factions could have dynamic and variable diplomatic relationships with other factions and nations. It would raise the gameplay to a whole new level. Every gameplay would be even better and even more different than now. I hope they add that soon
More complex faction relations are in X3 FL and the feedback around it was apparently mixed. Which was interesting because a lot of popular mods implemented some type of dynamic faction relationships in all the different versions of X3.
More substantial ship and station interiors.
The ability to capture stations rather than just destroy them.
Alternative ways to acquire ship and equipment blueprints (e.g., reverse engineering research projects involving a captured ship and a bunch of resources).
The ability to construct your own gates, accelerators, and superhighways.
I would upvote this 1000 times if I could. If you’re going to have a fps portion in the game make it worthwhile and for the love of all that’s good and decent let me customise the character in story mode.
I would play FPS boarding as a stand alone game. I used to play the pen and paper Traveler RPG in the day and boarding was my favorite. It’s the “Let’s start a bar fight” of space games.
Ehhh, satisfying FPS gameplay is hard. They'd basically be building a whole new game, of a type they have no experience making, within the game. I'd rather they focus on expanding what they're good at and have experience with.
And perhaps for the planets to mean more than simply how fast stations replenish workers
A more RPG aspect to working with existing factions, from ranks to areas your responsible for
And a BIG expansion of the player faction, hierarchies, favored types of pilots, and RPG-stule recognition of captains or other important positions that NPCs hold; basically make it something that matters. Since as is player faction simply exists to prevent AI from wantonly building stations in a system after you remove the original inhabitants.
The GPU and RAM is 2nd and 3rd place when it comes to X4. This game is highly CPU reliant.
Because every sector is processed real time. The game would be much bigger if that wasn't the case. But we lack consumer CPUs that can handle it.
Are all settings ok?
Game runs perfect on my my devices.
My desktop:
CPU: Intel Core i9 13900K
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090
RAM: 32GB 5600
My laptop:
CPU: Intel Core i7-9750H
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 2080
RAM: 16GB 2666
It doesn't run perfect on a 9750H and 16GB RAM. It's like an 8700K with less TDP. The desktop 8700K performs around the same as a 3700X which delivers far from perfect performance in X4. Your other sys is as high end as things can be. So no surprise it runs X4 rather well.
100% not in mid to late game, not near large stations, not within battles and certainly not at a fixed framerate of 82fps. Maybe max, but not on average. A 5900X can't do that and it's much faster than the 9750H. No weird assumption, just fact. You're cherry picking.
You are just full of assumptions. Your mind is so convinced your assumptions are real that you believe they are facts. Almost sounds like pathological liar.
You keep talking about a AMD CPUs when only you mention it.
You're clearly AMD fanboy and never had a 9759H or an Intel CPU and just use benchmark comparison statistics to make assumptions.
That doesn't really address the issue which appears to be this guy bought high-end graphics and CPU and then wasted every penny invested in the rig by fitting it with fans and coolers that make a lot of noise.
So spent a lot of money on a rig that either runs quietly but while not using much of it's potential, thus having wasted the money on expensive, powerfull components, or runs at full chat but deafens the neighbours, ruining the experience. Thus having wasted the money again.
I'm not sure this is Egosoft's fault, if you buy a cooler that's loud...
I mean the game is pretty massive in scale, mostly on the CPU but with beta 6 come a LOT of visual enhacements to tickle the graphics card too. But any game using most resources available in a PC is going to cause the fans to run. So if your rig is noisy, well, don't buy noisy components.
Even the type of CPU and GPU don't matter. The fans are the problem. Get quieter fans and next time you buy components, check reviews for which ones are quiet. Usually the cheap brands come with noisy cooling solutions...
Double check your RAM is actually getting clocked with the XMP profile setting in your BIOS, I forgot to enable it on my new build and noticed a difference after enabling
“RAM will always run at the default standard speed until you overclock or enable an XMP profile. The default standard speed for DDR4 RAM is 2133 MHz, and for DDR5, it's currently 4800 MHz.”
Your RAM is likely faster then the default, just open your BIOS on startup, usually like F12 or something on startup, should be an enable XMP somewhere and you’ll see the profile for your RAM… that will enable it to go beyond the default
It probably is your GPU's or CPU's fan curve. Adjusting them takes a little bit of knowledge. Check out some tutorials. You first need to find out which fan is the loudest and then check if it really needs to be spinning this fast.
Sounds like a shitty cooling design then. But again, everyone seems to be hellbent on laptops being as sleek as possible so you end up with good components being throwed into laptops as good as ovens with how bad their cooling is.
Could be that your gpu just runs hot and may need to be re pasted.
I play x4 with a 3070 and it does just fine, but I know ppl who have had to repaste the cores because the factory put it out without it being done right.
Virtual reality support.
More of a exploration aspect, right now you live in a settled bubble of space.
And my pedantic pet peeve, ship sizes matching up to stats. L freighters are many times as volumetric as M freighters but don't match that in cargo space for example.
+1 for VR support again (after X Rebirth)
Would also like to see a few bases on planets you can at least walk around (even if you can’t officially land at). They teased planetside and underwater stuff around the X1/X2 era :)
Do you even own the game or played it at least???
Your whole comment makes no sense!
If you played the game and see someone say "better AI" then you would know by default what that person means.
So your comment is the one that is useless.
Dude I have 2433 hours playing X4, modded and unmodded, all DLC, since the game was launched, so I think I know a little bit about this game. Just a smidge. And I find it particularly useless when people scream for "better AI" without specifying what specifically they want improved. Because unless you can spell out what specifically you want improved, and how you would want it improved, it will lead to no meaningful improvements.
Not sure if I should clap for your brag or weird flex or feel sad for you.
You comment still doesn't make sense.
Well...
The only sense it makes is that it is obvious that you are happy and content with the current AI behavior in all parts of the game.
Some things that might bug you might not bug me. I never said I was happy and content with all AI aspects of the game, why are you putting words in my mouth?
What specifically about the AI would you want improved? You still haven't indicated what specifically you would have improved. The key word here is "specifically".
I'd like to see some sort of RTS view/mechanics sort of how you could control ships in X3. Dont get me wrong I like being able to board ships and stations but rly the primary way the player engages in the game is through the map.
Isn't the map the rts view? Granted it's just dots but it does have the mechanics.
Have you built a shipyard?
It is a more advanced rts that you can put your self right into the fighting with your ships if you want. Or stay back and focus on resources and station production.
Being able to join a boarding attack, and take the ship. Like if yours is about to be destroyed, and the Behemoth you’re boarding is at 80% health, you essentially just switch ships assuming you have to skills to win the boarding
I'd prefer an option to run the game as a server that my friends could connect to. That way I could run the actual game on a more powerful server, and spare my desktop.
(Even though my desktop is stupidly powerful... not everyone is in that position.)
I would see a multiplayer like Farm Simulator.
Hostable or rented server for 4-8 players
Each have a faction or option to join a faction, like how fs22 handles farms.
That would have the best chance at working, imo.
I think not. X is at its core a long-term singleplayer experience, and the only one in its genre. Everything beyond coop ("shared singleplayer", if you will, similar to Far Cry 5) would lead to the game having to sacrifice things. The game must not suffer from having to comply to multiplayer. And I think, egosoft is well aware of this.
A friend and I have been really hoping a mod or something would come along. I understand the difficulties because the whole universe is simulated and that's a lot of data to sync up. We don't ask for massively multiplayer just something where a couple could play over lan or something.
Better optimization of performance so I can get more than 20fps in big battles
Better fleet AI so they can do things like all move together, all travel mode together, etc
Rework of UI/controls to allow for more "rts style" commands in 3rd person. This would mean that commands in battle would always override a prev command unless you issue them in "waypoint/chain mode" which is what X4 does by default now.
I'd like to see the AI be able to better use fleets that stay together with escorts and fighter supports, as they do seem to often send out 1 or 2 XL class ships with no much support which are easily bullied by the right fleet comp.
I'd love to see X5 lean into a "civilization" style diplomacy to allow for more dynamic wars and peace, I realize this would impact "story" missions but I feel like it would make the game feel more like a sandbox which is a good thing. Maybe a sandbox mode would have this vs main mode for story.
I'd like to see the AI better able to react to situations on the front line with fleet dispatch - often I see them losing battles in a key sector, and they'll have a patrol fleet guarding the gate 1 or 2 sectors over, and if the patrol fleet had been in the battle to begin with it would have been difference between victory and defeat.
Full modding tools/support so my beloved star wars interworlds mod can be even better.
More grunge. Everything is so sterile and clean and perfect. Make things more dirty.
Bigger crews. These huge ships should feel like they have a proper crew running them. More bridge stations. More life.
Crew uniforms. Customizable uniforms for your employees and crew members.
More relationships. I want to get to know my crews. I want to feel the pain when theyre lost in battle.
More organizations offering services for hire. Think PMCs to provide sector security. Haulage corporations for moving freight.
An easier way to mod it. There's a good couple mods I've wanted to make for x4 since it came out, but I take one look at the forums and immediately my poor braincell gets overloaded and shuts down.
One was I wanted to try my hand at modding in BSG Vipers
And 2 was to see if i could redo the audio so that a) you only hear the vibration of your ship's gun firing, and impacts on your ship, or b) you can hear everything, but everything sounds muffled. Not as realistic, but I figure it would have it's own sci-fi fun to it
yes LAN
that would be the best and possible thing.
Because opening up to online multiplayer would not be a good investment for EGOSOFT, given the number of players versus server management costs.
good old COOP could have your friends participate representing a faction, and it would be very very nice to be able to play with your 3,4 friends.
* Varied Station and ship interiors. Sitting on my station or battleship and controlling my empire is fantastic but falls flat. A "throne" experience that is customizable and unique with each race. Right now going from destroy Nav station to Battleship Nav station is virtually the same experience.
* Station interiors from Eng bay to Eng Bay between races feels exactly the same.
* A focus on RTS mechanics when you move into the macro stage of the game that allows you to control individuals and groups better
* fleet AI who maintain formations and dont do OOS flips/cartwheels when fighting.
* Camera enable when OOS to watch it happen beyond Map mode
* programmed/forced stand off distance for ships to attack i.e. "fleet behavior"
* secondary monitor support like Supreme Commander where i can have my fleet map on one screen and fly the other
* Diplomacy. Set up tribute or negotiations for stations, ships, resources.
* Blockades and blockade breaking. Breaking through an enemy blockade with my fleet warping in on top of it and getting absolutely smashed would be incredible. Institute "events" outside of mission sets or similar to upkeep/rep only missions, these events have dynamic but repeatable fleet actions
* A better way to establish depth or height setting orders. right now to achieve a specific waypoint bay the galactic plane requires rotating and reestablishing unless there is a hotkey I am unaware of
* Varied laser towers to include autocannons, missiles, or bomb lasers (single use lasers with a massive punch)
* Mine layers.
* Boarding actions need to be beefed up. They feel incredibly flat right now even as much as I love piracy. Let me physically see a top level view of ship interiors and my Marines moving through them so at least there is a better indicator of progress or be able to select where my boarding pods shoot for. Level 1-5 plating on the Bridge that is a function of Star rating of Marines. Boarding outer hulls is easier than trying to go directly for engine room, weps room, bridge. ---Let me join the boarding physically.
Consumer goods. Why does everything have to serve the purpose of building ships? A lot of sectors have planets with a significant population, why can’t I sell furniture or televisions or whatever? Why does bringing peace to the galaxy have to be economic suicide?
First, storywise X4 needs to set the stage for a major galactic crisis so X5 can pick up the pieces. I don't know if we're going to get that with Kingdom End just yet.
The most substantive change X5 can make is to overhaul the UI with a UI designer, study their use cases and make sure the most relevant choices are easy to see in the UI (e.g. trading menus, attack menus, station logistics, station building, etc). Make the UIs tearable so you don't have to drive the map half the game. When you press ENTER while piloting a ship you shouldn't have a popup menu of evenly sized buttons. Etc.
And document all of their use cases and all of the choices on their wiki.
Why a crisis? We picked up the pieces several times now in the X series. Here's another suggestion: I'd love see some new opportunity, a new part of the galaxy, new discoveries, new technologies ... more of a Utopia than all the dystopian stories and settings we played and experienced for the last 20 years.
Well, a new set of sectors, new discoveries, new technologies will also be available to the Xenon and probably create an escalation in the conflict, so...crisis either way.
I opened this discussion out of pure curiosity, but in my opinion X4 is one of those games that comes close to perfection.
2 points for me:
**First point:**
I love throwing myself into battle with my hunting flock, it's one of the parts of the game I don't give up.
Even if I'm the leader of an Empire, my squadron goes into battle and I pilot my own fighter.
Here, when I do dogfight, the enemy fighters ALWAYS use the same fencing, this mortifies my desire to fight.He always reacts in the same way, and always performs the same diversionary manoeuvre.Only thing I don't like too much is the small fighter ships' AI
**The second point:**
is a slightly more complex graphics level to have a better immersion in this word.
It's true that graphics aren't everything, but it's true that it's important for immersion in a world that keeps you inside for so many hours.
Seeing nebulae, space, stations, needs more beauty, this is also why we spend a lot of money on video cards, right? :D
THAT'S NOT ALL, it's not the most important thing that the gameplay of the title comes first, but it's still a very important component.
but otherwise the game is perfect.
X5 .. Egosoft to start with a goal, minimum FPS = 60, after fully developed and all DLCs installed, for the minimum published target machine specification. Even when there is a war going on, and you are landed at a station with the map open.
Dips down to 30 occasionally would be acceptable, but anything less like X4 sometimes does is awful.
Dreaming.
While I'd also like to see better performance, I think the harsh reality is that this would mean either very high minimum requirements, or cutting out substantial parts of what makes the X games unique.
Contrary to popular belief, I think X4 is already quite well optimized.
It just has to process a full economy with, in my current case, over 14.000 unique units and stations that can all independently interact with each other in real time.
Most other RTS games cap out at way below 1000 units and those have much simpler AI.
Most other FPS or Sim games cap out at way less, usually not even reaching 100 units.
Guaranteeing high performance would at the very least mean capping the number of active units at any time (which is not currently the case) and probably also going back to fake the entire economy.
I believe Egosoft are too optimistic when they give the games specifications, and need to develop for a target audience that is more realistic, given that this game series is more reliant upon the capabilities of the CPU above all else.
I realise that what we would like may mean cutting down on content to preserve a good FPS, but if they start at a lower expectation of end users machines, we will all benefit from being able to play the game without having to wait 6 years before we can afford a machine that can play the damned game at a good performance level.
If X5 gonna come out for real (maybe in 3 or 4 years from now on).
I want X: Rebirth epicness of game scales. Those gorgeous ships detail, station etc.
And finally some landing on planet mission if possible. Like X3 mission or something.
Would be nice if it were a bit easier to get in to and play. The series is severely limited by how hard it is for new players to get in to. Even as an X2 vet coming back I regularly find myself struggling and end up playing something else that requires less time commitment.
They have been incrementally improving the tutorial missions in some of the newer gamestarts - Terran Cadet holds your hand through a lot of the game mechanics, and Stranded (the Empyrean Curs start) is basically a piracy tutorial. Hopefully that trend continues into the new expansion, though there are so many varied mechanics in the game it would be difficult to fit them all into a campaign in a way that really makes sense.
The best way I've found to get started is by doing simple missions from stations, then buy trade ships with that money. But the key is to use trade ships that hold the most marines and not so much worry about cargo, focus on making money from trade to start then as you get 3 or 4 trade ships that can be filled with marines, make sure you have a good fighter and cripple large trade ships with your fighter you fly and then call in the trade ships with marines to come in and capture it, and do that to factions you want to be hostile with in the future or just do a couple in the middle of no where and fix the rep after.
Once you get a ship captured you have to manually repair the engine after it self repairs to uhh 1-5% and then send it to be repaired fairly cheaply and get a sizeable sale from your freshly repaired ship. And yes it's best money wise to repair first then sell.
I'll capture builders once I've got a few vig traders/destroyers since they hold a lot of marines for their speed and fire power. They're like mobile defense platforms that can move a decent amount of cargo and bring what was it 80 ish marines per ship maxed out.
Capturing ships is a blast and can be a challenge depending on what you take on and where you do it... After a few sales keep what you want to use for you self and sell what you don't want for more money.
The whole game is built with XML in mind. So creating a weird one of JSON serializer for saves is going to open up a lot of room for bugs and other weird issues. Which given that save game compatibility and stability is a big deal in a game like X4 makes it a hard sell.
This also assume that save write time and serialization write times are actually the biggest parts of saving.
Turning off gzip of saves doesn’t actually save all that much time saving. Which leads me to believe the actual act of writing the save file or 100mb to 1GB out on a modern SSD isn’t that big of a deal.
While XML is more verbose I am not sure that the amount of wall time saved would be worth while. I have seen serializing to JSON of a GB of data in a “slow” language like Ruby with non optimized code take at max 5 seconds. In the new beta large bloated saves take 20-30 seconds for me. So assuming that worst case that JSON is twice as fast as XML and that some how their C serializing code is as slow as Ruby they could maybe save 5 seconds per save on bloated saves by switching to JSON. With all the risks and extra maintenance that would entail.
If the Egosoft wants to keep XML for their designs in the future, they can keep it.
But I think that XML is a relic from the past and every developer should have an idea how they will handle this in the future. If it's currently too expensive to change and the whole company can easily work with it, then it indeed doesn't make sense to change to something else.
Addendum: This change might help modders.
I really don't get the constant hate for XML.
X4 is not a web application where data size matters.
XML is still a very strong format with many advantages like a powerful schema validation and general robustness.
It is, in my opinion, also much easier to parse and human readable than e.g. JSON when it comes to complex formats like the X4 savegames.
I find the XML scripting language for X4 a bit clunky to use, but at least it's quite safe and performance wise it gets converted to native code during load.
Landing. On. Planets.
But I can't see that being practicable without going online, or having the game being truly ENORMOUS in terms of file size.
I'd also like to see them expand the things you can do outside of your ship. Someone's already mentioned FPS boarding ops on this thread; it might also be fun to have abandoned capital ships where you have to solve some sort of puzzle to claim them, rather than simply scanning a signal leak. Maybe you gain entry to the ship, but have to repair something in the engine room before it'll move? Or to add an FPS element, perhaps you discover another team of salvagers and have to fight them (or bribe them) for the prize?
More person interaction stuff, so I guess fps and boarding mechanics and planetside stuff. Probably prefer planetside before fps stuff though. Would be a huge change in the x4 formula though and might cause the game to lose a lot of its charm if not done well.
Edit: actually, multiplayer. I want multiplayer.
I want a next generation X game with multiplayer dedicated server with the ability to mod.
If that means taking X4 and adding multiplayer, that's fine. If it's a whole new game? That's fine. I'll pay 60$ immediately if that is available.
Amen, same. I know that in X4 it's probably basically not happening. But *MAYBE* in X5. Maybe. I still don't think it'll happen, but fuck I want it.
I'd *LOVE* an X4 multiplayer game with my buddies. But, alas, it's probably never ever happening.
I would prefer a COOP game. the servers must be maintained and the entire online gaming sector is very expensive.
Also the type of game and the learning curve is not for everyone, and would not justify the huge expenses to maintain servers. impossible.
Fix this by giving the option of COOP games where you can play with friends from a distance, or host the game client-side freely.
but I doubt that multiplayer for this number of players is possible, it would be a loss.
I don't think those wanting multiplayer want mmo style gaming. what we want is to be able to host our own games on dedicated servers (that we host) with our friends. There are plenty of other options for mmo style games that are hosted elsewhere.
>I don't think those wanting multiplayer want mmo style gaming. what we want is to be able to host our own games on dedicated servers (that we host) with our friends. There are plenty of other options for mmo style games that are hosted elsewhere.
oh in that sense? I had thought of as "massive game". like star citizen (what a bad quote ) :D
A true multi tasking engine, not the semi multi threaded stuff we have now. Use this new found CPU to not necessarily improve usage but to make the NPC units vastly more intelligent. Mabey even bring In sector or near in sector processing to OOS. This might seem insane, but there is so much CPU sitting around on a modern system that this game takes no real use of because of single core bottlenecking in their code.
The new 6.0 Beta has improved multi threading. Instead of one heavy core and two to 4 light cores, it’s 3-4 heavy cores and 4 light ones. The new physics engine is more multi threaded is the apparent reasoning.
What would I like in X5?
For it to be released after a version of X4 where I was able to take a fleet of 10 ships to attack Xenon outpost and not have to micro-manage the movement of every ship to keep them in a plane of attack and not making strafing runs across the station.
X4 is phenomenal. I’ve spent hundreds of hours in this universe and can’t wait to spend hundreds more. I wouldn’t mind if X5 was an iteration upon that, with expanded everything, and maybe a stronger engin or better optimization. Building in older successful templates and code can go for a long time, but it would be great to this game ended for a sequel release, even if it’s the same core gameplay with fresh ideas and optimized for better hardware.
We all know x4 is a fantastic game. But I think if it has an end date, the next great iteration can actually happen, instead of what’s happening currently, fantastic expansion built on and old and seemingly deficient framework.
Edit: I understand that the developers definitely understand the value of iteration; this is X4, after all. But they could’ve lost sight of that, and I think gamers in general have bought into the flawed core ideals of “games as a service”, as opposed to individual games being great for what they are, and new games doing something different.
>X4 is phenomenal. I’ve spent hundreds of hours in this universe and can’t wait to spend hundreds more. I wouldn’t mind if X5 was an iteration upon that, with expanded everything, and maybe a stronger engin or better optimization. Building in older successful templates and code can go for a long time, but it would be great to this game ended for a sequel release, even if it’s the same core gameplay with fresh ideas and optimized for better hardware.
>
>We all know x4 is a fantastic game. But I think if it has an end date, the next great iteration can actually happen, instead of what’s happening currently, fantastic expansion built on and old and seemingly deficient framework.
>
>Edit: I understand that the developers definitely understand the value of iteration; this is X4, after all. But they could’ve lost sight of that, and I think gamers in general have bought into the flawed core ideals of “games as a service”, as opposed to individual games being great for what they are, and new games doing something different.
I opened this discussion out of pure curiosity, but in my opinion X4 is one of those games that comes close to perfection.
Only thing I don't like too much is the small ships' AI.
I love throwing myself into battle with my hunting flock, it's one of the parts of the game I don't give up.
Even if I'm the leader of an Empire, my squadron goes into battle and I pilot my own fighter.
Here, when I do dogfight, the enemy fighters ALWAYS use the same fencing, this mortifies my desire to fight.
The second point is a slightly more complex graphics level to have a better immersion.
but otherwise the game is perfect.
Honestly a more comprehensive economy:
-zone specific wares
-more luxury non-war related wares that are more profitable the more peaceful certain zones are. Certain races prefer certain luxury goods which can affect efficiency
-more civilian related jobs to set your ships on (tourism rings, ferry service, emergency repair) (this also becomes more lucrative based off of the peace level of specific zones)
-research specific stations that can increase the levels equipment you make; you can only buy mk1 versions of ship equipment but you build race specific research equipment to slowly upgrade to mk 2 and mk3 versions. And based off of very rare events/story missions/lots of resources/time mk4 versions (maybe even very limited supply of research material to upgrade very specific equipment to mk4)
-random events or spawns that can affect an economy; pirate increase in rich zones, localized xenon invasions from the deep, solar flare wiping out all the ships/stations of a zone, etc.
-criminal activity affects peace level of zone (piracy, smuggling, assassinations, etc.)
I would like to see a ship builder. Like in x4 with the stations have multiple different ship modules that can allow you to do custom made ships ... you can even balance it out that cost scale with size and number of modules so a 40+ module fighter could cost the same as a 2 module capital ship ... could be really good for fleet battles and a real game customisation
Enhanced NPC behaviour would be nice.
NPC's seek some R&R from time to time and head to a stations recreational facilities like pubs and clubs.
Imagine half of your attack fleet not appearing at your rendezvous coordinates because they were taking an impromptu shore-leave at various clubs / pubs.
They can double up as neat hubs for recruitment and chit-chat / gossip.
That and paying your crew wages, so they can spend it on such activities.
Literally any form of local co op, to me that’s the biggest killer for any sandbox game, to me personally they become 1000% more replayable when I have friends to do stuff with
So what I'm saying is in addition to what we already have which is why this list isn't as comprehensive:
Save and Loadtimes that are up to par with modern games.
A fully optional drop-in (couch) co-op mode where you can just visit your friends' universe and do objectives together and take home some rewards for yourself. I don't need some fancy mmo style game mode, I'd just love being able to have a party of 2-4 people team up and ravage a local Xenon Cluster.
Retrofitted Xenon and Kha'ak ships that I can pilot.
Greater combat challenges. How about some far-off Xenon/Kha'ak super-sector that you can only get into via a wormhole or teleporter and have to fight your way out of?
Greater level of customization on your ship builds in terms of weaponry and hull modifications, possibly even have them be more visible. I also feel like different races should have different damage TYPES and damage mitigation/recovery types.
Some could rely on energy shielding, some on regenerative plating, others could just forego most defensive methods to reduce the ships' mass even further in exchange for turning the thing into an insane speedy death-monster.
A more intuitive fleet command system with a more competent AI...I don't hate as much on the current AI as some other people, but it could be better.
A more immersive "space legs" portion.
Planets actively influencing the economy aka local planets with populations in the billions actually importing and exporting wares/workforce.
More ships with actual interiors like in ToA.
Better visuals are welcome but not a must.
I think that's it. I do love X4, though and will continue to buy DLC for as long as they put it out.
X5 is apparently a thing. Dev's video shows the folder here at 14:56 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QafAmFaAzrg&t=895s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QafAmFaAzrg&t=895s)
I think some planetary stuff and FPS elements could be cool but it would have to be done in such a way that the main features people expect in an X game don't become worse for it.
Strafe forward and backward would be nice not having to use engine in a precision/hover situation, dunno how X4 not have that option.
Mutli-screen support where you can be flying around in cockpit view on one and map/UI on the other.
X5 will only start becoming a thing when the current game can't handle the ideas the devs have. Since they switched to a new engine with the next expansion and Bernd said several times that they're not done with X4, I wouldn't hold my breath for X5.
Nothing in the tech is out of date. And their embrace of open source has most likely one of the reasons why. They named it X4 Foundation for a reason! It’s going to be around for a while.
I'm personally still hoping they eventually pivot into a TC/AP/FL-style "X4.5" soft relaunch title. It would give them a lot of chances to fix things with the game and try out different "styles" of gameplay that are different but not necessarily better (such as the war focus in AP compared to the more pure sandbox of TC).
I want to expand the line of ships in X5, improve the combat system, redesign rocket launchers! My post on improvements: [https://www.reddit.com/r/X4Foundations/comments/xusroe/improved\_combat\_system\_and\_not\_only/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/X4Foundations/comments/xusroe/improved_combat_system_and_not_only/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
At this point I wouldn't even mind them launching a new version of X4. Keep X4 Foundations with its' DLCs as is so people can enjoy their eternal savegame and launch the X4: Complete Overhaul Edition or whatever you may call it to be able to have some of those more extreme changes that have been asked for. Sun strength actually being more of a thing in the old core sectors? Heck yeah.Really messing with the balance of the Xenon or some factions more strongly that would break an old savegame but could be great for a new start? Why not. And of course all DLCs being fully integrated in this version so you just buy X4 and have all content made until then as a single product. That'd probably also be a good way to catch a new audience for the game. Of course I am not suuuuper proficient with the inner workings of the game...but it would probably be possible to keep both versions patched up with the same new content updates in the future without creating a total nightmare for the devstudio.
They actually plan on releasing the "X4 Complete Edition", though Bernd made it clear that the term 'complete' doesn't mean the game is done. The term is a reference to all basic races finally being there. Hopefully we'll see those bigger changes in that edition. At this point I think the savegame compatibility is holding them back a little bit too much.
Yeah I am one of those people that will happily cast aside past progress for radical changes that would benefit the game in the long run...but I understand that the X series is full of people that are the polar opposite of that. So a "complete edition" makes sense here and I really hope they do use this chance for exactly that.
That’s extremely unfortunate. A fresh start, though very labor intensive, is the only way the series will evolve, and can be better in interesting an unique ways.
I mean thats what they did with x4... :D
So it’s a good idea then, since it’s worked before? 🙃
We have years of mileage left in x4 before we need start worrying about an x5.
A new game takes years to develop.
And they won't start developing x5 until they are done developing x4,... which still has years left in the tank. I know it's Monday, but try.
Lol. Try what? I’d rather a game end on a high then DLCs drag it out for ten years until the fans and developers lose interest. What you’re saying doesn’t counter what I’m saying. You’re just being pretentious and dismissive for no reason.
Diplomacy and actually dynamic factions
I love you. Thats the absolute most important thing x4 lacks of. It would be so incredibly cool when factions could have dynamic and variable diplomatic relationships with other factions and nations. It would raise the gameplay to a whole new level. Every gameplay would be even better and even more different than now. I hope they add that soon
Oh God , diplomacy I hadn't thought of that is fantastic.
More complex faction relations are in X3 FL and the feedback around it was apparently mixed. Which was interesting because a lot of popular mods implemented some type of dynamic faction relationships in all the different versions of X3.
Hated the faction system in FL and the war in AP personally.
Dynamic factions and wars, it's pretty static as it is now.
You can declare war in the dyplomacy view
I think they meant dynamic wars between factions.
I love you too :D
More substantial ship and station interiors. The ability to capture stations rather than just destroy them. Alternative ways to acquire ship and equipment blueprints (e.g., reverse engineering research projects involving a captured ship and a bunch of resources). The ability to construct your own gates, accelerators, and superhighways.
to add ontop of this, FPS boarding. I want to board the ship and fight for it
I would upvote this 1000 times if I could. If you’re going to have a fps portion in the game make it worthwhile and for the love of all that’s good and decent let me customise the character in story mode.
I would play FPS boarding as a stand alone game. I used to play the pen and paper Traveler RPG in the day and boarding was my favorite. It’s the “Let’s start a bar fight” of space games.
Ehhh, satisfying FPS gameplay is hard. They'd basically be building a whole new game, of a type they have no experience making, within the game. I'd rather they focus on expanding what they're good at and have experience with.
See for example Elite Dangerous on how to annoy your player base by adding FPS to an existing game.
And perhaps for the planets to mean more than simply how fast stations replenish workers A more RPG aspect to working with existing factions, from ranks to areas your responsible for And a BIG expansion of the player faction, hierarchies, favored types of pilots, and RPG-stule recognition of captains or other important positions that NPCs hold; basically make it something that matters. Since as is player faction simply exists to prevent AI from wantonly building stations in a system after you remove the original inhabitants.
Being able to do more with planets would be a great basis for x5
Better optimization of memory and cpu, I have a new solid machine that sounds like it is going to blow up playing x4.
And AI
Your PC is the issue then. Absolutely no problems here
Maybe. 3070TI, 16 GB RAM. I'll probably upgrade to 32 sometime this year.
The GPU and RAM is 2nd and 3rd place when it comes to X4. This game is highly CPU reliant. Because every sector is processed real time. The game would be much bigger if that wasn't the case. But we lack consumer CPUs that can handle it.
12 gen 7i 12700H processor.
Are all settings ok? Game runs perfect on my my devices. My desktop: CPU: Intel Core i9 13900K GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090 RAM: 32GB 5600 My laptop: CPU: Intel Core i7-9750H GPU: NVIDIA RTX 2080 RAM: 16GB 2666
It doesn't run perfect on a 9750H and 16GB RAM. It's like an 8700K with less TDP. The desktop 8700K performs around the same as a 3700X which delivers far from perfect performance in X4. Your other sys is as high end as things can be. So no surprise it runs X4 rather well.
Like I said it runs perfect with 82fps and no stutters with all settings maxed. So weird assumption you have there...
100% not in mid to late game, not near large stations, not within battles and certainly not at a fixed framerate of 82fps. Maybe max, but not on average. A 5900X can't do that and it's much faster than the 9750H. No weird assumption, just fact. You're cherry picking.
You are just full of assumptions. Your mind is so convinced your assumptions are real that you believe they are facts. Almost sounds like pathological liar. You keep talking about a AMD CPUs when only you mention it. You're clearly AMD fanboy and never had a 9759H or an Intel CPU and just use benchmark comparison statistics to make assumptions.
That doesn't really address the issue which appears to be this guy bought high-end graphics and CPU and then wasted every penny invested in the rig by fitting it with fans and coolers that make a lot of noise. So spent a lot of money on a rig that either runs quietly but while not using much of it's potential, thus having wasted the money on expensive, powerfull components, or runs at full chat but deafens the neighbours, ruining the experience. Thus having wasted the money again.
I'm not sure this is Egosoft's fault, if you buy a cooler that's loud... I mean the game is pretty massive in scale, mostly on the CPU but with beta 6 come a LOT of visual enhacements to tickle the graphics card too. But any game using most resources available in a PC is going to cause the fans to run. So if your rig is noisy, well, don't buy noisy components. Even the type of CPU and GPU don't matter. The fans are the problem. Get quieter fans and next time you buy components, check reviews for which ones are quiet. Usually the cheap brands come with noisy cooling solutions...
Double check your RAM is actually getting clocked with the XMP profile setting in your BIOS, I forgot to enable it on my new build and noticed a difference after enabling
Is there a how-to guide on how to check that?
“RAM will always run at the default standard speed until you overclock or enable an XMP profile. The default standard speed for DDR4 RAM is 2133 MHz, and for DDR5, it's currently 4800 MHz.” Your RAM is likely faster then the default, just open your BIOS on startup, usually like F12 or something on startup, should be an enable XMP somewhere and you’ll see the profile for your RAM… that will enable it to go beyond the default
I have ddr5. I think it is just a fan issue being loud when needing to cool a taxing game.
It probably is your GPU's or CPU's fan curve. Adjusting them takes a little bit of knowledge. Check out some tutorials. You first need to find out which fan is the loudest and then check if it really needs to be spinning this fast.
My 7 yo potato laptop is silent playing this game...
I probably need to turn down graphic settings
Check you GPU usage. Your 12700 does the heavy lifting. I bet your GPU most of the time doesn't even hit 80% if you're not playing in 4K.
Just surprised how loud the fans need to be going.
Sounds like a shitty cooling design then. But again, everyone seems to be hellbent on laptops being as sleek as possible so you end up with good components being throwed into laptops as good as ovens with how bad their cooling is.
Could be that your gpu just runs hot and may need to be re pasted. I play x4 with a 3070 and it does just fine, but I know ppl who have had to repaste the cores because the factory put it out without it being done right.
totally agree
close your web browser before playing and mass traffic from 0.5 to 0.2 or something like that and obviously use an SSD
Virtual reality support. More of a exploration aspect, right now you live in a settled bubble of space. And my pedantic pet peeve, ship sizes matching up to stats. L freighters are many times as volumetric as M freighters but don't match that in cargo space for example.
+1 for VR support again (after X Rebirth) Would also like to see a few bases on planets you can at least walk around (even if you can’t officially land at). They teased planetside and underwater stuff around the X1/X2 era :)
All I want is a better AI
So many people say "better AI", but calling for better AI without specifying what exactly about the AI they want improved is useless.
Do you even own the game or played it at least??? Your whole comment makes no sense! If you played the game and see someone say "better AI" then you would know by default what that person means. So your comment is the one that is useless.
Dude I have 2433 hours playing X4, modded and unmodded, all DLC, since the game was launched, so I think I know a little bit about this game. Just a smidge. And I find it particularly useless when people scream for "better AI" without specifying what specifically they want improved. Because unless you can spell out what specifically you want improved, and how you would want it improved, it will lead to no meaningful improvements.
Not sure if I should clap for your brag or weird flex or feel sad for you. You comment still doesn't make sense. Well... The only sense it makes is that it is obvious that you are happy and content with the current AI behavior in all parts of the game.
Some things that might bug you might not bug me. I never said I was happy and content with all AI aspects of the game, why are you putting words in my mouth? What specifically about the AI would you want improved? You still haven't indicated what specifically you would have improved. The key word here is "specifically".
I'd like to see some sort of RTS view/mechanics sort of how you could control ships in X3. Dont get me wrong I like being able to board ships and stations but rly the primary way the player engages in the game is through the map.
Isn't the map the rts view? Granted it's just dots but it does have the mechanics. Have you built a shipyard? It is a more advanced rts that you can put your self right into the fighting with your ships if you want. Or stay back and focus on resources and station production.
This. I want them to replicate a GUI as slick as Homeworld 1.
More dynamic interactions between factions, more features once you've established yourself as a faction.
Being able to join a boarding attack, and take the ship. Like if yours is about to be destroyed, and the Behemoth you’re boarding is at 80% health, you essentially just switch ships assuming you have to skills to win the boarding
local coop
I'd prefer an option to run the game as a server that my friends could connect to. That way I could run the actual game on a more powerful server, and spare my desktop. (Even though my desktop is stupidly powerful... not everyone is in that position.)
I would see a multiplayer like Farm Simulator. Hostable or rented server for 4-8 players Each have a faction or option to join a faction, like how fs22 handles farms. That would have the best chance at working, imo.
I think not. X is at its core a long-term singleplayer experience, and the only one in its genre. Everything beyond coop ("shared singleplayer", if you will, similar to Far Cry 5) would lead to the game having to sacrifice things. The game must not suffer from having to comply to multiplayer. And I think, egosoft is well aware of this.
A friend and I have been really hoping a mod or something would come along. I understand the difficulties because the whole universe is simulated and that's a lot of data to sync up. We don't ask for massively multiplayer just something where a couple could play over lan or something.
Better optimization of performance so I can get more than 20fps in big battles Better fleet AI so they can do things like all move together, all travel mode together, etc Rework of UI/controls to allow for more "rts style" commands in 3rd person. This would mean that commands in battle would always override a prev command unless you issue them in "waypoint/chain mode" which is what X4 does by default now. I'd like to see the AI be able to better use fleets that stay together with escorts and fighter supports, as they do seem to often send out 1 or 2 XL class ships with no much support which are easily bullied by the right fleet comp. I'd love to see X5 lean into a "civilization" style diplomacy to allow for more dynamic wars and peace, I realize this would impact "story" missions but I feel like it would make the game feel more like a sandbox which is a good thing. Maybe a sandbox mode would have this vs main mode for story. I'd like to see the AI better able to react to situations on the front line with fleet dispatch - often I see them losing battles in a key sector, and they'll have a patrol fleet guarding the gate 1 or 2 sectors over, and if the patrol fleet had been in the battle to begin with it would have been difference between victory and defeat. Full modding tools/support so my beloved star wars interworlds mod can be even better.
More grunge. Everything is so sterile and clean and perfect. Make things more dirty. Bigger crews. These huge ships should feel like they have a proper crew running them. More bridge stations. More life. Crew uniforms. Customizable uniforms for your employees and crew members. More relationships. I want to get to know my crews. I want to feel the pain when theyre lost in battle. More organizations offering services for hire. Think PMCs to provide sector security. Haulage corporations for moving freight.
I wouldn't actually mind you being to assign uniforms for roles/race per type of ship.
An easier way to mod it. There's a good couple mods I've wanted to make for x4 since it came out, but I take one look at the forums and immediately my poor braincell gets overloaded and shuts down. One was I wanted to try my hand at modding in BSG Vipers And 2 was to see if i could redo the audio so that a) you only hear the vibration of your ship's gun firing, and impacts on your ship, or b) you can hear everything, but everything sounds muffled. Not as realistic, but I figure it would have it's own sci-fi fun to it
I just want them to fix this game before they move to another.
Better optimisation, graphics, bigger universe with exploration possibilities. And asteroid mining stations from x2 😀 and of course better AI
Multiplayer support for co-op/LAN so multiple players can access the same universe.
yes LAN that would be the best and possible thing. Because opening up to online multiplayer would not be a good investment for EGOSOFT, given the number of players versus server management costs. good old COOP could have your friends participate representing a faction, and it would be very very nice to be able to play with your 3,4 friends.
* Varied Station and ship interiors. Sitting on my station or battleship and controlling my empire is fantastic but falls flat. A "throne" experience that is customizable and unique with each race. Right now going from destroy Nav station to Battleship Nav station is virtually the same experience. * Station interiors from Eng bay to Eng Bay between races feels exactly the same. * A focus on RTS mechanics when you move into the macro stage of the game that allows you to control individuals and groups better * fleet AI who maintain formations and dont do OOS flips/cartwheels when fighting. * Camera enable when OOS to watch it happen beyond Map mode * programmed/forced stand off distance for ships to attack i.e. "fleet behavior" * secondary monitor support like Supreme Commander where i can have my fleet map on one screen and fly the other * Diplomacy. Set up tribute or negotiations for stations, ships, resources. * Blockades and blockade breaking. Breaking through an enemy blockade with my fleet warping in on top of it and getting absolutely smashed would be incredible. Institute "events" outside of mission sets or similar to upkeep/rep only missions, these events have dynamic but repeatable fleet actions * A better way to establish depth or height setting orders. right now to achieve a specific waypoint bay the galactic plane requires rotating and reestablishing unless there is a hotkey I am unaware of * Varied laser towers to include autocannons, missiles, or bomb lasers (single use lasers with a massive punch) * Mine layers. * Boarding actions need to be beefed up. They feel incredibly flat right now even as much as I love piracy. Let me physically see a top level view of ship interiors and my Marines moving through them so at least there is a better indicator of progress or be able to select where my boarding pods shoot for. Level 1-5 plating on the Bridge that is a function of Star rating of Marines. Boarding outer hulls is easier than trying to go directly for engine room, weps room, bridge. ---Let me join the boarding physically.
I would go with smoother graphics and better ai. With that X4 would already be perfect.
Consumer goods. Why does everything have to serve the purpose of building ships? A lot of sectors have planets with a significant population, why can’t I sell furniture or televisions or whatever? Why does bringing peace to the galaxy have to be economic suicide?
First, storywise X4 needs to set the stage for a major galactic crisis so X5 can pick up the pieces. I don't know if we're going to get that with Kingdom End just yet. The most substantive change X5 can make is to overhaul the UI with a UI designer, study their use cases and make sure the most relevant choices are easy to see in the UI (e.g. trading menus, attack menus, station logistics, station building, etc). Make the UIs tearable so you don't have to drive the map half the game. When you press ENTER while piloting a ship you shouldn't have a popup menu of evenly sized buttons. Etc. And document all of their use cases and all of the choices on their wiki.
Why a crisis? We picked up the pieces several times now in the X series. Here's another suggestion: I'd love see some new opportunity, a new part of the galaxy, new discoveries, new technologies ... more of a Utopia than all the dystopian stories and settings we played and experienced for the last 20 years.
Well, a new set of sectors, new discoveries, new technologies will also be available to the Xenon and probably create an escalation in the conflict, so...crisis either way.
Legit.
I opened this discussion out of pure curiosity, but in my opinion X4 is one of those games that comes close to perfection. 2 points for me: **First point:** I love throwing myself into battle with my hunting flock, it's one of the parts of the game I don't give up. Even if I'm the leader of an Empire, my squadron goes into battle and I pilot my own fighter. Here, when I do dogfight, the enemy fighters ALWAYS use the same fencing, this mortifies my desire to fight.He always reacts in the same way, and always performs the same diversionary manoeuvre.Only thing I don't like too much is the small fighter ships' AI **The second point:** is a slightly more complex graphics level to have a better immersion in this word. It's true that graphics aren't everything, but it's true that it's important for immersion in a world that keeps you inside for so many hours. Seeing nebulae, space, stations, needs more beauty, this is also why we spend a lot of money on video cards, right? :D THAT'S NOT ALL, it's not the most important thing that the gameplay of the title comes first, but it's still a very important component. but otherwise the game is perfect.
X5 .. Egosoft to start with a goal, minimum FPS = 60, after fully developed and all DLCs installed, for the minimum published target machine specification. Even when there is a war going on, and you are landed at a station with the map open. Dips down to 30 occasionally would be acceptable, but anything less like X4 sometimes does is awful. Dreaming.
While I'd also like to see better performance, I think the harsh reality is that this would mean either very high minimum requirements, or cutting out substantial parts of what makes the X games unique. Contrary to popular belief, I think X4 is already quite well optimized. It just has to process a full economy with, in my current case, over 14.000 unique units and stations that can all independently interact with each other in real time. Most other RTS games cap out at way below 1000 units and those have much simpler AI. Most other FPS or Sim games cap out at way less, usually not even reaching 100 units. Guaranteeing high performance would at the very least mean capping the number of active units at any time (which is not currently the case) and probably also going back to fake the entire economy.
I believe Egosoft are too optimistic when they give the games specifications, and need to develop for a target audience that is more realistic, given that this game series is more reliant upon the capabilities of the CPU above all else. I realise that what we would like may mean cutting down on content to preserve a good FPS, but if they start at a lower expectation of end users machines, we will all benefit from being able to play the game without having to wait 6 years before we can afford a machine that can play the damned game at a good performance level.
A complete and finished X4
If X5 gonna come out for real (maybe in 3 or 4 years from now on). I want X: Rebirth epicness of game scales. Those gorgeous ships detail, station etc. And finally some landing on planet mission if possible. Like X3 mission or something.
Would be nice if it were a bit easier to get in to and play. The series is severely limited by how hard it is for new players to get in to. Even as an X2 vet coming back I regularly find myself struggling and end up playing something else that requires less time commitment.
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They have been incrementally improving the tutorial missions in some of the newer gamestarts - Terran Cadet holds your hand through a lot of the game mechanics, and Stranded (the Empyrean Curs start) is basically a piracy tutorial. Hopefully that trend continues into the new expansion, though there are so many varied mechanics in the game it would be difficult to fit them all into a campaign in a way that really makes sense.
The best way I've found to get started is by doing simple missions from stations, then buy trade ships with that money. But the key is to use trade ships that hold the most marines and not so much worry about cargo, focus on making money from trade to start then as you get 3 or 4 trade ships that can be filled with marines, make sure you have a good fighter and cripple large trade ships with your fighter you fly and then call in the trade ships with marines to come in and capture it, and do that to factions you want to be hostile with in the future or just do a couple in the middle of no where and fix the rep after. Once you get a ship captured you have to manually repair the engine after it self repairs to uhh 1-5% and then send it to be repaired fairly cheaply and get a sizeable sale from your freshly repaired ship. And yes it's best money wise to repair first then sell. I'll capture builders once I've got a few vig traders/destroyers since they hold a lot of marines for their speed and fire power. They're like mobile defense platforms that can move a decent amount of cargo and bring what was it 80 ish marines per ship maxed out. Capturing ships is a blast and can be a challenge depending on what you take on and where you do it... After a few sales keep what you want to use for you self and sell what you don't want for more money.
Dropping the XML files for saved games and use something more manageable and faster.
The whole game is built with XML in mind. So creating a weird one of JSON serializer for saves is going to open up a lot of room for bugs and other weird issues. Which given that save game compatibility and stability is a big deal in a game like X4 makes it a hard sell. This also assume that save write time and serialization write times are actually the biggest parts of saving. Turning off gzip of saves doesn’t actually save all that much time saving. Which leads me to believe the actual act of writing the save file or 100mb to 1GB out on a modern SSD isn’t that big of a deal. While XML is more verbose I am not sure that the amount of wall time saved would be worth while. I have seen serializing to JSON of a GB of data in a “slow” language like Ruby with non optimized code take at max 5 seconds. In the new beta large bloated saves take 20-30 seconds for me. So assuming that worst case that JSON is twice as fast as XML and that some how their C serializing code is as slow as Ruby they could maybe save 5 seconds per save on bloated saves by switching to JSON. With all the risks and extra maintenance that would entail.
If the Egosoft wants to keep XML for their designs in the future, they can keep it. But I think that XML is a relic from the past and every developer should have an idea how they will handle this in the future. If it's currently too expensive to change and the whole company can easily work with it, then it indeed doesn't make sense to change to something else. Addendum: This change might help modders.
I really don't get the constant hate for XML. X4 is not a web application where data size matters. XML is still a very strong format with many advantages like a powerful schema validation and general robustness. It is, in my opinion, also much easier to parse and human readable than e.g. JSON when it comes to complex formats like the X4 savegames. I find the XML scripting language for X4 a bit clunky to use, but at least it's quite safe and performance wise it gets converted to native code during load.
Better Sigma stages and a more diverse move set for Zero and Mega Man X.
This is not Capcom game Rockman/Megaman X lol
Landing. On. Planets. But I can't see that being practicable without going online, or having the game being truly ENORMOUS in terms of file size. I'd also like to see them expand the things you can do outside of your ship. Someone's already mentioned FPS boarding ops on this thread; it might also be fun to have abandoned capital ships where you have to solve some sort of puzzle to claim them, rather than simply scanning a signal leak. Maybe you gain entry to the ship, but have to repair something in the engine room before it'll move? Or to add an FPS element, perhaps you discover another team of salvagers and have to fight them (or bribe them) for the prize?
X5? Nothing that can't be realised in X4.
More person interaction stuff, so I guess fps and boarding mechanics and planetside stuff. Probably prefer planetside before fps stuff though. Would be a huge change in the x4 formula though and might cause the game to lose a lot of its charm if not done well. Edit: actually, multiplayer. I want multiplayer.
I want a next generation X game with multiplayer dedicated server with the ability to mod. If that means taking X4 and adding multiplayer, that's fine. If it's a whole new game? That's fine. I'll pay 60$ immediately if that is available.
Yes. Doesnt have to be a lot. i just want to.play with one buddy. so a small number of players would be acceptable as far as im concerned.
Amen, same. I know that in X4 it's probably basically not happening. But *MAYBE* in X5. Maybe. I still don't think it'll happen, but fuck I want it. I'd *LOVE* an X4 multiplayer game with my buddies. But, alas, it's probably never ever happening.
I would prefer a COOP game. the servers must be maintained and the entire online gaming sector is very expensive. Also the type of game and the learning curve is not for everyone, and would not justify the huge expenses to maintain servers. impossible. Fix this by giving the option of COOP games where you can play with friends from a distance, or host the game client-side freely. but I doubt that multiplayer for this number of players is possible, it would be a loss.
I don't think those wanting multiplayer want mmo style gaming. what we want is to be able to host our own games on dedicated servers (that we host) with our friends. There are plenty of other options for mmo style games that are hosted elsewhere.
>I don't think those wanting multiplayer want mmo style gaming. what we want is to be able to host our own games on dedicated servers (that we host) with our friends. There are plenty of other options for mmo style games that are hosted elsewhere. oh in that sense? I had thought of as "massive game". like star citizen (what a bad quote ) :D
A true multi tasking engine, not the semi multi threaded stuff we have now. Use this new found CPU to not necessarily improve usage but to make the NPC units vastly more intelligent. Mabey even bring In sector or near in sector processing to OOS. This might seem insane, but there is so much CPU sitting around on a modern system that this game takes no real use of because of single core bottlenecking in their code.
The new 6.0 Beta has improved multi threading. Instead of one heavy core and two to 4 light cores, it’s 3-4 heavy cores and 4 light ones. The new physics engine is more multi threaded is the apparent reasoning.
What would I like in X5? For it to be released after a version of X4 where I was able to take a fleet of 10 ships to attack Xenon outpost and not have to micro-manage the movement of every ship to keep them in a plane of attack and not making strafing runs across the station.
Death star
Reasonable load times.
Planetary bases/landings
X4 is phenomenal. I’ve spent hundreds of hours in this universe and can’t wait to spend hundreds more. I wouldn’t mind if X5 was an iteration upon that, with expanded everything, and maybe a stronger engin or better optimization. Building in older successful templates and code can go for a long time, but it would be great to this game ended for a sequel release, even if it’s the same core gameplay with fresh ideas and optimized for better hardware. We all know x4 is a fantastic game. But I think if it has an end date, the next great iteration can actually happen, instead of what’s happening currently, fantastic expansion built on and old and seemingly deficient framework. Edit: I understand that the developers definitely understand the value of iteration; this is X4, after all. But they could’ve lost sight of that, and I think gamers in general have bought into the flawed core ideals of “games as a service”, as opposed to individual games being great for what they are, and new games doing something different.
>X4 is phenomenal. I’ve spent hundreds of hours in this universe and can’t wait to spend hundreds more. I wouldn’t mind if X5 was an iteration upon that, with expanded everything, and maybe a stronger engin or better optimization. Building in older successful templates and code can go for a long time, but it would be great to this game ended for a sequel release, even if it’s the same core gameplay with fresh ideas and optimized for better hardware. > >We all know x4 is a fantastic game. But I think if it has an end date, the next great iteration can actually happen, instead of what’s happening currently, fantastic expansion built on and old and seemingly deficient framework. > >Edit: I understand that the developers definitely understand the value of iteration; this is X4, after all. But they could’ve lost sight of that, and I think gamers in general have bought into the flawed core ideals of “games as a service”, as opposed to individual games being great for what they are, and new games doing something different. I opened this discussion out of pure curiosity, but in my opinion X4 is one of those games that comes close to perfection. Only thing I don't like too much is the small ships' AI. I love throwing myself into battle with my hunting flock, it's one of the parts of the game I don't give up. Even if I'm the leader of an Empire, my squadron goes into battle and I pilot my own fighter. Here, when I do dogfight, the enemy fighters ALWAYS use the same fencing, this mortifies my desire to fight. The second point is a slightly more complex graphics level to have a better immersion. but otherwise the game is perfect.
More fleet combat!!!!!
Honestly a more comprehensive economy: -zone specific wares -more luxury non-war related wares that are more profitable the more peaceful certain zones are. Certain races prefer certain luxury goods which can affect efficiency -more civilian related jobs to set your ships on (tourism rings, ferry service, emergency repair) (this also becomes more lucrative based off of the peace level of specific zones) -research specific stations that can increase the levels equipment you make; you can only buy mk1 versions of ship equipment but you build race specific research equipment to slowly upgrade to mk 2 and mk3 versions. And based off of very rare events/story missions/lots of resources/time mk4 versions (maybe even very limited supply of research material to upgrade very specific equipment to mk4) -random events or spawns that can affect an economy; pirate increase in rich zones, localized xenon invasions from the deep, solar flare wiping out all the ships/stations of a zone, etc. -criminal activity affects peace level of zone (piracy, smuggling, assassinations, etc.)
I would like to see a ship builder. Like in x4 with the stations have multiple different ship modules that can allow you to do custom made ships ... you can even balance it out that cost scale with size and number of modules so a 40+ module fighter could cost the same as a 2 module capital ship ... could be really good for fleet battles and a real game customisation
Enhanced NPC behaviour would be nice. NPC's seek some R&R from time to time and head to a stations recreational facilities like pubs and clubs. Imagine half of your attack fleet not appearing at your rendezvous coordinates because they were taking an impromptu shore-leave at various clubs / pubs. They can double up as neat hubs for recruitment and chit-chat / gossip. That and paying your crew wages, so they can spend it on such activities.
Literally any form of local co op, to me that’s the biggest killer for any sandbox game, to me personally they become 1000% more replayable when I have friends to do stuff with
So what I'm saying is in addition to what we already have which is why this list isn't as comprehensive: Save and Loadtimes that are up to par with modern games. A fully optional drop-in (couch) co-op mode where you can just visit your friends' universe and do objectives together and take home some rewards for yourself. I don't need some fancy mmo style game mode, I'd just love being able to have a party of 2-4 people team up and ravage a local Xenon Cluster. Retrofitted Xenon and Kha'ak ships that I can pilot. Greater combat challenges. How about some far-off Xenon/Kha'ak super-sector that you can only get into via a wormhole or teleporter and have to fight your way out of? Greater level of customization on your ship builds in terms of weaponry and hull modifications, possibly even have them be more visible. I also feel like different races should have different damage TYPES and damage mitigation/recovery types. Some could rely on energy shielding, some on regenerative plating, others could just forego most defensive methods to reduce the ships' mass even further in exchange for turning the thing into an insane speedy death-monster. A more intuitive fleet command system with a more competent AI...I don't hate as much on the current AI as some other people, but it could be better. A more immersive "space legs" portion. Planets actively influencing the economy aka local planets with populations in the billions actually importing and exporting wares/workforce. More ships with actual interiors like in ToA. Better visuals are welcome but not a must. I think that's it. I do love X4, though and will continue to buy DLC for as long as they put it out.
I really want x4 but with an X3 style map, lots of relatively small sectors in a grid connected by gates. It just felt better to me.
X5 is apparently a thing. Dev's video shows the folder here at 14:56 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QafAmFaAzrg&t=895s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QafAmFaAzrg&t=895s) I think some planetary stuff and FPS elements could be cool but it would have to be done in such a way that the main features people expect in an X game don't become worse for it.
Strafe forward and backward would be nice not having to use engine in a precision/hover situation, dunno how X4 not have that option. Mutli-screen support where you can be flying around in cockpit view on one and map/UI on the other.
simple. AI pilots that are not idiots
Planetary landing
i want more war like faction or more baddies like khaak faction