I don't see the point of TIR in X3 anyway. Sure, it'll help and it might be awesome, but you don't really need to "check six" in these ships anyway. It'll be less useful in the Rebirth ship than it is for GA aircraft in FSX. From what I see, it'll just let you check on your co-pilot much easier, but no much else.

Having said that, IIRC you could use TIR in X3TC. One of those nice things that I never really needed or used afterwards.

This game is getting lambasted by the long-time X fans over at the Egosoft forum. Nerd quit rage in full effect. Glad I didn't buy it. Maybe when it's $5 I'll get it.

Well what we need to know from the guys who own it.

Is how dumbed down is the gameplay after the initial excitement?

We know there is HOTAS problems which is a huge no no and possibly sound issues as well.

TrackIR should have been implemented if they could do it on previous versions. Its not about if one person likes it or not, its about the ability to enhance a users enjoyment of the game by having options accessible to them.

As the posts go by, I smile is getting bigger that I didn't open my wallet for this release. I guess my long term knowledge of egosoft stands correct then.

I have NO idea how to do basic trading, load something at station X and drop it for profit at station Y or buy more ships. All i can do is admire the space stations. All this excitement for nothing. Back to AC, i guess...

From a scan of the egosoft forums, it sounds like there might be serious WTF design decisions on the part of Egosoft that won't be too easy for modders to change or improve on. Hope that the game does evolve.

AFAIK there is no cockpit free look which would make TrackIR a no go. I should stress that I don't own the game so I'm only going by what I've read.

Some people decry change. Even If overall better. But a lot of games now a days the "accessible" freaking brakes a good sequel. Making games for dumb people is all the rage now. Wait till the dust settles.

Making a cockpit you can only look at the 12 seems strange choice. But from streaming i watched you can look right at the boob copilot. As we know.... BOOB's equal sales. Boob's are more important than game play mechanics too. Can not wait until some girl game has bulging male crotch shots. Pukes on the floor.

See how this plays out.



I am waiting for Star Citizen to be released and feel it will probably fall on its face. TO MUCH hype. It can not live up to that. It has sold everyone on their personal vision but what the actual game will end up being......


Uber geek in me is still waiting for some future space combat thing that could be in the realm of actual possibility. YA I am crazy... physics and the final putting to rest of ww2 carrier scifi analog. Dog fighting space fighters makes ZERO sense really. But I digress.

I've put about 6 hours into it, and I'm liking it so far. It is just as broken as any Egosoft 1.0 has ever been, but I've managed to avoid the game killers (no crashing, no corrupt saves, no broken missions, and I get decent enough performance at high graphics settings--changing the sound sampling to 16-bit, 48KHz made a significant difference there). The first couple hours, I was having a real love hate relationship with it, but then it started to grow on me.

From my perspective, the only things that are well and truly broken are some of the major design choices--notably the first person stuff. The comms in X3 were a little too impersonal feeling, but I would have been a lot happier with just the typical overhead static view of a bar room and clicking on characters. The searching around corridors and rooms is tedious. It's still not quite clear how much of this stuff is going to be actually required activity once fully into the real open gameplay.

From what the devs have said, my other complaints like a lack of an autopilot (wtf?), TIR support, and the clumsy maps, will be added or improved in a month or two.

The universe itself is really very impressive, and that's what's holding it all together for me. The scale, beauty and unified structure of it is really incredible. This is what ultimately put me off the X series in the past: their big cubes of space strewn randomly with stations. I just couldn't get into it anymore. This is just what I wanted. As soon as a mod comes along that speeds up the minimum highway traveling speed so I don't have to do the silly chase-the-ship QTE if I don't want to, I'll be installing that, though. They seem to have understood the idea that I want to feel like I'm actually flying a space ship around the universe, but then forgotten one of the joys of a space sim is sitting back sometimes and just watching it go by.

So waiting on them to fix it up is probably the wisest choice, but I'm glad I bought it (granted if I were having the game killing bugs that would be an entirely different situation, and that's a crap shoot).

They stated that they ran out of time to include TrackIR in X-Rebirth, but they will be looking to add it.

Seems like the overall problem is a rushed release again.

This is not a typical "we've got some bugs" egosoft release. This is a full blown dumbed down console port of a game. There is no need for track ir because you have one window out into space and there is nothing to look at inside the cockpit except for some mouthy girl showing cleavage.
HOTAS is completely borked by design because they expect you to play with a game pad or mouse. The flight model seems pretty clunky regardless.
The entire experience is geared toward the 2 minute attention span crowd. This game was not rushed, it was doomed by design. Fixing the bugs will not fix it.

I don't have a 2 minute attention span and I like it. Why must a space game have joystick controls? Have you travelled into the future and seen that's the way it will be? Cos right now we don't have any space ships so they may well be controlled with mouse and keyboard...

We should probably separate the X:Rebirth dumbed down gripes from the unfinished/buggy gripes, dumbed down was a game design decision which some of us actually welcome and I am in that camp.

I've never been able to figure out the advanced AI trading empire parts of the previous X games so I played it mostly as I used to play Elite a fun trading game with combat mixed in, and I bought X:Rebirth hoping some of the advanced stuff would be more accessible, and also hoping that I could play with my XB360 controller without having to pull out my X52 or try to dogfight with mouse+kb... so far that part is working great and I'm having fun with it 10hrs into it (still in the tutorial but seeing some of the interesting plot now).

The unfinished joystick and TrackIR support, the complicated docking/trading system, the clunky map that make it hard to figure out where you are or where you're going, the space stations that look too similar on the inside and the energy trade tutorial bug and the couple of crashes to desktop are the parts that are a result of a rushed release IMHO.

I know a lot of the X community was against the dumbing down and was going to nerd rage about it either way, but in my opinion that is a separate issue from them shipping something that feels like it needed more polish for the features that are in there or were expected to be in there.

Just my $.02 from someone who is still enjoying it 10hrs in despite the glitches, the graphics and space combat is pretty fun so far and is keeping me interested... your mileage may vary, I would recommend anyone on the fence to wait a while for the eventual sales and patches to make it a better bang/buck, especially if you are in the anti dumb down camp who will combine in your frustrations from the rushed release.

PS. as far as TrackIR not being needed due to only having a single cockpit view, I completely disagree, I've been playing with 3monitor at 5760x1080 and the side view out the cockpit is terrific for immersion, so being able to change the pilot eyes within the cockpit with TrackIR would be a huge immersion improvement for those on a single monitor.

Wow. Really?

Cause it is a dumbed down flight sim that's why MACE. No it does not of course need it. But unless the fundamental gameplay mechanics are different and it looks like it should have joystick....then it should have joystick support. Supporting as much crap as the user has is a sales bonus.

BUT............ in the future there will NOT be stupid space fighters. At least not in deep space. And certainly not piloted or commanded in anyway us early 21st century folks would recognize. Somehow a head on cigar with 300 meters of frontal armor or whatever makes more sense than some stupid little fighter thing that current NOW tech could kill in .01 seconds flat.

Geek rant over.

Yes, really. Why should they? We use them in flight sims because that's what they really have but space games are pure fantasy so why MUST they have joystick control?

I am not saying they shouldn't, but people are not buying it because of that reason and I do not understand that.

OK, to state the obvious- because the player is "flying"/piloting a frakking ship, that's why. (Surprised to be even having this conversation at SimHQ of all places.) :-)

I'm pretty sure that the space shuttles and lunar modules have joystick controls. If you are going to control a vehicle in 6 DOF, in real time, one of the best ways is with multiple joysticks or pedals.
If you enjoy the game as is, I'm happy for you. I do not. I would have preferred a less drastic change from the old game mechanics. In the old system, you did not have to micro manage a fleet of trade ships, but you could. You did not have to delve into all the intricacies of building a trading empire, but you could. You didn't have to stick with one ship through the whole game, but you could. You didn't have to stare out of one window into space, but you could.
Now, all of these decisions are forced on you, along with dismal controller support and horrible new game mechanics. It feels like flying a web browser with all the damn "I's" and such floating in space.
There are so many missing features from the older games, I couldn't begin to list them all. This is why many fans of the older games are upset with the supposedly new and improved game.

The ole shuttle controls where for atmosphere. The lunar landers WHO KNOWS. but I bet it was a 5 cent toggle switch lol. With some math behind it for burn time.

rebirth is most certainly mainstreamed dumbed down. Now we see what happens. Cause the devs have heard. And they DO respond. I love companys like that.

But going to wait on my purchase of it for bit. Just to make sure.

Well, personally, why would I wanna spend my valuable free time playin' a game that doesn't support the controller scheme of my choice, especially if multiple options are available to me. You don't have to shoe horn a specific option down our throats, just give us the option...and make it optional. I play MWO w/ a HOTAS, and I do very well for myself, but more importantly, I'm enjoying myself. Playing w/ a stick and throttle is infinitely more comfortable for me as compared to the KB/M. I don't understand why people get upset when they don't understand someone's desire to use a particular control scheme, it's almost 2014, give us the #%&*$# option!

How do you use TIR in X3TC?

I thought you could only use it in Albion. If it can be used in TC... tell me how... now!!!! :P

Until inertial dampening technology is invented (perhaps through Higgs field manipulation), g-forces in space will still be a huge issue. Stick and Throttle will remain a go-to primary or backup system until then.