It's currently being shown on Steam as one of the featured titles in the store. Looks interesting. The video says it is all in-game footage. It even looked like you could have a 1st person perspective for some parts of the gameplay, but I'm not sure. Still, it makes me curious as to what long-time X fans think.

I think pretty much everyone is excited about it. I've enjoyed the previous games, but never get far into them for one reason or another. Hoping this one is user friendly enough to keep me going.

I think you hit the nail on the head there for me Raw K.

I have revisited the X series many times and I always got overwhelmed by the complexity of it all to the point where I just thought 'f**k it' and gave up.

If Rebirth is made more user friendly then I'm in.

lol people from SimHQ complaining about a game not user friendly enough... x is much easier than dcs or bms

Welcome to the party, letterboy. We've been celebrating for awhile now. :-)

Neither of which I play.Too complicated

Just look up a guide like this one:

http://doghouseblog.wordpress.com/2013/0...ng-your-empire/

And it's not that hard. Nowhere near my learning curve was for DCS. Aside from the absolutely horrific character models on the radio and a universe that can be quite sterile feeling at times lately I've been playing Albion Prelude (required IMO since it balanced out the combat to not be nearly as silly). Good way to waste some hourse away.

The difference is DCS and BMS are still flight sims. Maybe there are more controls, or the cockpit has more things to do, but still it's "get a mission, take off, fly there, attack, fly back." There's no confusion about what you should be doing.

I tried X3 and was totally lost. A sandbox is good after the introductions are made. Even DCS now has tutorial missions. X needs that. Give me maybe 10 missions of increasing difficulty that lead me into the concepts I need and explain the larger universe...THEN let me into the sandbox.




The Jedi Master

Just caught up with some recent video. This one just wowzers.

Indeed it is.

Going to be great! Usually videos about scale and consequences like that are presented by Peter Molyneux. LOL
I'd like to know the specs to run smoothly with all of that going on at once on the screen.

X - 27 days

All of the original x series games had their moments that would bog down even the beefiest of machines. I imagine this will be no different. The trade off in frames per second looks like it will be worth it. Can't wait to get my copy.

New trailer is up.

Sweet jimminies!

How can I resist when you post videos like that?

I hope I don't need a new PC for it.

Hope it doesn't take forever to get your operation up to the level of the video.
I don't want to play on anything even remotely similar to Eve time.

OMG, cant wait. Great looking video. Please don't be a letdown.

Yeah really looking forward to this, looks great!

Another video up featuring the 'long range scanner'

About a week to go!

Dangit. I decided to spend that weekend in B'ham. I will have to wait til monday to play. #PoorPlanning

Yeah I am waiting to see if there's any discount vouchers this weekend to pick it up, so far the best I've seen is 20% off from GMG.

Either way I will be picking it up too.

Going to actually try to hold off on it a bit.

Not to see if it is good, I am sure I will like it. I have a few too many games that I haven't played at this point.

Will get it at Christmas though...

My advice: wait 3-4 mo ths for the price to drop, for Egosoft to patch the inevitable bugs, and for modders to begin tweaking it for the better

I have it preordered from Game (physical copy) as I can't wait for things and never learn my lesson on day one releases lol

Looking forward to it as the other X games always felt so 'dead', this one with the walking around stations and ship makes it come to life.

Yeah, I don't mind paying $50 for what looks like an X game that will be dumbed down and interactive enough for me. Cheaper than a new console game anyway.
I just hope I'm in the mood to play it on release day. LOL

I preordered and consider it a safe preorder just based on how much I enjoyed the previous ones and the details of how they've improved it this go around (read dumbed it down so people like me can actually play some of the advanced stuff besides trading).

Plus we know that the devs will keep supporting and enhancing it, and we know modders will do their part too, so lots of potential there with a safe past track record.

£40 to pre-order this game? I'll wait for the eventual sale. I have enough of XTC and XAP to keep me going. I just watched current reviews of Rome 2 and I'm thinking if that game bombed after so much success, well, I'm not really going to lose anything if I play Rebirth a few months down the road.

Really envious of the guys that will get to play from Day 1, but the game has also gone in a few directions I'm not too keen about. Most blatant is the single-ship-only decision.... I'm still not sure how I feel about that. One big attraction for me for games like MWO, EVE Online, and X-series is being able to save up for and buy and fly those cool-looking ships... if I'm stuck in the same ride the whole time, I just don't know.

I have to say, even though I've loved all of the previous x series games, I'm a bit nervous about this one. First off, walking around miles and miles of space station looking for a particular bland npc doesn't sound all that appealing. Also, the long range radar video has me scratching my head. Why shoot cargo containers to get to the contents? In all the previous games, you just picked up the container. Why does your long range scanner melt down if you use it too long? Did they lose timer or temperature sensor technology in the future? And like Ice said, the single ship thing could get old quick. Not a good thing in a game with hundreds of hours of play time.

I hope my fears are unfounded, since I pre-ordered the game the second I seen it come up on steam.

Yep, forgot about that "walking around" bit. I mean it's cool, sure, but on my 10th visit to Station X to meet Trader A, I just want to trade, not spend 2 minutes walking through the station to get to the guy. I LOL'ed at one review wherein he complained of the time taken to get from one sector to another in XTC/XAP and praised the new "highway concept" of X Rebirth.... I'd rather travel one sector that way and have the current trading menu as it is than "save time" with "highways" but lose it in stations having to walk about all the time.

Has there been any video of this special ship? I'd love to see it on it's basic form and then on its various upgradable modes. As a person who's built up a small empire in XTC, I can't see why I'd like to have just one ship. Even with the cool new cockpit in Rebirth, I'm sure it'll get boring quite quickly. As a person who is just trying out pew-pew-pew action in XTC, I can't see why I'd like to have just one ship. Even with the cool upgradeable ship in Rebirth, I'm sure a jack of all trades is a master of none.

I'd love to be wrong, please somebody tell me how I can be wrong!

I'm the opposite, I can't wait to walk around every station looking for people rather than have those horrible menus again. One of the reasons the X games felt dead was the menus.

Looks like X-Rebirth is pre-loading from Steam now, it is getting closer to launch

Email from Egosoft just came in with a link to the trailer for the Collectors edition, love the music

Didn't they say you could skip the walking on stations in favor of the regular comms? It may end up being like Skyrim, where it's more fun for some to hoof it, while others use the fast travel. Or after the amusement wears off you have the shortcut. Options are good! At least it will give some life to the other side of the comms, you'll know what's in there.
I wonder what kind of mods we'll see? In Skyrim I LOVE the one that adds more foot traffic to the roads. I'd like to see a crowded station full of all kinds of things going on B5 style.

The only thing that might bother me is the single ship, but the modular thing worked for Darkstar One due to the extremes you could take the ship to.

I really like the look of the Albion Skunk so just having that ship doesn't bother me and it can be upgraded too. I am sure there will be mods out to give more ships, hopefully a Firefly

After AC "beta" release, i look forward to this even more! It's the first game in years that i wait with such anticipation and promises the 1.0 release instead of these early-access pre-alpha crowdfunding versions.

Is anyone else pre-loading? Mine doesn't show anything yet.

Oops! I didn't realize you had to manually select it to do so. It's pre-loading now. Thanks Alicatt for the reminder.

Dare we dream? LOL
After 7 years working on it, maybe the expansions will be in the form of specialized ships for specific playthroughs? No telling what they may have in mind.

I'm going to re-watch Firefly before Rebirth is released

I've preloaded last night on steam, had originally preordered the box version but it was looking like I wasn't going to get it on Friday so cancelled and paid £5 more on steam. Big kid lol

Wow Mace,£39.99? I have a real problem paying that much for any game nowadays.I had to coax the wallet open to pay £35 for BF4.

Decisions,decisions.....

As I said, big kid lol

I payed 70 euro including shipping for the english CE.Cant wait

How can you not think this ship is cool? Can't wait to fly her

I am pretty sure that I read one time that you can command other ships, but just can't pilot them.

This is like how it is in the older X games, the same most likely, how you just could 'jump into' any other ship, but now you can't.

I remember 'remote piloting' many ships and enjoying that part of it as well. If that is still in, I am OK with the 'single ship' concept.

Guess we will see soon enough.

Yep, this is how X games used to be. I started playing with X Beyond the Frontier and you had one ship, this a return to their roots, original hardcore X

I heard in a video you can dock in your owned capital ships and go and talk to the Captain to give him orders!

You can also water the plants in some space stations. Supposedly a cool little mini game that boosts your XP.

I'm amazed I've not bought this yet... for all my misgivings, it's really hard to say "no."

If only they could link it to Viscera Cleanup Detail. LOL

Launch trailer released:


Steam shows 18hrs until preload of the game unlocks

Nice.

I have seen a preview that gave me concerns about this game. Where the ships bank in a turn, and when the controls aren't touched the ship will self level to a 0 degree reference bank.

The reviewer said he hoped they removed it as it took away from the space feel of the game but we will have to see.

I like the real time loading of cargo now.

SO for me, its a hang back and wait purchase and you guys are my guinea pigs. Post loads of videos and let me know how it is.

I was a bit on the fence with the price of X at first since I waited on the previous versions and bought them on sale, but eventually I figured out the $40 for X:Rebirth as a finished game I can play tomorrow, from a developer with a strong track record of support for the 6 previous version of the game, already is cheaper than the $45 Star Citizen ship I "purchased" with nothing more to show for it than being able to look at it in a hangar, and with the similar level of features not shipping for a long time to come.

Not knocking SC per se, but just putting the cost of X:R in perspective

X:R will help keep me from spending more stupid money on SC until the game is actually playable.

Awe. Some.

Can't wait

I wonder if the leveling thing will be an option? I think the last X games had that, after a few seconds it could go back to "0". I may be thinking of another game.
I like the idea though, a universal idea of up/down you could opt to use.

I noticed in my Steam Library the X:Rebirth manual link is already live:
http://cdn2.steampowered.com/Manuals/2870/X_Rebirth_Manual_English.pdf

I don't see that option listed in the manual, but maybe I missed it or it could be something that is modable...

Looks like it is going active, there has been another download and is now installing

Edit: countdown timer says >4 minutes now

Looked at the menus and I did see "auto roll" as an option. I'm assuming that's the self-leveling. Won't know until later though.

So how is it? Im stuck at work

Yup how's the game peeps. I've been holding out on this waiting for fellow SimHQers opinions.

Well, some may find this offensive

Looks like their forum gets hammered a bit right now - hardly can browse them without an error, >1500 users with >1300 guests I just could read on the main page. but trying to get in a subsection gives me an error again.

Yeah, I'm getting errors on their forums too.

Game is active but it is still downloading content

I see what you did there

92% and climbing... wonder what the download contains, must be quite large as it has been running for a while at 10MB/s

Can't start it yet, will check out after a while though. School function day, gotta pick up b'fast for my girl and head out.

I'm holding off until you guys give the nod

Looking forward to the "first contact" Dead-is-Dead reports in the AAR section! *hinthint*
Meaning AARs of players taking on the campaign without any extensive training and/or exploring.

I actually consider it rather daring to make such a release on a Friday - may make for a rather uneasy weekend if something serious pops up...
Their new Rebirth Technical Support forum sections seem to grow significantly faster than the others; but I can't comment on the "quality" of the reports, as their forum keeps failing on me

Well the CE content downloaded:
Video quality - Good
Audio quality - Meh - Stereo 16/48kHz, not worth wasting a Bluray disk on and the file is slightly too large for a standard DVD - 43kB too big, not a happy camper there.

Right got a few minutes to try the game now as the wife has just gone out

Ok guys word of WARNING
If you are a HOTAS user like me (WARTHOG)
Prepare to be VERY disappointed. Cant use rudder pedals, alotta buttons can't be mapped. The game looks nice but as far as function for Multi ID HOTAS systems youre outta luck

Just found that out too,(Cougar) Sigh, doesn't respond to control inputs very well, left spinning in the hold and had to give the game a "three fingered salute" to get out of it

I keep an old MS Sidewinder 3D around for just such occasions, but I did get the impression they were sort of shooting for a mouse+keyboard Freelancer-style control layout.

Personally, I'm waiting to see what people say about performance and bugs before I buy it. I will buy it eventually for sure, but past experience with them suggests it might be a couple of patches before it's really ready, and for once I'd like to experience an X game that works okay from the first time I play it.

I see some rumblings on the Steam forum about poor performance on high-end systems, but then you always have that. Doesn't mean much until there are clear trends among hundreds of people. I haven't been able to get on Egosoft's site all day.

I almost bought the game yesterday. Then I reminded myself of my experiences with the series on release and decided against it. Waiting for more first impressions. I love the X series but Egosoft has a habit of releasing their games a tad unfinished IMO.

Thanks for the info guys. Still going to wait on purchase then.

Need more info on the "self levelling" and the HOTAS issues. I am sure the HOTAS side of things will be recitified fairly quickly (one hopes)

I'm getting scared to buy ANY game at release now. People will have a VERY hard time getting me to pre-order anything ever again.

I'm not big on space games, but the trailers and premise of this look interesting. Was just ducking in here to see what people thought about the game. Steam forums are the usual combo of scary and infuriating...

...and it doesn't help that the Egosoft forums have been down for several hours now... on release day. Not really professional. I'm sure a lot of people would love to browse the official forums for some 1st impressions instead of wading through the cesspool that are the Steam forums.

Well, technically the forums are not down but overloaded. I managed to get in sporadically. E.g. I mentioned the fast-growning Technical Support sections - that was basically two posts that were replicated 5 and more times.
Reported isssues were crash/hang-up due to sound settings (alicatt mentioned something regarding 48kHz) and performance.

Only got to start it and run 30mins before work today, for me there was no crashes, performance is working fine at 1080p 4xAA, and the XB360 controller is working great (I never used HOTAS in the past and don't plan to this time either).

Too early to give first impressions since I am still getting used to the new mechanics and highways (and no SETA), so far so good for me, but the steam forums seems to have people having performance problems and the expected others who didn't buy it and want to crap on it due to the new softer focus.

So I think for any of you on the fence I would wait a few days to let the initial typical EGOSOFT launch issues shake out and to see the reviews, for me it is working ok and I enjoyed what I played so far, looking forward to diving in later today.

It doesn't manage to get my screen resolution. I can either start the game without menus and with the image centered on my middle screen OR I can change to landscape mode, tilt my head, and get a menu. I cannot find an ini file to edit either. I'll just have to spend the night playing something that works, cliffs of dover (never thought I'd say that).

I thought triple screen support was a no-brainer but I guess I'll just have to wait.

-C-

For anyone else on the fence, I see people streaming X;Rebirth gameplay on twitch now, one example:
http://www.twitch.tv/frooglepete#/w/7505707248

AHA! My tilt head menu attempt generated a config file under my documents\Egosoft\ where before there was none. A quick edit and in the game we are... in full 3600x1920 glory.

So if you are running in portrait mode and having problems. Set your screens to landscape mode (tilt head ;-) ), start x rebirth and set the resolution to something new. Exit the game, set your screens back to portrait mode. Go to your windows drive and under documents you will find the Egosoft folder. In that folder you should now have a file called config.xml in that file you can set your resolution to whatever you'd like.

-C-

So far no bugs of any real note. I have an old Logitech Extreme 3D Pro that I've managed to map pretty much how I wanted it, but damn it didn't make it easy (lots of trial and error). It does appear that it should support a multi-joystick setup (differentiates between left and right stick), but it needs some clarification to figure it all out.

Not too far into it, but video= okay. Need to play around with settings still (actual game video is pretty good, but scripted videos look several years old, and when characters talk they look like the old Godzilla films with their mouths moving utterly independently of their words).

I can also attest to the fact that the sound is, at best, sub-par, but that can be worked on.

Performance wise though: no crashes or issues so far. Definitely nothing that would make me say the developer screwed us over, just that it still needs to be touched up a bit.

Fantastic so far for me, looks and plays great. Only complaint is the controls, I can't use my Warthog but things are mapped to it and I cannot undo it! Guns firing on their own and I'm drifting off to the side. May have to disconnect it.

I played with a 360 controller and tried setting up my THOTAS X too. It's one or the other for each function in the menu, but seems like it might be set up for some things built into the game. Or it could be reading that stick as a PS3 controller. Throttle worked, but I couldn't map the trigger for weapons. I bet you could do it somehow, or surely with a stick with its own config software (this one doesn't have that).
I intend to play 360 controller only, I was just curious. The tutorial mission is doing a good job explaining things.
I like the highway/superhighway system. You can hop out anywhere, it isn't just a glorified loading screen. I'm playing with the auto leveling on, so you have a plane of reference, but you can turn that off. It does have rotating as well as yaw, but not sure how you'd do that on the 360 controller without giving up at least your lateral thrusters.
I swapped the ship control sticks, which feels better for the piloting part.
So far so good and no issues. Runs well.

I have always had issues with "real" joy sticks and the X universe. My logi 940 I can only pick one device to be the stick in X3's stuff. If I knew where the heck my old x52 was that worked. But it seems they are pushing control pads now and not sticks. =( Me wants game. Me has no control device that will work right. Unless I find where my stinking old x52 went.


OOOOHGHHH just thought of something.. franken control scheme! Throttle in left hand mouse in right. LOL I wonder if that would work. I MIGHT try that in x3 prelude and see.

I played the old games like that. The games seemed to NEED a mouse for targeting, but the throttle was a lot more fun than kb. My stick has a rudder on the throttle that made it work well.

kb? What is that. It appears I am slow kid.

Keyboard

OH GAWD.

No TrackIR that I can find, no update for TIR with it yet.

Current stream from someone

http://www.twitch.tv/danshu15

I was looking at the controls and thinking of just giving up "swap to previous" on both weapons and missiles and putting next weapon/missle on dpad left/right then moving 2 (the menus) of the face buttons to up/down so I can put roll on the bumpers.

Is that able to be done?

I wish I was alone on my ship. Or at least that purple Lisa would put some proper clothes on. I think she has some kind of skin condition ... jpegitis. I wasn't expecting skyrim or mass effect but the characters in this one are just not good enough to add much to the game. I'm staying in my pilots chair and the lady is getting off at the next stop.

...and I had to disconnect my G940. If I have to spend a week configuring every darn aircraft in DCS when I connect it again, I'm billing Egosoft. The good thing is that I can finally play Dead space and Dead space 2 which I never played because of my fear of disconnecting my HOTAS.

Performance wise I'm running everything at max @ 3600x1920 and it's running smooth enough. I get some slowdowns or actually second long pauses once i a while but I think that's a sound issue. No crashes either so far.

-C-

Ok, I got the supplies and I'm coming aboard ....




-C-

Been watching that streaming thing....I do not know why... LOL But probably pick this up next month. Its the rainy season in Washington. Nothing to really do but play games and make stuff in the spare time. LOL. Looks like this winter will be a cold one. I guess stock up on games and books lol.

But I never got that into prelude. Probably finish that 1st.

The easiest thing to do would be to just give up the left/right strafe on the stick and put roll there.

You have 4 axes how the game sees it, 2 on each stick. The game considers the triggers to be analog buttons, not axes, kind of a 3rd type of control, along side axes and regular buttons. But you have need of 5 axes. Pitch, yaw, roll, strafe up/down and strafe left/right all have to be on axes. No idea why strafe would have to be, on my flight stick I think that was my HAT button. You'd think you could put that on the d-pad at least.

Certain controls have to be on an axis, others have to be on buttons. So, you can fire with the trigger (mapped under Weapons) OR you can map firing to a button (mapped under Weapons II).


*The game got patched from 1.11 to 1.12 just now. No clue what that did.

Hmmm.... not too bothered about the keyboard bit. I have a full flight sim setup and thought I could use that with XTC but I never really fly the ship unless I am fighting some bad guys. For trade runs and just going from point A to B, I just use the mouse + keyboard + autopilot/SETA.

I'm glad I didn't buy this game. I'll wait for reviews and maybe a sale later on if I can hold out that long.

I'd like to hear how you do trading in this game though. Or how you earn credits in a non-combat/non-bounty hunter way.

Wait, it doesn't support Track IR?

Lost sale.

Maybe there's a way to do it, but I'm not that experienced with TIR. It's not on the game list after I updated and didn't do anything when I tried anyway.
Briefly looked at the egosoft forum about it, but just saw a bunch of rude jerks...as usual. Even a site admin.
Checked steam and found a straight answer: "we haven't done anything with TrackIR for Rebirth yet, and will not really have the time to do so until the game is released, but this is one of the things we totally want to patch in afterwards."
http://steamcommunity.com/app/2870/discussions/0/846961716480567514/

I hate going to Egosoft, they're all rude, every last one of them. That's a real shame on Track IR support. You'd think they get it by now.

So they put TIR into the X3 series ......but failed to include into X-Rebirth??? Ok that just confuses me TOTALLY

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.

Come on guys, HOTAS are so second millennia, when flying my space ships in the third millennia, I use...

my BRAIN!!!

http://www.skierpage.com/blog/2013/11/computers-william-gibson-and-brain-interfaces/

Yep i preordered the thing and my Saitek Pedals and Thrustmaster HOTAS refuse to be configured. I have to unplug them to play with the Keyboard and mouse. Combat totally sucks flying with the default equipment.
Feels like I just wasted $$$. Should've bought an addon for FSX or gave the money to DCS F35 quickstart

OOOOOGGGGGHHHHHH Gibson... More of a neal Stephen guy myself.. I mean Mafia pizza guy... come on now..

Just finished the audiobook of Snow Crash, had been a while since I first read it..

They are both great.

On topic,

I held off on purchasing this X game just because I am cheap right now, and have several games in Steam that I haven't even played yet. I plan on picking this up around Christmas (Steam sale FTW), I am sure they will have the main bugs sorted out by then.

I can't really disagree with them 'dumbing it down' if they did do that for this iteration. I remember about 3 false starts trying to get into X3 Terran Conflict, and not 'getting it' until I followed some in depth tutorials.

Appreciate hearing the feedback from those that have played it though.

Cheers!

Each on of those is on its on joystick ID number.. and X stuff only supports 1. You can set the joystick to id 1 somewhere. Either within windows and maybe in game DONT KNOW. ANd yes that is LAME. In same boat. Although I could care less about the pedals working personally.

I am PRAYING they change that will all the flak right now. Should have been YEARS AGO IMO. BUt there is ppjoy... that can take those devices and fakes 1 device. But it will not give 100 percent functionality AND only works in windows Dev mod.

Back off topic...

Years ago at seattle sci fi museum they had the original hand written manuscript of snow crash. Made my day. Actually a semi important novel as it gave us the term Avatar and others. Also some musings into internet. And its a DAMNED entertaining book.

Ok back on topic..

On the dumbing down... time will tell. Not going to lie.. I NEVER figured out how to build a space station. And the time I went all commerce it ended badly when I lost my trading fleet...to something? NO idea what.

If you have a Cougar and modded pedals you can have everything on one joystick ID. It took me a bit of work to re-wire my CH Pro Pedals but it has been extremely useful in a lot of sims.

This isn't DCS Space ship. Next complaint will be that you cant click the buttons and there aren't the correct amount of rivets...

Well actually, it is a console port. Or maybe originally intended for consoles.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/2870/discussions/0/648811852432360549/

Well Im pissed off that I am not jacked into the ship and I do not have an advanced AI that can react 10000 times faster than me. Why do I need buttons if I can interface directly with the ship?

OK fine its getting late and I lost my mind.

It is sort of funny. Ill let it rest. Still trying to figure out why so many "space ships" have wings.

I do not think its a console port.. It MIGHT get ported and everything points that way. As soon as they went borkers with xbox controller support for prelude it seemed a NO BRAINER that X was going that way. Nothing wrong with that IMO. Just as long as it goes full PC version and hacked up console version.

I wouldn't believe ANYTHING from the steam forums.

This is not a "console port".

Anyone that followed the prerelease trailers and dev info knew the game was supposed to be more accessible aka "dumbed down", those that pre-ordered and are surprised about that now and raging about it didn't pay enough attention.

This series has a well known problem of being overly complicated to learn, and overly convoluted to master the more advanced 4X game features, many of us previous owners and fans of the series complained about that (even here in SimHQ) and so the devs were actually listening to previous fans/owners when they "dumbed it down", what they could have done better is leave in the old hotkey commands for the longtime players, and they've said they are going to put those hotkeys back in.

There are plenty of legitimate complaints about this release (poor joystick support, crashes etc) but repeatedly complaining that it's a console port is tired news...

In the lunar lander they use a joystick for rotational control and a T handle for translation moves



Joystick on the left and T handle on the right

It's incredible how primitive that looks after seeing the glass cockpits from modern jets.

@Alicatt

It's .... beautiful! Thanks for the pic.

Okay, how about this one.

http://i.imgur.com/8H5fsDy.png

I know nothing about the game but it's not uncommon to have build symbols like XBOX360 in the shader output even if you don't target the console - it's just how the MS DX libs work. It's not quite a 'second shooter on grassy knoll' proof or anything

Having read a few comments about it (thanks ICE for the write-up btw), and having been a X3 player before, it does though seem that they made a number of design decisions to simplify gameplay, i.e. target controller layouts and reduce the trade/think/empire stuff. My best guess given how Egosoft have released titles in the past is that they had a bit of a brainfart about going more 'mainstream' in terms of gameplay, got hopelessly behind schedule after 7 years of dev and then decided to shove it out the door regardless (or go bust). The graphics look great, so perhaps just a case of lots of things will be added over time (both by ES and mods). It's not nice for fans of the old series, but it'll take a few more months/years to bake over time, ES have always been good about this in the past and the X series have always been kinda rough at launch..

I still plan to pick it up, although at the Christmas steam sale or something. X games take a long time to play..

Edit: Also, just noticed on Steam that it's a 64-bit only game with a recommended 8GB of memory. If they were targeting the consoles / Xbox 360 then it would have been a tight squeeze with textures/geometry like that..

You really want this to be a port? It isn't, but if it makes you happy to think it is then carry on.

I don't really want to believe anything. My mind doesn't work that way. I see the world and analyze what I see for what it is, based on the evidence available. I'll just drop the subject if it upsets you.

Good insight FearlessFrog, it really does feel like someone in management made the decision to cut bait and force it out the door in a unfinished and not well playbalanced state.

The space combat and the graphics and the detailed station exteriors are definitely an improvement from previous games, when you fly by the hydroponics units and manufacturing facilities you see all these little detailed activities which bring the place to life, not to mention all the busy ship traffic within each zone doing their thing, parking, loading etc. This makes flying around playing a space tourist pretty fun in itself, especially with the ease of the XB360 controls.

But there's other key design ideas that are obviously unfinished, the inside of stations which sounded great but is pretty boring, empty and repetitive, the conversation tree which was a good idea but poorly implemented with dialogue options and voice acting that is comical at times, the NPC face graphics that use the same angry wrinkly old face for both genders making the NPCs look very strange old and angry, and most importantly the campaign which is buggy and doesn't give enough info on how to accomplish some of the more complicated things, along with some of the new menus which are actually not very intuitive at this point either.

So while most of the raging and complaining from longtime X fans focuses on the dumbing down or "console port" which they've always been against and hoped would fail, IMHO the real problem is that Egosoft shipped this in a unfinished state at a premium non-beta price.

Skyrim was a very dumbed down RPG compared to the traditional RPGs, but it never would have become GOTY and one of my personal favorites if it shipped with so many unfinished or buggy "dumbed down" features.

We know EGOSoft has a good track record of patching and enhancing their previous rushed games, and so there's a good chance that they will use the premium retail sales income to step up to do what is needed to finish it (they won't recover from this fiasco otherwise), barring that I think the modders will be able to tweak or eliminate some of the bothersome stuff, both of those things could still make this a great game experience in the long run, for now I am still enjoying flying around exploring, fighting, experimenting with the features.

This probably still won't satisfy the longtime X fans who want their dumbing down or console port predictions to be true.

PS. Some mods are already coming out to improve things:
http://xrebirth.nexusmods.com/?tb=mod&pUp=1

Actually, it may well indeed be a console port. There's some evidence to support that. Check the Egosoft forum for details.

There's little difference in a game designed for pc and one for the 360. It's not a matter of "porting" but simply supporting both. You could say the same of Arma2. For a year before launch they were always demo'ing progress with a 360 controller, had it listed on their site as coming to 360 and were really pushing hard for it. They couldn't find a publisher, so they removed the references and it just came to pc. If calling this game a port, you might as well call Arma2 a port as well.
As if it matters.

Yeah I saw the "console port" thread there last night, lots of conjecture based on the starting date of development, mixing in theories of the "PC gaming is dead" console fever of the time... light on facts, high on conspiracy.

That is beside the point IMHO, the problem with X:Rebirth right now is not whether it's a console port or not, the problem is that it's unfinished and buggy as shipped.

We've seen that dumbed down "console port" games can be great on the PC too if they have a great sandbox, finished interactive features, and a fun nonbuggy campaign and sidequests to do, see Skyrim, Mass Effect, Fallout3 etc.

Hopefully Egosoft and the modders will get the features finished or tweaked so they don't take away from the fun campaign story and great graphics and space combat.

Of course those that were against the "dumbed down" X direction stated by the developers will continue to see the "console port" as the problem, I'm actually going to give up trying to discuss that point since it's wasted effort when it comes to internet nerd rage...