The X-Rebirth Thread

Tinman

Tinman
Egosoft has just released a new video showing of X-Rebirth. You can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtXV34Py2fI

Still not really "my cup of tea" for many reasons, but it is interesting to see how the cockpit is represented at the 5:45 mark...also the fact that they at that point exit the cockpit and walks into a station. Didn't know they where planning to do that. Not really a seamless experience though...
 

Andrew Sayers

A
Not strictly related, but the footage made me realise - something about the motion in modern video games puts it right in the middle of the uncanny valley for me. In that particular video, whenever he was flying in a straight line my brain just kept shouting "it's a trap".

I think it might be the too-perfect smoothness of the flight - take a look at a helicopter in flight or even a fighter jet. You'll see a certain amount of rapid judder, and a certain amount of smooth rocking back and forth. I suspect if FD added just a faintly perceptible level of movement like that, it would add immensely to my immersion in the game.
 

Tinman

Tinman
Alien said:
Mods please move this to Off Topic ... not ED related.
Click to expand...

Agree that it's not directly ED related, although the cockpit view in X-Rebirth might open up some discussion around how this will be handled in ED, but the Off-Topic thread isn't right either because of this:

"Talk about anything you’d like in here not related to games, as long as it complies with the forum rules!"

I thought about putting it in "Games General" but I don't think that many off us keep track of that thread to much...
 

Alien

Alien
As someone who has played the X series since X-BTF, I'll give you my opinion on my first look at Rebirth. A game they have been working on for about four years (I'll have to look up exactly how long).

The first obvious thing to note is they have brought back cockpits. They stopped doing them with Reunion and Terran Conflict. I think the cockpit in that video is horrible, it looks too cartoony, the cockpits in X2 The Threat looked better.

Ignoring the cockpit, the scenery looks jaw-droppingly awesome. I hope ED is at least as good as that. I knew they were doing the travel lanes approach, so that wasn't a surprise to me, but the lanes still lead to gates BIG THUMBS DOWN I'll bet you still can't land on planets.

More talk about controls and menus yeah yeah yeah I get it, I'll read the manual.

Then he docks, turns around and walks through the ship and out. Yes, Egosoft were four years ahead of Chris Roberts and Frontier. Then he walks around the station, and I couldn't help but think "I hope ED looks better than that".

The Co-pilot is called Yeesha? Egosoft had better talk to Cyan Worlds.
Overall ... not that impressed to be honest, they spent fours working on this and I can't help but think it should look so much better.

5/10 and that was only because the background when flying around looked awesome.
 

Alien

Alien
Tinman said:
Agree that it's not directly ED related, although the cockpit view in X-Rebirth might open up some discussion around how this will be handled in ED, but the Off-Topic thread isn't right either because of this:

"Talk about anything you’d like in here not related to games, as long as it complies with the forum rules!"

I thought about putting it in "Games General" but I don't think that many off us keep track of that thread to much...
Click to expand...

Yes but you posted it in Elite Dangerous General "Discuss anything relating to Elite: Dangerous", hence it should be in Off Topic ... but it's for the mods to decide.
 

Tinman

Tinman
Alien said:
Ignoring the cockpit, the scenery looks jaw-droppingly awesome.
Click to expand...

IMO it's "too much". Basically I have never been that keen on their general art style. To much small details just makes everything look like a mess in my eyes. :p

Then he docks, turns around and walks through the ship and out. Yes, Egosoft were four years ahead of Chris Roberts and Frontier. Then he walks around the station, and I couldn't help but think "I hope ED looks better than that".
Click to expand...

Pretty much my thoughts about it. Also, personally I hope that ED will use a third person view instead in the style of GTA, Mass Effect and other similar games.
 

Tinman

Tinman
Alien said:
Yes but you posted it in Elite Dangerous General "Discuss anything relating to Elite: Dangerous", hence it should be in Off Topic ... but it's for the mods to decide.
Click to expand...

On the other hand...we are already discussing in what ways we hope that ED will be different compared to what we see in this video, aren't we? :p
 

Alien

Alien
Oh ... I forgot to mention two bad points about Rebirth ... ONE ship ... yes only one. You cannot fly any other ship. And you can only buy the game through Steam.

Now, me personally I don't like having to have a separate program running just to allow me to play my games, even when offline. When I found out Rebirth was Steam only I put "Steam = No Sale" in my sig in protest. I have tried Steam, I hate it. I have only two games on Steam, and one of those I bought again on gog.com

To be honest having now seen Rebirth (I could have seen these videos all the way back in March, but I'd stopped looking on the forum about the time the ED kickstarter ended) I am not going to miss it. I can't see it doing well once Star Citizen comes out, it's just like Rebirth but with more ships and better graphics, or there is ED, more ships and better graphics, the only downside is we will have to wait for the "walk around on stations" expansion, but something ED will have Rebirth won't ... Seamless Planet Landings.

Nuff said.
 
Last edited:

Cathy

Cathy
That cockpit is vile :(

And the motion doesn't seem real. It conveys the feeling of sliding in melting butter. It might feel better if it were faster and shakier.
 

dannysquid

dannysquid
Cathy said:
That cockpit is vile :(

And the motion doesn't seem real. It conveys the feeling of sliding in melting butter. It might feel better if it were faster and shakier.
Click to expand...

I agree, but there's not a lot of turbulence in space. Think you could maybe cheat by implying the shakes and momentum are coming from the chair you're sitting on rather than anything outside the cockpit.
 

Geraldine

Geraldine
Alien said:
Yes but you posted it in Elite Dangerous General "Discuss anything relating to Elite: Dangerous", hence it should be in Off Topic ... but it's for the mods to decide.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but I think The Gaming General section would be a better home for this discussion. Moving thread. :)
 

Fromhell

Fromhell
Another reason FD shouldn´t care too much about single player mode in ED ;)

I once read Egosoft can´t do multiplayer with their engine anyway, so they´re out of the competition.

overall X Rebirth looks way too flashy for me, too much color and seems to have a more gamey, less sim like feeling
 
Last edited:

Mike Evans

Designer- Elite: Dangerous
Frontier
What's with all the hate towards X Rebirth? Graphically this looks far better than what we have currently, the cockpit looks amazing and the interface elements and animation within it are also stunning.

Control wise the fact they've gone all out on trying to streamline the whole thing is admirable and the control scheme they're using is actually very good and very similar to what we have at the moment.
 

Alien

Alien
I don't hate it, but I compare it to X3TC (having not played X-AP), and X3TC looks so much better, admittedly the space doesn't look as pretty as in that Rebirth video, but the cockpit in that video looks horrible, too cartoony, and I could even say, takes up too much of the screen real estate.

Then he gets off the ship, and standard of graphics still look cartoony and not as polished or realistic as they could be considering they are a successful games developer and have been working on this game since they announced in 2009 that X3TC was "the end of a storyline"

So I'm sorry, but all this development time, from a team that could easily be as big as FD's should produce something better than that. The only thing I like was the prettiness of the background as he flew around, but things like the lasers and missles, I just saw more of the same from X3TC, nothing really "new" there. And they still are using gates, and that means a limited number of systems.

I don't hate Egosoft or Rebirth, but I feel it could have been better than it looks at the moment.

Edit: and just fly the one ship? I really don't understand that at all considering since X-Tension up until X-AP (which I don't know because I haven't played it), they allowed you to fly different ships, being restricted to one ship says to me "we can't be bothered"
 
Last edited:

Bingo Brewster

Bingo Brewster
What bothers me a bit, and it relates the points, Danny, Tinman and Cathy have made, is the reaction of the ships to the controls. There seems to be no lag, the ship just moves as you move the mouse/controller.

Ships have mass, and while not a physicist, I imagine that even in space, objects with mass cannot turn on a sixpence. It would be more realistic if there was a corresponding lag depending on mass before the pointy bit ends up in the intended direction.
 

Cathy

Cathy
The graphics beyond the cockpit look very good to me (but I'm no expert). But that cockpit is a reason I would not buy the game. It is obstructive, instrusive, and seems pointless. It strikes me as a classic example of a designer placing a graphic for graphics' sake over gameplay. Any information you can glean from that dashboard thing is limited, hard to read, and could be presented far better.
 

Cathy

Cathy
Bingo Brewster said:
What bothers me a bit, and it relates the points, Danny, Tinman and Cathy have made, is the reaction of the ships to the controls. There seems to be no lag, the ship just moves as you move the mouse/controller.

Ships have mass, and while not a physicist, I imagine that even in space, objects with mass cannot turn on a sixpence. It would be more realistic if there was a corresponding lag depending on mass before the pointy bit ends up in the intended direction.
Click to expand...
It's not the speed of movement and reaction that bothers me - I like that. It's the slipperiness. But I could get used to that very quickly and it would not put me off giving the game a good go. That cockpit, however, is a kill switch.

edit: unless you can toggle it off. Anyone know if that's possible?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom