How does Egosoft stay in business?

[DrDevice]

This game doesn't seem like the type of game that would sell like hot cakes-it's so complex. And given its pretty rough release 4 years ago...

Is it selling better now? I'm just surprised they are still making content for it.

[Daddy Shark]

Bernd is really stinkin rich.

[StormhawkV]

Originally posted by zpc:

Oh that's highly subjective. I'm with Egosoft since Xbtf - and X4 is the greatest iteration of the whole series.

Ok. What makes it 'the greatest iteration'? It's not the diversity of ships and weapons, that's for sure. It's also not the plots, their quality or number. I'm not arguing X4 never did anything better than its predecessors as there are quite a few improvements but from a gamedesign perspective, from a content perspective, it's a step back and I'd love to hear proper arguments on why people think otherwise.

[zpc]

Originally posted by StormhawkV:

Originally posted by zpc:

Oh that's highly subjective. I'm with Egosoft since Xbtf - and X4 is the greatest iteration of the whole series.

Ok. What makes it 'the greatest iteration'? It's not the diversity of ships and weapons, that's for sure. It's also not the plots, their quality or number. I'm not arguing X4 never did anything better than its predecessors as there are quite a few improvements but from a gamedesign perspective, from a content perspective, it's a step back and I'd love to hear proper arguments on why people think otherwise.

Just to name a few:
The much more detailed ships and turret groups with independent turrets, salvo fire instead of stupid particle carpets. Travel drive, different engine types. The map along with all the advancements in commanding fleets and ships - e.g. the priceless ability of finetuning existing orders (e.g. adding & removing & moving waypoints, rearranging orders). Better fleetmanagement. Much needed revamp of the universe & faction wars including dynamic change of sector ownership. Intertwined mission structure. (HAT plot -> HQ plot -> diplomatic plots) Real economic cylce, contract based trading, station managers. Station builder, NPCs using the modulare station components to design stations on their own, the new god utilising supply & demand to construct new stations & remove old ones. Last but not least: the ability to walk on stations, the scale and the immersive interactions between ships and stations (watching docking operations while standing on a station or docking platform of a ship is priceless)

I played X³ for years - but I can't go back. (in fact, I tried it with X3 farnham's legacy on release and lately during winter holiday with X3 Albion prelude. Both lasted 1 hour tops then I had to quit. It's just plain awful in direct comparison. All the gameplay features, mechanics and the controls are way too outdated. And that doesn't even touch the missing 4k support and the awful GUI in said 4k.

[powergfx]

Originally posted by zpc:

I played X³ for years - but I can't go back. (in fact, I tried it with X3 farnham's legacy on release and lately during winter holiday with X3 Albion prelude. Both lasted 1 hour tops then I had to quit. It's just plain awful in direct comparison. All the gameplay features, mechanics and the controls are way too outdated. And that doesn't even touch the missing 4k support and the awful GUI in said 4k.

This nails it. I don't get the people who think X3 was "better", on my current system it is hard to play because of an ultra wide screen alone.

[Minnie]

Originally posted by RJS:

Originally posted by madpraxis:

it just was kind of UI hell trying to get everything done.

That's called complex.

absolutely not.

[I HATE PEOPLE]

I've been buying all the expansions, and I want to like this game, but I can't. It's just not a very polished or immersive game. It has a better gameplay loop than Elite Dangerous, and unlike Star Citizen it is a finished product, but I have NOT been able to enjoy it the same way I have ED and SC. I think it's simply because its a game past its time, with an arcadey combat, and ships/stations/sounds/graphics that are simply not immersive.

I enjoyed both X-Rebirth and X3, and played them far more than I played X4, but that was a long time ago. We live in different times now, with higher standards for polish and immersion that the developers have failed to keep up with.

[indigo]

X is complex, and that complexity is something that appeals to the fan base, which is surprisingly large for the genre. X4 is my first venture into the X-universe, but I've enjoyed it.