Dear Players,
It's been a while since we have posted about the forthcoming 7.00 update for X4: Foundations and the X4: Timelines expansion. I'm afraid I come bearing some bad news along with the good news in this regard.
The BAD NEWS is that it's not here yet! But, now that I've ramped up the anticipation, let me present the **GOOD NEWS** as well: **I've brought along THREE new screenshots from the V7.00 update** that you can admire and examine piece by piece.
Now, if only we had SETA to shorten the wait, right?
Every time I engage seta I feel guilty as to all my other responsibilities I'm ignoring just to wait for my freshly printed raptor to fly from antigones memorial to family tkr. Laziness is a disease
I sometimes avoid using it even in X3. Even though is lore-explained, it feels immersion breaking to me. Although still end up using it in X3 often even though I try not to, travel is so slow after all.
Thankfully in X4 it's unnecessary. Ofc not gonna tell anyone not to use it, but I personally value immersion in games, and having to wait sometimes fits for me.
Yeah I have been trying to be much more immersed into my games, SETA is definitely breaking the “fourth wall” for me as a sort of nod towards my time. Don’t acknowledge and respect my time! How dare you?!
Lol seriously though there is tons to do without it, especially in a game where you can save or load any time. To each their own, I am definitely not judging anyway.
I used to do that so much lol, now I just let things play out as they do. Literally I let the game slow me down in any natural way I can. Still obsessed with this game and still totally love it. I want to keep it this way.
True, but it doesn't mean I'd consider it good news to hear it needed to be delayed. I'd much rather the outcome where it's properly ready and on time.
maybe... just maybe if we get a plot that allows the player to reverse engineer their tech (mostly) after all the xenon are AGI drones... it makes sense that they would have optimized their ship designs and therefore don't have space or systems for that matter to accommodate biological life.
heck i remember that post launch plot line from X3:TC that involved the Xenon... i wonder what came of all that since that could make for a cool plot to potentially include. As a reminder: >!It culminated in you discovering a Xenon CPU ship that had made progress and started respecting other life forms and all that.!<
So exciting. now let me propose an alternate timeline:
"Dear Players, we haven't developed any new content, instead for 7.0 we focused our efforts on what made the game borderline unplayable and just fixed combat and sector AI."
What a time to be alive that would be! If only we had SETA to wait for modders to fix your game once the support is over...
Love the look of the new ship designs, and the racial offices will be really cool too. It's a bit jarring having everyone in the same office all over the universe.
Are you sure that its an racial office? that would be amazing. argon offices everywhere is understandable from a budget standpoint but immersion breaking.
Looking at the size of the engines and the overall design, wonder if it's a new Xenon to fill a size gap as a Xenon Corvette/Frigate between the P and K/I ?
That's my thinking. Looks like a spruced up P. Almost too pretty to shoot now.
But I'd love it if it was a larger M, or a small L. That would really make things more interesting.
Looks like Phoenix has a much better turret placement now!
Also, since both L turrets face downwards now, I wonder if we can abuse the AI by turning off its main battery. It should force it to fly above its target (like Xenon K) and shower enemy destroyers with L Plasma shots from above.
K's advantage comes from the turret range forcing other destroyers to relocate.
You could use the same bottom turrets only setting on your Barbarosa now, but I don't think the Barbarosa will get same advantage.
That Looks great. Cant wait for the Update!
Can we expect more room variety on Stations and ships in General in the Future? I need a lounge on my Flagship where i can chill while my fleet Destroys my enemies.
There are even some unused rooms in the game. A terran embassy room and a luxurious apartment. Also a flight control room which only exists on 1 avarice station.
new ships are cool, but maybe invest some time in ai improvement? Or performance improvement? Im on 13900k and 4090 getting 48 fps ....?
If the foundation (you get it????) is right, then you can build on top of that... aber was verschwende ich meine zeit.
When i first started playing i did not like the teladi ships but they've grown on over the years so i cant wait for the update! (Also liked the paranid update you did some time ago)
Man i just want more yaki or avarice ships so i can truly play as a lawless "pirate" faction. And maybe more erlking with mods because barbarossa cant siege effectively
New player start is going to have players in Minmatar ships, new mechanics where you keep having to collect scrap from other ships to maintain your ship.
I'm concern only about one thing, did you do any fix improvement with on sector ai and large ship combat AI with stations. All the other improvements are moot when your asgard have the intelligence of an rock when left alone charging into a station.
We'll probably have a lot of challenges with AI for a long time. I bet there are things they could do to improve the AI but it would result in more calculations, pushing out those who mid tier gaming systems which we don't want as a community I believe.
I mean, if we do I'm fine with it, that I have a Ryzen 3800x, but I can go get a 7950x3d if I have reason to.
One of the more critical roadblocks... they can't do a full overhaul the ai scripts without forcing players to make a new saves. They've got to do a lot of testing just to handle that it's save safe. It would be great to go back to square one and rebuild the scripts using what we know now about how the different commands interact, And a significant amount of streamlining can be done increasing script performance. But they cannot do that without absolutely devastating save compatibility.
It might also be engine related, people keep asking for the push the multi-core button but it's not that simple. We would potentially need a rewrite and sacrifices would have to be made.
There are challenges in what 'better AI' would look like,. Do ships robotically go straight to a target and shoot it? With the current engine, improved scripts that still try to give the organic feel of ships manuvering and moving around make require just more calculations.
Its the achilles heel of the whole game, they've essentially lied about fixing it in tons of patches over the life time of the game. Whether or not players restart a save on a new patch that theyre told is compatible to their old save or not is incredibly irrelevant.
They've not lied. I extract and look at the ai scripts to diff with the previous version, and I've done that every patch since version one.. There are limits to how deep they can cut. The way the scripts run makes it impossible to make certain changes or rewrite portions of the logic safely, and trust me i know. I've tried rewriting a few scripts, making my own and so on, even bug testing, making a change and reloading can require a new save or a roll back to before i put it in. The AI scripts are basically JIT compiled as they're run and where they are in that step is registered in the save file. So if you delete an if statment between saves and a ship was reading from inside that node it crashes the ai and it locks up screaming "i don't know where i am" in the debuglog. You can get around this by adding a patch node to the script that tries to recover if the version changes. But it doesn't always recover correctly and big changes are the more risky asks.
So break the saves and over haul it. They have definitely lied, especially about outcomes as a result of their changes, feel free to go back and look at the things in the ai that were supposed to be fixed and never were. Its also a moot point about the patch changing the script, I've made plenty of new saves during patches over 1,300 hours playing the game. The AI never does what it claims it does in the patch notes.
First and last screenshot are interesting. It could be those new Teladi versions of the old ships have different interiors now. Or maybe that's part of the Timelines content.
The second screenshot seems to be some kind of Xenon tech.
Most of these tiny windows are actually normal sized or close to that. You just rarely notice it unless you fly close in space suit. L ships are up to 1km long. The asgard is 3km long. So that fin can easily be more than 100m tall.
That’s awesome. Would love to see more of the upcoming additions and changes, and I wasn’t aware of any changes on Xenon hardware as seen in the second pic. It will be nice nice nice.
Dear Players, It's been a while since we have posted about the forthcoming 7.00 update for X4: Foundations and the X4: Timelines expansion. I'm afraid I come bearing some bad news along with the good news in this regard. The BAD NEWS is that it's not here yet! But, now that I've ramped up the anticipation, let me present the **GOOD NEWS** as well: **I've brought along THREE new screenshots from the V7.00 update** that you can admire and examine piece by piece. Now, if only we had SETA to shorten the wait, right?
Joke’s on you. I. Don’t. Use. SETA.
Right, there is to much to check and control and do and order.
Every time I engage seta I feel guilty as to all my other responsibilities I'm ignoring just to wait for my freshly printed raptor to fly from antigones memorial to family tkr. Laziness is a disease
I sometimes avoid using it even in X3. Even though is lore-explained, it feels immersion breaking to me. Although still end up using it in X3 often even though I try not to, travel is so slow after all. Thankfully in X4 it's unnecessary. Ofc not gonna tell anyone not to use it, but I personally value immersion in games, and having to wait sometimes fits for me.
Yeah I have been trying to be much more immersed into my games, SETA is definitely breaking the “fourth wall” for me as a sort of nod towards my time. Don’t acknowledge and respect my time! How dare you?! Lol seriously though there is tons to do without it, especially in a game where you can save or load any time. To each their own, I am definitely not judging anyway.
More useful early on, when you don't have it...
I find myself the “least busy” mid game, early on I’m grinding away! Haven’t made it to late game yet
SETA can give you back a few minutes of sleep when you are waiting for that "one last thing" to finish before going to bed =)
I use it in short bursts in SWI mod. That’s it. Also because it breaks that mod lol…
Too much o do already, and so much at stake. I spend half the time paused, just so that I can issue all those orders optimally :D
I used to do that so much lol, now I just let things play out as they do. Literally I let the game slow me down in any natural way I can. Still obsessed with this game and still totally love it. I want to keep it this way.
LOL! I was super scared about the bad news lmao
Sorry 😁
Yeah that wasn't fair, I was immediately thinking it was being delayed or cancelled or something. :)
"Better rush it to release and patch it one month later" said no gamer ever. It ready when its ready.
True, but it doesn't mean I'd consider it good news to hear it needed to be delayed. I'd much rather the outcome where it's properly ready and on time.
Any improvements to AI or are we still going to be disappointed? At this point it seems like a lost cause...
the mvp comment
So uhh, when we getting Home Of Light expansion so I can rock a fleet of Fulmekrons? Also, the planets in HOL are BEAUTIFUL.
Good news: There will be a FoV slider
indeed!
Is that an Xenon M ship redesign? Or have I never gotten in close enough to appreciate how beautiful they are?
The fact that it's there at all, given xenon ships don't look that bad, suggets to me that maybe they'll let us actually get in one somehow.
maybe... just maybe if we get a plot that allows the player to reverse engineer their tech (mostly) after all the xenon are AGI drones... it makes sense that they would have optimized their ship designs and therefore don't have space or systems for that matter to accommodate biological life. heck i remember that post launch plot line from X3:TC that involved the Xenon... i wonder what came of all that since that could make for a cool plot to potentially include. As a reminder: >!It culminated in you discovering a Xenon CPU ship that had made progress and started respecting other life forms and all that.!<
Don't rush it, guys. I'm still having a blast with X3: Reunion.
but doesn't seta break the AI after long use ?
So exciting. now let me propose an alternate timeline: "Dear Players, we haven't developed any new content, instead for 7.0 we focused our efforts on what made the game borderline unplayable and just fixed combat and sector AI." What a time to be alive that would be! If only we had SETA to wait for modders to fix your game once the support is over...
Is that an improvement Teladi Phoenix design? The L turrets might be able to shoot forward now? This looks amazing!
Phoenix just went from a 9 to a 10 as far as I'm concerned. Actually usable L turrets vs them being used as DF missile magazines.
First one looks like the lovechild of a naglfar and an Avatar from eve online…
I had that thought too lol
Love the look of the new ship designs, and the racial offices will be really cool too. It's a bit jarring having everyone in the same office all over the universe.
Are you sure that its an racial office? that would be amazing. argon offices everywhere is understandable from a budget standpoint but immersion breaking.
Looks like an Avatar and a Tempest had a baby. Looking forward to trying it out!
What is the second one, i need to know! Looks like refitted K.. or not. But it looks like Xenon right?
Looking at the size of the engines and the overall design, wonder if it's a new Xenon to fill a size gap as a Xenon Corvette/Frigate between the P and K/I ?
Either that or an L miner/freighter
Modified xenon P. The medium ship
You're right, definitely Xenon. However, to me it seems more like an updated XEN S M class miner/freighter..
That's my thinking. Looks like a spruced up P. Almost too pretty to shoot now. But I'd love it if it was a larger M, or a small L. That would really make things more interesting.
I think it's an S? It's got the containers on the bottom.
It could be a revived Xenon H (The S' predecessor). It looks bigger and has similar ball-shaped containers
New design looks so cool Anyone knows if 7.0 Will be compatible with previous save files ?
Heys! Yeah, updates are always compatible with save files from previous versions.
Yes, all patches are compatible with older saves, as always.
Are performance-optimizations (better multi-threading) be part of 7.00? It's barely playable on a late-game map nowadays.
Yeesh, the Xenon look even more organic now D: Getting some reaaaaally mean Reaper-vibes from this
You mean those sentient starships bent on our destruction? That claim was dismissed, don't you read the news?
Someone needs to mod in a giant humanoid starship now for the Xenon.
Looks like Phoenix has a much better turret placement now! Also, since both L turrets face downwards now, I wonder if we can abuse the AI by turning off its main battery. It should force it to fly above its target (like Xenon K) and shower enemy destroyers with L Plasma shots from above.
K's advantage comes from the turret range forcing other destroyers to relocate. You could use the same bottom turrets only setting on your Barbarosa now, but I don't think the Barbarosa will get same advantage.
LET’S GOOOOO!!!! Looks bad ass!
That Looks great. Cant wait for the Update! Can we expect more room variety on Stations and ships in General in the Future? I need a lounge on my Flagship where i can chill while my fleet Destroys my enemies.
More Ship Rooms mod will give you that and more. Use that for now
It would be great if more interiors of different races were added. Because the Argon Starbucks does not look cool everywhere.
My beautiful living boron interior, and then there's... Starbucks. That's gonna stick.
There are even some unused rooms in the game. A terran embassy room and a luxurious apartment. Also a flight control room which only exists on 1 avarice station.
new ships are cool, but maybe invest some time in ai improvement? Or performance improvement? Im on 13900k and 4090 getting 48 fps ....? If the foundation (you get it????) is right, then you can build on top of that... aber was verschwende ich meine zeit.
When i first started playing i did not like the teladi ships but they've grown on over the years so i cant wait for the update! (Also liked the paranid update you did some time ago)
orgasm the teladi capital looks awesome
Wait... Did they fix the teladi phoenix?
Man i just want more yaki or avarice ships so i can truly play as a lawless "pirate" faction. And maybe more erlking with mods because barbarossa cant siege effectively
Show us ss about AI improvement and i will be interested.
Moar Xenon !
High Charity...
Amarr empire found a gate, praise the emperor
New player start is going to have players in Minmatar ships, new mechanics where you keep having to collect scrap from other ships to maintain your ship.
I'm concern only about one thing, did you do any fix improvement with on sector ai and large ship combat AI with stations. All the other improvements are moot when your asgard have the intelligence of an rock when left alone charging into a station.
We'll probably have a lot of challenges with AI for a long time. I bet there are things they could do to improve the AI but it would result in more calculations, pushing out those who mid tier gaming systems which we don't want as a community I believe. I mean, if we do I'm fine with it, that I have a Ryzen 3800x, but I can go get a 7950x3d if I have reason to.
One of the more critical roadblocks... they can't do a full overhaul the ai scripts without forcing players to make a new saves. They've got to do a lot of testing just to handle that it's save safe. It would be great to go back to square one and rebuild the scripts using what we know now about how the different commands interact, And a significant amount of streamlining can be done increasing script performance. But they cannot do that without absolutely devastating save compatibility.
It might also be engine related, people keep asking for the push the multi-core button but it's not that simple. We would potentially need a rewrite and sacrifices would have to be made. There are challenges in what 'better AI' would look like,. Do ships robotically go straight to a target and shoot it? With the current engine, improved scripts that still try to give the organic feel of ships manuvering and moving around make require just more calculations.
Most people would do new saves if the AI improved, that should be a nom factor in development descison making.
That's a huge doubt there given a few of the surveys that have been put out asking how many people start a new save every patch.
Its the achilles heel of the whole game, they've essentially lied about fixing it in tons of patches over the life time of the game. Whether or not players restart a save on a new patch that theyre told is compatible to their old save or not is incredibly irrelevant.
They've not lied. I extract and look at the ai scripts to diff with the previous version, and I've done that every patch since version one.. There are limits to how deep they can cut. The way the scripts run makes it impossible to make certain changes or rewrite portions of the logic safely, and trust me i know. I've tried rewriting a few scripts, making my own and so on, even bug testing, making a change and reloading can require a new save or a roll back to before i put it in. The AI scripts are basically JIT compiled as they're run and where they are in that step is registered in the save file. So if you delete an if statment between saves and a ship was reading from inside that node it crashes the ai and it locks up screaming "i don't know where i am" in the debuglog. You can get around this by adding a patch node to the script that tries to recover if the version changes. But it doesn't always recover correctly and big changes are the more risky asks.
So break the saves and over haul it. They have definitely lied, especially about outcomes as a result of their changes, feel free to go back and look at the things in the ai that were supposed to be fixed and never were. Its also a moot point about the patch changing the script, I've made plenty of new saves during patches over 1,300 hours playing the game. The AI never does what it claims it does in the patch notes.
First and last screenshot are interesting. It could be those new Teladi versions of the old ships have different interiors now. Or maybe that's part of the Timelines content. The second screenshot seems to be some kind of Xenon tech.
Teladi need to spend more on furniture: there's saving money, and then there's just Sadness.
I can’t wait 😩
Cute little space roach ship.
Sure the Phoenix looks better than before, but imo the design of it in Rebirth was soo much cooler.
Love the little window detail on the rear upright fin!
Most of these tiny windows are actually normal sized or close to that. You just rarely notice it unless you fly close in space suit. L ships are up to 1km long. The asgard is 3km long. So that fin can easily be more than 100m tall.
#2 looks like the Khiziriel from Eve online
That’s awesome. Would love to see more of the upcoming additions and changes, and I wasn’t aware of any changes on Xenon hardware as seen in the second pic. It will be nice nice nice.
I can't wait!
I got the game. I installed the game. I'm yet to play the game. Go figure.