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X3 Albion Prelude and X Rebirth

Zarniwoop

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Anyone here into the X series? Apparently there's a new one coming out, X3: Albion Prelude. So is this X5 or an expansion to X3 Terran Conflict (which is actually X4) ?

All I've managed to figure out is that for some incomprehensible reason the Terrans are attacking the X-universe "commonwealth".
 

racofer

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It's an expansion to X3:TC.

They've made some improvements to the game's engine as well, but multicores are still unsupported which makes this game sort of unplayable on the long run since no single cpu can cope with the late game demands.
 

Zarniwoop

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racofer said:
It's an expansion to X3:TC.

multicores are still unsupported

If true, that sucks big time. Although there aren't really that many games that use more than 1 core. Probably because they don't need it anyway, but the case of X, it just doesn't make sense.
 

Angelo85

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Yeah it's just an expansion. Originally Rebirth was scheduled to hit the (virtual) stores by the end of this year but got pushed back to 2012 now.
Guess they had to get some money into their coffer and released this DLC for X-Mas instead.
 

Zarniwoop

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From the screenshots on Steam, it looks like you're finally able to land on planets? Or is it just a cutscene again?
 

Angelo85

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JrK said:
It has a few interesting upgrades from vanilla TC. There's dynamic war stuff going on for one.
Mods did that a long time ago already. Quite elaborate as well. You could actually wipe out races and other... factions. They would send fleets to defend / capture contested system and so forth.

/e: zarni: I haven't read anything about that in the feature list or seen in videos. You would think such a feature got promoted big. So I think it's not actually in the DLC. I could be wrong on this one though.
 

baronjohn

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Lemme know if this shit ever gets a proper newtonian flight model. I refuse to play space games with cartoon physics.
 

Ion Flux

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baronjohn said:
Lemme know if this shit ever gets a proper newtonian flight model. I refuse to play space games with cartoon physics.

Are there any mods that can newtonify the flight model? I've been playing X2 lately and the whole lack of inertia thing is sort of immersion-breaking for me.

Edit - This seems to be one here:

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=140600
 

Spectacle

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baronjohn said:
Lemme know if this shit ever gets a proper newtonian flight model. I refuse to play space games with cartoon physics.
I can't imagine how a space game with realistic physics would be fun to play, the speeds involved in real space travel would make it pretty much impossible to fly manually. Just think of it as a more complicated version of space invaders.
 

JrK

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Spectacle said:
I can't imagine how a space game with realistic physics would be fun to play, the speeds involved in real space travel would make it pretty much impossible to fly manually. Just think of it as a more complicated version of asteroids.
Added more pylons. :salute:
 

Turjan

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I had been playing X3:TC for months. It's a bit like a single player MMO. It was pretty fun while it lasted. I don't think any expansion will get me to play it again, though. In order to make the game endless, the developers made a few inane design decisions that get very obvious after a while and show how pointless playing on actually is.

I'm not talking about the physics. I'm fine with X3 basically being a submarine game. Space, if you have to endure it on a human scale, is lastly boring, as exciting as its elements may be.
 

Raapys

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Elite did proper physics fairly well. Given the choice though, I'd rather have Independence War 2's system. That was pretty much ideal for a space sim.
 

Heresiarch

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So is it the same old shit or is it better shit or it's no more shit? I've searched for reviews but there's none so far, the only two gamespot user reviews give it a 3 and a 4.5 respectively.
 

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baronjohn said:
Lemme know if this shit ever gets a proper newtonian flight model. I refuse to play space games with cartoon physics.
Have you played any space games with newtonian flight modell? It wouldn't be too much fun.
 

Grim Monk

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baronjohn said:
I want a proper newtonian flight model space game.

tumblr_lew57vePYH1qd10xu.jpg



Here you go: ORBITER 2010
Fed up with space games that insult your intelligence and violate every law of physics? Orbiter is a simulator that gives you an idea what space flight really feels like - today and in the not so distant future. And best of all: you can download it for free!
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/

Its :thumbsup: freeware...
 
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I love the X series, but I'm tired of the current workings of this game. Combat is kinda meh too, it's far from joys of Freespace.

I've got all the games on steam, and Albion Prelude seems like a good game to play while waiting for rebirth. However, it's just more of the same.

The biggest issue I have with the whole series is slowdowns later in game, kinda crappy controls (although Albion is kinda ok, I play using keyboard and mouse), too cartoonish aliens and the whole thing being too grindy. It's just like EVE but single-player :P
 

SCO

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J_C said:
baronjohn said:
Lemme know if this shit ever gets a proper newtonian flight model. I refuse to play space games with cartoon physics.
Have you played any space games with newtonian flight modell? It wouldn't be too much fun.

WTF man? you never played elite or elite : first encounters?
 

Angthoron

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SCO said:
J_C said:
baronjohn said:
Lemme know if this shit ever gets a proper newtonian flight model. I refuse to play space games with cartoon physics.
Have you played any space games with newtonian flight modell? It wouldn't be too much fun.

WTF man? you never played elite or elite : first encounters?

Or the I-War series for that matter.
 

Alt

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Angthoron said:
SCO said:
J_C said:
baronjohn said:
Lemme know if this shit ever gets a proper newtonian flight model. I refuse to play space games with cartoon physics.
Have you played any space games with newtonian flight modell? It wouldn't be too much fun.

WTF man? you never played elite or elite : first encounters?

Or the I-War series for that matter.

J_C is quite right. A "proper newtonian flight model" wouldn't be a lot of fun for a lot of folks. Elite FE and I-War is Newton for dummies.

This is more like it:

http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=17573

http://smithplanet.com/stuff/orbiter/orbitaloperations.htm

So, what you're probably looking for is really a pseudo-newtonian flight model, not the real deal. And leaving those other pesky gravitational bodies like...uhm...planets out of the picture.
 

Baron

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Space Rogue had Newtonian physics, you could slingshot around moons or planetoids.

Gameplay demo, haven't bothered watching to see if it shows the physics. But classic game, nonetheless. This and SunDog : The Frozen Legacy were my favourite space games as a kid.

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

Turn the audio off... turn it off now.
 

Raapys

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The X-tended mod for Terran Conflict is the best way to play X, I'd say. Albion Prelude feels kinda unnecessary in that respect.

Rebirth, the true sequel set for 2012 release, sounds kinda interesting; they're finally doing away with those stupid square sector things, instead going for something like Freelancer's highways, flying fast through the system but being able to drop out and in anywhere along the road. Should mean significantly larger solar-system-like sectors, with 'hotspots' of stations and such here and there.

Also changing the way you make stations and capital ships, with some kind of modular design instead of just buying the finished thing. This also allows for destroying specific parts( i.e. shield generators, weapons, etc.) on the large ships and stations, which sounds far more interesting than the current system. That, in addition to a crew feature, the promise of similar or better modding support, as well as a completely new engine( with support for multi-threading!), makes it sound like a potentially great sequel.

They're also making a large and rather dubious change though, with how the player will apparently be stuck in just one specific( though customizable) ship where he can remote control various drones and order capital ships around. Kinda sad to see the 'fly any ship you see' feature go. Also doubt they're gonna make any drastic changes to the physics system, though with a new engine you never know. Looking forward to it though. X in its current form has kinda run its course, so something new and fresh is welcome.
 

Turisas

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Raapys said:
They're also making a large and rather dubious change though, with how the player will apparently be stuck in just one specific( though customizable) ship where he can remote control various drones and order capital ships around.

Why the hell would they do that?! :x

Fuck 'em if it's for some storyline reason, no one cares about those in X games. Well, hopefully it can be modded eventually.
 

Baron

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Raapys said:
They're also making a large and rather dubious change though, with how the player will apparently be stuck in just one specific( though customizable) ship where he can remote control various drones and order capital ships around.

I hope to see a truly DA2 backlash. I don't understand when developers make changes that literally none of its playerbase would want. The accountants must have done a hell of a whiteboard presentation on them.
 

DraQ

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baronjohn said:
Lemme know if this shit ever gets a proper newtonian flight model. I refuse to play space games with cartoon physics. :obviously:
Improved.



Grim Monk said:
baronjohn said:
I want a proper newtonian flight model space game.

tumblr_lew57vePYH1qd10xu.jpg



Here you go: ORBITER 2010
Fed up with space games that insult your intelligence and violate every law of physics? Orbiter is a simulator that gives you an idea what space flight really feels like - today and in the not so distant future. And best of all: you can download it for free!
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/

Its :thumbsup: freeware...
Orbiter is a glorious sim, but barely a proper game and it has needlessly bloated interface. Never got into it due to sheer amount of keys to memorize. With a bit more mouse driven interface I'm sure it would be glorious, though.

Still, I'd fucking kill genocide for Frontier-like on Orbiter engine, with Orbiter's physics, detail and possibly even extensive and modular ship customization that could be done using physics this detailed.

I'd cum so hard I'd knock the moon out of orbit with stream of relativistic ejaculate.

Turjan said:
I had been playing X3:TC for months. It's a bit like a single player MMO. It was pretty fun while it lasted. I don't think any expansion will get me to play it again, though. In order to make the game endless, the developers made a few inane design decisions that get very obvious after a while and show how pointless playing on actually is.

I'm not talking about the physics. I'm fine with X3 basically being a submarine game. Space, if you have to endure it on a human scale, is lastly boring, as exciting as its elements may be.
That's what time compression is for.
:smug:

PROBLEM, X?
:troll:
Alt said:
J_C is quite right. A "proper newtonian flight model" wouldn't be a lot of fun for a lot of folks. Elite FE and I-War is Newton for dummies.

This is more like it:

http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=17573

http://smithplanet.com/stuff/orbiter/or ... ations.htm

So, what you're probably looking for is really a pseudo-newtonian flight model, not the real deal. And leaving those other pesky gravitational bodies like...uhm...planets out of the picture.

Nope. Frontier has proper Newtonian physics, albeit not very accurate. It's somewhat excusable, as it's a ridiculously ambitious game for the hardware it was coded for (AtariST, 286, Amiga), which didn't even have FPU so all floating point calculations had to be emulated using integers only.
The inaccuracies are pretty much limited to non-Newtonian rotation, gravity calculation limited to single source at a time (orbits for celestial bodies and stations are pre-calculated and thus unaffected by this limitation) and some rounding errors/frame of reference bugs.

As far as translation goes the game is fully Newtonian, and gravity works properly as long as the influence of other bodies can be neglected.

Simulation is actually detailed enough that Coriolis' force can be detected when flying near planetary surfaces.

I-War 2 also has proper Newtonian physics, albeit limited to empty space conditions - the simulation doesn't account for gravity and orbits of celestial bodies - they just sort of hang there. The AI is also retarded because it doesn't understand Newtonian flight and if you switch off the automatics and accelerate to very high velocity, you can cruise without thrust (obviously) and the AI can't catch up with you despite you're an inert body at that time. :lol:

Overall Frontier and FFE (with JJFFE to fix some glaring error, like relative velocity not updating with changing FoR) are much better. They have, gravity, orbits and AI capable of intercepting not just inert targets, but also craft in powered flight.

The question of Newtonian model being or not being fun isn't question of Newtonian model itself but of available automatics and propulsion systems. If your ship can use thrusters to stabilize itself and not spin out of control, then turning around is no problem. Moving around at short ranges requires some training, but can be fun as well when you learn to cope with inertia.
Long range movement is generally the question of acceleration (in Frontier even sluggish superfreighters are capable of about 5-6G using prime mover, fighters can do over 20G) and delta v budget (also time compression) - if they're high enough, long distance travel isn't a chore either as you travel along brachistochrone trajectories - even better if you have autopilot.
 

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