X Rebirth

[MiataNC]

I wonder if the game has any hope in mods? Any indication of how moddable the game is?

I guess I might as well try it at some point, I did pre-order it after all. Sigh...

Thankfully X games are among the best when it comes to modding.

I am in the same boat as you. I pre-ordered, and I am pretty disappointed with what we were given at launch. That being said I have faith mods/patches will get the game where it needs to be. It is going to take a while, but the potential is there.

 

[Markbnj]

I wonder if the game has any hope in mods? Any indication of how moddable the game is?

I guess I might as well try it at some point, I did pre-order it after all. Sigh...

I don't know. I'm skeptical. Mods can "skin" a game and change a surprising amount of behavior as long as that behavior is defined in externally accessible scripts and data files. I suspect that the problems with Rebirth are so fundamental to the design that there just won't be "hooks" for a lot of the stuff that, in my mind, would be required to make it the game it could have been. How are you going to add an autopilot?

 

[Nintendesert]

Apparently, A Nexus for Rebirth just opened, but I think X has it's own dedicated mod community in their forums?

Yeah, there's some very dedicated modders for X. That's what gives me hope for Rebirth. Just how much they can mod? I am not too familiar with the tools the game provides, the other downside however is if the X community is so put off by X Rebirth they decide to simply go back to X TC or AP and not mod for it.

 

[Anteaus]

Rebirth will go through growing pains much like the previous games that Egosoft will exploit.

1. X Rebirth is released with healthy sales but ultimately poor gameplay and middling acclaim.

2. Modders will either release mods that make the game better or come up with good ideas that Egosoft will exploit.

3. Egosoft will take all of the best mods and ideas that came from the gamers for Rebirth, shove them into the next standalone version of X, and pass them off as their own.

4. "Unnamed" standalone X Rebirth sequel gets released and Egosoft charges everyone again for the game Rebirth should have been in the first place.

Egosoft has always been a company that had much loftier ideas than they could ever successfully ship on a disc. I'm not saying Egosoft can't deliver a good product in general, but this project was obviously mismanaged when you consider the time in development versus the state of the game at release.

 

[Fallen Kell]

The "state of the game at release" is whatever they could get to compile so it would be on store shelves in time for Black Friday....

 

[Markbnj]

Egosoft has always been a company that had much loftier ideas than they could ever successfully ship on a disc.

Yes, but the problem with this game is not that they set high goals and couldn't reach them. It's that they set goals, and reached them, and they suck.

 

[Anteaus]

Yes, but the problem with this game is not that they set high goals and couldn't reach them. It's that they set goals, and reached them, and they suck.

I understand where you are coming from, but the sum total of the game isn't bad because of goals. There are definitely design decisions that were made and the game is worse because of them, but if the components all worked well then it would still be decent, but worse than the predecessors. I just mean that if you take in the game as a whole, you can tell they tried to do so many things with such a small team that the game was simply screwed from the start.

Limited and frequently reused textures. Horrible voice acting. One station design. Limited NPC skins. Etc. These are all things that hurt the game needlessly. In other words, it could have been the Dragon Age II of the X series, if everything had been done properly. It would have a poor game relative to what came before it, but standing alone it would have been average to good.

The design failures only really get focused on by long time X fans. New players would probably find Rebirth to be decent...but like I said, bugs and low production value ultimately scar it.

I respect your opinion though. No matter how you slice it, Egosoft really took a step backwards with this game. I'm super disappointed because I postponed buying Albion Prelude for about 4 months in anticipation of this game. After about 4 hours of gameplay in Rebirth, I uninstalled it, purchased AP, and never looked back. I'm certain I'll revisit it down the road. It's up to Egosoft how soon that is....

 

[el-Capitan]

The "state of the game at release" is whatever they could get to compile so it would be on store shelves in time for Black Friday....

Why would they want it on the shelves by Black Friday?

To offer it at a discount? Doubt it, too soon.
Because it get you to the store to buy other things you dont need? No.
To get you buy another required item, such as a console? Err. no.

This is a German game. They don't even know what Black Friday is.

 

[Markbnj]

The design failures only really get focused on by long time X fans. New players would probably find Rebirth to be decent...but like I said, bugs and low production value ultimately scar it.

That's true. If they had a made a great game then it might have success in finding a new audience. Of course, that is a risk in itself. If you want to make the 4th Harry Potter movie be about a nanny who uses an umbrella to fly around London and has a big impact on the lives of three neglected children, well you might make a great movie, but you have to expect the fans of the first three to be pissed off if they bought tickets expecting the previous themes to be faithfully advanced.

 

[neit]

It's going on a month and a half since the last post in this thread. I've never played any of the previous X games but was looking to give this a shot after quitting eve (again).

Any changes in reviews, impressions, etc since launch? Any major patches or updates that improve the game?

 

[JimmiG]

It's going on a month and a half since the last post in this thread. I've never played any of the previous X games but was looking to give this a shot after quitting eve (again).

Any changes in reviews, impressions, etc since launch? Any major patches or updates that improve the game?

It's now actually possible to finish the plot though you may still run into game breaking bugs. Trading sort of works. Other than that, no real changes.

 

[Markbnj]

It's going on a month and a half since the last post in this thread. I've never played any of the previous X games but was looking to give this a shot after quitting eve (again).

Any changes in reviews, impressions, etc since launch? Any major patches or updates that improve the game?

Don't waste your money.