I mean, the gameplay seems to have some depth beneath it, but it's an HCI nightmare. I would be fine with the first person perspective, just as I was in X3, except for the fact that you can't see anything because the useless cockpit HUD takes up half your FOV. The HUD is terrible, and due to the tiny size of semi-transparent and rapidly moving icons, gives almost no information. The poor FOV combines with the delayed turning, lack of usable 3D indicators, and complete lack of ability to move other than forward (aside from a token gesture from maneuvering thrusters) results in a terrible spinning around constantly to try and find what you're looking for. Not only does this become disorienting really fast, but due to the terrible graphics and clutter, it becomes nauseating.
I fully agree on the HCI interface point. Flight combat is incredibly frustrating due to a lack of easy targeting (there are no targeting key commands - not even 'target the thing under my crosshairs' or 'target nearest enemy' - you have to click on the inevitably fast moving enemy to target it) and a lack of useful information (other than very basic HUD indicators, there's no way to tell where an enemy actually is - there's no radar/gravidar map visible while flying).
I've posted some suggestions on the Egosoft forums (
link), but the interface issues go much deeper than just that.
From what I can see from my ~12 hours of play, there's no way to give a command to a trade ship you own unless it's in your squad - and all ships in your squad follow you. This means that remote trading is effectively a no-no - you have to physically travel, yourself, to initiate a trade. I believe the idea is that you will be able to do this remotely (i.e. initiate the trade deal), but it seems that it still only works for freighters in your squad. So I may well be able to start a 'buy 1000 energy cells here' deal from halfway across the galaxy...but all the ships that can then act on that deal will already be with me, so will have to travel half the galaxy to do it anyway! As one commentator said, it feels like freight ships are more like glorified backpacks in this incarnation.
You don't appear to be able to give orders directly to your ships. At all, as far as I can see. For what is effectively a command-and-control simulator game, this is rather shocking.
There is no autopilot. If you're not flying the ship, it's not moving. Your co-pilot appears to be plot-fodder rather than of any use.
The first time my ship got attacked while I was walking around a station, I thought it was thrilling. Then I found myself aboard a ship with no weapons (destroyed), no shield (damaged) and a crippled engine...all because my co-pilot had simply sat there and been shot at, rather than e.g. evading attack. I do wonder if this is a bug, rather than a design choice - I'd assumed when I was docked, I was safe, as when on foot you can see your ship settled in the hangar!
Overall: I really wanted to love the game. I love bits of it. I love what I've seen of the universe. I love the space graphics. I even love some of Egosoft's humorous touches (there are three seashells in the toilet cubicles). And I know it's an Egosoft game, and that patches will transform this thing.
I just worry that it's too big a transformation. I worry that they've ultimately crippled it.
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Topic: X-Rebirth - It's really happening (NOV 15) (Read 49793 times)