The December Development update video is up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boxj2l5MkqYRandom notes:
To me, the game's looking really good, and I can already feel the X3+X4 mix.
I think they got hints from Star Citizen and Elite Generous when it comes to cockpits - and you'll now be able to see yourself inside cockpits (even if you are a Teladi).
There's a good amount of tiny details that I appreciate on the ship designs - like gimballed cannons (X always had 'tracking weapons', but the model themselves wouldn't move around with the aim) - and engines themselves have vectoring, in some designs.
And on ship designs, I also like that they put thought on how to deal with ship types and sizes. X3 AP was awkward in that there were a ton of ship types (M5, M4, M3...), and X:R had very few.
To me, both cases are awkward, because it makes the game feels very artificial - too many ship types, lore-wise/atmosphere-wise, gives a feeling of unnecessary overengineering and excessive militarization [
732 military-focused types, 3 civilian types]. Too few types make it feel those few ships were designed to fit their function and that's it.
So they are also going the middle-way on this, and within Ship Size categories, there will be ships with different focuses. At least looking at the game map and videos, it feels more organic.
The interface to upgrading ships feels more modern. Similar to the building interface shown before, a model-viewer of the ship comes up and you can click on the 'hardpoints' to upgrade the ship components. It seems some upgrades will have graphical changes, like better engines looking..better, and so on.
I don't care much for the graphical additions, but it seems you'll be able to save and load Loadouts, F***ING FINALLY! This also applies to station modules, which you'll be able to choose between weapons/shields/other modules for their 'hardpoints'.
Currently, the game starts, race-wise, will have 2 human characters, a split, a teladi and a paranid to choose from.
The video shows the player in Profit Center Alpha, so depending on the scale of the universe and how the Gates will behave...for some reason I can feel a Boron DLC/Content Patch in the futureThey mention Borons in the video and, again, they say they are not coming in the first release because if/when they add them in, they want to do it properly - a Boron sitting in a chair like a human would not make sense.I also love how the Discoverer looks like a ... Discoverer. It's design and cockpit is basically the good ol' disco, but in 2018.