Couple of more interviews with German game site http://www.pcgameshardware.de/X-Rebirth-PC-236813/Specials/X-Rebirth-Interview-schlechte-Bewertungen-1100888/

 and http://www.pcgames.de/X-Rebirth-PC-236813/Specials/X-Rebirth-Entwickler-Bernd-Lehan-im-Interview-1100853/ you will need to run them through Google for a loose translation.

 

I see he mentions 150 testers were used, you have to wonder what they were testing.

Bernd stated somewhere on the forums that the methods they employed for testing have been proven wrong. The trading was running at highly accelerated speed. So most pathing issues and such did not occur.

I do wonder though, in a beta test or such when you go test a piece of software, from my professional experience is that you have a piece of software which does something and you go test what a user does in each case. And for a reasonable piece of business software this was 2 months time tops to work through all possible scenarios with 5 testers. If they had 150, they must really have been doing something wrong in setting up the testing scenarios. Since they seem to have not tested the case if some new player forgets to buy cargolifter URV's. A person which forgets a step in the process is something so basic as it can lead to all kinds of shitty mess in software.

But for the rest, I have just finished the storyline. I must say it was a bit short, but still very fun.

They must have just been testing bit of the game like the one that was demonstrated at GDC earlier in the year as seems impossible that 150 tester would miss so much.

I work in QA, and I have been lucky to have 2-10 people on a QA team for business software that costs millions of dollars to purchase and if 2-10 people can test a product like this and generally have a smooth rollout then yes Robske's assessment is correct then they were definitely doing something wrong if 150 couldn't get the job done. Crap if normal businesses had 150 QA people we would have flawless applications and very quick release times.

What it probably was is they let them loose and didn't people keep to a structured test scenario that covered each functional area.

New video with details about X Rebirth Patch 1.25

patchnotes:

Release Notes 

• Localisations for text relating to the new Joystick Deadzone option are not yet included. 

Patch 1.30 RC6 

• New Feature: Steam Workshop support. 

• Improved support for joysticks and multiple input devices. 

• Improved mining scripts, especially for medium size mineral/ice miners. 

• Improved trade ship behaviour to favour profitable, non-empty runs. 

• Improved station scan mode which no longer highlights objects that are not relevant. 

• Improved attack and evasive maneuvers and AI. 

• Improved flight pathing during normal flight, when following other ships, and when docking. 

• Improved collector drone flight behaviour near large objects. 

• Improved map handling of ship command hierarchies. 

• Improved trade menu, including text search, sorting and colours. 

• Improved appearance of small ships flying in lanes around stations. 

• Enabled comm/info interactions with player property that is more than 10 km away. 

• Added missions relating to the upkeep of ships and stations. 

• Added list of platform NPCs to station menu (only available if you're in the same zone). 

• Added more information and command hierarchy to player property menu. 

• Added information to encyclopedia about stations/ships that can be built. 

• Added option to stop displaying steering mode message. 

• Fixed missing manager comm option. 

• Fixed wrong mouse-steering mode being entered in some cases incorrectly when leaving a menu. 

• Fixed several other incorrect or inconvenient menu behaviours. 

• Fixed calculations for gathering certain resources out-of-sector. 

• Fixed player being sent to NPCs on ships or on hostile stations when asking for directions. 

• Fixed some objects left in construction state after building finished (still at least one rare case remaining). 

• Fixed trade missions not completing if the station storage was full, notably the food trade plot mission. 

• Fixed trade ships not stopping their current order after clearing their shopping list. 

• Fixed trade orders for selling items using ships in player squad. 

• Fixed ships blocking docking bays after having docking interrupted. 

• Fixed incorrect docking icons under certain circumstances. 

• Fixed not being able to unlock skills of defence officers on platforms. 

• Fixed displayed total counts of stored units. 

• Fixed drones that should have a commander appearing in property owned menu. 

• Fixed destroyed drones not being properly removed from drone storage. 

• Fixed incorrect ship position after leaving a highway with a menu open. 

• Fixed stations creating trade offers with higher value than it can afford. 

• Fixed building and production remaining paused after modules having been hacked. 

• Fixed ships assigned to stations being incorrectly assigned mining jobs. 

• Fixed outdated trade offer information appearing on event monitor. 

• Fixed trade ships assigned to player stations sometimes not updating their range. 

• Fixed object menu not restoring after closing station trade offers. 

• Fixed production menu information not updating correctly. 

• Fixed production showing very long production times in certain cases. 

• Fixed production stalling due to stations filling up with intermediate wares. 

• Fixed several pathfinding problems, which should prevent ships from flying through stations. 

• Fixed ships equiping drones or ammo getting stuck in the shipyard. 

• Fixed most cases of dropped containers being stuck inside each other (can still happen occasionally). 

• Fixed architect destroying drones in storage without adding them to the station. 

• Fixed issue with parking ships when manager (stations) or pilot (construction vessel) are not present. 

• Fixed trade ships waiting too long for a free parking location when intended trade is no longer possible. 

• Fixed calculation of required funds when trading with other player property. 

• Fixed pilot not being placed on ship's platform. 

• Fixed mining for medium size ships. 

• Fixed incorrect mining order for ships which can't transport the mining wares. 

• Fixed blocked trades involving discounts if there is only enough money for the discounted amount not the full amount. 

• Fixed built ships not leaving the shipyard after shipyard construction module has been destroyed and subsequently repaired. 

• Fixed several other cases of ships getting stuck, not moving when they should. 

• Fixed owner of fuel station in Gemstone Manufacture. 

• Fixed incorrect lasers being used by medium ice collector ships. 

• Fixed problem with accuracy of time data in savegames with long play time. 

• Fixed rotation of construction ships after flying to build location. 

• Fixed visual glitch on map when targeting/entering/leaving highways. 

• Fixed animation problem with highways in games with long play time. 

• Fixed stalls when entering highways in savegames that have been saved/loaded many times. 

• Fixed another cause of the game stalling for a short time. 

• Fixed crash when loading certain savegames. 

• Fixed several causes of apparently random crashes. 

• Various optimisations resulting in performance improvements. 

• Signficant performance improvements on some AMD graphics cards, particularly R9. 

• RC5 Improved flying and shooting behaviour of large mining ships. 

• RC5 Fixed event monitor not showing-up for the first time on a platform. 

• RC5 Fixed player jumping with environment object while a menu is open. 

• RC5 Fixed stuck menu for build module encyclopedia entries. 

• RC5 Fixed being able to open the options menu from a drone. 

• RC5 Fixed ships trying to go to the same coordinates by default. 

• RC5 Fixed occasional problem with ships colliding with docks after loading a savegame. 

• RC5 Fixed problem that could cause following ships to get stuck when the target changes zones. 

• RC5 Fixed a performance problem introduced in 1.30. 

• RC5 Fixed problem with giving new orders introduced in 1.30. 

• RC5 Fixed trade offers from player-owned stations not appearing in trade offer menu, introduced in 1.30. 

• RC5 Fixed missing trade offer locations on PMC Defence station when loading savegames, introduced in 1.30. 

• RC5 Fixed broken event monitor when player is docked at a cap ship while it jumps, introduced in 1.30. 

• RC5 Reset default deadzone setting to the pre-1.30 value. 

• RC5 Re-enabled controller mode for joysticks, restoring pre-1.30 behaviour (setting will be added later). 

• RC5 Moved steering range input before action input (new in 1.30) to discourage player mistakes. 

• RC5 Fixed gas miners collecting with super speed, introduced in 1.30. 

• RC6 Fixed missing player docks in new DeVries ships, introduced in 1.30. 

• RC6 Fixed a crash associated with upkeep missions, introduced in 1.30. 

• RC6 Removed blinking effect in the event monitor when approaching a dock, introduced in 1.30. 

Note: If a problem is not listed as fixed above then it is probably not being addressed in this patch, but may be planned for a future one.

I take it that they are still testing the 1.30 patch as Steam has not updated my game since the 1.25 hot fix from early in March?.

Yes these are the beta patchnotes.

Expect the patch to hit by the easter weekend (about 7 days from now). I picked up that egosoft will round it up by then and release it.

Patch has been released:

http://steamcommunity.com/games/2870/announcements/detail/1388541483121339263

Video for it as well.

Big update in may.

Nice to see this game progressing slowly to the goal of fixing and improving the game. The patch release notes on steam is actually quite large and look forward to the May news for X:R. Still haven't picked this game up yet and will hold off until I think it has received the patches it has needed to provide a good experience, because I really do want to complete a X game and don't want to get discouraged early on by game bugs 😉

Not to mention still some missing content 😉

I expect the update in may to add a few new systems. Even though the game universe is fairly big (comparable to 50 old sectors in the x3 games), it still could use some beefing up.

Not to mention still some missing content 😉

What content has still yet to be added (that was promised)?

For me by watching the videos I would like the station and npc interactions to be a bit more polished, I would be very happy with a Mass Effect level of npc interaction on stations. Where characters actually do have different voices and its not the same reused voices. But my X:R experiences is only with videos to this point so it could have improved.

What content has still yet to be added (that was promised)?

 

For me by watching the videos I would like the station and npc interactions to be a bit more polished, I would be very happy with a Mass Effect level of npc interaction on stations. Where characters actually do have different voices and its not the same reused voices. But my X:R experiences is only with videos to this point so it could have improved.

More solar systems containing a proper teladi, split, paranid and boron presence.

I think that's what is lacking the most right now. For the rest, proper fighter ship implementation. Now the AI just uses them, but you can't use them yourself properly.

Well, its nice to see them continuing to fix and improve the game.

Very true so 🙂

been a small update to the last patch.

This is just a small update to fix some problems reported by some players.

• Fixed further problems with ship and station build, upgrade and repair processes.

• Fixed crash when starting game with more than 4 joystick devices installed.

• Fixed several other causes of occasional crashes.

• Improved handling of pre-1.30 savegame compatibility problems caused by mods leaving files in the root extension folder.

• Improved error reporting in crash dump files.

 

New public beta patch has been released http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=366338&start=0 so it only available to subscribers at the moment, but looks like they are starting to sort out some long standing issues with the game.

New high way flight model, radar/ map working...about time, and some new cockpit configurations sounds intresting.

New Feature: Three new gamestarts, each with a new cockpit configuration.

• New Feature: Rebalanced combat with three difficulty settings.

• New Feature: Additional commands for your ships.

• New Feature: Autopilot can fly your ship while you are busy.

• New Feature: All new highway flight model.

• New Feature: Most tasks can now be performed without landing on stations.

• New Feature: Full screen HUD detail monitor option.

• New Feature: Clicks on event monitor now open relevant menus.

• New Feature: Map/radar on event monitor.

• New Feature: New ships in Omicron Lyrae.

• New Feature: Huge new Xenon ship.

• New Feature: Four new missile types.

• New Feature: Improved graphics for an even more beautiful universe.

• New Feature: New graphics options and presets.

• New Feature: New start menu scene.

• New Feature: New Steam achievements.

• Added support for up to 8 input devices (now even your pet octopus can get the most from the game).

• Added option to buy replacement player ship cockpit layout from certain traders.

• Added shield damage for collisions.

• Improved responsiveness of main menu and dialogs.

• Improved event monitor with more space for important information.

• Improved positioning of interface elements in first person mode.

• Fixed gamepad mode switching on when axis has non-zero value while at rest.

• Fixed problem with wrecked state of ship/station surface elements not always being loaded from savegames correctly.

• Fixed collectable objects not showing a target element.

• Fixed gates not showing a target element.

• Fixed info points not being displayed at drone launch pads.

• Fixed cases where clicking on larger targets didn't work.

• Fixed rare instance of mission objective bar being stuck on screen.

• Fixed text field not being reset when closing and reopening trade menu.

• Fixed problems with overlapping/truncated text on first person event monitor.

• Fixed cases resulting in jumping target elements.

• Fixed incorrect text in certain conversations.

• Fixed icon size in licence encyclopedia entry.

• Fixed distance sorting in trade menu.

• Fixed capital ships becoming invisible when boosting while player is close.

• Fixed several other causes of occasional crashes.

• Various optimisations resulting in small performance improvements.

 

 

• Added support for up to 8 input devices (now even your pet octopus can get the most from the game).

 

:laugh:

Now I'm more tempted to buy this game. .... I .... must .... resist 

X rebirth 2.0!

http://steamcommunity.com/games/2870/announcements/detail/1387418590636426607

• New Feature: Three new gamestarts, each with a new cockpit configuration. 

• New Feature: Rebalanced combat with three difficulty settings. 
• New Feature: Additional commands for your ships. 
• New Feature: Autopilot can fly your ship while you are busy. 
• New Feature: All new highway flight model. 
• New Feature: Most tasks can now be performed without landing on stations. 
• New Feature: Full screen HUD detail monitor option. 
• New Feature: Clicks on event monitor now open relevant menus. 
• New Feature: Map/radar on event monitor. 
• New Feature: New ships in Omicron Lyrae. 
• New Feature: Huge new Xenon ship. 
• New Feature: Four new missile types. 
• New Feature: Improved graphics for an even more beautiful universe. 
• New Feature: New graphics options and presets. 
• New Feature: New start menu scene. 
• New Feature: New Steam achievements. 
• Added support for up to 8 input devices (now even your pet octopus can get the most from the game). 
• Added option to buy replacement player ship cockpit layout from certain traders. 
• Added shield damage for collisions. 
• Improved responsiveness of main menu and dialogs. 
• Improved event monitor with more space for important information. 
• Improved positioning of interface elements in first person mode. 
• Improved production logic now skips products where the station has too much stock. 
• Fixed gamepad mode switching on when axis has non-zero value while at rest. 
• Fixed problem with wrecked state of ship/station surface elements not always being loaded from savegames correctly. 
• Fixed collectable objects not showing a target element. 
• Fixed gates not showing a target element. 
• Fixed info points not being displayed at drone launch pads. 
• Fixed cases where clicking on larger targets didn't work. 
• Fixed rare instance of mission objective bar being stuck on screen. 
• Fixed text field not being reset when closing and reopening trade menu. 
• Fixed problems with overlapping/truncated text on first person event monitor. 
• Fixed cases resulting in jumping target elements. 
• Fixed incorrect text in certain conversations. 
• Fixed icon size in licence encyclopedia entry. 
• Fixed distance sorting in trade menu. 
• Fixed capital ships becoming invisible when boosting while player is close. 
• Fixed cases where build icons were displayed without a builder ship in the player squad. 
• Fixed missing trade offers for architects with no money. 
• Fixed rare case of missing target elements (usually build locations or player owned cap ships). 
• Fixed cases where targeting objects using gamepad/joystick controls did not work correctly. 
• Fixed trade restrictions menu getting stuck. 
• Fixed several causes of occasional crashes. 
• Various optimisations resulting in small performance improvements.

I will have to turn Steam on again.

Egosoft is extremely pleased to finally announce the release of X Rebirth 2.0 - Secret Service Missions. After considerable effort and with an eye to all the great feedback we've received, X Rebirth 2.0 represents a major update for a wide variety of gameplay mechanics.

 

Great feedback must be a new name for all the complaints  :haha: 

I will have to turn Steam on again.

 

 

Great feedback must be a new name for all the complaints  :haha:

Yes. Besides, the game is 50% off for now, midweek madness 😉

Just seen the trailer for it.

Very impressive trailer, makes me want to pick it up. But probably holding off until the 1yr anniversary before getting this one, unless the feedback is amazingly positive 🙂

I also noticed on the Egosoft Shop the Collectors Edition is on sale at 39.99 Euros, 44.49 including shipping to the UK. Is it now finally worth it with these patches and updates I wonder ?

Depends on weather you want a physical game disk, I always go for a boxed edition myself as I like having them ( I am a game hoarder ) :biggrin: also it will probably be the original release which will still mean downloading about 1.5 GB of updates and patches from Steam.

Just had quick play around things seem to working better, not impressed by the two new versions of the cockpit but the radar/scanner seem to be working now also I think my performance has improved a bit although it was not too bad to start with so it hard to tell.

Also noticed that cap ship now have fighter escorts and watched a battle between a zeon cap ship with it's fighter and one of the stations and that idiot mini highway game has gone