X series first impressions *spoiler alert*

[Pinback]

I probably have another few go at it at the weekend, just been having a look around Omicrom and found that station which hangs in the planet atmosphere also noticed that the station interiors are different.

[Pinback]

New patch on the way to patch the patch [url]http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=352790[/url] Since the last posting we have released two more updates 1.16 and 1.17. These two mostly focussed on improving stability and fixed a couple of bugs related to the non working trade offers. See release notes for details:[url]http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=347278[/url] bugsIt turned out that the issues many of you are seeing with trade ships not working correctly is not one bug but a whole series of connected problems. After resolving the first issue with 1.17, more problems became apparent. This is the reason we are now testing the next patch 1.18 a lot longer than the other patches. We can not afford a very indepth test at this time, because too many of you are waiting for this fix, but things are looking good and chances are that this update will be available before the weekend.I do not want to give silly excuses here. Of course you deserve a bug free game, but you may ask why these trade problems were not uncovered during testing: We had a group of testers dedicated to testing our economy over a long period of time. These guys used a special version of the game which allowed them to run the entire economy at a higher speed. It seems that most of these problems we now see did not happen with this time acceleration. Meanwhile these problems also do not happen early on in the game or if you (like most testers do) have to restart the game frequently.Other features coming up next• Fixed several causes of crashes in-game and when loading savegames.• Fixed a specific problem resulting in periodic slow-downs.• Improved general performance (first small improvement only, more to come).• Fixed several problems with ship/drone docking/undocking behaviour.• Fixed problem with player drone formations.• Fixed several small localisation issues.• Improved skill levels for new NPCs.• Improved readability of entries in interaction menus.• Improved GPU listing on laptops with multiple GPUs (still some driver-related issues on certain hardware). 

[Pinback]

Being fiddling with graphics as the default seems to be the low end and I have turned on or increased them I am getting some slow down in some zones but so far it not been too bad.Also as I have been playing tourist and have spent some time just flying around the station and I am just awestruck by the size of them and the details the only thing which I think is missing is some comms chatter as would have added greatly to the immersion.

[robske]

There are some mods which do that. One is out there on nexusmod called VacuumBass, but honestly I found that one adding more annoyance than atmosphere  I like the peaceful X Rebirth OST at calm times, not with having all sorts of music and comms in between from the station and highway traffic.

[Guest]

Hopefully by the time I get the Box set in January most of the performance issues and bugs will be fixed.  PS - I wonder if I'm been too optimistic. ;P

[Pinback]

There are some mods which do that. One is out there on nexusmod called VacuumBass, but honestly I found that one adding more annoyance than atmosphere  I like the peaceful X Rebirth OST at calm times, not with having all sorts of music and comms in between from the station and highway traffic. It's some thing I really like about Freelancer is the comm chatter have you heard the running water sound effect when you pass over one of the farm stations, now that's weird. Hopefully by the time I get the Box set in January most of the performance issues and bugs will be fixed.  PS - I wonder if I'm been too optimistic. ;P 6-12 months given their past performances I would only get it if your are sure your computer can run it. After fiddling around with the graphic I decides to venture back into Omicrom...result was a slide show, turned VSYNC off which improved it a bit but I am going to have to reduce the setting down in that system. New patch outPatch 1.18 - 2013-12-02• Fixed several causes of crashes in-game and when loading savegames.• Fixed a specific problem resulting in periodic slow-downs.• Improved general performance (first small improvement only, more to come).• Fixed several problems resulting in trade ships getting stuck.• Fixed several problems with ship/drone docking/undocking behaviour.• Fixed problem with player drone formations.• Fixed several small localisation issues.• Improved skill levels for new NPCs.• Improved readability of entries in interaction menus.• Improved GPU listing on laptops with multiple GPUs (still some driver-related issues on certain hardware). 

[robske]

1.18 patch resolves many issues. Still some standing bugs:- Trading ships not cancelling their trade orders when they can't fulfill them due to missing cargolifter URV's. -> still forces you to either install scripts to cancel them or to do savegame editing. Performance has increased quite a bit for me. A 8 FPS increase in devries. Parts of albion which would create almost complete slowdown now cause some slight lag (from 5 FPS to 20 FPS). Clearly noticeable improvements on those fields now. I notice the improvements being most noticeable in areas with many asteroids, high traffic or complex geometry (or a combination of those). The albion <-> Devries gate was often a hated point for me to fight at due to the lag there. But that one i mentioned up there with the URV's is still one which needs a proper fix from egosoft. edit:@Pinback: Did you notice some of the Easter Eggs in omicron yet? I found 2 on some stations.

[Pinback]

Only seen the FTL ship in the fish tank, been looking for the X game trade station which I seen in one of the videos but I am not sure if it is actually in the game. Does 1.18 path incorporate all the other patches?, I am still using version 1.12.

[robske]

Steam should auto update. It did here. One station has on the couch a doll of a scifi game personality. The couch is in the manager's room of a sector 2 superhighways from the entry point of omicron from devries.

[Pinback]

Yup just turned steam on and updated the game to 1.18 only 18 meg surprised it was such a small patch, had a quick look around the great basin in Omicrom which killed the frame rate last time with the graphic options all turned on and it has improved but their still lag. Going off to see what the other sectors are like.

[Pinback]

New patch on the way, looks like they will be looking at the frame rate issues [url]http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=352790[/url] I explained in my first posting in this thread, that our second priority (after stability) is performance improvements. 1.19 will have a couple of bug fixes that can potentially bring very significant performance improvements.One of these fixes is not a general performance improvement that will make the game run faster for everybody, but if you were affected by this bug, it can increase performance by several hundred percent. May or may not improve it?.

[robske]

Honestly I think this is for some specific actions or hardware setups.

[Pinback]

How that Easter egg hunt going Robske. I Just found the Kerble in the back of the Skunk.

[robske]

Well, I am currently stuck in a lagfest of a storyline mission where I have a battle at the albion gate in devries to knock a plutarch station away Waiting for 1.19 as the lag makes that battle impossible for me.

[Pinback]

Patch 1.19 out Patch 1.19 - 2013-12-09• Fixed major slowdown after loading savegames.• Fixed several more causes of crashes.• Fixed more cases of trade ships getting stuck.• Fixed large ships being unable to trade with Canteran station in DeVries.• Fixed undocking problems after trading.• Fixed ammunition trade problems.• Fixed mining drones getting stuck.• Fixed negative number of drones in cargo.• Fixed cargo bays containing more wares than they can hold.• Fixed cockpit animations hanging (see note below).• Fixed problem with targeting player-owned ships.• Fixed incorrect player position during highway flight.• Fixed player owned ships being assigned the wrong commander.• Fixed ships with missing AI functionality.• Fixed problems with Engineer functionality.• Improved flight behaviour for boarding and claiming.• Improved combat behaviour for capital ships.• Fixed station defence problems.• Fixed incorrect defence routines being used on ships.• Fixed switching the AI mode of the Defence Officer.• Added defend and attack mode options to Defence Officer.• Rebalanced skills of existing NPCs in line with new ones.• Rebalanced contents of boxes and other containers on platforms.• Rebalanced cost of ship and station repair.• Fixed transport passenger mission getting blocked after cutscene.• Fixed sounds not stopping sometimes.• Fixed buttons not working with mouse input.• Added facility to unmap controls in control mapping menu (press Delete).• Added video capture mode with ability to switch off cockpit (Expert settings).• Fixed too many missing extensions breaking the load game menu.• Several localisation improvements.NOTE: If cockpit animations are still stuck after loading an old savegame then you may need to press Enter 5-5 and then return to the cockpit for this fix to take effect. Off for a test in Omicrom to see if theirs an improvement in FPS. GREAT BASIN HERE I COME.

[robske]

Off for a testrun in a place called lagfe... *errr* albion gate in devries storyline battle.

[robske]

@PINBACK: 1.19 fixes a lot of critical bugs! Performance went up a lot making me be a killer machine instead of a sitting duck in the storyline mission. Also, trading ships at least get themselves unstuck 99% of the time. Only noticed problems with cargolifter URV pathfinding when a trading ship goes in noclip mode through a station and another thing I saw was that trading ships wont trade still if you forget to outfit them with cargolifters

[sscadmin]

Egosoft get a few more patches that have ths many fixes and balancing they will have this game running right real soon. I wanted to see more things fixed with economy and crew member and station interaction before I make the leap.

[robske]

Many improvements happening. I managed to get a lot further in the storyline, testimony to that is taking this picture without freeplay mode: 

[Pinback]

Still a bit of slide show in great basin although I do have most the graphic setting maxed out, if I turn them down then it becomes payable. Not done any trading yet, going to put together a crew for a boarding action and see if I cap one the big freighters.