X3: Albion Prelude Q&A – Freedom, Conflict and The Future

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X3: Albion Prelude Q&A – Freedom, Conflict and The Future  By Brian Rubin | December 12, 2011 - 9:00 am | Featured, Interviews

We've got more info on Albion Prelude and Rebirth...

When X3: Albion Prelude was announced last week, I was as surprised as anyone. As far as I and nearly everyone else knew, the next X game was X: Rebirth, due out next year. Therefore, not only to have a new game announced, but to have its release be mere days away, came as a shock.
When I came out of that shock, I contacted the PR folks covering X3: Albion Prelude and asked for more info. I was put in touch with EgoSoft’s Bernd Lehahn, who was nice and gracious enough to answer some questions, the answers to which you’ll find below. Enjoy!

Brian: This game has pretty much surprised everyone, as it seemed to come out of nowhere. When did development start, and where did the idea or inspiration for the game come from?
Bernd Lehahn: Its hard to put a date on where development started exactly, because some of the work came from external modders who already worked on their projects for years. Internally here it was a pretty fast development that started recently when we were working on the plot of X: Rebirth. There were a lot of ideas for things that we could still do with the “old” engine, but the spark to get this going was the idea to explain some of the story developments that lead to the massively changed universe in X: Rebirth.
Brian: X3: Albion Prelude is described as playing “in a time between the old and the new X Universe.” How does this game prepare players for the changes they’ll find in X Rebirth?
Bernd Lehahn: Mostly there are two story lines for that: One is how the conflict between the terran military and the X universe species over their different attitude towards the use of AGI, grew into a full scale war. This was also a big part of the fiction of two of the later books written in the X series (Unfortunately the newer books are currently only available in German, but Farnhams Legend can still be ordered in English from our webshop).
The second development is the technological breakthrough that lead to the development of the highway system. One corporation already had part of the key technology for this in the X3: Terran Conflict timespan. Building the highways and thereby allowing ships to quickly travel through a much larger area of space without wasting a lot of energy or time, could lead to a much larger and more active economy. Those parts of the economy that were still dependent on supply from planets, could now be moved into space in a more energy efficient way.
Brian: What can you tell us about the power struggle between corporations and the player’s role in this struggle? How much weight will the player’s actions have in the events that occur between these corporations?
Bernd Lehahn: Out of both of these story developments grows a third factor: Corporations become more powerful and struggle for influence and control over that larger economy. In X: Rebirth corporations have partially taken over the role of the races in the X3 games. There the player will also have a notoriety system towards these factions.
Brian: I’m going to admit here that I’ve never gotten very far in many of the X games because I found them to be a bit…abstruse (Note: I originally said obtuse), both in their interface and their gameplay. How is the interface being improved in this regard to streamline the game as a whole and make it more accessible or appealing to either new players or jaded returning players like me, and if so, what? ;)
Bernd Lehahn: Without looking up the word obtuse in the dictionary, I guess I know what you mean. Yes the X games of the “old series” have grown more complicated over the years. Part of the reason for this is that these games were built on top of each other. Even though the technology has changed a few times, the game design was the same since X: Beyond the Frontier and just grew “bigger”. More freedom, more possibilities, more of everything.
Unfortunately this has a downside. It was increasingly harder to get into these games for beginners. All of this is the main reason why we developed X: Rebirth and why it is such a radical re-design. I will not make any false promise here: X3: Albion Prelude is still a game of this “old” X series. It is based on X3: Terran Conflict and will not reinvent the user interface. So it may not be the best game for a person like you to get into the series. That will be X: Rebirth.
BUT X3: Albion Prelude is a great game for the fans of the series and people who are not scared away by a complex system. There are different types of gamers. I truly believe that it is possible to make a perfect space game that suits all of them, but this is a gigantic task to develop. In the meantime, the fans of the series can play X3: Albion Prelude. :)
Brian: If I’m recalling correctly, the stock exchange feature is a new feature of the X games. How is this implemented into the gameplay, and can it be understood and used by someone who has no experience using the stock market, like me? ;)
Bernd Lehahn: The bottomline is really simple. You buy stock and you try to sell it at a higher price. See? Simple :)
You can look at it that simple and then it is like a huge gamble, just like in real life. OR you can choose to investigate it more in-depth. Then you may find out some of the rules. Why is a corporation growing or shrinking? What are they trading? How can you actively influence these things in the game?
Like with many things in the X games, it’s the freedom to choose what you like to do that they all have in common. X games have so many features that you can ignore many of them and still have a LOT to play with :)
Brian: There are thirty new ships and stations advertised in X3: Albion Prelude. What can you tell us about them, and which of either the new ships or the new stations is your favorite?
Bernd Lehahn: This answer now comes from Markus who is in charge of adding and balancing these ships:
The new ships are from different classes and for different purposes. From small new fighter ships to huge battle cruisers, everyone should find something new and exciting to use. My favorites are the new race-specific equipment docks though. These replace the old equipment docks and add to the diversity of the races.
Brian: Does X3: Albion Prelude use the same graphical engine as X3: Terran Conflict? If so, what has been done to the engine to improve it visually? If not, what engine does it use?
Bernd Lehahn: Yes it does use the same graphic engine as X3: Terran Conflict and also shares a lot of graphic assets with that game. When X3: Terran Conflict came out first, the engine and assets were very “cutting edge”. The result was that many customers had to reduce the graphical quality to lower settings or suffered from performance problems.
Now a few years later, the hardware got a lot faster, and so this allowed us to change the engine so that it shows even more details. We could change the LOD rules and environment optimizations and add an option for users who have high end graphic cards and CPUs.
Brian: Highways will be a major feature in X: Rebirth, as your website says, but in X3: Albion Prelude, they’re just being built. What are the significance of highways in either game, and how will they affect the gameplay?
Well in X: Rebirth the whole universe structure is very different because of the highways. They allow the player to move a lot faster, find more things and travel in a more “fun” way. Yet there is also more “empty space” to explore far away from the highways. So yes, highways play a very important role in that new game.
In X3: Albion Prelude the Highway construction plays a role in the story mostly. We show the Albion system and the JSDD corporation has already built accelerator gates to help them in constructing these highways. So what will later be a huge super-sector can now already be seen as a collection of multiple sectors.
Brian: Finally, what do you think is the most exciting thing about X3: Albion Prelude that will entice X fans and new players alike?
Bernd Lehahn: For me its the war scenario.
This is the first time we are able to create battles of a scale that spans many sectors. Hundreds of ships fight in a seemingly never ending war and battles reach back and forth in this area of the X universe. It is always exciting to see which consequences things like that have for the rest of the game.
Brian here, and I know I’m excited about the upcoming release of X3: Albion Conflict, since my six-hour minimum for this blog fill force me to give it a thorough try, something I’ve really not allowed myself to do before with the X games. Keep an eye out for my coverage of the game in the next few weeks, thanks for reading, and a big thanks to Bernd for taking the time to do this Q&A! :)

Bigboo

搬运不容易

DFERT

希望有人搞汉化

lllls

许久不来竟然看到令人震惊的消息，兹翻译如下

X3:阿尔比恩序篇 Q&A-自由、冲突和未来 BY  Brian Rubin （翻译BY lllls)

我们获知了更多重生和阿尔比恩序篇的信息

当上周X3阿尔比恩序篇面世时，我和任何人一样吃惊。据我和几乎所有人所知，下一作待发的X游戏是X：重生。因此，不仅新游戏已经面世，而且已经放出若干日，不啻为一个震惊的消息。
我从震惊中恢复过来后，联络了X3：阿尔比恩序篇 封面上的公共关系人以寻求进一步的信息。我被安排与egosoft的Bernd Lehahn会晤，他人很好也很和蔼的回答了一些问题，答案你可以在下面找到，请自便——

Brian：这款游戏令每个人惊讶，它仿佛是凭空冒出来的。企划何时开始，这个主意或者说灵感是从哪里来的？
Bernd Lehahn：企划何时开始很难讲，因为一些工作是外面的MOD制作者花费数年时间完成的，内部来说在我们最近着手X：重生计划后很快就开始了。在“旧”引擎上我们仍有许多点子可用，但激发这项计划的是解释在X：重生中导致大量变化的故事情节的主意.
Brian：阿尔比恩序篇被描述为“在旧的X宇宙和新的X宇宙之间的时间”上，玩家将如何发现在X：重生中发生的变化？
Bernd Lehahn：大体来说有两条故事线索：一条是地球军队和X宇宙中的其他种族在使用AGI（地形改造机）的态度上的分歧如何发展为一场可怕的战争的，这同样也是X系列丛书中最新两本的一大部分（不幸的是最新的几本只能在德国得到，不过 Farnhams Legend 法汉姆的传奇仍然可以从英国的网店订购）。第二个发展是科技的突破导致了高速航线的发展。一家公司在X：地球人冲突 时间段已经有了部分关键技术。建造高速航线可使飞船不必浪费大量能量和时间即可快速穿越广阔的空间，并带来更大、更活跃的经济活动。那些原本依赖行星供给的经济部分，如今可以以更高效的方式转移到太空。
Brian：关于公司间的角力以及玩家在这场角力中得角色，你可以告诉我们些什么吗？在这些公司之间发生的事件玩家的行动有多少分量？
Bernd Lehahn：除这些故事发展之外还有第三个因子：公司变得更加强大并努力扩大影响控制更大的经济活动。在X：重生中公司部分地取代了X游戏中种族的角色。玩家针对这些派系也会有一个声望系统。
Brian：我得承认在许多X游戏中都没有玩得很深入，因为我发现它们有那么一点……深奥（注意：我原本说的是迟钝），不论是它们的界面还是游戏过程。界面是如何被改进以使游戏整体更加简便并使新玩家和像我这样的疲惫的回归玩家更易于接受和更感兴趣呢？如果确有改进，如何改进的？
Bernad Lehahn：不用查词典上“迟钝”的意思，我猜我也明白你想说什么。是的这几年“旧系列“X游戏已经变得更复杂了，部分原因是这些游戏总是建立在彼此的基础上。尽管技术已经变了好几次，游戏自X:化外（X：beyond the frontier)以来不断变”大“，更多的自由、更多的可能性、更多的一切。
                     不幸的是这有负面效应，游戏变得对新手来说越来越难。这一切都是为什么我们要开发X:重生的主要原因以及为什么彻底重新设计。我不会在这里做出任何虚假的承诺：X3：阿尔比恩序篇 仍是”旧系列“游戏，它基于X3：地球人冲突并不会改变界面。所以对像您一样的人而言这不会是一个最好的深入该系列的游戏。最好的将是X:重生。
                     但是X3：阿尔比恩序篇对那些系列的爱好者和不畏惧复杂系统的人来说将是一款很棒的游戏。玩家类型不同，我确实相信制作一款适合所有类型玩家的完美的太空游戏是可能的，但这是一项艰巨的任务。在此期间，系列的爱好者可以先玩X3：阿尔比恩序篇。
Brian：如果我没有记错，股票交易所是一项新特色，这个工具如何融入游戏？它是否能被像我一样没有使用股票市场经验的人理解和使用？
Bernd lehahn：底线十分简单。买股票然后试图在高位卖出，你瞧，就这么简单。你可以如此简单的看待它然后它便像一场巨大的赌博，就像真实生活一样。或者你可以选择深入研究它 ，然后你可以发现一些规则。公司为什么成长、衰退？它们交易了些什么？你如何在游戏中主动影响这些东西？
                    和游戏中的许多事情一样，你可以自由选择自己喜欢做的事情。X系列有如此之多的特色以至于你可以忽略很多而仍能找到很多可玩之处。
Brian：X3:阿尔比恩序篇 宣称 有30种新的飞船和空间站，关于这些你能告诉我们什么吗？还有哪种新飞船和空间站是你最喜欢的？
Bernd Lehahn：这是负责增加和平衡这些飞船的Markus给出的答复：
                     这些飞船来自不同的等级并有不同的目的.从小型新战斗机到巨型巡洋战舰，每个人都能找到新东西并会兴奋地使用它。不过我的最爱是新的特种装备坞。这些取代了旧的装备坞并增加到种族多样性之中。
Brian：X3：阿尔比恩序篇是否使用了与X3：地球人冲突同样的图像引擎？如果是，对引擎做出了什么调整以改进图像？如果不是，使用了什么引擎？
Bernd Lehahn：是的，的确使用了与X3：地球人冲突相同的图像引擎，并且具有相同的图像品质。X3地球人冲突刚出现时，引擎和品质非常"尖端”。结果是许多用户不得不降低图像品质并忍受成像问题。现在几年过去了，硬件变得更快，因此我们可以改进引擎以呈现更多的细节。我们可以更改LOD规则和环境优化并为高端显卡和CPU用户提供选项。
Brian：如同你们的网站所言，高速航线会是X：重生的一个主要特色，但在X3：阿尔比恩序篇，它们才刚刚开始建造，在各个游戏中高速航线的重要性是什么？以及它们如何影响游戏？
Bernd Lehahn：在X：重生中由于高速航线整个宇宙结构已全然不同。它们允许玩家移动的更快、发现更多事物、以更“有趣”的方式旅行。然而远离高速航线的地方会有更多“空白区域”等待探索，所以是的，高速航线将在新游戏中扮演十分重要的角色。
                   在X3：阿尔比恩序篇 中高速航线建造主要出现在故事中，我们演示了阿尔比恩星系和JDSS公司已经建造了加速门以便建造高速航线，所以不久将变为巨大的超级星区的地方现在已经可以视为若干星区的集合。
Brian：最后，你认为X3：阿尔比恩序篇 最吸引X爱好者和新玩家的是什么？
Bernd lehahn：对我而言是战争剧情。
                   这是我们第一次能够创造一场规模跨越多个星区的战斗。数百艘飞船在一场看不见终点的战斗中格斗，战场在X宇宙中来回往复，观察其对之后游戏的影响是一件令人兴奋的事情。

wingmancn

兴奋很兴奋