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X4: Foundations
A comprehensive update on all things X4: Foundations with Egosoft at DevGAMM
We caught up with Egosoft's CEO & Founder Bernd Lehahn in Lisbon to learn about the current status of the ambitious single-player space sim, including everything old and new players can do right now, what will come in the near future, and comparisons with other games within the genre.
Audio transcription
"All right, we're here in Cascais for the DevGAMM. This is day two and I'm here joined by Bernd and we are talking space And that's that's interesting because your game X4 Foundations starts Starts easy as a space adventure I would say and then gets more and more complex if you want it to be like that, right? Is that correct?
So the game has been running for a few years now. You've been updating it this year. You will be updating it next year So what can you tell me about the like the like the status of the game right now?
Yes, that's right Everything you said is true. The game starts simple as a space sim. You fly one ship and It grows into into a more and more sophisticated more complex game If you like that and we are working on all of those aspects. We are improving the engine We are improving gameplay always trying to make things easier, but also Listening to what the community says we have this Very dedicated space enthusiast community that always has lots of ideas what we what we should improve So there's a long long list for many many years to come to to add improvements to the game And this affects all game all aspects really like from we have many ideas for the early phase Exploration you go you you explore our very large universe We have many ideas for the late game like especially the hardcore community always wants to continue like like they spend Hundreds and thousands of hours in the game and then want more things to do when they are very far in the game So it's like we try to find a good compromise between all of those different different sides. It's quite quite extreme starting from the first layer which is action perhaps and Immersing yourself in the game one thing that I found interesting is how you guys approach battles With mother ships, which is slightly different to all the games. So what can you tell me about this specific?
Specific aspect of the game. Yeah, you have the it's it's really that interesting mix between first-person action and Strategy action commanding large battles that basically grows out of it So when you start you have you usually start with a single ship and you fly in first person in a cockpit usually a small Ship, so there's lots of different ones different Races in the game also with which have their advantages disadvantages So you choose whatever game start you like and that it decides about what you what you start with and in the beginning it is Just this like one-on-one combat Through exploration some pirates that you hunt maybe or that hunt you Depending and then later when you have when you get richer when you make money you invested you have many ships Maybe you start having a couple of wingman Then you start having a first capital ship and and depending on how how much you are into the battle and and fighting side It could be either more trading and mining ships or it could directly be destroyers carriers Which is like the the top of the line most expensive so usually takes a little longer to get there But yeah, eventually you can have large fleets and manage a real big Battles as well. So you have this always a mix between Strategy management where you give commands to lots of ships or entire fleets and you can micromanagement Micromanage that down to every ship level or you can leave that away and just give basically subset subordinates so basically, it's just the leader the captain that decides and you leave everything else to to them and Yeah, it's it's really a mix of Different ways of playing that also attracts very different types of players so everybody can can we we give you a universe and how you play it and how also how you Fight in it is quite different from player to player Also you have this feature for you to lock on the bigger ships so that you can like battle around them, right?
Yes. Yes, that was an important improvement between the earlier X games I mean the series is long in development as you know and X4: Foundations That we added this ability to really been drawn with larger capital ships because the sizes are so enormously different You have small ships, which are like still probably like small airplanes helicopters. That's like the smallest thing Other than spacesuits. You're also a category of Gameplay evolves around spacesuits, but then it gets bigger We have what we call the M category where you can already have a very small dock for an S ship So that can be a like a daughter ship But they are still very maneuverable and and usually the most the favorite ships for players to move around in Personally and then beyond that L and XL the really big guys, which are usually a bit more sluggish and a bit slower to operate and Yeah, this is a lot a large variety of what you can do So speaking about layers, then you go as you briefly mentioned economy, right?
So you go up and up and up and up and in the economy systems you guy have is quite complex Would you say is the main highlight the main highlight the thing you are?
The most proud about with this game that the thing that community loves most about this game The answer is not necessarily the same to both of those questions the thing that that we are most proud of or at least definitely the thing that defines the whole game series is the aspect that we Simulate the whole universe that that is really that will bring me to no multiplayer, but keep going. Yeah But but that's really what defines our technology this was this was a defining thing right from the very first game X: Beyond the Frontier 1999 that we kind of like program individual agents to fly around this entire universe no matter if you see them or if they are at the opposite side of the universe and and and simulate all of that and then have that really Sophisticated economy that develops and develops different every time you start the game So it's essentially no two save games are the same after just a couple of minutes already and then divert Even further away the longer you are playing and and even without the influence of the player But obviously the player can then change the whole universe and all of that leads to what we call like emergent gameplay And that's what I'm really proud of that that when we when I look at the game, there's always these situations that grow out Unexpectedly out of what's what's going on in the universe as the definition of emerging gameplay exactly. Yeah, and what the fans Love most about the game is is a much harder to answer question because it's there is not the fans There are really as I said, the very different types of players who play it some or quite a few of the hardcore fans Really are into that late-game stuff managing an empire the the whole yeah nowadays You call it 4x games, which is ironic of x4 or 4x. Yeah, it's it's ironic because That was never a topic when we named the game I mean it just was X, X: Beyond and then X2 and X3 and so we ended up with yeah, and and then Coincidentally when we were working on X4 We turned it a little bit into a 4X game as well because we added more and more of that late-game stuff Which leads automatically into this 4x thing?
But if that was really coincidence And it is still not like the main focus because it should always start in the first-person action side And this empire management is an option but the coolest the cool and unique thing about our game is that you always have even in this very late game the Possibility to go back into all of those ships personally walk around sit down and fight yourself. So it's it's a mix I think it's also accidental that you pretty much answer my next question Which was why no multiplayer, but I guess it has to do with the uniqueness of every single universe you create every single Save game players will create Yeah, indeed. I mean we very early on like in the early 2000s We were toying around with the idea of making it into an MMO This was before there was the MMOs in the space area that exists nowadays and It is it is clear that that is attractive and and it is very apparent by there are being competitors now That are just that but I I think we are really lucky that we focused on the single-player aspect because it allows us This this simulation on your local PC allows us a much faster progression curve in an MMO Which feels very similar because it has also this persistent universe and that's usually what the people dream about that everything matters everything Is really simulated usually then on a server But because it's here on your and it's only for you on your local machine We can allow you as a player to progress much faster We don't have to slow you down with with very you know in online games It's and it is necessary because you cannot allow a single player to become all Powerful after just a week and then dominate everybody else in the universe Everybody wants to do that. So here you can be special You are not special in the beginning in the beginning You are just that one person in that big universe, but our progression curve is faster. And that's what what this allows us Okay, and taking us back to the first question you guys released Timelines if I'm correct this year and you're coming up with new content next year So for players joining now, what can you tell them in terms of the lore what's going on right now?
Because I know you guys have added some story to it and what can they expect to come in 2025?
Lots of things. Well, we haven't announced anything for the next year yet But the the lore is always an aspect usually Continued in the DLCs So we have we always release these free updates which expand the base game at new Improve the game in every way. This can be AI user interface new behaviors all kinds of things new gameplays activities But and that's always for free for everybody who just has the base game But then the DLC is usually add, in addition to new ships and new sectors, also Stories and and that is the lore basically being continued. We have this Rich back fiction that stems from the earlier games and which were even have some books being written about So like like we we now have the author of those books, which are a little bit famous in our community Especially in Germany other countries are a bit behind because we had to translate them first in other languages So this is a bit of a special thing in Germany, but this author now Fortunately also works for us new and so we are definitely Expanding on the whole lore side and making this bigger and yes new DLCs new expansions will will go deeper into the lore side of the game as well All right, and as a closing comment, I mentioned players who might be interested in joining X4 now Which would you say perhaps you answered already are the aspects that make it Different to other many space games that we've seen in the past or recently such as Everspace, Star Citizen is always coming, you know Elite: Dangerous What makes you unique, this layered approach, the economy, the way you generate the universe?
what can you tell me about that a Little bit of everything of what you just said because yeah I think the biggest aspect is that single-player yet simulating a persistent sophisticated universe That's definitely and a lot of things come out of that develop out of that When you compare it to all of those competitors you mentioned great games, but each is different in a different regard Everspace is Focusing very much on the fighting aspect, but it I think it doesn't it's not such an okay I mean in our game you can build space stations. You can you can command large fleets. I think that's that's different there star citizen, of course always brought up as as a comparison game because it was also definitely a game that Made a big step in this direction of the immersiveness of walking around like that's what we also try you You have a character you walk around you sit down you see people everywhere in that universe It's a real living universe. Whereas space games used to be more sterile You know, like like you just see spaceships in empty space and we want to make it human. We want to make it Personal and that's what definitely what we have in common with with Star Citizen. Yet it is not it's not multiplayer and it is Dare I say it's out there. So there is a game. I mean So yeah, and and again, I mean with Elite dangerous, it's similar. It's great game very big MMO But yeah, I think our our focus on on having everything single-player and developing fast makes quite a big difference All right looking forward to learning more about X4: Foundations Coming into 2025 as well and more from you guys at Egosoft. Thank you so much for your time. Danke schön. Thank you "
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