Edition 57 - March 2015

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Introduction


A Few Words from the Editor...

Welcome to X-Universe news, edition 57. In this particularly worthwhile edition, not only are we excited to announce the newest X Rebirth update, 3.50, but also the free X-Weekend on Steam, which will allow you to test all the X games for the entire weekend for free. Additionally, and especially interesting for Linux users, is the Alpha test phase for our in-house Linux port. Film makers will also be excited to read the announcement of the great X Rebirth video competition, where you can win great prizes.

Free X-Weekend on Steam Test the whole X series a whole weekend
X Rebirth Update 3.50 New features and fixes for players and modders
X Rebirth for Linux Penguins invading space
The great X Rebirth video competition Show us how you influence the X-Universe

Happy reading! - X2-Illuminatus

Free X-Weekend on Steam


Test the whole X series a whole weekend for free

Over the weekend of March 13th to March 15th ALL X games, from the very first X Beyond the Frontier, over the beloved X3 series to the very latest X Rebirth, will be free for an intense weekend of free test playing through the Steam platform. Whether you're new to the series and wondering what they are like, or just have some of our games missing from your collection, give it a go!

X Rebirth Update 3.50


New features and fixes for players and modders

To coincide with the Free Weekend, we just released our newest X Rebirth Update: version 3.50.

With this update the Rebuplic of Cantera gives traders access to their newest mining ship, the Onil, hoping to help the stagnant economy in Devries. The map received a text search field to filter and find different objects easier, and a so-called "Container Magnet" (activated by a hotkey) simplifies the collection of containers floating in space. Again we added new generic missions and mission variants, thus increasing the employment opportunities for space pilots, and a new FXAA graphic option found its way into the game too.
Just as usual, update 3.50 not only includes new features, but also fixes and improvements of existing functions. Among these are improvements to the station manager and station owned ship trade behavior, a better balancing and accuracy of combat calculations when the player is not present and an improved response of player owned stations when nearby player ships are attacked. Thanks to our forum user eliseeff and the x3tc.net community we're able to provide a reworked Russian localisation with this update. We hope that our Russian fans will enjoy X Rebirth now even more.

Last but not least, we have some exciting news for our modders: With Update 3.50 we are adding support for modding the User Interface (UI). We have already created some documentation and are providing support in our own forums. For further information please visit the UI modding - support thread in our Scripts and Modding forum.

As usual, you can find the full changelog in our forums here. Steam will have updated your game to the latest version already, unless it has been configured otherwise.

X Rebirth for Linux


Penguins invading space

Together with the release of Update 3.50, we are also entering the public Alpha test phase for our in-house native Linux port of X: Rebirth. Since X Rebirth is a Steam Play title, this Linux port is available to everyone who owns X Rebirth on Steam already.

To enter the Linux alpha version, please do the following:
  • If you don't already have it, download and install the Steam Client for Linux.
  • Log in with your Steam account and install X Rebirth from your game library.
  • When the download is complete, right-click on X Rebirth and select Properties. In the dropdown menu of the Betas tab select the „linux“ branch and start the game. When being asked, download the update.
Please be aware that this is still an early test version, so expect crashes and bugs. If you're interested in testing this version, then please visit our Support topic in the X Rebirth Technical forum, where you can find further information.

The great X Rebirth video competition


Show us how you influence the X-Universe!

Today we're happy to announce the great X Rebirth video competition. The aim of this competition is to find out who can make the best video of X Rebirth following the main theme of showing us how your influence the X-Universe! Whether you want to tell a story, show a big battle between capital ships or illustrate the competition between the different factions and corporations is totally up to you. A jury, consisting of the X Rebirth developers, will evaluate the videos and choose the best ones.

Of course, this competition is not only about finding out who's the best, but also about winning great prizes! The grand prize will be the immortalization of the winner's name* in X Rebirth. It is still to be decided exactly how this will be done, but it may be within the texture of an asset or within the description or name of an in-game object, for example. We're of course happy to get some input about this from the winner too. In addition, the winner will also receive an X Rebirth poster signed by the Egosoft staff and will be able to choose one of the other prizes.

Among the other prizes are:
  • Steam keys for Kerbal Space Program
  • Steam keys for Faster Than Light
  • Steam keys for J.U.L.I.A. among the stars
  • Steam keys for Endless Space
  • Star Trek - Voyager 1: Heimkehr (book, German)
  • Star Trek - Typhon Pact 1: Nullsummenspiel (book, German)
(*The displayed name must be appropriate within the game's style and PEGI rating!)

Rules:
  • Each participant can upload only one video.
  • The video shouldn't be longer than 5 minutes.
  • The video has to be uploaded to YouTube and the link must be posted in the public forum (For more info about that, see the info below)
  • Egosoft staff and their dependents are excluded from the participation.
  • Any recourse to courts of law is excluded.
  • The closing date of the competition is Sunday, the 26th April 2015 (at 23:59 GMT+2).
Submission:
Once you have created and uploaded your video to YouTube, post the link to your video in the Video competition announcement topic and mark your post by inserting the title XR video competition#[your username] (replace [your username] with your actual nickname in the egosoft.com forum).

The deadline for the competition, when all videos have to be submitted, is Sunday, the 26th April 2015 (at 23:59 GMT+2).

For further information, please visit the X Rebirth video competition announcement topic in the egosoft.com forum.

We wish you a lot of fun with creating the videos!
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