Issue 4

X-Mas 2001

Content

New Years Day keeps coming closer, let's take a short review!

We had XT V2, Egosoft announced X², and finally both X-Cons took place ... Well, time for us to let the year end with a little bang!

Melissa supported us again with another of her stories, as always we give you the chance to send your X-Mas greetings with a postcard from Egosoft and if you think about having a new computer next year, we'll also give you a short insight on the hardware requirements for X². We will try to answer a few questions in our Reader's Corner as well as we will present you an absolute highlight:

After having had serious talks with Egosoft, we present you a trailer for X² - The Threat!! Feel free to wonder...

And after all, the X-Universe-News wishes you a merry X-mas and a happy and joyful new year!

Have fun with X-News IV !

A bit more than a simple postcard...

As every year, we provide you with the latest X-Mas greeting card from Egosoft.
To counter rumours in advance: It will definitely not be possible to fly the christmas tree in X² :)

But we promised you another highlight, so here it is:
Below you can find various download adresses for the first, brand new and official trailer for X² - The Threat! The scenes are taken directly from the game and show some impressive improvements, some beautiful stations and new ships.

You can choose between different formats and sizes of the video.
Enjoy!!

Format	Size	Resolution	Server 1	Server 2
Windows Media Low Quality	10,6 MB	640*360	Download	Download
Windows Media Medium Quality	36,6 MB	720*400	Download	-
DivX ;-) 4 Low Quality	22,7 MB	640*360	Download	Download
DivX ;-) 4 High Quality	52,7 MB	720*400	Download	Download

Excitement in Chin's Clouds

I was on the way to the Teladi system Scale Plate Green, when in the Split sector Chin's Clouds I was surprised by a general excitement. More ships then normally were travelling between the space stations there. Just after leaving the jump gate I was contacted by a Boron Piranha pilot who asked for information about ships equipment possibilities in this area. A Teladi pilot offered a large sum of credits for my mineral scanner, another wanted to buy from me my 2 Hornet missiles. These questions slowly aroused my interest and also I began asking questions myself. I decided to land in the local Trading Port and apart from some provisions of food supplies for my further journey also wanted to investigate the reason of these unusual happenings.

It was already hard enough to get landing permission because the dock area of the Trading Port was apparently overcrowded. Thus I spent the time while in the waiting position with the evaluation of the data of various scanned ships. Ships of all races of the planet community were represented in this area. I even noticed a few rare Paranid combat ships, who traversed a little aimlessly from station to station. As if they looked for  something, but would not know, where to begin with the search. Most of the ships, which I had scanned, had one thing in common: Full scanner configuration.

Finally after docking and making a few purchases I went into the visitors information room. From afar already I saw a large crowd in front of the info terminals. I pushed myself in between and looked out for a terminal, which was operated by a Teladi. When I came closer the Lizard hissed something like: "stay away"  and  "hold your distance", but  when I held a just bought bag of Stott spice towards him, he changed his body language from rejecting towards accommodating. I only asked my 'business partner' if I could watch. The Lizard paged wildly through the message section and changed again and again to star and sector maps. I kept thinking how long it would take me to solve this puzzle: What did the Teladi look for? Which information was so important for him and probably all the others at the terminals too? When the Lizard studied the sector map of Chin's Clouds again and again, I had already my suspicions. The speciality of this system is the dense asteroid field in the center. I had to think inevitably of the large demand for transportation of persons to Seizewell, while I flew on the way here through the Teladi systems. Seizewell accommodates a well-known expansive asteroid belt. The questions about scanners and Hornets, which met me here spoke also for the fact that asteroids had something to do with the large unrest.

After a dozen more attempts of looking at pages the Teladi made a resigning movement and looked at me. Still holding firmly the bag of Stott in his claw, he shifted me closer to the terminal and selected the display area. He pointed at one of only recently published announcement of the Boron representatives of the Foundation Guild, in which it said something about the protection of the Markus Spaceflies. Everyone, who could indicate the accurate coordinates of an inhabited Spaceflies nest, could count on a premium reward. That was it - the search for fly nests. It is already taught to the children in the schools that the Spaceflies build their nests in asteroids. It is also well-known that the Markus Spacefly became a long time ago a protected species with an embargo of its universal hunt and trade. It is however not ruled out that the Split still use this poor organisms for the drives of their space ships.

I read the call twice and noted its call-off number. That would be an exciting quest for me, particularly since I had never seen such a nest ever in the universe. Unfortunately I had to hurry to meet my date line with the system Scale Plate Green. I decided there and then to look out for the Spaceflies at a later point in time. I also only would like to mention here that this search was very exciting and I made an unusual discovery, which increased my reputation with the entire Community of Planets enormously. However, more about it next time.

Melissa

to be continued...

A warning goes out to all pilots!

As always at the end of the year; since the introduction of "New Year's Eve" (an old celebration from earth) by the Goners, the argon government gives out a warning to all pilots to stay docked during celebrations.

As we all remember, last year an Argon Buster was hit by a radically overtuned "New-Year's-Eve-Rocket". Children from Argon Prime had a competition - the goal was to build the highest flying rocket. 3 unnamed hotshots fixed an old engine from a Discoverer craft and equipped their rocket with it. This one went even higher than imagined, left the athmosphere and crashed right into an Argon Buster. Bad luck for the Kids - the payment of damages and the official fine was larger than the prize for winning the contest.

The usage of engines of any kind is forbidden since then while attending the competition, but it is known that many kids have their fun disobeying the regulations or even deliberately targetting at harmless Pilots crossing the skies. So be warned, stay inside until the next morning!

Do you need a new computer?

Well, we keep being asked what they will be... A definitive answer won't be staged until the final release of the game. But we'll try to give you a short general overview.

CPU:
Everyone having XT running smoothly on his machine shouldn't have problems with X². Our experience tells us, that you can even use a 500MHz CPU but an 800Mhz P3 / Athlon should be standard to avoid any serious problems. Having a CPU beyond 1,4 GHz on your board should provide you the ultimate gaming experience.

Memory:
Just like in XT: the more the better! Such a complex trading simulation affords a lot of RAM. Forget everything below 128MB. We recommend at least 256MB, then you'll be safe.

Graphics Card:
Depending on the player's needs, we'll recommend you at least a Voodoo3 / TNT2 class card. But that's the minimum... Better would be everything of the GF2 class. Those who long for the ultimate X-Perience should consider buying a GF3 / Radeon 8500 class, those cards are the first ones that fully implement all DirectX8 functions.

Hard Disk Drive:
No real changes on that one. You should have at least 600MB free for the game.

Attention:
These are no final and official statements - just basing on the experience of the XUN-staff.

Pay attention to the following: X² will be released by mid-2002. Enough time to save some more money and avoid the traditional X-Mas raising of hardware prices. By the way, graphic accelerators using DirectX8 will be largely available to more affordable prices by then.

Questions, Comments, Wishes

Publisher:

EGOSOFT / Deutschland - info@egosoft.com

Editorship english:
Chris F. / Great Britain - cc_chris_f@hotmail.com

Editorship german:
Michael B., Nürnberg / Germany - burnit@nexgo.de (mb)
Peter Biner W., Braderup / Germany - pbw@nexgo.de (pbw)

Contact the editorship:
X-Universe-News@egosoft.com

Staff:
Darren Astles - darren.astles@excite.co.uk

Translations and proofreading:
Herbert Hohenburger - hrh1000@hotmail.com
Jonathan Handby - jphandby@hotmail.com

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