The Terran plot was the most challenging as it was the main plot of the game and needed to carry the story along and immerse the player, while keeping the universe free and open. I was assigned to code the Terran, HUB and HQ plots. In the end, we decided on the 5 plots we currently have. Many ideas were tossed around, such as exploring more about the Sohnen race. Several of us sat down to discuss what the plot of X3TC would be, including fellow mission programmer Al and X author, Helge. Over the years, more functionality was added, giving us the jam packed MD we have today. I was not a programmer back then, and I found the MD was very easy to get my head around. We tinkered around, making several missions and testing the MD functionality. I started working with it back in 2006 along with several other volunteers. The MD is a scripting tool, using XML files to store the mission itself, outside of KC. This system has given us some classics such as the Perseus Mission from X-Tension.įor X3: Terran Conflict, KC missions were dropped in favour of the Mission Director. The only way to include a new mission is by recompiling the game, and distributing it with a patch, leaving community missions out in the cold unless they are accepted by EGOSOFT through the DEVNET. Coding a mission directly into the game code has its drawbacks though. Programming missions in KC gave the mission authors a great amount of freedom to do whatever they wanted, as every game function is a simple line away. In previous games such as X3: Reunion, these missions were programmed in the game code itself, a language called KC. My main area of focus is on mission design and development, for both the plot and generic missions.
As you may have read in my interview in X-Universe News 35, I’ve been keeping myself busy with the latest update, 2.0. I missed my chance to write for this blog during the initial development phase, so I’ve got some catching up to do. This is Owen Lake (aka Xenon_Slayer), mission programmer for X3: Terran Conflict.
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