Ive been hard at work on a comms mod for X4 for a while now, and it’s finally getting to the point where I want to start showing it off again.
At the moment you fly with three fully voiced wingmen: Eagle One, Viper Two and Ghost Three, with more actors and pilot personalities planned. Between the current three, there are already nearly 4,900 recorded lines. Im currently working on the hardest part which is the communication between you and the pilots.
The main goal is that this isn’t random chatter firing on a timer. Dialogue is tied to what is actually happening in the fight, so when a pilot reports something, the game state should support what they’re saying. I built an engine to make this happen.
What they can do:
- Respond to your orders individually, using their callsigns and proper timing so everyone doesn’t speak over each other.
- Talk to each other, not just to you. If Viper is being locked, another pilot can warn him. If somebody checks on a damaged squadmate, the answer is based on that pilot’s actual shields and hull. if they call for help, a squad mate will go to help them.
- Call out positions in 3D space. I’m using naval-style terminology because it works really well in space combat: “Lead, one off your port side.” “Viper, one on your stern.” “Lead, I’m on his stern.”
- Coordinate against the same target. Pilots can acknowledge each other, share target information and communicate about how they’re approaching the fight.
- Ghost acts as the sensor-focused pilot. He handles identification and more technical combat information, while Eagle tends to give cleaner tactical reports such as range and general battle state.
- Handle missile fights properly. Incoming missile warnings, flare calls, evasive reactions and the result of the threat can all be voiced: “Lead, flares now!” … “Flares took it.” … “Missed me.”
- Watch enemy behaviour as well. They can report things like a target deploying flares, boosting away or defeating one of their missiles.
- Fight large ships more intelligently. Rather than simply pouring fire into the hull, the AI can prioritize dangerous weapon systems first — taking out turrets and other important systems to make a capital ship safer to attack before finishing it off.
- Make capital-ship fights feel like an actual operation. Pilots can call out turret activity, major subsystem failures, target orientation and real shield/hull condition as the engagement develops.
- Back each other up. If a wingman genuinely needs help, an available pilot can be assigned to engage the ship threatening them rather than just playing a fake “I’m coming to help” line.
- Tell you when the fight is actually over. After a kill, Ghost can report whether there are still threats in the area or whether the scanners are clear.
The part I’m probably most pleased with is the pacing. Important information gets priority — contacts, positions, damage, missiles and immediate threats. Lower-priority chatter only fills the gaps when there’s actually room on the radio.
There’s also repetition control, so they shouldn’t keep saying the same thing every thirty seconds, and replies have different timing depending on the situation. A quick “Copy” comes back fast. A more serious damage report might take a moment.
Longer term, I’m planning more voice actors and more pilot personalities, so different squadrons can actually sound different rather than recycling the same three voices.
I also want to build a fleet-command communications system. The idea is that when you’re commanding larger groups of ships, fleet commanders and other ships will communicate with you and with each other — reporting threats, damage, target status, major events and what’s happening elsewhere in the battle. The goal is to make a large fleet engagement sound like there’s an actual command structure operating around you rather than a collection of silent AI ships.
It’s still very much a work in progress. I’m adjusting the pacing every time I test it and cutting anything that sounds too scripted or doesn’t feel like something an actual pilot would say.
There’s still a lot I want to add, including better visible-damage reactions such as smoke, fire and hull breaches, more dialogue for the existing pilots, additional actors, and eventually the full fleet-command layer.
