X Rebirth returns to beta for Patch 1.18

The long range scanner picks up signs of a beta patch.

We reported yesterday that Patch 1.18 for X Rebirth may be available today (Friday) and that’s proved to be … sort of correct. It seems Egosoft are taking the same route opted for by Creative Assembly with Total War: Rome 2 and firing out the patches in public beta form before making them official.

There’s an additional hoop to jump through here, because you need a password to opt in to the beta patch. To get that, you need to be registered on Egosoft’s forums and then head over here. Or head there and then register. Whichever order you like. I believe the reason behind this is they want to make sure everybody has read the instructions about partaking in the public beta.

Otherwise, the process is the same as joining the beta patches with Rome 2. You need to find X Rebirth on your Steam games list, right click it to bring up properties, select the ‘betas’ tab, pop the password into the box provided and then select patch 1.18 from the drop-down menu.

It’s a fine idea to back up any saves you have first and to try out 1.18 with a fresh game. Keep in mind it’s a beta too, so it won’t be perfect. Hell, you’re still playing X Rebirth so of course it won’t be perfect.

Egosoft look set to do the beta dance for the foreseeable future, and have this to say about upcoming patch plans:

In the short term, until the Christmas break, we plan to operate a roughly weekly patch cycle, with patches being made available for public Beta testing towards the end of the week, and the full release following early the next week if all goes well. As we move away from urgent bug-fixing and on to improving performance, fixing gameplay issues and adding new features, the length of this cycle will of course increase, with more time being allowed between the Beta and full release.

The game was released in a disgraceful state, so I hope the developers and community can eventually get it fixed up to a somewhat workable state. If only for the sake of people who’ve failed to secure refunds, or those who are clinging to the belief that matters will improve with time.