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Thread: X4: Foundations

  1. #1
    Let sleeping tigers lie Khendraja'aro's Avatar
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    Default X4: Foundations

    So, despite the bad experience last time, I decided to give Egosoft a pre-purchase of mine for X4. Anyone else jump the gun or do you want to wait until I report of it crashing and burning (or not)?

    Coincidentally, I have a coupon for 33% off from Divinity Original Sin 2
    When the stars threw down their spears
    And watered heaven with their tears:
    Did he smile his work to see?
    Did he who made the lamb make thee?

  2. #2
    Freedom to personally fly all ships:
    X4 will allow you to fly all ships personally. From small scouts over a wide range of ship classes up to the biggest carrier, everything can be piloted from the cockpit or an external view.

    A big focus in the development of X4 has been to achieve a seamless and immersive experience when moving between ships. You can leave a ship, climb down a ladder, walk over the dock of a large space station into another ship you may have parked there and replace the pilot that was working for you just by clicking on his chair.


    Modular stations and ship upgrades:
    Building space stations and factories has always been a foundation of the X games. After gaining enough money through fighting or trading, most players want to establish their own economy and start influencing the universe on a larger scale. In X4, it is now possible to be completely free and creative. Stations can be constructed from a variety of modules, be it production modules, living sections, docks or many other types of parts. The powerful new map system allows you to drag and connect modules using a connection system to design your own unique creations.

    Ships also offer a variety of upgrades. Engines, weapons and other equipment can be added in a graphical editor and actually seen on the ship.


    Most dynamic X universe ever:
    X4 will be the first X game to allow our races and factions to freely build and expand their empires; the same flexibility the player enjoys in creatively designing space stations from modular building blocks is also available to them. Races expand their empire based on supply and demand, which leads to an extremely dynamic universe where every action the player makes can influence the course of the entire universe.



    Has all the ingredients of what made X games great in the past, on the surface at least.

    Won't pre-purchase and will wait for extensive feedback though, after the disappointment of X3.
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  3. #3
    Let sleeping tigers lie Khendraja'aro's Avatar
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    You mean X: Rebirth.

    I'll keep you posted.
    When the stars threw down their spears
    And watered heaven with their tears:
    Did he smile his work to see?
    Did he who made the lamb make thee?

  4. #4
    Ah yep rebirth. X3 was the good one.
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Khendraja'aro View Post
    So, despite the bad experience last time, I decided to give Egosoft a pre-purchase of mine for X4. Anyone else jump the gun or do you want to wait until I report of it crashing and burning (or not)?

    Coincidentally, I have a coupon for 33% off from Divinity Original Sin 2
    I got burned by Rebirth too, but I'm a fucking moron so I went ahead and prepurchased X4 anyways. I just want a proper X3 sequel so bad...

    I'll probably hold off playing it until closer to Christmas. I expect the game's first month to be riddled with bugs.

  6. #6
    Just browsing through some of the Steam reviews ...

    Quote Originally Posted by Steamer
    I played many hundreds of hours in X3TC and X3AP before registering my old copies onto Steam. I'm now 10 hours into X4 and here's my early impressions -

    First, no bugs of any sort. Sometimes I'll get frames drop into the 20s or 30s when I've got a lot going on. I've got a 1080 ti and I'm running with everything on ultra. Had one wonky thing happen in a mission but that was largely due to me not doing what it told me to do and I just restored before I messed it up.

    Second, holy♥♥♥♥♥♥this game is deep and complex. Sure it has some tutorials but even with almost a decade of X3 behind me I still struggled to figure out how to do some stuff. That's because there's a truly stupid amount of stuff to do. If you're someone who gets frustrated easily when everything isn't super clear then take a xanax before you play X4 -

    but do play it. This game is what ED wants to be when it grows up. A mile wide AND a mile deep. Newtonian physics, tons of ships each of them customizable in a variety of ways but you can hire NPCs to fly everything with you. Capture enemy ships, repair them and sell them or keep them. Buy/steal/even BUILD ships, hire NPCs and set those NPCs to trading with them. build a network of satellites to track prices in different systems in this living, breathing economy and find good price opportunities to exploit but instead of having to spend your entire day being a space trucker you just pull up your 3D map, pick ships and crews for the task and say:

    'Hey. Bucko. Go hook up some space widgets from this system and go sell them at this station over here. Since that station makes Exploding Super Space Widgets when it's got enough regular space widgets, you just hang tight while they whip those up using what you delivered, buy those and sell them over HERE, cuz that guy? Oh man, he really, really, *really* wants Exploding Super Space Widgets."

    That's maybe not exactly the menu choices you have to make but close enough.

    I can buy, fly, control or fight anything from tiny speedy zippy little fighters of various sorts up to massive carriers. Build fleets. Build space stations and take a direct role in the economy. Why buy space widgets when you can mine the resources and build a facility to make your own?

    Maybe because you don't want to play spreadsheets! Know what? Don't have to. Ever. You can start out in a tiny ship and just shoot, murder, pirate, kill loot and thieve your way into better and better ships and huge piles of space bucks because it's a fookin' sandbox, man. YOU DO YOU.

    IN SPACE.

    This game isn't a quick fix of dopamine. It's not a Candy Crush click boom get your ego pellet reward Electronic Arts title. It's a massive space sandbox, wide and deep and it's not easy or forgiving or simple but you'll play it for a decade and love it because you, you my friend, you are not the kind of person who gets told 'You've got a phone, don't you' and thinks 'Wow, yeah, I do have a phone! My gosh, I could just play all my nice, simple, dumbed down, microtransaction-riddled games on my phone! GENIUS!'

    You're an explorer, a fighter, a cunning trader and the kind of person who get♥♥♥♥♥♥done - in fact tons of♥♥♥♥♥♥ all over the galaxy, all at the same time. Because this is the right game for you.
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  7. #7
    Let sleeping tigers lie Khendraja'aro's Avatar
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    While I second most of that, it does have some bugs. For instance, while doing a quest I realized that I needed some navigation satellites - only way to do that was using hyperways and jumpgates to a nearby sector. When I reached the sector of my destination I opened the map ... and found myself back where I started (i.e. at the quest point where I was to position the satellites). Didn't happen again, though.

    I haven't yet found a way to go through the tutorial texts again - one early mission had them plop up midway through without me realizing that they were there (they're somewhat inobtrusive) and when I noticed them, they were already half through the explanation.

    And beware of getting on other ships at a station - they will take off with you aboard and literally kidnap you.

    Small hint: The RightClick=>SetGuidance also works if you know the station in a different sector is there (missions will uncover such information) but don't know yet how to get there (because you haven't discovered the hyperlanes and jumpgates yet). This tool will happily guide you to the needed nav points.

    Oh, I just saw: "Newtonian physics"? Somewhat true. The NPC ships will do some very strange dances when approaching the dock.

    I'm also not sure what the point to those wannabe-pirates is. Because you're usually zipping by them at 3 km/s and they stand a snowball's chance in hell of catching up to you.
    When the stars threw down their spears
    And watered heaven with their tears:
    Did he smile his work to see?
    Did he who made the lamb make thee?

  8. #8
    Joystick controls turn off whenever I dock/get out of my chair until I go back into the settings menu and come out again. Guess I'm waiting for a couple more bug fix patches.

  9. #9
    Fuck it. Dowloaded.

    Saw a ton of reviews and gameplay vids. Itch became too much.
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  10. #10
    Let sleeping tigers lie Khendraja'aro's Avatar
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    And found another bug: A salvage mission required me to find two lockboxes. Found the first within the mission area but the second one was outside this area. Went to the second one which made the mission text revert from "Search the area" to "Go there" and when I collected the second box, the mission never got updated. Had to abort it.
    When the stars threw down their spears
    And watered heaven with their tears:
    Did he smile his work to see?
    Did he who made the lamb make thee?

  11. #11
    Yep that Lockbox mission was the very first mission I tried to do. Gave up. On the forums it seems to crap out for everybody
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  12. #12
    45 hours in:
    - Overall impression is good
    - Some nice touches, nice details
    - Buggy: bugs with clipping, bugs with autopilot flying into things (latest patch removed collision damage until autopilot is properly fixed), bugs with missions, bugs with weird ship behaviour (try hanging around a busy dock at a station, ships do really weird and jumpy maneuvering), other assorted random bugs
    - I like the ship detail generally
    - I don't like the capital ships - they're small
    - Game runs smoothly enough. The seamlessness Egosoft were banging on about in the promo videos is indeed good

    Progress
    - Not very far.
    - One fully-specced Mercury Auto Trader - doing ok, making a bit of money but still only a 2-star Captain
    - One fully-specced Drill Vanguard Auto Miner - just started out but is making money
    - One fully-specced Eclipse
    - Have partially explored the central 12 sectors on the core Super Highway, and a few sectors around the core 12
    - Am currently seeding those sectors with satellites to improve Auto Trade trading and Auto Mine selling
    - Did the first For Your Eyes Only mission to get several mill in credits to start off with. I had thought this led onto the central PHQ questline but it didn't automatically, so not sure how to start that chain
    - Have the Argon vs Xenon side questline which I'm about to start

    - Next steps, to have a good few more Auto Traders and a couple more Auto Miners
    - Get a Scout to go off and explore automatically
    - Continue doing side missions to make cash
    - Find the PHQ quest to get my HQ built


    Conclusion
    Worth the cost to get it on release.

    Some screenies:

    Ship detail is good: Mercury Vanguard Trader




    Nice touches, watching new engines being fitted to Eclipse, it's constructed in real time




    Bugs! Did a passenger transport mission, and she refused to let go of my ship after completing, clinging on for dear life! Have reported this one up to Egosoft

    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  13. #13
    Let sleeping tigers lie Khendraja'aro's Avatar
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    I found the PHQ mission through those weird emission / static noise line thingies around a station.
    When the stars threw down their spears
    And watered heaven with their tears:
    Did he smile his work to see?
    Did he who made the lamb make thee?

  14. #14
    Ta. Will look out for those.

    So you have your HQ built? Is it much use?
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  15. #15
    Do either of you guys use a HOTAS? If so, which?

  16. #16
    Na. Just a basic joystick. With an analogue throttle. Same one I've used for all X games.

    Took a while to configure for X4 but works ok.
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  17. #17
    I was pretty sure it wouldn't be possible, but indeed you can't fly from sector to sector by flying to the edge of the sector and crossing the boundary. You can only use gates and superhighways.

    If you try to fly across the boundary you just sort of bounce off an invisible barrier in space.

    Which is different to X2/X3. Although you could only go from sector to sector through gates too, in X2/3 the sectors were huge, and am fairly sure there was no invisible boundary limiting the sector size - I never reached a boundary in my months and months of play despite flying way off on a vector for ages to do one mission or another.
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  18. #18
    I noticed that the sectors just grow as I get further out. I haven't tried to see how far yet. How long would it take me to get to the edge?

    The game isn't crap right out the gate like Rebirth was, but it feels incomplete. I think I might wind up packing it in until there's some mods/expansions/whatever.

  19. #19
    The game definitely has legs. I've built up a nice little fleet of 10 or so ships, got the PHQ with a few extra modules, explored around 80-90% of the universe, witnessed a couple of epic space battles with Xenon capital ships invading sectors. Started to recall what was so good about the original X games.

    But yes I've also moved onto something else for the time being till they clean it up a little bit. The autopiloting ruined the sense of immersion somewhat, constantly crashing into everything it could. In a month or two with the bugs cleaned up and a few mods developed it'll be worth a longer stay.
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  20. #20
    Watched the gameplay videos and the game looks pretty easy to play
    <some emblem thing removed by admin>

  21. #21
    I think describing an X game as "easy to play" is a sure tip-off that you're a spammer.

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer View Post
    ℬeing upset is understandable, but be upset at yourself for poor planning, not at the world by acting like a spoiled bitch during an interview.

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