X4: Foundations/X Game Series - Mount & Blade, but IN FUCKING SPACE (and simultaneously better/shittier)

[666NASTYFUCKINGFREAK666]

Has anyone played X4 Foundations or any other game in the X series? I pirated X4 a while ago (for some reason) and instantly fell in love with it. There are some issues, like the AI shitting the bed when you're trying to control them on the greater map, and that XL/L ships take forever to turn so you need M/S ship screens (though I guess thats just a feature of naval/space combat) but besides that its great. You can make your own outposts/factories, destroy other factories so that demand increases, and ally with other factions and gain their blueprints. You are also able to engage in piracy, you can specifically disable engines/shields/weapons, then send a marine boarding party to kill everyone onboard and steal the ship.

AI (besides randomly dying) is pretty good; you can send in a carrier with a couple large screens and they can hold their own defending an Xenon gate for 12~ hours with minimal losses, but losing pathing is really frustrating, and the game doesn't have a big modding community to fix things like that.

Its a slow burn, but once you figure out how to C2 your units and set up a source of income like asteroid mining, its wonderful.

 

[CallmeCicada]

If you haven't played X3 yet try it.

 

[IrishGuy088]

The X games are absolutely amazing. I've played X, X2 and X3 a bunch. But that was a long time ago. I probably would not able to play one of these right now with all of my real life obligations. I think there is disparate discussion about this game in the Star Citizen thread, the Elite thread and the flight sim thread. The amount you can do in X is incredible. Start with nothing and end with nothing left to buy.

 

[666NASTYFUCKINGFREAK666]

If you haven't played X3 yet try it.

What makes it good? I love the management part of X4. I heard there are some stuff gone like the superhighways, but I can't really find anything of note on it since its a 2005 game.

 

[CallmeCicada]

What makes it good? I love the management part of X4. I heard there are some stuff gone like the superhighways, but I can't really find anything of note on it since its a 2005 game.

If you want a modern, immersive experience, play X4. If you like Paradox games (and like modding), play X3.

There hasn't been a lot of discussion on the internet about the state of things in X3 generally.

If you can get over the fact that X3 looks like a game from 2005 then I would consider trying it. The main reasons to play X3 is mod support - This is the elephant in the room. Neither Egosoft nor the community have come together to create the tools which are needed for the development of mods for X4, so far as I'm aware. For X3, we have X3 Editor 2 and X-Studio, as well as other tools. X-Studio in particular must exist in some form for me to work on X4. It's an IDE which parses Egosoft's xml script language, MSCI I believe it's called. Without this tool, it's just too burdensome to develop anything deep and interesting.

X4 is a great game, it's your game if you want to have a cool ship and live in a breathing, simulated universe, with aliens and some empire building, trading, exploring, war, and the RPG progression of upgrading ships and ship classes. Egosoft did a good job at sticking with what they released.

X3 is where you go if you want to focus on using more than one ship at a time in a practical manner. The game is more about building an empire of ships, with fleets, that functions cohesively. You sacrifice a lot of graphical fidelity to go with X3, and there is a learning curve.

 

[IrishGuy088]

You sacrifice a lot of graphical fidelity to go with X3, and there is a learning curve.

Make sure you read to the end of Cicada's post here. The learning curve is real. Study up.

 

[Bogliacci]

These games have sat in my steam library for years and I've never felt the urge to download and install them

 

[ZMOT]

If you can get over the fact that X3 looks like a game from 2005 then I would consider trying it.

well it's a game from 2005, so...

These games have sat in my steam library for years and I've never felt the urge to download and install them

same for me till I gave x3tc a try on a whim and then lost like several hundred hours between tc, rebirth and x4.
funny enough the manual comes with a warning for that: "SAY GOODBYE TO A SOCIAL LIFE AND/OR SLEEP. "

Neither Egosoft nor the community have come together to create the tools which are needed for the development of mods for X4, so far as I'm aware.

not much into extensive modding, but from what I've seen there should be no issue with x4

 

[CallmeCicada]

well it's a game from 2005, so...

My only point saying that is that if graphics are a deal breaker for you, you won't like it.

not much into extensive modding, but from what I've seen there should be no issue with x4

Okay, but X3 has a huge library of mods and a still active community developing new mods and updating existing ones. Also, a Star Wars mod isn't really proof of it being a strong selling point (almost every space scifi game has one). I haven't paid any attention to the X mod dev community in a couple years but I don't think it's possible for X4 to have caught up in that short of a time.

 

[Bogliacci]

same for me till I gave x3tc a try on a whim and then lost like several hundred hours between tc, rebirth and x4.
funny enough the manual comes with a warning for that: "SAY GOODBYE TO A SOCIAL LIFE AND/OR SLEEP. "

Thats honestly what I'm worried about lol

 

[666NASTYFUCKINGFREAK666]

Thats honestly what I'm worried about lol

Your wife and kids means nothing compared to the hegemony of the Argon Federation, brother.

 

[ZMOT]

Okay, but X3 has a huge library of mods and a still active community developing new mods and updating existing ones. Also, a Star Wars mod isn't really proof of it being a strong selling point (almost every space scifi game has one). I haven't paid any attention to the X mod dev community in a couple years but I don't think it's possible for X4 to have caught up in that short of a time.

my point was more if you can do a full-fledged star wars mod, it can pretty extensively modded. as much as X3 I don't know, but I'd assume their new MODIFIED tag to keep their venture stuff clean doesn't help.

 

[TurdThrower]

I tried the game out during the holidays and spent way too much time playing it. New DLC comes out tomorrow.

 

[Evil Whitey]

I tried the game out during the holidays and spent way too much time playing it. New DLC comes out tomorrow.

Hopefully it will be better than Timelines

 

[Evil Whitey]

Just checked and it's literally just a single ship and quest...

If they charge more than $5 than they're asking too much

 

[Evil Whitey]

I'm trying the missile launchers and despite needing to buy more ammo every so often, they're really fun. I recommend 1/2 Smart missiles and 1/2 Heavy Swarm but I'm still testing.

 

[LostInAdaptation]

I'm trying the missile launchers and despite needing to buy more ammo every so often, they're really fun. I recommend 1/2 Smart missiles and 1/2 Heavy Swarm but I'm still testing.

I find missile DPS too low. The only one I use is an interceptor missile, this thing travels instantly and pull out any ship from a travel mode easily, nice to have a frigate with one tube full of them. Torpedoes on the other hand is the meta when it comes to dealing with xenon capships. It took egosoft 4 games to create a dedicated AI for torpedo runs, but it works.

 

[Evil Whitey]

I find missile DPS too low. The only one I use is an interceptor missile, this thing travels instantly and pull out any ship from a travel mode easily, nice to have a frigate with one tube full of them. Torpedoes on the other hand is the meta when it comes to dealing with xenon capships. It took egosoft 4 games to create a dedicated AI for torpedo runs, but it works.

Are Interceptor missiles only available for L/XL ships?

 

[LostInAdaptation]

View attachment 7240319
Are Interceptor missiles only available for L/XL ships?

No, it should be avalable for every ship. May be not every faction sells them.

 

[StacticShock]

calling X series mount&blade in space is so many levels of wrong when starsector is more like M&B especially if you mod in the starlords...
but i kind of get that due to how X4 hardly if ever mention any lore to the player and relegates everything to the fucking vault bullshit and part of me believes that egosoft got traumatized with X rebirth for them to greenlight farnham's legacy as "official" considering how much it takes X4's sloppy seconds of loreraping on reunion and TC... the loss of a few team members probably helped too.
shame X4 doesn't have bangers on the level of X3 though, it suffers from the ambience shit that has been plauging modern gaming, i would love more songs like this: