X4: Foundations - Mount and Blade with space-ships. Now with significant Beta update

[Perkel]

I'm also wondering if there's a faster way to search star sectors, as I can't find shit at the moment. I would like to find a nearby Teladi equipment dock but I'd have to comb the entire sector. Man we ain't found Shiet. In x3 it was easy because you just had to equip a good sensor and you could see most of the sector when you spawned.

Buy cheap ship and tell it to explore.
Secondly wharfs/shipyards/equipment docks are placed on main ways between systems.

So go on highway and you will see soon some of that.

 

[ZeniBot]

yeah I managed to find a warf so I might look there.

 

[Perkel]

Modding news:
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Nexus Mods opened up page for X4. Already people released some good mods:
Satellites have 3 times improved range - yeah default satellites range is abysmal.
Space Diversity - lol. reduces amount of black people on stations (because right now 99% of people spawned are rasta)
Unlock stationscan - Instead of scanning whole station just scan one part and rest of station will be scanned for those who don't like that feature. (it is on ego forums)

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mods go into root folder of the game into extensions folder and are activated/deactivated from extensions option in main menu

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In other news, BlackRain egosoft forum admin and dude behind X-rebirth: The New Frontier (basically something like litecube/x-tended) already opened mod page for his new creation: Foundation of Conquest and War (though just a page now) He also said that X4 modding will be easy because 99% of scripts etc, structure tools etc is same as in X-rebirth.
So we can totally expect next Litecube/X-tended total overhaul pretty soon.

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GUI is coded in LUA so modders already said everything about it is mod-able.
X3 UI was hard to deal, X-rebirth gave a lot of stuff to lua, X4 ui is all lua.

To give you idea how powerful this is. X-rebirth patch 4.0 moved most of hardcoded stuff into lua.
And one modder effectively did RTS mod similar to what X4 is using.

 

[Morkar Left]

Is there a manual somewhere? Couldn't find one... Or what's the best wiki at least?

Performance on a GTX760 with 2 GB definitely sucks ass. I can play Elite Dangerous without issues but for X4 I have to do a lot of compromises. MAybe even that will not be enough. That means I need a new gfx card soon when I want to play it.

 

[Lyre Mors]

That means I need a new gfx card soon when I want to play it.

Well, I can tell you that this game is an excellent excuse to upgrade at least.

 

[Perkel]

Performance on a GTX760 with 2 GB definitely sucks ass. I can play Elite Dangerous without issues but for X4 I have to do a lot of compromises. MAybe even that will not be enough. That means I need a new gfx card soon when I want to play it.

First check out your gpu/cpu use. X4 actually isn't that gpu intensive it is the CPU part that is important because from what i have read who simulation part of economy runs only on one thread. So you need fast cpu for high framerates.

For example if i switch to medium and resolution to 1600x900 my gpu use is about 20-30% running full 60fps but i still get drops to 30-40 fps with gpu still at 35% which means fast single threaded CPU here is more important.

Though 760 is slow now.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I'm not being lazy either I keep looking for info about these games but all I can ever find are videos like this:



Seriously WTF listen to this guy's voice holy shit and literally every video about these games goes like this.

made my day

 

[Perkel]

"Get your Norton Toolbar back !" - i laughed out loud on that moment. Antivirus reminding you to turn on your spam.

 

[Raapys]

They really need to fix this garbage pathing, particularly as it relates to the player HQ. Ships just love to fly straight into the center asteroid and get stuck inside it.

 

[Morkar Left]

Performance on a GTX760 with 2 GB definitely sucks ass. I can play Elite Dangerous without issues but for X4 I have to do a lot of compromises. MAybe even that will not be enough. That means I need a new gfx card soon when I want to play it.

First check out your gpu/cpu use. X4 actually isn't that gpu intensive it is the CPU part that is important because from what i have read who simulation part of economy runs only on one thread. So you need fast cpu for high framerates.

For example if i switch to medium and resolution to 1600x900 my gpu use is about 20-30% running full 60fps but i still get drops to 30-40 fps with gpu still at 35% which means fast single threaded CPU here is more important.

Though 760 is slow now.

I get even graphical artefacts which fucks up all textures including te menu text :D But that only happens when I freshly start. And it crashes when I freshly start. Like some hiccups when starting the game when there was a break inbetween.
I deactivated all fancy (gloow, SSA, shadows) and changed textures to medium. Doesn't look bad, actually still pretty good on 1920 x 1080 except the npcs. But I can only get around 30 fps and lowering resolution doesn't really improve the fps. The more ships are in the station, the lower the fps / the more sluggish it gets. I have an I7 4770 3,4 ghz cpu which should be sufficient. The bottleneck should be really the gpu here with only 2 GB.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC (4 GB, GDDR5, 128 Bit, 16 x PCI-EXP) should do the trick I guess? It's affordable for 200 €. But will still wait some time because I don't hve time to play it anyway and December/Januars gets expensive for me already.

 

[Baptismbyfire]

Is it worth the purchase? Heard it seems incomplete? with some of the alien races missing?

 

[Raapys]

The game is far from finished, yeah. Surprisingly few bugs, but the ones that are there can be nasty. The most obvious problem in the early game is the UI. Not only is it quite terrible in most ways, but it's also nonsensical. Want to know what a weapon actually does? Too bad, because the game won't tell you. Not a single thought has gone into the UI in terms of "What would the player like to know here?". It's just some programmer who's thrown some random values on there so the player would have something to look at.

 

[Morkar Left]

The game is far from finished, yeah. Surprisingly few bugs, but the ones that are there can be nasty. The most obvious problem in the early game is the UI. Not only is it quite terrible in most ways, but it's also nonsensical. Want to know what a weapon actually does? Too bad, because the game won't tell you. Not a single thought has gone into the UI in terms of "What would the player like to know here?". It's just some programmer who's thrown some random values on there so the player would have something to look at.

Most of the descriptions are missing. I just think they had to release that game early to benefit from christmas. Pretty sure the game gets improved significantly fast and with longtime support. From the little I saw I think it's definitely an improved an advanced version of X3. Which is exactly what I want. The deeper gameplay mechanics like economy will take longer to analyze for players. But that was fucked up in X3 as well and seems like modders should be able to significantly improve it again if it's fucked up in X4 as well. Except there's more groundwork already out of the box done and we will have a better game UI / controls to implement modders tweaks in the game.

 

[ZeniBot]

well I just got transported across the sector. FML. I tried doing mining, its pretty terrible, in the X3 version you could just zap roids and it'd appear in your cargo, this game wants you to chase after the rocks. I tried hauling but found that too was boring because the game doesn't explain where the best deals are and there doesn't appear to be any upgrades like in X3 that would indeed tell you where the best deals were as well as average pricing for not just the sector but also the galaxy (whereas in this game it only shows you for sector). There's also way too much locked behind reputation gates when compared to X3. Seeing how few ships are on offer is depressing especially when half of them are just skin changes and the majority also share cockpits as well. Yeah this game has a really bad first impression. Also the fact that you have to bind run manually on platforms is stupid, the default speed should be run! and even still the stations are too big, it should work like EVE Online where there's a "Board ship" button always present so that you don't have to run back to your ship. Edit: I see they have that.. Well damn, ok cool.

The Autopilot is straight up the worst.

Edit: Scratch that, I found out where all the other ships were hiding.. Ok much better. Why the hell are they all spread out everywhere ugh. There's a lot more choices when you hit L Class.

 

[Perkel]

Is it worth the purchase? Heard it seems incomplete? with some of the alien races missing?

Yes.

Game is complete but have some bugs and you need watch few yt videos because tutorials are shit.
Borons as race is missing and i don't think i saw any Terrans yet as i stick to Argon space right now.

They already said there will be two expansion so my bet is that one of those expansions will add borons because it was the same way they added Telladi and Terrans to X-rebirth.

That being said i don't know how they get borons into this. Borons are basically squids that float in water which means their ships stations etc would have to be in water and unusable by any other race.

tried doing mining, its pretty terrible, in the X3 version you could just zap roids and it'd appear in your cargo, this game wants you to chase after the rocks. I tried hauling but found that too was boring because the game doesn't explain where the best deals are and there doesn't appear to be any upgrades like in X3 that would indeed tell you where the best deals were as well as average pricing for not just the sector but also the galaxy (whereas in this game it only shows you for sector).

There are two kinds of mining in X4
cargo mining - where you get your miner and mine stuff, which is more focused on resource generation to your stations.
inventory mining - basically without miner you fly around asteroids and look for crystal deposits you attack and pick up resources. Some of them are illegal but good deal of them are legal and pay rather well.

Imho inventory mining is much more profiteable especially at start when you have just one ship.
Cargo mining becomes much more profiteable when you have more ships mining.

There's also way too much locked behind reputation gates when compared to X3. Seeing how few ships are on offer is depressing especially when half of them are just skin changes and the majority also share cockpits as well. Yeah this game has a really bad first impression.

X3 also had locked behind reputation ships and so far it looks like it has similar amount of ships to base X3TC.
Well not for long because modders will add new stuff like they did with X-rebirth and every other X3.

Either way unlike vanilla XTC you can now board most of the ships or get bailed out ships into your own HQ get blueprints and produce your own ships.

Also the fact that you have to bind run manually on platforms is stupid, the default speed should be run!

Double tap W to run

 

[Perkel]

Made vid about how to hire Captain and generally how to use crew UI.
Because Egosoft forgot about that part when it comes to tutorials.
You can also add cremates when you buy ship/upgrade ship.

 

[ZeniBot]

I remember the rep thing sure and its the same here with licensing, but I also remember there were a LOT more missions to grind in X3 than there are in X4. I find myself running out often, whereas in X3 I was always able to find plenty.

 

[Niklasgunner]

Where do I find competent pilots? I need them to progress my faction war missions but I only find shitters on stations

 

[ZeniBot]

I boarded my first carrier.. Hmm so that's where all the effort in this game went LOL. Yeah I think the late game will be a lot of fun, shame we have to go through so much garbage to get there.

 

[Morkar Left]

That being said i don't know how they get borons into this. Borons are basically squids that float in water which means their ships stations etc would have to be in water and unusable by any other race.

They always used environmental suits (yeah I read the books...).

Double tap W to run

Lifesaver!

 

[Morkar Left]

I boarded my first carrier.. Hmm so that's where all the effort in this game went LOL. Yeah I think the late game will be a lot of fun, shame we have to go through so much garbage to get there.

Actually that's what I like about the X series; you can go from 1-man pilot with stock genre trading and missions to all out corporate and empire building.

I X2 I spent the starting time with flying around like in classic Elite, then doing the short story missions to cargo hauler and later on I was sitting all time in dock in my ship and managing my Empire from the map with a lot of SINZA use.

 

[ZeniBot]

Install the reveal all sectors mod. Much better. No more poking around in the dark to find gates.
Diversity mod probably went a little too far but its good that the rasta chick doesn't keep showing up every 3 seconds.

Edit: Just unlocked my Military License. NOW the game gets interesting. All of a sudden actual customisation options! And there's a bunch of hidden stuff that you can only get through faction reps.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Is it worth the purchase? Heard it seems incomplete? with some of the alien races missing?

Will be a great game in a year's time, when it's at the Public Beta stage. As it is now it's a great Alpha version of something that could potentially be as addictive as Factorio.

 

[Perkel]

To get experienced crew you can dock to any capital ship and try to recruit its crew on bridge.

I kind of bluescreened when i heard this lol.
Yeah it makes fucking sense no ?

Also i found inactive jumpgate.
I thin they will be doing what modders did before.
Expanding universe as you play.

They always used environmental suits (yeah I read the books...).

That is good then.

 

[J_C]

Sorry mate but i can't play with plastic thingy.
If you buy joystick for space game you need hotas and hotas are expansive.

There is no, and has never been a space sim which strictly required a HOTAS. HOTAS is for stuff like DCS F18 or A10C module, where precise throttle controls and a billion button mapping is essential.

But if someone wants a cheap, but decent HOTAS, I can recommend this, the Thrustmaster T 16000M. It doesn't have as many buttons and axis as a Thrustmaster Warthog, but it is enough for space games and it has a pretty good build quality, despite being plastic.