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

[Zarniwoop]

Fuck you.

All those were complete games on launch. Buggy as shit, sure. This one has no game.

 

[tindrli]

well just play this. its 100 times better

https://store.steampowered.com/app/464360/3030_Deathwar_Redux__A_Space_Odyssey/

 

[Blaine]

I remember X3:R quite well. I built a new PC in 2005 in large part to handle Reunion, which was in a perfectly playable (if buggy and janky) state prior to TC and AP.

AP has its problems to this day, such as the absurd missile meta and the stock market simply functioning as a money dispenser for anyone whose IQ is above room temperature.

As long as we're making recommendations, try this: https://store.steampowered.com/app/404410/Endless_Sky/

It's much more like Escape Velocity than X, but it's free and very good.

 

[Zarniwoop]

the stock market simply functioning as a money dispenser for anyone whose IQ is above room temperature.

Much like real life then.

 

[Blaine]

Much like real life then.

Perhaps, but real life doesn't have a fast-forward button.

 

[markec]

Much like real life then.

Perhaps, but real life doesn't have a fast-forward button.

Yes it does, its called brandy.

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

Big recommendation I can give is Spacebourne. In early access. But clearly labelled as such with a dev who's communicating what they're doing really well. Looks to be a spiritual successor to Freelancer with it's more arcadey mouse based controls. Very fun game. The plan is to add ship interiors and more persistence. Either way I had a ball with it. https://store.steampowered.com/app/732240/SpaceBourne/

 

[ADL]

Since we're shilling other games in this thread might as well post this Freespace successor on Kickstarter. It's being developed by Trainwiz who used to mod Freespace a bunch back in the day and the demo I played is a lot of fun. Fully releases this year.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pastaspace/underspace

Big recommendation I can give is Spacebourne. In early access. But clearly labelled as such with a dev who's communicating what they're doing really well. Looks to be a spiritual successor to Freelancer with it's more arcadey mouse based controls. Very fun game. The plan is to add ship interiors and more persistence. Either way I had a ball with it. https://store.steampowered.com/app/732240/SpaceBourne/

This looks real good.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

So what is the verdict on this then?

Is it crap like that one console game they made?

Or is it crap like the hollow economy sims they made before whoring themselves out for casual cash?

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

So what is the verdict on this then?

Is it crap like that one console game they made?

Or is it crap like the hollow economy sims they made before whoring themselves out for casual cash?

If you hated X3 this was supposed to be the game to win over those people with a more immersive features and less clunky gameplay. It failed at that by being half arsed. It is bad. It is incompetent at being a dumbed down X game and it is incompetent at being a successor to X3

 

[ADL]

Best case scenario they redeem the game with some major overhaul update or the expansion that releases this year and you have something to look forward to with the 2020 expansion. Worst case scenario you wait around and see if the second expansion is worth touching.

 

[ZeniBot]

Its basically the same mistakes as Rebirth, the games not worth playing. Originally I gave the game a chance but with the economy still being fucked the only thing the game offers is combat and its worse than X3's combat in every possible way.

 

[cw8]

Hope the Split exppack fixes things. Not sure if there are any decent 3D, X type alternatives, the ones where you pilot your ship via cockpit.
Until then how's Starsector coming along? Haven't touched it since 2015.

 

[Burning Bridges]

So what is the verdict on this then?

Is it crap like that one console game they made?

Or is it crap like the hollow economy sims they made before whoring themselves out for casual cash?

If you hated X3 this was supposed to be the game to win over those people with a more immersive features and less clunky gameplay. It failed at that by being half arsed. It is bad. It is incompetent at being a dumbed down X game and it is incompetent at being a successor to X3

That's why it was called "foundation".
It's a beta of an alpha.

 

[ZeniBot]

Not sure if there are any decent 3D, X type alternatives, the ones where you pilot your ship via cockpit.

Only game I can recommend that is amazing but sadly you're stuck on a planet is Hardwar by Interplay (RIP). It offered Station Management and you could have a fleet of AI ships that you can command.
That's the only game I've really ever played that scratched the same sort of itch. Captain Zedo via Google has links to the ISO version of the game. never mind the link is broken, you can find it via abandonware. GOG needs to get on that shit.

Sadly everything else that tries to be an X style game has been absolute trash. They always get side tracked with stupid shit like ship walking/space legs.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Only game I can recommend that is amazing but sadly you're stuck on a planet is Hardwar by Interplay (RIP). It offered Station Management and you could have a fleet of AI ships that you can command.
That's the only game I've really ever played that scratched the same sort of itch. Captain Zedo via Google has links to the ISO version of the game. never mind the link is broken, you can find it via abandonware. GOG needs to get on that shit.

Sadly everything else that tries to be an X style game has been absolute trash. They always get side tracked with stupid shit like ship walking/space legs.

Hardwar was awesome but nowhere near as deep as the X games.

It had the one thing the X series (apart from the first one) misses though : a strong storyline.

The mistake Egosoft made was reinventing shit that wasn't broken. After the first game, they listened to the fans and made X2: The Threat, the best and deepest in the series which just exapnded on the first one in every possible way. They should just have continued improving on this formula, maybe even including THE ABILITY TO LAND ON PLANETS THE ONE THING FANS HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR SINCE DAY ONE JESUS FUCK, but no.

They decided to completely change the ship and station visual design in X3 to make it more EPIC and CINEMATIC, and completely change the weapon and shield mechanics, because muh balance. Also completely fucked up the ship classification system with M7 and M8 being bigger than M3 and many other changes. But again they refined this formula up to AP and ended up with a very decent game, which they could just improve on.

So they completely shat the bed and made a godawful console LARP simulator full of minigames known as Stillbirth and this time not only "reinvented" all of the above but even the only thing that they hadn't fucked with up to this point, the universe and the core mechanics of jumpgate travel and SETA.

Now we have this, which is clearly just a re-skin of Stillbirth that tries to jam X3 into it.

 

[lefthandblack]

So what is the verdict on this then?

Is it crap like that one console game they made?

Or is it crap like the hollow economy sims they made before whoring themselves out for casual cash?

I've been playing this again recently since the 2.5 patch. It's greatly improved since release in that basic things that you would expect to work, mostly work now. It still has serious issues though. Performance is much better. AI pathfinding is better though it still sucks. Some of it may come down to personal preference but one thing that really irks me is the interface, they somehow managed to make the game's interface more convoluted than the previous games, at least until you get used to the ideosycrosies. The map is a confusing mess until you learn how to use filters to pare down the amount of information on screen at one time to make it readable. Be prepared to be frustrated by the same information displaying in two or three diffrerent locations and only one of these locations being clickable and interactive-
without any consistency

The economy is not really broken per se, it's just up to the player to babysit whomever is struggling from the initial Xenon incursions, otherwise they'll never recover. I got to the point where I had a small trader fleet bringing in a couple of million an hour so I decided to try and build a frigate and swat some Xenon.
I initially bought an Argon Cerebus, it took about five minutes to complete it and about thirty seconds for me to reload a save because the ship is absolute garbage as a player ship: The fighter docking bay blocks your view and behind/3rd person view does not display shield/weapon information. I decided to try a Paranid Gorgon Vanguard instead and saw that the dock warned of long wait times because of shortages. I went for it anyway and ended up having to devote my entire trader fleet to propping up the Paranid infrastructure just so that I could get my ship built. The Paranids had been fighting both the Xenon and the rebel Paranid faction the Holy Order of Pontifex. It took about twenty-four real hours of selling them what they needed until they managed to catch up their ship losses and build the ship that I had ordered. Once I finally got the ship, though it was much better than the Argon one, it wasn't enough to keep me from stepping away from the game.

In a couple of years when the patching is all done and the Split and the Boron are in, it will probably be a good game (with mods). They nailed the atmosphere for the most part, but it's kind of like trying to watch a space opera movie on a beautiful, big screen with half-blown speakers whilst wearing wet underwear.

 

[LESS T_T]

Expansion:





https://af.gog.com/game/x4_split_vendetta?as=1649904300

X4: Split Vendetta is the next chapter in the X4: Foundations story. This is the first big expansion for X4, greatly increasing the size of the universe and introducing two new Split family clans along with their economy, new ships, weapons and station modules.

Along with the Update 3.0 to X4: Foundations, the X4: Split Vendetta expansion brings exciting new missions and adventures to the game. New gamestarts allow an even more varied experience in the biggest sandbox this side of the galaxy.

TRADE with the Split families or FIGHT against them. BUILD your own station designs based on the new modules and THINK carefully on your path through the new diplomatic missions.

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

Is this expansion going to unfuck the game?

 

[cw8]

Always loved the Split ships. Looks good here. But sour they made it a paid expansion. I wonder if their new "adventures" mean a new story campaign? Or am I fabulously optimistic?

 

[Zarniwoop]

Is this expansion going to unfuck the game?

Highly unlikely

 

[ZeniBot]

But sour they made it a paid expansion.

Alright fuck Egosoft. Go play this instead.

 

[cw8]

But sour they made it a paid expansion.

Alright fuck Egosoft. Go play this instead.

I already bought and played it back in 2015 haha. Will go back in since they're many improvements now.

 

[Razor]

Oh wow, really hope Split Tiger makes it back to the fleet stable. Was my favourite ship out of X3 and personal ultimate flagship. Had a small support fleet since the thing was too big for standard docking. Yet a lot more nimble and ramming quality combat ship then the large capitol behemoths.

 

[cw8]

Oh wow, really hope Split Tiger makes it back to the fleet stable. Was my favourite ship out of X3 and personal ultimate flagship. Had a small support fleet since the thing was too big for standard docking. Yet a lot more nimble and ramming quality combat ship then the large capitol behemoths.

My favourite ship was the Tiger too. My personal ship was the Hyperion though.