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

[cw8]

I have a game with around 100 hours in mid-game, paused. Waiting for the Terran exppack and hopefully some sort of overarching story added in.

 

[Zarniwoop]

The X games have always been dismal on story. Apart from the first one of course.

 

[Dux]

The only reason X1's story worked is because it played to the game's strengths and never tried to be more than it was. Start out in the unknown, build economy, uncover a few mysteries, fight baddies and gather support for the final showdown. The storytelling was kept simple, unobtrusive and straightforward. The campaign was also fairly stable, which is more than can be said for X2.

X2's campaign is borderline unplayable because of bugs and eye-searingly bad cutscenes, but was otherwise decent. Sort of.

X3: Reunion, on the other hand, went off the deep end. That campaign was just plain horrible. I'm not just talking about the baffling race, stealth or turret missions, either; the whole thing felt like an international low-budget take on Marvel movies set in space. So much "funny" banter and sardonic quips that I wanted to ingest buckshot by the end.

 

[anvi]

I wanna try that Lite cube thing. I read about it and it sounds exactly what I wanted. I wish it was in X4 :C

 

[cw8]

Fresh from the shipyard: unveiling a new battleship
To celebrate today's second anniversary of X4: Foundations, we’re showing you a brand-new battleship!
To celebrate today's second anniversary of X4: Foundations, we’re drawing back the curtain on a brand-new XL sized battleship that will be deployed for the first time in X4: Cradle of Humanity.

This beast of sheer firepower is one of the most heavily armed ships to be found so far in the X4 universe. Its ability to take on large targets is second to none. However, can it be undermined by a fleet of small ships?

Find out in the first quarter of 2021 when X4: Cradle of Humanity, the second expansion for X4: Foundations, will be released.

Whilst the name for this majestic piece of technology is being kept firmly under-wraps for now, take a guess at what we have christened this new battleship!

X4: Cradle of Humanity - The next chapter of X4 awaits you in the new year!
As announced at the beginning of October, the final release of the 4.00 update and the new X4: Cradle of Humanity expansion, has been postponed to the first quarter of 2021.

X4: Cradle of Humanity is the second expansion for X4: Foundations and will bring the X series back to Earth. It significantly expands the game universe with new sectors and welcomes two Terran factions along with their economy, ships, weapons and stations. New game-starts bring players closer to the identity and political stance of the Terran factions and offer alternative perspectives on events in the history of X4: Foundations.

Love updates like this. They called it a battleship, not a destroyer. Hopefully the M0 battleship class gets added in X4 with this exppack. And hope they add in proper sized medium frigates this time round as well.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

Looks nice, how about gameplay?

 

[cw8]

Looks nice, how about gameplay?

Gameplay's already established. Interface is easier than X3, gameplay's still not as deep but not by much. Just waiting for them too add even more ships and the thing that's missing the most, a storyline.

 

[anvi]

That sounds like a big improvement from release.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Looks nice, how about gameplay?

Gameplay's already established. Interface is easier than X3, gameplay's still not as deep but not by much. Just waiting for them too add even more ships and the thing that's missing the most, a storyline.

to this day i can't get used to the new interface system

 

[cw8]

Haven't played since June myself leaving my 100 hour game in limbo for now. I browse the X4 Reddit forum and it looks like certain AI factions or Xenon can get quite powerful in some games, even invading core worlds. The player would definitely have a challenge on their hands. In my game, the Xenon are pretty meek. It's different for every started game I guess.

And there's this excellent Star Wars mod now (I took this screenshot from a Reddit poster):

 

[Zanzoken]

Mount & Blade is my favorite game of all-time. Is the comparison in the thread title actually appropriate?

If so then where is the best place to start with the X series?

 

[cw8]

Mount & Blade is my favorite game of all-time. Is the comparison in the thread title actually appropriate?

If so then where is the best place to start with the X series?

Unless you count the first X:BTF game, the series has always been about empire building in space. Like the Freelancer sort of game but with a LOT more depth.
You start off with a single, pathetic ship. Proceed to trade, do side missions, to earn that starting money. Buy new auto traders with that starting money and earn even more money, buy a heavy fighter or two. Start to build up factories and supply chains, produce your own trade goods and weapons, sell them off to NPCs for profitsssss. Eventually, you reach the point where u start buying the capital ships like battleships and carriers, laugh in glee as you watch your shiny capital ship destroy everything that has hounded you in the past. And finally to the point where u field multiple fleets of destroyers, frigates and carriers full of fighters and bombers and use them to wage war on sectors or factions. The previous games all had a overarching plot where you could use those fleets or ships to complete. I have a thousand or so hours in the X3 games. Install user made extended mods or stuff like Star Wars mods that add even more hours. Oh, you can fly any ship you see in the game, except for certain alien or Xenon enemy ships.
I'd say it's a lot more involved in the sim/empire building part than M&B.

I started off with X2, if you don't mind the dated graphics. It had a pretty good tutorial of all the X games out there and a decent plot.

There are some video trailers describing the games in a nutshell:

 

[Zarniwoop]

Mount & Blade is my favorite game of all-time. Is the comparison in the thread title actually appropriate?

If so then where is the best place to start with the X series?

Unless you count the first X:BTF game, the series has always been about empire building in space.

Fake news. The first game was also about empire building in space. The major difference from the rest of the series is that you can only fly one ship (although it can be upgraded to a ridiculous degree).

Although if you're one of the 3 people that consider Stillbirth part of the series, even that's not true lol.

Mount & Blade is my favorite game of all-time. Is the comparison in the thread title actually appropriate?

If so then where is the best place to start with the X series?

Start with X3: Albion Prelude. It's basically the full and patched version of X3. And it's still the best. Big universe, lots of factions and ship variety and feature complete.

X4 offers better graphics, better factory building system and much better interface, but the universe is retardedly tiny, the second most important race since the start of the series is just missing, another one was only added in an expansion and stupid "highway" shit is everywhere since jumpdrives were taken out retarded and many bugs still haven't been fixed. And while the story is pretty weak in X3, in X4 it's really non-existent.

 

[cw8]

Mount & Blade is my favorite game of all-time. Is the comparison in the thread title actually appropriate?

If so then where is the best place to start with the X series?

Unless you count the first X:BTF game, the series has always been about empire building in space.

Fake news. The first game was also about empire building in space. The major difference from the rest of the series is that you can only fly one ship (although it can be upgraded to a ridiculous degree).

Although if you're one of the 3 people that consider Stillbirth part of the series, even that's not true lol.

Yes, didn't play the first one because you could only fly one ship, didn't play Rebirth for the same reason. After playing X2 where you could fly all ships, I see no reason to play the one ship versions.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

The previous games all had a overarching plot where you could use those fleets or ships to complete. I have a thousand or so hours in the X3 games. Install user made extended mods or stuff like Star Wars mods that add even more hours. Oh, you can fly any ship you see in the game, except for certain alien or Xenon enemy ships.

In fact u could fly xenon ships on x3 if you luck enough to either find one abandoned in some sector corner or making some of the ai to "bail" when it came to fighters, the main problem being finding weapons for the same hehe.

On which game to start i would start with terran conflict for the plot in that game. My biggest regret on gaming is pre ordering Rebirth when it came out, after that game frustrated me i vowed to never pre order another thing ever again lul

 

[adddeed]

My favotire is X-Tension followed by X2 and then Rebirth.
X4 i didnt spend enough time on it but i did buy it on release and enjoyed it before i started getting out of video memory issues (playing on a 2GB video card when you need 3 or 4 minumum).

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

Mount & Blade is my favorite game of all-time. Is the comparison in the thread title actually appropriate?

If so then where is the best place to start with the X series?

Unless you count the first X:BTF game, the series has always been about empire building in space. Like the Freelancer sort of game but with a LOT more depth.
You start off with a single, pathetic ship. Proceed to trade, do side missions, to earn that starting money. Buy new auto traders with that starting money and earn even more money, buy a heavy fighter or two. Start to build up factories and supply chains, produce your own trade goods and weapons, sell them off to NPCs for profitsssss. Eventually, you reach the point where u start buying the capital ships like battleships and carriers, laugh in glee as you watch your shiny capital ship destroy everything that has hounded you in the past. And finally to the point where u field multiple fleets of destroyers, frigates and carriers full of fighters and bombers and use them to wage war on sectors or factions. The previous games all had a overarching plot where you could use those fleets or ships to complete. I have a thousand or so hours in the X3 games. Install user made extended mods or stuff like Star Wars mods that add even more hours. Oh, you can fly any ship you see in the game, except for certain alien or Xenon enemy ships.
I'd say it's a lot more involved in the sim/empire building part than M&B.

I started off with X2, if you don't mind the dated graphics. It had a pretty good tutorial of all the X games out there and a decent plot.

There are some video trailers describing the games in a nutshell:

The thing with X is that allthough I'm glad it exists it seems like it's not really made for people like me. I liked Mount and Blade because you could just be a soldier in a Lord's army. Or conquer a region and make your own military empire. I like playing open world space sims through combat for the most part and find going back and forth on trade routes to be dull. And Combat has always been X's weakest feature. I've not played a massive amount of X4 so correct me if I'm wrong but it seems really hard to just find combat missions. Or start your own military themed empire and conquer the universe. Even the mods I've been recommended don't seem to solve this issue.

One of my dream games would be a Space 4x game where you can take control of any unit and walk around the empire you have built or participate in ground and space battles. No game has gotten that far although Executive Assault 2 kind of tries to do that. I can't fault X for not being the game I want it to be though and I'm glad other people are enjoying it.

 

[mikaelis]

Looks nice, how about gameplay?

Gameplay's already established. Interface is easier than X3, gameplay's still not as deep but not by much. Just waiting for them too add even more ships and the thing that's missing the most, a storyline.

LOL, keep on waiting. You will get it for suururrrreeee

 

[Chippy]

Haven't played since June myself leaving my 100 hour game in limbo for now. I browse the X4 Reddit forum and it looks like certain AI factions or Xenon can get quite powerful in some games, even invading core worlds. The player would definitely have a challenge on their hands. In my game, the Xenon are pretty meek. It's different for every started game I guess.

And there's this excellent Star Wars mod now (I took this screenshot from a Reddit poster):

The Star Wars mod is pretty cool. I'm hoping the Battlestar Galactica mod is added to X4 as well though. I've currently got an early gme playthrough on the back-burner, and it doesn't have as many ships, but is incredibly impressive in what they've done.
BSG missions, tech, ships, stations, etc. Even the X3 voice applies to everything.

 

[anvi]

Wow does that star wars one change gameplay or just add the ships?

 

[cw8]

Wow does that star wars one change gameplay or just add the ships?

Adds the Star Wars ships and their cockpits. In X4, you can walk around your ship, so you can walk around the MF in the mod as well.

 

[Perkel]

The thing with X is that allthough I'm glad it exists it seems like it's not really made for people like me. I liked Mount and Blade because you could just be a soldier in a Lord's army. Or conquer a region and make your own military empire. I like playing open world space sims through combat for the most part and find going back and forth on trade routes to be dull. And Combat has always been X's weakest feature. I've not played a massive amount of X4 so correct me if I'm wrong but it seems really hard to just find combat missions. Or start your own military themed empire and conquer the universe. Even the mods I've been recommended don't seem to solve this issue.

... ?

What you said is literally what X series is. It is Mount and Blade in space (thogh X series was first so ? M&B is X series in medieval times ?). You start very small from one crappy ship and you improve and improve ending up with your own empire.

If you are newb i guess it is pretty hard to "get around" but same is true for M&B. The difference between M&B and X core wise is in that X is more trade focused while M&B combat focused where you beat someone and sell their loot.

In X series you CAN work for factions. Especially in X3. Same is true here. Once you do some missions for faction in X4 you will get invitation to work officially for faction which also gives you some story missions too.

So play more. It should "click" if you spend some more hours.

 

[Chippy]

Mount & Blade is my favorite game of all-time. Is the comparison in the thread title actually appropriate?

If so then where is the best place to start with the X series?

X3 Albion Prelude gets the vote for me. You can just download the Star Wars mod (same guy made the X4 one) and play with the Star Wars ships. I'm currently sorta playing the Battlestar Galactica mod, which is harder, but more complicated. Also 'Star Wars Litcubes Universe' combines the Star Wars mod with another, which is really the better mod to play.

The best mod for this game is 'The Salvage Command Suite'. It's got some options that make the cliff-face learning curve of the game more manageable for beginners.

It's a bit like Skyrim in that you can download a fix mod for whatever retarded decisions the developers made. E.g. you need a PC build by NASA if you start adding too many stations to a complex, so a guy found a way to crush them all into one station. Also the 'Bounce' mod; because the developers made the game in such a way that you fighters always fly into capital ships.

So you've got the 'Plugin Manager' for mods. Also recommnded is the 'X3 Editor 2' which allows you to make changes to ships. It may be considered cheating, but if you get into this game, it will take over your life, so certain things just make the time tax more manageable. Like adding speed to a ship so it doesn't take months to map out the universe. You need to edit the ships before they appear in the game for shields and weapons AFAIK, everything else ok.

Also (turning into an article) the 'Marine Repairs and Training' mod. Because I think I worked out that training marines would have taken months. Works well with the salvage mod.

But X3 is pretty awesome. Getting the Battlestar Galactica or Darth Vader's Executor and then taking them against fleets of enemies is something that I don't think has been replicated in any other game to date. Also being able to outfit them.

Edit: Both of these mods will be prety awesome with X4.

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

The thing with X is that allthough I'm glad it exists it seems like it's not really made for people like me. I liked Mount and Blade because you could just be a soldier in a Lord's army. Or conquer a region and make your own military empire. I like playing open world space sims through combat for the most part and find going back and forth on trade routes to be dull. And Combat has always been X's weakest feature. I've not played a massive amount of X4 so correct me if I'm wrong but it seems really hard to just find combat missions. Or start your own military themed empire and conquer the universe. Even the mods I've been recommended don't seem to solve this issue.

... ?

What you said is literally what X series is. It is Mount and Blade in space (thogh X series was first so ? M&B is X series in medieval times ?). You start very small from one crappy ship and you improve and improve ending up with your own empire.

If you are newb i guess it is pretty hard to "get around" but same is true for M&B. The difference between M&B and X core wise is in that X is more trade focused while M&B combat focused where you beat someone and sell their loot.

In X series you CAN work for factions. Especially in X3. Same is true here. Once you do some missions for faction in X4 you will get invitation to work officially for faction which also gives you some story missions too.

So play more. It should "click" if you spend some more hours.

The thing I'm having an issue with is finding the faction missions. The tutorial does a piss poor job of explaining how to scan for missions in a sector and I just end up going to multiple different systems looks for stuff and never finding it.

 

[anvi]

Mount & Blade is my favorite game of all-time. Is the comparison in the thread title actually appropriate?

If so then where is the best place to start with the X series?

X3 Albion Prelude gets the vote for me. You can just download the Star Wars mod (same guy made the X4 one) and play with the Star Wars ships. I'm currently sorta playing the Battlestar Galactica mod, which is harder, but more complicated. Also 'Star Wars Litcubes Universe' combines the Star Wars mod with another, which is really the better mod to play.

The best mod for this game is 'The Salvage Command Suite'. It's got some options that make the cliff-face learning curve of the game more manageable for beginners.

It's a bit like Skyrim in that you can download a fix mod for whatever retarded decisions the developers made. E.g. you need a PC build by NASA if you start adding too many stations to a complex, so a guy found a way to crush them all into one station. Also the 'Bounce' mod; because the developers made the game in such a way that you fighters always fly into capital ships.

So you've got the 'Plugin Manager' for mods. Also recommnded is the 'X3 Editor 2' which allows you to make changes to ships. It may be considered cheating, but if you get into this game, it will take over your life, so certain things just make the time tax more manageable. Like adding speed to a ship so it doesn't take months to map out the universe. You need to edit the ships before they appear in the game for shields and weapons AFAIK, everything else ok.

Also (turning into an article) the 'Marine Repairs and Training' mod. Because I think I worked out that trining marines would have taked months. Works well with the salvage mod.

But X3 is pretty awesome. Getting the Battlestar Galactica or Darth Vader's Executor and then taking them against fleets of enemies is something that I don't think has been replicated in any other game to date. Also being able to outfit them.

Edit: Both of these mods will be prety awesome with X4.

How long do you thinik until all those mods are in x4? Also I hate travelling so if I made a ship super fast, would that screw up the combat?