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

[Perkel]

I wish they would do something with weapons. Because all of them suck major ass.

 

[deuxhero]

They keep wanting to make the map bigger and presentation shinier, rather than making the combat, trade, and pathfinding algorithms smarter and gui more functional.

Idiots.

7.0 did fix a lot of combat, trade and pathfinding stuff. The most obvious (you can see it) is that turrets have more behavior options now so you can set certain target types as priority but not exclusive targets.

 

[moleman]

X4 Timelines Expansion and Update 7.00 have been released yesterday:


Just as a info for the other three people on this forum who are interested in this game.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

storyline it's shit and bug. Overall improvements are welcome with update.

 

[dbx]

Last X game I played wat X3.
Does x4 still has retarded space highways?

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

X4 half gimmic are those retard highways lol.

 

[Joggerino]

There is a mod that removes them and adjusts cruise speed to compensate I think. Worked well enough when I tried it.

 

[The Anus Of Discontent]

I recall playing back when Tires of Avarice came out, and was extremely saddened how there really wasn't much to do in the end. Nothing really mattered since the factions barely ever expanded, neither did the pirates, or the xenon. 200-300 hours into the game, I think xenon got wiped out entirely out of most sectors. There never was any kind of threat or pressure.
Trying to build an empire was pointless, barely anyone ever wanted to trade in my own space stations, and managing all of that was an expensive nightmare where barely anything ran smoothly. All that money would have been better off being invested into more traders until it seemed like I was the only one supplying stations anything. There would constantly be a total, ridiculous demand for very specific goods (I think involved in space ship or station construction) across the universe the entire playthrough, thing is there were stations producing those goods but it seemed like no one besides me ever traded them, bringing in ridiculous multi million credit profits each trip, making most other good trading pointless.
And the reward for all of that autistic work being able to afford a huge fleet and no one to fight for any reason other than to spitefully try to wipe out a faction just out of boredom.

Is 7.0 the same? I don't want to sink another 200 hours to be disappointed by a flaccid toothless simulation again. I did hear there's a new 'endgame threat' but it's just a

Spoiler

big overpowered khaak ship that meanders around.

I think those problems are not exclusive to X4, the previous X games also really lacked any kind of ultimate goal to strive towards. In that sense, Litcube's Universe and Mayhem have utterly spoiled me, the former vastly overhauls the game and adds an actual endgame in the form of exponentially growing super xenon and a corporation who's sole goal is to fuck with the player, and the latter takes the Litcube foundation and turns it into a full blown 4x grand strategy game with you establishing yourself as a separate faction. Things that X4 desperately needs.

 

[Wasteland]

I recall playing back when Tires of Avarice came out, and was extremely saddened how there really wasn't much to do in the end. Nothing really mattered since the factions barely ever expanded, neither did the pirates, or the xenon. 200-300 hours into the game, I think xenon got wiped out entirely out of most sectors. There never was any kind of threat or pressure.
Trying to build an empire was pointless, barely anyone ever wanted to trade in my own space stations, and managing all of that was an expensive nightmare where barely anything ran smoothly. All that money would have been better off being invested into more traders until it seemed like I was the only one supplying stations anything. There would constantly be a total, ridiculous demand for very specific goods (I think involved in space ship or station construction) across the universe the entire playthrough, thing is there were stations producing those goods but it seemed like no one besides me ever traded them, bringing in ridiculous multi million credit profits each trip, making most other good trading pointless.
And the reward for all of that autistic work being able to afford a huge fleet and no one to fight for any reason other than to spitefully try to wipe out a faction just out of boredom.

Is 7.0 the same? I don't want to sink another 200 hours to be disappointed by a flaccid toothless simulation again. I did hear there's a new 'endgame threat' but it's just a

Spoiler

big overpowered khaak ship that meanders around.

I think those problems are not exclusive to X4, the previous X games also really lacked any kind of ultimate goal to strive towards. In that sense, Litcube's Universe and Mayhem have utterly spoiled me, the former vastly overhauls the game and adds an actual endgame in the form of exponentially growing super xenon and a corporation who's sole goal is to fuck with the player, and the latter takes the Litcube foundation and turns it into a full blown 4x grand strategy game with you establishing yourself as a separate faction. Things that X4 desperately needs.

I've had a similar experience. In my last playthrough (circa patch 6.0), my "end game" was in building mega-shipyards all across the map, then picking winners and losers by selectively granting or cutting off access to them--e.g. if Argon started beating the Paranid, I could reverse the course of the war by reversing faction access to my facilities. That was amusing for awhile, but ultimately unsatisfying.

Based on what I've read, the new "crisis" mechanic in 7.0 is indeed inadequate. The first beta implementation of the crisis auto-triggered when the player hit 500 million credits worth of military assets, at which point huge doom fleets of Xenon/Khaak would just spawn in, as if by magic, on top of player assets. This naturally provoked complaints, so Egosoft "fixed" the system by making it opt-in: now the crisis is triggered after the player explicitly starts a research project about it. So now you still have the un-immersive magical-spawning-in behavior, AND you have the un-immersive ability to put off or prepare endlessly for the crisis before you start it. Not thrilled. I think it would have been better to increase the original 500 million trigger by a substantial multiplier. 500 million really isn't a huge amount of military assets; it's basically two tricked out Asgards, IIRC.

There are mods for X4 that might help to provide an end-game or at least a less sterile feeling universe. Unfortunately I don't have personal experience with any of them, so I can't make recommendations. Compatibility is also always a bit of a murky question so soon after a major patch. Personally I wouldn't start another play through for at least a month or two, but when I do play X4 again, I will definitely use some of the following mods, for the reasons you've described:

• DeadAirRT Scripts
  • A collection of faction/war enhancing mods that are quite well regarded. The normal versions are on Steam (here's an example). The author has mentioned that he wanted to collect them all into a package, which would then allow the player to pick and choose which features to enable/disable--hence this github version--but he's not sure how/when he'll be able to implement this system on Steam. He does say that both versions of the mods should work in 7.0 now.
  • Requires SirNuke's Mod Support APIs
• Mysterial's Faction/War Enhancer Modules
  • Also very well regarded, and I think these should be compatible with the DeadAir mods above. Apparently updated for 7.0.
• Foundations of Conquest and War
  • I've heard good things about this one, but I know very little about it. Another "faction enhancer." I don't know if it works in 7.0, or to what extent it's compatible with the other mods on this list.
• Xenon Proliferation
  • A smaller mod that simply boosts Xenon ship production by reducing their cost. No idea if it's compatible with patch 7.0.
• Xenon Hell
  • Drastically increases the number of Xenon ships and the strength of their weapons. Also adds a new game mode, in which you start with the Argon Prime system under siege. Again, no idea about patch compatibility.

 

[Old One]

I've jumped in on this with the new version and Timelines.

Lots of complaining going on, some of which I can understand, but as a new player (not new to X games, but new to X4), I don't hate it. Timelines puts hurdles in your way, but as you progress you actually learn to play all aspects of the game. It's like a major tutorial academy.

 

[Stokowski]

... This naturally provoked complaints, so Egosoft "fixed" the system by making it opt-in: now the crisis is triggered after the player explicitly starts a research project about it.

So Boso Ta will bring about the endtimes?

Never trusted the slimey little bastard.

 

[Zarniwoop]

I recall playing back when Tires of Avarice came out, and was extremely saddened how there really wasn't much to do in the end. Nothing really mattered since the factions barely ever expanded, neither did the pirates, or the xenon. 200-300 hours into the game, I think xenon got wiped out entirely out of most sectors. There never was any kind of threat or pressure.
Trying to build an empire was pointless, barely anyone ever wanted to trade in my own space stations, and managing all of that was an expensive nightmare where barely anything ran smoothly. All that money would have been better off being invested into more traders until it seemed like I was the only one supplying stations anything. There would constantly be a total, ridiculous demand for very specific goods (I think involved in space ship or station construction) across the universe the entire playthrough, thing is there were stations producing those goods but it seemed like no one besides me ever traded them, bringing in ridiculous multi million credit profits each trip, making most other good trading pointless.
And the reward for all of that autistic work being able to afford a huge fleet and no one to fight for any reason other than to spitefully try to wipe out a faction just out of boredom.

Is 7.0 the same? I don't want to sink another 200 hours to be disappointed by a flaccid toothless simulation again. I did hear there's a new 'endgame threat' but it's just a

Spoiler

big overpowered khaak ship that meanders around.

I think those problems are not exclusive to X4, the previous X games also really lacked any kind of ultimate goal to strive towards. In that sense, Litcube's Universe and Mayhem have utterly spoiled me, the former vastly overhauls the game and adds an actual endgame in the form of exponentially growing super xenon and a corporation who's sole goal is to fuck with the player, and the latter takes the Litcube foundation and turns it into a full blown 4x grand strategy game with you establishing yourself as a separate faction. Things that X4 desperately needs.

I've had a similar experience. In my last playthrough (circa patch 6.0), my "end game" was in building mega-shipyards all across the map, then picking winners and losers by selectively granting or cutting off access to them--e.g. if Argon started beating the Paranid, I could reverse the course of the war by reversing faction access to my facilities. That was amusing for awhile, but ultimately unsatisfying.

Based on what I've read, the new "crisis" mechanic in 7.0 is indeed inadequate. The first beta implementation of the crisis auto-triggered when the player hit 500 million credits worth of military assets, at which point huge doom fleets of Xenon/Khaak would just spawn in, as if by magic, on top of player assets. This naturally provoked complaints, so Egosoft "fixed" the system by making it opt-in: now the crisis is triggered after the player explicitly starts a research project about it. So now you still have the un-immersive magical-spawning-in behavior, AND you have the un-immersive ability to put off or prepare endlessly for the crisis before you start it. Not thrilled. I think it would have been better to increase the original 500 million trigger by a substantial multiplier. 500 million really isn't a huge amount of military assets; it's basically two tricked out Asgards, IIRC.

There are mods for X4 that might help to provide an end-game or at least a less sterile feeling universe. Unfortunately I don't have personal experience with any of them, so I can't make recommendations. Compatibility is also always a bit of a murky question so soon after a major patch. Personally I wouldn't start another play through for at least a month or two, but when I do play X4 again, I will definitely use some of the following mods, for the reasons you've described:

• DeadAirRT Scripts
  • A collection of faction/war enhancing mods that are quite well regarded. The normal versions are on Steam (here's an example). The author has mentioned that he wanted to collect them all into a package, which would then allow the player to pick and choose which features to enable/disable--hence this github version--but he's not sure how/when he'll be able to implement this system on Steam. He does say that both versions of the mods should work in 7.0 now.
  • Requires SirNuke's Mod Support APIs
• Mysterial's Faction/War Enhancer Modules
  • Also very well regarded, and I think these should be compatible with the DeadAir mods above. Apparently updated for 7.0.
• Foundations of Conquest and War
  • I've heard good things about this one, but I know very little about it. Another "faction enhancer." I don't know if it works in 7.0, or to what extent it's compatible with the other mods on this list.
• Xenon Proliferation
  • A smaller mod that simply boosts Xenon ship production by reducing their cost. No idea if it's compatible with patch 7.0.
• Xenon Hell
  • Drastically increases the number of Xenon ships and the strength of their weapons. Also adds a new game mode, in which you start with the Argon Prime system under siege. Again, no idea about patch compatibility.

The """"crisis"""" is a joke, unless you're one of these newfag players who just jump in and do story missions and get shiny ships thrown at you every 5 seconds.

If you actually built your own fleets, LOL. It's basically one I with a bunch of escorts. You know, like the fleets you have to pulverize every few hours anyway and recycle for hull parts. An AssGuard handles it easily.

Also I see the X-perimental Shuttle is back, somehow. An "exact replica". Although I doubt that - an exact replica would be able to accommodate carrier shields and XL plasma cannons

 

[Zarniwoop]

Last X game I played wat X3.
Does x4 still has retarded space highways?

X3 didn't have the retarded space highways tho.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

it's because we get introduced to the concept on x3 albion prelude and then on x rebirth.

 

[dbx]

Last X game I played wat X3.
Does x4 still has retarded space highways?

X3 didn't have the retarded space highways tho.

My mistake, last one I played was rebirth. Dunno why I remembered as X3

 

[Zarniwoop]

I've jumped in on this with the new version and Timelines.

Lots of complaining going on, some of which I can understand, but as a new player (not new to X games, but new to X4), I don't hate it. Timelines puts hurdles in your way, but as you progress you actually learn to play all aspects of the game. It's like a major tutorial academy.

All the DLC's are like this. Except the rewards you get for completing the tutorial missions seem to get bigger and bigger with each one.

Having said that though, even the base game gives you the most powerful überbase and most ultimate superweapon as a reward for like the first or second mission XDD. They really turned up the "accessibility" on this one.

 

[deuxhero]

The HQ as you acquire it is just a bare bones station that's only barely more useful than any other bare bones station because of the player office room (whose only real function is being able to store your personal inventory items, which is really only useful for hiding contraband). It lets you build up to big things, but on its own its just an ackward station in a very suboptimal spot. The boron and the research he can do for you are more useful than anything to do with the station itself.

 

[Old One]

Luckily I knew exactly what I was getting into when I started with X4, so I was prepared for the kind of experience it was going to be.

I'm enjoying it a lot of course, even though I still spend most of my time trying to figure out how to do things I want to do. The UI is more like it's own arcane OS than a UI.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to get ships I own to do productive things on their own so I don't have to micro manage them. I've got a bunch of small ships flying around making small trade deals, which is great since I don't have to touch them and the crew gains experience while I get a little money.

Next step: figuring out how to get miners to fill their holds, sell the haul at the nearby station with the best price, then return to mining - all without me lifting a finger.

 

[Wasteland]

Next step: figuring out how to get miners to fill their holds, sell the haul at the nearby station with the best price, then return to mining - all without me lifting a finger.

You want some flavor of "Automine," in the "Default Behavior" tab for your ship. I say, "some flavor," because there are pilot-skill prerequisites for each level of automine/autotrade. If I recall correctly, "Local Automine," doesn't need more than 1-star. This option should be sufficient to get your ship mining on its own, automatically selling to stations within the same sector.

Higher levels of automine/autotrade will allow your ship to seek resources and trade deals in a larger radius (X number of jumps away from the "home" sector).

About a year ago I did pretty extensive testing on this stuff. IIRC, Silicon's the most profitable mining product, and the best M mining ships are Paranid, with Argon's coming in second place. Worth mentioning too that at least as of the last major patch (pre-7.0), the universe's supply of solid resources (Ore, Silicon, Ice) was effectively unlimited, whereas Gas resources were not. This site has great info on that subject, among others.

Edit: Yeah, double checked. Local Automine doesn't have any skill pre-requisities. You can find it in the menu pictured here:

Also here's EGOSoft's Wiki article on auto-mining/trading.

Edit 2: Oh, and you may need to deploy resource probes to get the miner to perform adequately. Welcome to one of my favorite autism simulators, lol. Glad to hear you're enjoying it.

 

[Old One]

Edit 2: Oh, and you may need to deploy resource probes to get the miner to perform adequately. Welcome to one of my favorite autism simulators, lol. Glad to hear you're enjoying it.

Thanks for the advice. I've figured out resource probes and satellites. I'll see whether I can get automine working. I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Just by casual observation I've noticed that silicon does seem to be quite profitable.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Next step: figuring out how to get miners to fill their holds, sell the haul at the nearby station with the best price, then return to mining - all without me lifting a finger.

That's literally just automining.

Just by casual observation I've noticed that silicon does seem to be quite profitable.

Silicon is for chumps. nVidium is where it's at.

 

[Wasteland]

Silicon is for chumps. nVidium is where it's at.

I always found nividium very slow. The supply of nividium is also much more limited, so nividium mining doesn't scale up especially well. And large miners seem to be incompetent with regard to nividium, for what it's worth--probably because nividium deposits are so small that collecting it requires an unusual amount of movement. If you do mine nividium, small ships are best.

I guess I'm more of an AMD guy, after all. YMMV.

Of course, eventually silicon's price will bottom out in your area too, so at some point you'll have to start assigning miners to ore. Then some gas miners. Then perhaps consolidate your miners under a small station's management (just a dock with storage). And at some point after that, you can build your first factory, for which you'll already have a mining supply chain ready, etc. On that note, and this is addressed to Old One, obviously--you might start looking into a stockpile of EMP bombs for the blueprint grind.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

the real deal it's to use silicon miners to bring resources for your factories to start making energy cells and chip components, since that shit it's always in the demand.

 

[Old One]

Yes, the automining turned out to be really simple.

Most things are pretty easy to do. It's figuring out how to do them that sometimes seems difficult.

 

[anvi]

I nearly got X3 once it had a bunch of mods. But figured I would wait for Rebirth. Then Rebirth sounded bad so I figured I would wait for X4. But this one sounds pretty weak too so I'll just wait for the next one.