I'm in a simming mood and should return to SH IV or V, but I've got a hankering for some space based simming. Steam is currently running a sale on X3 and I'm a hairs breath away from pulling the trigger, but would like some opinions and observations before I do.
Controls: Are they intuitive? Does it involve knowing an entire keyboards worth of hot keys to play?
How's the combat/trading?
How do the missios play out?
Is the AI a challenge?
I'm sure there is more but I'm hoping those of you with experience with the game will fill in the blanks.
The game is open-world sandbox (although there are several "campaigns") - so the amount of combat or trading really depends on what you want to do. Combat is done well, and is your general joystick-using space fights. When you get larger ships, you can decide if you want to personally pilot fighters, or just control your capital ship and be ponderous and slow while shelling the enemy with you guns.
Trade is just a tiny bit less detailed than actually driving goods from a real-life location to another location. Prices fluctuate, you can transport things personally, you can own your own starports and industries, you can manufacture weapons, goods, food, or mine materials and sell it on the market (or fuel your industries). The economic engine is actually the highlight of the game (more than the combat, IMHO), as you can literally build a space empire under your corporate logo. Once you get the requisite tech, you can hire robotic transports to basically move goods throughout your empire for you, mitigating the need for personal transport and letting you go and do other things.
Missions are given by certain parties and can get you some quick cash. They are fairly open in structure (unless a campaign mission). Most of your progress will be self-driven. Want to go to an enemy sector and board a ship - taking it for your own. Go try it out. Want to take your Carrier into a war with hostile aliens - why not? Missions can direct things, but I think they are less important than overall other things.
Not sure what to say about the AI. It seems competent enough, both your helper AI and the enemy AI. Of course, it doesn't take much competence to fly around space and shoot things. I always found the enemy ships challenging.
Just be warned, the X series takes HOURS to get anything done and DAYS or WEEKS to actually accomplish major goals. Getting the time compression drive does help speed travel times, but still, you will be taking missions, grabbing goods, moving freight, and dealing with minor battles for quite some time before you can afford that capital ship or that awesome freighter. Just keep that in mind.
It is one of the best open-world games on the market. At some point this year, the new version comes out and it is supposed to be a bit more user friendly than X3. But the release date is still just speculative at this point.
Does it require a HOTAS setup for the space combat/piloting? Or is it mouse and keyboard friendly?
Thanks for the input SoM.
Quote from: son_of_montfort on May 16, 2013, 01:52:49 PM
The game is open-world sandbox (although there are several "campaigns") - so the amount of combat or trading really depends on what you want to do. Combat is done well, and is your general joystick-using space fights. When you get larger ships, you can decide if you want to personally pilot fighters, or just control your capital ship and be ponderous and slow while shelling the enemy with you guns.
Trade is just a tiny bit less detailed than actually driving goods from a real-life location to another location. Prices fluctuate, you can transport things personally, you can own your own starports and industries, you can manufacture weapons, goods, food, or mine materials and sell it on the market (or fuel your industries). The economic engine is actually the highlight of the game (more than the combat, IMHO), as you can literally build a space empire under your corporate logo. Once you get the requisite tech, you can hire robotic transports to basically move goods throughout your empire for you, mitigating the need for personal transport and letting you go and do other things.
Missions are given by certain parties and can get you some quick cash. They are fairly open in structure (unless a campaign mission). Most of your progress will be self-driven. Want to go to an enemy sector and board a ship - taking it for your own. Go try it out. Want to take your Carrier into a war with hostile aliens - why not? Missions can direct things, but I think they are less important than overall other things.
Not sure what to say about the AI. It seems competent enough, both your helper AI and the enemy AI. Of course, it doesn't take much competence to fly around space and shoot things. I always found the enemy ships challenging.
Just be warned, the X series takes HOURS to get anything done and DAYS or WEEKS to actually accomplish major goals. Getting the time compression drive does help speed travel times, but still, you will be taking missions, grabbing goods, moving freight, and dealing with minor battles for quite some time before you can afford that capital ship or that awesome freighter. Just keep that in mind.
It is one of the best open-world games on the market. At some point this year, the new version comes out and it is supposed to be a bit more user friendly than X3. But the release date is still just speculative at this point.
This is an excellent summation, especially the part on how long it takes to accomplish anything. I've always felt that this game doesn't have a steep learning curve as much as a
hostile learning curve. ;D The game is so difficult at times that it feels like it goes out of its way to get you to stop playing it.
If you think you can stomach such a vertical learning curve, then jump on in because right now it is the best open sandbox space sim on the market (but Evochron Mercenary is good, too!).
Oh, and I play with keyboard and mouse with no difficulty.
Control of the ship itself is very simplistic. I use the joystick because it's easier but you can get away with the mouse you certainly don't need HOTAS set up at all. I have a thrust control on my joystick that I used that you don't need it.
The game does not use Newtonian physics so when you turn the thrust down you stop instantly. Turn left you don't drift at all
I can't answer your questions any better than Monty already has. I'll say, though, that if you're prepared to put in the effort, the X games are breathtakingly rewarding. You can go from starting the game in a tiny fighter owning nothing but the shirt on your back, to being the head of a vast empire - stations, factories, entire fleets of ships, carriers, battleships, etc. It's mind-boggling.
In all honesty, if you think you only want a space sim to play in order to scratch an itch, I'd say go with something like Evochron Mercenary. But if you think you can devote a good chunk of time over the next year, X3 will be one of the best gaming purchases you ever make.
SOM nailed it. I tried the game a while back and enjoyed the concepts and the openness within the game. However, I burned out quickly with how long it took to do anything.
Quote from: Bison on May 16, 2013, 01:55:22 PM
Does it require a HOTAS setup for the space combat/piloting? Or is it mouse and keyboard friendly?
Thanks for the input SoM.
I tried to use the mouse and keyboard, but I found it to be a bit too... well.. something. Just did not feel right. I suggest just a joystick, with mouse and keyboard close at hand for all the myriad keybindings and UI menus. No need for HOTAS, as Mike said.
Huw's suggestion is also good. If you are looking for something a little lighter but with a similar vibe, the Evochron series is pretty good. The economy is WAY more simplistic, but you don't have to spend hours just flying freight from one port to another in order to afford your next mercantile software upgrade.
And no problem, bud. I love talking about games!
Would recommend X3:TC, try Humble Merchant start. This give you a Mercury freighter and a Discover light ship.
Take the Discover south into Paranid space, then west to Savage Spur and claim the abandoned Enhanced Pericles M4. Fly back to Argon space and sell the two flak cannons and the M5 ship. Use the proceeds to outfit your Mercury Freighter to gather minerals in the Ore Belt system. Use left over credits to arm the M4 with multiple Impulse Ray Emitter and a few Particle Accelerator Cannons. Use the fighter to do missions while the freighter mines automatically.
This thread explains mobile mining
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=145943
Try to buy all the useful software upgrades you can get for your primary ship. At some point you will get enough credits for a jump drive, and later an automated trader. Once you get that first large freighter set up to automatically trade, your credit balance will grow. Just keep at least a 1 million dollar float so your trader has enough working capital to buy and sell goods.
Are there any cheats? In other words...is there any code that will give you money, or permit you to purchase vessels without having to do it the old fashioned way? I wish there was a campaign where you could start with a small empire already established. Maybe one or two space stations, a couple of large freighters and a good defensive fleet.
I remember finding a guide to easter eggs, including ships located in remote locations, that you could take over and then use or sell. This helped a lot, but navigating to the location, taking the ship and converting it still took a tremendous amount of time.
google X3tc abandoned ships
Just fly to the coordinates, eject, claim the new ship to get ownerless vessels for free. Keep in mind it takes a while to fly to those locations, and some are located in dangerous sectors.
Quote from: eyebiter on May 16, 2013, 04:26:12 PM
google X3tc abandoned ships
Just fly to the coordinates, eject, claim the new ship to get ownerless vessels for free. Keep in mind it takes a while to fly to those locations, and some are located in dangerous sectors.
That's pretty much what I added to my post above. I also said it took a long time to do... :P you must have posted while I was modifying.
I'm looking for a bit more of a shortcut to wealth and success.
I would highly recommend starting out doing the campaign. The latest version is X3: Albion Prelude. The campaign is short but relatively easy. Best of all, as you go through, you are given better and better ships that you get to keep. When you finish the campaign (or get a good way into it) you have a good feel for the game, have a Corvette, freighter and a few fighters to do missions with as well as a ton of cash (rewards for campaign missions) with which to start your trading empire
My only problem with the game? Once I was making a ton of money, had a dozen freighters and a frigate with fighters...I kinda sat there like "now what"? You can go attack stuff but why? It regenerates. I was hoping that I could engage bother corporation in a trade war but you can't.
Some people love true open sandbox play but for me, I need a "conquer the -whatever- goal"
Well I've decided to go ahead and give it a go. Of course the last thing I really need is a new time sink.
Quote from: eyebiter on May 16, 2013, 04:21:10 PM
Would recommend X3:TC, try Humble Merchant start. This give you a Mercury freighter and a Discover light ship.
Take the Discover south into Paranid space, then west to Savage Spur and claim the abandoned Enhanced Pericles M4. Fly back to Argon space and sell the two flak cannons and the M5 ship. Use the proceeds to outfit your Mercury Freighter to gather minerals in the Ore Belt system. Use left over credits to arm the M4 with multiple Impulse Ray Emitter and a few Particle Accelerator Cannons. Use the fighter to do missions while the freighter mines automatically.
This thread explains mobile mining
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=145943
Try to buy all the useful software upgrades you can get for your primary ship. At some point you will get enough credits for a jump drive, and later an automated trader. Once you get that first large freighter set up to automatically trade, your credit balance will grow. Just keep at least a 1 million dollar float so your trader has enough working capital to buy and sell goods.
This is extremely helpful. I think I may boot up and try this!
Well my first game lasted all of 18 minutes. I lost by my ship being destroyed attempting to dock. So very uncool...:(
I must say that the music is hypnotically relaxing.
Second game underway. It wants me to shoot and destroy a box, which sounds pretty sweet if I only had a weapon system on my craft. LOL. I'll hope for some help here before I begin flying again tomorrow evening.
Sounds like you started a campaign with a steep difficulty curve. I'd try a different one.
Quote from: Bison on May 16, 2013, 11:23:01 PM
I must say that the music is hypnotically relaxing.
Agreed. The music sets a great mood for the game.
Quote from: Bison on May 16, 2013, 11:54:11 PM
Second game underway. It wants me to shoot and destroy a box, which sounds pretty sweet if I only had a weapon system on my craft. LOL. I'll hope for some help here before I begin flying again tomorrow evening.
Unfortunatly you can't expect to just jump in and be on your way you'll have to do some reading and learning. I haven't played in a long time so I am I just going to have to post some links that will hopefully help. Also I think you could autopilot dock at stations so you don't crash :)
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?26985-Beginners-Instructions-for-X3-Terran-Conflict
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=162408
Egsoft's forum is where you will find tons of help for the game.
I started the humble merchant campaign on the second try. It sounded like the easiest one.
Quote from: Bison on May 17, 2013, 07:55:07 AM
I started the humble merchant campaign on the second try. It sounded like the easiest one.
Don't the tutorial instructions in that one guide you through the process of docking and buying a weapon for your ship? Its been so long since I tried it, bu that is what I seem to recall.
Yeah I just finished the tutorial to dock which I finally figured out, but the next part of the tutorial the guy ejects a couple of boxes and asks you to shoot them. However the merchant starting craft doesn't have any sort of weapon system as far as I can tell.
Quote from: Bison on May 17, 2013, 08:35:37 AM
Yeah I just finished the tutorial to dock which I finally figured out, but the next part of the tutorial the guy ejects a couple of boxes and asks you to shoot them. However the merchant starting craft doesn't have any sort of weapon system as far as I can tell.
I thought the tutorial tells you to buy a weapon while you're docked and then tells you how to install it onto your vessel.
I might have missed that part. I'll replay it again this evening. Thanks.
Quote from: Bison on May 16, 2013, 11:23:01 PM
Well my first game lasted all of 18 minutes. I lost by my ship being destroyed attempting to dock. So very uncool...:(
I must say that the music is hypnotically relaxing.
I love the sonorous and sultry voice of the computer lady.
Dock your primary ship at a station every half hour to auto save.
Once you get explorer software collect objects in sector command allows you to pick up missiles and other debris from battles. If you find any illegal cargo either sell it right away or eject it back into space.
I thought your discovery scout comes armed... No?
Hmmm... Some space pirate you are.
I'm just feeling good that I didn't blow up my second ship by ramming into the space port.
"Don't get cocky kid!"
Use auto-dock...always
I use autopilot when I'm in a hurry, but I usually prefer to dock manually and take my time, so that I can hear that glorious docking music. Even better than the Blue Danube in Elite!
I just noticed that one can play with an X-Box controller. I'm thinking of trying it out, as my desk has no room for my joystick and I have to put it in my lap.
I tried auto-dock but it seemed that my ship was flying away from the actual space port. I will attempt again, because I bow to Star Wars references.
Yeah, the autopilot likes to dock the "proper" way, going to the end of the docking lane before turning around and flying in.
Yes... Just use the time acceleration. It wil fly away but then turn around and dock. The only time it gets wonky is if the station is right in the middle of an asteroid field. Sometimes you have to shut it off, fly to a different side and try again.
Turn accelerate time up and it docks in no time
Quote from: mikeck on May 17, 2013, 03:34:34 PM
I thought your discovery scout comes armed... No?
Hmmm... Some space pirate you are.
He chose the 'Merchant' start, not the Explorer one (or whatever it's called). I'm guessing the Merchie doesn't come with anything by default.
Yeah but in humble merchant you get a freighter (dolphin?) and a scout ship...usually I sell the scout right away
Oh dayum!
I just noticed that X3: Albion Prelude got a free update with extra content.
Nice!
Something to note - Albion Prelude is a bit harder to start than TC. They randomized the derelict spacecraft, so now no more quick starts using those (and I just made 3 million on a derelict I found in TC). Also, several sectors in AP are at war, which make them very dangerous.
They did add a stock market, which I hear is basically a quick start, money-making exploit. To use it, however, you basically have to play "space spreadsheet" for several hours, so I wouldn't call it a fun way to make money.
Also, TC has a few more plotlines that lead into AP. So if you want the whole story, it is better to start with TC.
What excites me is that he AP 3.0 patch has the "A Universe Preparing for Rebirth" tagline. That, hopefully, indicates that Rebirth is soon approaching.
There's a storyline? Hell I thought the game was learning how to manuveur your space ship.
Quote from: Bison on May 18, 2013, 11:05:27 AM
There's a storyline?
Heh. I guess you could call it that... ;)
Meh... Storyline is just a way to get goodies and cash. Do the AP quest until you finish (I got a player HQ) and then go off on your own. I ended up with a player hq and had earned enough money and ships that I had a fleet of 10-12 freighters, a missle (wasp) station, Energy cell station and a space weed station. My "MikeCK corp." had a fleet of one corvette, a frigate and a few fast M3+ for quick little trips here and there.
For that reason alone, do a quest. Goodies
IF you really want to run the quests, be prepared for a lot of facepalm moments. The voice acting is atrocious and the cutscenes are C grade with stiff automatons.
At least in Reunion they were.
Thanks guys. The last thing I needed was yet another game to play but now I'm going to have to play this. I was pretty good at X2 but could never get started in X3 so I'll try the "story" approach.
I almost bought the Steam sale, because I have always respected the X series (but have never bought one).
Is there any point at all playing earlier games in the series?--aside from the story plots? (And are those any good?) Or would it be better to just play the latest game?
The story is borked anyway so you can ignore that for the most part I would say. That leaves gameplay; and that only got better with each new game so far. :)
Quote from: Yskonyn on May 20, 2013, 10:58:09 PM
The story is borked anyway so you can ignore that for the most part I would say. That leaves gameplay; and that only got better with each new game so far. :)
Agreed. The story is awful; always has been and apparently always will be. You may as well just jump straight into Albion Prelude, Jason.
I've hit the same problem Bison did; doing the tutorial with the humble merchant start, you can't progress because you have no weapons on either your Mercury or your Discoverer. What a stupid bug. I also have no idea how to trigger the "story". I may just take the cheesy route and pick up abandoned ships for cash, or scrounge for unspent missiles in conflict zones.
It's running nicely on Linux! :D
That is weird; I've always started with the Humble Merchant option and my Discoverer always had some blasters...
Haven't played in a good while though. Perhaps they changed this in one of the patches, but why on earth would they rip off the weapons of a scout ship?
I need to get back to this one this weekend.
Well, I "cheated" a little. I played TC and found a ship (listed on abandoned ships list) that was worth 3 million credits. It helped me to jumpstart my empire as the Humble Merchant, so I bought another freighter and outfitted my other freighter with a variety of different upgrades. I placed a farm in the wrong sector, but it occasionally makes some money. My major triumph was getting the Teladi up in rep enough to purchase a Kestrel, the fastest ship in the galaxy. Now I tool around at 600 speed while I send remote orders to my two freighters.
Actually, Albion Prelude requires X3TC. But I'll keep the advice in mind. (I'm too late for this sale.)
Quote from: JasonPratt on May 22, 2013, 12:33:02 PM
Actually, Albion Prelude requires X3TC. But I'll keep the advice in mind. (I'm too late for this sale.)
Note: Albion Prelude removes the static locations of abandoned ships and makes them random. That means you can't look them up for a quick start. Just FYI.
Quote from: son_of_montfort on May 22, 2013, 12:45:34 PM
Note: Albion Prelude removes the static locations of abandoned ships and makes them random. That means you can't look them up for a quick start. Just FYI.
Balls! I may need to play TC instead then. Starting up as a trader takes waaaaaaay too long.
Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 22, 2013, 01:05:57 PM
Quote from: son_of_montfort on May 22, 2013, 12:45:34 PM
Note: Albion Prelude removes the static locations of abandoned ships and makes them random. That means you can't look them up for a quick start. Just FYI.
Balls! I may need to play TC instead then. Starting up as a trader takes waaaaaaay too long.
Albion Prelude included a stock exchange which many people have said is basically a money exploit. But it also is dreadfully boring.
I went back to TC to get the abandoned starter ships and because fewer sectors are at war.
Yeah, sounds like a plan. It's weird, I played X2 and X-Tension as a trader and had my first stations in no time, but in X3 it seemed to be taking forever. I've done my time; I'm happy enough to cheese it in TC. :)