I Don't Often Play Space Based Games...

[son_of_montfort]

Well I am not sure where you are looking, SoM, but to be sure: X4 is going to be called X:rebirth.
They have been all but silent about it, provided you get their newsletter?
Rebirth will feature only one player controlled ship, but it is going to be able to be modified extensively and should give players a much better feel of being a commander of a starship rather than a player moving a hud.

All core elements of the X series are still there. Beta (closed) is in full swing. Their projected releasedate of around Xmas first and Q1 later has not been met indeed, but a 2013 release os still on track, so they claim.

I forgot the new name! Still, the website was quiet and I don't get the newsletter. Any thought on a quarter for this year?

Being the commander of a starship sounds fantastic. That is the game I want, if I don't need an engineering degree to play it.

Not so much an engineering or a physics degree, but rather an economics degree and a TON of time. At least with the previous versions. I think, although people were very angry with this, moving to only one ship will help tremendously - even if said ship can be upgraded and become a carrier (and thus command smaller ships). One of the things with X3 was that you could fly all sorts of ships and simultaneously command a ton more. As long as they keep the ability to build space stations/factories and be a giant mega-space conglomerate, I'll be happy.

[Longdan]

I bought X3 many yarens ago when it came on about 12 disks and had no tutorial or book.
It was pretty but i almost threw it away in disgust.  You fired it up and there you were in the cockpit.....
and the rest was figure it out for yourself...absolutely nothing else.  I still have it somewhere and I
am sure there is much available out there now...but first impressions - it was like asking a beautiful girl to dance
and having her, without a word or a look, just kick you right in the nuts.

[JasonPratt]

X series of games (a new one is coming in 2013). Build. Think. Fight. Trade. :P

I second this. I've been playing the X series for a long time and the support from both the company and community is amazing. The games are very immersive, with great graphics. If you want to micromanage your economy, set up as a pirate and dogfight, become a fleet admiral or whatever, this game is flexible enough to tick any or all of the boxes. You are given lots of freedom and it's entirely up to you how you play the game. You can even dip in and out of whatever role you feel like. The number of mods available is staggering. Brilliant :)

No, I'm not employed by Egosoft ;)

To repeat my silly joke from earlier upthread: "I don't often play space based games. But when I do, I play Dos Equis." -- The Most Interesting Man In The World.

(Although I guess that would be Tres Equis now. :) )

[Yskonyn]

I forgot the new name! Still, the website was quiet and I don't get the newsletter. Any thought on a quarter for this year?

I think they don't dare giving one for now.
It may have been brought up in one of the newsletters, but I can't remember.
The discussions I see about a possible release date pretty much boil down to 'when its ready' or 'soon(tm)'. :D
After having to push the game to 2013 instead of an X-Mas 2012 release and then pushing it out of Q1 2013 again have made them bite their tongues.

This is from the latest newsletter:
Postponement of the X Rebirth release date

As many of you have already noticed, we've now had to push the release date for X Rebirth into 2013. Believe me, we would have loved to release the game earlier, but it's just not ready for prime-time yet.

We are very excited about X Rebirth; it's beautiful, it's big and everything in it is new. But it turns out that you don't simply reinvent space games overnight! ;)

We have now been working for more than five years on this huge project, and right now everything is finally clicking together. Everybody on the team is looking forward immensely to the release, but we can't yet give you an exact date. We can only beg our fans to please be patient for a little while longer. - Bernd

Note that they don't talk about Q1 or Q2 or whatever Q. But I recall on the forums that they have stated Q1 is very unlikely.

After it comes a nice Q&A about the game. For the full coverage follow this link.

[JudgeDredd]

I reinstalled X3 Terran Conflict last night and was very happy to see my very, very small empire there still.

I think it's be my space game for the time being. I've tried SotSII and didn't really "get it"...which I realise is a strange thing to say about what appears to be a relatively straight forward game. I also tried Armada 2526 and it didn't grab me and Distant Worlds is amazing - but I am totally lost..."I see a planet/star producing Calzon and I know I need that for fuel - erm...but what to do now?"

X3 Terran Conflict you can jump in and out of the story and build your wee empire. And it looks sexy to boot. So I think that's be my space fix for the moment (though I did fire it up last night and think "ok - I am docked - and I have other ships distributing energy - what do I do now?"

So....maybe I'm just not into space sims - but that doesn't make any sense either because I LOVED Supremacy from the old Atari days and UFO - the one where you built ships and took planets and fought off other races.

Confused.com!

[Nefaro]

I picked up X3:Terran Conflict & the Albion Prelude add-on last year, on the cheap.  It certainly has an improved interface over X3:Reunion but some facets of the whole series can be a bit frustrating when starting off so I've not delved much into it at all.

[JudgeDredd]

lol - confusion reigns with all the different ways and places to get games and add-ons. I totally forgot about Albion Prelude. I KNOW I bought it, but I don't know where or how (disk or download)

I think it was Steam - but I can't be sure. I may even have re-bought X3-Terran Conflict through Steam to have the game and the addon in the same place!

Oh dear!

I was rather pissed off last night that X3 TC wanted the disk in the drive - until I installed the latest patch.

[RedArgo]

Reading this thread made me think of a game from 20 or so years ago called Rules of Engagement by Omnitrend.  You commanded your ship and sometimes a fleet on different kinds of missions.  It was like capital ships in space, so kind of slow moving if I remember correctly.  I don't think I appreciated it then like I would now.  Are there any games similar to that available now?  I was looking at Independence War 1 & 2 over at GOG, what do you think of those?

Thanks.

[Longdan]

I have Rules of Engagement and RoE2.  I loved those games.

[Gusington]

Is Independence War similar to RoE?

[Yskonyn]

I have no experience with RoE, but I have played both IWar games. Very good story and the spaceship mechanics were super cool and fun.

[Huw the Poo]

Is Independence War similar to RoE?

I never played Independence War (although I did buy it on GOG recently  :-[) but I'll tell you this, Gus me old china: Independence War 2 is the best space sim ever!

[Gusington]

Don't do this to me...

[Huw the Poo]

Why don't I just paste something I wrote about I-War 2 on another forum a while back? :D

I-War 2 remains my favourite space sim of all time. As said, it's quite freeform and closer to the X series. You play the role of a guy who has inherited the base/ship/etc from his once-infamous-but-now-dead pirate grandmother, and with a bunch of chums you set off to avenge the murder of your father.

The game is just beautiful, even today. The designers really made space look very attractive without ever going cartoony or whatever, and coupled with the best soundtrack I have ever heard in a game along with some nice effects like the creaking and groaning of your ship's hull when you're floating in space, I-War 2 is incredibly atmospheric.

Unusually good cut-scenes for a game. Characters you care about (although there isn't much interaction with them). Lots and lots of weapons and components with which to upgrade your ship. A bartering system. A number of huge systems through which to zoom and hassle corporation shipping. Multiple factions (although, admittedly, factions just boil down to names, there's not much else different between them).

Like the X series, you can zip through the story as quickly or slowly as you like, and also like the X series, there are some points that are better than others at which you'll want to put the story on hold while you get down to some serious freeform piracy. You get wingmen eventually too, though I'll not say too much about that because it's really well implemented in the game and a nice surprise.

Combat is bloody excellent. When you start out in the game proper, the little ship you have is drastically under-armed and under-powered, and battles can be extremely challenging. As I've said before on either this board or GG, it's very exciting when you're involved in a pitched battle, chasing transports while dodging escorts, missiles that - quite literally - scream past you. There's little else more satisfying than chasing a fat transport at faster-than-light, shooting off a missile that forces it back to sub-light speeds, and robbing the bugger before its escorts and friends arrive. Then there's the joy of hunting at a jump point, fighting for half an hour against hordes of transports and fighters, then surveying the carnage afterwards, picking out what cargo you want to keep and what you will have to do without.

Then there's the panic when you're out of missiles, have hardly any ammo in your projectile-based cannons and have only low-powered lasers, and this happens: you set a course for home, jump out of the system, and lean back with a grateful sigh........when out of the blue, an inhibitor missile hits you up the arse and forces you to sub-light, to face a large and heavily-armed gang of fighters who've been sent to get revenge for all the havoc you'd just been wreaking. Panic!!!

I could talk forever about this game. If you have even a passing interest in space sims, you must try it out!

[Gusington]

^You are a tempting minx.