X space sim series

[Daehawk]

I own X1 and X2 so what is the next one to get...Terran Conflict or Albion?

[Paingod]

I've got 235 hours logged in Albion Prelude and 0 in Terran Conflict, despite owning both on Steam. Albion came before Terran Conflict and a quick check online tells me folks in EgoSoft forums think Albion is a better "Sandbox" experience while Terran is maybe better Storyline stuff.

It's a big step up from X2, but maintains all the complexity and maybe even more. There's so much to do that there's no way the UI can keep up, and you'll need to keep up with remembering keyboard shortcuts to preserve your sanity.

The only thing I really didn't like was the Stock Market. For a game like this, it's basically a cheat code. You're printing money instead of trading, producing goods, and bounty hunting. I avoid it like it doesn't exist and the game plays just fine.

[Daehawk]

The X WIKI states Conflict came out 3 years before Albion.

X³: Terran Conflict October 16, 2008 Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
X³: Albion Prelude December 15, 2011 Linux, Mac OS X, Windows

[baelthazar]

I've got 235 hours logged in Albion Prelude and 0 in Terran Conflict, despite owning both on Steam. Albion came before Terran Conflict and a quick check online tells me folks in EgoSoft forums think Albion is a better "Sandbox" experience while Terran is maybe better Storyline stuff.

It's a big step up from X2, but maintains all the complexity and maybe even more. There's so much to do that there's no way the UI can keep up, and you'll need to keep up with remembering keyboard shortcuts to preserve your sanity.

The only thing I really didn't like was the Stock Market. For a game like this, it's basically a cheat code. You're printing money instead of trading, producing goods, and bounty hunting. I avoid it like it doesn't exist and the game plays just fine.

The Stock Market is why a lot of fans stick with Terran Conflict rather than going on to Albion Prelude, IIRC. I think both have significant sandbox portions, if you ignore the story (which I think you can do by starting up the game as a sandbox game rather than a campaign). There was something else people disliked about Albion, but I cannot remember what it was. The newest one is *supposedly* fixed and many people like it. That said, it deviates a lot from the old games as there is less to do.

[Paingod]

The Stock Market is why a lot of fans stick with Terran Conflict rather than going on to Albion Prelude, IIRC. I think both have significant sandbox portions, if you ignore the story (which I think you can do by starting up the game as a sandbox game rather than a campaign). There was something else people disliked about Albion, but I cannot remember what it was. The newest one is *supposedly* fixed and many people like it. That said, it deviates a lot from the old games as there is less to do.

The Stock Market can be completely ignored without changing the value or function of the rest of the game. I played with it once, made something like 250,000,000 in a day, bought all kinds of stuff I didn't value because I got it for free, and then deleted that game and started over as the Teladi Trader with a busted trade ship and worked up from there. I never touched it again and don't even think about it. I'm the type that never uses cheat codes in a game unless I absolutely have no alternative, and then I don't enjoy the game afterwards.

That said, I never had any issues with Albion and felt it was a good X-series game. There's a little bit of magic in using an arcane UI to manage an interstellar trade fleet while piloting a heavy fighter and taking down pirate raiders.

X: Rebirth lacked the control and scale of the previous games, and I think you spend the entire game in one single 'drone carrier' ship. I didn't spend much time looking into it when it came out as badly malformed as it did. It could be all better now, or the modding community could have fixed it - I wouldn't know.

[Alefroth]

I own X1 and X2 so what is the next one to get...Terran Conflict or Albion?

Super Box.

[Daehawk]

If I had the cash thats not a bad deal at all. Would save diggin out X Beyond the Frontier.

[Kasey Chang]

I got the superbox, but have NO IDEA how to get started. What Wiki / Starter Guide should I read?

[Paingod]

I got the superbox, but have NO IDEA how to get started. What Wiki / Starter Guide should I read?

That's an excellent question that I can't answer. I think I spent hours just learning how to play the first time, and an hour re-learning each time I picked it back up - and I still go back to "How To" posts in forums to figure out how to make some things work.

You'll want to get used to basic flight skills, then combat, then scripts to run your ship components, then trade, then scripts for trade, then production, then scripts for production, maybe ship capture, and possibly fleet tactics and patrols. At each step, you'll need to learn some new aspects of the UI and game systems.

Study the keyboard shortcuts. They'll become your best friend for navigating the vast menu arrays quickly.

As an example, in Albion Prelude:
Combat Drones - You can deploy them by ejecting them out of your cargo bay (or a mod/script might allow you to set up a keyboard shortcut to do it directly). From there you can issue orders to them individually or as a group using a sequence of keyboard shortcuts to navigate menus - so they'll all follow and, or guard something, or all attack a target, or maybe attack anything hostile in the sector they see. Then you can order them to stop and pick them up one by one by flying over them (easier said than done), or just let them run out of fuel and self-destruct. If you have a hangar open (not occupied by a small fighter), they can dock with you - but you might need a mod or script to get them to do it correctly. Drones are great distractions later in the game when you might want to try boarding and capturing ships (you may need a mod/script to do this) - they can be used to keep a target's shields low (you can't board a ship with more than 10% shields) without doing too much damage to the hull.

Here's another (again, Albion Prelude):
Universe Traders - Once you've earned enough money to buy a good trade ship and kit it out, you might get tired of remotely directing it to trade for you while you're out hunting pirates elsewhere. So you invest in the Trade Mk3 upgrade for the ship. You have to pick a sector for it to trade in by itself. This sector should have Energy Cells and at least one or two other goods it can shuffle for profit. After it reaches enough profit milestones, the pilot will level up enough to become a Universe Trader. You issue a new command to begin that activity and the ship will jump around to known sectors and search for the best deals to buy and sell goods. You need to continue to manage it, though. Maybe you establish that it should only trade in sectors where you have a navigational satellite, or maybe you blacklist certain pirate-riddled sectors so it won't go there and get shot up. Sometimes it'll still get attacked, and a good pilot will stock itself with 10 combat drones that it automatically deploys for defense and try to run - you'll be notified so you can maybe jump in and try to help. Universe Traders are very good at balancing the economy and any more than 10 in a given game tends to bog it down as they step over each other. I prefer to use Caiman TS ships for this as they're one of the fastest trade ships, and they'll hardly ever arrive late for a good deal; smaller cargo holds, sure, but in the long run speed wins in my mind for ease of use.

As someone who's probably logged well over 500 hours in the X Series of games, I'm happy to help answer any questions you might have.

[Kasey Chang]

How about which title do I start with? I don't think I've played X series at all. I played Elite (back on the APPLE II) and Privateer (who hadn't). And recently I finished SPG2 and DS1.

For the record, I do have the superbox, which means I have X:BTF, X-tension, X2, X3: R, X3: TC, and X3:AP.

I do NOT have X4:Rebirth and stuff.

[Fitzy]

I can't guarantee this is correct, but my previous research indicates:

Albion for sandbox.

Publication order for story lines, or mod Albion to include the previous story lines. I never could figure out how well the mod story line thing worked though. Or if the stories are even worth it.

[Kasey Chang]

Google shows...

X3:TC New Players Guide -- https://forums.multiplay.com/freelancer ... -spoilers)

X3:TC for Dummies -- https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =121140187

Kongrudi's Humble Merchant Starting Guide -- https://roguey.co.uk/x3tc/help/kongrudi ... chant1.php

[Paingod]

Skimming through those guides certainly tells you about all of the pieces.

The tricky part is in putting them together. I think the best way to approach a game like this is to play to a point where you have a question, and then get the answer. It's very free-form, and you might not need all of the info dumped on you at once. I'd say that those two guides cover a lot pretty well, and you could read through them and play, and the pieces of them will make sense over time.

As for which to play, the game (to my recollection) did mostly evolve in a linear fashion. X3 is the best of them in terms of visuals, complexity, and control. It's hard to recommend playing X1 and X2 as you may need to spend hundreds of hours in each to get the full effect of them. Playing X3, the only thing I missed from X2 was the Kha'ak invasions. They made for nice random diversions.

[Kasey Chang]

So the different versions of X3 (Reunion, Terran Conflict, and Albion Prelude) differs in "universe setup", i.e. which factions are where and current overall tech level, right?

It seems most guides assume you're starting in TC, not R or AP. Or is that just an assumption on my part?

-----

Okay, it seems most guides had me start as Humble Merchant (3-4 different guides), with a distant second as Terran Defender (1). Guess I'll have to give that a try later. I have joystick AND gamepad AND keyboard AND mouse. Makes me wonder which one should I try?

[Tampa_Gamer]

So X4: Foundations releases tomorrow. Did anyone risk a pre-order after X:Rebirth?

[Daehawk]

I never did get around to X3 so no. I still prefer X Beyond the Frontier to X2 even.

[Stuie]

After X: Rebirth they should be paying me to play their game.

[Paingod]

So X4: Foundations releases tomorrow. Did anyone risk a pre-order after X:Rebirth?

I didn't touch Rebirth with a radioactive 12' pole. The concept of being locked into one ship and giving orders to everything else using NPC's is wildly unappealing to me. I never even considered pre-ordering it.

It sounds like X4 is bringing it back into correct alignment, but I'm definitely waiting to see it ironed out and modded up before I even start considering it. It takes EgoSoft years to finish games after they release them. And by finish, I don't mean DLC - I mean working out glaring flaws and bugs. Don't get me wrong - I do buy the finished product, just not during the "Retail Beta" phase.

[Tampa_Gamer]

I figured that would be the general mood after the Rebirth failure. Personally, I had a long play through of X3: AP a few years ago and then a few months ago started a new game of X3: TC (which I had never played) so am still enjoying that experience and am in no rush to help them de-bug X4 until sometime next year.

[Sepiche]

Videos and feature list look good, but yeah, I'll let some other test subject take this one for a spin first before I commit.

[Sepiche]

Aaaand... news to no one here, I am weak.

I've played a bit of the X series in the past, but I've honestly never been a big fan. The bugs, interface, and weird design decisions among other things generally kept me from getting too deep into it.

That said, this is the first X game that has really grabbed me from the start. They've done a good job of creating an immersive world for players to get lost in and, I'm sure there will be an assortment I run into, but I haven't seen any major bugs at all so far.

The ship editor, being able to walk around stations and ships, the myriad of ways to get around. Those are all some great features that make the game more immersive and enjoyable to play.

[jztemple2]

I have Just Cause 4 coming tomorrow but this looked good to me too, so I’ll be checking out your impressions.

[jztemple2]

Gamers Without Jobs has posted an hour long gameplay video.

[Papa Smurph]

My last day of work for the year was Dec. 14, so I needed something to help pass the time. I bought X4: Foundations.

I'm loving it! I've never been able to get past the horrible UI in X games before, and this one was a struggle but I finally figured it out. I spent the first day figuring out how to undock and then dock again. I watched videos and read posts but things just didn't work. Turns out that was because of my first bug: remapping most keys to the numpad doesn't work correctly.

But, that was probably the main bug I've found so far. You can clip inside of station and ships and get sorta-stuck, but I've always gotten out eventually. The best trick is to hire a pilot even for your main ship. When stuck, get up from the flight seat and they will automatically show up and sit down. Then, us the map to order them to fly the ship somewhere. The game doesn't apply clipping/navigation rules to them in quite the same way and after a minute they will have you back out in normal space.

I do keep looking up things on the internet, because I have a million questions that the game never answers. My fervent hope is that they take the proceeds from this release (it looks to be the most successful X game release ever) and put it towards the UI first. Give this thing a good UI and it will sell like hot cakes. That's all I want done to X4. Then, in X5 they can add lots of missing pieces to their simulation (like, why don't autominers need resource probes, or why can't autotraders drop satellites if they have them). X4: Foundations turns out to be a great foundation for them to build from.

Anyway, if you are staying away because of bugs, I wouldn't. The bugs I'm seeing and hearing about are small. The big bugs being reported right now seem to be user error, best I can tell. Of course, as my game progresses, who knows what will happen. But, I bought this game Dec. 16 near bedtime. I've played it and almost nothing else since, likely 10 hours a day for 4 days (I cannot check Steam stats right now to confirm these numbers). 40 hours is more than I play most games, and I've barely scratched the surface of this one.

I'm loving it!

[jztemple2]

I'm glad to hear some positive news about X4, since the top two Steam reviews are pretty negative and they are from folks who have put dozens of hours into the game.

[Daehawk]

I picked up X Rebirth for $7. Hope I get some fun out of it.

[Hyena]

Gah! Stop it!

I played the first few X's and had an extreme love/hate relationship with them. I don't think I've ever followed the actual storyline past the first two or three stages. I treat it more like a Freespace/Trader game, and I'm a sucker for games like that, where you start out with next to nothing and then after a while you can begin to upgrade, then after a LONG while you have an entire empire of factories and drone ships ferrying your products all over the known 'verse. Even better, take over a sector and create a network of factories pumping out 7 different products that are either sold or rolled back into the next factory in line to create a tier 2 product that is needed for the tier 3 factory you have attached making missiles for the tier 4 missile launcher factory you have attached to THAT one.

Damn it. I'll probably have a fleet before New Years now. Thanks, a-holes!

[Daehawk]

I think it was X2 where it allowed you to import your own picture for the factory and such signs in space or on your building. It was pretty cool at the time I thought.