They're definitely at opposite ends of the spectrum! Coming to Elite after playing X3, my response was "Holy shit this game has no content at all. It's just grindy combat missions, grindy trading missions, and grindy exploration missions all set in a faux-MMO world where there aren't enough people for it to feel like an MMO, but the economy is MMO scale which means I will always be a very small fish in a very, very big pond".
But, over time (and with the help of VR, to be honest) I eventually came to really appreciate Elite for what it is. The flight model is amazing. If you can get into it, you can get really lost in a mega huge galaxy, and it feels really cool! A lot of people are able to appreciate that even without VR, or a fancy HOTAS, just not me.
X4 (just like X3) wants you to be a big fish in the pond. It wants you to eventually be able to go toe to toe with, and even exceed the established large NPC factions. You start out with not much, but will eventually be able to pilot anything from a tiny scout ship to a massive destroyer or carrier, with full compliments of automated fighter squadrons and other big ships backing you up too. You'll build the wealth for this by killing some stuff, but mostly by having a steadily growing, and eventually massive, fleet of automated traders and miners, with player owned stations to control the entire supply chain if you want.
The flight model is much less good. It's fine, but it's not flight sim quality like Elite is. Elite is "be a very small fish in a huge galaxy, very immersive" while X4 is basically a 4X (damn I just realized how well this works now with X4) played from a first person perspective. It's also a lot more "gamey" where you're more focused on bigger ships, more stations, and more cash, and less on being immersed in a realistic feeling space sim.
Fiatil on
+7
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
They're definitely at opposite ends of the spectrum! Coming to Elite after playing X3, my response was "Holy shit this game has no content at all. It's just grindy combat missions, grindy trading missions, and grindy exploration missions all set in a faux-MMO world where there aren't enough people for it to feel like an MMO, but the economy is MMO scale which means I will always be a very small fish in a very, very big pond".
But, over time (and with the help of VR, to be honest) I eventually came to really appreciate Elite for what it is. The flight model is amazing. If you can get into it, you can get really lost in a mega huge galaxy, and it feels really cool! A lot of people are able to appreciate that even without VR, or a fancy HOTAS, just not me.
X4 (just like X3) wants you to be a big fish in the pond. It wants you to eventually be able to go toe to toe with, and even exceed the established large NPC factions. You start out with not much, but will eventually be able to pilot anything from a tiny scout ship to a massive destroyer or carrier, with full compliments of automated fighter squadrons and other big ships backing you up too. You'll build the wealth for this by killing some stuff, but mostly by having a steadily growing, and eventually massive, fleet of automated traders and miners, with player owned stations to control the entire supply chain if you want.
The flight model is much less good. It's fine, but it's not flight sim quality like Elite is. Elite is "be a very small fish in a huge galaxy, very immersive" while X4 is basically a 4X (damn I just realized how well this works now with X4) played from a first person perspective. It's also a lot more "gamey" where you're more focused on bigger ships, more stations, and more cash, and less on being immersed in a realistic feeling space sim.
I ended up with x4. I have played a lot of x3 so was familiar with that aspect of it and wanted well... a more interactive system. So “x3 but with cockpits this time” was entirely acceptable.
I love the new flight model, being able to swap between newtonian* and railed on the fly is hella fun.
Ugh, today was an exercise in futility. Bank balance going the wrong way. Though it 100% reinforced my disdain for fighting. Got blown up twice and lost all cargo. And no, I wasn't trying to fight, lol.
So are the X games like "space minecraft" so an open sandbox with no plot?
Or more like "Space GTA" where there's an open world but there is an overarching plot.
There are some "plots", ie mission threads you can pick up at any time and do at your own pace, but they are not required and are actually kinda difficult to find casually. But for the most part, you're plopped down in this sandbox of a universe that is doing it's own thing without you and it's up to you to decide where you want to fit in.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
edited July 2020
Yeah.
Think of the X series as basically just a 4X game where you happen to be sitting in a cockpit instead of looking down at the galaxy from on high.
edit- Once you get well enough established you could, if you so choose to do so, play the game entirely from menus and the starmap.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
+4
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
edit- Once you get well enough established you could, if you so choose to do so, play the game entirely from menus and the starmap.
That's typically how I play most of the game. The only times I personally pilot a ship and do stuff is the first 30 minutes to an hour of game until I have ships doing stuff for me, and for combat where I can't rely on the AI to not get my ship blown up. I still do most of the fighting myself, but most of the game for me is spent making money and giving orders whilst docked or floating beside a station somewhere. I wish the administration module you can build to claim a system had a special office for us to use where we could sit and use SETA.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
On more than a few occasions I've stood on the bridge of my Command Carrier watching a massive battle unfold and giving orders to my fleet.
This is basically what it looks like in my mind.
It is so fucking awesome.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
+10
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
No lie, one of my favorite things to do in X4 is order a ship to dock at the station I'm at, walk down to the docking bay and get in the ship, order it to dock at another station, and play Admiral while I'm getting ubered across the galaxy.
On more than a few occasions I've stood on the bridge of my Command Carrier watching a massive battle unfold and giving orders to my fleet.
This is basically what it looks like in my mind.
It is so fucking awesome.
If you don't mind trading authentic RP for sheer thrills, try commanding the battle from the carrier deck itself. All around you, defense turrets lighting up the sky, shield impacts from the enemy fighters strafing you, damaged ships (occasionally...) docking, all while as the ship rolls and manuevers beneath your feet.
It's the best.
+8
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
Oh man is there any sort of Voice Attack for X4? That and VR support would ruin me.
I'd really need to buy an Admiral's hat and a pipe to chew on.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
So I'm taking all this to mean that Egosoft finally patched the good into X4? I remember playing that garbage day one after loving X3TC to death and just clipping through and getting stuck in stations, the UI not working, and everything being generally shitty for weeks before I just gave up and considered my money wasted.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I still find it amusing that the first Freespace was marketed as a Descent-adjacent title for...the sales boost? I think the studios within Parallax had already begun to split by that point?
Hell, that's why I never checked them out until they were budget releases. I didn't really care for Descent, and after seeing the box for the first one, I just assumed it was more of the same and associated Freespace with Descent. Later when I found out they were honest to goodness space sims ala Wing Commander, it blew my mind.
Funny, I was a huge Descent nerd when I was young, and my dad bought me Descent: Freespace for my birthday thinking it was the highly anticipated Descent 3. I was really confused when I opened that gift, but ultimately loved the new one too (and did they ever get VR working in FS2 Open?).
People say this, but it's not super clear to me what people were expecting in 1999. Games weren't being advertised on TV or in movie trailers back then. But they had extravagant 3 page pullout ads (p69-71) in gaming magazines, a demo for the pack-in CDs, previews talking about the new beam weapons, and a slew of glowing reviews, they had a Ship of the Week feature on... Adrenaline Vault? Online Gaming Review? One of the significant gaming sites back then, anyway. The box cover art stood out nicely. I don't know what kind of marketing push people think would have turned things around. To me it was advertised the same as anything else.
Oh sweet jesus, the nostalgia hit I got from perusing that PDF was certainly something. If I look again, I don't think i'm coming back...
I think I may still have magazines of that vintage...
Fascinating to read through the "coming up" and "new releases" reviews, and look at the ads, and recognize both the classic hits and the ones that sunk without a trace.
Checking out No Man's Sky. Whatever mad genius decided to throw the whole "learning alien languages one word at a time" thing in there is my hero.
Unless they also had a prominent role in the inventory management, then it's a wash. I can build a god damned teleporter but I can't build a box to put my extra stuff in? Come the hell on.
Checking out No Man's Sky. Whatever mad genius decided to throw the whole "learning alien languages one word at a time" thing in there is my hero.
Unless they also prominent role in the inventory management, then it's a wash. I can build a god damned teleporter but I can't a box to put my extra stuff in? Come the hell on.
You can make boxes, but they're big, require being powered, and you can only have 10. On the plus side, they're magic boxes where you can put something into box 1 in one place and then pull them out at any other box 1 you've made.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Checking out No Man's Sky. Whatever mad genius decided to throw the whole "learning alien languages one word at a time" thing in there is my hero.
Unless they also prominent role in the inventory management, then it's a wash. I can build a god damned teleporter but I can't a box to put my extra stuff in? Come the hell on.
You can make boxes, but they're big, require being powered, and you can only have 10. On the plus side, they're magic boxes where you can put something into box 1 in one place and then pull them out at any other box 1 you've made.
You can also upgrade your personal inventory and personal cargo space, and get a ship with a larger inventory. Oh, and you can build those 10 magic boxes on your freighter, allowing you to access them from anywhere you can summon your freighter. It takes awhile, but eventually you'll have a ton of inventory space.
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
After a week of no internet, I finally was able to play again. I still have no idea where I need to go to pay these fines for being blown up with my cargo lost, so... Just ignore it? Ok, lol. Managed a whole five jumps without being interdicted and blown up, so that was good. Cash flowing in the right direction. And now I'm torn between upgrading my Cobra or keeping it scrubby until I get enough cash for my Asp.
The timing of this is pretty ideal. I've mentally adjusted to patiently peeling layers off of this onion to unlock the full set of gameplay features; and just reached the point where I was really hoping the next layer would reveal a freighter teleporter or the mechanism that lets you upgrade its storage capacity.
Blam:
Storage Containers built upon a freighter base now add tabs to the freighter’s inventory page, allowing quick management of freighter inventory contents.
Fixed an issue that prevented the installation of technology within a freighter’s general inventory.
Teleporters can now be built aboard Freighter Bases.
Taychon was a nice bit of work for a space sim, having some of the branching and customization of a game like Privateer. But using in-game emails and Bruce Campbell's VA to give the setting some personality to make it avoid feeling sterile and lifeless like EVE or the X series.
+5
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Taychon was a nice bit of work for a space sim, having some of the branching and customization of a game like Privateer. But using in-game emails and Bruce Campbell's VA to give the setting some personality to make it avoid feeling sterile and lifeless like EVE or the X series.
I just wish its flight/gun model wasn't garbage. Oh well.
The timing of this is pretty ideal. I've mentally adjusted to patiently peeling layers off of this onion to unlock the full set of gameplay features; and just reached the point where I was really hoping the next layer would reveal a freighter teleporter or the mechanism that lets you upgrade its storage capacity.
Blam:
Storage Containers built upon a freighter base now add tabs to the freighter’s inventory page, allowing quick management of freighter inventory contents.
Fixed an issue that prevented the installation of technology within a freighter’s general inventory.
Teleporters can now be built aboard Freighter Bases.
Made it out to Procyon way and found a station that sells the ship I want, so I think I'm going to hang around there for a little bit and see how long it''s take to earn the 7 mill it'll take. I'm already at 1.2, so we'll see. Also, the Sirius corp want's to grant me a permit, but all of their missions are combat oriented, so that may take a long while, lol.
Apologies for lack of specifics, but just a heads up that if you are interested in upcoming EA games, you may want to sign up for the EA community playtesting as there may be some tests coming soon for games specifically related to this thread. It's first-come, first-serve apparently, so no idea if there are any slots left, but just wanted to make people aware. https://ea.arcsivr.com/Portal/EA-CTE/default
Posts
But, over time (and with the help of VR, to be honest) I eventually came to really appreciate Elite for what it is. The flight model is amazing. If you can get into it, you can get really lost in a mega huge galaxy, and it feels really cool! A lot of people are able to appreciate that even without VR, or a fancy HOTAS, just not me.
X4 (just like X3) wants you to be a big fish in the pond. It wants you to eventually be able to go toe to toe with, and even exceed the established large NPC factions. You start out with not much, but will eventually be able to pilot anything from a tiny scout ship to a massive destroyer or carrier, with full compliments of automated fighter squadrons and other big ships backing you up too. You'll build the wealth for this by killing some stuff, but mostly by having a steadily growing, and eventually massive, fleet of automated traders and miners, with player owned stations to control the entire supply chain if you want.
The flight model is much less good. It's fine, but it's not flight sim quality like Elite is. Elite is "be a very small fish in a huge galaxy, very immersive" while X4 is basically a 4X (damn I just realized how well this works now with X4) played from a first person perspective. It's also a lot more "gamey" where you're more focused on bigger ships, more stations, and more cash, and less on being immersed in a realistic feeling space sim.
I don't know about Elite, but X4 also has MODS:
I love the new flight model, being able to swap between newtonian* and railed on the fly is hella fun.
*well semi-newtonian.
Or more like "Space GTA" where there's an open world but there is an overarching plot.
There are some "plots", ie mission threads you can pick up at any time and do at your own pace, but they are not required and are actually kinda difficult to find casually. But for the most part, you're plopped down in this sandbox of a universe that is doing it's own thing without you and it's up to you to decide where you want to fit in.
Think of the X series as basically just a 4X game where you happen to be sitting in a cockpit instead of looking down at the galaxy from on high.
edit- Once you get well enough established you could, if you so choose to do so, play the game entirely from menus and the starmap.
That's typically how I play most of the game. The only times I personally pilot a ship and do stuff is the first 30 minutes to an hour of game until I have ships doing stuff for me, and for combat where I can't rely on the AI to not get my ship blown up. I still do most of the fighting myself, but most of the game for me is spent making money and giving orders whilst docked or floating beside a station somewhere. I wish the administration module you can build to claim a system had a special office for us to use where we could sit and use SETA.
This is basically what it looks like in my mind.
It is so fucking awesome.
If you don't mind trading authentic RP for sheer thrills, try commanding the battle from the carrier deck itself. All around you, defense turrets lighting up the sky, shield impacts from the enemy fighters strafing you, damaged ships (occasionally...) docking, all while as the ship rolls and manuevers beneath your feet.
It's the best.
I'd really need to buy an Admiral's hat and a pipe to chew on.
Press shift+middle mouse to move your view while in the map
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Funny, I was a huge Descent nerd when I was young, and my dad bought me Descent: Freespace for my birthday thinking it was the highly anticipated Descent 3. I was really confused when I opened that gift, but ultimately loved the new one too (and did they ever get VR working in FS2 Open?).
Oh sweet jesus, the nostalgia hit I got from perusing that PDF was certainly something. If I look again, I don't think i'm coming back...
Fascinating to read through the "coming up" and "new releases" reviews, and look at the ads, and recognize both the classic hits and the ones that sunk without a trace.
(in case anyone forgot, Freelancer came out 3 years later than that Q4 2000 release date with... uh... almost nothing mentioned in that preview blurb)
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
And it's coming out, uh, real soon.
Unless they also had a prominent role in the inventory management, then it's a wash. I can build a god damned teleporter but I can't build a box to put my extra stuff in? Come the hell on.
I'm still sad that Flagship never got made. It looked so fuckin cool
You can make boxes, but they're big, require being powered, and you can only have 10. On the plus side, they're magic boxes where you can put something into box 1 in one place and then pull them out at any other box 1 you've made.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
You can also upgrade your personal inventory and personal cargo space, and get a ship with a larger inventory. Oh, and you can build those 10 magic boxes on your freighter, allowing you to access them from anywhere you can summon your freighter. It takes awhile, but eventually you'll have a ton of inventory space.
There are still some things I felt that X3 did better, but for the most part, I don't know if I could go back at this point.
After watching this video I can only ever hear the game's name as Nomansky.
The timing of this is pretty ideal. I've mentally adjusted to patiently peeling layers off of this onion to unlock the full set of gameplay features; and just reached the point where I was really hoping the next layer would reveal a freighter teleporter or the mechanism that lets you upgrade its storage capacity.
Blam:
https://www.nomanssky.com/desolation-update/
I just wish its flight/gun model wasn't garbage. Oh well.
oh my god i'm gonna cry
https://www.ea.com/games/starwars/squadrons/news/pilot-briefing-your-starfighters
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
https://ea.arcsivr.com/Portal/EA-CTE/default