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Re: The X Series

#16
I've played X2 many years ago and liked it a lot, but ran into serious stability problems with the 1.4 patch. I strongly suspect the DRM as source of the problem, because Egosoft added a more aggressive version of Starforce with version 1.4. I was so pissed over that that I ignored X3 until a year ago, when I saw the "X3 Gold Edition" on Amazon. Two games (X3 Reunion and X3TC) for the price of one, and the DRM already stripped out by official patches. Bought it and went back to playing X 8-).

Finished the Reunion plot pretty quickly, it was too short IMHO.

Switched to X3TC because of the many plots. It promised to be the ultimate version that would keep me busy for a long time. The Terran plot did not take too long either, but there was a lot more to come, right?
So I cruised the X universe for a while, bulding a trade fleet. By doing missions, I rapidly gained rank with the Argons and made not too shabby gains with the others. Even at "X-Treme", those taxi misssions make gaining ranks too easy! I made Hero of the Federation without a single combat mission!!
Eventually, I tried my hand at building a complex (nice idea, horrible building interface) and went to work on the Hub. During that plot, I lost my enthusiasm due to the crazy amouns of raw materials I was supposed to deliver :roll:. Was Egosoft trying to imitate Asia Grinder MMOs there?

A while ago, I restarted X3TC from scratch with the Time of The Truth (TOTT) mod. The universe is even more extended than in X3TC, with new and additional plots by DES Studios. Gaining race ranks is now properly hard, maybe even too hard - I have lots of money but not enough rep to buy the really high end equipment. Anyway, X3TC with the TOTT mod is the best so far :)

Overall, I really like how X spans multiple genres:
  • Space sim
  • Economy sim
  • and to some extent RTS in the end game, although the UI is weak for that and final victories over other races are not possible in vanilla X3.
On the downside though, there are some glaring weaknesses. I'll start by quoting Ketchup:
RageQuitKetchup wrote: So to break it down, my biggest grife with the X series has been the unrealistic (as in spawn-based and cheating) economy, the "show and tell" illusion (they say one thing for the lore, but in gameplay we see nothing of the sort happening), and the AI (which is all the same and each race/faction acting uncharacteristic of how they should be acting).

X, thus, needs to have a 1) Dynamic Economy, 2) Dynamic Race Relations/Interactions, and 3) Make the lore blend with the gameplay
All of those are true. Also, there is a bunch of small but annoying shortcomings in the game design, such as strafe speed being the same for all ships. Some slow freighters actually fly faster sideways than ahead :roll: .

For the upcoming X:Rebirth I have read the announcements with mixed feelings. The new concept for building stations seems an improvement, other parts like being restricted to one ship and the simplified weapon management sound like a dumbing down. I also dislike that it will be a Steam title.
Overall, I think I might buy it eventually, But I plan to wait for
  • either a DRM-free version
  • or a drastic reduction in price to make up for the STEAM annoyance

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