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the real question is if the ai changes actually made it good this time
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Apr 8, 2024 03:52
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Playing some 7.00 I think I think I really like some of the new small touches. More refined turret controls are nice, but it would be really nice if there was a "Target missiles, then fighters" option. I need to play with it more and see what it does if you use "target fighters first" or "target missiles first" I really think the Xenon H is neat, but they definitely will have to rebalance boarding. It seems they spawn with a range of skill and it remains to be seen if it also levels up. I also captured one and it had a Xenon M in it's fleet, which also became mine. It's neat to dock one and look at the front where it kind of looks like a strange face. I'm apparently very bad at making profits from my stations so I'm still not in range of the new mode. I think the Xenon did get a bump in aggression in my existing universe though, my station holding the one way gate out of the Yaki sector is suddenly much spicier with three Xenon capitals zoning in at a time where previously they just marched in one by one to be disassembled.
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Apr 8, 2024 19:18
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It's hard to quantify the AI changes, I started a new game and was surprised when doing the Terran Yaki missions that the Split had made serious headway into settling Tharkas Cascade, and that Argon Prime was under serious threat from a Split Raptor. Your M mining fleet is a hell of a lot more durable to Kha'ak sector incursion ( of dozens of plutus's mining ice in Nopelio's Fortune II I've lost maybe 2 and have comfortably put off replacing them with L miners ). The new Pirate sectors are knee deep in mineral resources and I lost more ships ( including L miners ) to the SCA harassers that plague the systems before I blacklisted them as not worth the effort. Cap ships still seem of incapable of assaulting stations without serious sacrifice and if you give an Asgard the task of attacking a Kha'ak Ravager, it's already dead - but if you can fly a Rattlesnake or Syn, you're better off dealing with it yourself. I've capped an SCA Behemoth E but am yet to try it out for myself, apparently they don't review well - turret placement appears to be their problem - the Pheonix E does review well but some folks have reported problems trying to fly them themselves. SCA haven't deigned to drop one off outside my stations for me to try yet. I've managed to find and kill a Xenon H to unlock the research ( apparently it won't unlock all required Xenon equipment blueprints ) but I haven't managed to get any Xenon M ships to bail ( the better piracy mod doesn't play nice with 7.0 yet so you'll want to uninstall it - harass function doesn't work and no ships will bail with the mod active even if you don't use the harass action ). It's a first beta, and not an update I'd recommend to first time players or folks who haven't played in a while. The new manager offices break ( or at least are speed bumps ) most story line missions that involve you talking to someone in their office, auto pricing is whack as reported up thread ( also protectyon pricing is an issue for the Riptide Rakers ), but I do like a lot of the changes and new features.
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Apr 9, 2024 01:17
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We have Beta 2!quote:[Beta 2] Added Weapons and Turrets tutorial (new feature in 7.00).
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Apr 11, 2024 21:41
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I retroactively got my missing Xenon blueprints so now I have a fully fitted H to try out, I'm not sure what to do with it yet, it's a versatile industrial in that it can mine minerals, gas and haul wares but as a result it's cargo capacity is quite small ( mining hold is one third the capacity of the Cthonius E which is my current mainstay ). It has a huge drone bay but can only retrieve 2 drones at a time. The two L turrets default to mining targets so I'm pretty sure it's not a front line combat destroyer so I'm treating mine as a support ship with defense and repair drones. I also captured a Xenon B that I had caused to bail pre patch but couldn't cap until after the beta 2 update, I am yet to test it and it's plasma cutters in combat, also I couldn't disembark when docked with my shipyard - I had to teleport out. I do want the Ironclad paint mod both the ships have as my default paint option ( it's not available in the more default paints mod I'm using ).
ZombyDog fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Apr 12, 2024 |
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Apr 12, 2024 01:19
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OK the B does have an elevator, I had just missed it. The B and PE are never going to be my daily driver, it's nice to be able to cap them but they aren't DLC power creeped corvettes by any stretch. With the B it's Plasma Cutters are short ranged and really slow gimballed but do melt fighters, speed is hella woeful though. Might be nasty against bigger ships but lack of speed, durability and the necessity of getting into point defense range to cause damage means that you're going to see a lot of B's needed to suicide a bigger ship down. The PE is woefully undergunned and squishy. The guns do have good range but the low projectile an gimbal speed means you're missing a lot of shots in a dogfight.
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Apr 12, 2024 04:06
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quote:[Beta 3] Added dialog option to postpone Existential Crisis (new feature in 7.00). e: Would appreciate an option to postpone existential crises IRL. Antigravitas fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Apr 24, 2024 |
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Apr 24, 2024 17:24
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quote:[Beta 3] Improved capital ship combat movement against large targets.
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Apr 24, 2024 18:18
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BlankSystemDaemon posted:Being able to save layouts of stations is a loving god-send for multiple playthroughs. Can those be shared? I absolutely hate fighting with the base designer
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Apr 24, 2024 20:15
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I just put all the station parts inside each other (can’t remember if there is a setting you need to toggle to allow this) and then forget about ever designing a decent station. Only stuff spaced out is docks.
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Apr 24, 2024 20:41
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Tabletops posted:Can those be shared? I absolutely hate fighting with the base designer They're XML files so you could theoretically share them. The game also has an auto design feature if you don't care about space efficiency. Just plop down all modules you want and hit that auto complete button
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Apr 24, 2024 21:06
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FrickenMoron posted:They're XML files so you could theoretically share them. The game also has an auto design feature if you don't care about space efficiency. Just plop down all modules you want and hit that auto complete button Egosoft has a forum for sharing pre built stations of varying quality and efficiency and I've occasionally looked through but never actually tried copying anything in to use because there is a lot of random trash, a lot of 10x10x10 km plot 1000 production module mega stations, and very little neat, unique, albeit ~suboptimal~ stations. There is a gorgeous overdone Terran solar panel helix though...
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Apr 24, 2024 21:37
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Tabletops posted:Can those be shared? I absolutely hate fighting with the base designer To find out the required modules, you can use the station calculator - just select the modules you want based on the production chart, the number of them you want, and then press 'Autofill'. To achieve efficiency, you can make a station in the calculator with every end-tier production module, add habitats to the point that you've satisfied the workforce requirement, and then auto-fill to get some idea of how many of each you need to build. After you've done that, you can add S/M+L+XL manufacturing bays to your HQ. EDIT: The real trick is ensuring that trade between the stations functions properly, such as ensuring that your stations aren't buying raw resources or the tier below it from anyone but your faction once you can satisfy the demand. BlankSystemDaemon fucked around with this message at 11:03 on Apr 25, 2024 |
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Apr 25, 2024 10:55
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I build all my stations on a common "frame" that has an E pier at the end with storage and M docks connected to a spine of spaced connectors. Then I build wings of production modules off the spine. The advantage of this is that you can copy the entire spine chunk if you need to double production quickly.    The hull parts forge in that last photo was tripled with a few clicks. Polikarpov fucked around with this message at 11:18 on Apr 25, 2024 |
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Apr 25, 2024 11:16
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I've played a lot of X3 years ago and I'm now considering playing this. How does this game compare to the various Litcube-flavoured mods for X3? Is there any reason to still prefer modded X3, or is this an improvement?
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Apr 25, 2024 20:28
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Mayem 3 and it's successors are still interesting and very unique; X4 though is pretty good in it's current form and if you enjoyed any of the X games you'd almost certainly enjoy this one. Litcube itself was interesting but a little "fake" if that makes sense - like you'd build a huge empire in LU but the materials and goods you sold just vanished into the ether and had fake demands. Mayhem added a real economy which was amazing, and that's also one of the coolest parts of X4 - shipyards will not build ships without fairly complex chains of supply and you can fill those needs or disrupt them with enjoyable effects. It lacks a ton of the nice QoL stuff from LU and Mayhem though but the UI is pretty functional and the map is great. Honestly just go for it.
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Apr 25, 2024 20:36
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Less Fat Luke posted:Mayem 3 and it's successors are still interesting and very unique; X4 though is pretty good in it's current form and if you enjoyed any of the X games you'd almost certainly enjoy this one. Litcube itself was interesting but a little "fake" if that makes sense - like you'd build a huge empire in LU but the materials and goods you sold just vanished into the ether and had fake demands. Mayhem added a real economy which was amazing, and that's also one of the coolest parts of X4 - shipyards will not build ships without fairly complex chains of supply and you can fill those needs or disrupt them with enjoyable effects. Does X4 model the planetside economy or is supply/demand only calculated from ingame space stations? Is the gameplay still mostly taking place within a small volume between jumpgates, or does it allow for deeper space? That was one of the offputting things about the older X games; it didn't really feel like space so much as a maze of rooms, and the planets functionally didn't exist. I'm not really interested in the empire buiilding, I prefer to lead a small fleet in either pirate or bounty hunting operations and to gain cash/ships from combat. Does the game cater to that kind of playstyle or is it still as empire-focused as the previous games?
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Apr 27, 2024 10:18
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Corsec posted:Does X4 model the planetside economy or is supply/demand only calculated from ingame space stations? Is the gameplay still mostly taking place within a small volume between jumpgates, or does it allow for deeper space? That was one of the offputting things about the older X games; it didn't really feel like space so much as a maze of rooms, and the planets functionally didn't exist. The empire building is a huge focus and many plotlines will require you to build up a solid economy or else you'll have to wait much longer to supply things from the factions themselves. The prices entirely depend on demand of the current station for certain wares / surplus of sold wares, as well as slight discounts for having a high standing with said faction. That said X4 made station building so much easier than X3 that it's much more enjoyable.
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Apr 27, 2024 10:45
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Corsec posted:Does X4 model the planetside economy or is supply/demand only calculated from ingame space stations? Is the gameplay still mostly taking place within a small volume between jumpgates, or does it allow for deeper space? That was one of the offputting things about the older X games; it didn't really feel like space so much as a maze of rooms, and the planets functionally didn't exist. It's possible to play entirely as a small band of pirates/mercs, the only limit is your imagination but there's also not a lot of framework to sustain that playstyle. You can participate in wars between the Paranid or Split and Argon through randomly generated missions ranging from simple recon or deploying towers/satellites/mines to multi part missions that include supplying ships and stations, but they're typically designed so that you can do them without harming your reputation with the target faction. You can build up a fleet of ships that you've stolen, earn bounties from policing sectors ( the bounty payouts are pretty low though ) and looting battlefields can get you some good starting scratch but isn't viable for the later game. You're going to need to engage with the economy if only to stop the game universe devolving to Xenon blasted wasteland ( although so far in the current public beta the Xenon seem heavily neutered, I've witnessed the Teladi purge Scale Plate and Matrix #9, HOP purge Faulty Logic and Antigone make headway into Atiya's Misfortune without my intervention ). Your PHQ is could be ignored but if you want to research the ability to Teleport between your ships all over the galaxy or equip ship upgrades you'll need to invest time, money and resources to do so, and most of the storied plotlines will push you to having positive relations with everyone and a strong industrial backbone ( like you're not obligated to do them and ultimately the plotlines allow you to change up the relations between the related factions if you want more stability or more chaos in your universe ). The only tangible benefit to owning a sector outside of repainting the map your colour is to block the expansion of the AI factions in a given direction.
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Apr 27, 2024 11:32
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Thanks for the responses guys, that's helpful. Is it still necessary to run the game overnight in SETA if I want enough cash for empire-building or can that part of the game be achieved within a reasonable timeframe while actively playing? That's why I didn't commit to empire-building in previous games, it seemed to require an unreasonable amount of time and also to run the game while AFK.
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Apr 28, 2024 07:00
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I have literally never run SETA and I look down on people who do.
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Apr 28, 2024 08:22
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generally the game is designed for you to be able to run missions (or scavenge loot boxes, or w/e) while your passive income builds.
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Apr 28, 2024 09:08
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I never got the chance to use seta. The game does a great job giving you plenty to do, as long as you don't neglect setting up long term projects you will not run out of things to be actively doing
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Apr 28, 2024 09:13
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You absolutely do not need to SETA unless you do some *really* lategame terraforming. It's best to stay active and scout for lucrative missions while you build up your passive income force. There's always something to do really.
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Apr 28, 2024 10:21
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Yeah no it's definitely isn't a game I'd run AFK. If I'm am using SETA it's because I have a few time consuming building projects I'd really like to get out of the way ( or I'm trying to force myself to finish a terraforming project ), and even then I'm still managing ships and other stations, teleporting to personally deal with sticky situations ( like dealing with Xenon incursions I can't entrust my fleet captains to deal with ) or scouting and planning new ventures in other sectors. I like to set up big builds that don't really need me to nursemaid them and then start on one of the story plots, checking up on the projects between plot stages. I'd definitely not recommend setting up a couple of traders or miners to run overnight because you're early game and have no credits, because a) they'll all be dead by the time you wake up with a paltry sum in your wallet and b) you're not actively doing the things that would enrich you faster and are more entertaining. Even in the most basic vanilla starts you can take your dinky Discoverer to Pioneer territory and pinch a Freelancer Katana or two that's stuffed to the gills with advanced satellites, start on the Boron plotline opening up Watchful Gaze that's going to fill up with a lot of different random defenceless industrial ships for you to plunder without taking a reputation hit so you can sell them on or set up for local auto trade /mining while you're working on research projects for Boso back at the PHQ, next thing you know you've got the blueprints to start building decent stations and you have a bunch of industrial ships already working for you, you've spotted some trade opportunities, you've done the Terran cadet plotline enough to get yourself a free Syn, you've turned Asteroid Belt into your own personal cash cow, you've pulled the Odysseus out of Faulty Logic VII and now you're actively looking to hijack some SCA destroyers ( then Fallen Family Rattlesnakes, then Erlking or maybe an Intervention Asgard ). If you're anything like me you've been looking for a system that has reasonable access to everything you need to start establishing stations that will ultimately feed your own ship production facilities, so you'll never need wait for AI factions to have components on hand to build ships that you want to buy, and credits will become meaningless once you've bought the station ship production module blueprints and which ever ship and equipment blueprints you need to build your dream navy and you've effectively won the game and it's up to you to decide to paint the map green, do some terraforming or just start all over again.
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Apr 28, 2024 10:46
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Corsec posted:I'm not really interested in the empire buiilding, I prefer to lead a small fleet in either pirate or bounty hunting operations and to gain cash/ships from combat. Does the game cater to that kind of playstyle or is it still as empire-focused as the previous games? ZombyDog fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2024 07:07
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ZombyDog posted:Actually, if you have the Split DLC I'd recommend the Fire's of Defeat start. Interesting, it sounds like a cool way to strucutre the first part of a playthrough. How well does boarding and capturing work ingame? In X3AP I needed mods to control bail rates and thresholds if I wanted to force pilot bails, and marine boarding was no fun at all.
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May 1, 2024 23:43
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On my last playthrough a while back once I got the syn I was making good money just by fighting by taking the terran destroy xenon station missions. I think I recall they paid out 20 mil a piece and the trick was to outrange the station's turrets which the syn main battery could do by default and outfit plasmas on the L turrets. As long as I took out the xenon station L turrets first, I could take them down with no losses. This might be even easier now that there is an attack turrets command for ai controlled ships, but I haven't played since they added that.
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May 2, 2024 01:04
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Corsec posted:Interesting, it sounds like a cool way to strucutre the first part of a playthrough. How well does boarding and capturing work ingame? In X3AP I needed mods to control bail rates and thresholds if I wanted to force pilot bails, and marine boarding was no fun at all. Boarding L and XL ships is a far more complicated process, marine quality is very important ( make sure you're friendly enough to dock at the Vigor Syndicate wharf/shipyards - it's like a 30% chance that a recruited marine is a veteran rather than inexperienced which can be expoited - hire a full complement of marines, dismiss the ones that are inexperienced, rehire marines and dismiss until you have an almost full complement of veterans ). You don't have to shoot up your target ship and surface components, but disabling engines and turrets will make your marine pod's lives easier, and a damaged hull will allow your marines to cut their way in faster. Once the actual fighting starts it's determined by the boarding stats of your marines vs the defending crew ( with a little randomness for spice ), and the number of marines you can send over is limited by the ship's crew capacity, so quality will trump quantity. Trying to board an FAF Rattlesnake with fresh recruits will only result in you needing to replace those recruits and the defenders have just been given free boarding experience buffing their defender score for round 2. ZombyDog fucked around with this message at 03:45 on May 2, 2024 |
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May 2, 2024 03:17
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Corsec posted:Does X4 model the planetside economy or is supply/demand only calculated from ingame space stations? Is the gameplay still mostly taking place within a small volume between jumpgates, or does it allow for deeper space? That was one of the offputting things about the older X games; it didn't really feel like space so much as a maze of rooms, and the planets functionally didn't exist. Not only does it double down on this the Boron expansion's plot is literally "our space sectors are dying and so we are also and so we're abandoning space travel to survive on our planets alone. Hey wait what's that strapping young armada barreling through the derelict jumpgate". It's really funny when you realize that the entire space empire building thing is more or less totally irrelevant to anybody else in the galaxy, on purpose. You're just another Space rear end in a top hat
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May 2, 2024 05:45
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Is the vanilla game tolerable or is it still a game that needs mods to be good? The Star Worlds Interworlds mods seems like a standout, any experiences of it? Thanks for the description of capturing/boarding, it sounds like X3AP's but maybe more convenient. Thanks for all the feedback, this has been on my want-to-play list for years.
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May 2, 2024 09:49
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Corsec posted:Is the vanilla game tolerable or is it still a game that needs mods to be good? The Star Worlds Interworlds mods seems like a standout, any experiences of it? Assailer's X4 Mods, I use most of these ( Satellite Service, Sector Explorer, Fly By Looting, Fly By Lockbox, Sector Patrol, Secret Stash ). Improved Space Suit, for the Mk3 repair Laser. Faster Crew Levelling quote:Ran some tests, the mod still works as expected (7.0 beta). Crafted Mod Components, allows you to craft ship mods. Better Kill Credit, your subordinate ships will actually now get you positive relations and bounties for killing stuff without you needing to be flying the ship. Bounty get you Money, Bigger bounties. Basically if you want to be the leader of a small gang of ne'er-do-wells, you want this mod and the one above to make that playstyle more viable. Auto Trader Skill Rebalance, gives your pilots access to the Autotrader/Autominer commands from the start. More Default Paint, unlocks a lot of but not all of the available paint schemes ( that are normally given as mission rewards and are single use ) as Default options. I just really like Privy Court OK? Neutral Engine Tints and Terran Neutral Hardpoint Tints so everything looks just a little more visually consistent. Better Piracy, I've already mentioned this one upthread, I've never bothered with tweaking any of the settings, but the Harass mission takes you through the steps and timings for a successful pirate action so that it's like second nature even without the mod ( which is a good thing as the mod is currently broken with the beta ). Having just checked the Github for the mod, it does remove the penalty for having a ship with higher hull than your target Interworlds seems quite popular, but for me it was just X4 with a Star Wars veneer, and I'm just tired of all these star wars. VRO is the other big one that a lot of folks swear by, it's a pretty major rebalance overhaul and may lead to a more X3 feeling experience, but I haven't played X3 in over a decade and I haven't really tried VRO so I'm not qualified to comment. There are a bunch of mods that massively shake up the galactic map, add new sectors and game starts ( wanna play as a Yaki? ), add more ships, beef up some of the minor factions or just make factional war a little more interesting but that list above is what I always keep going back to. ZombyDog fucked around with this message at 12:33 on May 2, 2024 |
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May 2, 2024 11:17
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The X4 boarding system is actually X:Rebirth's boarding system but not quite as good. It's vastly improved over X3's, although it retains what is IMO the worst aspect (Juggling marine veterancy). The devs are convinced players love minutely increasing the skill on hundreds or thousands of employees, any one of whom could randomly blow up and die instantly if they get anywhere near combat. It is important to always scan ships you want to board. Some ships have vastly better boarding defenses than you expect and some are surprisingly easy for their value. Note that it is possible to reduce a ships boarding defense by attacking it as sometimes crew will partially eject from large ships like how pilots will eject from small ships. The biggest fly in the ointment of boarding is that if you try to board easy targets like pirates in patrolled space, you run the risk of the local cops helping you out by blowing the ship up with your marines on it. I wouldnt recommend stuff like the fly by lockbox to get started. Lasering lockboxes is a fun little minigame until it gets old, and the effort required serves to balance them in the early game. I thought interworlds was a lot of fun. Their VRO-ish take on small vs large ships can make for extremely cool fights and exciting trench runs. (The CIS ships are a particular joy to fight around.) However their 4X-ish take on the galaxy has weaknesses when it comes to some aspects of X4 gameplay. Pirates are vanishingly rare for example, and there are too many sectors that aren't very distinguished from one another (the X3 problem) so the map can be kinda boring. TheDeadlyShoe fucked around with this message at 17:35 on May 2, 2024 |
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May 2, 2024 17:32
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If you go the VRO route I'd recommend the Reemergence mod in addition to it. Reemergence shuffles the map a bit and adds some more missing ship classes on top of VRO (S class bombers, TMs, more L class frigates and light carriers, custom faction drone models) as well as brings back the OTAS faction from X3 with custom ships.
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May 2, 2024 18:05
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Beta 4 is upquote:[Beta 4] Added option to override ware baskets of subordinates with trade assignments.
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May 2, 2024 23:17
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Looking great. Can't wait to play it a couple of months after it's out of beta.
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May 3, 2024 20:38
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quote:[Beta 5] Improved capital ship combat movement (further improvement to 7.00).
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May 8, 2024 15:47
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Allegedly. I would love to see a video that actually tests and quantifies these.
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May 8, 2024 15:56
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https://x.com/EGOSOFT/status/1788223411702956067 This new controller profile looks great. Might have to check it out.
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May 8, 2024 16:07
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