X:Rebirth Catch All

I don't think anything else short of the 4X genre has the empire-building scope of X3. With the possible exception of Eve, but of course, that's another thing entirely.

garion333 wrote:
Grubber788 wrote:

If I were interested in getting into another space sim that scratched the same empire-building and genocidal itch that X3 did for me, is there any redeeming value in this game? It looks like Elite might be a better fit for me, but I really liked X3's ship variety which seems to be lacking in Elite.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuude, you're still alive!

I live! The nomadic life suits me.

Veloxi wrote:
Grubber788 wrote:

If I were interested in getting into another space sim that scratched the same empire-building and genocidal itch that X3 did for me, is there any redeeming value in this game? It looks like Elite might be a better fit for me, but I really liked X3's ship variety which seems to be lacking in Elite.

Aside: are the Boron in this game?

Get Elite. This game still is, and will forever be, a steaming pile of sh*t.

You were always a Boron sympathizer.

But seriously, are there Boron in this game? I might try it if it ever goes on steep discount (75%)

Im still trying to play X3:TC. For some reason, my Soja Husk freighter stopped buying soja husks and my shield factory has come to a stop.

Grubber788 wrote:

But seriously, are there Boron in this game? I might try it if it ever goes on steep discount (75%)

I got the game for free and I feel ripped off.

Avoid. At all costs. Boron or not.

Grubber788 wrote:

But seriously, are there Boron in this game? I might try it if it ever goes on steep discount (75%)

Not currently, no. They haven't been excised from the fiction afaik, but the way they closed off jump gates or whatever meant that the Borons aren't in this game. Yet? Ever? Don't know.

That's... really weird. I won't argue that X's appeal was ever its story, but I liked the ship designs for the different races.

Veloxi wrote:
Grubber788 wrote:

But seriously, are there Boron in this game? I might try it if it ever goes on steep discount (75%)

I got the game for free and I feel ripped off.

Avoid. At all costs. Boron or not.

...but you didn't like X3, I thought? I would have been shocked if you'd come around on Rebirth.

Grubber788 wrote:
Veloxi wrote:
Grubber788 wrote:

But seriously, are there Boron in this game? I might try it if it ever goes on steep discount (75%)

I got the game for free and I feel ripped off.

Avoid. At all costs. Boron or not.

...but you didn't like X3, I thought? I would have been shocked if you'd come around on Rebirth.

I came around on Albion Prelude, which I had a lot of fun with, but on the whole I've never been a huge X fan.

I'm sure the space lanes really did Veloxi in. He wants freedom in his space games. I do too, for that matter.

garion333 wrote:

I'm sure the space lanes really did Veloxi in. He wants freedom in his space games. I do too, for that matter.

The space lanes with their pinball physics were HILAAAAAARIOUS.

Are any of the X3 games worth it? Google searches seem to recommend Terran Conflict over the others. I'm tempted because on paper these games look amazing.

The X3 games are super great, they aren't for everyone, but if you think it looks good on paper you'll probably like them a lot if you can get over the learning curve. We have a thread that covers the X3: Terran Conflict here, much of the Albion Prelude discussion ended up there as well.

Most people on the thread recommend Terran Conflict (expansion to X3)most highly, especially as a starting point. Albion Prelude (the second and last X3 expansion) is also good, but there are things going on with the plot (a war that has broken out) that many feel is a detraction from "pure" X gameplay.

X3 alone isn't a good choice, the expansions add a lot of gameplay and polish. Albion Prelude does the same, with some tweaks, new ships, etc, but the quality jump is a lot smaller than what you get simply from going to TC, with the aforementioned issues of the plot. If you feel up to modding and whatnot the best solution is probably X3: AP with a mod to turn off the war, but if you do that I think a lot of the plot will be removed, so it may not be the best choice.

Probably X3: TC is best, and I recommend not starting as Terran. As the stars of the expansion, the developers wanted to make their areas unique, and also wanted to highlight new engine enhancements, and they did so by making their Stations super massive, and their zones super massive, which makes it take a lot longer to move around in them (An issue both for you, the NPC traders, and your own traders, so the economy of the Terran sectors is a little bit more finicky because of the transportation problem. Also, for plot reasons, their jumpgates aren't real jumpgates, and you can't use your jump drive to get to them, further adding to the difficulty of moving around in them.

Also for plot reasons their technology isn't compatible with the rest of the Universe, many/most of the other races ships and weapons are interchangeable, but that's not true with the Terrans, so it limits your options a lot.

Yonder wrote:

The X3 games are super great, they aren't for everyone, but if you think it looks good on paper you'll probably like them a lot if you can get over the learning curve. We have a thread that covers the X3: Terran Conflict here, much of the Albion Prelude discussion ended up there as well.

Most people on the thread recommend Terran Conflict (expansion to X3)most highly, especially as a starting point. Albion Prelude (the second and last X3 expansion) is also good, but there are things going on with the plot (a war that has broken out) that many feel is a detraction from "pure" X gameplay.

X3 alone isn't a good choice, the expansions add a lot of gameplay and polish. Albion Prelude does the same, with some tweaks, new ships, etc, but the quality jump is a lot smaller than what you get simply from going to TC, with the aforementioned issues of the plot. If you feel up to modding and whatnot the best solution is probably X3: AP with a mod to turn off the war, but if you do that I think a lot of the plot will be removed, so it may not be the best choice.

Probably X3: TC is best, and I recommend not starting as Terran. As the stars of the expansion, the developers wanted to make their areas unique, and also wanted to highlight new engine enhancements, and they did so by making their Stations super massive, and their zones super massive, which makes it take a lot longer to move around in them (An issue both for you, the NPC traders, and your own traders, so the economy of the Terran sectors is a little bit more finicky because of the transportation problem. Also, for plot reasons, their jumpgates aren't real jumpgates, and you can't use your jump drive to get to them, further adding to the difficulty of moving around in them.

Also for plot reasons their technology isn't compatible with the rest of the Universe, many/most of the other races ships and weapons are interchangeable, but that's not true with the Terrans, so it limits your options a lot.

Thanks. I'll check out the TC thread - I've been tempted to jump into this for a while; might have to take the plunge.

The Terran area is terrible and generally should be avoided.

X3: TC is great but flawed.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

The Terran area is terrible and generally should be avoided.

Which is especially annoying because the Terran start puts you right into the closest thing to a tutorial the game has. By which I mean that it introduces you to each mission type more directly than the other starts do.

Arise thread, ARISE! GOG has all of the X Rebirth (All DLC) bundle at 16.75USD.

As a newbie pilot, is it worth jumping in at this point of the series, or should I redirect funds for X3 bundle and Freespace 2 if/when they go on sale?

X3: TC is where it's at. Generally considered the best version of the series. Enough polish to ease the learning curve/wall, solid story for some free ships, and still cool features like flying tons of different ships, unlike the most recent X:Rebirth.

EDIT: There's a reason the X3:TC thread is the longest one around here. 90 pages.

Stele wrote:

X3: TC is where it's at. Generally considered the best version of the series. Enough polish to ease the learning curve/wall, solid story for some free ships, and still cool features like flying tons of different ships, unlike the most recent X:Rebirth.

EDIT: There's a reason the X3:TC thread is the longest one around here. 90 pages.

Because somebody will get it in a steam sale and load it up and have a sh*t ton of questions and they don't want to go back through a huge thread and this repeats itself every six months or so? That's what I did, anyway.

Sorry I resurrected this thread then :(.... I searched X first, but neither thread came up...

I'll be grabbing x3 for sure then! Thanks for the advice!

Finally got around to playing this about a year-ish after buying it.

  • Looks like they've patched it extensively, which is a very good thing.
  • Still a major bummer that you can only pilot one ship.
  • Trading seems to be much more micro-managed than in previous X games. Perhaps I need a software upgrade...
  • I actually like the highway system, though I really, really want a jump drive already.
Math wrote:

Finally got around to playing this about a year-ish after buying it.

  • Looks like they've patched it extensively, which is a very good thing.
  • Still a major bummer that you can only pilot one ship.
  • Trading seems to be much more micro-managed than in previous X games. Perhaps I need a software upgrade...
  • I actually like the highway system, though I really, really want a jump drive already.

So do you get one eventually?

On the trade point, are you still at the point where you have to physically go on the station to trade? I am nearly certain someone mentioned that software lets you skip that step.

I should put this on on my wishlist. I've rehit X3:AP for two small hits since it came out, because I don't like a lot of the changes they made, but I'd totally hop on to this if it hit $10, and I have no no idea if that's happened and I missed it.

Yonder wrote:

So do you get one eventually?

On the trade point, are you still at the point where you have to physically go on the station to trade? I am nearly certain someone mentioned that software lets you skip that step.

I should put this on on my wishlist. I've rehit X3:AP for two small hits since it came out, because I don't like a lot of the changes they made, but I'd totally hop on to this if it hit $10, and I have no no idea if that's happened and I missed it.

Yep. You can get a jumpdrive and a SETA(!!!) without mods now. It's part of an odd crafting system that they've introduced.

I don't have to go physically into the stations, they've changed this across the board so that you can do most everything remotely (though still in-sector) through menus. Notable exception is to repair/upgrade your ship. I do, however, need to fly right up to a station to get a list of wares which it will buy/sell. And that list is good only for a little while. Hoping some ship software upgrade and/or drone system fixes this later on.

I picked it (and the first DLC) up during a Steam sale for $17. I expect it'll be heavily discounted at least once in the upcoming months' sales, though maybe not in the $10 range.

Well I finished the campaign and, like the campaigns in previous X games, it resolves very little of the 'story' they were telling.

Spoiler:

So we blew up a few Xenon stations and that's good (maybe? unclear what it accomplished) but now the Xenon are all over Albion? This seems like it should be midway through the story rather than the end.

I expect I will put a few more hours into it to explore the rest of the universe and maybe take a crack at real empire building, but it hasn't captured my imagination the way X2 or X3 did.

Math wrote:

Well I finished the campaign and, like the campaigns in previous X games, it resolves very little of the 'story' they were telling.

Spoiler:

So we blew up a few Xenon stations and that's good (maybe? unclear what it accomplished) but now the Xenon are all over Albion? This seems like it should be midway through the story rather than the end.

I expect I will put a few more hours into it to explore the rest of the universe and maybe take a crack at real empire building, but it hasn't captured my imagination the way X2 or X3 did.

Wow, finished huh? Nice.

Just putting this out there again as nobody has taken me up on the offer but I have a sealed physical copy of the game I will give away for free. I can crack it open and send you the cd key which you can type into steam and redeem. And if you really really want the physical copy I will mail it to you.

breander wrote:

Just putting this out there again as nobody has taken me up on the offer but I have a sealed physical copy of the game I will give away for free.

As a last resort... I am a fond collector of games that require more time committed to them than I have available thanks to my 5 month old daughter. *shrug*

Rezzy wrote:
breander wrote:

Just putting this out there again as nobody has taken me up on the offer but I have a sealed physical copy of the game I will give away for free.

As a last resort... I am a fond collector of games that require more time committed to them than I have available thanks to my 5 month old daughter. *shrug*

Since there was no other takers I sent Rezzy the code.

A win by default is still a win! Lucina will love figuring out which part of the keyboard elicits the biggest reaction from daddy when kicked. (at the moment she is kicking the tray away and reaching for the spacebar.)

Thanks!

A couple weeks ago X Rebirth and the two DLCs hit $12 on GoG and I picked it up. I'm going into this eyes wide open about roughly where my expectations should be, and am hoping and expecting to find fun underneath the jank and departure from the rest of the series.

Even with those expectations my first experience was a pretty negative one. The game really needs some TLC at the beginning to get a joystick set up, and then I had to abandon it anyways. Flying with the joystick was fine, it knew when I was giving input or not giving input, until I switched back to the mouse. Every single time I did that it did some sort of permanent drift to my inputs until I switched back to the Joystick.

Unfortunately, almost immediately the game introduces you to the next system that is annoying and needs getting used to: the highways. They aren't anywhere as clean and easy to use as those found in Starpoint Gemini 2, it's pretty easy to get flung out of them, especially right as you first enter them. That can lead to a cycle of you getting annoyed and impatient, not entering as carefully, and getting flung out again.

However, once you start going about them the right way the Highways aren't bad, it's just unfortunate that they don't give you more guidance from the beginning. First of all, the Highways desire to fling you out seems directly based on how quickly you enter it. Don't fly straight at it, fly alongside it angled slightly into it, and strafe your way into it. I would also recommend turning off mouse following as you enter the highway, you really don't want to be pitching around in the highway, gentle strafing is key. Also, you don't have to move around inside the highway, when you see that the highway has a steep turn up ahead it's natural to try to compensate for that turn, you will follow the highway through the turn with no input on your end.

I will say that I really do like how busy the highways are, it really makes the zones feel more lived in.

The game next starts taking you around to a couple stations to show off the walking around, and it does start to get old pretty quickly, and rummaging through unlocked bins for spare change is just weird. However, between a mod, and new features they've added some time in the past (I'm playing v4.3 right now) it's not actually that bad, because you have alternatives! It's just that those alternatives are really not explained to you, luckily I stumbled across them right as I was starting to get aggravated.

So, first the mod, it's ridiculous that you need to mod this given that they've fixed some other annoyances. You have to hire people in Rebirth, smaller (S and M) ships need Pilots, and Large ships need Captains, and should also have Defense Officers and Engineers. Your ship needs some employees at some point as well, and so do Stations. These NPCs have stats that govern how good they are at their jobs, but those stats are hidden. You can talk to them and ask about their skills, and then they will give you a list of question marks for their stats.

Because these people don't have their resumes on them, you instead need to randomly wander the station. At some point one of the NPCs will make one of a half dozen inane statements. This will let you start a ~2 minute "Small Talk" minigame. If you succeed you can ask the NPC to recommend one of the specific job types at the station. This will give you a quest marker to find the NPC quickly, and THEN if you ask them for their skills the numbers will be filled out.

So I need an Engineer, and there are three at the Station. I wait around for 5 minutes before someone starts asking for small talk, I woo them, and ask for their recommendation. Yay, 1 resume down, 2 to go! I wait another three minutes... nothing. So I rage quit and go to google. Thanksfully there is a "Show Me Your Skills" mod, and now everyone has resumes!

For the next step I needed a Defense Officer, so it was time to start the search. In the previous games you select a station and ask for docking, you then got more than a km of landing lights guiding you in to the port. In this game the stations are massive structures with an arbitrary(?) number of different docking locations. There are bars, stock trading stations, little mechanic shield bubbles. So you need to learn to spot those at a distance, then fly towards them, once you get really close you can select them and dock.

So I spent the better part of an hour combing over several station complexes, finding their multiple dock zones, landing, and walking all over the station looking for a Defense Officer. It was not fun. HOWEVER, I then stumbled across an easier way that was added at some point, right before I broke down and installed another mod that used to fix this before they added it to the main game.

With the station selected I randomly clicked on the target screen, and that opened up a menu. That menu had each docking port on it! (Actually, it looks like you can only do this when you have a station docking port selected) I expanded it and I could see all the NPCs in the station! I scrolled through and found a Defense Officer, there was a hire option, with a note that the cost was a bit higher because of "transit fees", so I closed out and instead asked the officer where he was. I got a quest prompt to dock at a specific port, and once I landed I was led exactly to his location.

Later on I got in a fight and got two enemies to eject, but I had only had one Pilot hired for this eventuality. I (again mostly on accident, trying to see if I could order the first pilot to land somewhere and free him up (the answer to that is no, btw)) discovered that I could still call people on a station something like 15 km away. I called up a Pilot and hired him, paying the transit fees. A minute later a little transit pod zipped up to me, docked, and I had my second pilot to send out to my second capture!

So, yeah, so far the game has started out rough, and goodness help those people that played it at launch, but things are looking up.

Really appreciate your efforts, Yonder. I never picked this one up. Maybe one day...

They always had some bizarre design choices in previous X games, but these sound absolutely loopy.