Just curious, Bateau, are you a fan of the previous X games as well, or is this the first one you’ve gotten into?
Just wait until you see proper capital ship combat. If you enjoyed BSG 2003, you’re in for a treat. ;)
So, ship layouts. It depends on your play style. Always use the higher mk you can, but between the types, focus on the one that adapts better to how you play. Just remember that boosting draws from shields, so take that into consideration.
All weapon types have their uses. Make sure you have one that is cheap on energy use. Other than that, again, their particular characteristics depend on how you play the game.
As for drones, I barely used them, and I don’t remember particulars about them right now. I remember having a couple shield drones for support and a few fighter drones mainly to provide new targets for enemies if I ever got in a tight spot. Other than that, I didn’t use them all that much.
First one. I own the entire series on Steam because a friend tried to get me into Reunion multiple times but I could never do it. I will definitely have to revisit Albion Prelude after X:R and see if I’m more open to it.
X:R has its charms, but Albion Prelude is a true classic for me. Deploying a fully armed M7M in that game is one of the single most memorable moments in gaming ever for me, and well worth the 100+ hours I played to get to that point. It’s an amazing game.
The campaign is a mess. PMC is in every sector, they’re hostile to me but I can’t really defend myself against them because it seems to decrease my relations with the neighboring stations. Decided to stop at the part where I’m supposed to hack something with the Trojan ROV, which I can’t because even if I park my ship 25km from the station and slowboat the drone all the way there the PMC patrols will still come and blow up my ship.
So I started a Free Play with the Verge Explorer start and I’m completely lost lol. Blowing up Xenon is so much fun though.
Small update - probably ‘played’ the free play for 15-20h. Some of it was spent afking/slowboating in Torrid (before I got SETA) which doesn’t have any highways. Couple random thoughts:
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game is massive. It cannot be overstated how big the universe feels. Zones, sectors, systems - I frequently have to consult my map just to figure out where I am.
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dogfighting is truly great. I haven’t played all that many space games but in those that I have I always got the impression that combat was more like jousting rather than proper dogfighting. I think the relatively low speed (250-300ms when not boosting) as well as great maneuverability provided by Sidewinder engines make for really reasonable parameters that allow you to get behind enemy ships with little effort. On the other hand, having good thruster maneuverability is essential when you get swarmed so combat isn’t too simple either. I’m playing on normal and I’m finding the challenge sufficient, but I might go up in difficulty once I upgrade my weapons to mk3.
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Hunting for weapon mods is very fun. I’m mostly using a Particle Repeater mk2 with a mod that extends its effective range by ~30% (through speed and projectile lifetime) as well as increase fire rate by 250% (!!). This makes it a great close combat weapon but I really have to be careful with pulsing to avoid overheating.
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QoL mods are essential. I installed Fly-by-InfoScan, Fly-by-subscribe (places trade agent in a station automatcally), Fly-by-looting, Fly-by-lockboxes, Secret cargo space (to avoid getting scanned by the police), Fly-by-repair (spends ship wreck items to repair fighters in your vicinity) and Improved Object Menu. Can’t imagine playing without them right now.
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No real purpose. Maybe I just haven’t found any yet but it seems like factions are pretty happy to go about their business. I’m thinking of installing some conquest or event driven mods but I’m having trouble figuring out which one to go with.
That’s all for now. I’m having tons of fun with the game, way more than I thought I would. I actually wanted to try out Battletech but X:R keeps pulling me back. I’m looking forward to future modding efforts as well as getting into station and empire building. In the mean time I’m looking into buying some combat capital ships so I can make easier work of tackling bigger targets - right now I can take them on with my mk3 Plasma Accelerator but it can get dicey, some are equipped with pulse lasers that rip through my shields in an instant.
I’m really glad to hear all that. Have you tried building space stations yet? That is a X loop that usually is the first step in turning the awesome up to eleven. ;)
Nope not yet. I don’t even know where to begin to be honest - for example, how to decide which type of station to build and where. I’m assuming I’d have to look at the map of natural resources or component suppliers with good prices and then go from there.
Can I build stations with templates or do I have to link subsections manually, as well as place all defenses on them?
The final part of the campaign guides the player into acquiring, deploying and managing a station. If you don’t plan to go there (and you stopped in what is indeed the worst part of the campaign - it gets vastly better later), you might have to check a wiki or videos showing the basics. The hint I can give is: location, location, location. ;)
You build them with templates, yes, and you can’t place them anywhere in a sector - you usually have a choice between many fixed spots in each sector. Instead of connecting stations with tubes like in X3, you buy the base station and you connect modules as needed. If you assign freighters and officers to the station, it will run pretty well on its own if you need.
As for defenses… you can build some defenses (turrets, etc) on the stations themselves, but you can also assign fighters to them for defense.
Are you playing with gamepad or M/K?
KBM, but I think the game plays just fine with a pad. Autoaim on weapons is pretty generous.
I played some of Rebirth, but I find those space tunnels incredibly annoying.
KBM for me is the ideal way to play the game, actually.
Finally got all the ‘endgame’ equipment together, including a mk3 plasma repeater. 55k dps at 3.5km when modded, it’s excellent for dogfighting and remains my favorite weapon. I’ve been slowly adding mods, they all seem to be savegame compatible (meaning no new start required) and really improve the game:
Fly-by-Subscribe https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=635986498
Fly-by-InfoScan https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=640489299
Fly-by-Repair https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=639263736
Secret Stash https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=841932610
Exploration Light https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=408459548
Craft Jump Drive Coolant https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1279300231
AutoCrew https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=604564648
AutoTrain https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=608100530
Capital Ship Bridge https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=677706220
Faster Player Missiles https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410473094
I’ve also bought a few trading capital ships to do my bidding for me (god bless whoever put in Trade Deals menu) and once I get some more funds I’ll try my hand at stations bulding. After that I’ll probably install CWIR and start over with my newfound knowledge.
I’ve also had an epic shootout last night in the first Teladi zone - I accepted 5 combat missions at once and got 3 waves of pirates + 2 waves of Xenon - I spent a solid 20 minutes just blasting everything, mostly fighters. I might have to up the difficulty for real now because I read somewhere that it adds extra ships to each wave (as well as give them more dmg) and more ships equals more fun.
Just bought a fully decked out Tanaris on a whim. First of all - docking on your capital ship and telling the commander to jump you somewhere else and being able to see the jump from the bridge is amazing. Second, seeing how this ship takes on enemy capitals made me squeal with joy and excitement. I’ve never experienced anything like this in a game before.
Told ya! There’s a moment like that in the campaign. It’s awesome indeed.
Sounds like the game has improved a lot since I played 1.0, and those mods in particular sound like they would have gone a long way to help ease the pain. I’m going to have to get the fortitude to install the game again, but after coming off of probably my all-time best space sim experience with X3: Terran Conflict, X:R was crushingly disappointing. I might not be able to get over that negative inertia. :)
I’ve been thinking of trying Albion Prelude as well. What are the major differences between them anyway? Can you target individual ship parts in X3? Are there drones?
Very different games in many ways. No targeting individual ship parts, at least not in the way Rebirth does it. And no drones in the way Rebirth does it. But there’s a LOT of other things that Rebirth lacks.
And as I said: seeing a fully loaded M7M in action in Albion Prelude is an unforgettable experience. But it takes a lot of effort to get there. ;)
…partially because M7M’s break the game. (Or at least they did in TC.) (Though they’re still the only reasonable way to do boarding.)
But they are awesome and you should get them!