Thanks for the responses. Sounds like I should haul the game out and give it another shot. Though, it’s been so long that I might as well start over. From the tutorial. :)
Remember to use the 2nd mission trick of dumping the 25MW shields before you speak to Elena Kho. Then pick them up in the freighter she gives you and sell them for 400,000 credits. That should start you off nicely and allow you to upgrade your fighter and purchase a new mint condition freighter and do some trading.
Don’t bother repairing the 2nd hand freighter they give you as it will cost you more than buying a new one.
Oooh, sneaky! I will do that. :twisted:
Some news updates for X2 The Threat.
In a nutshell they have cancelled the “X2 : The Return” expansion pack and have instead decided to release it as a full game “X3 : Reunion” in Q3 2005.
Notably the X series is also going multiplatform and making the transition to next-gen consoles.
If they speed the ships up a little then yay! I really wanted to enjoy X2… but wow it was really fucking boring floating along doing not much.
Notably the X series is also going multiplatform and making the transition to next-gen consoles.
Well, I’m really curious about how that’s going to work out. First of all, X is quite a niche series. Secondly, it wouldn’t be the first time for a German/Austrian company to talk about console versions without any real follow-up. Xbox port of Gothic II, anyone?
-Julian
Wow, I don’t see what’s so good about this game. Please, anyone tell me. I loved the X-Wing, TIE Fighter series, the I-War series, and even though Freelancer was decent.
But then I played X2. Not only did my joystick not work in the beginning (and they had to patch it? wtf?) but the AI is stupid, the ships all turn at the same rate, the character animation looks like crap (man, is it so hard to make fists out of their hands?) and the interface is pretty crappy (have they never heard of using a MOUSE?).
Then again, X3 might be good, but I really doubt it.
Then again, X3 might be good
If you didn’t like X2 it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to get a kick out of X3. As Sean said, it’s basically a beefed-up version of X2, including the expansion and some other news. Not a dramatic overhaul though.
Probably similar to The Patrician II Gold, which was marketed as The Patrician III in the English regions, IIRC.
-Julian
Considering how spreadsheety it is, this is the thing that makes me put the CD back in the case everytime I take it out and start to ponder…
I don’t know, seems like a fairly dramatic overhaul to me. This is the first time in the X series that the economy has been seriously reworked, the sectors will be different sizes/shapes, which is a major departure and the interface completely redesigned. I’m sure it will still be an “X” game, though. :)
@Igor, most of the games you mentioned are primarily mission-based combat simulators - what if you want something open-ended? Build a trade empire?
As for the mouse, it’s an unfortunate limitation but they largely carried over the previous work from X:BtF etc. I’m not sure of the details but Egosoft had something like 5 full-time staff - a lot of work comes from the community. They are getting bigger but they’re nothing like the size of most development teams.
I’m thrilled about X3. I really enjoyed X2 a lot.
Bah, I still have to get motivated enough to go beyond the first mission of X2. Put me in with the group that thinks that the following is crap: awkward interface (how many keys do you have to press to dock?), no mouse, non-configurable keys and lousy animation.
I try to go back to it but then it feels like I have to spend time to relearn how to play it. There’s a lot to be said for intuitive interfaces.
Oh, but I love open endedness… some of my favorite genres are turn-based games (X-COM series) and 4X games (Master of Orion, Ascendancy, etc)… I also played Space Trader (which is kind of a 2d Elite) and Elite and I loved those immensely (plus isn’t Freelancer kind of like a modern, dumbed-down Elite?).
The problem is both the open-endedness and the campaign from X2 seem half-baked. It’s like they said “we are going to do X, Y, Z” and then don’t bother to go through QA.
Let’s look at their time accelerator… great idea, but why does it turn off when you go through a warp gate? It should only turn off once I arrive to my destination! Bah!
Once you get an “Empire,” the interface is really unhelpful in controlling it. You’d expect something more resembling of a strategy game by that point instead of what we have in X2.
As for the mouse, it’s an unfortunate limitation but they largely carried over the previous work from X:BtF etc. I’m not sure of the details but Egosoft had something like 5 full-time staff - a lot of work comes from the community. They are getting bigger but they’re nothing like the size of most development teams.
If they are going to be charging the $50 AAA price, I just think they should have AAA quality. Otherwise they should lower the price like other indie developers do. I’m not aware of the price of X2 now, but the first day it was available it was $50 at my EBX.
That’s pretty much what happened to me, except I managed to play it for longer than that. When I got Independence War 2 on the other hand I couldn’t stop playing it until late into the night.
Just goes to show. It’s important for the beginning not to bore you away ;).
I got enough hours of enjoyment out of X2 to more-or-less look forward to X3.
I for damn sure won’t be getting it on release, though–it’s going to wait at least four months for them to patch it.
Fair enough…I was just going by the original games listed (have a look for a developer called Black Sky doing a Space Trader game BTW). If you want a current 3D space trader, X2 is the most advanced choice going. I’m not quite sure what you mean by the QA thing - I never had any problems worth mentioning. :)
Once you get an “Empire,” the interface is really unhelpful in controlling it. You’d expect something more resembling of a strategy game by that point instead of what we have in X2.
I agree the interface was pretty ordinary but it was efficient once you got used to the keystrokes. For example, Peter Frazier asked how many keystrokes you had to go through to dock…the answer is target the station you want and press “CTRL+D”…doesn’t seem so bad to me…
If they are going to be charging the $50 AAA price, I just think they should have AAA quality. Otherwise they should lower the price like other indie developers do. I’m not aware of the price of X2 now, but the first day it was available it was $50 at my EBX.
I hear what you are saying but I don’t really agree. I doubt anyone would criticise the price point of Freelancer but being an Elite-wannabe without a dynamic economy (all item prices are always fixed) seems pretty useless, absolutely zero joystick support at all bla bla, so I’d expect a discount on that. I’m sure X2 doesn’t represent value to everyone but being one of the only modern space traders with easily the best graphics going around and more options than any other game means they can ask full price IMO.
I thought it was pretty cheap down here but I might be misremembering.
I agree the interface was pretty ordinary but it was efficient once you got used to the keystrokes. For example, Peter Frazier asked how many keystrokes you had to go through to dock…the answer is target the station you want and press “CTRL+D”…doesn’t seem so bad to me…
I don’t think there were any problems with controlling your own ship - The interface could become unwieldy when controlling your trade empire in different sectors, or telling other ships you own to meet you at a certain location.
Quoth the manual ‘From your cockpit, pressing SC11 in sequence will tell your ship to dock at the target’ (depends on installed software upgrades).
Seems to be more than CTRL+D to me.
^Correct…or CRTL+D to just autodock a targeted station. Give it a try. :)
Edit: my comment wasn’t any sort of criticism aimed at you; just a comment that while some nice mouse-driven menu would be welcome once you find your way around, the keyboard shortcuts are pretty efficient.
Not sure if this is worth bringing back a thread, but it seems like X2 is making it’s way to the Mac this summer. I have to admit that I’m pretty surprised but glad to see a little variety coming to the platform. Curious to see how it runs on the G5s.