I can at least address the first question:
X3:TC and AP are really good now. They took way longer than X4 will to get into good shape however – in my opinion, an order of magnitude longer. There is a tremendous mod community around the older games which turn them into little masterpieces.
Untrustworthy thoughts about the second question:
X4 seems designed to get the player into all aspects of the game much earlier in a new game cycle than X3.
X4 uses the Rebirth concept of multi-function space stations – and the interface for building stations is a massive improvement.
The flight model of X4 is much improved
auto-trading, when it gets to a better state, will be much easier to implement
outfitting ships is much easier
X4 promises a fully dynamic faction system where each faction is playing the ~same game you are. This is both really awesome and very prone to error, universe fail states
X4 introduces a facility for getting blueprints, missions and other goodies by scanning stations and looking for little “data leak” points – I’m not a huge fan of this, but some are
I’m sure there’s a lot more. These are just some things I can think of right off the bat.
• Improved automatic GPU selection to prioritise discrete GPUs.
• Fixed freeze when saving the game.
• Fixed some causes of freezes when starting the game.
• Fixed cause of a crash after loading savegame.
• Fixed upgrade orders becoming non-functional when loading a savegame.
• Fixed money not being refunded for cancelled upgrades.
• Fixed ships not being claimable from the space suit.
• Fixed a case that could result in AutoTraders sometimes trading at a loss.
• Fixed excessive delay between damage and start of repairs.
• Fixed several other causes of rare crashes.
My feeling is that there is no canonical list and that you’re better off starting with vanilla Terran Conflict or Albion Prelude and figuring out how you want to shape your experience further once you have a handle on the game(s).
The best modding work has been done in total conversion mods, many of which presuppose you have some experience with the base game. The base games are still great. Again, in my opinion.
So I restarted the game and still have not found the main story mission around the starter station. No idea why.
Not only that but I must not be understanding long range scanning. I have scanned about half Black Hole Sun IV and have not found any other stations or any jump gates other than the two with the highways right near the starter station. The scanner appears to be working as I scanned the nearby asteroid field but I’ve been flying all over the system and stopping to scan but can’t find anything else. Am I missing stuff because my ship is aimed too far above of below the ecliptic? I can’t make heads or tails of the X,Y,Z mini map in determining where I am aiming. I watched a video where a guy did one scan and found all kinds of stuff?! Very frustrating.
Oh well, the big Stellaris patch is due out tomorrow so I may put this on the shelf for a while and play that instead.
@Hotfreak and @BrianRubin I hit Shift+3 and then hold R for a second. When I release R I see the pulse go out. I’ve never had even one “Unknown Station” question mark on my map and I’ve scanned more than half of Black Hole Sun IV in a big circle around the started station. I use travel mode to move, drop out of it, do a long range scan, check the map, and then go back into travel mode to fly around some more. I see nothing new on the map.
No worries, on the last bit you do get a great reward but you cannot use that final reward (I dont want to spoil it) until you have at least $750K credits to spend.
My advice is to forget it for now and go find your way to the highway loop and start making some money from the missions you will see there as you cruise around. A few repair missions will bring you in $150K a pop then you can buy a new trade ship/miner with a captain to start making you passive income. Then explore at your own pace as the money rolls in.
When you have some money you can get back to the main mission. It really can wait.
Yeah man. I can post a map later but just sit on the looping highway and watch the map. Just ride around with “Job offers” open on the map and pick the one you like as they roll in.
Pick Station & Satellite repair jobs. They pay usually around ~$100K-200K. Then leave the highway go repair the sat and you are cool.
Making trade ships and automating them is easy. Click on any Wharf on the map (I use the one in Profit center as it sells the biggest capacity trade ships, but these are also the slowest). Order your ship remotely. Design your ship (I skip weapons). Then wait a min for it to build.
Then select your new ship after its built and give it the order “Trade in Galaxy”. I use "owned property"on the left of the map to select my ships. Easier than clicking on map icons.
You are now done and it will start trading. Mining is slightly more complex but just as easy to set up.
Finally IF you pick my suggested wharf & ship click on your new trading ship and change its default behavior also under orders (which will now say “AutoTrading” and change its behaviour for Pirate to “Comply” from “Attack”. Those ships cannot outrun a pirate and I give them no guns so I just lose the cargo. Its rare and keeps my ships safe.
If needed I can throw some screenshots up later on how to do all this.
How would you say this game would fare for an X series newbie at this point?
I really enjoy building, economy, and management in games. The feedback loop of work, make money, buy bigger and better stuff is very satisfying to me.
I’ve got $40 burning a hole in my (steam) wallet but I’m not sure if I should wait for patches or hop right in.
I had trouble getting into X3 back in the day and I don’t think I played it very much. I have been having a blast with X4 and I found it a lot easier to pick up than I thought. I’m only about 5 hours in but I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of the game mechanics. The bugs are there, though. Weird stuff like suddenly not being able to fire or accelerate, then I go into the menu and when I exit back to the game the controls are back. That kind of stuff normally gets on my nerves, but I’m rolling my eyes, and pressing on because the game is so fun.
So I am finding it quite easy to get into, that being said I have watched a number of YouTube tutorial videos so those helped out.
