X-TRA POLLS Round #2 | Which phase do you enjoy the most in X4: Foundations?

[Tamina]

It may not fit in a traditional 4X game, but X4 fills the niche of the player being a part / a citizen of the universe. Or the other way around, it is a first person game but unlike GTA, the entire world around you actually lives and has a purpose.
And IMO that makes X4 so appealing.

Egosoft definitely concentrated their efforts making X4 a 4X game. Every update, feature and DLC was end-game orientated. However the endgame plays solely on the sparse map and some excel sheets, while all the graphical content happens to be in the early game gameplay.

[jojorne]

I agree with you. And yes, the sandbox and real sim aspect makes X4 unique interesting.

If I remember correctly, CEO Bernd once said that Dynamic politics like in X3 FL does not apply to X4. Maybe X5 but he did not confirm.

The spreadsheet aspect of the end game isn't something a lot of people appreciate. Maybe not even me. And maybe is influencing votes for the early and mid game.

But the efforts in the 4X aspect are making the game more and more fun. Maybe we will never have an X4 in the traditional sense of 4X but we will have something interesting for the end game. Many are already enjoying "Crisis" from 7.0.

[waadaa85]

Early game is fun and exciting! Often alone in your single ship, not equipped as it should be; exploring and searching ways to make some money in order to gear up enough so you can better survive the next encounter.

imho, the PHQ is introduced a bit early. Or maybe BosoTa's initial communication should not be available on the first stations the player is visiting?

[Nanook]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Avd7Eipd9F0

Watched twice, didn't see '4X' mentioned once.

Sandbox with all the 4x elements to be precisely, yes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... 20dynamics..

I don't see a single X-Universe game anywhere in those lists.

So I guess I don't get your point.

However, if you don't like the early game, you can make your own '4X' version by using the Custom Creative starts and setting the game up how you wish. Give yourself the HQ, with or without trimmings, and just sit in your Personal Office chair and run your empire. No need to do all those 'non-4Xie things' such as flying ships and talking to NPC's.

BTW, the last X in 4X stands for Xterminate, something that you probably don't want to do since it leaves your game world empty and you don't get a 'You Win' screen at the 'end'.

[Mr.Killer]

Whilst voting for the last, I still wonder how it is possible for a race to exist if every corner of the known universe is cleared of this enemy and yet it is able to build and have ships pop-up out of knowwhere, eithout any hassel, building equipment like a buildership and .... shall not go on, you kno what I mean.

Did last version with cheat to wipe Vigor Syndicate clean off the map, but like weed, it keeps coming back.

Actually, the real challenge is to get a good foothold in the game, from start towards mid and finally the last. But I read here also that the last stage is boring.... or is it?

[wilsonlaizo]

The early-early game is usually a chore, to get the first million credit is usually a bothersome task. Not having Teleportation, even the basic one, and SETA really makes you lose a lot of time.
Mid game, where you are finding the places, you want to build, what you want to do and what strategies to make is where the game shines.
Later parts of the game, or end-game for that matters, is really boring as you are not faced with any challenges after you get your shipyard running. Money becomes pointless and most stuff is basically just a matter of time.
To make it more fair for other factions, maybe some sort of caps should be imposed, like, number of ships you are allowed to have, factions becoming wary of you as you grow in power and becomes a faction yourself, that kind of thing.

[JoeVN09]

There are so many ways the early game can look. You can put yourself in the shoes of a trader, prospector, explorer, mercenary, pirate or trade guild dogsbody, and that time is dangerous and unpredictable. I do love, though, that phase where all those efforts start to snowball into real progress and you start seeing meaningful impacts on the universe around you. There's no feeling in the game quite like standing on the deck of your first full-on factory complex and watching a fleet of transports blazoned with your own emblem come and go.

[Tamina]

The early-early game is usually a chore, to get the first million credit is usually a bothersome task. Not having Teleportation, even the basic one, and SETA really makes you lose a lot of time.

That is a good point. Honestly, getting the HQ and teleportation up and running is what I dislike(d) the most in the game - even as an early-game advocate. On the one hand, thanks to custom gamestarts we can skip that part now but on the other hand that means owning a station from the get go and sitting there in my property list.. menacingly!!

[chew-ie]

@Tamina Yeah - options like...

"would you like to transfer Boso Ta and the science department to a capital ship?" (yes|no)
"would you like to transfer Dal to the same room like Boso Ta?" (yes|no|oh yes)
"would you like to activate self destruct" (yes|no)

would be awesome for a running game...

And of course the "swap HQ for a science vessel" in custom game starts.

True nomad life!

[wilsonlaizo]

That is a good point. Honestly, getting the HQ and teleportation up and running is what I dislike(d) the most in the game - even as an early-game advocate. On the one hand, thanks to custom gamestarts we can skip that part now but on the other hand that means owning a station from the get go and sitting there in my property list.. menacingly!!

Yep, I also started to only use Custom Starts as well. Wanted to try the Boron start to test out 7.0, but it's sooo boring to get everything up and running. I think at least the Teleport 1 should be in the base game, or at least, it should be given to you after you finish some initial quest.

And in the Boron start it makes even less sense, supposedly Boso Ta just finished teleporting the HQ from Grand Exchange to Heretics End, but now I need to research Teleportation all over again?

A good way to introduce the Teleportation would be for it be given to you when you finish the quest for that PIO ship doing research that you need to give 10 Antimatter Cells. And then it would be ok to research it to improve the range later, but maybe doing quests, instead of just gathering materials.

[Socratatus]

For me, early... then gradually to mid. Early for me, the struggle and overcoming is the best.

Still haven't got to the endgame.

I prefer the small adventurer 'grunt plodder' mode with a pretty lady companion co-pilot to keep me company (and a few Freighters for cash around) type of struggling start. By midgame and the build up of fleets, etc, it becomes less personal and I start to get bored. I'm not really one for creatimg a huge empire and ruling the universe from the office.

That said, I still like the whole business model, open world, do-whatever mechanic that lets me play as I wish... and I'll probably take to the desk at some point.

[Arisaya]

I like late midgame the most - before I have a big empire due to having displaced the xenon, but after I have my own shipyard, when I'm able to take the fight to the xenon - and I would like lategame a lot more but mainly it falls short because the xenon just.. don't ramp up or fight back intelligently as they get smaller - they build up huge fleets and then just sit on them in a bad attempt at turtling. I wish custom start would scale to the point where I could actually own a small shipyard and have enough funds to just go buy the asgard & asgard beam once I get the terrans friendly enough because earning enough money for that takes a while. I do like that I can at least start out with some highly profitable stations to try to speedrun it asap though.
It looks like the 7.0 beta is... kinda fixing the xenon strategic/economy logic, because I do see them expanding (as in, actually building stations in unowned sectors that I deliberately left unowned and unguarded for them), but they dont use their fleets offensively enough, there are so many Is and Ks sitting around in the same system just patrolling it instead of trying to take territory. I really wish the crisis was much more like the xenon 'waking up' and saying 'I was only using 1% of my true power' with some new high-resource sectors, more aggressive strategic AI, unlocked job caps, longer-ranged anti-turret weapons (doubled range seismic cannon?), the addition of piers to their station, and using the H in economy roles to augment the SE which is vulnerable to the kha'ak anti-mining mechanics since that impacts everyone.

Early game for me is very been-there-done-that, I either speedrun it or just do budgeted custom start these days.

[rudi_pioneer]

I think I'd enjoy 'end game' more if we had better or funner options:

- diplomacy: influence other faction relations between each other, subterfuge, economy and expansion nudges
- disassemble for blueprint: quest for all knowledge
- donate assets to factions outside quests

[Loltak]

Hi,
Once again I hesitate between 2 options, early game or mid game. In the final I chose mid game. My vote is partially bias as I can't vote for late game as I never reach it in X-Foundations.

Since the initial launch I intentionally only started two games, and even if I can't recall when I started over I think there current one is "old", before DLC 1 perhaps.
That mean that my early game was always embed with the discovery of the game itself. I really like discovering the game play loops, new sectors and their content, starting new quest line. But when you've done that at least two time it's less important.

What I like in the mid game is that you start to have sufficient resources to do this or that with no major struggle. The game give you options and you can do them but not roll over it, yet.
For the moment, I have started the whole story but I stopped where it is mainly necessary to deliver fleets, which I cannot do without cutting too much my resources.
I have only three station but have around 200k millions so I can build more, and a small trading/mining fleet along size two small military fleet.

A side note concerning the HQ, perhaps it's because I've unlocked early in the game life with less constraint, I feel it is too easy to achieve the teleportation but yeah I know that for some player it's fine like this

[donzi]

I picked early game because one of my favorite genres of games is survival and the progression.

However.. I have been a management sim fan since the dawn of such games. Then again, having been a computer game addict since the TRS-80 model 1 and onward.. I love the 'God' games also. So in reality I like all stages of X4 in theory... because I have not actually gotten to late game so far in the 1200+ hours I've clocked. lol

[TheDeliveryMan]

I voted early game, although it actually is more like the phase between early and mid game, building up stations and exploring the gate network. Unfortunately, I reach the mid game as defined by this poll within a couple of hours. Knowing all the low hanging fruits (abondened ships, easy plot rewards) really spoils my game.

Playing 7.00 for the first time was a nice change of pace. Finding previuosly inactive gates now active and finding out where they lead. Spend an hour in

Spoiler

Show

Freedom's Reach

and quite some time mapping the

Spoiler

Show

pirate alley

.

Often I get bored by the time I can build my own ships. Then I stop playing for a while and start a new playthrough after the break. I've never terraformed a planet and never completed the Paranid or Split plots.

I wish the game had some random gate connections to remote sectors and alternate routes to known locations, so the gate network would be a little bit different each playthough.

[SparvieroGed]

Early-Mid game.
I'm not a huge fan of the strategic aspect of X4: it certainly has its merits, but I usually prefer to turn to other games when it comes to conquering the galaxy.

For me, the X series is primarily a space sim, and what I look for in the game is the sensation of living in a parallel universe where I've passed the exam for the spaceship driver's license.
So, the most important aspects of the game for me are the immersive factors. The plots, the lore, the real economy, being able to "roleplay" as a galactic trucker, etc.

In future Egosoft games, I'd like to see more attention given to the details of individual ships: crew, subsystems, living spaces. Something that really makes me feel at home on my favorite ship. I hope AI technology is utilized to create a greater number of NPCs with realistic dialogue, not necessarily tied to a plot but generally to "living in the universe".

[alt3rn1ty]

I prefer the small adventurer 'grunt plodder' mode with a pretty lady companion co-pilot to keep me company (and a few Freighters for cash around) type of struggling start. By midgame and the build up of fleets, etc, it becomes less personal and I start to get bored. I'm not really one for creatimg a huge empire and ruling the universe from the office.

I'm missing this too.

Saya ko, and the mafia like pirate missions from previous X games, those left an empty place in my heart that X4 missions has not replaced.

Despite me lamenting FPS improvements on lesser machines than Egosoft anticipate will be viable in the future for a good playthrough of X4, my biggest lament is the mission content.

There is no heart in any of the X4 missions. Maybe a bit in the Yaki plot, but not so much pull on the heartstrings as previous X games, because the Yaki plot is a bit of a let down how it ends.

X4 needs more heart.