Requesting your opinions...

[The Juggling Hamster]

I've put 11 hours into X: BTF and I'm beginning to wonder if I should just skip this game...

From Wikipedia
X: Beyond The Frontier (1999)
X-Tension (2000)
X^2: The Threat (2003)
X^3: Reunion (2005)
X^3: Terrion Conflict (2008)
X^3: Albion Prelude (2011)
X Rebirth (2013)

I own all of the games except X Rebirth, and wondring if I should not bother with BTF...does it get better? I've traded till I have about 7000 credits and my ship has the J-speed ability, and the horrible navigation map...

Today I put several hours into BTF again and well its mostly because I'm torn with whether or not I should buy the Elite Dangerous beta, or buy the release of it in December.

Maybe these X games are yet another game on Steam that I shouldn't bother with even though I own them....

I always joke around with people saying that for me to ever get around to all of the games I own on Steam I'd need to clone myself many times over.

Oh well just laying out the information there for ya people... please tell me your opinions and I really appreciate your time.

[Chew Ass and Kick Bubblegum]

It's a great game, but you are really starting with nothing. No guns, no shields, nothing. No upgrades, you are completly worthless.
So it's very rough. But once you get good weaponry and shielding, a few stations, it's fun and the plot is enjoyable.

X Rebirth is the newest game of the X series, some people bash it and hate on it - but after opening their profiles, you clearly see that they don't have any playtime on the game, and never bothered to check out the new updates. Yes, the game was updated a lot, since release, almost a 180° spin, with improved performance, clearing of bugs, and improvements in ALL areas of gameplay.

[The Juggling Hamster]

I'll probably wind up purchasing X Rebirth when its on a good sale.

Still trying whether or not to skip BTF and move on to the more modern games.

[Ealadin]

I bought the X Super pack and played around wiht the game here or there. So far it is still trading to get upgrades. Of what I have read it does get better, but I do enjoy the newer X:Rebirth right off the bat since you really start playing in the universe instead of spending at least 20 hours trading in the first areas. I finally reached 10000 creds and still not done buying the starting stuff. So far of what I have seen of X: rebirth it is neat, and a lot easier to play than the original. I would buy the new one if you like space flight games.

[Chew Ass and Kick Bubblegum]

Played X:BtF throughout this weekend, currently got about 22 000 credits, a navigation system and SETA.
Once you have 5000 credits, you can trade beta IRE from the factory in Seizewell and sell them at equipment for higher price.
Then once you have more money (13 000, roughly) you can go to WEST, then SOUTH from Seizewell and buy Particle Accelerators for low, then go NORTH and NORTH and sell them at the equipment dock. Rinse and repeat.
Also, Ore is extremly profitable. Totally. Buy some ore, then fly around sectors, checking all weapon fabs, they usually buy a lot of it.

Be warned however, if you leave the Teladi territory, they will turn hostile to you. Don't do that!

Here's a map, very helpful. It won't break your game, don't worry:
http://www.nappefugl.dk/index/grafik/newgifmap.gif

There's a pirate base in Company Pride, near the North gate, where you can sell weed, spaceflies, sunflowers, and booze, and you can buy some equipment for your ship AND increase steering power and thruster speed! Useful, but costs lots of coins.

Watch out for the xenons however. They are quite slow, fortunately, and will only attack you if you disturb them OR there are no other freighters to attack nearby...
Also avoid all neutral fighters if you are carrying weed, space booze or spaceflies.

[Chew Ass and Kick Bubblegum]

Built an Ore mine in Seizewell, bought one Vulture for it, gave the station 15 000 credits, then set the selling price for Ore at 120 credits, and buying price of e-cells at 20 credits.
Then I pressed J to accelerate time, and went AFK for two hours.

When I returned, I had 50 000 credits.
GG


Probably should built more of them, but each one at territory of different race.

[kurashima]

Ive played this repeatedly since its initial launch. To be honest, it was a far better spiritual successor to Elite than most of the clones since. The sequels are worth playing in order, but what i enjoyed most about XBTF was the difficulty mode was pretty unforgiving, which makes it feel so much more rewarding to complete the missions and get the trading up and running.

Yes, keep playing. Its hard, but fair, and fun, and once you get better weaponry and things like the SETA drive, it's a lot less stressful.

[Chew Ass and Kick Bubblegum]

Ore mine in Seizewell with one Vulture and 5000 credits.
Wheat farm in Argon Prime, with one Lifter and 5000 credits.
=money farm.

Always set up lower selling price (at 1/3 of the price) and the buying price higher (at 2/3 of the price).

Also, don't bother with weaponry.
Get yourself a 1 MW shield, but you don't need anymore until end of the plot. It saves money.

[Chew Ass and Kick Bubblegum]

Got 700 000 credits, 2x High-energy plasma thrower BETA on my ship, Ore Mine (Seizewell) and Wheat Farm (Argon prime).
Going to Split and Paranid space to befriend them, and buy 25 MW shields for my ship.

[mog_soarwitheagles]

I have first played a bit of x rebirth which i own and now i have decided to go to the game that started them all because i wanted to see the beginning of the story lol. Very curious that i feel the devs fashioned x rebirth after their very first game in alot of ways. Especially only one ship to fly. just my thoughts so far

[Ceriden]

Just deleted it. After three hours I couldn't get into it. It's one of those cases where the game was the product of the time and I can't make that leap. Will check out the games later in the series though. I'm not giving up entirely.

[Purplefairy22]

Thats a shame. it is a good game. i'm currently doing X2 atm. (gonna play in order)
Playing the previous titles aleaviates alot of the learning curve for each iteration of the series.

[mltnschroeder]

I also almost quit after a few hours of play, because the trading was just too repetetive. But I stuck with it and later realized I had started all wrong. My advice:

Absolute #1 PRIORITY at start: sell your 1 MW shield and buy the Singularity Drive at the trading station (activate it with J-key during travel), then build a solar plant in the center of Greater Profit system as soon as you have about 8500 creds (you need to hire the heavy freighter to haul it to the system directly south of Seizewell) and set the sell price to 8... massive money cow that spews cash if you keep it supplied with crystals from the Crystal Fab located there. Then buy your basic upgrades. With all that cash, you can basically stop the "trading" phase of the game completely if you want.

Check out the fan-made pdf maps of the different systems available on the internet (there is a link in the "Getting Started" guide here on Steam. Since this game is in many ways a sandbox, check out the "Walkthroughs" as they are much more of an info-lexicon than a spoiler guide. Very helpful for strategic planning of what to build and where to go.

Once you have a mineral scanner, build a Silicon Mine on a 26'er asteroid near the Shipyard in Seizewell with 1 freighter set to sell at 350, and later a Chip Plant with 3 freighters and about 100k seed cash set to sell at 7100 (set the buy prices to whatever it takes to keep the system range between 0-1). Then go explore the universe and every time you come back to Seizewell there will be between 300k-1M creds waiting for you (depending on how long you were away). Once I knew where to buy one, I also set up a BoGas refinery in Seizewell that ended up being very profitable.

I found that 3 engine boosts (available at the pirate bases) and 2x 5 MW Shields were fine for just flying around and exploring. Once you want to engage in combat with the Xenon, you will need 2x 25MW shields and the best Particle Throwers you can afford.

Once you are sick of making more money than you can spend, for the end-game quests read the walkthrough txt file that came with the game to know where to go look for it (no point in exploring the whole galaxy just to find 1 quest arc imo).

Remember, once you have cash to burn, you can hire fighters at your factories, then talk to their pilots and tell them to escort YOU instead. So you can fly around with a small fleet of fighter escorts if you like :)

[Chew Ass and Kick Bubblegum]

Also, ore mine in Seizewell and Wheat farm in Argon prime.
Each one of them with 20k budget and one freighter.