Is it possible to enjoy this game "solo"?

[KneeKo]

To clarify, this will potentially be my first time playing this game.

Is this one of those RPG games, or is this essentially a colony/fleet sim game? Thanks in advance for the answers.

[conrado.lacerda]

You can do either or anything else in between, there's a lot of freedom in choosing how to play this game.

[Keldar]

X4 and each DLC has it's own little" Main Plot" . Which you can do, or choose to ignore. Beside that, this is more a Sandbox game then anything else. Fly around and kill stuff, Trade, or build up your Fleet and Concquer Sectors or build Stations and swim in credits. It's up to you.

As far as i know, nothing is hidden behind a quest or similar. You can do quest or grind fame via trading ( Fame for shiplicence ect. )

[mcb0ny]

This game is not really balanced toward "one ship vs the universe" gameplay. But if you insist on playing it like that, nothing stops you ;]

[PeaceMaker]

Originally posted by Havoc:

To clarify, this will potentially be my first time playing this game.

Is this one of those RPG games, or is this essentially a colony/fleet sim game? Thanks in advance for the answers.

Yea, I play this game solo A LOT. I do the jobbing Mercenary thing.

I only got the NPC co-pilot cos I need him so I can space walk (some jobs need you to) and sometimes take over while I'm busy. In fact I recommend also getting a second fighter or maybe Freighter and have a pilot in that, just in case so he can rescue you if you get blown out of your ship.

But you can play it completely solo.

Just remember, it can be a long, somewhat boring journey of not much money. I just wish my NPC co-pilot had more life.

[Graufang]

Originally posted by Keldar:

X4 and each DLC has it's own little" Main Plot" . Which you can do, or choose to ignore. Beside that, this is more a Sandbox game then anything else. Fly around and kill stuff, Trade, or build up your Fleet and Concquer Sectors or build Stations and swim in credits. It's up to you.

As far as i know, nothing is hidden behind a quest or similar. You can do quest or grind fame via trading ( Fame for shiplicence ect. )

What about the Headquarters? Can you get it without doing the associated questline? And somewhere I read that this "main quest" depends on the Hatikvah quest.
I'm fairly new to the game myself and would be happy to know if I have to do a quest or can ignore them without losing the chance to get the HQ.

[mmikeyy]

A lot of people seem to enjoy the game but I don't know what proportion play solo. I play solo and after over 90 hours of play time, I'm still struggling. The tutorials are more or less useless. And broken. One set of tutorials tells you that your ships and stations appear in green on the map and a creature tells you to teleport to one of them. You do so. You're told to explore your station. And you're left there, the creature never giving another sign of life. Other tutorials tell you that you need to own more ships to do them. OK, but how do I get more ships? No clue is given. You then decide to just play and take missions and see what happens. You find out that in the game, you're a woman. NPC's call you M'am. And you can't change that. A mission tells you to navigate to a sector. But good luck finding that sector. You're basically blind. And you just fly in random directions hoping to bump into a portal eventually. And your ship is so slow it takes long minutes to traverse the sector you're in, often to find nothing at the other end. Luckily some people have published maps that can easily be googled. Once I was told to dock my ship at a station and talk to someone there. I do it and all is fine until I return to my ship. Gone. For no apparent reason. In another mission, you're told to pick up mines in space and to deploy them elsewhere. You pick them up with some NPC watching and commenting that they're some special kind of mines. When you're done, you're told to proceed to a deployment zone. You reach it and you're told to deploy the mines. That's when you're told that you have nothing in your possession that can be deployed (either civilian or military). You're left scratching your head. I could go on and on. In a video, someone commented that the game is very enjoyable, on condition that you get over a bump at the beginning. That's the understatement of the century.

[ayrtep]

I suspect solo is the wrong word, as its a single player game.

If you mean only use one ship then yes of course. You can stick to missions, bounty hunting collecting space flies, whatever. You could do a Firefly game, trading black market goods for a living.

Really anything.

[PeaceMaker]

Originally posted by mmikeyy:

You find out that in the game, you're a woman. NPC's call you M'am. And you can't change that.

Choose a different start where you play as a man or do a Custom Budget game start, keep it just like the default and choose a man again, you can even choose different kinds of men (black/white) and change your name.

Everything else will be the same as long as you don't mess with anything else.

[Zloth]

Gender is shown on each start. (The Avarice starts let you pick your gender.)

Originally posted by Havoc:

Is this one of those RPG games, or is this essentially a colony/fleet sim game? Thanks in advance for the answers.

Uhhhh... neither.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0hCP1yuNe8&list=PLRNrultsQ-TgV1C88SNbqtqtKyQtD-bRr

If you are talking about multiplayer, that's gone. Currently.

[RandomDude]

Originally posted by Havoc:

To clarify, this will potentially be my first time playing this game.

Is this one of those RPG games, or is this essentially a colony/fleet sim game? Thanks in advance for the answers.

You can fly just your own ship and not bother with fleets if you like.

RPG is a broad definition but I usually associate stats with RPGs and there is no levelling up or anything like that.

There is only the acquisition of money, knowledge, and assets, and faction reputation.

I wouldn't say it's a colony/fleet game either, as you can entirely choose how you want to play/do the things you want to do.

If you just want to fly one ship, pickup missions and do them, you can.
If you want to attack ships to board and capture them to sell/use, you can.
If you just want to be a trader or a miner, you can do that too.
If you want to be a galaxy spanning faction with hundreds of ships/stations, you can also do that.

If you're like me/most players/ you'll probably do some of everything though.

The main thing to know is that you can gain/lose rep with most other factions, and rep is the gatekeeper to certain things.

[CBuHoPeZ]

Originally posted by mcb0ny:

This game is not really balanced toward "one ship vs the universe" gameplay. But if you insist on playing it like that, nothing stops you ;]

Just take Asgard and dominate universe solo

[rudi]

i love "solo" (or smaller scale play) in this game, since universe simulation guarantees that any and all actions i do can have a ripple effect. my primarily frustration with elite and such is that wasn't an option, or at least not directly.

[Pandorian]

Originally posted by Graufang:

What about the Headquarters? Can you get it without doing the associated questline? And somewhere I read that this "main quest" depends on the Hatikvah quest.
I'm fairly new to the game myself and would be happy to know if I have to do a quest or can ignore them without losing the chance to get the HQ.

PHQ is a mini questline that's not dependent on any of the mainline quests. Hatikvah questline is required to move forward the mainline quests.

[Graufang]

@Pandorian
Thank you!

[All1]

The only thing that you can't expect in this game is a big and deep storyline; most of the main quests just scratch the lore; the real lore you'll find on the internet or playing all the X game series.