Try X4, Reinstall X3 (try FL) or... what about Rebirth?

[Seinekar]

EDIT: Update and thanks to evreyone that replied and helped me to make a choice!

Thx to everyone! Im finally giving a go to X:Rebirth. Its somehow surprising because i had somewhat discarded if beforehand, but as its dirty cheap on some places and seems quite playable with controller and on steam deck (already tried it, not perfect, but not bad) im giving it a go.

It also seems somehot simplified compared with X3, but can´t be sure as there still tons of menus i hadn´t touched yet lol. Having a single ship to pilot sounded strange at first, but the concept of having a unique prototype ship and restore it from debriss to the most powerful ship ever doesn´t seems that bad to me. Sure i´d miss piloting others, but i guess "upgrading" the Skunk may be satisfactorious too.

So i may definitely play X4 on the future, but for now lets see how X:R develops.

Thanks everyone!


----Original Post------

Hello there!

Back in time i put hundreds of hours on X3 TC/AP, while it was confusing and definitely hard to learn, I somehow learned the hard way on the go and sunk few hundreds hours, set up a fleet with "trader autopilot software" and all that stuff.

Thing is, a lot of years have passed, and felt the itch of going back to a space sim. Elite Dangerous is not bad but is just about you alone on your ship in first person view, jumping countless times and the most you aspire is to get a maxed ship, but not really building an empire.

Tried other titles along the way, as Star Point Gemini 2 / Warlords, not bad in ideas, and simplified stuff was welcome, but again, it lacks stuff to do. Rebel Galaxy was an arcade-ish approach wich i also enjoyed, but again, once you are done in the main story, there is not much more to do (farm, max the best ship, and thats it)

So right now im thinking about trying X3 Farnhams Legacy (wich got for free, as update for X3 TC/AP) but I guess i should also consider try 4 despite getting initially bad reviews (seems recent reviews are more favorable, guess it improved) and also would like to hear opinions on Rebirth (I heard is bad, but no details)


Also, if there are other games on the genre worth noticing, feel free to point them.

-2 extra points if possible:

-Is X4 or (any other game you would like to suggest) playabe with controller?
-Is it playable on Steam Deck?
(Those are not recquirements, but would be worth knowing)

Thanks!

[Hiro Isekai]

Hey

X4 is somewhat going to be playable with a controller in the new patch. You can opt into the beta branch now to try it. external view dogfighting is kinda cool. But you wouldnt want to use like windows with a controller and in the same vein, (since you'll spend most of the time in map mode) X4. I'm kind of biased but I think 4 is in a very good state right now, but it's real tough to learn the weirdly tucked away options that are absolutely crucial if you don't want to tear your hair out. So learning curve. But if you played X3 you'll be all right.

Also there are a lot of good mods just play vanilla first. (I had to throw 30h gameplay away because one line of code in the roaming fleet mod shot the combat AI in the head)

I would stay away from Rebirth as they tried a lot of stuff that seemed like a good idea with that, that totally backfired. I kinda liked it but the AI is an absolute mess and they kind of left it as something you don't talk about.

I still played it a lot but that was my first X game.

Having played everything you did a lot I think X4 is pretty high up there if you like the building/commerce gameplay.

X3 is still pretty good I hear but I haven't played that much. It's kinda dated for me. Anyway I'd recommend you try the beta branch if you buy it. Also base game is a bit barebones.

Hope that helps.

Ps. I don't have a deck but this can be a resource hog so I'd pass on that.

[Cardboard Overlord]

I bought Rebirth later after the release, when there had been a few patches and DLCs, and I really loved it. Some of the "new" stuff in X4 is actually stuff from Rebirth. The Rebirth main story is terrible and I hated it, but then I found a guide that said to start one of the custom gamestarts and just go empire building and I had a really great time time with it (can't remember which guide, unfortunately). X4 was terrible at the start and now it's great. All their games are like that on release. You can usually pick up complete Rebirth for a massive discount (think I paid £5 for all of it) so that's a good way if you're unsure. I love X4 too and it's what I'm playing now, just I don't like seeing all the negativity for Rebirth because it was actually a pretty good game.

You'll need a pretty good computer for X4. It's mainly CPU bound. I run an RTX 3060, a Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and NVME SSDs. I have the graphics turned down a little from Ultra and I generally get 60fps, but it's the simulation that'll slow you down, not really the graphics. Not long ago my GPU was a GTX 1070 and I still ran nearly Ultra. When there's a lot happening, (and as your empire gets bigger) it'll struggle at times but it rarely goes below 40fps for me. Don't have stuff running in the background (Discord, browsers, etc).

[DasWulf]

In my opinion, nothing beats X3, even now. There's a certain challenge to the game which makes success feel far more rewarding.

X4 is worth playing if you are a fan of the series, but make no mistake it is very easy. Easy to make money in the beginning. Once you get a few miners going, money just starts flowing in. That feeling of danger and risk you felt with X3 is not really present in X4, not to any considerable degree. Someone once called it a logistics simulator, and that is far more accurate.

In many ways X4 is a downgrade from X3, though you can still pile many hours into it, though it won't quite feel the same.

As for XR, if you can get it on sale. Play it for a bit. While its a horrible game, in large part due to being stuck on one ship, it has some of the best visual design in the X series to date. Sectors are amazing, the sense of atmosphere was done very well, and stations, unlike in X3 and X4, are effectively living cities with all sorts of micro levels of detail that will leave you wondering why they didn't port it over to X4. The ships are also some of the best designed so far.

If Egosoft just mixed X3 gameplay with XR's art direction, it would have been perfect.

[Seinekar]

Thanks a lot for all replies!!!

Will think about it.

[Pathogenic]

Originally posted by DasWulf:

In my opinion, nothing beats X3, even now. There's a certain challenge to the game which makes success feel far more rewarding.

X4 is worth playing if you are a fan of the series, but make no mistake it is very easy. Easy to make money in the beginning. Once you get a few miners going, money just starts flowing in. That feeling of danger and risk you felt with X3 is not really present in X4, not to any considerable degree. Someone once called it a logistics simulator, and that is far more accurate.

In many ways X4 is a downgrade from X3, though you can still pile many hours into it, though it won't quite feel the same.

As for XR, if you can get it on sale. Play it for a bit. While its a horrible game, in large part due to being stuck on one ship, it has some of the best visual design in the X series to date. Sectors are amazing, the sense of atmosphere was done very well, and stations, unlike in X3 and X4, are effectively living cities with all sorts of micro levels of detail that will leave you wondering why they didn't port it over to X4. The ships are also some of the best designed so far.

If Egosoft just mixed X3 gameplay with XR's art direction, it would have been perfect.

I played a couple thousand hours of X3, and in my personal opinion, X4 beats X3 hands down.

[aradapilot]

I played a ton of X3:R,TC,AP and loved it.

Rebirth was not really a sequel to it, and on launch it was unplayable. But today, I look back fondly on it. There's a lot that didn't go well with space legs, especially the dialog minigames, and the player ship [there's only one] is the ugliest in the whole game, and lack of customization options really...wait, I'm getting carried away, I said it's *not* a sequel to X3, it's different.
Rebirth has my favorite universe of any X game. Narrow and deep vs broad and shallow. The highway system launched as this awful minigame, but everyone hated it and they refined it into an interesting concept - and it's better used in that universe than it is in 4 [though the ring in 4 is cool].
The capital ship boarding was a lot of fun as well, even if it required quite some suspension of disbelief. They used a similar system in 4, refined and more 'realistic' in many ways; but they also made the capital ships much smaller in 4 with way fewer components, so it's less of a grand excursion like rebirth's boarding of those [lyra? olme? fulmo?]kron ships.
So yeah, rebirth gets a lot of flak for A. not being X4, when people wanted X4; and B. releasing half finished. But today, it's a cool game in its own right. And the universe, damn, it's great to be in.

BUT if you're looking for a sequel to X3, yeah, X4 is it, and deserves the title. It's different in a lot of ways, but appeals to the same type of player for the same reasons. Now that we're hitting 7.0, it's got a good bit of polish...egosoft treats the first few years of any full release like a beta, much to the disadvantage of their steam reviews, but we're well past that period here. I've done a few elaborate playthroughs and had a great time. The universe is much more X3-like - a shame they went back to it...it's still good, don't get me wrong, but it's shallow again and many systems feel the same as they did in X3. But I've rambled enough...definitely get 4 if you loved 3.

[xDDD]

Honestly I have hundreds (if not thousands) of hours in X3TC and absolutely loved the game. I spent so long building up my empire, amassing and arming legendary ships, doing all the plots, etc etc etc. Very few games captivated me and devoured my hours like X3 did back in the day.
That being said, after playing X4 I have a very hard time going back to X3. X4 does a lot of things different, it has definitely simplified some things, but I think it is just a much more enjoyable and polished game. A huge step up in pretty much every aspect. Everything about X3 seems slow, clunky, and artificial to me now. There are some things that X3 does better, such as the ship/weapon variety IMHO, but those ships and weapons FEEL much better in X4. Instead of it being the same UI with a large ship underneath, it is actually a LARGE ship that you can walk around on. Doesn't sound like much, but it does wonders for the sense of scale and immersion in the game. You can sit on the hanger of your carrier and watch tons of fighters scramble off.


Because of that it might be a better idea to play the X3:FL first, have your fun with it (it's free, right?) and then when you eventually want more take the leap into X4. It is different in a lot of ways, but it is still a superb game.

I have never played Rebirth, but I'd imagine it can't be THAT bad. I do know it's very different from the other X games though.

[Ryno]

@aradapilot I agree with your comments about X-Rebirth. It's a good game when viewed as a story within the X-Universe, just not the typical X game that most enjoy. I often go back to it for a while, start from scratch, build the Skunk to a beast of a ship and capture everything in sight. Once done the story though, it's not quite the same economy as especially X4 as it's not really an economy that needs supporting. Ships just magically appear when needed.

X4 has the best replay value. Once the UI is understood, it's the best overall.

[Dionis]

If you are familiar with X3 I'd suggest checking Unofficial Mod, Old Plots, Coloured Sectors/Owned Property for Farham's Legacy to make sure you have the Ultimate Edition of X3: all sectors and plots from TC+AP+FL with some QOL mods. Are you aware that FL is the only game in the franchise with dynamic diplomacy?

X4 is a different beast than X3. X4 has improved some things from X3, added some new stuff and changed other things from X3. It is more Rebirth 2.0 than X4 in my opinion.

If you want improved and graphically updated X3 - play FL with the mods.
If you want something new and modern - play X4.

[Seinekar]

Wow so may good points here and there.

So in Rebirth you have a single ship? That means:

1- you can´t make a fleet, only have 1 ship (somehow like Elite Dangerous?

2- You can make a fleet, but the player is bound to his very own ship and can´t move to another?

And if 2, what is it? is some kind of super capital ship to rule it all?

[Pathogenic]

Originally posted by Seinekar:

Wow so may good points here and there.

So in Rebirth you have a single ship? That means:

1- you can´t make a fleet, only have 1 ship (somehow like Elite Dangerous?

2- You can make a fleet, but the player is bound to his very own ship and can´t move to another?

And if 2, what is it? is some kind of super capital ship to rule it all?

It's #2, player is bound to a single ship but can own other ships. It is literally called "The Skunk".

[Captain Canard]

Originally posted by Seinekar:

Hello there!
Is X4 or (any other game you would like to suggest) playabe with controller?

I play X4 with a controller and love it. I customized the controller to mirror how I have it set up for Elite Dangerous (and vice-versa), so jumping from one game to the other is pretty easy. That said, I can't play X4 with JUST a controller. I do all my first-person flying and walking with the controller, but all my "administration" work - the map, building new ships, etc is done with K&M.

One of the things I love about X4 is that I've been able to replicate the 6DoF flight model of Elite Dangerous, with the obvious differences in ship handling. I don't really play ED anymore, but what I used to love about Elite lives on in X4.

[DasWulf]

Originally posted by Pathogenic:

I played a couple thousand hours of X3, and in my personal opinion, X4 beats X3 hands down.

The thing with X3 + all its mods, is that it feels different, as in a different experience from X4. It's far less forgiving, especially in the beginning, which carries with it a sense of achievement when you some how end up succeeding. Dog fighting in space is more rewarding. The sense of exploration (where no space highways existed, or even visibility in some sectors) was more rewarding.

Someone once joked that with X4, most of the time you are staring at the map, practically turning it into a logistics simulator. I wonder how many people just grab a couple of miners and quickly become rich via auto mining right out the gate. It's just too easy to make money through automation, newer and better ships become quickly purchasable for the player.

Getting factions rep up is as stupid as shooting that one criminal that always spawns at every station the moment you fly up to it, or let faction rep just rise from all the automated miners doing trades. Where's the challenge? It makes the faction rep feel pointless.

Simply from a challenge mechanic standpoint, X4 loses something that X3 had. It's just... different. What is easy however, is to enjoy both.

[Kackstift]

x4 is more sandbox then all x title before. Most important it is a "real" economy.. you can profit from wars.. you can create your own empire and own the whole universe. Fighting is less action then x3+ and detroyer(M2) are only a shadow of the might of x3.
No jumpdrive makes fighting and travel slower..
Turret design is cheap.. and most turrets are useless.

[trooperrob]

X3 FL, I thought it was more difficult / complicated that other X3, but try it. Would like to go back to it..

X3 ap + star wars mod?