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X4 largely delivers on the trad space sim experience in spades. If you like flying around shooting stuff in your space ship and owning a tonne of them (which can be AI piloted) to get into fights with, then yeah if Elite Dangerous was like that?
Combat is great, the main reason I play. Even if the AI can be exploited they still pose a threat and the exploits becomes nullified when you're outnumbered.
I'm sure you'll enjoy this game for what it is if you enjoy Elite Dangerous.
You technically have your own empire, can own territory, build stations, trade, etc. There are some things Elite does that you can't do here though, exploration is almost non-existent here(game has a preset map layout, with stations semi randomly spread out during game creation), there's no landing on planets, or on foot combat, capital ships have individual systems you can target in combat(shield generators, engines, turrets), smaller ships not so much, they're just an HP pool. Also no fuel to worry about, planets and stars are just background images, you can't actually get there(also means you can't accidentally run into a gravity well and kill yourself(I haven't done that in Elite, not at all, lol)), mining is a lot more straight forward here too, point laser at rock, rock goes boom, hold button to collect ore, on that note ships here have a loot magnet key, I want to say it's o at default, but I may have changed it at some point(the game will not tell you about this, or most things really) X4's tutorial kinda sucks, don't be afraid to google things.
You'll spend your early days flying ships around, shooting at stuff(if you can find stuff to shoot at), trading, mining, just trying to make money, later in the game you mostly play from the map, directing fleets, setting up supply routes, babysitting your traders who are constantly trying to commit suicide. It ends up being more of a management sim then a space game at some point or another, you can try to keep flying around and doing your own thing, but the AI is entirely incapable of making a decent decision on it's own, so you will have to do a lot of babysitting(mostly with the trade ships though).
I also have to mention, I have lost a couple saves in the past to things bugging out, I would suggest if you do get it to disable steam cloud saves unless you actually do need the external backup, since disabling the cloud saves I've had no issues with game breaking bugs, could just be luck, but I'm blaming steam.
At first you are a person and own a single ship and some starting credits. You can walk around space stations and your ship (don't expect too much here, it's mostly to create some immersion and good views).
You can earn credits by trading wares, doing missions, mining and selling ores or scavanging stuff to sell.
You can buy new ships and either fly them yourself or hire NPC pilots to fly them for you. Those can be automated to trade, mine or fight and you can give them manual orders as well, like fly here, buy this, sell that, kill this and so on.
You will eventually gather a rather sizable fleet for all kinds of purposes and you will control them via a strategic map which is used basically like in any strategy game, alas select ship and rightclick somewhere to give orders (it feels a bit clunky but is usable enough).
You will eventually build space stations. These are modular and you will use a station designer to put them together. There are lots of modules available from purely structural/aesthetic modules over docks and storages to production modules and weapon platforms (to defend the station). You can put them together however you want.
Production modules produce wares using other wares, like turning ore into metals, turning metals into hull parts and more complicated recipes. Most wares are eventually consumed by shipyards to build ships or go into station construction.
You can then assign ships to the stations to mine or trade for them (supplying wares, selling products) or defend them.
Eventually you may own your very own shipyard producing and selling ships.
Besides generic missions there is a variety of story plots to engage in, which usually come with some larger rewards or later the ability to influence politics (make someone go to war or make peace with a former enemy).
There are multiple different races with (usually two) subfactions. Some of them are at war with each other, trying to destroy assets and conquering their sectors.
You yourself can engage in war with factions, too, and even conquer enemy sectors to call them your own. Or just be at peace with everyone and live a peaceful traders life (and supply both sides of a war, for instance).
There is one race though which is enemy to everyone and cannot be befriended (so there is always someone to shoot).
Basically, you fly your ship (any ship in your fleet) and manage a fleet and an empire of space stations all at the same time.
You can go about it however you want, like be a trader, a miner, an industry magnate or a warlord with lots of military assets engaging in preexisting conflicts or just making your own.
You may also be a pirate, trying to stay on the good side of everyone while stealing their ships and wares to use them for your own purposes or just sell them for profits.
You may also just do all those things at the same time.
As for ships, there are much more than a hundred different ships in all sizes from simple scouts and fighters up to huge capital ships and carriers. And you can fly each of them yourself, as well as command them to do stuff on their own.
This also leads to the rather unique ability to create huge and epic non-scripted battles and engage in them yourself if you so choose. And thanks to the the universe being largely at war, you can even engage in large battles long before you are at a point of having your own warfleet.
Just be aware that all of this will take a huge amount of time where you may sink hundreds of hours into a single playthrough. There's also a rather harsh and long learning curve.
tldr
All in all you have your typical spacesim stuff like flying around, shooting, trading, mining, doing missions and engaging in storyplots, coupled with a management/builder sim where you build stations and trade and produce wares to produce other wares and eventually build ships, coupled with a little bit of strategy/4X gameplay where you can send in large fleets to battle and destroy your enemies and conquer their sectors.
Think of it as someone saw the old Elite game and asked themselves what is missing from that game that could make it even better, then made it happen.
The flying part itself isn't as good as in Elite, more arcadey but still a lot of fun, but you also have all that other stuff to engage in, that Elite simply doesn't have.
Will you like this game? Chances are you will if you like Elite.
But it's pretty hard to tell, as this game has lots of stuff that Elite doesn't and in what they have in common, Elite mostly does a better job.
Plus, this game is very unique and there just isn't a game out there that really tries to do the same.
Personally I think that the X series beats Elite any time of day.
As you get more ships and stations, you may eventually get enough ships and stations to rival the NPC factions. But this takes a long time to achieve.
Cradle = Vendetta > Avarice > Kingdom End > Timelines.
Basically one DLC you'll probably want to skip is Timelines, as it is an odd one, and is probbaly for dedicated fans only.
Kingdom end adds new faction with cool looking ships, but they are not compatible with existing equipment in the game, meaning less mixing an d matchin, plus they usually sit quietly in their corner of the galaxy.
Avarice adds junkyard ship, a fairly decent story, and a gimmick location.
Cradle and Vendetta add factions and a ton of ships. Cradle faction also has easier economy compared to base game, so you can make your shipyards faster. There's also a very cool yacht you'll probably have to steal.
--edit--
One other thing. This game has ship interiors where you can walk. Not all of them span the whole ship, but they're there. You can also fly passenger, while issuing orders to ship captain.
I always find these kinds of questions hugely frustrating. Sure, you play Elite, as I have, but how can we be sure you'll like X4 even if the games are similar? That's really not enough information.. We do not know what you particularly liked about Elite.
But I get it, people want simple answers to complicated questions.
My honest answer is `maybe`.
This is a game you can play for thousands of hours and still come back to it and get excited to play hundreds of hours more.
Give it a try but keep in mind the learning curve is high and you will need to invest time into it but if you persevere you will find a gem of a game.
Afaik Elite crowd wants ship interiors but will never get them.
Get X4 and all DLCs though.
there might be a thanksgiving sale. I recently got everything, dlc included for like $50, base game was like 10-14.
The dlc seems fairly well interwoven into the game, i can't really tell what is dlc and what isn't other then the "split" timelines content and the open universe at the very beginning menu options.
Not sure I'd say "interiors" is a selling point I'd put my hat on. They are very generic and repetative.
fleet, economy, and faction management is the 1st thing that jumps out to me as more of an emphasis. I've only played a very little bit of elite dangerous though.