Is this easier then Eve Online?

[Chris]

I'm interested and wonder how difficult it is (I know they are different games) from those that played both.

[Oddible]

Not exactly. Similar start in a tiny ship doing missions. You can literally just keep doing that for a long time. There isn't the difficulty of learning all the PvP stuff, so as a new player scouting for your corp in an atron and getting popped because you didn't have warp points set up in advance for instance. That said there is a ton of complexity in the industry and logistics side of X4. The interactions take some getting used to and Egosoft's quirky interface but it is all internally consistent so once you learn how things go you can usually figure stuff out. Like Eve there is a TON of instructional content online. Check out Captain Collins.

The good thing is the is literally almost no things which require you to do anything at any specific time so if you get overwhelmed just bug off and pew pew for a bit.

[Blueberry Muffins!]

I'm not all that good at either. Got my jaguar and 'cane in EVE, long ago, built them myself and won PvP dogfights while outnumbered and outgunned, so I ain't that *bad*, either. In case that kind of at-least-not-totally-incompetent-player viewpoint is what you're after, . . .

X4's easier because there's no point in providing the kind of depth EVE's loadouts offer, there's no PvP so once you've gotten better than the AI there's just nothing to differentiate loadouts or skill levels after that, there's no *reason* for the vast variety of tradeoffs you can make in EVE.

X4's harder because it doesn't hold your hand. You learn about its equivalents of lowsec and nullsec by getting dropped into a new sector and ganked if you're too green to figure out when to run, and it's harder because the AI opponents are the main event, not just training exercises.

X4's easier because building an empire and fleet is not the work of a lifetime and does not require you to somehow manage to get other humans (let alone the dozens to hundreds or thousands of other humans EVE empires require) to follow you.

X4's more fun because there's just no way EVE could hand out the kind of power you have on tap in X4 and there's a lot less tedium and waiting. It does not take years to run the tech tree.

X4's not as much fun because there's nothing in this or any corner of the endless multiverse that's as much fun as the mind-meld of cooperating people who've really figured out what they're doing just killing it, at music or combat or sex, civil engineering or exploration or programming or gameplay.

X4's harder because you have to corral the AI into doing what you want, and a lot of the challenge is learning how to do that. Rats in EVE are not smarter than rats in X4.

X4's PvE combat is in many ways comparable to EVE's because up to a point in each more personal competence lets you kite-and-gank faster and there's gear progression that gets you in fighting range of that point against ever more enemy ships; and past that point you can prety much just phone it in. Afaik no PvE opponent in either has ever displayed anything more than the simplest trickery. Both set some traps for you but they're not close to being up to AI War's standards. AI War will show most people many more symptoms of incompetence in their own gameplay than they'll ever be comfortable with facing. But AI War is about one thing: war. X4 has a lot more on offer.

X4's different because in the end it's a singleplayer game. If Egosoft wanted to make a multiplayer X4 they'd have to make it impossible for any single player to take over the entire map, and they'd have to thread the gap between E:D and EVE.

[Loth Crow]

Blueberry Muffin pretty much summed it up, and I have very little to add.

EVE and X4 can be harder or easier in different aspects and in different contexts and, still, they can be harder or easier than each other depending on your playstyle and skills.

EVE's complexity can be offset by the fact that you don't have to know everything, neither worry about everything. The social aspect of EVE makes it more organic in some ways, but a lot slower and harder to accomplish things sometimes.

X4 can be a bit less complex in some points (and much more complex is some others), but you may want to know al there is to knowl about it (since if you don't, these unexplored aspects will simply not be explored at all). And boy, there's a lot to learn.

X4 has much more detail (and interesting ways to do things) than meets the eye at first. I've been playing for more than 1k hours and I'm still learning new things every other day.

Be prepared for a steep learning curve, but one you can step at your own pace. There will always be more to learn (or interesting ideas to try out). Don't shy away of trying everything you want (X4 can be less forgiving than EVE sometimes, but you can always start a new playthrough and try something different next time).

As a final note, in my personal opinion, X4 is much more fun than EVE (and I played a lot of EVE in my time, but never been able to go back to it since X4 launched).

Welcome to X universe.

[Oddible]

Honestly if you dig Eve, particularly the NON-pvp aspects of Eve, you will love X4. I loved both sides of Eve, did plenty of pvp with fleets, both hardcore pvp and instanced logi healing. Had my Planetary Production up and running (I actually taught the course for Eve University on PI). X4 is a deep dive, it will warp your mind, it will make you pull your hair out. You will install insane amounts of mods to make this game the way you want it to be. Then you will remove all mods and realize that it is actually very well balanced vanilla. And at about 800-1000 hours in, you will resolve to play vanilla and just enjoy the ride as the devs intended.

[ApathicAlpaca]

I played Eve a really long time ago (7ys? 8?) as a solo Manufacturer. So a guy who built the most lucrative T1+2 blueprints (T3 had just been released when I stopped) but without a corp to back me up. It worked well! I had my own crafting station/base in Nullsec and everything.

BUT I had to do my own advanced excel sheet and spend a lot of time hauling stuff from and to nearby stations with stealth freighters (Nullsec, remember ^^).

I havent seen much of X4 so far but from video guides and stuff I think the trading/crafting should be quite as complex as Eve. The logistics are definitely going to be more tricky since you control more than just 1 ship at a time.
Looking forward to it!


PS: I also watched some streams and X4 streamers seem to look down on Eve as a 'point & click adventure'... why, I'll never know. The games are hugely different in some aspects so it's kinda hard to compare imo.

[Oddible]

Originally posted by ApathicAlpaca:

PS: I also watched some streams and X4 streamers seem to look down on Eve as a 'point & click adventure'... why, I'll never know. The games are hugely different in some aspects so it's kinda hard to compare imo.

Because it is. That isn't necessarily a bad thing but some people seem to think it is. Eve is point and click, plain and simple. It is more akin to World of Warcraft than Elden Ring, as in, you don't have to aim. Like WoW, good luck pvping vs someone with even a tiny bit of experience and coming out on top - there is considerable skill involved.

[Loth Crow]

Originally posted by Oddible:

Honestly if you dig Eve, particularly the NON-pvp aspects of Eve, you will love X4. I loved both sides of Eve, did plenty of pvp with fleets, both hardcore pvp and instanced logi healing. Had my Planetary Production up and running (I actually taught the course for Eve University on PI). X4 is a deep dive, it will warp your mind, it will make you pull your hair out. You will install insane amounts of mods to make this game the way you want it to be. Then you will remove all mods and realize that it is actually very well balanced vanilla. And at about 800-1000 hours in, you will resolve to play vanilla and just enjoy the ride as the devs intended.

I decided to enjoy vanilla without ever installing a mod, because I could see there's a delicate balance in this game that any mod could ruin. I feel so smart.

[Loth Crow]

Originally posted by Oddible:

Originally posted by ApathicAlpaca:

PS: I also watched some streams and X4 streamers seem to look down on Eve as a 'point & click adventure'... why, I'll never know. The games are hugely different in some aspects so it's kinda hard to compare imo.

Because it is. That isn't necessarily a bad thing but some people seem to think it is. Eve is point and click, plain and simple. It is more akin to World of Warcraft than Elden Ring, as in, you don't have to aim. Like WoW, good luck pvping vs someone with even a tiny bit of experience and coming out on top - there is considerable skill involved.

One of the aspects I missed the most in EVE was being able to enter, walk around in and fly the ships. This is definitelly not what EVE was about, but I missed it anyway (I missed Incarna a lot).

This is one of the motives I love X4. I'm a light roleplayer at heart, and be able to fly the ships along with commanding large empire/company makes up for great fun in X4.

[Oddible]

It is funny that that is the feature CCP regret wasting dev time on. People raged and flamed and cried for being able to walk around ships and stand on their bridge and so they finally built it, only to look at analytics and find that literally no one ever uses it. Some, not even all, players even tried it once, then never go there again. Only the tiniest fraction of the player base ever go there more than once. Yet another thing where a few players make a huge noise as if it is a massive issue for everyone and no one really wants it. Huge waste of their time.

[The Big Brzezinski]

It's methadone for Eve Online players. It will still suck down a lot of hours, but not as egregiously as the alternative.

[Loth Crow]

Originally posted by Oddible:

It is funny that that is the feature CCP regret wasting dev time on. People raged and flamed and cried for being able to walk around ships and stand on their bridge and so they finally built it, only to look at analytics and find that literally no one ever uses it. Some, not even all, players even tried it once, then never go there again. Only the tiniest fraction of the player base ever go there more than once. Yet another thing where a few players make a huge noise as if it is a massive issue for everyone and no one really wants it. Huge waste of their time.

Although I never complained about that in EVE forums (I know I was part of a very small and very noisy group), I really liked (and really missed) Incarna. But X4 scratched that itch in a way EVE couldn't due to lore reasons.

[Loth Crow]

Originally posted by The Big Brzezinski:

It's methadone for Eve Online players. It will still suck down a lot of hours, but not as egregiously as the alternative.

It may be.

But some people consider X4 better than EVE.

[Daddy Shark]

I like X a lot better than Eve.
Eve kind of abstracts out flying a spaceship. X lets you hook up a HOTAS and dogfight in realtime.
X lets you have fleets of employees that do everything from running goods between factories to producing illegal spaceweed to building ships for you. You can order an entire armada to back your plays if you wish and the AI pilots and crews will do their best to carry out your orders even if you're on the other side of the galaxy.

[Prae]

I never thought Eve was as hard as they say but ok, to me Eve Online was prob one of the best games of all time along with Homeworld. Star Citizen is the future of space games…. X4 is doing now in many ways, what Star Citizen has taken donkey years to still not be able to do. X4 has the music, visuals, ships, and true immersion. It has bugs and quirks but this game gives you that size and depth, in a less all time consuming way than Eve as you can save and quit anytime but still offering everything you want from a deep experience.

I really do like it a lot although I do not have Avarice expansion as not sure is worth it or not.

I would def recommend X4 for some true escapism.

[Bab Peeg]

It's not boring like eve is so that's a plus.