Thinking about buying - what's the beta flight model like?

[Dhansak]

I really like flying smaller ships and really enjoyed the flight model in ED and Star Citizen 2.6 (yep not fond of it after that lol), with Flight Assist off and on depending on whimsy.

I am hoping that the beta flight model changes in X4 will scratch the itch so maybe folks with experience in these may be able to help with their take on it compared with the above examples (or similar).

BTW I gather this game has a lot of economics and potential empire building. These do not grab me much, so am hoping that there is still plenty of fun to be had just flying around doing missions, upgrading ships and generally exploring.

I have seen comments which support this notion as well as those saying don't bother if that's all you want. However I don't know what to believe as I imagine that these comments are quite version/date related so don't know what the situation would be now?

Thanks for any info or advice.

[PeaceMaker]

Never ran SC and it's been a while since I ran Elite. The beta flight model does remind me a bit of Elite from what I can remember. Fighter ships are definitely more agile, but take some slowing down if you don't hit the thruster breaks, especially on larger ships. `Drifting` like with cars is almost a better way to do things which I find myself doing more now. But this is a beta so could change.

I'm not really an economy guy or builder myself, although X4 is teaching me bit by bit...lol, so there are plenty other things you can do as small fighter guy. I play as a jobbing Merc, I do jobs for various Factions as it suits me, scavenge off huge battles and the odd actual quests that pop up.

My advice would be to treat the game with patience, go in expecting a life in another existence of time and space, choose your first npc co-pilot and maybe a spare ship when you can next afford it and enjoy.

[xan]

i'm not a huge flight sim person, so I don't have a lot of experience, but I quite enjoy the original X4 flight model already. it's a bit arcadey, but if you change up the keybinds it honestly controls almost exactly like Star Citizen, which I really enjoy personally. The beta version controls the same but the ships now just have more weight and inertia to them. It's definitely a good change from my perspective, as someone that hasn't already gotten super accustomed to the vanilla model.

On your question about empire/pve chillin ratios, etc. You can definitely just vibe and ride around doing random missions. Grab a mining ship and go mine. Take in the gorgeous views, watch random factions and military patrols dog fight nearby as you whip around cool looking space stations. It's a fun simulation just immersion-wise. You can tell X has been a huge influence for how SC is thinking about simulation, warp gates, etc.

The only downside is that this is one of those games that screams potential, and makes you dream of how many cool things it could add or do, but it just doesn't quite get there. It's pretty janky but it runs really well overall. It's worth a buy especially on sale, if only to support the developer for actually making a cool space sim. I just enjoy watching the economy happen in real-time, I don't even need to participate.

[Venerable_Sin]

I would say that type of game play would be very challenging for this game. Star Citizen will be everything this game is missing, only it will be a pay to win game that requires buddies like eve online. It may be finished before this one is too, which is saying something.

I would say that you would get plenty of enjoyment if that is what you're after, but this game is trying to be jack of all, master of none, so I wouldn't get your hopes up or expect to be blown away with anything. They will release the update at the beginning of the year and it will be close to what they want to do with it this time next year so... If you can wait a year you will be in the same boat you're in right now. If not, you will have fun, just not loads of it. After 40 or 50 hours I think you would have done just about all you can do without delving into station building, fleet management or pirate empire'in. Get the game on sale or wait another year or three.

[Doom]

Originally posted by Dhansak:

I really like flying smaller ships and really enjoyed the flight model in ED and Star Citizen 2.6 (yep not fond of it after that lol), with Flight Assist off and on depending on whimsy.

Main difference from ED is that you can walk within the cabin of the ship (and few other areas), and the ships have larger size variation. For example, this is a medium ship (from Avarice dlc, one of the few ships with complete interior):

https://ibb.co/g60LKpb
https://ibb.co/tZVgJJF
https://ibb.co/Hr681NL
This ship can land onto some of the XL ships.

OR:
This is me standing next to a small ship:
https://ibb.co/nQZZ1RD
That is docked to a medium ship:
https://ibb.co/59Fw3J7
That is docked to XL ship
https://ibb.co/DMQ8VX8
You can fly this XL ship personally.

Anyway, I booted up beta, tried one of the small ships. Compared to ED (as I never played SC):

There is no FSD. All flight is in real space, long distance travel is done through gates, but there's "travel mode" which allows you to reach speeds of several kilometers per second, depending on the ship. Travel mode is still real space flight with no FSD quasi-physical flight nonsense. You can also shoot out of travel mode. Fly by shooting is a valid tactic. Weapons are always deployed.

In the flight model there's less incentive to disable flight assist. In Elite ships strongly mimick atmospheric flight, in X4 7.5 Beta they're quite weighty have significant inertia, but (in my opinion), to the point where it feels right and not annoying. So it doesn't feel like you're in a plane (like it did in elite). Flight assist also does not disable external sound like it did in Elite Dangerous.

Multiple ships are a lot faster than elite ships out of the box. You can install modifications onto ships on top of that, so basically you can reach 1200 m/s flight speed without boosting, and a ship can easily fly at 500 m/s without any modifications. Practical achievable speed is in ballpark of 25 km/s, though there's not much point of aiming this high.

There is also no jump drive, though the player can learn to teleport himself/herself between ships.

Space feels a lot more dense than in Elite. Asteroids, traffic, etc. This is comparable to Elite RES sites, except there are stations there and area is more interesting than a bunch of samey procedural asteroids.

The game has economic component, and you have strong incentive to build stations and control multiple ships in tactical map, RTS-style. You do not have to do it, but you'll really want to build your own shipyard and construct your own ships at some point.

Maximum station size is 25x25x25 kilometers.

You can walk around on stations, but there's no on-foot combat, like in odyssey.

You can, however, exit your ship and fly around in spacesuit. There are missions centered around this. You can also repair your ship while in spacesuit.

That's the rough idea of it.

[Dhansak]

Wow - thanks all for your detailed, thoughtful and very helpful replies!

All in all, I think this is something I will give a go. You've helped me set reasonable, realistic expectations. So even if i end up getting 40-50 hours of fun out of it, the sale price makes it viable to just have it there for later as the game changes or I feel like dipping in again for messing around in the sandbox.

I will start a vanilla game just to try and learn a few of the ropes, then start again when the beta transfers to a live release - unless that is not necessary of course!

Thanks again for the info - much appreciated :)

[Doom]

Originally posted by Dhansak:

Wow - thanks all for your detailed, thoughtful and very helpful replies!

All in all, I think this is something I will give a go. You've helped me set reasonable, realistic expectations. So even if i end up getting 40-50 hours of fun out of it, the sale price makes it viable to just have it there for later as the game changes or I feel like dipping in again for messing around in the sandbox.

I will start a vanilla game just to try and learn a few of the ropes, then start again when the beta transfers to a live release - unless that is not necessary of course!

Thanks again for the info - much appreciated :)

You're welcome.

I'd expect you to be able to get few dozen hours out of it easily, though people for whom the game clicks often stay for hundreds hours or more. Worth keeping in mind that the game can be rough around the edges at times, and has its own problems.

One thing I might need to add, is that ships which have 500 m/s base (or more) out of the box without modifications are the fastest ships in the game equipped with fastest engines. "Base speed" here means just engine thrusters without boost or travel mode. A good chunk of those come from Split Vendetta DLC. If you just grab base game, the top flight speed will be lower (in ballpark of 360 m/s, comparable to untuned ED Mamba, I think), though you can increase it through engine modifications. Large ships will be usually slower, obviously.

Overall, it might make sense to wait till Beta 7.5 goes live, as it should bring plenty of good stuff into the game.

When it comes to DLCs, in my opinion it is:
Cradle of Humanity = Split Vendetta > Avarice > Kingdom of Borons > Timelines.
The angular spiky ships on my screenshots are from Split DLC.

If you get a community of planet edition, and the game offers you to play "Timelines", ignore that, and select "open universe". That's the sandbox and meat of the game. You can play Timelines later.

I think that's everything.

Happy new Year.

[Dhansak]

Thanks Doom - your suggestion to wait till 7.5 beta is live, makes a lot of sense. I may as well experience the new flight model from the beginning and go from there.

Also thank you for the further info re ship speeds and dlc etc. I plan to just start with the base game and get dlc if it all grabs me; will definitely prioritise looking at the 2 primary dlcs you highlight in your post.

Again - your additional input is much appreciated!

Happy New Year to you too :)

[Dhansak]

Oops didn't wait after all - Wife bought it for me for Xmas!

Hope to get it installed soon - just trying to decide between native Linux or Windows version with proton... have just raised a question about this in a new thread, so things don't get too muddied!