X3 is the darling of the series for many (I also have a soft spot for X2), and X4 is the 'new' X3 just currently 'in progress'.
X:Rebirth got the nickname 'X: ' around the time of it's release, and at the time I felt it probably deserved it after reading a few reviews and watching a few fan video's explaining the issues. Egosoft have a reputation for releasing buggy games but this was a whole new level, with a layer of odd game design thrown into that cauldron.
So yeah, like a lot of folk I scratched X:Rebirth off my list and moved on.
A GOG sale (and i guess my frustration at not being able to start ED just yet?) somehow ended up with my owning the 'Home of Light Complete Edition':
https://www.gog.com/game/x_rebirth_home_of_light_complete_edition
I got it super cheap (like £9 iirc) and due to the terrible launch state did not feel too guilty about that particular sale purchase, but it hung around for about six months unplayed in my GOG account. Then one day i decided to have a look.
The graphics were great but lots of other things felt odd (coming from X2>X3 in particular). Nomenclature had changed, space travel around a system had changed, the game universe had changed (as part of the plot). It was all change and once you dug around in it a little you felt a lot of that change was half-baked or implemented poorly.
For me these things 'broke it' and stopped me playing:
1. Your side kick had a huge cleavage on display in her 'space suit' (this is just a tonal issue, where i feel forced to feel like a teenager in 'my' game).
2. The mini-game of driving through the new space-lanes accompanied by thumping 'action music' was just awful.
3. All the NPC's were badly animated and often looked like they had survived WW3 (or something).
4. The constant same dialogue (for everything; every transaction, every launch, every exit from a space lane, and both the char you play and your side-kick in particular sounded annoying after a short while) just cut the immersion; it reminded me of vanilla Oblivion in this, where a dev is 'too keen' to show something 'cool' off and it's in your face ALL the time.
5. Numerous little functional issues here and there.
So after about 5 hours of playing i put it down. Yep even after years of updates and fixes, Rebirth still felt 'off'. The internet was right.
Then i decided to watch this let's play on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJcbjstVunQ
Now i'm not saying it is the BEST let's play, but it is in English and it is on the latest version (4.30) and has some mods in the mix, and really it was the mods that caught my eye. I have not watched ALL of this guys video's, but i did get through a few to better understand the game and what i might be doing wrong in it. It also got me searching for mods, but not on Steamworkshop, on Nexus, as i need standalone stuff for my non-Steam version.
-------------------------
Handy Links:
Egosoft mods forum:
https://forum.egosoft.com/viewforum.php?f=129&sid=fd5ea08eb96f442a5a38729333ff0f93
-------------------------
Mods:
https://www.nexusmods.com/xrebirth/mods/
I use the Nexus for the ones i have running, most are old (older than their version on SteamWorkshop mostly) but the list i will give below seem to function well on the latest game version (4.30).
Mod Priority:
'Fix' the Space Lanes. I use two mods to do that. One removes the fake traffic created in them to force the mini-game, and the other removes the action music to, i assume, fuel the 'adrenaline' as you play the mini-game?
1. Realistic Highways (by Nifter) - i use the 'NoTrafficDoubleSpeedHighways' version of the mod.
2. No Highway Music (byFlynTie).
Now space-lanes are simply a means of getting from A to B, with a moderate amount of real traffic dodging required. Imho they are 100% improved as a game experience by these two mods.
Some go as far as to remove them completely, but that is quite a big game change with lots of knock-on issues you need to mod around, so my solution is clean and simple and functional, thanks to those two mods. One of the big annoyances of X:Rebirth is dealt with
'Fix' side-kick Yisha. I use a few of mods for this, one is modular to improve the overall graphics of the character (you look at her quite often) and one is a suit replacement to fit better to her job. The third type is to stop her constant banter with your ships AI (and other people).
1. Nebulawolf's Yisha mod (has a choice of face, hair and eyes that i use)
2. Yisha Technician (by DeserterX) for the best body/suit mod for Yisha imho and works perfectly with the above.
3. No you shut up Yisha! (by Nifter) to stop the back chat and banter that gets old quick. [was using Now Shut Up, Yisha (by ioae) - but Nifters is 'cleaner']
'Improve' the free space flight feel. I could not get X:Rebirth to work with my joystick (not a Hotas) so tried keyboard+mouse but while that was fine for when landed at a base (the space-legs part) it did not feel great in space flight. I ended up using a gamepad, and this is a rare game where that actually works really well for a PC game (say compared to NMS where i prefer mouse+keyboard).
I re-map the shoulder buttons to do 'roll left' and 'roll right'. The right stick push-down button to do 'brake/reverse thrust' and re-assign those previous buttons uses to the keyboard. That gives me full control of flight via the gamepad. I then use the keyboard for menu stuff, firing missiles, target locks etc. Once i land anywhere i switch to mouse and keyboard and the game 'notices' and allows that shift of control device without any prompt from the player.
Still having to constantly press 'thrust' to move in space gets tiresome (and immersion breaking), so i use this mod to fix that:
1. RS Physics ASSIST (by Realspace). This is a fake Newtonian flight model, and this does have inertia (like the default game), just weaker and you will have momentum from your thrust in whichever direction you are thrusting. So it is a kind of half-newtonian model that actually works really well in X:Rebirth where you have to get close to space structures to 'unlock' then etc. He does a full Newtonian version (RS Physics FULL) but it has some issues and makes the game-loops in rebirth super hard to handle imho.
These are 'optional' files on Nexus under the main mod: 'BIG SPACE or NOLocalHighways Navigational Booster Improved Physics'. You don't need the main mod file to run the optional 'Physics' mods.
The AI handles the changes well (at least on the 'ASSIST' version i use) and the feel of space is much improved, as is the challenge. However one bug exists you need to be aware off. When leaving a space lane you will be thrown full speed in the direction to exit the lane from.
That requires a full 180 degree flip against the direction of movement (use the space dust streaks to tell that) then full Boost (until that runs out), then full thrust for a few seconds to stop your trajectory. You often end up about 30km's from where you exited!
I've bounced off stations and asteroids when not being careful of my direction of exit from a space lane. So keep that in mind.
Improve the scanning stations/exploration. Even without the fake newtonian mod above, scanning stations to 'unlock' them is a bit of a chore in the default game, some parts of some stations in particular require arbitrarily fiddle-some positioning to be able to scan them. Some mods 'cheat' this all out the game, but i prefer a middle path approach.
1. 5km scan range (by Tyrant597) - extends the range your station scanner will work at.
2. ISE (Improved Station Exploration) (by PiscisFerro) - widens the angles the 'info' scan icons appear, so making scanning less awkward.
Improve graphics a bit. The default game looks ok (at 1920x1080) but graphic improver's are always nice.
1. XR Nebulas (by ICO_hr) - improves the space backgrounds, which do look a little bit pixelated in the default game imho.
2. XR Planets (by ICO_hr) - improves the planet textures.
Read the comments on the Nexus for those as there is a tweak required to make them work well in the latest versions of the game.
Now i think more could be done here, but there are not that many graphic improvement mods out there for X:Rebirth it seems, and probably that is down to the difficulty in unpacking and editing the game files (which i will cover a little later). So i'm still on the look out for more stuff to add in this section, and may even make a few myself later on at some point (if i can!).
Other mods i use currently. This covers a wide range of stuff, other than the specific things i felt i needed to try to tweak in the above mods. So I will just list those now:
1. Exploration Light (by Nodus Cursorius) - Doubles the range and intensity of the default ship light, and should be a game default imho.
2. Log Everything (by juggernaut93) - allows you to add (and delete) your own Log entries, handy for many situations the game does not handle for you.
3. Station Announcements (by Litauen) - gives a 'typical' X feel to being on-board the stations, nice immersion mod.
4. Navpath Fix (by Zloth) - Rebirth had some issues with poor AI, and this is one way to limit some of the damage from that.
5. Stronger Ship Hulls L/XL (by Nidaren) - having seen a few 'too many' capital ships get destroyed by fighter attacks this might be needed?
6. Titurel Engine Fix Standalone (by Nidaren) - fixes a bug still in the game.
7. RelationTalks (by iforgotmysocks) - Adds a menu option to apologise for stray weapon fire, and avoid unintended escalations.
8. Show Skills (by StormMagi) - allows you to simply ask an NPC to show you how good they are at their profession (avoids mini-game unlocking).
9. Epic External Shields (by w.evans) - to go with the stronger hulls mod, gives better shields to capital ships.
10. Capital Ships Bridge (by Litauen) - actually a SteamWorkshop only mod, but i got it via it's thread in the Egosoft forum here:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=129&t=371286&sid=2c650f418208f3755011cf061da2bdad&start=735
Go to 'Page 50' and in the update post by alexalsp on Sun, 6. Jan 19, 19:00 (they seem to be keeping the mod going currently), look for the Links for XRebirth 4.30 - v.3.04 section of his post, and that googledocs download link will give you the mod that you can use in the GOG (or non Steam) version.
I'm using the '3) litauen_capital_ship_bridge_to_bridge_no_voice' version and it all seems to work just fine (and thank god you can now dock on-top of your starting capital ship, instead of inside it's front, where it would bug out on undocking in the vanilla game!).
So far i have 20 odd mods and the general game improvement is noticeable, most of the things i was finding an irritation have been dealt with, but as with modding any game it can take a long time to find that 'perfect' build, and especially where a game like X:Rebirth has a fairly small selection.
----------------------------------------
Future Mod prospects:
For X:Rebirth it seems pretty slim. Most of the mods above were last worked on years ago, and with X4 now out, many people have moved onto that. Looking at the mods available to me, and the things i'd still like to add, i might have to create some myself. Still modding in X:Rebirth is not exactly easy (or that well documented) so the bar to entry is quite high.
Like with NMS (i game i did create a few mods for) you can get a feeling from the devs about 'exactly' what they feel about modding based on how accessible they make it. And locking it away behind Steam certainly does not help. I think it safe to say modding X:Rebirth is pretty dead, but luckily there are just enough good mods out there that can improve the current game measurably. And that was my aim, to focus on some of those just in case a sale comes along and people feel like giving this different X game a try.
EDIT: Overall feeling after sinking a good few dozen hours (with re-starts) into X:Rebirth
I think i like it. After the mods i felt i 'needed' to add, i maybe have a better feel of what Egosoft were trying to do here (vs X3). There were aiming for a new kind of X game, one that was a bit more focused and directed perhaps.
Stuff it does better than any other X game (and possibly any other space/sim type game) is making the game universe feel alive; it is a thing of beauty to pull up and watch the 'space traffic' stream around a station, complete with Bladerunner like police patrols and all the glowing billboard adverts. The style of design (for the architecture etc) is really strong and helps build the believability of the games world.
Even the space legs (feels half done) part adds an aspect of personality, and with a little more depth and variety to it could have been a great feature. As it is i like it just to get off ship for a bit and make a bit of cash on the side from trading, but can see how veterans of the game might want to install that mod that removes it completely. For now i'm happy doing the repetitive walk-around.
Would i pay full whack for the game (current complete edition) as is? No, just too many issues i had to roll my sleeves up and get dirty with via modding. But as a sale buy i'm better able to appreciate it, and it might actually be growing on me.
I reckon if i can find/make a few mods to adjust/fix up a couple things it could be a bit of a rough-gem find, and may be heading to some kind of 'Great game no-one played 'classic' - down the line, especially if Egosoft keep up with a few more updates/DLC? Oh and the modding carries on/picks up.
In modded form it is a surprisingly decent space game.
X:Rebirth got the nickname 'X: ' around the time of it's release, and at the time I felt it probably deserved it after reading a few reviews and watching a few fan video's explaining the issues. Egosoft have a reputation for releasing buggy games but this was a whole new level, with a layer of odd game design thrown into that cauldron.
So yeah, like a lot of folk I scratched X:Rebirth off my list and moved on.
A GOG sale (and i guess my frustration at not being able to start ED just yet?) somehow ended up with my owning the 'Home of Light Complete Edition':
https://www.gog.com/game/x_rebirth_home_of_light_complete_edition
I got it super cheap (like £9 iirc) and due to the terrible launch state did not feel too guilty about that particular sale purchase, but it hung around for about six months unplayed in my GOG account. Then one day i decided to have a look.
The graphics were great but lots of other things felt odd (coming from X2>X3 in particular). Nomenclature had changed, space travel around a system had changed, the game universe had changed (as part of the plot). It was all change and once you dug around in it a little you felt a lot of that change was half-baked or implemented poorly.
For me these things 'broke it' and stopped me playing:
1. Your side kick had a huge cleavage on display in her 'space suit' (this is just a tonal issue, where i feel forced to feel like a teenager in 'my' game).
2. The mini-game of driving through the new space-lanes accompanied by thumping 'action music' was just awful.
3. All the NPC's were badly animated and often looked like they had survived WW3 (or something).
4. The constant same dialogue (for everything; every transaction, every launch, every exit from a space lane, and both the char you play and your side-kick in particular sounded annoying after a short while) just cut the immersion; it reminded me of vanilla Oblivion in this, where a dev is 'too keen' to show something 'cool' off and it's in your face ALL the time.
5. Numerous little functional issues here and there.
So after about 5 hours of playing i put it down. Yep even after years of updates and fixes, Rebirth still felt 'off'. The internet was right.
Then i decided to watch this let's play on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJcbjstVunQ
Now i'm not saying it is the BEST let's play, but it is in English and it is on the latest version (4.30) and has some mods in the mix, and really it was the mods that caught my eye. I have not watched ALL of this guys video's, but i did get through a few to better understand the game and what i might be doing wrong in it. It also got me searching for mods, but not on Steamworkshop, on Nexus, as i need standalone stuff for my non-Steam version.
-------------------------
Handy Links:
Egosoft mods forum:
https://forum.egosoft.com/viewforum.php?f=129&sid=fd5ea08eb96f442a5a38729333ff0f93
-------------------------
Mods:
https://www.nexusmods.com/xrebirth/mods/
I use the Nexus for the ones i have running, most are old (older than their version on SteamWorkshop mostly) but the list i will give below seem to function well on the latest game version (4.30).
Mod Priority:
'Fix' the Space Lanes. I use two mods to do that. One removes the fake traffic created in them to force the mini-game, and the other removes the action music to, i assume, fuel the 'adrenaline' as you play the mini-game?
1. Realistic Highways (by Nifter) - i use the 'NoTrafficDoubleSpeedHighways' version of the mod.
2. No Highway Music (byFlynTie).
Now space-lanes are simply a means of getting from A to B, with a moderate amount of real traffic dodging required. Imho they are 100% improved as a game experience by these two mods.
Some go as far as to remove them completely, but that is quite a big game change with lots of knock-on issues you need to mod around, so my solution is clean and simple and functional, thanks to those two mods. One of the big annoyances of X:Rebirth is dealt with
'Fix' side-kick Yisha. I use a few of mods for this, one is modular to improve the overall graphics of the character (you look at her quite often) and one is a suit replacement to fit better to her job. The third type is to stop her constant banter with your ships AI (and other people).
1. Nebulawolf's Yisha mod (has a choice of face, hair and eyes that i use)
2. Yisha Technician (by DeserterX) for the best body/suit mod for Yisha imho and works perfectly with the above.
3. No you shut up Yisha! (by Nifter) to stop the back chat and banter that gets old quick. [was using Now Shut Up, Yisha (by ioae) - but Nifters is 'cleaner']
'Improve' the free space flight feel. I could not get X:Rebirth to work with my joystick (not a Hotas) so tried keyboard+mouse but while that was fine for when landed at a base (the space-legs part) it did not feel great in space flight. I ended up using a gamepad, and this is a rare game where that actually works really well for a PC game (say compared to NMS where i prefer mouse+keyboard).
I re-map the shoulder buttons to do 'roll left' and 'roll right'. The right stick push-down button to do 'brake/reverse thrust' and re-assign those previous buttons uses to the keyboard. That gives me full control of flight via the gamepad. I then use the keyboard for menu stuff, firing missiles, target locks etc. Once i land anywhere i switch to mouse and keyboard and the game 'notices' and allows that shift of control device without any prompt from the player.
Still having to constantly press 'thrust' to move in space gets tiresome (and immersion breaking), so i use this mod to fix that:
1. RS Physics ASSIST (by Realspace). This is a fake Newtonian flight model, and this does have inertia (like the default game), just weaker and you will have momentum from your thrust in whichever direction you are thrusting. So it is a kind of half-newtonian model that actually works really well in X:Rebirth where you have to get close to space structures to 'unlock' then etc. He does a full Newtonian version (RS Physics FULL) but it has some issues and makes the game-loops in rebirth super hard to handle imho.
These are 'optional' files on Nexus under the main mod: 'BIG SPACE or NOLocalHighways Navigational Booster Improved Physics'. You don't need the main mod file to run the optional 'Physics' mods.
The AI handles the changes well (at least on the 'ASSIST' version i use) and the feel of space is much improved, as is the challenge. However one bug exists you need to be aware off. When leaving a space lane you will be thrown full speed in the direction to exit the lane from.
That requires a full 180 degree flip against the direction of movement (use the space dust streaks to tell that) then full Boost (until that runs out), then full thrust for a few seconds to stop your trajectory. You often end up about 30km's from where you exited!
I've bounced off stations and asteroids when not being careful of my direction of exit from a space lane. So keep that in mind.
Improve the scanning stations/exploration. Even without the fake newtonian mod above, scanning stations to 'unlock' them is a bit of a chore in the default game, some parts of some stations in particular require arbitrarily fiddle-some positioning to be able to scan them. Some mods 'cheat' this all out the game, but i prefer a middle path approach.
1. 5km scan range (by Tyrant597) - extends the range your station scanner will work at.
2. ISE (Improved Station Exploration) (by PiscisFerro) - widens the angles the 'info' scan icons appear, so making scanning less awkward.
Improve graphics a bit. The default game looks ok (at 1920x1080) but graphic improver's are always nice.
1. XR Nebulas (by ICO_hr) - improves the space backgrounds, which do look a little bit pixelated in the default game imho.
2. XR Planets (by ICO_hr) - improves the planet textures.
Read the comments on the Nexus for those as there is a tweak required to make them work well in the latest versions of the game.
Now i think more could be done here, but there are not that many graphic improvement mods out there for X:Rebirth it seems, and probably that is down to the difficulty in unpacking and editing the game files (which i will cover a little later). So i'm still on the look out for more stuff to add in this section, and may even make a few myself later on at some point (if i can!).
Other mods i use currently. This covers a wide range of stuff, other than the specific things i felt i needed to try to tweak in the above mods. So I will just list those now:
1. Exploration Light (by Nodus Cursorius) - Doubles the range and intensity of the default ship light, and should be a game default imho.
2. Log Everything (by juggernaut93) - allows you to add (and delete) your own Log entries, handy for many situations the game does not handle for you.
3. Station Announcements (by Litauen) - gives a 'typical' X feel to being on-board the stations, nice immersion mod.
4. Navpath Fix (by Zloth) - Rebirth had some issues with poor AI, and this is one way to limit some of the damage from that.
5. Stronger Ship Hulls L/XL (by Nidaren) - having seen a few 'too many' capital ships get destroyed by fighter attacks this might be needed?
6. Titurel Engine Fix Standalone (by Nidaren) - fixes a bug still in the game.
7. RelationTalks (by iforgotmysocks) - Adds a menu option to apologise for stray weapon fire, and avoid unintended escalations.
8. Show Skills (by StormMagi) - allows you to simply ask an NPC to show you how good they are at their profession (avoids mini-game unlocking).
9. Epic External Shields (by w.evans) - to go with the stronger hulls mod, gives better shields to capital ships.
10. Capital Ships Bridge (by Litauen) - actually a SteamWorkshop only mod, but i got it via it's thread in the Egosoft forum here:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=129&t=371286&sid=2c650f418208f3755011cf061da2bdad&start=735
Go to 'Page 50' and in the update post by alexalsp on Sun, 6. Jan 19, 19:00 (they seem to be keeping the mod going currently), look for the Links for XRebirth 4.30 - v.3.04 section of his post, and that googledocs download link will give you the mod that you can use in the GOG (or non Steam) version.
I'm using the '3) litauen_capital_ship_bridge_to_bridge_no_voice' version and it all seems to work just fine (and thank god you can now dock on-top of your starting capital ship, instead of inside it's front, where it would bug out on undocking in the vanilla game!).
So far i have 20 odd mods and the general game improvement is noticeable, most of the things i was finding an irritation have been dealt with, but as with modding any game it can take a long time to find that 'perfect' build, and especially where a game like X:Rebirth has a fairly small selection.
----------------------------------------
Future Mod prospects:
For X:Rebirth it seems pretty slim. Most of the mods above were last worked on years ago, and with X4 now out, many people have moved onto that. Looking at the mods available to me, and the things i'd still like to add, i might have to create some myself. Still modding in X:Rebirth is not exactly easy (or that well documented) so the bar to entry is quite high.
Like with NMS (i game i did create a few mods for) you can get a feeling from the devs about 'exactly' what they feel about modding based on how accessible they make it. And locking it away behind Steam certainly does not help. I think it safe to say modding X:Rebirth is pretty dead, but luckily there are just enough good mods out there that can improve the current game measurably. And that was my aim, to focus on some of those just in case a sale comes along and people feel like giving this different X game a try.
EDIT: Overall feeling after sinking a good few dozen hours (with re-starts) into X:Rebirth
I think i like it. After the mods i felt i 'needed' to add, i maybe have a better feel of what Egosoft were trying to do here (vs X3). There were aiming for a new kind of X game, one that was a bit more focused and directed perhaps.
Stuff it does better than any other X game (and possibly any other space/sim type game) is making the game universe feel alive; it is a thing of beauty to pull up and watch the 'space traffic' stream around a station, complete with Bladerunner like police patrols and all the glowing billboard adverts. The style of design (for the architecture etc) is really strong and helps build the believability of the games world.
Even the space legs (feels half done) part adds an aspect of personality, and with a little more depth and variety to it could have been a great feature. As it is i like it just to get off ship for a bit and make a bit of cash on the side from trading, but can see how veterans of the game might want to install that mod that removes it completely. For now i'm happy doing the repetitive walk-around.
Would i pay full whack for the game (current complete edition) as is? No, just too many issues i had to roll my sleeves up and get dirty with via modding. But as a sale buy i'm better able to appreciate it, and it might actually be growing on me.
I reckon if i can find/make a few mods to adjust/fix up a couple things it could be a bit of a rough-gem find, and may be heading to some kind of 'Great game no-one played 'classic' - down the line, especially if Egosoft keep up with a few more updates/DLC? Oh and the modding carries on/picks up.
In modded form it is a surprisingly decent space game.
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