I've looked at x-Rebirth on and off for a long time and never ever bought into it. Watching videos it does seem like something I'd enjoy. I know they had issues when it was released, but credit to the devs for sticking at it and trying to sort through those issues.
Is it a good buy for SP explorer/trader/miner types.. ?
Well, its strictly SP so that part is covered.
I dont know about exploring, to be honest. The universe is MUCH smaller than ED, its more 'SC' like in scope. You cant land on planets, or scan them, or get any info on them. Space is firmly a backdrop in X:R, so if astronomy/exploration is your main thing I doubt you'll enjoy it. As for trading/mining: thats pretty much what this game is about. Its best to see the game as having two 'sides':
1) You and your ship. You cannot change ship, outfitting is very limited. Flight model is a bit SC-like, but with more weight, and the combat has the depth of NMS basically. You'll spend times doing missions, discovering new regions, getting your trade-data and scouting for deals. Its deeper than NMS, but not even close to ED.
2) Trading. Here is where the Cool Stuff happens. The entire economy is simulated to an absurd point. All stations produce and require all kinds of materials (so no longer the 1:1 stuff of earlier x-games), with demand/supply dynamically influencing the prices. Shoot a trader and the cargo is removed, raising the cost of it on the market and delaying any production that was dependend on its delivery. You can build trade fleets, hire NPC crew for it and assign hierarchy. Have a cruiser protect a huge freighter, and have a bunch of escort fighters under the command of the cruiser, that kind of stuff. Eventually you'll start building stations, and have the ability to set up completely independent production chains. Spend enough time on it and you'll be able to produce the most expensive stuff using many different stations producing the required components, all the way down to using the raw materials your mining fleet provided. All of this happens in real-time, with mining drones buzzing around, cargo ships shuttling between the station and freighter, police NPC scanning for contraband (and with a high rep you can buy licenses for various commodity types or even join the police). Tired of a competitor? Build a war fleet, dock on a massive capital-class battlecruiser and start messing other stations up. You give orders to your cmdrs, who will give orders all the way down the chain. Then you enjoy a massive space battle from the bridge, or hop into your ship and join the fun.
Its obviously the wrong choice for people looking for multi-player, or a great dogfighting game. People not into combat will find a great 'space tycoon' game with awesome graphics, great depth, first-person walking, Steam Workshop mod-support and a difficulty-slider for those who really dont like combat.
Its no competitor to either ED, NMS, I:B, SC or even X3. But its a great game in its own right, and well recommended. I do somewhat recommend torrenting it first to see if it works. Its working super smooth over here, but due to the massive and absurdly stupid issues at launch I can understand when not everyone wants to take a gamble on this one.
