Game Discussions X4 this looks Very good

[Deleted member 182079]

I was on an Argon station in contested space when the Xenon attacked it. Running around on a station while a giant Xenon battleship is bombarding it "from orbit" is epic. My only complaint is that NPCs seemed oblivious to the fact they were about to die (EgoSoft needs to take some notes on Skyrim townfolk during a dragon attack). That and I wish X4 had a proper damage model. This is why I'm still a Space Engineers fan, because no other space game I've played has a damage model that comes close. But at least X4 lets me be a part of station attacks (attacker or defender), unlike Elite where it's always "show up after an attack to see the same copy-n-paste damaged station asset".

I still feel a bit overwhelmed with it all - a bit like sticking to the starter settlement in Bethesda games instead of exploring the map, I do have a small fleet of a handful ships now, but spend most of the time in my small combat ship (Cobra if you will), while I also own a couple of medium ships now (1 trader, 1 miner, the latter of which helps a smaller miner automine a sector for Silicon). Unfortunately the trader's crew isn't advanced enough to autotrade, I assume to upgrade their abilities I have to replace them with better crew, or manually train them with appropriate seminar items, right?

Anyways, I'm not really sure I grasp the task of commanding a large fleet including L and XL ships. I guess you spend most of the time in map mode for that? I quite like a hands on approach but I'm looking forward to that aspect of the game, later. I also enjoy slowly expanding my base. I haven't really had any experience yet (as a bystander or more actively) in any conflicts. I feel it's best I stick to earning money through non-combat tasks for a while, because whenever I engaged more than a couple of enemy ships, I tended to get my rear handed to me very quickly (and this is what happened to my wingmate last night). It really gives you a sense of real danger though, unlike in Elite which feels like easy mode, even in the early game. Going through Xenon space ... the visuals, the music, and not least the presence of nothing but red icons everywhere (and lots of them) made it a very satisfying experience when I managed to get back to friendlier territory. Like, proper relief.

 

[Old Duck]

I still feel a bit overwhelmed with it all - a bit like sticking to the starter settlement in Bethesda games instead of exploring the map, I do have a small fleet of a handful ships now, but spend most of the time in my small combat ship (Cobra if you will), while I also own a couple of medium ships now (1 trader, 1 miner, the latter of which helps a smaller miner automine a sector for Silicon). Unfortunately the trader's crew isn't advanced enough to autotrade, I assume to upgrade their abilities I have to replace them with better crew, or manually train them with appropriate seminar items, right?

Anyways, I'm not really sure I grasp the task of commanding a large fleet including L and XL ships. I guess you spend most of the time in map mode for that? I quite like a hands on approach but I'm looking forward to that aspect of the game, later. I also enjoy slowly expanding my base. I haven't really had any experience yet (as a bystander or more actively) in any conflicts. I feel it's best I stick to earning money through non-combat tasks for a while, because whenever I engaged more than a couple of enemy ships, I tended to get my rear handed to me very quickly (and this is what happened to my wingmate last night). It really gives you a sense of real danger though, unlike in Elite which feels like easy mode, even in the early game. Going through Xenon space ... the visuals, the music, and not least the presence of nothing but red icons everywhere (and lots of them) made it a very satisfying experience when I managed to get back to friendlier territory. Like, proper relief.

My combat fleet is of a modest size - a few destroyers, one XL support ship, some gunships, and a couple specialized fighters. I rely on combat drones as my mainstay for AI dogfighting defense. The nice thing about drones is that they are relatively cheap and you don't need to micromanage them.

As for using this fleet, I actually don't like relying on the AI, because it's not that smart. I have specialized ships for specific scenarios, and I'll take the helm of whatever ship I need to turn the tide of battle as the situation arises. For example, I have a missile boat destroyer that's absolutely devastating against enemy capital ships, but it requires a human pilot to really use effectively (including FA-off strafing). It's not very good against waves of fighters, however, so I have an "aircraft carrier" that has something like 50 combat drone fighters to provide CAP. Thankfully that's fairly automated, but I can turn the tide of a Midway-style "waves of fighters" battle by climbing in my own specialized heavy fighter, kinda like Darth Vader during A New Hope.

As for managing fleet movements, positioning, etc, this is where fleets come in handy, where you give orders to the fleet flagship and all the support ships will follow along in formation. Micromanagement from X4's map is not my idea of fun, but thankfully one doesn't need to play the game this way (though giving at least some orders via the map is unavoidable).

If you're looking to get into combat but don't want to deal with Xenan, I recommend signing up for the HOP war. I find the HOP a much easier opponent than the Xenon, and there are greater opportunities for things like attacking supply lines, taking spoils of wars (ships and supplies), etc. My favorite activity at the moment is flying a torpedo gunboat and "sinking" HOP cargo ships. You'll also get nice bounties for destroying HOP in friendly territory, allowing you to actually make a living as a mercenary for the Argon.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

My combat fleet is of a modest size - a few destroyers, one XL support ship, some gunships, and a couple specialized fighters. I rely on combat drones as my mainstay for AI dogfighting defense. The nice thing about drones is that they are relatively cheap and you don't need to micromanage them.

As for using this fleet, I actually don't like relying on the AI, because it's not that smart. I have specialized ships for specific scenarios, and I'll take the helm of whatever ship I need to turn the tide of battle as the situation arises. For example, I have a missile boat destroyer that's absolutely devastating against enemy capital ships, but it requires a human pilot to really use effectively (including FA-off strafing). It's not very good against waves of fighters, however, so I have an "aircraft carrier" that has something like 50 combat drone fighters to provide CAP. Thankfully that's fairly automated, but I can turn the tide of a Midway-style "waves of fighters" battle by climbing in my own specialized heavy fighter, kinda like Darth Vader during A New Hope.

As for managing fleet movements, positioning, etc, this is where fleets come in handy, where you give orders to the fleet flagship and all the support ships will follow along in formation. Micromanagement from X4's map is not my idea of fun, but thankfully one doesn't need to play the game this way (though giving at least some orders via the map is unavoidable).

If you're looking to get into combat but don't want to deal with Xenan, I recommend signing up for the HOP war. I find the HOP a much easier opponent than the Xenon, and there are greater opportunities for things like attacking supply lines, taking spoils of wars (ships and supplies), etc. My favorite activity at the moment is flying a torpedo gunboat and "sinking" HOP cargo ships. You'll also get nice bounties for destroying HOP in friendly territory, allowing you to actually make a living as a mercenary for the Argon.

Lol, where do I begin. It's certainly impressive to see what's normal to you at this stage in terms of gameplay/scope still feels far away for me, but that's ok. Just shows me there's a lot of mileage in this game and I'm glad I bought it. Thanks for the HOP tip, I think I've seen the invitation of that already but figured I try the XEN first because I often run into them and it's fun to fight against the X4 Borg equivalent heh.

Without spoiling too much, as I want to figure stuff out on my own mostly if I can, but how did you make all that money required to purchase and outfit your fleet? I think if I add a few more mining ships the credit inflow will be pretty decent. I'm still struggling a bit with finding decent trade routes so trading seems to be more of a faff to me right now than sending the AI off to mine.

 

[Old Duck]

Lol, where do I begin. It's certainly impressive to see what's normal to you at this stage in terms of gameplay/scope still feels far away for me, but that's ok. Just shows me there's a lot of mileage in this game and I'm glad I bought it. Thanks for the HOP tip, I think I've seen the invitation of that already but figured I try the XEN first because I often run into them and it's fun to fight against the X4 Borg equivalent heh.

Without spoiling too much, as I want to figure stuff out on my own mostly if I can, but how did you make all that money required to purchase and outfit your fleet? I think if I add a few more mining ships the credit inflow will be pretty decent. I'm still struggling a bit with finding decent trade routes so trading seems to be more of a faff to me right now than sending the AI off to mine.

I built a very simple silicon wafer factory in a system that was in desperate need of this commodity. It's a nice way to make money "in the background" while I do other things, and it will allow you to do simple "autotrading" for the station by assigning trading ships to the station, even if those ships have a novice crew. Even better, those crews will level up as they trade for the station.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I still feel a bit overwhelmed with it all - a bit like sticking to the starter settlement in Bethesda games instead of exploring the map, I do have a small fleet of a handful ships now, but spend most of the time in my small combat ship (Cobra if you will), while I also own a couple of medium ships now (1 trader, 1 miner, the latter of which helps a smaller miner automine a sector for Silicon). Unfortunately the trader's crew isn't advanced enough to autotrade, I assume to upgrade their abilities I have to replace them with better crew, or manually train them with appropriate seminar items, right?

Anyways, I'm not really sure I grasp the task of commanding a large fleet including L and XL ships. I guess you spend most of the time in map mode for that? I quite like a hands on approach but I'm looking forward to that aspect of the game, later. I also enjoy slowly expanding my base. I haven't really had any experience yet (as a bystander or more actively) in any conflicts. I feel it's best I stick to earning money through non-combat tasks for a while, because whenever I engaged more than a couple of enemy ships, I tended to get my rear handed to me very quickly (and this is what happened to my wingmate last night). It really gives you a sense of real danger though, unlike in Elite which feels like easy mode, even in the early game. Going through Xenon space ... the visuals, the music, and not least the presence of nothing but red icons everywhere (and lots of them) made it a very satisfying experience when I managed to get back to friendlier territory. Like, proper relief.

Before attacking station I save. Then I would use coordinated attack so destroyers use their main guns. With small fleets and carriers it is numbers and I do only when I can take losses. Don't be to anal with losses I say. But don't expect your 1 Destroyer to roll up enemy sectors, tho simply commanding them can make ly difference.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Before attacking station I save. Then I would use coordinated attack so destroyers use their main guns. With small fleets and carriers it is numbers and I do only when I can take losses. Don't be to anal with losses I say. But don't expect your 1 Destroyer to roll up enemy sectors, tho simply commanding them can make ly difference.

I reckon it's still way too early for me to even contemplate anything like that - very early days credits wise do I'm only dreaming about one destroyer nvm a fleet of them. I did pootle around a fair bit and am about 24 hours in only to be fair. Starting to slowly grasp the basics now and I like it a lot. Aforementioned fan noise is the only downside, at times I feel worried about my PC but I'm sure it's fine.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I reckon it's still way too early for me to even contemplate anything like that - very early days credits wise do I'm only dreaming about one destroyer nvm a fleet of them. I did pootle around a fair bit and am about 24 hours in only to be fair. Starting to slowly grasp the basics now and I like it a lot. Aforementioned fan noise is the only downside, at times I feel worried about my PC but I'm sure it's fine.

There are ways to cheese it with boarding large ships to take over but I rarely bother. Milestone is the shipyard. You can print money - or ships with that. It becomes increasingly easy fielding large fleets. Took me at least 2-3 weeks consistent playing - the cash requirements for the blueprint purchases are the main grind. I might have done faster but I just bought miners whenever I could - the terran economy is very silicon-hungry. I must've spent several hundred millions for all the miners. And then some fabricating them myself.
You can find ships for free in the map, too. And the terran story rewards with a destroyer, too. No need to grind them all. Also saving for the minimum outfit for delivering a fleet can net you a nice profit too, even when ordering them at NPC yard. It's all down to accumulating enough working capital.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

There are ways to cheese it with boarding large ships to take over but I rarely bother. Milestone is the shipyard. You can print money - or ships with that. It becomes increasingly easy fielding large fleets. Took me at least 2-3 weeks consistent playing - the cash requirements for the blueprint purchases are the main grind. I might have done faster but I just bought miners whenever I could - the terran economy is very silicon-hungry. I must've spent several hundred millions for all the miners. And then some fabricating them myself.
You can find ships for free in the map, too. And the terran story rewards with a destroyer, too. No need to grind them all. Also saving for the minimum outfit for delivering a fleet can net you a nice profit too, even when ordering them at NPC yard. It's all down to accumulating enough working capital.

Yeah I read about that fleet carrier/really really large ship you can find for free somewhere, honestly I want to avoid taking shortcuts/cheesing the game in any shape or form as there's no reason to as such for me, other than impatience (which hasn't manifested itself for me yet thankfully). And to be fair, the pace of progress is pretty pleasant as of now. But it's good that options are out there if that changes. How does the game handle certain events (such as conflicts/battles) by the way? Is there some hard-coded linearity involved i.e. is it possible to completely miss on key events if I'm not paying attention or will this be funneled past me in the form of story missions?

 

[Old Duck]

Don't be to anal with losses I say.

This is a game where I actually feel the losses, not because I'm losing ships, but because I'm losing crew. I've rewound time (loaded from a save) more than once because I mourned the loss of a favorite captain or copilot. That's one reason I keep my fleet small, as I actually feel a bit of an attachment to my command staff. It's too bad our crew can't abandon ship like enemy crews do. Or can they? Am I missing something?

 

[Old Duck]

How does the game handle certain events (such as conflicts/battles) by the way? Is there some hard-coded linearity involved i.e. is it possible to completely miss on key events if I'm not paying attention or will this be funneled past me in the form of story missions?

I'm playing as Argon, so there really isn't a story-driven campaign, rather most of the game is organic. This means stuff just happens, so it is possible to miss huge battles, but there will always be more battles!

That said, there are certain things that trigger states of war between factions IIRC. Accepting certain missions, for example. I've also seen situation where I initiate a conflict, like sending a few ships into enemy territory, and this seems to embolden allies to join me in the battle. For example, back when I was pushing into Xenon territory, the Argons followed me in with their destroyers and eventually started setting up a beachhead there by the gate!

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Yeah I read about that fleet carrier/really really large ship you can find for free somewhere, honestly I want to avoid taking shortcuts/cheesing the game in any shape or form as there's no reason to as such for me, other than impatience (which hasn't manifested itself for me yet thankfully). And to be fair, the pace of progress is pretty pleasant as of now. But it's good that options are out there if that changes. How does the game handle certain events (such as conflicts/battles) by the way? Is there some hard-coded linearity involved i.e. is it possible to completely miss on key events if I'm not paying attention or will this be funneled past me in the form of story missions?

No. The storyline is your switchboard where you can decide about certain conflicts. Sandbox comes with pre-caked conflicts like Paranid civil war. You could end that e.g. Or make it worse. Terran is in uneasy armistice with Argon. You can end that, start conflict or go peaceful.
Out the box you will see occasional incursions of battle groups into other sectors. Ppl start building their stations in enemy sector, disputing control. And when they come into range there be combat. Then there is Xenon who are everybody's enemy. They too come for visits. Every game will be different because it is not scripted but dynamic. There will be guidelines what spawns but the sectors will look different every time and there will be core regions that tend to develop similarly.
Yes you will often miss out on action when some Xenon attack Paranid in godforsaken sector. But the "switchboard" will be yours to play with and it will just enable or cease conflicts that exist.
From there it just simulates, taxing your fan increasingly. It's quite CPU heavy - especially if you insist keeping live feed what happens (satellites).

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

This is a game where I actually feel the losses, not because I'm losing ships, but because I'm losing crew. I've rewound time (loaded from a save) more than once because I mourned the loss of a favorite captain or copilot. That's one reason I keep my fleet small, as I actually feel a bit of an attachment to my command staff. It's too bad our crew can't abandon ship like enemy crews do. Or can they? Am I missing something?

Not that I know of. I made an all "amazon" ship with just female marines. It is kinda microintensive, but good for the RP.

 

[Demascus]

Lol, where do I begin. It's certainly impressive to see what's normal to you at this stage in terms of gameplay/scope still feels far away for me, but that's ok. Just shows me there's a lot of mileage in this game and I'm glad I bought it. Thanks for the HOP tip, I think I've seen the invitation of that already but figured I try the XEN first because I often run into them and it's fun to fight against the X4 Borg equivalent heh.

Without spoiling too much, as I want to figure stuff out on my own mostly if I can, but how did you make all that money required to purchase and outfit your fleet? I think if I add a few more mining ships the credit inflow will be pretty decent. I'm still struggling a bit with finding decent trade routes so trading seems to be more of a faff to me right now than sending the AI off to mine.

Medium trade ships, lots and lots of medium trade ships on auto trade. I would recommend getting a mod that allows easier access to skill books. I use one that makes them sellable, so it doesnt feel like cheating. This is going to provide a steady flow of income and rep.

After save up enough for a few medium combat ships with a large crew amount. I think the split have the highest. Fill it with marines.

Create an alert in your logbook to notify you of any ships with the "SCA" (that is the scale pact pirate faction) specify L (Large) class ships.

When you get an alert send your group and yourself to follow said named ship. If the ship is showing up as "not" SCA it is because they changed their IFF. Scan them to reveal their real identity. If you don't and you attack them the local police will show up to help the pirates because they think you are attacking friendlies.

Capture the ship, transfer your marines back, transfer over some standard ship crew and elect one as captain. Then transfer over some repair drones so they can start fixing the engines. Congrats you are the proud owner of a L class destroyer of some variation. Keep it or sell it. Most will sell for 8-12 million depending on the damage snd loadout.

Use this to fund building a factory. More on that if you want.

 

[Demascus]

Yeah I read about that fleet carrier/really really large ship you can find for free somewhere, honestly I want to avoid taking shortcuts/cheesing the game in any shape or form as there's no reason to as such for me, other than impatience (which hasn't manifested itself for me yet thankfully). And to be fair, the pace of progress is pretty pleasant as of now. But it's good that options are out there if that changes. How does the game handle certain events (such as conflicts/battles) by the way? Is there some hard-coded linearity involved i.e. is it possible to completely miss on key events if I'm not paying attention or will this be funneled past me in the form of story missions?

There is only one single Paranid destroyer you can get that is abandoned. It is stuck in the middle of a minefield in xenon territory I believe.
It is a pain to recover and not really worth it imho. Sells for around 13 million I think.

As far as story "event", no you cannot miss them. Though I suppose the faction quests givers could be wiped out naturally but I have never seen that happen

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Thanks for the tips @Demascus - much appreciated

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

some goods are scarce. You could make them more scarce by jettisoning out the storage with hacking. And then sell them. You can pirate tho I never tried that really. Last time I played adv. satellites made good profit just by buying low selling high. They have a huge spread in price. Look for such goods. Consumables (final products) are best - they get used eventually.
Meds and food too but they are usually abundant.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Thanks. Did another deep XEN space recon mission last night for the Argons, which netted about 600k (and required a few save re-loads because I got caught out and my ship destroyed), and my 2 miners are bringing in steady 200k+ income from mining Silicon. Realise I could play this more efficiently (buy more cheapish mining ships) but I'm having fun just pottering about and figuring out the game's features.

Eventually accumulated enough for an ARG gunboat; still waiting for resources (helped with one using my trader, I really like this mechanic) but am looking forward to fly something with a bit more oomph. Have been relying on small fighters and I get completely rinsed if I face anything more than a couple of XEN ships. Can't wait to be able to push back a bit more on those mech scum.

 

[Old Duck]

If you're into lore @ObiW then I recommend scanning those satellites (data caches I think they're called) that you'll find out in deep space. They are like puzzle boxes you need to unlock, but then you get these cool log entries similar to like what you find in Elite's megaships, but more focused on the overall history of the X Universe. These are voice acted and even have some visuals. X actually has some decent lore IMO, and I've been enjoying the game more because of it. Same goes for the encyclopedia (like the codex), it has some good info that will give you X's history as you visit new systems.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Thanks. Did another deep XEN space recon mission last night for the Argons, which netted about 600k (and required a few save re-loads because I got caught out and my ship destroyed), and my 2 miners are bringing in steady 200k+ income from mining Silicon. Realise I could play this more efficiently (buy more cheapish mining ships) but I'm having fun just pottering about and figuring out the game's features.

Eventually accumulated enough for an ARG gunboat; still waiting for resources (helped with one using my trader, I really like this mechanic) but am looking forward to fly something with a bit more oomph. Have been relying on small fighters and I get completely rinsed if I face anything more than a couple of XEN ships. Can't wait to be able to push back a bit more on those mech scum.

There is a gap in ship class between the corvettes and frigates and the destroyers. But your doing fine. If you dont generate hate - your stuff is mostly unharmes and the military cares for xenon. Mostly.
There may be surprises relazes to miming - you will notice I think.
HQ stuff is long term - but it doesnt hurt researchin teleportation, basic "engineering". But dont grind that crap. Vanilla gear is perfectly fine for all challenges. No need to pump up everything, but you can timker. Imporrant is the module unlocks. What you umlock here can yield blueprints by scanning station leaks. You will save 100s of millions.

 

[Demascus]

some goods are scarce. You could make them more scarce by jettisoning out the storage with hacking. And then sell them. You can pirate tho I never tried that really. Last time I played adv. satellites made good profit just by buying low selling high. They have a huge spread in price. Look for such goods. Consumables (final products) are best - they get used eventually.
Meds and food too but they are usually abundant.

I believe they patched adv sat exploit. I remember reading something about it. I was making a ton of credits filling up my ships with them at my own shipyard.

The resources/part cost to final product is insane. Like $5 worth of parts for a product worth $100k.

On a side note: one of the best features of the new update is being able to skip the research slog.

I have done that time sink so many times already.