I give up on this game

[DrakenKin]

About 50 hours of playing and as many hours reading the forums and watching videos if not more.

After 100 hours this game still feels like a grind against and endlessly vertical learning curve. If you just bought this game, let me tell you the learning curve never get better. Tired of :

1) Spending a great deal of time OUT OF GAME so i can understand enough about it to play it. Then barely 30 minutes after applying my new knowledge i run into other issues that require me to quit the game once again and go dig for information.

2) NOTHING in this game is made in a "sane" or "intuitive" way. It's like the designers are Argons. Real life Argons from another planet. Or maybe they just sat around and asked themselves, what would be the most obnoxious, unclear, annoying way we can implement this?

If you just started you will struggle with everything, from finding a weapon, to exploring, to understanding how to make a profit or hell even how to not bump and explode every-time you forgot to save or dock for 2 hours.

If you have been at it for a while, you'll be frustrated at never getting the main story quest, at the gigantic effort you need to develop minimal reputation with every single faction just to buy basic shields or weapons, at what the **** the different weapons do and which you should buy and where and how to get enough to equip a ship without going insane CHECKING EVERY STATION IN THE UNIVERSE FOR STOCK HDLAKJD;ALJ D;ALSJD;ASL ;DAGH;AFA;HL ASJDKHLGKHLASD111!!. WAIT WAIT WAIT, YOU EXPECT ME TO DO THIS FOR WHOLE FLEETS WHILE EQUIPPING JUST A SINGLE NOVA SHIP IS PISSING ME OFF? Frustration was piling for a while but that's the issue / moment that made me quit. The game just never gets better, it is not worth my time and sanity.

In most games, even those ones with unfortunate leaning curves, there is a point when you just understand enough to be able to relax for a bit, let the stress of learning and bumping against the frustration wall cool down for a bit until the next time you get stuck. Here it's constant frustration, each time you climb a mountain and expect to be able to catch your breath before you move on, you just find yourself at the bottom of yet another mountain and so on and so forth.

This game will never know significant success if they don't get a "design" minded guy on the developer team. I imagine the current team is full of programmers giving each other high fives for piling features on top of features thinking that's how you make games. No consideration for how the different elements blend in, no consideration for the difficulty curve, for giving enough information and feedback to the player through the interface to let him make good decisions.

A game can be complex and deep without being obnoxious. The developers either haven't learned this, or have no idea how to make it happen. I heard the next game will be friendlier, but that's impossible unless they hired some new talents. They just don't have the "sane mindset" to make it happen... They should have fixed their ways 4-5 games ago. They haven't done it so far, i see no reason for change.

[Alan Phipps]

.. and yet the odd thing is that the starting grind is often quite fondly recalled and later revisited with some enjoyment by those doing fresh start replays (albeit now with some hard-earned game-knowledge behind them).

I am not saying anything in your post is invalid or does not apply to yourself but maybe the game series just turned out to be not to your taste afterall. There are just too many fans of the series to appear to write it off for all potential future players though.

[Ketraar]

All the rant aside and the fact that not all you said is wrong per se, but I dont give you credit to allow you to judge the devs and their abilities. Its one thing to criticise the game and discussing opinions on how things are made, its another to go personal, I recommend you leave that out in future posts, its called respect.

As for the game and its learning curve, yes its steep, it has been said gazillion of times, I know that, you know that, everyone knows that. Its in every review. Still, its not like you pointed it out that it wont end, ever, this is just not true. If you have not mastered most things after 100 hours of gameplay then well maybe its just not your kind of game and you should reconsider. It sure is not everyone's game, thats a fact.

MFG

Ketraar

[Da_Junka]

I don't think it would hurt any if the devs concentrated a little more on fun as opposed to challenge.

Most of the game is work with very few fun moments.

[Coupaholic]

There is a reason they haven't changed their 'X formula' in games past you know. This is a niche game for a specific audience, and it offers the kind of challenge we want. It's not supposed to be a easy game to play, it does it's thing and it expects you to keep up. I like that.

Sure it is a little rough around the edges, but it is the best compromise to give something that very few games offer - full freedom to play the game how you want to.

[Cycrow]

[DrakenKin]

It's not a problem of grinding. Grinding can be fun when you can get to something enjoyable at the end... Insert carrot analogy here.

The problem is even after trading around to understand the sector mechanics, using stock exchange to earn those 30-40 millions to speed up the game, and investing them, it still looks like i am loosing money. I have 4 universal traders. 6 sector traders. A closed complex with 3 huge cell factories. Yet income is so slow i always have barely 1-2 million in the bank. The game just won't help you identify where you are leaking money and it feels like the 50 hours i spent getting to this point were a waste. I still feel like i need to go to the stock to get money, which will sink mysteriously into the system.

I needed a break from 50 hours of trading so i bough a nova and wanted to do some missions. Problem is it needs weapons and shields, and those i can't get from anywhere. Just to equip a nova and blow up some steam, it looks like i need to setup factories on 2 different factions so i can unlock the weapon on one side, and the 25mj shield on the other.

So i loaded the game, was already docked, spent 2 hours trading stock to raise capital for my new bases and sector traders in split space (just to build reputation mind you), bought 6 Mercuries, spent forever equiping them from all around the place, jumped them and setup the sector trade... then i undock and 2 seconds after I explode because i got hit by another ship. I always save before dangerous situations, even before using SETA, but i hadn't exploded for a while and my guard was down and i was not expecting problems. Still very disheartening.

I really don't see myself scouring the universe for modules every time i buy a ship. My ultimate goal was to get to a point where i have enough cash flow to equip fleets and fight with them, but this was made into such a gigantic chore through low module availability and how much of a pain it takes to manually buy them from all over the galaxy that its not just a grind... it's an annoying, obnoxious, unnecessary grind. You can be a billionaire but you still have to micro the most basic tasks of your fleet, and be super friendly with every faction in the universe so you can buy simple shield modules that every race needs for its ships. That just doesn't make sens.

You'r telling me the Argon make ships that require 25mj shield, but they rely entirely and solely on the Split to provide them? what if they get in a war with the split? no more shield? It's just obnoxious, not believable, doesn't make sens, doesn't help me believe this universe is alive and realistic. I just feel like a programmer wanted me to grind reputation with the split, so he put something i needed there for no other reason than add things to my todo list.

What's more, most games you can enjoy from start to finish. Some you need a buildup period of maybe 10 hours to reach a point where you can do what you enjoy. With X3 it feels like it is all or nothing... either you spend 500 hours to develop reputation with everyone, have complexes everywhere, and so on and so fort, or you stop before that and that's always frustrating because you feel like you haven't accomplished anything. It seems to me all the carrots are at the very very end, and the first 200+ hours are all sticks and pain.

And I was not trying to insult the developers, i was expressing what i felt when i played. As i said before when a feature is implemented in a non believable, non intuitive way, the suspension of disbelief goes out the window and you stop thinking of the game as a living universe and start seeing it as a collection of boxes and features another person put together. That is the point i was trying to make... you need to think about how things blend together, and about the experience itself, else your game is just a collection of code and features instead of the living world you are trying to make. I am not sure how to say it in a more diplomatic way, but i was trying to give constructive feedback... Because i do want to enjoy this game. Very much. It just won't let me.

[Da_Junka]

[shaun bergin]

I suggest you use the cag cls software and let a remote trader by your stuff that leaves you free to enjoy the game.
Soloution 1: -
Buy an Eq dock base a commercial agent there and deny trade to other races. you ptovide the funds doing missions your agent will find any goodies you need no matter where they are.

Doing this I never had to search for goodies myself till I started capping ships as an occupation.

Second soloution do what I did, some capped ships keep shields and weapons etc all you need for that is 21 realy well trained all rank marines after over 30 caps of m1/m2 ships I never lose a 5 star all levels marine.
Except for xenon Q's etc.

My only limitation now is the number of boarding pods so I have a cag buying them none stop.

[palm911]

some of your points are valid. no discussion about it.

however. this is a sandbox.

raising rep with races is actually easy. do some mission for them and you will be able to buy what you need.

i do have to agree that not having the option to become 100% independent (ie CBE, ET, RO ) of other races, is a design flaw, (in my personal opinion).

also , interface is not user friendly. ..(i agree with it) this game is COMPLEX. and it is being said in every review i checked.

but if after 50hrs in game and reading forums , you did not guessed how to quick rise race reputation?? and money?

flying around to get some 25mj shields, for your ships? plan ahead, get a factory or several and produce those yourself, same apply to every other item in the game. there are plenty of examples on how to raise money , in fact it is way to easy for my taste, (illegal products. like spaceweed and spacefull is a clear example.)


did you consider crystal fabs ? tech wares, microchips, (even shield?) in good numbers ? you do have ECells complex. how about if you start using your ecells to make more profitable products? , if you want to make good money with plexes, thing about going BIG . there is no way you can get millions out of a single factory or very few of them.

as a player you are a race of your own. and blaming the game structure because you made the classic not so good decisions in a sandbox game, is more your fault than anyone else .

PALM.

[Alan Phipps]

@ shaun: Neither of those solutions are early game options which is what I think the OP's thread is mainly about.

[Lazerius]

I've yet to play a game in the x series that by 500 hours in, I"m not producing and stockpiling everything I need for massive fleets.


From what I'm seeing, you're trying to learn how to do everything at once, instead of 1-2 things at a time, and it's frustrated you into quitting.

I don't think there's a person living who wouldn't feel that same exact way giving that situation.

Point being, You don't climb a mountain in 1 leap, but 1 step at a time.

On another note, Paranid also produce 25mj shields. Pretty well most factories can be purchased from/produced by at least 2 races. Some items are exceptions, as that race is the only one with that technology, but this generally consists of weapons and missiles.

There are some rough edges in this series, but frankly if there wasn't the depth that the X series offers, most of the community would cease to exist. I've been looking for years for a game series that offers the same kind of depth as X, and I have yet to find that game, or when it is higher learning curve sandbox, it doesn't allow the freedom that these games do.

To be blunt, If you aren't willing to work with the massive learning curve, willing to take it a step at a time to understand it all, willing to invest the time necessary to learning the game in order to have fun, than it's not the game that's the problem, but you.

[Thrasher91604]

Well for me the journey has been the reward. Just figuring out how to play this game has been fun for me. I am about ready to get my player HQ. And then I will be done playing for a while. No carrot at the end needed for me. I won't even use the player HQ.

[46_n_2]

this game is not for everyone sadly... the learning curve is actually what made me get hooked on the X series to begin with tho... the thrill of being thrown into a universe and knowing absolutely nothing about how things worked... and the sense of accomplishment you feel when you finally get a capital ship and can decimate pretty much anything you want after running and playing it safe for so long....

having 1-2 million average balance is actually normal for me at 50ish hours (i dont use the stock market tho)... i make all my money and spend it on complexes and ST/UTs leaving a floating sum of about 1-2 mil (not counting plex accounts) it'll start picking up soon as you stop expanding your ST fleet (think about how much a fully equipped ST costs up front)

solution to finding the shields

1. take a freighter and equip it with best buy locator and a jump drive. (make sure to give it fuel)

2. order it to buy 25mj shields for best price (repeat until you have enough)

3. order it to you and transfer shields.

my suggestion take a break go play something else for a week or a month and then come back... lifes no fun without a challenge

[Playbahnosh]