Is it possible to play non-violent?

[Razar1]

I like to play Elite: Dangerous, and No Man's Sky. However, they are both very limited in their own way. In Elite, you cannot leave your ship, and there are no story missions that you can do, to add a little change to the same repetitive game play. With No Man's Sky, there's not much to the game either. The same repetitive stuff also. At least you can walk around in that one. But Elite does have a much nicer view and look. But one of the main things I like about it is that you can choose to play in a non-violent way. Sadly, that is an option that many developers don't put into their space games.

I spent a few years playing Star Trek Online. But that game is nothing but fighting. Even when giving you the option to use diplomacy, it was completely pointless, because all conversations always end with you needing to kill the NPCs. That also got very repetitive fast.

Honestly, I have never heard about this series of games before today. Just hours ago, I saw the ad that came out on the 1st. It does look very interesting, and like a fun and enjoyable game. However, I would like to be able to play it in a non-violent play style. I was wondering if this game offers players the option to do so (even in the story missions), or if there are times that you are forced to fight.

One of the reasons I ask is because I have gotten bored with fighting all the time in games. In my opinion, it is a very simple way of playing games. All you need is more weapons, or more powerful ones. Tactics are always simple, and require very little effort. But games that give you the option of whether or not you want to fight are different. It takes a bit more time for the developers to implement into a game, but makes the player have to really think through their choices if they don't want to fight.

Thanks for any info,

Razar.

[JSalzbrunn]

You can play X-Games the way YOU want to play them. Fighting might be necessary for some story missions, thats it. You can always choose NOT to fight in the game even if you must run sometimes. (Xenon race is always hostile, cant change that)

Thats one of the multiple reasons i love x-games. You are free to do what you want, a real sandbox.

[Donder172]

As the person above me said, I do think it's possible to play non-violent. Though it probably will require you to retreat at times. I do also think it would still be a good idea to invest in defenses for your ships if you do that. Not in the sense of fighting back, but in the sense that your ship can take a beating if you can't outrun hostile ships.

[MegaJohnny]

Yes, definitely. I think for an average playthrough, combat missions (or sometimes non-violent missions) are a great way to get early-game cash. But the absolute end-game is a huge network of self-supplying stations and automatic trade ships that prints money. Bad standing with a main faction just means your trade ships are going to be in more danger than they need to, and less trade partners. If anything ignoring the combat is much easier than not doing any trading at all.

But if you do try the combat in X3, it's a bit deeper than in other space games, because the way you organise your ships is completely free-form. It's not just "hire some fighter wingmen", it's full control over every ship's loadout and fine-grain control over what its orders are. A pretty common configuration is to zip around in a fighter while your nearby corvette or carrier fights autonomously.

As for which released game to try, pick your poison - X3 has much deeper gameplay, but no walking. XR has walking, but the station platforms are quite dull.

But if you can wait until 30th of November like I can't, then X4 will be released, which I think will be the best of every X game so far.

[Kernel Panic]

I'll say that in past Egosoft games it was possible to be non-violent. Sometimes you had to work hard to do it though. It wasn't until my fourth play through of X3:Terran Conflict that I achieved the highest Trading Rank (X-treme) while also having the lowest Combat Rank (Harmless). To be honest most of the people that I killed in my failed attempts to achieve this were due to traffic accidents entering/exiting jump gates and docking at busy stations.

I do not know if X4 will have the same kind of difficulty scaling as the X3 series. The way it worked was that as your combat rank rose higher and higher the game spawned tougher and tougher enemies for you to fight. This made it hard to avoid fighting after a certain point. On the other hand if you did not fight for a long time your combat rank would slowly drop although it wouldn't go away completely.

I like having the option of non-violence and in almost all of my games I was just a peaceful trader in search of new business opportunities. I even had one game in which almost every pirate ship and station liked me. As JSalzbrunn stated the only really mandatory combat was in the plot missions. So most of the time I didn't bother with a lot of the plots.

[DaMuncha]

X3 was full of missions you could do that didnt require combat. Taxi missions to take a VIP from one end of the galaxy to the other, trade missions, barter missions to get rare stuff, station building missions for NPCs, explore space, you can trade goods and services, sell maps of explored space, hang out on a station managing things you own, manage your fleets, and in AP you could play the stock market, in X3 I didnt have to fight anything unless I wanted to go looking for a fight.

[Axeface]

Not really no. Even if you try to play without initiating combat someone is going to attack you eventually, and if you build an empire your assets are going to get attacked. You could just ignore it and rebuild anything you lose though I suppose.

[Karvat]

If you withdraw every time from possible threats I think you can play non-violent, or even better if you stay in safe sectors, so yes, I played x3 hours without firing a shot and I think x4 is similar, this is the game for you

[spacecoyote99]

Hard to predict how things will be in Foundations, but I'd guess similar to Rebirth and other previous X games:

There's no "minecraft safe mode" style, where the universe is completely free of danger.

That said in your personal ship you may be attacked at times but if you keep an eye on radar you can avoid 99% of combat.
There will be random pirates/Xenon flying around that may target your ships. In relatively safe sectors that will be very rare, but it will happen.
You will also be protected by the local "police" ships, so not having to fight for yourself. In case of danger you can stick near to friendly ships/stations for protection

That's assuming your question is if you can play 100% pacifist. If you don't mind slapping a few self-defense turrets on your ship then you'll easily be able to play without being the aggressor in any situation.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

In one play-through in X3 I deliberately refrained from attacking any pirates. I then built a lot of booze and weed stations in sectors that pirates frequently visited. Over the course of the game, almost all pirates turned "blue," a sign that they were no longer hostile to me.

I also reached maximum standing with all of the other races through trading. I was everybody's best buddy. There only problem with any X game is that there are always elements that cannot be pacified. You have to fight sometime. However this was
the most peaceful game I ever played.

[edit] If this is possible in X4 is anybodies guess. The new dynamic factions may make it very difficult to be friends with everybody. But who knows, it maybe possible to have a tranquil universe.

[Falcrack]

In most X games, I play as a pacifist towards the main factions, and even leave the pirates and xenon alone provided they are leaving me alone. The vast majority of the time is spent in pursuing non-violent goals. I would say if you don't want to fight, fleeing should be very possible, via the boost drive.

[CorruptUser]

In all likelihood, your ships are going to kill a few pirates/xenon in self defense, but nothing really requires you, the player, to actually fight.

At least, not beyond the main plot, but most of the game is played without bothering with the main plot. I have 1000 hours in X3AP and have never gotten much further beyond the part where you get those two racing ships that go 1500 m/s.

[Razar1]

I want to thank all of you for your help. Sounds like this will be something I would like (if I can get my brother to get it for me. Lol.)

@ spacecoyote99, I didn't think that I might not have been completely clear about what I meant by non-violent. Thanks for the comparison with Minecraft's safe mode. I am not wanting a game that has no consequences at all. That is too boring for me. lol. I am okay with there being hostiles in the game that might come after me. I face that in Elite, and No Man's Sky. But I focus my ship builds on being able to get away from them. I have good shields, and boost the hull when I can. Plus having fast and powerful engines helps a lot.

Sorry for not being clear about that, and thank you again for your help. Especially for the tip about keeping an eye on the radar. I really hope I can get this game. Would love to do a roll play with it.

I honestly didn't expect to hear from so many that also like non-violent play throughs. But I now have another question: Some of you have mentioned you played different play throughs. Were the previous editions to this series of games have multiple saves for different play throughs? Or did you have only 1, and need to delete it every time you want to start a new one?

Can't wait till the 30th either.

Razar.

[JSalzbrunn]

You will have a Save folder under user/mydocuments/Egosoft/X4 (?).

Just rename it and make an empty one so you will have a "clear" game. But you will have some save slots also, i just rename to not overwrite by accident.

[atavistuk]

X3 and X:Rebirth both have multiple save slots to which you can have multiple saved games running, presumably X4:Foundations will be the same. So you can have a totally passive run alongside a only pirate run alongside a Profit Guild vs Foundation Guild run or whatever you want, really. X3 had 9? I think, +3 reserved for autosaves

[spacecoyote99]

Sorry for not being clear about that, and thank you again for your help. Especially for the tip about keeping an eye on the radar. I really hope I can get this game. Would love to do a roll play with it.

No worries, just trying to make sure we're talking about the same thing If that's your goal then yes that's very possible. I've played all the X games since BTF and none of them have forced you to fight.

One thing to keep in mind, there is a "main" plotline in this game that will allow you to access the unique "Player HQ" station. It's very likely (looking at the older X games) that that will require you to fight at some point. The bigger plots in previous games have always included some measure of combat. Not that you will be forced to do these missions, but not doing them might end up in giving up on the PHQ.

Well, at least until some modders make it available for purchase with credits, like they did in X3

[BigBANGtheory]

in response to the OP I hope it is possible. I'm sure I'll not play it that to begin with but on my 2nd play through yeah I might opt for a passive approach why not

[RodentofDoom]

I think the X series have always supported a non-aggressive approach as a playstyle option

My last XR playthrough was with the storyline disabled and the "trader" start
As a trader the ships all have defensive systems (shields + turrets) but apart from a small number of always hostile factions (pirates + xenon) the aim was to be friends with everyone, and it's a very easy goal to achieve, after that it's just a question of time to build up the funds for stations and more trade ships and then fix the deliberately broken economy.

The X3's iirc had a similar option as well

[Vanir]

Idealism?

Maybe the question should be:
Is it possible to play without being involved in violence?

That includes being the victim of violence.
If you own a transport ship with a pilot you hired and it becomes involved in an act of violence, are you involved too?

Violence is one of the natural orders of life.

[zazie]

Violence is one of the natural orders of life.

Are you critisizing the approach to the XC-games in this thread?

Let's take the example of one of your ships being attacked: Yes, you can try to save your ship - but you can also accept the fact of having lost a ship. Depends on your choice, for the moment or for a playthrough.
Interestingly enough, the Goners were part of the X-games (not for ReBirth though), religious wise people (not being sarcastic on this one, as we are talking about a game, not real life ) travelling through space in ships without even the possibility to equip weapons.

You CAN play X3TC as a Goner. The X-series are "Sandbox"-games. You can play them without any plots, it is completely up to you what "rules" you will follow. It is possible to be on friendly terms even with pirates; it takes some time though. Xenon-Patrols and Kha'ak-Invasions might test your will to evade fighting. But you still have game-mechanics to manage such threats: friendly races will help you (gather your assets in race's core sectors where the races have unlimited means for defence), or you build a new station on a spot that is temporarly and unluckily occupied by a Kha'ak-Destroyer .
You don't have to shoot.