Honest Review from Steam. Developers Please Read!!

[shinzah]

No, why should the expansions be free? That is absolutely ridiculous. Egosoft is already making a niche game and X4 is an excellent game despite the bugs. I would rather support Egosoft so that they can continue to produce X games.

You can't be serious. You are going to tell me that you feel the devs did right to their customers and loyal fans by releasing a half baked game? But I digress. Is this game worth $50 in it's released and even current state? Absolutely not. Do I feel that the devs have the capacity to make this game "more" than what it is? Yes.

This year has taught myself personally a great value in how devs are just releasing half baked games and expect their fans to just accept it. Pathfinder Kingmaker, Fallout76 and now X4. All different developers yet all share the same lack of pride in their product based on the massive amount of bugs, unplayable content (or lack of in this case), do you really want me to go further? I'm a realist and a HUGE fan for EGOSOFT but I will never ever justify giving the devs a "pass" for releasing a product in such a sorry state.

I haven't played Kingmaker, but putting X4 in the same league as Fallout76 is outright disingenuous. Egosoft never advertised one thing with direct imaging and then pulled a bait and switch with something else of a cheaper quality. Egosoft never ran a beta that forced users to buy the game at full price before it could be uninstalled. Egosoft never offered a pittance of in game currency to fix issues with the game and Egosoft never gimped their own refund system to minimize financial ruin from people unsatisfied with their product. Egosoft never faced a class action lawsuit, mostly because they have no legal obligations that would result in one and a fair amount of people who have played the game either enjoy it now, or expect to enjoy it after a few patches.

Egosoft is not Bethesda and this comparison is just flat out wrong.

Plus nearly a patch a day since release and a public beta branch doesn't say "We don't have pride in our product". It says "We have faith in our community."

[Studders]

No, why should the expansions be free? That is absolutely ridiculous. Egosoft is already making a niche game and X4 is an excellent game despite the bugs. I would rather support Egosoft so that they can continue to produce X games.

You can't be serious. You are going to tell me that you feel the devs did right to their customers and loyal fans by releasing a half baked game? But I digress. Is this game worth $50 in it's released and even current state? Absolutely not. Do I feel that the devs have the capacity to make this game "more" than what it is? Yes.

This year has taught myself personally a great value in how devs are just releasing half baked games and expect their fans to just accept it. Pathfinder Kingmaker, Fallout76 and now X4. All different developers yet all share the same lack of pride in their product based on the massive amount of bugs, unplayable content (or lack of in this case), do you really want me to go further? I'm a realist and a HUGE fan for EGOSOFT but I will never ever justify giving the devs a "pass" for releasing a product in such a sorry state.

You know what, last week at this time I was with you. But when you see them hammering out the patches it's a good feeling. It's a shame there is a trend in games recently that are half baked and yeah, this could have used a little more love too. But theres a ton of mechanics in this game and I can forgive them because it's more complex really. The fallout comparison is harsh haha! Bethesda are huge and there is no excuse whatsoever for the way they released 76, and from what I hear watching Cohhcarnage, they aren't dputting any effort into patching at all. So i'm kinda with you in one sense!

[Arigon2001]

No, why should the expansions be free? That is absolutely ridiculous. Egosoft is already making a niche game and X4 is an excellent game despite the bugs. I would rather support Egosoft so that they can continue to produce X games.

You can't be serious. You are going to tell me that you feel the devs did right to their customers and loyal fans by releasing a half baked game? But I digress. Is this game worth $50 in it's released and even current state? Absolutely not. Do I feel that the devs have the capacity to make this game "more" than what it is? Yes.

This year has taught myself personally a great value in how devs are just releasing half baked games and expect their fans to just accept it. Pathfinder Kingmaker, Fallout76 and now X4. All different developers yet all share the same lack of pride in their product based on the massive amount of bugs, unplayable content (or lack of in this case), do you really want me to go further? I'm a realist and a HUGE fan for EGOSOFT but I will never ever justify giving the devs a "pass" for releasing a product in such a sorry state.

I haven't played Kingmaker, but putting X4 in the same league as Fallout76 is outright disingenuous. Egosoft never advertised one thing with direct imaging and then pulled a bait and switch with something else of a cheaper quality. Egosoft never ran a beta that forced users to buy the game at full price before it could be uninstalled. Egosoft never offered a pittance of in game currency to fix issues with the game and Egosoft never gimped their own refund system to minimize financial ruin from people unsatisfied with their product. Egosoft never faced a class action lawsuit, mostly because they have no legal obligations that would result in one and a fair amount of people who have played the game either enjoy it now, or expect to enjoy it after a few patches.

Egosoft is not Bethesda and this comparison is just flat out wrong.

Plus nearly a patch a day since release and a public beta branch doesn't say "We don't have pride in our product". It says "We have faith in our community."

I'm comparing all 3 games to the fact of them all having half baked games... that is the only point that was made. If you want to read more into it and make self assumptions then that is on you.

[RWolf]

No, why should the expansions be free? That is absolutely ridiculous. Egosoft is already making a niche game and X4 is an excellent game despite the bugs. I would rather support Egosoft so that they can continue to produce X games.

You can't be serious. You are going to tell me that you feel the devs did right to their customers and loyal fans by releasing a half baked game? But I digress. Is this game worth $50 in it's released and even current state? Absolutely not. Do I feel that the devs have the capacity to make this game "more" than what it is? Yes.

This year has taught myself personally a great value in how devs are just releasing half baked games and expect their fans to just accept it. Pathfinder Kingmaker, Fallout76 and now X4. All different developers yet all share the same lack of pride in their product based on the massive amount of bugs, unplayable content (or lack of in this case), do you really want me to go further? I'm a realist and a HUGE fan for EGOSOFT but I will never ever justify giving the devs a "pass" for releasing a product in such a sorry state.

I haven't played Kingmaker, but putting X4 in the same league as Fallout76 is outright disingenuous. Egosoft never advertised one thing with direct imaging and then pulled a bait and switch with something else of a cheaper quality. Egosoft never ran a beta that forced users to buy the game at full price before it could be uninstalled. Egosoft never offered a pittance of in game currency to fix issues with the game and Egosoft never gimped their own refund system to minimize financial ruin from people unsatisfied with their product. Egosoft never faced a class action lawsuit, mostly because they have no legal obligations that would result in one and a fair amount of people who have played the game either enjoy it now, or expect to enjoy it after a few patches.

Egosoft is not Bethesda and this comparison is just flat out wrong.

Plus nearly a patch a day since release and a public beta branch doesn't say "We don't have pride in our product". It says "We have faith in our community."

1. He is clearly referencing the quality issue related to FO76. The game was literally broken on release, horrible game design, and according to the leaks, many of the developers were told just to throw something out for people to buy, that it would be like an early access title they can deal with later but sold and promoted as though it were ready for release. Tbh its a decent comparison. The thing is, unlike FO76, which largely used old game assets from FO4, Egosoft decided to start over from scratch yet again and did not use the assets they already made from Rebirth.

2. Egosoft does not showcase "pride in product" behavior, much less adherence with the franchise they created. Sometimes I think they hate their own IP but cannot really escape it either, as they are not building on top of what they have done but love to constantly start over and push weird design decisions for the sake of it. I have a feeling there is a ton of feature creep involved with their development cycle too. If you have pride in your product, you don't become known for bad releases that require a ton of patching and paid expansions to fix. They also adopt what the modders do, or rely on the modders to fix a lot content issues as well, coincidentally something Bethesda also does.

[Gosnell]

Speaking As a longtime player I can see and respect both arguments.
Egossoft shouldn't be given a pass for releasing the game as 1.0 with so much content missing and so many bugs present.It's disheartening to think how many people will refund this before it's patched into a classic. Egosoft wants so badly to play with the big boys, without realizing its actually the true savant of the genre.Its predilection to releasing half-baked games is the reason it's not considered a triple a company.First Impressions count.
Im saying this as someone who loves the series,Egosoft needs to readdress its quality control pre release.
For the love of god Bernd release into early access,that way missing features can be looked forward to,not frustrated at.

[TerrorTrooper]

what part of the word "foundations" you guys dont Get? you know what that means?

this game is a "foundation of what is coming" hence the name.. Geez!./

(yes there are bugs, but they are working to fix them, and knowing egosoft past , you can bet they will keep improving and improving on it. )

At a guess.. they don’t get the part where they paid £50 for a template

You’re not wrong about Egosoft and their work ethic, they do support their products well and I expect great things will come of X4.

the game is much more than a template... otherwise noone would have paid that kind of money...

people spend more at any mid level restaurant... i thiunk its fairly priced., and will grow, it also means egosoft will ahve the resources to keep expanding, so i am in full agrement with their model!

Good for you!!
However.
Myself, And many others, do not choose to agree with that sort of development model.
So your rediculous statement about the 'between the lines' interpretation of the name 'Foundations' is just that, a rediculous statement.
and when you say "people wouldnt have bought it if it was a template" the people didnt know, besides screenshots, there has been almost no info on the game for the last year prior to release.
Like many others, i bought the game blind, and in good faith.

[Mightysword]

Sometimes I think they hate their own IP but cannot really escape it either, as they are not building on top of what they have done but love to constantly start over and push weird design decisions for the sake of it.

Ignoring the other points this is one thing I don't get either. When you look at most if not all long running franchises, they all get upgraded asset and features and each iteration, even the rare "reboot" would still largely based off the original designs. The X series is probably the only one I know off that has a completely make over at each iteration. Not only I figure that probably must have cost a lot more resource to do, it also means you run the risk of constantly working with a fresh V1.0 of the design without the benefit of polishing and enhancing it. As a few example:

The GTD Orion in the original freespace vs the GTD Orion in FSopen

The siege tank in Starcraft 1 vs the siege tank in Starcraft 3

Now comparing to those, the X-series went like this:
The x2 Titan vs the X3 Titan

The x2 Python vs The x3 Python

Now, comparing to X3 to XRebirth, or even XRebirth to X4, you can almost feel ... no continuation at all. This is not just applied to assets but other mechanics and things too. I kinda wish Egosoft hammer out the detail, polish the template and improve what they can at each iteration, rather it seems they decide to radically redo everything from scratch each time.

[ezra-r]

Ship variety is lacking in a big way with all factions.

I may not have played enouhg to notice, but for what I have seen, there is set of ships of every needed type, why more?

Scouts
Traders
Miners
Fighters
Bombers
Big fighters
Builders

What else is needed really? More ships for the sake of having them will just destroy the purpose of the ones already in game. I prefer to have ships with specific purpose really.

[Chris0132]

More ships for the sake of it does add to the game, it's nice to see different variations and there's a fair bit you can do with different loadouts and handling profiles, and this could be well expanded on with X4's modular system with different craft having different module options.

But that all comes with time. X3AP wouldn't have happened without X3R and X3TC. You can't say "Well I just wanted X4AP" because the only reason you'll get that is if people buy X4 and any other products in between now and the time X4 is fully content mature.

[Gosnell]

In X3 we had
Scouts
interceptors
fighters
heavy fighters
corvettes
bombers
frigates
missile frigates
carriers
destroyers
varieties of trade ship
Small transport carriers
Station Carriers
With 7 different races each with all of the above specific ships

[Chris0132]

You had all of that after many years of patches and expansions funded by people who bought the unpatched and unexpanded versions. A large number of those ships and some of those entire classes were added after the release of X3 Reunion.

The X3 series was an iterative product and I am glad that the end version was as good as it was, but if you want X4 to work the same way the funding for that amount of development time has to come from somewhere and that means it needs its Reunion version.

[CaptainX4]

You had all of that after many years of patches and expansions funded by people who bought the unpatched and unexpanded versions.

The X3 series was an iterative product and I am glad that the end version was as good as it was, but if you want X4 to work the same way the funding for that amount of development time has to come from somewhere and that means it needs its Reunion version.

well, reunion already had nearly all of those with a few exceptions and had zillions of sectors so YES PLEASE, give as a reunion size X4!

[Chris0132]

Your memory is being overgenerous. The release version of X3 did not have the entire TM, M7, Heavy M6, or M8 classes. And it had, roughly, one per faction of each other ship class.

Maps are difficult to compare given they work entirely differently but it was also missing the entire southeast of the universe and a lot of sectors mixed in here and there. Obviously also the entire terran faction did not exist.

https://roguey.co.uk/x3/ships/

A vast amount of content was added over the course of X3's lifespan and the standalone expansions. X3 Reunion was not X3 AP or TC, not by a long shot.

[palm911]

At a guess.. they don’t get the part where they paid £50 for a template

You’re not wrong about Egosoft and their work ethic, they do support their products well and I expect great things will come of X4.

the game is much more than a template... otherwise noone would have paid that kind of money...

people spend more at any mid level restaurant... i thiunk its fairly priced., and will grow, it also means egosoft will ahve the resources to keep expanding, so i am in full agrement with their model!

Good for you!!
However.
Myself, And many others, do not choose to agree with that sort of development model.
So your rediculous statement about the 'between the lines' interpretation of the name 'Foundations' is just that, a rediculous statement.
and when you say "people wouldnt have bought it if it was a template" the people didnt know, besides screenshots, there has been almost no info on the game for the last year prior to release.
Like many others, i bought the game blind, and in good faith.

let me start by saying please do show some respect for other people views. that type of comments does not make you worthy of using these forums, so your post and behaviour has been reported to the forum moderators.

thank you.

[jeroll3d]

One thing is for sure, we must be absolutely certain: Egosoft always - always - fixes its games. Egosoft is a serious company in the gaming market and one of the best - in my view - in the field of the Space genre.

About 'DLCs': this involves a lot of work. Egosoft is currently focused on fixing any bugs. I will have the huge, the giant pleasure in buying your DLCs because I trust Egosoft's immensity - and I've been following Egosoft for many years!

[palm911]

One thing is for sure, we must be absolutely certain: Egosoft always - always - fixes its games. Egosoft is a serious company in the gaming market and one of the best - in my view - in the field of the Space genre.

About 'DLCs': this involves a lot of work. Egosoft is currently focused on fixing any bugs. I will have the huge, the giant pleasure in buying your DLCs because I trust Egosoft's immensity - and I've been following Egosoft for many years!

i subscribe your words there a 1000%.

[TerrorTrooper]

the game is much more than a template... otherwise noone would have paid that kind of money...

people spend more at any mid level restaurant... i thiunk its fairly priced., and will grow, it also means egosoft will ahve the resources to keep expanding, so i am in full agrement with their model!

Good for you!!
However.
Myself, And many others, do not choose to agree with that sort of development model.
So your rediculous statement about the 'between the lines' interpretation of the name 'Foundations' is just that, a rediculous statement.
and when you say "people wouldnt have bought it if it was a template" the people didnt know, besides screenshots, there has been almost no info on the game for the last year prior to release.
Like many others, i bought the game blind, and in good faith.

let me start by saying please do show some respect for other people views. that type of comments does not make you worthy of using these forums, so your post and behaviour has been reported to the forum moderators.

thank you.

What??

You mean.. like your condescending tone about the meaning of foundations?

You posted a view, I posted a different one..
End of story...

Reported me!! XD grow up and grow a pair!!

[Fonz]

No, why should the expansions be free? That is absolutely ridiculous. Egosoft is already making a niche game and X4 is an excellent game despite the bugs. I would rather support Egosoft so that they can continue to produce X games.

because this is a half finished game of a size of an indie title for AAA price? no matter how x it is, im not going to pay the price of 3x AAA games for one finally whole game

^ this

[palm911]

i have been trying to be nice, and now you are being rude.

a ridiculous statement. why is ridiculous, ? if you dont like it , thats fine, that does not make a comment ridicolous. and you need to understand that you should show respect of other people views even if in disagreement.

so since you are after this kind of attention and asked me to grow a pair , there you go :

" i did not called you a "cry baby" , because you are not pleased with your "investment" of 50 euro? , that is indeed ridiculous... QQing .... about an "investment" of 50 euro? next time wait for steam discount, (if you wait a few months it could be at a much affordable price. i just cant imagine what would you do if it was more than a 100 lol.

the paragraph above.. is that the tone you want me to do with you? , but dont worry i am not responding you anymore. a good advice, is respect other people views if you wish them to respect yours.

have a wonderful sunday.

[jeroll3d]

"

because this is a half finished game of a size of an indie title for AAA price?"

Simple, dont buy it if you dont like it. If you do, why are you complaining? Another thing, who sets prices for AAA games, you, me or the companies involved? One more thing, AAA games - this description is very subjective.

The game is finished, it only features some bugs like absolutely all games in the gaming industry and, as I mentioned earlier, it will be totally fixed.

Egosoft is, to this day, updating XTerran and Albion. If I'm not mistaken, the last update was late 2017, long after launching XRebirth.

That's just an example, I could quote much more here. You (and OP) have every right to suggest to Egosoft what you want and they will listen (as they always have) but there is a limit there, when the suggestion tries to become 'imposition', even disrespecting other points of view.