Is X4 Foundations playable 300+ hrs?

[GCU Grey Area]

In X4 it's like you either do what I listed or spend a 100 hours in a heavy fighter until you can afford a bomber or Nemesis.

It's not quite that long. In my current game took around 6 hours of flying round doing odd jobs to get Ministry rep & sufficient cash to trade in my starter ship for the new Cormorant, then perhaps another 18 hours or so to obtain the cash & mod crafting components to get it kitted out exactly as I liked. Could probably have got a bomber or Nemesis in around the same amount of time, just had a strong desire to try out a brand new ship (by the way - bloody good ship for the way I play the game: decent capacity hold, enough guns to look after itself, sufficient speed to be fun to fly).

[radcapricorn]

100 hours for a Nemesis? Well, that's a stretch. 10 rep and 3-4 million? That's doable in an hour without any of the things you listed Well, OK, not "any", some odd missions will help. In the game as it is currently, you can be sporting a Minotaur Raider within 5-15 minutes of starting the game, for example.

[csaba]

100 hours for a Nemesis? Well, that's a stretch. 10 rep and 3-4 million? That's doable in an hour without any of the things you listed Well, OK, not "any", some odd missions will help. In the game as it is currently, you can be sporting a Minotaur Raider within 5-15 minutes of starting the game, for example.

I was exaggerating with a 100. However it's not one hour unless you exploit. By default the average mission gives 100-200 k creds at the start and takes at least 10 minutes to complete, and they don't spawn a lot. That puts it at least around 5-8 hours to farm out the 4 million. I'm not sure I should count the raider minotaurs as a valid income because they are laughably easy to defeat but finding those is also a pain in the ass as you don't have good satellite coverage at the start and they tend to be away from main routes, so you can have them. I suggest you clock your way from the little Elite to the Nemesis the next time you start cause 1 hour without any exploits is impossible, I'll even let you crystal mine.


Getting 3-4 million and 10 rep with ship capture, missions, exploration and Xenon busting WAAAAAAAY more work than getting the Oddy buying 10 miners from its price then leaving them around the ring for an hour and come back to 20 million credits, and 10 rep with every major faction.

[KAtari]

Who cares how long it takes to become a billionaire?

[NoelSt]

Who cares how long it takes to become a billionaire?

+1000000000

[surferx]

Who cares how long it takes to become a billionaire?

Anyone who wants to play a truly challenging game that requires a little effort and sticktoitness, and makes reaching goals very rewarding and memorable.
As opposed to a pinballish arcade game that the only goal is howfastcanibuild fleet/HQ,take over sector, WINGAME and hang about message boards asking "Where/when is the next update going to be added because I'm bored with this already!"

[radcapricorn]

Who cares how long it takes to become a billionaire?

Anyone who wants to play a truly challenging game that requires a little effort and sticktoitness, and makes reaching goals very rewarding and memorable.
As opposed to a pinballish arcade game that the only goal is howfastcanibuild fleet/HQ,take over sector, WINGAME and hang about message boards asking "Where/when is the next update going to be added because I'm bored with this already!"

This. It was, to say the least, surprising, to hear Bernd say in early interviews how they "didn't expect people to breeze through the game as fast as they did", given that the game doesn't in the slightest object to doing so.

[Sandalpocalypse]

They have metrics for progression that their mission rewards are based on. A designed pace at which people advance... but there are several major holes in that design and it really screws it.

I can understand why nividium autominers slipped through, and i can understand why they discount the derelicts. But I don't understand why station construction missions are so lucrative. Like, if all you do is satisfy the minimum requirements, the profit margins on station construction are insane. I feel like the big profits on station construction should be from sourcing materials at low costs instead of just getting an insane 300% margin even when paying top credit.

It doesnt help that the requirements are anemic too. A defense platform with 5 turrets, come on....




To be fair, i think people are being pretty silly about how the FREE CAPITAL SHIP ruins everything. I still don't know where it is. I bet 80%+ of people who have found it looked it up or read it in a guide.

[Graaf]

Who cares how long it takes to become a billionaire?

Anyone who wants to play a truly challenging game that requires a little effort and sticktoitness, and makes reaching goals very rewarding and memorable.
As opposed to a pinballish arcade game that the only goal is howfastcanibuild fleet/HQ,take over sector, WINGAME and hang about message boards asking "Where/when is the next update going to be added because I'm bored with this already!"

I did non of that and I also consider the game boring after just 52hrs. And no update gave me any reason to think otherwise.

[GCU Grey Area]

I can understand why nividium autominers slipped through, and i can understand why they discount the derelicts. But I don't understand why station construction missions are so lucrative. Like, if all you do is satisfy the minimum requirements, the profit margins on station construction are insane. I feel like the big profits on station construction should be from sourcing materials at low costs instead of just getting an insane 300% margin even when paying top credit.

It doesnt help that the requirements are anemic too. A defense platform with 5 turrets, come on....

Don't have to do it like that though. Can treat the mission reward as the budget for the job & build them a proper station, rather than adhering strictly to minimum spec. Also means I have much more flexibility in what I can build by having a large budget combined with comparatively low requirements. After all that station's going to be there for a long time (unless the Xenon or HOP decide to nuke it) & really don't want a universe littered with crappy 3 module minimum spec stations. Might as well build something pretty.

[radcapricorn]

Don't have to do it like that though. Can treat the mission reward as the budget for the job & build them a proper station, rather than adhering strictly to minimum spec. Also means I have much more flexibility in what I can build by having a large budget combined with comparatively low requirements. After all that station's going to be there for a long time (unless the Xenon or HOP decide to nuke it) & really don't want a universe littered with crappy 3 module minimum spec stations. Might as well build something pretty.

But let's apply some simple logic here, within the context of events in the game. Factions are perfectly capable of building stations on their own. In fact, especially in the beginning, player will be hiring faction builder ships, likely even from the same faction that ordered the build; purchasing resources again perhaps from the same faction. If there were at least different "companies" within factions, you could see yourself as a subcontractor/mediator arranging delivery of materials, etc. As it is, they're simply paying you outrageous amount for work they're perfectly capable of doing themselves.
And then there's the issue of war. While I can picture wartime profiteering, I can't for the life of me picture the state of mind of command/leadership that would condone such frivolous expenditures. Especially when it comes to military installations. You'd think that they would hire trusted professionals delivering quality goods and doing sturdy work, and even still try to take them for a ride citing patriotic pamphlets. Instead what we have is leadership hiring a just off flight school nobody with no real standing in society, let alone military circles, for contracts that should be held up against highest standards there can be, and paying enormous amounts for these jobs. Just doesn't add up.
At the very least, in older games you had to have certain level of standing with a faction to even be offered a certain job; station building missions were timed, which at least partially explained the increased payment. Now, it's all a short step from free handouts measured in dozens of millions.

[radcapricorn]

I was exaggerating with a 100. However it's not one hour unless you exploit... By default the average mission gives 100-200 k creds at the start and takes at least 10 minutes to complete, and they don't spawn a lot. That puts it at least around 5-8 hours to farm out the 4 million... I suggest you clock your way from the little Elite to the Nemesis the next time you start cause 1 hour without any exploits is impossible, I'll even let you crystal mine.

Well, I just did a half-attempt on the Untested Explorer, and I'm confident I'm talking from the correct orifice. Didn't quite manage 10 rep though. In an hour sharp I had 3.8M and 8 rep. Pretty sure another attempt will net full 10 No exploits, no crystal mining. Two captured minotaurs (didn't even have to look for them) plus a couple rep-lucrative missions. Sadly didn't get another one of those in time.

Getting 3-4 million and 10 rep with ship capture, missions, exploration and Xenon busting WAAAAAAAY more work than getting the Oddy buying 10 miners from its price then leaving them around the ring for an hour and come back to 20 million credits, and 10 rep with every major faction.

20 million and 10 rep with ARG, PAR, HOP and TEL in an hour just from 10 miners, and that's not including time spent trekking for the Oddyseus? Now that I'd like to see

[DirtyXenon]

3.0 is looking and feeling pretty good. With the Split' DLC I can only imagine...

[csaba]

Getting 3-4 million and 10 rep with ship capture, missions, exploration and Xenon busting WAAAAAAAY more work than getting the Oddy buying 10 miners from its price then leaving them around the ring for an hour and come back to 20 million credits, and 10 rep with every major faction.

20 million and 10 rep with ARG, PAR, HOP and TEL in an hour just from 10 miners, and that's not including time spent trekking for the Oddyseus? Now that I'd like to see

Heh it's more like 2-3. Got 15 million and +8-10 with most factions in that timeframe a few days ago. I also kept buying miners as the time went on is it was closer to 15 miners at the end.

Trekking to the Odysseus? 10-15 mins from Black Hole Sun. It's always next to the same large asteroids, you can see those from quite far if you know the general direction. I always did a fresh start on Betas so i got used to it. Taking it out of the sector in one piece takes more time actually if you also want to sell the equipment on it first, otherwise just directly sell it for 5 mill.

[radcapricorn]

I guess I'll have to try a miners-only start again, been a while since I did that. I'm wondering, what do you yourself do while they're at it? HQ plot? Something else?

[csaba]

I guess I'll have to try a miners-only start again, been a while since I did that. I'm wondering, what do you yourself do while they're at it? HQ plot? Something else?

HQ plot, jump around anomalies plus fly around the ring to get good map coverage, satellite the main trade stations that buy nividium. Buy a few min eq scouts to explore sectors. Buy more miners once you found the silicon wafer factories, expand into ore, then the gases and ice. While listening to documentaries on youtube, I'd recommend Isaac Arthur, great stuff on the future of space.