If you could turn back the clock...Would you have bought the game?

[Chips]

to get it to work, it was. New processor and mobo to support it cos the framereates were too low on my already above spec gear. New gfx card in anticipation.

Installation and servicing costs so yes, once I'd bought the game that's what I spent trying to first, get it to perform and then to get it stable.

when it works it now runs fine. It just no longer works.

Sorry, what I mean is did Egosoft specifically instruct you to spend that £700 in order to make the game work, or did you do this yourself off of your own bat/other peoples recommendations? You already mention that your computer was above spec to run it... but did you get forced to buy that hardware by anyone? Or did you choose to buy it yourself in the belief it would work?

[SteveMill]

No - of course I wasn't 'instructed'. Wtih the new card it easily met specs but needed another gig of ram, processor and mobo to get it to run smoothly when a lot of activity in a sector or in a big fight.

Money I wouldn't have spent except on X3. More fool me. I expected some problems, there always are with this series, but this has set new records.

And basically those of us who developed CTD's after dozens of hours of stable play are being told it is 'our fault' despite our systems working perfectly for every other program and game. There is clearly a save game corruption program screwing X3. There is no tech support and i've tried everything short of taking the pc back to the techs again for another windows service or reinstallation.

More money with no real liklihood it'll fix anything.

I'm glad some people are having no problems and are enjoying X3. When it worked it was fun if not exactly what was advertised, but i've tried everything to solve the problems a lot of us are having and now having all my saves corrupted what else can I do but quit?

Maybe some patch further down the line will somehow fix things but for now I'm just going to have to write the whole thing off and get on with playing games that somehow can bring themselves to work on systems not configured identically to the developer's machines.

[scampy]

Late to this. Bought X3 the other day for full price and I regret wasting my money I'm afraid to say.

It appears exactly the same as X2 but with fancier graphics. And I have to start from scratch for goodness sakes! I'm sure they said they'd allow us to take our X2 save games and load them into X3. I'd built a great little empire in X2, had a lovely choice of ships to fly, really enjoyed it and felt I'd got the most out of it. But it took me yonks, yonks I simply haven't got to waste now.

Worse still the game really chugs on my system, I've slowly had to turn off all the fancy graphics - the one reason to bother with it.

And what gives with the economy? I'm finding it virtually impossible to make any decent profits on anything - at this rate it'll take years to get going. Screw that.

I'm sure the storyline is fun, but I just can't be bothered. As others have said, I wanted to feel more immersion, a real new wow factor. They may have said "no landing on planets", but that has to be a minimum for X4.

And wasn't there supposed to be some multiplayer stuff? What a huge disappointment... its destined to sit on my shelf and collect dust. I'm sorry to be a whinger, there's some good programmers who have put a great effort into X3 and I don't blame them one bit. The people who manage them want shooting though.

[Abernathy]

Bizarre. I guess I meet the specs, but not by a lot. A post in Tech Support told me how to set my old FX5600 to use pixel shader v1 rather than v2, which solved my slideshow issues.

This ain't about bragging rights, 'cos I really feel for those folks who are still having issues with high-end systems, but surely if I can run it fine on my old bucket 'o bolts, anyone can? Surely it's not a hardware thing?

X3 seems to prefer AMD over Intel and ATi over nVidia and my system breaks both those rules - PLUS aside from having a 3GHz CPU I can't think of a single other component I have that comes anywhere near the spec of most of the folks having problems!!

I have:

P4 3.0GHz
1 Gb bog-standard ram
nVidia FX 5600
(Possible thing to think of) Extra Case Fans and a Coolermaster 450W Power Supply.

Still sounds like a 747 taking off though

I dunno, maybe this might help someone...

[Chips]

And basically those of us who developed CTD's after dozens of hours of stable play are being told it is 'our fault' despite our systems working perfectly for every other program and game. There is clearly a save game corruption program screwing X3. There is no tech support and i've tried everything short of taking the pc back to the techs again for another windows service or reinstallation.
s.

I do hope they can resolve all issues in the next patch, although there are bound to be the odd issue remaining. Hopefully you'll be one of the ones who benefits, although all this bug fixing is certainly going to detract from the content fixing!

I did have a save game problem at one point, I just deleted my fourth save - and no issues since (as in fourth personal save, only use two now). I also had issues with Catalyst drivers, but I rolled them back. Whether they were all actual issues (the driver was, Win XP crash report informed me the drivers were bodged) or just coincidence I don't know.

I'm sure they said they'd allow us to take our X2 save games and load them into X3.

No, that was for the return - the expansion. The expansion was going to have compatible save games, not a full sequal.

And what gives with the economy? I'm finding it virtually impossible to make any decent profits on anything - at this rate it'll take years to get going. Screw that.

An improvement, it isn't just E cells that have the profit, but people expect changes - yet wanted the same simplistic universe. It takes some getting used to, but then people wanted changes and subsequently dislike the fact that they have to learn something new? Part of the challenge of a new game imo. However, that doesn't mean to say it isn't without it's problems either... some people are having issues with this, but at the start it should be fine and dandy.

And wasn't there supposed to be some multiplayer stuff? What a huge disappointment... its destined to sit on my shelf and collect dust.

Nope, fraid that when people imagine features like this to be "supposed to be in it" that they will naturally be disappointed...


There aren't that many "slap you in the face" changes, which obviously people expected. There are some sublime little changes though, touches which really breathe extra life into the game. There are also some glaring missing parts - like BBS missions/varities!

[shireknight]

No -not yet.

If I could turn back time I would wait until the Gold edition came out and then buy it -I expected a lot more changes and admit I am dissapointed overall.

[scampy]

An improvement, it isn't just E cells that have the profit, but people expect changes - yet wanted the same simplistic universe. It takes some getting used to, but then people wanted changes and subsequently dislike the fact that they have to learn something new? Part of the challenge of a new game imo. However, that doesn't mean to say it isn't without it's problems either... some people are having issues with this, but at the start it should be fine and dandy

Fine, you have to trade in things other than E-cells. Cool. But they should have given you the trade-system extension so you didn't constantly waste your time right at the start flying to systems full of Cattle Ranches with loads of stock only to find they're charging exorbitant prices for it.

Maybe I haven't played it enough, but I can't see I'm going to have time to "give it a chance". 35 quid wasted.

[pasty11]

My X3 cycle.

No
Yay
YAY
NOOOOOOOOO

The last no being that later stage stuff like trading with stations is totaly nerfed as the economy grinds to a halt and does not work at all.
All the NPC traders disapear and are not respwaned, basicaly the game just kicks your suspension of disbelief in gnads when you get to the later stages.

I am waiting on the next patch to see if the next stage is YAAAAAAAAAAAY.

[pasty11]

And what gives with the economy? I'm finding it virtually impossible to make any decent profits on anything - at this rate it'll take years to get going. Screw that.

If anything I find making money in X3 MUCH MUCH easier. Once you forget X2 legacy approach and look at the new economny you will find some big easy milk runs. I was making 275k+ in 1 gate hops. Yea you got to cap upto your first trader but after that it is much to easy peasy. Once you have 4 or 5 UTs the credits will just poor in.

[Chips]

I am waiting on the next patch to see if the next stage is YAAAAAAAAAAAY.

With the way some people are complaining about how easy the Khaak are, and the lack of pirates - i am actually kind of hoping that the next one will be:


WTF??OMFG?!HAX!!?!

Or something a bit more, erm, translatable.

[aronlsearle]

I do hope they can resolve all issues in the next patch, although there are bound to be the odd issue remaining. Hopefully you'll be one of the ones who benefits, although all this bug fixing is certainly going to detract from the content fixing!

And what about people with no internet connection, oh well there buggered (i know people that still dont have it)
There are still problems with X2, so i shant hold my breath as to all the bugs being ironed out.

There aren't that many "slap you in the face" changes, which obviously people expected. There are some sublime little changes though, touches which really breathe extra life into the game. There are also some glaring missing parts - like BBS missions/varities!

Err no, the game is stale.

Small changes do not breath life into a game they just tweak it, there are no big changes other than graphics that actually justify this being anything other than x2 with eye candy and a few tweaks. In fact dumbing down the combat is a step BACKWARDS not fowards, combat is a joke now.

[pasty11]

In fact dumbing down the combat is a step BACKWARDS not fowards, combat is a joke now.

How on earth is the combat dumbed down? I think this is the one area where x3 has made a quantam leap forward.

Imporovements.

1. Drift, no more combat on rails.
2. Faster weapons, hence less collisons.
3. Better missiles.
4. Cant Kills m1s in m5s.

[Smokey McPot]

...
So now I am having flashbacks of the Master of Orion 3 release where I was so hyped for the sequal to the brilliant MOO2...and MOO3 turned out to be a total flop.

Uhhhh... MOO3 - indeed that was a DISSAPOINTING piece of s***, but I don't think you're being fair to X3 if you compare it with that useless garbage.

X3 needs some work (and it ain't fair to ask it from modders), but it definitely has the potential to be a great game. In my humble opinion, if:

a) the economy becomes really dynamic
b) the storyline is improved (actually has to be completely rewritten)
c) the logical inconsistencies in the X Universe are dealt with

then X3 would keep us occupied for most of 2006. (if you consider all the modding that can easily be done on top of these 3 main things).

From a programmer's point of view, b,c are easily done. a) is a bit more problematic, and I guess patch 1.4 sometimes in 2006 will probably fix it, but for now, in 1.3 I hope they'll fix at least the independent traders respawn.

Cheers

[shireknight]

And what about people with no internet connection, oh well there buggered (i know people that still dont have it)

This is a very good point. I do believe that there should be a legal responsibility for distributers to send patches to all registered owners of their software so that people can request patches be posted out to them at zero cost if they wish.

[Chips]

I do hope they can resolve all issues in the next patch, although there are bound to be the odd issue remaining. Hopefully you'll be one of the ones who benefits, although all this bug fixing is certainly going to detract from the content fixing!

And what about people with no internet connection, oh well there buggered (i know people that still dont have it)
There are still problems with X2, so i shant hold my breath as to all the bugs being ironed out.

They return the game for a refund, like many have said they have already done.

There aren't that many "slap you in the face" changes, which obviously people expected. There are some sublime little changes though, touches which really breathe extra life into the game. There are also some glaring missing parts - like BBS missions/varities!

Err no, the game is stale.

Small changes do not breath life into a game they just tweak it, there are no big changes other than graphics that actually justify this being anything other than x2 with eye candy and a few tweaks. In fact dumbing down the combat is a step BACKWARDS not fowards, combat is a joke now.

The Gameplay may be stale for yourself, but not necessarily for others! Many consider the combat a vast improvement, and many find little touches accumulate to add extra dimensions that they didn't have before. I said breathe extra life, not new life - extra.

[darkpark]

Based on what I've seen in this forum, it seems that most people who are new to the X-Universe like X-3 but those coming from X-2 are a mixed lot.

I have never heard of X until I saw a 2 page ad in a computer magazine and the next day I pre-ordered it from Newegg.com
I am very glad that I did! I am enjoying this game very much and I have not experienced any of the problems that others are having except for the slow performance in certain sectors.[/b]

[Jericho]

I have been waiting for this game to be released. Browsing the store, I saw X3 on the shelf and snatched it up. Before I opened the box, I surfed the web to see what the buzz is.

Feeling a little let down on some of the reviews I've seen. Seems that there are alot of bugs, HD corruption and problems with the security software bundled with the game. Amazon.com reviews have not been kind.

So now I am having flashbacks of the Master of Orion 3 release where I was so hyped for the sequal to the brilliant MOO2...and MOO3 turned out to be a total flop.

So folks, do I take X3 back to the store or do I keep er? Are you folks happy with the game regardless of the headaches?

Thanks for your time and opinions!!

As I have none of these problems with the game, the only thing I would do if I could turn back the clock, would be to buy a winning lottery ticket at the same time as X3.

[Goffik]

They return the game for a refund, like many have said they have already done.

Oh right, sod them then. Of course, that would be your opinion if you didn't have an internet connection, right?

So, what happens if their local game store has a NO RETURNS policy on PC games, due to the fact they are easy to crack, copy and return within a day?

Its not internet-lacking-peoples fault that pirates are cracking games, nor is it their fault that games are released unfinished and sub-standard. So, why should they be made to suffer?

Any game released should be FULLY playable right out of the box. IF there is a chance it wont be, then there should be a warning on the box about future patches being required to experience the game fully... similar to the warnings a tiny minority of games now have about their copy protection conflicting with some hardware setups.

[PHOENIX_X]

You can't say it yet. X2 was the same candidat. Alot of bugs at the begining but it turned out to be a hell of a game.

[Chips]

They return the game for a refund, like many have said they have already done.

Oh right, sod them then. Of course, that would be your opinion if you didn't have an internet connection, right?

So, what happens if their local game store has a NO RETURNS policy on PC games, due to the fact they are easy to crack, copy and return within a day?

Its not internet-lacking-peoples fault that pirates are cracking games, nor is it their fault that games are released unfinished and sub-standard. So, why should they be made to suffer?

Any game released should be FULLY playable right out of the box. IF there is a chance it wont be, then there should be a warning on the box about future patches being required to experience the game fully... similar to the warnings a tiny minority of games now have about their copy protection conflicting with some hardware setups.

Erm, what would you like me to do about it? What exactly can I do about it? I can neither help the fact that they don't have a connection, nor help the fact that their game may crash etc. So should we forsake ALL discussion about anything simply due to those whom may not have connections?

Yes, they have a problem, no - we can't help them at all, and it's up to Egosoft/Deepsilver what they may do about it... but taking yet another pop at a forum member about it is a bit, well, redundant isn't it? If it isn't, then please - I strike a motion that everyone shuts up then, because elsewhere in the world they are dying!

Have a rant at me mate why don't you, it's a simple plain fact that they may not be able to get the patch... so what exactly do you want me to do? I said they should return the game - it is an option that they have, probabily their only one. If the PC store has a no returns policy in the UK, then you can kindly point out that you will call the DTI - as they are breaking the consumer laws afaik. Apart from that suggestion, and the fact that the game DID ship without patches, what else can I say?

What else are you wanting to hear from me? I am a little perplexed as to why we must focus on something we can neither sensibly solve or resolve at all... You seize on a possible situation, and take a swipe when it is completely irrelevant to both of us. Swipe away, just when you have a solution for them - tell us all.