NEWS - GOLD! X³: Terran Conflict has gone gold!

[Eriru Drourojj]

It is terribly frustrating waiting for it to be released, couldn't ES have just released a digital version of the manual? saves trees and our sanity, i have X3:R for both pc and mac and my mac version comes with a copy of the manual on the disc, that's if anyone even looks at it.

[Tycow]

Because Egosoft aren't responsible for the publishing of the manual?

I think the forums been a big 72 size font warning at the top of the forum saying that ES aren't responsible for the latest delays.

[kotekzot]

Riske, valve have nothing to do with that. Actually Egosoft have to do it if they want that X3 TC uses X3 R files to save hard disk space.
And those GCFs are compressed. Just not like a Rar or a Zip. YOu dont want Steam to unpack files every time when you want to play a Steam game.

because it's impossible to unpack files after they are transferred.

[pjknibbs]

I think the forums been a big 72 size font warning at the top of the forum saying that ES aren't responsible for the latest delays.

It's not like anyone would actually READ it if it was there...

[Tycow]

I think the forums been a big 72 size font warning at the top of the forum saying that ES aren't responsible for the latest delays.

It's not like anyone would actually READ it if it was there...

You know, I was considering editing my post to add that in, but I thought against it. Great minds eh?

[RiSkE]

Riske, valve have nothing to do with that. Actually Egosoft have to do it if they want that X3 TC uses X3 R files to save hard disk space.
And those GCFs are compressed. Just not like a Rar or a Zip. YOu dont want Steam to unpack files every time when you want to play a Steam game.

I was kind of hoping Valve would have some majical way of comparing the files in the two games and working out what to put in which gcf so that they could double-up a bit. I know it was a long shot

I didn't realise GCF's were compressed? I thought they bunched all of the files into one big encrypted one, but didn't actually compress the data.

[Ecthelion]

If GCF's are compressed, they're like Quake engine PK3 files (which I believe were simply renamed ZIP files). GCF's are a different format of course, but my point is that if they're compressed, they can be directly accessed from a game and not decompressed first. Also, GCF's can be shared between games. For example, I recently installed Half Life 2 Episode 2 through Steam (on my newly reformatted computer that didn't have any Steam games on it yet). It had to download around 8 GB, but now that I have all those GCF's, I can install Half Life 2 and Half Life 2 Episode 1 for under 1 GB each. If I look in my Steam folder, I see I have the GCF's for the Source engine, which are shared between HL2, Episode 1, and Episode 2 (among others).

However, the problem here is that from what I can tell, only Source engine games use GCF's. I have quite a few third-party games on Steam (not X3 though), and none of them have GCF's when I download them. How they work is a NCF file is created in the Steam folder - this file is pretty small at under 1 MB. Once that file is created, Steam downloads the game's files into its specific folder just like a CD installation would do. Besides that NCF file, there is no difference between a third party game on Steam or retail (except I believe the EXE is modified to require Steam).

Now I have never preloaded a non-Source game on Steam, so I don't know if X3:TC will be different... obviously there would need to be a way to keep the game un-runnable until October 17. But from what I can see at this point, it doesn't look like it would share any common files with X3 on Steam. Only Source engine games appear to be able to use that feature.

[RiSkE]

Good call, Ecthelion. I totally forgot that third-party games don't use GCF's. The Steam install of X3R looks like a standard CD-install, except the .exe is modified, as you said. That means I'm going to have to download the engine and all the other common files again

[Sandalpocalypse]

Doesn't make too much of a difference. Engine doesn't take much space compared to content, and most of the content seems to have changed radically...

you could probably spare yourself the download of the old soundtrack files though, just copy your soundtrack folder into the new soundtrack folder when Steam starts installing.

[RiSkE]

From what was on the blogs, it's a totally new soundtrack.

[Sandalpocalypse]

We've heard some of the old songs used in the videos. They may or may not be in game, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a mix of old and new.

[shadows]

Hi again,

Thought I'd throw in a little first impression here, I'll try to keep it spoilerless wich won't be complicated as I've only played about 3 hours of the scenario playing in a freeform way most of the time.

So up to now the game has been running very smoothly even in systems full of asteroids and ships at maximum details and quality. (theres just one system that has been stuttering a bit and curiously it's not the most graphically intensive)
no crash to desktop, no visible memory leaks, really not a single bug and that's something!

Story wise, I find it a bit less compelling although I never found the scenario to be X's strongest point (safe perhaps for the first one that really made you feel like you were lost, and with questions regarding why people speak english and all), you're thrown in as a new character with no real explanation (well there's an introduction but still) of what has been going on. within the first 5 minutes of the human campain you get a xenon attack although apparently they haven't been seen since the first invasions and it's like there's no fuss, you just are sent there and blast them away... where's my drama??? Ok I'll argue there's been 3 years since the last game (in the story) and humans have probably been informed by Brenan of what's been going on but still, I'd guess most humans even in the military don't have access to these informations, it might cause a panic.
then there's the fact that off the bat you see goner and argon ships in the sectors, I would have expected some kind of ingame galactic even opening up the market to the other races etc... even if it had just been in the begining (ok you don't have access to Mars and Earth right away and you need to do missions to be allowed to go there but still).
Now if I'm giving some tough love to the story it's because honestly it's the weakest point.

The rest of the game is a jewel (ok I might be biased as I love the series but then again most people reading this are probably the same).
The 1uped the graphics and the game runs smoother, they redid almost all the soundtrack and it really sounds great (haven't even changed it to a custom mix as I had done for X3 and the filenames are basically the same so It wouldn't be a problem) some files are the same or a remake of an old one and there's only a few battle music I find repetitve (the ones from X2 and X3) engine and blaster sounds haven't really changed but they are spot on.

I love the new Hud, really practical even if it's a bit strange to get used to in the begining, it's still very easy to move around and they've placed things strategically, you can see they built up from the public expectations and what had been developped for X3 in mods etc...
The fact that you can see new missions directly on your hud by an Icon on a ship or a station that provides them is great.
Some missions require you to follow a target or scan and you have a threat progress bar you must stay under otherwise you're busted, nice add lots of little things but they all add up on something that was already really good, and I'm talking about a modded X3 here (although I haven't played it for quite some time, so my memory might be a bit fuzzy on some points)

The gameplay is really spot on even if in the beginning some ship might be hard to shoot because of the speed difference when you don't have the cash to buy engine upgrades, but the fact that they are zooming past you makes it harder for them to shoot you as well so...
Still have to be a sharp shooter for some enemies, or perseverant, the mouse controles are really smoothe (I play with the joystick but still tried out the mouse) and the fact that you can move in one general direction (keyboard) and shoot in another with the mouse cursor is pretty good too, although I will stick to my beloved X52.

and last but not least, the graphics.
As I've hinted before, they are stunning. X3 was already really nice, but honestly some TV shows (stargate anyone) are using CG that are barely better than this. The design is really slick, especially the earth ships wich look as a mix of current earth design (space shuttles on amps) and insiration of the well known SF tv shows. Missile trails are beautiful (especially since you start off the bat with a couple of swarm missiles) combat ships and environmental lightning, planets, the whole package looks incredible, and it doesn't bring my machine to a crawl (ok it's a good comp but I can't run crysis full on for example). Hell I've spent most of the time flying around stations and ships just to look at them at all angles. The old ships haven't changed (a thing I didnt' really like in the change from X2 to X3) and since I got used to the X3 look, I like that (although the model seem more detailed and shiny.

Oh well that's it for now, I hope you'll excuse my bad english, I'm no writer, but I just wanted to share my first experience with you guys.

here's a small photobucket album I've made from some stations and ships.

http://s457.photobucket.com/albums/qq291/khalben_photo/

See you in space.

[sndle9]

@ shadows
Thanks for your first impressions even if it makes me more impatient for the release. Nothing wrong with your English that I saw and a good mini review.

While I'm envious you got it earlier than the entire rest of the world its great to get a real players update on the new content.

I see you are running @ 1920x1200. What frame rate do you get and what is the basic spec is your system as it may help us to gauge if new kit is needed or not.

[shadows]

I get 30+ framerate in basically every setting (even roid intensive ones) but one sector up to now where it drops in the 20-25 (haven't been to home of light or argon prime yet or the Earth wich is probably memory intensive. Every setting is on max save for the AA wich is at 4x, one thing I noticed is that my comp used to stutter much more with X3:R so they probably optimized the engine to the max.

As for the computer, here are the specs

Intel C2D E6600
Nvidia 8800GTX
4 gigs of ram
X-FI soundblaster.
Benq 24'' screen
Windows Vista Ultimate

it's was a very good computer 2 years ago when I got it, nowadays it's still not bad but there's much better out there.

I'm guessing if you were able to run X3 to a satisfactory level, this ride should be smoothe as a baby. Even the SETA doesn't lag that much.

Cheers.

[Al]

I'm not sure if anyway has said this yet but I'll say just in case:

YOU LUCKY GIT




I'm rather jealous in case it didn't come across correctly. Glad to hear it runs well as I've got a pretty old machine now.
Fingers crossed the rest of us get it sometime in the next week or so

[sndle9]

@ shadows
Thanks for the update. My current system is nearly 5 years old and struggles with X3R (still playable though) and Crysis laughed at it.

My new rig should have been delivered last week but didn't turn up

When it does I'm hoping to run X3TC @ 2560*1600 on a shiny new DELL 30" monitor

[herocrafter]

shadows, thanks for taking the time to put together those photos and the 3 hour point review.

[shadows]

shadows, thanks for taking the time to put together those photos and the 3 hour point review.

No problems, figured I owed this much to the community.

The reason things happen this way in Switzerland is because, opposed to other countries, the laws here stipulate that a signed agreement must be made between publisher, transporter AND retailer for a day one release to be blocked. Most publishers don't bother, since we're a small country and only the very big ones (Microsoft, EA, Sony etc..) do.
So you often get small day 1 releases out first here because nothing has been signed and thus it's legal to break the day one date.

[X2-Eliah]

What are the different weapons like? Are they really different, or just a/b/g with different names?

Also, a simple question, do Terran SPPs use crystals? Because it was mentioned in the blog that Terran economy is different, maybe this is the thing?

[Ecthelion]

Shadows, what's the manual like? I'm not asking you to post it here, but rather to comment on its completeness and accuracy from just skimming through it. Does it seem fairly different from the X3:R manual?