Is X4 Foundations playable 300+ hrs?

[Gernias]

Hey there everyone!

I have a small amount of hours in the X3 franchise (500+ hrs). So when I saw X4 Foundations launch close to a year ago, I decided to wait a year to play the game to let it cook a little longer.
So my question now is is the game in a playable state? I see the new 3.0 update is coming out soon (Is the beta resonably bugfree?), will this require a restart if I start playing now? Then the new DLC's. Have these in prior iterations broken the game, and required a new savegame?

And if I should wait a little bit to start my playtrough. Is there a good youtuber to watch to learn the ropes so i have some understanding when I play the game?

Sorry for the wall of questions guys, It's just as I'm getting older i don't really have the time to restart a 200 hr game that stems from a mistake I made one hour in

-Gernia

[Sandalpocalypse]

Yes the game is playable. There seems to be widespread agreement that 2.6 would have been a good launch-quality game.

The 3.0 beta has notable bugs, but it is in a state of rapid iteration and bugfixing. It also does not contain all 3.0 content. On the other hand, 3.0 beta does have reworked and improved tutorials.

Egosoft has always retained save compatibility in released patches, but 3.0 beta games are not guaranteed to be backwards compatible with 2.6.

It's hard to actually screw up your game with dumb moves. Even the worst reputation losses can be ameliorated by hunting faction enemies near their stations.

If you've waited this long, I'd recommend waiting for 3.0's release so you can start with their improved tutorials rather than diving in now.

[Gernias]

Thank you so much for the quick and consise answer.
Hm, see that the first DLC and 3.0 will both release in Q1 2020, so maybe wait for both.

[csaba]

To add to Sandal's post the improved VFX in 3.0 makes the difference between the 2 versions night and day. Those of us who have been playing since release remember the rage over the poor visuals of weapons and explosions which we got used to over time, however ever since I installed 3.0 beta I wouldn't go back just because of that. So I agree the best time to buy the game would be after 3.0 hits if you haven't bought the game already.

[Gernias]

Thanks for the info!

Yeah I bought the collectors edition already. Egosoft has some blunders on their resume, however i still have faith they will make something as great as X3 TC again.

So any good lets plays, that aree fairly recent and good for learning the basics of the game? Or maybe a master thread for this question? Would be fantastic to "waste" the time to the update on this.

[csaba]

Thanks for the info!

Yeah I bought the collectors edition already. Egosoft has some blunders on their resume, however i still have faith they will make something as great as X3 TC again.

So any good lets plays, that aree fairly recent and good for learning the basics of the game? Or maybe a master thread for this question? Would be fantastic to "waste" the time to the update on this.

Recent sadly no. BaconsTV had a playthrough quite long into endgame but that was Vanilla and much has changed since.

The new tutorials will be enough to learn the basic controls. As to how to start out I would say don't look into it and only ask for answers if you get reeeeeealy stuck, there are way too many methods and exploits that can give you 10s of millions in credits and capital ships right from the start, essentially skipping the early game grind+exploration and any fear of enemies, cutting those 300 hours in half.

[Nort The Fragrent]

I would start a game now, use it as your own tutorial. Use it as a pre learner to the release of 3.
So when 3 comes out, you ditch your game and start a new with the knowledge you have acquired.

This will give you a better start tactically , as you will know at least how the game works.
Test the ships, the station building process, the Trading, and the new environment.

Plus you will be having some fun in the process.

Enjoy.

[CaptainX4]

yes, you can keep trying for hundreds of hours like most of us did, though how much you can claim it to be actual PLAYING, its an other question... for me it wasnt. it was just trial and error and trial and trial and giving up

[Gernias]

Hm.. So if my willpower fails and i do this.. Start with the 3.0 Beta or 2.6?

Thanks for the youtube callout aswell, he has a lot of good videos.

[Lander1979]

Start with 3.00 Beta2 from the betas drop down in Steam. If you have any issues drop a post here, any game bugs then drop a post with a bug report into the Devnet X4 Public Beta Sub Forum located here; viewforum.php?f=192

[easternsun]

The game is Playable in 2.6 as I started with that. 3.0 beta 2 fixed a lot of the game breaking 3.0 beta 1 bugs that should have never been shipped. Too bad the mod community has left. I though Re-birth's mod/features really improved at 4.0. If they can get some of Re-births base features added later like the trade boards, universal Mission boards with more combat missions, and user mods like fleet controls added it will be what I consider in a retail state. Right now still beta overall.

[pref]

Hm.. So if my willpower fails and i do this.. Start with the 3.0 Beta or 2.6?

Your first impression of the game should absolutely not be from a beta, especially this one as it's more rough then the previous ones. 3 brings the most new stuff since release.
Beta is for bug reporting, with lots of annoyance due to unbalanced weapons, bugs or half finished features.

Also with the amount of content it has right now 300 hours might be too much to expect, depending on how you play.

[Adalphage]

The game is playable but it's still an early access. There are a lot of things that need work (missions, plots, factions, content in general, QoL, diplomacy...). Despite that, I have already played 250 hours since release, and currently I'm testing the 3.02 beta and it's quite fun, a lot of things are solved since the buggy release. But as I said, in my opinion it's still an early acces, lack of content. I just played so many hours because this type of game is quite unique and I love it despite all the bugs and unfinished stuff. If I were you, I would wait till split vendetta dlc comes out and then I would gave it a try.

[mr.WHO]

X4 is ultra poor with late-game content.

Once you get self sustaining Shiyard/Wharf you're so powerful that you can smash all other existing factions combined with no sweat.
Only wiping out Xenons present moderate challenge, but at this point you can spam & outproduce them (!!!).

[csaba]

X4 is ultra poor with late-game content.

Once you get self sustaining Shiyard/Wharf you're so powerful that you can smash all other existing factions combined with no sweat.
Only wiping out Xenons present moderate challenge, but at this point you can spam & outproduce them (!!!).

I would say the whole game is generally lacking in content.

There is only 1 real way of playing which is: get the free Oddy sell for 5-8 million, Nividium mining, do the main story for the research and free Cerberus, station build missions, build high profit stations, build your shipyards.

-Classic sector/universe traders make significantly less than even silicon miners.
-You need to invest a LOT for smuggling to be somewhat profitable and only when manually doing it with large ships.
-Piracy is hard and the income is not worth the time invested and reputation lost.
-Drug production is meh and requires you to destroy the other 2 pirate factions to make it worth it.
-With exploration you gain between 200-500 k with each data vault, that is chump change.

[GCU Grey Area]

There is only 1 real way of playing which is: get the free Oddy sell for 5-8 million, Nividium mining, do the main story for the research and free Cerberus, station build missions, build high profit stations, build your shipyards.

Only 1 way of playing?
Tend to disagree - I do a few of those but mostly play in an entirely different manner. Simply do not accept that the way I play is not the "real way", it's just not your way.

I don't steal other people's stuff (e.g. ships mentioned) - if someone attacks me but then bails I'll consider their ship fair game (have sold quite a few ex-SCA ships) but that's about it.
I don't mine Nividium - I can't use it to make anything so I have no need for it.
I do the main plot & research (LOVE modding my ships), but simply don't need a free Cerberus, so I just leave it there.
Station build missions - only if I think they'll be beneficial to the local economy - i.e. never just for the money, indeed quite often end up making a loss in the process (e.g. more turrets and/or defence modules than strictly necessary for defence station specs).
As for my own stations, I build them to satisfy local needs, not necessarily because they are the most profitable.
Shipyards - never felt the need to have one of my own. The NPC shipyards do a good enough job without me needing to expend vast resources just to have my own. Might consider building them for NPC factions though - not done it yet but in my current game Argons recently lost their Wharf (along with at least 1/2 of the other stations in Argon Prime), so might be worth me tacking one onto a station build mission to ensure they've got a replacement (probably not in Argon Prime though - doubt it would last long).

All of your approach to the game seems to be about maximising the speed at which you acquire money. That's simply not my primary concern - eventually I'll have more cash than I know what to do with (all X games tend to do that) but I'm in absolutely no rush to get to that state.

[Sandalpocalypse]

ideally, a game should offer a choice of play styles that offer similar progression paces. The X series has always suffered from poor progression balance that leads to stale optimal play. Station build missions and nividium mining do give money at drastically disproportionate income rates. Nividium mining is a little silly in that regard. Station building would be less silly if you had to invest your own construction ship which would limit how many you could be building...

[csaba]

Nividium mining is a little silly in that regard. Station building would be less silly if you had to invest your own construction ship which would limit how many you could be building...

A little silly? A mining ship with medium loadout of 700 k credits can make 450k a trip, which is about 15 minutes. A trade ship for the same cost can make at tops a 100 k by hauling microchips or high end wares in roughly the same time. Even silicone mining gives you 200k per trip.

There is only 1 real way of playing which is: get the free Oddy sell for 5-8 million, Nividium mining, do the main story for the research and free Cerberus, station build missions, build high profit stations, build your shipyards.

Only 1 way of playing?

1 Optimal way. The income from the Oddy and mining is so big at the start of the game compared to other methods that it would hurt my brain to avoid them. The rest I listed aren't that crazy in jumps just a more balanced curve. You can get to shipyard levels just buy increasing your mining fleet to 20-30 ships per mineable material and get 100s of millions of income per hour.

[GCU Grey Area]

1 Optimal way. The income from the Oddy and mining is so big at the start of the game compared to other methods that it would hurt my brain to avoid them. The rest I listed aren't that crazy in jumps just a more balanced curve. You can get to shipyard levels just buy increasing your mining fleet to 20-30 ships per mineable material and get 100s of millions of income per hour.

It's only "optimal" if it's the desired outcome. Certainly isn't for me. The early phases of a new game where I'm scratching around around for credits are some of my favourite moments in the game. Would be absolutely ruined by taking your approach, which is why I don't use it. Optimal for me, in terms of maximising my enjoyment of the game is taking a slow burn approach to the game - mostly trading, interspersed with the odd mission & occasional scraps with Xenon, SCA, etc if they take an interest in my cargo. Don't think I've ever had a mining fleet of 20-30 ships. Doubt I'd have that many even if I added up all the mining ships I've owned for all three X4 runs I've played to date (tend to start a new game for each major patch). Never had anywhere near enough stations to justify a mining fleet of that size!

[csaba]

I envy you.

My engineer mind is just screaming: "YOU ARE NOT EFFICIENT!" If I try to do something like that.

Take Elite Dangerous for example. There is always a "money making meta" however the difference between the playstyles were never that big that I would just turn around and suddenly do something else because if you played any of the archtypes (pirate, bounty hunter, explorer, trader, mission farmer, etc) you would still get upgrades in a satisfying timeframe. Credit farming there is really an endgame activity for those pimped out corvettes not base activity from the start. 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.