Should I buy split?

[kwerle]

I've been playing Foundation for a while, now. I'm on the cusp of buying a Large ship constructor. My notion is that once I do that I'll start to really push into Xenon space.

There is currently a sale on X4 stuff. I'm wondering should I buy Split (or any other expansions)?

I feel like the galaxy is already pretty big. I do wonder about the new quests. I'm not sure I want to deal with adding a faction right now.

Would split significantly improve the quality of my game? How so?

I know this is kind of a vague question, but I do appreciate your input.

TIA,
Kurt

[BitByte]

You can buy any DLC and from game side you can manage which DLCs are enabled and which are disabled.
So if you see good offer from DLCs feel free to buy them and when you're ready (want new things to do and new challenges with quests and plot lines) then enable next DLC.

Split Vandetta brings lots of sectors to up north and also brings more Xenon threat from that perspective. 4 new factions and 1 of them is annoying as they are more or less lost souls (no representative faction) so improving their reputation requires more work as you have to find missions for them.
Cradle of Humanity adds sectors to west side of galaxy and also brings Xenon as threat. 3 new factions. Their economy is quite closed so what they produce is not usable by commonworld and vice versa (excluding energy cells and medical supplies). If you're interested from black market stuff then CoH will bring 1 more ware for that area to produce and sell.
Tides of Avarice adds some sectors to center of galaxy and 2 new factions (no Xenon). Advantage in ToA is that they will introduce recycling which can be used to produce Claytronics, Hull Parts and Terran materials.

From Kingdom End I cannot much say as I still haven't played that by myself. It will bring Boron faction so some new business for sure.

[chew-ie]

The Split will give you some serious military hardware (carrier-battleship hybrid, melee-destroyer with lot's of main guns and turrets) as well as fast ships with more-then-usual weapon loadouts (e.g. the L trader Buffalo can be used like a light destroyer, the L miner can act as a flak frigate because of it's nice turret coverage and speed).

All in all I'd recommend the Split DLC - as every other DLC which adds back a race from the previous games. Even the "pirate DLC" Tides of Avarice is hard to pass because of the nice new ships. It doesn't add a new race, though.

In terms of the universe size - as soon as you visited all places, it becomes a smaller universe. With or without the DLCs. The same fate had other games of the series as well - it just takes longer in X4 because you have no jump drive and distances do matter. Once you created stable outposts / fleets in the remote corners of the universe X4 will "shrink" as well.

[zakaluka]

if you like the game there's nothing to lose from buying all the older expansions. They're so cheap when they go on sale.

[kwerle]

That's a lot of good advice in a short time! And consistent - which is nice.

I think I'll end up buying the expansions and leaving them disabled for now. It does seem like a good deal, and I want to support these fine folks.

[EGO_Aut]

That's a lot of good advice in a short time! And consistent - which is nice.

I think I'll end up buying the expansions and leaving them disabled for now. It does seem like a good deal, and I want to support these fine folks.

Back up your save, and enable them. Win-Win, what could go wrong?

[BitByte]

I think I'll end up buying the expansions and leaving them disabled for now.

If you want disable DLCs after they are installed launch the game, go to Settings -> Extensions.
There are all installed DLCs and their versions visible and can set them one by one to off or on.

[Baconnaise]

I've been playing Foundation for a while, now. I'm on the cusp of buying a Large ship constructor. My notion is that once I do that I'll start to really push into Xenon space.

There is currently a sale on X4 stuff. I'm wondering should I buy Split (or any other expansions)?

I feel like the galaxy is already pretty big. I do wonder about the new quests. I'm not sure I want to deal with adding a faction right now.

Would split significantly improve the quality of my game? How so?

I know this is kind of a vague question, but I do appreciate your input.

TIA,
Kurt

Best DLC for this game is COH just over Split as it has a banger soundtrack plus Split are amazing. Raptor was the goated ship for a LOOOOONG TIME until that is COH. COH DLC adds Terrans (FINALLY......where corps at tho?) which has the most advanced race/faction in series barring ancients/paranid. Asgard is the most OP ship as is fitting as Terrans generally were OP as is ordained. Argon scum terrorists/traitors be damned. Avarice can be skipped as it only adds salvage mechanic to shore up universal or commonwealth legacy station. It adds zero to pirate factions is a big fat fail. Adds useless sectors and factions. Timelines same thing adds useless factions like queeftanots whatever waste of space and useless ships although seksi. Avoid Avarice and timelines all useless. Split and COH best DLC. This is fact .

EDIT: Forgot boron/Kingdom End. Useless DLC again due to design decision of highways via Rebirth via the Highway Ring of Regret. Boron are passive in vanilla even modded it seems to various degrees. Avoid. Plot or missions make zero sense in lore. Terrans and Paranid refute the retconned lore via missions. Lame. This all IMO take with a grain of salt. I've only got into the series since X3 vanilla pre TC/AP so YMMV. I could also just be flat out wrong since I'm an old dude who's put thousands of hours into X3 Rebirth and X4 and just biased .

[vvvvvvvv]

I've been playing Foundation for a while, now. I'm on the cusp of buying a Large ship constructor. My notion is that once I do that I'll start to really push into Xenon space.

There is currently a sale on X4 stuff. I'm wondering should I buy Split (or any other expansions)?

I feel like the galaxy is already pretty big. I do wonder about the new quests. I'm not sure I want to deal with adding a faction right now.

Would split significantly improve the quality of my game? How so?

I know this is kind of a vague question, but I do appreciate your input.

TIA,
Kurt

Most expansions are quite solid.

It is pretty much...

Split = Terrans > Avarice > Borons.

Split and Terran DLC add ton of content (ships, sectors, weapons), and some story content. Avarice has decent stories, but just a few sectors, and some very cool ships you have to capture and can't mass-produce. Borons are aesthetically cool, but their tech is incompatible with everything else, and they sit quietly in their corner of the map. Timelines can be skipped, although there are some nice ships which need to be unlocked and then claimed on the map.

[GCU Grey Area]

Boron are passive in vanilla even modded it seems to various degrees.

Borons... sit quietly in their corner of the map.

Not necessarily the case... https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n3iq45hx ... i1u6o&dl=0

[vvvvvvvv]

Boron are passive in vanilla even modded it seems to various degrees.

Borons... sit quietly in their corner of the map.

Not necessarily the case... https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n3iq45hx ... i1u6o&dl=0

That's what happens when you fill boron tank/suit with spacefuel instead of nishala waters.

----

Jokes aside, this looks like xenon incursion aftermatch. Had something similar happen, when northern xenon started expanding. Except in my case ones that grabbed everything were argon and teladi.

[Baconnaise]

Boron are passive in vanilla even modded it seems to various degrees.

Borons... sit quietly in their corner of the map.

Not necessarily the case... https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n3iq45hx ... i1u6o&dl=0

If only that was every random seed. They did do good on boron design but the commonwealth incompatibility leaves much to be desired much less forgiven. I will always be forever salty that corporations have never been addressed as well. Terracorp? Plutarch? Jonferco? need I go on? Where is the laissez-faire of the game?

[GCU Grey Area]

If only that was every random seed. They did do good on boron design but the commonwealth incompatibility leaves much to be desired much less forgiven.

Don't think the seed had much to do with it. As far as I know that just controls starting conditions. Key thing if you want active Borons is to unlock Heretic's End to be claimed by NPC factions (by claiming it yourself, then renouncing the claim by deconstructing the module used to claim the sector). Then, as long as either the Borons or one of their enemies claim Heretic's End (may need to intervene if ARG claims it), violence will inevitably ensue.

As for Boron tech incompatibility, as far as I understand it the incompatibility is largely due to a change in how guns/ships are modelled - the new stuff has a far higher level of detail, but can't be used with the old stuff. Although in this case think it also makes a fair bit of sense that weird alien organic technology is incompatible with a conventional ship (& vice versa) - bit like welding an arm onto a car & expecting it to do anything. Personally find the Boron ships & gear fun to use (have been playing a Boron-only game since the DLC was released). Only criticism I have in that regard is lack of a frigate (my favourite ship class). Although, on the other hand, Ray is by far my favourite destroyer & has been an acceptable substitute.

[Baconnaise]

If only that was every random seed. They did do good on boron design but the commonwealth incompatibility leaves much to be desired much less forgiven.

Don't think the seed had much to do with it. As far as I know that just controls starting conditions. Key thing if you want active Borons is to unlock Heretic's End to be claimed by NPC factions (by claiming it yourself, then renouncing the claim by deconstructing the module used to claim the sector). Then, as long as either the Borons or one of their enemies claim Heretic's End (may need to intervene if ARG claims it), violence will inevitably ensue.

As for Boron tech incompatibility, as far as I understand it the incompatibility is largely due to a change in how guns/ships are modelled - the new stuff has a far higher level of detail, but can't be used with the old stuff. Although in this case think it also makes a fair bit of sense that weird alien organic technology is incompatible with a conventional ship (& vice versa) - bit like welding an arm onto a car & expecting it to do anything. Personally find the Boron ships & gear fun to use (have been playing a Boron-only game since the DLC was released). Only criticism I have in that regard is lack of a frigate (my favourite ship class). Although, on the other hand, Ray is by far my favourite destroyer & has been an acceptable substitute.

True. I have had issues with Boron lately with mods. I've always had faction logic enabled for all sectors. I've even gone so far recently as to add GOD edits via DA Scripts to Queendom for more station modules and JOBs for extra fleets. I've used DA Scripts lately but used to use FOCW for that as well. DA Gate enabled all gates enabled. I've tried several random starts and even with my helping hand Argon or Split will take over watchful gaze including Heretics End fairly quickly. I've even tried deleting any headway by Argon/Split in Watchful Gaze and Heretic's End but the Boron just kind of chill. It's odd behavior on my install at least. Teladi were always very aggressive in expansion and post COH or presently it seems all but Boron are fairly aggressive. I haven't had much to complain about in that regard with any of them but Team Sushi.

I do like the Boron ships for the most part. The Ray isn't bad not to mention I love how they handled the Guppy/Carriers with Boron. Thresher is what I like most despite its shortcomings being unable to use anything but Boron gear without equipment mixing mod installed (looks out of place). Jian was pretty cool but I love to use Thresher as a pure missile/flak platform.

[kwerle]

Tides of Avarice adds some sectors to center of galaxy and 2 new factions (no Xenon). Advantage in ToA is that they will introduce recycling which can be used to produce Claytronics, Hull Parts and Terran materials.

I just wanted to point out, @BitByte, that recycling has been added to vanilla. Only for ships medium and smaller - there is no ship to cut up bigger chunks. But that's enough to make it worthwhile in some sectors.

[jackeycheung]

Are there any new strategies for using this new recycling thing?

[kwerle]

Are there any new strategies for using this new recycling thing?

I found this guide concise and useful:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2810269037

[vvvvvvvv]

Are there any new strategies for using this new recycling thing?

In sector with ton of sun and a lot of scrap, using Closed Loop economy, you can skip a huge chunk of production chain, and get claytronics/hull parts from it, and then build most of argon tech from that.

It is similar to terran economy, but singificantly less powerful. Because... sectors with ton of Scrap are usually xenon controlled, you'll really want Teuta to cut up the large chunks (if it is dlc locked, I'm not sure), it is possible to run out of scrap, in a sector and the place where it works the best is Avarice, DLC sector which has 2700% sun.

I tried to start with a HQ in Faulty Logic, and uhh.... It didn't feel right. Also, I managed to run out of scrap in Faulty Logic.