X4 Foundations - Split Vendetta (Freelancer Like Game)

2nd Lieutenant Joined: Aug 04, 2017 Posts: 25

If it wasn't for Freelancer I would never have probably heard about the X series as being a little German studio they seem to go under the radar a bit. One of my mates who got me on to Freelancer in 2003 said "hey I found a game series just like it" and that was it, I was an addict lol. God knows how many hours I've put into the X series over the last 15 years.. and I'm still way behind in them due to my OCD urge to do and see everything haha! These days every man and his dog is making Freelancer like games but back in the 2000s and early 2010s there wasn't that much out there so the X series (particularly X2 and X3) was my way of dealing with Freelancer withdrawal symptoms lol. Sure they didn't have the great story and awesome planet landings Freelancer had but the ships and planets were gorgeous and the game universes huge. Being able to become a business mogul and build my own empire of stations and fleets of capital ships to whoops ass with was particularly fun and addictive for me. I've even been reading the X novels over the years to immerse myself in their universe further (although I'm gonna get stuck soon as they're not all translated to English haha).

Well anyway those who are familiar with X games will also know that pretty much every game they release is practically a friggin disaster at launch lol with endless bugs and broken or missing features. Then rather amazingly unlike most studios they then spend years releasing patches and addons to the games until after around 2 or so years the game is friggin awesome lmao! Sure enough X4 has followed that path and they recently released the first addon for X4 Split Vandetta which appears to be quite an improvement over the messy vanilla release. No doubt they'll be more coming too over the next few years. Presumably Egosoft must make their money back through addons as I don't know how those guys survive the bad first releases and somehow keep going. I think the first X game came out in 1999 so its over 20 years now haha.

Has anywhere here played X4 yet? I don't have it yet as I've been holding out of a physical collectors release (yeah I'm one of those old weirdos lol) which is probably not going to happen as they've said they can't afford it these days sadly but nevertheless I've been drooling over their videos lately to build some anticipation for the inevitable digital only purchase lol. I like how you can walk around the bridge of your capital ships while station construction looks way more advanced than previous games with you putting together all the modules yourself into whatever custom setup you want. Then of course you can walk around them and hire staff and mercs etc.

Trailer for the new Split addon looks cool...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88CFQaqs-xA

And now they're doing a video series talking about each aspect of the game..

Trading
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0hCP1yuNe8

Fighting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1YF-Zp85LU

Building
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vtTC41ZJCo

others not released yet..

.

2nd Lieutenant Joined: Aug 04, 2017 Posts: 25

Over the last few days they've uploaded the final episodes in their series. I really enjoyed watching these.. but my god does the latest version look more complicated than ever! There's just SO MUCH you can do, customize and tinker with.

Think (Missions) - The mission management system in X3 Terran Conflict was a huge upgrade from X3 Reunion & previous games. Every time I'd play those older game sifting through endless cr*ppy news about spawnling donations and people laying eggs etc trying to find decent missions I'd find myself screaming "WHY DON'T THEY DO THINGS LIKE FREELANCER" lol and thankfully Egosoft eventually listened. The X4 version looks similar to the excellent X3TC one but just better organised and with more variety which is fine by me lol!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Dwn-PIPMA

Explore - the exploring spooky derelicts part looked cool and reminds me of the stuff Star Citizen are toying with, except this game is actually finished haha (well sort of lol).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQYz6y54wDU

Strategy - this was one of my favourite things about X3 Reunion onwards (X1-2 it was much harder due to more simplistic system views).. sometimes I would park my ship for days and not go anywhere and just spend my entire playing time in the system views directing my fleets, managing resources, and building stations just like a game of Sins of a Solar Empire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJxBkub4rsI

2nd Lieutenant Joined: Jun 09, 2013 Posts: 16

I have to admit the X series are good games, but what they lack is the multiplayer aspect, other than that good game..

2nd Lieutenant Joined: Aug 04, 2017 Posts: 25

Constantine wrote:

I have to admit the X series are good games, but what they lack is the multiplayer aspect, other than that good game..

Yeah the no multiplayer thing has always been a problem for them but being a small studio they've often said they couldn't manage the combination of multiplayer with their extremely complicated and dynamic sandbox universes. It's interesting that they've 'sort of' added some multiplayer interactivity to X4 in the latest version but its not actual multiplayer. Eg you build special stations to open portals to other player's 'realities' and you visit them and possible steal/trade some special stuff not in your universe. Egosoft have said in their latest videos that they plan to expand on this in future patches and dlc etc. So in another year or 2 maybe we'll find out what the final incarnation will be haha.

Anyway I forgot to post about this here.. we've got a new addon on the way! The Terran's are back!

I'm kind of surprised that Egosoft didn't do a Boron expansion (using fan suggestions on how to achieve their look and mobility in non-liquid environments) and then put in a bit of a cliffhanger story ending with a Terran tease, so you could then save the Terrans for a big stand alone game with a new story like they did back in the day with Terran Conflict (same engine but separate to X3 with a sexy cliffhanger to bridge the games). Reckon they would have made more money in the long run IMO even if some fans would have hated having to buy a new game again though of course haha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WWylkYpxmM

Also I was drooling over this video below the other day. The 'Pilot' youtube guy did very sexy video on the Split Raptor supercarrier haha.. my god when the sun reflects off it like that... drools. And those dark red C&C NOD like interiors.. oh baby lol. Can almost see why all those crazy people bought gorgeous super expensive ships in Star Citizen lol!.. almost. Wink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpn_csnzi8k

.

2nd Lieutenant Joined: Aug 04, 2017 Posts: 25

Looks like X4 Cradle of Humanity is out now. I can't run the game on my old rig so I'm drooling over all the videos appearing online instead lol. As usual it was pretty buggy on release but it sounds like most of the issues have been fixed already.

Planet terraforming looks cool:

New launch trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs2BwzOKjhs

I've always loved the soundtracks to past X games and still hum many of the songs after all these years lol.. the new one sounds amazing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDhniOTutZs

2nd Lieutenant Joined: Aug 04, 2017 Posts: 25

Blake00 wrote:

I'm kind of surprised that Egosoft didn't do a Boron expansion (using fan suggestions on how to achieve their look and mobility in non-liquid environments)

Quoting myself here lol as they finally done it! Egosoft are creating another addon pack for X4 and are bringing back the water based Borons! I've been asking for this for years and years! Every time people would say it's impossible I'd pitch my 'stations with separate water areas and Boron encounter suits for the normal dry areas' idea and how it could work in the X4 engine. So to now see that they've actually done that and made it a reality makes me so happy, as this is pretty much what I pictured in my mind years ago. And I loved the extra touch of redoing the good old Kingdom End music too.

Teaser trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWfQ6fHsMQA