My (less) enthusiastic X4 review after 70 hours

[mr.WHO]

After playing 70 hours and having small empire on my own I think I have anough grasp on the state of the game and make a full review.

In short:
Good foundation...but plagued by critical bugs, lack of polish and in some parts plain and obvious lack of care/incompetence/lets leave pile of placeholders for years after release (I saw it too well with X-Rebirth to not see where it's going).


Lets start with the good things:
1 - Graphic - even if some people compain that some models are downgrade fron X-Rebirth or even X3, I think that the graphic is kinda OK.
2 - Station building - I hated station/complexes in X3, like it in X-Rebirth and you managed to make it even better in X4. It's fun to build your station from lego parts, but there are some quality of life imrovements needed. For large station we need "collapse module list by default" as I more often than not find it frustrating to scroll through all my modules to get to construction options on the bottom.
3 - Station management - I like the "logical overview" menu, but it still lack several key informations/option like production output/usage summary (e.g. If my station produce surplus Energy cells or consume them faster). Also this menu needs centralized subordinate options (trade and mining ranges) - I hate having to configure each and every miner/trader that I assign to my station.
4 - RTS map - I waited for it since X2! My only complaints are that you cannot collapse/hide Station and ship lists. Also some stupid problems when you have 40 fighters docked in the carrier - why the hell do I need a circle of 40 "docked" icons around my carrier icon? Someone really need to go though map testing with the late game empire stress test in mind!
5 - Models - With the exeption of Teladi warships (poor design and poor weapon placement) I have no complain. Both stations and ship are OK.
6 - Sounds - very good! I love to fly close to various production modules to listen to the noise (Engine parts production module is my favorite!). My only complain is that various size weapons do not have unique sound (I mean S-size plasma should sound different than L-size plasma).


Mixed things:
1 - Weapons - for most the the parts fighter weapons are nice albeit I find Pulse Laser and Bolt Repeater a bit overlaping. I also miss X-Rebirth mk.3 (experimental) weapons. However the biggest horror are the turrets and larger weapons. M-size frontal weapons doesn't feel more powerful than S-size and this is due to lack of distict GFX, sound and better stats. Same is with destroyer "pew pew pew" main weapon. Not to mention M and L size turrets almost do no dammage and have very short range (often ships need to nearly ram eachother to get into the range).
2- Missiles - The missiles themselves are OK, but the missile mechanics and ballance is an absurd mess. Fighters can carry 20/40 missiles, but only one flare? What is it? a token effort? Turret missile defence doesn't work because turrets are so weak that they can't even dammage a missile. Frigates carry more missile than dedicated bombers, while being marginally more expensive. Also we have those big ass torpedos that jsut beg to be mounted of capships and destroyer frontal weapons but noooo, all we have is dumbfire turret that can fire over half a sector, but can't hit a jack shit!
3 - Paint mods - while the paint mods are nice and diverse I find them not fun to use on your empire ship as you cannot mass apply them - you have to do them one by one which is not fun. Also in the "redesign" menu where we check the paint mods I found out that for Destroyers and Carriers many (not all!) paint mod textures are not displayed correctly (e.g. it looks diferent in redesign menu and different in "reality when applied").
4 - ship variety - I see that Argon are most robust (why the hell they need so many "clone" freighters?), but other races lack the variety - both Paranid and Teladi lack in fighters and other ships. Also construction ships having same model for all races. Really? You couldn't even bother to make them different texture? Also most of the ships stats feel much more like a copy/paste placeholders than actual stats. I saw the same with X-Rebith and I have now flashbacks.
5 - drones - I hated them in X-Rebirth, but in X4 they actually work. My only complain is that X-Rebirth had whole pallete of combat drones, while X4 has only one combat drone. We need more types of combat drones! Also Xenons need unique combat drones for their stations, why they use other races drones? Why do they use combat drones in the first place? Wasn't ALL their ships drones in the first place?


The (really) bad:
1 - capship gate travel - all big ships need to enter the gate from behind? Really? There was no other way to solve it? Couldn't you retcon the gate to be larger? or wider? or two part (separate entry and exit) like highways? You literaly picked the worst option!
2 - war - the game really lack some kind of notification BBS for state of the war and facions actions. From my perspective I either see no war action or just some end mop-up.
3 - war missions and missions in general - I see total lack of mission variability (always spawn similar amount of this and same types), lack of progression (where is X3 style where you engage some fighters as beginner, but then fight some destroyers as veteran?) and lack of fight missions (where are pirate raids? pirate hunting? where are Xenon invasions? If some missions spawn ships anyway then why we need to pretend that spawn doesn't happend by getting rid of combat spawn missions? Bring back the actual combat mission! Hunt 2x Xenon P is not a combat mission, it's a bitch slap to the face!
4 - Xenons - it seem all attention went just to their stations while sacrificing everything else. Everything except fighters is a joke! For 70 hours of the have I haven't saw a single Xenon I and I made multiple expeditions to all 4 Xenon regions! They are in serious need of buff and expanding the ship rooster.
5 - Khaak - it's irritating to have them spawn like crazy everywhere with just two token types. They were supose to be defeated. Either make them hidden like in X-Rebirth or expant them to have real economy and real regions like Xenon.
6 - Carriers - In current game set-up they make no logical sense - they don't offer anything beneficial over other ships (e.g. Destroyers can carry same amount of fighters) or even above not using them at all (they doesn't repair or resupply at all, so your fighters would need to get back to dock anyway).
7 - consumable logistic - I like that consumables are "assembled" on the station on demand, but it's absolutely outrageous that ships cannot ressuply it's drones and missiles from eachother!
8 - the whole crew system - You took the X-Rebirth system and somehow made it even worse! No mass crew transfer (in X-Rebirth you could at least recover marines with Marine officer!), no crew training! All NPC you find or hire usually starts with 0 star, but already muptiple game mechanics depend of crew experience (auto-trade, auto-mine, combat performance) - it can't be more broken than that, can it?


After my initial release enthusiasm had ceased I can calmly rate the X4 as:
4/10

It has a potential for 9/10, but I don't want to wait 4 fricking years until it gets there! It's like X-Rebirth all over again, but without "Skunk prisoner syndrome" (Show me your wares! Show me your wares! Show me your wares! Show me your wares! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!).

[kobayashimaru]

I absolutely agree with everything you wrote. It's really astounding how much your conclusions and opinions overlap with my own.

Although I would like to add something on the topic of map. I too really like this new RTS-style map and would like to commend Egosoft for going that way. But I encountered one additional problem with it. Maybe it's just my incompetence, but I seem to have a hard time finding stations on the map when using search or when selecting a certain ware from the trade filter. There should be a list of know stations that sell or buy the selected ware and by clicking on the station in the list your view should focus on it's location OR those stations should be visibly marked on the map. Currently, it's really confusing and difficult to find, for example, a list of stations that are selling a certain resource. Or maybe I just don't know how to do it properly.

[Bozz11]

I also strongly agree with your review, and I'd add that It feels very disrespectfull to see that their is absolutely no feedback on what's going on in the game developemennt, we know they are fixing bugs and planninng player shipyards for 2.0, but what about all the other issues OP menntioned ? EGO never made any statement on some of the biggest issues OP menntionned.
I have paid 50$ for a Early acces game, so the least you guys can do is give some more feedback, I know smaller companies that give feedback every week on whats going on and they sell their game 20$ so don't tell me you don't have 20 minutes to make a statement or ETA for updates or fixes etc....

[theincrediblenick]

1 - capship gate travel - all big ships need to enter the gate from behind? Really? There was no other way to solve it? Couldn't you retcon the gate to be larger? or wider? or two part (separate entry and exit) like highways? You literaly picked the worst option!

Lore-wise the gate size is an in-universe limit that was mentioned in previous games as it limits the maximum size that ships can be and still make use of it. If the gates were bigger then the ships would be bigger, and the problem would remain.

4 - Xenons - it seem all attention went just to their stations while sacrificing everything else. Everything except fighters is a joke! For 70 hours of the have I haven't saw a single Xenon I and I made multiple expeditions to all 4 Xenon regions! They are in serious need of buff and expanding the ship rooster.

I saw a Xenon K in a Teladi sector before I even travelled to Xenon space, and then several Xenon I. In fact the first capital ship I killed was a Xenon I, with the help of an NPC Teladi destroyer. In my game there are quite a lot of Xenon capital ships, but maybe that is down to some random seed.

6 - Carriers - In current game set-up they make no logical sense - they don't offer anything beneficial over other ships (e.g. Destroyers can carry same amount of fighters) or even above not using them at all (they doesn't repair or resupply at all, so your fighters would need to get back to dock anyway).

The Carriers are nice big ships with heavy shielding and lots of docking bays (though they have the same ship storage capacity as the Destroyers), meaning they are good for rapidly deploying fighter groups and squadrons of corvettes or frigates while acting as a mobile base. Though I do agree they could do with some repair/resupply features to support their task.

Several of your other criticisms I agree with, though as someone who has played all the various X-games since X2 (except X:R) I expect a lot of things to change/get fixed over the course of the life of the game and with the addition of the various DLCs.

[Tomonor]

Good:
-on GFX: while the overall graphics quality and shaders are a lot better, there are two parts where its a straight downgrade:
1. Effects. Weapon effects, engine lens flare, explosions with debris - you name it. Yeah, it works this way too, but it could have been so much more if the old ones were reused.
2. Sector designs. I understand that systems and sectors were reduced to a minimum in terms of detail to accomodate for the numbers, it still feels like a lost potential, especially since the design layout seems rather randomized compared to Rebirth, where most sector design elements feel hand placed and precise (thus these elements make sense - except for zone locations. Those do not make sense.)

Mixed:
-Ship variety - yeah, a bit dull, but seemingly there was not enough resources for them to invest in greater variety, especially since they have to keep tracking of a lot more things (cockpit match, scale match to docks, placement of various port points).
-Drones - Yep, agreed.

Bad:
I will add my own - for some reason, the game doesn't seem engaging on the long run. I mean, I tend to get bored of the X games after a certain amount of playtime, but so far X4 won the shortest period. I have a theory on why:
-First of all, the game is too easy, no engagement in combat or economy unless your reflexes are bad and don't understand basic trading
-Thus you can get rich really fast with minimal investment
-The ships are also sold for a very cheap price for some reason
-And while exploring the universe, you usually invest yourself in the encyclopedia - well good luck with that, since most of it is missing in this game (while Rebirth had 5 lines of detailed description for a friggin featureless antennae station module)
-And even though the level of detail and complexity of Rebirth is missing (due to regeneralized gameplay for X3 vets), it still fails to be as straightforward as X3 was, creating this weird middle-ground that feels off (for me at least).

[Socratatus]

Honest review.

[Jean Pagette]

Agree with the honesty review, IF egosoft chooses to stick with and add in DLC content and maybe an Epic warfare expansion with Kha'ak and Xenon to ramp up the excitement. I would like to see the elders from lore adding into this X game and perhaps assist you in a few battles that either cross the venture side or a long and deep story to defend the common planets from Xenon domination. Need the Terran's back and would love to see the Osaka ships return and be on the field again.

Good bones just need to feed the starving player base before they find substance else where.

[BugMeister]

- you should nip over to the mod forum, if you want to jazz things up..

[X-Tie]

Agree with the honesty review, IF egosoft chooses to stick with and add in DLC content and maybe an Epic warfare expansion with Kha'ak and Xenon to ramp up the excitement. I would like to see the elders from lore adding into this X game and perhaps assist you in a few battles that either cross the venture side or a long and deep story to defend the common planets from Xenon domination. Need the Terran's back and would love to see the Osaka ships return and be on the field again.

Good bones just need to feed the starving player base before they find substance else where.

If Egosoft chooses to release a paid DLC to release content that should already be in the base game, then they will feel the outrage of all X gamers... As it currently stands, X4 is in EA state and albeit a complete launch disaster with Rebirth they repeated the sh**show with X4. I mean, only 3 races and the useless Xenon, in this tiny universe? That's the game, really? and to think we paid good money for something that is in beta... Sigh.

[Tomonor]

Agree with the honesty review, IF egosoft chooses to stick with and add in DLC content and maybe an Epic warfare expansion with Kha'ak and Xenon to ramp up the excitement. I would like to see the elders from lore adding into this X game and perhaps assist you in a few battles that either cross the venture side or a long and deep story to defend the common planets from Xenon domination. Need the Terran's back and would love to see the Osaka ships return and be on the field again.

Good bones just need to feed the starving player base before they find substance else where.

If Egosoft chooses to release a paid DLC to release content that should already be in the base game, then they will feel the outrage of all X gamers... As it currently stands, X4 is in EA state and albeit a complete launch disaster with Rebirth they repeated the sh**show with X4. I mean, only 3 races and the useless Xenon, in this tiny universe? That's the game, really? and to think we paid good money for something that is in beta... Sigh.

You guys are in for a ride then. Especially since we all know at least the Borons are DLC-based (there was a mark left in the files that pretty much stated that), and the fact that Rebirth pretty much did the exact same thing.

I mean in this sense, you don't even have to wait and be outraged by your heart's content even now.

[sh1pman]

4/10 is pushing it... I’d give it 4 if they fixed the bloody turrets already.

[surferx]

B-First of all, the game is too easy, no engagement in combat or economy unless your reflexes are bad and don't understand basic trading
-Thus you can get rich really fast with minimal investment

There should be NO WAY you can start a new game, hang out around a station, pick up a dropped container and trade it in for enough credits to buy a ship. This is incredulous!

-The ships are also sold for a very cheap price for some reason

I wouldn't complain if ship prices were increased by 10X- Then, when I earned enough credits and bought a ship I would feel much more sense of achievement and ownership than I do now.
Do you really want X4 to make this list? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ONbqp4zVG4 Of course I realize there are those who don't want to put any effort into making millions of credits. Egosoft could create a new start with 10,000,000 credits in the bank. No mods needed.

[duncan idaho]

Absolutely agreed on the crew aspect in particular. I've never been particularly warlike; trade is my game. But when I can't trade effectively or protect my traders because every single person in the galaxy doesn't know which end of the ship is forwards unless they've been working for 300 hours, that's when I get annoyed. I like the idea of crew getting better, but their default needs to be good enough that having good crew should be a bonus, not mandatory. And we absolutely should not have any orders denied to us based on crew level. I haven't played in over 2 months because of this nonsense, and will only come back once these and other issues are addressed.

[Tomonor]

Do you really want X4 to make this list? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ONbqp4zVG4 Of course I realize there are those who don't want to put any effort into making millions of credits. Egosoft could create a new start with 10,000,000 credits in the bank. No mods needed.

Well to be fair, the game is not easy in the aspect of new players, who weren't introduced to the way X games work beforehand. These players will most likely struggle a bit.

But not enough. I came from the days X used to be sadistic. When you were given an Argon Mercury from Elena Kho as a gift with 5% hull and no upgrades on it at all. When there were missions, but they were almost always tied to a higher rank than you had. When the starter weapons couldn't even scratch the surface of an enemy ship, even though you had the MK3 variations of it. When you needed a Mineral scanner, a Mobile Drilling System, and an Ore Collector to be able to mine asteroids with each upgrades sold in random parts of the galaxy. Or when you were put into a combat plot mission with your scout without possibly knowing how to prepare, as there were only foreshadowing hints by the characters, but no actual advice that you need something better than that.

I think I miss these sadistic days.

[Stars_InTheirEyes]

I agree with most of that. Especially missions. That's my single biggest disappointment with the game.

I have 54 hours on Steam and was just getting to the point of making my first fleet.

My appreciation for the game has been like a bell-curve. Really low at first as it was very hard to learn and get going, even for a very experienced X player. Then you start to learn and figure out some of the mechanics of the game and have fun, that's when you're at the height of the curve, then you slowly start recognising the limitations and general emptiness of the game in some aspects and then you're back at the bottom of the curve.

The only ones I don't agree with are models and graphics. X3: Reunion's graphics were incredible for a 2005 game. It still looks awesome to this day and no other games come to mind that I can say that about. Compared to X3, is it much of an improvement? Not in my opnion. Explosions are a big let-down.
Ship models are a little disappointing but this is down to taste I guess. I feel like Paranid ships look too similar and Argon ships are too different to older X games. Paranid ships you can look at and recognise them. Argon ships look alien and a little silly.

The only other criticism I have is ship combat balance/AI.
I really started losing interest when I realised how easy it was to take out capital ships in an average-equipped fighter. Isolate the turrets one by one and then whittle it down. Its far too easy and makes a mockery of sci-fi capital ship combat.
Combat AI is still the same-old: "run-away -> turn around -> fire in a straight line -> repeat", that we've had for what, 15 years now? Since X2? It was acceptable then, its just poor now.

[Fame]

Agree with most of the posters message. I just gave it another name to keep things simple.

TC, yes again, had something what i like to call it "a soul". Those where plots by the buckets. So a player could repeat them from different angles but at the end of the day it was just rinse and repeat. Adding plots is easy ... well it takes time and a lot of pizzas
Whereas Foundation has an "live" economy ... its easy to over supply and yes i have been playing for only 5 days or so real ingame stat not counting reloading and such. Started the game on ver 1.5.

But i havent noticed any change of ownership of any sector so far !

If sectors would have a new owner it would keep us the player busy either helping one side or the other or just watch. But i guess there might be major obstacles in order achieve this.

All the rest of the possible improvements are just a cherry on top of the cake but the cake is still the king, imo

Fame

[surferx]

Do you really want X4 to make this list? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ONbqp4zVG4 Of course I realize there are those who don't want to put any effort into making millions of credits. Egosoft could create a new start with 10,000,000 credits in the bank. No mods needed.

Well to be fair, the game is not easy in the aspect of new players, who weren't introduced to the way X games work beforehand. These players will most likely struggle a bit.

But not enough. I came from the days X used to be sadistic. When you were given an Argon Mercury from Elena Kho as a gift with 5% hull and no upgrades on it at all. When there were missions, but they were almost always tied to a higher rank than you had. When the starter weapons couldn't even scratch the surface of an enemy ship, even though you had the MK3 variations of it. When you needed a Mineral scanner, a Mobile Drilling System, and an Ore Collector to be able to mine asteroids with each upgrades sold in random parts of the galaxy. Or when you were put into a combat plot mission with your scout without possibly knowing how to prepare, as there were only foreshadowing hints by the characters, but no actual advice that you need something better than that.

I think I miss these sadistic days.

Yes, I do too. But you know what, it made you appreciate the game much more. When you finally had that Merc upgraded enough to sell a few loads of ecells and then you can buy a nice 25mj shield for it. Then you really felt wealthy. You felt like you were going somewhere.
By that time in X4 you can have a whole fleet of ships maxed out making millions, but you just don't feel like you really did anything to get there. Everything is too easy. They have to scale it back a little..please?

[mr.WHO]

With 1.60 I must admit that it was very good choice to combine X4, XR and older X soundtrack.

Not that I didn't like X4 soundtrack, but after some time it become boring and repetetive.
Somehow I find that XR soundtrack feels better in X4...plobably because lack of Skunk, Yisha and constact NPC babble

[hort_wort]

1 - capship gate travel - all big ships need to enter the gate from behind? Really? There was no other way to solve it? Couldn't you retcon the gate to be larger? or wider? or two part (separate entry and exit) like highways? You literaly picked the worst option!

You want them to go through the front now, but when you realize an angry cap ship can chase you down through the gates quickly you'd miss the way it was. Then when you come out of a gate and slam right into a cap ship and explode, you'd miss it even more.

[Requiemfang]

1 - capship gate travel - all big ships need to enter the gate from behind? Really? There was no other way to solve it? Couldn't you retcon the gate to be larger? or wider? or two part (separate entry and exit) like highways? You literaly picked the worst option!

You want them to go through the front now, but when you realize an angry cap ship can chase you down through the gates quickly you'd miss the way it was. Then when you come out of a gate and slam right into a cap ship and explode, you'd miss it even more.

The later half of that post is probably the reason for it, back in X3 I had the unfortunate run in with several capital ships deciding to pop in just as I was about to go through the gate... lets just say since that game doesn't allow you to turn off collisions. Well... that's an instant game over depending on how fast you and the ship you hit was going at. I remember one instance where I had a "oh shit" moment when I went through a gate and ran smack straight into a cap ship about to go through the gate I was lucky that time since the only thing that happened was is that I was bumped back the way I came, yes bumping into that ship sent me back through the gate I had just came through.