X4: Foundations

I'm going to repeat what many others have said about this game. The simulation is there, and the economy of all the sectors working together is impressive and all, but the game simply does not give you a reason to keep going after you've achieve your initial financial freedom. There is a lack of any kind of end-game goal. The game has storylines, but these generally only serve to introduce, as well as occasionally gate-keep, new gameplay mechanics. At the very least I would love some kind of news report (a real one, with unique writing), or some kind of in-universe acknowledgement of my own achievements. Believe it or not, you do not actually have the ability to make your own faction in this game about empire-building—you, the player, ARE the faction. There is no ability to set your own faction's goals, your own faction's ethos, or receive acknowledgement that your faction even exists, since you do not actually have a faction. I would love for the other factions and races to acknowledge you, your fleet, your actions, or anything really at all that you've done, but this simply does not exist except for a basic -30 to +30 relationship modifier which is easily exploitable. You could take over the entire sector that belonged to another faction, or even exterminate an entire faction from the game, and the rest of the galaxy will just go on about its business without even knowing who you are. There is so much storytelling potential here regarding the player which is non-existent. If you want this kind of reactivity, just go play Stellaris. I also take issue with how mechanics are introduced. For example, to gain access to agents which were introduced in the Diplomacy update, one must complete a series of quests for an Argon (human) faction and recruit an Argon man named Dal Busta; if you're, for example, at war with this particular Argon faction, you will no longer have the ability to ever access this fundamental gameplay feature. If you for example wanted to roleplay as a human-hating Paranid or Split pirate or religious fanatic, then I guess you'll just have to live with never being able to access the agent and espionage feature since it requires you to do missions for said human faction to even be able to recruit agents in the first place. I also have always hated how the game forces you to work with the Boron (squid-alien) named Boso Ta in order to complete research. You are given a station at the start of the game, practically for free, and this station serves as your only means to conduct research in order to unlock new capabilities like teleportation and ship modification. I like Boso Ta, but I hate the implication that we are reliant on this one single alien in order to perform any kind of research whatsoever—why can I not join another faction and use their research facilities instead? Why can I not hire my own researchers? Boso Ta is yet another example of gameplay mechanics being locked behind arbitrary story missions. It seems fairly obvious that X4 was never meant to be a full-fledged sequel with how features that you would expect have only slowly been added to the game piecemeal over the last 8 years, and how basic gameplay features are not represented in the overall simulation but instead handed to you through arbitrary story missions and quests which take very little time to complete. I recommend this only on a massive sale.

Complexity is fine. Poor communication is not. A game with this many interconnected systems needs clear tutorials, sensible early-game objectives, and a smoother introduction to its core mechanics. It honestly feels like the developers have not sat down recently and replayed the tutorial or the opening hours from the perspective of a completely new player. Long-time players may already understand the game well enough to work around these issues, but new players are expected to learn through frustration, trial and error, and external guides. There is a genuinely good space simulation buried underneath all of this. Unfortunately, the lack of proper guidance makes the game far more difficult to recommend than it should be. Until the onboarding experience is treated as a real priority, X4 will continue to push away players who might otherwise enjoy the series.

Do you like space sims? Do you like management sims? Do you hate yourself and want to be punished for expecting basic mechanics to be easy to understand and used without having to google something ever 10 seconds. Do you want the first mission the game gives you to require you to look up every step online because there is no way to figure it out in game. Then this is for you. All jokes aside. The game is fun but I feel like I have to fight the game to get that fun out, so just know that going in.

确实和很多人说的一样，游戏的任务指引非常反人类，我甚至教程关都是看着教程关的教学视频完成的。我很想给个差评，但是玩了一会儿剧情任务之后，我还是觉得应该推荐一下。 当X族得飞船一架又一架的超过我飞向不远处我方的星际基地的时候，我其实挺忐忑的，我没钱买矿船赚钱，开的是路边捡的无人飞船。任务磕磕绊绊看着攻略才做到这里。说不定一会就被敌人打爆了。但是当我飞到基地旁，看着比敌人还多出一些的友方飞船，双方将近一百艘船就这么厮杀在一起。我知道这些都是电脑不是真人，但是，同样的，没有人对我的行为指手画脚，没有人调侃我的小破飞船。看着雷达上密密麻麻的蓝点和红点，看着眼前基地上的防空炮照亮了星空，这对我一个独狼玩家来说，足够了。 也许这只是很多人眼中微不足道的遭遇战，但我是自由的，不用给大势力打工当奴隶；不用看着非法集资一样的游戏公司年年画大饼；不用进空间站黑屏；不用每年买一堆dlc附赠bug，今天削弱A明天削弱B。在这个宇宙中，不需要谁为我喝彩，当我扣动扳机的那一刻，我知道，这就是我的战斗。

X4: Foundations обновление 9.0. Худшее обновление, сломавшее основы управления которые отлично работали. Часть 1: Я играю в эту игру уже почти 6.000 часов. Раньше я очень любил этот проект, я его выбрал из многих космических путем долгого отсеивания "несовершенных" или не подходящие мне по стилю игры. В процессе игры обнаружились такие недостатки, которые я думаю разработчики из Эгоистик Софт намеренно оставляют, чтобы игра не была слишком простой. 1. Это невозможность гибкой регулировки организации логистики и снабжения своих станций, особенно когда нужный ресурс лежит в другом секторе. Отсутствие возможности в повторяющиеся приказы ввести: "добывать тут-продавать в соседний сектор" заслуживает отдельного котла в аду. 2.Это то обстоятельство что при желании быстро переключить режим огня турелей на Асгарде или Лесном Царе, а они почему то не рассматривают строительные хранилища ксенонов как вражеские, нет отдельной кнопки как например для развертывания спутников а есть необходимость зайти в меню взаимодействия с кораблем, там в раскрывающемся меню найти и нажать нужный режим и выйти обратно. После уничтожения станции, чтобы дочистить пространство от вражеского мусора нужно нажать несколько кнопок чтобы убить 1 сегмент и потом перейти обратно, то есть нажать эти же самые несколько кнопок. Это раздражает. Сделайте 1 кнопку. 3. Также раздражает что маленький ксенончик, как торпеда на гиперскорости, втыкается в текстуры Асгарда и находясь внутри корпуса становится недосягаем для любого вооружения и постепенно уничтожает и не дает совершить прыжок. Лечится только переходом игрока в другой сектор и не всегда успешно. Неужели никто этого не замечал ранее? Но последнее обновление полностью испортило моё мнение об игре. 1. После нескольких часов игры в 9.0 мои исследовательские зонды испарились. В блокноте об этом нет упоминаний, видимо тексты помогал составлять не самый умный маркетолог. Это неоговоренные изменения существенных условий. Зонды исчезли но корабли не сигнализируют о необходимости их развёртывания. Ок, пусть будут без зондов. Не понимаю зачем они вообще нужны. 2. Урезан функционал активации SETA. Раньше он работал в любом кресле в игре, теперь это только пилотское кресло корабля. Его можно включить в "не пилотском" (личный кабинет, посольство, боковое кресло корабля) кресле но только в режиме взаимодействия и только через выпадающий список. Зачем придумано сочетание клавиш? Зачем урезать работающий функционал и увеличивать нажатие кнопок и выпадающих списков? Это раздражает. 3. Дружественный огонь. Многолетняя проблема в очередной раз проигнорирована разработчиками. Мой путь развития всегда приводит в сектор Выбор Хатиква 1 к воротам откуда лезут ксеноны, я там собираю вещи, формирую запас для последующего крафта оружия и ускорителя времени. Есть необходимость постоянно находиться за штурвалом Асгарда например и давить кнопку грузового магнита, если туда прилетит группа землян то мне нужно убираться оттуда иначе меня обвинят в агрессии против человечества. Это раздражает. 4. Добавляю еще один недостаток, вызывающий жжение в заднем проходе. Это хаотичность и нелогичность последовательности перебора элементов внешних корпусных кораблей, когда ты за штурвалом XL пытаешься найти носовую турель K-корабля, а тебе предлагаются/попадают задние щиты, задние минные турели, задние и средние элементы, если перебирать "вверх" по списку то будет к примерам 1, 2, 3.. но если начать перебирать "вниз", то будет не 1, 2, 3 а 5, 9, 12. Логики никакой, по последовательности никакой. «Следующий» не будет соответствовать «предыдущему» при обратном переборе. Тратится очень много времени на поиск нужной турели, чтобы убить ее и погасить огонь. Это очень раздражает. Итог. Ситуация похожа на то, как в гости к ребенку пришел человек, подарил подарок но уходя испортил воздух, на что ребенок сказал: "Фу какой вонючий *******". Разработчики выпустили сырой продукт. Внесены изменения, которые ранее не обговаривались. Они не слушают обычных игроков. В дискуссиях отвечают не на поставленные вопросы, манипулируют. Моя итоговая оценка: 2 из 10. Рекомендую пройти мимо, пока всё не исправят и не признают вину в маркетинговых манипуляциях.

Game has huge potential, but the UI feels like it was made by software engineers, rather than game developers. Trying to build a station, let alone find a builder for it, is just terribly designed. I'm trying to play a game, and I get the piece by piece realism of it, but actually doing it... why make it so complicated? Context overload, hidden info, zero feedback when something goes wrong. It's just a huge learning curve where it doesn't need to be, and I don't appreciate that. Stop trying to make us do everything on one screen (the map), and break it down a little. I'm also fine with a steep learning curve, but the UI is just absolutely terrible. The fact that only 32% of people have the Meet Your Mentor achievement (basically the start of your research in the game) goes to show how big of a wall the devs have created. 68% of people don't even get past the tutorial! That's crazy.

After several hours of trying to enjoy X4, I've come to one conclusion: this isn't a space game, it's an unpaid internship in middle management. The flight model is excellent. Travel Mode is brilliant. The universe is beautiful. Then the game opens another menu. And another. And another. Need to complete a simple mission? Better understand five different inventory systems, two kinds of cargo, personal inventory versus ship inventory, station traders versus trade wares, and a user interface apparently designed by someone whose previous job was filing tax returns. The tutorials teach you how to fly. They don't teach you how to survive the bureaucracy. Every time the game starts to become exciting, it interrupts itself with another spreadsheet. The economy isn't deep because it's clever. It's deep because basic information is hidden behind layer after layer of menus and unexplained mechanics. I've spent more time asking, "Where the hell is that option?" than, "What's over the next jump gate?" If your dream is to become Assistant Regional Logistics Coordinator for a medium-sized interstellar corporation, congratulations—you've found your game. If you wanted to feel like Han Solo, James T. Kirk, or Christopher Blair from Privateer... ...good luck.

[b]Support 32:9 resolution[/b] Been playing this game for a couple of weeks now and Im still noob in the game. One of the best space sim out there and with the 9.0 update it becomes even better. Immersion is superb and you can do anything you want it the game, be it piracy, solo bounty hunter, entrapaneur, command a large fleet or all of the above. The universe economy is good and fully simulated. it feels like every wares matter. eg: not enough ore minerals can affect the faction ability to build ships and in turn make them vulnerable to enemies invasion. Learning curve is steep, you have to watch a couple of youtube videos to understand the game. But the payoff is worth it.

Thus far, for sure, enjoying the game but the criticisms you'll hear about the UI and the way various systems are designed is completely true. The UI is so remarkably bad (purely talking about its function here, nothing whatsoever to do with the aesthetics) that it feels as though whoever designed it was trying to sabotage the game's success from within. Once you start memorising how it works you can navigate it, but it is the MOST unintuitive UI design I have ever come across in decades of gaming. The craziest thing about that, is how clear it is that one of the most important factors to the success of this game is having a good UI. It's completely bewildering that it was designed this way and hasn't been improved upon. And even after memorising where every nook and cranny of the menus that the various functions, orders and tweaks are listed, the UIs functional shortcomings will still wreak havoc on your gameplay, forcing you to strategise battles based around how f**** it's going to be to make certain adjustments mid-fight. So many problems with this game could be fixed by designing a proper UI and making adjustments to the game based around that.

It's a decent space sim. Visually gorgeous, with lots of mechanics to master. But, i have the most fun when I stop concentrating on mechanics and think of it as a build-your-own adventure space opera.