X3 looks better - at first, but then the annoying cockpit view and other oddities start detracting from the experience. after a week or son i gave up and went back to x2 and modded it, got a much better experience out of that. A lot of other players did much the same. you should ask Chips, he played it to death, and he knows stacks more about that sort of thing.

what i found odd about X2 was that it was easier to buy a FACTORY that makes weapons than it was to buy the bloody weapons themselves.

Get x3, there's tons of mods out there now, they add quite a lot to the experience.

Also get X3 if you want starforce to destroy your CD/DVD drive

Ignore wolfy and his rants, he's obviously not bothered with research

I'll address that first. Buy it, when you install DO NOT RUN THE GAME... but visit the Egosoft site and download the last patch.
This contains a "No CD" patch, the "No CD" part meaning that when you first run the game, starforce won't be installed. Alternatively, you could buy the game via Steam - once again, no Starforce installed.

See, rant was unfounded.

Anyway, find that here:
Egosoft X3 patch Any version -> 2.0.0.2 - 176Mb so set some time aside

If you buy the game from a shop, it may not have the newer updated manual or it may. If you find things missing (or just want to be sure) you can download the newer manual version here:
Manual


To gameplay aspects - the handling is different, all ships models replaced (i was shocked by this at first, I liked the old ships - but you get used to it ) and it's much more difficult to fight the pirates/other races (they're much better, and more ships have a rear turret that canes your shields... so capping is no longer the simple way forward - you'll get your butt handed to you). Fighting is actually quite tough, not that tough - but tougher than the joke it used to be. For instance, try to cap a ship in the starting ship and you'll last 2 seconds

Which reminds me, varying levels of starting difficulty, including types of starts if you don't want to do the storyline. I recommend you do though It's quite fun, I loved it (but my taste in storylines appears to be easily satiated! Hardly a conniseur of them... or spelling either!).

I'll lay off "breathtaking" when describing the graphics, as it's 2 years old now - but they're still modern and up to date. The game looks fantastic.

The Interface I personally found annoying - it's mouse led, although shortcuts / keyboard commands still exist. However, no more remembering them (once you do know them, they are naturally a heck of a lot faster than pointing and clicking - which i think anyone finds tedious after a while). The drawback is that here you click through many menus, sub menus and more trying to get to where you want to be. The old shortcuts (can activate them though) mean you can get to where you want with a keystroke or two.

Big question - is it better than X2? Of course it is, it's far superior in virtually all respects... even the storyline. However, is it a sequel. with all the added extras it appears Egosoft finally delivered a game that's fit to be called a complete game. Personally they focus too much upon being able to micromanage an empire and trade. I'd like to see more variety in fighting and other venues along this line, but modders can improve and implement great things in the game due to the scripting ability of it all... so they can make up the shortfall of it

I quickly fell out of love with X3 though, once I peeled back the layers I found it to be X2 with newer graphics, different interface and the odd token improvement - which just wasn't enough for my hard earned money. I fired it up a few weeks back, but just can't get into it now. Takes so damned long to get anywhere, and once you've done it all before, there's definately a certain air of impatience about trying to redo it all.

if you've never played x2 to death - then you'll probs LOVE X3 to death. If you'd played x2 to death like I did, you'll enjoy the storyline (as much as possible anyway, mission variety is great), the graphics and a few other novelties. After that, it gets tired and old pretty quickly... because the core aspects of the game are identical to X2.

Hope they do something great for X4 if there is one... if it's just X3 with a few new features, the odd new sector and updated ships/graphics/UI - then I'll be at the front of the queue asking for my money back... wait, no - i won't buy it until i've played the demo throroughly to see if it's worth the cash.

By the way, I wrote a walkthrough for the first two missions. I say walkthrough, it's more of an aunty guiding you through it. It's not just "go here", it includes all the key commands to do tasks required - like how to dock, what buttons to press to call up the nav map, set targets and select targets. What buttons to press to do actions in a dock, including how to buy/sell things, how to deal with other ships etc. It's for the complete novice to the X games, so that they don't feel (at the time the manual had nothing of help and the game has no tutorial) like they're thrown in the deep end.
It's on the forums of egosoft:
Mission 1 walkthrough Please be aware that the pdf of it no longer exists there. I may upload it to the new site if I get a chance, but meh

Edited by - Chips on 10/9/2007 3:15:33 PM

I've been thinking about X3 too, I only really half played X2 which I quite enjoyed but became frustrated with the constant attacks on my ships and factories from those annoying bloody Khaak aliens. I felt like all I was doing was busting my gut to keep on buying replacement trading vessels to keep my factories going, the micro management drove me bonkers in the end.

I've got Galaxian on a ROM for MAME if that's more your speed these days, MuskRat? slowing down now we're getting a bit older, are we? can't quite remember where all the controls are? Join the club - these days I'm lucky if I can the ships out of dock without crashing, and I have to choose the easy trade routes with no nasty fighting.

My understanding is you can build Carriers and they can deploy fighters to fight off those attacks.

“SISU”
(Pronounced: siss-sue)
(Meaning)
Guts, Tenacity, Steadfastness, Courage, and an Indomitable will to Succeed, and Survive.

I bought X3, installed it, tried it, tried it, tried it, gave up after 1 hour where I could not even manage the most basic manouver and uninstalled it. It's cover makes for a good placemat for me tea while playing FL though.

Yep, you can buy and own factories, ships and I believe if you make nearly a billion within a few weeks... buy a sector too.

All ships can be equipped and instructed to do what you want - fighters to patrol sectors (may need a plugin for this), protect a sector etc. You can buy battleships, destroyers, cruisers etc and do likewise or have them patrol. You can have a carrier which will launch a swarm of fighters into battle (could be costly if you lose them obviously!) and more.
But everything costs "money", and it can take weeks of playing before you get anything... unless you cheat of course

naturally ships that trade for you, and your mines/factories/stations all make you moola as well - as long as they've got "supply and demand" going.
For that, read Giskards guides upon how to do it all

Hey Chips,

So X3 is more like a strategy game then a fast-paced game like Freelancer.

Do you have time if you get into combat to get to the screens needed in other words is combat slower then in Freelancer.

In addition, Freelancer is more of a fighting game. The more I read X3 is more of an empire building game with the ability to hop into a fighter and fight as if you would in Freelancer. Now am I on the right track for x3?

“SISU”
(Pronounced: siss-sue)
(Meaning)
Guts, Tenacity, Steadfastness, Courage, and an Indomitable will to Succeed, and Survive.



Edited by - FlyByU on 10/11/2007 6:14:31 AM

Well, X3 is kinda "whatever you want" - you want it to be a fighter, you can survive by only fighting and capturing ships (they bail if you cause enough damage!). These ships you can flog at ship dealers, plunder for their goods first obviously... or outfit and have as "wingmen" so to speak.

You can pirate and rob to your hearts content as well...

So you can fight as much as you can, it's just that the wealth of the games content is directed at trading and empire building. You don't have to build empires, but it's the best way to get funds. If you only wish to go around blasting stuff, then I would assume there are a lot of games that are more up the alley. The fighting is adequate, the AI is okayish (scripts improve them) - but just like any fighting sim, you can upgrade shields, weapons, speed, handling to an extent - but it all comes down to blasting things.


It's slower paced game overall, but during a fight it's only marginally slower - if you try calling up screens... you may well be toast before you've navigated far at all. Shields die quick, some guns take them out very quickly indeed.

Regardless of ship, I doubt you'll ever be able to just park up, blast things, and survive long if you're in a "house" system. They'll come along and fry yer.

Edited by - Chips on 10/11/2007 11:13:06 AM

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I've got Galaxian on a ROM for MAME if that's more your speed these days, MuskRat? slowing down now we're getting a bit older, are we? can't quite remember where all the controls are? Join the club - these days I'm lucky if I can the ships out of dock without crashing, and I have to choose the easy trade routes with no nasty fighting.

---

It's just so hard these days Uncle Taw, the aliens seem to move quicker, there guns seem more powerful and I can't make two sectors before the intergalactic colostomy bag needs emptying.

join the club. I was playing Privateer the other day and got killed by a Retro! I'm so ashamed, especially as he killed me 7 more times after that. Back in the day, I used to eat Retros for breakfast, only Kilrathi and Confed were a real challenge. God help me now if I tackled Kilrathi out past the Blockade points. Nice safe cargo runs for me now, no more Ultimate/Brilliance/Tobacco or gem smuggling, only legit cargo all in core systems where it's safe and there are lots of cops.