The Next X: X Rebirth

[zinfamous]

I purchased X3 during the last big steam sale--summer, I think--for 5 bucks.

Love it. I think I have over 80 hours into it, and I only completed the first 2 or 3 main missions, lol (trader).

So much time spent building up the trade network, and it's probably still quite small compared to what it should be after that many hours. I stopped because I was afraid of getting to the point where I would start making the main enemy forces more hostile and would have to start retrofitting all of my defenseless trade ships.

It's a terribly fun game that involves, perhaps, way too much micromanagement.

 

[Martimus]

I used a Logitech Force 3D pro.

It served me very well for X3, IWar2, BF1942/BF2, etc...

It has alot of buttons, highly customizable and readily detected by the games I played. No problems. Not sure how well it behaves with Windows 7 nowadays though, havent used it in a long time.

Hopefully it works, since I just bought it. I will let you know once I get it. I was reading about the new X3, and thought it was time to really try to get into the game. It seems like the kind of game I would really like, so having a real joystick to play it will be nice.

 

[aka1nas]

X3: AP has some nice engine tweaks (bigger UI screens for larger resolutions), better OOS combat sim, more accurate missile combat and turret scripts. I've been having a lot of fun with it and it's almost surprising how few scriptsor mods I've felt a need to add to it compared to previous X-games (I would usually play Reunion or TC with about a load of about 25-30 different scripts to get it dialed in just right. I've only felt a need to do 3 or 4 with AP).

 

[power_hour]

Yeah combat was a bit too simplified before. Did you ever play Independence war 2? In my opinion that game had a perfect space sim combat engine... I loved it! If X-Rebirth had that on top of all these other improvements mentioned in the presentation I think I would not ever stop playing it!

I believe they are finally adding in subsystem targeting and bit more micro managing capabilities.

Agree with much of the sentiments expressed here and on their original forums that the current and past games were deep and had great eye candy. But they really lack a central HQ and the UI was very clunky at best. I hope they can make it more noob/user friendly.

Multiplayer will never happen. For that we have EVE lol :=)

 

[GoodRevrnd]

X3: AP has some nice engine tweaks (bigger UI screens for larger resolutions), better OOS combat sim, more accurate missile combat and turret scripts. I've been having a lot of fun with it and it's almost surprising how few scriptsor mods I've felt a need to add to it compared to previous X-games (I would usually play Reunion or TC with about a load of about 25-30 different scripts to get it dialed in just right. I've only felt a need to do 3 or 4 with AP).

This is what has kept me from the series. I tried it originally with the 2nd one I think and just couldn't get into it. Came back for TC and spent a day trying to get mods figured out and got bogged down and lost. Haven't really tried since. I need somebody's drag and drop "Ultimate TC Modpack" that fixes all the bullshit w/o making the game weird for my first play through.

 

[aka1nas]

This is what has kept me from the series. I tried it originally with the 2nd one I think and just couldn't get into it. Came back for TC and spent a day trying to get mods figured out and got bogged down and lost. Haven't really tried since. I need somebody's drag and drop "Ultimate TC Modpack" that fixes all the bullshit w/o making the game weird for my first play through.

I wouldn't even bother with any mods(those are typically tougher to install as you have to splice together resource files to use more than one) as most of the common complaints aren't present. There are enough ships in vanilla to keep you busy, and most of the engine/mechanics stuff is at least good enough now. Scripts are easier to install, as you can grab Cycrow's plugin manager to do all of the installation and heavy lifting.

They upped the hulls across the board so ships don't die instantly when the shields drop (XRM/SRM and a few others did this, and it makes capital ship combat way more interesting as M2s can slug it out against each others hulls for a few minutes before popping). There is also a built-in fleet management system to complement the wing system added in TC. It sounds like it still needs some tuning to be competitive with scripts like CODEA, but is still a major improvement.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Ya I have no idea what you're talking about and wouldn't know what "scripts" to start with either.