X4 Foundations

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I'd been running this on a GTX 1050 i5 144hz laptop and to be fair, it delivered playable frame rates with highish detail, just a few select graphics options turned off or down.

Upgraded to an i7 GTX 1660TI laptop at the weekend and logged in again after a few months break. The new card, even on battery runs on ultra with no issues.

Was glad to see the updates have kept coming as promised and looking at the expansion, I will happily pay for that even if it's a few ££.

The X series still remains my favourite game series, having played from the original X btf 20 years ago right through to this.

The game is beautiful when the settings are cracked up. Here is my first station while building it.

IuHO4GJ.jpg

And when one of my dozen Teladian hauliers lands.
v2wZpg0.jpg
 
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Hasn't even been out a year yet. Still not convinced it'll be up to standards yet.

Those that are playing, any end game challenges? Or do you just faceroll everything still?
 
Soldato
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Tbh neither the V64 not the 5700XT have issues with 2x MSAA. In stations getting around 55-60fps and in space over 90fps (with the 5700XT).
Only one system that have 60fps in space is Exchange IV with all the asteroid fields.

Also lets not forget is a Vulkan game.
 
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Someone went to Gamescom and came back with a series of answered questions about the game.
https://www.reddit.com/r/X4Foundati...from_gamescom_tested_30split_start_and_asked/


Hello there folks,

you guys probably did not expect it THIS early...but I just came home from Gamescom and got to talk to the new PR guy (more on that later) and Bernd.

If you do not see your question here I either did not have the time or did not want to take up too much time.

Before I start: I was allowed to take a few extra copies of the Gamescom exclusive PAINT MOD called "Worm God". They have 10 charges per code and I will be giving out a few codes to random posters in this thread.

But for now let's get to the juicy bits:

Update 3.0 /Split Vendetta demo at the booth:



  • Demo game start puts you in the boots of a Split captain of a medium sized Split fighter that seems to be working for a pirate-gang. It starts off with you launching your M-sized fighter off an allied carrier and destroying a Teladi vessel in the hopes of some nice credits. (I won't go further for others that are going to check it out themselves, but the gameplay was solid)

  • The Split characters received new models that look WAY better and now even have haircuts (sometimes) which also look better than what is in the game currently

  • The new Ship models ingame look very good if compared some of the clunkier designs of the base game, nothing bad can be said here, they are a straight step up and even though they use the same module system it does not look out of place on them.

  • Some graphical effects have been tuned. Reflections and bloom looked a lot better. I'm not 100% sure but it seems the shadows looked a bit sharper/harder as you'd expect them to in space.

  • Sector design of the demo was splendid. There was a Sun in the background that was slowly being sucked up by a black hole. The sector also felt a little more dense with not too much empty space inbetween important points.

  • The demo runs on a laptop with medium-ish to semi-high specs with a GTX1070 (mobile) in it. Game ran without any hiccups on presumably high/very high settings.

  • Some of the older ship models looked a bit better with the enhanced effects but weapon effects might still need some work (imho)






The Questions I got to ask/The answers I got:

I did not ask questions in a classical format only so I will just try to bundle information up for best results here. Most of this was answered by Bernd as the other two guys were too scared to answer most of your questions.



  1. Will the Borons return as a real faction at some point?"We want the Borons in the game so eventually yes, we want to do it. But we also want to do it right. So every Boron ship would need something like an aquarium/fish tank and we also want the design to "be" Boron which will take time.

  2. Will old ship models be redone?-The answer I got here was along the lines of "not really". They plan on working on the engine more to make effects, color/textures look better in general and MAYBE some of the worst case offenders will receive small touch-ups...but there are no real plans to fully redo the base game ships.

  3. Will we get even bigger ships in the future...like M0's of the older games?-Yes and no. Some of the new Split ships are supposedly very large but for now the "XL" class is still the size king. This does not mean they will not look at it again later, but at least not until post 3.0And OF COURSE the new Split ships will all be pilot-able.

  4. Are there new Modules/Weapons coming?Split faction comes with an array of new weapons and other hardpoint items, look forward to it.

  5. Will the "old ones" make an appearance at some point or other lesser known factions make an entrance?-While this was not directly denied. He did mention that he is not too fond of the idea of just putting the old ones' in game since that would mean there would be something like a "decicive" answer to some lore parts that he would rather leave up to the imagination/theories of players. More factions are a possibility of the future though.

  6. Will fleet and combat control be improved?-Yes, but not just in one "way" and some of this will be hitting us "soon". We can expect a couple of small tweaks to : Menu, AI and miscallanious fixes that will all play into this. More on that later.

  7. Is docking with spacesuits coming with 3.0?-No promises. He did not want to give me a definitive "yes" but it is on the radar.

  8. Will the economy be improved?-Most definitely. They would have even implemented a bunch of fixes sooner. But as any X-player knows...sometimes it can take 100+ hours for SOME problems to show, and changing one thing now could create dozens of problems later.BUT they have finally been able to run some pretty "long term" testing and are implementing economy changes and things can can be impactful in other ways rather soon (like indestructable stations).

  9. Is there another update coming before 3.0?-YES! No promises here but they are trying to push 2.6 at least into beta very shortly after Gamescom. 2.6 will supposedly have some fixes and/or changes for the economy, menues and AI.

  10. What is the new game-start?It's Split related (duh). I did not ask if it is the start from the Demo, but this does not seem unlikely as it seemed like a good starting point.

  11. What about research? Will this be improved?-The Boron and his research will at least receive something with 3.0...I was not told what exactly, but something is happening.

  12. What about mods, bonus packs/whitelisting some mods with official signatures?-They are not against it but creating better modding tools is a first step toward that direction. They have not forgotten about it but it is not very high on the priority list right now.

  13. Will Ventures be expanded?-Yes, they love the feature and want to expand it with new bits that give you more control...whatever that means. But this will most likely happen AFTER 3.0 .

  14. WILL WE GET A VR VERSION?-For now it looks like a big no. X:R VR took a LOT of time and resources and it was not a profitable decision. If X:R VR would have actually sold well and turned a good profit, it would have been an option...but it is off the table for now. Maybe later when VR is more widespread or if for some reason the X:R VR sales explode.

  15. Will we get UNIQUE ships like some older X games had them?-Yes, no, maybe. He started off by explaining that making new ship models is easily like 10 times more work than it was in the old games. We can expect some unique variants of ships to appear but truly unique ships are something for later, faction ships seem to have a higher importance right now.

  16. Will hardware support be improved?Yes and no. The engine is constantly being worked on. Not just visual effects but also performance. 3.0 shows some of this.

  17. Will you expand your team at some point?Apparently they just did that. The freshly hired PR guy was at the booth who was amazed at X4 players spending so much time on this one game. If there are other new guys that are directly working ON the game I did not ask.
 
Soldato
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14. WILL WE GET A VR VERSION?-For now it looks like a big no. X:R VR took a LOT of time and resources and it was not a profitable decision. If X:R VR would have actually sold well and turned a good profit, it would have been an option...but it is off the table for now. Maybe later when VR is more widespread or if for some reason the X:R VR sales explode.

bummer, that peed on my chips... oh well.................... Thanks for posting however it is good to know.
 
Soldato
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it is on my list..... the reason why i have not bought it already however is that it has most of the campaign from the actual game removed from it as i understand it.

i will pick up at some point i guess but i was hoping for a full fat X game to be honest.

it is a shame that X RB VR didnt do well... but i wonder how much of that was because they chose to do a VR version of the most disappointing game in the X series. Whilst i know it hugely improved over time, mud sticks.

(TLDR no not yet)
 
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it is on my list..... the reason why i have not bought it already however is that it has most of the campaign from the actual game removed from it as i understand it.

i will pick up at some point i guess but i was hoping for a full fat X game to be honest.

it is a shame that X RB VR didnt do well... but i wonder how much of that was because they chose to do a VR version of the most disappointing game in the X series. Whilst i know it hugely improved over time, mud sticks.

(TLDR no not yet)

X:R VR was the full game, including all the DLCs and all the patches.

Unfortunately there is a vocal minority which wants another X3, where things spawn out of thin air and their 20 year old PCs can run it in 2019.
That minority call you heretic and completely dismissing you, not your post, if you confront them why X:R & X4 are better games, with proper (especially X4 case) economy.
For example if you do not supply a station, even AI controlled one, it will take time, if ever build a ship.

Also all has to do with the starting economy. The Argon start (tutorial/default), the economy is at far earlier point than the Teladian or Paranid starts. On the latter two, there are more cargo vessels moving stuff around, and have a more mature economy. Yet still, need 100 hours of game time to pass through for the AI economy take on.

And I love this thing, not having things been produced out of thin air.
You can see the difference when you go to 18billion system, on any start.
Start building a big factory/station there. Producing Hull, Weapon, Engine parts. And you have 2-3 hauliers supplying with Telladinium that system, from Grand Exchange which is 1 jump away.

The Ministry of Finance starts churning out all size of AI ships sending them to various jobs. From supplies to the war effort.
 
Soldato
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X:R VR was the full game, including all the DLCs and all the patches.

Are you 100% certain on this... because it was not the case at launch..... IF it is then i will buy it but i am certain the campaign was ripped out of it at launch.

last i looked there was a mod which attempted to put it back in, with some success.

i will check out again, thanks.
 
Soldato
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Are you 100% certain on this... because it was not the case at launch..... IF it is then i will buy it but i am certain the campaign was ripped out of it at launch.

last i looked there was a mod which attempted to put it back in, with some success.

i will check out again, thanks.

True the main short campaign is omitted because beta people were suffering from motion sickness having to walk through the stations constantly. But everything else is there including the side storylines & DLCs.
Now this is the mod which is polished over the last 2 years
https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=144&t=395702

have a read.
 
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Rebirth VR literally is one of my favourite VR games. Unfortunately like Panos pointed out, those that were adverse to it's existence followed it over to the VR version and unfairly criticized it. It doesn't do everything right, the text screens are difficult in placement and were difficult to read on the OG Vive, but everything else they nailed it. Motion controls in the game are brilliant, the scale and presence are both perfect and it performs on the hardware extremely well. The game is a total visual and epic experience on the Index at 120hz with everything on ultra @2.0.

Every time I glance over X4 and know VR isn't coming any time soon it's a kicker.
 
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