X3: Reunion

[XLjedi]

So after trying to find a decent X-Com clone and failing miserably, I had low expectations for a game that I was hoping might be like the old game "Elite".

What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be! X3 is just like the old Elite gameplay and significantly improved upon!

I'm just starting to get into exploring (what seems to be) a very large, highly active, beautifully rendered, and dangerous galaxy. The game seems quite deep and the controls are fantastic (I'm using my X52 FCS quite happily with this one ). Did I mention the graphics are breathtaking. Overall it has a very 2001-ish quality to it, serene and perhaps even slow moving at times. Love the way the planets are in-your-face large. Really gives you a feeling of being in orbit like no other game I've come across.

The slower pace, space trade route genre may turn off some. But if you liked Elite, I gotta think you'd really appreciate this one. I hope the next version might somehow allow you to enter the atmospheres of some of the amazing planets they've rendered.

I think I'll be spending a lot of time with this one in the coming months.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice aaronblood You know I have had this game for over a year and have never loaded it up, perhaps its time to shake off the dust and give it ago.


RDP

[NeonSamurai]

Egosoft just annonced their next game btw, X3 Terran Conflict, due out 3rd quarter of 2008

http://www.egosoft.com/games/x3_tc/info_en.php


Also for X3 Reunion you may want to check out the XTM mod
http://www.thexuniverse.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=18

I think though the biggest problem alot of people who dont care for the game is due to the sandbox setup of the game where other then a short storyline quest series, there is no "end" to the game.

Me however I love x3

[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by NeonSamurai

Also for X3 Reunion you may want to check out the XTM mod
http://www.thexuniverse.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=18

A ship from that mod, nice




RDP

[XLjedi]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

Nice aaronblood You know I have had this game for over a year and have never loaded it up, perhaps its time to shake off the dust and give it ago.


RDP

Yeah, actually... that was me too. I had it laying around and loaded it like once and tried playing it with the mouse and had trouble with targetting and just shelved it. Then I decided to pull it back out this past weekend and spend a little time configuring my X52 and new 22" monitor to work with it and what a difference! This game plays fluidly (on a single nvidia 6800 ultra) at 1650x1050 without distortion! I get a nice widescreen view that is just spectacular.

The controls are really crisp, although the default deadzone stick setting of 20% clearly did not suit my taste. After I set that to zero I was very happy.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by aaronblood

Yeah, actually... that was me too. I had it laying around and loaded it like once and tried playing it with the mouse and had trouble with targetting and just shelved it. Then I decided to pull it back out this past weekend and spend a little time configuring my X52 and new 22" monitor to work with it and what a difference! This game plays fluidly (on a single nvidia 6800 ultra) at 1650x1050 without distortion! I get a nice widescreen view that is just spectacular.

The controls are really crisp, although the default deadzone stick setting of 20% clearly did not suit my taste. After I set that to zero I was very happy.

Nice, the X52 and new monitor sound like they have made the difference I'll have to settle for my 17" Monitor and mouse and keyboard

@ NeonSamurai: thanks for the links to the new stuff & the mod


RDP

[Egan]

I loved the first two versions. Might have to track a copy down. Does it support TrackIR at all?

[Dowly]

The ships look gorgeus and quite massive in X3:R.

[XLjedi]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

Nice, the X52 and new monitor sound like they have made the difference I'll have to settle for my 17" Monitor and mouse and keyboard

Flying with the mouse isn't too bad. Targeting is pretty good... my biggest gripe was with 180° turns. The mouse had to be picked up and dragged several times to get the ship pointing in the right direction, which sorta took me outta the fight. That may just've needed some sensitivity adjustment?

I couldn't really get a feel for my relative position with the mouse and it turned dogfights into the kind I don't really like... just turning toward the offscreen target reticle until you see it in front (far away) and you start shooting at each other head on. ...and of course the throttle pretty much was just pegged at 80% or whatever.

With an FCS, you'll be able to jump on their tails and stay on em. I find that I need to constantly adjust throttle to keep em in my sights. When you do have those head on confrontations, you can also use directional thrusters to side-skid (or strafe) away from the tracing line of laser fire. Coordinating that control is a bit difficult with just the mouse and keyboard.

Right now though, I'm trying to find some at least moderately profitable trade routes and haven't had much luck. I do better killing pirates and selling their abandoned ships or the bits of equipment they happen to drop.

[NeonSamurai]

Heh good luck finding any trade routes per say. They don't realy exist.

Keep in mind that the ai also buys and sells resources, so you can never rely on any one place being full of a certain resource, or needing another resource, as some other pilot may have beat you to it. The universe is about as living and breathing as it gets. Though this is a good thing as with out the ai, factories would be constantly running out of the resources needed to produce things.

Personaly I usualy start off with selling energy, energy is usualy a good one to start off on, as alot of factories use energy, also in the default universe, solar energy factories are not very spread out and tend to be clumped in certain sectors, which meens there is usualy high demand for it further out from the solar energy facs (a couple of sectors away). Though energy doesnt pull in massive profit per run.

Another tip is to find out about all the freebies (ships and other stuff) and go get them (2 good ones in the stock game is the toucan hauler, and the split mamba raider)

Pricing is pretty easy to figure out though, if they got lots of the item, they will sell it for less, if they hardly have any then they will sell for alot


As for the mouse, well personaly i cant stand it in x3 reunion, they should have made it simulate a joystick like most other games like this.