![]() Star Citizen and Elite will never be what X4 is. I own / have pledged for all of the aforementioned other space sims, but I still spend a lot of time playing X4, because I enjoy the empire building gameplay. ![]() To be clear, this does not mean it's the end of the world for the X franchise. X3 did not have the same level of competition back in 2008. X4 also has space legs, but it's implemented very minimally compared to something like Star Citizen and soon Elite Dangerous Odyssey, and the recent surge of game engines with procedurally generated planets is just another feature those other space sims have that X4 does not have.Īgain, the focus in terms of gameplay is different and Egosoft only has like 25 devs, but the average gamer does not know that and the space sim genre is niche as it is. One of its major cons is its flight model and combat is not really fleshed out, nor is the combat as fun as Elite or the current incomplete Star Citizen. Like I said, X4 has its unique gameplay as an empire builder, but to the average gamer who hasn't played any of the previous X series games they will compare it to other space sims such as Elite Dangerous, and choose to play the one that looks more immersive. No, my point is the space sim genre is niche and it's now even more split with more space games than there ever were back when X3 was released. But that means there's still that much time left to go until X4 has fully "matured" to the point where modders can mod the game without worries of too many things changing, and again, the problem is time. I want, and expect at least 3 more expansions for X4, possibly more. This route is much better than Egosoft dumping X4 to start building X5, which would be another "starting over" and IMO a colossal waste of time. I've posted about X4 and its possibilities as a long running game focusing on DLC expansions, much like Stellaris which is like 5 years old now, but still wildly popular despite it being a niche 4X game. This is probably due to the game changing and evolving so much as you say but I wonder when the time will come when this won't be the case? Many veterans refuse to move on from X3 completely, and are to this day still modding X3. While most of us here on Reddit come from playing X3, a lot of "veteran" players of the franchise has moved on, either not playing video games anymore completely due to real life, or simply not see the appeal of X4 in a somewhat golden age of space sims. I might spend the time to consolidate those thoughts and perhaps we could make a community megathread on this subreddit, so Egosoft can prioritize ones they deem important and make X4 the labor of love that we all want. I have a huge list of ideas and things I want in X4. I'm just musing the POV of "very loud, vocal, and unhappy people". But I feel like with X4 coming out in 2018, a whopping five years after X Rebirth alongside all the other space sims I mentioned, with the feeling that the franchise and game is starting from scratch, it feels a little late, you know? Especially when you consider X3 was released thirteen years ago, X4 should feel like a much more superior game to X3 in every way, but that's not the case, at least not right now. If X4 came out instead of X Rebirth and we were already on like the 6th expansion for X4, the modding community could be much bigger than it is now and the game itself would have more official content. I think where Egosoft made a huge mistake was with X Rebirth, and they themselves probably know this too. I still boot up X3 with mods to this day from time to time, when I grow frustrated with X4. ![]() This is definitely not just me with rose tinted glasses. I still love playing X4 as the X series has had its own unique gameplay style as a singleplayer empire builder, but let's be honest, not much has changed in terms of the core gameplay since X3, and in many cases X4 feels like a straight up downgrade compared to X3 in some aspects (ship designs, simplifying UI was a double edged sword, overall just straight up game breaking bugs or frustrating bugs). Maybe this will change, but I feel like there's many more options to satiate the space sim urge now than there was back when X3 came out, with games like Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, No Man's Sky, etc. Problem is I think the modding community is much smaller for X4 than it is for X3. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |