The X game is best for a noob to get into?

[shortylickens]

The reason I ask is X Rebirth seems to be receiving mediocre reviews and I noticed Steam has all the other ones for a reasonable price.

 

[Markbnj]

The only other one I've played is X3: Terran Conflict. I think a lot of people consider Reunion to be one of the better installments in the series, but I think it is also a bit dated.

X3:TC isn't super easy to get into - people have described it as Eve Offline - but it's deep and a lot of fun.

 

[JimmiG]

Honestly I would give Rebirth a month or two and then take another look at the official forums. I have all the other X games but barely played them. It felt too much like work managing everything.

 

[Via]

I have them all, and I've played them all at least a little. I would begin with X2.

X2 has a proper tutorial that introduces you to every aspect of controlling your ship and interfacing with stations. I would print out a sheet with all of the controls so you can access them easily while you learn to play.

I initially tried a joystick, but imo it's FAR more comfortable to use a gamepad/kb combo to control your ship. Map the movement/combat controls and some of the other most used buttons to the gamepad and keep the logical easy-to-find ones on the kb.

X2's plot also eases you into the X universe. You're not forced to fight for a while (with one exception) and all of your missions and goals are clearly defined for you. They'll take you around the game map and acclimatize you with navigating your ship. You'll initially be given a decently equipped scout to zip around, and soon after a bare-bones freighter that you can use to make some money, all at your own pace. Advice - buy SETI for the freighter before you do anything else.

If you like the economic aspect of games you'll love these. The first time you score a killer deal it'll be as satisfying as killing a pirate.

 

[IEC]

I have them all, and I've played them all at least a little. I would begin with X2.

X2 has a proper tutorial that introduces you to every aspect of controlling your ship and interfacing with stations. I would print out a sheet with all of the controls so you can access them easily while you learn to play.

I initially tried a joystick, but imo it's FAR more comfortable to use a gamepad/kb combo to control your ship. Map the movement/combat controls and some of the other most used buttons to the gamepad and keep the logical easy-to-find ones on the kb.

X2's plot also eases you into the X universe. You're not forced to fight for a while (with one exception) and all of your missions and goals are clearly defined for you. They'll take you around the game map and acclimatize you with navigating your ship. You'll initially be given a decently equipped scout to zip around, and soon after a bare-bones freighter that you can use to make some money, all at your own pace. Advice - buy SETI for the freighter before you do anything else.

If you like the economic aspect of games you'll love these. The first time you score a killer deal it'll be as satisfying as killing a pirate.

SETA (Singularity Engine Time Accelerator).

The. Single. Best. Upgrade. Ever.

For X games. Because I hate waiting 10 minutes to fly across a system when I could put it on 10x or higher SETA and do it in <10% of the time.

 

[Via]

lol yeah, SETA, not SETI.

 

[MalazanEmpire]

The newest X is terrible in my opinion. A friend wanted to write a review, but could not force himself to play the game enough. Same goes for me. I really think they dropped the ball with the latest one, and it is a shame.

 

[shortylickens]

OK, X2 it is.

I have a flight yoke but if the gamepad is better, thats what I'll use.

 

[Via]

It's surely your best bet if you really want to try to get into the X universe.

The first one is ok but pretty dated. I had some fun with it after I played a bunch of X2, but I couldn't get it to recognize my gamepad, so I had to play kb only. It's basically a scaled down version of X2.

X3 just sets you adrift.

Make SURE the ship computer navigation keys are mapped to your gamepad (I can't remember if they are by default). I think I used button 9 to open it, the left joystick for up/down, button 2 for next, and button 1 for back. You can access most things from the ship computer. I used button 10 for SETA.

I used the Function keys for camera view. It's the default and the easiest way imo; you get used to it quickly.

Enjoy the cheesy plot for what it is. And watch out for Khaak.

There's Khaak everywhere.

 

[JimmiG]

SETA (Singularity Engine Time Accelerator).

The. Single. Best. Upgrade. Ever.

For X games. Because I hate waiting 10 minutes to fly across a system when I could put it on 10x or higher SETA and do it in <10% of the time.

SETA feels weird. You're in a futuristic space ship, hundreds of years into the future, yet your ship is so slow that it takes forever to travel 100km between one gate and another.

It also makes everything look ridiculous with all the AI ships buzzing around crazily like drunken bees, and on slower systems it kills the frame rate.

 

[Markbnj]

SETA feels weird. You're in a futuristic space ship, hundreds of years into the future, yet your ship is so slow that it takes forever to travel 100km between one gate and another.

It also makes everything look ridiculous with all the AI ships buzzing around crazily like drunken bees, and on slower systems it kills the frame rate.

Yeah there really are few, if any, space games that try to get the physics right. With X3 you can sort of ignore the numbers and still get immersed. You don't have to think about the fact that the "sectors" are a grid and all the stations are 60km apart at most. Everything is in orbit, so in reality you, the stations, etc., would all be doing 17,000 MPH or whatever, and the speeds when you move between them are relative.

 

[HeXen]

Like I've learned from EVE online and other sims, space is pretty boring actually, it just has a pretty view. Odd enough I think I'd rather just play a game like Starfox 64 where you at least have a sense of constant movement, speed and progression despite it being just an arcade shooter. Space sims need to get down both control and speed down to where you can at least travel far without warps or highways that serve no real purpose other than to take away control and automate travel or just fill each region heavily with things to see and do without being so repetitive, but that's just my opinon.

 

[shortylickens]

Freelancer had worse scale. Planets weren't much bigger than your ship, and it only took a few minutes to reach the sun at 300 kph.

But it was still a crapload of fun.

 

[JimmiG]

To be fair, dealing with the scale of space is probably the most difficult thing about space sims. In real life, even if faster than light travel somehow was to become possible in the future, we would probably be spending weeks if not years or months traveling between solar systems. It would be the most boring video game in history.

Throw in realistic physics and you'd need a Ph. D in physics to plan the trip, trajectory, entering orbit etc. WW1-style dogfighting in space is just preposterous

 

[HeXen]

To be fair, dealing with the scale of space is probably the most difficult thing about space sims. In real life, even if faster than light travel somehow was to become possible in the future, we would probably be spending weeks if not years or months traveling between solar systems. It would be the most boring video game in history.

Throw in realistic physics and you'd need a Ph. D in physics to plan the trip, trajectory, entering orbit etc. WW1-style dogfighting in space is just preposterous

Toss in some unforseen futuristic science. It's believable to conceive that in hundreds of years from now, we'll find new possibilities to travel space quickly. At one point, no one thought of worm holes.

I mean how can space sims really be a simulation of our future if we don't even know what that future may be...so they are not really simulation of anything real, only theories at best. So faking some science is no further off imo. Just say in the story that we can go into alternate dimensions to ghost around in this dimension or something.