Want to play X3 but...

[nefariouscaine]

I'm not a huge fan of DRM but its a fact of life for me ATM but I'm highly against DRM that gets embedded into your PC with out asking and has the possibility to do fairly bad stuff - I've read a few horror stories about Starforce DRM so I'd like to avoid it if possible.

But...

the one game that has starforce all over it (IIRC) X3 is a game I'm very interested in trying out (didn't even do the demo as it *warns* it contains starforce)

If someone out there could steer me in the direction of a version that doesn't contain that DRM or let me know if I'm S.O.L.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I think one of the later patches took the Starforce off.

 

[Canai]

I got it from steam, and no starforce that I know of.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

X3 2.0 was a budget re release of X3 with bonus content and no Starforce. The version on steam is X3 2.0 with some extra patches, no starforce.

 

[nefariouscaine]

Originally posted by: PhatoseAlpha
X3 2.0 was a budget re release of X3 with bonus content and no Starforce. The version on steam is X3 2.0 with some extra patches, no starforce.

So long as X3 2.0 doesn't have it then amazon has it for crazy cheap - comes out to about $12.50 shipped

 

[ZzZGuy]

Bookmark the X3 forum page, you're going to need it.

The term "Balls first" comes to mind when they dump you out into space with a tutorial that is only useful if you already know how to play.

 

[microAmp]

So X3 2.0 is better than X3: Reunion? Just more features and nothing taken out? Good price on Amazon.com, I think I'll be getting this.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

It's different in some details, shield recharge times and the combat model, while vastly improved over X2, still ain't very good.

Really though, it's more of X2. So if you like X2, you'll like X3, as it's still essentially a slow paced economic sim attached to a second rate space combat game.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

is this game anything like freelancer? i loved that game and no other space game has come close to matching the fun i had with it.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Only vaguely. Freelancer is much more combat oriented, with a much more rpg like progression of bad ship -> good ship. X3 is much more trade/empire building oriented, and ships generally don't get better - they get different.

 

[ZzZGuy]

X3 is indeed a newer version of X2, with updated graphics, balancing (no one ship to rule them all), updated economy and bigger.

X3 2.0 : Bala Gi research missions has most of the bugs patched (DO NOT play X3 1.0 without patching first), there is several player made scrips added that enhance the game, as well as the Bala Gi part which adds new items to the game such as the MASSIVE player owned Head Quarters station.

Freelancer i would consider a arcade spaceshooter version of X3 (ignore that freelancer came first). When fighting Freelancer plays very similarly, and has a limited trading system (you can buy and sell items for profitssss, but it'll take a few years to save up for that new ship). X3 is more lacking in fighter combat but makes up for it in fleets and massive economy. But be warned that you'll sink more hours into this game then a RPG if you intend to play it to it's fullest.

The story line is secondary to the sandbox part of the game, but i recommend doing the first 2 or 3 missions to make things easier when starting out.


Also note that there is a very large and active modding/scripting community for X3/X2. If you find something in the game you don't like, chances are that so did someone else who made a script/mod to fix it. There is a player made script installer that makes the process VERY easy.
Then there are the mods, the most popular be the XTM mod that makes the game more alive, aggressive towards you, MUCH bigger, new (and nasty) ships, improved AI BUT at the expense of stability, possible broken plot/story, and it'll become a system recourse hog.



If you have any questions, search the X3 forums, then ask in the right forum and you should get all the help you need (unless the community has drasticly died off since i last played). Oh and f*s, don't ask when X4/X Online is coming out, it's asked once or twice EVERY week and long time members get real sick of seeing the same thing over and over again.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: microAmp
So X3 2.0 is better than X3: Reunion? Just more features and nothing taken out? Good price on Amazon.com, I think I'll be getting this.

X3 2.0 is a patched X3 with more content. It was released too early.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Just remember, the balancing in this case means that a single pilot isn't going to accomplish much of anything, so if you're planning on playing this as a space combat game, skip it entirely.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

cool, sounds interesting...i might pick it up. is it worth playing x2 also or is x3 better in every way?

damn, its 20 bucks on steam...should have got it when it was 10 during the sale.

 

[rstove02]

X3 is a decent game. In many ways it is kind of like Oblivion where to change it from a ok game to a good game requires a good deal of player made mods. Below is my synopsis of the game when I played it a year ago. Some of the problems I encountered may of been fixed via mods now.



Played the game religiously for about a month and got bored with it.

Basically there are 5 races each with their own faction. You have to raise your faction to be able to buy bigger/better ships, buy better equipment for your ships, buy factories to build equipment for your ships, buy factories to make money. The faction grind is HUGE to be able to by capital ships and equip them. Also since to get the best loadouts for your ship(s), you have to be on good terms with 2-3 of the 5 factions. So that HUGE grind is multiplied by 3x.

Gaining faction is quick and easy at the beginning, but then at the half way mark it goes insane. The only ways to get faction with a race are the following:
1) Trade with faction
2) Do quests for the faction
3) Destroy enemies in the faction(s) space

The problem is that quests are few and far between and you have to land at the stations to check to see if any quests are available. You check for quests at the news terminal and your lucky to find 1 quest at the terminal and your usually turned down to not being liked enough or not having the right ship.

Next after doing the initial clearing patrols in the faction's space...it is quite hard to find new bad guys in said space. So killing enemies in the faction's space gives reducing returns in many ways.

So basically...the only real way to get faction is through trading and that is also dog slow.

Also add to the fact the your fleets that you build (the term fleet is usually 3+ ships in this game) have many quirks. For example their power in battles is computed differently depending if your in the same sector as the fleet. If your OOS (out of sector) then you load up the slowest heaviest hitting guns, but if your IS (in sector) your fleet will be decimated since the guns can not hit anything but super slow targets. Because of this you will need to alter the gun loadouts on your ships depending if you use them for IS or OOS battles.

Also when your IS...collision detection is done with your fleet. And your ships in your fleet have to controlled by the AI and a notorious for smashing into ANYTHING and EVERYTHING destroying them in the process. Because of this you will not be able to watch any of your fleets in battle (i.e. being In-sector) due to the problems of In-sector combat. Just as an example I built a squadron of 5 medium fighters and told them to attack a stationary, unarmed outpost that did have shields (I was IS watching the one sided fight). All 5 were eventually destroyed by eventually ramming into the outpost while firing upon it before the outpost's shields dropped.

After I got bored with the game I set my faction to max with all the races and built a capital ship and loaded it out with the best stuff and brought it to an hostile sector only to find that combat is the same as the first ship you start out with only much slower (i.e. standard fire+strafe combo but now you shields take 10x longer to regenerate). Shield regeneration on the biggest capital ships can take upwards for 10minutes on max time acceleration.