X3: Terran Conflict goes Gold, official release Oct. 3

Painman

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2000
3,805
29
86
Woohoo, time to kiss your life away (on something else!).

Egosoft News Release

No info yet on pricing via Steam, or hardcopy release in the US. Looks like you can buy it direct from Ego, but the price through them isn't pretty (40 Euros, or 55 bucks @ current exchange).

Just in time for my birthday, and my getting sick of Diablo II (again) :D
 

KaOTiK

Lifer
Feb 5, 2001
10,877
8
81
Never played the X series, how would you describe what type of game it is?
 

Malladine

Diamond Member
Mar 31, 2003
4,618
0
71
Isn't it sort of 4X + freespace? I'm interested but I don't want to have to have to played the previous 2 to pick this up.
 

Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
6,278
6
81
X-series is generally a massive, space based empire building game in a space simulation mould. Mix the best parts of trading in Elite with building your own factories, making trade routes with computer controlled freighters plus escorts.... the add in a generally meh storyline with some epic space combat which can involve battleships, carriers and many fighters. You even get to control Battleships and it supports multimonitors natively (played X2: The Threat on my 9800Pro dual monitor :))

Well polished game from the gameplay point of view. Combat isnt fantastic but solid and should be much improved in X3:TC.

Solid game, beautiful, encorparates many aspects from greats (Elite Trading, Freespace2 massive battles) and does it all well.
 

KaOTiK

Lifer
Feb 5, 2001
10,877
8
81
Sounds interesting, gonna look and see if there is a demo, I'd like to try it out.
 

aka1nas

Diamond Member
Aug 30, 2001
4,335
1
0
Originally posted by: Elcs
X-series is generally a massive, space based empire building game in a space simulation mould. Mix the best parts of trading in Elite with building your own factories, making trade routes with computer controlled freighters plus escorts.... the add in a generally meh storyline with some epic space combat which can involve battleships, carriers and many fighters. You even get to control Battleships and it supports multimonitors natively (played X2: The Threat on my 9800Pro dual monitor :))

Well polished game from the gameplay point of view. Combat isnt fantastic but solid and should be much improved in X3:TC.

Solid game, beautiful, encorparates many aspects from greats (Elite Trading, Freespace2 massive battles) and does it all well.

One of the distinguishing features of the X-series is that the entire universe is being simulated at once, rather than just the system the player is currently in. This allows you to issue orders to ships and factories on the opposite side of the galaxy in real time and ends up with a lot of really cool emergent gameplay as the economy is actually supply/demand based.
 

ZzZGuy

Golden Member
Nov 15, 2006
1,855
0
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Originally posted by: jonks
beware the giant kach

It's spelled "Kha'ak", which also sounds more like the intended term you are hinting at.


I loved this game, but it was just to much of a massive sinkhole for time. It's like a single player MMO. A MMO I could put the time in to wave my massive d...err i mean empire around in other peoples faces but for a single player game it's not worth it. Back on the X3 forums you'd have people talk about the empire they have been building over the past year.

My advice is to play the game and learn how to play it, if you like it do not be afraid to cheat yourself a crap load of cash to kick start your empire.


Another thing I didn't like about X3 was the devs of the game avoiding the forums like it was filled with unclean masses. After going on the Sins of a Solar Empire forums I see just how much the X3 devs suck when it comes to information and their forums.
 

aka1nas

Diamond Member
Aug 30, 2001
4,335
1
0
Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
Originally posted by: jonks
beware the giant kach



Another thing I didn't like about X3 was the devs of the game avoiding the forums like it was filled with unclean masses. After going on the Sins of a Solar Empire forums I see just how much the X3 devs suck when it comes to information and their forums.

They have another sub-forum(L3 Devnet) where you would post things like feature requests and ideas which the Devs actively read. L3 access doesn't require anything special, think you just need to check a box in your forum profile and maybe provide an email address. L5 access(basically a Beta-tester) requires an NDA.
 

mizzou

Diamond Member
Jan 2, 2008
9,734
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cool

Should be fun, I think I'm going to pick this up instead of playing x2 which I just started
 

brandonb

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 2006
3,731
2
0
Tried X3:Reunion but the UI was hard to use so it didn't really draw me. I think I played for 2 days and gave up. It really sounds like its up my alley though. I love these type of games normally. Maybe I should try it again.
 

Sho'Nuff

Diamond Member
Jul 12, 2007
6,211
121
106
I picked this up yesterday. The game is still a bit hard to get into, but the devs have obviously spent some time working on things to make the game more user freindly. There is actually a guidance system that will tell you where to go in missions now, which is a huge help. I hated how in previous games a mission would tell you to fly to a particular sector, but wouldn't tell you how to get there. This was a huge problem from some starting points, particiularly if you didn;t have a nav computer which meant your sector and universe map starts out blank.

But in general I am liking X3:TC quite a bit. It feels quite a bit like a single player version of EVE. Just make sure you have a heck of a computer if you want to run it on its prettiest settings. I have a fairly solid rig decked out with an nvidia GTX280, and certain sectors bog down with 4X AA and 8XAF.

 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
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Originally posted by: brandonb
Tried X3:Reunion but the UI was hard to use so it didn't really draw me. I think I played for 2 days and gave up. It really sounds like its up my alley though. I love these type of games normally. Maybe I should try it again.

X2 was a real pain to get into,I never got pas the 4th or 5th mission in the storyline ,X3 Reunion I'm playing at the moment and I do like it a lot more,better graphics ,controls/layout are different but not hard to learn.

The most important thing I'm actually making profit as a trader(got my first 1 million credits profit in under a week) its a long term game like any X series and can be a daunting prospect for any newbie unless they go to the X3 forums and read all the important tips on trade and what to do at start of game etc...


Terran Conflict I'll probably pick up in 6 mnoths time when I have done a lot more exploring/trading/fighting in X3 Reunion,also by then be a patch or two for their newest game.


 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,603
9
81
I could never get into X3, the controls sucked, probably because my controller sucked. I tried with a microsoft sidewinder gamepad, the keyboard and finally a joystick a saitek cyborg pro evo (waste of money i never use it and i still couldnt fly the chopper in BF2 after installing it) However it might be worth a try again using the xbox 360 controllers i now have, theyre a lot more useful for flying stuff with the analog sticks.
 

ConstipatedVigilante

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2006
7,671
1
0
Has anyone found a review of it? Apparently it's not released in hard copy in the US, so the main sites haven't reviewed it.
 

aka1nas

Diamond Member
Aug 30, 2001
4,335
1
0
I've been playing it since Friday. It's a massive improvement over Reunion. The AI is somewhat useful now and wingmen are actually potentially worth bringing along. The new mission system is way better. I've actually been using the new mouse follow control scheme(ala freelancer) and it's pretty good so far.
 

EvilComputer92

Golden Member
Aug 25, 2004
1,316
0
0
I liked Freelancer and Freespace 2 a lot, but I'm unsure about this game. I've heard that the X series is mostly a complicated empire building game with not much combat.

I think I would enjoy this game if it's like Freelancer with exploration and combat mixed with trading commodities.
 

ConstipatedVigilante

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2006
7,671
1
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Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
I liked Freelancer and Freespace 2 a lot, but I'm unsure about this game. I've heard that the X series is mostly a complicated empire building game with not much combat.

I think I would enjoy this game if it's like Freelancer with exploration and combat mixed with trading commodities.

There are basically 3 ways to earn money in the game (simplified, of course):

Building stations - this requires a decent amount of planning involving placement relative to resources, purchase of courier ships, managing funds, etc.

Trading - You can go around in a freighter trading commodities as you see fit to make a profit - you can also buy software to automate trading ships.

Missions - you can pick up missions at stations. The terms are laid out clearly (kill x enemies in y sector; bring x amount of quantity to y station by z time) and once you complete the mission you get payment.

You can play it like Freelancer and just trade commodities or kill pirates (or hang out with them), although it's a bit slower to actually get some decent action going. I'm thinking of picking up Terran Conflict since I liked both X2/X3 (although I've still barely played X3), but I want Fallout 3...too many good games!