X4 Foundations: Tips

[Huntn]

X4: steep learning curve, not much explained imo. I’ve got a Quick and Dirty guide started in 2018, I need to see if I posted it on Steam or not, but I’ve never like the Steam forum structure and now with update 5.0, I am rediscovering the game, I’ll start this as a tips thread and maybe convert to a guide with enough info posted.

For April 2022, there are 3 DLCs. Since I already owned the game, I purchased all 3 which expands the Galaxy. Since there were no Trader Starts in the Terran sector, I wanted to be Terran this time, and I started as a Terran Cadet and found myself in a Kukri fighter. The first short mission sends you out on a quest to repair satellites, but you get some basics on using your ship’s weapons. More on this start to be added…

Kukri Fighter​

Tips

• Getting Started? Go do the Flight School tutorial, which can be found on the start page. Do it a couple of times. This will give you a chance to figure out how to fly a ship, control it and establish a key setup, determine if it is adequate, and develop some muscle memory.
  It also gets you some time in your space suit and use of both a hand held laser and a repair laser.
• Control Setup I have a Razer Naga mouse with 17 buttons, and a Razer Nostromo with a bunch more buttons, I am still pressed to get everything programmed the way I want it and still have to rely on my keyboard for some commands and key combos.
  Unless your joystick has a butt load of buttons you might not find it adequate to fly and have the control you want. With mouse control, the game has 2 modes of pointing the ship, with direct control, the nose of the ship goes where you point the mouse. There is another mode where the nose goes in the direction of the mouse, but is not as precise. I roll the ship with the Q E keys.
• Long Range Scans- Required for some quests and locating abandoned ships.
  It’s just not a matter of turning long range scans on, it is activate it with a key combo (Shift 3) and then then hold the secondary weapon key (Default R) for 2 seconds and release to set out a pulse. You’ll see a beam leave your ship and push out from it. When you hit pay dirt, a marker appears.

 

[Huntn]

In 2022 restarted and quit. 2023, restarting again and X4 is a real pain in my ass. Nothing appears simple in this game. I’m constantly searching online for how tos. I’ve got a Captain flying my ship so she will advance her skills, we are docked at a warf, I get a mission to stop a ship with stolen documents, I activate the mission, there is a yellow line to the ship that is getting away, and she just sits there docked. On the ship it says “hold” as in an order, I right click on the ship, nothing, I open the ship and there is a place that says forget existing commands”, click on that, nothing, I click on my Captain, no appropriate commands.
Intoss her out of the seat jump in and start chasing, but by this time the ship is in travel mode 1200kph or so, and I can’t catch up with it.

So I reload the handy save. Then I do a search online and find a blurb about NPC behaviors and in my dim memory I remember something about standing orders, so when I restart the game, I’ll look for that. 🤬

 

[Huntn]

2023- After uninstalling in 2022, and giving it another go, I’m maybe ready to give up on X4 after spending 2 hours last night trying to figure out how to build a dock on space station. It’s not figured out this morning… The game typically throws a task at you with basically zero guidance as if the developer thinks that the people who have purchased their game revel in figuring out how to accomplish tasks. I even found a tutorial on it, I have a builder ship assigned to the task, but I am short of building materials, and I can’t figure out why I’m not getting any trade offers to supply the needed materials.

This is just the latest, of a long string of tasks where I scour the net looking for tutorials. I’ve never enjoyed puzzles, nor vertical learning curves as a challenge for the fun of it when I”m playing such a game. I mean the game is big and grand in scope, visually impressive, but I’m just not cut out for this. Better said, not enjoying this process.

Imo, it would not be that hard for the developer to had more in the way of tutorials or even a checklist of steps. Now I did find a station building document at Egosoft,
https://www.egosoft.com:8444/confluence/display/X4WIKI/Station+Building+And+Management
but so far this does not answer why I’m not getting any trade offers to supply materials, maybe it’s there, and I’m not seeing it, but I’m not happy at this point. I’ll probably read though this document again.

For X3, the previous game, building stations was fun, but then I had a player who held my hand, always available to answer my dozens of questons. 😳

 

[Huntn]

It is official, uninstalled for the third time.
I'm done jumping through Egosoft's hoops trying to make this thing work. Trying to get the dock built on the HQ was the final straw. Plus in this universe, I am so disappointed with the lack of any kind of a meaningful interaction with intelligent species including humans. You are in this universe for a time, you want to feel like your part of something, but the shallow nature of every personal interaction is so shallow, almost an effort for what little is there has disillusioned me fast. Crew members who just basically grunt as they come out of the back of the ship, and walk past you to take the helm, while you are locked permanently on the flight deck. Yeah, I really felt like I was part of a team.

For a fun change of pace, take a look at Spaceborn 2