After reading this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/elite-dangerous-tips.1837186/post-28018111, at this point, I’m wondering how Elite Dangerous stacks up against X4:Foundations?
When I first played ED, when it was a new game, I was impressed, but I did not like the navigation from system to system, and it became apparant at least for my preferences that bounty hunting was the only fun thing to do, trading was a grind, and then those got old.
Then I started playing X3 which had been out for years, and wowed the hell out of me, but it had a cliff like learning curve. Fortunately I found a X3 fanatic online who was more than willing to hold my hand. I played that game for a long time.
There was no need for you to be out schlepping around the universe making all of your own trades. You could hire Captains to run your ships for you, send them out on trade routes, and they have the ability to somewhat make their own trade decisions, based on parameters you set up. You could remote pilot exploration ships, having them explore new systems for you and set up advance satellites that would aid you with remote trading. And if you left the game running over night, you could wake up the next morning $30m richer, which made a huge difference because ships were not cheap. Based on what could be accomplished it was a much more fleshed out simulation. It was my kind of game.
Unfortunately when X4 came out, with just as steep a learning curve, the developer took big steps forward and backwards and made the Xenon more aggressive. I distinctly disliked the “data leak” mechanism, flying around stations looking for data that might provide some advantage, a building plan for a space station. Oh, yes, you can build your own stations, huge complexes, and create manufacturing hubs for your traders and others to use.
And now you could now ride inside a space ship at the controls or stand behind the pilot, but you were stuck in the cockpit, while other crew members could dissapear into the guts of the ship, but not you. Same with space stations, you could land on them, get out of your spaceship and walk around on them, but you were very limited to where you could go on them.
Egosoft, makers of the X games, tends to release unfinished games and then improve them as time goes by. What killed the game for me, I got tired of fighting off Xenon excursions. But the bottom line, this is a solo, more in-depth game, versus ED, a multiplayer game, or at least it was. I assume ED had made some improvements along the way.
What is important for me, is that I don’t want to do everything myself and this is what ED was when I stopped playing it. X4 is on the right track despite the vertical learning curve, lack of documentation, and limited tutorials, however, that may also have improved since I stopped playing it. The thing that originally got me successfully into X3 besides help from a friend was an extensive set of YouTube how-to and guide videos made by players of the game.
When I first played ED, when it was a new game, I was impressed, but I did not like the navigation from system to system, and it became apparant at least for my preferences that bounty hunting was the only fun thing to do, trading was a grind, and then those got old.
Then I started playing X3 which had been out for years, and wowed the hell out of me, but it had a cliff like learning curve. Fortunately I found a X3 fanatic online who was more than willing to hold my hand. I played that game for a long time.
There was no need for you to be out schlepping around the universe making all of your own trades. You could hire Captains to run your ships for you, send them out on trade routes, and they have the ability to somewhat make their own trade decisions, based on parameters you set up. You could remote pilot exploration ships, having them explore new systems for you and set up advance satellites that would aid you with remote trading. And if you left the game running over night, you could wake up the next morning $30m richer, which made a huge difference because ships were not cheap. Based on what could be accomplished it was a much more fleshed out simulation. It was my kind of game.
Unfortunately when X4 came out, with just as steep a learning curve, the developer took big steps forward and backwards and made the Xenon more aggressive. I distinctly disliked the “data leak” mechanism, flying around stations looking for data that might provide some advantage, a building plan for a space station. Oh, yes, you can build your own stations, huge complexes, and create manufacturing hubs for your traders and others to use.
And now you could now ride inside a space ship at the controls or stand behind the pilot, but you were stuck in the cockpit, while other crew members could dissapear into the guts of the ship, but not you. Same with space stations, you could land on them, get out of your spaceship and walk around on them, but you were very limited to where you could go on them.
Egosoft, makers of the X games, tends to release unfinished games and then improve them as time goes by. What killed the game for me, I got tired of fighting off Xenon excursions. But the bottom line, this is a solo, more in-depth game, versus ED, a multiplayer game, or at least it was. I assume ED had made some improvements along the way.
What is important for me, is that I don’t want to do everything myself and this is what ED was when I stopped playing it. X4 is on the right track despite the vertical learning curve, lack of documentation, and limited tutorials, however, that may also have improved since I stopped playing it. The thing that originally got me successfully into X3 besides help from a friend was an extensive set of YouTube how-to and guide videos made by players of the game.
Last edited:
