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[JimboM12]

sounds like good ol' egosoft. i will be abstaining for a while but i do plan on buying X4, sounds like they got the base right and it just needs patching.

[Dutrius]

You know what? I'm going to miss Betty saying "Entering System: Autopilot off." and the constant "Incoming message." alerts.

[Gabeux]

100%. I feel they got the early game right, there's a lot to do for a new player that isn't locked behind ranks and stuff like that. But once you got settled in and says "okay, now I'll start playing X" you bump into so many minor/major things that it gets discouraging. Unfortunately for me, I love this game too much and I keep slugging along. Until I reach some goals I have, that is.
I would recommend most people to give it 1-3 months at least. Egosoft seems very motivated into making this work, but there's lots that needs looking into.

To end this 2-post sort-of-review in a more positive note, with X:R I modded it to hell and back to make it fun, but I always knew the game had inherent flaws that could never be fixed - I had a huge playthrough and the "busywork" and waiting around was so much that some stations I owned never produced anything the whole playthrough. It was stupid. And I always looked forward for the next X.
With this, I don't think anything requires a complete redesign/rethinking from the ground up (lemme know if I'm forgetting something). Fixing the enemies, economies, combat AI, fixing the war, rebalancing missiles/CM, adding more content (ship, mission, equipment variety), adding more filters and UI features, adding more automation..all of that is just filling in some blanks and doing some tweaks.
To me, with X:R they proved not only their willingness but also their ability to 180 on things, if required, to making it work post-release. If you play the latest version and compare with youtube videos, some features and menus where very different.

The things that always made me quit a playthrough on previous X games:
- Equipping multiple ships at a time takes dozens of keystrokes, and if EQDs ran out of the stuff you need you'll be in micromanagement hell
- Ordering ships around and getting map awareness later on being tough and requiring typing/tapping keys like a madman
- Building complexes taking hours and being 100% hit-and-miss and trial-and-error (less on X:R, but X:R felt limiting and sluggish)
- Actually getting stations built and running, with assigned ships

Those pretty much came out fixed out of the box. I still have to test the behavior of ships assigned to stations though, because one of my traders got assigned to a patrol  .

TL;DR: We always knew X4 release would be Early Access/Beta. For a second, some got a little hope it wasn't the case.. 

I gotta stop posting about this game, as I'm very close to start dreaming with all its menus.

You know what? I'm going to miss Betty saying "Entering System: Autopilot off." and the constant "Incoming message." alerts.

More Betty is coming though! And I'm happy that she actually does read Encyclopedia Timeline entries! Except when some stupid NPC calls and cuts her off.

[Dutrius]

You know what? I'm going to miss Betty saying "Entering System: Autopilot off." and the constant "Incoming message." alerts.

More Betty is coming though! And I'm happy that she actually does read Encyclopedia Timeline entries! Except when some stupid NPC calls and cuts her off.

Nice!

I still haven't played the game myself yet. My new pc hasn't arrived yet and my old one is broken.

[Gabeux]

Patch 1.21 released

• Improved automatic GPU selection to prioritise discrete GPUs.
• Fixed freeze when saving the game.
• Fixed some causes of freezes when starting the game.
• Fixed cause of a crash after loading savegame.
• Fixed upgrade orders becoming non-functional when loading a savegame.
• Fixed money not being refunded for cancelled upgrades.
• Fixed ships not being claimable from the space suit.
• Fixed a case that could result in AutoTraders sometimes trading at a loss.
• Fixed excessive delay between damage and start of repairs.
• Fixed several other causes of rare crashes.

The upgrade order/no refunds for cancelled upgrades probably cost me around 13 million, so I'm glad it was quickly fixed. 
I have a feeling in the next patch we may see some tweaks to the universe/war.

[Gabeux]

As mentioned, with luck later today we'll get a patch that will actually get the game working more as intended: with war and conflict going on. And working turrets.
I've checked the Beta and its much better. However, there's a damn long path ahead, still.

And at this point, to me it's confirmed the game was released unfinished. Not unpolished - unfinished. There are different guilds you can join in the game, and half of those currently give you no missions or anything - even though you become a 'member' by getting enough reputation with a faction.
That said, I got rep with the nice Paranids in hope they would give out more combat-oriented missions, and was disappointed nothing really happened (you are usually invited for a meeting with the faction/guild/war leader, then missions become available).
When I tested the Beta today, suddenly there was a mission for me to join that guild. That definitely wasn't there before..and I tested it extensively.

That's pretty bad tbh, and it's no bug given that there are other guilds still not providing missions/content.

And in other front, I tried out destroying a station today, and unless I was unlucky to find a bugged module and a particular tricky scenario, that took way too long (almost two hours) because the station kept self-repairing even though it's storage had been destroyed and no Construction Ships or Repair Drones were nearby.
Factions destroying stations and taking over sectors, specially with the help of players, should be a thing - it's advertised as one of the main points of the game. And it seems not much testing probably been into it.
What's even sillier is that the CWIR mod for X:R actually made this sort of War/Conquest feature workable even in X:R.

Shouldn't come as a surprise, but eh. They better keep churning out those 'fixes' (actual post-release implementations of missing or unfinished stuff). And I guess I can now believe they didn't hold it out for another year because they were getting low on funds.

[etgfrog]

Large patch. Bolded the parts I found interesting.

Spoiler: patch notes (click to show/hide)

• Added graphics setting to show graphics card and screen separately on multi-GPU systems.
• Added option to restore all default settings.
• Added Nividium to items bought by Argon and Teladi trade stations.
• Added SSAA 2x and 4x options back in.
• Improved accuracy of turrets and gimballed weapons.
• Improved skill gain profile for NPCs.
• Improved station-based traders to sell products at at least the price set at their station.
• Improved options for selling illegal wares.
• Removed non-functional engine mod type.
• Removed mining turret compatibility from Sunder.
• Removed display of type icons for unknown objects on map.
• Removed mouse cursor emulation in start menu.
• Removed option to shuffle station construction plan for HQ.
• Fixed logbook showing oldest 1000 entries instead of newest.
• Fixed searching for ware names to use the correct trade filter.
• Fixed missing guidance information in Mission Manager
• Fixed invasions stalling and starving the war missions of suitable situations.
• Fixed illegal build plot for advanced gamestart "The Unworthy Entrepreneur".
• Fixed player-owned ships sometimes dropping cargo without the player telling them to.
• Fixed passengers or prisoners sometimes being promoted to captain thereby changing ship ownership.
• Fixed turrets on M-sized ships flown by the player and set to attack all enemies not engaging hostile XS-sized ships.
• Fixed case of patrolling ships failing to engage pirates pretending to belong to their faction.
• Fixed police ships penalising unpaid plots in locations where they do not have police authority.
• Fixed "Promote best crewmember" button not working if ship has no pilot and all crewmembers have 0 skills.
• Fixed being able to recruit crew from NPC-owned capital ships.
• Fixed another case of AutoTrade not functioning.
• Fixed AutoMiners not selling the resources that they gather.
• Fixed some player-owned ships not allowing you to dock.
• Fixed L-sized turret and shieldgenerator blueprints not being available to the player.
• Fixed certain collectables not being picked up when you fly over them.
• Fixed ships stuck while docked awaiting an invalid build to complete.
• Fixed characters being stuck in unhelpful places.
• Fixed being able to clone crew members.
• Fixed player logo being applied to HQ asteroid.
• Fixed player HQ information menu not working after adding a production to the HQ.
• Fixed missing dock areas on builder ships.
• Fixed incorrect type of mines near gate in Eighteen Billion.
• Fixed error incorrectly appearing if build is completed.
• Fixed asteroid scanning not being possible.
• Fixed missing text localization in several places.
• Fixed missing German station announcements and other voiced lines.
• Fixed a case of ships having no collision detection.
• Fixed ships skipping collision avoidance in certain situations.
• Fixed most cases of clipping through docking bay floors when docking.
• Fixed a case of the player ship warping to an invalid location on undocking.
• Fixed more cases of the player ship warping around (e.g. after taking control).
• Fixed crash when installing broken equipment mods.
• Fixed occasional unrecoverable freezes.
• Fixed several other causes of rare crashes.

Maybe they intentionally left out the rest of the campaign so there isn't as many people complaining it couldn't be finished.

[Gabeux]

Yes. To me, there's definitely stuff disabled or missing.

At least on this patch there were other stealth changes, such as station lifts can now take you to the ship Workshop (or store) and to the Trader, instead of forcing you to walk there every time.
I'm yet to give it a good run on my current 1.0-1.21 save.

[marples]

Yes. To me, there's definitely stuff disabled or missing.

Looking forward to what ventures work out as. Hopefully it is just a ship or small convoy sent by other players that you can interact with in various ways. I feel sure I've seen this mechanic in other games. Wasn't there a game where you could send your NPC party members to help out other players and they would earn xp and rewards whilst doing so?

[Gabeux]

Yep, that will probably be an online component. I'm guessing it will (or at least should) be a plot of the Stargazers guild of the Alliance of the Word, which is currently disabled and don't give out any missions / don't have a Leader Office even though the faction only owns 1 station.

Some people are already spoiling what is coming next even in the DLCs by checking game files. But it's kinda obvious if you're familiar with the X Universe and you explore a bit with your eyes open.

Spoiler: Very likely future content - potential spoilers (click to show/hide)

Boron, Terrans and the Split. Borons are pretty obvious. For Terrans, the Earth gate is disabled right there next to Argon Prime (not that previous maps matters a lot), and the PHQ is of Terran origin. Split-named sectors have disabled warp gates, and are full of wrecks and Xenon.
When it comes to Ventures, the Boron scientist mentions the Terrans were investigating the possibility of the Universe being comprised of other multiple other Universes - yay for multiverse where each Universe is each player's X4 playthrough. I mentioned the Stargazers/Alliance of the Word because they are the ones actually putting work into designing and developing ships to reach planets that are still stranded from the Gate Shutdown, while everyone else doesn't really care. Guess with the Boron scientist + ALI research, you get Venture ships.

Could be good. At this moment, I just want them to rebalance stations, because I wanna go to war soon and having self-repairing stations that take 30 minutes in SETA to die is just too stupid.
I might just rebalance myself if it never comes, because I really see absolutely no reason why a single steel rod in a spacestation takes 50 Heavy Torpedoes (which costs 1 million credits) to die. And then you still have other 10+ modules to kill.
Then again, a lot of higher priority stuff is probably in the queue.

[etgfrog]

Well...npcs actually build ships at shipyards now and I'm starting to see things be active again. At the very least xenon and argon keep sending ships at each other. I tried to take down a xenon K, after disabling the engines another K pulled alongside and started shooting me along with several fighters, so I had to leave it. The AI is still bad at catching something in travel mode, so the hostile sectors are still not that dangerous.

Well...pirates are everywhere now, so many demanding my nemesis vanguard to drop cargo, which is essentially suicide because 5 medium guns tends to wreck nearly everything.

[Gabeux]

Aye, the game is coming to life (as it should've been on 1.0). It was cool to see the Paranid launching a whole fleet in HOP territory, with a carrier along with it. They didn't seem to do much though..

There's still a ton that needs fixing, unfortunately, because the most frustrating issues are still standing:
TRADE: AutoTraders are still stupid. Maybe mods will fix some of that, soon.
FIGHT: Commanding a wing/fleet requires LOTS of micromanagement, and LOTS of ships can be lost due to stupidity of ships not reacting to their surroundings/situation. The game does not have a quick "Attack all Enemies" order (you can configure one, but it takes 4 clicks PER SHIP), so sometimes your fleet will kill what you ordered and stop. And die.
BUILD: Building is the only thing just works, but Subordinate Traders/Miners are stupid or braindead half the time, making running a station very frustrating given the amount of investment.
THINK: Little issues with ship boarding need to be ironed out, because it can be extremely frustrating at the moment. Invasions would include attacking stations, and stations are way too overpowered for the AI to handle, along with the fact they are near invincible due to uber-fast self-repair capabilities. Lack of certain automated commands makes certain alternate playstyles/strategies super-micromanagy or not viable (automatic Drop collecting and dumping)

We'll get there..but I'm thinking only by February or so, it may be 'okay' in the mid/later game. Although early game is a ton of fun, later on everything you think on doing is bugged, borked or unbalanced.

I've been using the shield/weapon overhaul mod, and although it kinda ignores whatever seems to be the design principle behind fights in X4, I'm liking it..my destroyers and corvettes/frigattes aren't being wrecked by single fighters anymore, yet the game becomes more challenging since the guns are more powerful across the board, which means enemies need less strafes to kill you. Mod also nerfs missile damage by ~33%, which makes things much less frustrating and mid/later game battles less silly. In summary, mod author tries to make it all much more similar to X3,

[dennislp3]

Major issue I am having....

Wharfs and shipyards are packing themselves full of one or a few resources while another (engine parts in this case) are completely empty....which means no ships can be built.

There are no checks in place to make sure the stations don't lock themselves out of producing things by filling up their entire storage with 1 thing...

[marples]

Major issue I am having....

Wharfs and shipyards are packing themselves full of one or a few resources while another (engine parts in this case) are completely empty....which means no ships can be built.

There are no checks in place to make sure the stations don't lock themselves out of producing things by filling up their entire storage with 1 thing...

They should go back to the X3 storage method, where each ware that a station required had a separate volume.

[dennislp3]

That would be the easy way to do it...but it seems they were trying to lower the complexicity where they could...they just need to allow the AI to keep stocks in check relative to production so they are relatovely even.

All it would take is some sort of "total storage/total products = individual cap"

That would be infinitaly better than nothing for the AI...players can dump stocks and sell things to fix it but the AI is screwed especially since they can't sell input materials.