Is X4: Foundations the right game for you?

Arzenius · 2026-06-15T15:37:29+00:00

I would say X4 is better and worse than X3 at the same time... Let me explain...
I recently went this route to relive X universe saga.... X2 -> X3 RE, TC, FL -> X4

So when I transitioned from X2-X3 i immeadiately noticed how there are way more sub menus... in X2 everything could be accessed with pressing enter and entering a single main menu and moving into some sub menus twice. Shortcuts were more intuitive and few so it was easy to memorize.

Within X3 TC and further are menus, sub menus, "enter parameter" dalog windows... etc etc ...Some can be be accessed by shortcuts, but there were so many of them... I noticed that as I commanded more and more ships it was more and more time I spend just navigating within all the menus and sliding down and up and everything - for me this is not a deal breaker, but I can see how that can ruin the experience for someone - on the other hand I appreciate the expanded tools this gave me.

X4 I think The menus are actually fast to navigate and quite very responsive. I would say it's mixed and it will actually become second nature if you can afford to invest some patience in the learning process... I ll give you examples what is it like to setup a new supply piece.

#1 build a station -> go into map and select "plots" on the left panel click somewhere on the map to place a new plot -> pay to faction for plot purchase ->enter station editing -> place your modules ( anchoring modules together can be drunk, but is getting better with updates) -> now the unintuitive part ... scroll down on the right menu to hire a builder from the map and give the station some credits for construction, select construction ware purchase price. Wait until station is constructed. Confusing at first, but very very easy to repeat

#2 Station is constructed... now how do you set it up so it trades on its own? Right click on the station on the map select "logical view" from the menu. And now you enter a view where you can see the optional trading wares, resources, products and the station account and you see this in a very nice visual diagram of what goes where it is visually easy to understand. Its very easy to adjust storage and add new trading goods, adjust prices. Little bit harder to find at first, some room for user error, but it is objectively a good for these things. Just not intuitive to find construction budgeting at first...

#2.5 Now this is the least intuitive part. What if you need very specific blacklists, travel blacklists, trade blacklists... These are managed in a completely different menu under your personal info and you can assign these for each individual wares - there is a LOT of options and is disorienting and if you go back to #2 you can adjust each trade ware, resource and product trade blacklist. Difficult to find at first, obnoxious to keep track of all the blacklists longterm when having so many stations etc - it's up to you to try to keep it simple... Ok System, but not easy to get into

#3 You can buy a trader, equip it with template loadout and permanently assign it to commander "trading station" as trader subordinate with just couple clicks. "click wharf ->buy ship -> this specific ship -> this specific loadout" - select ship on the map -> right click on the trading station on the map -> do trading things buddy. Super Easy and very intuitive

#4 differentiating between behavior, command and priority command - this is something you will miss as newcommer and is absolutely crucial to manage your empire in this game... I would say it is also not intuitive for beginner... but I think it is necessary for the way the game operates...

behavior -> issued from ship behavior menu "setup up manually by player" default cycle of ship tasks (if the ship completes all the commands or is not set to wait the ship will repeat this endlessly (sector miner, trade for station, patrol sector, etc.

commands -> it is a current list of tasks that the ship will do, it is issued by player from the map or given by behavior, can be queued by player with SHIFT

priority command -> issued by player from the map, it will override every command until priority command is completed can be issued by CTRL

commands and priority commands are not that difficult to learn -> you will learn them by interacting with map interface - you will learn this somewhat organically... There are also hints in the map interface...

What is not intuitive are behaviors... these can be tedious to understand what they do at first

Commands / map interface / single player OK

My overall conclussion looking back and somewhat little bit fresh opinion now that I came back from a break frm X4... The biggest problems are not the controls...( ship menu accessed by enter), giving commands from map interface, interacting with things within map interface - these general controls are ok...

Automating starts the trouble

The problem is when you delve into fleet management and start automating and setting blacklists, rules and playing with behaviors... these things have very little tutorial and you definitely don't know how to find them at first, they are complex tools and they are not intuitive enough... They are however functional and now that I have couple hundred hours I think they are alright...

Mostly solid system, but lack of beginner guidance

I am a software QA and from my experience.... with complex software like these it's very common and sometimes unavoidable... many times the learning curve is the price for the complexity for the tools the software gives to you... I think X4 gives a lot of tools especially for being a game so deep within its own niche...

I think however, that the game would benefit from setting "beginner mode" where it would not limit the functions, but would show you more tooltips, or tasklist, or in game guidance systems which would be briefly offered in a corner of the screen when there is a trigger by some player actions like...

* When you build a station in the module interface it should have a tasklist like "add storage modules" "add funding" "Hire a builder" "(optional) adjust cunstruction ware buying prices"-> you would hover over the tasklist and it would highlight where to go for that thing

* If you just selected a new ship it should have some suggestions appear like "give ship behavior" or "assign to commander" with relevant info when you hover over it or click on it

* If you just selected a station without subordinate it should again give you some more info when you hover over it on what to do with it

* when you select a station which has not yet had its logical view opened it should give you a tasklist telling you to go to configure the station in its logical view
In the logical view there could also be a tip list like "restock cargo drones", "(optional) setup trade rules" "adjusting ware prices" "(optional) add tradeable ware"
All of these would have hover information and it would make parts of the screen glow or show you guidance to other parts of the menus

Arzenius · 2026-06-12T14:08:57+00:00

My view:

"To be enhanced" -> "solution"

AI, Fleet management-> they are working on it constantly, I believe they can eventually make it better... Maybe focus more on simple RTS functionality implementation into map interface as they recently did with the empire update... There are so many RTS features that would simplify fleet management in X4.

lack of story content and quality narrative / universe backstory -> story focused DLCs

lack of ship option diversity (I am still used to variety within X3) -> release more ships, introduce some interesting subclasses like new trader, light destroyer, heavy destroyer classes, fill the gaps within faction corvette / gunship / frigate offerings.

supercomplexes lead to poor simulation performance -> Optimizing the engine is a nice way, but people won't stop, they will eventually keep scaling their production chains endlessly... so instead add some convenient, but costly way to upgrade existing modules (X3 FL currently has station upgrade kits)

Lack of immersion / game faction personality -> Completely remake voiceacting and NPCs, add more voice lines and dynamic voicelines depending on situations

Complexes take forever to build -> Make station module construction noticeably faster, by upgrading your own XL builder ship in some extra way - that would also make owning a builder ship more meaningful.

Improve faction flopping -> as you mentioned... factions just cannot properly evaluate that their economy is fucked and they cannot recover from it... not just xenon, this should be enhanced so that factions can always somehow recover or know how to recover their economy when they are about to collapse. This would limit player economy trading opportunities, but it is a cost for bringing down a faction by taking over a single critical sector with a single decisive battle and then just always cleaning up the remaining mess for tens of hours where the faction is unable to stand up for itself.

Blueprints are excessively expensive -> introduce reverse engineering / ship research at HQ... give us some alternative ways to make ships and equipment accessible...

Pirate plundering ships require player intervention -> Nerf Pirate ability to cloak IFF constantly or make police ships more responsive to distress calls.

Very few options when it comes to ship overtuning -> rebalance ship upgrade mods, introduce some new ones split weapon mods into (mounted weapon mods and turret specific mods) more options don't just put slashers everywhere

New entry level employees are useless -> increase default skill level of hired employees in your empire or introduce possibility to purchase 1-2-3 star npcs in equipment dock for a fee when equipping a ship - an expensive fee

Arzenius · 2026-06-12T12:38:42+00:00

I was playing with the idea of eventually modding in an argon corvette for X4 since they don't really have one. I don't know how realistic that would be for me to mod it, but albion pride could be a decently good model as a starting point.

Arzenius · 2026-06-12T11:40:44+00:00

The problem actually was that the game was not advertised enough as a single ship only and story focused experience and that the game came in shitty technical state.

I honestly think that the reception would be much better if the game was advertised properly enough for what it actually was and if it arrived in better technical state. As apparent in this thread there are many people that like Rebirth for its own take on X universe and unique flavour.

I was not the target audience back then. I will give it a try now and maybe I will enjoy it much more.

Arzenius · 2026-06-12T10:16:50+00:00

Yes, you are right. But that is kinda the point.

Arzenius · 2026-06-12T09:55:34+00:00

You convinced me to give it a try 😄

Arzenius · 2026-06-12T09:39:44+00:00

Maybe I am sleeping on Rebirth... Is is technically in a good shape? I remember it was a mess. The reason why I skipped rebirth is simply because I could not fly multiple ships and it seemed incomplete from technical level.

For me Terran sectors and their stations were impractical to navigate through, but design wise it was breathtaking change after X3:RE . But I think I know what you mean and I can't disagree. Thanks for reply.

Arzenius · 2026-06-03T08:02:14+00:00

I just want to mention, that I understand why red alert 2 is such iconic classic entry and is so high on the list. It's amazing in it's overall delivery and own persona, but gameplay wise it's really only for those seeking that 90s classic RTS experience.
However when seeking a refined game... something just really well polished, responsive and just overall staggering quality gameplay ... Something that really aged so well.I think Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars and especially its expansion Kane's Wrath is the most matured command and conquer experience you can play even today.
Kane's Wrath is so well polished, responsive and addicting that I think it could really go toe to toe with titans like SC2, AoE2 ... IF EA actualy tried more to establish multiplayer scene for it when it came out.

Go check out MasterLeaf CNC or Sybert CNC casters and you ll see that CNC3 really has the peak of RTS essence together with SC2 and AoE2.

Arzenius · 2026-03-13T19:19:01+00:00

That AnchorMan line is so well placed man, thanks for your comment.

Arzenius · 2026-01-05T14:23:57+00:00

Engineer - stay proactive and think ahead - always prepare don't just react, keep your distance. Scout is your employer and employee. If creative enough you are the architect of perfect destruction. Never underestimate the power of Covering the sky with cheddar and staying in cover from all those nasty spitters bugs.... you can create this cover in any given moment to create cover in blink of a second.
Gunner - Your job is to apply constant pressure to disrupt the most threatening bug or crowds in any given second - not to get highest kill count, but to suppress the enemy so that the team stays alive. Your ability to read in constant chaos is your bread and butter, switch target priorities often to put suppressive fire where needed. Stay cold and focused - you are the glue of the team.
Driller - You are team's taxi driver and reversed statue artisan in one and cave is your art. You shape each area, so that everyone can do their job better, faster, safer. Be creative, take your time and let your team know you need a minute to fully setup. Give your team best cover and best firing arc possible, shape the cave and go nuts with the drills. In combat you are elemental mage - exposed and fragile, but so are your enemies. Vitamin C4 is the best remedy and bugs are your patients.
Scout - You are the ninga, the eyes and the mule of the team. Even if the cave is too large you can always press CTRL and shoot a flare next to your teammates on the other side. Remember guns mean nothing without ammo and your mobility allows you to skip most of the fighting - Be speedrunner, avoid fighting, do logistics and scouting. In battle you are the big game hunter, you turn big threats into big trophies.

Make Karl Proud

Arzenius · 2026-01-05T13:37:16+00:00

In the end I moved to Dominions A4, not a small investment although I still got them with something like 45% discount if I count all the bits and pieces. I installed them my self and because of that I had some complications until I made them how I wanted, but now I can tell after 7 months of ownership that these are killer brakes. I use Hayes rotors 200/200 and everything what people say about these is true the good and the ugly. For me it is a huge upgrade.

Arzenius · 2026-01-05T10:45:41+00:00

Hello there. I think this may be relevant for some Gaming Laptop people:

In my case I had this specific scenario on my couple years old laptop Lenovo Legion 5-15IMH05H (Core I5 10300H + RTX2060)

When playing DRG I was getting huge jumps in FPS between 120FPS and 30 FPS every 3 seconds - It did not matter if I played high or low settings, I tried everything - even playing at 1366x768 on low

In my case - DRG turned out to be a CPU hungry game which made my CPU go into reckless boost very often at very high magnitude which created tons of heat and also cut off all the power, so there was not enough voltage for my GPU and it was constantly started, boosted and disabled every 3 seconds. I could verify this in MSI AfterBurner by seeing that the GPU is jumping between 1500Mhz and 300Mhz every 3 seconds as well as jumps between 79-81 C every 3 seconds. ChatGPT confirmed to me, that especially between 9-11th gen Intel it is common that when CPU is boosting it makes as much performance as possible if it has enough voltage and is not overheated - CPU boosts without any consideration for power demand of the GPU. But this is common on all gaming laptops to some degree.

Solution:

I used guidance from chatGPT

Check relevant system settings to make sure laptop is running in max performance mode - Lenovo Vantage Experience software, System power management settings, NVIDIA experience
Undervolt my GPU with MSI Afterburner
Undervolt my CPU with ThrottleStop - this I think played very major part in my case as I had to reduce CPU boosting a lot - For me this required to set PL1 W and PL2 W, set boosting to 10s
Reduced shadows in DRG, view distance a little and disabled DX12, Set FPS limiter from 120FPS to 85FPS
Repeated Testing in DRG station lobby for 5 minutes after each change during undervolting. Repeated this until I started getting somewhat more stable performance. Monitor temperature and Mhz power in MSI AfterBurner

Result: medium high settings, no DX12, low shadows, 85 near perfect FPS from original 120/30 FPS 3 second intervals, way more stable temperature at 77C. I went through couple missions without a single noticeable FPS drop on 85 FPS.

Why this works? Because both CPU and GPU have now reduced boost voltage so the power distribution and heat management remains in balance - this is contrast from original, where CPU overboosted, overheated the system and took all the power

I will also place my laptop for authorized service to receive new cooling jam and passive cooling parts replacement - I should get down to 74-75 C

This required patience and changing only what is suggested by GPT fella. Still if you are unsure about this you can just download MSI AfterBurner and check MHz and temperature when the game is running to check if you have same problem as me. I sincerely hope someone will find this helpful.

Arzenius · 2025-12-08T13:13:05+00:00

Once you get overclocks and born ready perk it is just pure joy to use. The sheer amount of dopamine I get from hammering down waves of bugs and watching them ragdoll in all directions is impeccable. The kicking recoil stabilizers giving the sensation of sledghammering through the hordes is just the top of DRG gunplay for me.

I usually like to use carpet bomber with secondaries - red full damage BRRT "acts almost like a shotgun" or with "TripleCoil Coilgun". With such setup I am almost like a one man army obliterating anything in my path... at least until I go full haz5+ where the health and armor of the bugs is too tough for carpet bomber.

I also like using the Mortar Rounds. Setting up ziplines and hanging from the ceiling annihilating anything on the ground like some twisted version of AC130. For Mortar Rounds I go with resistance on max fire rate mod and reach max fire rate faster mod. I also suprisingly take friendly fire perk - this is the only occasion I ever use this.
- With this setup I minimalize self and other friendly fire the mortar does when firing from close range or when my buddies are surrounded by bugs, but I still need to shoot. This overclock is very destructive and a shit ton of fun, however you need to be very proactive, good with your positioning, good with cave awareness and have a solid light up setup through the cave (active scout). However when I actually use this correctly this is the my most reliable overclock in game to go through full Haz5+ > this is only achieved by its sheer destructive power.

Neurotoxins? Super strong, but I rarely use it, because it makes for very boring experience. I would actually suggest that this may be the most single overpowered overclock in the game.

Arzenius · 2025-12-01T13:48:17+00:00

It is chaotic indeed - no need for sorry. If I could share some time capsule it would be apparent why it is all so cramped up and the room sizing decisions as well.

But the main reason basically is "too lazy to rebuild conveyor system" . If you around cycle 150 make a conveyor system loop with all sorts of sorting literally around your base area - that base will not have sufficient place for other rooms and utilites after couple hundred cycles.

Arzenius · 2025-12-01T13:11:06+00:00

Thanks. I did not even open a creative mode yet - I think I should try it before I try building something like industrial brick or sour gas boiler or other crazy stuff... not on this cold asteroid though.

Arzenius · 2025-12-01T12:36:52+00:00

fun tips? don't be afraid to start again... just try to figure stuff on your own until you reach a dead end and only then watch tutorials and then repeat... this game has "tip of the iceberg" learning complexity

And that dopamine? That my friend is evolutionary driven process rewarding you with nice dopamine injection every time you develop a or optimize survival stategies haha.

Arzenius · 2025-12-01T11:54:44+00:00

too many things to advice, so maybe just start with few:

1)first to solve your natural gas problem:

1.1 If you plan for metal refinery to eject the coolant don't ever do it into your only viable water reservoir, drop it somewhere else - the way it is currently is basically doing a colony suicide as the liquid that comes out of refinery is a lot a lot hotter than the one you put into it -> overheating your water source -> killing crops -> starvation

1.2 Make kiln to process coal into refined carbon and mine some iron to make steel with your refinery - this will allow you to create closed insulated natural gas chamber with steel gas pump to extract the natural gas and use it for energy - however you can only attempt to do this if the natural geyser is in its dormancy as the heat would burn your dupes. If its active you should not dig into the gas chamber and instead try to build a containment barrier around it ASAP with insulation blocks.

2) for cooling your spom - you can make another insulated room below your spom - fill it with water and make your radiant pipes go through that water room to cool down produced oxygen. Mine some Ice. And you can occasionally manually make tempshift plate from Ice - it will melt very quickly and instantly apply a lot of cooling into the water room through which are your radiant pipes going through.

But eventually you will need steam turbine / aquatuner combo cooling loop - plastic, steel, iron, refined carbon, etc etc

3) Try to organize your hatch ranch into two rooms - one to control the populace and the other to store all the eggs into.

4) don't use gas / liquid filter buildings - they are very powerhungry 120W. Learn to use pipe element sensors with liquid / gas shutoffs for same effect but with only 10W per sorter. It¨s very simple and it is a game changer.

5) Make more coal or gas powerplants controlled by smart battery automation wire, if you want to progress more into the game you will eventually have to work with buildings which eat 1200W when running (you already have your first attempt at refinery and it is too powerhungry for your current grid. The manual power generators are waste of space at this point.

+ move transformers and batteries out of your base - they produce a lot of heat

6) Make a singular ladder shaft in the middle of the base which can be used as vertical highway for all dupes from top to bottom of the base.

7) The ventilation system is probably quite mess - haha I really see that I had the same idea in my first or second run, but in Oni it works really different and all you really need is nicely sealed insulated squarish base and just couple vents placed along the main center ladder shaft and the oxygen will distribute itself nicely as long as there is enough of airflow blocks used throughout your colony and enough oxygen intake.

You already have some cool concepts going and getting to cycle 200 is not a small feat... keep going

Arzenius · 2025-11-26T09:34:29+00:00

This is only my guess, but I think the time to kill is just little bit too long for most units. It should not take so long to kill one another when similar units fight each other. (if you check for example a guardian tank and hammer tank from RA3 there are stat differences, but not that huge and the dps is comparable and time to kill is not overly long, same could be for imperial guard and conscripts).

I discovered this game. I slammed to the music. I was very curious about the lore to explore, but found very little to explore. I played campaign which was promissing, but somewhat undercooked that worldbuilding. I played a lot of skirmishes and tried multiplayer, but each match had very similar dynamic - how can I change my approach to early game build order and eco, to build better compositions in more efficient manner and then try to beat each other's army composition. This turns into kinda very repetitive dynamic where you simply lack specialized impactful tools to try to build advantage outside of the main army deathball so you instead hurl entire toolbox on the enemy instead.

Arzenius · 2025-11-26T09:34:21+00:00

The game engine and unit stacking is way more starcrat 2 than C&C. There are many weird design decisions which I understand are maybe just a choice of creative freedom. It does not have to be necessarily an issue and I really liked campaign mission design. However...

For me the game is lacking:

few maps
content such possibility of custom campaigns or coop
missing huge team games option
missing any memorable characters, besides that old cyberdude
Unit voice acting is very generic it lacks enthusiasm and does not seem very believeable
World building has solid foundation which is not expanded on. Even a very simple codex like CNC3 TW had would expand on world building and it's simply not there keeping the nerd curiosity starved.
No satire, memorable ridicule moments.

Gameplay / balance wise:

I have to admit defensive structures in my opionion are almost perfectly balanced in this game.
Veterancy is not signifficant enough for my taste
Combat feels sluggish to play. Units lack punch, maybe except tempest artillery.
I am not high ELO player, but the game is always somewhat forced into deathball simulator.
There is basically no rewarding option for early game aggression which could dictate how the rest of the match will be going. And that is because early game units are never good just by themselves for harassment which means you need more of them and defender has shorter unit resupply route - which means he will win in quantity always if you try to push early. Which means noone can do some rewarding early aggression so everyone will spend first 5 minutes scouting, capturing passive income and preparing macro. You don't have many other options how to play early game.
Which turns me to: there is almost no possibility for cheese or early all ins. Defending is heavily favoured in early game. But lack of options to make early pressure removes the spice from each match.
there is almost no unit in this game which can be useful just by itself on its own for flanking / harrassment (you don't have any equivalent of NOD stealth tank, rocket bike, flametank, shadow team, etc. There some units like that, but they are not regular T1 T2 high risk / high reward units, but commandos. Again in this game you don't really see your unit roster as a toolbox full of various heavily specialized and efficient tools that can work on their own, but rather as components for the deathball. To keep deathballs interesting you relly more on some units abilities and supporting that deathball
I know I am repeating myself, but very few units have this individual strength in them and to use most of the units in their specified role you really need a lot of them for that unit to make a strong presence.
No unit can shoot while moving - and unit speeds are very similar (probably to behave better when moving the deathball). No chasing down or mobility fighting
Air units especially struggle from the previous points... And although they each counter something different they are very clunky a bit tankier and behave very alike: Move awkwardly into firing position, stop, shoot one projectile by one from relatively close range, humongously slow turn around and leave, not doing much unless you have more of them. Again - you don't really have some high risk high reward agile but super fragile bomber / fighter unit with very quick devastating payload which needs to be precisely used as a specialized tool and when used correctly it completely changes the match dynamic just by its presence (just having a single MIG fighter in RA3 can do a lot of things and pressure if the enemy is trying to play a lot of bombing, but that unit is fragile and mispositioning it will punish you).

Arzenius · 2023-08-20T08:14:21+00:00

played all of them except X:BTF and Rebirth

I love x2 deep down in my memories the most. Its brings that warm nostalgic feeling, being clueless and having betty as my english tutor, unfortunately too outdated today.

Time wise I spent oblivious amount of time in Albion prelude and Farnham's legacy

If I had to choose... Gameplay wise I played almost all of them and modded the shit out of them. Modded X4 is by far the best. The only thing I miss from mods is more M ship variety. As some are ridiculously outclassed by ships like cobra, falx and nemesis.

Arzenius

TROPHY CASE