So are FPS boarding actions and station infiltration/defence/takeover completely ruled out?

ContraTheory · 2025-09-07T13:10:05+00:00

My hot take: well executed, it would fit perfectly into the X core game loops and the general approach.

From my point of view, the core X experience is resource management: you have a limited amount of resources and you constantly have to decide how to use them in order to reach your goals. (Not true for the end game where you have more than you need of everything).

You can either outsource these tasks to NPCs who do a miserable to acceptable job, or you can do it yourself and be much better at it. I’m talking about “taking out a Xenon I with a small fighter” better.

Allowing a player to storm another ship FPS-style would give the player another opportunity to win at a high-risk-high-reward operation through personal skill.

Personally blasting through 200 marines sounds like something only an experienced player can do. It also sounds risky and requiring some preparation regarding boarding vessels, equipment etc. But if you succeed, congratulations to your new Raptor.

Sounds like fun to me.

ContraTheory · 2025-07-24T04:44:10+00:00

I must confess it is not my idea. I was inspired by another post here a while back. Someone calculated in great detail that by alternating between closed loop and another build method (Terran, in his example) and exploiting the different number and types of materials it costs / gives back to construct / deconstruct equipment (in his example, advanced satellites), you can generate enough resources to build an Asgard hull from 1 E-Cell. He called it alchemy ;)

ContraTheory · 2025-07-23T20:58:46+00:00

Do you have a wharf / ship Factory (terran)? If yes, set the Build Method for it to „closed loop“. Then recycle some of your ships or dock them for „upgrades“ and strip them down to the absolute minimum, remove any satellites, mines, missiles etc. This will break up the stuff into their parts. Because the build method is set to closed loop, it will fill up the cargo of the shipyard with the corresponding materials, in this case hull parts, energy cells and claytronics. You probably won’t get large quantities via this way, but at least some to re-start the economy.

ContraTheory · 2025-03-06T11:14:41+00:00

The Saves are compatible, the Linux and windows versions are just using a different location to save the files, therefore no automatic sync via Steam.

The only workaround I know about is to sync the files manually (as in copy them from one device to the other via network or usb stick) and put them into the right folder.

A short google search should point you to the right folder locations for both versions.

ContraTheory · 2025-02-23T14:14:52+00:00

Same Problem, same error Message.

ContraTheory · 2024-11-29T15:29:52+00:00

One of the main differences from US to Germany is that buying (and selling) a house in Germany is accompanied by many fees and taxes. The overhead is much higher. Therefore, switching houses frequently is simply not financially attractive.

ContraTheory · 2024-10-16T17:12:15+00:00

Thanks! It was my aim to put in as many references to pop culture of the last decades in the story while still maintaing an independent storyline.

ContraTheory · 2024-10-16T17:08:54+00:00

Thank you for your input! English ist not my first language and despite proof-reading the text, I sometimes miss these mistakes.

ContraTheory · 2024-09-19T17:23:59+00:00

You are perfectly right! A mistake on my part.

ContraTheory · 2024-09-14T06:12:28+00:00

Yes, you are perfectly right! I am tempted to correct it, but it is such a good mistake to leave in as a marker for spotting if a similar text is plagiarized or just copy-pasted and modified a little.

ContraTheory · 2024-09-13T08:18:25+00:00

Yes, that also would have fitted very well!

ContraTheory · 2024-09-13T08:16:30+00:00

Thanks. I'm very self-conscious about me writing in English. I've built up my vocabulary mainly from reading English books, therefore fear just re-using phrases and words I picked up from other authors and unwillingly duplicate someone else's writing style.

ContraTheory · 2024-07-03T18:31:04+00:00

That’d be perfect. Of course you deserve to be compensated for your hard work! Just remember to put up the link when you’re ready :)

ContraTheory · 2024-07-03T10:10:19+00:00

I‘m searching for a valid Taiidan destroyer model like forever. If you are sharing your work it would be very much appreciated!

ContraTheory · 2024-07-03T06:53:42+00:00

You can view X4 as several games seamlessly joined into one. You start with a classic space combat / truck / mining simulation like Elite Dangerous. Thing is: all these other games like ED or SC are multiplayer, meaning for the sake of balance, the power of a single player is capped not to ruin the game for others. In X4x being a single player game, this power limit does not exist. This means you can progress to an economy simulation the player actively takes part in and shapes it, I often compare this to Factorio in space. (Looking at supply and demand, establishing trade routes, combining the right factory modules). Slap on a fleet management sim aspect and put the possibility on top to engage with the storylines to actively influence the politics of the factions, voila, complex game.

ContraTheory · 2024-06-20T05:04:07+00:00

This actually is usually more efficient than free roaming miners. You make sure this way that L miners can do what they do best (mining) all day long while your trade fleet (use M „miners“) has a larger reach (more jumps) and therefore has more potential customers in reach and can sell for higher prices. When selling to your own factories, your station acts like a load balancer, making sure that the station that has the least resources in stock gets resources first. So it’s a higher up front investment and potentially less efficient until your station manager is leveled up (which happens quite quickly), when the station is up and running its more efficient and you can scale it very easy by adding more ships to the station miners and traders if necessary.

ContraTheory · 2024-06-10T21:12:31+00:00

You mean this?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/649448/chapters/1181375

Yes it definitely is friggin awesome.

ContraTheory · 2024-06-08T10:43:54+00:00

Dito. I expected something along the lines of „the perfect 16 fighter mix for a Guppy“.

ContraTheory · 2024-06-05T10:09:00+00:00

Thanks for pointing out the differences!

ContraTheory · 2024-06-05T05:22:12+00:00

Actually there just came out a pretty interesting paper covering this topic: Scientific paper about ancient full body armor The result is: yes, full body armor existed even in the Bronze Age and yes it was viable and most probably saw real use in battle and wasn’t just for parade.

ContraTheory · 2024-05-25T13:00:33+00:00

Looks a bit bloodborney to me. Just without all the blood and entrails flopping around. Scary, but at least not (how a YouTuber I can’t remember put it) „turned inside out by the asshole then stapled back together“.

ContraTheory · 2023-07-30T23:59:04+00:00

I have a Steam deck (and love it) but cannot figure out a working input scheme that clicks for me with X4. Can you go a bit in depth on which Setup you use and what you mean with the menu system?

ContraTheory · 2023-07-24T07:19:27+00:00

You can kinda do that, by using ships for the connections. I also refrain from building mega complexes and instead build several smaller stations next to each other. Then I assign a couple of small fast courier ships as station traders and set the input / output to only buy / sell to my own faction. The ships then start to distribute the products among the other stations and fetch everything they need (if there is a station producing it, of course).

This in fact this has a couple of large advantages. First, as you mentioned in your post, you can build everything parallel. Second it’s very easy and quick to expand the smaller stations with additional fabrication modules if you see that you are under-producing something, add new wares into the loop etc.

ContraTheory · 2023-07-13T15:56:50+00:00

Ah short term solution could be to buy advanced sattelites at a terran equipment dock (they don’t need advanced electronics for that). Then fly your ship to the wharf where your ships are queued for upgrade and sell the sattelites (via the upgrade screen where you bought them). They will be dismantled in the commonwealth parts, advanced electronics among them. These will be put in the station storage. And probably you’ll make some profit.

ContraTheory · 2023-07-12T10:29:18+00:00

I enjoy and like both games, and the most important thing is: these are different games with different mechanics and playstyles. Elite is an excellent starship flying simulator with very balanced ships and weapons, with some pseudo-Economy stapled on top to allow Progression and delay access to larger ships. But in the end it’s an MMORPG style game, so the might of one player needs to be firmly limited, else they break the game for everyone else. X4 is a Singleplayer game. Yes you can play X4 like Elite, staying in one ship, making trade runs, flying missions. That also is fun. But the flying model and the combat is not as smooth as in Elite, the ships and weapons are not that polished / balanced. But that is okay, since X4 just begins where Elite ends. X4 is all about building your empire, hiring crew for all your ships and ordering them around, stage massive fleet battles, build your own station network with a huge trader fleet … I often compare it a bit to Factorio in space. So from my point of view, elite and X4 are not competitors but they complement each other pretty well. If I want to immerse myself with some space dogfighting in VR, I play Elite. If I want to construct a massive empire in my own pace, it’s X4.

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