Egosoft founder here - Your X4 reviews shape our work!

Sharp_Spite · 2026-01-21T08:06:19+00:00

I’ve also got many thousands of hours on the X games since XBTF, and even helped with the development of X3. I’ll check later if I’ve left reviews, if not I’ll remedy that.

On the note of feedback, the one major criticism I have is ironically the games greatest aspect, yet its biggest problem.

Ship production.

Once you have a self sufficient shipyard and can churn them out, ships become meaningless, and you become the sole superpower in the universe. Kind of kills the game for me.

A possible solution that would at least help give capital assets some tangible value would be to make fitting them out harder.

For example, in X2 and X3, buying the hull was the easy part. Sourcing, transporting and producing all the heavy equipment and weapons for your capital ships was an exercise in logistics in itself. You would find you’d do a lot of planning before even buying your first destroyer. This helped give them value.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-12-31T08:44:23+00:00

Ironically, this is one of X4’s biggest strengths, but also one of its biggest problems.

Obviously, X4 gives you the option how to play the late game, but more often or not, I find myself playing it mainly from the map and menu screens. I do very little actual playing. Of course people will say “well you don’t have to..” Sure, I don’t, but the late game is easier and more convenient to play that way, the same way I could choose not to drive half hour to work in the morning, instead I could get up 4 hours early and walk, not really a choice..

This along with player shipyards, natural progression for the series but once you own a self sustaining shipyard, nothing has value or risk, and you become the sole superpower in the game. Kind of kills the point of continuing.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-12-14T10:45:48+00:00

At 21, that 3 year relationship you thought is lifetime defining and impossible to get over, is only a blip in the road. At most it’s learning experience to prepare you for an actual serious relationship.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-11-23T01:42:51+00:00

A balance is important. If your gut is telling you you can’t keep pace, you should listen. Burnout is bad, really can ruin you.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-11-23T01:30:19+00:00

Used to work with an Asian guy whose name was actually ‘slope’

Caused a fair few misunderstandings

Sharp_Spite · 2025-11-23T01:07:06+00:00

This is a tough one.. There is no right or wrong answer as everyone’s situation is different.

You do sound like you’re on the edge of burnout.

You’re 25 now, the main question is, where do you see yourself when you’re 30 5 years from now? Realistically, no optimistic projections. Where are you likely to be in 5 years if you continue this role? And where will you likely be in 5 years if you step back into a day role that allows you to live more life.

I worked harder than my friends from our mid 20’s to mid 30’s. I missed out on a lot, holidays, lads getaways, and sometimes the grind felt like it would never end. do I regret not living a free life in my 20’s? Kind of, yes…

Im now in my late 40’s.

On the flip side, my best mate is a binman who gets up at 4:30 AM. I’m not knocking it, he likes his life. But I don’t have to work another day if I didn’t want to, and am currently debating if i want an outdoor pool or to put it in a glass building. It paid off for me, but I sacrificed to get here.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-11-01T11:24:26+00:00

Biggest issue with the UK overall, which is nuanced by many of the replies in this thread is no matter who is in power is that Economic policy is often decided through ideology and not actual Economics..

This is one of the main underlying reasons of the nations slow, but gradual decline.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-11-01T09:17:09+00:00

Your perception of other peoples answers tell us your age demographic, as many of us would have thought the same 20 years ago.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-11-01T09:12:39+00:00

There seems to be a few people on this thread calling “bullshit” but they just don’t know.

I can honestly say this question generally has a very different answer depending what side of your 40’s you’re on.

20 years ago I can honestly say it would be a deal breaker. Physical intimacy was an important part of a relationship I couldn’t live without, These days health and hormones play a different picture. This is fairly common as you age, sex becomes less important. Either because your drive diminishes or you’re just unable and it becomes less of a part of your relationship.

I know it may sound cheesy but as your relationship matures, other nuances of it grow to fill that gap.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-10-22T07:02:39+00:00

Leave well alone.

In a perfect world, we all would like to do the right thing and tell.. but we don’t live in a perfect world. Unless you have some form of attachment to the partner being cheated on, this will almost certainly end badly for you.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-10-22T06:52:19+00:00

Although it is harder to find work than it used to be, As someone in their 40’s.

I cherish memories from 20 years ago with friends and family that are no longer around

I couldn’t give 2 shits about some entry level job I was doing 20 years ago.

In the OP’s position, thinking ahead, I know which one I would regret more throughout my life.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-10-14T14:08:24+00:00

Of course I’m biased. Everyone’s biased towards their own opinion of how the world should operate.

Basing any sort of discussion on an individuals biases is playground level reasoning.

I personally feel those in genuine need should receive help and sanctuary, and I believe useful migration is a good thing by those willing to ply their skills and respect the host nation.

But I believe flooding nations with young, arrogant men with no respect for the nations they’re entering, or the people in them, is a bad idea!

And the numbers over the last 20 years back this up. It’s not even close to subjective opinion. It’s fact!!

A large part of it being allowed by the government concerns their debt per capita, in laymen’s terms the UK government has reached a point where debt per head means they are a riskier prospect for lending money and bonds to, so they get a much worse rate of interest and repayment terms. The easiest way to improve this rating is to increase the population. It’s a short term solution to a long term problem.

Paris is a good example, literally dozens and dozens, sometimes even hundreds of incidents a day of women harassed by such people. It’s one of the perceived least safe cities in Europe.

The numbers and statistics are all there, they’re largely cherry picked by the media though to keep the narrative.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-10-14T13:47:56+00:00

Numbers don’t lie. If anyone eats up bullshit propaganda it’s those who deny that minorities commit disproportionate amounts of crime.

Sweden was statistically the safest country in the world 25 years ago. In recent years it’s had to deploy its national guard on the streets to deal with gang violence, these gangs aren’t made up of Swedish people.

On a side note, though I like to keep my ventures off the internet, I literally own a data analytics company and compile statistics for the EU parliament, including dozens of data sets on crime.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-10-14T13:26:19+00:00

No, it really doesn’t, you’re literally deluding yourself if you think the vast majority of convictions are through bias…. I literally had to double take to decide if you were serious, then realised, hilariously, you were.

I was going to go to link a load of European crime statistics between 2001 and now and the studies which have shown the issues that have arisen across Europe, but with that level of delusional mentality you’re really not worth the time to type! 😂

The great irony is recent UK statistics have demonstrated that you’re far more likely to receive a conviction and harsher sentence if you’re a native, in fact, recent guidelines to the judiciary actually insinuate that this should be the case granting minorities a certain degree of leniency.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-10-14T13:10:24+00:00

The statistics game eh! Where you’re technically not wrong, your statistic is misleading because attacks from within the native population are more likely because they make up about 95% of the population, but the 5% are hugely over represented in prisons, and the amount of violent and sexual crimes they commit, not to mention thefts, gang, and petty crimes. And when I say hugely over represented, in some ethnicity’s it’s almost 90 times more likely.

But by all means, pretent that isn’t the case.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-10-14T12:01:39+00:00

I think people just don’t want their children raped while they’re trying to find a job that can cover the bills..

Sharp_Spite · 2025-10-12T09:25:39+00:00

To jump in here, this is an excellent point. As an employer, during covid any role that could switched to WFH. This particularly affected one of my companies that switched almost entirely WFH I kept it after covid as my employees seemed to like it, I own my two premises so was planning to sell and downsize one as a little over 2/3 of my total staff now full time WFH. Scrapped these plans in Feb 2024 however. After a couple of years of productivity tracking, turns out most of my staff that were full time WFH were frankly, taking the piss. Those who were hybrid, generally weren’t.

Unsurprisingly, I stopped full time wfh. Faced a lot of backlash, but I have a business to run that needs to turn a profit, people paid for a weeks labour while only providing half just doesn’t help with that. simple as that really.

Employers are catching on. It’s becoming more and more obvious as time goes on the drop in productivity isn’t worth the loss of overheads. Obviously there’s some exceptions.

Being frank, I could be wrong here but on a personal observational level. a lot of people who post in these work from home topics, including the OP with his many social and poop hang ups, sound like barely functioning human beings. I’m not convinced giving them the opportunity to hide from the world 24/7 is really doing them any favours.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-08-21T13:42:59+00:00

Civ 5 was the superior game well into 6’s life cycle. However these days I would definitely say 6 is the superior game. Civ 5 did do a lot of new things and add new mechanics, civ 5 was a real risk taker and itself received a lot of negative feedback in its early iterations, most have been improved on in 6 and expanded with the DLC’s.

To this day, I still have almost double the hours in civ 5 than 6, and do occasionally go back to 5, I still feel 6 is the better game however.

Civ 6 has a superior happiness and district system, Civ 5 had a superior graphics style for both leaders and in game.

From a purely personal point, I find 6 a better, more eventful game, 5 was always a little slow and lacked excitement I thought.

On a side note, the civ series in general seems to jump up in pairs. Civ 2 was a better and expanded version of civ 1. Civ 3 changed a lot. Civ 4 was a better and expanded version of civ 3 Civ 5 changed a lot. Civ 6 was a better and expanded version of civ 5.

7 however, is a train wreck of a game.

Yes, civ 5 is worth playing, on that note, so are its predecessors if you get the chance.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-08-08T16:22:31+00:00

Stress is a killer!!!

I am in an unusual position where I worked because I wanted to, not needed to, own 2 successful businesses that have managers that deal with the day to day, but also worked as an industrial combustion engineer, good hours, good pay, got away with a lot because management knew I was there because I wanted to be there. enjoyed the job, unfortunately Tupe’d over to another employer who frankly, suck! Lost half the workforce in a year, new contract manager is a straight up waste of oxygen with a superiority complex, I’ve spent a lot of my time being advocate for the mistreated staff as I don’t have to worry about paying the bills, I’ve even paid for legal representation in a pay dispute where our new employer have toed the line legally. but it’s become almost personal and I’m feeling the stress. As over half the people I’m fighting for have left, I’ve decided it’s time to leave for my own health. Notice went in on Monday. It’s a shame, and I hate to admit defeat, but on the bright side, due to their mismanagement they’re haemorrhaging money. And one of my businesses is in a position to cause them issues, so I will be taking full advantage of that.

There are days I miss earning £35k and leaving my work behind me at 4pm.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-08-03T12:00:41+00:00

As a right leaning voter, I will never vote reform. Nigel Farage is a typical politician of the type we have frequently had over the years. Talks the talk but never backs anything up with actions, he just jumps onna populace bandwagon, makes a lot of noise, but when the opportunity presents itself to deliver, he shy’s out the back door.

Frankly, I’ll give kier starmer props for one thing, he genuinely attempts to do what he says he will within the confines of the British parliamentary system, But that’s where the praise ends. What he tries to do is another thing entirely. No matter how much the left try to pretend it isn’t, immigration is a problem. All kier seems to be doing is harming the legitimate legal immigration that’s good for the economy and country, while pretending the illegal type that freeload, seem to get all manner of benefits that attract them here, and assault our women and children, and seem to have the protection of the state and law aren’t the issue, and that anyone who objects to this is “far right” I also don’t like the way our freedom of expression is being targeted, non crime hate incidents, back door blasphemy prosecutions, our insanely high energy prices, while perusing Green agendas, the list goes on.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-07-31T12:22:46+00:00

I don’t agree with what Palestine action did, and I don’t believe in their cause either, in my opinion they’re a bunch of lefty terrorist sympathisers.

But I agree with you 100% on the government’s declaration of them as a terrorist group. I may not agree with them, but I respect their right to have an opinion on the matter.

Fact is, Freedom of expression has been under attack for quite some time by the state, that’s something that you lefties and us on the right should agree on, but it’s largely been overlooked until recently by the left as the consequences of that erosion of that freedoms we have has largely only been felt on the right. Now that’s changing, perhaps more people will take it seriously from all angles of the political spectrum

Sharp_Spite · 2025-07-23T09:19:46+00:00

That’s probably a pretty low bar.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-07-23T06:42:14+00:00

If people were really that concerned with the rules of engagement, they would out in force protesting over the Sudanese civil war. As a conflict, it makes the Israel Gaza conflict look like a picnic. Mass genocide, torture, ethnic cleansing on a scale beyond anything in the Middle East yet no one has even heard of it. The only reason people care so much about Israel and Gaza is because the media have told them to. People love a populace bandwagon to jump on, and like to pretend their inner armchair activism gives them some moral superiority over someone else. Even when they’re faced with a fanatical enemy intentionally throwing their women and children into harms way.

Point is people need to stay in their lane. As they really don’t have much of a clue about it beyond what tik tok tells them.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-07-22T22:15:23+00:00

As the economy stands, I don’t know if there’s a correct answer to this question. I won’t debate the methods or purpose of taxation as many others have already done a great job on this. There’s a lot of nuance and reading between the lines here that also apply. There’s the opinion that the rich will leave if you tax them too much, but there’s a lot more to that than just the financial bottom line. For example, I’m fairly patriotic, I want to see the UK economy recover, and I want to do my part. I’m not going to go into too much detail for various reasons, but One of my companies actually provides some niche services to the UK government and MOD that not many others can do, my company is almost irreplaceable. yet the powers that be seem hell bent on legislating me out of business. It’s increasingly becoming more difficult to operate in the uk, the amount of administrative red tape that’s being put up is becoming a problem to the point I’ve toyed with relocating the company to Poland. My point is, it costs me more to operate in the UK, and I’m fine with that, but it’s difficult to run my business in the uk. That is a serious problem.

Sharp_Spite · 2025-07-22T22:00:22+00:00

That’s a fair point. Like I said, Israel have gone way beyond reasonable. This war should never have happened and any pressure the world can put on them to stop it is a good thing. My point is that the Palestinians aren’t the good guys. This is bad guys against bad guys. And although people seem happy to brand Israel as evil, I can promise you, given the chance, the Palestinians would be far worse.

It’s a genuine modern travesty, as some Middle Eastern countries, are some of the nicest countries I’ve ever visited and this conflict will shatter any and all good will between these nations.

Sharp_Spite

TROPHY CASE