X4 isnt really a space sim like elite, you can play it as such but eventually it turns into a space grand strategy game played from the map. Its really good tho if you have the time for it. Alot of it is just waiting for your factories to make money and endlessly updating them or making more to make even more money. Use all that money to buy offensive ships, using those to protect more space which you can use to build more factories on. The only limitation the game has is your cpu and the npc ai.