What Video Games Have You Been Playing VI: Because There Are No Elections In Video Games

[Commodore]

Never heard of this game before. Reading through the subsequent posts, I actually thought you guys were talking about Sword of the Stars 1 which has a lot of the same features.

X3 is pretty fun if you have the time to dedicate to it. The best way I can think of describing it in a short sentence is that it's like a single-player version of EVE Online.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

After having read all this stuff about X strategies, I'm starting to think I really should try this game one day. I love space simulator, and I already have the whole serie from GOG, but the few times I tried to start, the interface made me think "uh, well, probably later". And the seemingly huge time investment involved is both a motivator (I love long games) but also an entry barrier.

At least they are really up front about it. Somewhere in the manual for the first X game I got it advises "say goodby to your family and friends."

As to having the whole series...having it and playing it are entirely different things. I recommend finding a good play through guide and reading the highlights of the main plots to get the 'history and lore,' but skipping directly to at the very least X3:Reunion, and even better X3:Terran Conflict. As in many game franchises the UI improves greatly along the way, but each individual step of that improvement is marred by the developers' overpowering needs to 'do something.' So if you go from one game to the next you find controls that worked just fine that haven't really changed, but have been arbitrarily reassigned to a different key "just because." (has anyone else noticed that Bethesda is totally committed to exchanging the 'jump' and 'activate' keys in every release?)

Anyway, by X3 the interface is pretty effective. It's still daunting, because there is a lot to control and there's no way around that, but it's not a complete nightmare. The really challenging thing about the interface is that from a single seat in whatever ship you happen to be in you have to be able to:

1) Fly your ship, obviously, or at least manage the autopilot.
2) Control directly, or control the automation of, multiple weapons system turrets on your ship.
3) Control directly, or control the automation of, any 'wingmen' or fighting drones that are accompanying your ship, including their weapons systems.
4) Control directly, or control the automation of, as many income generating trade ships as you have acquired that are scattered through the universe.
5) Control directly, or control the automation of, whatever 'military' you have assembled to maintain the security of those trading ships.
6) Direct the construction of, and then directly manage or manage the automation of whatever factories you have chosen to build.

Obviously, the repetition of "or manage the automation of" is certainly annoying, but that's the key issue. The interface is complicated by the fact that it is really a programming station. If you isolate out 'these are the controls I need to fly my ship' it's actually pretty simple. Even if you isolate out the controls you need to fly your ship and directly manage a couple trade ships it is pretty simple. But to really play the game you will want dozens, if not hundreds of ships, and when you have that many ships you need most of them to be completely automated, but you will still need to exert a fairly fine degree of control over them. So the multitude of available automation schemes and the ability to program them makes for an immense interface.

The game is full of unexpected results of automation failures. As mentioned, the seemingly simple Mk3 trade software (go forth and find the most profitable deals) coupled with an escort given the seemingly simple 'defend that trader' command through its fight control software will inevitably go horribly awry...without some management of refueling. That means at least one refueling ship, and that needs to be automated lest you spend all your time managing it, and if it encounters a situation that is beyond its programming...

 

[Arakhor]

Also, wood elves are like the most boring race

The Bosmer have an interesting culture (from what little can be gleaned from the lore that gets incrementally poorer with each new release); the Nords don't even have that fig-leaf.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The Bosmer have an interesting culture (from what little can be gleaned from the lore that gets incrementally poorer with each new release); the Nords don't even have that fig-leaf.

The problem with the Bosmer is that invariably the most annoying NPCs that you run into will be Bosmer. Just by association I don't want to be one.

 

[gay_Aleks]

you all suck

[tongue in cheek please do not delete thank you]

 

[Lohrenswald]

The Bosmer have an interesting culture.

It's unique, but not interesting

 

[Arakhor]

The problem with the Bosmer is that invariably the most annoying NPCs that you run into will be Bosmer. Just by association I don't want to be one.

That's because Bethesda like making their joke characters Bosmer for some reason, the same way the joke characters in-universe are Khajiit.

It's unique, but not interesting

Which is still one better than the Nords, who are neither unique nor interesting.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

That's because Bethesda like making their joke characters Bosmer for some reason

They have an inherent head start on being joke characters. They're short.

 

[Arakhor]

That's shortist!

 

[Timsup2nothin]

That's shortist!

Yes. And...?

 

[Lexicus]

The problem with the Bosmer is that invariably the most annoying NPCs that you run into will be Bosmer. Just by association I don't want to be one.

The most annoying NPCs in Skyrim are all Nords. Nords telling me to "be careful with those flames," Nords patronizingly telling me not to go burning down any buildings, that one racist Nord in Windhelm who brags about walking through the Grey Quarter at night shouting racist things about the dark elves, that Nord in Riften who threatens me every time I first go there...the list goes on.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The most annoying NPCs in Skyrim are all Nords. Nords telling me to "be careful with those flames," Nords patronizingly telling me not to go burning down any buildings, that one racist Nord in Windhelm who brags about walking through the Grey Quarter at night shouting racist things about the dark elves, that Nord in Riften who threatens me every time I first go there...the list goes on.

Well, yeah. Almost everyone in Skyrim is a Nord, so of course the annoying ones are Nords. Taken overall though, in any multi-racial cosmopolitan environment in TES the annoying NPC is most likely a Bosmer.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Anyway, by X3 the interface is pretty effective. It's still daunting, because there is a lot to control and there's no way around that, but it's not a complete nightmare. The really challenging thing about the interface is that from a single seat in whatever ship you happen to be in you have to be able to:..

Yeah X3 is the best of the series
It have a very hard learning curve and the tutorial is barely adequate which teaches you probably 5% of the game, the single player is pretty much an super extended tutorial over several hours once you have completed that on our first play though your ready to go into the sandbox mode. The interface is still clunky and the new features such as training marines and boarding enemy ships your fighting against the controls half the time

The good thing is that the sandbox mode is amazing, so many ship types, dynamic events, economy and all manage of strange events
Remember this is a space sim, it lacks much in the fighter dog fighting makes up for with massive simulation and freedom

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The good thing is that the sandbox mode is amazing, so many ship types, dynamic events, economy and all manage of strange events
Remember this is a space sim, it lacks much in the fighter dog fighting makes up for with massive simulation and freedom

Yeah, opposing pilots are not the most brilliant flyers to ever grace a stick. Still, there is fun to be had. Taking a scout ship against a swarm of fighting drones is a good breath taker.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Editing Fallout 3 right now. Making Interiors for all of Grayditch.

 

[Ajidica]

Never heard of this game before. Reading through the subsequent posts, I actually thought you guys were talking about Sword of the Stars 1 which has a lot of the same features.

Oh man Sword of the Stars was so much fun.
Pity the sequel was terribad.

 

[Broken_Erika]

I seem to have run out of buildings in Grayditch and will have to move into surrounding areas....I've only made about 67 interior cells so far....

 

[Synobun]

I seem to have run out of buildings in Grayditch and will have to move into surrounding areas....I've only made about 67 interior cells so far....

Don't forget to put ants in them.

And the corpses of Bryan's parents in varying poses so he can relive the nightmare in each house.



Edit: You're making me want to replay Fallout 3. It's the best one.

 

[PhroX]

Yeah X3 is the best of the series
It have a very hard learning curve and the tutorial is barely adequate which teaches you probably 5% of the game, the single player is pretty much an super extended tutorial over several hours once you have completed that on our first play though your ready to go into the sandbox mode. The interface is still clunky and the new features such as training marines and boarding enemy ships your fighting against the controls half the time

The good thing is that the sandbox mode is amazing, so many ship types, dynamic events, economy and all manage of strange events
Remember this is a space sim, it lacks much in the fighter dog fighting makes up for with massive simulation and freedom

Ah, I remember X3's tutorial. My first time playing, I thought it would be fun to play as a trader, so I picked the appropriate background, which gave me an unarmed transport ship. About 5 minutes into the tutorial, I was instructed to shoot things....

 

[cardgame]

X3... the game for masochists