X3: Terran Conflict, whats it like?

i have never played any of these games but came across the game in a shop today and was really tempted to buy it but with limited funds i have to make sure that i buy only games that will continue to play and that i will like and as their isnt a demo i can play only a video demo i was wondering what do people think of it, i like the space kind of idea and going to war against people and everything as well as being able to fly and shoot the ships myself but is it more arcadedy?

what do you guys think of it?

 

It's a space sim...arcade-y is a wierd way to think of it since we're not sure what realistic space combat would be like...

It doesn't have the physics model of Independence War, but it's on par with Freespace for 'realism'...

And the 'plot' is more along the lines of Privateer...it's a sandbox game although this version has more plot than the previous...economic trade mixed in with space combat...if you liked the Wing Commander series, Privateer, Tie Fighter (X-Wing: Alliance is probably closer to the feel of this game), Freespace, etc, then, in my opinion, this is the best in that genre recently...

I don't think you would be disappointed...

 

I agree if you liked Freespace 2, then you'll like the combat in this game too. If you haven't played FS2, then get that first, cuz that's just wrong.

Make sure to find a basic strat guide just for the control scheme and basic commands. X games can be a little overwhelming at first.

 

Does this compare to Sins of a Solar Empire at all?

 

i have never played any space sim thats why im thinking if its the right thing for me, i have seen a couple of videos but nothing much and i believe you stay in the ship the the whole time and would prefer if you could get out and go into space station and talk to people and every thing that would be good

@ afdude2018 not really other then them being in space as Sins is a strategy game you tell the thing where to go and what to shoot but in X3 you can control and fire the ship yourself

 

maybe you'll wanna try freelancer.

 

The X3 games is very different from Freelancer. Probably what is most famous for is the economic engine actually - you'll need a very fast CPU. I'd suggest at a minimum a T8300, preferable T9300 or above. Quad-core won't help, the engine was built before multi-core optimization. Minimum graphics card would be a 8600M GT DDR3 or HD 3650.

X3 is not arcade at all except the combat, which tends to be a mix of thinking and twitch. The X3 games are also known to be very buggy and take up to a year to fix, be sure to save often, and is also why they give so many save slots. Also, the newest X3 comes with Tages DRM, Egosoft removes DRM after a year of release. I didn't have a problem with it.

The economic engine in X3 is very powerful, and will respond to supply and demand dynamically. Sectors with lots of combat will be vacant of traders due to security risk. Flooding the market with goods on the other hand will attract traders at the expensive of competitors. Destinations are modified on the fly if the original destination is destroyed (somehow they know even before entering the area).

The game is not very friendly to newbies or people not willing to search the egosoft forums. The tutorial is minimal at best, and the manual is long, winding, still misses stuff. Hint: Your space suit comes with a repair laser - slow but saves lots of money. It will take a couple weeks before one becomes comfortable with the game.

Plot is a mixed bag. The plots tend to be the buggiest sections and the storytelling is minimal. The backround story is nearly nonexistant. Good news is that the missions themselves are usually varying and challenging, sometimes too difficult. For instance, a lot of them adjust in difficulty based on the ship you attempt it with and your history of blowing stuff up. They're usually worth it for the reward since they give unique and/or powerful ships. Be careful, there around 4 or 5 core plots and then the 7 or 8 minor ones and they aren't all immediately available at any given time.

The modding and scripting scene is extremely extensive if you're into that. Be warned though, since you can share your statistics you have to check which scripts change your game to **modified** - aka "cheating." There are lots of scripts to make things easier like tractor beams that move stations and asteroids, removing small rocks to improve performance, automatic exploring, removing civilian ships.

One ward of caution too, every game will be different. NPCs can build stations, invasions can remake entire areas. Some people will have a universe with a chronic shortage of microchips, my game seems to lack ore. Some will have invasion fleets raiding other species, the invasion fleets in my game seem obsessed in taking over Pirate areas. This can actually impact the plot too. For one of the plot missions I need Disruptor missiles, but invasion fleets had blown up all the factories; I have to find the remaining ships with some on them.

For individual ship, weapons, and ware there is also an in game Encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia is very good for stats stuff and also records known stations you find (and update at they get build and destroyed) that buy and sell individual commodities (useful for trading since freighters move really slow).

If you decide to take plunge the game will be really hit or miss. The pacing can be describe 7 parts traveling, 1 parts trading, 1 parts combat terror, and 1 parts planning. Expect for any goal you set to take a while, the game make sure there lots of distraction along the way. Have fun.

 

thanx for all the info carahan
though the info about bugs is a bit worrying.
i have a Q6600 will that be good enough? i also have 8800m GTX which should be enough if an 8600 can run it i also have 3GB ram.

its very annoying that the game doesnt have a demo that you can play

 

Is X3 really all that punishing? What about X2?

But I do know it is far from being "arcade". Very slow paced action trading/combat. Like a modern day elite.

 

A Q6600 would be more than enough. While the game can't access the cores directly, the Intel quad-cores can distribute the load at a hardware level a lot better than the dual-cores.

They are still working on a demo, should be released by March I think. At the moment you can test your graphics system with the benchmark
here. Do not download the Reunion rolling demo, they never removed the DRM from that. I don't remember the Terran Conflict one has the DRM, I hope not.

X3 and X2 use entirely different engines so X2 is playable on just about anything in the last 2-3 years except Intel graphics. However, X2 is rather famous for having one of the most convoluted menu system EVER. I'm not familiar with anything other than the demo of X2, which still has Starforce on it so beware.

Yes, X3 is really punishing to systems, especially in large battles. However, I discovered with the older X3 "Reunion" installing Dox 178.24 (or was it 178.18?) practically double the graphics performance for some reason. I suspect that the engine is actually accessing slower DirectX functions by default. Also, "Reunion" though is less graphically tough since stations in "reunion" are much smaller than in "terran conflict." Ironically, one of the bugs in the newer X3 is performance in specific areas. Pointing your camera at a large station is practically guaranteed to halve your fps. A number of people have built factories by connecting hundreds of stations together. They don't even enter that area anymore because the performance hit is so big.

Forgot to mention, the random mission system in "terran conflict" is the best out of all of them.

 

Is there any way to activate subtitles for the in-game dialog? It makes very hard for me to follow the plot with so much dialog along the action.

 

Yes, but has to be done in game. In "reunion" press Enter-> go left to audio -> Down to show subtitles -> press Enter. In "terran conflict" Access main menu from the bottom left corner -> go up to Audio -> go down to show subtitles -> press Enter. You can also disable the ever present ship computer audio in there. "Docking at..." "Docking at..." "Docking at..." "Autopilot on" "Autopilot off" You'll find most of the plot makes little sense anyways. Usually reading about the history is more coherent.

Replacing the soundtrack is fairly simple. Everything is mp3s in the soundtrack folder. Someone on the Egosoft forums tracked down what each mp3 goes to which area, so once you have that you can use your own custom soundtrack.

 

Ah, tks. + rep.

 

great thanx for the info again, shame that a demo is taking them so long, arent they meant to come out before the game is released not 5 or 6 months after its out?

also ive heard alot about the bugs in the game, is a update or something being made for it to fix these bugs?

the mission system though sounds cool.

is the game ALL in space or can you enter space stations and walk around and take to people?

 

im not sure if i should get this with the bugs and the DRM im not sure if i should, its only £19.99 so i could spare that but i dont want to buy it and think why the hell did i was my money on this.

any idea if it can be played with a 360 controller?