X3 - General Review

Nats wrote:
> I thought the British were generally regarded as being quite open minded!
> But Im sure we get regarded completed differently by others than how we like
> to think of ourselves. I only speak from my personal experiences of meeting
> Germans before and although I am sure they do have a sense of humour of
> course it is not the same as ours.
>
> I actually think its quite interesting how you can actually quite clearly
> see how certain nationalities are different by looking at the games they
> program. The Polish seem to produce well crafted interesting games, the
> Russains seem to often produce well tested and perfectly programmed games
> that are a bit too realistic, the Americans produce sloppy bug ridden games
> that show limited imagination, and I think the British design games that are
> often quite imaginative but sometimes too wacky for their own good. And the
> Germans seem to specialise is designing beautiful dreamy games that IMO dont
> seem to have much substance. And the French - well the less said about their
> design tastes the better.

What great game wasn't written in America? OK, I'll give you the IWar
series, which doesn't fit your British stereotype at all.

All of the original great RTS's? America
The groundbreaking FPS's? America
The incredibly imaginative and underrated Battlezone? America (had to
throw in my favorite)
The origins of computer gaming? America
Coop video games? Japan
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

> What great game wasn't written in America?

Populous (and many other Bullfrog titles)
Elite (and the sequels)
Project Gotham Racing
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

On 9 Nov 2005 08:59:07 -0800, koalaboy.DeleteThis@gmail.com wrote:

>> What great game wasn't written in America?
>
>Populous (and many other Bullfrog titles)
>Elite (and the sequels)
>Project Gotham Racing

Tomb Raider series (personally I hated it, but lots of people loved
it)
Atik Atak
Manic Miner
Jet Pack

Lemming
--
Curiosity *may* have killed Schrodinger's cat.
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

Nats wrote:
> I thought the British were generally regarded as being quite open minded!

Hahaha! They're not. They're regarded to be stiff, stubborn and
arrogant. Though I know it's just stupid prejudecies as I have
relatives in England. Very nice people with fine humour. The food in GB
.... well ... each to their own

When it comes to games you're probably right. German game developer are
often too focused on the local market. But it's a known problem and
hopefully will change in the future.
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

On 10 Nov 2005 02:46:14 -0800, "me@home.com"
<jan.deinhard.DeleteThis@googlemail.com> wrote:

>Nats wrote:
>> I thought the British were generally regarded as being quite open minded!
>
>Hahaha! They're not. They're regarded to be stiff, stubborn and
>arrogant.

Thank ghod for that; we've spent literally hundreds of years
cultivating that image, it would be a shame if softies like Stan
suddenly started being *nice* to johnny foreigner and destroyed our
most important brand.


>Though I know it's just stupid prejudecies as I have
>relatives in England. Very nice people with fine humour.

Well, there are always *some* rotten apples.

>The food in GB
>... well ... each to their own
>
>When it comes to games you're probably right. German game developer are
>often too focused on the local market. But it's a known problem and
>hopefully will change in the future.

Lemming
--
Curiosity *may* have killed Schrodinger's cat.
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

Ceowulf wrote:
>
> Then you get into the game, now, I like I know most of you do, now have a
> 19" LCD who's native res is 1280x1024. Be warned, unless your system is
> brand new (enthusiast level you could say) you will not be running X3 at the
> high, or even maybe the medium settings. This game is a true benchmark and
> currently I'm stuck on Low settings for everything. System specs being:
>


Can anyone else confirm this? This sounds like a pretty top spec PC and
I find it hard to believe that the performance is so poor.
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 19:34:09 +0100, Walter Mitty <mitticus.DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote:

>Ceowulf wrote:
>>
>> Then you get into the game, now, I like I know most of you do, now have a
>> 19" LCD who's native res is 1280x1024. Be warned, unless your system is
>> brand new (enthusiast level you could say) you will not be running X3 at the
>> high, or even maybe the medium settings. This game is a true benchmark and
>> currently I'm stuck on Low settings for everything. System specs being:
>>
>
>
>Can anyone else confirm this? This sounds like a pretty top spec PC and
>I find it hard to believe that the performance is so poor.

The 1.2.01 patch has improved things a lot as the HUD was apparently causing a
lot of slowdown on some systems. I never noticed this myself but once in the
middle of a big dogfight in Argon Prime with at least 50 odd ships involved it
did slow down some but was not unplayable. Now its a lot better. My spec:

Athlon 64 4000+
MSI Neo 2 Ultra
2GB Corsair TwinX Pro 2-2-2-5
HIS Excalibur 256MB X800XT IceQ-2
Creative Audigy 2 ZS
Win XP SP2
Omega 5.9 based drivers

This is at 1280x1024 with AA and post processing enabled.
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

"Memnoch" <memnoch RemoveThis @nospampleaseimbritish.ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:k10in1d8vrqle4e306i5moh1fcon9nesgm@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 19:34:09 +0100, Walter Mitty <mitticus RemoveThis @gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>Ceowulf wrote:
>>>
>>> Then you get into the game, now, I like I know most of you do, now have
>>> a
>>> 19" LCD who's native res is 1280x1024. Be warned, unless your system is
>>> brand new (enthusiast level you could say) you will not be running X3 at
>>> the
>>> high, or even maybe the medium settings. This game is a true benchmark
>>> and
>>> currently I'm stuck on Low settings for everything. System specs being:
>>
>>Can anyone else confirm this? This sounds like a pretty top spec PC and
>>I find it hard to believe that the performance is so poor.
>
> The 1.2.01 patch has improved things a lot as the HUD was apparently
> causing a
> lot of slowdown on some systems. I never noticed this myself but once in
> the
> middle of a big dogfight in Argon Prime with at least 50 odd ships
> involved it
> did slow down some but was not unplayable. Now its a lot better. My spec:
>
> Athlon 64 4000+
> MSI Neo 2 Ultra
> 2GB Corsair TwinX Pro 2-2-2-5
> HIS Excalibur 256MB X800XT IceQ-2
> Creative Audigy 2 ZS
> Win XP SP2
> Omega 5.9 based drivers
>
> This is at 1280x1024 with AA and post processing enabled.

Memnoch's system is what we call "Enthusiast" level, hahah very nice system
Memnoch. I believe yours would run X3 no problems patch or no patch. I did
learn that 1.2.01 was another big improvement, but I'm reluctant to try
again, Starforce rooted my system, uninstall it and everything back to
normal again. Kinda sad. Might do another format etc before I re-install for
a 1.3 patch.

Ceo-
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 21:23:11 +0800, "Ceowulf" <ceo RemoveThis @NOSPAMii.ATALLnet> wrote:

>"Memnoch" <memnoch RemoveThis @nospampleaseimbritish.ntlworld.com> wrote in message
>news:k10in1d8vrqle4e306i5moh1fcon9nesgm@4ax.com...
>> The 1.2.01 patch has improved things a lot as the HUD was apparently
>> causing a
>> lot of slowdown on some systems. I never noticed this myself but once in
>> the
>> middle of a big dogfight in Argon Prime with at least 50 odd ships
>> involved it
>> did slow down some but was not unplayable. Now its a lot better. My spec:
>>
>> Athlon 64 4000+
>> MSI Neo 2 Ultra
>> 2GB Corsair TwinX Pro 2-2-2-5
>> HIS Excalibur 256MB X800XT IceQ-2
>> Creative Audigy 2 ZS
>> Win XP SP2
>> Omega 5.9 based drivers
>>
>> This is at 1280x1024 with AA and post processing enabled.
>
>Memnoch's system is what we call "Enthusiast" level, hahah very nice system
>Memnoch. I believe yours would run X3 no problems patch or no patch. I did
>learn that 1.2.01 was another big improvement, but I'm reluctant to try
>again, Starforce rooted my system, uninstall it and everything back to
>normal again. Kinda sad. Might do another format etc before I re-install for
>a 1.3 patch.

The 1.3 patch is supposed to introduce the mobile mining operations which is
still broken at the moment. You can use them apparently but all that happens
is the asteroids blow up! To be honest in the first 3 days of playing and then
stoping for a week due to a bug in 1.2 causing regular CTDs I have got a point
where I am doing nothing but weapons trading, and making 500,000 credits per
run. Who needs stations?
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

What happens if you get scaned

Do you have escorts to protect the ships ?


On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 21:06:53 GMT, Memnoch
<memnoch DeleteThis @nospampleaseimbritish.ntlworld.com> wrote:

>On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 21:23:11 +0800, "Ceowulf" <ceo DeleteThis @NOSPAMii.ATALLnet> wrote:
>
>>"Memnoch" <memnoch DeleteThis @nospampleaseimbritish.ntlworld.com> wrote in message
>>news:k10in1d8vrqle4e306i5moh1fcon9nesgm@4ax.com...
>>> The 1.2.01 patch has improved things a lot as the HUD was apparently
>>> causing a
>>> lot of slowdown on some systems. I never noticed this myself but once in
>>> the
>>> middle of a big dogfight in Argon Prime with at least 50 odd ships
>>> involved it
>>> did slow down some but was not unplayable. Now its a lot better. My spec:
>>>
>>> Athlon 64 4000+
>>> MSI Neo 2 Ultra
>>> 2GB Corsair TwinX Pro 2-2-2-5
>>> HIS Excalibur 256MB X800XT IceQ-2
>>> Creative Audigy 2 ZS
>>> Win XP SP2
>>> Omega 5.9 based drivers
>>>
>>> This is at 1280x1024 with AA and post processing enabled.
>>
>>Memnoch's system is what we call "Enthusiast" level, hahah very nice system
>>Memnoch. I believe yours would run X3 no problems patch or no patch. I did
>>learn that 1.2.01 was another big improvement, but I'm reluctant to try
>>again, Starforce rooted my system, uninstall it and everything back to
>>normal again. Kinda sad. Might do another format etc before I re-install for
>>a 1.3 patch.
>
>The 1.3 patch is supposed to introduce the mobile mining operations which is
>still broken at the moment. You can use them apparently but all that happens
>is the asteroids blow up! To be honest in the first 3 days of playing and then
>stoping for a week due to a bug in 1.2 causing regular CTDs I have got a point
>where I am doing nothing but weapons trading, and making 500,000 credits per
>run. Who needs stations?
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 14:22:05 +1100, Paul Mathews <paulmathews.TakeThisOut@1.com.au> wrote:

>On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 21:06:53 GMT, Memnoch
><memnoch.TakeThisOut@nospampleaseimbritish.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 21:23:11 +0800, "Ceowulf" <ceo.TakeThisOut@NOSPAMii.ATALLnet> wrote:
>>
>>>"Memnoch" <memnoch.TakeThisOut@nospampleaseimbritish.ntlworld.com> wrote in message
>>>news:k10in1d8vrqle4e306i5moh1fcon9nesgm@4ax.com...
>>>> The 1.2.01 patch has improved things a lot as the HUD was apparently
>>>> causing a
>>>> lot of slowdown on some systems. I never noticed this myself but once in
>>>> the
>>>> middle of a big dogfight in Argon Prime with at least 50 odd ships
>>>> involved it
>>>> did slow down some but was not unplayable. Now its a lot better. My spec:
>>>>
>>>> Athlon 64 4000+
>>>> MSI Neo 2 Ultra
>>>> 2GB Corsair TwinX Pro 2-2-2-5
>>>> HIS Excalibur 256MB X800XT IceQ-2
>>>> Creative Audigy 2 ZS
>>>> Win XP SP2
>>>> Omega 5.9 based drivers
>>>>
>>>> This is at 1280x1024 with AA and post processing enabled.
>>>
>>>Memnoch's system is what we call "Enthusiast" level, hahah very nice system
>>>Memnoch. I believe yours would run X3 no problems patch or no patch. I did
>>>learn that 1.2.01 was another big improvement, but I'm reluctant to try
>>>again, Starforce rooted my system, uninstall it and everything back to
>>>normal again. Kinda sad. Might do another format etc before I re-install for
>>>a 1.3 patch.
>>
>>The 1.3 patch is supposed to introduce the mobile mining operations which is
>>still broken at the moment. You can use them apparently but all that happens
>>is the asteroids blow up! To be honest in the first 3 days of playing and then
>>stoping for a week due to a bug in 1.2 causing regular CTDs I have got a point
>>where I am doing nothing but weapons trading, and making 500,000 credits per
>>run. Who needs stations?
>
>
>What happens if you get scaned
>
>Do you have escorts to protect the ships ?

I don't need them as they are not illegal. Space Flies, Space Weed and SQUASH
mines are illegal in most sectors. Stay well clear of those and you will be
okay. I will be giving the Trade MK3 a go tonight as at the moment I have been
directing all my trades manually. My Argon Mercury, the smaller one as it is
faster, is kitted out with a Jump Drive. I have dropped Navigation Satellites
in all the main sectors I have visited which have Equipment docks or station
carrying the larger, expensive weapons systems so I can monitor them remotely
wherever I am, kind of like a manual Universe trader! If I spot a bargain I
tell the freighter to jump and dock, buy everything in site and then I check
all the other equipment docks to see who has space free and sell the kit off.
The only problem with this is that it takes a while for the stations to
repopulate the bigger weapons and also for the Equipment docks to get rid of
what I have sold. But I don't really need the biggest freighters as they are
so much slower and the weapons don't take up that much space anyway.
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

Ok I know I'm a bit late in my post but I have a question.

I never played X2 but tried the demo and fairly liked it. Now I read
this thread about X3. Should I just go get X2 instead of X3? My system
could handle X3 well enough so that's not the issue. It just sounds
like they are the same game with better graphics for X3.

For someone who hasn't played either and wants only one, which one would
you recommend?


Ceowulf wrote:
> Please be gentle, im a virgin reviewer, and my girlfriend just rocked up so
> I don't have time to proof read it
>
> -------------------------
>
> First impressions:
>
> Game installs no worries, I've got the DVD version so its fantastic not to
> have to swap disks all the time. A word of warning, 4.X gig is used up in
> the install. That is I believe the largest install I've come across to date.
> I don't know how many CD's this will end up equating to with compression,
> but it doesn't look good.
>
> First thing I do is patch to 1.2, its 75 meg and the servers aren't too bad.
> I think you'll get as close to the max speed possible for your connection.
> It looks like they were ready, I've got a 12megabit down and 1 up and I was
> downloading at 1000kb, so not full potential but pretty damn close.
>
> Then you get into the game, now, I like I know most of you do, now have a
> 19" LCD who's native res is 1280x1024. Be warned, unless your system is
> brand new (enthusiast level you could say) you will not be running X3 at the
> high, or even maybe the medium settings. This game is a true benchmark and
> currently I'm stuck on Low settings for everything. System specs being:
>
> P4 3.2
> 1 gig (the standard)
> GeForce 6800 GT Ultra (256)
> All of my drivers are up to date.
>
> Right so there's the things that matters, and while I would like to say hey,
> its a good system, well, sad to say its not for this game. Almost like a
> kick in the balls really for someone who thinks their system is good enough.
> The good news here is that Egosoft have announced that there will be further
> enhancements to performance in 1.3, this isn't really a good thing, all
> optimization should have been completed from the get go but as we all know
> now, this was indeed a rushed job like so many other games.
>
> Anyway, so the game is now smooth. Running ok, I can most definitely see a
> change in quality but It'll do for now. When you start the game you 7
> options presented to you. The first three options are Easy, Medium and Hard
> (X-treem). These affect your starting ship(s). In the case of Easy you get a
> good Buster, and a Mercury transport ship, so its definitely a good way to
> start if you're new to the universe.
>
> The other 3 options are great, they give you the options of playing 3
> different "persona's", essentially they remove the story line, and start you
> of as either a:
>
> Ambitious Explorer (Starting ship being a maxed out Discoverer (scout ship),
> which is very fast, good for finding the hidden things in X3, of which there
> are many).
> Humble Trader (Starting ship being a Mercury, and a good starting balance,
> this is a pretty easy way to start).
> Bankrupt Assassin (Starting ship being a well equipped Mamba (heavy fighter)
> but 0 credits. This is a hard way to start the game)
>
> I chose the normal Medium setting to start of with, and was immediately met
> by my old friend Ban Danna, the head of Argon (Human) Secret Service. He
> immediately gives you a mission of escorting a bunch of new fighter pilots
> through a standard patrol route. The Argon race was decimate to 30% of its
> fighting force at the end of the X2 game so there is a great deal of
> rebuilding to do.
>
> After this point you can do as well, much the same as X2.
>
> This is all pretty normal fair, and shouldn't shock or surprise anyone.
>
> A few notable changes of the bat:
> 1) No more manual docking, its all done by the computer now.
> 2) No more inside of stations, looks like they saved themselves the time of
> creating these little worlds with their hidden containers and NPC ships.
> 3) No more cockpit, this is a bit of a blow to some of us, but again was
> another sacrifice in the name of time and resources.
> 4) You can fly with the mouse if you choose, I tested this, and wondered if
> the ship would stop turning when I had to lift my mouse up to move it back
> to the other side of the mouse mat, it didn't and kept on moving as if it
> was a joystick. I guess this way of flight is possible, but is still rather
> awkward compared to a joystick.
> 5) This is the best change, they have added a level of drift to combat.
> Essentially they have gone half way between Frontier, and Star Wars. You can
> slide now, and it's allot of fun and very effective.
>
> Now for the interface... Get prepared for some adjustment. The game using a
> rather awkward right click to bring up the mouse, then access function
> system. Most of the usual things where hotkey'ed as per X2, but some of
> these didn't seem to work as the game said they would, so this could be a
> bug. Once you've gotten used to this interface you'll be hampered again by a
> very... minimalist interface. No more (as far as I could tell) descriptions
> of the ships by a computer voice as you select a ship, then press i for
> information. All of your information is now presented in a neat and tidy
> dialog box that is rather small, and annoyingly requires the ESC key, or the
> usage of the mouse to click on the Windows style X to remove. This is
> usually out of the way, so god help you if your in combat whilst examining
> your property etc.
>
> Overall, X3 has a much darker feel to it. It feels a great deal more adult,
> this could be simply due to the fact that much of the fluff like the
> aforementioned computer voice overs has been removed. You are thrown right
> into the fray, with to no instructions as what to do. This can turn people
> of, and I understand it fully. Everything is different from the first, the
> icons are different, the factories look different, you name it, its
> different.
>
> If you've got patience I'd recommend it. If you're a true space sim fan I'd
> recommend it. If your looking for a quick fix with easy combat and no real
> challenge because you want to be led around by the nose, then I don't
> recommend it. This game is probably as daunting as Elite, Frontier and
> Frontier First Encounters, and not for the light of heart.
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review 

"Graham Thurlwell" <nospam DeleteThis @jades.org> wrote in message
news:c4b29ed24d.jades@d.thurlwell.btopenworld.com...
> On the 25 Nov 2005, "Ceowulf" <ceo DeleteThis @NOSPAMii.ATALLnet> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>> From memory I believe you can download X2 for free now, I don't think its
>> considered piracy either because they have now release (their last patch,
>> 1.4) a no-cd requirement.
>
> Given that X2 is out on budget, I think that warezing it most
> definitely /is/ illegal. It's only a tenner, IIRC. I've been thinking
> about buying it once I've got my new stick since I don't have a
> powerful enough system for X3 and I fancy a new space game.

Whoops, you're probably right Graham. Sorry for the misleading info John,
hope you did the right thing in the end

Ceo-
 >> Stay informed about: X3 - General Review