Fantastic news for fans of Egosoft space simulation games, as they have now actually confirmed that X4: Foundations [Official Site] will be on Linux.
News comes thanks to a Twitter post we were tagged in, were the developer replied and said this:
We definitely plan to support Linux. If it will be released from the start or a little later will be decided close to release.
It's going to be exciting, especially as their engine now uses Vulkan allowing them to use some more advanced features and hopefully keep performance in check too.
It does sound like it's going to be quite a feature filled game, giving you the ability to seamlessly move between ships and walk around big space stations. They've also revamped the station and spacecraft construction features, to give you many more options. Egosoft also say it's the most dynamic game in the X universe yet, as other species and factions will have the same ability to construct and expand as you do.
For the most up to date talk about the game, you can see this video they did at the end of 2017 going over various features.
Egosoft also celebrated 30 years of game developement as of last month, so that's a pretty damn impressive milestone.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
appetrosyan Jul 17, 2018
So what are these games like? I played Freespace (2) when I was a kid, and loved every minute, but nevera actually had a chance to compare it against the X franchise.
What's it like?
What's it like?
0 Likes
Quoting: appetrosyanSo what are these games like? I played Freespace (2) when I was a kid, and loved every minute, but nevera actually had a chance to compare it against the X franchise.Do NOT go into X expecting anything like Freespace.
What's it like?
X is way more economy orientied. Trading plays a vital role, and the whole UI is tailored to that aspect.
It IS possible to just play as some bounty hunter, but the game simply has a greater scale than just that.
0 Likes
This is great! Keeping my hopes up for this one. I'm sure they learned from Rebirth.
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Actually looking forward to the game, clocked up a good 300hrs on rebirth. Just lost progress can't remember why was like system reinstall or something so stopped playing.
Just don't want to spend money on something then wait 5+ months for it to be got going on linux. Like say Battletech zzz.
Just don't want to spend money on something then wait 5+ months for it to be got going on linux. Like say Battletech zzz.
1 Likes, Who?
Well, 7 hours into Rebirth's campaign and I'm far, far from impressed. Fights are muddy, targeting is shit, weapons feel puny, there's little to no indication of where your enemies are, drones are useless (you have to leave the Skunk frozen in place to fly them until much later when you can buy AI modules for them), there's no feedback on whether missiles have struck, multiple targeting reticles appear with no indication as to why, etc, etc.
Missions are incredibly wonky. At one point I was told to trade 100 energy cells to a station because they're always running out. I bought about 3000, because a) they're cheap b) I thought "profit!" and c) I couldn't make the slider actually choose 100 - it's too sensitive. When I got to the station to sell them, turns out I can't use the trading menu. I have to double click on the station and a "sell cells" options appears. No idea why. Anyway, I sell them 3000 cells, make my profit and wait. And wait. And wait. Turns out, you have to sell them EXACTLY 100 cells for the mission to register success. Apparently 3000 doesn't cut it. I had to reload an autosave from about 10 minutes previous.
Another example, a station is under attack from "Reivers" and we decide in a cutscene to help. But I couldn't find any enemies called Reivers, so after a couple of minutes, I just docked with the station and met with the manager, who thanked me for my help in seeing off the Reivers?! I replayed it, and it turns out there are a few non-violent enemies around the station, so if I blow them up (they don't retaliate for some reason), I get a reputation bonus. They weren't attacking, they weren't reivers, they don't retaliate, but I'm a hero for destroying them. Okay. Later, the manager tells me that they did the most damage to the station in months. Hmmm.
Graphics are decent. But lens flares from suns make pretty much everything else fade away though and it's constant. I couldn't find a mod to remove lens flares. I'd go as far as to say it's almost unplayable when you're taking in lens flare. Also, the highways use a very subtle glow effect to show boundaries, so I spend a lot of time being ejected from those because I can't tell where the boundary is.
Trading menus are confusing, there's no single trade market, so you have to comm everyone individually and it's rarely clear if you'll make a profit. There little to no feedback on what you've collected (either from cargo debris, or scavenging on stations), its purpose or resale value. Everything about this game feels like a chore. Like the maps - god they're awful. Good luck plotting a trade route. The game does a great job of making space feel truly vast, but the flip side is that unless you're willing to pour hundreds of hours into this, you'll never know what's going on. If it weren't for the golden reticle showing your next mission objective, this game would be a farce.
At one point you fly into a completely new, uncharted area of space, but your targeting computer still somehow knows which are enemies and which are friendly?? How? And what's happened to my capital ship? My fighter made it, but no sign of the big guy. No idea what's going on at this point.
And the voice acting! Holy shit. The more I hear, I more I wonder how they thought putting this level of acting in the game would be a good idea. Stilted conversations, forced dialog, weirdly forced happiness ("Show me your wares, PLEASE!"), and the killer for me (literally), a cut scene kicking in during a dogfight, during which you lose control of your ship, but... get this... the fight continues in the background, making me a sitting duck! So as the cutscene plays out, I can actually hear my Skunk being blown to shit. Cutscene ends and, yep, I'm dead. Wow. Oh, and you can't skip dialog or cutscenes. So that's tedious. Actually, some cutscenes let you skip the video, but incredibly you're then left frozen in place in game and the audio continues to play. Just completely amateur.
So, nah. I'll give up on this. Probably the worst £25 I've spent in a long time. X4 looks better, but if they don't do something about how clunky and unhelpful everything feels, I'll be staying clear.
Last edited by scaine on 22 July 2018 at 1:40 pm UTC
Missions are incredibly wonky. At one point I was told to trade 100 energy cells to a station because they're always running out. I bought about 3000, because a) they're cheap b) I thought "profit!" and c) I couldn't make the slider actually choose 100 - it's too sensitive. When I got to the station to sell them, turns out I can't use the trading menu. I have to double click on the station and a "sell cells" options appears. No idea why. Anyway, I sell them 3000 cells, make my profit and wait. And wait. And wait. Turns out, you have to sell them EXACTLY 100 cells for the mission to register success. Apparently 3000 doesn't cut it. I had to reload an autosave from about 10 minutes previous.
Another example, a station is under attack from "Reivers" and we decide in a cutscene to help. But I couldn't find any enemies called Reivers, so after a couple of minutes, I just docked with the station and met with the manager, who thanked me for my help in seeing off the Reivers?! I replayed it, and it turns out there are a few non-violent enemies around the station, so if I blow them up (they don't retaliate for some reason), I get a reputation bonus. They weren't attacking, they weren't reivers, they don't retaliate, but I'm a hero for destroying them. Okay. Later, the manager tells me that they did the most damage to the station in months. Hmmm.
Graphics are decent. But lens flares from suns make pretty much everything else fade away though and it's constant. I couldn't find a mod to remove lens flares. I'd go as far as to say it's almost unplayable when you're taking in lens flare. Also, the highways use a very subtle glow effect to show boundaries, so I spend a lot of time being ejected from those because I can't tell where the boundary is.
Trading menus are confusing, there's no single trade market, so you have to comm everyone individually and it's rarely clear if you'll make a profit. There little to no feedback on what you've collected (either from cargo debris, or scavenging on stations), its purpose or resale value. Everything about this game feels like a chore. Like the maps - god they're awful. Good luck plotting a trade route. The game does a great job of making space feel truly vast, but the flip side is that unless you're willing to pour hundreds of hours into this, you'll never know what's going on. If it weren't for the golden reticle showing your next mission objective, this game would be a farce.
At one point you fly into a completely new, uncharted area of space, but your targeting computer still somehow knows which are enemies and which are friendly?? How? And what's happened to my capital ship? My fighter made it, but no sign of the big guy. No idea what's going on at this point.
And the voice acting! Holy shit. The more I hear, I more I wonder how they thought putting this level of acting in the game would be a good idea. Stilted conversations, forced dialog, weirdly forced happiness ("Show me your wares, PLEASE!"), and the killer for me (literally), a cut scene kicking in during a dogfight, during which you lose control of your ship, but... get this... the fight continues in the background, making me a sitting duck! So as the cutscene plays out, I can actually hear my Skunk being blown to shit. Cutscene ends and, yep, I'm dead. Wow. Oh, and you can't skip dialog or cutscenes. So that's tedious. Actually, some cutscenes let you skip the video, but incredibly you're then left frozen in place in game and the audio continues to play. Just completely amateur.
So, nah. I'll give up on this. Probably the worst £25 I've spent in a long time. X4 looks better, but if they don't do something about how clunky and unhelpful everything feels, I'll be staying clear.
Last edited by scaine on 22 July 2018 at 1:40 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: scaine...snip...Yeah, that was pretty much my experience as well (at first I thought I remembered X3, but those bad memories were actually from Rebirth).
So, nah. I'll give up on this. Probably the worst £25 I've spent in a long time. X4 looks better, but if they don't do something about how clunky and unhelpful everything feels, I'll be staying clear.
Extremely clunky, extremely confusing, extremely buggy and very often unintentionally funny - and all of that waaayyy past release. One can only imagine the state it must have been in at launch.
Will definitely be awaiting some impressions of the released game before trying it.
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 23 July 2018 at 9:26 am UTC
0 Likes
Quoting: Patola7 hours is nothing, in X Rebirth time. I couldn't figure out most mechanics even with a 30 hour gameplay. The "exact 100" energy cells bug did not happen with me, I don't know why it would still happen with some people, but anyway it's easily workable as you did. I don't know about these mysterious enemies but the Reivers show up as Reivers...
For the sensitive slider, use the arrow keys.
I hear you. And I get it, I hate when people rag on games I love. But for me, the core game play just doesn't warrant me sticking with it. Such a beautiful game (barring that god awful screen flare from suns), but I didn't even list all my gripes in that tediously long post. There's just too much awful and not enough awesome. Here's to X4 righting some of those wrongs.
And as TheSHEEEP notes, can you only imagine what it must have been like on release? Yikes! I imagine Ego have learned a lesson or two from that and that will hopefully bode well for X4.
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