![]() Last night, for example, one of my corvettes ran into a frigate, and we exchanged fire for about six minutes until the stalemate was broken when I ran out drones and countermeasures, and his missle barranges started to land. ![]() There really isn't a singleplayer game that offers this kind of large scale ship combat. Combat drones and countermeasures will go flying, turrets will lay down flak fields to shoot down fighters, and so on. Capital ships will exchange huge plasma fire at long ranges and conduct evasive manuvers, bombers and missle frigates will launch huge waves of torpedoes, etc. The combat system is unique in this scaling, and lets the player enjoy anything from a simple fighter furball during a routine patrol to a full blown fleet engagement, where captial ships, their frigate and corvette screens, and fighter and bomber compliments all can be commanded by the player with spectacular effect. Instead, the X3:TC simulation lets you control any ship in the game, ranging from the smallest of scout fighters to huge carriers and battleships. Most space combat simulations focus on letting the player control a simple fighter through scripted missions. Meanwhile, I can focus my attention on other parts of the game-build and fight, or the game's missions-while still earning money in the background to support those efforts, which can get really expensive.įight - For as unique as the trading simulation is in X3:TC, the combat system is even more unique. The X community is incredible and the some of the trading stuff you can add in helps reduce the micromanagement of the game by huge amounts, letting you focus on other things. This is all possible due to some of the scripts that the fan community has written for the game to improve on some of the build in functionality in the game. They travel and buy and sell completely without my interaction, and as they trade more and more they learn abilities like how to manage basic defenses like fighter drones and missle defenses so that they can defend themselves long enough for the jump drives to whisk them to safety if they run into aggressive patrols. You don't have to ferry all of the goods yourself-I started out this way, but now I have about 25 fully automated traders that search indentified systems (don't want to trade with pirates who will shoot my traders down!) and their factories for good deals. What makes trading part of X3 really stand out is the elegance by which the trading in the game scales. Space trading 101, but I can't emphasize how much the fully dynamic implementation enriches the game. Similarly, if you buy out all the stock of a mine or factory, it'll cost way more to buy goods there until it restocks. ![]() So you'll need to find another place to sell the same good, or swap to a different good. However, that factory might fill up with the good and not pay out as much for it as its reserves fill up. X3 has a wonderful, dynamic trading implementation, where supply and demand is completely dynamic-if there is a local shortage of a needed good, chances are that if you're willing to find a place that produces it you can ship in into the factories needing it and make a ton of money in the process. No matter what, at some point you're going to want to start building a economic empire-whether its for the goal of just building one or to fund your own personal military, credits are what make the X Universe go round. Trade-At the very heart of the game's simulation is that of free trading and capitalism. Oh, there's one more unspoken part to that phrase- and MOD. I think the best way to describe my enjoyment for the game is to talk about each of these elements individually. The X series has a trademark line to it- Trade. It's a game that doesn't shy away from details and the complexity of its simulation, and lets the player literally build their own economic and military empire from scratch while allowing them to manually control and experience that empire at any level they wish. To the tune of about 50 or so played hours over the last 8-9 days. I've been totally absorbed in X3:Terran Conflict ever since I started playing it. I figured I had spent far more money on much worse gaming products, after all I do own a next generation console and at one point purchased a Nintendo Gamecube. However, when both X3: Reunion and the recently released X3: Terran Conflict were on sale on Steam during the Holiday Sale, I pulled the trigger. I had always wanted to try out the X series from Egosoft, but never got around to it. I searched and found one thread on this game when it was annouced, but wanted to start a new thread since A) I think that this game is really special and deserves some serious appreciation and B) some console tool shat the bed in that thread asking for a console port.
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