X3: Terran Conflict

[FordGT90Concept]

I can't believe no one made a thread about this game yet and it has been out for almost exactly a month. It is vastly improved over X3: Reunion in areas that need it like UI layout. It also sounds like they added a whole lot of M7 class ships which IMO, are the best. They also made it easier to find jobs and control large fleets of aircraft (dubbed "Wings"). In short, if you loved X3: Reunion, you'll love X3: Terran Conflict.

Only four problems I see so far:
1) It should autosave when changing sectors but doesn't.
2) Some sort of progress display on loading saves and transition between sectors. It doesn't even have something spinning/moving to let you know that its working. This makes me quite nervous.
3) It has very aggressive DRM know as Tagès. It reeks of Star Force 3 (installs drivers/root kits, has lots of false positives, etc.) but, at least Egosoft is good about releasing patches to remove the DRM after a few months.
4) It is only available on Steam in most cases; however, Amazon has a UK DVD version available. They say it doesn't have any region code in it so it's safe for someone in USA to buy and install it.

 

[HolyCow02]

Is this game anything like FreeSpace? I am very hesitant on buying space sims because of how AWSOME the FreeSpace series was. I want a FreeSpace 3 but that doesn't seem to be happening and I want a sweet space sim.

 

[Polarman]

Freespace 3 died with Volition. Too bad. I'm wanted no.3 also.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I've never played FreeSpace so I don't know. Basically, there's over a hundred sectors connected by jump gates. Each sector has a variety of structures in it to buy/sell stuff. Also, people offer other kinds of jobs at random like to kill someone, transport people, protect a structure, etc. The most impressive thing is how many ships there are:

M0 = Battleship (rarely seen if at all in X3)
M1 = Carrier (often transports 50+ M3 ships, slow, well armed)
M2 = Destroyer (often transports a few M3 ships, lots o' guns but slow as hell)
M3 = Heavy Fighter
M4 = Medium Fighter
M5 = Light Fighter/Recon
M6 = Corvette
M7 = Frigate
M8 = Bomber

TL = Capital-sized transport mostly for building stations (has hangar bigger than M2, smaller than M1).
TS = Fighter-sized freight transport.
TP = Fighter-sized personnel transport.

In order from smallest to largest (generally):
M5 -> M4 -> M3 -> M8 -> TS/TP -> M6 -> M7 -> M2 -> M1 -> TL -> M0

Because you can't own an M0, M2 is by far the most deadly.

M7 is my favorite but they are hard to get because you have to be very friendly with a race for them to let you buy one. There are also over a dozen races, each with their own set of structures and aircraft.

Once you're rolling in a lot of dough, you can buy and build stations. In X3: Reunion, I built a massive complex that included power, food, crystal fab, and multiple gamma photon pulse cannon forges (the guns used on capital ships). It takes each one about 2 days game time to produce the weapon and some capital ships have room to mount almost 50 of them.

What I eventually did was equip three Argon Titan Destroyers (M2), I jumped into an enemy sector (Kha'ak space), and watched the three ships rapidly destroying enemy capital ships. They wear down the shields rather quick so I jump them all back out before they take hull damage. It is pretty impressive watch large-scale wars like that.


I should note that Terran Conflict has several bugs that make the story much harder to complete. It should be fixed in a future patch but basically, they want you to deliver freight to a sector that you don't have clearance for. So even if you do make it in there and dock, there's no way you're making it out alive. You have to do an unrelated mission first which takes you to that sector unlocking it for you.

I've been playing it over 20 hours now and haven't had a single crash.


Right now I have a Terran Saber Medium Fighter (M4) and I have managed to destroy several M6 aircraft. It ain't easy and it takes a long time but it's good fun dodging their fire and getting over 100,000 cr payment for taking care of it.

 

[Polarman]

I'll check it out to see if it can make the maybe buy list. Metacritic gave it only a 74 which is a bit on the low side.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Probably because of the bugs. Once the game is all patched up, it will score in 85+ area.

 

[Chryonn]

the X games are nothing like the Freespace games, Freespace was all about the action and story. X are more like Elite, there's some combat but it's not as fast-paced. there's more to do in the X-Universe

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Hahaha! The Goner UFO is still in there! XD

It moves faster than I can so I can't get a good picture of it. Still, glad to see they didn't remove it. It had so many people intrigued in X3: Reunion. XD

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I'm really getting into the game now that I got an M5, M3, M7, and TS (looking to buy a TL and 5 more TS). I actually found 3 separate story missions available to me and I'm sure there is more I haven't found. The game is getting better and better.

It's sad that M7s can't dock at normal stations as it is classified a capital ship but, I'll live.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

!

I'm supposed to protect 3 Teladi (friendly lizards) ships that are moving though a sector full of Kha'ak (enemy unknowns). One moment, everything looks fine, the next, the entire screen fills up with them. I got gang raped in a matter of seconds. This game needs serious balancing patches to match the enemies with your ship so you don't get overwhelmed. Until then, I would recommend not buying it. It is very frustrating.


Edit: I figured out why. 3-4 Kha'ak Clusters (each contains a Fighter and at least a dozen Scouts), one Fighter (M3), and one Corvette (M6) all spawn at random close to you. If they happen to spawn behind you, you'll only have to deal with the Fighter and the Corvette which doesn't take too much time; however, if they spawn in front of you, in a matter of seconds, you are fighting 50+ enemies. The game lags,and there is just no way you can deal with them all. My little fleet includes an 2 M6, 1 TS, and 1 T7. All of them simply get gang raped by the Kha'ak. This is so frustrating.

 

[Maju]

As a long time fan of the X series of games I disagree with Fords post.
Personally if you like space genre games then X3 is one of the best. Agreed at the moment X3:TC does need a little rebalancing but that will happen shortly I am sure and in the meantime there is still so much that you can be doing.
My last game of X3:R lasted over 2 years and I have every expectation that X3:TC will provide me with just as much playing time.
And as the promotional materials says.
BUILD TRADE FIGHT THINK.
In this instance got to use the 'ol grey matter to try and outsmart them. Either that or ditch the convoy and wait till you can afford a better/bigger/more ships or bet better at your dogfighting.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I can dog fight with my M3 Cutlass docked on the M7 but if I do that, the clusters make that much quicker work out of me. That mission just seems hopeless at this time (Operation Final Fury - Fighting the Kha'ak - Fighter Escort Needed).

The M7 is great at killing Kha'ak Clusters because I have 8xConcussion generators + 10xHEPT turrets. It just can't manage to kill 4 at once.


And realize, this is a very large Unknown Sector. It takes a good hour for the ships to make it though. I got lucky the second time I tried because those clusters didn't start spawning until about half way there (40+ km). I can hold them off so long as there are no clusters.


Edit: I tried it with a Terran M6 as well. That's useless too.


Edit 2: I went to do some missions in Boron space and the objective for this mission changed from escort to follow a Kha'ak Scout. Apparently, they move even if you are not present in the sector. Not too long after that, the objective changed yet again from follow the Kha'ak Scout to destroy the Kha'ak Station. Problem is, the station's HP refuses to drop below 1,395,000/1,500,000. It is effectively invincible. This mission is apparently broke.


Gonna have to wait for patch.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Found another impossible mission but this one is for the Goners. Basically, you have to protect a Mercury (TS) or Ranger (M5) that randomly spawns in one of three sectors. Problem is, the Pirates (M6, M3, M4, and M5) reach the Goner ship long before you can. Even if you do, you won't have enough firepower to take on the Pirate M6s. If you fail, it gets in an endless loop of respawning until you succeed so, I decided I had enough of getting no where so I finally installed the cheat script and made the Goner ship invincible. About five hours later, I finally passed the mission.

I haven't tried making the Kha'ak Station from above destructable yet. I'll try soon.

Edit: Yeah, it worked. Selected it as target. Opened cheat menu. Selected "Killed by me." Done and done. Unfortunately, that campaign doesn't really get anymore exciting than that mission. It is very repetitive.

 

[snuif09]

i tried X3 before it makes my brain hurt more then it does with EvE there arent any decent tutorials in the game so its really difficult.

im too busy with other things(games) so X3 doesnt really bother me.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

That's definitely true. There's a lot of micromanagement to the game and nothing is really easy. It is a hard game to appreciate but once you get used to it, it's great (less all the bugs in X3:TC).

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I just installed X3: Terran Conflict 2.0 - Aldrin Missions--the Atari published version (USA DVD)n released in early April. Unfortunately, it too has Tages protection. In any case, I can't wait to get in to it. It looks like 2.0 fixes a lot of problems I experienced with the Euro DVD (1.0) and also adds a lot of new content such as a new classes of ships (M7M and TM). I want to get through the last three Myst games before I play this though.

 

[1Kurgan1]

Freespace 3 died with Volition. Too bad. I'm wanted no.3 also.

Volition isn't dead, far from it.