X4: Foundationshas been enhanced by five expansions available as optional DLCs, the latest beingX4: Timelines. Thisspace simulation gameallows players to build fleets, construct stations, and manage a sophisticated economy. Additionally, players can engage in numerous quests and missions throughout the game.
Each time Egosoft releases DLC, they also add lots of free content to the game for players who don’t purchase the DLC. With theX4: Timelinescame the 7.0 update for the base game. This update added some great content, and also some general improvements as well as bug fixes. This means that players who don’t purchaseTimelinesstill have access to some of the best features of the DLC for thisspace game.
7Camera Improvements
Great For Ship Selfies
X4: Foundationsis one of thebest-lookingspace sims out there. It is a visually stunning game, using bang-up-to-date graphics technology. However, it has always been quite tricky to get a good spaceship selfie, due to the less-than-ideal external camera mode.
In the 7.0 update forX4, players have access to new, advanced external camera controls. Enables players to set the distance, height, and offset of the external camera. It takes a while to learn how to use these new controls properly, but once mastered, they make getting great screenshots a breeze.
6Redesigned Teladi and Argon Capital Ships
Highly Detailed New Models
The last few updates forX4: Foundationshave seen specific faction capital ships being refreshed, either redesigned or new variations introduced. Last time around it was the Paranid that got a makeover. This time, it is the Argon and the Teladi.
Teladi ships have especially benefited from this facelift, and no longer look like giant space-faring mushrooms. Increased levels of detailing have given them a real boost in the looks department. Argon capital ships now look meaner and are also much more detailed. This brings the original Paranid, Teladi, and Argon capital ships into line with the newer Terran and Boron designs that came with the last few expansions.
5Redesigned Xenon Ships
A New Slick But Mean Look
The last faction that needed a facelift for its capital ship lineup is the Xenon. These models have not been touched since the game’s original release. However, it must be said that the original models were prettycool-looking shipsanyway.
The new Xenon capital ship models have a much slicker, streamlined look, but still manage to exhibit an air of menace. It will be interesting to find out whether Egosoft repeats this exercise with M and S class ships somewhere down the road, as some of the older models for these ship classes are looking a little long in the tooth.
4Improved Tutorials
Great For New Players
X4: Foundationsis a behemoth of a game, that can be played in many different ways. But with that depth comes complexity. This is a very difficult game for new players to get a grip on. The original tutorials inX4were less than ideal. They were often disjointed and presented to the player at inappropriate stages of the game.
In the 7.0 update, the tutorial system forX4: Foundationshas been reworked. There are now stand-alone tutorials that cover just about every aspect of gameplay, including some greatspace combatlessons. The player is free to choose which ones they do, and when they do them. This is going to makeX4a much simpler game for new players to learn.
3New Sectors And Landmarks
Expanding The Sandbox Map
As with every expansion forX4: Foundationsto date, theTImelinesDLC adds some new sectors to theopen-world, sandboxgalaxy map. There are several new sectors waiting to be found, and some are populated by new alien landmarks.
These new sectors and their location are not going to be disclosed here, as this could spoil the fun of exploring and discovering them for some people. What will be said, is that some of these new sectors are in very surprising areas of the map, and will not be easy to find.
2Flyable Xenon Ships
Capture Them And Fly Them
Capturing enemy ships and flying them or assigning them to an existing AI pilot has long been a feature ofX4: Foundations. But new in the 7.0 update, is capturing and flying Xenon ships. This adds a fun new option for Xenon combat rather than just slaughtering them as usual.
Almost all Xenon ships can now be captured and flown. This includes the Xenon PE, SE, F, B, and H variants. This offers players a useful option for building a small fleet at the start of the game, without resorting to piracy and the associated reputation hits this can cause.
1Existential Crisis
An Advanced Challenge
VeteranX4: Foundationsplayers often hit a wall in the end game. Once they have completed all of the scripted content, tackled all of the terraforming projects, and begun to dominate the map. At this stage, it can be hard to find the motivation to keep playing, and only the most hardcore players will restart from scratch.
The 7.0 update forX4: Foundationsadds a new end-game challenge for these players. Once they reach a certain stage of the game, they will receive a message from Boso Ta, letting them know that a new advanced sensor research project is available. Once this research is completed, the end-game crisis mode is enabled, and the player will be attacked by an alien horde, attempting to wipe them out.
X4: Foundations
WHERE TO PLAY
X4 is aliving, breathing space sandboxrunning entirely on your PC. Thousands of ships and stations trade, mine and produce, all realistically simulated. In this universe, you’re able to grow from being the lone pilot of a fighter ship, to managing a vast empire, commanding your fleets and designing colossal space stations. Transition seamlessly from first-person action, boarding ships and visiting their bridges, to an expansive strategy and management simulation. Choose your own path at your own pace. The decisions are yours. Trade - Fight - Build - Think.Start your journeyIn X4, you can start your journey froma number of different gamestartsand as a number of different characters, each with their own role, set of relationships and different ships and technologies to start with. No matter how you start, you are alwaysfree to develop in any other direction. Focus on exploration, make money with illegal trading and theft, command large battle fleets or become the greatest entrepreneur ever. It’s all up toyouto decide.Fly every shipX4 allows you tofly all ships personally. From small scouts over a wide range of ship classes up to the biggest carrier, everything can be piloted from the cockpit or an external view. A big focus in the development of X4 has been to achieve aseamless and immersive experience when moving between ships. You can leave a ship, climb down a ladder, walk over the dock of a large space station into another ship you may have parked there and replace the pilot that was working for you just by clicking on his chair.Build space stations and upgrade your shipsBuilding space stations and factories has always been a foundation of the X games. After gaining enough money through fighting or trading, most players want toestablish their own economyandstart influencing the universe on a larger scale. In X4, it is now possible to be completelyfree and creative. Stations can be constructed from a variety of modules, be it production modules, living sections, docks or many other types of parts. Thepowerful new map systemallows you to drag and connect modules using a connection system to design your own unique creations. Ships also offer a variety of upgrades. Engines, weapons and other equipment can be added in a graphical editor and actually seen on the ship.Experience the most dynamic X universe everX4 is the first X game to allow our races and factions tofreely build and expand their empires; the same flexibility the player enjoys in creatively designing space stations from modular building blocks is also available to them. Races expand their empire based on supply and demand, which leads to an extremely dynamic universe where every action the player makes caninfluence the course of the entire universe.Manage your empire with a powerful mapOnce you have more ships and many NPCs working for you as pilots, crew or station managers, the map will be your preferred method of managing it all. Ships can be ordered with simple clicks and through drag-and-drop operations to set their future path and commands. Graphically plan your trade routes, coordinate attacks with your entire fleet, manage the hierarchy or send ships on remote exploration missions.Dive into the most detailed X economy everOne of the key selling points of X games has always been therealistic, simulated economy. Wares produced by hundreds of stations and transported by thousands of ships are actually traded by NPCs and prices develop based on this simulated economy. This is the foundation of our living and breathing universe. Now with X4, we have taken another, massive step. For the first time in any X game,all parts of the NPC economy are manufactured from resources. Ships, weapons, upgrades, ammo and even stations. You name it. Everything comes out of the simulated economy.Research and teleportThe seamless change from ship to ship and from NPCs controlling your empire for you continues on a higher level. Once you own a larger fleet, you will be very interested in researching a technology from your HQ:Teleportation. Once you’ve unlocked teleportation, you can jump from ship to ship a lot quicker and experience all the critical situations your NPCs encounter first hand. Every order you have given to a ship before turns into a mission objective when you pilot the ship yourself. The moment you leave again, your pilot takes the helm and continues with their previous orders.
