X3: Albion Prelude

[Greatguardian]

I'm shocked. I didn't see a thread for this or any of the other X-series. Step up your game, BG!

Released Dec 15th, 2011

Trailer:



Some gameplay:



Any X3 fans here? Albion Prelude is a standalone expansion to X3: TC. Save games aren't compatible, but the engine and controls are the same. I love these games. The voice work is always kinda silly since the game is developed in Germany and the English voice actors have pretty noticeable accents, but otherwise it's a hell of a lot of fun.

X3: AP is pretty cheap on Steam, $10 last I checked. It's definitely worth checking out for those who enjoy space combat / space simulators. The game forces you to think, and will routinely kick your ass if you're not on the ball. It's a fairly gorgeous game, too. There's an extremely active mod community that works with the developers directly, so there's always something new to try after the main game. It's a real wonder this series never really took off in the US. It's one of those bargain bin gems - Elder Scrolls in space, just better.

[spd]

was an X2 fan, loved flying around on my Argon Titan even though getting a full set of weapons for it was a total bitch, but when outfitted it was a monster, was never much into the trading aspect, preferred fighting pirates, forcing them to eject then selling their ships, pulled the same shit in Argon Prime and netted myself an Argon Nova :D

[Kaisha]

Got it free as part of having owned the X Box bundle on Steam. Did they add a more thorough tutorial at all? I spent 4 hours with X3:TC as my first entry to the series and felt like I was getting nowhere. I was constantly having to reference the control config to figure out wtf keys I have to press to do what due to the game never showing what key to hit when it says to do a specific action.

Felt like the kind of series I'd want to own a flightstick for just to offload some of the keys I have to press for the more common actions.

[Greatguardian]

The tutorial is pretty basic and only really covers maneuvering and firing weapons, but there are tons of guides out there for the game. It takes sandbox to the extreme, so it takes a bit of getting used to.

By tons, I mean there's a huge sticky on the egosoft forums compiling all of the tons of guides. Linked here. I should be able to answer most basic questions, though. Was there anything in particular giving you trouble?

I play with a logitech dualshock gamepad, built pretty much like a ps2 controller, and it handles pretty well. I'd love to try it with a flight stick.

[avelle]

I'm kinda interested in trying this out. I haven't really played a space game other than Eve since the old Privateer series, which were freaking amazing. I don't see anything on their site about the kinds of ships and stuff you can fly. Is there some place you can see that kind of information? Like a wiki or something?

[Greatguardian]

Yeah. This is a pretty solid wiki. The ships have 2-3 digit classifications for the most part, to help generalize them since there are tons and tons of ships to fly.

Combat ships are rated M1-M8 as follows:

M1 = Carrier class. Large capital ships with heavy shields/weapons and lots of cargo and hanger space

M2 = Destroyer class. Large capital ships with lots and lots of shields and teeth.

M3 = Heavy Fighter class. Single-person fighters, slower but with a higher shield capacity etc

M4 = Fighter class. Normal fighters. Most intro routes start you off in one of these

M5 = Scout fighter class. Very fast, very weak. Fodder, mostly.

M6 = Corvette class. About 2-3 times the size of an M3, Corvettes can mount heavier weapons than fighters but are slower, much less maneuverable, and easier
to hit. They cannot mount capital class weapons, and are generally the weakest ships overall

M7 = Frigate class. These were added in X3: TC to help bridge the gap between M2s and M6s. It's a capital class ship, but it's only half the size of a proper M2 or M1. Frigates can mount some capital class weapons and have various weapon turrets.

M8 = Missile Frigate class. Also added in X3: TC, these ships have no primary guns but are designed to use extremely powerful long range missiles. These are about the size of an M6.

Each of the various races in the game produces at least one ship of each class. There are also non-combat ship classes like cargo transports, troop transports, personal transports (like space yachts, taxis, etc), military transports (these have hangers for a small squadron of fighter-class ships), and Station-Builders. You can fly everything. Literally, everything. If someone else is flying it? You can capture and fly it. It's awesome.

One thing to note is that ships don't have any sort of "standard loadout". Ships just have the ability to mount certain weapons in certain slots and fire certain missiles. It's up to the player to go out and buy those weapons, mount them in the slots they want, and stock whatever missiles they want to use.

Edit: Also, any ship that you own that you aren't currently flying can be given orders via the ship's computer. You can assign wings, or fleets, and customize the hell out of your ship AI if you have the appropriate software sold from space stations (eg, installing Fight Software Mk 2 for advanced combat commands, etc).

Edit 2: Just realized the wiki didn't have pictures for each ship. This site does, though.

[Misterjingles]

This seems like a sexier version of Escape Velocity, is it like EV? Because I fucking love EV.

[Greatguardian]

I've never played EV, but based on the synopsis on wiki they sound extremely similar.

[chiyio]

Played the fuck out of X3: Reunion with the Xtension mod. Learning curve for these games is brutal, but once you get it down they are very enjoyable.

[spd]

http://www.beepworld.de/memberdateie...x2screen13.jpg

http://mimg.ugo.com/201011/6/4/8/132...528_poster.jpg

Coincidence? :O!

[Elesirdur]

Picked up the X-pack a while ago on steam and finally got around to trying X3:AP and I'm having quite a bit of fun with it so far. The story is extremely short, and I haven't got into any trading/building yet but it's surprisingly addictive.

Cheat plugin is great fun. New Game -> M1 cap ship -> fun!

[Greatguardian]

Which story? The war?

I think there are a few different "story" type quests floating around, some of which can take quite a while since they require some serious financial/military power to complete. I know X3:TC's "starter" scenario was pretty short but it was some of the later story scenarios like OFF and the HQ line that kept me going for a while. I think I still haven't finished the HQ line in my old TC save since it needed something like 500 microchips and I had let the game economy go to shit and no one was producing them any more.

That's one big thing to watch out for, for those just starting out. The game economy is intentionally bad/unstable so that there are gaps in supply and demand for you to fill in with your trading vessels and factories. If a factory stays out of business for too long, it'll eventually disappear. I really screwed myself over a couple times by completely ignoring the economy for like 40-50 hours and then trying to outfit my ships and finding that practically no one was making big guns any more.

[Elesirdur]

FYI to anyone who's new (as I am) because this annoyed me a bit. Unless you use a mod for save managers you only get ONE game world to save. If you start a new game, all your previous saves are wiped and you start fresh. At least that's what I discovered, maybe there's some way to recover them without mods.

[Anton]

Picked up the X-pack a while ago on steam and finally got around to trying X3:AP and I'm having quite a bit of fun with it so far. The story is extremely short, and I haven't got into any trading/building yet but it's surprisingly addictive.

Cheat plugin is great fun. New Game -> M1 cap ship -> fun!

Fun to do once

Here's a picture of "most" of my mods - there's a fair amount that aren't here. Realspace Backgrounds replaces all the space nebulas in the game with HD Real life pics from NASA. VERY cool. I also have a Mass Effect 2 mod where you start in the Normandy (and yes, it's the Normandy. M6 Corvette, overgunned and about as maneuverable as an m4, but lightly shielded for the class Video Here) and play the terran story.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e49/AntValefor/X3.jpg

I also have a mod installed that, while I have a mod that restricts how often enemies use missiles, also allows the computer to ripple-fire, greatly reducing missile cooldown for more... fireworks.

X3 is the best space sandbox game out there right now, I think, and that's knowing full well that the X3 menu system is clunky and awkward and the main story is short, and a little "Lost in Translation". You'll have to learn several keyboard shortcuts to quickly browse the menu, which is a pain, but if you can get over that hump, you're left with a full, populated universe to enrich or destroy, whatever you wanna do.

Like guardian pointed out, the economy is intentionally left with holes for you to integrate into and get rich, but I've never seen structures just "disappear". Furthermore, the AI does a lot of trading themselves.

As your fighting rank increases, the world around you gets tougher. So you'll have to be smart and capable to stay ahead of the difficulty curve, or you could find yourself flying a fighter for "too long", now facing corvettes, frigates, and other nasties. As you get stronger, you'll be able to interact in more impactful ways, but ultimately you'll have to set goals for yourself.
-------------------------------------------------------

M6 = Corvette class. About 2-3 times the size of an M3, Corvettes can mount heavier weapons than fighters but are slower, much less maneuverable, and easier
to hit. They cannot mount capital class weapons, and are generally the weakest ships overall

In the hands of the AI, I totally agree - M6s are easy to swat. However, they make the best player ships outside of the missile frigates (which is the Armageddon button - not even M2's can stand for long against a flail missile barrage). Of the capital ships, they're the fastest and most maneuverable - anything under you (M3-M5), you can obliterate. You can outplay a fellow M6 straight up. But to take on stronger ships you'll need to use strategy, like distracting the gun batteries with missiles or fighter drones before you enter range, calling in some wings to help, or trying to maneuver to a weak spot in the ship.

I mean it's cool to fly around in an Imperial Star destroyer and just obliterate anything you find, but it's soooooooo slow...


Some gameplay action, somebody testing a frame rate mod with some big fights. Looks like he's engaging a Xenon J with a few Argon M2s and fighter support. In the second half, he's flying a Valhalla M0 (Super-destroyer) in a hostile race's core sector.

Music not from the Game, but I approve of it.

[Anton]

Egosoft has approved certain highly stable, helpful mods from the community to install. In X3:TC, with the Afterburner addition, my M6 corvette can hit 625, up from a top speed of 250. That's light interceptor speed, but it hoovers energy cells and Shield power, and only lasts for a limited time.

So for about 10 seconds, I have the fastest ship in the game. Cooldown is about double time.

Edit: I should point out that even with an overgunned, super-fast, M6, and all the benefits of being human - luring enemies into asteroids and using hit-and-run tactics - at Rank: Warrior I'm quickly running out of time. I'm facing multiple M6's with M3/M4/M5 fighter support on missions. Sometimes M7s. Sometimes two M7s.

Though I have nuke-tipped torpedoes for the Capital ships and I have the speed to engage any way I want, my shields just can't cut it against capital-class weaponry. There are certain weapons you absolutely have to dodge (Photon Pulse Cannon), or you just instant-die.

This game really invokes the spirit of the old Privateer and Wing Commander series. If you're into that sort of thing, don't want to pay for EVE, and can figure out the menu (the problem is too much control, since you can order ships to do almost anything, leading to really big menus. It is what it is.), it's a great game to pick up on a discount. Good graphics too.

[Misterjingles]

Bump, so this is on sale on Steam for the midweek, as an X game noob, should I order all the games in the collection or just get the X3: Terran Conflict, X3: Albion Prelude / X3: Reunion, X3: Terran Conflict, X3: Albion Prelude packs?

[Dngnhack]

Bump, so this is on sale on Steam for the midweek, as an X game noob, should I order all the games in the collection or just get the X3: Terran Conflict, X3: Albion Prelude / X3: Reunion, X3: Terran Conflict, X3: Albion Prelude packs?

Curious as well... I really want to just play Albion Prelude since it doesn't continue save game from Terran Conflict.. Do i need to purchase both?

[Kaisha]

Albion requires TC to run, so yes.

As for how the older games hold up, I've not played enough of the series to say. But I will say this: They are uuuuuuuuuuuugly by today's standards, both visually, and in its interface handling.

[Dngnhack]

Albion requires TC to run, so yes.

As for how the older games hold up, I've not played enough of the series to say. But I will say this: They are uuuuuuuuuuuugly by today's standards, both visually, and in its interface handling.

TY for the info.. Is it worth playing TC before albion since i'm getting both or ok to skip? (Is TC story worth it or just skip it?)

[chiyio]

I'd just grab the superbox thing and get everything. x3:reunion with the xtended mod is still my favorite, heh