[Beta 7.4] general feedback

[TroubledRabbit]

It is of course very opinionated and has to be.

1. New ships
Teladi - I am not a fan of 'mushrooms' since XR. While small ships looks OK (especially these from XR which are not present in X4, sadly) the big ones are just ridiculous and as a combat vehicles are still lacking. I miss the old, simple, robust and no-nonsense designs from previous games which had character instead of 'fanciness'. We had just mushrooms before, now we have a bit pointy ones. Not really an improvement.

Xenons - not a fan of 'cockroaches' and not a fan of 'aliens' since XR. Someone spent too much time glaring on Giger's sketches, definitely.
New-old ships are fine (their capture ratio is above the normal but I suppose it is a beta stuff so players may check them out) Their combat effectiveness is mixed, I think they need a tiny buff to survivability, for now they are going down much faster than old corvettes - though the Fs with their maneuverability are properly annoying, especially in mass as they should be - they caught me a few times off guard which was a nice surprise. Some (e.g. H) - maybe after research of proper module are screaming for more crew-room. But I generally like the return of old design which have some feeling of 'machine' instead this 'pseudo-organic' nonsense which would fit Khaak much better.

Khaak - new destroyer which I have artificially spawned to see (about which later) is ugly and imbalanced IMO. It's scan-hit weapons, especially the big ones, which seemingly have almost no cool-down are simply a bad decision - any almost 'insta-kill' weapon, including Asgard's ones is a bad decision. Khaaks were always more dangerous for the small ships than big ones and it should stay that way.

Other new racial ships: are OK-ish. They however inherited absurdly small deck size on carriers (most prominent in Argon case). That makes them still 'support carriers' (like the boron one is and fits this role well as L ship) not carriers per se.

I would vote for leaving the old designs in game and 'phasing' them out slowly instead just wiping all the old in a new game. Maybe the pirates should 'acquire' them instead a new ones. At least for a while. Player also should be able to build and buy them for as long as ones heart desire. For a tiny price this drastically would increase ships variety in the game - a department sadly underdeveloped.

I would also suggest that the 'used' view would grow with time, new ships should be, well... 'new' until they serve for a while getting bruises and dirt of use. It would be great also if the parts tint would be inherited from the ship's main colour or detail colour. These white terran shields are looking quite badly, especially if one is using some darker colouring on the ship.

2. Ships behaviour
It is better now. Docking is still a problem IS and as it always have been and will be - either the dev team agree to just auto-magically teleport stubborn ship into the dock or it will stay as a 'feature'. General maneuverability seems to have a little more sense - though going through the asteroid fields is still raising questions about how actually intelligent is that 'AI' being unable to correct the course by 1' 40 km before the rock and instead dancing for a minute or 3 around for no apparent reason.
But -ships IS now recognizes 'danger zones' and are trying to avoid them (that does not stop the factions from building stations close to these areas, maybe the exclusion zone should be bigger). This has often a bit surprising results when ship paired with very fast engine drastically overshoots the target or takes very big way 'around'. Though - honestly - this does not bother me much, personally, I am always modding out this stuff (danger zones) as 'annoyance without the point'.

3. New modules and faction HQs
'Nice to have', factions got a tiny bit more of a character now at least in aesthetic. There is a lot of 'nice to haves' to make still.

4. Economy
I have mixed feelings about changes - it is much harder to establish oneself in particularly tight economies (Terran one is a special example because their ships are prohibitive costly for a wannabe PC). A lot depends on the seed ofc. But I have noticed that Avarice has problems with establishing itself numerous times. In general economy now requires much more attention to details which is good, but may be overwhelming for new players or returning ones from longer hiatus. The game desperately needs *more* feedback passed to the player in *clear* way.

5. Xenon strength (before crisis)
Poor toasters. They have been dealt a really bad hand this time. For some +10 different games started only in 2 they were proper annoyance which was direct result of factions building def stations in the wrong spot or not at all.
I would suggest establishing more Xenon stations right from the get-go in their sectors (so they have proper bulwark for rampaging TIC) and limiting seriously (or disabling altogether) their tendency to send miners and transporters in 'tourist mode' into the enemy faction territory.
This is btw. a general suggestion - all factions exhibits that brainless behaviour.
5.1 VIGs
They became a serious annoyance in the beta 3/4 rampaging in the sectors where they never really were present before in large numbers. They started to behave almost as a real faction (including mass assaults on the stations) - shortly: they became tiny-xenons of sort. If it is by design, fine, but it seems to be an overlook since it has not be appraised as a 7.x feature.

6. New sectors.
I have been writing about that before.
Sad that 'empty' ones are so far from my general preferred place of settlement. But that's OK. They looks good and interesting (with exception of 'Anarchy Port' which needs some love because for now it is just one more bland Paranid station) and purpose (like more illegal trades, established black marketeer without a quest, maybe ability to equip the ship without the restrictions for a premium price etc.) Besides looks they really needs some finishing touches.

7. 'Crisis'
It is a degeneration to the old X3 mechanics. Built poorly, seriously underdeveloped (seemingly not really thought-through) and looks more like unfinished mod than a feature. I will be definitely in the basket of players which simply mod this out if there won't be in game ability to opt-out without paying ransom or other nonsense. It is more a symptom of the game itself 'identity crisis' than a 'crisis', for a players with established military it is just yet another pew-pew (fine) without the consequences, but at least they can experience enjoyment of lagfest.

8.General feelings
I am quite happy with minor things and some QoL improvements and if the 7 would be focused on that more - starting with ability to create one's own lists (see 'custom tabs' mod, lacks in managerial areas so important in a game of such scale is just ridiculous) I would enjoy it even more. The main 'selling point', however (namely: 'crisis') is, pardon my french: 'meh'. I have feeling that it is one more example of putting a lot of work in the wrong place.