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X³: Reunion is a computer game produced by Egosoft. The game was released on November 4, 2005 *. It was released in Europe on October 28, 2005. The game was intended to be Egosoft's first multiplatform release on both Windows and Xbox, but the plans changed and very shortly before the PC release, it was revealed the Xbox version had been cancelled.
The game is the sequel to The Threat (2003), which in turn followed Beyond the Frontier (1999).
The European, United States and Australian release use StarForce copy protection. *
Storyline
The game is set in the region of space known as the X Universe. The Kha'ak, a bug like race with a hive like behaviour continue their campaign against the X Universe races. X³ is a sequel to The Threat. The game follows Julian Brennan who is the son of Kyle Brennan, the explorer from Earth stranded in the X Universe. The name suggests that you finally find the jumpgate to Earth again, and the picture on the front resembles some kind of planet like the one we live on. The plotline, as advertised, is massive, with even the easiest difficulty level most likely requiring several days of gameplay to complete. Some of this is due to the fact that except for in the initial first "tutorial" mission (which has very little plot significance) you are told what the objective is, but not where it is, and in a few instances you must spend some time exploring the universe to find your destination.
Other Options
Following the storyline is not the only way to play the game though, as it has been designed to provide an open-ended gameplay to allow players to do their own thing rather than to bother with the storyline and associated missions. You can follow a large section of careers or jobs to make money, ranging from taking assassination jobs, performing trade missions, pirating the numerous merchants in space, manually trading wares between stations, (probably the most financially lucrative option, but not always) or just spending hours exploring space--each sector's size is massive to the point never before seen, and there are over 120 sectors total. To some degree, each career involves some exploration, particularly trading, as often you will find that the farther you travel, the more money there is to be made.
New features
The game uses a new graphics engine amongst the new features in the game, along with improvements to the dynamic economy of the X Universe. The interface was redesigned to be more user friendly, and you can now link factories together so you don't have to do everything manually, which was a massive disadvantage in the second game, being mainly about building up a massive empire with factories and ships.
The HUD now has markers over all ships, stations and large asteroids currently in your view. Each one is selectable by the mouse, or by lining your target crosshairs up with the hud marker and pressing "t".
The mouse is now useable for menu navigation, gameplay and flying. It is very good now while the previous games had bad mouse support.
All objects are now redesigned and new. Stations do not contain internal docking ports as in the previous games, (most now contain spider-like docking clamps) but the stations themselves are far more vast and detailed. The small ships are basically the same size but the larger capital ships are now huge, although unlike in other games you still cannot dock with them except in very limited points in the storyline which happen automatically. Carriers carry smaller ships, but you may only order a ship to dock with a carrier if you own both the smaller ship and the carrier.
Although the game certainly doesn't require your constant attention all the time, sometimes even playing itself at some points, leaving a ship on autopilot or especially stationary either in a nebula or in front of a jump gate can frequently result in your ship being rammed and usually destroyed by very large transport ships and capitol ships, whose captains will not take the time to move out of the way to avoid you most of the time.
Pirate behaviour has also changed. Many now regularly travel in groups of 3 or more, and depending on the sector may be heavily armed, making attacking them with an ill-equipped ship usually un-wise unless your combat skills are very good. Some pirates, on the other hand, are now smugglers who stay hidden until you scan their cargo for contraband wares, although to scan them you must have a police licence for the race who controls the sector you're in. If you don't have a licence then they will report the illegal scan and your race relations will usually decrease for the respective race. Under the proper conditions, particularly if you don't have good relations with the local race, they may even attack you for this.
Release Issues
The original release version of X³: Reunion was plagued with a vast array of bugs and issues, including certain spacecraft having problems doing tasks, a temperamental autopilot system, massive drops in frame rate during gameplay, complete and sudden loss of sound requiring computer reboot to restore, program crashes, and even in the earliest versions of the game a bug that prevented completion of the storyline. These problems were not helped by the confusing manual that contains a number of mistakes, such as describing non-existent tutorials for beginners, and several typos, some of which the game itself contains. This resulted in average to poor review scores from many gaming magazines and websites, hence an average rating of only 78% on GameRankings.com. Subsequently, the developer, Egosoft, has released a number of patches to fix these errors. As of the time of writing, the V1.4 patch has cured many of the show-stopping bugs that affected release copies. Egosoft are still continuing to support X³: Reunion with technical support and possible future patches.
As of December 31st 2005, an updated manual was released for the game in a PDF file. This can be obtained from the downloads section of the Official page and is 97 pages long, 16 pages longer than the first version. It contains information about the changes in the V1.3 patch, and corrections to errors in the earlier manual that shipped with the game. You need to be registered to download the updated manual.
Versions 1.3.1 and 1.3.2 were available to registered users as a BETA, solving many performance problems and other issues. The latest version of the game, version 1.4.03, which further improves the game play is available for download at the official site
Gallery
=Hints & Tips=
Factory Setups
Closed-Looped Systems are a great way to increase your credits in a short time. The following are proven examples (Factories Linked as Complex Hubs)
Energy Supply
- 1 Solar Power Plant
- 1 Silicon Mine
- 1 Crystal Fab
- 1 Cattle Ranch
- 1 Cahoona Bakery
Important note, your first factory for the above system is the Silicon Mine, make sure it is of high yield.
Space Fuel
- 2 Space Fuel Distilleries
- 3 Solar Power Plants
- 4 Wheat Farms
- 3 Cattle Ranches
- 1 Silicon Mine
- 2 Crystal Fabs
As with the previous example, a Silicon Mine with high yield is important. The sale price of the Space Fuel is also important, keep your eye on the local sale price. This Complex will run quite happily requiring little attention, other than to collect your credits.
=Spoilers=
'Abandoned Ships' 'Split Ships' 'Boron Ships' 'Paranid Ships'TeladiShips.jpg 'Teladi Ships'ArgonShips.jpg 'Argon Ships' 'Ship Ranks'TRADE%26FIGHT.jpg 'Trade & Combat Ranks'Racerank1.1.jpg 'Race Ranks' 'Missile Stats' LaserInfo.jpg 'Laser Stats'Keyboardx3game.jpg 'Keyboard Basics'
Related games
- Elite
- EVE Online
- Freelancer
- Wing Commander: Privateer
- The Reconstruction Initiative
- Beyond the Frontier
- The Threat
External links
Fan Site ( 'X' Games' Guide )
- Argonopedia ( X3 Guide Shortly to be Active )
- 'Apricotslice' (Excellent X3 Fan Handbook, Zip Download)
2005 computer and video games | Windows games | Simulation computer and video games | X computer game series
"X³: Reunion"
