Sooo I just pre-ordered the collectors edition

[Vanir]

I also pre-ordered the collectors version, via the Egosoft shop, as it seems that Egosoft has learnt from its mistake with X-Rebirth albeit with the 'help' from the X community.
Additionally I like to support games developers that produce space games such as the X series and Elite Dangerous.

I am a founder member / Kickstarter contributor of ED and have bought many paintjobs, T-shirts etc. to support Frontier in its development of ED.
ED is a good game but it has suffered from bad design in the last few years; in my opinion: Powerplay and the RNG Engineers / material grinding being the principal guilty parties.

X3 Reunion /TC/ AP have a more diverse set of in-depth activities for the individual player than ED.
X Rebirth I bought but have only played a few hours - it was a bit of a dud.

X4 has been a long time coming down the highway!

[-Skipp-]

I'm probably one of the few people that actually liked Rebirth (after v2.0 and major performance patches that is). But as people who played older games in the X series probably know - it's the after-release part that counts.

The major issue with Rebirth was the major hype and the wrong expectations people had (expecting X4) while it clearly wasn't. Still - The game is fine today, runs smoothly and delivers on what it was.

It was a huge blow to Egosoft and I'm sure no company would deliberately release a game that can't even run properly again. But everything has already been said hundreds of times so let's just leave it at that and look forward to the new shiny X game coming up sooner than expected!

Oh yea, I also got the CE since i'm 100% sure I would buy the DLCs anyway so why not get it done now at a discounted price.

[CorruptUser]

I got X3AP on sale for a tiny fraction of the price, and plowed 1000 hours into that game. I got XR and addons on sale for either 1/3 or 1/2 the price, and have put maybe 600 hours into the game.

For the amount of fun I've had, I think Egosoft has earned my money this time around.

[Yorkie_GBR]

My mouse pointer keeps getting drawn to the perorder button, but after all these years playing every instalment bar afterbirth, my finger just wont commit.

I will no doubt get it closer to release when more info becomes available, but unlike afterbirth I do have high hopes for the game.

[XD733]

The major issue with Rebirth was the major hype and the wrong expectations people had (expecting X4) while it clearly wasn't. Still - The game is fine today, runs smoothly and delivers on what it was.

It was a huge blow to Egosoft and I'm sure no company would deliberately release a game that can't even run properly again. But everything has already been said hundreds of times so let's just leave it at that and look forward to the new shiny X game coming up sooner than expected!

I have to disagree that Rebirth is fine today. I tried it again for an hour and a half or so last night. In just that time, here are the major issues I saw that still remain:

- The very first ship you meet, to drop off the person who boarded your ship, just disappears when you are done talking to it. It doesn't jump or teleport or move away - it just unspawns with no fanfare. Talk about immersion-breaking.

- The space highways still suck. The plot seems to require you to get into them to move around, but for whatever reason I was constantly ejected. And why are you faster than all the other traffic in the space highways, so you have to dodge it? And why are no ships faster than you, even the tiny ones etc.? It just feels so gamey, unlike X through X3:AP.

- It's super hard to steer on the space highways. On my system, when you first enter, you can't see the borders for a second or two, which leads to a super annoying in-out-in-out pattern. Seriously, of the 1.5 hours I played, about 45 minutes was probably just trying to stay in the space highways.

- The UI is tiny, even at just 1080p resolution. The little message that "you have to leave the space highway" is also tiny. If you miss it even by just a second, the mission guidance apparently requires that you loop around ALL the highways again so that you can get back to that spot.

- Tiny as it is, the UI still blocks the upcoming ships on the space highways, so I was constantly running into them. The crosshair in flight mode is huge, and you have to place it near the middle to stay in the highway. If you move it just a little so you can see the ships you're about to run into, you risk getting ejected from the highway entirely and having to spend a minute or two trying to get back in and getting ejected.

- The 3D models of people and aliens are horrible. There is apparently some kind of lip sync, but it must not be to the English voiceovers. And the 3D models themselves look like something out of a bad 1990's 3D rendering, not any kind of a modern game. Plus, in the 1.5 hours I played, I was ALREADY seeing repeated models used for different characters, with the same faces.

- Outside-of-ship movement feels wrong and weird. I've played thousands of hours of FPS's over decades, and this just feels wrong.

- Why does the game go out of its way to show you that all of these crates you are looting are empty? It just looks so weird. Why have an open-the-crate animation just to show that it's totally empty, while simultaneously telling you that it's not actually empty?

- The game seems to want to SHOWCASE the awful 3D people, the laughably bad lip-syncing and the empty crates. So weird.

All this is from just the first 1.5 hours of gameplay, if that. And half that time was spent just trying to get into the space highways. It does not inspire confidence that X4 is going to be any good.

[euclid]

I'd love to pre-purchase the CE but as a collector I "really need" the box version and not just the software key. So, unless there will be a CE box, I guess it's the first time since X2 that I cannot support ES this way

Cheers Euclid

[Solflame]

Can always buy a digital CE and then a boxed CE later!

[TrueSanity]

You'll be fine.

I see a few people posting here proclaiming Rebirth as a disaster. I'm not even going to go into that. However, these people are basing their entire view of Egosoft as a whole on the one game. Those of us who have been with Egosoft through all the X games know their longterm track record, and know that Rebirth is not even close to being the whole of their development, and definitely should not be a large factor in your decision regarding X4. Egosoft certainly makes mistakes. The release of Rebirth was ugly. A lot of people still don't like the type of game it is, and its departure from the type of play represented by the earlier X titles. I expect X4 to be more in the spirit of those earlier X games. I also expect some issues at launch. I also know for a fact that Egosoft has ALWAYS gone above and beyond when it comes to fixing issues and improving their games, long, LONG after release. I expect X4 to be an enjoyable game that I will sink many, many hours into, and I expect it to get increasingly better with time.

[garia666]

so did i, the day i heard of the announcement. the game was on my wish list on steam however no bell went off..
anyway i think i have all x games. i have 614 hours in rebirth. cant wait on this one. i also have rebirth VR however i cant get used to the controls sadly.
Been waiting for a while now on Starcitizen but now this novemember i can play it single player .

i hope this release will be the best. i hope of loads of good user reviews.. spreading the game to a big crowed.
the more money it makes the sooner well have our DLC.

[Falcrack]

so did i, the day i heard of the announcement. the game was on my wish list on steam however no bell went off..
anyway i think i have all x games. i have 614 hours in rebirth. cant wait on this one. i also have rebirth VR however i cant get used to the controls sadly.
Been waiting for a while now on Starcitizen but now this novemember i can play it single player .

i hope this release will be the best. i hope of loads of good user reviews.. spreading the game to a big crowed.
the more money it makes the sooner well have our DLC.

If the Star Citizen model is generally applicable, then more money will only lead to more delays.

[Alci]

If the Star Citizen model is generally applicable, then more money will only lead to more delays.

StarCitizen fan would say: "It's logical. If you knew how big development projects work you would had known they cannot start without a plan. And you can't create accurate plan if you don't know how much money you exactly have for the project."

[DaMuncha]

Thats what design docs are FOR. You create what is planned out in your doc FIRST to get a product out, then everything else is added on.

Star Cit on the other hand barely got half way through thier initial design and said "just scrap it", theyve enirely changed the game and theres no end in sight.

Companies like Egosoft cant afford to do that. They have to get a product out so they can make money, and keep us fans happy.

[hannihanagarth]

It took me a long time to get a bit warm with Rebirth, but I played it for 82h ( says Steam ) and I got some enjoyment out of it.

Since it seems we will get a X4 now I pre-ordered the Collectors Edition.
Rebirth might not be my favourite game but every other X game made it into my "Top Twenty" ( at least ! ), so I think it's fair to give Egosoft the benefit of the doubt.

If Foundations ended up half way between Rebirth and X3, it will beat E: D for me hands down.
If X4 ended up better than X3 no one will probably ever hear from me again

[neurolancer]

I would be willing to pay for the X4 in advance if we could see some actual game-play videos posted showing the basic features actually working. The only thing I have seen is the X4 "game-play" trailer which is only alpha footage.

[sndle9]

Just pre-ordered the day after finding out it was available. Now I'm looking forward to an expected (hoped for?) blend of Rebirth and X2/3.

I played X2/X3 a lot (easily a few thousand hours between them) and even though I didn't play Rebirth nearly as much (steam says a mere 340 hours ) as I didn't like the lack of end-game factory control, I have faith I'll easily get my moneys worth out of X4, with the expectation of much more.

Really looking forward to launch day now

[SimB]

I also preordered now.

I hope the DLCs will bring in some story elements - otherwise I will mod it in myself!

[Alci]

I would be willing to pay for the X4 in advance if we could see some actual game-play videos posted showing the basic features actually working.

then watch much older videos to see how "basic" features are working.

If you want an hour long video of someone really playing the game.. would that help you? Watching an hour of X3 will tell you exactly nothing but that is has to be pretty boring game of looong minutes waiting while you travel to the gate, then another loong minutes until another gate.. then landing.. and an hour is gone.

[neurolancer]

I would be willing to pay for the X4 in advance if we could see some actual game-play videos posted showing the basic features actually working.

then watch much older videos to see how "basic" features are working.

If you want an hour long video of someone really playing the game.. would that help you? Watching an hour of X3 will tell you exactly nothing but that is has to be pretty boring game of looong minutes waiting while you travel to the gate, then another loong minutes until another gate.. then landing.. and an hour is gone.

I am new to the x-games. I do not know how the game is played or how it has changed. I love the space game genre and have loved playing Stellaris, Endless Space and many more. The early game-play videos you talk about do not show the game in its finished state and I want to see that before I buy. They are also from 2017 and the game has probably changed a lot since then. I am not looking for hours of game play or lets plays. I was looking for something that looks like the final product in graphics quality and maybe the devs show how to build a player HQ for 5-10 mins with some interesting commentary and maybe the devs can show a battle or two and how that is handled but apparently that is too much to ask. Also, I would think EGOSOFT would like to attract newer players to the games and the only way to do that is to do advertising like all the other game developers. Endless space was developed by a similarly small team but they showed their product to the gamers well in advance of release and I liked being engaged in that process.

For all of those who will say "wait to buy", that is what I will end up doing. That being said, i would like to support a small team like EGOSOFT and pre-order the game and I will not be able to do that and that is disappointing.

[Falcrack]

I'm taking folks advice and waiting to buy until

a) The game is released and looks to be good from "let's play" videos, or
b) the devs or someone else show some actual gameplay and it looks good.

[BlackDog]

All in due time, my guess is they want to wait a bit longer to begin showing this off in full as the last 2 months before release are more or less for polishing things up.

Even the screenshots from the beginning of the Shot a day thread to now are looking more polished

We've all waited 4-5 years, we can all wait a little bit longer