[Poll] Flight Physics X4 vs X3

[OwnlyMe]

Why do i seem to be the only one being bothered that the ships in x4 feel so different from x3?
I feel like the drifty flying physics from x3 were the most pleasing ones i've ever experienced.
The worst thing is that i can't expect egosoft to "fix" this in any patch and my hopes that a mod would be able to address this are pretty low.
Honestly this bothers me more than anything else in this game.

Edit: I feel like there's too much offtopic going on, so I added a poll to counter that...

[Helmut_AUT]

I've never played X3, but to me it would be nice to have more "drifty" physics too. Right now the ships are like a first person shooter control, no inertia at all. And full drift mode, while cool, is a bit unrealistic as a default mode.

[Arghan]

I've never played X3, but to me it would be nice to have more "drifty" physics too. Right now the ships are like a first person shooter control, no inertia at all. And full drift mode, while cool, is a bit unrealistic as a default mode.

Turn off inertia helper - right now X4 simulate ship helping pilot with drifting or you would have same experience as EVA always - Beside some ships like Nomad has all too much of inertia even with assistance on.

As for X3 flight - this is one of the reason (beside mandatory SETA and menus labyrinth) why I always bounced back from this game.

[LennStar]

I've never played X3, but to me it would be nice to have more "drifty" physics too. Right now the ships are like a first person shooter control, no inertia at all. And full drift mode, while cool, is a bit unrealistic as a default mode.

It has inertia. Try a 600 fast Nemesis and turn round.

And of course you could always switch off flight assist for newtonian flight.

[OwnlyMe]

And of course you could always switch off flight assist for newtonian flight.

As he already said, that "stabilizers off" mode is utterly unusable^^

[Arghan]

And of course you could always switch off flight assist for newtonian flight.

As he already said, that "stabilizers off" mode is utterly unusable^^

Ah, but its perfectly usable. Just under right circumstances (combat) and with a touch of skill. Not required with how dumb current AI is, but still a tool in toolbox.

[Himmelweiss]

And of course you could always switch off flight assist for newtonian flight.

As he already said, that "stabilizers off" mode is utterly unusable^^

Actually works quite good when they are off.
But as the post above me, not really needed against the dumb AI.

[Helmut_AUT]

I actually spent most of my XR Flighttime in Drift mode. It's perfectly usable, and in X4 I found docking to be much more fun with it.

However, for me a ship with no auto stabilization isn't any more "realistic" as a ship with 100% fast stabilization. Even the most advanced tech can't nullify the momentum of those big engines with the small thrusters as you turn trough 90° angle. So a "realistic" ship would take a few seconds minimum to even out it's impulse (depending on speed). At the same time in such advanced technology, you wouldn't have a ship that you have to manually compensate everything for.

I guess at the end of the day "flying" the ships should be a challenge, something that you practice and feel how you get better at it. It's not so much about technological realism as about a good feeling that you are skillfully throwing around many tons of weapons and engines.

[Sandalpocalypse]

flight assist off is very useable, but you need to bind an easily accessed key to it so you can toggle it on and off smoothly.

[EmperorDragon]

Have you ever tried combining travel mode with drift mode?

When in travel mode and you want to make a sharp turn, switch off flight assist whilst still in travel mode, change your course to the desired heading, switch flight assist back on and watch your ship do a massive powerslide at 1000m/s plus. Works wonders for a spaceweed smuggler because the authorities can never catch up to you, you're practically permanently in travel mode. Doing it with a capital ship can be dangerous though (to others at least!).

I kinda like the new flight physics, since Rebirth. It's not realistic but it's fun. Very Freelancer-y and I loved Freelancer.

[GCU Grey Area]

It has inertia. Try a 600 fast Nemesis and turn round.

Can certainly agree with that.
Got a Gorgon Sentinel equipped with a mk3 combat engine & thrusters.
Installed an engine mod to add about 40% to forward thrust (at a cost to boost & travel mode speeds) & a chassis mod to reduce mass by 18% & drag by 23%.
Ship now has a top speed of 723m/s (310m/s in reverse). It's made it a bit of a handful to be honest - goes great in a straight line, not so good on cornering.
To quote the great Douglas Adams: "Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow"
Have to be incredibly careful when docking, particularly in the enclosed hangers at equipment docks.
To say this game lacks 'drifty flying physics' is a ludicrous assertion.

[jasonbarron]

I would like to see the auto roll correction completely removed from the flight assist off mode. Plus, they need to improve the accuracy of the mouse because right now it's kinda sloppy. As it stands at present the best thing that can be said about the x4 flight model is that it's serviceable.

[OwnlyMe]

i didnt want to say remove flight assist off, its pretty interesting and might have its use cases.
lets please only discuss the normal flight mode with stabilizers on.

[nerdtron]

Why do i seem to be the only one being bothered that the ships in x4 feel so different from x3?

A more correct comparison might be X4 vs. X Rebirth. X4 is not a remake of X3 nor is it based on X3 according to Egosoft. They started over fresh for X Rebirth and X4 is a continuation of that work. So maybe comparing to X Rebirth flight model would be closer to what's actually there.

[LennStar]

I would like to see the auto roll correction completely removed from the flight assist off mode.

Then just switch it off in the option like I have O.o

[jasonbarron]

I would like to see the auto roll correction completely removed from the flight assist off mode.

Then just switch it off in the option like I have O.o

Yes, of course you can turn it off. But haven't you noticed that it still auto corrects your roll regardless of being switched off? When I hear the phrase "Newtonian" I expect to hit the roll key and continue rolling until I enter an equal and opposite key press from the opposing side like it works in Elite Dangerous. What we have now is like a set of sluggish training wheels in comparison.

[Killjaeden]

X3 also had inertia... if you ever flew one of the racing M5 you knew that this was highly likely that you'd smear yourself across stations and asteroids the first times you flew it, because if you steered sharply it took a lot of time for the ship to change course.
In general ships with poor acceleration and high speed made it very noticeable. Most ships had too fast acceleration and too slow speed to notice it really however. But you drifted all the time. If you'd have a ground reference like in a car game you would notice immediately that you are drifting significantly with every fighter in X3 when turning.

[Helmut_AUT]

Yes, of course you can turn it off. But haven't you noticed that it still auto corrects your roll regardless of being switched off? When I hear the phrase "Newtonian" I expect to hit the roll key and continue rolling until I enter an equal and opposite key press from the opposing side like it works in Elite Dangerous. What we have now is like a set of sluggish training wheels in comparison.

+1

[OwnlyMe]

More votes pls?
Or actual opinions on the topic?

[Socratatus]

I wanted to choose X4, but was forced to choose Elite. Elite has a very good joysticks, pedals, quadrant system so i got well into flying with it.

I like X4 better overall but my Force Feedback Sidewinder 2 worked extremely well with Elite (except no FF), which made flying exciting and easy. X4 is really screwy with the Sidewinder and while flying with a mouse and keyboard is ok, it doesn`t hit quite the `immersion` spot for me. Neither does a control pad help. There`s something about flying with a stick that feels `natural` to me.

Therfore it`s flight model felt good too. Is it better than X4? hard to tell without a joystick that works...

And yes, the Sidewinder 2 is older, but it`s still considered by many in the flying community as one of the best most solid flight sticks ever. And this is why it`s still catered for in most flying `sim` games.

So Elite wins in this regard.