Introducing X-TRA POLLS! | In your opinion, which X4: Foundations expansion was the most worthwhile?

[Tomonor]

Greetings, Members of the X-Community!

We’re thrilled to announce an exciting addition to our official forum:
The launch of our new bi-weekly forum game series, the X-tra Polls!



Here’s the scoop: every two weeks, we’ll be rolling out polls in the forum where you can weigh in on crucial aspects of our games. Your votes will play a key role in helping us gather valuable insights to shape the future of our games!

But hold on, there’s more! Beyond just data collection, we’re keen on fostering discussions and hearing your thoughts. Alongside each poll, there’s a dedicated discussion thread going on where you can share your insights, ideas, and feedback related to the poll topic. It’s not only a great way to engage with fellow gamers but also an opportunity for us to gather additional valuable input.

However, it’s important to note that while we value your input, the results of the polls won’t necessarily guarantee implementation or consideration.
These polls are primarily for fun and data gathering.

So, get ready to have your voice heard in The X-tra Polls! Let’s shape our beloved X-Universe together!



And, we already coming in with our first X-tra Poll:

In your opinion, which X4: Foundations expansion was the most worthwhile?
Don’t forget to post your opinion along with your vote!

[mr.WHO]

Tough choice between Split Vendeta and Craddle of Humanity, but I enjoyed SV more as first DLC after base X4:Foundation.

SV also adds the most interesting part of the X4 map, so I vote SV over CoH.

[EGO_Aut]

ToA
Nice gamestarts with exiting storys, new unique ships and solar systems, strong pirates.....

Getting heard?:
. M ships take too long to land on carriers, landing bow on the last meter.
. Ships in fleets should maintain a minimum distance from the enemy and from each other.
. The first shot always misses, which makes Railguns IS unusable, for example.
. L/XL ships should use their main guns effectively against opponents.
. S Combat groups should react independently with little flexibility when they are attacked. But primarily respond to direct commands from the player.
. With carrier command “launched,” ships are not supposed to land unless they need repairs. With “landed” they should land independently when the last command has been carried out.
. The enemy position update needs to be updated more often for the attackers/patrol

[Repli]

Hey,
difficult choice between SV, CoH and KE, but I voted for SV because in the end this DLC delivered my favorite player ship (dragon). I did not miss borons as much as many other players, but now I am glad they made it into the game.

I think you did a great job with all new ships in every DLC, even or especially with ToA. But sadly I had the most expectations for ToA because I hoped proper pirate gameplay and was kinda disappointed.

[Skeeter]

cant vote cos the new one aint out yet which i am thinking might be the better one but i dunno as not out yet. Cant say the past ones really as not played em much.

Didnt buy the pirate one cos it had nothing of interest and would have added boring scrap yard mechanics instead of interesting ones and that system with the solar bursts i wanted to avoid as it sounded time consuming to bother with.

[Nanook]

For me, it was a toss-up between Split Vendetta and Cradle of Humanity. In the end, I voted for SV just because it was first on the list.

That said, I was most looking forward to Tides of Avarice because I wanted a lot more pirate-style gameplay. Unfortunately, it didn't really deliver very much. There was so much more the community (and I) wanted included to make pirate gameplay more fun and involved, but it just didn't happen, sadly.

As for KE, I hate highways so that was a bit of a turn-off. And I didn't like the way the PHQ was given to the player so soon and with little effort. Egosoft could've made the original Boso Ta quest a separate start instead of just cutting it out altogether. It was very jarring. It forced me to play without the KE DLC until I'd acquired the PHQ the 'normal way'.

[GCU Grey Area]

Remarkably difficult choice between SV, COH & KE. Fond of SV for the challenge of supporting ZYA & helping them to recapture lost territory, COH for the interesting choices at the end of it's plots (they seem to have greater impact than the end of plot choices for the other DLCs) & KE for the ships & interesting Boron-only gear to equip them with. In the end (after pondering the choice for quite some time) voted for KE. Boron ships have been my favourites for as long as I've been playing X games & the ships you made for KE are simply fantastic (well worth the wait).

[BitByte]

SV and CoH indeed are the ones which competed in my choices. SV in this case won.
Both of them had nice plots to play. I liked especially PIO plot in CoH.
But the main reason for choosing SV is amount of sectors it brought to galaxy and expanded opportunities in economics (as Split rely on common world stuff).

Even CoH brought good content 1 problem was their economy - so different from others. On the other hand this have advantage as you have new markets which saturate (if base world is already messed by player).
In ToA scrap was nice addition but again problem as it's only used by RIP and player. So markets for scrap metal is limited (depending how player chooses).

From KE cannot much comment so far as haven't played it yet and not seeing I would upgrade from last 5.10 to newer due 6.x issues (48h and will loose the last healthy Xenon area as they make suicide).

[Darkhan]

For myself I voted Cradle of Humanity.
Brought a lot of new sectors and ships, interesting story line (you could actually feel the arrogance of the operator).
Hated the Taurus mission (still do, mostly due to the fact you can lock yourself out of the end puzzle) and the stealth mechanic that every pirate in the universe has, but player does not.
Love the design language on Terran. Clean and futuristic.

2nd Was Split vendetta, new faction + sectors, better in some ways the CoH, but felt a little blander I guess.
3rd is Kingdom End. Love the new Boron ship design, a bit disappointed with some mission (like the Sanctuary beacon placement being a bit finicky).
Non standard ship modules do feel restrictive.

My least favorite was Tides. Player only accessible sector for product, ships constantly getting destroyed by the Tide because they missed the memo etc.
This one felt like a lot of missed potential and forced gameplay mechanics.

[LameFox]

CoH was sort of a turning point for me. I liked the Split ships but their plot was still more resource sink than anything, and the results weren't very interesting for me. I try to trigger more conflict generally for a more interesting and unpredictable game world but all I could really do was less conflict or a slightly stronger ZYA in pretty much the same war situation as they began. Then with CoH the plot was now way less of a grind, I could bring a whole new conflict to the game, and the Asgard was the first real direct combat XL ship that came the closest to the big ships I used to like in X3. I also liked their HQ acquisition better than the other variants.

The only thing that did quite annoy me was the Segaris plot's random inclusion of a puzzle section. I have never liked the spacesuit gameplay much, nor have I played a puzzle game since whenever Portal 2 launched, and the last thing I need is to be pushed into that while trying to play a game of a whole different genre. It would be like if an FPS game required you to complete a 2D platformer level to get into the lobby one day when all you want is to get in and play the game for what drew you to it in the first place.

[LameFox]

That said, I was most looking forward to Tides of Avarice because I wanted a lot more pirate-style gameplay. Unfortunately, it didn't really deliver very much. There was so much more the community (and I) wanted included to make pirate gameplay more fun and involved, but it just didn't happen, sadly.

I was definitely one of those who had much higher hopes for TOA than it actually delivered in the end. I would love to be able to play this game as a more hostile force without being locked out of basically everything, and a pirate themed DLC seemed like the perfect time to address that. Instead it did almost nothing for it at all, except to add a kind of pirate onboarding quest for brand new players.

[Axeface]

I think its SV. Please consider terran bias, people like terrans (because we are them), their sectors (for obvious reasons), and their ships. But when it comes to dlcs that add to the sandbox in impactful and interesting ways surely the answer is SV.

[LameFox]

I think its SV. Please consider terran bias, people like terrans (because we are them), their sectors (for obvious reasons), and their ships. But when it comes to dlcs that add to the sandbox in impactful and interesting ways surely the answer is SV.

One thing I will say for SV, is that it connected a lot better to the rest of the network. Adding a new faction is nice but if it just sits alone in its corner with one way in or out it can be a bit sad if that's not the precise spot on the map where you want to hang out yourself.

[Scoob]

I've liked all the DLC thus far. Terran stuff was great, due to the new Faction, stations and economy and of course it was great to see the Boron finally make a return. Split was amazing at the time too, due to the distinct style of their ships - I remember my shock at seeing the Split ships for the first time, after some of us got access a little early while Beta testing (accidental GoG issue). However, for me, it's Tides of Avarice due to the recycling feature. Sure, it's present too in the base game (not Teuta though, I understand?) thanks to how Egosoft add features in the base patch. However, it was Tides of Avarice that was the catalyst for this.

So, Tides of Avarice NOT for the new Factions, plot lines or sectors BUT because it was the key to the Recycling mechanics being added to the game.

As an aside: I was actively playing the game as each DLC was released, so I was there - so to speak - for the moment the relevant gates came online. It happened real time for me. However, starting a game afresh, I wish it was plot events that triggered the Split, Terran and VIG/RIP gates opening, so I can pace the introduction of the new content. The Boron DLC did it right here. In my current game, I've played as normal, done HQ stuff, built stations, fleets etc. and even started to push back against the Xenon in some sectors. However, I still have that Boron content to trigger as I see fit. I'd have loved to have that option with the other DLCs too.

In my current game, I've embraced a "Closed-loop only" play style, where I recycle to build what I need and can only buy Blueprints that have a closed-loop recipe. If it doesn't I can't have it. Quite interesting as it blocks me from using most Destroyers (no closed-loop main batteries) but I can use Fighters and Carriers. Interesting times.

[|K.O.S.H.]

hmm
all?!?!

[Pearl_Canopus]

"Cradle of Humanity" presents a side story with a much lower amount of fight quests as most of the other stories and DLCs. These questlines have a higher variety of tasks to do. Yes, finally I have to fight at any point. But the "Torus" and the "Terraforming-Questline" were really great ideas in my opinion. I love these missions.
I'm new in the X-universum with X4 (since 1.0). So far I'm not sure, whether fighting is an essential musthave of this game. A sandbox provides alternative ways too. This has been reflected by "Cradle of Humanity" most. I'm more a "Management-Game" player. So I use the menu most of my time in game (auto mining, auto trading, and so on)

I bought "Cradle of Humanity" and "Split Vendetta" due to the high amount of new systems to explore mainly. The other DLCs I have'nt bought (yet?). I'm not interested in piracy and I have no need for a race, I cannot trade with really. What a stupid idea are systems, where the AI cannot navigate through...
I have'nt played X4 for about 9 months. At that time I tried out recycling gameplay. It was fine but not that satisfiying as I hoped.

[birdtable]

Voted SV for the aggression,,, wanted a highly aggressive Paranid DLC.

[Starlight_Corporation]

Tough choice between SV & CoH.

Picked CoH, because it delivered greatly; the well made Sol system, the visually distinct Terran factions & the Yaki (hope more gets added for them in the future). Really love the 'alien' design for the Terrans, highlighting how different they are from the commonwealth.
Split Vendetta is a close second, because of the large area added that is very well connected to the rest of the universe. Of all DLC, this feels the most natural addon. It also has great player ships through the Split mindset, trading shields for firepower & speed & the player can use this much more effectively then the NPC's.

Picked Avarice as third, the central location is great, making it well connected to the rest of the universe, the factions are also well designed with their scrapyard architecture, making them feel like pirates/raiders scraping together an existence. Their reliance on fighters instead of capitals also adds a neat flavour of combat to the game. System Avarice is also neat to visit, very beautiful & only matched by the Sol system.
Less good part is that despite the central location, the ToA factions seem to be disjointed from the rest of the universe, they don't seem to expand beyond their systems (no attempt of stationbuilding beyond ToA region, something I'd expect of a less authority driven faction), nor do the Argon/Teladi build into the ToA systems. Goes a bit against the 'Dynamic universe' advertising imo.

KE is 4th, love the DLC & the Boron are great & love getting involved in opening their gate & assisting in developing a dangerous sector into a sector safe for travel + learning more about the mysterious Khaak was nice. So why 'th? Because of the isolation from the rest of the universe. There's only one entrance into Boron space, would elevate the DLC greatly if there was another connection to them (Ocean of Fantasy would make for a great sector to add another link to connect the Boron with the rest of the X universe after finishing the gate opening plot), perhaps a link to a Xenon sector (or Scale Plate green, would be neat with the hint about the Boron in the sector description)
Currently, if you finished the Boron plot, there's very little incentive to return to their portion of space as they live quite safe (unless Split would go full blow expansionist on them after managing to survive the Xenon pressure they so often endure, a very rare occasion I feel)

Note, I find all 4 DLC's have been a good addition to the X series, adding new areas to explore, new plots to learn about the various factions and new ships & tech to use & new sectors to develop with stations. For me a good DLC is one that offers a mix of plot, new sectors, new ships & tech (equipment or otherwise)

[adeine]

I think I'm exactly on the same page as poll numbers, at the time of writing. I'd rank the expansions as follows:

CoH > SV > KE > ToA

The reason I feel Cradle of Humanity was the most worthwhile is that in addition to being a solid expansion, it meaningfully added to the economic sandbox. Even though the Terran economy is pretty simplistic, it still added a set of new modules and relevant wares as part of the production chain.

Like Cradle of Humanity, Split Vendetta added a lot of nice ships and equipment, but it didn't really have much of an impact on the economic angle of the game. The Split sectors, while nice, are also a little more generic than the iconic Sol sectors reintroduced in Cradle of Humanity.

Kingdom End is a difficult one for me. I love the Boron, and while the ship designs and the overall character of the expansion were great, there's a lot of shortcomings. It's hard to separate the expansion from the broken state of 6.0, and for as long as Boron were hyped up as tough to implement 'properly' (citing the technical challenges of doing so, hence why it was taking so long), what we actually got was a little underwhelming. Other than having a new hull shader, the Boron aren't meaningfully different. The environmental suits don't fit the Boron anatomy, with two arms sticking out of their head just so they can reuse the same canned animations as humanoids (why would you design a suit to effectively restrict use of most of your limbs??). There's no underwater sections in ships or or on stations (certainly not accessible to the player), and otherwise they're limited to a few cutscenes. Docks are very small walkable areas that feel disconnected and aren't very interesting. Polish in interiors overall seems a bit lacking, to the point of doors not having any sound effect whatsoever.

As others have already said, Tides of Avarice was the least impactful of the expansions. I was hoping for a meaningful rework of piracy related gameplay options, but in the end we didn't get any of that beyond a few scripted missions. As for the recycling mechanic, it's a bit of a double edged sword. I like the idea of it, but the implementation isn't the best. Having the closed loop build option makes a lot of other wares semi-redundant, taking away from the complexity of the game. What it does is basically taking the more involved build chain of the Community of Planets and stripping it down to an overly simplistic Terran-esque economy. It was also disappointing that you can't liberate RIP – even if you get rid of VIG, they still follow their rules re: illegal water trade, and there's no diplomatic mission chain to affect anything meaningfully. The tides are a little gimmicky as a mechanic, and since you can't automate protectyon (a bad idea in an X game) it really doesn't add anything to the game.

[Imperial Good]

I would rate them as follows:
Cradle of Humanity > Split Vendetta > Kingdom End > Tides of Avarice

Cradle of Humanity added the most diverse content from a game play perspective. Some of the best ships still in X4, an entirely different economic system, a significant number of new sectors, some of the best music tracks for those sectors, even a semi-civilian economy in the form of trading with the Terran trade stations. Out of all the DLCs it feels the most expansive and whole. Even the stories and game starts felt like a significant step up from anything offered previously. This is very close to the old day feel of a very well made expansion, it is really difficult to try and find faults with it.

Split Vendetta added a lot of content, but it was lacking in some areas. Although it added a large number of sectors, many of them were Xenon owned making the area a lot more risky to interact with than most of the universe. The areas were also very economically poor, often as a result of the Xenon, meaning that the player had no real incentive to setup in them over somewhere a lot more safe. Although there are a few trade stations, these mirrored typical trade stations so did not offer much value generation potential for a civilian economy. At the time the ships were all very good, but due to the Split nature of low shielding they usually suffer from very high attrition in low attention and many have been power creeped by later DLC ships. Of the ships, only the Raptor remains significantly relevant, with the others often being delegated to role play purposes. Evidence that this DLC was lacking a little at release can be seen in more recent patches made years after the DLC released where new mechanics were added such as the ZYA now having a dedicated XL shipyard and larger Raptor cap. Personally I feel that it could have done with a little extra mechanics, possibly something like a split family mechanic where within ZYA and FRF different areas are controlled by different families that could go to war and fight each other, with the player being able to influence politics.

Kingdom End has a significant amount of content, but it feels quite optional. Especially if not doing a Boron start, you are not even immediately exposed to most of the content for story reasons. The storyline to unlock this content is fairly easy to complete, but that also significantly simplifies the storyline making it feel less impactful than some of the other storylines. Of all the DLCs, Kingdom End probably has the easiest/quickest storylines to complete. The positioning of the new sectors is also such that outside some minor border skirmishes and free traders it is easy to ignore their existence. Ship and weapon wise all the added content is good, second only to Cradle of Humanity which wins purely due to having more useful/better stat ships. However the full lock in with weapons to their ships also means you either need to invest full in on their ships, or you will not get any advantage from the added content. The safe nature of the boron area does make it appealing for building an economy, but the trade stations suffer as usual limiting the scale of a pure civilian economy. Military economy wise Boron does not have any Xenon threat and only main enemy is ZYA, which is itself another DLC faction, meaning that standing alone outside the odd pirate or Khaak ship the Boron space is completely safe. I personally would have liked to see a Xenon or possibly even a high threat Khaak sector attached to the Boron space just so that BOR always has a proper enemy to fight that can focus back at them. Possibly a more long term storyline involving this enemy sector that would take a fair bit of progress to complete. There is a difficult terraforming project associated with this DLC that does give it end game value, but between just starting and then there is little to do.

Of all the DLCs so far, Tides of Avarice feels the weakest. It had major day 1 bugs and issues, some of which are still not perfectly fixed. Mechanically it is still lacking a lot, from ships being able to reliably avoid the tide to being able to automate Protectyon gathering to even efficient delivery of scrap, all of which are major focuses of the value of the DLC. Fixes for some of these are scheduled for 7.00, which is roughly 2 DLCs after it was released. Story wise I would put it as one of the better DLCs, possibly even better than Cradle of Humanity, as the overall experience is significantly different. Ship wise it has good ships, but very few of them, to the point that a recycling only role play run is not super viable. The Erlking is the best ship in X4, but you can only have 1 of them and there is no proper L or XL combat ship other than that added by this DLC. The Astrid is fun to fly around in, but is not a super practical combat ship and is also unique like the Erlking. The pirate L Barbarossa is a very good L transport, but combat wise the worst L "destroyer" in X4 by a huge margin. The L solid miner is the best L solid miner, but there is no L gas miner. No significant M ships were added, and most of the added S ships are generic offering no significant advantage other than build method over those from other factions. I personally feel that VIG needed a proper pirate corvette, liquid miner, destroyer and even battleship, none of which are statistically the best, but would have completed the full recycling economy. Ideally this DLC would have added a proper pirate mechanic for the player such as being able to use disguises, or demand protection money from stations in a sector, or even bribe faction to look the other way, so that pirate playthroughs are viable/fun (currently they end up in a reputation death spiral and all out wall).

Since a single ranking does not do some of the DLCs justice...

DLC for general use combat ships:
Cradle of Humanity > Kingdom End > Split Vendetta > Tides of Avarice
DLC for civilian ships:
Kingdom End > Tides of Avarice > Split Vendetta > Cradle of Humanity
DLC for player controlled ships:
Tides of Avarice > Cradle of Humanity > Kingdom End > Split Vendetta
DLC for most "cool" ships:
Kingdom End > Cradle of Humanity > Tides of Avarice > Split Vendetta
DLC for added sectors to engage with:
Cradle of Humanity > Split Vendetta > Tides of Avarice > Kingdom End
DLC for added combat threats:
Split Vendetta > Cradle of Humanity > Tides of Avarice > Kingdom End
DLC that was least buggy at release from personal experience:
Cradle of Humanity > Split Vendetta > Kingdom End > Tides of Avarice
DLC for general economic additions:
Cradle of Humanity > Split Vendetta > Tides of Avarice > Kingdom End
DLC for best storyline:
Tides of Avarice > Cradle of Humanity > Split Vendetta > Kingdom End
DLC for best added mechanics:
Cradle of Humanity > Kingdom End > Tides of Avarice > Split Vendetta