Should I skip Reunion and TC?

[templarteppo]

Hello everyone! I have just started playing X3 Reunion after having bought the trilogy close to three years ago. So far I have put over 41 hours in to it and I have not completed the campaign story yet! Should I just hurry up and finish the story for this and Terran Conflict and then spend the "real" gameplay time with Albion Prelude? I ask because why put all this time in Reunion and then Terran Conflict when AP is the "end product" of the X3 series?

Here is critical factor in this decision: I am very much a noob in this genre. Is it alright to jump right into Albion Prelude? Is it that much more complex?

Thanks for any advice.

[ancienthighway]

I enjoyed Reunion but moved on because TC had something more to it that I wanted. Just don't ask me now because that was so long ago. haha

I've been playing TC since shortly after its release. I picked up AP after it came out, and have yet made a serious go at playing it. I've been that satisfied with playing TC.

[jack775544]

Personally I would just jump straight into AP. TC and AP are very similar, however AP does have many small improvements in it that just make it a better game in general.

[OniGanon]

If you feel invested in Reunion's story, you may as well finish that I guess. Otherwise feel free to jump ahead if you like.

Albion Prelude seems very much designed for the X3R/X3TC veteran. It makes no real effort to ease you into the game, seemingly assuming you already know how to play it. The plots for the PHQ, UFJD and Hub are very short and easy. It's very easy to make money rapidly in the early game with the Stock Exchange, if you so wish.

I believe it's designed so that a player who knows what they're doing can rapidly get back up to speed with what they abandoned in X3R/TC, and get on with building their empire, if they so choose. Or perhaps it's just designed so you can get the X3 experience with a lot less grind.

Anyway, IMO X3AP is the best version of the game and the one you want to spend the most time in. With your experience in X3R, you might very well know enough about the game that you could jump right into AP if you like. If you want an extended tutorial plot and/or longer (grindier) and more plentiful plots and don't mind having a Modified tag, you could grab the TC to AP Plots mod.

[TTD]

Or..if you don't mind a midfied tag on your AP game, you can have both TC AP in one game(AP)...see my sig.

btw, I never completed Reunion story line.
Got as far as a race through hoops, went on to get my Hyperion and M3+s.
Stopped playing sometime after my PHQ was well established and several mods and scripts were then added.

But I read all the walk-throughs so that I know the story.

[Alche]

Depends on what you're looking for?

Looking into all my saved game folders nearly all the games I started and ended have a note telling me I stopped playing because there was ‘No Challenge”. These days I only play TC V1.21 because of the spectacular space battles, which after V1.21 got seriously nerfed. Many of the later enhancements the game received I add with scripts from the scripts forum.

The fights in V1.21 are huge fun, very challenging, and the boarding is huge fun too. IMO, TC is the best in the series, but that’s my preference, you won’t know until you’ve played them all.

[DeadlyDarkness]

AP provides the most new features for pilots who are not combat orientated (I'm currently playing a passive start and the new TP ships are great). TC however has the "Final Fury" plotline which has some awesome moments in it and is worth a play through at least once.

[Darth_Wayner]

I agree 100% with Deadly Darkness. AP is a more refined game, but TC has much more depth of plot and ambiance. Play TC through at least once. Besides, No one can call themselves an X3 vet without at least once experiencing the madness which is the TC Hub plot.

[Rednoahl]

Reunion lacks a few utility things that make it play a lot slower than TC/AP if you want/need to build a trade empire. It also is a bit lame imo in that once you get the best M3 class fighter you probably won't bother with much else. Reunion has the best fighter combat of the X3 games imo.

X3TC adds a few more commands for ships to use and has a much less fussy tractor beam than the one in Reunion which makes setting up trade empires less of a chore (I'm not a fan of CLS pilots.) Plots in X3TC can take a while to complete (some are a bit annoying; lots of people don't like the hub plot and others like me hate anything to do with Aldrin) and there are a lot more ships to try out and the best ones are generally not for sale.

X3AP is king of convenience and for me it kind of screwed up the "what shall I do now?" question that usually pops up in my head when playing open world games by having things convenient. After some of the torture that X3TC puts you through though I can see where the designers were going with AP it's just that there isn't as much to do as X3TC.

I'd play them all and find what you like. For me, Reunion was too slow and it lacked the charm X2 had. X3TC kept me too busy to care about the lack of charm X2 had and it has it's own mysteries which gave it a charm of it's own. AP was underwhelming in comparison to TC despite all the improvements. That said though I think they all have merits and I know plenty of people who prefer one version over another for their own reasons.