Emergency Eject: Not Fun being destroyed by Xenon

[Y-llian]

The ‘escape pod’ mod, mentioned by Falcrack, is great and lots of fun. That said, I’m not sure if it’s being supported anymore. I noticed some folks mention issues with 5.1. I think it’s the more advanced features (crew escape pods) that are presenting issues but player side seems to work well still. Just something for the OP to be aware of I’d say…

[Targ Collective]

In X4 you can earn high-value and low effort gameplay loops, but that would not be as satisfying as 'hold the I Win button and watch the game solve itself'. The problem is that earning high value gameplay loops feels 'empty' if that process of earning them is absent. In fact, replayability is based on the foundation of having different pathways to them, and quite possibly different equivalents for the loops earned.

This adds up to a new start typically not having teleportation researched. It's so earning it Means Something. It's the difference between an I Win button and an emulated Hero's Journey. In my game I have two Terran shipyards and am busily using OOS silliness in an attempt to completely wipe the Xenon out - every station, every ship. Taking all the sectors. Then I'll keep patrolling, keep the Xenon from re-establishing. The Hero's Journey I want to have this time is The Hero Terran Defeats the Xenon. If I were to have a magic I-Win Button that destroyed all the Xenon then it wouldn't mean anything.

That's why you start in your spacesuit. Teleportation research means something.

With creative starts and budgeting you're spoiled, compared to the X3 days. You can skip the Hero's Journey you'd rather not repeat, most of the time. That's new. You can break the balance and go Modified, you can even ally with the Xenon if you want to, or disable Kha'ak attrition by turning them neutral. There's a lot of choice in your gamestart now.

If the Dev's vision has got in the way of your sandbox then that's okay. You can install a cheat mod. But any game with player involvement will only have meaning on that level if the player involvement has a *purpose*. And that purpose is, ultimately, reliant on there being things for the player to do.

That's why.

[Nanook]

@Targ Collective:

Did you accidently post in the wrong thread? I'm really struggling to see what your above treatise has to do with the OP.