X4:Foundations - My Initial Experience

If you read the first post, you know I'm older, struggling with memory and comprehension issues after Covid, and have been looking for a game like Elite Dangerous, but not as hard to play.

X4:Foundations was my choice.  Maybe that sounds crazy, because in its own way X4 is as complex, or maybe far more, than Elite.  What gave me hope was that learning commands for combat seemed within my reach.  And the rest of the game is very much menu driven, with the opportunity to pause the game as needed to comprehend and make decisions.

So, in the past week since buying X4, I've been practicing the flight tutorial mostly.  Learning the commands comes and goes.  Some days I remember, some days it takes re-doing the tutorial from scratch, but am making progress.  

Originally I'd read that many people prefer playing mouse and keyboard, and was going to try that route.  After a few days, it became obvious that m&k flight was for the birds, so I hauled out my old Thrustmaster T.16000M HOTAS.  What a dream.  Within moments, my flying had smoothed out.  Flying, getting from one destination to the next, was as simple as choosing to go there.  The joy and beauty of swooping, spinning, being in space, was back.

It's a shame all the other stuff didn't come as easily.  Part of the problem was in the tutorial itself.  Even with the HOTAS, parts of the tutorial expected me to use the keyboard instead.  Plus, I could swear some of the controls it told me to hit weren't even close to the actual keys.  There was one in particular that told me to punch 2, and neither the stick, nor the throttle, not even the keyboard numeral "2", did it.  Can't remember for sure, but I think the tab or escape button wound up doing the trick.

Another aspect was having no idea what commands were built into the default T.16000 profile, and which ones required keyboard controls.  There's not a lot online that really helps, though I did find one Redditor asking if anybody had a graphical map of the defaults.  (Nobody seemed to)

By the same token, there weren't many existing profiles I could borrow from.  Youtuber Captain Collins had a fantastic video review which showed how he set his layout, and he includes links to an excellent graphic of his layout, and even a downloadable profile.

One other I found was the Reddit post Thrustmaster T.16000M HOTUS X4 Button Layout which also had an excellent graphic layout, and included a downloadable profile.  Between the two, I prefer this layout, but both are excellent.  This one just dovetailed better with my previous Elite setup, and I hoped it would make learning X4 easier.

I did wind up customizing two or three things, nothing highly significant.  One thing I got from Captain Collins, which was to include a "Pause" command on the controller.  Sounds perfect for my intended playstyle of 'pause and research'.  I modified the layout for my own graphic, as a memory aid.  That's as fare as events have gone.  Finished changing the graphic, and decided to blog the experience so far.

Next post I'll include the graphic, in case anybody's curious.  It'll take a bit, I need to figure out where to keep the file, and have it available to any readers.

Small caveat about the downloadable profiles.  While I didn't try Cpt. Collins download, I did try the one from Reddit.  Maybe I misunderstood something, or maybe the file structure has changed since the original post (which was some 3 years ago at this point).  Regardless, it didn't work at all.  With some frustration, I wound up manually entering all my controls through the X4 game settings menus.  Haven't had time to test it, but that's certainly the next step.  If it doesn't work as expected, I'll fallback to tying the actual key commands to the HOTAS using Voice Attack.  Just like I did with Elite Dangerous.

Why X4:Foundations

It's early January of 2023, and I'm struggling to learn a new game, X4 Foundations.  New to me, at least.  For Christmas, my niece (the college professor) gave me Steam Gift Cards.  It was a lot like being a kid again and picking out one piece of candy from the whole store.  Making a list, reading and watching youtube videos, comparing them all together, took a couple of weeks just to make up my mind.

I'm old enough to be retired, broke enough to still need a job.  From the days of Vic-20, Commodore 64, and the mighty Amiga, I've flipped between Sci-Fi and Fantasy games.  As a matter of fact, in the 80's my favorite two were "The Bard's Tale", and "Elite."  Both have been strong influences. Both have also been modernized and re-released as Kickstarters within the past few years.  Bard's Tale didn't keep the flavor of the old game, and I never finished playing.  Maybe some day. Currently, my favorite fantasy game is Skyrim, though Runescape and Guild Wars 2 were a lot of fun too.  

Elite became "Elite: Dangerous", and I loved it for a long time.  It was perfect for me.  After a stressful day at work, I'd jump in my ship and head for the stars.  Took a real-time trip to the center of the galaxy, which literally took me 2 months of travelling.  The peace and solitude were life-saving.

Anybody who plays space sims knows Elite Dangerous, and probably has strong opinions about it.  The whole space legs thing was a huge debacle that would have killed my enjoyment anyway, but before getting that far I caught Covid and was sick for nearly a month.  The symptoms in my case were reduced reading comprehension, loss of memory, and vertigo.  A year later, I'm mostly recovered, but not entirely.  In particular, I can't play Elite any longer.  The mind-muscle connection is gone.  Where it used to be as easy as thinking of a command, and doing it without stopping to consider what controls to use... now I have to stop constantly, and check what the command is, which keys or buttons to hit.  Trying to play just depressed me.

I play (and do love) "One Man's Sky", and it's definitely easier, yet very rich and rewarding.  But ultimately, space combat was missing that feel of real space, of flying with 6 degrees of freedom.  It's a great game that I still play, but couldn't replace Elite.

With the Steam cards, the search was on for an easier space sim, that gave the same exhilaration as Elite.  Out of several fantastic possibles, Everspace 2 was looking good.  Until someone mentioned X4.  It has the 6 degrees of freedom, in a way that feels a lot like Elite.  It has a lot of complexity, but in a different way from Elite.    The whole "living, expanding galaxy" sounded great.  So did the single-player option.  I don't like being tied to online multi-player games.  But the real clincher was the empire-building.  My impression is that only a small part of the game is live combat, and much of it can be played at leisure, via menus.  

The hope is, that my impaired memory can manage the combat and time-critical elements.  The rest, I can take my time, research anything at need, and play without pressure.

The last piece of the puzzle was when Steam had the New Year's sale.  X4, plus the 3 DLC at the time (Split Vendetta, Cradle of Humanity, Tides of Avarice), and some sound tracks, were available for $39.14.  That left me with .86 cents!!

So here I am.  Documenting my progression mainly for myself.  To see my progress, help me remember where it started and how far I've come, and things that I've figured out along the way, but may forget later.  But it's here on Google Blogger, just in case anybody happens across it. Maybe someone with similar setbacks can gain some encouragement, or offer me some...  Either would be great.  :^)