X4: Foundations News

We're making great strides towards the big release of our 4.00 update and the new X4: Cradle of Humanity expansion. You've probably got used to how this works by now, so it will come as no surprise that we've released another new beta version for 4.00! Download the new version now and dive in.

Among other things, beta 7 includes the following changes:

• A new Emergency Eject feature that places you in your space suit if your ship gets destroyed.
  
• The next iteration of the Terraforming feature.
  
• More improvements to the way miners make use of resource probes.
  
• Better simulation of combat in distant sectors.
  
• More details in to the Transaction Log.
  
• Lots more juicy bugs squashed.

You can find the full list in our forum.

[h3]How do I participate in the public beta?[/h3]
Every player who owns X4: Foundations will have the opportunity to download the new beta version 4.00. To ensure that beta participants are aware of the Risks and Rules, we ask that all interested players visit our forum for both rules and disclaimers, as well as practical instructions on how to participate in the beta. Please follow this link to our forum (no registration required) to find the relevant information.

Thank you for your support during the beta phase and have fun with X4: Foundations!

It's been more than two full years since X4: Foundations was released, and many of you have played the game for hundreds of hours. We couldn't be happier about this! If you've been asking yourself what else you could possibly do in X4: Foundations, then read on, because this is specifically for you.


For those of you with an abundance of spare resources, we’re adding a new end-game activity in 4.00. This involves initiating projects for planetary improvements, including several types of infrastructure development, with the aim of making specific planets more habitable. We're calling this "Terraforming" and you may already have heard us talk about it in our gamescom 2020 live-stream.

In terms of gameplay, you will be undertaking new missions that serve as entry points to the Terraforming feature. Settlements will form, and landscapes can be changed through the investment of time and resources. And, as if the thought of shaping the universe wasn't exciting enough, there may even be other rewards involved.

Just to be clear about one thing – you won't be landing on any planets! You will, however, have a closer involvement with them than you have ever had in any X series game to date. We would love to hear your experiences with this new feature, especially if you're one of those end-game pilots.

Want to check this new element out ahead of the public release of the 4.00 update? You can by participating in the currently running 4.00 beta phase. Just visit our forum for an instruction on how to do so.

[h2]How to terraform[/h2]
While we normally rely on your urge to discover things for yourselves, and don't want to give too much away, we thought that a little bit of guidance on this feature wouldn't go amiss.

Once you've finished all your teleportation research, you need to continue by researching high-mass teleportation. A few minutes after the initial experiment, Boso Ta will call you about a new idea. Talking to him about it will add a number of mission offers.

In order to terraform, you will need to:

• have a module to construct M and S ships on your HQ
  
• have storage capabilities for container, solid and liquid wares on your HQ
  
• accept a terraforming mission
  
• teleport the HQ to the sector specified by the mission briefing
  
• open the terraforming menu (this is new icon at the top of the screen) and select a project to work on

Once started, construction and delivery are automatic as long as the required resources are provided.

Enjoy your space travels, leave a review, wishlist X4: Cradle of Humanity and stay safe!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1288460/

New week, new beta! The sixth public beta for the 4.00 update of X4: Foundations is now available to download.

We've fixed an unfortunate gas resource depletion issue that was introduced in beta 5 last week. If you're using a 4.00 beta 5 savegame, we're topping up gas to 50% of the cargo hold on all stations that need gas as a resource, to get your production processes rolling again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Among other things, beta 6 also includes:

• Several enhancements to the new Coordinated Attack feature.
  
• Fixes and adjustments to the new Terraforming feature.
  
• Better map behaviour when you are under Cover for a mission.
  
• As always, various other improvements and fixes.

You can find the full list in our forum.

[h3]How do I participate in the public beta?[/h3]
Every player who owns X4: Foundations will have the opportunity to download the new beta version 4.00. To ensure that beta participants are aware of the Risks and Rules, we ask that all interested players visit our forum for both rules and disclaimers, as well as practical instructions on how to participate in the beta. Please follow this link to our forum (no registration required) to find the relevant information.

Thank you for your support during the beta phase and have fun with X4: Foundations!

This quarter, the X4: Foundations universe will be extended once again! Alongside the second expansion, X4: Cradle of Humanity, we will also be releasing the largest free update to X4 yet. The 4.00 update will not only include many quality-of-life improvements to X4: Foundations, but will also introduce a number of new features. Some of these new features were announced at the start of the beta phase, but we’ll be shedding light on more of them between now and the full public release of the 4.00 update and X4: Cradle of Humanity.

To kick things off, we'll look at three new ways to manage hostilities, i.e. what your ships can and cannot attack. To help us illustrate this, content creator Werit has prepared a video showing you what these new options really mean, how they're used, and what advantages they bring to your X4: Foundations experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCdHVDJECpg
Make sure you visit Werit's channel and subscribe, so as not to miss any of his helpful X4: Foundations videos.

For a short-term attack, you can choose to "mark as hostile" any non-hostile object. This generates a “relation boost”, usually lasting around 10 minutes, during which time this object will be treated as a hostile enemy. This new feature enables you to start a fight against a non-enemy object without having to fire on it manually. The 10 minute relation boost is usually long enough to ensure that a battle starts. The battle itself should then sustain the hostile state long enough for an outcome to be achieved.



For a medium-term attack, you can apply a new "fire authorisation override" setting, either globally or on specific ships. This tells those ships which factions they're allowed to attack – whether or not those factions are actually enemies. This option can be used to start a more general fight with a specific faction, by overriding the usual peaceful behaviour of your ships towards theirs. It can also be used to try and make peace with a faction that is currently your enemy. This is achieved by altering your ships’ default behaviour, which would normally be to attack, with an override instruction not to shoot.

For a long-term attack, we have introduced a "war declaration" option. This is a decision to make a faction your enemy, and to inform them of the situation. This will take effect immediately. But beware! There is no "peace declaration" option. If you decide that you want to make up with that now-hostile faction, you will have to work your way back into their good books.

To try out these new features ahead of the public release of the 4.00 update, you can join in with the current 4.00 beta phase. Just visit our forum for instructions on how to take part.

We'll be back soon with more insights into the 4.00 update and X4: Cradle of Humanity. Until then, enjoy your space travels, leave a review, wishlist Cradle of Humanity and stay safe!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1288460/

Full speed ahead towards the 4.00 update for X4: Foundations! Today we have released the first beta update of the new year. Here are just a few of the highlights from the ever-growing changelog:

• New Feature: Terraforming!
  
• New Feature: New Hostile relation status on map and HUD to indicate objects with which combat is likely.
  
• Added shortcut to Research menu from HQ-related menus, e.g. Logical Station Overview.
  
• Added Logbook tab to Object Information menu.
  
• Added option to sort Object List by relation.
  
• Added mining resource information to sector info menu and encyclopedia entries.

As always, you can find the full list in our forum.

In the coming weeks, we'll be taking a closer look at some of the new gameplay features from the upcoming 4.00 update. And yes, we will soon be able to give you more details on when we plan to release 4.00 and the X4: Cradle of Humanity expansion.

[h3]How do I participate in the public beta?[/h3]
Every player who owns X4: Foundations will have the opportunity to download the new beta version 4.00. To ensure that beta participants are aware of the Risks and Rules, we ask that all interested players visit our forum for both rules and disclaimers, as well as practical instructions on how to participate in the beta. Please follow this link to our forum (no registration required) to find the relevant information.

Thank you for your support during the beta phase and have fun with X4: Foundations!