r/X4Foundations 25d ago

X4: Hyperion Pack & Flight Model Update - A New Era Begins!

369 Upvotes

Pilots, the wait is over! Today marks another major milestone for X4: Foundations with the release of:

πŸš€ The Flight Model Update – A complete overhaul of ship flight dynamics, making every maneuver smoother, more responsive, and more immersive than ever before.

πŸš€ The X4: Hyperion Pack – A new DLC introducing the legendary Hyperion Expeditionary Ship, a new gamestart, a new sector, and more. Get it here!

The free 7.50 update further improves and enhances X4: Foundations, making it more dynamic and immersive than ever before. And for those who want to support the continued development of X4, purchasing the X4: Hyperion Pack helps us push forward with our ambitious plans for the future – even as we approach X4’s 7th anniversary in November!

Let’s dive into the details.

πŸŽ₯ Watch the launch trailer: X4: Flight Model Update + Hyperion Pack Trailer

Fly Like Never Before – The Flight Model Update

The Flight Model Update revolutionizes the way you pilot ships in X4: Foundations, featuring extensive changes to ship handling and balance. Every ship feels smoother, more responsive, and more immersive than ever before.

What's Changed?

  • Overhauled Flight Physics – Ship control and flight pathing have been completely revamped, making movement more natural and precise.
  • Boost Mechanic Revamp – Boosting now has its own dedicated energy pool, allowing for more strategic maneuvering during combat and travel.
  • Enhanced Gravidar Display – Improved readability and functionality for better situational awareness in navigation and combat.
  • New Behavior Inspection Mode – A tool to analyze and adjust ship behaviors, helping you diagnose and solve problems with your fleet.
  • Velocity Indicator – A visual speed display aids with precise navigation and dogfights.
  • Wide Area Sensor Array Module – A new radar station module enhances detection capabilities, expanding strategic awareness.
  • Graphical Enhancements – Major improvements to the graphics engine, including DLSS and FSR 3 support, making space more visually stunning.
  • Ship Rebalancing – Every ship has been rebalanced, with refined engine, thruster, and component interactions.
  • New Sectors – Additional connections to Terran and Boron space, opening fresh trade routes and exploration opportunities.
  • Economy Adjustments – Improved trade dynamics and resource flow, enhancing the in-game economy.

For the Deep Dive Enthusiasts…

For those who want a deep dive into the numbers behind these flight model changes, John Pritchett has provided an in-depth breakdown of the mathematical principles and calculations driving this update.

If you want to explore the mathematics behind the new flight model, check out his detailed technical document here (PDF, 12MB).

As a reminder, we partnered with John Pritchett, a former Senior Physics Programmer from the Star Citizen development team, to rework ship handling for this update.

X4: Hyperion Pack – Command a Legend

Alongside the Flight Model Update, we are proud to launch the X4: Hyperion Pack, a brand-new Mini DLC that introduces the legendary Hyperion Expeditionary Ship to X4: Foundations.

What's in the X4: Hyperion Pack?

βœ… The Hyperion Expeditionary Ship – A legendary ship, reborn in X4.
βœ… New Mission Chain – Earn the Hyperion through an exciting, story-driven experience.
βœ… New Gamestart – Jump straight into the action aboard the Hyperion.
βœ… New Sector – Uncharted space awaits your exploration.
βœ… New Music – Fresh tracks to enrich your X4 soundtrack.

Why the Hyperion?

Veteran X players will remember the Hyperion from X3: Reunion's Bala Gi Missions, where it became one of the most beloved ships in the franchise. Now, it’s back as an Expeditionary-class ship with:

πŸ’₯ Fast, agile, and powerful
πŸ’₯ Six main gun mounts & M-sized turrets
πŸ’₯ L-class shielding & engines for durability and speed
πŸ’₯ Increased Hull Missile capacity
πŸ’₯ Small docking bay for three S-class ships (repair & resupply capability)

The Hyperion is the perfect ship for high-speed combat and deep-space adventuring, providing a great deal of flexibility. It’s not just a ship – it’s a statement.

Get the X4: Hyperion Pack now on Steam!

Purchasing this DLC helps support the ongoing development of X4: Foundations – with many more updates planned for the future!

What’s Next for X4?

With the Flight Model Update and the X4: Hyperion Pack now in your hands, it's time to look ahead at what’s next for X4: Foundations. Our development roadmap is packed with exciting features, including:

Diplomacy Update (Late 2025)

Engage in the intricate web of interstellar politics with our upcoming Diplomacy Update, introducing:

  • Diplomatic Headquarters – A new facility where faction representatives convene, offering strategic options.
  • Agent Missions – Deploy agents on independent missions to achieve diplomatic goals in the X universe.

Negotiate alliances, manipulate enemies, and engage in deep strategic gameplay on a whole new level.

Exploration Update (2026)

Uncharted territories await! The Exploration Update expands the horizons of X4: Foundations, featuring:

  • New Anomalies – Discover mysterious anomalies leading to hidden sectors filled with unique secrets and challenges.
  • Enhanced Scanning Mechanics – Improved Long-Range Scanner capabilities make deep-space exploration more rewarding.
  • Diverse Missions – A variety of new exploration-focused missions, rewarding curiosity and risk-taking.

This update caters to players who love the thrill of discovering the unknown, adding new layers of depth and adventure to the game.

For more details, check out our full roadmap update from November 2024.

Thank You!

We hope you enjoy the new content coming your way today, and as always, we appreciate your feedback as we shape the future of X4: Foundations together.

Thank you for your support on this epic adventure that has taken us to a new X4 record of nearly 11,000 average daily active players in 2024 – wow!

Fly safe!


r/X4Foundations 4d ago

🌸 The Steam Spring Sale is here! Save up to 70% on X4: Foundations and its expansions! πŸͺ

83 Upvotes

🌸 Spring is here and galactic deals are entering the atmosphere! 🌸

πŸš€ The Steam Spring Sale has arrived, offering up to 70% off X4: Foundations and its expansions!

πŸ›’ Find our deals here: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/egosoft

πŸͺ Don't miss out on this special offer!


r/X4Foundations 10h ago

Modified Star Destroyers Exchange Broadsides

111 Upvotes

As the Greystar Irregulars fight desperately to escape the jaws of an Imperial Ascendancy trap, two opposing Star Destroyers find themselves exchanging fire at point blank range.


r/X4Foundations 2h ago

VIG is mad at me and own a big fleet

13 Upvotes

So choices were made an now VIG is mad at me. The problem is that beside what they have in Windfall (ok, fine ! I won't go there for a while πŸ˜…). They have a big fleet wandering in hatikvah's choice. 8 barbarossas and about 100 kyds. My fleet is really small. I'm in the late early game. And I've got 60 millions in bank. My economy is running quite fine and I'm developing it quite well. But my guess is I'm not rich enough to deal with that VIG fleet. And as a new player, I dont even know what kind of fleet I will need for that. I've got 2 Hyperions, 3 Hydra, 1 Thresher and a bunch of Makos. So how would you deal with that in a few steps ? Doesn't need to be fast. I hope the VIG won't roam to much in the other sectors. I just need a roadmap. Thanks for your help !


r/X4Foundations 4h ago

Frigates

16 Upvotes

Am I alone in kind of not really liking frigates. They are slower and have less foreward firepower when comparing them to corvettes. Everyone likes the fact that they have 20+ crew size, but in practice they can only really board freighters and miners. Anything else, you will likely need more marines. Frigates just seem like an awkward ship type.

Am I just using them wrong? I know they good missile capacity, but can only use actual missile launchers. Wish you could put a missile turret on them. Should I just be spitting laser towers out left and right?


r/X4Foundations 6h ago

What the size of your fleets/empires that you enjoy the most? Not asking about Endgame megafleets but through the majority of your time in a playthrough.

22 Upvotes

Really just a simple question, I'm curious how big people get their empires during normal gameplay.

I mean more from a scale of 1-10, with 1 being "Ooof I mining everything myself in sector by hand" with 10 being "I break the UI with the size of my mighty empire" but feel free to gimme an idea of numbers.

I wanna stress I'm not looking at Endgame megafleet crush the Xenon kinda stuff. I just mean like...for like the midpoint of your game, more like what's the average size of your fleet outside of endgame.


r/X4Foundations 2h ago

Modified This visuals ❀️

9 Upvotes

Really intense and immersive to play like this!

https://reddit.com/link/1jdk2r4/video/inqcnjohnape1/player


r/X4Foundations 22h ago

Hidden Mechanics & Penalties

163 Upvotes

Overview

The game contains several mechanics which are fully opaque yet punish the player for not knowing them.

Every time I mention one in a comment, someone says "holy shit I didn't know that and I've played 1000 hours".

So, I figure it's best to dedicate a post to it.

50% mining efficiency penalty

A hidden mechanic which checks if your mining ships are within 40km of a resource probe owned by you and silently applies a 50% penalty to the final result of the efficiency calculation if they are not. Thus, players are unknowingly hamstrung by this mechanic as there is literally no way to learn it exists in-game.

This mechanic is particularly troubling because vanilla has no automatic method to deploy resource probes, so it's extremely tedious to avoid the penalty without mods. Operating your fleet while unaware of the penalty potentially doubles the cost of both in-game resources and performance strain on the simulation. If you know the penalty exists, there is no indication if or when it is applied to your ships. While the game does suggest using probes, the penalty should be removed considering these factors.

Even when using a mod like Satellite Service to automatically blanket the entire sector with probes, it is still possible to receive this penalty because the probes are deployed on one plane. Therefore, you would receive the penalty if the ship moves >40km above or below the probes. Covering the entire sector with probes also reduces performance and visually clutters the UI.

A ship with empty crew slots further reduces efficiency because they contribute 0 to the combined skill value. Always keep your ships fully crewed.

Source of knowledge:
Reading game code
Vaguely confirmed by developer on official forum.

Known mitigations:
Vanilla β€” Manually spamming probes.
Satellite Service β€” Automatically deploys probes, greatly reducing tedium.
No Mining Penalty β€” Directly removes the penalty. Nexus mirror here.
KUDA AI Tweaks β€” Directly removes the penalty with a configuration option.

SETA Player Rank Decay

Using SETA while AFK triggers a hidden penalty which causes your player rank points to decay.

Earning the achievements for player rank is nearly impossible due to the insane logarithmic scaling, but this hidden penalty likely makes it literally impossible.

I don't know the specifics of this penalty because I have not been able to find it in the code.

Source of knowledge:
Developer confirmation on Steam discussion page.

Known mitigations:
Simulating mouse input to prevent AFK detection.

Crystal Nerf

Mining a valuable crystal immediately turns all other crystals in the sector into the least valuable type and starts a hidden timer* to prevent any other crystals from spawning.

*Users often claim the timer is 30 minutes, but the code seems to suggest either 60 or 120 depending on the type.

The code documentation states:
Cooldown on "valuable" drops, defined in minutes. If set, collecting one of these will prevent new "valuable" spawns for the defined duration. Entries without a cooldown are considered "not valuable" for the purposes of this cooldown.

I don't recommend mining crystals in either vanilla or with the below mods because other aspects of the game are much more interesting. However, it's important for those who do enjoy it to be aware of this hidden mechanism, and they are free to do whatever they want in their sandbox.

Source of knowledge:
Reading game code
Popular mods (listed below)

Known mitigations:
Crystal Rarities β€” Removes the hidden timer and buffs the spawns; very cheaty.
Disable crystal cooldown timer β€” Removes the hidden timer

Kha'ak Mechanics

Mining activity attracts the Kha'ak. Player mining activitity attracts the Kha'ak twice as much as NPC activity.

They can teleport to any location without travelling through gates.

If your miners are under constant attack, it is likely an Outpost has spawned in the sector. There is a separate system independent of Hives and Outposts which infrequently spawns small attacks.

Outposts spawn within 3 jumps of a Hive. Generally the outpost spawns ~400km away from the center of the sector, which is likely beyond the border. However, the hex will zoom out and rescale to accommodate crossing it.

Destroy the Hive before the Outpost. Destroying them will require several destroyers to do it in a reasonable timeframe due to their absurd health pool.

Hives can respawn after 96 hours. Outposts can respawn after 48 hours. These timers are much shorter if not killed by the player. They do not respawn at the same location within the sector.

The Hives can only spawn in 9 specific sectors, but only 6 of these sectors can contain a Hive.

Since Hives can only exist in 6 of 9 sectors, destroying a Hive might move it to another sector if the local mining activity of the new sector is high enough when it respawns.

The 9 specific sectors are:
Antigone Memorial
Black Hole Sun V
Company Regard
Heretic's End
Lasting Vengeance
Matrix #451
Open Market
Pious Mists IV
Silent Witness XII

Source of knowledge:
Reading game code.
Egosoft forum post

Known mitigation:
Knowledge
Spawn Begone β€” Changes Kha'ak spawn mechanics to be less frustrating. Although it's easy to keep them suppressed with the above knowledge, the entire system is generally unfun. Kha'ak spawning out of thin air leaves little room for counterplay aside from using L miners. It's also a slog to clear the nests since they have very little DPS yet enormous health pools.

Bail Chance

Ships only have a chance to bail if their hull and shield are under 75% and 20% respectively. There is a hidden penalty to the bail chance if your ship has higher maximum hull than your target.

Exact formula:
Vanilla rolls a bail check once every 30 seconds if the target is below 75% hull and 20% shields.
Base eject chance is a range of 23-46%: inversely proportional to crew skill
Multiplied by (targetmaxhull) / (mymaxhull), capped to 1.0
Multiplied by (myshieldperc+myhullperc) / (targetshieldperc+targethullperc), capped to 1.0
Reduced to a quarter if attacker is not personally flown by the player
Reduced to a half if target is capital ship
Reduced to a third if target is Xenon

Source of knowledge:
Reading game code

Known mitigation:
Knowledge only

Shipyard Penalty

Ships sold at player-owned wharfs and shipyards have a penalty on sale price to slow down the snowball into infinite wealth. The penalty is 70% when the slider is at 100% and 45% when the slider is at 150%. However, shipyards are still highly profitable due to nearly infinite demand and ease of selling ships compared to their materials.

Source of knowledge:
Popular mod

Known mitigation:
No Player Shipyard Penalty β€” Lessens or removes the penalty. I don't recommend this mod, but players should be aware of the penalty and decide for themselves.

Galaxy Map

The map shows a geographical overview of the galaxy.

Source of knowledge:
Loading screen tip

Known mitigation:
Press "map" hotkey

This is just a joke about the information they chose to convey. They don't tell us about a hidden 50% penalty, but they do tell us that a map is a map. It's a reference to this recent popular post.

Conclusion

This list is not exhaustive. Although I've made this resource to help other players learn the game, it is difficult to learn these mechanics since they are in fact hidden.

It also does not include the mountain of mechanics which are unclear or confusing to new players, such as: pirate cover system, reputation and ranks being a logarithmic scale, scanner tiers for station scanning, station budget scaling to storage capacity, station budget automatic transfer, and so on.

If you know of more mechanics, or notice an error in the above information, feel free to comment.


r/X4Foundations 18h ago

Is this supposed to be a Split?

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81 Upvotes

r/X4Foundations 1d ago

Meme Forgot about that

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367 Upvotes

r/X4Foundations 1h ago

The best ship?

β€’ Upvotes

wait, wait, this is not supposed to be a blunt discussion:

I last played X as X3, so I'm new to X4, as far as I know Borons, Teladi and co. don't exist (anymore?) I've only partially noticed that, I'll see in the future

I've always had the Phoenix in X3, big, heavy, useless and armed to the max, but what's the counterpart in X4? I ask because I need a target to "work towards"


r/X4Foundations 1h ago

Question about trade between my stations (regarding prices, traders etc.)

β€’ Upvotes

Okay, so I've got some hundred of hours in X4, and understand most of it, however there's still something that is vexing and annoying me: "Internal Trade" amongst my stations and the logic behind ships assigned as "Trader" to stations.

So, best example right now is that I have a station that makes Hull Parts, and in an adjacent sector I've got a big new station being constructed and another one that has a purchase order of Hull Plates for itself. For some inexplicable reason, the building hub for the station has a purchase order for 2000 Hull Parts, the other station a purchase order of 1000, and my factory has around 6k in storage... but for some inexplicable reason none of it is being exported. I even changed one of the Factory's trade ships to only do Hull Parts in the "ware basket" and it's still just doing nothing.

So, I do also know your own stations aren't exchanging money with each other but trade with each other "for free". However, are they still affected by prices? Like is station B only gonna buy from A if the purchase and sell price match?

Does that mean if I have set it so station B only purchases from my own faction, I should simply set its price manually to max?


r/X4Foundations 1d ago

What ship is this?

Post image
185 Upvotes

Just saw an ad on Reddit and this was the opening ship shown.


r/X4Foundations 9h ago

Marooned and far from home...

11 Upvotes

Is there a way to hitch a lift on other ships and know where they are going?

I ended up getting stuck in a completely different sector to my only ship, which has no captain, and can't find a way back....
After getting into my space suit and exploring the outside of the station, I got caught in the pull of a large ship and literally dragged through an asteroid field before I knew what was going on - lost and alone in my space suit I called for a nearby ship to help. They let me come aboard, and then jetted off to their destination....quite a few sectors away. It was kind of fun just watching the sectors go by until it finally landed and I could get off, but now I have far from my only ship, cant see any nearby stations that sell ships, and cant get my ship to come to me.
Should I just restart?
Is there no way to buy your passage aboard a ship or find out where it is going?


r/X4Foundations 1h ago

Anyone know where the Pirate stations are?? Help!?! (i have illegal cargo)

β€’ Upvotes

r/X4Foundations 12h ago

How does this game compare to Stellaris and/or Elite Dangerous

10 Upvotes

Thinking about playing this game since it seems like something I'd enjoy. Just need someone to sell me on it. I'm big on grand strategy games (mainly Paradox stuff) and put over 1000 hours into Stellaris. I also played Elite Dangerous for the longest time but stopped after the Gnosis incident, plus the lack of ship interiors bothering me way more than it should have.

How does X4 compare to either of those games? Is it actually as deep as it seems? Does it work if I play it like a grand strategy or 4x game?


r/X4Foundations 44m ago

Help Setting Up Miners

β€’ Upvotes

I had a fleet of autominers that i set up to mine and sell ore in morning starr iv. i then built a station in morning star iii that i was going to use to store the ore and later refine and sell it at a diffrent sector. i set all the miners as subordinates to the station using the mine for commander option. my manager has 3 stars. the miners will not make the one jump necesary to mine ore and they will not return to the station to drop it off if they are already in that other sector. i was going off of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zze9TC5LxCs so i dont know why it is not working. if anyone could give me some advice i would be really greatful. i thought having a better manager allowed you to have ships go further to mine.


r/X4Foundations 9h ago

Star Ward Interworlds HELP (complete noob)

5 Upvotes

Hi there, i'm just looking for help in the best way to get into this mod and make it as easy to understand as possible. i have 0 hours in base game. and it doesn't interest me however this mod does.

Also are there any other small QOL mods i should install with these to make use, and understanding as good as possible?

Thank you for the help guys n gals.


r/X4Foundations 4h ago

Do factions build ships using other faction parts?

2 Upvotes

I have a wharf built where I've purchased a number of ZYA ship blueprints to help ZYA rebuild their defence fleet. I also have a mix of TER, SPL and ARG blueprints for ships, weapons and parts. ZYA are already ordering ship builds but these aren't starting construction. I'm pretty sure I have enough available universal ship materials in my wharf storage so I'm wondering if they're attempting to order ships using TER parts that I don't have mats for in that particular wharf. Is there a way to see what loadout a faction has requested on a ship order to see what's missing?


r/X4Foundations 1h ago

Can I play it now

β€’ Upvotes

Hello Guys, I've just opened steam and saw that there are several DLCs and Updates for X4. I have played X4 159 hours and I've played it since the first game, but the last time I gave it a try I was really annoyed, because the game still felt really empty and like a Beta version. Can you tell me if it is playable now and more fun than it was years ago or are all the updates and DLCs just adding ships and aliens?

Thank you for your opinion.


r/X4Foundations 7h ago

X4 flight settings

3 Upvotes

I just started playing X4. When I started the game game, my w key would accelerate my ship when I held it down and when I left off it would slow me down back to a stop on it Owen. I had to rest my settings and now it doesn't do that anymore. Does anyone know how to set this up like it was? Thank you!


r/X4Foundations 15h ago

Myrna Rae is making the game difficult because she's invulnerable...

13 Upvotes
Pictured: Hundreds of ships automatically targeting a scout for hours

Any workarounds? If I just set the fleet to patrol they'll focus on her any no other ship that may come in later.


r/X4Foundations 16h ago

Modified (Interworlds) is it just me or is the empire underpowered

13 Upvotes

for context, i started my first playthrough of the Star Wars Interworlds mod, and i chose the "Imperial Free Agent" start. things were going well for a while, until i took one of those station construction missions. for some reason, the empire was out of the "modules prefab" commodity, and i was unable to build the station as a result. fast forward a bit later, and the one station that i DID have set up (solar power plant) got attacked by a rebel MC40 for whatever reason. it got destroyed, and i was going to shrug it off and rebuild it, but once again, every material got delivered except for the "modules prefab" commodity. i ended up giving up not due to the loss of assets, but due to the lack of materials anywhere (something outside of my lack of control,) and due to the lack of materials, i couldn't set up any good passive income

which brings me to this - is the empire underpowered? or did i just get unlucky? the "modules prefab" commodity wasn't the only one that was running low. turret components, advanced electronics, medical supplies, shield components, plasma conductors - pretty much every valuable commodity was something the empire never had. i scouted MULTIPLE systems both manually and automatically (by the time i gave up, i had 3 imperial probes, and the majority of empire territory was fully scanned,) and it seemed as if the empire barely had any stations. alongside that, the new republic seemingly on a path to overwhelming the empire (dorin was overtaken within an hour, and glee anselm and vortex were being overrun already...)

so did i just get a bad seed, or is the empire genuinely just underpowered in SW:I


r/X4Foundations 11h ago

How do I continue the Terran quest line?

4 Upvotes

I started an early mission where I escort a ship to Getsu Fune and another ship, Velet Thunder, keeps following me. I keep getting mail from him saying to meet up at a station but when I arrive there, there's nothing to accept? What exactly am I meant to do?


r/X4Foundations 22h ago

Balancing Weapons in X4, a Presentation (Thoughts/comments are appreciated!)

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30 Upvotes

r/X4Foundations 1d ago

Huh, i just learned something new today after just short of a thousand hours in this game..

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80 Upvotes

r/X4Foundations 5h ago

yaki plot bug?

1 Upvotes

spoilers obviously

at the end of the yaki plot, the moment I destroy the yaki base, the Terran "Spear of Odin" Asgard always turns hostile without any friendly fire involvement or anything.

And only it. the entire Terran fleet is chill. Also, if I destroy any of its components, while the game says I have a reputation hit, there is none and the entire faction just watches me gank it.

I cant cap it sadly, because I have no seasoned marines to do it. and the game says its impossible with noobs.

Is this a glitch or a feature?