Today, Egosoft is happy to announce the release of patch 1.60. You can find the full changelog for 1.60 at the end of this announcement. We would also like to take this opportunity to share our near-future plans for X4: Foundations with our community! You can find our "road map" regarding future patches below.

User review

Recently we discovered a video about X4: Foundations by Bluedrake42. We have not influenced or sponsored his video, but we are definitely pleased hes so excited about X4 and we wanted to share his review. Its been a great joy for the entire team at Egosoft to hear all of his comments. There have definitely been a few problems with bugs, and the learning curve has always been a little bit high due to the massive giant economy but I have to say X4 is the best version of all the X Games in my opinion - the UI is way better and easier to navigate, the controls are way more streamlined. - Bluedrake42 on YouTube Check out his full review: https://youtu.be/2ZHqid2t7vM

X4: Foundations Milestones

Before 2.00, and between any of the coming major patches, there will also be minor steps. We try to release bug fixes as fast as we can once we feel they are safe (which is why there will also be lots of public betas). Update 2.00 The next bigger update will bring, among other things, the ability to set up your own shipyards. Compete with the faction shipyards by selling ships to the war factions or build your own fleets. Another focus for 2.00 is to make crew training a bit easier. Crew and pilots gain experience by doing their jobs; more so in some areas than others. However, while the first two stars are very easy to gain, the progress slows down after that. Getting from the 3rd to the 4th star takes a LOT more experience than from the 1st to the 2nd. We aim to release 2.00 in February. Update 2.50

• With 2.50 we aim to bring a new ship type: Resupply ships. In short, they will work like a flying equipment dock and can form the backbone of a large fleet.
• Linux version: We hope the Linux beta can start somewhere between 2.00 and 2.50 already but at the latest together with this update.
• TrackIR/Tobii support: We know lots of people are asking us to support these tools and while testing may start before it again we aim that 2.50 should bring support at the latest.
• Sector blacklists: This will allow you to set up sectors that your ships will avoid at all costs.
• Another thing that we hope to pack into 2.50 is a series of improvements around managing inventory items. This includes the ability to create and drop crates in space and possibly also to store them on stations.

Update 3.00

• As some of you may already have figured out, one cool feature of X4 is the ability to own entire sectors and even change their names. With 3.00 we aim to build upon this with a number of features to help you benefit from sector control. You can then basically become your own faction with your own set of rules.
• For all updates, we are working on better missions. At the latest for 3.00 we plan to have a number of new and improved combat missions in particular. An area we want to combine this with is improved research (in the player HQ) and the ability to potentially even move the player HQ to a different location.
• An early gameplay feature that 3.00 will improve is the ability to dock directly at station with a spacesuit and to get other NPC ships to transport you, by offering missions to them.
• With 3.00 at the latest, we want to have at least one new gamestart. There is a chance that this will have some interesting new features.

Online ventures In December we released our very first online mode in an X game: Ventures. With the Updates 2.00 to 3.00 we will also continue work on more and better online ventures. So stay tuned for more exciting online missions. You can find more detailed explanations of Online Ventures here: X4: Foundations Manual - The Venture Feature https://youtu.be/NuONlBUTuy0

First Expansion will introduce Split race

While all of the above (free) updates may also contain new assets, we will bundle a lot of new ships, station modules, missions and new sectors into the first big expansion. Our rough timeline is to have an expansion based on introducing the Split race, their ships, a new Split economy and of course a large new area of space shortly after releasing 3.00.

Changelog of update 1.60:

Added music tracks from previous games. Added map filter option to disable allied order queue visualisation. Added option to edit or remove assignment in order queue. Added tooltips explaining why Request Dock At option is greyed-out. Improved overall game performance. Improved AI attacking of stations. Improved reward calculation for Rescue Ship mission. Improved reward calculation and area range for Repair mission. Improved reward calculation and fleet variation in Fleet Delivery mission. Improved location check for claiming plot in Station Building mission. Improved likelihood of NPCs providing information when asking for the way to a station. Improved AutoMiner behaviour to avoid mining in enemy-held territory depending on crew skill. Removed ability to map right mouse button to avoid conflicts with context menu function. Fixed player-owned stations not transferring money to the player after having earned a surplus. Fixed player-owned ships mis-identifying some ships as being abandoned. Fixed ships sometimes undocking and docking again when given an order that doesn't require a ship to change docks. Fixed NPC-owned capital class mining ships not being able to mine due to lack of collector drones. Fixed mining ships sometimes not going to their designated positions before starting to mine. Fixed delay after player issuing AutoMiner order. Fixed capital ships with forward-mounted weapons sometimes orienting broadside to big targets. Fixed capital ships not acquiring some station modules when attacking them. Fixed fighters manoeuvering against and firing upon the center of stations rather than acquiring station modules. Fixed player-owned squadron subordinates pursuing targets to the ends of the universe. Fixed combat ships assigned to a station not staying in the vicinity of the station. Fixed captured visitor ships sometimes not accepting orders. Fixed UI allowing player to order player-owned ships to "Dock to Trade" at player-owned stations that have no trade offers. Fixed ships wanting to undock from a venture platform worrying that they might leave the player stranded at the station. Fixed player-owned free traders preferring build-related trades. Fixed free traders tending to prefer trades involving buying low amounts or high prices. Fixed player-owned station-based traders ignoring sell offers at the station below a certain threshold. Fixed rare case that would prevent AutoMine and AutoTrade orders from functioning. Fixed lasertower orders being assignable to things that weren't lasertowers. Fixed lasertowers erroneously attempting to move while in highways. Fixed computer pilots of drones and lasertowers sometimes bailing. Fixed player-owned ships formerly owned by pirates retaining their cover ownership. Fixed docked ships on claimed ships retaining old ownership and crew on board. Fixed theoretical ability to improve relations with Xenon and Kha'ak. Fixed not being able to select items to deliver to Black Marketeer when playing multiple delivery missions simultaneously. Fixed receiving pilot comm chatter while not in a cockpit. Fixed Security Office not being available on all stations. Fixed Boarding mission where ship was already captured earlier. Fixed mission character disappearing during Delivery mission. Fixed duplicate greeting of Black Marketeer during Delivery mission. Fixed cases of missing dialog choices for Black Marketeers. Fixed Tutorial and Help menu in ultra-wide resolutions. Fixed large number of queued orders breaking the order queue menu. Fixed map shortcuts not working after using minimize. Fixed wrong production resources shown in LSO and encyclopedia. Fixed hidden information (shown as "???") on player stations in certain cases. Fixed loadout statistics showing changes in engine performance when applying a paint mod. Fixed venture reward menu sometimes not displaying reward information. Fixed custom player logo not being displayed on target monitor. Fixed comms monitor not showing up on incoming reports from pilots. Fixed excessive L and XL travel engine prices. Fixed certain M-sized turret slots on some L-sized ships not allowing mining turrets to be fitted. Fixed mirrored logos on some ships. Fixed NPC position in bar. Fixed various NPC animation issues. Fixed player ship standing still when opening the map after undocking from a station. Fixed problems docking certain M-sized ships (especially Drill) without docking software. Fixed ships protecting stations with the Protect Station order chasing targets out of the designated area. Fixed new NPC stations potentially having their build storages owned by incorrect factions. Fixed squadron subordinates sometimes not keeping up with their commanders. Fixed dock showing stop sign while ship docked after loading savegame. Fixed occasional loss of control input while in flight. Fixed incorrect graphics settings displayed after changing Graphics Quality. Fixed Account Management and Logical Station Overview menus not setting manager budget when setting station account. Fixed menu crash in supply node of Logical Station Overview. Fixed menu crash when opening Info menu for certain stations. Fixed menu freeze in Account Management menu. Fixed map freeze if a commander was docked at one of their subordinates. Fixed UI showing possibility to edit default behaviours of subordinates. Fixed strange items being added to inventory after venture completes. Fixed unclaimed venture rewards getting lost on subsequent save/load cycle. Fixed planned station builds being lost after saving and loading. Fixed some memory leaks. Fixed causes of several freezes and performance issues in specific circumstances. Fixed several other causes of crashes.