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This video doesn’t seem to show us much trading…

X³: Terran Conflict has been announced as Gold by Egosoft. Gold means that it has been passed for production (sent to CD/DVD factories, etc).

For me, X³: Reunion had no bugs on release, but I know many people found themselves with an unplayable game for a little while. Hopefully, because this Terran Conflict title is an update of the Reunion game engine, most of those bugs will not rear their heads this time.

There’s some new features in this game which should make things even more interesting. Being able to train marines so they can go and attack then capture another ship, for one. It all sounds very cool and I can’t wait until release!

I haven’t seen any announcement whether a Mac version will be made available. If it’s anything like the Reunion release it will be a few months before conversion is completed.

Here’s the details as posted by Egosoft:

We can now officially confirm that X³: Terran Conflict has gone GOLD! That means that the release version of the game has been approved for production. It also means we are now finally able to confirm release dates for X³: Terran Conflict!

The English language version of X³: Terran Conflict will be available from retail outlets on October 3rd, and you can pre-order from the Egosoft Online Shop NOW. X³: Terran Conflict will also be available for pre-load from Steam starting on September 25th.

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some celebrating to do…

System Requirements
Minimum Requirements
* Microsoft ® Windows ® XP (SP-2), Vista SP1™
* Pentium® IV or AMD® equivalent at 2.0 GHz
* 1 GB RAM
* 256 MB 3D DirectX 9 Compatible video card (not onboard) with Pixel Shader 1.1 support
* Soundcard (Surround Sound support recommended)
* 10 GB free hard disk space
* DVD-ROM Drive
* Mouse and Keyboard or Joystick (optional support for force-feedback) or Gamepad
Recommended Configuration
* Microsoft ® Windows ® XP (SP-2), Vista SP1™
* Intel® Core™ 2 Duo or AMD® equivalent at 2.0 GHz
* 3 GB RAM
* 256 MB 3D DirectX 9 Compatible video card (not onboard) with Pixel Shader 3.0 support
* Soundcard (Surround Sound support recommended)
* 10 GB free hard disk space
* DVD-ROM Drive
* Mouse and Keyboard or Joystick (optional support for force-feedback) or Gamepad

Egosoft have released a video trailer of their forthcoming X³: Terran Conflict. This video concentrates on the open nature of this game which is the latest of the ‘Elite’ space game genre to hit the gaming market.

Egosoft have released a video trailer of their forthcoming X³: Terran Conflict. This video concentrates on the ‘business’ side of this open-ended game which is the latest of the ‘Elite’ space game genre to hit the gaming market.

Computer games developer Egosoft and Deep Silver, the games label of Koch Media, a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products, are releasing ten new screenshots from the game X³: Terran Conflict today.

You can find these screenshots in our newly opened Screenshots section for X³: Terran Conflict.

X³: Terran Conflict is a brand new, stand-alone game set in the universe of X³. It is the culmination of the X trilogy, with a grand finale that takes us all the way back to Earth’s own solar system. Gamers can take on the roles of different characters in the X universe, or of a Terran military pilot, and experience a multitude of stories in the largest X universe ever featured – for X³: Terran Conflict will offer more missions than any other X game before. Meanwhile, X³: Terran Conflict will pose questions such as: How has Earth changed in all these years? And how will relations between Earth and its counterparts in the X universe develop?

X³: Terran Conflict is scheduled for release end of September 2008.

Egosoft posted some new screenshots as an easter treat, here they are:

Computer games developer Egosoft and Koch Media, a leading distributor of games and application software, today announced the conclusion of an exclusive publishing and distribution agreement for the title X³: Terran Conflict. X³: Terran Conflict will be released under the Deep Silver label.

“The X series has always been one of our top quality brands, and an integral part of the Deep Silver portfolio,” states Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, Managing Director of Koch Media. “So we are very happy to be presenting the gripping next installment of the X universe’s story in X³: Terran Conflict.”

“We look forward to adding another successful chapter to the X story, together with Koch Media,” says Bernd Lehahn, Managing Director of Egosoft.

X³: Terran Conflict is a brand new, stand-alone game set in the universe of X³. It is the culmination of the X trilogy, with a grand finale that takes us all the way back to Earth’s own solar system. Gamers can take on the roles of different characters in the X universe, or of a Terran military pilot, and experience a multitude of stories in the largest X universe ever featured – for X³: Terran Conflict will offer more missions than any other X game before. Meanwhile, X³: Terran Conflict will pose questions such as: How has Earth changed in all these years? And how will relations between Earth and its counterparts in the X universe develop?

X³: Terran Conflict is scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2008.

Getting through the start of the game…
Do the first few missions in the starting ship. You need the “standing” in order to progress and doing those missions will also give you a little free equipment.

Once you’ve gotten through the first 4 or 5 storyline missions, head to Herron’s Nebula. There is a Space Distillery in Herron’s Nebula and although it sells illegal product, you can sell that product to the Free Argon Trading Station within the same system. You can buy Space Fuel for around 700 (do not buy for more than 1200 or you make no profit!) and sell them for 1252 per unit. You may occasionally get caught by the local police, but the rewards are worth it. When the price raises for Space Fuel (this happens when you have taken all their stock quicker than they can produce it), you can probably make money bringing Energy Cells to the station from the Power Circle system. Once you have around 400,000 credits from trading Space Fuel (or from recovery and sale of the “free objects” listed below), head to Argon Prime and then to the Federal Argon Shipyard where you should buy a Mercury. You should also upgrade the Mercury’s engine and rudder to full capacity and fit it with a Trading System Extension. You should not board the new Mercury or spend the spare 50,000 credits you should have, stay in your starter ship (the Buster).

Now you’re going to be able to fly around the universe in your Buster, doing whatever you want while remotely controlling the Mercury as it continues to trade Space Fuel on your behalf (using the 50,000 credits you didn’t spend to start with). Remotely controlled ships are never scanned by the police, so you’re going to be free of problems. I’d advise you work to try to supply the Space Fuel Distillery with Energy Cells whenever the price of Space Fuel becomes too high. Energy Cells should be bought for no more than 16 credits in Argon space, Power Circle is a good place to start buying.

There are quite a few “free objects” scattered around the universe, I’d suggest you try to recover some of these items early.

Some you will not be able to recover until you’re an experienced player with a powerful ship!

Here is a map of the X3 universe. Note that not all systems have four (north, east, south and west) gates. Also note that in the list above there is a System Coordinate, those numbers count from the top-left system on the map, Kingdom’s End (0, 0).

Once you’ve got enough money I’d advise you setup a Sector Trader. It’s best to start off a Trader in a Mercury (with upgraded engine and rudder) and set him/her loose in Argon Prime, Ore Belt or Paranid Prime. Once those Trader’s reach a skill of 8 you can upgrade them to Universe Trader’s and they’ll trade throughout the entire universe instead of those single system’s.

You can now sit back and watch the money roll in really, though I’d advise you still manually smuggle Space Fuel with your remote controlled Mercury…

I played X3 up to just before the release of 2.0, looks like they added some new stuff… If you like the look of it, you can buy version 2.0 here. If you’d like to start from the beginning (well, nearly) you can buy X2: The Threat here first.