I've had this game sitting in my library for years. I know it's regarded as one of the really good space games but I've never figured out what you're actually supposed to do or how to advance the gameplay.
I know how to get in my ship, fly my ship and shoot in the general direction of things but that's it. I've played the combat tutorial and have a customized keyboard control layout that I'm happy with.
Last time I gave it a try, it went like this. First, I landed on a space station and then walked all around looking for anything to do. I talked to an npc and found a store selling basic items like medkits and whatnot costing hundreds to thousands of credits. I didn't want to grind for pocket change trading medkits so I continued my search for anything else to do. After more searching, I found a second npc in an office that let me look at security camera footage but that's all I found.
So maybe all the stuff happens in space. So I got in my ship and flew around for a while. The travel mechanics make no sense. Switch to travel mode to go faster, I get it but theres additional mechanics involved. Why can I only go 287m/s in travel mode sometimes? Why does it randomly accelerate to several km/s sometimes and other times the ship accelerates slower than slow? So I look for salvage to steal. Nothing. Eventually I see a bunch of ships fighting so I go over there hoping for anything to happen at all. Boost stops working for some reason so it takes forever and then I get obliterated before getting a chance to shoot at anything.
What am I missing?
How I play X4:
Start game
Do the tutorial missions until it asks me to find parts to build a bomb
Get frustrated trying to find new places to jump to because the 2 possible stations you have on the map never have the shit you need and exploration fucking sucks
Give up and play X3 instead
It's a sandbox so you just kinda do what you want with the tools the game gives you. Think of it like the Mount & Blade of space games. The story missions help get you going, but you could totally ignore them. I just have never figured out how to really get around in X4. The layout of the universe is dumb, and finding new sectors is a pain in the ass without having drones or AI ships to do it for you.