In Episode #03 of the Inside Egosoft podcast, Greg talks to Ketraar, who was part of the X3: Farnham's Legacy project team. Greg also gives you a quick overview on our recently started 4.10 Beta for X4: Foundations.

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Enjoy this new episode, and don't forget to subscribe to Inside Egosoft in your favourite podcast app. If you don't want to use an audio app, you can of course listen to the podcast in your browser (e.g. via Anchor) or find it on our YouTube channel.

Thanks for tuning in!

Today we have released another update for X3: Farnham's Legacy. Developed by a dedicated community team, the 1.2 update is now available for download. It comes with numerous improvements and bug fixes; you can find the complete list of changes on our forum.

Since the release of X3: Farnham's Legacy, a month and a half ago, Egosoft and the project team have received lots of positive feedback about the game, for which we are very grateful.

We would like to thank everyone who has purchased the X3: Farnham's Legacy Donation Pack. As previously announced, we are donating the proceeds from this Donation Pack to Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders. This week Egosoft has rounded up the accumulated total and has donated the sum of 2,500 euros.

The X3: Farnham's Legacy Donation Pack will remain available to purchase until August 31st, 2021, allowing you to thank the project team for their work and to do a good deed at the same time. Of course, you can also donate directly to Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders through their website.

The 1.2 update concludes our development work on this free community project, though we do still intend to find time to create a Linux build of the game in the not too distant future. Don’t forget that X3: Farnham's Legacy opens up many new avenues for potential modding projects, and we look forward to seeing what you come up with! Take a look at the "Scripts and Modding" subforum for X3: Farnham's Legacy for inspiration.

We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the project over the past five years, and who has helped turn a crazy idea into a reality.

Thank you for your support and have fun with X3: Farnham's Legacy!

Since the release of the 4.00 update and the second expansion, X4: Cradle of Humanity, we have been busy working on the next big update for X4: Foundations. Today we're kicking off the public beta phase for the upcoming 4.10 update, which you too can take part in. For details on how to join the beta and share your feedback, read on.

In the 4.10 update we will be adding a couple of major new features, as well as improving some existing ones such as terraforming. In response to your feedback on the 4.00 update, we are fixing, among other things, various issues associated with mining, trading and station management. Another improvement we have made is to our graphics engine’s asset management in X4: Foundations. This should result in better use of graphics memory, and help with things like asteroids popping in.

The full changelog for the first beta version of the 4.10 update can be found in our forums.

Please note that the two key new features mentioned above will not be in the first 4.10 beta release, but are scheduled to be added in later beta versions. Below is a brief summary of what you can look forward to.

Multiverse Team Seasons
With our new ‘Multiverse Team Seasons’ online element, you and your friends will be able to organise yourselves into a team and send your ships into the Multiverse on missions and expeditions. You and your team will represent a coalition for which you will collect points. Will your coalition win at the end of the season? Exciting prizes await you!

In our first episode of the Inside Egosoft Podcast you can learn more about Multiverse Team Seasons.

Custom Game Start
The new Custom Game Start feature will allow players of X4: Foundations to customise certain starting conditions in the game, within limits that are set in order to maintain game balance. It will be possible, for example, to influence factors such as available starting capital, sectors already explored, and relationships with other factions.

Episode 2 of the Inside Egosoft Podcast includes more details about the Custom Game Start feature.

How do I take part in the Public Beta?
Every player who owns X4: Foundations has the opportunity to download the new 4.10 beta version. In order to ensure that beta participants are aware of the risks and rules involved, we ask all interested players to visit our forum where they will find both the rules and disclaimers, as well as practical instructions for participating in the beta. Follow this link to our forum (no registration required) to find the relevant information.

We would like to thank all our beta testers for their contributions. We hope you enjoy trying out the beta version of the 4.10 update!

The next episode of our Inside Egosoft podcast is now available. This time around, we will be filling you in on what we're doing with the upcoming "Custom Game Start" feature in X4: Foundations.

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The new Custom Game Start feature will enable players of X4: Foundations to change or adapt certain starting conditions for the game. Some limits are in place to help maintain a bit of game balance, particularly for those who want to play Multiverse Team Seasons. To give you some examples, in a Custom Game Start it will be possible to influence things such as your available starting capital, sectors already explored, and your relations with other factions.

In order to be able to make these changes, X4 players will, in future, accumulate budgets in specific Custom Game Start categories (including money, knowledge and relations) by making progress in various aspects of the game. For example: if a player has reached a certain relation level with a faction in their X4 game, this counts towards their relations budget and therefore allows the player to change their starting level of relations with one or more factions in a new Custom Game Start.

In Episode #02 of the Inside Egosoft podcast, Greg talks to Owen, who will be giving more practical examples and explanations of the new feature.

Enjoy this new episode, and don't forget to subscribe to Inside Egosoft in your favourite podcast app. If you don't want to use an audio app, you can of course listen to the podcast in your browser (e.g. via Anchor) or find it on our YouTube channel.

Thanks for tuning in!

Recent topics, chats with the team and exciting insights: All this is now available in the brand-new Inside Egosoft podcast. Listen to our first short trailer episode to find out what we've got planned:

Inside Egosoft #00 Trailer

And in episode 1 of the Inside Egosoft Podcast, we take a first detailed look at the new and improved online element of X4: Foundations. What lies behind the Multiverse Team Seasons title, and how will X4 players experience it? Greg discusses this topic with Egosoft founder, CEO and lead game designer, Bernd Lehahn.

Inside Egosoft #01 Multiverse Team Seasons

If you prefer listening to this in a different way, search for "Egosoft" in your favourite podcast catcher app or simply use one of the following links. Subscribe to not miss the next episode.

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Thanks for tuning in!

Today is an exceptional day. It brings an event that many surely didn't think possible – the release of X3: Farnham's Legacy, a new game in the popular X3 series. Furthermore, it is FREE to all owners of X3: Albion Prelude! A dedicated group of players from our DevNet community have been working on this project since 2016, and they are hugely excited to unveil the results of their efforts.

You can simply download X3: Farnham's Legacy for free on Steam, if you already own X3: Albion Prelude, and on GOG the game will automatically show up in your game collection if you own the Terran War Pack there.

If you enjoy X3: Farnham's Legacy and want to thank the project team, by doing a good deed, you can buy the X3: Farnham's Legacy - Donation Pack (GOG / Steam). 100% of Egosoft's proceeds of this Donation Pack will be forwarded to Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders. If you prefer to make a donation through another channel, please visit the website of Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders.

>> X3: Farnham's Legacy - Reveal Trailer

X games discounts
To celebrate the release of X3: Farnham's Legacy, we're running a big promotional discount on both Steam and GOG this week, which will last until Monday, May 10th, 2021. So, if you don't already own the games you need to play X3: Farnham's Legacy for free, you can now get them at a much reduced price. Just check out the X3: Terran War Pack bundle on Steam and GOG.

We have also reduced the price of X4: Foundations as part of this promotion. Take advantage of a 40% discount and start your space adventure today! The timing couldn't be better, coming so soon after the extensive 4.00 update, which we released in March 2021.

- Egosoft games on Steam
- Egosoft games on GOG

Thank you for your support. Have fun with X3: Farnham's Legacy - and of course with X4: Foundations!

X3: Farnham's Legacy is a new game in the X3 space game series. TRADE, FIGHT, BUILD, THINK in a living and breathing universe. It incorporates a new storyline and yet more additions to the open, free-form gameplay that forms the core of all X series games. X3: Farnham's Legacy is free to owners of X3: Albion Prelude and will be released on May 4th, 2021.

A few days before the release, we have one last team interview for you. This week N8M4R3 answered our questions.

Q: Please briefly introduce yourself to the readers and tell us when, and how, you first got involved with an X game?
A: Many years ago, while visiting a friend, I saw him playing this space game which at that point was unknown to me. I was completely enthralled by what I saw on the screen. Since my colleague was glued to the keyboard and mouse, and couldn't be moved, I decided to buy the game the next day. That's how I started in the X universe, back in 2004, with X2: The Threat. After several hours of vanilla gameplay, I started to try out scripts and mods. Later on, under X3: TC/AP, I started to make changes to the game myself and published one or two things. You might have seen me on the forum under my username N8M4R3.

How did you end up on the team that has been working on X3: Farnham's Legacy for five years?
I became aware of a post on the forum about a request to release the source code for X3. In that post there was also a reference to a project involving X3 that was already underway. I immediately sent off a signed NDA, with the hope of being allowed to participate in the project. Some time later, and after various e-mails to the Egosoft team, it worked out.

What was your personal motivation to work on this project? What makes the X3 series so special for you?
Since I was already working on several modifications for X3: Albion Prelude beforehand, this project came at the right time for me to incorporate my ideas for improvement, and my wishes for additional script commands, into a new installment.

I really like the design of the ships in the X3 series, and the ever-growing possibilities to play and modify the game in your own way.

>> X3: Farnham's Legacy - Reveal Trailer

When we announced X3: Farnham's Legacy in early April, we shared the news that the game would include new diplomacy options, resulting in dynamic relationships between the player and the factions they encounter. How would you whet readers' appetites for this feature? What can they look forward to?
The diplomacy options not only give the player a new, non-aggressive way to improve their relationships with individual factions, but also allow them to quickly compensate for any loss of reputation that may result from a gain in reputation with another faction. In addition, this feature offers a whole range of other integrated options with which the player can, for example, obtain blueprints for software, stations and factories. Furthermore, some rare and special ships no longer necessarily have to be captured or boarded, as they can now be unlocked for purchase at various shipyards instead.

Do you have a particular highlight from working on the project that you would like to share with readers?
When you're a first-timer on a project like this, pretty much everything is a highlight. I was very pleased to get to know the other team members better during Skype conferences, having previously only read their posts on the forum. Thanks to a warm welcome and pleasant conversations about X3 - and sometimes also about topics completely outside of it - I was able to integrate myself relatively quickly into the ongoing project. For some of the suggestions I made, I had to learn that things could be far more complex internally than I was aware of, and couldn't be changed individually without rewriting large parts of the code. Nevertheless, many of my other suggestions made it into the game, which makes me very happy. If there is a 2.0 update one day, and I hope there is, I'll be happy to be back!

With X3: Farnham's Legacy just days away from release, is there a final message you'd like to share with X3 fans out there?
I hope that players will enjoy the new expansion to the X3 series, with its many small changes and also some larger ones, and that any outstanding wishes can be fulfilled through the massively expanded scripting and modding possibilities.

Thank you for sharing some insights with us and thank you for your participation in the project!

A few days ago, EGOSOFT founder and CEO Bernd Lehahn sat down with content creator The Rugged Gamer for an interview. The video is now available and you can check it out right here:

>> Interview - Bernd chats with The Rugged Gamer

X3: Farnham's Legacy is a new game in the X3 space game series. TRADE, FIGHT, BUILD, THINK in a living and breathing universe. It incorporates a new storyline and yet more additions to the open, free-form gameplay that forms the core of all X series games. X3: Farnham's Legacy is free to owners of X3: Albion Prelude and will be released on May 4th, 2021.

As we build up to the release, we continue to interview some of the project team members. This week, Cycrow answers our questions.

>> Visit the X3: Farnham's Legacy - Scripts and Modding forum, which is now available.

Q: Please briefly introduce yourself to the readers and tell us when, and how, you first came into contact with an X-game?
A: Hi, I’m Matt, also known on the forums as Cycrow. My first X game was X2: The Threat, which I started playing while I was at university. Since then, I started to mod for the games, starting with X2, and it has been my main gaming focus ever since.

How did you end up on the team that has been working on X3: Farnham's Legacy for the past five years?
As I had worked on some of the previous games, X3: Terran Conflict and X3: Albion Prelude, I was approached about helping out with this new project.

What was your personal motivation to work on this project? What makes the X3 series so special for you?
I’ve spent a long time both playing and modding the games, and I always felt a lot more could still be done to improve the X3 series. So, this was a great chance to really expand on the previous games and to hopefully see how far modders will be able to take it after release.

>> X3: Farnham's Legacy - Reveal Trailer

I think it's pretty safe to say that X3 modders in particular will be flabbergasted at the release of X3: Farnham's Legacy, won't they? Since that’s one of your topics in the project, what can the modders among our players look forward to?
The simple answer is ‘lots’. So much has been added to the modding, in particular the Script Engine which has been expanded more than in all the previous games combined. It gives more control over many aspects of the game, including vastly improved input and menu systems, allowing new menus to be created.

Do you have a particular highlight from working on the project that you would like to share with readers?
Too many to go into in any real detail, but I’m particularly happy with how the Ship Browser and Station Manager turned out.

Any last message you'd like to give to X3 fans out there, with just under two weeks to go before the release of X3: Farnham's Legacy?
Prepare to be blown away by just how much has been added and improved on.

Thank you for sharing some insights with us and thank you for your participation in the project!