Before you Start Playing

Before you Start Playing
X4: Foundations is currently in version 3, which would suggest the game is a finished product. On the whole it even is but there a couple of things you will want to do before you attempt to play the game and as you play ongoing:
 * 1) If you are playing with a joystick, ensure that it is plugged in prior to launching X4. If you did not do this and have currently plugged-in a joystick post-launch - restart X4 and it should respond to the controller once a game is either started or loaded.
 * 2) Remove all bindings for controls for joystick that relate to anything that is not flying a ship. This one might sound obvious but the default bings will have you fall off space station platforms and out into space and render the map unusable too - as this is as much a game about management as piloting - that'll ruin things very quickly. To remove a binding, click on the binding and press delete.
 * 3) Remove all bindings for controls for the mouse (if you're using a mouse) that relate to flying the ship. Seriously, there's two devices controlling ship movement. Want to click on a target in space to fire on? Not without making the ship drift that way under the default controls! The select target on left-click is ok to keep (also a joystick button for next and previous target), you'll also want to keep the key T for select target (this is typically going to select one in front first making it similar to a left-click target).
 * 4) Don't get carried away with the graphics settings. Make sure they're typical for your machine. X4 will drop framerates a lot if things get hectic in system (especially at moments when there's a lot of ships around you). If you're in any doubt, start a game and see if it loads ok, frames are smooth and there's no glitches you could attribute to running the game with the settings too high. Obviously if you notice anything not running as smoothly as it should, drop the settings and try again.

Ongoing Play Considerations

 * 1) Grand Exchange I. The system of Grand Exchange I is where you'll have at least 90-95% of game crashes. That's even if you've run all of the checks above. The key shortcut by default for quicksaving the game is F5 - you'll want to use that every time you think about heading in to that sector and at very regular intervals when you are spending any time in there.
 * 2) Those targeting keys you bound? Keep a finger over the T key! It's not uncommon to target a ship only for the ship to un-target once you open fire on it. This is bad not only because weapons no longer lock on the target but if you end up targeting another ship, you'll aggro it as well and worse still - the next target could be a friendly ship (that's right, Egosoft never thought of putting in a next hostile target binding...)
 * 3) Pausing the game (default key PAUSE) will halt all activity, but still allow the player to navigate the map and interact with objects. Un-pausing the game will then have all queued activities carried out.