was available on GG, now steam only I think - BUT - you used to be able to register the serial on the egosoft site and d/l from there.

THINK the disc editions are drm free or disk check only - not sure - someone will know more than I!

You can order a disc version that is. X3 Gold Box.
MOST are - if you do see one run it by someone just to make sure DreamedArtist. But the X3 Gold Box certainly is.

And just so you know - it's a HUGE game. Like, drown in it sort of huge. Don't go in looking for casual. And it leans a bit more toward Economic Management than Combat, though there is combat (and I'm sure after you sink a few *ahem* days into it you can make combat more of a priority if you choose).

good gubbins!

also, seems the CEG can be pathced out of the steam versions (just for reference) http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games
or just use one of the alternte starts - Pirate is usually a good one for combat hawks!

Ah interesting! Never thought of that. On my playthrough I got a bit OCD with always having my freighters in motion and I didn't put much time into automating things. So it seemed like I was spending more time answering pings from my guys looking for trade orders LOL.

Plus, I captured and spread out a few smaller ships so I was always ordering them about, because I felt if they weren't moving, they were wasting profit. I think I ended up focused too much on small stuff instead of setting up "bigger picture" type things.

im about to headout to do a midnight shop, but have a link ill find later with a great "basics" guide for that kind of thing - really helped me out!

Sure thing if you think of it I'll give it a look. Maybe stick it in this thread later on if you get a chance / are able to turn it up!

A midnight shop? He must be out of K-Y.

A word of warning for X. Don't even start with it unless you:

a) want to play very casually and don't mind missing roughly 70% of the content they have to offer.

b) are prepared to invest HUNDRED of hours grinding money, grinding rep, and grinding rank to unlock all the nice stuff. All the while being pratically forced to remotely babysit a flottilla of dumb and dumber AI ships via the one of the worst UI ever concieved. All in all, it's more of a (boring) first person managing sim than a space sim.

I think I might be starting with starpoint gemini 2, It looks real close to EVE but offline and move up to Elite Dangerous that looks pretty damn neat.

Starpoint Gemini 2, which is here on GOG. Allows you to trade, fly, fight, do missions, buy better ships, buy better parts and weapons.

X series if you have the time to burn. It's more hardcore like an Eve offline, you can do whatever you can and own and fly any ship in the game. You also can have the entire fleet fly and fight together with you and can build a huge economical empire. Need loads of time to play though.

Yeah I didnt recommend the latest one - that gash can stay in the drag of a pulsar for my money.
or you can just use the quick start or user scripts to make a quick start to your liking, save and then launch. not all that technical either.

...but it IS better when you incest a bit of time into it! :)
couldnt find the specific one yet, but it IS listed here somewhere: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=100641

Yeah, I certainly invested loads of time into the series, probably close to 1200 hours for all the games, about 300-400 hours for each game in the series. And yeah I rather play from scratch than use a quick start script. heh

Incest time into it sounds very wrong though :)

O_____________________o

...whoops!

HEHEHEH!

Uh.....

Why does no-one mention TIE Fighter? While you mostly can't upgrade the ships, you get quite a wide variety, so you still get to upgrade what you're flying, if not directly. And TIE Fighter is one hell of a game. Granted, ok, it doesn't really speak directly to the second sentence the OP posted, but, still. It's an amazing game, and a decent flight sim.

OP: Look into NEXUS: The Jupiter Incident. It's aged quite well, and while you'll usually not be controlling just one ship, it's a good space sim, with ship upgrades as well as pilot upgrades (though the pilot upgrade part is really lightweight), and an interesting setting.