So I recently started playing this series (someone in another topic recommended going with X3 first but by that time I had already started X: BtF. I'm about 5 hours in, and I'm still in the Teladi system. I've paid off the captain of the Phoenix, and am now running around doing trading around the system. At this point, to be honest, I'm getting a little bored of going to the same couple of places again and again for a small profit. I'm not against the trading aspect of it at all (I've never played a space trading game before but it always has sounded cool) but I think since all the places look the same and the systems always work the same way so far, I'm just getting bored of doing the same thing over and over again.

So my question is, when I leave the Teladi system, does the gameplay get more varied? I know that there's the overall plot to do, but I was hoping the main trading and possible sidequests would be more varied than this. If it doesn't get more varied, is there an X game which provides more variety in what to do? Does one of the games offer different sidequests to do similar to an RPG like Skyrim? Is it just BtF that's kind of repetitive in this sense or is it the whole series?

Lastly, if I decide that I'm not going to really get involved with BtF and just play through the main story, is there anything vital I need to do before venturing out of the Teladi system?

Thanks so much! I love everything about the game except for the repetitiveness in the trading, so I'm not putting it down, I'm just wondering if another X game is more to my taste.

Do not expect anything similar to "sidequesting" in these games, you either go for the free form trading/building/fighting or follow the storyline.

X-BtF, being the first of all, is the one designed in the more traditional manner, so it is mostly story driven and there is limited stuff to do aside from that... Following the storyline and continuing your trading (expand that cargo bay), you'll reach the point where you can affird your first station, and add a little bit ov variation in your routine, but that's basically it, just play it for the plot.

The expansion, X-Tension, added the possibility to buy different ships and a pure sandbox mode, and following titles then kept expanding that... starting from X2 you can have some firm of sidequesting, with BBS mission, more tools for complex trading and fleet buildin and so on, so it is the one where things started getting more interesting and varied