X3: Terran Conflict

[kane_magus]

Yeah, I'm still playing X3:TC currently, even though Albion Prelude is out and Rebirth will be out relatively soonish. Mainly, I'm just trying to get through the rest of the story campaigns in TC before moving on to Albion Prelude. (EDIT) Actually, I've already moved on to Albion Prelude now. The Hub plot looked like it was going to take several days (real time, and probably even more like weeks than days) to finish, and that was a bit too overwhelming for me, so I just said "close enough" for Terran Conflict. I did finish the Terran, Goner, Treasure Hunt, Operation Final Fury, and A New Home quests though. That just left The Hub, and then the other plots that required at least part of The Hub to be finished: Player HQ, Aldrin Expansion, and Balance of Power plots. That and I still hadn't built up the almost 400 million credits needed to buy the reward for the A New Home plot yet either. I might go back and wrap them all up someday, maybe. Doubtful, but maybe. (EDIT 2) Yeah, I went back and finished them later. (/EDIT 2) So far, Albion Prelude seems almost identical to Terran Conflict, but then I haven't yet gotten into any of the storyline stuff in that yet, given that I'm still trying to build up from scratch with just one ship and almost no money to start with. (/EDIT)

Here is one thing that I never once thought I would ever have to do in the course of playing a spaceship combat/trading simulation game: solve a frickin' Sudoku puzzle. And yet, I did. Well, actually I didn't solve it. I cheated and let a solver website solve it. I am not in the least bit ashamed to admit that, as I had exactly zero interest in trying to actually work the thing out. Just entering the results was excruciating enough, as the entire thing had to be done through a series of clunky menus.

For example, the steps to enter just a single value on the board:
1. Scroll through the rows until you find the one you want to change.
2. With a row selected, scroll through a list of the open slots and select the slot you want to change.
3. With that slot selected, scroll through a list of the numbers 0-9 to pick which number you want to place in that slot.

I had to repeat that process roughly 60-70 times, given the 9x9 board and the fact that some slots were already filled in and didn't need to be changed.

Dear Egosoft,

Please never put another Sudoku puzzle in one of your X games ever again.

Sincerely,
Me