History YMMV / X

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: Put only five energy cells in your cargo bay and fire the Unfocused Jumpdrive. Then blow up the crate of energy cells the devs stuck in the random sector for exactly that eventuality. You are now trapped [=GoD=]-only-knows-where with no way back home.

* UnwinnableByInsanity: Put only five energy cells in your cargo bay and fire the Unfocused Jumpdrive. Then blow up the crate of energy cells the devs stuck in the random sector for exactly that eventuality. You are now trapped [=GoD=]-only-knows-where with no way back home.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Occasionally the forums are the scene of minor arguments over whether or not [=M2s=] should be called destroyers (as they are officially) or battleships, as some players [[InsistentTerminology insist on calling them]]. [[http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=309029 This thread is a great example.]] The gist of the argument is that as of ''X3'', they fit the definition of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI battleships better than they do destroyers, being [[MightyGlacier slow, tough heavy hitters]] with no fighters or other such deployable craft. Others point to the [[Franchise/StarWars Imperial Star Destroyer]] as a comparison, and yet more people point out that "star destroyer" is a design philosophy instead of a ship class.
** Made even more confusing by the ATF Valhalla and Terran Kyoto, which are [=M2s=] that can carry M6 corvettes. Add to it that the Valhalla is canonically an M0 Battleship. ''X3'' simply doesn't have an M0 classification in its files, thus limiting the Valhalla to being a very slow and deadly M2 (''Albion Prelude'' terms them M2+).
** One explanation put forth in the linked thread is that in the real life [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Navy German Navy]] at the time of the first game, the biggest ship class was the ''Lütjens''-class destroyer. ([[TechnologyMarchesOn Since then]], of course, all their destroyers have been decommissioned, leaving frigates as the biggest.)

** The idea that [[ArtificialStupidity the autopilot is really a rather confused gerbil]]. It started as [[http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=121168 a rant by ApricotSlice]] and took on a life of its own after some {{Deadpan Snark|er}}ing by Kitch.

** The Mosquito Missile was this in the vanilla version of ''Terran Conflict''. It may be the most commonly used missile thanks to its low requirements to produce it, and it has good speed and slightly above average stats. However, it deals a pathetic 200KJ worth of damage (and in case you're wondering, 1MJ = 1000KJ or 5 Mosquito missiles), meaning it's virtually useless against anything that isn't a fighter drone. With the release of the Bonus Pack for ''Terran Conflict'', the Mosquito has been somewhat RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap due to it finding itself being useful against enemy missiles (and it will launch against fighter drones automatically), thanks in part of the introduction of the Mosquito Defense Script. In addition, the Mosquito has been buffed in ''Albion Prelude'' to be compatible with any ship, even the Terran/[=AGI=] Task Force counterparts, as an anti-missile system.

** ''Albion Prelude'' has the Argon main plot mission The Beryll, which requires you to deliver 200 computers, 50 microchips, and 10 Impulse Ray Emitters. Now while computers are pretty common and impulse ray emitters are the basic low-level gun, microchips are usually incredibly difficult to find in bulk due to a long production cycle, small production volume, and extremely high desirability among NPC traders leading to most chip plants being continuously sold out. You will almost inevitably have to produce your own, which comes with expensive setup costs the quest comes nowhere near close to paying for. After this they ask you to capture a Xenon L, a heavy fighter with a [[LuckBasedMission very low random chance]] of bailing and no notification it's doing so, making it very easy to accidentally destroy. There's also the problem that it's simply a very long mandatory flight due to having to cross 3 sectors you can't jump across, all of which are roughly 60km in size, making getting to and from the place nearly the equivalent of crossing the largest sector in the game. This is the point in the plot a lot of players get stuck and give up for a while.

* InferredHolocaust: After the events of ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Albion Prelude]]''. The {{Precursors}} shut down the entire PortalNetwork to contain the [[AIIsACrapshoot incredibly aggressive Xenon terraformer AI]]. Doing so on a small scale in the past has actually been a good solution to bad problems, but this means not only will the [[FiveRaces younger species]] be incapable of traveling or communicating with each other or their own colony planets, they won't even know where the other sectors ''actually are'' to ''try'' and contact each other for years. Many sectors have nothing but manned manufacturing plants, most of which aren't self-sustaining, and even many planetary sectors rely heavily on trade.

----
!!Music/{{X}} the PunkRock band:
* EpicRiff: "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene," "We're Desperate," "Los Angeles," "Nausea," "Beyond and Back," and "The Hungry Wolf".
* FaceOfTheBand: Music/ExeneCervenka and Music/JohnDoe.
* SignatureSong: "Los Angeles" or "We're Desperate."
* TearJerker: Any song addressing the death of Exene's sister Mary (see GriefSong in the main entry) qualifies. "Around My Heart" from the otherwise-maligned ''Ain't Love Grand'' is also quite sad, as it seems to address the collapse of John and Exene's marriage.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: X's first four albums (from ''Music/LosAngeles'' to ''Music/MoreFunInTheNewWorld'') featured Music/BillyZoom on guitar and were produced by Music/RayManzarek of Music/TheDoors. Afterwards, Zoom left and the band stopped working with Manzarek; fan consensus is that these changes led to a DorkAge for the group, and that the two subsequent albums they recorded before the hiatus (''[[Music/AintLoveGrand Ain't Love Grand]]'' and ''Music/SeeHowWeAre'') aren't quite as good as what came before.
** This opinion is not universally held by all fans of this group. Some greatly like the intensely hard rocking feel and able songwriting of ''Music/SeeHowWeAre'' as much as anything else the group released, and find songs such as "4th of July," "I'm Lost," "Left and Right," "Surprise, Surprise," "Anyone Can Fill Your Shoes," and the title track especially enjoyable.

** Kha'ak ships M6 and above. Their near HitScan laser beams can do quite a number on even an M2-class ship and they can easily one-shot non-swarm missiles. Your best bet is to take an M7(M) or better if you want to deal with these bad boys.

** Kha'ak craft lower than an M6. Their aforementioned near HitScan laser beams can prove more than a mere nuisance to even M3s and can prove quite dangerous when they ZergRush you.

* TearJerker: SAny song addressing the death of Exene's sister Mary (see GriefSong in the main entry) qualifies. "Around My Heart" from the otherwise-maligned ''Ain't Love Grand'' is also quite sad, as it seems to address the collapse of John and Exene's marriage.

** This opinion is not universally held by all fans of this group. Some greatly like the intensely hard rocking feel and able songwriting of ''Music/SeeHowWeAre'' as much as anything else the group released, and find songs such as "4th of July," "I'm Lost," "Left and Right," "Anyone Can Fill Your Shoes," and the title track especially enjoyable.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: X's first four albums (from ''Los Angeles'' to ''More Fun in the New World'') featured Music/BillyZoom on guitar and were produced by Music/RayManzarek of Music/TheDoors. Afterwards, Zoom left and the band stopped working with Manzarek; fan consensus is that these changes led to a DorkAge for the group, and that the two subsequent albums they recorded before the hiatus (''[[Music/AintLoveGrand Ain't Love Grand]]'' and ''Music/SeeHowWeAre'') aren't quite as good as what came before.

* FaceOfTheBand: Exene Cervenka and John Doe.
* SignatureSong: "Los Angeles" or "We're Desperate".
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: X's first four albums (from ''Los Angeles'' to ''More Fun in the New World'') featured Billy Zoom on guitar and were produced by Ray Manzarek of Music/TheDoors. Afterwards, Zoom left and the band stopped working with Manzarek; fan consensus is that these changes led to a DorkAge for the group, and that the two subsequent albums they recorded before the hiatus (''Ain't Love Grand'' and ''See How We Are'') aren't quite as good as what came before.

** However, in a rather extreme case of AllThereInTheManual, the X-encyclopedia details -why- [[spoiler:the Argons struck at all, noting that the Terrans infiltrated the Argon Federation with spy ops to secretly influence the course of the Community of Planets.]] This explanation does, however, bring up [[DisproportionateRetribution another issue]].

* DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound:
** "Attention, one of your ships is under attack, Xenon Sector 472... Attention, one of your ships is under attack, Xenon Sector 472..."
*** Particularly when you happen to be ''in'' Xenon Sector 472 and the ship being attacked is your wingman.
----> "Yes, thank you for that [[SarcasmMode brilliant deduction]], [[CaptainObvious Betty]]."
** The sector Vestibule of Creation. For some bizarre reason, Betty (the ship's computer voice) switches to a different voice to speak the name of this sector. This is most probably due to a sound engineer's oversight.
** The Teladi's obsession with the word "profits" means they say it ''at least'' 2-3 times when you talk to one of them. [[SssssnakeTalk With a very pronounced emphasssisssss on the letter ssssss.]] Since there's another word for profits called "[[FutureSlang buckzoid]]", most players would rather use that word to substitute for "profitsss/creditsss."
** Attacking an enemy station will result in message spam with things like "You were warned. Pirate ships are now being launched" a several times a minute. And unless you're attacking with multiple capital ships, a station can take ten minutes to kill.
*** It's even more annoying when you're ''protecting'' the station and it got hit by friendly fire.
** Since non-plot [=NPCs=] usually have one or two dialogues when in combat, expect to hear the [[WelcomeToCorneria same lines from them like a broken record every minute]] when you attack them. This gets even more annoying if they're flying a capital ship and you keep pouring shots at them as they continue to batter you with the ever monotonous taunts every minute until they die.

* MostAnnoyingSound:

** ''Albion Prelude'' has the Argon main plot mission The Beryll, which requires you to deliver 200 computers, 50 microchips, and 10 Impulse Ray Emitters. Now while computers are pretty common and impulse ray emitters are the basic low-level gun, microchips are usually incredibly difficult to find in bulk due to a long production cycle, small production volume, and extremely high desirability among NPC traders leading to most chip plants being continuously sold out. You will almost inevitably have to produce your own, which comes with expensive setup costs the quest comes nowhere near close to paying for. After this they ask you to capture a Xenon L, a heavy fighter with a [[LuckBasedMission very low random chance]] of bailing and no notification it's doing so, making it very easy to accidentally destroy. This is the point in the plot a lot of players get stuck and give up for a while.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: The Battle of [[spoiler:Aldrin]] from ''Terran Conflict'', [[spoiler:with a massed Terran warfleet attacking the #deca CPU ship]].

* MostWonderfulSound:

* EpicRiff: "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene," "We're Desperate," "Los Angeles," "Nausea," "Beyond and Back," and "The Hungry Wolf"
* FaceOfTheBand: Exene
* SignatureSong: "Los Angeles" or "We're Desperate"

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Occasionally the forums are the scene of minor arguments over whether or not [=M2s=] should be called destroyers (as they are officially) or battleships, as some players [[InsistentTerminology insist on calling them]]. [[http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=309029 This thread is a great example.]] The gist of the argument is that as of ''X3'', they fit the definition of WorldWarOne battleships better than they do destroyers, being [[MightyGlacier slow, tough heavy hitters]] with no fighters or other such deployable craft. Others point to the [[Franchise/StarWars Imperial Star Destroyer]] as a comparison, and yet more people point out that "star destroyer" is a design philosophy instead of a ship class.

** Multiplayer is another BaseBreaker. Proponents think multiplayer would be fun. Opponents point to ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'', which in its current state has {{grief|er}}ing and {{noob}}-hunting as a primary activity of much of the playerbase. This is in stark contrast to the generally glad-to-help nature of the typical veteran ''X''-er.

** The Kha'ak may be even worse, simply because ''we know practically '''nothing''' about them''. Throughout the series, we have learned exactly ''nothing'' about them aside from their HiveMind and nividium addiction. All attempts to spy and/or study them have ended in failure and/or disaster. They have made absolutely no attempt to communicate with anyone. (even the Xenon occasionally send messages to the Boron, and #EFFA even tried to negotiate a truce when the Xenon were starting to lose) The Kha'ak are utterly alien, and like the Xenon, their sole desire seems to be to destroy anything that's not them. Only in their case, its heavily implied that they ''eat'' their victims. (Compare to the Xenon, who "merely" just kill you)

* NightmareFuel: The Xenon, if you think about it. Imagine a robotic race that only has one desire: to completely rid the universe of all organic life. They do not breathe. They do not eat, sleep or anything like that. They do not care about resources. They do not even ''think'', they act purely on instinct. Their sole purpose is to kill, kill, and kill, until nothing remains. ''Terran Conflict'' shows that the Xenon have been expanding exponentially since the first game, even without the help of jump gates; their expansion has been increasing faster and faster, and now they possess fleets in the dark space between galaxies. The Xenon's exponential expansion is one of the factors that led to the PortalNetwork [[EndOfAnAge being shut down]] after ''Albion Prelude''. See what happens when you don't double-check your bugs in the software before implementing them? The Terrans have unintentionally created a monster of a species of epic proportions thanks to their impatience-ridden stupidity. Essentially, ''[[IdiotPlot the entire plot]]'' of almost all the ''X-Universe'' games (X2 is an exception) is due to the Terrans' incompetence of troubleshooting a faulty software update and not having the proper decency to test it out before implementing it on their terraforming robotic fleet.

* NightmareFuel: The Xenon, if you think about it. Imagine a robotic race that only has one desire: to completely rid the universe of all organic life. They do not breathe. They do not eat, sleep or anything like that. They do not care about resources. They do not even ''think'', they act purely on instinct. Their sole purpose is to kill, kill, and kill, until nothing remains. ''Terran Conflict'' shows that the Xenon have been expanding exponentially since the first game, even without the help of jump gates; their expansion has been increasing faster and faster, and now they possess fleets in the dark space between galaxies. The Xenon's exponential expansion is one of the factors that led to the PortalNetwork [[EndOfAnAge being shut down]] after ''Albion Prelude''. See what happens when you don't double-check your bugs in the software before implementing them? The Terrans have unintentionally created a monster of a species of epic proportions thanks to their impatience-ridden stupidity. Essentially, [[IdiotPlot the ''entire plot'']] of almost all the ''X-Universe'' games (X2 is an exception) is due to the Terrans' incompetence of troubleshooting a faulty software update and not having the proper decency to test it out before implementing it on their terraforming robotic fleet.