When comparing X3: Terran Conflict vs Star Citizen (still in development), the Slant community recommends Star Citizen (still in development) for most people. In the question“What are the best Space Sims on Steam?” Star Citizen (still in development) is ranked 6th while X3: Terran Conflict is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Star Citizen (still in development) is:
Squadron 42 is a single player campaign that takes place in the in game universe that allows players to play offline.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro You can own an empire, not just a ship
You start in a small fighter or trade ship, but can own and control as many ships and stations as you care to build up, including some unique facilities tied to the story.
Pro Deep, open-ended gameplay
You can fight, build, trade, pirate - so much to do!
Pro Includes a singleplayer mode, called "Squadron 42"
Squadron 42 is a single player campaign that takes place in the in game universe that allows players to play offline.
Pro Over $73million in funding
A game with the huge scope of Star Citizen will cost a lot of money to develop, and through multiple campaigns, Star Citizen has raised a huge amount of money to make that happen.
Pro Vast, detailed sci-fi world
A long term goal is to have over 400 different star systems in game, most of which will have many planets within them.
Pro Ability to command persistent ships and stations
Players will be able to command multi-person ships with other users who will be able to command their own stations on said ships.
Pro Dynamic economy system
The economy of the game and the actions to keep it moving are constantly going on in the background but allows for players to step in and out of it at their leisure in order to take part.
Pro A true PC game
It's been stated that the game will take full advantage of PC's capabilities and will not be held back by a need to accommodate a console port.
Cons
Con Graphics look a bit dated compared to a game like Star Citizen
Con Daunting for new players
This series has a long pedigree. It has a lot of complexity that you get dropped into pretty quickly, and the plot has some quirks. If you don't mind sometimes checking out a wiki to wrap your head around something or to get unstuck, you'll be fine.
Con Commercial launch is still a year away (2016)
The commercial launch of the persistent universe game will be sometime in 2016.