Getting back old faction colors

X4: Foundations234 views4 favorites4 min readby CltailUpdated 3 Oct, 2025View on Steam ↗

Foreword

I found the new colors for the factions introduced in the most recent version to be sort of ugly and difficult to distinguish from each other. I wanted the old colors as I thought they fit the factions better and I simply hate change. Luckily, with the new color blindness accessibility features, we can change the colors to anything we want. I figured that if i wanted the old colors, more than a few other people probobly did as well, and since I already did the work to get the proper colors, I would put this out there for other people if they wanted it.

In order to get the correct colors for every faction, I installed an older version of the game and took screenshots of the map, Which i then used the eyedropper tool in a paint program to get the precise RGB value for every faction. There are a handful of colors I don't have, but they are minor things like the civilian faction or the venture "visitor" faction, which I think doesn't really matter, as they are rare and unimportant. I also took the liberty of changing the quettanaut's color to a salmon pink, because it looked a little too close to the free families, But if you don't like that the original color is in the XML.

Another thing to note: with the color blindness accessibility options, you can now change the color of the player's faction, if that is something you have wanted to do in the past.

The code

Take the code below and place it into a new XML file in this folder:
C:\Users\(USER)\Documents\Egosoft\X4\81740626\colorprofile

The name of the XML file doesn't matter either, But mine is named "Old faction colors"

It should look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <colormap name="Old faction colors"> <colors> <color id="Boron Blue" r="75" g="195" b="252" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Terran sky blue" r="187" g="207" b="248" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Segaris Teal" r="62" g="170" b="154" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Antigone light blue" r="78" g="151" b="221" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Argon blue" r="0" g="83" b="252" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Hatikva cyan" r="26" g="244" b="250" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Paranid purple" r="128" g="3" b="252" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Zyarth orange" r="252" g="104" b="26" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Vigor lavender" r="151" g="130" b="150" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Riptide dull blue" r="82" g="128" b="160" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Alliance of the word purple" r="176" g="57" b="201" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Holy order pink" r="252" g="113" b="173" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Yaki pink" r="251" g="141" b="248" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Ministry of finance drab" r="148" g="187" b="148" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Teladi yellow" r="169" g="193" b="42" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Buccaneer blue" r="75" g="7" b="255" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Xenon red" r="200" g="2" b="4" a="255" glow="1"/> <color id="Scale plate brown" r="137" g="130" b="55" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Free families orange" r="252" g="158" b="6" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Trinity purple" r="176" g="61" b="203" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Kha'hak pink" r="238" g="175" b="237" a="255" glow="1"/> <color id="Cabal of curbs" r="252" g="212" b="15" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Rhak patriarchy" r="252" g="105" b="32" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Fallen families" r="250" g="180" b="156" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Court of curbs" r="252" g="212" b="15" a="255" glow="0.1"/>  <color id="Mitsuno" r="253" g="160" b="160" a="255" glow="0.1"/> <color id="Player lime" r="16" g="226" b="24" a="255" glow="0.1"/> </colors> <mappings> <mapping id="faction_alliance" ref="Alliance of the word purple"/> <mapping id="faction_antigone" ref="Antigone light blue"/> <mapping id="faction_argon" ref="Argon blue"/> <mapping id="faction_boron" ref="Boron Blue"/> <mapping id="faction_buccaneers" ref="Buccaneer blue"/> <mapping id="faction_court" ref="Court of curbs"/> <mapping id="faction_fallensplit" ref="Fallen families"/> <mapping id="faction_freesplit" ref="Free families orange"/> <mapping id="faction_hatikvah" ref="Hatikva cyan"/> <mapping id="faction_holyorder" ref="Holy order pink"/> <mapping id="faction_kaori" ref="Mitsuno"/> <mapping id="faction_khaak" ref="Kha'hak pink"/> <mapping id="faction_loanshark" ref="Vigor lavender"/> <mapping id="faction_ministry" ref="Ministry of finance drab"/> <mapping id="faction_paranid" ref="Paranid purple"/> <mapping id="faction_pioneers" ref="Segaris Teal"/> <mapping id="faction_player" ref="Player lime"/> <mapping id="faction_scaleplate" ref="Scale plate brown"/> <mapping id="faction_scavenger" ref="Riptide dull blue"/> <mapping id="faction_split" ref="Zyarth orange"/> <mapping id="faction_teladi" ref="Teladi yellow"/> <mapping id="faction_terran" ref="Terran sky blue"/> <mapping id="faction_trinity" ref="Trinity purple"/> <mapping id="faction_yaki" ref="Yaki pink"/> <mapping id="faction_xenon" ref="Xenon red"/> </mappings> </colormap>

Instructions

Now that you have the XML file in the correct folder, start the game and navigate to the settings page, then the accessibility page, and then go to the color-blind options page. You should see this page:

At the bottom right of the color-blind options page there is a Colour Profiles dropdown, inside that dropdown select the "Old faction colors" profile, then click apply on the bottom left of the screen and restart your game. Once you have loaded back into the game the new colors will be active.