Instead they have an Icon over them and you just communicate with them and someone tell you that got has pissed him off and go kill it, or something. One big change, you no longer have to dock to get missions. Anyone familiar with the X games will feel right at home pretty quickly.
Egosoft has released what will be the last game in the X series, a stand alone expansion to X3:Reunion with a wholly redone interface and with a hell of a lot of changes, new storyline etc etc