X3 - Terran Conflict

[tommers]

This is from the New Home missions where you've got to (it now turns out) rescue people from a station. For some reason you need a (I think) TS - a small carrier anyway. I've not really used wings and fleets before so its quite interesting to learn. Found a good script that organises the fighters a bit better - adds pilots that can gain rank and such.

CODEA Weapon System

To do that mission

Spoiler

I had to do about 6 unfocused jumps - this was not mentioned at all in the mission briefing

Oooh, that's an interesting script. I've always shied away from fighters cos I can't bear losing them and having all the trouble of re-equipping replacements... it just all seems so complicated.

I think with that mission I jumped in one of my docked fighters and kept the enemy busy whilst my TM docked at the station... is that what it tells you to do? I knew about the spoiler from the forums. Loads of people moaning about it.

When you set up your complexes for the hub, which scripts did you use? You said something about tubeless complexes? Does that reduce the lag? Did you use the complex construction script?

I've been meaning to set them up for a few days but I'm just dithering.

 

[Mooncat]

I think so - thought it might only become avalanche after you've got the hub but if you're doing it... Its only after I UFJD into the system that I got a message saying to dock at the station, or rather, take out a few fighters then dock at the station.

The tubeless complex script is here - its in German but you just have to install it. It reduces lag and self pwning immensely!
I also used the complex construction script - if you worried about lagging you can just roll all your factories into one 'borg cube' type thing which makes life easer.
This might also help http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=225042

When you've got a good industrial base behind you, you can just make all the weapons you need - it really is a nightmare equipping ships and having to find the right factories and some of the bigger carriers can hold 50 or more fighters!

 

[Epona]

Just got this from Steam.

Can someone please point me in the direction of an online tutorial/manual that goes through the very very basics. It looks very pretty but I don't know how to do anything!

 

[Epona]

Jesus H Christ I finally managed to a) move my ship, b) crash several times, and c) dock and save. Steep learning curve! Will get there eventually.

ETA: OK I've now found out how to use the autopilot

 

[tommers]

Epona - go to www.egosoft.com

Most of the stuff you need will be on there, the manual is beyond useless.

I bought a joystick specifically for this (well, for x2) and that makes it a lot easier to control your ship. Most of the time you're using autopilot anyway, except for any fighting.

Ask questions as you go... if I can remember the answers then I'm more than happy to give you them... I remember what it's like to start with!

 

[Epona]

Cheers tommers. I'm actually finding the ships easy enough to control now I'm used to it, I much prefer a mouse for that sort of thing because it's what I'm most used to. Ta for the egosoft link as well.

This game has completely sucked me in, don't know how the series managed to completely pass me by up until now! I have more questions than I know what to do with at the moment after 2 days solid playing the game (plenty of games would have been finished after the time I've put into this already, and I've barely got started, what an absolute bargain!)

I now have 2 ships because I found an abandoned one so I'm using the slower/larger capacity one for short trading runs to keep a bit of cash rolling in and using the faster one for exploring (so I can run away from pirates!) I am going to be saving up forever for the Mk 3 trading software but that is my current goal. Until my goal changes again anyway! I haven't started on the plot yet Doing the Terran Defender start.

I have to say that this is the only game I've ever played where I've felt like I needed to have more than 1 monitor hooked up but the OH will go spare if I commandeer his

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

i'm beginning to feel more intrested... but i'm betting this is an epic time sink

 

[tommers]

Do the Terran plot. You get lots of good ships.

Mk3 trading is great. You can set up sector traders and once they get a decent level you can make them into Universe Traders, with jump drives....

 

[Epona]

i'm beginning to feel more intrested... but i'm betting this is an epic time sink

Time sink and a half - I was getting a bit concerned that I might chew my own fingers off waiting for TESV:Skyrim next November, now I'm concerned that I might not have finished this game by then It's kind of slow to start off with but once you put some time into it and start making money & upgrading your ships and whatnot it becomes more interesting - when I only had 1 ship I was focussed on making money through trade, now I have 2 I can explore a bit more while still making money through trade with the other ship...

Do the Terran plot. You get lots of good ships.

Mk3 trading is great. You can set up sector traders and once they get a decent level you can make them into Universe Traders, with jump drives....

Yeah I'm exploring far enough afield now and seeing more distant trade opportunities that jump drives look to be a very attractive option - can't afford it at the moment tho!

I haven't started the Terran plot yet simply because I'd rather trade or get into mining or building than fight, and I bet there's fighting

 

[Epona]

Oh dear god, I got a third ship (found another abandoned one!) and my head hurts trying to keep track of what they are supposed to be doing! I've gone from making cups of tea while my 1 ship was going somewhere on autopilot, to a tidal wave of messages telling me that my ships are awaiting new orders! At least I am making more money though, but I am working harder for it without doubt. My head is fucking spinning.

Haven't had this much fun with a game for ages

 

[Random]

I've got X3 Reunion, but it just lost my interest, although I could see the potential.

 

[tommers]

Oh dear god, I got a third ship (found another abandoned one!) and my head hurts trying to keep track of what they are supposed to be doing! I've gone from making cups of tea while my 1 ship was going somewhere on autopilot, to a tidal wave of messages telling me that my ships are awaiting new orders! At least I am making more money though, but I am working harder for it without doubt. My head is fucking spinning.

Haven't had this much fun with a game for ages

When I stopped playing I think I had about 50 ships and 25 stations.

I won't even start to tell you about the Hub plot.

I might go back to it all but it'll take me a day or two to get my head around what everything is doing.

There is fighting in the Terran plot but it takes you through all the basic stuff.

Once you get a few ships and a station or two there are lots of scripts that can really help you with the logistics of everything. You can set most things to run automatically... which saves the head spinning a little bit.

Oh, and those abandoned ships are usually pretty rare, so don't sell em!

 

[kyser_soze]

This game is completely incompatible with fatherhood, I've sadly found.

 

[Epona]

Just had a scary autopilot experience - bounced 3 times off the hull of a huge freighter like a stone being skimmed across a lake while I was pissing about with menus giving orders to another ship... had to limp off to a quiet spot to get the old repair laser out because by the time I'd exited from the menu my shields were gone and so was most of my hull

I have just bought my first TS class freighter and am kitting it out for sector trading - I already have 2 TP class sector traders (I found the ships abandoned) but I'm debating whether it's worth making them universe traders as they can't carry the XL loads. They are both at level 10 but they're doing quite nicely in financial terms so I think I might just leave them as they are for now.

Still haven't started on any of the plots, I'm just not that into the combat aspect!

 

[golightly]

Wow! You have got much further than I did. As I recall I only got as far as getting four small craft and I spent hours and hours travelling from system trading without making much progress so I lost heart. Maybe I should dig this out again but I don't think that the other half would be too thrilled.

 

[tommers]

Bigger the better for UTs I think. I wouldn't use TPs to do sector trader. If you don't want to sell them then use them to ferry round Energy Cells or something.

TMs are the best ship early in game. You can use your M3 to attack the target and have a TM as backup and a base if it all goes pear shaped. They can also collect any fighters you cap and keep them safe until you can get them to a shipyard. They're really cheap for all the things they can do. Kind of a poor man's carrier and TL.

You know you can switch the pilots to new ships?

 

[Epona]

tommers - thanks for the info. I have nothing else planned for the TPs right now but as you say I can always switch out the levelled up pilots to other ships when I want them for something else, and I will do eventually. I got a Mercury Superfreighter as well, nice balance of speed and cargo space.

I have a couple of TMs (Split Boa) and am organising my fighters onto them (I have M3/4/5s that I've randomly collected dotted about all over the place), what weapons would you recommend for a TM for if things go tits up? I planned on using a lot of the cargo space on them for missiles/ammo (and energy cells for their own and fighters' jump drives) so that my fighters can restock from them, is that the best thing to do?

I am loving the game but my god I still don't know what half of the stuff is for, especially the various types of software. I've got to grips with the trading stuff OK but the rest of it is still a bit of a mystery at the moment!

 

[tommers]

that doesn't change! I spent the last few days playing it trying to board a stationary TL with my marines, which had taken about 2 month's game time to train. It was an exercise in futility - I had no idea what to do.

I used my TM as a backup ship early on. Stuck a jumpdrive in it and called it in if I was in trouble with a combat mission. I can't remember which one I had but it had 600MJ shields and 4xPACs so it provided a bit of extra firepower.

Then I used it as a mobile store. Send it off round the Universe picking up guns and shields and energy cells and you can outfit fighters with it. You can also use the store space of all the fighters, useful if you want a load of jumpdrives - equip each fighter with one, transfer them over to the target ships and then send your TM back off to Terracorp HQ and fit out all the fighters with more, ready for the next lot.

Then I used it as a mobile hangar - collecting up fighters that I'd capped and keeping them safe before I sold them. You could also stock it with one of each type of ship - so that if you get a taxi mission for example you have an M5 there ready and waiting.

Then I used it as a refuelling ship. Capital ships can't dock with SPPs, so give the TM a transporter device and get it to ferry energy cells back and forth.

By the time you get to M7s and 6s and whatever then they're pretty fragile in a fight but they will more than hold their own at the beginning.

 

[Mooncat]

The X-Tended Mod has just come out. Its a complete re-jig of the game: More weapons, stations, ships and 200 new sectors plus the UI has had a bit of a re-jig too (still no proper pause tho ) I kind of gave up on the original after losing my save game but this mod requires a re-start anyway. Only just installed it to make sure it works and found my self with an M3 I don't recognise with weapons I don't know in a sector I've never heard off - awesomes!

http://www.thexuniverse.com/content/

ETA - there's huge factory ships to be had too.

 

[tommers]

The X-Tended Mod has just come out. Its a complete re-jig of the game: More weapons, stations, ships and 200 new sectors plus the UI has had a bit of a re-jig too (still no proper pause tho ) I kind of gave up on the original after losing my save game but this mod requires a re-start anyway. Only just installed it to make sure it works and found my self with an M3 I don't recognise with weapons I don't know in a sector I've never heard off - awesomes!

http://www.thexuniverse.com/content/

ETA - there's huge factory ships to be had too.

oooohhhhh, nice one! I'll give that a go*





*once I've finished NWN2...





I've just had a look at the features. It's massive!

 

[Epona]

The X-Tended Mod has just come out. Its a complete re-jig of the game: More weapons, stations, ships and 200 new sectors plus the UI has had a bit of a re-jig too (still no proper pause tho ) I kind of gave up on the original after losing my save game but this mod requires a re-start anyway. Only just installed it to make sure it works and found my self with an M3 I don't recognise with weapons I don't know in a sector I've never heard off - awesomes!

http://www.thexuniverse.com/content/

ETA - there's huge factory ships to be had too.

Hold on, 200 new sectors? I'm not so far in that I can't restart!

 

[Cid]

Anyone played the mod much? Also is it worth choosing one of the set classes, or can you get similar missions etc playing custom?

Oh, and is anyone using a 360 controller? I quite like the feel of it and imagine combat would be much better, but it's poorly ported. There are a couple of complicated fixes around by the looks of things, but looks like a right headache/might interfere with using it on other games.

 

[Epona]

Decided against the mod (for the time being at least) on the basis that I haven't yet finished the vanilla missions and completely got to grips with the vanilla game, and from what I can see it is set in a different universe, all new sectors and ships etc with no access to those in vanilla. I have it bookmarked though, for when I want something different.

In terms of my progress in the game (for those that are interested, thanks Tommers for all the help you've provided so far!) I have restarted a couple of times after realising that I was doing it wrong, I'm now on an "Anonymous Argon" start and started out with a bit of manual trading and set myself up as a "used ships salesman" - either buying and repairing broken down ships and selling them for a profit, or keeping those that I had a use for (have discovered that looking out for and buying wrecked fighters can net you between 20k-30k profit for an M5 and 500-800k profit for an M3, you soon learn which prices that you are offered will turn you a profit, TP/TS class not worth the effort because it's too boring repairing them and they are not as profitable as buying and selling M3s, unless someone offers me something at a good price that I actually want to keep and use that is when I might buy a damaged freighter) have got a few sector traders up and running, bought myself an M6 (Terran Katana) and done some Terran plot missions at last!

I'm not so hot at doing combat under my own control as I have very slow reactions (and arthritis in my hands), so a corvette with decent shielding and several turrets set up with instructions to do stuff automatically is working well for me!

 

[Epona]

Bloody hell some things are just not straightforward.

Please help: I bought some Marines at a marine training barracks, now I know that they can only gain combat ranks in the field, but I want to train them in other stuff (hacking, engineering etc), how in the holy fuck do I do that? I mean in really simple terms. ie. Where do I go, and what menu do I use to start them being trained? Because I can't for the life of me figure it out, and nearly an hour of googling and forum searches hasn't provided an answer! They are currently watching the latest movies on show and getting fat and lazy in my nice TP while I work out what to do with them!

 

[tommers]

You can train them at military bases or military outposts... one of them.

It takes AGES. And it costs LOADS. And you'll need an M7M to get them to board anything.


And then they will all be killed by the completely untrained crew or be unable to get through the bulkhead.

They made it loads more difficult in one of the updates cos people were just making shedloads by boarding and stealing capital ships and then using a little bug where you broadcast "sorry" to the police and they all stop attacking you.

 

[Mooncat]

In that X-Tended mod there's a device that can teleport your marines directly inside a ship once you've knocked out its shields (although I'm sure there's a mod for the vanilla too)
There's a whole new reputation system too - basically you can't go around blatting people willy-nilly without someone, somewhere getting pissed off.
Also - no plot missions to speak of so its a little daunting getting started

 

[Mooncat]

Epona - there's a mod called MARS Fire control which overhauls the turret commands - basically it'll switch between different weapons in your hold depending on the range and class of the target.
It'll affect you're Steam achievements if you mod the game though.

Personally the combat is the reason I play this and not EVE

 

[Epona]

I won't even start to tell you about the Hub plot.

I am on that at the moment. HOW much ore? I now have a fleet of freighters dedicated to it I have over 400 hours clocked up on the game so far according to Steam, and I still wish there was a help function - a little button you could click by each command that would tell you exactly what it does and give you an example of how to use it - it took me half an hour of googling to find out that I needed to keep my hub stocked up with e-cells if I wanted my freighters to restock when docking so they could use their jump drives, and I only googled it after realising my freighters doing ore runs had run out and were flying through pirate sectors instead of jumping. I thought that because I'd set the resupply quantity and jump range etc. that they would go buy some automatically when they were getting low like my sector/universe traders do. It's sorted now I've worked out what to do, but it's amazing that after 400+ hours there is still some stuff to learn!

Epona - there's a mod called MARS Fire control which overhauls the turret commands - basically it'll switch between different weapons in your hold depending on the range and class of the target.
It'll affect you're Steam achievements if you mod the game though.

Personally the combat is the reason I play this and not EVE

Cheers I'll look into that, I have absolutely appalling reactions and hand to eye co-ordination so anything that makes that aspect of the game easier is fine by me. I don't care about achievements, I managed a couple of decades of gaming without them and there's something about it that reminds me of scout/guide badges and I don't need an achievement on steam for completing a certain thing within the game any more than I needed that badge when I was 10 for being able to do washing up - probably just me though, achievements seem to be a popular feature of games these days.

 

[tommers]

I have over 400 hours clocked up on the game so far according to Steam,

do you?!?

I'll be sending you the questions in future then!

 

[Epona]

do you?!?

I'll be sending you the questions in future then!

Yeah I'm not working at the moment I've done the Terran plot and have done the first couple of Operation Final Fury missions but that's on hold for the moment cos since I started the hub it's like someone pulled the plug out of my bank account and let all the credits drain out! That's even though I homebased all my ST/UTs to it to keep it topped up. So I'm doing a lot of station defence and patrol missions to keep my personal funds increasing, I want to buy a carrier soon.