X3: Patched

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

Ok, I patched X3 and have tried to play it... all I can say is WOW.

I was in Ocean of Fantasy and attempted to help the Boron with a minor Xenon invasion which was kicking my butt. I jump into the next sector, Bluish Snout and end up in the middle of three Kha'aak Destroyers and twelve Clusters. I was like... WTH! I just jumped in here right before the patch and didn't have a problem. Now I couldn't make it to the middle of the sector without being hosed by the Destroyers...

The clusters were pretty easy, fired two missles and three shots and the clusters were usually destroyed before they became a problem... but twelve of them they were a problem when the Boron engaged them leaving the Destroyers to blow up everything in their sector.

Now I have three Xenon type P (? I think) ships heading toward my space, and three Kha'aak destroyers heading toward me. I'm stuck in the middle of hell. It definately makes it real hard and since my ranks are still so low I can't buy larger ships to deal with the invaders. I may be forced to start a new game here if their press continues south west.

[TimberWolf]

Sounds like a lot of fun and stress. Have you tried leading the enemy ships to other AI capital ships? If you get the Argon Nova floating around in the South East you maybe able to use some of the high yield torpedos to destroy them.

Right now I am debating what I should do with the christmas money I got. Should I use it for College, a GameCube Game, or a PC game such as X3 or Civ 4?

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

As you like X3 I would say X3 only because gamecuge are iffy now adays. My Xbox360 is overrated as well. Although the game Condemed is pretty freaking cool.

You like X2 though and from what I can gather the graphics are better in X3 but the stability is better in X2.

[TimberWolf]

I will buy X3 the next time I get the chance which could be between tomarrow and Monday. The fun I had in X2 out weighed my desire for the other games.

*EDIT*
I am considering not doing a story game. The idea of being a Pirate interests me. Then again I may need the help of the plot to get me going this first time.

The beginning of a game has always been the hardest for me but I also find it the funnest. My first thought in any game type I start is to go and grab the ship in Menelaus Frontier to help get me started trading. Explore the Argon and Boron sectors in that area, then start capturing Pirate ships until I can get enough escorts to protect me and all of my transports that I have running at that time. Maybe even choose a race to pirate instead of being friends with them all just so my universe can't be completely peaceful, like my game in X2 excluding the Khaak sectors and Xenon sectors.

I know I will have to get use to the major changes to the weapon systems and the flight physics. Its hard to think of a Nova with more than 3 weapons.

[TimberWolf]

Got it and been playing.

Current stats:
I have found the hidden ships in Family Whi and Menelaus Frontier. I just completed the mission to Farnham's Legend but didn't have energy cells to jump after him. After the 4 rounds I had captured 2 Pirate Busters. The ship in Family Whi has Ion Disrupters in its cargo hold and 2 BEPT (the same weapon you start with). I sold those two and bought myself 4 BARE (the weapon below the original start weapon). Right now I have all of my ships heading to Argon Prime where I intend to sell both Pirate Busters (unless I see something unique) and set up one of the TP's to be a sector trader.

BTW, how do you access the pictures taken in game? I know where they are but they have an extension that I don't recognize or find a program on my computer that knows what it is.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

I use Photoshop to access them and convert them to JPEG, but there is another program that comes with windows that will open them just not to the best quality.

Send them to me and I can convert them for you.

[TimberWolf]

Last night sucked majorly! My computer is just a hair under the min. specs with the processor by .1 or less. My FPS is fine most of the time except when I look at planets or large asteroid fields. I started tweaking with the graphics settings, reducing the resolution from optimal for my monitor to something lower. At first it looked like it had helped but then right at the worst possible time my FPS went to Zero.

The time was when I was going through a Pirate sector and 3 Pirates begin to attack me. One is a Nova, another is a Falcon Vanguard, and the last is a Harrier Hauler. I attack the Falcon first because of its PSG which in turns destroyed the Harrier for me. I then got the pilot to eject from the Falcon leaving the PSG onboard, hull at 70% and no shields. I turn to engage the Nova and got a strafing run in as my game turned into a slide show. There were low frame spots each time I looked towards the planet but nothing as bad as this. It got to a point were I started hearing systems being destroyed from my speakers but my screen hadn't updated. I died and it still didn't show anything new. I had to Ctrl-Alt-Del to get out of it.

*EDIT*

Ok, I got it working fine in most sectors, that I have been in. Basicly everything is turned off with regards to graphics. I am currently in Rhonkar's Clouds. I have retrieved the Harrier from The Vault and decided to keep it. I have a sector trader sitting in Argon Prime waiting for a load of something to buy and sell. I have tried taking him to Power Circle, Kingdom End, Red Light, and The Wall but it can't find any runs. I have captured a Pirate Falcon and sold it to help provide money for my Sector trader. I did a message board run where Xenon spawned and try to kill me as I take a passenger some where. I couldn't kill the Xenon at first but I did get the passenger where he wanted to go. I eventually ran to Family Whi where I took a stand with higher FPS.

I have figured out how to best use the strafe drive while attacking a pack of enemy ships. This is how I destroyed the 7 Xenon M's in Family Whi. Granted if you watch the background you will get motion sick but if you watch the target carefully it wont happen. What I did was fly in a circle around the target as it moves, turned around the Z-axis (twist the joy-stick) a little, and strafe in the direction going out of the circle I am making. This way I am not in the same place twice, my front is almost always pointed at the target, and if anyone is firing at me they will almost always miss depending from what angle they are attacking.

I have died more times in X3 then I ever did in X2. But I am having a lot of fun re-exploring the universe with a constant threat of death from enemy attacks instead of feeling secure in a Titan or Osprey thinking about factory placement. I currently have 33 screenshots taken but I don't remember what they are. I guess I will have to find something to install on my computer so I can convert them on my own when I want to instead of relying on someone else.

My current plan is to hang around Rhonkar's Clouds for a little bit more to get a couple of pirates, then head to Treasure Chest to find an abandond ships, then try and find the unknown Sectors beyond Maelstrom, back around to Akeela's Beacon and onto Rhonkar's Fire. I will then finish exploring the Pirate sectors and Teladi sectors between there and Argon Prime.

Tonight is my last night at home. The next time you hear from me I will be back in Columbus in my Dormatory.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

I have had it in my mind to restart a new game. With this new patch I have had a very difficult time with the Khaak invasions.

The Sector Traders never worked for me either. I had them maybe go on three runs by themselves. I usually order them myself now. I make much more money. If I could get a UT to buy what I wanted from what station I wanted and sell it where i wanted that would be great. But right now I have manually got two UT's going. Working on a third.

I guess I am just not a good pilot as I have a hard time with three ships when I'm solo. Espacially a Nova. I can usually get a Falcon if it is by itself. Harriers are much easier for me.

[XMEN Iceman]

TW...what processor are you running...might have a spare laying around here that might help.

Just a thought.

[TimberWolf]

I have an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ that runs at 1.67 GHz. The game requires 1.7. I have 1 gig of DDR RAM.

I just moved into my dorm and doing any computer upgrades here is something I would rather not do.

*EDIT*

Last night I ran into some trouble getting the Nova. It wasn't hard to find and I don't see why people complained about where the gates are. A long story short, I fly past the patroling Pirates and get the Nova, transfer my stuff over and take it as my personal ship. Shortly after entering the first unknow sector my Buster explodes with no warning. unwilling to accept that I reloaded and went directly to the gates and as i get closer to the south gate in the first unknown sector I exploded. The Pirates had laid a Squash mine field.

Another bad time was when I was in Moo Kye's Revenge trying to make my way to LooMackstrat's Legacy. I can't believe how many Pirates where there. The first time I entered the system I took out 9 Pirates and had captured a Pirate Nova. I check the map and there where no Pirates on my radar even though I know they are near the north gate (all my fighting was close to the south gate). I capture the Nova and sent it to the sector south. I haddn't even had it a full minute yet when a wing of 6 Pirate Harriers come flying into my view. I tried to take them out but they were dead set in destroying my new prize, which they did easily. Shortly later they destroyed me.

I tried several times getting through the Pirate sectors but there are just too many Pirate Harriers flying around. They get to swarming and firing missiles while they are moving at full speed. Even in my nice new Nova I can't hit them enough to destroy them. I can get a salvo to hit them and rip their shields apart but then they lay in the speed and I can't get another shot to hit them for the life of me.

Since I can't head North I am now heading West. I ended last night in Barren Shores feeling defeated by the over whelming Pirates. On another note I finally got my ST working constantly. I had been having problems where he would sit on standby for hours but now that I have put him in Queens Space (I think) he has been doing nothing but energy runs. He has finally gotten to level 2.

My Fleet is now this:
Buster (Starter)
Buster Sentinal (Found)
Nova (Found)
Pericles Vanguard (Found)
Toucan Hauler (Found)
Iguana Vanguard (Found)

I have captured about 5 ships and sold them all. I needed money more than more ships. I have about 750,000 credits (again my ST hasn't been doing much work). I have taken one mission and completed it, a Xenon is on my tail mission. I did try an assasination mission but failed when I bumped into the enemy Orca and died when I was trying to get its own missiles to hit it. That was the first time I had ever seen one of those, Huge.

[TimberWolf]

Out of all the sectors I have explored, about 65, Merchant Heaven is my favorite because of the awsome frame rate I get there and the regular intervals the Pirates enter by.

I have only seen three stations there but I have killed over a dozen Pirates there and captured a badly damaged Pirate Falcon there. The best part is one sector north is a shipyard to sell. The down side is I have the most problems Grand Exchange and the most crashes. Such as the screen stops updating but the game is still going, because I can hear the sounds of going through the menus. Because of this I have learned how to dock and how to exit the game without seeing the screen. To fix this I have to reboot my computer but that is only a temporary fix so I usually have to get out of those sectors as fast as I can.

The fights in X3 are far harder and more skill oriented then it was in X2. This became painfully appearent when a single Pirate Herrier (can't remember is it was a Vanguard or something else) destroyed my Buster. I have also realized I can't hit the broad side of a planet at one meter away. My accuracy is 15%, up from 11%. I have died more in 3 days of playing than I did in 3 months of playing X2.

My circling tactic works on the M3's and M4's but the M5's are just to fast. I have run into many Falcons with PSG's and/or Ion D's that end up being a lot of fun because they destroy their escorting Herriers. Taking a Nova in a Buster is suicidal but doing so in another Nova is dangerous. But keep on circling (or should I say sphering since its 3D?) and you will spend more time out of his gun sights to take him out.

I have dabbled in using my two Busters as escorts for my Nova. They have 4 weapons a piece, two BPAC's and 2 BAIRE's (I think). My Nova only has 3 AHEPT that it came with. The load out of abandoned ships are random because one of the times I did get it but reloaded it had 5 AHEPT. I am considering keeping the Pericles to add to my excorts. This would give me a squad of 4 ships consisting of 1 M3 and 3 M4's. Once my current ST gets to level 8 or higher I will set him to UT and start the other Hualler to ST where the other one is right now.

I have not gone into any Xenon sectors. Partially out of fear of frame rate hell. I have also kept away from Ore Belt for the time being. Another reason why I have been doing this is to prevent my future UT's from going there. But then again I will have to go there some day to finish exploring the universe.

I now have 60 screenshots, 300 mb in their current form, and seen 30-day trial software online that claims to be able to convert them. I probably should stop taking screenshots sinse it is so much of a hassle to convert to something I can use. On the hardware side of things I have used the monitors in Windows to see that X3 uses almost all of my 1gig of ram and keeps my processor at 100% constantly. I am looking at the Tech support to see what others do to help their systems along.

*EDIT*

After playing more last night I have lost a ship. I was finally able to get all of my fighters together in a Split Sector to have a wing of 7 ships with the Nova in the center. I engaged a Khaak cluster in the area to help with my race rank. There was no alarm about it besides the initial message of "One of your ships is under attack in...." I flew into the next sectot to make my way to Rolks Fate for some much needed upgrades. It was then as I was watching my ships follow that I noticed that my Herrier was missing. And I had just installed new weapons on it.

On another note I have completed my first assasination mission without shooting the target once. How? The Mammoth spawned in Elena's Fortune inside an asteroid and as soon as I jumped in the collision detection kicked in. Got a couple of screen shots of it, now 105 shots in the folder in a useless format. I waited for my escorts to catch up before I finished off the 4 Nova's that were with it.

I can't tell you how many times having these other ships have saved my but from missiles or bad frames per second. I have cleared out two Pirate sectors and currently sitting on a pirate station scanning ships passing by hoping to find one that turns red and can be captured. I am broke again after taking all of my ships through software upgrades. My Nova has 4 AHEPT and nothing else except 4 empty slots. Here is what my current wing looks like and their names:

Nova (Found) = Nova 1
Buster (Start) = Buster 1
Buster Sentinel (Found) = Buster Sentinel Defender
Buster Sentinel (Found) = Buster Sentinel Defender 2
Mako Raider (Found) = Mako Scout
Pericles Vanguard (Found) = Pericles Defender

All but the Nova are fully equiped. I have used them to scout out sectors in minutes instead of 30 minutes on my own. I have used them to do long range strikes against Pirates. they have also be very usefull in keeping the Pirate Herriers off of my back. It is a beautiful sight when you see a Pirate being attack from 6 different directions at once (took some shots of these too).