[Space Sim] X3: Reunion

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

A quick update before I get back to the fight.

I now have two Sector traders going full force, Gambit's Trading Copmany and Timberwolf's Trader. One set in Home of Light the other set in Argon Prime. I earn about 60k from each everytime they sell their cargo. I actually only earn about 10k after everything is bought then sold, but it's working.

I have ten ships now, I will give a list soon. One of which is a Xenon Type L fighter. I ran into a HUGH freaking battle in Xenon Sector 101 and landed a capped ship. Well actually I landed more like six, but I kept dying due to getting greedy. So I loaded up a saved game and capped one and sent him home and battled the others more carefully. All that is elft in that sector are three captial ships. WHen I entered there were about 20 other ships, Split, Argon, Boron, and Paranid. Whehn I was leaving, there were four left not including me and my stolen ship.

I have enough for a station now but not a high enough rank it would seem. Three of my ships are stuck in pirate territory without jumpdrives so are having a hard time getting out. I am having to jump in and manually stear them out fo the sector by going WAY behind the normal space used.

I have seen two UFO's now both with screen shots. I also saw an awesome fight between a mako and a xenon M... they played chicken and shot each others shields and hull down and ran into each other blowing thmselves up. I wish I could get this damn recording feature working so I could capture video of it. All in all I am really enjoying it now. I now have funds to get better weapons on my ships. None of them but the newest one has any hull damage though so they are working out great as well.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

Ok, got a few things done. I've got some money and all my ships loaded, upgraded and fixed. Plus I have a Xenon L Fighter that apaprently is their best fighter. Dunno, it was easy to get.

Here are some shots of my fleet so far. Sorry for the lack of a decent screen image. The ships out front are a little distance away from the two in the back. A couple hundred meters actuall. Thne two ships in the back are pretty big in comparison, especially to the smaller Harrier Sentinel and the two Pirate Busters.

The types of ships. The names are all temporary and I am willing to take any input or advice to get a set group of names down. One for figthers, haulers, traders, and scouts.

(Very top) Iguanna Vanguad: Gambit's Trading Company (level 4)
(Second top) Toucan Hauler: Timberwolf's Trader (level 2) - having a problem trading with him.

Left to right:
1)Buzzard Hauler: No name
2) Harrier Sentinel: No name
3) Xenon L Fighter: No name
4) Pirate Buster: No name
5) Pirate Buster: Stolen Glory
6) Buster Sentinel: Cain's Glory
7) Argon Buster Starter: Vintage Glory





And here is some UFO Goodness.

[XMEN Gambit]

The UFOs are, I believe, Xenon "lifeboats". At least, I've seen 'em around when a Xenon abandons ship. I've got a pic of one around here somewhere, myself.

Never tried to pick one up, though. Either of you guys?

[TimberWolf]

UFO's started as a joke back in the early days of the X-universe. People claimed to have seen them in the first game and later on the Dev's added it in. They show up as Gonar on the radar and when you look at their stats you only see question marks.

They are known to roam the universe and if you follow one it will eventually show you every sector in the game. It is not possible to get one with out cheating, using the script function. A rumor of a UFO base was started during X2 but no one found evidence of it. Some believe that the Dev's may have put that into X3 just to continue on the UFO joke.

Nice lookin fleet. Your pics help show the size differences between ships that wasn't there in X2. It is hard to imagine the true size of those transports in the back ground. That Xenon L is their M3 fighter. The AI doesn't know how to use any ship to their best potential. According to the posts by players on the X-boards the AI will get better as your combat rank and time played goes up.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

The UFO's show up as Unknown Object. I can't seem to follow them as soon as they leave my fog of war they are gone, I can;t catch up. I did try to follow one through a gate but it was gone when I went through it.

I have seen a map with five sectors that you can not get to with a gate, as well as two destroyed gates one in Freedoms Reach I think. I know what one fo the sectors is and what it holds but I don't know what the others do.

I wish I could take a shot of the ships clearer. I may do individual ship images. That may better show the detail.

[TimberWolf]

The features are of course not final so some may be missing upon release but the intention is to get as much in as possible.

Feature List, and Fixes

- Mobile mining
- Sector enhancements
- HUD render performance increased
- Bullet render performance increased
- additional user-defined graphics options
- Optimized shader overall performance
- Higher quality /and speed of medium shaders
- Plot elements restored to working (should also be for existing saves too)
- CPU load reudced, increasing whole game performance
- NPC fight AI improved
- GOD engine rebalanced, also affecting economy
- M1 & M2 shield generators increased
- M2 laser generators increased
- Swarm missiles rebalanced and NPC AI tweaked to allow handling of them
- Complete tips menu with all game tips introduced
- Pirate stations spawn pirate ships
- Increased NPC fights and conflicts
- Plot ending Argon rank bug fixed
- Argon v Boron battle issues resolved
- Captured ship speed bug fixed
- Ships straiking a gate following jump fixed

The above is certainly not an exhaustive list but just designed to give you an idea of the content. A new version of the update has very recently been released to testers.

http://forum2.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=110909

Thought you would want to know.

Those 5 sectors are the Khaak sectors that have no gates. You have to get their coordinates before you can get there.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

I really like the Pirate base fix. I have found three pirate bases but only one of them is red to me. I could literally bring all my fighters over and sit there taking them out gaining combat rank, plus get paid as it is technically in Argon Space as I have a police license for Argon and Teladi. Working on the Boron license and I won't even try to ge the Paranid one as what happens later in the game makes it a moot point.

[TimberWolf]

The way I name ships in X2 go as follows:

Freighter: Mercury-RLSPP-UT
which means it is a Mercury Transport for my Red Light Solar Power Plant and currently operating as a Universal Transporter.

Fighter: Nova-LoS-D
which means it is a Nova fighter for my Lords of Steel Destroyer, a Titan, and is equiped to defend the ship

Capital: Lords of Steel
which is just a meaningful name to me


Currently I am going through my list of over a hundred ships renaming old ones to upgrade them to my newer system. My original system was Mercury29 RLSPP which means it is a Mrecury transport, the 29th bought or captured, assigned to my Red Light Solar Power Plant.

This kind of labeling helps when you have over a hundred ships and one gets destroyed. I really hate it when a UT gets destroyed because it takes so long to get another one going. I probably should try to make some more in my X2 game but I fear that if I get too many running around then I would elliminate most of the AI transports and be attack more often.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

Thats a good idea... I will try to do that.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

What is the advantage over the buster and the discover?

I always hear the M6 are the best but the Nova is an M3? I think or a 4... whatever it is my buster is one below it. So what is the way you determine by class whether it is good or not. I think the disco is considered an M5 I think? I could be wrong. I know the M1 and M2 are the big heavy class of ships, but I read on the X-boards that the M6 are the best... why? I want something faster with heavier shields than my Buster right now. Would that be a Disco? I can't get a Nova or a mamba right now, my rank is still pretty low. The disco looks bigger but is it really better? If so I may purchase my first ship next time I get on and play. I've got a mil or so in credits so I've got money. My trading is giving me some but my ST are sitting idle to much, er standby. Its almost worth it to manually trade for me as my econamics are horribly wacked in my universe. My ST trade twice and then no one wants anything for a day or two.

I've read people going to Level8 and becomming a UT in 8 hours. No freaking way in my universe.

That Xenon sector I cleared out fo the ships still has the cap ships in them, and they are slowly making their way to the gate. I need ot find a way to stop them but I cant buy mines or Laser towers and I was in a fight with them with 20 ships and they didn't even dent the shields. I'm worried the universe is about to get spanked by three pissed off Xenon cap ships.

[XMEN Gambit]

Gotta choose carefully where to put STs. I don't know the X3 universe, but in X2 you'd optimally want a sector where low-level resources, like energy or wheat, had several sources and several consumers. Plenty o' traffic.

Again, in X2:
Centaur = M6 (corvette, doesn't really fit the pattern)
Disco = M5 (scout)
Buster = M4 (light fighter)
Nova = M3 (heavy fighter)
M2, M1, and M0 are the destroyer, carrier, and cruiser classes, though I get confused about which is which since I've never bought one.

[TimberWolf]

The way the class system goes is this:

M0: MotherShip (Only the Khaak and Xenon ever had this class, so far)
M1: Carrier
M2: BattleShip
M3: Heavy Fighter
M4: Light Fighter
M5: Scout
M6: Corvett

The M6 was not a part of the X-universe when it was first made, so they tacked it onto the end. The M6 is ment to be an escort craft for the bigger ships. The Nova is an M3, has higher shields than a Buster but is slower. As you get bigger ships you will get slower speeds but gain shield strength and weapon power. You can find an abandoned Momba floating around in a Pirate sector if you want one.

As for the Sector Traders, some sectors work out better than others. If they sit too much then take them to another sector and try again. Circle of Power, Kingdoms End, and CEO's Buckzoid sectors are usually good sectors to level up traders.

I don't know how to eliminate the Xenon capital ships at this time. The only suggestion I have at this time is hire a TL and sit in inside the gate they are going to pass through. The first one through will destroy the TL and itself. Do it again and again untill they are all destroyed.

[TimberWolf]

Have you looked into building factories yet?

Personaly I am considering setting up Spacefuel stations in Teladi space and Spaceweed stations in Split space. If I remember correctly those races buy/sell those goods at their trading stations. I may start out with food stations in Argon sectors to build up my rep first and then turn them into a complex to feed a 1MJ factory. I hear those are very profitable in Argon space.


Another question: What do you do to capture pirate ships? Using my Nova and its 4 AHEPT to quickly take out their shields and do hull damage then asking for their surrender doesn't work for me. Even when I totally overwhelm them they still don't eject. So far i have only captured 5 ships which I have sold to get my ST going and better equip my starting ship.

[TsN|Wildchild|xmen]

Wow... you have the Nova already. Nice. Either you play far more than I do or your just a vet.

Ok I have thought about building factories but haven't had the time yet as I have been fending off Xenon and now Khaak invasion forces. Which has prompted me into thinking of starting over. I thought of putting an Ore Mine in Ore Belt, there is a nice 26+ yield asteroid in there that supposedly is self sufficient I hear. I also was thinking of putting something in Argon Prime for my Argon Ranking. Like a SSP or something that is not in the sector.

As for capping. It is all based on pilot ranking and a few other minor things. The faster you rip through their hull they will bail more often. However it has to be a repeatative hit not hit once or twice miss a lot then hit some more.

I have only capped a few myself and it seems to me that the faster and more accurate I hit them the more often they bail. I can get someone in a less heavily armed fighter and a less skilled pilot to bail faster by doing that. I haven't tried doing anything larger than fighters though.

When last checked I had in total about twenty ships but most are fighters and only three freighters. I manually control my traders to dock and sell I make much more profit that way instead of sitting still and not doing anything for a few hours. That way I can buy from one race and sell to another boosting both at the same time.

[TimberWolf]

I have played 1 day, 17 hours, and 38 minutes in game. In reality it has been a lot more because I had a lot of reloads from major mistakes. Getting around most of the universe is easy since I know it from X2. The only hard part is finding the new areas, even with a map telling me there is a gate there doesn't help in actually finding them. Over all most of the gates have been easy.

As for the Nova I kind of did a B-line in that direction avoiding all Xenon Sectors and seeing what they did to my Unknow sectors. Actually getting the Nova was easy as long as you avoided the patrolling Pirate Nova's and Herrier's along with the random Squash mines laying around. Infact I would not have found it as quickly as I had if the Pirate patrol didn't lead me to its general area as soon as I came into the sector (I wanted to make sure they were the only one's).

Are the Khaak and Xenon only being a problem in Argon space or all over you universe? For me I am just seeing a small Khaak attacks and small patrols of Xenon ships roaming Pirate sectors or entering boardering sectors. I have had an invasion happen in my game by the Pirates. In Grand Exhange there were around 30 or so along with Xenon ships invading. That was part of the reason my system was having such a hard time there.

For capping I may strip some guns from my other ships to fully arm my Nova. The AHEPT's do such a good job ripping the pirates apart it doesn't give them much of a chance to surrender. I think I may have killed a couple of ships as they were surrendering but their messages came after I fired another volly. I am thinking of maybe having this weapons load out:

4 AHEPT
2 BPAC
2 BIRE

or
4 AHEPT
4 BPAC

I have a fieght scanner and plan on being a Pirate on Pirates in their own sectors. I tried this before alone but as soon as you claim a ship they come after it. But now I have wingmen to protect me and any new claims.