[Space Sim] X3: Reunion

[TimberWolf]

Heres the news roundup of tonights playing:

Started off with a spin through Pirate space, capturing a Falcon on the way. Check to make sure Xenon sector 101 was still empty, took out the patrol that was there to make it so. I then went into Pirate ally to get that free ship, came out with that and two others. After that I went to the Xenon sector next to Eighteen Billion and came out of it with about 20 million credits richer from the selling of weapons.

With the new found founds I have added a Crystal Fab, Solar Power Plant, and Space Fuel Distillery onto my Ore Belt complex. Destroyed the local Pirate base (need o find where it spawns at), got a new UT going and two sector traders leveling up (in the end that will be 6 UTs running once the new one's finish leveling).

I will need to buy dedicated super freighters to pick up the weapons behind me as I clear out a Xenon sector. I called on a UT and its cargo hold wasn't enough for even half of the goods out there so I missed out on hundred or so million credits. Next time I may spend the money on a personal Mammoth for me to use on salvage missions and building complexes (which will start doing more ofter as more money rolls in steadily).

My Patrol in Ore Belt has seen some good action from the Kha'ak. A huge cluster jumped in and engaged the patrol. I was busy in Pirate Ally at the time and didn't have the energy to jump back myself, as I was in the LX at the time. In the end my patrol wiped them out with almost no sheild loss. For now that patrol is all I need but eventually the fighters will be replaced with something more powerful.

Now all I need to do is build up forces around Pirate bases and Teladi shipyards so I can clear out Pirate ally so I can start building in there and take it over as my Home Sectors. Of course that will all Pirate sectors eventually, but I will take their heart out first where there a tons of ore and silicon asteroids to network together to support weapon, shield, and ship productions.

*EDIT*

Been playing a lot this weekend to relax.

Found out that I had lost a UT while I was doing the Bala Gi missions but I never got an audible warning. I was just going through checking what ships I owned when I saw it said I only had 5 Caiman's. Well, I just set up the 6th one. Went through my mile long message log and found that it was attack in a sector and that was it. No ID of the killer. All I know it happened when I was towing the Yacht. Now I have a replacement being trained.

I now have a good amount of money rolling in consistently. My Ore Belt Complex is completely self-sufficient with extras to sell. I made a bad choice by building a Mass Driver Forge as I am having trouble selling them now as all the near by equipment docks are full. I have a Spacefuel distillery there working but I have killed off the local pirate base so its not selling as well as it could have. The 1 MW shield fab is doing the best. I have it set to sell anything it produces even the intermediary products.

I have started to build another complex in Split space to provide secondary resources to the local factories. It hasn't had the time to really get going yet so I can't say if that is a smart choice yet or not. Averice, the sector that the player can buy, never went on the auction block in my game as its there now owned by Burnit. I didn't notice this until I flew through and saw the Teladi Trading station. I had no interest in buying it in the first place as I am planning on claiming the Pirate sectors as my own.

Had my first Xenon Invasion mission. Only one J jumped in and there were no K's. In the end I killed 106 ships including the J. Almost pissed off the M6's that were trying to help me as they kept flying into my M7's weapons fire. Then when they shoot me they I can't yell back at them. The mission gave me over 14 million credits. Got some missiles and some resources I quickly sold off to local stations. I have yet to see another Xenon Invasion mission.

I have done about 7 assassination missions this weekend alone. The strange thing is they are worth less than they use to be. It is kind of ticking me off as I was doing missions for a million plus credits and now I have a hard time finding one for half a million credits. Don't understand why as I have a higher combat rating now.

My M7 has gotten a lot of travel time jumping around the Universe finishing off my exploring and doing fights in Xenon sectors. I even had to jump in the aid of one of my UT's in Merchant Heaven. Currently trying to "herd" the pirate bases into the pirate sectors. I think I found one that re-spawned in a Xenon sector but I didn't get out there in time. The reason why I think there was one there were the type of pirates coming of the void and the fact there was a large Xenon fleet following them.

Going to start setting up a complex in Paranid space next and this one will be similar in size to the Ore Belt complex, not like the 3 or 4 station complexes I setup to fill in secondary resources in the local market. Probably should save up for a Mammoth so I can build it faster and cheaper than using local help. Probably wouldn't take long to buy it, its just equipping it that I won't be able to do easily. The weapons alone would bankrupt me right now if I was to pull all of my money out of all of my stations, then there is the shields and software upgrades, jump drive, and so on. My current idea is to buy it and shields, software, jump drive, ect. but no weapons. I will have it follow my M7 out to a Xenon sector and pick up the weapons dropped by the dead, which will arm my ship slowly over time.

The Kha'ak have been attacking Ore Belt periodically. I found a carrier left wondering alone in Akeela's Beacon. Destroyed about half a dozen clusters, a couple on the huge side. The Kha'ak still seemed to be ticked off at me and I won't let them keep a presence anywhere in the universe as I am trying to develop it economically.

Well, thats it for this weekend, now to actually do home work and finish my research paper. Is anyone else playing still? If so what has been going on in your game?

[TimberWolf]

A war has begun. I'm in the process of constructing small complexes across the universe to fill in the secondary resource demands and to increase my profits per hour. The pirates don't seam to want this. In only about 4 hours of game play since my last posting the following has happened:

1) 3 of 6 UT have been attacked in one or more sectors by pirates, only one sustained hull damage.
2) Pirate have begun to leave Pirate Ally and assaulting sectors across the universe, several AI sector defenders have been destroyed.
3) Kha'ak ships have begun showing up in sectors I had cleared of them prior.
4) Every one of my stations have shown profit, even my newest ones in split space.
5) Assassination missions have hit over 10 million mark for some races.

I will admit I did restart a few times, most of which were when my new stations would not connect together to form a complex. Had to change their placements to get it to work. Haven't really cared about how it looks, but it works for what I care.

[TimberWolf]

Has anyone been playing? I have to admit I haven't played since my last posting. Been playing Diablo 2 and Joint Op's recently. Diablo 2 just because I have been in the mood for that type of game. Joint Op's because I wanted to work on my shooting skills.

So what has everyone been up to in their game?

[XMEN Gambit]

I finally got a copy of X3 and have started playing. I forgot how much fun it is (note the sarcasm) when just starting out and you either can't buy upgrades because it's unavailable or costs too much.

I even chose the "quickstart" option to get me back in the groove. As far as plot goes, I'm supposed to go to track down the rock that was stolen and have been given a jumpdrive. Gonna use this opportunity to try to get a little cash flow going. Somehow.

[AhamkarA DTM]

PLayin Tribes2 and Diablo LoD.
FYI PLayer name is AhamkarA-DTM, AhamkarA[DTM], GasLight_Frail, and AhamkarA_DTM

[TimberWolf]

Played some today. Went around keeping my UT's safe, killed many pirates, nearly cleared out a Xenon sector while capturing some of their ships. Got a Xenon invasion mission just before I stopped for the day where I got over 13 million credits. That brings me to over 30 million credits in my pocket. Got to go through my new captures to find which ones to keep and which to sell, then get the keeps repaired, armed, and assigned to a sector for defense. I will probably need to buy a new M6 to start a new patrol group soon to help with some of my Pirate problems.

[XMEN Gambit]

Where does one find the UT upgrade? For that matter, how about the single-sector equivalent? Aren't those built-ins in X3?

[TimberWolf]

The Sector Trader and Universal Trader programs are part of the same software upgrade, Trade Command Software MK3. This can be found at Terra Corp Station in Home of Light and any Teladi Equipment dock. I'm not sure but I think the Gonor Temple may have it. Once installed then you will have access to activate the Sector Trader function, which starts at level 1. It doesn't start out as intelligent but it gets better as it gains levels though profit it brings in. When it reaches level 10 then switch it over to Universal Trader, but make sure it has at least duplex scanner and jump drive. The pilot will upgrade itself slowly but at much higher cost.

[XMEN Gambit]

Thanks, just what I needed. Now what I need is a spare half-million credits.

[TimberWolf]

Suggestions for making money in the beginning:

1) Find one of the free ships and either use it or sell it. There are two TP's in the Northern Core Sectors that will have a random cargo in their holds when claimed. I have found nearly a million credits worth of weapons in one before, but have also found practically nothing in there too. If you get both I would sell the one with the smallest cargo hold. The other can either be used as your first Sector Trader, you can move the pilot to another ship later but I never done it, or use it as a storage locker as I am currently doing in my game.

2) Kill Pirates and pickup goods. In the starting Buster and its load out it will be hard to take out most Pirate groups. Once you have maxed out your shields and weapons load-out then it falls on your skills. I have been able to destroy Pirate Nova's in my Starting Buster before. I usually have half of my weapons as IRE's and the other half as PBE's. I some times mixed the Alphas with the Beta's. If you claimed the freebie ships from option one, you could use one or both to pick up dropped freight and either Pirate in the unclaimed sectors or have them follow you as you kill the Pirates so they can pick up anything the Pirates drop or leave behind from their own raiding.

3) Capture Pirates and pickup goods. Just like option 2, but this option is partly out of your control. Best way to capture is to drop their shields on the first pass and as quickly as possible followed by dropping their hull down to 80% or a little below. Let their shields recharge a little bit and then strike them hard and fast again doing some hull damage. Repeat until either they are destroyed or they turn blue, in which case you must clear the area to make it safe to claim. A ship in good condition will bring in the best money. They may also have software or equipment still installed. If materials are found a board then sell them separately to recieve the highest price, use on your own ship, or put into storage for future use. In some cases if you have the money and the new capture is in good enough shape and a ship that works with your fighting style then you may want to consider refurbishing it and turning it into either your primary ship or as a wingman. Out of experience its usually helpful to have at least two wingmen with you if your traveling through Pirate space or doing combat missions.

4) Do trading runs. I did silicon trading from Ore Belt to Argon Prime and sectors north of there to raise money for a while. You can also build a Silicon Mine in Ore Belt and, at least for me, the demand in the area was enough to sell itself. The only resource required for a mine is energy cells. Just make sure your on a good yield asteroid. The down side is they only have basic Silicon Mines in Argon Prime which means you should look at putting it on asteroids with yields in the 20's and 30's.

5) Do Bill Board Missions. If you can get a Discoverer maxed out with engine tunings then there are many times cab missions you can do, some with never ending stops until you fail to meet the time. You can also use one of the freebie TP's in the Northern Core Sectors to do Tour to No Where missions. In this case the more dangerous the more profitable the missions. So if the passengers get to see a fight then they are more than happy to pay more, but if the tour is boring then they don't pay much.

Pick and choose between these options, which are not the only choices but are the one's I have tried. I usually do some Pirate hunting and remote trading at the same time after claiming the TP's near by.

[TimberWolf]

Started another game to get away from the constant handling of economic stuff. I had unlocked the Split start so I took that. Been interesting so far.

In the beginning you only have a Jaguar with 4 PBE's and maxed out. Only 2 MW of shielding to protect you and just over a thousand credits to your name. The Argon's, Boron's, and Gonor's are red to you. If you attack an Argon ship in Split space the local police and military will turn red on you, surprisingly as those two species don't like each other. The Split don't care if you kill Borons any where.

I started off with attacking Boron traders but ran into a problem with running out of weapons power after a second or two. Sold two of the PBE's and got IRE's to replace them with credits to space. Went back out and continued to attack Boron ships to little to no success in capturing. They would drop some cargo but the Jaguar couldn't hold much more that what it already had. I slammed into several ships killing myself because of the speed that little ship was able to achieve.

I was able to eventually get a Pirate Buster captured but couldn't afford to repair and arm it at the time. Was able to capture a Boron ship, slap a special software upgrade into it and had it college the spoils of battle behind me at snails pace. I eventually sold the cargo to where ever I could, if possible in Split space, and then sold the rest with the ship that I didn't take onto my own. From that I was almost able to repair and equip the captured Buster. Luck came in here when I captured another one with shields still equipped and with better hull condition. So I sold the first one and got the second one going without having to transfer anything over but the PBE's.

Went and got the two freebie ships nearby and then returned to pirating. At my peak I had 3 captured ships collecting cargo containers as I was attacking Boron and Argon ships in a pirate sector. When I finally stopped playing on Tuesday I had just finished capturing 10 ships, mostly freighters, and had filled the hold of a Dolphin Tanker with Meatsteak Cahoonas, which I can't sell to the Argons as they won't let me dock with them.

I am trying to keep my possessions small right now, for the challenge and so I don't have to baby sit anything for a long time. The biggest draw back right now is that my hunting grounds are about 5 sectors away from the nearest friendly shipyard to sell the captured ships.

In my Buster I have been able to destroy an Argon Eclipse with no real problems. When I was in my Jaguar I had to stay away from the Argon freighters with their rear turrets, as they ripped through my shields like it was wet paper. But in my Buster there is very little to I can't destroy. I was also admit that the chances of getting ships to surrender seems to be drastically higher but that might be an illusion as I am able to attack more ships than before.

When I ended the night I had over 4 million credits to my name, all made from stolen goods and captured ships. Trying to figure out what types of limits I should impose on myself to ensure this game doesn't become like the other one. Here are the one's I am currently following:

1. No Space Stations
2. No Universal or Sector Traders

I am thinking my goal should be to get a Carrier and to fully equip it along with fill its hangers with fighters. This will be difficult as many of the systems needed to equip a capital ship are constructed by species I am at war with. Also since my money is made by captures and stolen goods it will be difficult to buy the capital ship in the first place and then buy anything else for it. Will be fun once I get the ship to carry my captures quickly to a shipyard to be either sold or repaired. Also be interesting as I currently get any where near a Goner station as they are all in Argon space where the AI shots first and never asks questions. I think I captured a jump drive so far but I need to get Salvage insurance to save in space to help me keep ships I capture after making a mistake of some sort.

[TimberWolf]

Update on my character:

I have almost completed on loop around the universe. After starting in the Split core sectors, I made my way north then east of Family Whi. The freighters I had been using to collect dropped freight were following me but there was a problem on my way to new hunting grounds. Home of Opportunity was under attack from the Kha'ak. Dang. I was able to get a scout ship (my original ship) and my Personal Buster through but my freighters had to be sent back to the Split core sectors to wait.

I get to Oceans of Fantasy and begin capturing some Boron ships, having to use fresh captures to get the cargo but captures were far and few. The Boron seemed keen to getting me out of there as they kept on sending boarder patrols. Since the pickings were less than good, and the distance to the nearest Split ship yard was 4 sectors, I decided to go on another road trip.

Some how I passed through Xenon Sector 598 without being over taken. I had to leave an abandoned Xenon ship behind as I didn't have the fire power to protect it. My scout ship had to stay behind with the rest of the ships I had captured. Later on I sent the scout ship back to Split core sectors and sold the rest left in that region of space. I continued sound and found my way to Maelstrom but I couldn't find the west gate as I had only a duplex scanner and I was only flying a slow Pirate Buster.

While there I was able to capture a couple of Pirate ships to make some profit. I passed through Inter-worlds, capturing some Argon ships along the way, and setup base in Cardinal's Domain. I scouted out all the Paranid sectors there along with the Unknown sectors. I then spent several game nights capturing ships in Moo-Kye's revenge. It was there I got a Pirate Falcon in good shape and began equipping it and turned it into my new personal craft. The falcon came with 3 A-HEPT and I was able to salvage an Ion Disrupter from another ship. All I added was a couple of B-PACs and B-IREs. After doing some test runs in Moo-kye's, I set off to get the freebie ship in Loomackstrat's Legacy, the other end of Pirate Alley.

I get up there with no problems but the Pirates refused to give me the time needed to get the ship. A wave of pirate ships would attack me, holding me still long enough for some Nova's and Falcon's to catch up and lay down walks of green and rings of blue. In the end after hours of fighting (with no salvage insurance) I had picked up five newly abandoned ships, but lost the freebie. In the last big battle, which took place about 7 km from it, there was either a dumb Harrier or a stray missiles that got too close and detonated the mine field surrounding the ship I had been attempting to retrieve. I was so pissed off.

After taking my revenge out on some pirate ships on the way out, leading to more captures, I decided to make my way west again to pick on the boron. I arrive in Barren Shores and begin picking off the freighters passing through. Many ships turn blue in the first pass, some leaving behind a cloud of angry fighter drones for me to finish off. Not too long I had developed a small rag-tag fleet heading to the Cardinal's Domain shipyard. The fleet consisted from M5's to Super freighters. The net value of those ships along with their cargo (when sold at near by stations) was 4 million credits. Nice income for a Pirate.

The captures were aided by the Yaki who were in the sector. But these happy hunting grounds were about to turn evil. The boron brought in an M6 which I was able to dispatch on my own and capture one of it's fighter escorts. Shortly after that another M6 with fighter escorts comes in but then another M6 with its own fighters came in close behind the first group. Now this was way above my ability as just taking out one M6 kept my guns drained. I started heading out of the sector, but my new captures were going too slow, along with fresh captures I was getting along the way out. I thought my pocket book was about to get hit hard when they were approaching a heavily loaded capture. I could see gun shots flying out from the distance I was at, flying in as fast as the slow ship could go. But then I saw the fire of a PSG. It wasn't my captured ship that was being fired on, it was the Boron ships. The Yaki were attacking them. Awesome, I join in the battle and was able to capture another one of the fighters.

It was then, seeing how few Yaki were left, that I decided to move on north. So I took care of all the ships I had in the region, either selling them or arming them (only the freebie ship from the Unknown sector) and then made my way up to Priest Pity. I sent my Buster to search out the Paranid core sectors, while I went and tried to see if I could dock at the Gonor temple. No luck and my presence pissed off the Argons. I then went to Split Fire and began to pirate the constant river of pirates there. Only little success was seen there in the case of captures but in the case of missiles it was the mother load. I was forced to return to a dock to empty my hold periodically from all the missiles that were being dropped.

But then there was last nights playing that changed it all. I went into Split fire then up into Elena's Fortune. Killed enough pirates to go up a rank with the Argons, wasn't intentional but I wanted to capture those ships. I may continue in improving my race relations, but I doubt I will do that with the Boron. On my way out I was attacked by a Pirate fighter squad. During the battle I noticed that the M3 that was with them was a Pirate Nova Raider! I did a pass on it and the thing turned Blue!!! After finish the rest I was also able to get a Buzzard with some equipment aboard. I had to personally escort the Nova Raider through Split Fire as the Pirates seemed desperate to not let me keep it. Once in Priest Pity I max out its tuning and send it off for repairs. Quickly decided what weapons to put on it and sent ships off to retrieve them from local markets. It was luck that the Raider came with its own shields, which saved me from having to dig into my own stock pile. Soon enough I have it back in Priest Pity repaired and loaded with only the last two guns missing that were being brought up from the south.

Once the ship was completed I took it into Split Fire and was amazed at its power. My primary weapons were 4 A-PAC's that seemed to shred the ships quickly in one pass. I then proceeded to head east to get back to Split core sectors, and my awaiting freighter fleet. But problems in Brennan's Triumph prevented me from bringing the rest of my fleet with me as the pirate activity was too high (side effect from me killing so many of them back in pirate alley). So I left my fleet behind and proceeded ahead on my own. Destroying as many pirates as I can with the idea that I could make it safe for them to travel though. No real hard battles or anything, but a lot of missiles dropped for me to collect.

When I arrive in Danna's Chance that idea changed to one of survival. There I found a constant stream of Pirate ships coming in from the east gate and heading straight to the north gate where I came in at. I began attacking them and soon ended up with a Buzzard and Nova floating around to be claimed. Another battle began before I could claim them. The only station near by was also under attack from six pirate ships so that wasn't safe to send ships too. I claimed the Buzzard and told it to go off into deep space as I tuned about and took out the incoming pirate. I was pissed when I saw a red triangle appear near the Buzzard and destroy it. I finished off the near by Pirates and captured another Buzzard in better condition. Flew off to seek revenge only to find out it was a Kha'ak interceptor. That battle was over before it ever started.

I spent the next hour clearing the sector out, locating the Teladi Trading station int Freedom's reach where I sent all my captures (5 or so ships), and then proceeded to pick up all the dropped missiles scattered across Danna's Chance (about 2 or so pages worth). After all the cleaning up was done and almost nothing was moving in the sector, I turned in for the night. All of the above has taken place over 4 weeks of playing with most of that time spent in Paranid space. My character is worth close to 9 million credits now after all of that, not including the ships I have just captured and intend to sell. Now there are only two sectors standing between me and my home sectors were I have freighter fleets waiting for me to clean up behind me and to have a purpose again after all this time.

[TimberWolf]

They have released a new Bonus Package with a few new things added, such as: http://www.egosoft.com/news/current_en.php

Attack Rocks Command - a ship will break up or destroy rocks in a sector
Cartel Capture Passengers - you can turn passengers into slaves or vise a versa
Collect Astronauts - allows a ship to 'rescue' pilots left drifting around
Defend Position Command - Attacks anything with in 10Km of designated spot
Mobile Mining / Mineral Collection Software - instead of being a only a player operated process only they have now automated it.

Out of these new functions I will probably use the Mobile Mining / Mineral Collection Software to help raise my reputation with the Paranid, Split, and possibly the Argon if I want to continue on that path. I wonder if there is anything I can do to save my rep with with Gonors.

Also, it was reported that another patch is in the works for both X3 and X2.

[XMEN Gambit]

w00t!! Automatic mining, yay!

Probably ought to try the slave-trader life sometime. Sure does limit your options, though.

[TimberWolf]

Actually, you can pick up the astronauts (if you have the cargo life support equipped) and either sell them as slaves or drop them off at a station and gain rep with the stations race. Or if you get your hands on some weapons, you can turn any passenger into slaves and sell them off, but you get a rep hit.

I just got a mobile miner going last night in my pirate game mining in Seize Well. Used a Paranid Miner (for got the ships real name, but its the only ship with miner in its name), and used my only stolen jump drive to get him over there fast. After seeing how long it takes to just get 60 ore I'm thinking about converting one of my M5's to an Asteroid Buster to speed things up a bit. So once this miner proves his usefulness in Teladi space, and I find a sectors with rocks in a Paranid owned space, then I will move him over. But at the time of night that I started him, Seize Well was the only safe sector that came to mind for mining.

*EDIT*

I think I have figured out what ships I will use as my standards.
M1: Split Raptor
M2: Paranid Odysseus
M6: Split Dragon
M3+: Paranid Medusa or Xenon XL (if I feel like being all powerful)

My reasoning behind these choices are rather simple.
The Raptor has the most hangers compared to the Paranid. The Odysseus can use Phased Shock Generators in all of its turrets, really good at clearing out a sector. The Dragon is faster and has more weapons power than the Paranid equivalent. The Medusa just looks better than the Split M3+, thats basicly the big reason why I chose that. Over all I am really limited to only the Paranid and Split ships because of my current ability to gain rep with them. The Teladi will be another option eventually, but I don't think I will use them for military ships.