[Space Sim] X3: Reunion

[XMEN Iceman]

I downloaded the demo...did not like Vista a first, but got it to work after tweaking some files.

I will try some of it soon.

D

[XMENPorsche]

*token appearance*

[XMEN Gambit]

lol

[TimberWolf]

Did a little game play last night. Bought myself a Paranid Medusa to give it a try and so far I'm liking it. It was able to destroy two large Kha'ak clusters with 2 BPSG's and then 2 BIRE's and 2 AIRE's to finish up the stragglers. I then took it into a Xenon sector and was able to mop up the fighters with ease, but didn't try it against the capital ships yet.

So now I have the LX Guard and the Medusa berthed at the Command Cruiser. The Eclipse is now stationed at the Mammoth and one of the LX's were sent to patrol Ore Belt until that Combat Group is called out to patrol Paranid space to help with my Race Reputation. I have the Mammoth going through the central Pirate sectors with an escort of 4 Nova's, 2 Falcons, and a Perseus, but still has the Eclipse and 4 LX's docked. The Command Cruiser is wondering around while I'm conducting tests on the Medusa.

Finals week begins so I wont be playing for a while.

[TimberWolf]

Been doing some playing this weekend for a change and here are the major events:

1. Finished flight testing of the Medusa and I love it almost as much as the LX.
2. Conducted a Xenon Invasion Mission which netted me about 16 million.
3. Lost a miner in Seizewell due to the clearing of a sector in Pirate Ally where a dumb UT kept jumping in to trade.
4. Added an LX to help another miner out that was having trouble doing its job.
5. While en route to Argon Prime I completed about 5 Assassination missions, netting me another 8 million.
6. Purchased a Colosses and was able to fully arm it from the captured weapons stored on my Mammoth, but had to jump around a bit to get all of the shields for it.
7. Field tested the Colosses in the cleared Xenon Sector next to Black Hole Sun where a J and 2 fighter groups had re spawned. The J went down fast under the fire from the forward GPPC's and BPPC's. Need to make some adjustments to how the turrets are setup to fine tune this. After that the Fighters were a problem as the PPC's couldn't hit them and the 4 Flacks that I had were on sides they were not flying near. So I launched the fighters I had aboard, all 10 of them. The Xenon continued to fight the Colosses for a bit until they were getting over whelmed from my own fighters. The battle ended quickly. Now I need to finish equipping one of the fighters I have aboard and set up combat groups so some can be set to defend and others set to attack. I also need to finish collecting old ships I have captured that are laying around the universe.
8. I'm back in the poor house again after that purchase.

*EDIT*

Got to play some more last night (4/18/08)

Went to another Xenon sector and began to take out its population. Early on one of the capital ships dropped a large load of valuable weapons, but I was un-able to claim them before they vanished. Now after several hours I have 5 ships floating around waiting to be claimed and dozens of weapons adrift, one of which is of 21 GPPC's. My Colossus is almost full, mostly of energy cells, and my Hyperion is busy killing off all of the Xenon that are still respawning in the sector. I have come to realize I need more Flak arrays on my Colossus, and currently there are a couple that hanging around in space. I did pick up some Beta flaks but the ship can't mount them, dang. GPPC's do very well against capital ships, so much that my Colossus can take out Xenon K's and J's, but has trouble with their fighter cover.

When I left I had saved in space. I had some how died picking up the aforementioned 21 GPPC's, from lack of cargo space. Don't know how or why. So the next time I play I will have to have my Mammoth jump in to claim those weapons while I use my Colossus and the Hyperion, along with all available fighters, to finish off the Xenon K and its fighters that will be jumping in shortly. Should be interesting, kind of got the Battlestar Galactica feel last time when I deployed my fighters and had flaks bursting in the air, very similar to the first battle scene from the mini series. But for now back to reading about control systems and researching hydraulics for school.

[TimberWolf]

Got some game play in these past two days. Started with about 5 million in my pocket and in the process of conducting salvage operations in a Xenon sector. Got another LX to add to my fleet and finished equipping my carrier with Aflacks. Went to another Xenon sector and cleared it out with less than stellar salvage. Moved my fleet off in different directions, the Carrier to southern Paranid sectors to finish retrofitting some fighters, Mammoth on its way to core Split sectors to expand a complex, and my Command Cruiser is off conducting missions such as a Xenon Invasion. In the end I closed the game I had 60 million in my pocket.

When I first started playing I kept having bad luck trying to orchestrate the movement of my fighters and large ships. For example I would send my carrier off to the side to provide cover for fighters collecting wares behind it. For some reason it launched all of its fighters when I engaged the enemy in my Command Cruiser. Ended up loosing a couple of fighters, so I restarted. Later on I had the Mammoth docking at an equipment dock as I was coming in with the Carrier only for the Mammoth to turn around into the dock and explode.

The last thing I did was a Xenon invasion mission. There where two Paranid Nemesis in the Teladi sector for help. The problem is the only weapons they had were PSG's. The only real damage I got was from friendly fire. Ticks me off that they can destroy my shields with no problem but when they get a few stray hits from my turrets they cry bloody hell. Have to laugh though, as there were half a dozen friendly fighters with the Nemesis but about half way through the battle the last one was destroyed by the PSG fire. I only think 1 or 2 fighters were destroyed by the Xenon. There was one station lost during the battle from a K that wandered away from the battle early on.

My next goal is to go about expanding all of my complexes with the 60 million credits I now have again.

[TimberWolf]

I bought myself a new toy..... a Titan. Took me a while to scavenge my fleet for most of the parts, had to still buy the shields and a few weapons but I now have one of each of the Argon Capital ships, excluding the M6. I conducted an operation in a Xenon sector with the Titan alone, which I'm currently calling it Defiant, and was able to completely clear the sector without loosing more than a third of the shields. Was able to get tons of missiles as salvage, but no weapons sadly. The carrier provided the salvaging ships and cover as the Titan recharged and I sat in the Mammoth collecting the wears off the fighters.

I have now stripped the Mammoth of all weapons in its hold and transferred them over to the Carrier then set it to fly back to Argon Prime with the Nemesis protecting it. I may finally go ahead and get the Player headquarters so I have a central location for my military operations. I sent the rest of my fleet to pick up the final ships from the mission that gave me the M7. Im also collecting any other ships I have laying around the universe. Going to have to make a choice soon, either to setup defense patrols to block all pirate movements and never go through their alley again or to not make such a defense but be careful of how many I destroy in pirate alley. I also need to expand my stations to increase my flow of money. Could also do that with UT's but I feel stations are a safer bet.

Well, that's most of what I did in the past two weeks. Glad the stations are running on their own without any help from me. Hope that I can expand them with no problems and double their profit rates easily. Will also begin to look into constructing the beginning stations to future complexes further east but at least in my game the economy is thinned out beyond Two Grand. The south isn't much better but has a little more potential. Will see where I build next time.

[XMEN Gambit]

Wasn't the PHQ part of a somewhat-recent pack?

[TimberWolf]

It was a part of the Bala-gi mission pack that also added the M7. So its been a while since it was added, meaning its not so recent since it was released over a year ago.

[XMEN Gambit]

Hmm, ya. Bala-gi is not recent by any means.

[XMEN Iceman]

again..I love the narratives.

[TimberWolf]

Last night I worked on my fleet a little:

1. Had my Colossus and Titan go to Grand Exchange where I picked up the final few fighters from the mission that also gave me the M7. Took them to the shipyard and repaired them.
2. Sent my M7 on sector defense missions as UT's and CR's called for help.
3. Flew around in my LX Guard and rearmed my Mammoth, which I had taken all missiles and weapons off of and placed in the Colossus's cargo hold. So the ship was flying around with no weapons in its turrets for a bit without me realizing it. It had a Nemesis following it as well as 4 LX's and an Eclipse on board.
4. Took my Titan for a "spin" in the Xenon sector to the north of Grand Exchange. Was able to destroy most of the Xenon forces in there before having to retreat and switch over to the Colossus to let the Titans shields recharge.
5. Claimed 5 Xenon fighters and tens of millions of credits worth in weapons, allowing me to finish putting AFLAKs all around the Colossus.
6. Had a Battlestar Galactica moment when the Colossus came under attack by Xenon fighters. Flaks were creating a wall of death and a Wing of Nova's (5 of them) and a wing of LX's (4 of them) were launching from both sides of the ship and engaging the enemy fighters that were staying away. In a matter of minutes the enemy was destroyed the the fighters were on their way to intercept another band of fighters coming in. Again the fighters created a kill zone and then the Colossus came in and flew through the battle and took on the Xenon J on the other side. For a moment it almost looked like the Pegasus's final battle, ramming into the Base ship, but I was able to curve the Colossus just to the side and broadside the J, leading to its final moments. After wards the fighters returned and the salvage team was launched to begin collecting dropped missiles and weapons.
7. Currently jumping the Colossus around the Universe buying the equipment needed to equip the new fighters, including a new LX captured in the above battle.
8. Haven't gotten around to building new stations yet but have sold off over 50 GPPC's from the Mammoth, netting me about 80 million credits.

[TimberWolf]

And so it begins:

Tonight I finished equipping my new additions to my carrier and came to a startling realization that many sectors, most of which are pirate space, are basically dead. With this in mind and that Pirates are still a problem to my freighters and stations near Teladi space, I decided to declare war on them and strike their home land.

Before hand I added Teladianium to the wares I produce in Trinity Sanctum for Paranid stations. Was considering adding more UT's but with a war on Pirates in play I knew I would be bailing them out too often.

I started the war in Ceo's Debt which had already been destroyed by Pirates but the trading station has been rebuilt. From there I took my carrier into Loomanckstrat's Legacy. I went off ahead at full speed, 79 kph, and the Pirates attempted to strafe it. With the sides, top, and bottom consisting of AFLAKS they were quickly shredded. Four of which were able to surrender quickly enough to leave a ship behind and not die. I went from the North to the South with no problems. Set the carrier over the gate to attack everything that comes through and then went back to collect crates and ships. During that time I had deployed other fighters to aid in the collection which I later found out never collected a thing even though they had space.

Eventually the enemy coming into the sector were able to get a few rounds into the carrier causing it to launch all fighters home based there, all 22 of them, consisting of LX's, Nova's, Buster's, and Mamba's (all of which were obtained, none were bought). It was interesting to watch the battle rage from afar with moments of fear as a fighter would get close to loosing its shields but then to come back and kill its attacker. I had to intervene a time or two to save a fighter by remotely controlling it. I don't know how combat other fighters that way as there is no targeting reticule or hud for that craft. In the end the carrier and its escorts held the gate and collected all the missiles and ships laying around. I then took the carrier back to the North to sell the new collections and catch the Pirates coming back from the Teladi shipyards. A large group of Pirates attacked and left many valuable missiles laying around. I deployed an LX to conduct salvage operations as the carrier continued.

The LX was attacked as I was getting near the North gate. Its shields were dropping and it wasn't fighting back very well. I took control of it from afar and did evasive maneuvers. The shields failed a time or two resulting in hull damage, but not much. In the action an impulse generator hit the fighter spinning it around. I brought it about and made it through the gate but was wondering where the carrier was as it was about to go through it as well. Then once the fighter passed through I noticed that it had been turned about and made it through the South gate.

When I realized where it had gotten to and saw that it had a welcoming party, I jumped down to it and cleared the area only to find it had recharged its shields and the Pirates didn't care it was there. I had my Destroyer at the South gate in Ceo's Doubt thinking it would block fighters coming south, which it didn't. Once I jumped to the shipyard in Ianamus Zura, I ran into more Pirates fresh from the factory. Captured another two ships and then unloaded my captures for sell and repaired the damaged LX.

I sent the two capital ships to dock at the Light of Heart Equipment dock and joined up with my Command Cruiser, M7. I ended the game fighting off Pirates in Split core space and added another freighter to service my expanding complex in Trinity Sanctum.

I don't really know what I will do next time. I do want to get the race relations to get the Paranid and Split capital ships. Once I get enough fire power I may work on clearing out the Squash mines in Pirate ally in preparation for placing a HQ there. I do know I don't intend to mass produce M7's, will leave it as a one off ship. I will probably just use the place to dismantle captures to build up inventory of materials to use later to mass produce a ship, most likely LX's at first till my carrier is maxed. I will also have to produce my own shields and weapons as they are hard to find as is in the universe. Will probably just continue to expand existing complexes to further aid in the raising of my race relations with them.

I guess I'm getting closer to my end game for this character, to have his own domain in Pirate ally and be a military super power.

[TimberWolf]

With all that has been going on in my life, I thought I could use a break to relax. It wasn't as relaxing as before but it did help. So here is what happened:

Did a full fleet raid on Xenon sector 101, taking my M7 in to take out most of the capital ships, then brought in my Titan to clean up the fighters and the remaining capital ships. The carrier came in to pick up all the nice gifts laying around including another ship. After clean up duty was done, I went and added a few stations to my Rhonkars Cloud Complex, nearly doubling it in size, and added some more stations to my Trinity Sanctum Complex. In all I spent nearly 20 million credits expanding those two complexes. I then dropped the credits down on a Argon Trading Station and took it up to Boron space to finish off the Bala Gi Missions. I need to collect the last of the materials and then the Player HQ is mine. I also need to start looking into setting up loops to feed it with the materials to mass produce the Xenon LX and all weapons and shields needed to equip them.

Im my game Ceo's Doubt has been wiped out and only the Teladi Trading station has been rebuilt in there. Currently thinking about claiming it as my own as its relatively clear for traffic, and does provide easy access to Pirate Alley for raids as well as a flow of Pirates coming from Teladi Shipyards. But there isn't much in resources in friendly space around it. Still considering taking Loomanckstrat's Legacy to build a massive mining complex to feed everything else in another system, but that would require at least my M2 to patrol as Anarchy Port will forever respawn. I had thought about putting the HQ in Moo-keys Revenge as it allows easy access to the Paranid Equipment Dock for software and tunings. But that would mean any defense patrols based out of the station or reinforcements would be further away from the "front Line" that will form in Ceo's Doubt. Going to have to do some more looking around and take into consideration that the Pirates might cause damage to one of my 4 existing complexes. I might even go as far as buy a second Mammoth to help speed up the construction and not drain the universe of energy jumping around.