[Space Sim] X3: Reunion

[BlackRider]

To keep up the trend of me not accomplishing anything, I decided to give my copy of X3:R a try. I've never been able to get into this game before, so this time I started off cheating. I figured out real quick how to give myself credits, but that didn't seem so fun..... so I gave myself an M6!

So I decide to take my new toy out for a spin. I bail out of my starter Buster & hop into my shiny new Centaur... only to find out that it drives like a truck. A top speed of a whopping 52m/s! Booo!!! Hissss! But wait... there's more! I had no guns & no shields! I realized that my Buster had guns & shields... but I hadn't the slightest clue how to get them from one ship to the other. So after some 15-20 minutes of flipping between guides & the game I managed to tell my Buster to dock at the Shipyard in Argon Prime. I gave a similar order to my Centaur. Once in the shipyard (after several failed attempts) I eventually figured out how to transfer my weapons & shields from my Buster to the Centaur... and then accidentally sold my Buster.

Down to one big, slow ship, I flew to some sort of supply depot thing. (I don't remember what it's called.) There I bought 3 of the beta version of whatever the Buster had and a few missiles. I put the beta guns in my turrets and the alphas in the forward array/battery/place. Then I bought speed and maneuverability upgrades. Now I have a somewhat armed and very lightly armored M6 that can hit 104m/s! Only now do I realize how slow 104m/s feels in this game.

Before I ran out of time for the night, I spent about 10 minutes exploring one of the neighboring sectors but had to return home to save. I had about 2 hours invested and never got to shoot anybody! Though I did accidentally loose a volley into the vastness of space... is there some kind of safety so I don't accidentally go shooting something bigger than me?

This is the farthest I've ever gotten into this game and tomorrow I intend to figure out how to make some money. As things stand I have: 1 brand new cheat-M6 Centaur (that I'll either name Chiron or Bob) that is armed with 6 alpha impulse ray emitters (or w/e the Buster starts with), 3 beta IREs, and a 1MJ shield. I tried to buy a 125MJ shield, but it seems these Argon folks don't like me enough to sell me one. :-/

So, trying this game out for the 4th or 5th time and I'm actually having fun this time. I'm still absolutely clueless, but having fun.

[XMEN Gambit]

Easiest (and slowest) way to make money is by trading. Buy low, sell high, etc. There are several supply chains in each race's area, usually just the same stuff with different names. For example, all factories need energy. You can buy it below 10 and sell for up to 20 credits per unit, if you're careful. Factories will pay more for a supply as they run low, and charge less for a product as they get full.

Empires will like you if you kill their enemies (who are in their territory) and don't shoot at their friends. Pirates are everyone's enemy (except other pirates) so if you're looking for someone to pick on, that's an option. In fact, if you do this a little bit, consistently, you will soon be able to buy a police license. That means you get a bounty when you kill an enemy. ... Profit! Sometimes your target will jump ship and then you can capture it. ... Profit! There are ways to "encourage" the pilot to bail.

A factory will only sell you its product. There are a couple other types of bases that will also sell you stuff, but most bases are factories. Generally you'll find a "store" every few sectors and they're more concentrated around the capitols of each empire. With enough money and a good relationship you can buy and deploy factories to suit your needs.

[TimberWolf]

Can't believe your ditching an M5 for an M6 so early, especially for one so slow. Let alone only have 1MJ shield which is the equivalent of tissue paper. The IRE's are good in mass but not against anything bigger than an M3.

Second off, in an M6 you are greatly restricted to where you can dock and do trade. If this was X2 then it wouldn't be as bad as they could dock an M5, but not in X3. If you want to stick with an M6, trade it out for a Split Dragon which is faster, has better weapons power, but is weaker in shields. But your race relations being so low will hinder your ability to get good equipment.

Every time I start a new game, the M5 served me well in exploring sectors. I would fly into one and send the M5 off to look around while I fly slowly though at full speed. The M5's can get up to 200 or 300 mps so they serve well in this regard.

My recommendations:

1. Cheat yourself a Argon Nova (M3).

2. Transfer all equipment to the Nova and sell the Centaur, then upgrade the Nova. Go into the command console and set the rear turret to missile defense. Make sure you get a trade system extension, duplex scanner, and fight software 1 and 2.

3. Buy a Mercury, if possible buy a L which comes fully equipped with shields and weapons. Max out the speed and rudder control. Make sure it gets fight software 1 and 2 as well.

4. Go explore in your Nova, which is faster than the Centaur and for the most part all you need for that game, once you get better weapons and full shields.

5. Be mindful of the stations you see so you can take advantaged of low prices to buy and high prices to sell.

6. Explore the Core Argon sectors first and then remotely trade with your Mercury while your off on the boarder lands or in Pirate space trying to capture ships and collecting salvage. I usually hang out around Elena's Fortune and Split Fire to its south.

Once you have some regular income coming in, such as getting Trade Software mk 3 which turns that ship into a sector trader which then can level up to a universal trader, you can really start working on getting the bigger ships.

Reason why I say this:
Right now, even though your in an M6, you have toilet paper protecting it which will vanish in one or two shots. In the M3 you at least can dodge incoming fire fairly well. Having a trading ship gives you a lot more flexibility to do missions as you choose. Having a heavy fighter as you main ship allows you to travel faster as well as dock anywhere.

No matter what I say, play how ever you want.

[XMEN Gambit]

No matter what I say, play how ever you want.

And THAT is the beauty of sandbox games.

[BlackRider]

Second off, in an M6 you are greatly restricted to where you can dock and do trade.

I keep reading this, but I've not had any trouble docking anywhere yet. Though, TBH I've only docked at the Shipyard in Argon Prime, a couple Trading Stations, and something else that I cannot remember. Is it that it cannot dock at factories?

Oh, and yes I've noticed the tissue paper strong shields today when I blew up a few pirates. But I flew out to Menelaus' Frontier & picked up the free Toucan. So maybe I'll play trader with that for a while.

As for why I went with an M6 before I can even properly equip it.... Mostly it's because I didn't know any better and I thought the Centaur was one of the more interesting looking ships. Though maybe a little is that it has more of a "capital ship" feel to it and I like that better than driving fighters. Maybe I should replace it now that I've discovered that my Toucan (once upgraded) will be faster than my Centaur. The problem is... some how I've grown kind of fond of it.... (I named it Bob btw.) So maybe I'll put Bob in storage until I can properly equip it (shields, guns, missiles, & an M5...etc.)

Oh, I mentioned that I killed some pirates.... so that means I had my first combat today! The combination of the tissue paper shields and me not knowing how to make the turrets fire caused a little damage, but I soon figured out how to fire missiles (I bought a few Mosquitos for fun.) and eventually figured out how to make my turrets fire at my current target. As they circled about my turrets would work their shields down to about nil and thankfully two of the three pirates attacked head-on, allowing me to obliterate them with the foreward battery. Six alpha IREs made quick work of what ever the pirates were driving.

Quick question, what do you think of X3:TC over X3:R? I like the idea of new ship classes, but beyond that... what do you like? (Basically, I'm thinking that if I can find it for dirt, I might buy it.)


Finally, I may play however I want, but I still like hearing input. Honestly, after 4-5 attempts at getting into this game... this is the longest I've ever played.

[TimberWolf]

The quote about restricted location for docking in an M6 is out dated information. Some times I forget that they changed that after X2. In X3 M6's can dock almost anywhere, which is why they took the hanger off of them from X2.

The Centaur isn't bad when equipped right. As for turrets, I leave mine set for missile defense (which means they shoot missiles first then if there are none they shoot the nearest enemy. Just get some shields for it then it should be better for now. With any luck you will get some pirates leaving you their fighters and freighters.


What do I think about X3:TC over X3:R? Short answer, I love it. See below for long answer.


First thought going into it was how could it be better, beyond tweaking the scripts for various things. I was wrong, there was a lot of ways to make it better.

Personally, if I knew of X3:TC before I got X3:R I wouldn't have bought it unless it came with it, which it does if you buy the Gold edition. Some of the new ships look stupid or odd, but the new classes such as TM, M8, and M7 along with the Pirates having capital ships make the universe more active as well as the combat more balanced. In X3:R I could still take a fighter and destroy anything or take an M6 or once I completed the one mission, the only M7, and have no problems clearing most sectors.

The enemy in X3:TC actually uses every weapon in the game, unlike in X3:R. I have come out of battles with hull damage but never lost shields. Found out the Pirates had mass drivers. The Xenon usual have PBE's which in large numbers just over whelm any ships shields. One nice thing is your space suit has a repair gun, which is good to use on M5, M4, and M3 with with the M3 taking the longest to repair. If your going to repair a TS then it will take a while and anything larger than a M6 you might want to put auto-fire on and go paint a room or something (unless it is only small amount of damage). So taking hull damage anymore really doesn't annoy me as it had in all prior games. It even helps in salvage operations, repairing a captured ship a bit so it can move faster to safety.

The user interface is a lot easier to use. The game can now be played with a mouse, allowing you to use it to fly your ship, aim and fire the weapons, select target icons on the hud, and go through the menus. I still mostly use the keyboard shortcuts as they are faster. Also another thing I have come to like is not having to dock at a station to see if there is a mission. You can hail a station or ship that has an icon denoting a mission available and accept it in space. Missions themselves are better designed and no longer seem like the same mission redressed all the time, even if it is. There is also a larger variety of missions. One type of mission gives you a reason to have your own TL ship which makes you build space stations for the AI.

Then there are the plots. There are about 8 of them and almost all of them can be played from any start. So you don't have to start as a Terran to play the Terran plot. The universe is larger and more alive, as well as dangerous due to the larger pirate ships (which I would love to get my hands on). There is also the new boarding system which allows you to take over any ship if you have properly trained troops and the equipment to get them aboard.

[XMEN Gambit]

If you do get hooked, it will take a while to extricate. In some ways it's like a big (enormous) puzzle with a lot of mini-puzzle subcomponents.

And ships shooting at each other.