X3: Terran Conflict

Good recap Montalban.

Or should I say...

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

Stele wrote:

And actually selling that fighter is recommend in one of the guides I read. You dump the fighter and fly cargo/trading runs in the Mercury for a while and build up money very fast. Then you can buy a better fighter down the line. Works pretty well.

I've read most of them and you might get some quick cash by selling the ship but you are better off flying it and ordering your Mercury using your property menu(r). One of the ways I made cash was smuggling space fuel the fast discoverer do well at that . You'll need to get a trade system extension as soon as possible. I made tons of cash scavenging at a big battle field - if I did that with a mercury it would have taken a while and I wouldn't have been able to outrun the hostile ships.

The discoverer is useful but don't use it for combat - it's a little scout just pump up it's speed and do missions while your mercury does the trading by remote control.

OMG!

Terran defender start. Up to the follow the Pirate to scan the base mission and a Xenon L just bailed out for me!

Upgrade from my buster to a Xenon L with 75MJ shields and 4 PBE's. AWESOME!

Did the teladi start in xtended. This mod gives the game quite a different feel. Very nice

Prozac wrote:

OMG!

Terran defender start. Up to the follow the Pirate to scan the base mission and a Xenon L just bailed out for me!

Upgrade from my buster to a Xenon L with 75MJ shields and 4 PBE's. AWESOME!

Nice ! Did you switch to Buster from Sabre? I kinda agree with the switch the sabre is hard to handle and its weapons tend to be both expensive, hard to use and unsuitable for capturing ships.

I checked the stats and I think you might want to salvage it and get something better especially if you find something on the used market.

BTW if I put satellites in every sector will I be able to see missions in that sector?

Niseg wrote:

BTW if I put satellites in every sector will I be able to see missions in that sector?

Unfortunately, no.

Prozac wrote:

Upgrade from my buster to a Xenon L with 75MJ shields and 4 PBE's. AWESOME!

Niseg wrote:

I checked the stats and I think you might want to salvage it and get something better especially if you find something on the used market.

As personal ships go, an L may not be the best M3, but it's a nice step up from a Buster. Especially if you got it with full shielding.

Plus, PBE's will improve your chances of getting more ships to bail.

Niseg wrote:

I checked the stats and I think you might want to salvage it and get something better especially if you find something on the used market

Used market? Excuse me? WTF is that?

Aside from what's discussed in the main post for this thread and what Montalban just mentioned, I've been finding the following quite helpful:

-X3TC for Dummies I found it a bit late (I had already dug most of the info out of various other sources) but this is the best getting started from scratch guide I've come across.

-Roguey's Guide to Everything Some nice beginners guides plus a lot of the information that can also be found at http://eng.x3tc.ru/, but in a format I've been finding more usable most of the time.

-The map I've been finding most useful Its a pair of PDFs that present the most relevant info in a clear and easy to understand way. There are still some things you need to go to Roguey's or the russian site (like what specific station types are in each zone other than equipment docks and shipyards), but 95% of the time a quick glance at this map solves my problems.

So, I have a bit of a question. I decided to start the game assuming that my pilot was a scavenger type who had found a illicit list of derelict ship, so at the start I was shameless about hunting down a few of the derelicts to get my fleet and bank account off the ground. I started by heading north from Argon core space, going east through Teladi and Split space, and now I'm sitting around Omicron Lyrae (drawn there in anticipation of heading to the Steam DLC sector). I've picked up the following:

Toucan Hauler TP, now set up as starter MORT
Iguana Vanguard TP, also set up as a starter MORT
Harrier Sentinel M5, on guard duty for the MORTs
Buster Sentinel M4, on guard duty for the MORTs
Buzzard Hauler M4, sold because even to my untrained eye it looked like crap compared to others in its class
Advanced Barracuda M3, my current ride

So now I'm currently sitting around building credits with the MORTs and getting comfortable with combat by running putzy little missions in eastern Argon space. I'm probably going to do the intro Terran quest from Omicron Lyrae just so I can go up to Heretics End and buy some transporter devices (having to dock to transfer freight and having to dock/space walk to change ships sucks), and after that I'm tempted to either keep going on those missions or try the Goner stuff in Elysium of Light since I'm right there. However, there are two other potential "to dos" on my list, and I'm hoping I can get some opinions about whether it's worth going out of my way to do these things before launching down one of the plot mission trees.

1. Get set up with a jumpdrive or two. Are these like software upgrades where a ship can only carry one instance? Or can I load several up onto one ship and bring them back to my others?

2. Go pick up a few more of the derelicts. Aside from the ones I've already got, any others that are particularly juicy? I see an Advanced Eclipse M3+ and an Enhanced Pericles M4 clustered close together over on the far west side of the universe that are quite tempting. Also, quite a few others could be picked up by making a bit of a loop around the south east side of the universe. Thoughts?

Oh, one other related question: are pirate zones as hostile as Xenon ones? I had to shuttle my then four ship fleet through Xenon Sector 472 to get down to Omicron Lyrae, and that is not something I intend to do again any time soon. However, said loop of the south east would mean going through a few pirate sectors with newly acquired derelicts in tow.

misplacedbravado wrote:

As personal ships go, an L may not be the best M3, but it's a nice step up from a Buster. Especially if you got it with full shielding.

Plus, PBE's will improve your chances of getting more ships to bail.

I agree that any M3 would be better than an M4. If an M5 has paper armor, M4 has plywood armor . The buster is also pretty slow .

I think the only advantage M4s have is that they are relatively cheap . The Buster is probably the cheapest m4 to buy and equip the list said sabre is the cheapest but each EMPC(the only gun it can use) cost more than the ship itself :lol:. I think the ship itself is pretty important part of surviving so you should get the best one you can afford.

Edit:

primer28 wrote:
Niseg wrote:

I checked the stats and I think you might want to salvage it and get something better especially if you find something on the used market

Used market? Excuse me? WTF is that?

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/4...

Niseg wrote:

You should look for "trade missions" too which have the orange credit symbol . It sometimes mean someone has a ship for sale (sometimes a guy flying a ship has that symbol and that means they want to sell it). If the ship is damaged (around 60% and below) it's worth getting and spending the time to repair it while ejected ( you got a repair laser as a weapon). It's better to concentrate on smaller ones because big ones take a while . Still The price is usually scaled to the amount of damage. You can then command that ship to fly to a space dock and sell it for cash.

^^^ You can get really good deals on damaged ships. Those ships can be easily repaired . Be sure to look up it's value before buying it ;).

zeroKFE wrote:

1. Get set up with a jumpdrive or two. Are these like software upgrades where a ship can only carry one instance? Or can I load several up onto one ship and bring them back to my others?

2. Go pick up a few more of the derelicts. Aside from the ones I've already got, any others that are particularly juicy? I see an Advanced Eclipse M3+ and an Enhanced Pericles M4 clustered close together over on the far west side of the universe that are quite tempting. Also, quite a few others could be picked up by making a bit of a loop around the south east side of the universe. Thoughts?

Oh, one other related question: are pirate zones as hostile as Xenon ones? I had to shuttle my then four ship fleet through Xenon Sector 472 to get down to Omicron Lyrae, and that is not something I intend to do again any time soon. However, said loop of the south east would mean going through a few pirate sectors with newly acquired derelicts in tow.

Don't remember #1, it's been a while, but I think they are cargo you can carry multiple of...

As for #2, the Advanced Perseus is probably the best M3 in the game. It's both faster and more maneuverable than the Eclipse you mentioned, but only has one less 25MJ shield. Even after having an M6, M7, and even an M2, I still used to hop in my Perseus when I felt like some dogfighting.

zeroKFE wrote:

1. Get set up with a jumpdrive or two. Are these like software upgrades where a ship can only carry one instance? Or can I load several up onto one ship and bring them back to my others?

Jumpdrives work like software -- one per ship.

2. Go pick up a few more of the derelicts. Aside from the ones I've already got, any others that are particularly juicy? I see an Advanced Eclipse M3+ and an Enhanced Pericles M4 clustered close together over on the far west side of the universe that are quite tempting. Also, quite a few others could be picked up by making a bit of a loop around the south east side of the universe. Thoughts?

The Advanced Eclipse is based off of the Pirate Eclipse, which is completely different from (and less capable than) the Argon Eclipse. My favorite of the derelicts is the Boron Skate.

Oh, one other related question: are pirate zones as hostile as Xenon ones?

Generally, no. There are fewer pirate ships than Xenon, and very few bigger ships, plus naval patrols come through every now and then and clear out pirate sectors.

Oh the ships randomly for sale. Ya those are cool. One weird thing about xtended mod is that u don't have the repair laser on your space suit. U have to lumber to a station and have it repaired

misplacedbravado wrote:

Generally, no. There are fewer pirate ships than Xenon, and very few bigger ships, plus naval patrols come through every now and then and clear out pirate sectors.

In fact, the longer you play, the more your universe will start to look different from everyone else's. Xenon will destroy stations, military will destroy pirate bases, pirate bases will spawn in unknown sectors, you can run missions for pirates where you essentially end up constructing a whole pirate sector full of their stations, and economies will shift around a bit as this happens. It's nice to know, although that is very long term kind of stuff that you may never even notice.

Capped an abandoned kha'ack interceptor (m4) last night. Crazy weapons installed on that thing.

primer28 wrote:

Capped an abandoned kha'ack interceptor (m4) last night. Crazy weapons installed on that thing.

Kyon weapons are hard to get -- congrats!

misplacedbravado wrote:
primer28 wrote:

Capped an abandoned kha'ack interceptor (m4) last night. Crazy weapons installed on that thing.

Kyon weapons are hard to get -- congrats!

Man I couldn't kill anything with those!

Is it just the nature of the game that every ship I capture has all its weapons destroyed?

EDIT: Hm, the bail mod I'm using has an option for equipment damage -- default or hull damage dependent -- the documentation for which seems to indicate that hull damage dependent should leave more intact. But I've yet to capture (or find abandoned) a single ship with weapons left on it, and rarely with anything left on it other than maybe a SETA drive or some moderately useless piece of software. Granted, I'm still at a combat level where all I'm really seeing are M3s, M4s, and M5s, with an occasional abandoned crap TS here and there.

Keep in mind I am running the xtended mod

Here is a crazy "humble merchant" guide that tells you " don't sell the discoverer .... Sell the mercury" :lol:. It's a pretty good guide . It happened to me more than once that I stumble into a bad deal with my mercury on day 1. You just can't make too much money trading and it takes a while. You are better off MORTing the mercury to do some energy cell trade to Herron's Nebula (lots of consumers) .

Bearing in mind that I am clueless about this game, should I be running the xtended mod ?

davet010 wrote:

Bearing in mind that I am clueless about this game, should I be running the xtended mod ?

The Terran defender plot is a fairly decent tutorial. Today I got reminded my sabre has plywood armor meeting with a Xenon L + M :lol:. The Terran defender go through kill, patrol, scanning (tough part) and all sorts of other missions it generally covers everything . Terran Defender also get a lot of goodies early own. You take weapons off your rapiers and move them to the sabres then keep one to hold the last one until you get a ship upgrade. Terran sabre is fairly fast and maneuverable got 4 EMPC slots but like most M4 it can't take much a beating.

I'm not sure about Xtended but it's probably a little more advanced. You won't have as much reference info because it's a dynamic universe. There is a lot of content in the vanilla game. The universe is huge with a ton of things to do. Once you get the basics down you can go crazy with mods. I generally try to play games as vanilla first.

I've noticed everyone is playing and everyone is probably saying to themselves "Look at that learning curve " :lol:. My father in law is a big privateer fan and he's still tackling the key bindings and interface :lol:.

Yeah, my understanding is that Xtended is a full conversion type of mod rather than a supplemental sort of thing, and its probably a lot easier to learn the game playing relatively vanilla X3TC and then maybe play around with Xtended after you've had your fun with the standard game.

It is also worth noting that even within the supplemental style mods there are two types: ones that mark your game as modified (and thus disable stat tracking at the developer's site and Steam achievements), and ones that don't. You can get a pack of mods that do NOT mark you as modified here. If you don't care about stat tracking/achievements, though, I highly recommend looking around at all the cool stuff the community has produced after you get your general bearings in the game world and understand why you might want to do things like change pilot bailing behavior, have advanced navigation software you can buy for your ship, or have scripts that allow you to quickly issue orders to your wingmen via new keybindings. A good place to start is Cycrow's plugin manager which will install mods and scripts for you, and features a tool to browse through and easily install popular mod packages.

zeroKFE wrote:

Is it just the nature of the game that every ship I capture has all its weapons destroyed?

EDIT: Hm, the bail mod I'm using has an option for equipment damage -- default or hull damage dependent -- the documentation for which seems to indicate that hull damage dependent should leave more intact. But I've yet to capture (or find abandoned) a single ship with weapons left on it, and rarely with anything left on it other than maybe a SETA drive or some moderately useless piece of software. Granted, I'm still at a combat level where all I'm really seeing are M3s, M4s, and M5s, with an occasional abandoned crap TS here and there.

Quick and easy answer Zero, Once you've destroyed their ability to defend themselves and they're too weakened to run and death is assured, that's when I'd be bailing out too.

I've noticed that they tend to bail once their shields are destroyed. Not brought down to zero, rather the equipment itself is destroyed.

I just noticed that the (Terran defender starts the plot right away)TC plot rewards are a lot more lucrative than i thought. I got every new players dream in terms of equipment:

Spoiler:

Other than 3 EMPC on the rapier wing which is worth 200-300k credits some of the rapiers had other upgrades.
One of them has a docking computer and another has a mineral scanner and cargo life support. This covers taxi and asteroid scanning missions .

EDIT: I got a Nova Raider for about 120k(about 10% of regular price) !!!!!! woohoo I also got a Mercury for about 70k it wasn't such a great deal but it's at 70% (less laser headache). I'll probably use it as a MORT. I'm zipping through space at 430~m/s in my discoverer doing missions .

davet010 wrote:

Bearing in mind that I am clueless about this game, should I be running the xtended mod ?

as stated above, i really only recommend moving to XTENDED when youve "been there, done that" in the vanilla game. theres TONS to do and learn in X3TC, let alone moving into basic mods that can really give life to it. once i became a billionaire in X3TC i lost a little interest. now ive decided to start from scratch and try out XTENDED (requires complete new install and pretty much no mods work with it). play thru the X3TC plot first, as i havnt found much plot in XTENDED yet. its much more "accomplish sh*t yourself"

I caved and installed the repair laser mod to xtended. That sh*t is brutal without it

primer28 wrote:

I caved and installed the repair laser mod to xtended. That sh*t is brutal without it

Once you start cheating you can't stop - that's why I try to avoid it as much as possible. I've read you can use SETA while repairing in a suit .Info about this method can be found in this thread but you have to scroll down a little. I haven't tried it yet.
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I'm flying to get a jump drive from the Boron (I hope they'll sell) . Home of Light is a little far for a terran defender . I bought a Kestrel on the way.

Last night before bed I started calculating km/minute instead of m/s . I've went on a ship recovery mission that was labeled "easy" while it was a very slow ship and couldn't get it home in time ( if I had a jump drive it would have been easier) . 30m/s = 1.8km/min. 40m/s = 2.4k/m 50m/s = 3km/min. A sector is about 40-60km across so recovering a ship that's very far away would take 20 minutes per sector on a 50m/s ship.

Soon I'll get a jumpdrive or two and I'll also get a TM . This will help me do ship recovery and delivery with ease . I still need to outfit my Nova Raider with something I only got PRGs and pacs But I got it repaired,upgraded and shielded. Bottom line - I need credits - I can't seem to get to my destination because I'm constantly looking for deals.

Does anyone here have a list of mods that are essentials?