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[TC] [Walkthrough/Guide] A Slice of X ---- Terran, Fury, Hub, Goner, HQ, Aldrin Complete.
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Joined: 16 May 2004
Posts: 13629 on topic
Location: In the Hunter Legacy Universe
Posted: Tue, 9. Dec 08, 03:06
Post subject: [Walkthrough/Guide] A Slice of X ---- Terran, Fury, Hub, Goner, HQ, Aldrin Complete.
Now complete : Walk through of Terran and Final Fury Plots, Complex building, Hub. HQ plot. Aldrin Plot.
Big thanks to Creston for his pre-1.3 Walkthrough for the Terran Plot, most of the bugs he outlines are now fixed.
HTML version with Quicklinks :
Btw, I make no apology for blatantly mixing vanilla game with scripts and sometimes outright cheats. According to Egosoft stats, more than half the people who have submitted game stats have modified games, meaning they are using 3rd party mods and scripts. As such, I feel thats a validation of the work that everyone in the scripts and modding forum does to make the game more FUN for the player. Its up to you if you do or do not modify the game, and since I do, I'm writing this as I play it, warts and all. I use my own mod, many of my own scripts, and quite a few other scripts. Especially where a script will improve (imo) the playability of the game, I talk about it. Just ignore anything you do not want to know about.
A Slice of X.
Incoming Transmission.
John, Its Bob.
Bob, what have you got for me !
The fleet has arrived here in Omicron Lyrae. We disassembled the HQ and its sitting in the TL waiting for you to decide where to rebuild it. I'm not sure where that is, the universe is so much more dangerous these days.
I'll find somewhere, dont worry.
Good news : The new MT class mini carrier is ready, as are the new sheilds and gun designs. There is some gun issues with the M2 at this stage, some of the turrent wont change guns and dont seem to be firing, but hell, if you need the extras, youre a worse pilot than I thought you were ! Get yourself out of that flying piece of tissue paper and into something with some decent shielding. A mule at least.
Ok, I will.
We have reports of derelict ships around the place, Im uploading the co-ords to your computer. The new jump software is ready to go, so you can jump straight to them. Take the new Mini-carrier and give it a test drive ! Well be waiting for you here when you get back.
Thanks Bob, see ya soon.
Transmission closed.
Bob Derr, our dependable Maintenance Chief. Doesnt seem to think much of my flying ability ! Good man though.
Welcome to the X Universe and the Terran Conflict.
Im John (Apricot) Slice. Ill be talking you through this game, and this will be a combination of narrative, tutorial and general ramble. It will jump about a bit from mode to mode, so dont get lost.
I own the Apricot Mapping Service, my in game entity. If you are using the Apricot Mapping Service Mod (
), welcome to my universe ! If not, welcome anyway, I will be referring to the mod a bit though, so please dont get confused when I do. Also, I make no apology for referring to 3rd party scripts, including some considered cheats. I use what I use, and its up to you to make your own judgement and decisions.
For how the Apricot Mapping Service came into being, see this archive material.
. From this beginning, the AMS came about, and even though at the beginning of X3TC, we dont appear to be earning our name, it does describe our philosophy of playing. Friend to all but those who shoot at us, and explore to the max !
If you chose the AMS Mod, then fly up close to the MiniCar and transfer accross. Now your in a ship with some sheilding that can keep you alive.
Personally, I dont know why people settle for tissue paper shields, but hey, if youre the risk your life type, all power to you ! The ships you start in for all the starts are specifically chozen to give you a challenge to stay alive early in the game. Thats fine if your new to X, but most of us have been here a long time, and I prefer to start where I left off, and thats usually flying an M7 or a Carrier.
Up to you. The big thing about the AMS Mod is that its designed to give you maximum choice. You make up your mind about what suits your gameplay. Want to be balanced (Ive ranted about that in the past), or want to compensate for a slow computer, poor fluing skills or being a lousy shot ? You choose what shields you want, what gun suits you best, how fast you make your ships. The ones you start with in the Mod are all fully upgraded, but its easy to downgrade them. Speed and rudder can be removed using Cycrows cheat scripts, by entering a negative value if you really want to.
The Mod starts with you having top rank with all races except the Terrans, whom we havent dealt with yet, and all bad guys. If you started without the mod, or as anything other than Argon Patriot, your ranks are varied according to the character you chose. Be real careful in that case where you go, or some of the races will be shooting at you for no apparent reason. Pirates, Xenon and Khaak are going to be doing that anyway.
Anyway, lets get this story moving.
Derelict Ships. All X games seem to start with some, so lets go pick them up. The good thing about having a carrier with jump capability is we can go get them, pick the up and not have to worry about baby sitting them to the nearest shipyard, since we just jump straight there. If your not playing the mod, then thats what you will have to do.
There are 19 derelict ships in TC. If your using the mod, or installed the Jump to Derelict script, then use the nav command to jump to a random derelict ship. A word of caution though, it was designed by a software engineer whos never left his keyboard. Hence its not exactly tied yet in the real world. Use at own risk.
Here is the list of ships, in the order I found them. Sector, ship type, co-ordinates x,y,z. (Remember to find y, you need to hit the insert key on the nav map)
Unknown Sector next to Xenon 534, Falcon Sentinal, -20km, 3km, 2km. (Wont specify the kms again.)
Hilas Joy, Advanced Barracuda, -33,1.5,36
Treasure Chest, Buster Sentinel, -32,-5.4,-33.5
Savage Spur, Enhanced Pericles, 44.7,9.12,-28
Oracokes Storm, Advanced Eclipse, 30.1,-1.5,-8
Gaian Star, Elite, 66,0,-10
Vestibule of Creation, Eclipse, -7,-13.5,37.5
Veil of Delusion, Blastclaw Prototype, 47.6,3.5,-41.5
Menelaus Oasis, Skate Prototype, 38.5,1,32.5
Xenon 101, Scorpion Raider, 20.1, 0, 61.6
The Vault, Harrier Sentinel, -18, 0.375, -51.6
Unknown Sector by Unholy Decent, Pericles Vanguard, 13.7, 17.3, -27
Thrs Deprivation, Buzzard Houler, -4.2, -0.058, 62.7
Family Whi, Iguana Vanguard, 38, 0, 35.5
Depths of Silence, Mako Raider, 2.34, 0.729, 40.3
LooManckStrats Legacy, Mamba, -12, 1.16, -19.3
Akeelas Beacon, Buster Sentinel, 100, -10, 77.2
Duke/s Citidel, Advanced Perseus, 42.2, -0.250, 31
Menalaus Frontier, Toucan Hauler, 43, -7, 35
Some of these ships are quite valuable, since all are in top condition and more or less outfitted.
Some will make useful fleet ships for alter in the game, some good wingmen, some good cannon fodder. Its up to you to decide if you keep them all, some or none.
A note about carriers, none of them dock a TS or TP ship. To do this, get the script Beamdock, which with a Transporter device in the carrier, allows you to beam ships on and off of almost any size (using cargo compression technology, which also means, dont be in the ship being beamed or you end up very small and stuck in the ship for ever !). The mod comes with this command. Very useful for getting a claimed ship off the battlefield in a hurry, if you have your carrier in scanner range but away from the fighting.
A note about claiming. Any derelict ship (one with no speed, and no pilot), can be claimed. The X philosophy is to exist your ship, fly up next to the derelict, claim it, fly back to yours, then give it instructions. Get the order right, giving it instructions before your back in your ship can get you run down ! But stuff that ! Who in their right mind goes spacewalking ? Not moi ! Claim software is the answer. In the mod of course, installable by script if you dont have the mod. Available to buy in all good Pirate bases. Technically illegal, but not detectable by cops. There is a in-game version, but its detectable, short ranged, and needs another gizmo to make it non-detectable. Essential which ever you choose. Not cheap, but hey, in the mod, you get them standard.
To claim with the software, map it to a hotkey in the game options section, either on the joystick buttons or keyboard. Target and press. Easy. If your using the mod, beam it direct to the docking space in the carrier your flying, and on to the next. If not, then escort it to the nearest shipyard.
Note about shipyards, they only dock a few ships, and if yours is sitting there too long, it will get booted off and then becomes vulnerable to anyone stupid enough to run it down. So if your going to keep it, you need to find somewhere to stash it.
Also, if your not playing the mod and/or going to stick to using Apricot ships, decide which of these will make the best personal ship, and go for that first. Safety in speed, shields and firepower. Remember and choose wisely.
Moving right along. 19 ships, all loaded on my MiniCar, with the original Elite I started the game in. Jump back to Omicron Lyrae, it has a shipyard.
SAVE. I cant emphasise this enough. Save often. Always save the money ! Every time you claim something, save. Every time you complete something, save. The universe is a dangerous place, and it only takes an asteroid appearing directly in front of you, or some homocidal blind trader to hit you when you least expect it, not to mention bad guys shooting at you, that if you dont save, your likely to find its game over unexpectedly, and when you restart, things dont go the same and you dont get the claim or whatever. Take a mission, save, do it, save again. Give yourself somewhere to go back to if you get killed or just screw up. And always, always, always, save the money !
Where were we, oh yet, beam off the 2 freighters, and send them to the shipyard. Access landed ships, choose one, and broadcast to all of them to dock at the shipyard. Once they are all off, jump out somewhere. Then from a safe place in another sector, watch the shipyard and as they dock, sell them. (Remember to keep anything you do want to keep).
Something else before you do that,(oops), is keep 3 25mj shields for later use in missions. Sometimes its useful to keep a spare ship in the bays, so that you can transfer your jumpdrive and fittings to a claimed ship so it can jump out, and then you have a spare set on the spare ship you can transfer back onto yours so you can jump out too. So think about those things before you sell everything.
Also, oops again, if you sell the ships, yout about half price on the fittings, but if you strip the fittings out, and sell them yourself where ever you can, you can get more for the whole deal. Just more mucking about.
Anyway, selling the 19 ships and your starting ship, is good for about 50 million credits. Which is well worth the effort of collecting, as this can start you off in most areas of the game that require some cash to start. Especially small complexes of stations, or Sector Traders or a decent personal ship like an M6 or M7, and decent wingmen. Up to you.
The thing about jumping out is that out of sector or oos, there is no collision checking, so the money gets to the bank more safely when your not there. Always protect the money by not being there when its moving !
The auto-pilot is a lot better since its auto-pillok days (thats a separate and very funny story), but the AP does still slam ships into stations, it does still collide with gates and especially still crashes you into other ships occasionally. So when dealing with the money, safety first, be oos.
After you get the money, save again.
Now jump back in and change ships if your using the mod.
For now, I chose the Mule. This is a modified Discoverer. Lots of the new 200mj shields, and carries 4 guns of your choice. Not that fast, but for this next work, I did supertune it to about 800kph (used supertune option, then removed some of the speed as 1300 was too fast).
I decided to do the main plot immediately. After all, I have a kick arse and take names set of ships already. If you not using the Apricot ships, you need to decide whats safe and whats not for you. The first few missions of the plot are not too taxing, but then things get hairy, so I really recommend you ignore any of the plots (there are 5 main ones) until you have a decent ship and know how to fight it. At the very least, a fully kitted M3/M3+, but more realistically, an M6. In a furball, the extra turrents can save you from missiles and take out some of the pesky M5's.
If you start as the Terran, then your ahead of the rest, so ignore the next bit. Everyone else starts as an X densizon, and the plot for us begins in Omicron Lyrae.
When you enter Omicron Lyrae for the first time, you get contacted with a mission to escort some Terrans. Accept this. If you have already been offered it and ignored it, it will come back, so hang around until it does. Obviously for those playing non-Argon characters, to get the plot, you need to be friendly with the Argon. No point in rocking up and getting shot before the mission is offered. So you may need to work on your rep first. In fact, its not a good idea to start any of the plots if you do not have a good rep with all the races. Terran doesnt matter so much, as you pick up rep as you do their missions. But you do need to jump around X space a bit and its not helpful if your fighting sector defenses while trying to do a mission.
If necessary, use the cheat to increase your ranks. The mod automatically gives you this with the Argon Patriot start. Once you finish the plots, you can always put the ranks back down again if you want. (Rolls eyes).
So, mission is pretty easy. You need to talk to someone in the EQ dock to get it going, fly to an eclipse your told about, a Terran Scabbard shows up, follow it to the Terran Orbital Defence Station in Heretics End. You get pirates to deal with in Circle of Labour, usually M5's.
Note about mission enemies. X has a history of what you take with you defining what you get. So the higher your combat rank, and the bigger your ship or fleet with you, the more baddies you get to fight. In the final mission of X2, the temptation was to take in a carrier with as many M3's as you had, but all this did was increase the numbers of enemy ships and their respawn rate making the mission impossible to complete. All you needed was an M3, or as some did it, an M6 with an M5 for the tricky bit. Ive seen some talk in the threads about how impossible some missions are, and as yet, am not sure if this is a case in point of going in with too much, or if they are just impossible. Time will tell, keep reading.
Having said all that, taking an M5 into most missions is suicide. Dont even think about it. 75mj of shielding is barely adequate imo. M5 wingmen are just cannon fodder.
While I think of it, the Nav map has an extra section to it in TC. At the top of the list, is your ships and stations. Underneath, is a little section for mission ships and stations. So if your following a particular ship, or looking for it, it appears in this little section directly under your ships. Same for mission stations you need to dock at or talk to someone at. Remember that for later.
When you get to Heretics End, you get some Xenon. Take them out then watch the scabbard dock, dock yourself and talk to Erin Lovis about a job with the Terrans. You can try just comming the station without docking, I didnt think to try that.
Offical mission 1.
If you started as X denizen, you need to get yourself now to Uranus to meet up with Samual Plinter, for a patrol he will lead.
Follow the yellow brick road, so to speak. In the pilot section, missions area, you can click on the mission and activate the guidance for it, if it isnt already. This highlights where to go by giving you a gold set of arrows to follow, and gold tints to specific mission objects such as jump gates to go through, mission stations and mission ships.
So follow the arrow north into the Asteroid Belt, north again into Jupiter, then west into Saturn and west again into Uranus.
If you started as Terran, then your already here and we have just caught up to you.
Find Plinters ship, talk to him, (target his ship and comm, reasonably closely or it wont connect), then follow him until something happens.
An emergency call comes in. Some Xenon will turn up. Kill them.
Now, find the Xenon jump beacon, fly really close to it and your ship will scan it automatically. Once complete, kill the beacon. Mind out though, once its identified, everyone will be shooting at it.
Mop up any remaining xenons.
A message then comes in saying several message drones got away, and you get detailed to intercept.
Fly to Oort Cloud (go west young man), and then wait for the message drone to turn up. A cutscene will happen when it does, so you cant miss it.
Follow the message drone to its destination. Its pretty fast, in the 300kph range, so if you chose a slower ship, you will get left behind, just keep after it, even if it gets out of scanner range. Note, triplex scanners are best, if you havent got one, your putting shackles on and making life very difficult for yourself.
You will come accross a Nova and a jump beacon. Watch the Nova blow up the beacon. Then head east back into Pluto where you join up with Plinter again.
Next is 3 patrols of sectors, Pluto, Neptune and Uranus. Kill any Xenon that turn up, wait for the orders to move sectors before you do.
Once you get ordered to, dock with the Saturn Research Station and its mission complete.
Mission 2.
You get ordered to dock at the Orbital Patrol Base in Asteroid Belt. Its on your nav map, so jump if you have it. Talk to General Mishsiajamama. Fly to Mars (follow the arrows) and dock at the shipyard. Here you take possesion of an M5. Doesnt matter if you sell it or keep it. I told it to go dock with my Carrier.
Back to Asteroid Belt, and then orders to talk to Mark Jackson in Heretics end. Jump, dont walk. (Hey, walk if you want to, but why daudle when its doing things that pays the bills !)
Talk to Jackson. (By now you should be getting the hang of this. The yellow highlights the ship or station, just com and look for 2 blue dots next to the mission persons name, and chat to that person.)
Chat, wait a bit, more chat. Finally you get ordered to Scale Plate Green where Xenon are attacking a convoy. Follow the arrows. A fast ship makes this less tedious.
Now, Jackson needs a course in how to effectively communicate orders.The order is to identify and follow the non-Xenon ship working with the Xenon to its base, and scan it. Unfortunately if your not listening very carefully, you miss the station bit and assume he meant scan the ship. To scan the ship, you have to get very close, and that makes the pilot jittery and he will jump away. So dont. You need to scan the station, which means following the ship a good way behind so as not to frighten him, where ever he goes. If you screw up, the mission restarts after a wait, in another sector. Ignore the Xenon, just find and follow the Nova.
Eventually, you follow the Nova into the Unknown Sector next to PTNI HQ. Make sure its not in range of your turrents if you have any at anytime, you do not want to fire on him. Let him dock at the station before you approach it. When you get close, it will go red on you, and may or may not attack you.
Fly up to the station so close you can peel off the paint (500 meters) and your ship will automatically scan the station. When complete, the station launched an Elite after me. If your slower, kill the pirate, otherwise ignore it. Your choice anyway.
Jump back to Heretics End, and talk to Jackson again. Mission end.
Mission 3.
Find the Sabre in Heretics End and talk to the pilot. You are given 3 M5's as wingmen and suggested to form them into a wing. It sounds like a choice, but the mission wont start until you do. Target each ship and give it the instruction to join a wing, and select the same wing designation each time.
Having done that, one has to wonder why you need wingmen and if my current ship is adequate for what lies ahead.
I was still flying my Mule. And against Ns and Ms, that was fine. But it doesnt have the firepower for anything much bigger, not enough guns, only having 4.
So, I jumped in my Carrier, beamed out my M7 and changed ships, docking the Mule with my Carrier.
I also docked the 3 M5's. In any sort of serious furball, 3 M5's as wingmen are just cannon fodder, so why waste them ? Your choice.
Patrol Circle of Labour. Kill Xenon, both waves. Ditto Omicron Lyrae.
Then fly to Treasure Chest, where you get something different. Theres a flight of reds in there called Decafs. Easy to kill, so do that.
After, return to Heretics End and talk to Jackson again.
Mission 4.
Plinter has an escort for you, so find him and talk to him. Theres a Scabbard going to Venus and you have the duty. Follow it to Asteroid Belt and then Mars.
In Mars, you get a report of a Xenon ship. The next choice is yours, if you complete the escort, or go get the Xenon. If you continue the escort, the Xenon will be there when you get back, and you do need to join that fight. However, by the time you get back, the situation may not be advantageous for you in terms of what the Terrans still have around to fight with. If you go in straight off, you have the benefit of their help at maximum strength.
As it happens, the scabbard gets home ok without you, so I went off and took on the Xenon.
There is a jump beacon here somewhere, if you find it, kill it. I never found it so I assume someone else did.
Shock number 1. They have a J. Now I know why I changed ships. I rig for 8 PPCs, and target the J. Now the Apricot PPCs are slightly less powerful than normal ones, but fire faster. The PPC also lets you overpower the bullet by holding down the trigger while it builds, giving the shot a lot my hitting power. Scalp up 1 J !
If you dont have the firepower to take on a J, keep well out of its way. Its guns have a 6km odd range, and if your in an M3 or M4, 1 shot can kill you. So engage the fighters, and stay clear of the J. Eventually, a Terran M2 will turn up and make kitty litter out of the J. Enjoy the show.
Once all Xenon are accounted for, head to Venus, and catch up with the scabbard. It may already have docked with the Orbital Defense Station, if not, wait for it to do so. Then talk to Benthami on the station. End mission.
Lunch Time !
At this point, you dont have a new mission yet.
Final Fury Mission 1.
Head back to Omicron Lyrae. There you will find a ship called Exterminator.
At this point, a high race ranking with nearly everyone is essential, and the mission your about to do, makes the next set of Terran missions easier. So think about ranks for a sec, and either do some serious rank building work, or consult with Cycrows hidden menu.
Comm the Exterminator, and you get offered a place in the Final Fury Mission.
Follow him to Black Hole Sun.
On arrival, a big attack by Xenon commences, including quite a few Ps. The mission now pays C300k+ you will notice, so this is an earner mission. A huge step up from the Terran missions where they paid in peanuts and M5's (bigger peanuts).
Clear out the Xenon ! The more you kill, the bigger mission bonus you get. The Ps pay 130k each, so taking all of them out yourself will push the payout on this mission over the million mark. You need firepower and balls.
When all the Xenon are litter, follow Exterminator again, south to Nathans Voyage, west into the Unknown Sector, and south into Argon Sector M148.
Dock at the Military Base (not the Outpost which will be showing red).
End of mission, payday bigtime if you got the job done.
Final Fury Mission 2.
Take an advanced satelite into Khaak Sector 931, and drop in the center of the sector. Then go scan the station. Easy right ? Ummmm.
To get there, shift-J to get the jump map, then hit K to get the map to find the Khaak sector for you, which should be highlighted in yellow. Accept that and you jump in.
Dont Panic. The sector is heavily red.
Punch f for freight bay, select the advanced satelite, and eject it, as fast as you can.
Now hit maximum speed and go to the station. Try very hard to get there before anything can catch up with you. If your in a slow ship, rethink your ship ! Speed helps here. Shielding is good but if you can do this fast enough, you dont need it.
At the station, you get a warning to slow down so the scanner will work, do so, keep moving, keep close to the station, but dont make yourself a target.
When the scan is complete, jump out as fast as you can. Anywhere that comes to hand fastest.
With luck, speed and a steady hand, you should get out unscathed.
Jump back to Argon M148, where you get a message asking you to go to another Khaak sector to retrieve a flight recorder.
Jump there, and the recorder is shown as a container on the nav map.
If you are not playing the Apricot Mod, use the ship command to collect a specific container and then select it, then wait while you ship goes through the motions of collecting it. Speed here is a pain, as the faster the ship can go, the more useless this command becomes. However, the old manual way of picking things up seems to have been tossed out the cargo bay, so the command will have to do. For some anyway.
If you are playing the mod or have the Cbeam script installed, press the cbeam slurp button, and the 3 containers showing will all be beamed aboard.
Then get the hell out before the red becomes nasty.
Jump back to Argon M148, and its mission over.
Now at this point, there is a program bug. The Split commander starts talking before the computer voice is finished, so you dont get to hear the Split at all.
As it turns out, the mission is complete, theres no mission for now, you will get called back when the next mission is ready.
Jump back to Heretics End, as by this time, the next Terran mission will be ready.
Terran Mission 5.
Talk to Jackson, who sends you to the Free Argon Trading Station in Nathans Voyage. Jump, dont walk.
As you approach the station, you get commed by Heywood, who tells you about how the guy your supposed to meet got arrested by the Argon. Shes asks you to follow her to Grand Exchange, in snail mode. I said stuff that, turned on the cheat for the full nav map, jumped straight there, then turned it off again.
At the Dream Farm Alpha, you have a chat with a Teladi. Hes not happy, but he wants you to do some dirty work for you before he will help.
Fly to tears of Greed (follow the yellow) and in there you will find 4 freighters in the special ships section of the nav map. One of them is the target and he should be highlighted in yellow.
Target and kill. For good measure, kill his escorts as well.
Now, the 3 remaining freighters need to be scanned one by one. As you do, they should turn red, so kill them.
Back to the Dream Farm for more Teladi talk. He has set you up a freight mission in order to get through Argon security.
You need to go to the shipyard and buy a Vulture. Now for some strange reason, this shipyard doesnt outfit ships, so this is where the spare sheilds come in handy. Transfer to the Vulture, with the shields, and then supertune it with the handy command in Cycrows menu (I cant be stuffed flying snails). A jump drive is useful too, so transfer it and some ecells as well.
Use the best buy key to find Taladianium, then go there and buy 200.
Now guess what, we are going back to Argon M148 !
Jump there and then you will get inspected as you come through the gate and given clearance to the Military Outpost that was red last time you were here but is now blue.
At this point its worth mentioning that this is a multi-racial sector, and if any of the races dont like you, someone will quickly show up to kick your arse. And your flying a garbage scow, not your fighter. Hence the work on the race rankings before starting all this.
Its also worth mentioning that if you havent done the first Final Fury missions yet, then the whole sector will be red to you, as its actually a restricted space.
Dock with the station to deliver the goods.
Now, wait for Heywood to show up and bellow at you.
She and Pearle (the arrested one) will come flying out of an airlock in spacesuits. You need to pick them up.
Now, if your using the Mod, DONT use Cbeam. It works fine, but the mission will fail, you get a mission completed message, and thats the end of the Terran missions for you.
You need to use the ships command to pick up the suits. Now this of course brings up a program bug that hasnt been fixed in TC, because if the suit is too close to the station, the auto-pilot will keep avoiding the station and never ever be able to pick up the suit. *sigh*. If that happens, all you can do is go back to the auto-save when you docked at the station and try again. (What ? You dont have auto-save on ? What did I say about saving ????).
Once you have both on board, Heywood will scream at you to get the hell out of there, so jump to Heretics End and dock with the Station that Jacksons at. Mission ends.
After a full day of fun and games, albiet lucrative, its time for dinner and sleep. Nite nite.
(......to be continued, stay tuned, same time, same channel.).
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Posted: Tue, 9. Dec 08, 11:10
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Always liked your walkthroughs, Apricot.
Keep up the good work!
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Posted: Tue, 9. Dec 08, 11:48
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Thanks Dave242
Next installment shortly. Its bean a funfilled day
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Posted: Tue, 9. Dec 08, 13:39
Post subject:
A new day dawns, ship time anyway.
Heres the story so far. Found 19 ships, made a lot of credits, met the Terrans, shot a lot of Xenon, Met a Split and shot more Xenon and got chased by a lot of Khaak.
Game time : 08:57:47
Credits : 53,101,490
Petty Retailer 7%
Fighter Chief 39%
Terran Marshall of Mars 47%
Operation Final Fury - Specialist 7%
76 kills, including one traffic accident.
4 Rapiers, 1 Adv. Disco, 1 Caiman Tanker, 1 Vulture SF.
Jump to the Military Base in Argon M148.
Final Fury Mission 3.
I gotta laugh. I just found that when I supertuned the Vulture, I accidently supertuned the M7 as well. I thought Id hit a wrong key and nothing happened, now Ive got 760 speed !
Dock with the Military Base (again). Straight forward mission, jump into next door Unknown Sector and scan the roids for high yield ones.
So, jump and scan. Now the normal way is to target a roid, get into scanning distance and scan. So a sector full of them takes time. Who has the patience I ask you, certainly not me. One installs the show all asteroids script, and lo, jump and hey presto, mission complete.
Only ..... theres more.
The found 3 roids, so they are sending in a TL to build mines on them, the job is to keep the TL safe.
TL jumps in. And holey shit, the sector turns red with Khaak in all directions and its instant furball with Fighters all over the place and everything else pecking at you.
Then I get a message saying to take more care pilot ! Huh ? Wheres the fffffing TL ? Its not there !
New TL jumps in, and before I can say wtf, its also gone. Wtf ?
Third TL jumps in and I see this one this time as Im half way accross the sector now, killing bugs like crasy, and one blink and the TLs gone and yet another take more care message. *hair beginning to come out*
So then the Fourth TL jumps in and this time I finally notice the damn thing is jumping in by the EAST gate, and I was by the South gate, and so I put on all speed and hurry over to it.
Ok, now I get the picture.
There are FOUR, count them, FOUR sodding Khaak Corvettes by the East gate pounding on everything that comes through.
I switch to PPCs, since I was using PBEs for fly swotting, but these are heavy duty bugs and need the big guns !
The first 2 go down, but thats the end of the TL. I take down the third bug, and the fifth TL jumps in. By this stage Im in a total frenzy and the fourth bug gets the full PPC treatment and ramming for good measure and I get out of it with bent shields but otherwise no damage, then theres 2 more corvettes and more bugsplat and suddenly all thats suddenly left is flys and so I quickly swat the rest of them.
The TL is still there and completely intact this time. Phew ! Wipes sweat from brow. Follows in the wake of the TL and recuperates.
TL builds 2 mines without incident, and heads off accross sector to the 3rd roid.
After a bit, I notice a lone scout in the distance, so bored shitless by this stage, I take off after it. Easy swat.
So all of a sudden, the next wave hits ! Another corvette, more of everything else. I head off back to the TL and follow along, allowing the Khaak to close in, but positioning myself so Im between all of them and the TL. When almost in range, I put on some speed, target the corvette, and its on again. This time though, its kitty litter for the bugs and none of them got past me.
TL gets the 3rd mine built and its mission over. Hey I yelled, what about paying me ! Nope. Got a rep increase, but no money. I guess losing 4 TLs came out of my pay which was supposed to be over 300k. And that furball could have been a serious drain on funds if Id lost a shield for even an instant.
Final total, 30 scouts, 13 interceptors, 16 fighters and 7 corvettes. Minus 2 Argon and 2 Boron TLs, RIP.
Moral of all this ? If you dont see the ship your minding, immediately jump to the next gate and check for it there !
So end of mission, we will be in touch, piss off for now.
Okey dokey, time for lunch.
Terran Mission 6.
Back to docking at the Orbital Base in the Asteroid Belt. Big discussion and then Pearle comes aboard.
Heads up, you need cargo life support for this one. This is standard on Apricot ships, but otherwise, you need to visit a Pirate base to get one. You also need 3 satelites and there are none here.
Jump or fly to Family Zyarth. If your lucky, there are satelites here. If so, get 3. Drop one anywhere you like, although I tended to cover the gate I jumped in on one edge and as much of the center as it would reach.
Jump or fly to Family Ryk and drop another one. Then to Zyarths Dominion and drop the 3rd.
Now wait for Pearle to call you.
After a bit, he does, and its back to Family Zyarth. In the special section of the nav, you will get 4 freighters to scan. Do each one. One of them turns red, so ever so gently attack it since we want to capture it. If your lucky, he will bail as soon as the hull gets touched, but if your unlucky he will bail when there is orange peel left and the last bullet you fire will kill the ship. Guess what I did. Theres a laugh over the intercom and an assurance that another ship will come along. I scanned the next one on the list, and get an illegal scan message, repeated again the next time. Huh ?
I reloaded a save from immediately before scanning the freighters and redid it on the basis that the mission was buggered when I destroyed the ship, the laugh be damned. This time her jumps in the high 80's. Big relief, save game.
So next step is to claim the ship. I target and hit the claim button and its immediately apparent the mission is blown. Wtf ? I reload (see why I save save save save) and this time listen to what Pearle is saying and ....he...actually...wants....me... get out of the ship and claim it MANUALLY ? What sort of dev forces that ? The normal X3 one of course. Claim software is technically illegal and youre the good guy so therefore you dont ahve claims software. Hello, anyone home ??? Salvage is my business, who in their right mind goes space walking to claim anymore ? *sigh*. Spacewalk, yes. Eject, target ship, fly in close, watching the claim option for it to light up. It does, halt, claim, and listen as your told to enter the ship. Not a bloody chance !
Turn around, target my M7, get myself back aboard asap. Happy now, yes.
Ok, so hull damage. Mount up a repair laser (standard on Apricot ships of course), and what, you dont have one ? Sorry, should have heads up on that one too. Oh well, as long as the hulls not too badly damaged you can do without, but if need be, you can go get one.
Now transfer over your jumpdrive, ecells, those spare 25mj shields your carrying and Mr. Pearle. And then transfer yourself.
Send you ship into the next sector and have it stand by inside the gate.
Now, your looking for an Elephant. (No, not the elephant you feel like your flying.). With luck its in scanner range, if not, check SE wards.
When you find, fly casual ! You want to come up next to it so you can inspect the paintwork, while Pearle plants a tracking bug. Once thats on, 5 decafs come after you. Run like hell and jump to the next sector as fast as you can. Then float accross to you ship and retransfer everything back.
The freighter is now yours to keep, so stash it somewhere safe.
Next destination is Ocean of Fantasy, and an Odin you find there. Chat starts when you get close. You get given a Cutless. If this is better than what your flying, transfer across to it, otherwise, another ship to stash somewhere safe. I of course jump my Carrier in and collect both ships and then jump the Carrier back to Heretics End.
Theres a party been organised in an Unknown Sector, so jump or fly there. Its already started when you get there. So in I wade. Split ships and Terrans and the Split are not enjoying it.
Then, wtf, CTW.(Crash to Windows). Do you want to send Microsoft a report ? No. Reload from just inside the sector and CTW. Report ? Still no. Reboot, reload, and CTW. Report ? No, bugger off ! Log into egosoft forum and file a bug report. Back to the game, go back a save, reenter the sector and sit there and do nothing. Eventually the amount of missiles cluttering the place up tempts me into hitting the cbeam button, and CTW. No. Reload, reenter, cbeam, CTW. Nonononono. Ah ! Pattern forming.
Reboot, reload, reenter, sit there and do zip. The Terrans knock off the Split without any help, and now the real action happens. 4 Freighters sneak past the last of the Split ships and marines board the tagged Elephant. A lone astronaut flees the captured TL, and your ordered to pick it up.
In one goes, and lines up on the astronut. Ship commands, special, wtf, where is the collect astronaut command and the collect containers command ? How the hell do you get the astronut without a command to do it.
I took so long to figure that out that some Split came along and picked him up ! The yellow indicator lights up the ship, so I go after it, fire at it and destroy it, and hey theres my astronut back.
So naturally I ran him down ! Cargo bay contains, passenger. NOW you tell me !!!!
Ok, so objective achieved, but what does that leave us with ? This mission has collecting containers and astronauts any way than running them down disabled. So DO NOT use Cbeam or Abeam for this mission, or it will be CTW. Its logged as a bug, but Im not sure what they can do about it.
Ok, where next ? Moon Military base. Jump......err, no, wont allow it. Jump to Asteroid Belt, and then fly the rest of the way. Dock and mission over, well let you know when the next one is ready.
I need a rest ! Another day, not a dollar in sight, and actually lost a few credits for all that work !
Guess where next is ? You guessed it, back to 148 ! I need a DRINK !
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Posted: Tue, 9. Dec 08, 15:29
Post subject:
Final Fury Mission 4.
Game time 11:43:34
Master Chief 36%
Flight Sergeant 4%
Terran Marshal of Mars 47%
Same ships + Cutlass.
172 kills.
Just as well I didnt really have a drink.
Convoy duty. Only 1 sector, but my favourite one ! *choke*
Jump to East gate this time of the Unknown Sector just north, and 3 ships to escort, 2 freighters and an Osprey.
Nice quiet beginning. Then 2 scouts at long range, then a few more.
I watch the pattern forming as we move SW. A snaking wall starts to form in red on the scanner.
Ok, party time, target the nearest Fighter......wait for it.....wait for it..... select big guns, target......fire.
And all hell breaks loose. Ive no idea of time now I look back on it, just a constant string of loose groups of Khaak, attacking continuously as we move south west.
Dont get too far from the convoy, but target any fighter that comes close. Speed run, kill, double back. Am I really glad I overclocked this ship by mistake, as the speed is really important here. Intercept, kill, double back, select, intercept, kill, double back, catchup the convoy, select....on and on and on.
Finally a break as we near the south gate. Watching freighters go through a gate is like watching grass grow and not quite as exciting.
Finally the first one is lined up for the jump, and theres a red blip almost on top of us, a Khaak Cluster. Speed, line up, kill. Stop, go back to being bored.
First ship is through........then the second......and now the third, and....
New orders, theres a scout heading away, follow it.
Its a damn slow scout too, so I idle along, feeling like a man being led to the noose as Khaak slowly ring around me.
Suddenly at scanner edge in the center of the sector, a Khaak station !
Cant pay attention, a corvette is almost on me. Turn, target, kill. And hell breaks loose again as the noose tightens around me. Target, shoot, on and on, and finally a break and speed towards the station.
When close enough, new orders, take it out. Surprise Surprise !
At this point I better explain my gun loadout. The M7 has 8 forward gun slots and 10 guns in 4 turrents. I have modified PBEs in all the turrents. On the front I have 4 PBEs and 4 modified PPCs. Group 2 has the PPCs and gets used for corvettes and fighters with precision gunnery, and group 3 has the PBEs for interceptors and scouts. Switch back and forth depending on target.
Now the main target is the station. So I pull away for a bit while unmount the PBEs and put in 4 more PPCs. Gee I wish the old system of gun swapping was back, as the new hud layout is 50 times slower to change a gun, and when your being shot at by a hornets nest, speed is important !
8 PPCs on the front and switch to group 1 to bring them all online. Turn toward the Station and start firing at 6km, ease back the speed until the last second then turn and full speed away. Pot shots at scouts and fighters and interceptors, not hitting as much as these are too slow for scouts really, but just keeping them off my back while I line the station up again and again, until its shields are down, and I take the risk and drop the speed to almost nothing and keep rapid firing until the station blows with a lot of satisfaction for me.
Mission complete, compliment from the boss, and what no money again ? What is this ? Damn, its still a hornets nest and all the support ships have pissed off and left me with them. A few minutes later and its clear enough to think again.
Next mission is for the Terrans again. Its the commuting in this job that really gets you down !
Its been a long day, and not a credit to show for it.
Quick jump into M148, dock at the Military Base and a nice long sleep.
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Posted: Wed, 10. Dec 08, 13:28
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Terran Plot, Mission 7.
I just knew this was going to be a bad day.
Woke up with a bad headache, so started late.
Jumped into Asteroid Belt and trecked into Mars, wishing Id stayed in bed. In retrospect, that would have been the better idea.
Dock at the shipyard this time, just for a change.
In preparation for the coming showdown, we get to play board the ship. We get a Scabbard to command, with 10 marines. At least they called these bozos marines. By the look of them they couldnt have boarded a barn with the door open !
Parked a little way away is a Vidar. Now theres a nice little ship. Object of the exercise is board and capture it.
Now, approach steadily in your ship, select guns to take down the shields only, and open fire. Once the shields are down, order the Scabbard to board the Vidar. Board command is on the piracy menu (of course) by the way.
Sit within gun range while the Scabbard does the business. When the marines launch, you need to keep the Vidars shields from regenerating past 10% or else the shields will fry the marines. I kept 1 PBE active and bopped it as soon as the shields got past 6 %. Having the shields showing in percent terms does help too.
Hint : turn your turrents off if you dont want unnecessary damage to the hull.
I sent that crew of brainless thugs accross 3 times, and they failed to breach the hull every time.
Heres the lowdown on marines. They have 4 skill types, and 5 levels for each. The types are Fighting (which this lot were all 2 or 3 stars at), Hacking, Mechanical and Engineering.
Fighting skills are gained by action. The rest can be trained at stations that train them, or on your ship if you get the script.
Hacking is the skill that gives you control of the ship your trying to take over. Mechanical is the skill that cuts into the hull and gives the team access. Engineering skills help to prevent damage to the ship as its taken. So you really need one of each with a high rating in each team. Mechanical gets you in, Hacking gets you control as fast as possible, and Engineering makes sure that the ship survives and as much of its loot is still intact. The rest are mustle to take down the crew with and shoot the automated defenses if the ship has any.
In each team, the marine with the highest skill level in each type is used for the boarding action to determine what happens.
In the team given for this exercise, only 1 marine has 2 stars for each type, although as I said, they are all good at fighting. So when 2 stars consistently fails to break into a ship that is dead in space and not shooting back, that says a lot about the level of training you need in the teams to make it work.
I had a look at the squad, they were all X denizens, and probably captured by the Terrans and forced into the marine corp. That would explain their total incompetence. Nothing else does.
After the third attempt, the Terrans give you the ship anyway, and you get orders to talk to Jackson in the Moon sector. More snail travel. *sigh*
A note about the Vidar. Its apparently the only one you can capture in the game, so treat it like the unique derelict ships. If you sell it, its gone for good. If you are playing without Apricot ships, it looks a good one to keep. Kick arse and take prisoners type. Anyway, stash it somewhere safe.
A note about the Scabbard. Its yours, also stash it somewhere safe.
A note about notes. Take note of them.
Jackson mobilises the fleet and everyone jumps to Aldrin.
Finding Aldrin. Its not on the gate network, so you have to jump there. The easiest way to find it on the nav map, is press the A key until the sector is highlighted, going through the A named sectors in alpha order.
Aldrin is a strange system. You jump in by a beacon in the middle of a ringed asteroid belt around a moonsized asteroid. So instead of the middle of the sector being empty, the center is solid and everything happens around it.
The sector is HUGE. You dont realise how huge until you zoom in enough to see ships on the nav map.
First task is checking out a station. As you approach, Jackson starts talking, and then a ship detaches from the station and heads to the Tyr (M2) flagship. I followed it along until it got near the Tyr. At which point there is a lot of talk going on.
The next thing that happens is some Xenon attack. 1 LX and the rest smaller, so I targetted the LX and took that out first, and then just went after what was left.
This sector is so huge, I had a substantial lag issue in here, especially since Im on a borderline computer, but there is so much in here, that many will have lag issue even when normally they dont.
There are so many Terran ships here that you dont really need to do anything if the lag is bad that you cant anyway. Just sit it out and let them create some more space dust.
Now the task is escorting the Tyr (as if it really needs an escort), and so follow it along. Its target becomes apparent long before its actually on the scanners. I stopped about 10km away, and let the task force attack it.
At this point you are again given control of a Scabbard with marines.
As soon as the shields come down on the target, send in the marines. Again, if this is the pride of the Terran special forces, then a handful of grannies can keep them outside of a straw house, indefinely !
Once again, 3 failed attempts to gain entrance to the target. The second time, only half of them came back, the other 5 buggered off somewhere. So the third time, only 5 went in. They announced that they were approaching the target, and then nothing.
A while later, the other Scabbard finally moves in, seems to drop off a single marine and shortly after, the target turns blue and the battle is over.
What a let down. After a mission lasting well over 2 hours, most of it total boredom waiting for something to happen, its suddenly over and nothing you did made any real difference. Reality in the Xverse.
However, we are not finished yet. Now we get to drive some locals to Earth for talks. The ultimate snail journey. Oh joy !
We now have another Scabbard, and I set it to picking up the marines. Now of course, the commands for containers and astronuts work again, so I also slurped all the containers. When the Scabbard is finished, you need to jump it somewhere safe. By this time, you should be accumulating a little fleet somewhere where its safe. North east of the north gate in Heretics End is where my little fleet is growing. Hasnt been a red dot in there since we started.
Typically, the M7 isnt allowed to dock at the station to pick up the dignataries from. So I jump in a Mule, swap accross, dock, undock, dock with the M7, and then jump to Asteroid Belt.
Then its a long haul round to Earth.
At the Moon sector, take the time to look at both the Moon behind you, and the Earth ahead. Nice sight. Worth a picture for the snap book.
A ways from the gate into Earth, I drop back into the Mule, undock and proceed in a ship I know will dock.
On the other side, theres a sight for sore eyes. The station is so huge, it covers the horrizon.
WARNING : Do not turn on the auto-pillok ! If you do, the damn thing goes crasy, since it cant figure out an approach to the dock. So it tries to go around it, and the moment you cross a line of lasertowers, your arse is new mown grass ! Dont do it.
Crank up the speed and go straight ahead. After a bit, you start passing station on both sides. On the left you will see a nice sign saying Dock >>>>>. Keep going straight. When it looks like you going to start hitting something, slow right down. Now you can try the docking computer. If the auto-pillok starts up, cancel it before you hit anything, and keep going closer. Then try the docking computer again. It should by now, auto-dock you.
Theres a nice little pep talk to end with and its Terran Plot Over !
Oh...theres a nice little surprise waiting for you. Theres a Claymore sitting in the next docking bay with your name on it. Tell it to go wherever your stashing your little fleet.
Terran Plot summary :
A nice little plot, not too hard, not too easy, but boring in parts, but moves you along. Not much in monetary returns, the Terrans dont actually pay well.
But you end up with 5 M5's, a Cutlass, 2 Scabbards (with 20 marines between them), 1 Vidar and a Claymore. The Vidar needs some hull work, and they all are short on necessary fittings and upgrades.
As a fleet beginning, thats a good start. The sale value is probably pretty good if you want the credits instead.
You also get complete access to the Earth section of the gate network, and I didnt spot anything in the way of pirate activity in there, so if you want a safe place to base your trading empire, this could be the place. I cant say Ive tried dropping a station yet, but in theory, this is about as safe as it gets.
End of Plot status :
53,047,570 credits.
Militant 42%
Terran Marshall of Mars 57%
Flight Sergeant 85%
255 kills including 2 accidents.
Ships as noted.
Back to M148.
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Posted: Wed, 10. Dec 08, 16:09
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On the way back, I stopped off at Heretics end. The cargo bay was getting full and I needed to offload some of it. Ive been using Cbeam all the time and slurping containers every time something gets killed. Among the load is 17 silicon, 381 ore, 250 meatsteaks and 39 rimes. Plus a lot of missiles.
I then jumped both ships, me in my M7 and the Carrier to Omicron. There I got the Scabbards out and got both ships training Mechanicals to level 5, (with the cost removed - I dont believe in paying for something that I consider in-house expertise.).
Then its back to M148.
Death or Glory time !
Jump to Khaak Sector 931 and clean it out, because someone got toasted there recently.
Standard furball, 1 corvette, rest mainly smaller stuff. Some support, so not all that trying. When all are dust, its mission complete, no need to jump home, but I do anyway.
And we get PAID ! I clocked up about 512k, and now up to 283 kills.
Back to M148 and no missions for once.
Nearest mission I can comm is to protect the shipyard for 24k, so I take it. Bunch of Pirates show up, Falcons and lower, easy kills. Paid and you get the Argon bounty on kills as well, so got closer to 60k. I didnt actually check on the exact amount.
About to take another mission, when the recall arrives.
Final Fury Mission 6.
Convoy duty in the Zone again. Oh joy.
Jump to the east gate in the unknown sector, and 6 Borons await. The standard 2 scouts show up, then 2 clusters jump in close that I take out without them breaking. Then its on. A group of fighters jump in on top of us and I manage to take them out quickly. Then I goof and get lured away like last time, and another group of fighters jump in on the convoy and Im too far away to get there in time ! Not a happy Split.
Reload. This time I decide its time for the big guns and jump in my M2. PBEs all round, but PPCs in the front. Off we go. Furball. Yikes, I accidently rammed a mission ship ! Annoyed Split.
Reload. PBEs on the front, right side and top, on attack my target, rest on attack enemies. Furball, target leader gone. Unhappy Split.
What is this fighters with jump drive stuff ? Not a nice tactic development.
There are some days you really should not get out of bed and I knew this was one of them !
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Posted: Thu, 11. Dec 08, 06:52
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Just goes to show how lousy yesterday was. I missed out a whole mission in the narative.
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Posted: Thu, 11. Dec 08, 07:23
Post subject:
There is nothing like a new day to put a new perspective on things.
Looking back, what does one say the single biggest question mark was ? Tactics, studidity ? Nope, guns. They were not firing !
Ok, why not. ...............Erk.
Note to modders. When you create a new gun, make sure you connect it to the correct projectile ! No point in making a 6km gun if your projectile only goes 1km. *sigh*
Which brings up gun mounting as an issue. In furballs like these missions, you must be flying a ship that has some fexibility in its gun choice. The majority of the enemy are fighters, so you need fast firing quick moving guns with at least a 2km range. The further out you can kill them, the less shots they can fire at you or anyone else. Its why I dislike flaks and short range guns, if the enemy are that close, your fighting a defensive engagement, and those are too easy to lose.
As soon as you meet a Corvette or higher, you need serious firepower and you need it at a lot longer range. There is no point pecking away at a Khaak corvette with say hepts or pacs, because its going to fry you before you can get its shields down. You need the pacs/pbes etc for the M5's and M4's, but for M3's and M6's you need PPCs and their like. Take the bugger out in as few shots as possible. Consequently, you need a ship that can mount 4 of each type at the same time, so you can switch back and forth quickly. Carry both, even if your mainly only using one of them. You never know when you come accross something big you just have to handle yourself. If need be, you load in of the biggest you can mount and go in blazing. (Or out as the case may be.)
Anyway, some slight surgery on the mod, and we are back in business.
Final Fury Mission 6. (Take 4.)
Still chosen to fly the M2 for this one. See what happens.
Jump in the east gate, and 4 Teladi already well advanced.
Usual scouts at long distance but leaving them behind this time. Front turrent on shoot my target, and the rest on attack enemies. One of the scouts slides up behind me and dies before I even knew he was there. Much better !
A cluster jumps in close, 10km away, so peel off to take it. Ive got my PBEs all round this time and at 6km, they break up the cluster. So then I find the guns fall silent in the break between target acquisition. I change to Attack all enemies all round. Poof, no cluster.
5 clusters in all, 1 or 2 at a time, all jumping close in, spread over the whole distance, but mainly towards the south end. By that time, there was some heavy duty help around as well, but nothing quite close enough to protect the convoy. Also 3 corvettes jump in close one at a time as the last couple of convoy ships are lining up to jump.
Now, interesting thing. No Fighter groups jumping in this time. Which actually brings up something. The program adapts as you play. So the longer you play the better it thinks you are, and the more it throws at you. This is why some people talk in the forums about impossible odds that no-one else experiences.
Solution ? Quit for a break. When you start the game up again, it reinitialises everything and the mission that was impossible before becomes relatively easy.
All through the gate, mission complete. Paid mission too, 53,906,555. Oh....and theres 800 odd meatsteaks sitting in the cargo hold. BBQ anyone ?
No more missions again, so check the sector. One of the silicon mines wants a Drone factory delivered in Wastelands within 2 hours 9 minutes, for 3,783,750. I can do that.
Dock the TL thats in Omicron at the Shipyard there, buy a Drone factory for 2,898,204 and jump it to Wastelands. In the meantime I jump there myself, and wait for the TL. When it arrives, I transfer accross to it, drop the station on top of the beacon, and its money in the credit account. 54,792,101.
BANG and some expletives. Oops, some idiot has left a TL parked in the gate. Hehe. A border patrol goes red, so I com and apologize. Not a happy border patrol but it goes blue again.
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Posted: Thu, 11. Dec 08, 14:04
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Swap back into the M2, and jump the TL back to Omicron.
Recall message, so back into the fray we go. Jump to M148 and dock.
Final Fury Mission 7.
Another convoy. 4 ships. I jump in the east gate and they are sitting there like a shag on a rock, doing nothing, going nowhere. Suicidal Paranid apparently. This continues that way for 15 minutes until I decide its a fragged mission and reload.
New convoy, 3 ships, and these guys are in a hurry. All the way south, its random combinations of Corvettes, clusters and fighters, all jumping in about 10km away. SOB. (Standard operational Bullsh*t).
No real problems. End mission. 54,958,101, Ensign 84%, Warrior 5%, 486 kills.
Free again. I jump to M148 to park the M2. Beam out the M7 and swap over, its time to park some satelites for future use. I got these a while back when we were asked to get them for a mission. Instead of getting on the number for the mission, I bought the lot, so I have 5 spares.
At some point in the near future, Im going to want to start building support stations, particularly ecell production. To that end, its usefull to know which shipyard has what stations, and the easiest way is to put a satelite over them. Since I prefer Argon food, its time to do an Argon Shipyard crawl !
Since theres on in M148, I get the auto-pillok to take me to the center of the sector, about 10km above center, and drop a satelite there.
Then the same in Omicron, Light of Heart, and Argon Prime. By the time Ive finished there, the recall is in, so I jump back to M148 and dock again.
Final Fury Mission 8.
Death or Glory again, Khaak Sector 931.
I jump in and find a couple of M6's being harrased by an entire Carrier group. Must have been them who called for help.
I caught up with the Carrier near a very large asteroid, and suddenly had the worst lag of the game kick in. The PBEs were seriously not working effectively due to the lag, and the Ks were pounding on me while I was desperately trying to change a few guns to PPCs. Classic case of being unprepared.
Well the Carrier got toasted, but I only got 2 PPCs working before it blew. By that time, Id done about 8gj in sheild energy and was starting to get seriously worried. Fortunately, when the Carriers shields went down, the hull was simple.
After that, the lag improved a lot and the escorts were quickly mopped up.
End of mission, and got paid this time about 2mill. 57,841,143, warrior 20%, Commander 12%.
Once the mission finished, there were still khaak about, and since they didnt pay anything to kill, I jumped out to the first sector I could hit on the map. Turned out to be Grand Exchange. Nothing of interest there, so on a whim, I jumped to Family Pride.
When a Split asks you if your not afraid of death in combat, be afraid, be very afraid ! It read like a simple patrol of the sector I was in. 193k. So I took it.
Next thing a Khaak Battlegroup jumps in.
I hit the screachies and sat there for a second, then started madly changing guns. 8 on the front, and 12 on the left got changed to PPCs. Then turrent commands for front and left changed to attack my target, and rear to missile defense.
Then I put some speed on and targeted the destroyer. By the time I got there, there had been casualties, so some nice loot to slurp up. Never forget to slurp your loot, never know whats floating around out there until you check your cargo hold later one.
Destroyer on the port bow captain ! I madly slowed down as I was overshooting as I always tend to do. Let the khaak slide down the left side of my ship and the 2 turrents of PPCs open up and tear it to sheds. Then its target and shoot the rest of the group, and corvettes are now less effective because I can hit them harder. Should have done this ages ago. But I like PBEs.
When this lot are bug droppings, the golden arrow points around, and you guessed it, theres a second battlegroup on the other side of the sector. Same results. Me a lot, bugs zip.
The mission now reads 193,755 + 8,161,829 !
New orders to jump into Thuruks Pride. I dont recall this being a multiple sector patrol ! I jump anyway.
Same deal. 2 Khaak battlegroups. As I jumped in, I could see the zatting going on in the distance and just headed on in with nothing on the scanner. Two more major furballs and the sector is clear.
New orders to jump to Family Zein ???? In I jump, and great relief to get the mission completed as soon as the jump concludes.
Total payout, 16,897,305. 29 ships killed in the mission. Killing capital ships is LUCRATIVE !
74,877,448, warrior 54%.
The recall came in while I was dealing with the last battlegroup.
Final Fury Mission 9.
Dock at the M148 Military station as usual, and a harried Split tells me that the Khaak are attacking. I can see the red dots, including a capital ship.
Figures. Its kill off the Khaak capital ships day for me personally. 770k plus bounty.
Undock and straight in, as they were almost onto the station.
Khaak Carrier group this time. Same tactics, same result. Getting so gun happy Im not even seeing whats actually going on. The explosions continue when I close my eyes.
77,047,423. Warrior 60%, Commander 45%, 559 kills.
I stopped the ship and did some paperwork.
Recall again, and Im only 7kms from the station so docking was quick.
Final Fury Mission 10.
The bugs are active again in the Unknown Sector, but fortunately, no convoy to deal with. 703k plus bounty.
Sweep and clean !
Another Carrier group and a lot of misquitos buzzing around.
All done, 80,583,779. Warrior 88%, commander 73%, 625 kills.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. No, that was me snoring.
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Posted: Sat, 13. Dec 08, 13:35
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I started this morning with some station research. No recall yet, and I cant be bothered seeking missions.
At some point soon, I will need to start laying out a complex. I like to be self sufficient, especially with ecells, and at some point, the whole combat thing is going to become boring, and at that point one will need a new income stream.
A closed loop ecell production complex, largest kind, comes out at 44,714,000 credits. Thats for an SPP XL, 2 Cahoona Ls, 2 Cattle Ls, 5 Crystal Fabs., 1 Silicon Mine and 10 complex kits. All Argon of course. Thats assuming the Silicon Mine is on a high yield roid in the vicinity of 60. If you are using 32 yield roids, you will need 2 of them, so an extra mine and complex kit. There are high yield roids around, its a matter of finding them in a useful place.
Next consideration for expanding, for income generation, is booze. 2 Wheat Ls, 2 Distillery Ls and 4 complex kits is another 13,873,848. In the right place, which includes it being legal, these can never keep up with demand and eventually can be expanded to 10 of each, and still not keep up with demand. In the right place.
Also, add an ore mine on a high yeild roid, with 5 1mj shield factories, and 6 complex kits for another 9,712,616 and you have a nice production of shields for the locals to buy. Usually a good seller anywhere.
At that point, you need to assess if your producing enough ecells before adding anything more. But at 68 mill and change, thats a very nice starting out complex that should supply your own ecell needs, and bring in tidy profitzzzzz.
Recall, jump and dock.
Final Fury Mission 11.
Convoy duty. 216,750. Fast group this time, mainly Dragons. Normal operating procedure, Khaak jump in 8 to 10 kms away, turn and face them, quick kills, return to convoy. Rince and repeat.
80,800,529. Assassin 1%, Commander 97%.
Slack time again. Research into high yeild roid positions. The old standbys are still there I see.
Ore Belt, with multiple 60 yields and plenty of 30's. Antigone Memorial with its 2 90 Ores and 2 61 Silicons. In a nice complexable bunch too.
Asteroid Belt has some nice ones too. Aldrin has plenty, but beware lag there. Setting up a complex in a lagging sector is a nightmare.
Midnight Star has a 102 Ore, which is the highest Ive found, but probably too high.
Heres the deal with roid yields. The higher the yield, the faster it produces whatever dirt it produces, but the more ecells it consumes to do it.
Never bother with M mines, its a waste of a roid. Always use an L mine. Anything below a yield of 30 is a waste of time. Anything over 80 is a real problem to use, as it consumes ecells at a horrible rate. 60's are great. A 60 produces twice the product of a 30, at about twice the consumption of ecells, and is pretty good for feeding an XL SPP at the needed rate, given its got to keep 5 Crystal Fabs happy all the time. Anything short of a 60 yield, and you will need 2 mines complexed.
While mucking around looking for roids, I found an Argon shipyard in Legends Home, so dropped a satelite in there. Theres an Otas Shipyard in there as well.
Recalled, jump and dock.
Final Fury Mission 12.
Convoy again, slow one, SOB.
81,001,779, assassin 18%m 2rd Lieutenant 25%. What kind of command structure has Commander less than 2nd Lieutenant ???
Got a scare off the end of this one. The escort was an MT and 2 Barracutas. Well after the freighters gone through, 1 of the Barras docks with the MT and then the MT jumps, the other Barra jumps, and suddenly I left with 1 ship to escort thats already gone ! Fortunately, a short wait later and the Split shows up to say mission complete. *Phew*
Did some messing about in the ships command interface while waiting for the recall this time, just couldnt bothered going anywhere else.
Final Fury Mission 13.
Search and Destroy in the Unknown Sector. 2,082,500 credits, plus bounty and rated very hard. Gotta love the yellow arrows. They lead you down one end of the sector then point you to the exact opposite extreme of the sector. Hey, I was just up there !
Pretty normal patrol, the usual Carrier groups, nothing out of the ordinary for around here.
85,343,279, assassin 27%, 2nd Lieutenant 58%, game time 21:50:49.
Local silicon mine wanted ecells, 25,164 of them. 31 minutes and 511,908 payment.
No problems. The Gunbus and Camel carry 20,000 each, so beam them out of the Carrier, jump them to the nearest XL SPP, fill them both up (they had some spare anyway), jump them to me, transfer to the first one, dock it, transfer to the other one, dock it, mission complete. Easy when you have ships on hand with large cargo holds.
85,536,279. Petty Retailer 31%. Profit of just over 190k for a few minutes scrabbling around, and I got about 1000 ecells over for my own ship.
To do this without the Apricot ships, you would need to have had 2 or 3 Superfreighters standing by somewhere with jump drives fitted, at least 12000 cargo capasity or better each, and known where a decent supply of ecells was. You jump the freighters to get the ecells, jump them back to you standing by the delivery station, transfer over, dock it, undock, transfer, dock, transfer, dock, which should cover the delivery. The killer is the distance between the gate and the delivery station, the nearest gate and the ecells, and how fast your ships are. 31 minutes is not a lot of time, but should be doable if your ships are standing by somewhere and ready to jump. After you finish the delivery, 2 of those ships will need ecells replaced for their jump drives to work. So you do need to buy more than you need.
Final Fury Mission 14.
Death and Glory again in Khaak sector 931. 2,247,500 and bounty.
SOB. 90,331,375, assassin 33%, 2nd Lieutenant 93%.
Just for the hell of it, I took out the station as well.
Random jump to Menalaus Oasis. Well it was supposed to be, but I ended up in the Unknown Sector next door instead. 57 Silicon roid in there, btw.
Jump on a whim to Scale Plate Green.
Xenon attack imminent, 1,623,544 to help out. Sign me up.
Js and Ps jump in progressively through the south gate, with support fighters. Nothing I cant handle these days.
95,898,380, assasin 42%.
You get the drift of the missions by now ? On average, they have 2 enemy M1 or M2's, with corvettes and fighters. Sometimes in 2 distinct fleets, sometimes spread out all over the place. The capitals pay 1.5 to 2 mill each, and the corvettes around 150k each. So the more of the bigger ships you take out, the bigger your pay out in any sector where bounty is paid. As you can see, Im steadily earning 4-5 mill for each such mission, because Im taking out all the bigger ships myself.
This does vary according to your ranks, but assassin isnt very high. The higher your combat rank, the more opposition you get.
Ironically, this works against you in the Final Fury missions, since at the lowish rank I am, the missions are already difficult for someone in an M7. If you are significantly higher in rank when you start, the numbers of enemy go up significantly. Mind you, so do the potential payouts for taking them all out.
Final Fury Mission 15.
Death or Glory again. SOB. 2,267,500 plus bounty.
101,612,820, assassin 48%m Lieutenant 25%.
Jump to Black Hole Sun.
Someone wants passengers taken to the Silicon Mine Beta in the Unknown Sector I know so well. 229,180 in 22 minutes. Beam out the Gunbus, transfer over, dock. Jump to the Unknown Sector, dock at the mine, mission complete. Ironically, this one said it was very hard and turned out to be a cakewalk. A few fighters on the way, bu they couldnt catch me. In a slow badly armed freighter, this might have been hard, but why take a slow badly armed freighter ? Passengers use cargo space though, so you might not have the option, as most M6's dont ahve enough cargo space to do much of anything in that line of work. Hence why I created the M6 Heavy Transport in the first place.
Jump back to BHS, and just before reaching the M2, a Pirate group jump in, Osprey and Eclipses and support, and so I divert to take them out. Nice fighting in the Gunbus again. I do miss it sometimes.
Final Fury Mission 16.
Recalled and I jump directly into the middle of an attack on M148. 2,430,504 to defend the sector. I went straight for the nearest Carrier, but the lag was terrible, so had little control and just had to let the turrents do their own thing. I missed taking out the second Carrier, there was a M2 over that side of the sector which must have gotten it while I was bogged down fly swotting.
When they are all dead, new orders come in, as another battlegroup has jumped in directly next to the Military Base (and consequently one irate Split Commander) and your ordered to defend the base. Fortunately Im not too far away, so it doesnt take too much damage before I get there. But there are 2 Destroyers and several corvettes in this battlegroup, so some damage to the station is inevitable. Beware the station. The M2's are very close to it, and the last thing you need right now is to accidently fire on the station as well. If need be, pull away from the station, and come in at an angle so your firing away from it. Not necessarily easy given how close the M2's are and how much of a hurry you are in to kill them.
All done, and a huge surprise.
118,724,635. 17 million payout for a single mission !!!
Thats worth a drink to celebrate, but theres no time. Immediate recall. I was so close to the station I just hit the autodock without moving.
Final Fury Mission 17.
Sacrifice your life if you must is the order, but the final offensive is at hand. Jump into Khaak Sector 926 and waste it.
There are 3 Khaak stations in here, each with 3 Guardians, which seem to be the Khaak equivalent of Orbital Defense Stations.
The orders are to take out the Guardians, and then take out the stations. Plenty of support craft around so it takes a while.
The last station has to be done last, and when its gone, you get a huge congratulations and no pay. Wtf ? Nothing at all !
I guess they thought by this time you were committed to the cause and didnt need paying, or else the budget was depleted by that huge payout the mission before. As it turns out, after all that, one is just ready to be committed. Bring on the lads in white coats.
Its game time 23:33:33, and the Terran and Khaak campaigns are now complete.
Im now Vindicator 17%, still Lieutenant 25%, so no rank improvement for the last mission either.
1152 total kills, including 2 traffic accidents.
This includes : 693 Scouts, 97 Interceptors, 165 Fighters, 45 Corvettes, 13 Clusters (that didnt break up), 11 Guardians, 5 Carriers and 9 Destroyers.
After all the activity of the last few days, I took a day off !
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Posted: Tue, 16. Dec 08, 08:08
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Time for some housekeeping. I beamed the M7 and both M6's back to the Carrier, and then beamed over myself. Then checked each ship for cargo, and transfered it all to the Carrier. Ships I intend to keep got new names. Those ships needing upgrades or equipment got added to a list of what I needed (all the ships from the Terrans need something), and anything I had already, got put on the appropriate ship. The Vidar had the most need, being 200mj shields, so I took 5 of them off a Mule. Leaves it a bit vulnerable, but the Vidar has a bigger need at this point.
On a whim, I jumped to Kingdom End. What I was looking for wasnt there, which gives me info at any rate. More about that later.
A distress call comes in from some Boron. Hello I need urgent help. Now who can resist a Boron in distress ? (No jokes about causing them distress please !). This ones name is Mahi Ma.
Turns out the Boron has moron freinds who have gone sightseeing in the Xenon sectors. Will I go find them ? (Their remains I would think). Well....who can resist a Boron in distress ? (I said no jokes please).
Hub Mission 1.
Fly to Xenon Core 023. Figures, total other side of the universe.
So I jumped in. Not a good place to be. And I suddenly realised I was in the M1, and not the M2. Could be nasty. I started a search pattern, keeping away from the main Xenon patrols. After doing a full circuit of the sector, with no guidance, I began to think something was wrong.
A that point, I jumped in the M2, swapped over, jumped the M1 back to Omicron, and then took out the sector defenses. Why muck around ? Maybe the poor fools are hiding and wont come out until the defense is gone ?
But no, nothing. Fly to ...., fly to. I wonder.
Jump to Xenon 598, south gate. Ah, guidance arrows. Follow the arrows, but deviate a bit to take out the sector defense and slurp. Through the gate into Xenon 627, same thing.
Now the gate to Xenon Core 023, and hello, what just happened ?
This is NOT 023 ! This is the inside of a small Dyson Sphere, with what looks like 6 different gates around the walls. A few Xenon ships in here, and hey, I capped an L. And shortly after, 2 Ms. Claimed them and beamed them in.
There is some sort of facility here as well, but the only other thing showing is a blue dot on the nav.
When I get really close to the blue dot, which proves to be ship debris, an automatic log reacts and sends 5 messages from Julian Gardner. Knowing his reputation, yes, hes the sort of fool that would go exploring the Xenon sectors. No sign of him though, or anyone with him.
Instructions now to go get Mahi Ma. Jump to Kingdoms End, one stupid Boron jumps out the airlock and then does everything he can to avoid being picked up. *sigh*
Jump back to the Unknown Sector I just found.
Mahi Ma hacks into the facility and gets docking clearance. So I dock at what turns out to be some sort of Xenon Hub. Yonder Boron scampers into the facility and then announces he needs 400 computer components to get it operational again. 400 ? Thats a serious lot of them !
I change into the Mule, set the M2 to patrol, and jump to Omicron. There I change into the Gunbus. Now Ive got a head start as I have 63 computer components already on the Carrier, having been slurped up at some point in my travels. See, never pays to sell things too quickly, never know when you might need them.
Now, there are several ways of getting that many components. The first is to go find them. The second is to buy enough microchips and sit in a computer factory while it makes them, and the third is to buy several factories and make them yourself. I dont want to do the latter, not yet, as Im still putting off building the first complex.
So I start looking at Argon sectors looking for computer factories. Omicron had a factory with 134, good start. But no-where else around has any, but I notice from the best buys, that some of the Trading Stations stock them.
I jump to Cloud Base South West, which is one place in the universe you do not want to jump a capital ship into while your there. Its so jam packed with asteroids that navigation for anything big is a serious problem.
From there I jump into each Argon sector and check for computer stations and the trading bases. By the time Ive covered all the core Argon sectors, Im nearly to target, but theres no more. However, there was some microchips so I go get them, and take them to a computer factory and shortly after selling it some ecells as well, I have my 400 computer components. In the meantime while the last were made, I jumped in a Mule with some replacement ecells and jump the Mule back to the Carrier.
Jump back to the Unknown Sector, and dock at the Hub. Transfer the computer components over, and now we have full access to the facility.
Now he wants 500 Microchips.
This is difficult. Ive already seen there are none to be had.
First jump to Omicron, as chips need meatstakes and silicon to produce and I have both I can see a factory.
Jump to Nathans Voyage as it has a chip factory.
And jump straight into a Xenon attack. Worse, a K jumps in directly behind me and damn near collides with me. I turn on it and take it out as fast as I can, being so close Im not sure any of its guns can even bear on me. Whatever reason, it doesnt get a shot off at me.
Not only Xenon, but pirates as well, and suddenly I have a Nova cap turned blue. I slurp the bailed pilot and keep on after the Xenons. When the furball dies down, I claim the Nova, and repair its hull while the Carrier jumps in, beam it onto the carrier and jump it out again.
Another Q jumps in at that moment, so another furball starts up. When thats over, I dock at the chip factory, transfer over some ecells, silicon and meatsteaks and it starts making chips. (Steak and chips, mmmmmm).
The factory starts lighting up like a christmas tree, so I undock and find another Q on top of me, and the place full of Xenon again. I take out the Q, then find a quiet spot and jump in the M7, transfer over, and send the Gunbus back to the chip factory. But it takes a while to dock, as Xenon keep interrupting it, and I have to pick them off its back.
When the place is again quiet and the last container is slurped, I find that I have over a 1000 units of massom powder on board. What to do with it ? A small digression into Slit space by jumping into Family Zyarth, where I still have a statelite, and sell it at the trading station using the Mule that still docked to the M7. Then I notice 2 chip factories, one of which has some, so I dock there and buy them, and stock it up as well.
This is going to take a long time ! Chip factories are slow producers, making 2 at a time.
118,351,005 and making chips 4 at a time. This is not fun.
Time to bite the bullet and make that complex.
Complex building 101.
There are 4 sizes of stations. Unlettered, which produce at a standard rate, M which produce at twice the standard rate, L which product 5 times the standard rate and XL which produce at 10 times the standard rate.
Most armaments, shields and hard goods factories are standard ones. All food and mines, including spaceweed and Spacefuel, come in M and L sizes. Solar Power Plants come in M up to XL sizes and Crystal Fabs only come in M size.
The most important thing is to make sure you are buying stations that are compatible, size wise. For example, cattle ranches make meat for Cahoona Bakeries. So if the Cahoona Bakery is an L, and the Cattle ranch is an M, the cahoona bakery is going to be running short of resources all the time.
Its even more important with SPPs.
Now, from X2, came the term closed loop. This is where each factory makes for the next one around the loop, so that the final product is made solely from what is made by your own factories, and thus costs you nothing to make, except for the investment in the factories themselves and the ships to get the goods moved where needed.
In X3, the ships were replaced by piping as stations became joined into complexes, with a single complex hub for docking. TC continues with this theme.
A closed loop complex is a complex where everything is produced in the complex.
An SPP closed loop complex contains an SPP, secondary food, primary food, silicon and crystal fabs. The silicon feeds the fabs, the fabs produce crystals, the SPP uses the crystals to produce ecells, which get used to power all the stations, the secondary food is used by the primary food and the primary food is used by the fabs. To get it going, you need a primary infusion of a lot of ecells (in which case ecell production will occur last), or a good quantity of crystals (in which case ecells get produced first).
Food varies according to the race you buy the stations from. If you mix races stations, you may have to double up on food, as each race only eats its own food.
To make a closed loop complex for microchips, and I dont do any other kind myself as I cant be bothered mucking around with ships darting around fetching stuff and crashing into things every time they cross a sector Im in, one needs a good sized SPP loop, and extra silicon. Im thinking 5 microchip factories, and the excess in meatsteaks from the SPP should be enough to cater for them too.
In deciding where to build your complex, you need to take a few things into account. Does the sector have the high yield roids to support a big complex ? Does the race owning the sector think anything you want to make is illegal ? Is there a primary market close at hand for the product you will make, and any overproduction of the secondary resources ?
The primary need at this point is microchips, but once we have 500, you cant just turn the stations off, they will keep making them. Therefore we do need a local market. The Argon, as I already know, need Microchips for all their computer components factories, and the local market didnt have any microchips, so core Argon space is a good place.
Antigone Memorial has both ore and silicon high yield roids, within complexing distance so they dont need to be moved.
Decision made. Jump to Antigone Memorial, west gate.
Jump the TL to Legends Home, being the best place for Argon stations. Now, most TLs will carry 2 or 3 stations and a couple of complex kits at most. So in making a large complex, you will need to continuously jump it back and forth between the growing complex and which ever Shipyard your buying from. The Apricot TL uses compression technology much more efficiently and can store a lot more stations, so I wont need to do this.
Spend money time ! I buy a Silicon Mine L, 3 Cahoona Bakeroes L, 3 Cattle Ranches L, 1 SPP XL, 5 Crystal Fab M, 5 Chip Plants, 1 Ore L, 1 1mj Shield factory, and 19 Complex construction kits.
I also bought 2 Wheat farms L and 2 Distillery Ls and complex kits.
WARNING : Argon Whiskey is now illegal in Argon Space. In X3R, it was legal to make it and sell it, just illegal to carry it, but in TC, its now illegal to make it. So whatever you do, do NOT drop a distillery in Argon Space, or any other of the Races Space. If you do, Capital ships will turn up to destroy the station.
Jump the TL to AM south gate and move it a little away from the gate.
SAVE. Cant stress this too much. Building a complex the first time has all sorts of things that can go wrong, and its best to save often, so you can reload and do it again if you screw up. The more often you save, the less you have to redo, but if you use more than 10 saves, it might be best to copy them to a safe place, before you start overwriting them, just in case you decide to go back and start again from the beginning.
On the TLs command menu, special commands has the Drop Station command. Press that, and select the Silicon Mine.
Your nav map pops up, with a list of the roids. Choose one of the 2 Silicon roids with the 61 yield (or the highest yield Silicon roid you ave available if your somewhere else). Watch the cut scene of the TL and the new factory.
Now do the same with the Ore Mine, on one of the 90 yield Ore roids.
As it happens, these 2 stations are about as far apart as we need to get with the complex, and too far away to actually join, as the join distance is 15km in any direction from the hub.
A hub is created with the first join, and can be positioned anywhere within that 15km radius of both stations, 3 dimensionally. This is the docking place for all ships, and the only reference point that shows up on the nav map.
Now we need to drop the stations. The biggest of the lot is the SPP XL, so select that on the TL.
The nav map pops up, and you will see a green flashing icon of the station appear on the map somewhere near your TL. DONT press enter at this point, or you will drop the station where you dont want it.
Press the Insert key. This shifts the map into X-Y mod and gives you height of the sector. 8,2,4,6 on your numeric keypad give you positioning ability, so press the 8 or 2 to get the icon to line up with one of the existing mines. I like to build a complex all in a single plane, and I do it along the Y axis. The 2 roids are slightly off, but you can select a midpoint.
Press Insert again to return to X-Z mode. Now use the 8 key to push the icon up the nav map until its around the mines. Press the Home key once to zoom the map in, and then move the icon around into the biggest blank space among the asteroids. Where it will crash into something else, the icon will jump about. While you are doing this, a ghost image of the station is moving about in space, but its hard to see through the nav map. If you get your ship in the right place, you can see exactly where the station is, but not always.
At this level of zoom, which varies according to how big the sector is, and AM is pretty small, normal stations can have the icons just touching and not be too close together. Mines need a bit more space. If you get the stations too close together, their shields grind on each other and if you spend enough time in sector, eventually the stations rubbing will explode along with the hub. Space out too much, and its much harder to join them.
Find a place where the station seems happy, and press enter to drop it, and watch the cut scene.
Keep doing this with all the stations. I made a neat row of stations from the Silicon roid along to adjacent the Ore roid, then filled in around the Ore roid, then around the silicon roid, and then in between. Theres a few roids in there that make it tricky in the middle. But I mainly got everything lined up in 3 rows. A few things are a bit close, but seem ok.
Dont worry about big bangs, thats just minor roids being destroyed as the stations are built. As long as the station isnt rubbing a roid, your safe.
Now for joining. Theres an art to making complexes span big distances, and its all to do with the placement of hubs.
In the TL, select a Complex Construction Kit, and on the nav map, select the silicon mine. The nav map pops up again, and this time, select a station on the south side towards the center, to join it to, or the one furthest away it will reach.
The nav map pops up again, and this time it has a station hub icon. Hit Insert to go into Y mode, and move the hub icon up or down about 7 to 10km above or below the plane of the complex stations. The reason for this is so that your hub is well away from anything that may obstruct docking with it. In this case, it needs to be well away from the other roids as well as your stations, but no so far is nothing will join with it because its to far away. Press Insert again, and now position the hub icon about in line with the west gate, a little right of center of the block of stations, and press enter. Cut scene of hub.
Do the same with the Ore roid, and a station around the center, making a second hub, also in line with the west gate, but on the left side of center. The hubs need to be close enough to join, but far enough away so that all the stations can join with one of them.
Once its placed, save, then start joining all the stations to one of the 2 hubs, selecting the hub first, then a station. You will notice that not all the stations will be joinable to each hub, which is why we made 2 of them. As you do, look at the cut scenes of the hubs, and choose which one has the better access to it as this is the one we will keep.
When only the 2 hubs are left, select the hub you want to keep first and join the other one to it. After the cut scene you should have a single hub, stuck out from your complex, easy to dock at without hitting anything.
If by any chance this is not the case, you can move the hub by adding more stations, making a new hub for the new stations, then joining the hubs again choosing the new one first.
Its vitally important to get the hub free of obstructions. When you are in the sector, any ships trying to dock will hit anything that is around the dock and explode. The tubes themselves are a traffic menace and its best to only have a single tube rising straight up to the dock, than have the dock somewhere in the mess of tubes.
Congratulations, you have spagetti and meatballs ! Your first complex.
First thing to do now is save again, then rename your complex. Now jump yourself out of the sector, which by now is probably lagging badly.
Press R and open up the complex in your properties list.
The list in U-information, will show you the products it makes, and the resources its producing to make them, with the time of each cycle for each factory.
The whole thing blinks yellow, because as yet, it cant start making anything.
If you have any silicon, crystals or meatsteaks (primary food), then jump them in and load onto the complex hub. Crystals will get things started, as will ecells if you have spare, and cahoonas allow the fabs to start as soon as they have ecells.
Dock freighter to the complex hub, make the hub its homebase. Transfer some credits to the hub, (say half a mill) and then send the freighter off to buy ware for best price, ecells. Before you do, set the number of jumps for the complex to zero (for now) (using the d command), since there are ecells in AM.
The freighter will keep buying ecells while you monitor, and should be stopped once the SPP is making enough to keep ahead of demand.
Im concentrating on a complex that achieves a few objectives, not just the microchips, so if all you want at this point is the chips, then ignore the ore and shields. They will only suck up ecells and take a bit longer for the complex to become functional.
On the complex hub, press D. Set the jumps to zero (if you havent yet), races to trade to yes, Intermediate product trading to None. Monitor the credit usage, as you may need to add a lot more before it settles down. Intermediate products are crystals and food, that are used by other products. Ecells are also an intermediate product. If you allow them to be sold, you can run out and the whole complex grinds to a halt. If you allow them to be bought, your wasting credits on something your making anyway.
Also in this menu, set the price of microchips to maximum, since for now, we do not want to sell them. If you did other products like I did, set them to Average (shown) minus 1, so that traders will start to come and buy them. This does take a while, so dont fret if it doesnt happen immediately. As long as traders can make 1 profit, they will come and buy, assuming there is a local market for what your selling.
When the SPP is producing happily, stop the freighter, and tell it to sell for best price, Ore instead. The ore mine will overproduce, so its a source of income. Set the hub to a jump range of 4. Any more and the freighter will go into pirate areas, which is dangerous. In any case, using a freighter like the Mistral is best, since it carries some teeth. The further the jumps you allow, the longer it takes to sell, and the more likely your ship will suffer some sort of demise.
The ships I left at chip plants have chips to buy, but the plants have now stopped producing again. Buy whats there and jump them to the Hub, and then move them onto the ship you want to deliver them on. Leave it there at the hub.
23,075,269 + 837,020. The latter is the hub, making credits from ore sales. (500k of that was left in there for expense money).
Now we need some sector defenses.
I sent the Vidar, Cutlass and Claymore to the EQ dock in Omicron for upgrades. Then sent the Claymore to Venus for missiles, and the Vidar down to the M2 to collect some compatible guns Id slurped at some stage, then sent it and the Cutlass to AM to defend the complex hub. The Claymore will join them when it gets a load of missiles.
I also sold the Nova. The Nova covered the cost of the upgrades.
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Posted: Wed, 17. Dec 08, 02:40
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Note :
I've edited the previous post. I found out why my Hub was under attack. It wasnt. The Distillery's were.
In TC, booze making is now illegal and the AI now targets factories in race space. When a station is destroyed in a complex, the whole thing disintegrates, you lose the hub, all the tubing and any ship and product docked or stored on the hub.
For the sake of the narative, I've edited it to avoid this issue. In my actual game, I'm going to have AM declare independence ! But this wasnt something I want to do in the guide narative, especially as the script to do so isnt ported to TC yet, and the whole script package first requires you to be at war with the race who owns the sector, which is something I wont do and will not advocate here.
Edit : Well the independence works and all the Argon military stream off out of sector. BUT, the script to destroy the 2 stations remains and you cannot turn it off. Major pain in the proverbial.
Edit2: For the record, I let one of the distileries get destroyed, after removing all ships and product. I then rebuilt the complex, while the Argon were hammering away at the other one. When they got it down to about 30% sheilds, they stopped and attacked me instead. So the silly fools got wasted. I then destroyed the distillery, and put my rank back where it was. And hacked the sector notoriety back to normal. Complex is back up and running now, but it wasted a lot of time and effort.
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Posted: Wed, 17. Dec 08, 15:37
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There is a point where adding stations to complex overloads its logistics. I added a Silicon mine to the 2nd 61 yield roid, and that did it. The ecell count started declining with every cycle.
So I had to add an SPP L and 3 more Fabs. So had the TL move to the Omicron shipyard, buy the stations and kits, and jump to AM.
Before jumping there myself, for safeties sake, I had the sector defenses and traders dock. Any sector with a lot of piping is a death trap for fighters and freighters when your insystem.
Once jumped in, I added the stations to the complex, then changed the prices on the products again. Every time you add a station to a complex, all the prices are reset, so dont forget or suddenly your sales stop, or you start selling what you wanted to keep.
1,386,162 + 1,602,934. As you can see, complex building is expensive when you do a big one all at once. 100 chips collected so far.
Jump back to Omicron and change into the Carrier. Activate the sector defense in AM again and get the freighters moving.
The Claymore has arrived at its destination while I was mucking around with stations, and the station is dry of missiles. Run it to the next place stocking its missiles, and that too is dry. I also notice that I dont have the rank to buy them anyway. Pretty useless ship, with a single 2 gun turrent and no missiles available. For the moment, I jump it to AM to join the other 2 as sector defense, although its about as useful as a freighter. Maybe it will get lucky.
Having drained the account its, time to fill it up again, so I jump to Home of Light and dock at the Terracorp Headquaters.
Terracorp HQ is a very useful place. It doesnt look it until you dock. What it does not show from the outside is what it buys, and that is all missiles and most guns. It does not buy drones, ammunition or lasertowers.
It does have limits on how much it will buy of each product at a time, but its a bottomless pit. So if you have 100 of something they buy in 20s, you just sell them 20, 5 times.
By the time Ive sold everything they will buy, Ive got a respectable total in the account again.
19,338,342 + 2,789,755. About 18 million worth of picked up oddments on various battlefields and that still leaves an assortment of stuff in the cargo hold.
Checked the complex, and now its very short on meatsteaks. So I jumped in another Cahoona Bakery and Cattle Ranch, and then changed the prices again. Its still only adequate, but no longer holding other things up.
While there, I transfered the complex credits to the ship account. It doesnt need any anymore, so the account can be emptied from time to time.
19,708,852 + 217,660.
Jump to M148. Its time to think about using those marines, especially as I have time waiting for chips to cook.
Boarding 102.
Both Military bases in M148 stock docking pods. The docking pod is a far better way of landing troops, because it has the speed of an M5. It gets them to target very quickly, which means the shields only need to be down as long as it takes them to get in the hull. Pods are single use only, so best to stock up with a few of them.
The bases carry 2 each. But they are made on demand at the base, so if you shuttle between the 2 bases, you can basically buy as many as you want. I get 8.
19,062,004 + 384,870.
I jump to Loomanstrats Legacy looking for a pirate to board. And yes, theres a Galleon near the pirate base.
I go after it, take out the escorts first then go for the shields of the Galleon. And suddenly its dust. Oops.
Lets run that again. Save, reload, take out the escorts. Turn the turrents off except for the front turrent, lower its shields, fire the pod, and ......the front turrent kills the Galleon. Reload, ditto, use the rear turrent to bring down the shields, fire the pod, dust. Huh ? The rear turrent did not have a bead on the target, and still, it killed the target after the pod was fired.
Reload, get out the M7, ditto the escort, take down the shields, fire the pod, and the turrents kill the ship.
Conclusion : The only ships supposed to be able to fire a boarding pod is the M7M, M6 and selected TPs. In order to stop people from modding ships to use the Pod, the devs have built in that any active turrent on a non-standard boarding ship will fire on and destroy the target. Doesnt matter if the turrent cant actually fire in that direction, it fires anyway !
Which explains the M7M and the TPs, which have no forward firing guns.
Reload from the save after galleon dust and jump into Mi Tons Refuge, and find a Brigatine by the south gate.
I move well away from it, and beam out my M7 and my M7M. I shift to the M7 and go take out the escort, and lower its shields. Then race back and swap into the M7M, which has Ion disrupters in the rear turrent. Run back to the Brigatine, and race past so it cant get a bead on me, and allow the Ions to bring its shields back down so I can fire a pod at it. Except the shields dont come down, and Im getting hammered. The Ions are either not firing or totally ineffective on shields on cap ships.
I go back to the M7, swap everything over, turn off the turrents and go back. I fit an ion to the 4 group, and start firing it at the Brigatine when in range, and its a bit like pissing on a house fire for all the effect it has. Drop that out, go back to 4 PBEs. Drop its shields and do a bit more hull damage, get close and fire off the pod. Then get out of range asap.
The Marines, all fully trained, break in, I hear the running commentary of the takeover and suddenly I own a Brigatine with absolutely nothing on it. I transfer over a few shields and a jumpdrive and ecells, and jump it to AM for safe keeping. At some point, its worth fixing up.
I lost 2 marines taking it.
Overall, the M7M looks dead useless. If you dont have a missile load for it, its basically defenseless and as a ship for boarding operations, you dont want to be in it. Like the TPs, its a remote vessel for boarding, useless for bringing down shields and keeping them down long enough for troops to get in. I wont be using mine for boarding, but may consider using it as a bomber. The rate I pick up missiles, I can keep it stocked up, but its real use is probably as a sector defense. Without missiles, its pretty useless.
All Apricot ships can fire Pods though, as long as you turn off the turrents first.
Still in the M7, I did a run around the sectors in that region looking for Pirates. I found a few fighter groups and capped a Blastclaw, but not much else. Loaded the cap on the Carrier and moved north.
In Napilios Memorial, I found an assassination mission for 6,921,665 with 11 minutes to do it, in Dannas Chance. The target was in a big group of Pirates, so identified him, targetted and blew him away before he knew he was targetted. He was flying an M6 in a group of 4 of them, with fighter escorts. The group wasnt much of a challenge.
25,983,669 + 2,511,092. 200 chips done.
Feeling bored, I jumped into Xenon 101.
Nice old furball, took the shields down and did some damage to a J, and then left it alone for later. When everything else close was dust, I took its shields down again, and sent over a pod. They got inside, up 2 decks and got wasted by the defenses. Obviously needed more than 5 marines, and I didnt scan it first to see if it had internal defenses or marines. Makes note to do that next time.
So Im down to 10 marines now, with only 1 capture. Just for good measure and a bit of payback, I took out the shipyard, then cleared the sector.
At the end, I was even more bored, and still more than half the chips I need are still to be made. *sigh*
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Posted: Mon, 22. Dec 08, 05:18
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Jump to M148 and buy another 10 marines, 2 boarding pods and the 2 advanced sats that are sitting there doing nothing. Start the new marines training.
Its 1-12:36, 25,468,340 + 3,164,463 credits and 230 chips made.
Petty Retailer 50%, Warlord 36% and 1439 kills.
I jumped the carrier to AM and topped up its ecells from the complex using a mule. Just a suspicion the Hub will need some, so laying in the stores since the complex now has spares.
I also then jumped the Mule to M148 to top up my M7 with ecells and take back some beef Id picked up. On its way back, I got it to stop in the middle of AM and drop one of the sats I just got, giving me complete coverage of that sector now.
Xenon patrol in the Hub sector, so I jumped in and dealt with them. The M2 undoubtably would have taken them, but such is OOS fighting, it was loosing shields that IS fighting it would not have.
OOS by the way is Out Of Sector, ie, your not there.
IS is in sector, or you are there.
The way the game is designed, these are very important to combat. When you are in the sector, the combat is much more realistic.
When you are OOS, the combat is a set of mathematical equations. Basically speaking, the enemies are weighed up and then applied against each other. Biggest shield last longest, but biggest guns hit harder. So it comes down to whats loaded on your ship and what its facing. For example, a single M2 with PPCs all round will kill a ship each time it fires in OOS combat, but if its facing 6 ships, then each round sees them hit the M2 with their heaviest guns, and while they wont kill it, cumulatively, they will damage it, as each round they lose another ship. The M2 only fires at a single ship, where in IS it might be firing at several at once.
Loading your ships has to be done on the basis of if they will mainly fight oos, or is. If oos, you always put on the heaviest gun it can mount. IS, you put on the gun that will kill the ships it will mostly face.
In OOS, PPCs beat HEPTS. So in a 1 to 1 clash with equal shields, the ship with PPCs will win over the ship with HEPTS. (All other things being equal.)
But in IS, PPCs have a really hard time hitting an M5, and so enough M5's with light guns can still take down any PPC loaded ship, as long as they can cumulatively hit it faster than the shields recharge.
So even if your M2 is facing M5's, it can take damage, and enough of them can kill it. This is more likely in OOS, since they all get to hit at once, where in IS, the sheilds get a chance to regenerate as ships move about.
OOS combat is all mathematical, and has little to do with reality.
Hence me jumping in and taking them out myself.
The other issue with IS is of course collision avoidance, or lack thereof. Anything that moves in the sector your in, is vulnerable to the auto-pillok, especially the bigger ships. So out I jump as soon as the xenon are toast, so my M2 wont collide with anything.
Which brings up another issue. DONT DONT DONT dock or undock a capital ship with The Hub, while you are IS. The auto-pillok cannot handle it. The hub looks great but as a dock, its not well designed, and its non-standard, so the normal dock/undock ship action is actually terminal for big ships. They will collide and explode, particularly undocking. So be elsewhere when you do this.
At this point, Im totally bored with combat. It usually happens to me at some point, and the plot missions so far dictated a lot of fighting. But now it has no real purpose, its boring. Many people just keep fighting because thats the game to them and the ultimate goal is being Xtreme Combat ranked, but thats not me.
I actually like to sit and watch my complex tick over !
While I do, I do little things. Like load the Apricot Sirokos with slurped missiles and attach it to the defense wing with 100% fire orders. Its a good way of wasting missiles, but it might actually keep the other ships alive if it kiss enemies before they get in range. And I can always go slurp some more to top it up at any time.
250 chips, half way there. Silicon is building up, so I set the Caiman we capped to selling silicon for best price. Looking at the landed ships list, it appears Boron weapons dealers are buying all the 1mj shields as fast as theyc an be produced.
At this point, there are 2 options that a lot of people will think of.
Letting the program run for a long period without you, and doing this with Seta on.
I actually think running the program without you being there is like sleeping. While you sleep, the world keeps doing things, so the X3 universe should also. So in 24 hours of game time, 8-12 hours of it, should be without you interacting with the game.
The devs dont agree. They believe you should be hands on all the time, and that real pilots never sleep.
So, they built in a panelty. When the program detects that there has been no player interaction for a specified period, it starts decreasing your combat and trading ranks. Trading ranks decrease may not be noticable, because if you have stations or ST/UT traders operating, then your commerce will increase your trade rank faster than the inactivity will decrease it. But you combat rank will drop, and continue to drop as long as the program is left without interaction.
Now personally, I dont pay any attention to combat rank (other than documenting it here). Combat rank defines the enemies you will face in missions, number, type of ships etc, and it defines how much you get paid. The higher your rank, the more you get against you, and the bigger and better their ships are. But you get paid more for taking them out.
So if your combat rank drops enough, your payments go down, and the ships you face will grow weaker than you were getting.
Which of course, belies the stupidity of combat rank. Your rank should be based solely on your ability, ship and kills, and not be reduced by anything. Its silly to suggest that doing no killing for a whole game day, reduces your ability to kill, but in the eyes of the missions, it does exactly that.
And yes, even with constant interaction, if you go long enough without a kill, your combat rank will drop.
The next issue then is Seta. Seta slows down the players ship in a way that allows the rest of the universe to appear to speed up. So normal time passes for the player, but everything in the universe around speeds up and goes faster at the speed you set up in the game options, default being 6 times faster.
The effect of seta is to allow game time to pass faster, so if your waiting for chips to be made, putting seta on will get it done faster, and so less waiting. This is a constant argument on the forums, where many people believe this to be cheating. My view is that its a legitimate part of the game, especially when you are playing a Trading Mogul game where combat is to be avoided, and there is nothing much to do while your complexes make enough credits for the next expansion phase.
However, you have to read the fine print. The devs really dont like you doing this, and so in addition to the non-interaction penalty, they also built in some nasty surprises.
Somewhere in the program code, is a little test for how long Seta has been running. Since Seta use by definition is non-interactive, because as soon as you interact, Seta is turned off, then while seta is on, your ranks are being reduced. BUT, at some point, your assets start being attacked as well.
Most people who report using long periods of seta use, also report losing their Universe and Sector traders as well. Its not uncommon for people to have a 50%, or more, attrition rate on UT traders. Particularly any lone ship, seems to be targetted for destruction. But also, its possible to come back to the game and find your complex hub is destroyed and even a number of the stations are gone.
Even without seta, the longer you go without interacting, the more likely you will hear One of your ships is under attack, xxxxxx), and if your not there to jump in and save it, theres a good chance it will be destroyed.
If your UT is not destroyed, you may come back and find it was cowering in some station most of the time you were away and so earning nothing. Or worse, it was cowering in a station that the God-engine subsequently destroyed and was destroyed along with it.
The longer you run Seta for, the more vulnerable your assets seem to become.
So if you choose to run seta for long periods, or simply leave the program running at normal speed for long periods, save first before you leave, and be prepared to have lost something when you get back. Also be prepared to find the loss is too high to pay, and a reload is necessary, losing the entire time you were gone.
While making chips, Ive actually been sitting in front of the computer letting it run itself, reading a book, with the sector music playing in the background and an ear out for warning announcements. I leave the complex info up, and periodically move chips to the Gunbus. Sometimes have seta on, sometimes not.
So fast forward to 1-19:00 and 500 chips are now complete and on the Gunbus ready to deliver. 24,828,692 + 10,867,157. The drop in ship credits is misleading, as that was the effect of transfering ecells from the complex to the Carrier earlier. The Mule had to buy them from the complex same as any other ship, and this lowered the player account and raised the complex account. There is no money lost, just moved.
Change the price of chips to avg - 1, so npc ships can now buy them.
Jump the Gunbus to the Hub in the Unknown Sector, dock it, then jump in myself and also dock. Then transfer the chips to the hub, 250 at a time.
Maha Mi has stuff to say after that and then asks you to repair 3 capacitors with your suit repair laser. So undock, target the first and fly to it, eject, get into range of the capacitor and fire your laser until its hull is repaired. Get back in your ship, go to the next, repeat, then repeat. Just be careful of Xenon, since they still have access to this sector.
Fly back into com range of the Hub and talk to Maha Mi again.
You now get 2 tasks to do, but 3 appear on the mission list.
The first task is to realign the working gate pair. This will effectively stop the xenon from getting in, because your moving these gates somewhere else. However, as you get told, this is permanent, so choose wisely where to move them to. With the Hub targetted, there will be a Gate realignment option available. Select the gate you want to redirect. It takes about 2 minutes to complete, and during that time, I had Xenon jumping in to deal with, and in fact capped an N and repaired its hull.
I selected the south gate of Antigone Memorial, so joining the Hub sector with where my complex is. Its also a fairly busy jump gate with a lot of Argon and Boron ships going through. So the other side of it is The Hole north gate.
The next task is a bit of a shock. Deliver 150,000 Teladianium.
But on the mission list, theres a worse one : Deliver 450,000 Ore.
The whole point of this is obviously to ensure you are building a pretty big complex. And that the full hub isnt available to you until well into the game. Nothing for it, but to get on with it.
First I transfered all credits to the ship account.
Now, there are 3 ways of doing this. You can send ships out to buy Telad and Ore, you can make it yourself, or you can get some on the Hub, then offer an above avg price for it and let the npc ships bring it to you.
All of them cost credits.
I jumped the TL to Siezewell and docked it at the shipyard. Then bought 5 Teladianium foundrys and complex kits. Then jumped it to Legends Home, and loaded on 4 Ore mine Ls and 2 Silicon mine Ls and kits. Then jumped it to AM and docked all the small ships there for safety. Then followed myself. 23,550,007.
I added all bu the Silicon mines to the complex, and then rechanged the prices, putting the Telad on max. Then jumped out again, and reset the defenses.
I didnt add the silicon mines because I first want to monitor the ecell production, as I suspect its again not enough. And yes, sure enough its now slowly decreasing again, although being in the 70k range, it will take a while to run out.
I set a Mule to running Telad from the complex to the TL, being as the Mule can actually dock, and the TL had more than enough room for all the Telad I need, which means I can dock it at the Hub and transfer it all in one go. Not really necessary, but hey, I like delivering in one go. Also set anothr mule to do the same with Ore. Once the Telad is delivered, Ill switch the Mules to running Ore direct to the Hub. In the meantime, the complex is using the whole ore stock of the sector to produce it for me, while we first wait for and deliver the Telad.
Just got to keep my eye on the ecells. At some point, and especially before I can complete the complex by adding the 2 silicon mines, Ill probably have to add another SPP L loop. So need to ensure I have the credits for that when I need them.
The other thing to do is start thinking about Mobile Mining. Thats such a huge lot of ore, that just waiting for it to be produced is going to take a really long time. Unless one was to complex most of Ore Belt that is and I dont even want to go in there for lag reasons. Mobile Mining will take a bit of pondering. In X2 it was hugely useful. In X3, it was totally useless. The next step while waiting for Telad to be produced is to see what they have done with it in TC.
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