4Right, X3: Reunion....

[Ctuchik]

now that i have quenched my thirst for tank sims i decided to actually give this little gem a go. finding it horribly complicated but i'm determined to give it a shot as i never even finished the first 4 missions before giving up in frustration.

now, having searched google for a while i cant actually see any decent guides out there, not so much mission walkthroughs as economy ones, IE how to set up shop to develop better ships and stuff. my "newbie" ship is starting to become obsolete i think (just finnished the spy drone mission) and i cant seem to find a station that sells any. i know there out there i'm just to blind to spot them.

so i figured i'd try and get my "empire" going.

also, is there a good keyboard/interface map out there? the ingame one and the one in the PDF file that came with the disc is just so horribly confusing.

 

[TdC]

hmm had most of the X games but not this one. I'm thinking of getting it but I hope the story is a tad better than the X2 one, cos that really put me off (even though I know you can completely ignore it) it was so bad :/

 

[Ctuchik]

hmm had most of the X games but not this one. I'm thinking of getting it but I hope the story is a tad better than the X2 one, cos that really put me off (even though I know you can completely ignore it) it was so bad :/

well i havent played through X2 either. i probably should but the few missions i have done in X3 seems to be pretty ok.

 

[Lethul]

The story is horrible (imo, or mostly the characters), but the freeplay is great.

How to find a new ship you ask? I mostly capture pirate ships in the begining. Then sell them at shipyards (some pirate modifications are great so some are keepers, Pirate Nova Raider for example), shipyards can be found in Argon Prime, Teladi Gain for example (each race sells different ships).

A little guide in capturing: Shot them! When the shield drops and the hull drops to about 80% there is a little chance he will bail after each additional damage he takes. So be carefull to stop shoting everytime you get a com message from the one you are shooting at. When they bail they will turn blue. Fly up to the ship, eject from yours. Move close to their and claim (can't remember what menu that was in but should be easy to find). Then move back to your ship and tell your new ship to go dock at a shipyard. PS. Watch out for Nova's with their rear turret. You should be able to kill/claim the rest tho.

Otherwise you can go a traderoute, but pretty much only if you started in the "Easy" setting so you got a Mercury aswell. Otherwise capping is adviced until you get enough money for a trader (atleast!)

Once you starting to get some traders you can buy something called Trade Command Software MK3 that will allow you to get a special Merchant Pilot (i think) in the ship that allows it to autotrade without you interfering.

Oh and yeah, i too thought it was horribly complicated and found the story lacking. But i decided to stick with it and discovered the greatness in the game

 

[Ctuchik]

so how do i set up a trader with the mercury?

had to start over as i somehow fubared my last game. couldn't progress the story coz some station i had to dock at wouldn't let me :/

 

[TdC]

ah, cheers Lethul. gameplay seems much the same as X2 then, though I seem to remember in X2 I could auto-claim the captured ship and just send it on it's way to the closest shipyard. Naff when some failed to make it, but selling captured pirates certainly made me lots of lovely credits, until I captured a Xenon ship (apparently that became possible with a certain patch Egosoft released). After selling that I was 3.5 million creds in the black o0

 

[Lethul]

so how do i set up a trader with the mercury?

had to start over as i somehow fubared my last game. couldn't progress the story coz some station i had to dock at wouldn't let me :/

Well, problem is with either start you have to make up around some money first. So just pilot your mercury or start capping pirates as i told you about last tactic (one captured pirate falcon should neat you around 300-600k depending on condition). When you have this go to the Terracorp HQ in Home of Light (might be Argon Prime). Buy Trade Commande Software MK3, switch back to your fighter and select the Merchant and order it to "Start Sector Trader" and chose a zone to do it in.

If you don't wanna fight pirates yet just do manual trade runs until you can get Trade MK3 for the Mercury. There might be some more requirements if its not possible to make him Sector Trader after you installed MK3. But then just google it and you should get some Sector Trader/Universe Trader guide.

Spoiler

Empire's Edge zone is the best bar none

And i don't think you can Fubar up the story to much actually. Maybe you just had to work up your reputation a bit to be able to land? What step are you on?

 

[Lethul]

ah, cheers Lethul. gameplay seems much the same as X2 then, though I seem to remember in X2 I could auto-claim the captured ship and just send it on it's way to the closest shipyard. Naff when some failed to make it, but selling captured pirates certainly made me lots of lovely credits, until I captured a Xenon ship (apparently that became possible with a certain patch Egosoft released). After selling that I was 3.5 million creds in the black o0

Xenon ships are lovely in this game. If you download the Bala Gi mission patch the Xenon LX m3+ fighter. It is soo overpowered compared to the rest

The big money earner seems to be "illegal" factory complexes such as space fuel and weed. Or lots of UT (there seems to be a cap around 20-25 tho then they start out compete themselves which aint good )

With that said i personally find capping the best way in early game, since it both give you better piloting skills (irl). Net you nice cash and manual trading can be a bore sometimes Also remember to check bulletin board in stations for assassin missions. Nice fast money and rep

 

[Ctuchik]

Well, problem is with either start you have to make up around some money first. So just pilot your mercury or start capping pirates as i told you about last tactic (one captured pirate falcon should neat you around 300-600k depending on condition). When you have this go to the Terracorp HQ in Home of Light (might be Argon Prime). Buy Trade Commande Software MK3, switch back to your fighter and select the Merchant and order it to "Start Sector Trader" and chose a zone to do it in.

If you don't wanna fight pirates yet just do manual trade runs until you can get Trade MK3 for the Mercury. There might be some more requirements if its not possible to make him Sector Trader after you installed MK3. But then just google it and you should get some Sector Trader/Universe Trader guide.

Spoiler

Empire's Edge zone is the best bar none

And i don't think you can Fubar up the story to much actually. Maybe you just had to work up your reputation a bit to be able to land? What step are you on?

i'm on missing girl mission. and after blowing up pirates left and right on my OTHER missions i dont think they like me all that much anymore. so trying to get them to allow me to land on their station looks kinda pointless.

and afaik you need to land to be able to read the BBS to get those missions that gives you rep.

 

[Lethul]

i'm on missing girl mission. and after blowing up pirates left and right on my OTHER missions i dont think they like me all that much anymore. so trying to get them to allow me to land on their station looks kinda pointless.

and afaik you need to land to be able to read the BBS to get those missions that gives you rep.

I dont think you are supposed to land on their station. It's the "Pleasure Complex" ye? You are supposed to get your female friend to land there. If its the same mission. The plot is badly designed imo, i couldn't finnish it without a walkthrough

The joy in the game is the freeplay imo

 

[Ctuchik]

no i need to land on the split trading post, read the BBS and THEN fly to the pleassure complex.

atleast thats what the walkthrough *cough* says

 

[Lethul]

no i need to land on the split trading post, read the BBS and THEN fly to the pleassure complex.

atleast thats what the walkthrough *cough* says

Ah, but you can work your rep up in other ways then missions. Killing pirates in split zones, trading in split zones, trading with splits. Might take a while tho depending on what stat you are at. So its not broken but might take a while to get up

 

[TdC]

zomg I bought it through steam! o0

 

[Ctuchik]

Ah, but you can work your rep up in other ways then missions. Killing pirates in split zones, trading in split zones, trading with splits. Might take a while tho depending on what stat you are at. So its not broken but might take a while to get up

aah ok. off to kill me some pirates then.

oh and another thing. does this work with factions that have me KOS?

 

[Lethul]

aah ok. off to kill me some pirates then.

oh and another thing. does this work with factions that have me KOS?

Yes it does, it works with everyone

With one plot exception What kind of start did you select to already be on KOS lists?

 

[Ctuchik]

Yes it does, it works with everyone

With one plot exception What kind of start did you select to already be on KOS lists?

i'm not on anyones KOS list unless you count the pirates.

i just wanna make sure its possible BEFORE i go down any path that i later might regret

gonna try and get me a paranid Zeus later because they look so awesome

 

[TdC]

ye gods! it took me 9 beers to work out thart KOS meant kill on sight :/

 

[Lethul]

ye gods! it took me 9 beers to work out thart KOS meant kill on sight :/

No more questions?

 

[Ctuchik]

still trying to find a good breakdown of howto's for setting up a trade empire

 

[Lethul]

still trying to find a good breakdown of howto's for setting up a trade empire

My key to money was a spaceweed/space fuel complex in elenas fortune. Make sure you download the bonuspacks for some really nice scripts (like autotraders who buy supplies for your factories etc) they are supported by egosoft so wont ruin anything

They aren't needed but makes it much less frustrating to ruin a trade empire Otherwise UT's can get you a long way

 

[Lethul]

X3: Terran Conflict is supposed to be released now. I haven't bought it yet cause my comp can't handle it but will get it asap when i have a new comp.

 

[Helme]

I got it as a birthday present(my family seems to think I'm obsessed with only space games, yet the onlyones I own are actually the ones they've got me).

So far I've managed to get myself killed in various spectacle ways, bankrupt myself in 30 minutes and get lost in space. Seeing as this seems to be pretty much the average user experience, I'd say im doing good and it's quite nice to play it. My only major gripe is that SETA only goes to 1000%

 

[Ctuchik]

its always been capped at 1000% tho right? well, 600% with the default script and 1000% with custom script.

 

[Helme]

Yeah I know, it's just that it looks like you could easily get more with good hardware

 

[Ctuchik]

dont think u can get any more then 1000%, even with custom scripts.

think the devs hard capped it there.

 

[Helme]

Yes I know, my point was that it seems reasonably possible to for the developers to have capped it at 2000% or whatever, but they didn't so instead I'm kinda stuck waiting 10 minutes for my ship to get somewhere

 

[Ctuchik]

ah ok, well, i suppose they could. but if u get to where u need to go in a instant, whats the fun then?

i bet ur missing tons of floating loot and abandoned ships as it is why miss everything?