Hunting Spaceflies. Help!

[Bill Huntington]

I didn't buy the Spaceflies early in the game and now there aren't any. An old story, I know.

So I've used the Unfocused Jump to get into an Unknown sector. I'm sitting next to a big Niv asteroid in my Aamon M3 armed with Ion Ds. I managed to stun one Spacefly and collect him.

Do they come back after you've zapped them once in a sector?

Any tips on getting more than one from a swarm?

How about finding the next swarm?

I've heard quiet, Niv asteroids help. Anything else?

[RAVEN.myst]

Are you currently playing X3AP? The reason I ask is that I've found spaceflies getting progressively rarer over the course of the series. The old advice of "get into an asteroid-rich area and wait a while" does work - but only ever when I'm NOT looking for the damn things

I've found that when I stun one or two, it's best to keep ionizing the area before collecting them - this seems to result in more of them after a while, although I'm not sure whether that's just coincidence. Regardless, this has not let me down - keep zapping the area, and more and more of them get stunned, the ID arcing around lots. Then I just collect a bunch of them, zapping periodically in order to keep them dazed.

In terms of location, I've seen swarms in just about any asteroid area, including but by no means limited to Ore Belt, Freedom's Reach, Rhonkar's Clouds, Veil of Delusion, Herron's Nebula, and many others - as you see, both "rural" and "urban" sectors are represented, so I'm not sure whether "quiet" is truly a factor, but I don't know either way.

If you are playing X3AP and in actual need of those bugs, I assume you are busy with the Shady Business plot. There are some alternative approaches, which are my usual way of handling this - and don't worry, since I always role-play my games, I *never* stock up in advance with something I will need later, as my character would have no way of knowing in advance (I assume no crystal balls, heheh), and yet I always come right, usually without actually hunting them, so there's hope.

- Use the Hub and CAGs: add spaceflies as a ware, set the price to maximum (since you are not looking at profitable trade, merely acquiring some, and so price is no object), and wait/go on about your other business. To ensure speedy response to availability, if you are already using the Hub as a trade centre, you will want to change a couple of your CAGs' warelist to ONLY seek out spaceflies, and ignore all other wares.
- Use CLS2: A Logistician-level pilot is best for this. Universe-wide, generate waypoints to buy spaceflies, again at maximum price; start the CLS2 and go on about you other business. An advantage of this approach is that generating waypoints in CLS2 will include stations you haven't discovered, which in this case is pertinent as you'll catch those out-of-the-way hidden pirate bases. Pirate bases have spaceflies in stock for a while after the station is spawned, which is why you see them in the early game - but any time a new pirate base is spawned, it will have some stock for a while.
- For the above reason, if you are on sufficiently bad terms with pirates that your CAGs/CLS2s are likely to run into trouble trying to buy from pirate bases, you could try an alternative (and more intricate/laborious) approach: blow up pirate bases to force them to respawn, then find their replacements (this second part is the labour-intensive one, of course - CLS2 generate waypoints can be used to spot where they have been placed.)
- You can combine the Hub-CAG and CLS2 methods: use CLS2 generate waypoints to find all the pirate bases, go to each in order to "map it in", thus making it available to your CAGs - or, alternatively, you could simply dock there yourself should you see some of them endangered little buggers in stock.
- Lastly, there are two legitimate bases that will periodically spawn some stock (I think only one of them actually does in any particular playthrough, which one is either determined randomly, or perhaps based on some choice made in the plot, such as whether you are working for the Split, perhaps - this is likely, since as far as I know the station in question only adds 'flies to its stocklist around the time it's relevant for the plot.)

Spoiler

Show

The stations are the Strongarms HQ and the Military Outpost in Depths of Silence, if I recall correctly.[/i] The station in question will work with either Hub-CAG or CLS2 method, or you could simply keep an eye on it personally and visit it when stock appears.

[SirNukes]

I don't know the rules for spacefly spawning, beyond that the UFJ sector gets 1 swarm. However, for hunting in a sector, it may help to better understand spacefly behavior:

Spaceflies like the player (your ship smells extra nice), and have chance to fly to your ship. They also like ships in general, and have a chance to fly to a random ship in sector (you if no one else is around). Otherwise, they like to fly to asteroids, or just hang out for a while wherever they are. If the leader of a swarm is removed, the rest of the swarm will scatter and go their own way. When stunned, spaceflies recover after 5-15 seconds; zapping them again during this time seems to get shrugged off and doesn't delay their recovery.

When I needed spaceflies, I found it generally hard to notice them even when they would fly to my ship. What ended up working really well was to park an M6 next to my Ion D equipped fighter, and to just constantly zap the M6. When spaceflies came over to see what was up, they got caught in the trap and showed on radar, alerting me to start sweeping the Ion D around and begin gathering.

[Bill Huntington]

Good info, Raven and SirNukes! Yes, I'm in AP.

Raven, I knew about Strong Arms HQ but didn't want to blow it up in this game. When it comes back it will have a good supply in all its categories including Spaceflies. It comes back in about a game day. The other pirate bases will come back somewhere else, usually in an area that hasn't had a pirate base before.

I don't see Spaceflies listed for the any station in Depths of Silence.

I have one Spacefly now but never had any luck when I listed it on the menu for the Gate Hub.

Good idea to try the regular sectors too.

I wasn't sure they showed up on the radar even when zapped. Good to know.

And good to know they aren't discouraged by zapping your big ship.

Thanks, both of you!

[RAVEN.myst]

Raven, I knew about Strong Arms HQ but didn't want to blow it up in this game.

You don't need to blow up Strong Arms HQ - it will periodically restock with a varying amount (resupplies every hour or half-hour, I think.) Since the MO in Depths isn't listing 'flies, it will be the SA-HQ where you will be able to buy them (it's only one or the other, but like I said, I'm not sure what determines which it is on any given playthrough.)

I have one Spacefly now but never had any luck when I listed it on the menu for the Gate Hub.

Yeah, unfortunately though this does *eventually* work, it does require some (read: "considerable") patience, as well as having a couple of fast CAGs to snap up any that appear on the market anywhere (I recommend a fast TP or TP+), and it's dependent on having good stations info ie. your system knowing where all (or as many as possible) of the pirate bases are.

I wasn't sure they showed up on the radar even when zapped. Good to know.

I don't know whether they show up on the radar itself, but they do show up on the on-screen HUS, as M5 icons (I think they only show up once stunned, if I'm not mistaken.

Happy hunting!


And thanks, SirNukes, for some characteristically good info - as always, you've deepened my knowledge of an in-game subject.

[SirNukes]

Oops, I have some misinformation in my post. In testing, spaceflies seem to get stunned for 10-15 seconds (not 5-15), and it is seemingly cumulative if you keep zapping them, up to at least a couple minutes as far as I timed it. Earlier I was only looking at their AI script (which also has a stun check), but the main stun effect might be hardcoded in the game.

For spawning, I suspect they will gradually show up as you spend time in a sector with asteroids, but I am not 100% sure on that. I can't recall ever having any luck soon after jumping into a sector, only after waiting around for a bit.

[RAVEN.myst]

For spawning, I suspect they will gradually show up as you spend time in a sector with asteroids, but I am not 100% sure on that. I can't recall ever having any luck soon after jumping into a sector, only after waiting around for a bit.

I've very occasionally encountered them soon after entry, but yes, by far most often after parking idly in or near asteroids for a while (usually while waiting for something else to happen, rather than for a swarm to show up - typical! Of course, on those occasions when I was actually waiting for them, no such luck for long periods - much like coppers: there when not needed or wanted, and vice versa) - I seem to recall reading somewhere that, lore-wise, they are drawn to engine emissions (and I guess this affinity is probably supposed to have something to do with them being useful for propulsion, and thus as a rocket fuel option in the Split turbo booster - but that's neither here nor there...)