TP or TS for Factory Trading???

Jabali · Post by **Jabali** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 03:26

Hi, I'm new to the X3 universe and am going to try my hand at setting up factories. I was thinking of starting by getting an ore mine and silicon mine in ore belt. I would appreciate some help on what ship I should use to buy energy cells for the mines and what ship I should use to sell the ore.

Are TP's or TS's better?
What kind of TP or TS should I get?
Also what should I set the mines parameters to? Funds, sectors, etc.

Thank you very much for helping out this noob.

-Jabali

Suicidemoon · Post by **Suicidemoon** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 03:56

TS have more room..........the teldi have the most room i think.....but the argon is faster than the others....

shodan1138 · Post by **shodan1138** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 04:01

A TS has a huge cargo bay, and can carry XL-sized goods. They tend to be a little on the slow side, though.

A TP has a decent cargo bay (750-1150 cargo, depending on the type), and the speed is a little bit faster than TS ships. *However*, in X3, a TP can only carry S-sized goods.

So it kind of depends on what you'll actually be trading. That is, what size the cargo is.

EDIT: So, to summarize: To sell Ore or Sillicon, you will *need* a TS ship of some variety, since those materials are XL-sized. But, the ship you use to purchase Energy Cells can be anything you like, since E-Cells are S-sized wares (which every ship can carry). A fast fighter might even work.

Dgn Master · Post by **Dgn Master** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 04:03

Might be good to know that no TP class chips can carry any ware that is XL in size. If you plan on selling your ore you will only be able to use TS class ships for this.

I personally use Caimans for all my UT and transport needs, they are fast for a freighter and can carry all wares up to and including XL.

General Dave · Post by **General Dave** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 04:05

Tp's won't carry ore as they aren't XL class freighters. TS's (such as the Argon mercury or Paranid Demeter will carry the larger cargo types, but at a slower speed.

for help look no further, the complete guide to everything http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=112011

List of ship's specs http://www.deabill.co.uk/Files/Ships.xls

These are all at the top under guides and are well worth a look.....

Wurtzel · Post by **Wurtzel** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 05:03

shodan1138 wrote:A TS has a huge cargo bay, and can carry XL-sized goods. They tend to be a little on the slow side, though.

A TP has a decent cargo bay (750-1150 cargo, depending on the type), and the speed is a little bit faster than TS ships. *However*, in X3, a TP can only carry S-sized goods.

So it kind of depends on what you'll actually be trading. That is, what size the cargo is.

EDIT: So, to summarize: To sell Ore or Sillicon, you will *need* a TS ship of some variety, since those materials are XL-sized. But, the ship you use to purchase Energy Cells can be anything you like, since E-Cells are S-sized wares (which every ship can carry). A fast fighter might even work.

That is not quite correct, as the TP can carry goods upto large sized goods..

shodan1138 · Post by **shodan1138** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 05:10

Wurtzel wrote: That is not quite correct, as the TP can carry goods upto large sized goods..

They could in X2, certainly. But not in X3.

At least, my new Argon Express can't. Which is annoying, since it can support 25MJ shields (which are an M or L sized ware, I think), but it can't actually *use* them due to its S-sized cargobay.

EDIT: Or did I just buy the wrong type of TP? This requires further study, I think...

shodan1138 · Post by **shodan1138** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 05:16

GENERAL DAVE wrote:List of ship's specs http://www.deabill.co.uk/Files/Ships.xls

This is awfully frustrating.

Not everyone in the world has a copy of Microsoft Excel. What's wrong with a simple HTML table?

I'm missing a lot of data on X3, because a bunch of people seem to insist on hosting spreadsheets on their webpages, instead of creating HTML tables, which is pretty close to the same damned thing, except they're viewable by everyone.

Sorry, I'm not ranting at /you/ specifically. Just the world in general.

alphalvr · Post by **alphalvr** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 05:46

Wurtzel wrote:

That is not quite correct, as the TP can carry goods upto large sized goods..

They could in X2, certainly. But not in X3.

At least, my new Argon Express can't. Which is annoying, since it can support 25MJ shields (which are an M or L sized ware, I think), but it can't actually *use* them due to its S-sized cargobay.

EDIT: Or did I just buy the wrong type of TP? This requires further study, I think...

your wrong, look about a bit more

shodan1138 · Post by **shodan1138** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 05:52

alphalvr wrote: your wrong, look about a bit more

Got any specific examples?

arcana75 · Post by **arcana75** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 09:22

In X3, TPs can carry up to L-sized cargo.

However, their potential is limited by their cargo limits even tho they are slightly faster.

Dread · Post by **Dread** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 10:50

I had a Split Iguana TP and it could carry upto L goods (im sure, but going from memory as sat at work so if Im a bit wrong dont eject me out o the cargo hold)

Certain Death · Post by **Certain Death** » Fri, 16. Dec 05, 10:56

My first factory was a Silicon Mine in Ore belt and it does pretty well. I have 3 maxed out Mercuries buying and selling the goods: 1 to buy E Cells and 2 to sell the wafers. Don't bother with super frieghters: firstly these ships don't use jump drives so you want something fairly fast and secondly when you give them the order 'sell wares at best price' they will go to one factory sell what that one factory needs and then fly back to your silicon mine to restock even if they have not sold all their goods, so there's no point having uber sized freighters because they will rarely sell all the goods.

I started with only one Mercury selling and found that I had to jump in every now and then as thew fac started to get full.

I have the E Cells on buy at 15, so NPCs rarely sell to me, but my Mercury keeps me pretty well stocked, occassionaly I have to change the E Cells price to 17, when I'm running a little low, but normally I prefer to jump in with a full cargo hold in my Caimen Super Frieghter (the factory can hold 25,000 E Cells so you won't be carrying to much!) as that way you can buy at 12Cr.

I vary the price for sale of the wafers between 450 and 500Cr depending on how well my Mercuries are doing, but even at 500Cr I get the occasional NPC purchase.

Hope this helps