Questions: Building stations, wingmen

[mrsack]

1. I am at the point in the game now where I can actually start to afford stations. What do you have to have to purchase one? None of the shipyards will let me, probably because of the big red "ST" under "TP" (I dunno what either stands for )

2. I read on a guide somewhere that you shouldn't dock when you have ships following you because they will run into the station. Does the same apply when they are under the "protect me" order? Does "protect me" = wingman?

3. Can you have "groups" of ships that you give commands to as a whole with shortcuts? Like if I get a couple Busters or something to fly with me, is there I way I could issue "stop", "attack my target", and "protect me" to all at the same time?

Thanks! I'm loving this game!

[TerrorTrooper]

1:- To buy a station, you need a TL class Trasport.
(Argon = Mammoth, Boron = Orca, Split = Elephant, Teladi = Albatross, Paranid = umm, cant remember)
TL class transports are the only Ships that can carry stations.

You can hire one, by approaching it, and Comm it (target and pres "C")
in the future, if you have a spare 20 to 60 mill knocking about, you can buy your own. A TL is the best investment youl ever make.
(the different race TL's all have stregnths and weaknesses, if you buy one, make sure you buy the one right for you)

After you hire a TL, Order it to dock at a shipyard, you can then buy your station, put it on your hired TL, Get it to follow you or move to where you want to go, then order it to drop its cargo. done...

2:- Never happened to me, they usually dock too.

3:- You can make certain ships your "Wingmen" through the command console, and they will follow you about. and you can issue commands to them with certain keys, (the Keys will be in the manual as i dont use them)
They will even jump with you (if they have enough EC's) if you order your jump through the command console.. (If you Shift+J though they will take the scenic route).
Personally, i rarely use wingmen, as i often find i colide with them or they hit me with there guns, missiles trying to shoot at what im shooting.

Hope this helps..


PS. Im surprised your getting to station level without figuring out TL's

PPS. your obviously new, so be very carefull as to what your first station is!!! Make sure it will fill a gap in a local economy.

[Andaius]

If you want wingmen that you can order via hotkeys you need to set them to be "wingmen: Yes: in the command console for the ship your setting to be your wingman.

As for your station question, look in the ultimate stickies guide for a guide to putting down your first station. IT will give you details that you need.

ST your refering too is the size of the ware in this case it's "station" size. You will need a ship that has this size cargo capacity(namely the TL) to transport the ware.

[Andaius]

If you want wingmen that you can order via hotkeys you need to set them to be "wingmen: Yes: in the command console for the ship your setting to be your wingman.

As for your station question, look in the ultimate stickies guide for a guide to putting down your first station. IT will give you details that you need.

ST your refering too is the size of the ware in this case it's "station" size. You will need a ship that has this size cargo capacity(namely the TL) to transport the ware.

[Nanook]

1. You need to hire a TL class transport, Mammoths in Argon space, to dock at the shipyard and then you can buy the station. 'ST' is the cargo class - Station - and only TL's can carry such cargo. Also, 'TP' generally refers to the passenger freighters in the X-Universe. They carry a max of 'L' class cargo. Oh, and you can buy your own TL once you get enough funds. Most players do this because NPC TL's are slow, don't use jumpdrives, and can be difficult to find and hire at times.

2. Collisions are a possiblity. Just tell your followers to either dock at the same station, or to 'standby', i.e., wait outside until you return.

3. To answer the second part of (2) as well as this one, 'wingmen' are set using the ship's command console. There is a menu item something like 'set wingman', which causes that ship to be one of your wingmen. Once they're set as wingmen, then there are hotkey commands you can use to control them. Shift-6 is 'Attack my target' and Shift-7 is 'Protect me'. Other group commands are accessed through the ship's command console interface, generally under 'Navigation' or 'Combat'.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: Whoa! Can't believe it took me over 5 minutes to type and post this. Gotta move faster.

[TerrorTrooper]

EDIT: Whoa! Can't believe it took me over 5 minutes to type and post this. Gotta move faster.

Heh...
Gotcha!!!!!

[Miths]

Fighting with wingman support is the most fun I've had in X3 yet (haven't yet tried large scale battles involving M6 or larger ships classes though).

Me in a Chimera (M3+) with four other Chimera wingmen as well as 4-6 Mambas against fairly large pirate swarms (though it has admittedly been serious overkill in most cases ) - no collisions yet and barely any friendly fire incidents, and certainly not any that did more than dent the shields a bit (I've only given my wingmen BPACs though, no HEPTs - partially to avoid serious damage from a few friendly hits).

I even managed to capture five ships last night with full wingman support - something I had figured would be pretty difficult given all the laser fire in the air.

[Carl Sumner]

There is two meanings for "wingman". One is ships running the Combat "Protect" command, which can be set to any of your ships as leader.

The other is the "Wingman = Yes" setting in the ship's command menu. This makes them respond to the wingman hotkeys, and is Only for ships that are your own wingmen (to your ship as leader).

The wingmen seem to do best if they are just a little faster then the leader, but not too much faster. And manuverability is good. I have had good luck with the Xenon "N"'s that I captured. If your wingmen seem ineffective then try another ship type.

Wingmen can use missiles, if you give them some.

Wingmen will break off to fight their attacker, if they are hit. Be careful not to leave them behind if that happens.

Follower ships (Protect and Follow) will jump with you if you use the command/navigate menu to jump, but not if you use Shift-J. And of course they need jumpdrives, NavI software and Ecells.

[mrsack]

Thanks everyone, that helped a lot!