Fraggin Pirates !!!

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UlteriorModem
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Fraggin Pirates !!!

Post by UlteriorModem » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 17:49

No real purpose to this post... just a rant.

I finally finished the plot and was setting out to get an ore mine into full swing.

I purchased a pair of Mercury's one for supply one for selling. Kitted them out with the necessary software / hardware but only 1 25mj sheild (Im cheap).

I set there home base and gave them instructions and sent them on their way.

Well it dident take long... "Warning one of your ships is under attack... Elana's Fortune".

Crap ! Of course the ship I was in was short on ecells and Elana's Fortune was 4 sectors away. When I got my property screen up it was just in time to see the Mercs sheilds melting away and 'poof' there she goes.

Well that made me a tad angry, after all it was a brand stinkin new ship. It got to fly all of three sectors!

So I stormed over to the sector and ran into the little pack that had shredded my Mercury. A pair of Harriers, A buster, and a Pirate Hauler. After a few moments all that was left was some space debris. Of course not a single cap. I was so peeved I just hammered them till they went kablooie.

The pirates got their licks in as well and my ship got dinged up quite a bit. 30% hull left :roll:

So lets sum it up Ship about 300K, fittings another 150K or so, Ship repair right at 600K so somewhere around 1 Mil credits down the tubes. I realize thats not alot to most of you but it left me with about 30K in liquid assets left. Fortunatly one of my UT's had a full hold... phew.

Now the question is why in the heck did the Merc go into Elena's Fortune to begin with? The only way to where he was going was through pirate sectors ?!

Scarecrow
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Post by Scarecrow » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 18:22

Don't be cheap next time ... give it all the shields it can handle.

It's a lot cheaper than having to replace and re-fit a new ship.

UlteriorModem
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Post by UlteriorModem » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 18:31

Scarecrow wrote:Don't be cheap next time ... give it all the shields it can handle.

It's a lot cheaper than having to replace and re-fit a new ship.
You know I thought about that and came to this conclusion.

It would have just taken him a bit longer to pop. No jump drive, no pilot (MkIII) and I never would have got there in time. So in actually I would have been out even more credits.

Besides... I couldent afford it at the time. :P

Now I know I could just load a previous save but I dont play like that... that explains why Im broke :wink:

Revan_X
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Post by Revan_X » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 18:35

Plus if you're going to turn then into UT's(which is really the best to do) then you're going to have to have greater shields as a requirement for them to become Universal Traders anyway...so spend the money cuz it will come back.

cale_online
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Post by cale_online » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 18:50

i had the same problem, (only i was cheaper! 1mw shield!) so to begin with i just reduced the distance my transports went, (distance to Elana's fortune -1), proved handy for a while then once i got my new nova, and some mods i just patroled those systems alone, then after a few caps i had a small fleet on the rise.
eventually i brought them a centuar to patrol that and the neighbouring sectors to the north and south, then i capped/brought my self a new fleet, and got another centuar, to patrol the 3 sectors north of the local xenon sector (10-something?).
now my transports are makin more money, so they all have max shields, and even a gun!
and i can also keep a lid on the xenon migration (AL script) in that area,

oh and i just now capped a pair of LXs :D woop!
there was a fairly large (in comparision to my 2 small fleets) moving out of the xenon sector (cant remember the number), it was basically a xenon K (the big-ish centuar sized one?), about 5 Ms, a few Ls and 2 LX's
so instead of marchng my fleet to them and getting shot quite alot, i parked my fleet in the system they seemed to be heading to, surrounding the gate, keeping a close eye on my Navsat and the xenon fleet closing in the the gate, then when the K jumped in, all my ships wiped that out in seconds (i wanted to cap it but my fleet wasnt having any of it!) then everything else came through, i focused on the LX's while my fleet just seemingly fired in random places, managed to cap both of them!, then just destroyed the rest! job done, didnt loose a ship, centuar took a beating and needed minor repair (about 5%) and not only that, my 2nd fleet now has an LX flying in it, i've also been busy fitting the entire lot with jumpdrives (got abit tedious so i made a script that installs one, plus 50 E.cells, and nav mk1, but deducts 150k from your account), so now both my fleets can easily aid the other within 30 seconds :D
loving it.
no only that but the pirate sectors never have any pirates anymore, which is abit boring at times, but means i dont have to worry about my transports going on crusades.. lol

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Carlo the Curious
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Post by Carlo the Curious » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 19:04

The Xenon corvette is a P - Ks are rather larger :).

P patrols out of X101 are pretty common, so keep your eyes open. You'll get the odd pirate respawn as well (depending on how many bases you left in the area).

UlteriorModem
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Post by UlteriorModem » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 19:07

UT's only require a minimum of 1 25mj sheild I believe.

But thats not really important.

The uhhh... ore hauler was set to only a few sectors but was on his way to paranid space where the ore mine was. It was about 7 or 8 jumps from Argon Prime where I had purchased / fitted him.

Oh and BTW the one I had assigned to fetch ecells for the same station also started out in AP but took a different but safer route :?: and made it there fine.

As to the 'support fleet' I can hardly afford a 25mj sheild let alone fit out a fleet :lol:

I think I play this game in a very different way than alot of folks but Im havin fun in my own way.

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perkint
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Post by perkint » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 20:03

cale_online wrote:when the K jumped in, all my ships wiped that out in seconds (i wanted to cap it but my fleet wasnt having any of it!)
Sorry to disappoint, but you can't cap anything bigger than an M3+ in vanilla, anyway! Well, there's one exception -
Spoiler
Show
When you reach one of the highest combat ranks, Xenon K's (the destroyer, not the corvette you refer to) can be capped in Xenon Taxi missions
UlteriorModem wrote:I think I play this game in a very different way than alot of folks but Im havin fun in my own way.
And that's the most important thing!

I would suggest, tho, that you use CAGs as opposed to just Best Buy/Best Sell. Doesn't cost anything like the Trade MK3 and will allow your traders to use jump drives and react to avoid attacks. It's part of the Bonus Pack and I think it's bluddy brilliant. Your traders will jump all over the universe (potentially) to sell for the best price and buy for the best price. One ship would handle all the needs of a single mine.

Of course, that's only a suggestion ;)

Tim

UlteriorModem
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Post by UlteriorModem » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 20:05

perkint wrote:I would suggest, tho, that you use CAGs

Of course, that's only a suggestion ;)

Tim
I suppose your right.

Now all I have to do is figure out how :P

cale_online
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Post by cale_online » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 20:13

Carlo the Curious wrote:The Xenon corvette is a P - Ks are rather larger :).
i knew it was something like that, either way i killed it to death and it wasnt huuuugee.. lol
UlteriorModem wrote:UT's only require a minimum of 1 25mj sheild I believe.

As to the 'support fleet' I can hardly afford a 25mj sheild let alone fit out a fleet :lol:

I think I play this game in a very different way than alot of folks but Im havin fun in my own way.
if you buy the cheapest possible transport (mercury S?) it only comes with a 1mw sheild.. which means your ship doesnt usually survive the "your ship is under attack" message

as for the support fleet, i just kept killing pirates until i captured a few, sold the rubbish ones, spent a bit of money refitting the good ones (nova's and falcons seem to work pretty well!)
(i'm using a script by someone that makes capping more fun tho)
you acn make alot of money capping ships, and if you dont have too many transports, you can just use the ships to protect the transport, if one pops, go visit your local pirate sector and borrow one back.. lol

as it stands, my 2 patrol fleets, have 12-14 ships each, plus 1 centuar each, and only the centuars and about 2 other ships where actually brought... lol the others are all caps, and most of them arnt even repaired properly(tho some did new weapons/shields/upgrades - mostly finaced by the ships i didnt want), because now i have so many, and the pirates are so few (now), none of them ever lose shields... lol
also my 2 complexs now generate a fair ammount of money, so some of my "good" fighters get a complimentary trip to the shipyard for a patch up. the 2 LX's i borrowed got a complete repair, plus all the upgrades to help them stay mine :)


i sorta play this game as a economy/strategy with a bit of shooting involved, now i have the pirates under control, i can focus on building more stations, and spreading around the galaxy, i dont really fight as much now seems i have nothing to fight really, i only join in if i find a station that needs removing, then i just clear the laser towers because they're easy to dodge once you get close, then leave my fleet to do the rest, or i'll join my fleet if theres another xenon or Kha'ak attack. but i generally spend most of my time ordering my ships around, and checking up on everything, then maybe explore bit and drop some sats (i even have a ship to do that for me now too.. lol)


EDIT:
UlteriorModem wrote:
perkint wrote:I would suggest, tho, that you use CAGs
Of course, that's only a suggestion ;)
Tim
I suppose your right.
Now all I have to do is figure out how :P
i've got 2 CAGs running for my complex, they start off utterly useless tho, and take about and hour (on SETA) to become usefull,
until then i needed to keep my transports running sell/buy for best price
once my cags got the hang of things, i've just kept 2 transports for selling overstock of energy, and 1 for ore, the others are now my resupply ships for my fleet.. (not that they ever seem to need it, tho its nice to have them there incase they ever use a missile or jump somewhere.. lol)

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perkint
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Post by perkint » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 20:34

UlteriorModem wrote:I suppose your right.

Now all I have to do is figure out how :P
To use it in it's basic form is very easy - you just ensure it's got the kit it needs, homebase it and then tell it to start commercial representation :)

They do need to level up if you want them to sell as well as buy and this can take time (during which, your mine will fill with product unless you sell cheap and get the NPCs to buy from you whilst he trains).

There are two main options here (that I would recommend, anyway) - set the jump range low to keep him safe, but high enough to get your e-cells. Set the selling price of the product (ore or silicon wafers) well below average. Once he's levelled up enough to sell, whack the price up. Once he's fairly high level (can't remember the differences between the levels, so I used to wait for Freighter Pilot) I have the jump range maxed out and the selling price not far off maximum.

One drawback with CAGs is that you have to have property in the sectors you want him to trade in - either sats or other ships (including UTs).

The other option is to set up a training school for CAGs. There is a very good guide - Kor'ah's CAG school and this way, you'll always have high level CAGs ready for when you build stations :)

Tim

UlteriorModem
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Post by UlteriorModem » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 22:09

Thanks for the tips on CAG's Ill give it all a try.

Seems like you never run out of things to learn about this game. :wink:

Ill make a stab at this over the weekend and let yall know.

Thanks again ! :P

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Post by Nightwatch » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 23:04

It went through elenas fortune as it was looking for energy cells and the cheapest ones in its way were through there.

Just set thew stations buy/sell distance to 2 and no trader from that station wont have any reason to go up there. There are plenty of stations that close. to sell ore to
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UlteriorModem
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Post by UlteriorModem » Fri, 25. Jul 08, 23:15

Nightwatch wrote:It went through elenas fortune as it was looking for energy cells and the cheapest ones in its way were through there.

Just set thew stations buy/sell distance to 2 and no trader from that station wont have any reason to go up there. There are plenty of stations that close. to sell ore to
Actually the one assigned to 'get' ecells is doing fine.

Its the one that tasked with selling the ore that got jumped on his way to the station for his first run.

Poor guy never even got to see the universe :(

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Post by cale_online » Sat, 26. Jul 08, 16:27

i've had many ships that never really got the see the universe
most of my transports like to fly into the middle of a system being invaded by the kha'ak, then get blown to peices.
could do with a script that makes them jump out if they're attacked really, tho most of my transports dont last the 30 seconds it takes to jump.. lol

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perkint
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Post by perkint » Sat, 26. Jul 08, 18:40

cale_online wrote:could do with a script that makes them jump out if they're attacked really, tho most of my transports dont last the 30 seconds it takes to jump.. lol
Most of the scripts do - UT/CLS/CAG will all drop drones if they've got any and then jump out of there!

Of course, sometimes they have to be a high enough level...

Tim

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