PBG's in 1.3

[Random_Guy]

Before 1.3, PBG's were fairly difficult to find. There were only a few factories in the galaxy and most of them would get quickly blown up by the various races. Still, there was always one or two that would survive so you could get enough to equip your personal ship with the Flamethrowers of Death.

One of the fixes in 1.3 involved your initial standing with the Pirates. I figured this just meant that I would stop seeing so many blue ships flying around, and I was OK with that. Apparently, it also means that all the PBG factories hate me in my new 1.3 start.

Any ideas on how to pick these things up? I don't think I've ever captured one or had someone drop even one in my 7 game day pre-1.3 file. How might one go about securing, say, 8 of them without buying any?

[Tanall]

Hope that there is a pirate base in the same sector as the PBG forge, then pay for the bribe to turn the station friendly.

[Kor'ah]

or one can fly missions for those pirate bases and get the stations blue that way.

[Random_Guy]

Are the bribes random or is there some way to ensure their existance? I remember hearing about them from somewhere (even back in Reuion) but I've never seen one despite more than a few stray shots hitting stations. Are they offered as random missions?

All the stations in Loomy's Legacy hate me. (There's no real Pirate Base there, just the special Anarchy Port). The stuff in the Unknown Sector off PTNI will still be around at this point if I'm lucky. I didn't find any other pirate clusters in my old game, but that may be partly due to them all being blown up. Are there any other ones hiding somewhere?

I used to do most of my shopping in Maelstrom because local Teladi left it alone, but I don't think there's a Pirate Base there. Do you think I could tele-bribe from Gian Star? What's the range on station hacking?

[GCU Grey Area]

What's the range on station hacking?

Think it's 3 sectors - that's what is was in X3R & so far seems to be the same for all the hacking I've done in TC (though can't be 100% certain yet).

Also, stations built by the player for the pirates can also sometimes offer station hacking services. Well worth doing pirate build missions simply to increase the number of places which can do hacking. Note: the last time I needed to get some hacking done was pre-1.3, so there's always a chance that this might have been changed (hope not).

[BillSheil]

Station hacking missions are now available in all stations, not just pirate stations so scout around for lightbulbs in nearby sectors.

[GCU Grey Area]

Station hacking missions are now available in all stations, not just pirate stations so scout around for lightbulbs in nearby sectors.

Interesting - never once (in ~30 in-game days) come across a non-pirate NPC station offering hacking services, but after I built a few stations for pirates they were offering more hacking than I needed. Guess it's just the infamous RNG at work, though maybe the probabilities of the different missions being offered vary depending on what station you're looking at? (i.e. better chance of getting hacking at pirate stations/bases).

[PreSpawn]

Have you also tried the PBG-Factory in

Spoiler

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Maelstrom, slightly right from the center of the sector
Theres no Pirate-Base in this Sector, so maybe it's worth looking for