Not enough money for an M6...

Ridgy · Post by **Ridgy** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 17:57

... But being swarmed by too many M3s, I can deal with the odd M6 (xenon Ps are easy though long to kill), I need to buy an M6 but I can't, if I stop doing hard missions it'll take ages to get the money, I don't want to buy a wingman 'cos they're stupid and he'll just get himself killed. But my poor mamba can't hack being gangbanged by over 5 xenen Ls. I don't use missiles, I guess that's where I'm going worng, I could fin a good number of enemies of before they get to me, but aren't those missile rather expensive?
Should I build a wasp missile fab (I have 6 million credits) though my last save is docked at a station in the middle of a patrol mission with the mentioned xenons about to spawn, I odn't want to abandodn the mission, that'd be walking away from more than 500k (that I've worked hard to earn so far).

What to do?

Evanu · Post by **Evanu** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 18:08

I've had a very easy time with L's with any ship faster then 120.

Go full speed, and then strafe around it in circles, while shooting. as long as you tend to stay in the middle range of the ship for the most part you can take it out.

Ridgy · Post by **Ridgy** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 18:32

That's what I usualy do, but when applying this tactic to one of them the others are just behind it, so my shields were depleted by their shots in less than 10 seconds.

I'll wait to see what the gerenal consesus it, for the moment post back if you have ideas that I haven't included in the poll or just tips on missile use or on dogfighting (though, I find it hard to think there's a way to beat these bastards, I've tried luring them behind a station and shooting around it using it for cover but one or two Ls allways got behind me...)

RpprZ · Post by **RpprZ** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 18:43

maybe u don't have enough monehy to BUY one, BUT you could certainly BOARD one! that's what i did when i felt the necesity of a M6.

Bought marines, trained them to 3* in all trainable skills, armed my trusty Nova "Tools of the Trade" Raider with Ion-Ds and fried the shit out of a pirate centaur i found flying around.
Saved and when it had only a PRG or something like that jumped in a TP with the marines, teleported to it's cockpit, refitted the Nova with PRGs and ordered it to keep P.Centaur's shields down.
Saved, and then it was like 10 reloads only to make my marines connect with the target, and 3 more to have a cap.
But, i didn't like it, sooooo i SETA repaired it and sold it, and THEN bought my First Centaur. Eventually i sold the Centaur too and bought a Skiron, this one lasted a loong time before i felt the need of change.

NewtSoup · Post by **NewtSoup** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 18:47

Which game are you playing?

X3:R or X3:TC? Makes a difference.

Either way you've left out options -

X3:R Cap a Xenon LX
x3:TC Aquire the Xperimental Shuttle

Both will go a long way to solving your M3 Swarm problems while you build up the cash/board an M6

Ridgy · Post by **Ridgy** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 18:48

Tbh boarding seems kind of messy (bugged and annoying I mean) to me and I don't like the concept of saving before doing something and then doing it over and over in this game (ofc in a COD game, it's obvious you would do that), I think i'll leave boarding for when I have enough ressources and money to live up to the failiures. But I might do the terran campaign to get to that mission (I've heard of) where they sort of "teach" you to cap...
But maybe I'll try it.

RpprZ · Post by **RpprZ** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 19:08

I was playing X3TC 2.7, and yes, i dislike saving and redoing, but it was my quick fix, to do it the other way IE with Boarding Pods u'd need even more money, soy spacewalk was the only choice, even if it's so damn difficult to pull out.
Also, the mission u talk about

Spoiler

Show

They teach you to board target that's not moving, so it's almost useless experience as any other boarding op will have moving, dodging and shooting targets, they teach you this way because later you'll need to board another inmobile target, this time a little bigger than the first one

Forcy · Post by **Forcy** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 19:41

I think he might mean the ship you get as part of the training. I went very far with that ship and then bought myself a skiron and did a bunch of stuff with it.

My advice would indeed be to take that 6 mill and invest in some ST/LT's Argon prime can support more than 5 of those buggers if you have them on jump range 3. I train them up in Empire'd Edge.

Ridgy · Post by **Ridgy** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 19:53

I've never tried ST/UT TLs before, I stayed away from them due to there IS ineffectiveness, but I guess I'll just stay OOS. But aren't they a bit slow for UTs? (even with jump drive they have to get aorund somewhat)

Bobucles · Post by **Bobucles** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 20:22

Most factories will cost more than buying an M6. Don't do that.

This is probably a good time to grab a TM and pick up on some piracy. Look around for weapons dealers, and take the most valuable toys you can find. It won't take long to have enough cash for an M6.

An M6 won't do very well against fighters, though. The drop in speed and agility will negate most of the benefits of having larger shields. The real benefit comes from having enough cargo space to lay down a billion missiles on anything combustible.

NewtSoup · Post by **NewtSoup** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 20:27

Ridgy wrote:I've never tried ST/UT TLs before, I stayed away from them due to there IS ineffectiveness, but I guess I'll just stay OOS. But aren't they a bit slow for UTs? (even with jump drive they have to get aorund somewhat)

You can't make a TL into a Universe or Sector Trader. Even if you could they can't dock at anything other than shipyards, eq docs or military bases. They'd have nothing to trade as EQ and Military only deal at average price.

Forcy · Post by **Forcy** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 20:38

To clarify, ST=Sector Trader trades only in 1 secor. LT = Local trader. Uses same command as ST but at lv 6 and up you can give it a specific RANGE. This keeps them safe. they then act like UT's but never go further from thier starting sector than you tell it to. Argon prime + 3 secot jump range is awesome since everything is there, energy food, minerals and hi tech fabs and very few pirates.

TL = those huge hulking station transporting ships. Only good for storing stuff, transporting stations and as a cheap carrier (some of them)

And yes, I went around the universe with a MT (military transport can dock 4 fighters and a bit of cargo) with my personal fighter docked capping/buying ships.

Ridgy · Post by **Ridgy** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 20:47

Damn mixed up my acronyms

So everyone seems to agree (viewing th epoll results that is) that amongst the options I gave, settling and trading a bit to get my cash up is the thing to do. The best Ts (not including salvaged wrecks I don't know their stats) remains the mistal super freighter right? Or with a local trader, would it be more profitable to use something smaller and nippier?

Kitty · Post by **Kitty** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 21:10

Well, if I were you... (and I was once in the same situation), ...

do the terran plot, they give you a Vidar.

Other solution: I know you think it's messy, but I disagree: use an escort.
A group of 3 Nova Vanguard is excellent. Don't use M4 or M5 as escort, it's just a way to loose money. But Nova Vanguard with full HEPT is fine. Anyway, it's usable tactic only if they already bailed to you. Elsewise you'll see that a full M3 escort cost the same as 1 M6.

Factories will get you 25k to 70k per hour. UT will get you 200k/hour but after many hours. The quickest way for you to get the money for a M6 is to perform missions. But fight missions are not alone. You can take "retreive abandonned ship" missions (with a TM and a jump drive), military people escort mission, ....

Anyway, once you'll be in an M6, the missions proposed to you will take into account that you have an M6... and get harder. Sorry.

Finally in your situation I finished the Terran plot and switched to a SpringBlossom.

Ridgy · Post by **Ridgy** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 21:21

I guess I'll have to move to easier combat missions then, I was in a kind of niche before where I oculd exept anytihng (the opposition being like 1 M3 and M4s M5s) that I could just tear to shreads easily. I'l set up some sector traders, TBH I don't mid how long I wait as you said I could esily hop in an epress and do taxi and transport missions topass the time as an alternative to combat missions.

Catra · Post by **Catra** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 21:35

steal an m6 from a return ship mission.

garv222 · Post by **garv222** » Sat, 17. Jul 10, 23:30

Catra probably has the best idea here, but if you need money fast, but a TP class ship, a jumpdrive and go wandering around looking for the mission symbols. Either a lightbulb or a credit symbol could be a delivery mission. In my current game, a very hard personnel delivery mission can give around 2-4 million credits. The time limit is about 10 minutes for the mission, so a docking computer will help immensely. There are also the lightbulb missions which don't pay as much since the rewards don't seem to be linked to rank, but they can still pay around 1-2 mil each if the difficulty is high enough. You can raise the cash for the m6+ weapons in about 30 minutes to an hour with SETA.

RpprZ · Post by **RpprZ** » Sun, 18. Jul 10, 00:11

Another way to raise funds is to buy used ships from a shipyard or when they are flying around. Most of the time you can sell them at a higher price than the one you payed for it, only con is that to buy expesive ships that give you the most profit you also need more money...

Smacksim · Post by **Smacksim** » Sun, 18. Jul 10, 03:57

Sounds like you enjoy the combat, so, keep it up pilot!

You can make oodles of money through combat alone (well, and repairing and selling ships).

Option A: Pick a race you hate. Cap their ships or kill them wherever you want. Obviously in their enemies' territories will make you look like a hero (Split / Boron, Argon / Paranid, Pirate - Anyone)

-Have a tag-a-long TS or 2 to pick up cargo from the bloodbath you create. (special command software, ftw)

Option B: Take assassination missions, defend station missions, xenon invasion missions, xenon patrol missions, and when those don't show up take non-combat missions for a breather.

Option C: Do the Terran plot or do some trading. Either will net you the credits you so desire.

P.S. M6s are the Bofu of spaceships.

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Not enough money for an M6...

What should I do?

Not enough money for an M6...