Interesting observation about station hack [TC]

[deca.death]

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at first i meant using word 'discovery' instead of 'observation', maybe it would be too strong word, or would it be...?

recently I had problems with teladi station that accidentally went red on me, as described in post "became red, does it stay that way" from few days ago. StarSword and Allan Phipps directed me to -any- lighbulb station in teladi territory (thanx guys) and after some persistence it finally worked - took me few days and clicking on a 50 lighbulb quests maybe.

combining catra link about pirate faces pirate picture guide and my experience, i've come to few interesting observations:

it's not the station that gives you the quest, it's the actual -person- in the station, and that person could be pirate! interesting is that crew of stations seem constant, and you could, by comming everyone in station and identifying a person by picture guide as pirate quickly determine stations that are able to give you pirate type of missions. it works for EVERY SECTOR. that means with a little luck and enough tries, you could easily hack ANY station to a friendly status. now you understand why i was tempted to name my subject "a discovery" :)

now that does not work only for pirates, but for other races also. i've recently picked up build mission in loomankstrat legacy, thinking that i'll increase my pirate rep and number of friendly pirate stations but to my surprise SPLIT rep has increased, it was split citizen in a pirate station asking for mission. is it possible everywhere and how often i don't know but i will look out.

now naturally most citizen of a race station will be of a same race, but as we could see exceptions are possible. going to try that theory tonight on duke's HQ.

[Nanook]

It's good that you discovered it yourself, but yes, this is well known. But you should also be aware that station inhabitants change randomly over time so you won't always get the same opportunities for, say, hacking, throughout the game.

[Catra]

A discovery for you.
A very rehashed, retold, stale and moldy fact for everyone else.
=P

But yes, citizens don't stay in their own races stations, they can be found on xeno stations as well.

[SirCharles]

I did not know this even though i have thousands of hours spread across X-games starting with X2. Another reason I try to read the forums as much as possable. it seems I still have stuff to learn.

[Nanook]

A discovery for you.
A very rehashed, retold, stale and moldy fact for everyone else.
=P.....

No need to be so condescending. We were all new at one time, and often 'discovered' things everyone else already knew.

[cj-spartacus]

I haven't seen anything new for a while now but I do occasionally see something posted of which I was previously unaware. The game is too big to learn everything without looking online or asking on the forums.

[Snafu_X3]

combining catra link about pirate faces pirate picture guide

Talking about this, does anyone know which of those pictures of humans (Argon) are the Yaki faction? Plus there are at least 2 other pictures missing, one set of which I'm psychologically 'sure' are pirate/Yaki: the pics of humans in flight suits (with or without shades)

[Catra]

combining catra link about pirate faces pirate picture guide

Talking about this, does anyone know which of those pictures of humans (Argon) are the Yaki faction? Plus there are at least 2 other pictures missing, one set of which I'm psychologically 'sure' are pirate/Yaki: the pics of humans in flight suits (with or without shades)

The guy with the monocle is yaki.

No need to be so condescending

And I wasn't. Just stateing just how old this discovery is.

[StarSword]

It's good that you discovered it yourself, but yes, this is well known. But you should also be aware that station inhabitants change randomly over time so you won't always get the same opportunities for, say, hacking, throughout the game.

For instance, some of them are actually not residents, but the captains of docked starships.

• One way to contact a hired TL that is docked is to hail the station and ask to speak with the TL's captain.)
• If you make one of your stations open to the public, and dock at it, you can talk with the captains of docked ships.

[Ripskar]

I notice most of the pirates have the bullets in their bandoleers aimed at themselves. So instead of just getting a shock if they go off accidentally they'll blow their own brains out... Some things never change...

[deca.death]

A discovery for you.
A very rehashed, retold, stale and moldy fact for everyone else.
=P

and you consider yourself to be "everybody else"?

or you just taking liberty of speaking in everyone's name?

and there was several discussion about same issue recently and nobody of those "everybody" cared to mention such thing could be possible, but even "solutions" in a way of connecting hub with some friendly pirate sector and targeted red station were frequently mentioned. so it seems that "everybody" is somewhat thinner number that you may believe.

in fact, i think that even you were one of guys mentioning same "hub to close the stations" solution, weren't you?

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

@deca.death - A lot of us already know this but I'm sure there are quite a few that may not know about it or hadn't really noticed. It'a only in one of the more recent patches that you get hacking missions on most stations, they only used to be on pirate stations or Teladi stations in pirate sectors.

[deca.death]

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sure, and one other thing, this game, although quite old, seem to generate constant stream of newbies and new players which is interesting and firm proof of it's quality. i also was (or still am) one of them, just playing 4-5 months.

[Catra]

A discovery for you.
A very rehashed, retold, stale and moldy fact for everyone else.
=P

and you consider yourself to be "everybody else"?

or you just taking liberty of speaking in everyone's name?

and there was several discussion about same issue recently and nobody of those "everybody" cared to mention such thing could be possible, but even "solutions" in a way of connecting hub with some friendly pirate sector and targeted red station were frequently mentioned. so it seems that "everybody" is somewhat thinner number that you may believe.

in fact, i think that even you were one of guys mentioning same "hub to close the stations" solution, weren't you?

I don't remember seeing such threads come up recently. Got links to any?

[Alan Phipps]

@ Catra: I think this is the thread the OP means where you posted the Pirate pics link: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=298428

[glenmcd]

StarSword and Allan Phipps directed me to -any- lighbulb station in teladi territory (thanx guys) and after some persistence it finally worked - took me few days and clicking on a 50 lighbulb quests maybe.

Thanks for the tip! I actually tried my first station hack today (after getting the offer while looking for other missions) only to find out that they were fresh out of PBGs lol. Hey when you're looking for a lightbulb mission, you could find one in a station that as some other icon on it, like target or credits. It takes less time to check each station that has any icon on it, than only trying a few and then flying to next sector. I want a "best missions locator". And next I'd like it to cover the universe

[cj-spartacus]

I agree with this. Working on an opportunistic basis is all very well but it would be much easier if you could buy software to do searches for specific missions. For example, selecting either trade, fight, build or think then selecting the difficulty and being given a list of all the stations offering this kind of mission in sectors where you have property. Like a best buy/sell extension but for missions.

[deca.death]

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i quickly find out that searching for ONE exact type of mission is the pain in the ass. best solution is never to search for one type, much less wandering around spending time and ecells if you accept several mission types or just do them in between other jobs /tasks.

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

Hmmm..Don't think that would work out to well. Most missions tend to spawn in groups. Just last night I was looking for some juicy 'return abandon ship' missions, 6 light bulbs in a sector and all 6 were scan cargo missions.

[Catra]

I disagree with the mission locator, unless egosoft optimized the game so that having all that overhead wouldn't impact the game as much as it would.