[X3 AP] New player, hub plot gate connections, PHQ questions (spoilers)

[toppe]

Hi all. I started playing X3 AP with the BP about a month ago. I began with the humble merchant Argon start and have been enjoying the missions and building a trade/production network.

I just finished the main Argon plot with my Skiron, and have also finished the Hub and PHQ plots now (I think). I have full control of the Hub after Mahi Ma was rescued, however it is still connected to the (Kingdom End/Rolks Drift), (Queen's Harbor/Queen's Retribution), and (Segaris/Megnir) gates. My main question is this:
Are there long term ramifications to leaving gates connected to Terran space? ATF ships (but not Terran or Aldrin) are still blue to me, and so are Boron. Since Boron and ATF fight, and they both have a lot of traffic through the Hub, there is almost a constant battle happening in the Hub sector which leaves goodies for one of my freighters to collect and the battles seem to pose no threat to me. Will the endless fighting have a negative effect at some point, like permanent destruction of valuable ships or stations? If not, are there other connections that I could make that would cause even more useful fighting? A three way fight between Boron/Split/Terran or Yaki/Argon/Xenon could be possible, or connecting a war sector to a race core sector. Has anyone tried anything like that over a longer period of time?

I also have a couple secondary questions, any help or links would be appreciated:
1. For the PHQ, I am looking at placing it in the Unknown sector east of Legend's Home. Any better locations or reasons not to put it there?
2. My Hub link to Segaris gives me access to the Aldrin sectors. However, the stations are all red to me. Are the Aldrins their own faction, or Terran? Is there any way to improve my relationship with them so that I can trade with them? Can a station in those sectors be hacked?
3. Is there any way to see Pirate, Yaki, or corporation reputations?

[TTD]

South of the Xenon Sector is a good quiet place for you PHQ.
It has a number of useful 'roids for support complexes too.
But the one you suggest in nice and central.
Your Hub may make it more useful by connections to sectors rich in resources etc.

There is a way to see your pirate rep etc/
One involves using the Script Editor and re loading your game from a save just before you invoked the SE....if you want to remain unmodified.

Or there is a script that will let you see the number rank as well as title rank.

I like you idea of collect spoils of war via the hub gate connections.
It has been done by many players .
Unless anyone recommends specific connections,I would just experiment.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

In my Argon Peacekeeper start, I used the very same sector you are suggesting for my PHQ. It is nice and close to a supply of jump drives and the like.

In my Terran Commander start, I picked Aldrin 2 since it is close to the Aldrin food supply stations which can provide the less available Argon unique resource of Cloth Rimes.

Aldrin is just a civilian Terran faction, ATF rank should be linked to the Terran rank as of one of the fairly recent patches (not sure if it is retroactive for older games).

As for the PHQ being connected to Segaris and the like, the only down side is you may get some Xenon activity in the Hub. But, in my Argon start there is normally some nice Boron ships patroling (I have an NPC Megalodon patrolling in my Argon start).

[toppe]

Thanks for the replies.

@TTD, Thanks, I probably will not do that since after doing some missions for them, most pirates show up blue to me again. It was funny though, I did a build station mission from a pirate base and the station I built was red to me.

@Roger, I ended up building my PHQ near Legends Home last night. Playing around with it a little and now I have a pink Kestrel (which also happens to go 674m/s after I accidentally picked up some engine tunings). I checked my reputations again and I am 95% both Known AGI Sympathizer/Insurgent, so you are correct. I think I had accidentally changed my global Terran setting to "enemy" so they were showing up red but not ATF. Also, ATF seem to own the Hub now. I have already seen two underequipped Megalodons and a ton of other other ships get destroyed by ATF ships and/or crash themselves into the side of the hub.

Also, I managed to hack a station in Megnir from a hack station mission in Rolk's Drift , which was linked to it through the Hub. Unfortunately, I still cannot land. Will I ever be able to do missions for them?

[TTD]

I did a build station mission from a pirate base and the station I built was red to me.

Yes...That is normal.Much depends on who the mission is from and your actual rep with all concerned.
If you are lucky and have earned good rep,then the stations you build will be friendly .

Also, not all missions from stations are from the station's race.

Your last problem is that the station is neutral to you or just a bit less.
When you get better rep,you will be able to land and get missions.