Possible to progress to Capital Ships without any factories? (Custom Game)

[vanderhaun]

Hello all. Just getting started with X3TC and I'm already overwhelmed. VERY steep learning curve here. First of all, the game is complicated enough when you own/fly just one ship. Nevermind the headaches that come with factories.
Question: are factories required to be able to eventually purchase a Capital ship? Are there upkeep/supply needs that must be met with Cap ships? I'm in a Buster now, and it seems there is no upkeep needed except for missiles. So except for money and rank, is there anything else one would need to buy/pilot a Cap? Thanks.

[Joe McCracken]

No need for factories.

Unless you want THAT wisbang missile...... and can't find it in stock anywhere......

[Imgran]

Once you've got your loadout sorted you're good unless you're using missiles or something ammo-based.

Frankly factories can be set up to run without a lot of supervision once you figure out the right way to do it -- a lot of people use CAG, and plex calculators, I don't and still don't have to spend tone of time micromanaging any of my factories once they're up and running. Getting everything going in the first place though... uggh.

Just be prepared to sink a lot of money into them above and beyond the raw cost of the factory, since to be profitable, most factories require freighters and all of them require startup resources. (it's possible to do what's called a "closed loop" that doesn't require startup resources but I find it needlessly tedious and you're talking about a huge investment of hundreds of millions of credits)

[vanderhaun]

On a side note, is a Custom Game radically different than the others as far as the Economy? I bought the Best Buy/Sell/Extension software and it seems like everything is at Average price (zero positive/negative price differences). Is it my location in Argon Core Sectors?

[Rive]

For getting a bigship, factories are not necessary but useful.

But: there are plots which are very hard and time consuming to complete without factories.

[willyshop]

It's totally possible to equip a capital ship without factories, it just takes a little more patience and jumping around the universe to find weapons. (there is an exploit that will let you fully equip them as long as you have at least one of each weapon you intend to use, but imo that's less entertaining.)

Capital ships are the same as your buster as far as upkeep goes. (of course, I wouldn't try to fix an M2 with a repair laser.) Equip with weapons once, after that it's just missiles and ammo if you use ammo based weapons.

Now, something like an M7M can blow through so many missiles that having a few factories is almost a requirement for effective use; although you could also set up a freighter or two using CLS2 to buy from all the NPC factories.

As far as headaches go, factories can be pretty well painless if you set them up right. If you don't have the bonus pack yet, get it. It will allow you to use just one freighter to buy resources and sell products for a factory with set it and forget it ease. The next step up would be to build a self sustaining complex; then there's no need to worry about supplying your factory. It will just run on it's own and make whatever you want. If you intend equip several capital ships this is the way to go.

But you have plenty of time to get to all that. Growth happens pretty naturally in this game. As you get more ships and assets you learn more tricks to make managing them all much easier.

[Berserkenstein]

You don't need factories really. I usually start off by playing without factories and get all my stuff with piracy, preying on weapons dealers and forcing them to dump their weapons. You can build a fleet by boarding and capturing ships and make money with missions.

I wouldn't avoid factories altogether though. Building them becomes a game in and of itself.

You can start off small by building a couple missile factories in areas with the resources they need nearby and have it buy what it needs.

A really nice complex to have early on is a basic drone factory. All you need is to find a 10 yield silicon asteroid. Set the drone complex to buy energy cells for 17 credits each. Drones really help to even the odds in fights and they also sell very well.

[Imgran]

Drones, basic missiles like Wasps, and PACS are all good choices since they produce quickly and so start to pay off quickly.

[Virtualaughing]

Producing your own wepons is the BEST advise i can give you.
Set every price at you factories before connecting to a complex.
Set the cheapest that don't create any losses.
CAG pilots can do the rests.

[willyshop]

Set every price at you factories before connecting to a complex.

Wait, what?????? Why on earth would you do that? It's not like you can't set the prices after you connect the stations. Then you only have to do it once.

[ajax34i]

Currently playing without factories, and I have a couple M2, couple M7, bunch of M6, and smaller fighters.

The NPCs produce a lot of the weapons and a few of the missiles, so all you need is standings (do some missions to get standings), and 3 or so TS transports with CLS software (from the bonus pack) and with trained pilots (to Logistician level).

You can then easily order these TS'es to buy shields, missiles, and weapons for you, from all over the universe (there's a "generate waypoints" feature that sends them to every factory with one click).

I have 2 TL transports now, with about 100,000 m3 (combined) worth of all the weapons and gear I need. I can outfit a fleet of M2's if I want to.

The thing is, you need money because you're buying all this stuff. Traders can make you money, the stock exchange can make you money, missions can too, but factories can make you money too, so if you're really refusing to have any then you may miss on some profits. You could put down some ore mines, say one per race, and maybe some Nostrop for the Teladi, and they should be very profitable.

[Hemmingfish]

Set every price at you factories before connecting to a complex.

Wait, what?????? Why on earth would you do that? It's not like you can't set the prices after you connect the stations. Then you only have to do it once.

On top of that, they will reset every time you add a new station to the complex. It's better to set them at the end when you're done.

[Infekted]

I would like to point out that the Custom game start is mainly intended for test/scripting purposes. It basically just stops you being able to do any plots and gains you nothing. It does not effect the economy in any way to answer that question.

I really would recommend a restart before you get too far.

[willyshop]

I would like to point out that the Custom game start is mainly intended for test/scripting purposes. It basically just stops you being able to do any plots and gains you nothing. It does not effect the economy in any way to answer that question.

I really would recommend a restart before you get too far.

Seconded.

[Imgran]

CAG pilots can do the rests.

People overuse CAG/CLS IMHO. It's like you have a hammer called CAG/CLS and everything starts looking like a nail. Haven't suffered in the slightest for ignoring them.

[Infekted]

Well I suppose you can bang in a nail with a spanner if you really try hard, but the fact remains a hammer will be better at it. But if you mostly fly around shooting stuff there's no need for it.
I personally think the game is woefully incomplete without the bonus pack software. And I will be really annoyed if Rebirth relies on the community to provide those types of abilities.

[heratik]

Well I suppose you can bang in a nail with a spanner if you really try hard, but the fact remains a hammer will be better at it. But if you mostly fly around shooting stuff there's no need for it.
I personally think the game is woefully incomplete without the bonus pack software. And I will be really annoyed if Rebirth relies on the community to provide those types of abilities.

Seconded

If you are planning a long term game involving any sort of trade/fleet supply infrastructure, the thought of achieving this without CAG/CLS1/2 is enough to make me puke.

[ajax34i]

Actually, one thing I'm hoping they have is better integration with the modding community, so that things can get added as official, non-**Modified** extensions much faster than currently. Because, let's face it, we have some very talented people who have put out a whole expansion, and Egosoft would be dumb to not make use of such talent.

So, Egosoft, you're designing sandbox games, and we have some talented sandcastle builders, give them an easier faster process to release non-**Modified** stuff, eh?

[happy halfling]

I would like to point out that the Custom game start is mainly intended for test/scripting purposes. It basically just stops you being able to do any plots and gains you nothing. It does not effect the economy in any way to answer that question.

I really would recommend a restart before you get too far.

Seconded.

+1 to this.

The really should rename the "Custom Start" to somthing which doesn't sound like a good idea.

[vr01]

Actually, one thing I'm hoping they have is better integration with the modding community, so that things can get added as official, non-**Modified** extensions much faster than currently. Because, let's face it, we have some very talented people who have put out a whole expansion, and Egosoft would be dumb to not make use of such talent.

So, Egosoft, you're designing sandbox games, and we have some talented sandcastle builders, give them an easier faster process to release non-**Modified** stuff, eh?

Egosoft have actually been very supportive of this. Did you not pay attention to the fact that the last patch (AP) was created by the community? The key members have all been heavily involved in the "modding community". I suspect that maybe you are underestimating the effort and time required, thinking that it means things are harder and slower?