[X3AP] Questions on Lasertowers and Pirate spawns

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OniGanon
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Joined: Thu, 14. Jan 10, 20:58

[X3AP] Questions on Lasertowers and Pirate spawns

Post by OniGanon » Sun, 17. Nov 13, 11:45

I'm trying to find ways of keeping particular sectors safe from pirates without having to do anything drastic like park an M6 in each of them.

Not major incursions or anything, it's just groups of 1-3 M3s with some M4s and M5s tagging along.

I've tried putting a Lasertower near the gate they come out of, but it doesn't even seem to slow them down.

Anyone tried something like this? If successful, how many Lasertowers would be needed?



And about Pirate spawns, I've noted they seem to magically appear from within Pirate Bases. But do they have other methods of spawning? Can they spontaneously appear from the aether in Pirate sectors whenever I'm not looking?

I ask this because I'm considering setting up shop in Gunne's Crusade. Trapped as it is between two race sectors (one of which is Core), with no Pirate Base, lots of nice rocks and plenty of demand for Ore in the area...



And finally, about Pirate Bases: if destroyed, they respawn in another sector, yes? How far away can they spawn? And what kind of firepower should I be wielding to attack one anyway?

wydavies
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Post by wydavies » Sun, 17. Nov 13, 13:26

Never tried lasertowers. The damage of a single lasertower is pretty low, so I imagine you'd need an awful lot.
The alternative is build your stations in core sectors and near the central areas. That way the race's rapid response fleets will protect your bases as well as their own ones.
The stations that I've built in a non-core sectors have ships assigned to protect them.

I think the pirates only come from pirate bases, but I have a couple of times seen pirate ships come from a far corner of a sector where nothing else exists.
Not sure what the rules are about respawning pirate bases, but I believe they will respawn pretty much in any random location in the universe.
As for destroying a pirate base - I've done this in a plot mission in a Nova. I killed off the defences (which were pretty poor - maybe a result of it being a plot mission) and then put a book on the CTRL key - the fire button - and read a book for an hour :D

ajax34i
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Post by ajax34i » Sun, 17. Nov 13, 23:21

Pirate bases CAN appear in Gunne's Crusade.

Pirate ships do appear out of nowhere in pirate sectors, just like Xenon ships re-appear in Xenon sectors, and the Argon military re-appears in Argon sectors.

Due to the low damage output of the lasertower, you will need a lot of them. Probably 5-10 vs. M3's, up to 100 to defend against bigger ships.

So your most cost-effective solutions are:

0. Set up shop elsewhere; there are plenty of asteroid-rich sectors that are not in enemy or dangerous space.

1. Befriend the pirates to make them blue, by doing missions for pirate characters. You'll still have to deal with the occasional aggressive group, but you will be attacked A LOT less.

2. Set up a patrol M6 - M6 ships are relatively cheap, and patrol is their intended role.

3. Set up a rapid-response M7 and use satellites and the SEWN (satellite early warning network) feature of the bonus pack to warn you when enemies are present so your rapid-response can kill them.

4. Park M2 class ships near your factories with "defend location" commands, and complement that by laser towers. Should be able to kill anything, including pirate M2's.

AN7AG0NIS7
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Post by AN7AG0NIS7 » Mon, 18. Nov 13, 07:27

^ this

Gunne's Crusade is practically my base of operations, with my equipment complex and weed+booze complex. I kept the 2 complexes seperate because of the number of buyers lining up for weed and booze.

Early game, I cleared the sector of pirates and hardly have trouble from the pirates ever since. Having a weed+booze complex there increases NPC traffic through the sector which in turn diverts the pirates' attention away from my assets.

A few M6s on guard duty should be enough to take out the more persistent pirates since they're usually a small wing of M3s and M5s.

But for added security, you should still increase your reputation with the pirates.

OniGanon
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Post by OniGanon » Mon, 18. Nov 13, 11:24

10 Lasertowers, damn... I think I'll have to leave that option alone until I have my own Lasertower factories.

Well alright, if Pirates can just appear in Pirate space from thin vaccum, I guess building in that space is out until later in the game. I don't have much of a miliarty to speak of, at this point.


As for Pirate rep... hm, that could be a problem.

I have some factories in Light Water to try and take advantage of a yield 60 silicon asteroid. But then I found out a Pirate Base has spawned in the sector. They usually don't bother me, but sometimes they do attack my factories and freighters.

For now I have the Centaur the plot gave me parked there to guard the place. But I do intend to blow it up sometime soon so I can hopefully just stop worrying about it. Presumably, this will do very bad things for my pirate rep...

IanFitzJo
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Post by IanFitzJo » Tue, 19. Nov 13, 15:06

I've taken the same approach as ajax34i and gotten friendly with the pirates. I was having trouble with them early on: they kept coming out of Hatikvah's Faith and attacking my complex in Aladna Hill. I posted 10-15 LTs around the gate and I had a couple of Dragons patrolling AH. The pirates would shoot the LTs then come at the complex. Lost a couple of Dragons that way.

Doing pirate missions, especially station-builds pretty much cured the problem. I get the occasional complex attack still, but much less frequent. Many of the pirates are now blue. The upside is that it got me in with the Yaki. I did some station-builds for them (and a weapons-fire apology to the Shuri), now all the Yaki are blue, not a single red anywhere, which means I am their sole customer for IBLs :D

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