Need Tutorial: Complex/Factory/Lab Building and placing for noob. PLEASE HELP!

[BrianManeke]

Hi Folks,

I am a total noob at this game not even sure if anyone plays it still, looking to try and play this game more seriously.

I recently had a mission I thought would be worth it, building a Boron PPC foundry for 12M cr. Having no prior experience with building in this game so I basically cheated to buy the foundry and the rep to purchase it.

I had built the foundry using the nav beacon and leaving it at that, I selected the Boron as the owners of the foundry, Yet It did not complete the mission. So I tried to spend a little more time trying to figure out how building actually works before I start wasting potentially good missions. I am still lost but I figured how how to place the constructed building using the num-pad. That information alone would have been extremely helpful several days ago. Now I am having problems trying to figure out how to link the stations together.


Needless to say I am beyond lost at this point, like I said I am a total noob at this game and I could really use a HD Tut vid with step by step instructions where an idiot like my self can understand it. Please if anyone could help I would be deeply grateful!

Thank You in advance.

[Wheem]

The simplest explanation for creating a complex is to build two stations near each other, then have your TL class ship deploy a Complex Construction Kit. You'll need to select the two factories, and then place the complex hub just like you would a normal station. Said hub will have two "arms" with docking ports, which will now be used instead of the normal docking locations on the stations that you placed. This means that you'll want to position your hub in such a way that the docking ports won't be obstructed, lest AI ships start crashing if you're in the system. If you want to add more stations to the complex (or have already placed more than two stations in the area), you'll need another complex construction kit for each one; select both the station that you wish to connect and the already existing hub, and it'll be added to your complex. I'm pretty sure that you can also use a complex construction kit to connect two existing hubs, as long as they're close enough together. This should prompt you to build a new hub that will serve all of the previous stations from both complexes.

'Course, if you do nothing but follow the previous paragraph, you'll end up with a horrible looking mess of spaghetti tubing. To be honest, station building can get really irritating, and will require quite a bit of saving/reloading if you really want your complex's tubing to look decent (though some stations are much easier than others in this regard). There are some guides to station building out there from people who are much more adept at it than I am - http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=4035808 is one example that I bookmarked a while back.

[oddible]

You do realize that one of the stickies is The Ultimate Guides and Resources List

First, don't cheat. Don't install mods to give you quick advantages. You're missing the entire point of the game. This game is all about slowly working your way up to be able to do bigger and better things. The interesting thing about the game is that is shows you so much of what you could be doing (building stations missions for instance) and often gives you plot missions that you cannot possibly complete in the gear you're currently using. You could just cheat yourself an M7 and 10000000000000 credits and just play through the plot lines but that's dumb, the game isn't about the plots, they're flavor to the open sandbox universe of building your empire slowly and one brick at a time. Just work with what you've got to make more.

[hisazul]

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=4035808
One of the most illustrated guides out there... tho others are just as good. But pictures help explain fine details better if you never done this before.
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=239659
This is link to a factory/complex calculator tool. It helps figure out how many factories you need for complex, production, storage, prices, profit and some other handy stuff.
Generally check stickies, there are lists and compilations of resources in every sub-forum pretty much. There are a bunch of little nuances when it comes to station building. Such as don't build station so close that they connect with less then 3 tubes, because 3 is minimum and they will have to overlap. And that's just one example. Also always be aware of what you are building and where. If you build a factory that produces a ware that is illegal in the sector its in, it will get attacked. Sometimes position is extremely unfavorable, there aren't any asteroids with ore/silicon around and you complex needs them and you plan to add them. Sector is surrounded by enemies or frequented by pirate/xenon raids.
If you are building to support NPC economy, always check what exist and add whats needed instead of sticking your own stuff first and then realizing that the product is readily available in adjacent sector.
Buy an advanced satellite... visual(camera) mode on map helps a LOT when placing stations. Its nearly impossible to place anything the way you want to without it.Familiarize yourself with all station building controls and be prepared to save A LOT.
If you are playing Albion Prelude, official bonus package(which is available for download from main website page under downloads and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) has hephastus(sp?) building service... basically allows you to order station/stations etc and npc TL will place them.
Some people hate complexes that look like a space noodle gone wild... some don't care. Some remove tubes with mods. Some take the middle ground like me... I maintain some degree of symmetry but don't really care much about tubing. To each his own. But if you are trying for the first time... don't get hanged up on aesthetics.
Stations can be connected by complex construction kit as long as they are within 25 km range of each other. Once you have hub... station you want to add to hub has to be withing 25km of >hub<(the docking platform) not other stations. No need to panic if you can't find a place to stick more... while there is range limit... you can connect hub to a hub. Meaning you can extend complexes indefinitely. When connecting two hubs, the first hub you select will be the one that remains and the second one will be gone, just keep that little bit in mind.


Now off topic.

You do realize that one of the stickies is The Ultimate Guides and Resources List

First, don't cheat. Don't install mods to give you quick advantages. You're missing the entire point of the game. This game is all about slowly working your way up to be able to do bigger and better things. The interesting thing about the game is that is shows you so much of what you could be doing (building stations missions for instance) and often gives you plot missions that you cannot possibly complete in the gear you're currently using. You could just cheat yourself an M7 and 10000000000000 credits and just play through the plot lines but that's dumb, the game isn't about the plots, they're flavor to the open sandbox universe of building your empire slowly and one brick at a time. Just work with what you've got to make more.

1. No need for attitude. Point in the right direction and that's enough.
2. Rest of what you posted is your opinion, which is not shared by everyone, not to mention has NOTHING to do with OPs question. Those of us who played this game though and through simply have no interest in wasting time doing things the long way. Yes that means when I start game I'll go and get some space junk, find a big TL ship, stuff it full of nividium and few hours later sit on few dozen billion credits. Hell... I don't play w/o access to editor and in most cases cheat pack because it does far more then just "cheating" as you call it.

[oddible]

1. No need for attitude. Point in the right direction and that's enough.
2. Rest of what you posted is your opinion, which is not shared by everyone, not to mention has NOTHING to do with OPs question. Those of us who played this game though and through simply have no interest on wasting time doing things the long way. Yes that means when I start game I'll go get some some junk find a big TL ship stuff it full of nvidium and few hours later sit on few dozen billion credits. Hell... I don't play w/o access to editor and in most cases cheat pack because it does far more then just "cheating" as you call it.

Perhaps I read the OP's message a bit more closely than you. And my message as well. I wasn't giving him attitude, though I could have been a bit more clear about what I meant by 'don't cheat'. I play **modified** too, but did you read what he did? He is new to the game, just started playing, and has already scripted in the reputation and credits to build station. He's probably still sitting in his Discoverer. My suggestion was that when you first start the game, get a sense of what the game is rather than scripting your way past a lot of the nuance which is what makes the game great (the first time through - on multiple play throughs I suspect I'll be auto spamming satellites and sector mapping). The general recommendation which is all over these forums is... play first, script after you know what you need. Get a sense of the game.

The OP was saying "I am a total noob at this game", so I read his question a bit less literally than you.

Start with the plot you're given in whatever start you take, do the missions you can with what you've got - I suspect you'll have a lot more fun that way than just scripting yourself a billion credits and a hangar full of M7s and M1s. Do some trading or find some pirates to shoot at - get their ships low and maybe they'll bail and you can get a free new ship. Look for the missions that offer to sell you ships - pick up a nice new trading ship that way and start remote trading with it while you're in whatever ship you're in (you need the Trading System Extension in your ship to do this). Get that transport the Best Buy and Best Sell extensions and you can send it to a sector, hit Best Buy, snap up something that is priced low, maybe sell it in the sector you're in, maybe send it a sector over and see if it is better priced there. Build your way up.

[Ketraar]

Yes I too agree people ruin their gaming experience by circumventing some of the grinding at the start. Getting too fast to parts of the game where you really need to have a good grasp of the game mechanics will just confuse the hell out of most players.

As for tutorials as usual best recommendation is X3TC Walkthrough Video Tutorial Series which apply to most part to AP too and has both beginner and advanced station building and trading.

MFG

Ketraar

[ajax34i]

I figured how how to place the constructed building using the num-pad. Now I am having problems trying to figure out how to link the stations together.

To link stations together, you deploy the stations pretty close to each other. Not touching, but as close as you can get them. Then you go to a shipyard and buy a Construction Kit (station), and when you deploy it, instead of asking you to position it with the numpad, it will ask you to specify which two stations you wish to link.

So you pick your two stations, then position the Construction Kit with the numpad so it's a little bit out of the way, so your transport ships don't get tangled in the geometry of your stations.

If you want to add a 3rd station to your complex of 2, you deploy the third station, then you get another Construction Kit and link the first Kit to the third station with it.

It's strongly recommended that you buy and use the Salvage Insurance ship upgrade, so that you can save your game while flying around in space. That way you can save right before you deploy your stations, and if they don't look right, reload and try again.

[BrianManeke]

Thank you guys.

[OniGanon]

Concerning the Build mission, you have to place the station near the provided nav beacon. The easiest way to do this is to press 5 during the station placement, then hover your mouse over the nav beacon on the sector list. Pressing 5 causes the station to 'snap to' whatever object you have highlighted on the list, then you can just move it slightly to avoid collisions when you deploy.

If you placed the station near the nav beacon but the mission did not complete, it was probably because...

a) you placed it at the correct X and Z co-ordinates, but you forgot to press Insert to check the Y axis.

b) you have the wrong station. Be sure the station has the same race and size specified in the mission.

c) on rare occasion, collision detection will cause the nav beacon to be placed in an incorrect position. You can fix this by getting the improved mission description mod, which is incredibly useful to have and does not mark your game Modified.

[Ketraar]

c) should have been fixed (in AP at least) around 3.0

MFG

Ketraar

[jlehtone]

I had built the foundry using the nav beacon and leaving it at that, I selected the Boron as the owners of the foundry ...

d) Normal build does not let you choose race, and the mission changes ownership automatically. Perhaps a script was used and thus there was no build event for the mission to detect?

[hisazul]

Build missions require specific race factory. Keep that in mind. Numpad 5, by default at least, centers a station on object on all axis. Do it twice then hit enter and it will place it exactly on top of beacon.