[X3AP]oHmY's n00b Questions [Condensed and Updated]

[oHmY]

I edited this post, because there was an encyclopedia worth of text, and I think it scared people off. I'd like to extend my thanks to the community and those who have helped bring clarification/solutions to my questions.


Resolved questions will be preceded by "Resolved - " and summarized followed by the solution offered.

Unresolved Questions will appear underlined.

Unresolved Question(s) Since My Last Visit: Q7, Q8, Q10, Q12, Q13, Q14, Q15

Question

Q0. Resolved - My automated scout was destroyed by planetary atmosphere. The solution is to not be in the same system as your automated scouts. There is no collision mapping while out of system.

Q1. Resolved - I wanted certain enemy factions to appear as blue or friendly so they wouldn't interfere with my enemy target protocols. There doesn't seem to be a solution for exactly what I wanted.

Q2. Resolved - Is there any way I can shortcut the "Advanced" option that occurs in various menus? The solution was my not being stupid. Far better hotkeys/interface usage can be harnessed to bypass these menus.

Q3. Resolved - I wanted to skip the long station menu ship switching protocols. The solution was again, my not being stupid. Simply select a ship via property manager and hit x.

Q4. Resolved - I wanted a mod or something that would allow me to use my mouse for command > navigate > move to position. There doesn't seem to be a solution currently.

Q5. Resolved - I wanted a mod that gave all ships SETA by default. The solution was my not being a whiny little bitch, and being sure to equip SETA when purchasing a ship I may pilot at some point.

Q6. Resolved, and yet Unresolved - I want a mod that will add the ability to set hotkeys for more advanced options not included in the vanilla game. There are some, but not the ones I wanted. The solution is becoming a modder, or a stranger volunteering to mod for my personal amusement (heh.)

Q7. Is there a summarized online resource that breaks down race rank as it relates to selling your owned ships? IE If rank = X, you lose Y% credits off the base value of the ship.

Q8. Is there a summarized online resource indicating at what race rank you must be in order to purchase a certain class of ship from ship yards. I also believe cost is reduced relative to rank. Maybe Q7&8 have the same solution?

Q9. Resolved - Am I right in understanding that there are no longer corporation missions/rewards? If not, I can't seem to get a mission from Terracorp. Solution - no more corporation missions.

Q10. More of a general forum question that I didn't see discussed in FAQ. Is it possible/allowed to have a small graphic as your signature? Would it just be simple html in the signature field linked to an off-site image?

Q11. Resolved - I am having trouble upping my Terran rep due to huge system sizes/few bases. Most missions give ridiculous/impossible objectives even if they're listed as easy. I have several ships locally to ensure I'm well prepared. Am I overlooking something simple here? Is there a special Trans Orbital Accelerator jumpdrive or something? The solution seems to be that I was having a run of bad luck when first trying. The mission criteria have loosened up, and am now able to find missions in core sectors.

Q12. Is there a way to package numerous software upgrades (eg. docking computers) onto one ship so that I can deliver numerous software upgrades to say a bunch of sector traders I'm setting up? I seem to remember reading something about it, but after consulting various guides, and resources online, I can't find anything about it.

Q13. Is there a way to use my transporter to trade from stations (restocking cap ships?) There are mods for this I know, but there don't seem to be any for AP itself, and all of the Transporter trade standalone mods have broken links (I'm not interested in adding new content like ships and stations). I feel like this would have been part of a bonus pack or something. The notion of having to jump a TS around every time I need Ecells seems a bit ridiculous. Have I overlooked something simple?

Q14. Is there anyone with a reasonable amount of free time who'd be willing to answer my station/complex building questions via Skype or forum PM? The guides aren't quite providing me with the insight I need.

Q15. I'm trying to capture the AP plot L so I can move on. I have a Chimera with 5 EBC & 3 PBE to balance rapid hitting with energy consumption (I also find it a bit too squishy.) Despite numerous patrols/base defense missions in Blackhole Sun, and even sojourns into the local Xenon sector with my M7s, I have not even managed to make a single L go blue, let alone claim one. Is there a better set up/way to make this happen?



Aside from the questions, there was a big long rant about SETA drive. There are times I'd like it to be on pretty much constantly, and not be interrupted by browsing through menus. But as I've learned, and gained a large number of assets, at times I want a STHD (Slow the Hell Down) Drive. I'm pretty okay with it now. The solution was again, not being a whiny little bitch, and playing the video game.

Thanks

[Joe McCracken]

Q 1: Scout OOS. (Out Of Sector) No collisions...

UI Q 1: Yes, do missions for that race and get them blue...

UI Q 2: Set Hot Keys...

UI Q 3: Do it in space, Use a transporter device, click the ship you want to transfer to and press x...

UI Q 4: as far as I know, No.

UI Q 5: Don't know.

UI Q 6: Switch the Hot Keys to your liking...

UI Q 7: SETA? Doubt it very much.

[oHmY]

Q 1: Scout OOS. (Out Of Sector) No collisions...

I don't understand what is meant by this. Anyone care to elaborate?

UI Q 1: Yes, do missions for that race and get them blue...

OFC. That is time consuming. I mean a menu/setting option that will change hostiles to blue regardless of reputation. I understand they would still fire on you, I just want hostiles I don't want to target to stay out of my "target enemy" protocols.

[MrFiction]

What Joe means by Scout OOS is that ships flying outside your current sector don't have collision detection. If you fly in Argon Prime and your scout is in Antigone Memorial, a system where the planet is close to the gates, a scout may very well enter the planet's atmosphere. However, as long as you are not in the same sector, the game doesn't do collision detections and the scout will not get destroyed because the game never calculates it enters the atmosphere. Hopes this makes sense.

UI Q1: no you cannot, like Joe said, do some missions, or set up a trading network to provide goods for the red faction.

Regarding SETA, moving and clicking the mouse does not disable SETA (but scrolling with the scroll wheel does). You can start 10x SETA and go to the encyclopedia by clicking on the menubar, closing menus and opening menus, checking the universe map, contacting stations and even accept missions while in SETA, as long as you use the mouse.

[Graaf]

Q 1: There are not many systems with a planet nearby. TBH the only one I can think of is Split Fire. But yes, not being in the same system as your scout does work with more then just planets (asteroids/gates/stations).


UI Q 1: You can use global commands to set the race as friendly to you and broadcast that to your assets, but that won't stop the reds to shoot you. Use with extreme caution.
Alternatively you can go into your player ship commands and change it for you ship only, but that doesn't stop your other assets in shooting the reds since they use the global setting.


SETA: Is working as intended. Those complaints about SETA are not because it stops running when interacting with the game, but more an issue with the autopilot not being able to perfectly plot a course around another object while using SETA, resulting in the destruction of player assets and sometimes even player ship.

A sure way to die in X is using both SETA and Auto Pilot simultaneously.

[oHmY]

Ok. Thanks guys. TBH I wonder if I could even quit playing X3 if I wanted to.

[Nanook]

...
I really think that SETA should remain active unless the hotkey has been hit, manual course corrections have been input, you have been fired upon, or destination has been reached....

99% of players would probably agree with you, up until they fatally run into a large object while busy in some menu attending to their empire. This was most likely a conscious design decision by the devs to keep players from turning on the autopilot, hitting SETA, and then get distracted doing some other task while in a rather dense sector, or even a major flight path. Believe me, it happens to many even without SETA enabled. SETA just makes it happen N times more often.

Besides, you don't really need SETA running if you're busy doing other things in your ship. SETA was originally meant only to speed up the progress across large sectors while flying in slow ships, to keep pilots from getting bored and falling asleep at the controls. Any other use is optional and done at the pilot's own risk.

[ancienthighway]

On scouting and abandoned ships...The OOS scout may be fortunate and have and abandoned ship appear on it's scope, but once the OOS scout moves out of range, the ship disappears. A better way to find derelicts is to drop enough advanced satellites to cover the area you want to search, then pick them up and move on to the next sector.

[oHmY]

On scouting and abandoned ships...The OOS scout may be fortunate and have and abandoned ship appear on it's scope, but once the OOS scout moves out of range, the ship disappears. A better way to find derelicts is to drop enough advanced satellites to cover the area you want to search, then pick them up and move on to the next sector.

TYVM. You just saved me hours of useless grief.

[oHmY]

***Deleted. Most of these were stupid questions, that were resolved. I wanted these removed to make the new format detailed in the first post easy to use to encourage easier reading for those who are helping me.***

[Zaitsev]

Late to the party, but since no one else have said anything ...

3. Is there a way to access station ship switching more quickly? Scrolling > Station > Landed Ships (l)>Scrolling > Select ship > Switch Ship (X) *Seems like a lot for such a simple function.

Yeah. R to bring up personal property, select ship, switch (x) and presto.

[RainerPrem]

Hi,

Late to the party, but since no one else have said anything ...

3. Is there a way to access station ship switching more quickly? Scrolling > Station > Landed Ships (l)>Scrolling > Select ship > Switch Ship (X) *Seems like a lot for such a simple function.

Yeah. R to bring up personal property, select ship, switch (x) and presto.

that replaces scrolling one or two ships down to searching and scrolling though a multipage list of ships ...

cu
Rainer

[X2-Illuminatus]

1. What is this remote Auto Jump (AJ) protocol? I haven't seen my UT's or ST's jump, deplete their E. Cells, refuel, etc.

Trade Command Software MK3 - Technical Datasheet by SymTec ltd. explains the levels of the Mk3 software, including several behaviours.

Short summary with regards to your question:
A jumpdrive is used from level 12 onwards.
Local Traders can be set from level 6 onwards: When you restart the Sector Trader, you can specify a jump / sector range, in which the trader should trade.

When using Mk3 traders, you should consider installing gnasirator's MK3 Improvement Reloaded.

2. Do automated units utilize docking computer?

No, they don't. (CAG, CLS may do.) Docking Lockup Fix + Upgrade by Gazz allows ships to do that.

3. Best Market Locators -- when MORTing instead of UT/ST?

The list of wares displayed by the Best Selling Price Locator always refers to the ship your starting the software from. As satellites are acessed from your playership they always just display the deals for your wares on the ship you're flying. You can use the Best Buys / Selling price locator when you have them installed in your ship remotely, but only get the details from the sector the ships are currently. For deals in other sectors you have to look manually. Or you use the Universal Best Buys/Sells Locator by alex2069.

Generally speaking, doing things manually, like finding the best deals, is one of the characteristics of a Manually Operated Remote Trader. Thus, they are imho only something for the start of the game, when you need to earn money, but want to do something in-between the trade runs with your current ship, i.e. exploring the universe. When you have more money, there will be better and easier ways to earn money.

4. Is there anyway to view readily available and summarized information about ST/UT profits/losses?

I think, when you restart the Mk3 trader, it writes a message with the profit it made until that point to your logbook.

A more detailed overview about trade statistics from ships and stations is provided by ScRaT_GER's Trade Overview.

5. Paranid reputation repair: Can someone please be more specific about how I can repair my Paranid rep while considering the following.

- I have tried mapping/sitting in Paranid border systems waiting for pirates/non Argon hostiles.

If your Argon rank is good enough, you could destroy Argon ships. With a Paranid rank of Tainted Wanderer you should be able to dock at stations in border sectors already. Then you can trade and do missions to improve your rank further.

6. Is there a way to locate missions OOS?

Missions are just generated, when you enter a sector.

7. Better "menu-ing" mod? I'm not even sure if this is possible, but would there be a mod that does the following:
When you're commanding a ship to dock at a station (let's say a scout), and attempt to use "show info" on one of the stations it doesn't work.

I'm not sure, if I understand what you mean. When you have a ship in a different sector, you can at all time access the station info from all stations in that sector. Whether the ship is docked to a specific station or whether the station you want the info from is in scanner range or not doesn't matter, as long as the station is known (i.e. is displayed on the sector map and exists).

[Triaxx2]

Rep repair with any race: You don't have to go into their sectors. Look for members of that race at neutral/friendly stations. Paranids on Teladi stations for example. Even if you're enemies, they'll still give you missions that you can complete, and those will count for your race rep even if they're far from Paranid Sectors.

If you find Paranid ship floating in space, you can comm it and get the mission, but you have to do it from the map. If you target it on the main screen, it will immediately jump.

[oHmY]

Thanks guys

So the one question I had related to menuing, and upon searching the mods section quite extensively (I finally buckled down and spent a day searching and getting a few mods set up. And I decided a lot of what I was asking for maybe was a bit cheaty and upset game balance, so none of those.

To clarify what I was asking about, re "better menu-ing." Suppose you are in the process of ordering one of your ships to dock. So. Property > Select Ship > Command Console > Navigation > Dock at Station > Select Sector. Now it is at this point, that you have a map of the sector pop up with a list of stations on the side as usual. The stations within this menu path are functional only for one thing, "Selection." I thought it would be simpler if I forgot something, to have all the functions (show info, etc) remain functional even within these command paths. But I'm pretty confident there are no such mods, and I'm no modder. I wouldn't even know where to begin.

[RAVEN.myst]

From your first batch of questions, near the end: in X3AP, the corporation missions series from X3TC are no longer present (unfortunately).

Regarding your Paranid reputation, what everyone else said, but just a quick check: are you playing the Poisoned Paranid game start? If so, you will not be able to repair your Paranid reputation by any means until you complete the scenario's starting mission - until such time, every time you make any progress with Paranid reputation, it will in short order be reset back to "Enemy of Priest King" or some such.

[oHmY]

Thanks myst,

I'm glad that your clarified those things for me.

I abandoned (and just deleted) the second series of questions. I think the new format with "underlining" etc makes my post a far easier read and will encourage more efficient resolution.

While I don't think I would have tried to do anything other than the starting scenario on "Poisoned Paranid," (overtuned Hyperion Vanguard mmmmmm *Homer drool,*) it's good to know that I'd be screwed if I did.

[RAVEN.myst]

You wouldn't be screwed It's a good gamestart that provides one of the most popular personal ships - once you complete the early mission and earn your Hyperion and free fighter, your Paranid reputation also normalises - goes to neutral IIRC, and from then on can be affected as per normal by your actions.

PS: LoL at your signature - I also laugh (and, tbh, get a bit annoyed) at the voice actress's total, clueless mispronunciation of the name of Thor's hammer.

[oHmY]

myst,

What I meant, is that the only option in that scenario is to definitely succeed @ the starting mission -- IE repair my rep and get my sweet sweet mega rare loot (unique even if you consider the overtuning), and that not doing the mission would result in my being screwed.

And the signature quote, hah, yeah. The pronunciation is such a gross oversight. It reminds me of something really stupid like George W. making an attempt at the "fool me once..." saying. Like "A-T-F.. muh... muh jol? mujiner? muh... muji???"

[RAVEN.myst]

Oh, you are 100% right about that! If you fail that mission, the gamestart becomes almost not worth playing (unless you're a masochist, heheheh). However, that mission is almost trivially easy to complete in one-third of the allotted time, so that's not a problem.