Is it a thing to buy scanners and go scanning ships?

Siigari · Post by **Siigari** » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 01:36

So I bought a freight scanner and a bio scanner. Got my little Buster all pimped out now, pretty happy

I have been sitting in Elena's Fortune scanning ships that pass through, looking for illegal goods. I have my Argon Police License. I haven't been finding any ships carrying contraband though.

Is this a thing? Or is it reserved explicitly for missions? Thanks.

Timsup2nothin · Post by **Timsup2nothin** » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 02:41

I never bother scanning for contraband. I do go to pirate sectors and take missions to scan for loot. You can make a ton doing that. Especially since if you look around you can usually find multiple missions so that you get paid the cumulative total from all of them every time you scan a ship. I once got paid for scanning 42 ships. Plus, it is really good for your pirate rep.

As to the scanning when not on a mission, I'm pretty much a shotgunner. If I'm pirating, I don't care what they have, I'll blast them to get their ship if nothing else. Since I'm gonna blast 'em anyway, there's not too much point in scanning them first, unless I'm in a ship that can't handle fighter drones. In that case I'll check to make sure they don't have too many.

Araknis · Post by **Araknis** » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 03:36

In reply to your question from the other thread, yes, sector trader trades in only 1 system. So its best to put them do the trading in safe busy systems so you can lvl them up fast.
Systems like that are usually the ones around Argon Prime, like Home of Light, Herron's Nebula, Power Circle.

When your trader reaches a certain lvl, he can still function as a sector trader but you can have him trade in near sectors as well, up to 3 jumps if i recall correctly.

Also the most steady income comes from complexes that produce illegal goods, like spaceweed. Built them in Teladi space near other races systems and watch as the npcs line to dock and buy your illegal goods.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 09:37

Scanning for contraband isn't a very profitable thing to do, even if you *have* been asked to do it as part of a mission, because very few stations actually make contraband items and thus very few ships carry them. Outside of a mission, where the only likely reward you'd get for it is the police licence fee for shooting the ship carrying it, is the equivalent of making a living by walking down the street picking up coins people have accidentally dropped on the pavement.

Missions given by pirates to scan ships for suitable loot are far more profitable, as Timsuptonothin says, because you get a flat percentage of the cargo value of the ships you scan whatever they happen to be carrying.

Siigari · Post by **Siigari** » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 09:57

Thanks for the responses guys.

Araknis, I took your advice and sold the spare ships and have my mercury doing sector trade.

My Nova Raider, though, is far from 'pimped.' I've got a set of PACs and a single PRG with basic emitter guns for the turret.

Everybody talks about HEPTs being the only thing to fit. I looked around and they are scarcely available. I have never witnessed guns drop upon ship destructions -- just missiles -- and I'm usually stocked lol.

So what do I do? Seven PACs is sort of anemic. Also, I thought a bigger shield was going to help, but missiles for the most part still really hurt when they hit. Not quite getting one-shotted anymore but they mean trouble in the wrong situation.

Also I see "AHEPT" around sometimes. What's that? Thanks.

Araknis · Post by **Araknis** » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 10:30

Don't spend too much on the Nova. When i say pimp it, i mean dock at the shipyard and max the upgrades.
If you fill all the slots with HEPTs, you ll go dry after 5 seconds.
The fighters were a big deal in X3:Reunion, a good fighter could win the battle.
Although dog fighting is my taste, in AP, fighters are necessary evil at first since you don't have anything else to use and then they are good to throw in fights as fodder, or deploy swarms with carriers.
Your target is to get enough credits to buy an m6, although its slower your game will improve very much. What you loose from agility and speed, you gain from the 2-5 x 200MJ shields, the increased laser energy and reload rate and also the more mount points for weapons.

As for the AHEPTS, there is an excellent FAQ on EGO's website that covers it all, starting from Reunion and then moving on to TC:
http://www.egosoft.com/support/faq/faq_ ... 16e77d6783
http://www.egosoft.com/support/faq/faq_ ... 16e77d6783

For anything else you can use Roguey's site , although apart from some basic info, i wouldnt recommend it, since the database is a bit messed up.
http://roguey.co.uk/x3ap/

The X3 Wiki
http://www.x3wiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

and the Russian site X3tc.net (English version)
http://x3ap-eng.x3tc.net/

Although 99% of the info you need, you ll find in EGOSOFT's site in FAQs or in these forums.

Cant recall if XRM has a forum as well. You might want to check that out too.

Araknis · Post by **Araknis** » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 10:53

Also, you might want to reconsider what i told you earlier about the Hyperion.
Although its an excellent ship, since you play XRM, the weapon choices are limited, so you wont be able to use it with CIGs (Concussion Impulse Generators) which, in Vanilla at least, rocked big time.
You can only mount PPGs (Phased Plasma Generators) which i dont like at all, compared to the CIGs i was used to.
Best thing to do is try them all and choose for yourself!!!

Timsup2nothin · Post by **Timsup2nothin** » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 18:24

My Nova Raider sports four PACs and two IREs, plus an IRE in the turret. Hitting M5s with anything slower than IRE fire is a pain in the butt, so a bank of two on continuous fire solves scouts and drones. Two PACS is also pretty much continuous fire and will eliminate any pesky M4s, and four PACs will chew through the shields of any M3 before my batteries run dry.

Then there's the bank of two plasma burst generators, for emergencies.

ancienthighway · Post by **ancienthighway** » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 18:41

For in-sector combat, PACs on the Nova Raider are the way to go. They can fire a long time before you run out of weapons energy doing more damage over time than a bank of HEPTs. If you are concerned about DPS, toss in some missiles for burst damage.

OOS combat though should use the most damaging weapon per shot, the HEPT on M3s.

For a personal ship, start with PACs and make adjustments to suit your play style.

As others have stated, take freight scanning missions from pirates. Asteroid scanning can be lucrative also. I've run 3 simultaneous mission with over lapping sectors containing the asteroids and made some very nice profits. M5s are best for this.

The bio scanner is used mostly for identifying skill of marines before you buy them.

Siigari · Post by **Siigari** » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 21:27

How do I take missions from pirates when I've spent time blowing them away?

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 21:56

You'll find them on stations and they'll talk to you there. They're relatively easy to distinguish from conventional members of their species. Try Split Fire. Any station designated with an I (for Independant) has a high chance to have pirates giving missions.

fireanddream · Post by **fireanddream** » Mon, 4. Jan 16, 11:02

Ah the good old days when I would just reload 60 times to capture a nova vanguard!

The nova raider has a 5600+140MJ/s laser capacity, so if you fit all the slots with PAC you can fire about 6.8 sec before you run out of energy... PRG is more cost-efficient (energy-wise), has a longer range and is a LOT more accurate, too. So I'd say start with PAC if your're poor, upgrade to 4 RPG + 4 HEPT once you can afford it, use the former for shield damage and the latter for hull. I heard in XRM they are more or less the same, oh well.

Also, I strongly advise you to befriend the pirates as much as possible, that means don't blow up their ships for no reason (even if some are red to you), don't get too excited in station defense missions, etc, for the following reasons:

1) They are pretty much everybody's enemy, which means your "go-to" spawned enemies from plot missions would be Xenon/Kha'ak and pirates, occationally Yaki. You have a lot of chances to LOWER your reputation already.

2) They are the best traders, SQUASH mine, space weed, space fuel, you name it, the stuff that helps buckling up your bank account. It would be a lot easier if roaming pirates don't attack your trade ships, too. Also, a source (or the only source) for stuff like IBL, PBG.

3) They are the best friend to have. Their "scan valuable goods" missions can easily net you half a million each, their "defend station" missions are no brainer at low fighting ranks 'cause the spawned invaders get vaporized in seconds. I had never felt more secure in Senator's Badland with an akuma & 30 fighters patrolling around.

The x3wiki and roguey's site would help you. Although I'm not sure they have a XRM database...

ancienthighway · Post by **ancienthighway** » Mon, 4. Jan 16, 13:00

You don't say if the Nova Raider is the Pirate or Argon version. The Pirate version runs 45m/s slower than the Argon version. In general pirate versions of ships are inferior to the racial versions, although there are exceptions.

Siigari · Post by **Siigari** » Mon, 4. Jan 16, 13:12

ancienthighway wrote:You don't say if the Nova Raider is the Pirate or Argon version. The Pirate version runs 45m/s slower than the Argon version. In general pirate versions of ships are inferior to the racial versions, although there are exceptions.

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Post by **Nanook** » Wed, 6. Jan 16, 02:10

You're asking a lot of gameplay questions about a modded (XRM) game. Unfortunately, you won't get many accurate answers here because many, or most, answers here will be based on the vanilla game. You'll probably get more useful answers to many of your questions if you ask in the XRM thread in the S&M forum.