Rage quit, so mad I could spit

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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Timsup2nothin
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Rage quit, so mad I could spit

Post by Timsup2nothin » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 18:48

So, I have done enough experiments with AP that I was ready to start "the game." The one where I play all the way through some gigantic empire and end game.

For the first time I got to the "cap an L" mission and didn't either have one already waiting or snag one just about immediately. I have killed dozens. Some in Xenon space, many on patrol missions, some just hopping from Xenon gate to Xenon gate and catching them invading their neighbors. I have shrugged this delay off, because I knew it could happen and I'm actually surprised it didn't happen before. Plus, what the heck, shooting Xenons is fun anyway.

So I'm on a three sector patrol mission from BHS to Interworlds, and in Nathan's Voyage an L bails. One quick blast from the CIGs and poof, it's done. I claim it and call in the Zeph.

As I'm flying towards the gate to finish the mission I think "I should dock and save before I go in there." But, there's a station not far away on the other side of the gate. Nothing that bad can happen. It isn't like the mission spawns Qs or anything like that.

I pop out of the gate, and sure enough, the standard mission P and gang are there, and they are closer to me than the station is. I could jump to the other gate and dock at a different station, but I should be able to scoot around them. Besides, I have blown up a dozen Ps just this game. If I can't get around them there is no reason to think I can't just kill them.

So off I go, and sure enough the P locks onto me. All his escorts are in a traffic lane feeding frenzy and ignoring me, but here it comes. With the angle. I'm maybe not going to get around this guy. But he is actually by himself, and I have absolutely no reason to fear a P. Out of the last five I've killed I don't think that any of them have burned me below 80% shields.

Man, I don't want to lose that L though. I should just jump away. Or something. I know, I'll fire off a swarm of hammerheads. By the time he avoids those I'll get docked, and if he doesn't avoid them so much the better.

He didn't even try to avoid them, but they missed anyway. So he cuts me off and I have to smoke him...which as expected was no problem. Except for the fact that when he was down to about 10% hull one of the wayward hammerheads that I never should have fired in the first place finally caught up to him.
Trapper Tim's Guide to CLS 2

On Her Majesty's Secret Service-Dead is Dead, and he is DEAD

Not a DiD, so I guess it's a DiDn't, the story of my first try at AP
Part One, in progress

HEY! AP!! That's new!!!

Alan Phipps
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Post by Alan Phipps » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 19:08

A swarm of Hammerheads launched into a friendly populated sector was asking for rep issues through collateral damage anyway - only this time you happened to be amongst the collateral! Commiserations.
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Doktor Teufel
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Post by Doktor Teufel » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 19:18

One day, you'll look back on this moment and feel a wave of nostalgia. It was worth the price just for the story. :wink:

I'm a champion ragequitter myself, so I know the feeling.

Honved
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Post by Honved » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 19:28

Gee, at least you didn't have to burn a perfectly good Salvage Insurance point.

RAVEN.myst
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Post by RAVEN.myst » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 19:40

My condolences! It's always in those cases where "oh, I don't need to dock/save, I have a dock coming up just over there" that these things happen - and if you HAD bothered to dock, it would have turned out to be superfluous. You're familiar with that pesky Murphy bloke, right...?

I was fully expecting the story to end with the infuriating demise of the L, and not for you to go the whole hog (a distinction without a difference, in any case...)

All I can do is wish you luck with the next one!
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Timsup2nothin
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Post by Timsup2nothin » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 19:41

This is a really bad time to mention this, but I never use salvage insurance. Mostly out of being too lazy to go buy it. I'm fully capable of using 'dock and save'...except when I'm not, obviously. :evil:
Trapper Tim's Guide to CLS 2

On Her Majesty's Secret Service-Dead is Dead, and he is DEAD

Not a DiD, so I guess it's a DiDn't, the story of my first try at AP
Part One, in progress

HEY! AP!! That's new!!!

MrFiction
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Post by MrFiction » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 19:55

First time the plot required a Boreas. Flying in a Xenon sector and let the flak guns take out the fighters. After a few hours a bunch of ships remained, one of them an L. Second playthrough was easier, during a Xenon patrol in a pirate sector one L bailed. SAVE -> claim ship -> transfer jump drive -> SAVE -> jump out ship to dock -> SAVE.

Judging from your post you seem to be new to this game so I'll give you some slack. Read up on the stickies. There are tips on how to do the plots, how to trade. Well, someone was even so nice as to write up a complete guide on using CLS traders.

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jorganos
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Post by jorganos » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 19:59

Feeling with you there, Tim.

Playing a Terran marauder against all Argon traffic has cut me off most sources for salvage insurances. I guess I might still have enough Goner reputation to get some in their temple, provided I can reach it without souring that relation through self defense in Elysium of Light.

Commerce raiding with a Valkyrie in Hatikvah's Faith offers just three docking opportunities in system, and a few behind the gates (ore mines in Nopileos, crystal fab in Clarity, drone production in Thuruk's Beard). When another wave of trigger-happy gladiators crosses the system and the last jump fuel and the last mosquitoes have been burnt up, that may cost up to an hour of game time. A slower but only slightly more durable Perseus didn't change much in that regard, and the Pleco rarely gets to me fast enough either.

There are few money-earning missions available, and more enemies than time to repair some of those bailed mercuries in all sizes, and sell them off in Third Redemption, so money has been really tight. Spending some time in Terran space to arm the Katana has improved the equipment and resulted in a couple of undelivered salvage mission ships, but equipping those and training up the Boron marine corps is eating up mission income faster than I earn it.

At times, the game feels like those many futile Cursed Traitor starts back in TC where the single 5MJ shield does very little to let the prototype medusa make it to a safe harbor. At other times, there is that Bankrupt Assassin feeling, especially the bankrupt part of that.

I am inclined to write up some of those experiences as follow up to Forgotten Supplies in the creative zone - I need to train up my writing, especially using outside impressions of what is going on. Hopefully that isn't too much of a hard read.

Timsup2nothin
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Post by Timsup2nothin » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 20:06

Thanks guys. My rage has cooled to an ash cloaked ember, so it's off to BHS to restart the patrol mission.
Trapper Tim's Guide to CLS 2

On Her Majesty's Secret Service-Dead is Dead, and he is DEAD

Not a DiD, so I guess it's a DiDn't, the story of my first try at AP
Part One, in progress

HEY! AP!! That's new!!!

jlehtone
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Post by jlehtone » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 20:09

You did not shoot one of those Hammerheads. That is good.
The last moments of your travel did not involve a Boron M2 entering your exhaust port. That is good.
You did know exactly what to do. That is good.

<gesture> That was not the L that you were looking for. :goner:
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RAVEN.myst
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Post by RAVEN.myst » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 20:17

MrFiction wrote:Judging from your post you seem to be new to this game so I'll give you some slack. Read up on the stickies. There are tips on how to do the plots, how to trade. Well, someone was even so nice as to write up a complete guide on using CLS traders.
LOL! Tim, go read that guide on CLS, it's got some good stuff! ;)
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radcapricorn
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Post by radcapricorn » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 20:26

I'm still trying to process whether MrFiction was being sarcastic or not 8)

Timsup2nothin
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Post by Timsup2nothin » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 21:27

radcapricorn wrote:I'm still trying to process whether MrFiction was being sarcastic or not 8)
I wasn't sure until he mentioned the CLS guide, at which point I had to laugh. I give him very high marks.

So, the patrol was completed without significant incident...including without capping an L. I killed a P in Wastelands with my shields at 98%, just to prove that I really didn't need to fire any hammerheads at him.

<sigh>

At some point something exploded and dropped a crate with fourteen hammerheads. I've been carrying them around ever since. I can't recall ever having more than one or two at a time before, and have never really felt like I had much use for them. Now I wish I had just sold them instead of carting them back and forth across the galaxy.
Trapper Tim's Guide to CLS 2

On Her Majesty's Secret Service-Dead is Dead, and he is DEAD

Not a DiD, so I guess it's a DiDn't, the story of my first try at AP
Part One, in progress

HEY! AP!! That's new!!!

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jorganos
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Post by jorganos » Wed, 1. Mar 17, 21:52

I too keep collecting those hammerheads, belugas and remote controlled warheads for eliminating some carrier escorts as soon as my capping spree may start, even though there is no reason not to use hammers, tomahawks or firestorms instead, depending on the platforms available to you.

I would never dream of firing one of those beasts when I could possibly come under fire - in those situations, hornets are plenty enough to cause significant damage to opponents. (It is fairly rare to see those birds dropped nowadays, though. Really no idea why, it still is a useful short range missile for causing significant hull damage. Those were the times when an LX armed with PBEs and a bunch of hornets could hide in the blind spot of a Khaak M1 and hammer it away before its M2 colleague could interfere...)

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surferx
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Post by surferx » Sun, 5. Mar 17, 05:12

I came to this conclusion a long time ago; if the game doesn't (sometimes) drive you into a fist slamming, curses spitting, exit and swear never to play again raging fit :evil: ...then it's not worth playing it in the first place. And, yes, you will always come back to it.
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Triaxx2
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Post by Triaxx2 » Sun, 5. Mar 17, 23:19

Long time Reunion player. Boot up TC for the first time, fly through the north gate of Argon Prime.... INCINERATED BY SPACE FLAMETHROWERS.

I went back to Reunion for a while.
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Timsup2nothin
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Post by Timsup2nothin » Mon, 6. Mar 17, 04:00

Triaxx2 wrote:Long time Reunion player. Boot up TC for the first time, fly through the north gate of Argon Prime.... INCINERATED BY SPACE FLAMETHROWERS.

I went back to Reunion for a while.
LOL...considering that those things are only available from a select few illegally operated sources it is pretty strange that every military pilot in the freakin' universe is sporting them.
Trapper Tim's Guide to CLS 2

On Her Majesty's Secret Service-Dead is Dead, and he is DEAD

Not a DiD, so I guess it's a DiDn't, the story of my first try at AP
Part One, in progress

HEY! AP!! That's new!!!

Doktor Teufel
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Post by Doktor Teufel » Mon, 6. Mar 17, 04:31

Timsup2nothin wrote:LOL...considering that those things are only available from a select few illegally operated sources it is pretty strange that every military pilot in the freakin' universe is sporting them.
Hah, no kidding. This sort of thing is why I don't feel badly at all about "cheating" with the Springblossom.

I don't merely cheat, however. I super-cheat by using the Springblossom and Cycrow's Advanced Thruster Control.

I blow through the gate into a Xenon sector, get a conga line going, and then slow down enough for most of the lighter fighters to get juuuuust in range (actually a little ways outside my range, see last sentence)... then I match their speed, engage thruster control, spin around, and presto! near-stationary victims who are flying into my cone of fire, effectively increasing my projectile velocity/range as well.

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jorganos
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Post by jorganos » Mon, 6. Mar 17, 09:08

Timsup2nothin wrote:
Triaxx2 wrote:Long time Reunion player. Boot up TC for the first time, fly through the north gate of Argon Prime.... INCINERATED BY SPACE FLAMETHROWERS.

I went back to Reunion for a while.
LOL...considering that those things are only available from a select few illegally operated sources it is pretty strange that every military pilot in the freakin' universe is sporting them.
One has to assume that the military has their own secret, gate-less sectors where they have their IBL and PBG forges, accessible only through open jump coordinates, like the Khaak-Sectors in TC Operation Final Fury. We know that half of them have dealings with Yaki branches, too, so maybe they run their versions on Nostrop.

I mean, Argon Military Sector 148 - that sort of indicates that the Argons alone have roundabout 150 military sectors unknown to the rest of the Commonwealth.

Triaxx2
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Post by Triaxx2 » Mon, 6. Mar 17, 13:17

In my case it was a set of Pirate Blastclaws, but seriously, it takes me weeks of work to get a pair even if I'm friends with a forge, and these guys all have entire banks.

Speed does not equal life in Xenon sectors. I went tearing through one in a Turbo Boosted Pirate Kestrel, doing 1536m/s, and still managed to get tagged enough to breach shields and do 2% hull damage.
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
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