Starting out in X3TC

[Triaxx2]

The two mods I had in mind, are CODEA, and the Security and Rescue Service, both by the author of Commodity Logistics System and Commercial Agent. (CLS and CAG.) All they'll really do is mark your save as modified and lock you out of steam achievements if you care. (They do something else related to Egosoft but it's so unimportant I don't remember what it is.)

CODEA is carrier command software. It basically lets the carrier, be it a TM, or TL, or even the M7's that can carry fighters, as well as the actual M1's, automate their fighters. They will automatically respond to threats in a certain distance of the carrier, and while they require some background logistical stuff, it vastly improves survivability over the vanilla AI which requires the carrier be under attack before they'll launch in it's defense. So you don't have to command them specifically to attack, though you can order a directed attack.

Security and Rescue Service on the other hand, is basically a combination of an enhanced patrol order, which can patrol points in a sector, rather than the vanilla multiple sectors option (though it can do that, including multiple points in multiple sectors). It can also, if setup correctly, automatically jump to the aid of CLS and CAG ships anywhere in the universe and attempt to either rescue them, or failing that, rescue a CAG/CLS pilot who has ejected.

Alternately, are two mods to improve the game's running, which then make it easier to fly and fight/evade fighting. One is a mod that removes the billboards, and thus stops the game attempting to load the videos, which improves performance a startling amount even on a moderately powerful rig. The second is X3:Unleashed, which vastly reduces the number of civilian ships hanging around, the ones that are only represented by a small dot on the sector map. This improves performance quite a lot, including of the vanilla AI, which is very useful.

[ubuntufreakdragon]

For scripting/modding you should first go for scripts that are similar to these in the bonus package SRS and CODEA are for example good options but you don't need them yet because you lack the money for a military taskforce, but there is another script from the same author you should look at the Economy Supply Trader it's more or less an improved version of the autotraders you already own, but it can be told to supply specific types of factories so you can get their products more easily.
If you decide to use external scripts, first update the bonuspakage ones to the unofficial versions, because these are newer and compatible to the other ones, and make a save backup before installing to do so navigate to users\yourname\documents\egosoft\x3terranconflict and copy the save directory to somewhere else.

4 mil are enough to build some factories and buy a TM if used wisely, you should keep at least 1mil as backup, you may also want to invest into some salvage insurances to be able to save in midflight, you should be able to get some at the terra corp hq in Home of Light if I remember correctly.

A satellite network is an extremely wise invention, too.

[Imgran]

Guys, I just loaded my saved game and now the group of pirates has vanished?? WTF is going on?

I was thinking to buy a bigger ship like some of you suggested but only have about 4mil left over after the super freighter and miner purchase so need something within the budget

Since you seem to enjoy beebopping around in a fighter, let me ask -- have you invested in a TM yet? TM's are among the most versatile ships in the game, a TM with a hold full of fighters can absolutely smash anything smaller than a frigate. It's a really good mobile base of operations for players who like fighter style combat, opens up a lot of missions and quests for money raising purposes (if you get Cargo Lifesupport a TM can do everything really except TP specific passenger missions) and many of them have enough hold space to double as a merchant ship. They're SUPER useful for advancing questlines.

Even if you're not driving the Zeph it can still provide some combat use in a brawl, someone above mentioned the shield recharge exploit, and without that it's still a source of mobile point defense fire if there's a bandit on your tail that you don't have time to swat. Due to their small size and multiple turrets most TM's offer good turret coverage. And of course, all TM's hold either 3 or 4 fightes, so you can bring either AI fighter backup to the party, or different fighters for different missions.

In my current relatively new playthrough I have a Zephyrus with 3 Solanos for AI fighter backup because the Solano is a poor man's M3 which packs a reasonable punch and is easy to replace if you suffer losses, and one M5 (Octopus Raider because I got a good deal on one) which I use for missions where the only criteria is speed, such as asteroid scans and the first half of assassination missions (find the location of the idiot, drop my carrier on them, spit out the figher escort and whatever fighter drones I feel are necessary, and half the time the target is dead before I get back to the carrier..

The two best TM's by far are the OTAS Zephyrus, which has the best shielding at 600Mj, and the Yaki Chokaro, which sacrifices 1 fighter bay for a massive (for a TM) cargo hold for extra versatility and boasts the highest top speed of any TM.

An early player isn't going to have access to the Chokaro but probably hasn't spoiled his relationship with the Argon yet, so I recommend for you, the Zephyrus. If you're taking a TM into battle the Zephyrus is the best choice, and if you're going to mostly be trading, the Zephyrus is still like the second or third best choice.

EDIT: Actually I lied. The Split Boa is the fastest TM, less than 1 m/s faster than the Chokaro but its shielding is substandard, which reduces its protection and its shield-ramming potential. I would never use the Boa.

[Imgran]

No worries, the Q thing wasn't aimed at you. Also, Argon Prime is protected by an invincible super carrier. I doubt they'd have noticed.

If you're not a fighter, then I have to say, going with capitals is indeed your best option. I suggest acquiring yourself a TL. The Yaki Ryu if you're friendly with them, or the Split Elephant are both fast, agile ships and are more than capable of swatting anything up to an M6 out of the sky with minimal piloting skills. (Literally in the case of the Elephant, get up close and ram the buggers.)

I love the Split Elephant. Its fighter compliment makes it a great second ship when you need to really envelop an enemy in a proper furball. It's not a great LT as a station builder, but it's the LT I'd take into a war zone and it's actually really quick once it gets going. And it gets by as a station builder, it can carry 1 station and a complex connector, just rinse and repeat as needed.

Spoiler

Show

Really helps to have a station like the Hub that can dock capitals and you can stock however you want, before you start taking capitals into battle. Resupplying a capital ship from "wild" supplies is SUPER tedious

Another ship that might almost be in Monkspeed's price range (although not quite, he'd need another 4-5 mill to really kit it out) is the Argon Centaur. I got super lucky in my latest playthrough and the Argon shipyard at Legend's Home had a guy selling a badly damaged one for like 1.3 mil, super sweet deal on an m6 hull.

I really like the Centaur, it's a bit underpowered for an M6, but that only counts until you can find a source of PBG's. I tend to kit a Centaur out with PRG's in the turrets, 2 PBG's, 4 EBC's a mining laser and a tractor beam, very very handy when you start getting serious about station building.

The big thing I love about the Centaur is that it's such a smal M6, it might be the physically smallest, I'd have to check. That really cuts down on the blind spots. And I use EBC's in the main guns so the turrets have sole access to the laser capacitor, so they can just keep firing. It's quite a potent mix, and if I need more, I can flamethrower my way out of trouble

[Bill Huntington]

Boa is my favorite TM because of its speed. It's rare that a TM sees combat and I'm in a lot of it. The Chokaro is a close second however.

I love the Chok enough that I pick one up as soon as I have the price tag, which includes outfitting it. $1 Mil is more than enough. I usually have it by hour 5 of the first day.

Even if you've lost one level of Paranid rep they might allow to pass. If they don't, your fast M5 should make it, especially a Kestral.

I like to have Senator Badlands available to stash my stolen ships from Return Ship missions.

One feature about TMs. You can carry extra Jump Drives on your spare ships, saving time and avoiding problems.

It takes longer to build up the Split rep to buy a Boa. Sometimes I do but not always. The Chok is good enough. Any TM is okay but these two are the best IMO. But everyone has their own way. This is TC.

Good Hunting!.

[jlehtone]

A TM is indeed versatile and within 4mil budget.

I have one, mainly for Return ship missions. The TM and one a hulk of a fighter. Both have Jumpdrives. The TM has Transporter Device and ECells. If there is a fighter to retrieve, it can dock into the TM. If the mark is bigger, then TM loans its Jumpdrive and fuel for the mark and then loans a Jumpdrive from the storage fighter. In the destination sector the Jumdrives are returned to TM and hulk.

Two ships can exchange freight (both wares and upgrades) in space if at least one of them has Transporter Device and they are within 5km from each other.

I almost never fly the TM myself.


"The best foo" ... frankly, whatever that is available and gets the job done is good enough. Naturally, a true Teladi soul would die of shame for not getting the theoretically maximal profitsss that only the best of the best can facilitate. (Considering most Teladi designs it is a miracle that the race still exists ...)

[Imgran]

Boa is my favorite TM because of its speed. It's rare that a TM sees combat and I'm in a lot of it. The Chokaro is a close second however.

I love the Chok enough that I pick one up as soon as I have the price tag, which includes outfitting it. $1 Mil is more than enough. I usually have it by hour 5 of the first day.

Even if you've lost one level of Paranid rep they might allow to pass. If they don't, your fast M5 should make it, especially a Kestral.

I like to have Senator Badlands available to stash my stolen ships from Return Ship missions.

One feature about TMs. You can carry extra Jump Drives on your spare ships, saving time and avoiding problems.

It takes longer to build up the Split rep to buy a Boa. Sometimes I do but not always. The Chok is good enough. Any TM is okay but these two are the best IMO. But everyone has their own way. This is TC.

Good Hunting!.

For my style, where I'm the one flying the TM, not the fighter, the Zeph's superior shielding works very well for me and 140 m/s means you're faster than nearly everything you can't take on, so the speed difference isn't much of a loss. When shield ramming is one of your primary offensive strategies, the security of that third 200 Mj shield generator isn't to be underestimated.

The Chokaro is what I put my universal traders in, it's a great ship for ST and UT, I don't lose too many with that combination of top speed and defense. Oh they get attacked, but for the most part they have both the good sense and the capability to GTFO before their shields go down.

[Honved]

With a Perseus, scanning that Pirate base should have been a cakewalk. Run away, until they're strung out in a long line, then engage one-on-one.

[Triaxx2]

Ah, forgot to mention: Try Local Traders. Basically start up your Universal Trader, but with the Sector Trader menu, and you'll be asked for a number of jumps, set a number lower than the distance to the nearest truly dangerous enemy sector. Now they'll stay within that range and trade without getting themselves horribly murdered.

It's not necessary to have a huge military task force for CODEA or SRS to be useful. A TM with four fighters can be incredibly effective, especially if you're using them to chase pirates away from you or your freighters.

Personally, I prefer the Boron Pike to the Solano. It's slower, but it's so very short front to back that a lot of shots will just flash past it. Give it four PAC and it'll completely expend it's energy on a pass and then fly away while it recharges. More and you get a less potent attack, because it expends it's energy early and a lot of shots miss.

[RainerPrem]

Hi,

I always did the Treasure Hunt late in the game and kept the Xp only on my rare ships display. Now I started a game confining myself to only buying Argon Ships and I was wondering: Does anything speak against doing the Terran Plot in the XPerimental?

cu
Rainer

[RAVEN.myst]

Hi,

I always did the Treasure Hunt late in the game and kept the Xp only on my rare ships display. Now I started a game confining myself to only buying Argon Ships and I was wondering: Does anything speak against doing the Terran Plot in the XPerimental?

cu
Rainer

In X3TC, which is where Treasure Hunt happens, it's fine (in X3AP, you can't, as you have to turn it over to continue the plot). Having it fairly early and using it at that stage of the game can be quite fun - it's a pretty strong ship, very well shielded, very fast, though it lacks a rear turret (but it can outrun rear threats and missiles). If you can equip its 6 hardpoints with EMPCs, it's also decent in terms of firepower (failing that, PACs are ok, but may put more strain on your weapon energy generation.)

In terms of lore or role-play, that's of course up to you, but I think the notion of visiting Sol and helping out the Terrans in this originally-Terran ship has a certain elegance to it.

[RainerPrem]

Hi,

I always did the Treasure Hunt late in the game and kept the Xp only on my rare ships display. Now I started a game confining myself to only buying Argon Ships and I was wondering: Does anything speak against doing the Terran Plot in the XPerimental?

cu
Rainer

In X3TC, which is where Treasure Hunt happens, it's fine (in X3AP, you can't, as you have to turn it over to continue the plot). Having it fairly early and using it at that stage of the game can be quite fun - it's a pretty strong ship, very well shielded, very fast, though it lacks a rear turret (but it can outrun rear threats and missiles). If you can equip its 6 hardpoints with EMPCs, it's also decent in terms of firepower (failing that, PACs are ok, but may put more strain on your weapon energy generation.)

In terms of lore or role-play, that's of course up to you, but I think the notion of visiting Sol and helping out the Terrans in this originally-Terran ship has a certain elegance to it.

The missing turrets is what made me wonder. OTOH at least the start of the Terran Plot should be doable, and if not, I can switch to another ship.

I also look forward to get me a Springblossom the hard way ...

cu
Rainer

[Monkspeed]

With a Perseus, scanning that Pirate base should have been a cakewalk. Run away, until they're strung out in a long line, then engage one-on-one.

Yep, that's what I did in the end!

No TM yet but I'm sold on the idea for sure! Probably going to buy a Zephyrus, what weapons are best for it?

So the pirates are back but in another sector harassing my trader in Teladi Gain, Ceo's Buckzoid, Profit Share and surrounding areas? My trader is level 11 so he drops a load of drones and docks to the nearest station but they just wait outside...

I have no idea why they've started singling out my traders? I'm guessing because my fighter rank is high (veteran 1%) or I pissed them off when I did the Terran plot and killed them off and scanned the base? So, at the moment two of my best traders are docked and the other two are most of the time on standby because of their low rank (4, and 2) so my profitssss have taken a hit

You reap what you sow I guess. The game maybe thinks I know what I'm doing and presumes I have fighter escorts for every trader?

On the plus side, I'm seeing more damaged ships for sale near gates and grab them when I think it's a good deal. And, my since my miner was left unmolested this time he filled the cargo (7000 units) with ore.

[RAVEN.myst]

So the pirates are back but in another sector harassing my trader in Teladi Gain, Ceo's Buckzoid, Profit Share and surrounding areas? My trader is level 11 so he drops a load of drones and docks to the nearest station but they just wait outside...
...
I have no idea why they've started singling out my traders? I'm guessing because my fighter rank is high or I pissed them off when I did the Terran plot and killed them off and scanned the base? So, at the moment two of my best traders are docked and the other two are most of the time on standby because of their low rank (4, and 2) so my profitssss have taken a hit

I know you're already sold on the idea of a TM, so this isn't a sales pitch With a TM, it becomes trivially easy to go put out fires such as this - the TM has a capacious cargo hold, so it can jump far, delivering you and your fighter/s to the sector in question, where you can do the whole lure away thing. Since you are conscious (and in my opinion, rightly so) of your relations with pirates, I would suggest you try to draw them away and into local security forces, and not kill any of them yourself, in order to not aggravate the situation.

While doing plot missions will usually incur benefits and penalties to your standings with various factions depending on who you kill and where, a single mission will usually have a relatively small impact (in some cases, when you have NPC allies, you can try leave them to do the heavy lifting, to minimize the antagonism you generate). In the mission you mention, the effect is really minimal, especially since some of the ships you have to kill are specially generated for the mission as factionless, so you won't be annoying anyone by killing them.

Something you need to check regularly on your freighters: once they have been attacked by pirates, their IFF setting regarding pirates will automatically change to Foe - you need to manually change this back to Friend, so that they don't INITIATE combat against nearby pirates that might otherwise leave them alone. At present, I can guarantee that those freighters in question are set to "Foe" vs pirates - they've seen enough action for it to have gone that way. (You can alternatively do it with a global command also, but I prefer to do it manually and individually, at least early in the game, so I can see whether it is needed and how often - it's just another small way of keeping my finger on the pulse of my automated activities.)

The game maybe thinks I know what I'm doing and presumes I have fighter escorts for every trader?

Just in case you were considering doing it: escorting your freighters with fighters is an expensive and very micromanagement-intensive proposition, which I would not recommend for a novice. Also, it is generally unnecessary and is pretty much guaranteed to lower your freighters' profitability and incur more losses. In many years of playing, I have yet to find it necessary to escort any of my traders (well, there is ONE possible context that I was experimenting with a while back, but it's a very specific special case...)

[jlehtone]

I have no idea why they've started singling out my traders? I'm guessing because my fighter rank is high (veteran 1%)

High rank? See the FAQ
Veteran is rank 10. Veteran 1% has 252-253 combat points. The scale goes up to rank 30, that requires a million points.


No, the combat rank makes no enemies. Individual Pirates can always spawn angry, even when the Pirates at large are non-hostile. Hostile ships might have a slight preference for the player, but not always.

When a ship has chosen a target, it will (with some exceptions) chase and attack the target until the target is no more. (There are two variations of this: for one a ship leaving the sector is "no more", for the other they do follow sector after sector.

If an armed ship is interrupted (being attacked, i.e. hit enough), then it will interrupt its current task, choose the damager as its target and attack. Once the damager is no more, the original task resumes.


If the red Pirates have task to "attack all" and have chased your ship into a Station, they either still "know" that their target is present, or continue attacking other ships. With plenty of blue traffic, they might have a lot to shoot at before drifting elsewhere.

Ships (and combat resolution) behave very differently when you are in the same sector, and when not (aka OOS).

[ubuntufreakdragon]

PAC is more than enough for any freighter including TMs, other weapons are to rare costly and energy requiring.

[Imgran]

With a Perseus, scanning that Pirate base should have been a cakewalk. Run away, until they're strung out in a long line, then engage one-on-one.

Yep, that's what I did in the end!

No TM yet but I'm sold on the idea for sure! Probably going to buy a Zephyrus, what weapons are best for it?

So the pirates are back but in another sector harassing my trader in Teladi Gain, Ceo's Buckzoid, Profit Share and surrounding areas? My trader is level 11 so he drops a load of drones and docks to the nearest station but they just wait outside...

I have no idea why they've started singling out my traders? I'm guessing because my fighter rank is high (veteran 1%) or I pissed them off when I did the Terran plot and killed them off and scanned the base? So, at the moment two of my best traders are docked and the other two are most of the time on standby because of their low rank (4, and 2) so my profitssss have taken a hit

You reap what you sow I guess. The game maybe thinks I know what I'm doing and presumes I have fighter escorts for every trader?

On the plus side, I'm seeing more damaged ships for sale near gates and grab them when I think it's a good deal. And, my since my miner was left unmolested this time he filled the cargo (7000 units) with ore.

1: For the Zephyrus -- I recommend particle accelerator cannons due to its small laser capacitor. In the turrets I pair one PAC and one Mass Driver, that works pretty well against enemy fighters and allows me to use the main guns without fearing that I'm leaving the turrets dry. Once I get access to mass driver ammunition on more than an ad hoc basis I often go full mass driver on my turrets and mount something a bit more expensive in the main guns but with a TM that's pretty optional.

2: All fighter escorts for your trader mean is that you'll be losing fighters if anything heavy comes along. Fighters are FAR more expensive than freighters for the most part. Even the Solano, one of the most cost effective fighters in the game, is still like twice as expensive as a system trader.

Until you have the resources to field multiple m7 frigates, your best response to enemy threats is to have your traders pop their drones and GTFO and deal with any pirate incursions yourself.

3: Are you setting your traders to emergency jump? It's an option in the command menu. You really should ensure your freighters have jump drive and can simply be somewhere else when danger looms. That way you still know where the pirates are but don't have skin in the game. I'd still clear the pirates out of there manually if possible because you want to have that sector open to your freighters, but if your freighters respond to problems in the sector by not being in that sector, that works better than docking up and frees you up to ignore the problem if something more profitable/interesting is occupying your attention.

If you use U-traders your traders will go out of their way to acquire a jump drive and a supply of energy cells, then you can proactively set their command orders so they'll decide to be somewhere else when the pirates come a-knocking. It's part of my necessary prep to make my u-traders properly set-and-forget.

[Imgran]

PAC is more than enough for any freighter including TMs, other weapons are to rare costly and energy requiring.

If you can afford it though, the increased projectile velocity of the Phased Repeater Gun makes it very useful in turrets. It depends on the TM and whether you have the firepower to keep the combat short.

By the by -- given the location you've revealed yourself to be in, Monkspeed, I assume you're working through the OTAS corporate missions. Some very lovely rewards down that mission chain. Including my all-time favorite fighter (at least in TC)

[Bill Huntington]

I hate to say it, Monkspeed. It looks like you're experiencing the consequences of killing too many pirates. That puts your pirate rating very high. Then they respond by attacking you or your traders on sight everywhere in the TC universe. If you want to save this game you need to find a number of pirate missions and do them. And you might not get good ones because of your bad pirate rating. Every pirate base has its own group of ships. They sent them out on mission. With a bad pirate rating most missions will start as red. It'll take time to clear each of them even when you have a good rating. And killing them to get rid of them will make the situation worse. But each mission has a route and will eventually end. And the next mission spawned might be blue and you're safe from an attack from that mission, if you've earned a good pirate rating.


One of the easiest ways to earn rep in the early game is taking Defend Station missions. The opponent is generally pirates or Yaki. You gain rep and fight experience. But you get bad rep with the pirates. You see the consequences now. I'll take those missions if there's defending fighters in a sector, fighters of the sector owner. If you accept the mission, those fighters will kill the opponents for you. They even do it if you leave the sector. You complete the mission but don't lose pirate rep.

You've learned a lot, Monkspeed. You'll put it to good use in your next game.

[Honved]

Your TS with the unwanted "follower" probably needs to be bailed out by something with big guns or missiles. If the pirate is in an M3, you can probably kill it with the Perseus, otherwise if it's an M6 or bigger, you either have to wait until the sector race's security forces show up to deal with the Pirate, or else use bigger missiles than Wasps. Meanwhile, the trader can sit there docked and will be reasonably safe, although it's an investment that's not returning any profit at the moment.

It can be handy to hang onto one M8 bomber later if you manage to bail one in a fight, because they can spam Tomahawk heavy torpedo "salvos" that are a serious threat to even the largest capital ships and stations. One M8 with enough torpedoes can clear a sector of any hostiles, but it may not be cheap to replace that much ammo. At that price, it may be cheaper to buy a Diemos and a full set of shields for it, and just ram the targets.

Wasps are perfect against most M5s and less well shielded M4s, but too weak to really do much to an M3 or M6. There are a couple of unguided "multiple warhead" missiles that rapid-fire like guns, delivering REALLY serious damage if you can hit with enough of the individual warheads. Against an M6 or other large target at close range, that's not too difficult. Single heavy warheads are far too likely to be shot down unless you first spam a few Wasps to distract their defensive turrets. You can also use a couple of Fighter Drones to provide the distraction, then hit the target with a Hornet or other heavy missile.

The problem with Pirates isn't fight rank, it's Pirate reputation. Once you've taken on a few Pirates, the others will increasingly go out of their way to kill you and your stuff. It often pays not to pick on them too heavily, unless you WANT the intense combat-heavy gameplay and corresponding increased salvage and bails. I've played it both ways, and either is viable, but there's no advantage in being on only "semi-bad" terms. No matter how good your reputation is with the Pirates, there will always be a FEW hostile ones that spawn at random.

The Yaki in particular can be very useful to maintain as non-enemies, or even as friends, since for some unfathomable reason they seem to have the only Incendiary Bomb Launcher factories in the game, which are the main weapons used on most M7 Frigates. Their sectors are also good for placing your own contraband factories and other "illicit" activities, where they'll actively defend their sectors against anything that might show up to take out your assets (like stolen ships from "Return" missions), so you don't take a Reputation hit for killing them yourself.

Also be aware that some of the weapons that are overpowered while you're in the same sector (In Sector = IS) are seriously deficient while you're Out of Sector (OOS). The Plasma Burst Generator (flamethrower) normally hits multiple locations simultaneously, doing massive damage even to large ships In Sector, but only does one hit OOS, and therefor isn't particularly effective. The Phase Repeater Gun, which has a high rate of fire and fast bullet speed, only fires once per "round" of combat while OOS, the same as any other weapon, so the lower individual bullet damage makes it nearly useless. Energy consumption isn't calculated, and ammo-base weapons burn through a full ton of ammo in a couple of rounds. Slow-firing big guns like the High Energy Plasma Thrower (HEPT) or Concussion Impulse Generator (CIG) become the preferential weapons for arming your station defenders while you're away, since the chance to hit is totally random, rather than based on the speed of the projectile. Also, why NOT mount all 8 (or whatever fits) forward guns and pack every turret to the max when weapon recharge isn't calculated, and all turrets can fire in a 360 degree arc?