Upkeep mission - how to, please...

[rp198419]

My station is up and running and in the upkeep mission it requires 'extend station with radar'. Unfortunately - as usual - it does not tell you HOW to do this!!

I have looked for options with architect, engineer and the station's cat (humour under pressure!) but I cannot see how to proceed.

Please explain to me. So many have played XR before but some of us have not.

I've looked on YouTube, in the Wiki and everywhere else but these sources only tell me WHAT I can do, not HOW to do it.

A little help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Ezarkal]

First of all, congrats for finishing your first station!
Now, concerning the upkeep missions, keep in mind that they are there to help you optimize the operations, but are not necessary for it. They are merely suggestions. After getting more familiar with the functioning of the station, you will simply want to disable the guidance for many of them.

Here's a brief answer to most of what you might encounter.

1- Assign manager/defense officer/specialist:
You proceed the exact same way than you do for assigning them to ships.
Managers/DO are essentials. Specialists are bonus only (and hard to find).

2- Assign cargo drones. There are two ways to proceed here:
a- Look in the manager's window (select the manager in the station window and hit "4" or whatever equivalent for VR or gamepad). You should see something like a "supply" option somewhere. Select it and press 4. You can then ask your manager to place an order for most types of drones. It will create trade offers in the trade window for you or NPC traders to interact with. I never use that method.
b- Take one of your ships, ask him to buy drones. Comm your ship, select new order -> transfer wares -> select from list -> select your station. You can then ask him to transfer the drones to the station. Careful here, it should be a drop-down menu where you should have up to 4 options. You will want to pick the one that says "equip drones".
(Oh, and the "5 drones" they are asking for is well and good, but I find stations operate better with at the very least 15-30 drones, depending on the type of wares they produce.)

3- Extend with module
Comm your station, ask to talk to the architect. The first option should bring you to the build list. From there, you will be able to select new modules you want to add. The radar is usually at the bottom of the list. You can also use this menu to repair the station or add any weapons that weren't added upon building. Once your radar dish is built, you can go to the manager's window mentioned earlier and change the station's operating zone to "system" (or "galaxy" if you have the mod for it)

4- Assign ship:
Comm the ship(s) you want to assign, select the "assign to new superior" option, select the station from the list, then the NPC you want to assign the ship to. (Manager for trading/mining, DO for defense and architect for getting construction materials)

Good luck!

[Ezarkal]

Here's a bit more details on the 4 options you get while transferring drones. It has confused people in the past (me first and foremost), and it will do so again in the future (especially with the new VR users). It's not complicated, you just have to pay attention.

Basically, you will often be in the situation where a capship A will have drones stored in it's cargo hold, as well as drones equipped for it's own operations. And it will have the option to transfer the drones to it's trading partner B (ship or station) either as cargo or as equipped drones. So the 4 options goes this way:

1: A transfer to B from cargo to cargo (unnamed)
2: A transfer to B from cargo to equipment (equip drones)
3: A transfer to B from equipment to cargo (Store in cargo)
4: A transfer to B from equipment to equipment (Transfer drone)

(The names may differ a bit, as I'm going from my memory right now, but it should be the gist of it.)

So in if you completed a transfer, but can't find your equipped drones anywhere, then the chances are you just picked the wrong option. Just to the reversed transfer and start over.

[rp198419]

Ezarkal, thank you yet again. Alas, I suspect that this will not be the last time I request your help. Seriouosly though, thank you so much.

I really do love this game but, and this is a point the devs should take on board, I do get the feeling that they have rather assumed that the only people who will be playing this game are those who have played the others in the X series.

Having said that, Sparky has been pretty good and helpful.

To you my friend, my thanks; how nice it would be if all forums were as pleasant and helpful as this one.

[Ezarkal]

I do get the feeling that they have rather assumed that the only people who will be playing this game are those who have played the others in the X series.

I often got this impression as well. However, looking at it with a bit of distance, all of the game is an addition of small simple mechanics. XR is a bit worse because the user interface is far from optimal, at least compared to the little bits I remember from the older games. (I won't get into more details here. There are loads of threads about it on the main forum, and the matter is currently being looked into as far as X4 is concerned.)

Try some stuff, look around on the forum or the wiki, ask questions. The game is pretty complete. Just not always intuitive.

We're glad to help.

[Fenhris]

Stations are made up of modules and each module have a specific order they have to be build in.

When you first order your CV to build a station he will build the module A1.
After that you can now expand your station with Module A2 (usually the same type as A1), B1, C1, D1, E1 and sometimes even F1.

You can considder each letter a sort of line with similar production capabilities for each stage.

Now I have not build in XR for some time, and have not finished my first station in XRVR yet, as there is absolutely NO Reinforced Metal Plating in the universe I play in. But based on memory a Solar Energy Array should have roughly these modules:

A1 Energy Cell Fab (First module to be build when you order your CV to build the station
A2 Energy Cell Fab (Available once the first module is build)
A3 Energy Storage (Maybe Targon Tracer, dont remember, but available once A2 has been build)
B1 Energy Cell Fab (Available once A1 has been build)
B2 Energy Cell Fab (Available once B1 has been build)
B3 Energy Cell Storage (Maybe Targon Tracer, available once B2 has been build)
C1 Energy Storage (Available once A1 has been build)
C2 Energy storage (Available once C1 has been build)
D1 Targon Tracer (available once A1 has been build)
D2 Targon Tracer (available once D1 has been build)
E1 Sensor Array (not sure its called that, but its not called radar as I remember, making it harder to find . Available once A1 has been build

Well, as said, based on memory (and my memory is less than perfect), but hopefully this will give you an idea of how things are working when building stations.

[Ezarkal]

[...] as there is absolutely NO Reinforced Metal Plating in the universe I play in[...]

Here's a tip on that:

Spoiler

Show

If that becomes an issue that needs solving, you will want to spot the stations that usually produce these wares, scan them to get info on their production modules and see what's wrong. They might simply be short on supplies, which can give you some pretty profitable deals.