Challenge ideas?

[Hwitvlf]

Anyone have ideas for rules to make and entertaining playthrough challenge?

I've done:
Only friends with Pirates. No buying/building ships. Only ships from one faction.
I was thinking of trying no capital ships next.

[Sovereign01]

Anyone have ideas for rules to make and entertaining playthrough challenge?

I've done:
Only friends with Pirates. No buying/building ships. Only ships from one faction.
I was thinking of trying no capital ships next.

Getting blueprints for every ship in the game is an interesting one because it means juggling the reps of multiple factions and a combination of boarding and buying each one. I've gotten most of the ships that way, there's just a long queue at the HQ to reverse-engineer them all. The last one I want to get is the Woden- because it doesn't spawn (or I've gotten extraordinarily unlucky on having another Odin spawn whenever I've blown one up) the only way is to increase my Terran rep enough so that I can buy one, as well as the Aegir while I'm at it.

[iXenon]

I've done:
Only friends with Pirates. No buying/building ships. Only ships from one faction.

How do you decide "OK, I'm done! Have to start new game!"
Do you have some criteria for that? In past I ended with playing once I get something I can't manage with and after many attempts it gets boring. For example, I started with X-Tension and was used to play with M3/4/5 ships. When capital ships appeared in the game it was hard for me to withstand enemy fleets. Now, in FL me at last understand how it works, so there should be something else to prevent me from playing. A lot of work on my job, for instance.

I was thinking of trying no capital ships next.

From my point, X3 Universe isn't balanced well as StarCraft where any unit is useful for the whole gameplay. In X3 it's easy to get the situation when 'small' ships are almost useless. When I finished the plot I decided to create a fleet of M3+ but quickly realized that they are being killed very fast by enemy forces. I ended with idea that even fleet of M6 makes no sense at all. I think the problem is the player rating. If you have small one the foes you can find have weak forces but once you increased it they appear with something really powerful. I used some fast M3 and had only Nemesis when Xenons Q and I started to appear in my sectors. Somehow I found and bought enough rockets and got rid of these 'unwanted guests' but this took me a lot of time.
So, I think it almost impossible to not use both capital ships and big ships but it may be possible to neglect capital ships only, as you mentioned. And yeah, it will be a challenge.

[Hwitvlf]

I don't think I've ever gotten every ship blueprint, but I am trying in this playthrough. The OTAS M8 was the hardest so far.

The last one I want to get is the Woden

I got my Woden from an "assassinate ATF" mission issued by pirates. You have to be at a high combat rank of course.

How do you decide "OK, I'm done! Have to start new game!" Do you have some criteria for that?

I love challenges so I usually quit when I become too strong and everything is easy. One time in AP, I built fleets of 10 Valhallas each to patrol each Xenon sector- trying to prevent my UTs from getting destroyed. Not much of a challenge left when you reach that point.

From my point, X3 Universe isn't balanced well as StarCraft where any unit is useful for the whole gameplay. In X3 it's easy to get the situation when 'small' ships are almost useless. ... I think the problem is the player rating.

Totally agree. One of the reasons I love the Litcube's Universe mod is because smaller ships never become obsolete. He accomplished this by lowering damage output and weapon/shield generator speed. Small ships can take more hits and have time to retreat before getting flamed. A lone capital is strong, but can't stand up to a fighter wing's sustained fire forever.

[Argent Valcendre]

An ironman: play as far as you can without dying.

[iXenon]

An ironman: play as far as you can without dying.

This hardcore mod? No, no way! I died many times in result of encountering an asteroid in dark sector space or because of other stupid reasons, so it will be just wasting of time.

[Sovereign01]

An ironman: play as far as you can without dying.

This hardcore mod? No, no way! I died many times in result of encountering an asteroid in dark sector space or because of other stupid reasons, so it will be just wasting of time.

FYI, it was one of the game starts in AP after being requested by players, they call it "dead is dead". A waste of time IMO

I got my Woden from an "assassinate ATF" mission issued by pirates. You have to be at a high combat rank of course.

Do you remember which sector you were given the mission? I might just have to try that

[Hwitvlf]

An ironman: play as far as you can without dying.

This would change my play-style drastically. I think I would end up mostly staying out of battles and using autoplot fleets. Might be a fun to try fighting that way.

Do you remember which sector you were given the mission? I might just have to try that

Mercenaries Rift and the Woden spawned in Maelstrom West gate. I think the assassinate missions can spawn with any NPC who is an ATF enemy. I go back and forth through a gate to force more missions to spawn, and there is a mission-type filter in FL. You can cheese and save/reload before accepting the mission until a Woden shows up.

[Sovereign01]

An ironman: play as far as you can without dying.

This would change my play-style drastically. I think I would end up mostly staying out of battles and using autoplot fleets. Might be a fun to try fighting that way.

Do you remember which sector you were given the mission? I might just have to try that

Mercenaries Rift and the Woden spawned in Maelstrom West gate. I think the assassinate missions can spawn with any NPC who is an ATF enemy. I go back and forth through a gate to force more missions to spawn, and there is a mission-type filter in FL. You can cheese and save/reload before accepting the mission until a Woden shows up.

So it doesn't depend on proximity to Terran space? I was going to start in the pirate sectors around Brennan's Triumph due to its link to Terran space. I have an Arrow that I use to race between Teladi sectors to pick up taxi missions that offer agents, and the occasional station defence.

[Hwitvlf]

You might be right that proximity matters; I never noticed that. I probably had Brennan's Triumph and Maelstrom connected with the Hub.

[Sovereign01]

You might be right that proximity matters; I never noticed that. I probably had Brennan's Triumph and Maelstrom connected with the Hub.

I was going to ask what your hub connections were as I thought they might have something to do with it. I just hope my notoriety isn't a problem...

EDIT 1: Yep, state agent. Looks like I won't be doing any missions for those guys!

EDIT 2: Spoke too soon, found the pirate base in Brennan's Triumph Alpha let me dock and it offered a ATF assassination mission Time to see what the target will be flying. Looks like it's an Aegir, seems it's semi-random what it's escorted by. First time, it was another Aegir and a handful of fighters. Second, a Vidar with fighters. Looks like I need to raise my fight rank to get a bigger target.

[Hwitvlf]

Yes. I think Combat rank and mission difficulty decide the target. If you're getting a single M7 target for a 'very difficult' mission, you have quite a ways to go. M1s only spawn after ranking up from M2/M7x3 targets.

I noticed a Yaki-target assassination mission far from Yaki space so maybe you don't have to be near the target faction's territory.

[Sovereign01]

It was either easy or average, definitely wasn't hard/very hard. It was the first mission on the first station I came to in Brennan's Triumph Alpha. Much like how I race through Teladi sectors in my arrow to collect agents for diplomacy functions I should do likewise for pirates. I think my Split rep is still holding back my Terran one I'm stuck one below what I need to buy the Woden since it doesn't spawn no matter how many Odins I destroy.

I should go clear some more Xenon sectors with an M7M to raise my combat rank. Killing a few Xenon Qs in an M2+ at a time isn't going to do it. My rank is currently halfway through battlemaster.

Just accepted a "hard" pirate mission against the ATF, this time it's three Aegirs that spawn. Need to kill some more Xenon!

[rudi_pioneer]

Being ally with Yaki is lots of fun because you need to rely on game mechanics to get stuff you'd normally take for granted.

[Hwitvlf]

Another fun aspect of being allied with Yaki is that your traders have no competition in Yaki sectors. When I've done this, I take every Yaki 'build station' mission I can and their sectors end up being great profit makers.

[Sovereign01]

I used to make nice with the Yaki in AP instead of shooting them on sight like I did in TC, but because of the rep system the Yaki hate me once again. But since I've boarded every Yaki ship there is, the only thing left they have to offer is the disruptor missile fab, which I'm not interested in due to never using that missile.

[Hwitvlf]

I used to make nice with the Yaki in AP instead of shooting them on sight like I did in TC, but because of the rep system the Yaki hate me once again.

The Yaki and Dukes are definitely the cannon fodder of the FL world. That's what makes it a fun challenge to ally with them like rudi_pioneer said. You have to rely on things like Diplomacy, Explorers Guild and Piracy Command Software to slowly build your empire. If you make a complex in Yaki space and offer good prices, the Yaki patrols will often destroy incoming freighters and you can loot the dropped goods for profitssss.

[Sovereign01]

I used to make nice with the Yaki in AP instead of shooting them on sight like I did in TC, but because of the rep system the Yaki hate me once again.

The Yaki and Dukes are definitely the cannon fodder of the FL world. That's what makes it a fun challenge to ally with them like rudi_pioneer said. You have to rely on things like Diplomacy, Explorers Guild and Piracy Command Software to slowly build your empire. If you make a complex in Yaki space and offer good prices, the Yaki patrols will often destroy incoming freighters and you can loot the dropped goods for profitssss.

I did that in AP, I built a couple of huge complexes in Savage Spur and Weaver's tempest, producing Commonwealth and Terran weaponry, respectively and a couple of smaller complexes in the sectors in between.

[iXenon]

How about such a challenge - "produce/sell illegal goods only"?

[Hwitvlf]

I think I'll try that next playthrough: only get income from trading illegal goods. I suspect you could make a good bit of income from the Blackmarket mechanic in FL.