Protecting the Lemmings?

[OrionTaltos]

My vessels set to Buy/Sell for stations, handled by a station manager, and UTs all have no self preservation motives. They'll directly charge through hostile vessels with no fear... and die. If a Q takes out a satellite, I'll lose at least 3 of my 5 UTs within the next hour. Their own scanners appear to be meaningless when they see a Q or K.
What are tips to keep them safe?

I specifically avoid most combat missions and sometimes even finishing off kills personally to keep my Combat Rank from spiraling upward like happens usually in X3s. Already where my Trade/Combat ranks are at has been pretty punishing with K's. I can absorb an occasional loss, but it can get bad enough that I need to reload and take preventative actions. I'm positioned primarily in Goner space, so I did bugger myself in having to deal with Scale Plate, Black Hole, and Grand Exchange's Xenons.

I've worked to be more active with deploying my Brigantine and the trio of M6s when my network warns me. Otherwise, they're defending my main checkpoints. I can't let them go far and wide as I expect a K's fleet would eat them without me. So they can't cover for the UTs.

Do I need to invest in beefier freighters and give the current ramshackle ones to new sector traders? And/or should I be more setup to take the losses and replace?

[BrigandPhantos77]

My personal practices, use the Global Blacklist profiles. Block out trouble sectors. Make sure you set it in each ships command console . Always replace satellites when they get popped.

I make a profile for each region I have stations in. You do not have to. This is a personal OCD issue for me.

Best defensive security practices, use destroyers/frigates for security. OOS fighters are useless and will just get destroyed quickly. No way to prevent it. I do use them to pop Duke's transports that spawn in my sectors.

Most common trouble sectors are 18 Billion (Don't have to worry much here, Teladi defend it good.) Scale Plate Green (PTNI and Nyana's Hideout.) Black Hole Sun (this and previous sector is a Xenon highway), Grand Exchange (all - and they like to wander towards Midnight Star and further if left unchecked). Getsue Fune and Menaleus Paradise.
This previous group are Xenon trouble sectors.

Pirates and Yaki can spawn anywhere. So can some Xenon ships. You can predict which by remembering who you last blew up. As long as you keep ample security you should be fine, again see above about destroyers and gunboat type frigates. They seem to spawn more in less protected sectors.

The game wages a war of attrition on the player. Be aware of that. Most ships respawn elsewhere as soon as destroyed. Rarely have I seen commonwealth military or rapid response ships defending there home territories. In fact, the only times I tend to notice them, are when they are shooting at me and following me endlessly. They seem more focused on keeping the player in check. Hey, it's there funerals.

If your going to use lasertowers. Best to use in large groups. They can get destroyed easily when facing groups of fighters.

Save often. Get the unlimited salvage insurance, it is worth it.

[OrionTaltos]

The game wages a war of attrition on the player. Be aware of that.

That's a super good point that I should remember. The X Universe isn't peaceful

I've definitely found fighters are a waste in OOS (which feels sad). My corvettes are pretty wimpy without a destroyer to tank. I know opposing fighters can be a problem because their losses don't matter to them. Xenon and Strong Arms fleets can end up with plenty.

So there is a set number of for each of the hostile ships (depending on rank and such)? There are a couple of Ks that have outlived their fleets but are kind of lost in sectors they plowed into. Holy Vision Zeta and Priest Rings (I've scattered extra sats around this one to keep from letting it pick them all off). I'll leave them be as my marines are still quite a way from being able to deal with Xenon level boarding and killing them just leads to a new visitor


I'll need to build up funds to start producing laser towers. The universe has been really short on them. And work at getting some heavier ships to defend. Occasionally, they'll jump past my one destroyer or I have to drag it out of place to do something.

Thanks for the advice!

[Sovereign01]

Thanks to the gift of jump beacons I haven't had any need to mess around with UTs for profitssss, by the time I did I had already built a huge space fuel/weed complex in Akeela's Beacon beta. The Xenon appear now and then, they ignore the complex and instead attack the customers who turn up, which doesn't dampen their enthusiasm in the slightest. So it might be an idea to set up shop in a non-race sector and let your customers come to you.

[BrigandPhantos77]

So there is a set number of for each of the hostile ships (depending on rank and such)? There are a couple of Ks that have outlived their fleets but are kind of lost in sectors they plowed into. Holy Vision Zeta and Priest Rings (I've scattered extra sats around this one to keep from letting it pick them all off). I'll leave them be as my marines are still quite a way from being able to deal with Xenon level boarding and killing them just leads to a new visitor

I believe so, though in the past quantities of big targets were tied to the number of Capitals (M1, M2) that the player had. You'd have to ask the guys responsible for FL to see if they kept that alive. Fight Rank will determine the quality you face for sure.

I put capitals into sectors where my "flemmings" like to roam. This seems to deter the game's deployment of hostiles a little bit. I view it as a hidden security strength stat for sectors. I'm probably just imagining it though.

I'll need to build up funds to start producing laser towers. The universe has been really short on them. And work at getting some heavier ships to defend. Occasionally, they'll jump past my one destroyer or I have to drag it out of place to do something.

Easiest methods for money making, exploits not included, selling Nividium that you mine. Set for sale at the Spacelab HQ, set the price to 1 less than average. Buying / Repairing / Selling used ships is a good way. The more damaged the better. Selling bailed ships. The armored transports will usually net you from 6 to 8 million per ship for selling. I pick on Duke's Athena's personally. Piracy is doable. Selling retrieval ships, especially M7s is very profitable. Teladi make much profitsss off the shrikes I send to shipyard in Ianamus Zura. Even if I didn't give backs to Teladi mission giver in 18 billion.

Tip on TLs
- Ozias; great for moving TS/TP ships. But nothing else ship wise.
- Pirate Mobile Pirate Station (Mini unarmed Carrier 24 fighter hangar ).
- Mammoth (Can equip PBCs) biggest cargobay aside from the Terran version. Not gonna include in list because you have to unlock there area. Ozias is second to this in cargo size.
- Hospitals and Arena's the majority of the time are TLs. Easy for boarding. Best start is the Pirates TL.

Tip on boarding
- If you get a Missile Frigate, most ships are a breeze. For every GJ of shield, you need 3 hammers for shield reduction. I use 50 fighter drones for each encounter. Shoot hammers, deploy drones, fire some flails. You can recall drones once marines are on board the target. I have shift+8 mapped to attack my target and shift+0 to return to homebase. Best practice, launch pods while target is about 16km away, with flails inbound, and fighter drones engaged. Should only need to launch 5 pods per M1 or M2. 4 pods for M7 unless it's another M7M, then you can use up to 28 marines(6 pods except OTAS. only use 5 pods).

Combat rank tip
- To get credit on a kill that your remote ships kill, you must have shot at it a little.

Red Ranks
- When you reach 0% on rep with anyone with 2 red bars(meaning going to 3 red bars), there is no penalty for raising it slightly to keep them from shooting you. From what I can tell, this applies to diplomat, or turning in a mission. So if you want to run a very hard mission without penalty, this is the time.

Getting Terran targets without unlocking there space
- Pirate sector combat missions. I've seen them come up as an opponent in Moo Keyes Revenge. The station was Boron. (Maybe it was the neighbor sector )

Thanks for the advice!

Anytime. Lot's of veteran players in here. Most of us friendly. Some of us lurk a lot too.

Crap I think I hit you with a ton of tips this time. All stuff that came to mind.

[BrigandPhantos77]

Almost forgot. Didn't want to edit my previous post. But when selling the Nividium at the Spacelab HQ. Set it as a product, not tradeable. I've had some traders buy it then immediately sell it back to me.

I've wanted to stuff a "Teladi Buzzard" in there cargobays when they do this.

Cargobay now contains "Buzzard Vanguard"

[OrionTaltos]

Thanks to the gift of jump beacons I haven't had any need to mess around with UTs for profitssss, by the time I did I had already built a huge space fuel/weed complex in Akeela's Beacon beta. The Xenon appear now and then, they ignore the complex and instead attack the customers who turn up, which doesn't dampen their enthusiasm in the slightest. So it might be an idea to set up shop in a non-race sector and let your customers come to you.

In my own sectors, I'm okay. I can keep up with them. It's the tentacles of my trade network that is super vulnerable. Ships ignoring the hostiles on their own scanners is what hurts. Any ship that ventures outside of my nest is 120m/s at least. Easily enough to run from big ships in triplex scanner range.

Anytime. Lot's of veteran players in here. Most of us friendly. Some of us lurk a lot too.

Crap I think I hit you with a ton of tips this time. All stuff that came to mind.

Appreciate it all Even though I've spent time with every X3 and later game, I only get so far. I've only had a couple of capital ships and deeper in safe territory. This position I'm in now is challenging, but I'm working on

My Ozais and its baby birds don't have any active work (I'm a little poor) so I set them up to do mining. Previous I needed them to help unload my HQ to move it. Then to grab silicon from mines in a place that needed a TOA Now that huge investment in ship is getting to earn some money. I'm going to be visiting Pirate/Yaki territory to see what they can spare for the cause. If I can get a couple more large ships, I could defend useful sectors outside of my hole.
I do wish that new items would default to Storage and not tradeable. I have to go through the list each time to make sure everything is set correctly because occasionally I open up the HQ to stock up on essentials I'm not producing.

Selling retrieval ships does seem a little dirty, ha. That doesn't hammer reputation? Right now I'm in the delicate dance of keeping the Commonwealth favorable (A few corps really should rethink getting on my bad side if they want to survive trips through the Hub )

[BrigandPhantos77]

Appreciate it all Even though I've spent time with every X3 and later game, I only get so far. I've only had a couple of capital ships and deeper in safe territory. This position I'm in now is challenging, but I'm working on

My Ozais and its baby birds don't have any active work (I'm a little poor) so I set them up to do mining. Previous I needed them to help unload my HQ to move it. Then to grab silicon from mines in a place that needed a TOA Now that huge investment in ship is getting to earn some money. I'm going to be visiting Pirate/Yaki territory to see what they can spare for the cause. If I can get a couple more large ships, I could defend useful sectors outside of my hole.
I do wish that new items would default to Storage and not tradeable. I have to go through the list each time to make sure everything is set correctly because occasionally I open up the HQ to stock up on essentials I'm not producing.

Selling retrieval ships does seem a little dirty, ha. That doesn't hammer reputation? Right now I'm in the delicate dance of keeping the Commonwealth favorable (A few corps really should rethink getting on my bad side if they want to survive trips through the Hub )

I found a plethora of Athena's (Duke driven) to add to my cause in the 2 following pipelines below. Any M6 should do nice to get them to bail. My personal favorite is the Springblossom, but a Centaur or Heavy Nemesis should suffice. Probably easier with an Acinonyx or Skiron though. All depends on your taste I guess.

Spoiler

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Light of Heart or Ceo's Doubt

If your hard up for credits, try using a single Teladi Owl to mine Nividium in these sectors: Just open Navigation, Automated Mining, Set everything but Nividium to no, and choose the desired sector from below.
The Owl is a little pricey, but has a good cargo capacity. Even if it's slow. You can drop it wherever with the Ozias. Send a Armored TS to empty it every soo often.

Spoiler

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Perpetual Sin, Unclaimed Sector (Getsu Fune) each have massive rocks.
Void Alpha, Void Eta
Holy Vision Alpha, Holy Vision Epsilon
They spawn in many of the random claim-able sectors as well, but those asteroids don't seem respawn. (At least not in Akeela's Beacon beta or Dark Water beta.)

Selling a ship doesn't hurt the rep. But acquiring it certainly does for whom you take it from. That being said, just don't attempt piracy on ships in friendly to them space. Then you'll have a problem.

Failing a mission (selling the recovered ship) definitely hurts your rep. But I got max rep with Teladi. So it doesn't really impact me. Just don't kill the police that attempt to retrieve it. This will tank your rep fast. Trick- If your not gonna sell it, dock it. Then send it a jump drive installation kit and energy cells. Cancel the mission while it's docked. Check the sector map for the police spawn by watching. When they appear, and they will appear hostile, close and reopen the sector map. This will reset the hostility to neutral.

If the police have a carrier, it will still launch it fighters, very much hostile to attack the stolen ship. Jump it to a sector past a Xenon sector. The carrier will attempt to fly to where you jumped it to. It will take a direct "fly to" path. It will likely get popped in the Xenon sector. If your going to reverse engineer it, send it directly to PHQ. Once the process starts, the police should despawn. Same as if you sell it to a shipyard or recycle it.

[Sovereign01]

I think for gathering Nividium you have to jump through some extra hoops with NMMC to get the software you need to gather Nividium and obtain the mines. They don't make it easy or cheap to set up such a mining operation. Quite clever really- they don't actually do any mining themselves when they have a monopoly on all the tools needed to do the job