X3 terran conflict - Acquiring my first Freight ship and capturing

MumboJumbo · 17 Jul 2011 at 21:13

Well I said I wouldn't buy it and I ended up doing it anyway. Having fun but I have come across a problem that google doesn't seem to have answers on.

How does one get freight ships? They are all very expensive and I can't get that much money together without trading in the first place. I've been looking for pirate ones that I might manage to capture but can't find any.

I've been trying to capture some ships for money but am not having much luck as I can't find anywhere where there are low level pirate/xenon ships to capture so only managed to get a few, though almost all my money has come from them. So suggestions on that would be good.

Overall I have 850k so suggestions on how to spend that would be welcome. I kind of need a decent fighting ship, I have a saber that I started with and it doesn't cut it and a iguana vanguard but it's weapons run the power down so fast so I need to buy some new ones for that but don't have rep to get them yet.

Cheers.

:EDIT:

I also bought a scanner in the hope that I might be able to scan a pirate freighter and be able to capture that so suggestions welcomed on that.

I also have the ability to store 10 marines and have a bio whatsit so I can get decent ones however haven't yet so I could use that method for taking over ships I guess. Not sure how expensive marines are.

I also have an enhanced Pericles and am unsure if I should sell it. I stripped it of all it's weapons but it has some decent stats if I upgraded it and only sells for 43k when stripped.

MumboJumbo · 17 Jul 2011 at 21:46

Appears my bioscanner doesn't work in the trade menu I can't see the stars of marines. humm.

Can I steal other factions ships without them getting really mad? I presume it takes more than blowing up 10 of their ships or capturing them to make them hate me? I'm looking to find some lone ships to capture with marines maybe.

:EDIT:

managed to get me another one of those dukes transporters (hermes) so I guess I will put that to use. Shame, the one I had before came with shields, this one hasn't.

Torquar · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:57

There are a number of "free" abandoned ships floating around out there, waiting to be acquired

.

If you don't mind a bit of spoilerness theres a list here:

http://x3tc.roguey.co.uk/spoilers/freeships.php

And a sector map here:

http://eng.x3tc.ru/x3_tc_map/

MumboJumbo · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:25

Yeah i've already collected two but I only took the ones close to me, I hate traveling across the map. I just tryed to go back to my starting area and got half way there and got destroyed. Dumbly didn't save within the last hour because I was busy trying to remotely trade so I lost everything I did.

Also can someone explain to me why my best buy/sell isn't working remotely? I have trading mk 1 and 2 and the best buy/sell add ons. I can do it manualy but not use best buy/sell. Cheers.

Getting really fed up with the random deaths in this like one of my ships driving it's self into an asteroid and killing it's self when it was meant to be following me.

tibbsey · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:45

I think Best Buy/Sell is only useful/use-able if you have a complex.

Capturing ships is hard(ish) in vanilla and expensive(ish) to start doing.
NPC pilots in ships larger than M3's will not abandon their ship, so the only way to get these is through boarding. There are several good guides for this on the Egosoft forums.

I've taken the easier option for boarding and got a couple of mods for it. One adds the ability to teleport over a computer hacking device (once the ship shields are down), this then hacks the ship computer and makes it yours, much easier than the vanilla way (buy marines, train marines, shoot ship shields, launch marines, hope they get through the hull, hope they fight through the decks, hope that they hack the computer core).

The autopilot is not to be trusted. Again there's a good guide on the Egosoft forums that explains why the autopilot is rubbish (basically it's hugely complicated and when you speed up time it becomes even more hugely complicated).
If you have ships following you and you're at 10x speed, chances are they will die before you reach your destination. I don't have any ships following me for this reason (got a few doing complex trading runs, a dozen or so docked at various stations waiting for me to need the backup and a couple of unique ones that I'm just not risking being undocked).

Marshstyles · 18 Jul 2011 at 00:40

with 850k you should be able to get a mercury from omicron lyrea and after you do a few trade runs with it you should be able to get you investment back.

It was so long ago when i started. I also got a solar plant too.

now a days i have massive complex hubs and 20 or so universal traders and make about 2m per minute in SATA and a massive army of ships.

I'm just going to just moving on to caping captial ships as my marines are just coming up to 5* (all 60 of them).

I didnt think you could cap (by marines) a m3/m4/m5 unless it had an upgrade, the cargo life suppost system.

The only ships ive capped so far are TS ships but it still cost me a few marines (at low level).

fact is they are useless when you first get them and you have to spend MILLIONS training each one to get them to a good level.

Your best bet is to scare the pilot out the ship but taking the shields down really quickly but you will still have to pay for repairs.

personally i would just do a couple of manual trade runs yourself in a mercury then get yourself a SPP (solar power plant) and another mercury to balance import and exports. OL,TC,BHS are all good places to put a SPP as there are crystal fabs only a sector or 2 away.

tbh u need to get to legend home to get the jump drive and also get to PTNI HQ for the tradesoftware mk3
then start rollling in the credits.

as for auto pilot crashing into things just tell them to dock at a station, ive not had a problem doing this.

Best buy/sell locator isnt brilliant tbh. its normally better if you just look yourself (clicking info on the station tells you the prices its paying) but i never really looking into using it. i let my ships do that bit.

MumboJumbo · 18 Jul 2011 at 00:43

tibbsey said:
I think Best Buy/Sell is only useful/use-able if you have a complex.

Capturing ships is hard(ish) in vanilla and expensive(ish) to start doing.
NPC pilots in ships larger than M3's will not abandon their ship, so the only way to get these is through boarding. There are several good guides for this on the Egosoft forums.

I've taken the easier option for boarding and got a couple of mods for it. One adds the ability to teleport over a computer hacking device (once the ship shields are down), this then hacks the ship computer and makes it yours, much easier than the vanilla way (buy marines, train marines, shoot ship shields, launch marines, hope they get through the hull, hope they fight through the decks, hope that they hack the computer core).

The autopilot is not to be trusted. Again there's a good guide on the Egosoft forums that explains why the autopilot is rubbish (basically it's hugely complicated and when you speed up time it becomes even more hugely complicated).
If you have ships following you and you're at 10x speed, chances are they will die before you reach your destination. I don't have any ships following me for this reason (got a few doing complex trading runs, a dozen or so docked at various stations waiting for me to need the backup and a couple of unique ones that I'm just not risking being undocked).

Thankyou for the info, I did just discover I needed the complex on the ship with the best buy also. Now I'm trying to work out how this "remote best buy" works. Does it just buy the cheapest thing in that sector then?

I got really lucky and managed to capture this epic trader, it upgrades to hold like 4.5k and takes 5x25 shields. Not too slow either for a TS. Must have saved me at least a few million there.

I might look into mods to make the game more accessible later. I'm picking it up pretty fast and getting somewhere I think, just took a while to get my self some TS's I could use, the other only holds 1k and so I think its only really suited to be a hauler for a factory. Have watched and read countless guides now.

Humm I see, can't really not use autopilot at the moment as I need the support. Shall just have to start saving more often and stop in every few gates. Also got my self some salvage.

What would you recommend as an affordable upgrade to a saber? I suspect I won't be able to catch anything worth having till I get something that can take a beating. I'm also finding it impossible to find places with weapons and shields in stock. My big TS doesn't have shields because I can't currently find any! Hoping a near by shield factory will turn up soon but they often refuse to sell to me.

MumboJumbo · 18 Jul 2011 at 01:15

Ok then so no stores have any goods. Is this a bug? Seems bloody stupid!

Shadez · 18 Jul 2011 at 09:35

Another option is turn pirate

its what i do.

Pick on freighters in pirate space, boron freighters are easy they have no guns so cant shoot back.

Careful you dont cripple your rep with a race is can be a night mare getting rep back when they all hate you and shoot you on site.

Shadez · 18 Jul 2011 at 09:55

8igdave said:
Thankyou for the info, I did just discover I needed the complex on the ship with the best buy also. Now I'm trying to work out how this "remote best buy" works. Does it just buy the cheapest thing in that sector then?

Assuming your talking about stations, It will send the ship to the closest station with stock at or below your buy price. Goto adjust station menu to alter these settings, you can also set a maximum range the freighter will travel for goods.

It is also possible to equip a freighter with a jump drive, once you have it goto the command menu to set it up.

8igdave said:
I might look into mods to make the game more accessible later. I'm picking it up pretty fast and getting somewhere I think, just took a while to get my self some TS's I could use, the other only holds 1k and so I think its only really suited to be a hauler for a factory. Have watched and read countless guides now.

only 1k, its either a TP(passanger transport) or it needs its cargo bay upgrading. Dock it at any equipment dock or traiding station and max it out.

8igdave said:
Humm I see, can't really not use autopilot at the moment as I need the support. Shall just have to start saving more often and stop in every few gates. Also got my self some salvage.

people moan about the auto pilot but its not to bad, just keep an eye on it. If its taking you to close to a station, asteroid or another ship, watch out. This only tends to be a problem if you are using seta.

8igdave said:
What would you recommend as an affordable upgrade to a saber? I suspect I won't be able to catch anything worth having till I get something that can take a beating. I'm also finding it impossible to find places with weapons and shields in stock. My big TS doesn't have shields because I can't currently find any! Hoping a near by shield factory will turn up soon but they often refuse to sell to me.

Lots of stations sell 25mw shields check split (and parinid?) space if they wont sell to you do some missions to increase your rep.

As for a upgrade, the Nova Raider (omicron lyre) is a good general purpose fighter good for starting off. Lots of other options out there if you can capture one the pirate blastclaw prototype is a very powerful ship.

Another option is continue the terran plot they give you lots of free ships including a M3 and a M6(Dont sell the M6 its unique)

8igdave said:
Ok then so no stores have any goods. Is this a bug? Seems bloody stupid!

Stations have no stock for 1 of 2 reasons.

1) They dont have the resources to build any new stuff (proffits opportunity sell them what they need and they will start producing, some wares take a long time to manufacture so dont expect immediate results)

2) They have sold out, you arnt the only person in the universe buying and selling stuff

Blue Cypher · 18 Jul 2011 at 10:08

This game is awesome, i am playing another run through now when i can only buy Argon ships and factories, Quite hard... got me a SPP in Omicron Lyre and its making me some decent creds, I have never gone the trader route myself so i have always wondered if those universal trader ships are worth the creds, i mean is trading MK3 software that good?

Shadez · 18 Jul 2011 at 10:14

Blue Cypher said:
This game is awesome, i am playing another run through now when i can only buy Argon ships and factories, Quite hard... got me a SPP in Omicron Lyre and its making me some decent creds, I have never gone the trader route myself so i have always wondered if those universal trader ships are worth the creds, i mean is trading MK3 software that good?

Yes they can turn nice tidy profffitsss. Depending on where you start them off they take awhile to level up, but once they start trading in high tech goods the profffitss will flow. Just make sure you always have at least 1m in the bank or they cant buy and you will lose proffitss.

Blue Cypher · 18 Jul 2011 at 10:18

Shadez said:
Yes they can turn nice tidy profffitsss. Depending on where you start them off they take awhile to level up, but once they start trading in high tech goods the profffitss will flow. Just make sure you always have at least 1m in the bank or they cant buy and you will lose proffitss.

Spoken like a true Teladi trader

cheers i will have to invest now, onnly got 9 mil credits though and i was hoping to upgrade from a centaur... but the cerberus is 45 mil!!!

Oh and by the way to the OP, the more missions and higher rep you have for a race, the more money they pay out, i get about 500K per fighter mission now so if you do some trade missions for a particular race it can be a nice way to build up money so you can have the credits for the bigger personal trades

Shadez · 18 Jul 2011 at 10:37

Blue Cypher said:
Spoken like a true Teladi trader cheers i will have to invest now, onnly got 9 mil credits though and i was hoping to upgrade from a centaur... but the cerberus is 45 mil!!!

Oh and by the way to the OP, the more missions and higher rep you have for a race, the more money they pay out, i get about 500K per fighter mission now so if you do some trade missions for a particular race it can be a nice way to build up money so you can have the credits for the bigger personal trades

only 500k.

I dont get out of bed for less than 1M, Assassination missions are the best for proffitss

Blue Cypher · 18 Jul 2011 at 10:40

Shadez said:
only 500k.

I dont get out of bed for less than 1M, Assassination missions are the best for proffitss

I havent been playing long enough, i do get some missions that give me a mil or more but they arent that regular.

CaptainRAVE · 18 Jul 2011 at 10:41

Blue Cypher said:
This game is awesome, i am playing another run through now when i can only buy Argon ships and factories, Quite hard... got me a SPP in Omicron Lyre and its making me some decent creds, I have never gone the trader route myself so i have always wondered if those universal trader ships are worth the creds, i mean is trading MK3 software that good?

My first goal is always to get about 20 UTs up and running with MK3 software and jumpdrives. Easiest when you are starting as a humble trader and trade Ecells and ore in the Ore Belt and to surrounding systems.

I will then explore all the sectors and stations while they bring in profits.

I will then save up for some factory complexes.

These days, however, I have discovered the Nvidium for mining in Kingdom's End and make a few billion in a couple of days (I don't recommend this as it will spoil your game if you are playing for the first time).

Have been tempted to get back into this game, but can't face starting from scratch again. Will wait for the new game coming out

Evilsod · 18 Jul 2011 at 12:10

Some day I'm gonna make an attempt at playing this game...

This thread is making absolutely no sense what-so-ever

CaptainRAVE · 18 Jul 2011 at 12:20

Evilsod said:
Some day I'm gonna make an attempt at playing this game...

This thread is making absolutely no sense what-so-ever

It took me a number of attempts (over about 4 years, plus 3 sequels) and then a month of daily playing/modding just to get a vague idea what to do in this game. Steep learning curve doesn't even begin to explain it - of course, it is hugely rewarding when you have actually built up an empire and watch it take care of itself.

Cycrow · 18 Jul 2011 at 12:35

Blue Cypher said:
I havent been playing long enough, i do get some missions that give me a mil or more but they arent that regular.

the money you get is party linked to your fight status.

so if you increase your fighting rank, the money you get goes up.

the start of the game the rewards are fairly low, but they do start to rapidly increase after you've been playing for awhile

wnb · 18 Jul 2011 at 12:47

I started last week, as mentioned before I traded ecells and ore untill I had enough for my first universal Trader. I had 6 up and running then I started building a 1mhz shield complex in Argon Prime which is up and running. I have started building a second Shield complex in Omicron Lyrea both are doing well and have expanded the complexes to include a few bits and bobs that I need for my fleet of ships. Also I have started building ore mines for the hub mission, fair way off doing it yet but by the time I start the misssion it should be easy to complete with the infrustructure in place.

Forgot to mention I have a couple of wheat farms in Herons Nebula which are also making me a tidy profit.