X3:Terran Conflict has arrived

[Shadez]

Ok I dont mind steep learning curves but this is silly.

The interface is impossible and confusing. For example docking at a station and clicking trade... I'd expect a ton of products and merchandise. I get this ridiculous little menu thing hardly displaying anything?

The menu down the side is not too good, communicating with other ships I seem to have to chase them around with the mouse cursor to LEFT click on them to bring up a menu (right click fires weapons....).

Different stations sell different things, you wouldnt expect a power plant to sell raster oil or a cahoona bakery to sell weapons would you. You need to shop at the right store for the stuff you need.

an easy way to target a ship is to bring upi the sector map "." select the ship you want and click "t", job done.

 

[Shadez]

so hows every one getting on i started as a terran and am about 11 game hours in, ranked Fighter cheif, and petty retailer.

Im now flying a fully equiped M3 nova raider, worth about 2.5mill with all the weapons and equipment.

got about 4mill's worth of other assets and a good 5mill in the bank.

 

[Shadez]

Ok so im finally starting to get the idea how how to trade ....so iv started a new game (Mercury trader) ...now im trading in Energy Cells ..buying for 12 and selling for 19 where possible. My plan is to max out its storage...which im not far off but obviously i want to move onto other struff.

So how about this....i buy a Mobile Drilling System, Asteroid Scanner & Ore Collector...and mine the local nebular. My question is. ...with these three items is it possible to scan, break down & store basic ore..then sell it to the local stations that are low on the stuff.... or will i be totally waste of my time?

And whats the profit margin when say compared with Energy Cells?

Yes it can be very profitable, much more profitable than energy runs, you want to mine Nividium if you can find it (selling is can be hard as well easiest way is to buy a basic transport fill it with NV then sell the TS back to the station) or silicone dont bother with ore its the least profitable.

a full load of nvidium could net you a few millions and a silicone ~500k, the only down side is its very time consuming to manually mine stuff. There was a mobile mining script in X3:R dont know if one exists for X3:TC not looked whats available yet.

Just transporting silicone can be a lot more profitable 200-300k per trip, energy is only worth transporting early on when you dont have much cash.

 

[Shadez]

thinking of giving X-series a go, problem is im quite simple. So im gonna struggle learning how to play it. I heard this new one is easier to play. Only thing is im not interested in the campaigns, i just want to do my own things, like build an empire

Do i have to play the campaign or can i just do like the tutorials (if any) then go do what i want eg trading killing pirates and making factories.

If the answer is a yes ill be clicking buy

the answer is yes, although some starts like the terran start you need to follow the first few missions to get permissions to go through Mars inorder to get to the rest of the universe.

 

[Shadez]

Well ive ordered the game off steam, waiting for it to dl.
So where do i begin who should i play as what do i do

The choice is yours, you can play the game any way you want. if you want to jump strait into combat then the Bankrupt assassin, Terran or "what ever the other one is" start are good, if you want to trade then the merchant start is best. What ever start you chose the way you play the game is entirely up to you.

If its a new game why does it carry the X3 tag?

I never could get into the XSeries, not sure why.

Its called X3 because it uses the X3 graphics engine.

 

[Shadez]

Is there a class that has the benefits of a fighter and a merchant?

If your a fighter how do you make your profit?

No difference at all between the starts other than the equipment you start with and your starting reputation with the races.

Lots of ways to make money fighting...

1) Factory defense missions, im starting to see missions that net >1mill now
2) Patrol missions, double proffittsssss if you have a police licence
3) Invasion missions.
4) Selling captured ships.
5) Salvaging the crates left in space after a battle and selling the stuff.
6) Assassination missions
7) Escort missions

Ive already made > 15mill all from combat, going to start setting up some ST\UT traders now.

 

[Shadez]

I am assuming TS class ships cost a lot? Also good to know what that license does, any sectors near terran space that have large amount of pirate activity?

TS's range from a few 100k's to several million, all depends on the type and equipment.

There is a pirate sector to the east of PTNI headquarters and you will find regular Xenon parols in Black hole sun and scale plate green.

Failing that you will get lots of pirates spawning if you take station defense missions

 

[Shadez]

Do you reckon they'll make the next cut an mmo - i'd love to see that.

Well this is the last X series game they are making so it wouldn't surprise me if MMOu is next.

 

[Shadez]

Ah will check them out, I am sitting near a station defence mission worth 200k, right at the beginning of terran campaign, on the way from scanning pirate base. Needless to say, I didn't last long enough against 5 M5's and an M3

TBH for me thats an easy mission, ive completed missions much harder than that with the starting terran m4 (combat skills f.t.w)

best ive done wiht the starting m4
5 m5's
3 m4's
4 m3's
1 m8
1 m6

all pwnd with my skills.

 

[Shadez]

Out of curiosity, is there any benefit in playing a Custom game <X Universe> over one of the specific mission based ones? For example if I am just interested in an Elite type experience and dont want to bother with the plot would that be best, or are there certain areas / items that are only available to plot characters?

Mr-Xoc

Its been known for special ships and equipment to be unavailable from a custom starts. Remember just because you start a plot based game doesnt mean you ever have to play the plot, only exception i know of is if you start as a terran then you need to do the first few missions to get out of terran space and into the rest of the universe.

 

[Shadez]

Wah do tell how. A friend told me to get out of the way, wait for the enemy to attack the station and try to solo the M3 before it gets there.

i use a similar strategy, the ships will head for the station not you use this to your advantage.

I use a joystick if you are using a mouse then my stratagys may not work/be harder. You should by now have mk2 fight software if not get it and press k until auto aim is on. Fire when the target receptacle is blue and it will do the rest for you.

accept the mission, head directly for the nearest gate to the station this is where they will spawn.

as they pass try and pic off as many m5's as you can, dont worry if you dont get them all kill them later. do the same with the m4's

now the easy part is over its the turn of the m3's / m8, you must take out the m8 before it gets to close to the station but if you can take out the m3's first. Falcons are easy just get behind them and keep pounding them until they go bOOooo0000m.

m3's with turrets, you need to be a bit more careful with these. You need to use your strafe drive to avoid the turret fire.

once all the m3's and m8's have been killed concentrate on the m6, you can skip the m3's and take out the m6 first but you MUST take out the m8's before they fire at the station.

The best method is the spiral attack easy with a good joystick, use the rudder to rotate the ship on the z axis, use the x and y to keep the ship pointing at the target. while doing this hold down 1 or more of the strafe keys, should now be doing spirals if you get it right then the incoming fire will just miss you.

Once you have taken out the big guns mop up any left overs

 

[Shadez]

Come on now, everyone wants to be getting some choice screenshots into the high res screens thread.

Will see what i can do tonight

 

[Shadez]

Oh.. I'm not liking this yet sadly
Now I have a ship with no weapons, I sold my old one.
But every station won't sell me weapons .... catch 22.. aghh

Way to throw me into the game as well by the way, so many controls! Can't even pause properly without it un-pausing when you look in menu.

It looks really good, i'm sure if I knew how to play it i'd like it but, to be honest... time/reward is not good atm.

well selling your weapons was a bit stupid wasnt it? in order to get more you will have to increase you reputation with a race that sells the weapon you want so get trading. With the money you have made from the weapons you should have plenty to get a ts and still have enough capital left to start silicone trading.

you dont need to pause unless you have to go answer the phone in the middle of a fight just put the ship on auto pilot "shift A" and then use the mouse to look at your menus.

 

[Shadez]

Yea, post some screenies you set of nubs!

sorry to addicted to playing to find time to make screenies

 

[Shadez]

I had a good run last night - went scavenging abandoned ships not even halfway through the list and I have 3.5million credits and a nice Advanced Barracuda fully loaded with max weapons, sheilds & all addons etc.

If anyone wants a list of abandoned ship locations then I have uploaded it to my server here

What's the consensus on the ebst all round ship in the X-Universe then? I want a very fast but well armed ship with good strong shields!

Not bad ill have to go free ship hunting soon, its always a good way to map the universe. Need to satnav the uni and start rolling out the ut's

At the moment im just doing xenon patrol missions the last one gave me 3.5million, 350k per P nice.

Had my first ctd last night that realy ****** me off, happend just as i was finishing the last xenon n of a patrol mission, with the number of p's and l's that spawned i would have made > 5million from that mission. Now i have to do the hard parts again

whats the max speed and shielding on the Advanced Barracuda? Im flying a nova raider ATM @ 190ms with 3 25mj shields.

 

[Shadez]

Same sheilds but higher top speed - about 230'ish iirc.

Going to have to get me one of those then, could do with more speed. 190 is ok but the faster the ship the better. Especially when all xenon L and M's use pulsed beam emitters, dam those things eat shields fast but have a much shorter range than the weapons i use.

Oh does it have a rear turret? although at that speed most missiles that can cause any damage wont keep up its nice to have that little bit of extra security.

 

[Shadez]

Stupid, maybe, don't need to be insulted about it really after all there's no clear instructions for this game and I cocked up with no way to (again a clear way..) in a remedy for my situation, it kind of throws you in the deep end.

So my way out is to start trading goods to increas rep with a faction so they'll sell me stuff? great... sign me up I guess I need to find out how to find out what they want, where to get it, where to sell it, how much I get for what and how much they want.

I pause when *I* want to pause, such as alt tabbing, I play in a window.
Trying to read guides whilst playing because it's so deep.

Sorry just trying to making a little, didnt meen it to be insulting.

What ship are you flying and how much money have you got, ill point you in the best direction, if you started as a terran then you would want to get rid of that ship asap anyway, the weapon it uses has some major drawbacks.

 

[Shadez]

Well it's such a massive and time consuming game and with the extra features added for the new release then I would jump straight into X3:TC.

If you want to you could run thru the plot on x3:R i recon you could do it in a few hours if you wanted to.

 

[Shadez]

Not sure about the rear turret tbh. I will check later . I wouldn't bother buying a Barracuda as if you look on the link I posted earlier you will find it for free

just had a look at that list there is a advanced eclipse there as well, going to have to check that out.

 

[Shadez]

No one answered my query, mouse and keyboard ok or is it only a joystick game?

yes you can use only keyboard and mouse.