Just bought this, are there any mods that are 'must-have'? or should I just play vanilla been as this is my first X game?
Cheers!
Yes, the X3:TC Extended mod that released a week ago http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic....=0&postorder=asc&highlight=conversion&start=0
Feature List
General.
XTC has been designed and built to be highly modular. Don't like something we have added? Switch it off.
New working in-game difficulty settings. Make the game as hard or as easy as you want on the fly.
Redesigned weapon, missile, and shield systems.
57 new player usable weapons added to the game.
Entire game rebalanced.
Combat is now more lethal.
New custom built jobs/jobwings/fightwings engine.
New custom built ship spawn engine.
BBS system added with hundreds of new static articles specific to XTC.
Dynamic news articles that inform you of what is actually happening in the universe around you.
New statistics centre added. Displays a detailed breakdown of your assets, your profits and losses, how each of your stations are doing, and much more. A highly powerful and dynamic system that is much better than the standard games 'your property' menu for traders.
New generic missions available at stations.
New mission to obtain the Leviathan M2+.
New race relations menu. This shows your relation to every race in the game, also by clicking on a listed race you will be able to see that races relation to the other races as well. Race relations are now colour coded and numbered for each rank to aid 'at a glance' assessments.
64 new ships added. (1 unused ES model, 39 imported from XTM, 24 totally new.)
New engine flame effects.
New engine smoke trail effects.
New bullet FX.
New sound FX.
New sector music.
New combat music.
New weapon and missile icons.
Hundreds of performance tweaks.
Fluffy Dice
Fully working manual. Very Happy
Universe.
Dynamically expanding universe. This is a new region of space, new sectors are being discovered and linked to the universe while you are playing.
A new custom universe map containing 199 new sectors for you to explore. (Once it is fully expanded.)
Larger sector sizes. The Teladi haven't been around this area long enough to have dragged the gates to more convenient locations.
New custom made sector backgrounds.
New planet and cloud textures.
All 6 races are now set up ready to fully work as independent races. (Argon, Boron, Split, Teladi, Paranid, Terrans.) The Aldrians are now also a seperate race with their own sectors.
Terrans now have a fully working economy.
Bounty Hunters added. Watch who you annoy.
Custom Safe Jump AL that will put ships arriving through a gate at a safe distance.
Most capital ships hulls will slowly regenerate as repair crews fix them.
New lifeforms added. Lifeforms now have their own unique life cycles and behaviours.
Stations.
Custom built npc station GOD engine.
New wharves added. Ships from M5-M6/TS/TP will now be sold at wharves instead of at shipyards. Shipyards now only sell M7 and up ships and stations.
New player mini-complexes added for shield/weapon/ammo production where you can change products as needed. Player mini-complexes can be added to complexes, but once added they will be fixed to producing the ware they had set at the time they are connected.
Custom safe undocking scripts for capital ships.
Solar power plants (both NPC and player owned) are now affected by the sun(s) strength in a sector.
New player owned shipyards and wharves. Build your own ships.
Automatic renaming of ships built by your own construction facilities now added.
Fully functional player equipment docks.
Ships (NPC).
NPC capital ship behaviour reworked
NPC Carrier behaviour improved
NPC Capital ships automatically restock used ammunition and missiles
Custom built NPC ship equipment scripts and templates. These will equip ships based on the race, ship type/size (M5, M4, etc.), and on the difficulty level set in the XTC difficulty options.
Custom built NPC loot drop scripts. Giving you more varied loot drops. NPC's will scavenge dropped loot themselves if you are not quick enough. (Hey, they are worth creditsss after all.)
Custom built NPC bailing scripts. All ships can now be forced to bail, even capital ships. Bailing chance now depends on the difficulty level chosen in the XTC difficulty options.
Exploding capital ships and stations now have crew that try to escape in life-pods.
If and when smaller ships try to evade enemy fire now depends on the pilot aggression.
Race ships in the M5-M3 classes now have a full set of variations available. (Vanguard, Sentinel, etc.)
Teladi, Boron, and Split now have their own M2+.
New M2+, TP+ and TS+ classes.
NPC M7M's and M8's are now more lethal.
Capital ships now have a blast shock-wave that will damage nearby ships when they explode.
Destroying any ship that has missiles/mines/ammo on-board can cause these items to explode, resulting in damage to nearby ships. On capital ships this damage is additional to the normal blast shock-wave.
Ships (Player).
Custom claim ship scripts. You can now claim all ships you find adrift in the universe, including capital ships using a hotkey or shipcommand.
New missile warning system. Now gives more information about what nasties are heading your way rather than the standard "Incoming missile" warning. Now you know if you can shrug it off or if it will make space-dust out of you.
Players now have a personal escape pod on Bigships.
Capital ship ammo and missile production facilities. Allows capital ships to produce their own missiles and ammo.
New 'Choose best missile for target' hot-key.
Transfer credits to player account command on stations now works in both directions.
New weapons to shields power transfer hot-key. Reduces your laser energy by a set percentage and adds an equal amount to your shield energy.
New shields to weapons power transfer hot-key. Reduces your shield energy by a set percentage and adds an equal amount to your laser energy.
New missile electronic counter-measures (ECM) added for bigger ships. NPC's will use these too if installed.
New anti missile chaffs added for smaller ships. NPC's will use these too if available.
New emergency jump. Forces your ship to execute a random jump out of it's current sector. Useful in desperate situations, does not require energy cells, but it destroys your jumpdrive.
Engine boost. Temporarily boosts your ship’s speed by diverting your weapon energy to the engine. It can result in harm to the engine however, and larger engines are more likely to be damaged.
Notifications on ship loss. Displays a message whenever a player-owned ship gets destroyed.
New Boarding Teleporter Upgrade added, this allows players to skip the space walk part on marine boarding.
New Freight Teleporter Upgrade added, this allows the teleporter to pickup crates.
New factory ships. Produce wares while on the move.
General.
XTC has been designed and built to be highly modular. Don't like something we have added? Switch it off.
New working in-game difficulty settings. Make the game as hard or as easy as you want on the fly.
Redesigned weapon, missile, and shield systems.
57 new player usable weapons added to the game.
Entire game rebalanced.
Combat is now more lethal.
New custom built jobs/jobwings/fightwings engine.
New custom built ship spawn engine.
BBS system added with hundreds of new static articles specific to XTC.
Dynamic news articles that inform you of what is actually happening in the universe around you.
New statistics centre added. Displays a detailed breakdown of your assets, your profits and losses, how each of your stations are doing, and much more. A highly powerful and dynamic system that is much better than the standard games 'your property' menu for traders.
New generic missions available at stations.
New mission to obtain the Leviathan M2+.
New race relations menu. This shows your relation to every race in the game, also by clicking on a listed race you will be able to see that races relation to the other races as well. Race relations are now colour coded and numbered for each rank to aid 'at a glance' assessments.
64 new ships added. (1 unused ES model, 39 imported from XTM, 24 totally new.)
New engine flame effects.
New engine smoke trail effects.
New bullet FX.
New sound FX.
New sector music.
New combat music.
New weapon and missile icons.
Hundreds of performance tweaks.
Fluffy Dice
Fully working manual. Very Happy
Universe.
Dynamically expanding universe. This is a new region of space, new sectors are being discovered and linked to the universe while you are playing.
A new custom universe map containing 199 new sectors for you to explore. (Once it is fully expanded.)
Larger sector sizes. The Teladi haven't been around this area long enough to have dragged the gates to more convenient locations.
New custom made sector backgrounds.
New planet and cloud textures.
All 6 races are now set up ready to fully work as independent races. (Argon, Boron, Split, Teladi, Paranid, Terrans.) The Aldrians are now also a seperate race with their own sectors.
Terrans now have a fully working economy.
Bounty Hunters added. Watch who you annoy.
Custom Safe Jump AL that will put ships arriving through a gate at a safe distance.
Most capital ships hulls will slowly regenerate as repair crews fix them.
New lifeforms added. Lifeforms now have their own unique life cycles and behaviours.
Stations.
Custom built npc station GOD engine.
New wharves added. Ships from M5-M6/TS/TP will now be sold at wharves instead of at shipyards. Shipyards now only sell M7 and up ships and stations.
New player mini-complexes added for shield/weapon/ammo production where you can change products as needed. Player mini-complexes can be added to complexes, but once added they will be fixed to producing the ware they had set at the time they are connected.
Custom safe undocking scripts for capital ships.
Solar power plants (both NPC and player owned) are now affected by the sun(s) strength in a sector.
New player owned shipyards and wharves. Build your own ships.
Automatic renaming of ships built by your own construction facilities now added.
Fully functional player equipment docks.
Ships (NPC).
NPC capital ship behaviour reworked
NPC Carrier behaviour improved
NPC Capital ships automatically restock used ammunition and missiles
Custom built NPC ship equipment scripts and templates. These will equip ships based on the race, ship type/size (M5, M4, etc.), and on the difficulty level set in the XTC difficulty options.
Custom built NPC loot drop scripts. Giving you more varied loot drops. NPC's will scavenge dropped loot themselves if you are not quick enough. (Hey, they are worth creditsss after all.)
Custom built NPC bailing scripts. All ships can now be forced to bail, even capital ships. Bailing chance now depends on the difficulty level chosen in the XTC difficulty options.
Exploding capital ships and stations now have crew that try to escape in life-pods.
If and when smaller ships try to evade enemy fire now depends on the pilot aggression.
Race ships in the M5-M3 classes now have a full set of variations available. (Vanguard, Sentinel, etc.)
Teladi, Boron, and Split now have their own M2+.
New M2+, TP+ and TS+ classes.
NPC M7M's and M8's are now more lethal.
Capital ships now have a blast shock-wave that will damage nearby ships when they explode.
Destroying any ship that has missiles/mines/ammo on-board can cause these items to explode, resulting in damage to nearby ships. On capital ships this damage is additional to the normal blast shock-wave.
Ships (Player).
Custom claim ship scripts. You can now claim all ships you find adrift in the universe, including capital ships using a hotkey or shipcommand.
New missile warning system. Now gives more information about what nasties are heading your way rather than the standard "Incoming missile" warning. Now you know if you can shrug it off or if it will make space-dust out of you.
Players now have a personal escape pod on Bigships.
Capital ship ammo and missile production facilities. Allows capital ships to produce their own missiles and ammo.
New 'Choose best missile for target' hot-key.
Transfer credits to player account command on stations now works in both directions.
New weapons to shields power transfer hot-key. Reduces your laser energy by a set percentage and adds an equal amount to your shield energy.
New shields to weapons power transfer hot-key. Reduces your shield energy by a set percentage and adds an equal amount to your laser energy.
New missile electronic counter-measures (ECM) added for bigger ships. NPC's will use these too if installed.
New anti missile chaffs added for smaller ships. NPC's will use these too if available.
New emergency jump. Forces your ship to execute a random jump out of it's current sector. Useful in desperate situations, does not require energy cells, but it destroys your jumpdrive.
Engine boost. Temporarily boosts your ship’s speed by diverting your weapon energy to the engine. It can result in harm to the engine however, and larger engines are more likely to be damaged.
Notifications on ship loss. Displays a message whenever a player-owned ship gets destroyed.
New Boarding Teleporter Upgrade added, this allows players to skip the space walk part on marine boarding.
New Freight Teleporter Upgrade added, this allows the teleporter to pickup crates.
New factory ships. Produce wares while on the move.
