I have a Mercury. Stupidly (I really wasn't thinking about what I was doing), I used all but 30Cr buying and upgrading it, but by buying 2 Energy Cells and selling them at profit I slowly got business going again. I'm now running Energy Cells on the same run in the free Toucan Hauler and a free Iguana Vanguard, and I have my Mercury running Wheat and Plankton between Three Worlds and Kingdom's End (the two-way run on a larger cargo hold is giving me slightly more profit that the Energy cells have been). Back up to 80,000Cr.
Wish you could use the Best Buy/Best Sell locators remotely; I'm having to fly the Mercury myself and have to search all the Argon Prime prices manually.
I'll go looking for better runs (or start mining) once I've got some shields and weapons on the Mercury.
And then maybe start the plot.
I think I'll keep going on vanilla for a while before I start a mod game.
X3: Reunion
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You can use them remotely. I'm assuming here that you've been using it for the ship you're in by pressing <Enter> twice and the <right> key once.Murrin wrote:Wish you could use the Best Buy/Best Sell locators remotely; I'm having to fly the Mercury myself and have to search all the Argon Prime prices manually.
I think I'll keep going on vanilla for a while before I start a mod game.
But when you get an "incoming message", you should also be able to hit the <down> key and find Best Buys and Best Sells options on the ship menu. You only need the best buys and sells software on the ship you're flying. You should also have"Trading Extension" software on the ship you're flying, and then you should be OK. You should also make sure that you have "Navigation Command Software" on all of the ships you're NOT personally flying.
eg you're flying your Buster, and get an incoming message from your Mercury, you hit enter to enter the ship menu for the Mercury, then <down arrow> to scroll down through the menu for the Mercury, and you should find Best Buys/Sells options at the bottom, below "u" for ship details, "g" for ship weapons and the like.
Hope that helps.
PS When you get a ship good enough to fight in (if you're a better pilot than I am that could include the Buster you started in), you can set your lasers to "Auto-aim" and it makes a really big difference. (If you can't find the option in ship orders, you can toggle through three settings with the "k" button as you're flying through space, you can hear a beep every time you hit it, you want the third one. Although you might need "Fight Command Software MkII to make it work...) Basically, you'll see an aiming point as well as your crosshairs. If you have PBE lasers and you're in range, you'll never miss. Although PBE's are much more damaging to shields than they are to hulls.
Spoiler
Get an Argon police licence and a freight-scanner, and scan some relatively defenseless TS-class freighters in Elena's Fortune. Some of them will be pirates hauling illegal cargo to the nearby pirate sectors.
They'll either drop their cargo and remain blue (leave them alone and pick up their freight (hit "o" to lower your shields and then just fly into the crates, but make sure you have the free cargo capacity first)), or they might decide to fight you and turn red. (edit: some of them might remain blue, but if you see from the scan that they're carryin illegal cargo you should comms them and tell them to surrender) If they do that, you can practice your combat skills on them, and the Argon will love you for it. If you get their hull down to 87% or below then every subsequent time you get rid of their last remaining shields the pilot might eject, in which case you can claim their ship. ie Free freighters (at least for the cost of repair).
They'll either drop their cargo and remain blue (leave them alone and pick up their freight (hit "o" to lower your shields and then just fly into the crates, but make sure you have the free cargo capacity first)), or they might decide to fight you and turn red. (edit: some of them might remain blue, but if you see from the scan that they're carryin illegal cargo you should comms them and tell them to surrender) If they do that, you can practice your combat skills on them, and the Argon will love you for it. If you get their hull down to 87% or below then every subsequent time you get rid of their last remaining shields the pilot might eject, in which case you can claim their ship. ie Free freighters (at least for the cost of repair).
Last edited by Trapper on Thu Jan 10, 2008 5:49 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Thanks for the tips.
I'm up to 500,000 credits from various trades (gave up on the wheat-plankton route, it was easier to just take whatever came up), and selling the Iguana (stole its shields for the Mercury). Still trying to decide the best route for now--do the plot mission, then buy Trade Commands Mk3 in Home of Light (using up all of my cash), or buy another Mercury and run bigger hauls. Also trying to find a cheap Ion Disruptor so I don't have to defend the Mercury all the time (I could probably leave it alone safely enough, but there's always a risk).
As for whether I can do combat--I've tried, and my navigation is terrible. The ship itself--the Buster, that is--has max shields, a pair each of alpha and beta IRE, and a few missiles. I salvaged most of the weapons from a free Harrier (which I sold, because it got killed faster than the Buster did when I tried it against some pirates--probably a mistake, but I didn't know as much about the ship stats at the time). Not sure how it'd hold up in a fight, though. I did manage to kill a lone pirate in the middle of a busy sector with lots of other people firing at him...
I'm up to 500,000 credits from various trades (gave up on the wheat-plankton route, it was easier to just take whatever came up), and selling the Iguana (stole its shields for the Mercury). Still trying to decide the best route for now--do the plot mission, then buy Trade Commands Mk3 in Home of Light (using up all of my cash), or buy another Mercury and run bigger hauls. Also trying to find a cheap Ion Disruptor so I don't have to defend the Mercury all the time (I could probably leave it alone safely enough, but there's always a risk).
As for whether I can do combat--I've tried, and my navigation is terrible. The ship itself--the Buster, that is--has max shields, a pair each of alpha and beta IRE, and a few missiles. I salvaged most of the weapons from a free Harrier (which I sold, because it got killed faster than the Buster did when I tried it against some pirates--probably a mistake, but I didn't know as much about the ship stats at the time). Not sure how it'd hold up in a fight, though. I did manage to kill a lone pirate in the middle of a busy sector with lots of other people firing at him...
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How you know you've been playing too much of this game: You start pressing Esc to try and go back a page in your web browser.
Question 1: Is a Falcon worth keeping as a combat ship?
I had a fight with some pirates in Spaceweed Drift, a Falcon and a Buster. The Falcon ejected; the Buster took a long, long time to fight (too fast to hit consistently--kept getting his shields down for about a second then losing him again) and in the end, his health was <25% and his shields went down just in time for me to accidentally collide with him, destroying the ship. I got some good Teladi rep for that, though, to add to the rep I got for killing the Buster in Ceo's Buckzoid yesterday. Stopped to pick up the Falcon which seems moderately fast, better shielded than the Buster, and has more weaponspace.
Edit: Scrap the above question, the new query is: The Buster will cost 200,000 Cr to repair. The Falcon will cost slightly more, despite having a lot less damage.
Do I repair both, or pick on over the other? I'm leaning toward the Falcon, because of its weapons and shields.
Question 1: Is a Falcon worth keeping as a combat ship?
I had a fight with some pirates in Spaceweed Drift, a Falcon and a Buster. The Falcon ejected; the Buster took a long, long time to fight (too fast to hit consistently--kept getting his shields down for about a second then losing him again) and in the end, his health was <25% and his shields went down just in time for me to accidentally collide with him, destroying the ship. I got some good Teladi rep for that, though, to add to the rep I got for killing the Buster in Ceo's Buckzoid yesterday. Stopped to pick up the Falcon which seems moderately fast, better shielded than the Buster, and has more weaponspace.
Edit: Scrap the above question, the new query is: The Buster will cost 200,000 Cr to repair. The Falcon will cost slightly more, despite having a lot less damage.
Do I repair both, or pick on over the other? I'm leaning toward the Falcon, because of its weapons and shields.
Sell the Falcon. Falcon's are absolute rubbish. IIRC their top speed is about 77. Even a slow capital ship can fly 44 or so. You'll be able to mount a decent amount of guns on a falcon, but anyone who feels like firing at you will hit you.
You need to get some better weapons than those IRE's. The only real use for IRE's is when they're on a turret, and you've set that turret to "missile defense". That's all they're good for. I'm pretty sure your Buster can mount some PAC's and/or Mass Drivers. Get them. Though you're on totally the right track with the Ion Disruptor idea. My current ship doesn't have one, but I should probably check if it can, cause they take down shields incredibly fast.
(ID's do no damage to hull, although they can fry software. Mass Drivers are the exact opposite, they ignore shields and only damage the Hull and installations)
If you're looking to get into basic combat you want one of these:
nb Many ships have variants (eg Nova and Harrier)
Vanguard: Just all-round better than the base model
Sentinel: Increased shields but possibly slower
Raider: Faster, often has more weapons. Usually the best ship variant.
Hauler: Increased cargo capacity, but not as combat-worthy as the base model.
Only buy "Trade Command Software Mk3" for TS-class freighters. I'd leave that off until you've got more freighters than you care to control manually. But the very fact that you mentioned that indicates you're getting the gist of the whole thing.
You need to get some better weapons than those IRE's. The only real use for IRE's is when they're on a turret, and you've set that turret to "missile defense". That's all they're good for. I'm pretty sure your Buster can mount some PAC's and/or Mass Drivers. Get them. Though you're on totally the right track with the Ion Disruptor idea. My current ship doesn't have one, but I should probably check if it can, cause they take down shields incredibly fast.
(ID's do no damage to hull, although they can fry software. Mass Drivers are the exact opposite, they ignore shields and only damage the Hull and installations)
If you're looking to get into basic combat you want one of these:
Spoiler
Argon Nova (M3)(the best Nova around is the Pirate Nova Raider).
Split Mamba (M3).
Argon Eclipse (M3+) (If you can capture a Pirate Eclipse they're better cause they can mount PBE's)
Split Mamba (M3).
Argon Eclipse (M3+) (If you can capture a Pirate Eclipse they're better cause they can mount PBE's)
Vanguard: Just all-round better than the base model
Sentinel: Increased shields but possibly slower
Raider: Faster, often has more weapons. Usually the best ship variant.
Hauler: Increased cargo capacity, but not as combat-worthy as the base model.
Only buy "Trade Command Software Mk3" for TS-class freighters. I'd leave that off until you've got more freighters than you care to control manually. But the very fact that you mentioned that indicates you're getting the gist of the whole thing.
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Actually, the Falcon's top speed was 137 upgraded (this is a Pirate Falcon we're talking about, not a Teladi Falcon--it's a custom job). A drop from 175 to 137 wasn't a bad tradeoff for 25MJ shields and much better weapon capability.
(Those weapons I mentioned were PACs, not IREs, my mistake.)
The Falcon was actually pretty good, it turned out--I got myself a police license and when out scanning freighters in it. Unfortunately I happened to find one pirate freighter with a Mass Driver on the back, and it took my hull down to 5%, so I had to sell the Falcon. Good news: With the money from the Falcon, I fixed my Buster, and I moved the Falcon's PACs back onto the Buster.
My Mercury's a Sector Trader now, not bringing in much money atm (level 6, and on standby a lot--though less than it was on level 4), but it's getting somewhere. I used a bit of the money coming in to get some IREs on the Buster--I now pack two Beta PACs, two Alpha PACs, and two Beta IREs. If I use them all at once, it's pretty devastating to a Pirate Buster or Harrier. The IREs on their own are good for keeping their shields down, and can even do a little hull damage if I'm lucky. Haven't worked out the right balance for capturing yet.
Did the first two plot missions--the first one was pretty simple, the second one showed off jsut how badly done the cutscenes and other plot stuff are. But my combat rank shot up in the second--I'm at Instructor now. Wait and see what effect that has.
I'm currently coming up on 400,000 Cr--looking to buy a new ship soon. Probably another Mercury, for now.
(Those weapons I mentioned were PACs, not IREs, my mistake.)
The Falcon was actually pretty good, it turned out--I got myself a police license and when out scanning freighters in it. Unfortunately I happened to find one pirate freighter with a Mass Driver on the back, and it took my hull down to 5%, so I had to sell the Falcon. Good news: With the money from the Falcon, I fixed my Buster, and I moved the Falcon's PACs back onto the Buster.
My Mercury's a Sector Trader now, not bringing in much money atm (level 6, and on standby a lot--though less than it was on level 4), but it's getting somewhere. I used a bit of the money coming in to get some IREs on the Buster--I now pack two Beta PACs, two Alpha PACs, and two Beta IREs. If I use them all at once, it's pretty devastating to a Pirate Buster or Harrier. The IREs on their own are good for keeping their shields down, and can even do a little hull damage if I'm lucky. Haven't worked out the right balance for capturing yet.
Did the first two plot missions--the first one was pretty simple, the second one showed off jsut how badly done the cutscenes and other plot stuff are. But my combat rank shot up in the second--I'm at Instructor now. Wait and see what effect that has.
I'm currently coming up on 400,000 Cr--looking to buy a new ship soon. Probably another Mercury, for now.
Sounds like the game gets pretty cool further in, am I right in thinking that when you buy a new ship you can set the old one on an automated trade route? I'm itching to have a proper go at this game, but I've got a ton of encoding to do and it's about all the PC can do to run a web browser at the moment.
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
A. Because proper tea is theft.
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You can quite easily buy a bit of software (trade extension system + trade command software mk1) that let you trade with all your ships from the one you're piloting. To get one to run automatically you need Trade Command Software Mk3, which costs just over 500,000 credits, so you need to trade for a while first. Once you have it on a ship, though, you can set it as a Sector Trader--meaning it'll stay in one sector and automatically look for things to buy and sell. It gets its own pilot who levels up and gets smarter as time goes on. At level 8 and above you can choose to turn it into a Universe Trader which can go anywhere looking for deals (the risk is, it can go anywhere it wants--even dangerous sectors).Nav wrote:Sounds like the game gets pretty cool further in, am I right in thinking that when you buy a new ship you can set the old one on an automated trade route?
What you can't do (without geting a custom mod or script) is set a ship to trade in just a few specific sectors, or in only certain products (if they're available and could get them profit, your ships will run illegal goods, at the risk of police scans).
I now have my first Mercury a level 11 Sector Trader (I finally found a decent sector for trading, Menelaus' Frontier) and a second Mercury running manually. I'm going to make the first a Universe Trader as soon as I get its shield slots filled, and then set the second up as a Sector Trader.
Oh, and about your system troubles: I've seen it mentioned here and there--apparently the game ran terribly when it first came out, but the patches since then are supposed to have improved performance dramatically.
The game certainly does run a lot better than it did at first, the trouble is that the gates don't seem to match up with the map so I can't get up to Menaleus' Frontier to get that free toucan. Do I need to install the expanded universe mod first?
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
A. Because proper tea is theft.
Great answer to Nav's question, Murrin.
Some other good sectors for sector trading are:
The second plot mission is virtually impossible in pure vanilla without a great PC (you're talking about the one where you're a back-turret gunner as you fly through city streets, right?). That was fixed in the patches.
I'd get about 3-5 Mercuries and micro-manage (ie no Trade Command Software Mk3) them. I mentioned in a previous post what I think the best freighter is after that. Only get the Mk3 software when you really can't be a***d micro-managing the ship in question any longer.
Also
Some other good sectors for sector trading are:
Spoiler
Empire's Edge, Duke's Domain, Queen's Space, Shore of Infinity
For capturing I generallyMurrin wrote:Haven't worked out the right balance for capturing yet.
Did the first two plot missions--the first one was pretty simple, the second one showed off jsut how badly done the cutscenes and other plot stuff are. But my combat rank shot up in the second--I'm at Instructor now. Wait and see what effect that has.
I'm currently coming up on 400,000 Cr--looking to buy a new ship soon. Probably another Mercury, for now.
Spoiler
Set weapon group 1 to include every weapon on my ship, take out the target's shields and a bit of hull (they won't bail if they have more than 87% of their hull intact.
Then I switch to weapon group 4, which I have set as a couple of PBE's. Every time their shields regenerate slightly I take those shields out again. (I should probably experiment a bit more with Ion Disruptors for this purpose, I haven't had much luck with ID's though). It can take a lot of patience. I've read of people spending half an hour doing this in order to cap a ship they want.
Each ship has a random level of morale (between 1 and 25, IIRC) and some of them are virtually impossible to capture. (eg you simply cannot capture a Pirate Reaver unless you have a bail-extension script.) After about about 5 minutes I usually just get bored and blow the ****** away. But my housemate, who has more patience than I do, has captured 12 Xenon LX's this way.
Then I switch to weapon group 4, which I have set as a couple of PBE's. Every time their shields regenerate slightly I take those shields out again. (I should probably experiment a bit more with Ion Disruptors for this purpose, I haven't had much luck with ID's though). It can take a lot of patience. I've read of people spending half an hour doing this in order to cap a ship they want.
Each ship has a random level of morale (between 1 and 25, IIRC) and some of them are virtually impossible to capture. (eg you simply cannot capture a Pirate Reaver unless you have a bail-extension script.) After about about 5 minutes I usually just get bored and blow the ****** away. But my housemate, who has more patience than I do, has captured 12 Xenon LX's this way.
I'd get about 3-5 Mercuries and micro-manage (ie no Trade Command Software Mk3) them. I mentioned in a previous post what I think the best freighter is after that. Only get the Mk3 software when you really can't be a***d micro-managing the ship in question any longer.
Also
Spoiler
Those "I need a fast M5/ I made a bet that I can get to" missions can be very lucrative. Once you've completed the mission the client will ask you to wait for a minute and then offer you even more money to take them to another station.
There's a free Starburst in Freedom's Reach that will enable you to do 6+ legs for these clients, although eventually they'll tell you that they want you to travel 5 sectors in 3 mizuras.
I haven't done this for a while, but it can be extremely profitable.
There's a free Starburst in Freedom's Reach that will enable you to do 6+ legs for these clients, although eventually they'll tell you that they want you to travel 5 sectors in 3 mizuras.
I haven't done this for a while, but it can be extremely profitable.
Last edited by Trapper on Sun Jan 13, 2008 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You shouldn't have to. Is your problem occuring in The Hole? The gates there are a bit screwy. IIRC the west and north gates are very close to each other in the NW corner of the sector, same for the E and S gate in the SE corner. And you can't see them visually because the sector is filled with nebulous gas. Get a Triplex scanner if you can before even going into The Hole.Nav wrote:The game certainly does run a lot better than it did at first, the trouble is that the gates don't seem to match up with the map so I can't get up to Menaleus' Frontier to get that free toucan. Do I need to install the expanded universe mod first?
Once you have a Jump-Drive you can find gates easily by using the "Jump and Move to Position" command.
eg if you can't find the North gate of a given sector then select "Jump and Move to Position" (the easiest way to do this is by selecting your own ship on the sector-map, ie hit Enter three times as you're flying through space). Select the sector whose North Gate you want to find. Then (for North) hit the <up> key for a while. Your ship will jump to the Gate closest to the point you chose, even if you've never found that gate before. This is particularly useful when you're doing the Bala-Gi missions around Maelstrom. Some of the gates in the sectors in the South-East of the galactic map are about 180km away from the center of the sectors, and are almost impossible to find without using this technique.
I hope that makes sense.
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I got a bit lost myself looking for Menelaus' Frontier, but that's because I didn't look at the connections on the map and tried to go all the way north first. I ended up in the Power Circle/Antigone Memorial area and had to double back.
(Crossing the big sectors like Trapper said can be difficult, but quite often there's a main transit route where all the ships are following the same line betwen the gates--and in The Hole, there's a line of navsats between the two ends. Follwing the traffic's pretty much how I got to The Vault for the free Harrier.)
I'm a little stuck in my game atm. I'm in my 2nd Mercury in Kingdom's End with the Buster tailing, and my UT Mercury is in Menelaus' Frontier (it went to Ceo's Buckzoid and Queen's Space, but hasn't been out of Menelaus' Frontier since). The trouble is, there's a big Kha'ak cluster right next to the north gate in Three Worlds, and a smaller one roaming around Queen's Space, so I'm stuck for the moment in KE and Rolk's Drift waiting for them to leave (I tried joining the fight against the Kha'ak, and got killed quite promptly).
Before I was cornered I'd been dropping NavSats around some of the sectors to help the UT--am I right in thinking they'll try to avoid areas where they can see enemy ships?
Edit: Finally got out; the Queen's Space cluster had gone.
I'll just add that my UT pilot is an idiot, and has done nothing but run 32 BoFu from the BoFu plants to the Trading Station in Menelaus' Frontier. It's making almost no money because the quantities are so small.
(Crossing the big sectors like Trapper said can be difficult, but quite often there's a main transit route where all the ships are following the same line betwen the gates--and in The Hole, there's a line of navsats between the two ends. Follwing the traffic's pretty much how I got to The Vault for the free Harrier.)
I'm a little stuck in my game atm. I'm in my 2nd Mercury in Kingdom's End with the Buster tailing, and my UT Mercury is in Menelaus' Frontier (it went to Ceo's Buckzoid and Queen's Space, but hasn't been out of Menelaus' Frontier since). The trouble is, there's a big Kha'ak cluster right next to the north gate in Three Worlds, and a smaller one roaming around Queen's Space, so I'm stuck for the moment in KE and Rolk's Drift waiting for them to leave (I tried joining the fight against the Kha'ak, and got killed quite promptly).
Before I was cornered I'd been dropping NavSats around some of the sectors to help the UT--am I right in thinking they'll try to avoid areas where they can see enemy ships?
Edit: Finally got out; the Queen's Space cluster had gone.
I'll just add that my UT pilot is an idiot, and has done nothing but run 32 BoFu from the BoFu plants to the Trading Station in Menelaus' Frontier. It's making almost no money because the quantities are so small.
Found out what the problem was; I didn't realise that I had to actually go and discover the gates. I'm used to EVE having all gates, stations and asteroid belts pop as soon as I jump into a system.
I did eventually make my way to Menaleus' Frontier and found the toucan, but I couldn't figure out how to board it and promptly dashed my brains out on its hull. I think I'm going to reinstall the vanilla game though, as the performance is noticably worse with XTM installed.
I did eventually make my way to Menaleus' Frontier and found the toucan, but I couldn't figure out how to board it and promptly dashed my brains out on its hull. I think I'm going to reinstall the vanilla game though, as the performance is noticably worse with XTM installed.
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
A. Because proper tea is theft.
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I crashed into the Toucan first time too. Since I'd never been EVA before, I didn't have a good sense of the distance and the speed controls.
You have to get pretty close to the ship, and have it targeted, to get "Claim" on the target menu (you're best off coming to a complete stop (Backspace) too). Then "Enter Ship" should appear in the same place on the target menu after you've claimed, though you might have to move even closer for that--I'm not sure. And I usually turn back and enter my Buster after claiming anyway.
In my game, I've entered Paranid space for the first time to do some trading. Still seeding NavSats--I've got all the northern Boron sectors completely covered, and at least one sat in each of the Argon sectors (had to leave Power Circle early because two clusters jumped in at the same time). Though they might not see a Kha'ak cluster when it first appears at the outer edge of a system, it still gives enough warning to make moving sector to sector a lot less of a gamble.
You have to get pretty close to the ship, and have it targeted, to get "Claim" on the target menu (you're best off coming to a complete stop (Backspace) too). Then "Enter Ship" should appear in the same place on the target menu after you've claimed, though you might have to move even closer for that--I'm not sure. And I usually turn back and enter my Buster after claiming anyway.
In my game, I've entered Paranid space for the first time to do some trading. Still seeding NavSats--I've got all the northern Boron sectors completely covered, and at least one sat in each of the Argon sectors (had to leave Power Circle early because two clusters jumped in at the same time). Though they might not see a Kha'ak cluster when it first appears at the outer edge of a system, it still gives enough warning to make moving sector to sector a lot less of a gamble.
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Holy. Crap.
I just risked my neck flying through the Pirate sectors to Freedom's Reach, and picked up the Starburst. Got chased through two sectors by a big gang of pirates on the way (used a technique from one of the guides I'd read, holding Q and A together to move the ship in a spiral which stops them hitting you as often and helped me dodge several missiles).
Anyway, once I'd got through to the area and got the ship, I checked the stats.
...
I fully upgraded it immediately, of course (I have my second Merc STing in Empire's Edge--together the two are pulling in a lot of cash, I got the money for the Mk3 software back in half an hour; I can afford to put money on upgrades and such whenever I like, now), and because I didn't want to run the gauntlet in my Buster again, I got in and went after some Energy Cells, since I'd let myself run out. Five minutes and one run to Empire's Edge and back later, I was ready to go. I sent the Starburst to dock at Elena's Fortune, and had my own ship Jump to the same place.
The Starburst got there first.
No other ship will ever feel like it's moving fast again.
I just risked my neck flying through the Pirate sectors to Freedom's Reach, and picked up the Starburst. Got chased through two sectors by a big gang of pirates on the way (used a technique from one of the guides I'd read, holding Q and A together to move the ship in a spiral which stops them hitting you as often and helped me dodge several missiles).
Anyway, once I'd got through to the area and got the ship, I checked the stats.
...
I fully upgraded it immediately, of course (I have my second Merc STing in Empire's Edge--together the two are pulling in a lot of cash, I got the money for the Mk3 software back in half an hour; I can afford to put money on upgrades and such whenever I like, now), and because I didn't want to run the gauntlet in my Buster again, I got in and went after some Energy Cells, since I'd let myself run out. Five minutes and one run to Empire's Edge and back later, I was ready to go
. I sent the Starburst to dock at Elena's Fortune, and had my own ship Jump to the same place.The Starburst got there first.
No other ship will ever feel like it's moving fast again.
Pity about the XTM performance, Nav. If there is a clear performance issue then I guess you have no choice but reverting to vanilla. But XTM is far better if you can manage it.
Just a little note on Kha'ak clusters:
They do not like Hurricane missiles. Not one little bit. Fire one just after the cluster splits up (you'll have to re-target). The area-of-effect will destroy most of the cluster. Those scout ships are very fragile.
nb You can't buy Hurricane's, you have to pick them up from the debris of enemies you've destroyed.
You can, however, buy Typhoon missiles from Swarm Missile factories and Equipment Docks. 30k a pop, but you can fire them from 20km away and do a substantial amount of damage to the slower, heavier ships in the game. You will want a few of those if you come across a Pirate Reaver. Disruptor missiles are good for taking out a fleeing M5 as well. I'd appreciate any tips on other missiles that anyone finds useful. Those are the only three missiles that I've ever used effectively.
The Starburst is fast
. I've never owned an Arrow but apparently they are even faster, although with less accleration and less manoueverable.
The "Q"+"A" barrel-roll manouvre is great. And it works as well when you're chasing as when you're being chased. Standard tactic when you're trying to capture Xenon patrol ships in Scale Plate Green later in the game.
Just a little note on Kha'ak clusters:
They do not like Hurricane missiles. Not one little bit. Fire one just after the cluster splits up (you'll have to re-target). The area-of-effect will destroy most of the cluster. Those scout ships are very fragile.
nb You can't buy Hurricane's, you have to pick them up from the debris of enemies you've destroyed.
You can, however, buy Typhoon missiles from Swarm Missile factories and Equipment Docks. 30k a pop, but you can fire them from 20km away and do a substantial amount of damage to the slower, heavier ships in the game. You will want a few of those if you come across a Pirate Reaver. Disruptor missiles are good for taking out a fleeing M5 as well. I'd appreciate any tips on other missiles that anyone finds useful. Those are the only three missiles that I've ever used effectively.
The Starburst is fast
. I've never owned an Arrow but apparently they are even faster, although with less accleration and less manoueverable. The "Q"+"A" barrel-roll manouvre is great. And it works as well when you're chasing as when you're being chased. Standard tactic when you're trying to capture Xenon patrol ships in Scale Plate Green later in the game.
No idea, sorry.Murrin wrote:am I right in thinking they'll try to avoid areas where they can see enemy ships?
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I'm Murrin
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On missile tips: Unknown Object. It's a standard Kha'ak missile, dropped when you kill them--and dropped sometimes by other ships as well. They sell for a small fortune if you're interested in that, but the main thing is they are powerful. I haven't had the opportunity to fire one yet, but from what I've read, they can take out very big ships in very few hits. I've seen a few people say they've accidentally fired one with a station targetted and destroyed it.
And I understand what you meant about the M5 courier missions, now. Had some good runs going, but they eventually ask the impossible--Ceo's Buckzoid to Family Pride in 1 mizura. Home of Opportunity to Black Hole Sun in 13 mizura (might have been possible, but I hadn't been further than Home of Opportunity at the point, and would have had to search for all the gates).
Fun running the Starburst right through the middle of massive Xenon fleets in Xenon Sector 472, though.
And I understand what you meant about the M5 courier missions, now. Had some good runs going, but they eventually ask the impossible--Ceo's Buckzoid to Family Pride in 1 mizura. Home of Opportunity to Black Hole Sun in 13 mizura (might have been possible, but I hadn't been further than Home of Opportunity at the point, and would have had to search for all the gates).
Fun running the Starburst right through the middle of massive Xenon fleets in Xenon Sector 472, though.
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I'm Murrin
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This game really takes off once you hit a certain point. My current inventory:
Mercury UT (25)
Mercury UT (21)
Mercury UT (11)
Mercury UT (10)
Toucan Hauler
Buster
Starburst
Account: ~3,000,000 Cr
All the traders are kitted out with 3x25MJ shields and an Ion Disrupter; ones over level 12 of course have themselves a Jumpdrive, and most have fighter drones. Only once seen on of my ships attacked--it shot out a cloud of drones and jumped away from the pirates. I then had to give it instructions to get it repaired--and to sell the freight it was carrying, because restarting UT would have made it ignore what it was already carrying.
Funny thing, the fourth trader I set up is a higher level now than my third--apparently Empire's Edge ST ships level up a lot faster than ones in Menelaus' Frontier (my third Mercury was at level 6 when I set up the fourth).
I'm going to set up my first station today, I think. Just need to decide what it'll be.
I tried a Treasure Hunt mission yesterday, because I found out the prizes can be pretty good (ships, cash, and so on). I thought the cooredinates were in km, though, not metres, so tried to fly the Starburst to -27,000km on the z axis. Things got a bit strange. When I was at around -3000km, a massive group of about 50 Kha'ak ships appeared in the map (I was way, way off the map at this point, I shouldn't have been able to see them) and promptly flew off in the direction I had travelled. I wasn't too concerned--they were going at 300m/s, I was moving 1140m/s. Then some time later (not sure of the exact distance--over 5000km?) I hit the edge of the map, and suddenly wrapped around into the north end of the z axis. A planet flickered into existence on my left-hand side. I was ready to give up and fly away, but I was a little bored (it had taken me twenty minutes) so I minimised and read up a bit more on treasure hunts. Turns out coords are all in metres (which I would have seen if I'd paid more attention). Also turns out, hitting the edge of the map reveals all items--so I could see my prize on the map: 30,000Cr, floating in space right next to the gate I'd entered by (never mind the fact I'd paid 50,000Cr for the coordinates). So I targetted the crate and sat back for the long ride. I noticed on the way that I zipped right past a few of the Kha'ak ships about halfway out, hehehe. Finally picked up the crate (with a few misses--it's hard to get this ship to go slowly) and got out before the Kha'ak could catch up.
Edit: Okay, I now have a Delexian Wheat Farm in Queen's Space, where there are Power Plants (supply) and Plankton Farms (demand). I have one ship running Energy Cells into the station, and I've seen at least one AI vessel dropping off Cells as well. What I'm not sure about is if anyone's actually buying my wheat. I need tips on what prices to set--I currently have the Cells buying at 15, and Wheat selling at 30 (as far as I can work out, this will give me a profit of 15 Cr for every 2 wheat sold).
Mercury UT (25)
Mercury UT (21)
Mercury UT (11)
Mercury UT (10)
Toucan Hauler
Buster
Starburst
Account: ~3,000,000 Cr
All the traders are kitted out with 3x25MJ shields and an Ion Disrupter; ones over level 12 of course have themselves a Jumpdrive, and most have fighter drones. Only once seen on of my ships attacked--it shot out a cloud of drones and jumped away from the pirates. I then had to give it instructions to get it repaired--and to sell the freight it was carrying, because restarting UT would have made it ignore what it was already carrying.
Funny thing, the fourth trader I set up is a higher level now than my third--apparently Empire's Edge ST ships level up a lot faster than ones in Menelaus' Frontier (my third Mercury was at level 6 when I set up the fourth).
I'm going to set up my first station today, I think. Just need to decide what it'll be.
I tried a Treasure Hunt mission yesterday, because I found out the prizes can be pretty good (ships, cash, and so on). I thought the cooredinates were in km, though, not metres, so tried to fly the Starburst to -27,000km on the z axis. Things got a bit strange. When I was at around -3000km, a massive group of about 50 Kha'ak ships appeared in the map (I was way, way off the map at this point, I shouldn't have been able to see them) and promptly flew off in the direction I had travelled. I wasn't too concerned--they were going at 300m/s, I was moving 1140m/s. Then some time later (not sure of the exact distance--over 5000km?) I hit the edge of the map, and suddenly wrapped around into the north end of the z axis. A planet flickered into existence on my left-hand side. I was ready to give up and fly away, but I was a little bored (it had taken me twenty minutes) so I minimised and read up a bit more on treasure hunts. Turns out coords are all in metres (which I would have seen if I'd paid more attention). Also turns out, hitting the edge of the map reveals all items--so I could see my prize on the map: 30,000Cr, floating in space right next to the gate I'd entered by (never mind the fact I'd paid 50,000Cr for the coordinates). So I targetted the crate and sat back for the long ride. I noticed on the way that I zipped right past a few of the Kha'ak ships about halfway out, hehehe. Finally picked up the crate (with a few misses--it's hard to get this ship to go slowly) and got out before the Kha'ak could catch up.
Edit: Okay, I now have a Delexian Wheat Farm in Queen's Space, where there are Power Plants (supply) and Plankton Farms (demand). I have one ship running Energy Cells into the station, and I've seen at least one AI vessel dropping off Cells as well. What I'm not sure about is if anyone's actually buying my wheat. I need tips on what prices to set--I currently have the Cells buying at 15, and Wheat selling at 30 (as far as I can work out, this will give me a profit of 15 Cr for every 2 wheat sold).