[X3AP] Helpful Guides - Basic and Tips for players Starting Out.
Posted: Thu, 27. Sep 12, 08:21
FOR SOME REASON MY BBCODE DOESNT WORK HERE(some font sizes and colors are missing in my viewing) BUT IT WORKS WHEN I TEST IT ON OTHERS I DON'T KNOW WHY
Hi i'm new member here at these forums, but a long time forum lurker and a player of X3
This is a guide that I made to have an archive everything i know and I can think about X3 to provide Reference for me and also to other players.
More things will be added soon.
After playing for awhile I thought on making an All-Around guide to help new players started. not sure if this is late or what for a "newcomers guide" but here it is anyway.
It should or could help players with LITTLE TO NO X series knowledge starting out.
I have seen many complains in different forums about this game is so complicated and this and that, but once you get past these obstacles, Its a great game, maybe the greatest game you will ever play(so far)
Also adding to the complication is the life span of the game, so many have changed since the initial X3: Reunion release so alot of outdated guides exists, and many guides/threads still talks about older versions which may confuse many newbies.
Designed for X3 AP 2.5
What's in this Guide:
Helps newcomers to the series, confused players. Helps them start in the game. and have something to do.
Spoilers on X, X2 up to X3TC
What's NOT in this Guide:
Flight and Game Control Layouts/Shortcuts
X3AP Spoilers
Exploits
Notes:
may contain link to other guides and threads that will explain certain aspects more thoroughly.
may contain info's about other scripts from other people.
may contain COPY PASTED DATA from wiki's, other guides, threads that may save you some time from trying to google everything.
If you're having trouble reading it, you can use your browser's zoom function
Best used together with this guide
I'm not perfect and a grand master of the game so pardon me if there are any mistakes (veterans help me here)
Some of the terms maybe incorrect so please correct me if there's any.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE GUIDE
PARTS
Intro - Background Story (SKIP IF FAMILIAR WITH THE STORY/UNIVERSE, It can be a good read though)
Chapter I - Universe, Economy and Gameplay.
Chapter II - Docks and Ships
Chapter III - Starting Out
Chapter IV - Trader Management
Chapter V - Station Management
Chapter VI - Empire Management
Chapter VII - Military Management(not yet made, would be grateful if someone made a guide for this part)
Chapter VIII - Useful and Recommended Mods by me
Chapter IX - Credits
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRO - BACKGROUND STORY:
So you are new to the X-Universe. this is to give a background to the story, in my opinion it is necessary to know a little because it can add more immersion to the player, (from wikipedia)
Over the course of the 21st century, mankind experimented with wormhole technology and successfully built jumpgates in space between Earth and Mars paving the way for the colonization of the solar system and interstellar transport. A jumpgate was shuttled to Alpha Centauri in an attempt to claim a foothold in interstellar space. Even before the gate left the solar system scientists discovered that many objects classified as black holes showed the characteristics of artificial wormholes.
There were alien jumpgates which the human constructed gates could connect to. The Terrans had discovered the X Universe, a seemingly uninhabited collection of star systems connected by a vast network of large, bi-directional jumpgates.
Puzzled by the lack of intelligent life within this network but driven by their curiosity and the urge to colonise the new worlds the Terrans ventured into the X Universe intent on expanding their territory. Terraforming machines were created and dispatched to terraform planets into habitable worlds. The Terraformers were self-replicating spacecraft, governed by a simple artificial intelligence. During a software update several flaws were introduced into the Terraformer fleet and distributed between them causing a radical change in behaviour. The Terraformers replicated and attempted to re-terraform colonised planets, causing the planets to lose their ability to support human life. In an attempt to halt the Terraformers
the Terrans became embroiled in a war with their creations. No colony was able to defend against the attacks and mankind was pushed back to the Sol System where the Terraformers launched an attempt to destroy all life forms and terraform all of the inner planets.
In a daring attempt to save the solar system, a group of ships, led by Nathan R. Gunne, lured the Terraformers through the gate into the X Universe. The Earth gate was then destroyed, trapping the Terraformers in the X-Universe and cutting Earth off from the rest of the network.
The X-series is set more than 750 years after these events. A single Terraformer craft appears in the solar system using an apparently experimental gateless jumpdrive. The Terrans reverse engineer the device. In its maiden flight, the X-Shuttle, piloted by test pilot Kyle Brennan, is accidentally transported into the X Universe. Unlike before, this part of the network is inhabited by several space faring alien races and the descendants of Nathan R. Gunne's fleet. The Terraformers are attempting to get to Earth and Kyle must stop them. (End of Wiki)
Nathan R. Gunne and its fleet, the one who saved Earth and lured the terraformers away from Earth, got trapped in the X-Universe, with no possible way back to Earth or even contact, they decided to settle on the X-Universe, they thought the Terraformers were gonna finish them there but for some reason they weren't attacked.
Time passed by, and the Earth was chosen to be forgotten and just became a "myth". they called themselves the R. Gunne or ArGon in honor of Nathan R. Gunne, new generations were brainwashed into believing that they evolved and started on their planet, and eventually, most of the population did, with the records of Earth now hidden in top-secret vaults in the Argon Homeworld.
Time goes on, They expanded into more sectors and met the Borons, Paranid, Split and Teladi species, there was a War between the Argon/Borons vs Paranid/Split with Teladi neutral but they are now at peace. forming the Commonwealth
RACES
(wiki)
Human: Divided into three factions:
Terran: Humans who were born in the Sol system.
Argon: Humans who are descended from the remains of the fleet that lured the Terraformers through the gateway that saved Earth in the terraformer wars. The Argon government decided centuries ago that the pain of separation with Earth was best dealt with by changing the official version of history so that humans in the X- Universe believed they evolved in their current location.
Goner: Argons who believe the legend of Earth and Nathan R. Gunne (who led the fleet that saved Earth), despite both being officially just a myth.
Boron: A squidlike alien race that reveres their queen and love
peace.
Paranid: A three-eyed alien race that hail to their Xaar emperor and
have a strict religion.
Teladi: A reptilian alien race that worship trade and profits.
Split: A tribal alien race that fight within themselves as much as they fight their enemies.
Khaak: A buglike alien race that started war with the Argon in X²: The Threat. They decimated the sector now known as "President's End"
Xenon: A self-replicating artificial intelligence evolved from the terraformers created by the Terrans in an effort to colonise worlds. Now hostile to all life, they destroy anything organic.
Yaki: Not much are known about these Pirates, Only that they are becoming a real force to be reckoned with. Their activities have all the hallmarks of deliberate creation of chaos and confusion in order to undermine law and order throughout the universe. They are known for their frequent attacks on isolated trader because they are easy targets, often without fighter escorts.
Pirates: Pirates are not a race in themselves but groups of like-minded criminals who specialize in all sorts of illegal activities. They have their own bases, usually hidden from view and well defended. Most pirate bases have large fleets of ships and will send out raiding patrols on a regular basis. They are known to be very aggressive.
(end of wiki)
X - Enter Kyle Brennan, a test-pilot from earth., he ended up in the X-Universe, met the races, at first Argons thought he was crazy but he conviced them that Earth was real with the help of the Goners, he helped the commonwealth into the War with Xenons and successfully destroyed their super weapon.
X2-X3 - the Khaak came, many battles, and Julian, Kyle's son saved the day. then they finally met with the Terrans
lets jump to X3AP. There was a peace with the Terrans for abit, but a War ensued between terrans and the commonwealth, this is in X3: Albion Prelude.
Chapter I - Universe, Economy and Gameplay
X3 is a very complex game, very,very hard to learn but very fun to play, On a scale of 1-10 I would rate it as 12, with 11 being Arma(if you've played that). Theres an awful lot of micromanagement in this game which can be reduced through the use of scripts and mods, but beware, some can or will break your game.
It has a replayability and fun factor compared to that of Online and MMORPG games, It has a living Universe, much like an Online game, with lots of ships and things going around doing their business.
The Universe is divided into sectors, All Races have their own Sectors and are considered their Territories. There are two types of Sectors, Cores=Well Defended and considered the Strong Points of the the races, and the Borders=which is obviously sectors near the other races's sectors, they are not that well defended, but there's still a considerable amount of patrols in these areas.
Each sectors having up to 4 Jumpgates, North, East, West, or South, leading up to another sector. many of them are positioned in a way that you can return to a sector by going North, East, South, West, then North again, etc.
There is a functioning Dynamic Economy system, prices change depending on current wares stocks in the surrounding areas, more supplies, the lower the price. NPC Traders rush out to buy things at a low prices, and try to sell them at a higher prices in other locations, Other wares like foods and unusable waress are "consumed" by people and disappear overtime.
Wares = the Items in the game. like foods, minerals, weapons, etc
The Game Economy is managed by GOD Engine, which circulates the supplies and demands of the wares. Should an Area becomes completely lacking in a certain ware, It would try to make a factory in optimal locations, Also, Stations destroyed by attacks or by you, will often be replaced by another stations realistically.
Your player has a reputation with each races, including the pirates(yes there are pirates!). and has a rating in both trading and fighting. Higher reputation and rating means more access to things like equipments, ships and stations.
The most useful feature of the game is SETA, Singularity Engine Time Accelerator, It speeds up time up to 1000%, for faster travel times. (playing without SETA is impossible(IMO) as it will requires full-time dedication to the game just like real life) you can activate it by pressing J.
Another one is the Autopilot(Shift + A), which works great, you can go to other places automatically, If used with ships, it will automatically follow it,
there is an Auto-Dock variant(Shift + D) of it that can be used to automatically dock on ships and stations. later in the game you can get a Docking Computer to Dock faster, basically it teleports your ship to the dock when you are less than 5km from the station's 3d model. this is very useful and a time saver.
Should your ship get damage(green damage, the hull) and you dont have money to spend on repairs, You can Eject out of the ship(Shift+E) and press the right mouse button, a laser will come out. shoot your ship wiht the laser and hold it and it should repair it. However it can take a long time for ships with stronger hull and damage
The Jumpdrive is also a great tool, It is a ship upgrade that allows you to Jump directly to any discovered jumpgates in the game, It requires energy cells for every sector/gate skipped during the jump. you have to find that upgrade yourself.
Another useful feature that many players don't know about is the Encyclopedia, you can activate it by pressing "h", it allows you to view the details of any discovered Race, Ship, Station, Wares, or any other objects in the game, and also shows where the viewed item(if its obtainable/purchasable) might be available for purchase.
Theres alot of things to do in this game,
Missions: you can take them by looking for certain icons(like a red target or a light bulb) on stations and pressing "c" or "comm" and pressing the number with the icon to talk to the Mission Giver. he will tell you the missions, the time limit and the reward, Should you fail, theres no problem, you just don't get the reward, and lose some rep.
lots of types of Missions, Assassination, Recon, Delivery, Patrol, and many more!
You can also do the plot missions and receive great unique rewards.
Trading: Player Trading, and AI Trading
Player Trading - Mostly used by players starting out, You find a place where an wares sells the cheapest and try to sell it to another place.
AI Trading - As long as the Trader ship is not piloted by you, that is AI Trading.
AI Trading can be done in Manual or Automated.
Manual Trading - If you still control the Trader through the Trading System Extension and other softwares, Issuing commands, what to buy and sell while in another ship.
Automated Trading - You need Trade Command Software MK3 to have an Automated Trader, you can set them as Sector Trader, which trades in a single sector only, until they level up to Level 8 and you can set them as Universal Trader. so they can go anywhere. you can still set a Blacklist for Sectors you think is too Dangerous to trade in. The higher the trader's level = more things that he can do by himself and more survivability, however they can still be dumb and try to trade in sectors with enemies, so beware.
Trading Guide by WillWilk
Mining: Where you break up asteroids into smaller pieces and extract the minerals that come out of them. I do not recommend this task as I find it boring (my personal opinion), It is called Mobile Mining.
You can also "mine" by building mining factories around asteroids.
Piracy/Capturing Ships: you capture ships and either use them / sell them for profits=deemed the most effective way of earning money fast. For small ships, you can just attack them until they bail out, For huge ships, you have to use marines.
A completely detailed guide for this by delray
Running Stations: You can build factories which makes and sells wares and docks which stores wares and sells them at a defined prices.
Business Empire: Collection of Stations, Complete with Traders and Freighters, with Ships to defend the said assets.
Great guide here by Spychotic
Chapter II - Stations and Ships
Stations
There are two main types of Stations
Docks and Factories.
Docks basically have five types.
Equipment Docks - Which offers equipments and upgrades (availability depends on the reputation), It can also train marines.
Shipyards- Which sells Ships and Stations and offers upgrades (availability depends on the reputation) provided that they have an equipment dock in the same sector. They also REPAIR ships, They are mostly found in core sectors and usually with an EQ.
Trading Stations - Buys and Sells items, mostly "consumable" items that disappear overtime to pave way to more sellers/traders. For example theres no eating command in the game so the Food must be "consumed" anyway, Trading Stations are found in almost every sector. there is a Stock Exchange variant which does the same except you can access the Stocks from there.
Military Outposts - Mostly functions like the EQ except more Military things to sell and can sell Marines
HQs - Also functions like an EQ - but can dock more Huge Ships, have bigger item capacity and the ability to produce ships(player HQs). It can also change the color of your ships.
Factories have three types.
Single Factories - These stations make wares, called products, and needs certain resources to be able to produce wares, example you need crystals to make energy cells in power plants. There are lots types of Factories that can be seen (and owned) in the game. From Weapons productions to Food processing to Power Plants.
Complexes - Just Factories interconnected to each other to be able to share both wares, effectively sharing their resources and products, for example a factory making an Energy Cells can be Complexed to another Factory that needs Energy Cells as a resource. eliminating the other's factories needs. You can even create self-sustaining complexes! Fire and Forget!
Mines: Either an ore or silicon mine, It can be put on any Big Asteroid, It mines raw materials that can be used to process more goods, from weapons to technology wares, and it requires little resource for production, Asteroids have yields, which you can see if you have a mineral scanner and right clicking them and selecting scan. The higher the yield, the higher it produces per hour. They can be connected to complexes too and is essential to achieve self-sustainability.
Great Tool by em3e3
Ships
There's many types/class of Ships. With each races having at least one variant.
Each ship has different roles in battle and theres really no "I win ship"
Classes.
M1 - A Huge Carrier and Capital Ship, can load many fighters and have decent firepower
M2 - Also Huge Capital ship, have ALOT of firepower, one of the biggest ships in game
M7 - A Frigate, at most times slightly smaller than Capital Ships. Can be considered as a "light M2"
M7M - Same as frigate, but it uses missiles, can do missile barrages and can do boarding operations by sending boarding pods(not all models can do boarding operations).
M6 - A Corvette, Great for patrol and support, great anti fighter.
M6+ - A Stronger Corvette, commonly used as player ship
M3 - A Heavy Fighter, decent firepower, provides good support for bigger ships
M8 - A Bomber, useful for fighting bigger ships.
M4 - An interceptor, Designed to take down other small fighters
M5 - The smallest ships in the game, commonly used as scouts and explorers.
TS - A Standard Freighter to transport goods, comes in many sizes.
TP - A fast freighter particularly designed for transport of personel.
TL - As big as a Capital Ship, huge cargo space, can become a light carrier and can carry/construct stations, Not for Fighting.
TM - A military transport, Can hold marines for boarding operations and also can dock fighters. Good as supply/support ships.
NOTE: Huge Ships (M1, M2, M7, TL) can only dock on Shipyards, Equipment Docks, Military Outpost, and the Player HQ.
Chapter III - Starting Out
When you start up, What you do depends on your starting scenario,
A good way to earn money at start is to do some things that match the starting ship that you have. If you started with a fighter, Do some missions that involves fighting. If you started with a Trader, Trade., etc.
However another good choice is capping ships, as you have started with a small ship, you also need to target ships of similar size. and you don't need marines yet, just make the ship pilots bail out.
Also don't forget to explore around other sectors and not just stay at a few sectors. More sectors explored means a bigger market for trading and more things to do.
Trading is a bit simple, you find sectors that are very low on stock on a specific ware, which means higher buying price,
then find someplace else where the supply is plenty so the price is cheap, Buy it and sell it for a higher price. you should be fast though, as supply and demand can quickly change, and other NPC Traders are doing the same.
one example is you see a sector with factories that requires an Energy Cell, one of the popular choices in early game trading, seeing them almost out of stock, with no Power Plants nearby, what you do is travel to place where Energy Cells are abundant, buy it cheap, then sell it to that place. More of a "freelance supplier".
Useful tools for player trading are the "Best Buy and Sell Locator" Upgrades for your ship that can locate which sells cheapest and buys highest. (it displays explored sectors only)
You could also do Mobile Mining, as i said earlier, by breaking asteroids and collecting the minerals.
If you find yourself having trouble in doing any of these I advice you complete Missions first. both Random and Plot ones
These were the most common ways of earning money Pre-X3AP
but in X3AP the fastest way to earn money is to just use the Stock Exchange, a new feature,. at start you wont be able to use most Stock Exchanges except for the Teladi. which only needs 10k Credits, so go to the Teladi if you want an early game S.E.
Very Helpful Guide by rrfarmer
Chapter IV - Trader Management
After you earn enough money, you should be able to buy a Freighter at a Shipyard
Get one and equip it with a Trade Command Software MK3, and the max engine tuning. it is available in the Terracorp HQ, Home of Light. and most Teladi EQ Docks.
after you buy it, You should see the option "start Sector Trader" In the Trade Command Menu, Select it and choose the sector you want, preferably the one with a solar power plant with lots of factories that needs energy cells, and is safe from attacks. He will start trading in that sector automatically, you should check on him from time to time though,
meanwhile, while the trader earns money for you, he is also on his way to level 8, earn some more by doing different things until you could buy another trader,
After some time the Trader will get to Level 8, you can see it by pressing R for properties, selecting the trader and pressing U. When he is already level 8, you should be able to set him to "Universal Trader" and he can trade anywhere he wants now.
By that time you should have got your second trader now. Now rinse and repeat, until you get to 5-10 Traders. earn some more and you could now build stations. But while building stations you should also aim for 20-30 UT Traders.
As I said earlier, you can blacklist Sectors. If you think there are certain sectors are dangerous and your traders keep on going there you can block them from doing that by blacklisting the sector. You can do this by going into any of your trader's command console, and selecting "additional commands".
After awhile, if all goes well, and your traders survive, and they've earned alot, they will eventually reach Level 25, which is the highest, which means they can do many things automatically and requires little management from the player.
Every level the trader becomes more automated, it adds new abilities for the trader, like using the jumpdrive, buying fighter drones for protection or automatically docking at a station for repairs when attacked. So you should take care of your traders especially those that are level 20-25.
[URL=ttp://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=121043]Great Traders Guide by WillWilk[/URL]
Chapter V - Station Management
There's so many possible stations to build and so many possible locations so its hard to recommend what to build. The best way to be sure is to examine the sectors and check what wares are low on supply, Also check the surrounding areas if there's any supplier nearby. If not then its a good place.
For example a couple of factories in a sector needs energy cells as a resource. The nearest energy cell producer is 5 Sectors/Jumpgates(jumps) away. If you build a Power Plant(produces energy cells), those factories will now buy to you. and you can get a steady source of income
Stations doesn't run on its own, It needs Resources. you either have to rely on other NPC traders to sell you wares or you provide the wares yourself, by doing it manually or setting a Freighter homebased to the factory and selecting, "Buy Wares for best price..." you need Trade Command MK2 for this command as far as I know. which is available at almost every Shipyard/EQ. You could also build another station catering to another station's needs.
Some great examples by our forum-mates,
another one.
Once again this is a great guide for managing Stations.
Complexes are Different, They are more expensive, and require more thinking, but they earn big time. as I said earlier they are factories interconnected to each other to be able to share both wares, effectively sharing their resources and products.
To effectively design one, you may need to use this calculator for making complexes
Mind you that Fire and Forget Self-Sufficient Complexes are not CHEAP!
If you can't afford fire and forget complexes yet. but want to build a complex, You should try building a Complex with a single resource only, preferably crystals/energy cells, as they are easy to transport and find throughout the universe.
Great Complex Suggestions by deca.death
Chapter VI - Empire Management
After awhile you should have a couple of Factories or Complexes by now together with a bunch of Traders and Freighters Working Together. Now what you need is Exploration and Protections.
Get some spare money, buy 5 or more Cheap M5 Ships, give them 1 Satellite each and the Explorer Command Software and command them to "Deploy Satellites". They should deploy the one satellite they have and buy more to deploy on other sectors.
Satellites allows you to see the Sectors even when there's no player-owned ships in there. Even if you are not there. You can also buy from the Shipyards and access the Stock Exchanges from afar.
If you have not found a large number of sectors by now, You should start doing it! in order for the M5s to deploy Satellites continously (They only deploy on already found sectors)
Now if you put your stations in the "Core Sectors" you won't have to put much defense as the patrol there is enough. But if you put them in the "Border Sectors" especially near Yaki/Pirate/Xenon sectors, beware. You should at least buy some ships and fully-equip them and set them to patrol/defend the sectors/stations.
In my opinion the M6 is the best bang for the buck defense unit in these situations. Until you can afford M2 Destroyers, a couple of M6s or M7 if you have the money, equipped with Concussion Impulse Generator with a couple of High Energy Plasma Throwers + Max Shieldings, will work.
details on the weapons here by roguey
Chapter VII - Military Management
Chapter VIII - Useful and Recommended Mods by me
X3 is a very mod-friendly game and that there are numerous guides as well for doing this.
Specifically, a modification is anything the changes anything to the base game making it "modified", to provide a greater experience for the player, like new commands, new ship models, new missions and etc.
This game series has been around for many years so the list of modifications available is vast, and many of those modifications have found their way into the default/vanilla game, selected and added by the developers themselves.
You do not need to know how to code to USE mods. In many of the mods all you need to know is how to download a file, and open an application, and click install and point to the file you downloaded. It is really that simple. The more complex version, is just copying the file you just downloaded into some specific folder, again, a no-brainer.
BE CAREFUL OF THOSE CHEAT MODS OR NEAR CHEAT SCRIPTS AVAILABLE BECAUSE THAT WILL MAKE THE GAME MORE BORING AND VERY UNREWARDING. IT WILL KILL THE EXPERIENCE.
You should find all the mods listed below here
Mods listed here aims to improve gameplay by reducing micromanagement to players
Lucike's Scripts
Commercial Agent (CAG); Better version of Buy/Sell wares. Can manage stations and its wares/products/resources.
Commodity Logistics Software (CLS) ; Better version of Manual Trade Runs, Can supply/sell wares to different stations and ships.
Economy and Supply Trader (EST) ; Better version of the Universal Trader. More controls
Security and Rescue Service (SRS) ; Better Patrol commands and allows rapid response to attacked Traders/Freighters that uses Lucike's Scripts. A.K.A. the Pilot's Union.
For the above scripts to work to the fullest you may need to train pilots first to a certain levels
Guide to training CAG and CLS1&2 pilots in Terran Conflict by Kor'ah
Bounce by Litcube ; reduces or removes unnecessary collisions
Safe undocking / jumping by Gazz ; Fix for the bug with some ships exploding on undock.
Galaxy Explorer by gnasirator ; Great for automatically exploring new sectors.
Anarkis Defense System (ADS) by Serial Kicked ; Carrier and Sector Defense Manager for easier Carrier, Fleet and Station Defense management
Will add more mods as I use them
Chapter IX - Credits
Made my lyndonguitar
Thank you to those who made those helpful guides linked and those mods and their translators.
For the Guides
WillWilk
delray
Spychotic
rrfarmer
em3e3
deca.death
Kor'ah
Roguey
For the Mods
Lucike
Litcube
Gazz
gnasirator
Serial Kicked
Additional Help
kgkosio
Shrewd135
Hi i'm new member here at these forums, but a long time forum lurker and a player of X3
This is a guide that I made to have an archive everything i know and I can think about X3 to provide Reference for me and also to other players.
More things will be added soon.
After playing for awhile I thought on making an All-Around guide to help new players started. not sure if this is late or what for a "newcomers guide" but here it is anyway.
It should or could help players with LITTLE TO NO X series knowledge starting out.
I have seen many complains in different forums about this game is so complicated and this and that, but once you get past these obstacles, Its a great game, maybe the greatest game you will ever play(so far)
Also adding to the complication is the life span of the game, so many have changed since the initial X3: Reunion release so alot of outdated guides exists, and many guides/threads still talks about older versions which may confuse many newbies.
Designed for X3 AP 2.5
What's in this Guide:
Helps newcomers to the series, confused players. Helps them start in the game. and have something to do.
Spoilers on X, X2 up to X3TC
What's NOT in this Guide:
Flight and Game Control Layouts/Shortcuts
X3AP Spoilers
Exploits
Notes:
may contain link to other guides and threads that will explain certain aspects more thoroughly.
may contain info's about other scripts from other people.
may contain COPY PASTED DATA from wiki's, other guides, threads that may save you some time from trying to google everything.
If you're having trouble reading it, you can use your browser's zoom function
Best used together with this guide
I'm not perfect and a grand master of the game so pardon me if there are any mistakes (veterans help me here)
Some of the terms maybe incorrect so please correct me if there's any.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE GUIDE
PARTS
Intro - Background Story (SKIP IF FAMILIAR WITH THE STORY/UNIVERSE, It can be a good read though)
Chapter I - Universe, Economy and Gameplay.
Chapter II - Docks and Ships
Chapter III - Starting Out
Chapter IV - Trader Management
Chapter V - Station Management
Chapter VI - Empire Management
Chapter VII - Military Management(not yet made, would be grateful if someone made a guide for this part)
Chapter VIII - Useful and Recommended Mods by me
Chapter IX - Credits
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRO - BACKGROUND STORY:
So you are new to the X-Universe. this is to give a background to the story, in my opinion it is necessary to know a little because it can add more immersion to the player, (from wikipedia)
Over the course of the 21st century, mankind experimented with wormhole technology and successfully built jumpgates in space between Earth and Mars paving the way for the colonization of the solar system and interstellar transport. A jumpgate was shuttled to Alpha Centauri in an attempt to claim a foothold in interstellar space. Even before the gate left the solar system scientists discovered that many objects classified as black holes showed the characteristics of artificial wormholes.
There were alien jumpgates which the human constructed gates could connect to. The Terrans had discovered the X Universe, a seemingly uninhabited collection of star systems connected by a vast network of large, bi-directional jumpgates.
Puzzled by the lack of intelligent life within this network but driven by their curiosity and the urge to colonise the new worlds the Terrans ventured into the X Universe intent on expanding their territory. Terraforming machines were created and dispatched to terraform planets into habitable worlds. The Terraformers were self-replicating spacecraft, governed by a simple artificial intelligence. During a software update several flaws were introduced into the Terraformer fleet and distributed between them causing a radical change in behaviour. The Terraformers replicated and attempted to re-terraform colonised planets, causing the planets to lose their ability to support human life. In an attempt to halt the Terraformers
the Terrans became embroiled in a war with their creations. No colony was able to defend against the attacks and mankind was pushed back to the Sol System where the Terraformers launched an attempt to destroy all life forms and terraform all of the inner planets.
In a daring attempt to save the solar system, a group of ships, led by Nathan R. Gunne, lured the Terraformers through the gate into the X Universe. The Earth gate was then destroyed, trapping the Terraformers in the X-Universe and cutting Earth off from the rest of the network.
The X-series is set more than 750 years after these events. A single Terraformer craft appears in the solar system using an apparently experimental gateless jumpdrive. The Terrans reverse engineer the device. In its maiden flight, the X-Shuttle, piloted by test pilot Kyle Brennan, is accidentally transported into the X Universe. Unlike before, this part of the network is inhabited by several space faring alien races and the descendants of Nathan R. Gunne's fleet. The Terraformers are attempting to get to Earth and Kyle must stop them. (End of Wiki)
Nathan R. Gunne and its fleet, the one who saved Earth and lured the terraformers away from Earth, got trapped in the X-Universe, with no possible way back to Earth or even contact, they decided to settle on the X-Universe, they thought the Terraformers were gonna finish them there but for some reason they weren't attacked.
Time passed by, and the Earth was chosen to be forgotten and just became a "myth". they called themselves the R. Gunne or ArGon in honor of Nathan R. Gunne, new generations were brainwashed into believing that they evolved and started on their planet, and eventually, most of the population did, with the records of Earth now hidden in top-secret vaults in the Argon Homeworld.
Time goes on, They expanded into more sectors and met the Borons, Paranid, Split and Teladi species, there was a War between the Argon/Borons vs Paranid/Split with Teladi neutral but they are now at peace. forming the Commonwealth
RACES
(wiki)
Human: Divided into three factions:
Terran: Humans who were born in the Sol system.
Argon: Humans who are descended from the remains of the fleet that lured the Terraformers through the gateway that saved Earth in the terraformer wars. The Argon government decided centuries ago that the pain of separation with Earth was best dealt with by changing the official version of history so that humans in the X- Universe believed they evolved in their current location.
Goner: Argons who believe the legend of Earth and Nathan R. Gunne (who led the fleet that saved Earth), despite both being officially just a myth.
Boron: A squidlike alien race that reveres their queen and love
peace.
Paranid: A three-eyed alien race that hail to their Xaar emperor and
have a strict religion.
Teladi: A reptilian alien race that worship trade and profits.
Split: A tribal alien race that fight within themselves as much as they fight their enemies.
Khaak: A buglike alien race that started war with the Argon in X²: The Threat. They decimated the sector now known as "President's End"
Xenon: A self-replicating artificial intelligence evolved from the terraformers created by the Terrans in an effort to colonise worlds. Now hostile to all life, they destroy anything organic.
Yaki: Not much are known about these Pirates, Only that they are becoming a real force to be reckoned with. Their activities have all the hallmarks of deliberate creation of chaos and confusion in order to undermine law and order throughout the universe. They are known for their frequent attacks on isolated trader because they are easy targets, often without fighter escorts.
Pirates: Pirates are not a race in themselves but groups of like-minded criminals who specialize in all sorts of illegal activities. They have their own bases, usually hidden from view and well defended. Most pirate bases have large fleets of ships and will send out raiding patrols on a regular basis. They are known to be very aggressive.
(end of wiki)
X - Enter Kyle Brennan, a test-pilot from earth., he ended up in the X-Universe, met the races, at first Argons thought he was crazy but he conviced them that Earth was real with the help of the Goners, he helped the commonwealth into the War with Xenons and successfully destroyed their super weapon.
X2-X3 - the Khaak came, many battles, and Julian, Kyle's son saved the day. then they finally met with the Terrans
lets jump to X3AP. There was a peace with the Terrans for abit, but a War ensued between terrans and the commonwealth, this is in X3: Albion Prelude.
Chapter I - Universe, Economy and Gameplay
X3 is a very complex game, very,very hard to learn but very fun to play, On a scale of 1-10 I would rate it as 12, with 11 being Arma(if you've played that). Theres an awful lot of micromanagement in this game which can be reduced through the use of scripts and mods, but beware, some can or will break your game.
It has a replayability and fun factor compared to that of Online and MMORPG games, It has a living Universe, much like an Online game, with lots of ships and things going around doing their business.
The Universe is divided into sectors, All Races have their own Sectors and are considered their Territories. There are two types of Sectors, Cores=Well Defended and considered the Strong Points of the the races, and the Borders=which is obviously sectors near the other races's sectors, they are not that well defended, but there's still a considerable amount of patrols in these areas.
Each sectors having up to 4 Jumpgates, North, East, West, or South, leading up to another sector. many of them are positioned in a way that you can return to a sector by going North, East, South, West, then North again, etc.
There is a functioning Dynamic Economy system, prices change depending on current wares stocks in the surrounding areas, more supplies, the lower the price. NPC Traders rush out to buy things at a low prices, and try to sell them at a higher prices in other locations, Other wares like foods and unusable waress are "consumed" by people and disappear overtime.
Wares = the Items in the game. like foods, minerals, weapons, etc
The Game Economy is managed by GOD Engine, which circulates the supplies and demands of the wares. Should an Area becomes completely lacking in a certain ware, It would try to make a factory in optimal locations, Also, Stations destroyed by attacks or by you, will often be replaced by another stations realistically.
Your player has a reputation with each races, including the pirates(yes there are pirates!). and has a rating in both trading and fighting. Higher reputation and rating means more access to things like equipments, ships and stations.
The most useful feature of the game is SETA, Singularity Engine Time Accelerator, It speeds up time up to 1000%, for faster travel times. (playing without SETA is impossible(IMO) as it will requires full-time dedication to the game just like real life) you can activate it by pressing J.
Another one is the Autopilot(Shift + A), which works great, you can go to other places automatically, If used with ships, it will automatically follow it,
there is an Auto-Dock variant(Shift + D) of it that can be used to automatically dock on ships and stations. later in the game you can get a Docking Computer to Dock faster, basically it teleports your ship to the dock when you are less than 5km from the station's 3d model. this is very useful and a time saver.
Should your ship get damage(green damage, the hull) and you dont have money to spend on repairs, You can Eject out of the ship(Shift+E) and press the right mouse button, a laser will come out. shoot your ship wiht the laser and hold it and it should repair it. However it can take a long time for ships with stronger hull and damage
The Jumpdrive is also a great tool, It is a ship upgrade that allows you to Jump directly to any discovered jumpgates in the game, It requires energy cells for every sector/gate skipped during the jump. you have to find that upgrade yourself.
Another useful feature that many players don't know about is the Encyclopedia, you can activate it by pressing "h", it allows you to view the details of any discovered Race, Ship, Station, Wares, or any other objects in the game, and also shows where the viewed item(if its obtainable/purchasable) might be available for purchase.
Theres alot of things to do in this game,
Missions: you can take them by looking for certain icons(like a red target or a light bulb) on stations and pressing "c" or "comm" and pressing the number with the icon to talk to the Mission Giver. he will tell you the missions, the time limit and the reward, Should you fail, theres no problem, you just don't get the reward, and lose some rep.
lots of types of Missions, Assassination, Recon, Delivery, Patrol, and many more!
You can also do the plot missions and receive great unique rewards.
Trading: Player Trading, and AI Trading
Player Trading - Mostly used by players starting out, You find a place where an wares sells the cheapest and try to sell it to another place.
AI Trading - As long as the Trader ship is not piloted by you, that is AI Trading.
AI Trading can be done in Manual or Automated.
Manual Trading - If you still control the Trader through the Trading System Extension and other softwares, Issuing commands, what to buy and sell while in another ship.
Automated Trading - You need Trade Command Software MK3 to have an Automated Trader, you can set them as Sector Trader, which trades in a single sector only, until they level up to Level 8 and you can set them as Universal Trader. so they can go anywhere. you can still set a Blacklist for Sectors you think is too Dangerous to trade in. The higher the trader's level = more things that he can do by himself and more survivability, however they can still be dumb and try to trade in sectors with enemies, so beware.
Trading Guide by WillWilk
Mining: Where you break up asteroids into smaller pieces and extract the minerals that come out of them. I do not recommend this task as I find it boring (my personal opinion), It is called Mobile Mining.
You can also "mine" by building mining factories around asteroids.
Piracy/Capturing Ships: you capture ships and either use them / sell them for profits=deemed the most effective way of earning money fast. For small ships, you can just attack them until they bail out, For huge ships, you have to use marines.
A completely detailed guide for this by delray
Running Stations: You can build factories which makes and sells wares and docks which stores wares and sells them at a defined prices.
Business Empire: Collection of Stations, Complete with Traders and Freighters, with Ships to defend the said assets.
Great guide here by Spychotic
Chapter II - Stations and Ships
Stations
There are two main types of Stations
Docks and Factories.
Docks basically have five types.
Equipment Docks - Which offers equipments and upgrades (availability depends on the reputation), It can also train marines.
Shipyards- Which sells Ships and Stations and offers upgrades (availability depends on the reputation) provided that they have an equipment dock in the same sector. They also REPAIR ships, They are mostly found in core sectors and usually with an EQ.
Trading Stations - Buys and Sells items, mostly "consumable" items that disappear overtime to pave way to more sellers/traders. For example theres no eating command in the game so the Food must be "consumed" anyway, Trading Stations are found in almost every sector. there is a Stock Exchange variant which does the same except you can access the Stocks from there.
Military Outposts - Mostly functions like the EQ except more Military things to sell and can sell Marines
HQs - Also functions like an EQ - but can dock more Huge Ships, have bigger item capacity and the ability to produce ships(player HQs). It can also change the color of your ships.
Factories have three types.
Single Factories - These stations make wares, called products, and needs certain resources to be able to produce wares, example you need crystals to make energy cells in power plants. There are lots types of Factories that can be seen (and owned) in the game. From Weapons productions to Food processing to Power Plants.
Complexes - Just Factories interconnected to each other to be able to share both wares, effectively sharing their resources and products, for example a factory making an Energy Cells can be Complexed to another Factory that needs Energy Cells as a resource. eliminating the other's factories needs. You can even create self-sustaining complexes! Fire and Forget!
Mines: Either an ore or silicon mine, It can be put on any Big Asteroid, It mines raw materials that can be used to process more goods, from weapons to technology wares, and it requires little resource for production, Asteroids have yields, which you can see if you have a mineral scanner and right clicking them and selecting scan. The higher the yield, the higher it produces per hour. They can be connected to complexes too and is essential to achieve self-sustainability.
Great Tool by em3e3
Ships
There's many types/class of Ships. With each races having at least one variant.
Each ship has different roles in battle and theres really no "I win ship"
Classes.
M1 - A Huge Carrier and Capital Ship, can load many fighters and have decent firepower
M2 - Also Huge Capital ship, have ALOT of firepower, one of the biggest ships in game
M7 - A Frigate, at most times slightly smaller than Capital Ships. Can be considered as a "light M2"
M7M - Same as frigate, but it uses missiles, can do missile barrages and can do boarding operations by sending boarding pods(not all models can do boarding operations).
M6 - A Corvette, Great for patrol and support, great anti fighter.
M6+ - A Stronger Corvette, commonly used as player ship
M3 - A Heavy Fighter, decent firepower, provides good support for bigger ships
M8 - A Bomber, useful for fighting bigger ships.
M4 - An interceptor, Designed to take down other small fighters
M5 - The smallest ships in the game, commonly used as scouts and explorers.
TS - A Standard Freighter to transport goods, comes in many sizes.
TP - A fast freighter particularly designed for transport of personel.
TL - As big as a Capital Ship, huge cargo space, can become a light carrier and can carry/construct stations, Not for Fighting.
TM - A military transport, Can hold marines for boarding operations and also can dock fighters. Good as supply/support ships.
NOTE: Huge Ships (M1, M2, M7, TL) can only dock on Shipyards, Equipment Docks, Military Outpost, and the Player HQ.
Chapter III - Starting Out
When you start up, What you do depends on your starting scenario,
A good way to earn money at start is to do some things that match the starting ship that you have. If you started with a fighter, Do some missions that involves fighting. If you started with a Trader, Trade., etc.
However another good choice is capping ships, as you have started with a small ship, you also need to target ships of similar size. and you don't need marines yet, just make the ship pilots bail out.
Also don't forget to explore around other sectors and not just stay at a few sectors. More sectors explored means a bigger market for trading and more things to do.
Trading is a bit simple, you find sectors that are very low on stock on a specific ware, which means higher buying price,
then find someplace else where the supply is plenty so the price is cheap, Buy it and sell it for a higher price. you should be fast though, as supply and demand can quickly change, and other NPC Traders are doing the same.
one example is you see a sector with factories that requires an Energy Cell, one of the popular choices in early game trading, seeing them almost out of stock, with no Power Plants nearby, what you do is travel to place where Energy Cells are abundant, buy it cheap, then sell it to that place. More of a "freelance supplier".
Useful tools for player trading are the "Best Buy and Sell Locator" Upgrades for your ship that can locate which sells cheapest and buys highest. (it displays explored sectors only)
You could also do Mobile Mining, as i said earlier, by breaking asteroids and collecting the minerals.
If you find yourself having trouble in doing any of these I advice you complete Missions first. both Random and Plot ones
These were the most common ways of earning money Pre-X3AP
but in X3AP the fastest way to earn money is to just use the Stock Exchange, a new feature,. at start you wont be able to use most Stock Exchanges except for the Teladi. which only needs 10k Credits, so go to the Teladi if you want an early game S.E.
Very Helpful Guide by rrfarmer
Chapter IV - Trader Management
After you earn enough money, you should be able to buy a Freighter at a Shipyard
Get one and equip it with a Trade Command Software MK3, and the max engine tuning. it is available in the Terracorp HQ, Home of Light. and most Teladi EQ Docks.
after you buy it, You should see the option "start Sector Trader" In the Trade Command Menu, Select it and choose the sector you want, preferably the one with a solar power plant with lots of factories that needs energy cells, and is safe from attacks. He will start trading in that sector automatically, you should check on him from time to time though,
meanwhile, while the trader earns money for you, he is also on his way to level 8, earn some more by doing different things until you could buy another trader,
After some time the Trader will get to Level 8, you can see it by pressing R for properties, selecting the trader and pressing U. When he is already level 8, you should be able to set him to "Universal Trader" and he can trade anywhere he wants now.
By that time you should have got your second trader now. Now rinse and repeat, until you get to 5-10 Traders. earn some more and you could now build stations. But while building stations you should also aim for 20-30 UT Traders.
As I said earlier, you can blacklist Sectors. If you think there are certain sectors are dangerous and your traders keep on going there you can block them from doing that by blacklisting the sector. You can do this by going into any of your trader's command console, and selecting "additional commands".
After awhile, if all goes well, and your traders survive, and they've earned alot, they will eventually reach Level 25, which is the highest, which means they can do many things automatically and requires little management from the player.
Every level the trader becomes more automated, it adds new abilities for the trader, like using the jumpdrive, buying fighter drones for protection or automatically docking at a station for repairs when attacked. So you should take care of your traders especially those that are level 20-25.
[URL=ttp://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=121043]Great Traders Guide by WillWilk[/URL]
Chapter V - Station Management
There's so many possible stations to build and so many possible locations so its hard to recommend what to build. The best way to be sure is to examine the sectors and check what wares are low on supply, Also check the surrounding areas if there's any supplier nearby. If not then its a good place.
For example a couple of factories in a sector needs energy cells as a resource. The nearest energy cell producer is 5 Sectors/Jumpgates(jumps) away. If you build a Power Plant(produces energy cells), those factories will now buy to you. and you can get a steady source of income
Stations doesn't run on its own, It needs Resources. you either have to rely on other NPC traders to sell you wares or you provide the wares yourself, by doing it manually or setting a Freighter homebased to the factory and selecting, "Buy Wares for best price..." you need Trade Command MK2 for this command as far as I know. which is available at almost every Shipyard/EQ. You could also build another station catering to another station's needs.
Some great examples by our forum-mates,
another one.
Once again this is a great guide for managing Stations.
Complexes are Different, They are more expensive, and require more thinking, but they earn big time. as I said earlier they are factories interconnected to each other to be able to share both wares, effectively sharing their resources and products.
To effectively design one, you may need to use this calculator for making complexes
Mind you that Fire and Forget Self-Sufficient Complexes are not CHEAP!
If you can't afford fire and forget complexes yet. but want to build a complex, You should try building a Complex with a single resource only, preferably crystals/energy cells, as they are easy to transport and find throughout the universe.
Great Complex Suggestions by deca.death
Chapter VI - Empire Management
After awhile you should have a couple of Factories or Complexes by now together with a bunch of Traders and Freighters Working Together. Now what you need is Exploration and Protections.
Get some spare money, buy 5 or more Cheap M5 Ships, give them 1 Satellite each and the Explorer Command Software and command them to "Deploy Satellites". They should deploy the one satellite they have and buy more to deploy on other sectors.
Satellites allows you to see the Sectors even when there's no player-owned ships in there. Even if you are not there. You can also buy from the Shipyards and access the Stock Exchanges from afar.
If you have not found a large number of sectors by now, You should start doing it! in order for the M5s to deploy Satellites continously (They only deploy on already found sectors)
Now if you put your stations in the "Core Sectors" you won't have to put much defense as the patrol there is enough. But if you put them in the "Border Sectors" especially near Yaki/Pirate/Xenon sectors, beware. You should at least buy some ships and fully-equip them and set them to patrol/defend the sectors/stations.
In my opinion the M6 is the best bang for the buck defense unit in these situations. Until you can afford M2 Destroyers, a couple of M6s or M7 if you have the money, equipped with Concussion Impulse Generator with a couple of High Energy Plasma Throwers + Max Shieldings, will work.
details on the weapons here by roguey
Chapter VII - Military Management
Chapter VIII - Useful and Recommended Mods by me
X3 is a very mod-friendly game and that there are numerous guides as well for doing this.
Specifically, a modification is anything the changes anything to the base game making it "modified", to provide a greater experience for the player, like new commands, new ship models, new missions and etc.
This game series has been around for many years so the list of modifications available is vast, and many of those modifications have found their way into the default/vanilla game, selected and added by the developers themselves.
You do not need to know how to code to USE mods. In many of the mods all you need to know is how to download a file, and open an application, and click install and point to the file you downloaded. It is really that simple. The more complex version, is just copying the file you just downloaded into some specific folder, again, a no-brainer.
BE CAREFUL OF THOSE CHEAT MODS OR NEAR CHEAT SCRIPTS AVAILABLE BECAUSE THAT WILL MAKE THE GAME MORE BORING AND VERY UNREWARDING. IT WILL KILL THE EXPERIENCE.
You should find all the mods listed below here
Mods listed here aims to improve gameplay by reducing micromanagement to players
Lucike's Scripts
Commercial Agent (CAG); Better version of Buy/Sell wares. Can manage stations and its wares/products/resources.
Commodity Logistics Software (CLS) ; Better version of Manual Trade Runs, Can supply/sell wares to different stations and ships.
Economy and Supply Trader (EST) ; Better version of the Universal Trader. More controls
Security and Rescue Service (SRS) ; Better Patrol commands and allows rapid response to attacked Traders/Freighters that uses Lucike's Scripts. A.K.A. the Pilot's Union.
For the above scripts to work to the fullest you may need to train pilots first to a certain levels
Guide to training CAG and CLS1&2 pilots in Terran Conflict by Kor'ah
Bounce by Litcube ; reduces or removes unnecessary collisions
Safe undocking / jumping by Gazz ; Fix for the bug with some ships exploding on undock.
Galaxy Explorer by gnasirator ; Great for automatically exploring new sectors.
Anarkis Defense System (ADS) by Serial Kicked ; Carrier and Sector Defense Manager for easier Carrier, Fleet and Station Defense management
Will add more mods as I use them
Chapter IX - Credits
Made my lyndonguitar
Thank you to those who made those helpful guides linked and those mods and their translators.
For the Guides
WillWilk
delray
Spychotic
rrfarmer
em3e3
deca.death
Kor'ah
Roguey
For the Mods
Lucike
Litcube
Gazz
gnasirator
Serial Kicked
Additional Help
kgkosio
Shrewd135
