X3:R - Where can I find wild Spaceflies?

[Mazryonh]

I know the easiest way to get Spaceflies in your cargobay is to just keep killing Pirates until they drop Spaceflies in containers that you can easily pick up, but where can I find Spaceflies that haven't been captured yet?

The few times I've found them have been complete flukes. I would sometimes have my "track target" (default key "t") function active and it would pick up a wild Spacefly completely by accident. But they don't appear on the radar and they are so small they get lost in the background very easily unless you're already very close to them.

Where exactly should I actively look for wild Spaceflies, anyway? I know the only realistic way to capture them is to use an Ion Disruptor to stun them and collect them with a Spacefly Collector, but that doesn't answer the question of which sectors or what parts of sectors I should go look for them in. Do they hang around asteroids or something?

By the way, does anyone think it's kind of ridiculous that the Split love to use Spaceflies for energy and yet none of their ships can equip an Ion Disruptor to actually catch them? It kind of leaves a plot hole in the backstory of just how Split manage to actually catch Spaceflies unless they always do so in other races' ships.

[Cpt.Jericho]

Best way to catch spaceflies? Get to an empty sector hit the SETA key and wait until one bumps into you. It usually means you're in a small swarm of them.
I'm pretty sure those free flying buggers were introduced in X2 to keep people from exploiting SETA.

[DrSuperEvil]

You first need a spacefly collector from a Split equipment dock and an Ion Disrupter from a Boron one.

Split have an unused station type called a Spacefly Farm so that explains why they no longer actively hunt them.

Spaceflies are often found in asteroid rich sectors with lots of debris and can sometimes be found by attacking the asteroid. I find Olmanketslat's Treaty to be a good sector. There are also guarenteed spawns in the UFJD sector.

A trick to increase the chances of stunning one are to use flak weapons to increase the range of the ion disruptor. This means using CFA, FAA and FBL lasers in combination with the ion disruptor.

You prety much fly around shooting the ion disruptor constantly and pick up any that you come across.

[Cpt.Jericho]

In X3R there is no UFJD nor an FBL.

[DrSuperEvil]

You can find some in Elena's Fortune in X3:R and you still get FAAs.

[Mazryonh]

Spaceflies are often found in asteroid rich sectors with lots of debris and can sometimes be found by attacking the asteroid. I find Olmanketslat's Treaty to be a good sector. There are also guarenteed spawns in the UFJD sector.

You prety much fly around shooting the ion disruptor constantly and pick up any that you come across.

I've seen them a few (completely by accident when using the "track target" function) in sectors as diverse as Herron's Nebula and Black Hole Sun, so I'm not sure just what kind of sector environment they like to hang around in. Of course, back then I didn't have a ship capable of mounting an Ion Disruptor, so I couldn't catch them anyway.

[CBJ]

I'm not sure how widely known this is, but I discovered a while back that you have a better chance of encountering "wild" spaceflies in sectors with more asteroids in them.

[SirNukes]

I'm not sure how widely known this is, but I discovered a while back that you have a better chance of encountering "wild" spaceflies in sectors with more asteroids in them.

This is True. I just took a look at the KC, and this appears to be the algorithm, run when entering a sector:

Code: Select all

Skip if sector has no asteroids.
Skip 20% of the time regardless of asteroids.
Otherwise, calculate swarm count:
	swarm_count = rand(asteroid_count)+1
	If the sector is owned by the Split:
		swarm_count  += (rand(swarm_count)+1)
	swarm_count = min(swarm_count , 8)
Create this many swarms, randomly placed.

So, on top of wanting a sector with plenty of asteroids, Split sectors will average around 50% more spaceflies (up to a cap of 8 swarms). The 20% chance of having no spaceflies can be bothersome, though. If you hunt around a sector for a bit without luck, consider exiting and reentering to rerolls the spaceflies.

[DrSuperEvil]

So that means your best chances are in the Tkr's Deprivation area.

[Mazryonh]

I'm not sure how widely known this is, but I discovered a while back that you have a better chance of encountering "wild" spaceflies in sectors with more asteroids in them.

This is True. I just took a look at the KC, and this appears to be the algorithm, run when entering a sector:

Code: Select all

Skip if sector has no asteroids.
Skip 20% of the time regardless of asteroids.
Otherwise, calculate swarm count:
	swarm_count = rand(asteroid_count)+1
	If the sector is owned by the Split:
		swarm_count  += (rand(swarm_count)+1)
	swarm_count = min(swarm_count , 8)
Create this many swarms, randomly placed.

So, on top of wanting a sector with plenty of asteroids, Split sectors will average around 50% more spaceflies (up to a cap of 8 swarms). The 20% chance of having no spaceflies can be bothersome, though. If you hunt around a sector for a bit without luck, consider exiting and reentering to rerolls the spaceflies.

If this applies to X3:R as well, then this is just what I needed. Thanks a lot.