[X3: Reunion/TC/AP] Illustrated Guide: Beautiful Vanilla Factory Complex!

[Simoom]

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Valinor Aerospace Ltd. Proudly Presents
~The Fully Illustrated Guide to Beautiful Factory Complex ~
Revision 2.0

As the owner and executive of Valinor Aerospace, I take pride in the quality of our work. From the design and construction of a luxury passenger transport to a hundred-station factory mega-complex, one word describes our company philosophy: Perfection.

I would like to talk to you about proper construction of factory complexes today: As you may already know, competition over recent years have resulted in many aerospace contractors doing very low-quality work. These poorly-built complexes (and their cobweb of modular transportation tubes) are not only unsightly, but the very nature of their geometry presents great hazard to interstellar traffic.

Valinor Aerospace is one of the few remaining companies that still does precision work in this regard, and I will share some detailed insights into our construction techniques in the hopes of making inhabited space a safer (and more aesthetically-pleasing) place to travel.

Before I begin, I would like to mention the following pioneers, whose techniques and knowledge were of great inspiration:

Ryuujin's Guide was one of the earliest to surface, and though it was neither detailed nor complete, it had historical significance, and laid way to later builders.
Terre's Guide offers an alternative method for factory alignment. A good read with some good demo complexes.
"Komplexbauguide" by KBG is a very detailed and extensive guide, though it is in German.
-Dusty-'s Factory Complex Constructor is a great tool for factory-builders, if you don't mind the ***modified*** status. Please note that I am keeping my X3AP completely vanilla, so both of my complexes presented in this guide were done without FCC.

Our goal at Valinor Aerospace is not only to build upon what has been done before, but to do it better. And now, I present our guide, compiled over the course of two weeks during the construction of two of our newest factory complexes.

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Chapter 1: Time-Saving Tips

Before we get any further, allow me to present two tips that are ABSOLUTELY the most important things to precision complex construction. Trust me, just knowing them will save hours of your time.

Tip #1) This is probably the single most important knowledge: YOU CAN SAVE using Salvage Insurance while the Factory Deployment Interface / Sector Map is open! Why is this important? Well, the Save file will actually contain the current deployment position and rotational data of your factory, without you having to actually deploy it! This means you can rotate and position the factory --> drop a save --> connect the factory to check for alignment --> load the save if the alignment is off --> fine-tune the alignment and save again!

Before I knew this, I was dropping a save before calling the TL to deploy the station. So every time the alignment and positioning is off, I had to re-align and re-position the factory using memory alone! This wasted hours of my time...

~ ~ ~

Tip #2) Always, ALWAYS make sure the factory nodes are as perfectly aligned as you can. You WANT those connection tubes to be straight.

Why, you ask? Surely I am just being overly perfectionistic about this? Acutally, two big reasons (aside from that straight tubes just look good).

The first reason is because there's a graphical glitch in all of the X3 games. You see, the MINIMUM number of segments in a connection tube is 3. The game engine will always generate 3 segments in a tubing no matter how close your factories are to one another (even if both ends of the tube overlap on one another, there will still be a third segment "inside" the tube). Two of these segments have a fixed length (the ones coming directly out of the respective nodes), while the segment in the middle has variable length (the game will shorten it if your factories are close to one another; and if your factories are far apart, it will generate additional segments in the middle. All these additional segments also have variable length).

The two fixed-length segments always align perfectly straight to the direction of the nodes, while the variable-length segments in the middle can bend and turn. So if the alignment is off, the middle segments just bend... no big deal, right?
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Wrong. Remember I said something about a graphical glitch? The tube may look okay right after the factories were first joined, but look at what happens the moment you leave the sector.
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Not so nice anymore, isn't it? That's right - although the middle segments are supposed to be "variable" in length, the game doesn't remember this. The next time you enter the sector, the middle segments will be generated at their full length- so if the tube isn't straight enough, you'll get the two ends of the middle segment sticking out like this.

But if you take good care to align the factory nodes perfectly straight, when the game bugs out at the next load... watch what happens:
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The second reason you want perfect factory nodes alignment is because you actually save more time in the long-run. Why? Well, imagine you are building a fairly large complex with a symmetrical layout (which is what I use). Obviously, I will have multiple factories of the same type on both sides. If I keep all the alignments perfect, I can - for example - finish deploying the factories on the right side, then for the left side I can simply "match position" (Num Pad 5) to the pre-existing factories on the right for rapid deployment with minimal tweaking needed (I only need to adjust for one axis, as opposed to three).

This was also a lesson I learned the hard way - when I first started in my endeavors, I let some of the imperfect alignments go, which resulted in an asymmetry in the Y-axis between the left and right sides. As the consequence, I had to redo all the alignments for the left side when I was done with the right, since the positional data from the right side factories were of no use.

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Chapter 2: Getting Started

Step 1: Do Your Homework!
It's a bad idea to just hop right in and start buying stations without knowing what they look like, how big they are, and where their nodes are. You will quickly find yourself unable to connect them properly - the inability to rotate factories in all three axis means it is impossible to get some factories into a rotation of your liking. It is therefore very important to plan our your factory complex in advance, and familiarize yourself with what each factory looks like!

For planning out your factory complexes, I recommend Xadrian Factory Calculator. In addition to having an easy interface showing you all your factories' productions and consumptions, it also has a detailed list of all the sectors and their vanilla asteroid data, which makes for very easy factory location scouting.

For looking up the configurations of the factories, I recommend X Model 3D Viewer. You can examine all the factories in your complex, without having to buy them first! This utility is a MUST-HAVE for locating those pesky nodes.

~ ~ ~

Step 2: The Drawing Board
Having familiarized yourself with the factories in your planned complex, it's now time to draw a diagram to visualize how all the factories in your complex are to be connected to one another.

Here's the chart I drew for my light weapons complex in Antigone Memorial, a sizable 66-station construct which I will be mainly using as demonstration for the purpose of this guide:
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(Note: The Terran factories are omitted from this drawing because they have hidden nodes which are typically symmetrical, which makes laying them out easy. More on that later)

It may look a bit daunting at first, but it's actually easier than it seems. To help you get started, you should know that the factories can be roughly divided into the following categories:

Horizontal Y-split:
These factories typically have three nodes (sometimes two, with the third node blocked off and non-functional), laid out horizontally. They can be easily arranged into a zig-zagging pattern in the horizontal plane.
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The Boron Bofu Lab L is a good example of a horizontal Y-split.

Vertical Y-split:
Like their horizontal counterpart, these have two to three nodes, and can be arranged into a zig-zagging pattern vertically. I know what you are thinking - yes, some of these can be rotated to serve as a horizontal Y, and vice versa, and I do it often - but this doesn't always work, due to the wonky initial alignment of some factories, as well as the two-axis rotation restriction (the Paranid Soyery M is a good example of a factory that can be rotated into a horizontal Y, but not a vertical one). Furthermore, many factories have a "control tower" in their model, which doesn't look nice when you mess with their X-axis orientation.
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The Boron BioGas L is a good example of a vertical Y-split.

I-split:
These factories are great "thoroughfares". They have two nodes lined up, usually in a straight-line, and can sit right in the middle of two Y-split stations.
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The Impulse Ray Emitter Forge is a good example of an I-split.

L-split:
Not much to say about these ones. They usually have two or three nodes, one facing the horizontal plane and the other(s) facing the vertical plane. These can be useful as transition stations joining the vertical and horizontal layouts in a complex, if your vertical Y-split factory has a third node pointing up/down.
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The Crystal Fab M is a good example of an L-split (two of its Y-split nodes are non-functional, therefore it's an L-split)

Y+L-split:
This type of factories are rare, but are extremely useful! Basically, they have a single node allowing for a straight connection in from the X/Z-axis, then has a Y-split in the Y-axis. In other words, they can act as natural transition points between your Horizontal and Vertical Y-split layouts!
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Why the Y+L-split factories are so immensely useful: Here you can see a Weapon Component factory acting as a joint between the Vertical and Horizontal stations.

U-split:
These stations typically have two parallel nodes located apart from one another. Most shield and missile factories fall into this category; a number of these can be joined into a "square-wave" pattern.
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The 5MJ Shield Factory is a good example of an U-split. The screenshot to the right shows U-split factories in a square-wave arrangement.

Dead-End:
These stations have only one node, and can act as nothing except terminal stations at the outer edges of your complex. Most weapon factories fall into this category.
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The Particle Accelerator Cannon Forge is a good example of a Dead-End station.

The Pesky Terran Factories:
As aforementioned, the Terran factories all have "hidden" nodes. I am guessing the art team didn't have time to modify the pre-existing models to put the nodes in... It's a major annoyance, and you will simply have to trial-and-error to figure out where the nodes are and how to align them.
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An example of a Terran fab with "hidden" nodes.

There are several exceptions to the rules, of course, but nothing some creativity won't solve. Grouping the factories in your complex into these categories will help you plan out the general layout of your complex.
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The only three patterns you'll need for constructing large complexes - Horizontal Zig-Zag, Vertical Zig-Zag, and Square-Wave. Everything else are variations of these themes.

~ ~ ~

Step 3: Familiarize Yourself with the Controls
You did your homework, you planned out your complex, you drew a diagram. Now let's take a quick look at the controls you need while your TL is on its way to the shipyard!

Station Placement Controls:
Num Pad 1: Rotate Y-axis, Clockwise
Num Pad 2: Move Factory Down (Z- or Y-axis, depending on sector map orientation)
Num Pad 3: Rotate Y-axis, Counter-Clockwise
Num Pad 4: Move Factory Left (X-axis)
Num Pad 5: Centers Factory on Highlighted Object (in the Sector Map)
Num Pad 6: Move Factory Right (X-axis)
Num Pad 7: Rotate X-axis, Clockwise
Num Pad 8: Move Factory Up (Z- or Y-axis, depending on sector map orientation)
Num Pad 9: Rotate X-axis, Counter-Clockwise

Ship Controls: Yes, you want to use keyboard control here for precision.
A/D/W/S: Strafe Left/Right/Up/Down
Up/Down/Left/Right: Pitch and Yaw
Q/E: Roll

Camera Controls:
F1: Cockpit Camera
F2: External (Ship) Camera
F3: External (Target) Camera
Num Pad 4/6/2/8: Pan Camera Left/Right/Down/Up
Num Pad +/-: Zoom In/Out

Sector Map Controls:
Insert: Change X-/Y-axis Orientation
Home/ENd: Zoom In/Out
Note: It is recommended that you unbind "Delete" key from the "Close All Menus" function, which is the game's default. I cannot tell you how many times I've accidentally closed the sector map while aligning my stations; it was quite annoying.

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Chapter 3: Aligning Factories
Here comes the good part - how to get those beautiful straight tubes for your complex!

If you are new to factory-building, and have been scratching your head about this "node" I have been mentioning: The "node" is the connection point(s) on factory buildings. Every factory has at least one of these visible (except for Terran buildings).
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What a node looks like.

To align the nodes on your factories, follow these steps:

Step 1: Aligning Your Ship to the Node
1) Circle the factory in your ship, and find the node on it that you'll be using to connect to the new (yet-to-be-deployed) factory. Fly as close as you can to the node, then stop your engines. Make sure you have a Video Enhancement Goggle installed on your ship - you are going to need it.

2) The next step is getting a good ship-to-node alignment, so you can use your HUD crosshair as a decent reference point for initial factory placement. I have developed a technique for achieving near-perfect ship-to-node alignment.

If you zoom in very, VERY closely on the center of the node, you'll find this little hexagonal center-piece around the blue dot. Pay attention to the highlights in the screenshot.
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Here's a perfect ship-to-node alignment. Pay attention to the notes and highlights on the screenshot.
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3) Once your ship is decently aligned to the node, hit F2 twice so the external camera is pointed toward the nose of the ship, and spin your ship around so it's "looking away" from the node. You can center the back of your ship to the node by using visual traits on the surface of your ship (in the example screenshot below, I used the white navigational light on the top of my ship for alignment). No matter how careful you are, though, the horizontal alignment will likely be off once you spin your ship around - don't worry though, having a good vertical alignment already helps tremendously (the less axis you have to tweak the factory's positioning around, the more time you save).
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My ship in near-perfect alignment to the node.

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Step 2: Factory Rotation & Alignment
1) Now that you ship is aligned, you can get ready to deploy your new factory. Start by selecting a "reference factory" (preferably one that hasn't been rotated, so it has perfect rotational alignment in relation to the sector space), and target it. Now press F3 to enter Target Camera mode. This will allow the target factory to act as a visual guide for rotating/aligning your new factory.

2) How should you orient the Target Camera? Well, it mostly depends on what type of rotation your new factory needs (if any). If your new factory needs to be rotated horizontally, then obviously you should start by orienting your camera into a top-down view, and vice versa.

3) But what if your factory needs rotation along both axis? You can't rotate the camera once the Sector Map is open!

...actually, yes you can. I discovered this quite by accident - I hit "Enter" on the num pad, which opened up the Sidebar menu while I was positioning my factory - and voila! The camera was moving! Apparently, camera controls will work as long as the game doesn't consider the Sector Map window to be the active window - so if you have any Sidebar menus open, you will have full camera control via Key Pads. The moment you close the menu, the Key Pads go back to controlling factory position/rotation.

4) So now that the camera is pointed the way you like... how do you know you achieved perfect rotational alignment for your new factory? There are two methods, which I use in combination.

The first method is using the Sector Map grids as rulers - find a straight edge on your new factory and rotate it until it lines up perfectly (parallel to) with one of the grids. It is recommended you zoom out far away, so perspectives don't mess up your visual perception. See the highlight in this example:
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The second method is a new technique I just developed, called "Tube-matching". Remember I said earlier that the two ends of a tube coming out of the factory nodes are always perfectly straight? Well, if you place the factories really close together to make those two ends overlap, you can easily tell if the rotational alignment is off. Here's an example of a bad alignment:
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And now, perfectly aligned:
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So what you do is, once you have the two factories decently lined up, hit "Shift+S" to create a save point prior to testing tube alignment. Deploy the new factory--> Connect factories --> Check for alignment errors --> Load, tweak, and save again. Rinse and repeat until perfect rotational alignment is achieved.

5)Once your station is rotated to your satisfaction, use the Num Pad keys 4/6/2/8 to move your new station to a distance you prefer. Now hit F1 to enter cockpit view. Move the new station around so the node you are trying to connect to is centered on your HUD cross-hair (remember, the center of your crosshair may be off, too. But this is to establish a initial reference point for further tweaking).
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An example of a good node-to-crosshair alignment during factory deployment.

6) Once the node is aligned to your crosshair, hit "Shift+S" to drop a save. Now deploy the factory and connect it to the old one, and see how the tube looks. If it's not straight, make a mental note of the adjustments needed ("Little lower, more to the left), then Load --> Tweak --> Save --> Try again. This can be a tedious process, depending on the station in question, but patience and tenacity always pays off (and it does get faster as your skill matures).

Side Note: Sometimes... "I can't see a thing in this #&!*!!!" happens. Yes, the node can often be hard to see due to the way the transparency is done. If this is the case, Alt-Tab out of the game and refer to the model of the station in X Models 3D Viewer and get an approximate positional alignment. It also helps to use other visual elements on the station as guidelines. The Sector Map grids are also useful here, since you can take note of a specific feature on the new station and align it to a grid as a reference point.
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A good example of "I can't see @#&!($!". Nothing some save & tweaking won't overcome!

About Those Terran Factories: Terran factories are annoying to deal with - not only are their nodes hidden, which makes visual alignment very difficult, but they are also HUGE. They are usually several times larger than Commonwealth factories. The Solar Power Plants, in Terran sizes, are in fact so large, it's very easy to place them too far away for complex connection detection (meaning when you try to connect it to your complex, the game won't allow you to because it's placed "too far" from the complex hub).
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The commonwealth Solar Power Plant XL, situated in the bottom-middle of the complex... now look at the Terran version. This one power plant is bigger than my entire commonwealth factory complex!

There's a trick to bypassing the distance-detection limitation when building very large complexes, which is useful for those huge Terran buildings and Ore/Silicon mines (the distance detection seems to be a 15KM-sphere around the Complex Hub - anything beyond that won't be able to connect to it).

The way you do it is join two of those faraway (out of range) factories into a new complex, and place the new complex hub within detection range of the old complex hub. This Complex Hub "Daisy-Chain" technique can be repeated to build complexes that stretch far into the horizon - all the way across a sector, in fact!
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Terran factories "daisy-chained" to my commonwealth complex. There are only a few different visual models for Terran buildings, and they seem to all have symmetrical, two-dimensional node placements, which makes placements easy, albeit boring.

How to Tractor, If You Must: There are very few occasions when you need to use the tractor beam in X3, but when it comes to Ore and Silicon mines, it is an unfortunate necessity. The game disallows movement and rotation of Ore and Silicon mines during deployment, so you have do both with tractor beams after placement. Quite an annoyance, but once again, nothing is impossible with cleverness and patience.
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My Ore and Silicon Mines after I tractored them in... what a mess!

To rotate factories with tractor beam, you must first locate good leverage point(s) for the axis of the rotation you wish to achieve.
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This part sticking out from the asteroid is a good starting point.

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Aligning along the X-axis...

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Aligning along the Y-axis...

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For vertical rotation, it was a bit tougher - I used one of the little tabs sticking out from the side of the asteroid for this.

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A good way to judge vertical rotation is by using your other factories in the complex as a level. Target the mine you are rotating, hit Num Pad 5 to center the camera, and using Num Pad 4/6 to rotate to the side. Assuming your mine is on the same elevation as the other factories in the complex (use sector map for Y-axis positional alignment), then when you look at it from the side, the other factories should line up into a flat plane. If they aren't (as shown in the left screenshot), then position your ship to initiate rotation (but don't start the engines), go into the aforementioned camera view, and then initiate the rotation. Cut the engines and disengage tractor beam once the factories line up, as shown in the screenshot to the right.

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Looks like a decent rotational alignment!

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And here we have four mines neatly lined up in a row.
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Chapter 4: Complex Showcase

Antigone Memorial, 66-Station Light Weapons Complex:
This was my first complex; it's not perfect (you can see some asymmetry in the layout on the top-down view) but it taught me all the things I needed to know to perfect my techniques.
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From left to right: The main body of the complex viewed from top-down, the main body viewed from the front, and lastly with the mines and Terran fabs attached.
~ ~ ~

Spring of Belief, 91-Station Missile Complex:
Now this here is a beauty. Although my next complex is planned to be even larger than this, as far as perfection of geometry goes, it simply won't get better than this. Furthermore, this large and more beautiful complex actually took less time to build than my first complex. Speed does come with experience!
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Left to Right: The initial stations, which took about 40 minutes to plop down. Next, the complex by the end of the day - this new layout is based on the Horizontal Zig-Zag, which I nicknamed "Beehive". The last two pictures are close-ups of the Beehive layout (left and right, respectively).

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Left to Right: Second day, the "Vertical Zig-Zag" stations were added. The third solar power station added at the center-bottom will act as an important junction for the "Square-Wave" stations. The middle picture shows a close-up view of a section of the Veritcal Zig-Zag stations. The last picture is a wide-angle shot of the complex from the front - due to near-perfect geometry, this 40km-wide complex is completely flat.

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Left to Right: Third day, the "Square-Wave" stations are added, seen at the bottom (below the Solar Power Plant L). These are mostly missile factories - 4 Flails, 4 Hammers, a Silkworm and a Rastar refinery M (I ran out of U-split factories and it made an acceptable substitute). The second picture shows a close-up of the Sqaure-Wave patterns. The last two pictures are perspective shots - when I took these pictures, I came to the sudden realization that this complex looks rather like a big bird with outstretched wings - the Square-Wave segment forms the tail, and the Vertical Zig-Zag stations look like wing feathers.

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Talk about precision planning! You can actually see the symmetry of the layout in the sector map.

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Fourth day, the Terran factories were added. I went for a vertical layout this time, because I want to get the asteroid mines away from the main complex body (they tend to ruin the view). The Terran factories, being symmetrical in node layout, proved to be good way-stations between the mines and the main complex body.

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And here are the 6 mines that drive the whole self-sustaining operation (3 Ore mines, 3 Silicon mines)! These were some HARDCORE tractor beaming! I used the sector map for alignment - I actually counted how many meters it took to move a station before the sector map registers a change in position, and it seems to be about 50m. All the mines here are perfectly aligned on the sector map, meaning the margin of error is less than that.

[Alan Phipps]

Very nice, well done! I think this probably deserves a mention in the Resources and Guides Sticky after a bit further feedback.

[Simoom]

Very nice, well done! I think this probably deserves a mention in the Resources and Guides Sticky after a bit further feedback.

Oh wow, I didn't expect an official response to this. Very much appreciated! (I spent so much time on this *__* )

[Kirlack]

Very nice guide Simoon! I'm not one for lining up nodes etc. because I typically use the Tubeless Complex mod (vanilla safe), but if I tried my hand at it this is a great resource!

[RegisterMe]

Very nice indeed . One comment, it may just be my browser (Chrome), but all the images are tiny, about the size of two postage stamps. Oh, and some of the links are bust.

[Simoom]

Very nice indeed . One comment, it may just be my browser (Chrome), but all the images are tiny, about the size of two postage stamps. Oh, and some of the links are bust.

Think it may either be your browser or internet connection. I double-checked all the links before posting, and they all work fine (just checked them again).

As for the images being tiny, did you try clicking on them?

[Kirlack]

They're only thumbnails RM. Click on one to open the full sized pic

[RegisterMe]

Doh. Thanks Kirlack. One other time saving tip not mentioned (probably because it is so obvious but....) is to buy your own TL first.

[Simoom]

UPDATE!!! Just discovered a new trick to the trade - there is a way to rotate the camera even with the Sector Map open! Gosh this is a HUGE time-saver, and makes multi-axis rotation alignments so much easier. I updated the guide according - read it for changes.

Doh. Thanks Kirlack. One other time saving tip not mentioned (probably because it is so obvious but....) is to buy your own TL first.

Could always cap one, too. The Atmospheric Lifter is the best TL in the game, IMO, which requires capping anyway.

The problem is marine-training will likely take a lot longer than just doing missions and buying a TL.... xD

Of course, when you are rich enough to afford this kind of complex, affording a TL shouldn't be a problem.

[Dog G6]

I use Adv. Satellites, so could I use the video function to find the nodes and line them up with the factories?

Edit: very nice guide by the way! I'm sure this will come in handy when I start building my first complex -- a Crystal/Solar complex in Herron's Nebula, which I was planning in a checkerboard pattern. It could then be upgraded to a tech complex on the other levels of it, once I've built the flat checkerboard pattern with crystal/solar plants.

[TTD]

One day I might sit down and produce a nice looking Complex...one day...

I always admire other players complexes.

Well done

[Simoom]

Glad many people are enjoying the guide so far.

Ran into a snag when I tried linking the U-split factories together into a square-wave pattern as I originally planned it...
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So I had to scratch it and rethink the design. Ended up with this instead:
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Updated the planning diagram accordingly.

[jlehtone]

A long, long time ago, a player named Ryuujin wrote a guide for building nice-looking factory complexes in X3. It has some good tips for getting started, but in my opinion, it is far from complete. It's a bit sad to me that the guide didn't receive many replies, and was not expanded upon since that point.

At that time there were other guides too, with perhaps more meat on their bones. For example the KBG's Komplexbauguide. While all games in the series do require certain amount of self-control, building (and writing about) mind-boggling constructions of unparallel precision is not a goal that everyone can or will pursue.

"Difficult hill", you said. Could we now conclude: "Ain't no mountain high enough"?

[Simoom]

A long, long time ago, a player named Ryuujin wrote a guide for building nice-looking factory complexes in X3. It has some good tips for getting started, but in my opinion, it is far from complete. It's a bit sad to me that the guide didn't receive many replies, and was not expanded upon since that point.

At that time there were other guides too, with perhaps more meat on their bones. For example the KBG's Komplexbauguide. While all games in the series do require certain amount of self-control, building (and writing about) mind-boggling constructions of unparallel precision is not a goal that everyone can or will pursue.

"Difficult hill", you said. Could we now conclude: "Ain't no mountain high enough"?

Now that you linked it, I remember seeing KBG's guide before, actually. Can't read German of course, but it looks very nice - may pick up a few more tips here. Thanks!

[Terre]

You are welcome to use any ideas from the following thread, the final post explains my system.

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 90#2391090
(I've had to replace some of the images as imageshack appears to randomly loose them.)

[Simoom]

You are welcome to use any ideas from the following thread, the final post explains my system.

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 90#2391090
(I've had to replace some of the images as imageshack appears to randomly loose them.)

Oh awesome, thank you! Your overall method looks very similar to mine, albeit with a different alignment technique (I like some aspects of yours; may try that for my next complex and post my thoughts). Very nice work, especially love what you did with the solar power plants!

Also, just updated my post with some more info, including a section on Terran fabs and Tractor Beam use. My Antigone Memorial complex is now complete!

[Simoom]

Hey Terre! Went ahead and added a link to your thread under the ship-to-node alignment section; figured people can read both and decide which one they prefer. Thanks for providing it!

[Simoom]

My second vanilla complex has been completed. In addition to new screenshots, several sections have been revised (as well as a new technique added, called "Tube-Matching"). I am now marking the guide as revision 2.0.

Enjoy!

[mjl1966]

Great guide.

However, the way the keys work when moving the new station around totally negates the benefit of any precision. If I just *tap* one of the keys, the station moves at least 100 meters, maybe more. How the heck do you move the station around to line everything up? I can't find anything besides FCC that changes the increment by which a station moves.

For now, I just watch it zoom by in a flash any time I move it.

What's the secret to precise station movement? (In vanilla, not FCC)

[Terre]

Re: Oversize banner.

Images posted directly to the forums should not be greater than 640x480 or 100kb, oversize image now linked.