X2 Pirate War

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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kohlrak
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X2 Pirate War

Post by kohlrak » Thu, 4. Jan 18, 18:05

I only have 2 mods (in addition to the bonus pack), the modified shrinker and the auto-buy energy for jumpdrive mod. I haven't been playing long, but this seemed really, really unusual. I was just heading "south" Farnham's Legend and saw this massive raid. Most of the ships ended up going "north" to Rolk's Fate. I'd say a quarter or a third got tied up here in Atreus' Clouds, but what in the world is going on here? Out of curiosity, i went and checked some of the pilots, and i noticed 1 or 2 names that looked familiar, like ones from those bulletin board things, but i was never able to accept any of those missions. I would've taken a screenshot of the familiar names, but something here seems to be making short work of them.

Despite how much i wanted to try capping some pirate ships, i decided getting involved in this raid was a very, very dangerous idea.

Fullscreen Screenshot

Just for clarity, IKS Booty is me, so that's not part of what i'm talking about (the story behind the name is that i got a gamma IRE with my Alpha IRE on the starting ship and spent about 5 to 10 minutes just barely making way on a bayamon just so i could get started, since i'm playing default custom universe, and thus it became my pirate's booty [i hung on the rear so i never got hit, since i sold my shields for the gun, for the puntacular value]).

RAVEN.myst
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Post by RAVEN.myst » Thu, 4. Jan 18, 18:50

You make'a me want to play X2 again :D This isn't a bad thing, as I have a game on hold that I started not long ago, and I should carry on with it some time... Thanks :)

(Btw, regarding the "familiar names" - my guess would be that they are simply procedurally generated from a pool of first and family names, which are combined randomly by race. Just speculating, mind you.)
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Post by jlehtone » Thu, 4. Jan 18, 22:12

Yes, names are crafted from a rather short list of components. Hence repetition. Argons at least have a background story; there was only a small colony (not many names) in the X-Universe when the connection to Earth was lost, and the (billions of) descendants have not invented novel names over centuries ... :oops:


Pirates do fly out from Pirate Base to random sector to start mayhem. In addition, they can simply travel from one Base to an another. In other words, not all "raids" are hostile raids.
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kohlrak
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Post by kohlrak » Fri, 5. Jan 18, 03:25

RAVEN.myst wrote:You make'a me want to play X2 again :D This isn't a bad thing, as I have a game on hold that I started not long ago, and I should carry on with it some time... Thanks :)
I get the impression that X3:TC is the preferred game, yet i keep running into people like you. I primarily play X2 since it's not as ugly as X1, you can do the space suit thing, and the other X games my computer cannot handle. Is there a thread discussing why so many people see these games so differently that one might prefer the older X2?
(Btw, regarding the "familiar names" - my guess would be that they are simply procedurally generated from a pool of first and family names, which are combined randomly by race. Just speculating, mind you.)
I thought of that, but the bulletin board messages seem less templated and more static. My online named, "Kohlrak," actually came from such a pool in another game: I ran into Kohlrak as a crew member many, many times on Star Trek: Star Fleet Command III. When i started registering on forums, the names that i wanted to use (video game oriented) were already taken, and i thought numbers were ugly. So then i discovered this name was rather unique online.
jlehtone wrote:Yes, names are crafted from a rather short list of components. Hence repetition. Argons at least have a background story; there was only a small colony (not many names) in the X-Universe when the connection to Earth was lost, and the (billions of) descendants have not invented novel names over centuries ... :oops:
Well, they're all the same family. What i find weird is how certain characters claim to be from earth or something. Shouldn't these characters be relatively ancient?
Pirates do fly out from Pirate Base to random sector to start mayhem. In addition, they can simply travel from one Base to an another. In other words, not all "raids" are hostile raids.
I thought they only hit you. As soon as i saw this i was like "Oh fudge! What the fudge is going on!?" Only, i didn't say "fudge." I said THE WORD. The big one! The queen mother of dirty words. The F dash dash dash word. It was all over. I was dead. What would it be? The guillotine? Hanging? The chair? The rack? The chinese water torture? Mere child's play compared to what surely awaited me if I had not put my space drive throttle to full.

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Fri, 5. Jan 18, 07:31

kohlrak wrote: Is there a thread discussing why so many people see these games so differently that one might prefer the older X2?
I'm sure there have been comments in various threads about people's preferences. I can only speak for myself here:
- X2 I like for its generally darker space, its stylized abstract backdrops, and some of the ship designs (especially the Mammoth and its "classmates", which really look like giant ships designed to carry huge loads.) For me, X2 is also a strong nostalgia kick, as it's the title I started my X-journey with.
- X2 and X3R I like for the stories featuring videos and memorable characters.
- X3TC I like for its evolution of game mechanics, and the very extensive campaigns. Also the great diversity of role-play possibilities stemming from game-start scenario options.
- X3AP I like for being the pinnacle of game mechanics and options, for its enhancements and refinements to some X3TC mechanics and features, and for its broad selection of ship types. Ditto X3TC's game-starts and role-play possibilities. This is the title I've now played by far the most, and am most likely to play when starting a new game.

Every now and then, I do a complete run-through from X:BtF through to X3AP, skipping nothing. :)
Last edited by RAVEN.myst on Fri, 5. Jan 18, 07:34, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by jlehtone » Fri, 5. Jan 18, 07:33

kohlrak wrote:What i find weird is how certain characters claim to be from earth or something. Shouldn't these characters be relatively ancient?
In the X1 (actually there is no "X1", but "X: Beyond the Frontier" and "X-Tension") you do play as Kyle Brennan, an Earth pilot that did end up into X-Universe when a jumpdrive did malfunction.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X:_Beyond_the_Frontier

Elena Kho is an another Earth pilot that was send to rescue Kyle Brennan, did find Kyle, but did not manage to return to Earth. TerraCorp is Kyle's and Elena's company that they have used to fund their attempts to get back to Earth.

The human colony that was isolated from Earth way back has chosen name "Argon" and prospered, and actively forgotten that Earth ever was. They have a small faction "Goners", who claim that there was "Earth" and that the Argons haven't "always" been here. They were happy, when Kyle and Elena did pop up.


The first time you do "see red" is quite something, isn't it? :wink:
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Post by kohlrak » Fri, 5. Jan 18, 10:48

RAVEN.myst wrote:
kohlrak wrote: Is there a thread discussing why so many people see these games so differently that one might prefer the older X2?
I'm sure there have been comments in various threads about people's preferences. I can only speak for myself here:
- X2 I like for its generally darker space, its stylized abstract backdrops, and some of the ship designs (especially the Mammoth and its "classmates", which really look like giant ships designed to carry huge loads.) For me, X2 is also a strong nostalgia kick, as it's the title I started my X-journey with.
- X2 and X3R I like for the stories featuring videos and memorable characters.
- X3TC I like for its evolution of game mechanics, and the very extensive campaigns. Also the great diversity of role-play possibilities stemming from game-start scenario options.
- X3AP I like for being the pinnacle of game mechanics and options, for its enhancements and refinements to some X3TC mechanics and features, and for its broad selection of ship types. Ditto X3TC's game-starts and role-play possibilities. This is the title I've now played by far the most, and am most likely to play when starting a new game.

Every now and then, I do a complete run-through from X:BtF through to X3AP, skipping nothing. :)
So, if X were TES in space, then X2 is Morrowind, X3R is Oblivion, X3TC is Skyrim, and X3AP is skyrim GOTY. And the first 2 X games are the DOS ones, that people love to hate?
jlehtone wrote:
kohlrak wrote:What i find weird is how certain characters claim to be from earth or something. Shouldn't these characters be relatively ancient?
In the X1 (actually there is no "X1", but "X: Beyond the Frontier" and "X-Tension") you do play as Kyle Brennan, an Earth pilot that did end up into X-Universe when a jumpdrive did malfunction.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X:_Beyond_the_Frontier

Elena Kho is an another Earth pilot that was send to rescue Kyle Brennan, did find Kyle, but did not manage to return to Earth. TerraCorp is Kyle's and Elena's company that they have used to fund their attempts to get back to Earth.

The human colony that was isolated from Earth way back has chosen name "Argon" and prospered, and actively forgotten that Earth ever was. They have a small faction "Goners", who claim that there was "Earth" and that the Argons haven't "always" been here. They were happy, when Kyle and Elena did pop up.
Now i finally understand what's going on here. Because, I didn't understand the Argon TerraCorp connection, either. And all the BBS reading I do makes me really, really hate Argon. I feel like the paranid are better people than the Argon.

So how exactly does this Goner religion work? They are peaceful, do prayers, etc, but what exactly do they even worship? It's more like a parody of catholics, with the paranid being Jews, Boron being the leftist atheists, Teladi maybe being conservative atheists? There's some obvious paralells, and i haven't dealt enough with the split to even figure out what the heck they're all about. All the split i've dealt with were in pirates that i'm shooting at. Oh, and Argon is either the deepstate or politicians.
The first time you do "see red" is quite something, isn't it? :wink:
First time i saw red i flipped out and was like, "oh god, already!?" Immediately started firing, and immediately got owned. I didn't even get a good look at what it was, because I was gone pretty quickly. This, on the other hand, scared me. I was like Khaak alread--wait... what!?

On the plus side, it revealed to me that the ID numbers of the ship are actually useful. I spend so much time going over a ship and hitting enter trying to find out what class it is, when it's encoded right in the ID number. Now, if only I could figure out what the rest of it is (pretty sure the prefix specifies the faction, which is interesting, since you're the only character with your own faction and thus ID number, thus you're the only wild card out there, and everyone else is reliably in a faction that doesn't trust the others).

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Post by Reimu Hakurei » Wed, 24. Jan 18, 01:50

kohlrak wrote:On the plus side, it revealed to me that the ID numbers of the ship are actually useful. I spend so much time going over a ship and hitting enter trying to find out what class it is, when it's encoded right in the ID number. Now, if only I could figure out what the rest of it is (pretty sure the prefix specifies the faction, which is interesting, since you're the only character with your own faction and thus ID number, thus you're the only wild card out there, and everyone else is reliably in a faction that doesn't trust the others).
The first letter does indeed indicate faction. I is used by Pirate ships as the next letter in the word, since P is already taken by Paranid. The next two characters are ship class (TS, M3, etc.) and the rest following that are pseudorandom (based on timestamp), essentially giving each ship a unique licence plate ID, though sometimes you'll see ships with similar looking IDs due to them spawning at the same time. Accordingly, many of the ships in that raid share the QR designatrion, indicating they're part of the same group. From this one may deduce that the IT Orinoco and JT Mandalay might not be part of the raid but just happen to be in the same area.

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Post by Nanook » Wed, 24. Jan 18, 20:38

kohlrak wrote:...And the first 2 X games are the DOS ones, that people love to hate?...
None of the X games were written for DOS. :P The first one, X-BTF, came out in 1999 and ran under Windows 95/98 (and still runs under the current Windows with a little adjusting by Egosoft/GoG/Steam).

And BTW, the faction codes for the ships are the (mostly) obvious ones:

A=Argon
B=Boron
E=Terran/ATF (Earth)
I=Pirates
K=Kha'ak
P=Paranid
S=Split
T=Teladi
X=Xenon
Y=Yaki
(none)=unclaimed/empty/bailed
Have a great idea for the current or a future game? You can post it in the [L3+] Ideas forum.

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Post by jlehtone » Wed, 24. Jan 18, 20:53

Nanook wrote:Y=Yaki
(none)=unclaimed/empty/bailed
The Yaki have I (at least in X3AP) and as such "just Pirates".

The Y belongs to You. :)

Unclaimed ships are in X3. Everyone in X2 has an owner.
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Post by Hemmingfish » Thu, 25. Jan 18, 07:44

Yeah, I've recently been playing a new game of X2 and I'd forgotten that you instantly get command of ships as soon as they eject without having to spacewalk to them. As such there's no pre-abandoned ships to claim.

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Post by Nanook » Thu, 25. Jan 18, 21:26

jlehtone wrote:
Nanook wrote:Y=Yaki
(none)=unclaimed/empty/bailed
The Yaki have I (at least in X3AP) and as such "just Pirates".

The Y belongs to You. :)

Unclaimed ships are in X3. Everyone in X2 has an owner.
You are correct. :thumb_up: That's what happens when I try to remember things at work. :oops:

Although I'd much prefer it to be 'Y' for Yaki and maybe 'M' for 'mine'. I intensely dislike all my ships being called Your [shipname] by default. They're MY ships, not YOUR's. :P :lol:
Have a great idea for the current or a future game? You can post it in the [L3+] Ideas forum.

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Post by Sorkvild » Fri, 26. Jan 18, 19:16

Yeah X2 is a classic, like someone mentioned the Morrowind of the X universe. And yes this is my real starting point in X-universe and space sims generally.
Game is pretty basic when compared to iterations of X3, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun. Everything works as it should, there is great plot to follow and very nice audio-visual appearance that aged well unlike other games from 2003. And of course great nostalgia :)
In late time of the last year I spent 60 hours with X2 where I managed to complete the plot, own every m6 in the game, started a fleet of 10 uni traders, created a few simple self sustaining factories and decided to wipe out all Xenons from their sectors so trade flow could flow between previously divided sectors. Generally a player controlled Nemesis with PSGs (so OP) does the job but I went full rage on them and took all my M6 as wingmen :)
To fully enjoy I think it crucial to use latest bonus back as it enhance many aspects of the game.
What sucks? Definitely panoramic resolutions that can stretch the screen too much, so I had to play in 1680x1050 with black bars on the side. I really wish Ego could fix because game assumes 4:3 as native and everything beyond that result in a stretch.

Must mods in my opinion?

X2 The Threat High Difinition Pack V1.2 (better textures ion ships and stations, better bumpmaps)
https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=183585

New background nebula and star fields (looking better than X3 backgrounds!)
https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=336581

Here is a look of two mods together.
https://i.imgur.com/azk3JMN.jpg
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Post by Reimu Hakurei » Thu, 1. Feb 18, 17:02

jlehtone wrote:The Yaki have I (at least in X3AP) and as such "just Pirates".
Might be worth noting that even though they share the letter I, Pirates and Yaki are different factions with separate (hidden) reputations with the player. They're also hostile to each other.

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Post by Thrake » Thu, 8. Feb 18, 17:39

Reimu Hakurei wrote:
jlehtone wrote:The Yaki have I (at least in X3AP) and as such "just Pirates".
Might be worth noting that even though they share the letter I, Pirates and Yaki are different factions with separate (hidden) reputations with the player. They're also hostile to each other.
It looks like more complex than that. I mean, I have seen pirates shooting yaki happily, however, I also stumbled upon a pirate station in Ocracoke's storm. Many hours later, it's still there. I picked station mission from there and well, since all tags are I I never knew who I was working for, though some stations got blown up in senator's badlands, so I assume pirates are still not welcome. But the pirate base itself remains, which is really nice to have a hub for my evil deeds there.

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