So Long And Thanks For All The Fish - CANCELLED INDEFINITELY.

[EmperorJon]

This is now dedicated to NUKLEAR_SLUG, the undoubted king of DiDs, who most recently ended 'Wanton use of nukes...' due to real life stuff. It was a real shame. So we're going to find a Marine called Leo Kayean, just to commemorate him!

Not found one yet...

SOME NEW WARNINGS!

Beware, spoilers.
Beware, artistic licence.

Please join!

So here's my latest DID for TC. This time I'm having too much fun to quit, and I'll try my best to not save over it...

Couldn't resist the name, sorry... If you don't understand it, you've never lived...

Well, in due course I will need people to join in, fleets of ships need pilots y'know, so I'll expect plenty of auditions when the time comes... but without further ado:

So Long And Thanks For All The Fish

Custom Start:

This start is the same as Boring Boron except for these differences.

1. You start in a Dolphin, with full Engine Tuning, SETA, a 1mj shield, a Boost Extension and a Triplex Scanner.
2. You start in Acquisition Repository.
3. Pirate Guild 3 (by Anarkis Federation (Serial Kicked)) is enabled. Check it out, it rules.
4. Anarkis Defense System (Added part way through, don't know if the Pirate Guild will sue it without me resetting them, which I don't want to do. Also by Serial Kicked.)
5. I may included on-the-spot scripting every now and then to add in realism to certain points, for example, money has to be spent to do certain things.
6. Added Improved Races with Xenon on hard, sector takoevers etc.
7. Added FCC to make complex-construction easier, quicker and make more sense...

The settings for Pirate Guild 3 are:

Activity: Very Active
Jumpdrives: Yes
Station Attacks: Yes
Relation to Player: Friend
Relation to other Pirates: Friend
At war with Teladi: No



Annoyed by the boredom and peacefulness of your friends, you set out from Kingdom End on your own adventure, taking only your Dolphin. Times will be hard, but you have friends in… high places…

Chapter One: Raising Some Profits
Well. There was only one more place left to go. The Pirate Guild. They should’ve been in the sector; at the coordinates I was given. They were. My last salvation, my last hope of a free life, fun, fortunes, freedom and… fighting? Possibly. But anyway, I joined the guild. I was let in easily, as a friend of the guild. After all, my third cousins aunt on my mothers side twice removed and then reattached using superglue had a friend whose brother was in a relationship with the sister of a mercenary under employment by a reasonably high figure of the guild… so I was obviously in with a chance of getting in!

Anyway, I only had 2000cr, and I couldn’t help the guild much with that, so I decided it was definitely time to raise my fortune. So bought some Nostrop Oil at a very low price, sold it, repeated it, did the usual whole ‘I don’t care if Teladi wishes me profit, just gimme the cash’ thing, then set out north with much more money, 110,275cr to be exact… and also a large cargo of energy, towards… wherever it was. I wasn’t too familiar with this part of the universe, admittedly…

Well, to the north was Homily of Perpetuity, which was a rather dull Teladi sector, but contained a factory devoid of Nostrop Oil, so I bought as much as I could at the trading station and set off, only to be dismayed when an accident involving some docking clamps seriously damaged my hull. I spent the next 10 or so minutes repairing it, and then got on with the trading. After that run I filled the rest of my cargo space with some cheaper energy cells, then to the West was Ianamus Zura, which I had visited once on holiday, 5 years ago. Nice place, good rolling waves, oceans, lovely women… anyway, I’m getting a bit sidetracked here, point is, I needed somewhere to unload all those energy cells, and Ianamus Zura would probably be a good idea.

I was right, and soon had around 160,000cr to show it. Time to find a buy some more Nostrop Oil, the factories all seemed to be low.

Anyway, to cut a long story a bit shorter I soon had a cargo of Nostrop Oil, which had been bought in new Income from a factory so I headed back to Ianamus Zura. The trade went well, then I continued with a cargo of Quantum Tubes, which I sold at the Trading Station, only to find that I had one more than they would take.

Never mind eh.

Assets:

276,913cr
1x Dolphin 'Bottlenose'
03:13:35 hours playtime.


{moved from X-Universe; see note - Carlo}

^ Welcome to the Creative Universe guys! Check it out, it tends to be a bit desolate at times... EJ

[Master of the Blade]

Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy ftw! Nice start, and don't go getting yourself killed.

[LordForrester]

looking froward to more.

[amtct]

Where is Targ and his thread

[Technojerk36]

Where is Targ and his thread

Do you mean "Merlin Industries II - The Dreams of Euphamés (DiD collaborative storytelling effort)"?

[EmperorJon]

Well, another update. Been playing for more than 10 hours now, so I'm taking this rather casually, I'm not doing a hardcore money maker.

Chapter Two: Still getting money…
Over the next few hours I explored south of New Income, to Ceo’s Doubt, LooMankStrat’s Legacy and Spaceweed Grove, and back up to Acquisition Repository, trading along the way. Anything I could get my hands on was bought, energy, Sunrise Flowers, Nostrop Oil, and I even managed to shift that extra Quantum Tube. A nice opportunity arose at the Energy Bolt Chaingun Forge, where I bought three and sold two for a nice profit, realising that they didn’t want the third one.

I spent some of the profits on a Trading System Extension, and Rudder Optimisation for better manoeuvrability.

I travelled north, in the hope of finding somewhere to shift my spare gun. I was lucky. The sector was Eighteen Billion, a pitiful outpost, desperately trying to hold against the mechanical rage which always emanated from Xenon Sector 347. But today there was a new enemy. As the Jumpgate flung me into the sector there was a blinding flash, which cleared to reveal two Kha’ak Destroyers and numerous fighters. Needless to say I made my speedy way across the sector, sold the gun, then quickly pulled up a Tomahawk Missile factory to sell some Nostrop Oil which I had bartered, then returned to Ianamus Zura, tentacles quivering. The OWP had taken care of the fighters and taken much damage in return, and the Military outpost was assailed by two Kha’ak Destroyers… I ddin’t expect much to be there when I next returned.

78,800cr. Not a particularly small amount of credits for me, I’m sure you’ll agree. Now let’s bring a slightly wonky Buzzard into the equation. 78,000=Buzzard. The answer? YES!

244,554cr. A larger amount. Now let’s say, 244,554=Vulture Miner.

Oh Yeah. This was turning out to be my lucky day. The Vulture Miner

204,000cr for selling the Buzzard. That’s almost a 300% return. Very good, and I had yet to repair the miner. Although it was better than the Dolphin I was suing, I didn’t really trust those Teladi ships enough yet. Even the Pirate ones looked more sturdy, and that had given me an idea.

To my surprise the Vulture Miner was only worth 207,00cr before being repaired, which would probably still be a profit one repaired, but I didn’t know… so I’d keep it for later, as a sort of insurance. If I lost all my money I still had 200,000cr spare.

I moved into New Income searching for more trading opportunities, and found some very cheap silicon. Very cheap. Extremely Cheap!

Dropping the Silicon off in Ianamus Zura made me a huge profit, and got me above 500,000cr. Nice! I would soon have to invest this all in something useful. Probably fuel or weed, both were always needed by the Pirate Guild, to… encourage their warriors…

I continued to trade for a bit, then I found a nice deal in Homily of Perpetuity… Hom. Of Per. From now on… what is it with Teladi and long names hey…

Anyway… where was I… oh yes, 3 nice deals as a matter of fact. And they were?

45,199cr for a Demeter.
61,500cr for a Buzzard Sentinel.
149,299cr for a Caiman Hauler.

All three were admittedly rather… holey. A bit… dangerous looking to be perfectly honest, but I was happy. With some repairs all three would patch up to sell for a significant amount more than their original price, and would perhaps pay for my little mistake with the Vulture Hauler.

I sent them off to the Shipyard whilst I continued on my trade run… And after a trading run of Nostrop Oil which was horrifically underpriced and made a huge profit, I fixed them up, and was rather impressed. I just wished that stations full of Nostrop Oil had some way of compressing it so it would all fit in my ship… as it was the price only went up by 2cr for unit after the purchase, if only my ship had a cargo bay of 30,000… Anyway…

The sale prices?

The Demeter sold for 106,498cr! Twice as much!
The Buzzard Sentinel sold for 378,447cr! More than six times as much!
And the Caiman Hauler sold for 337,656cr! More than twice as much!

Nice profit! As the Teladi would say…

Assets:

1,354,426cr
1x Dolphin ‘Bottlenose
1x Vulture Miner
10:53:28 hours playtime.




I sat in the Dolhpin happy with myself. Then there was a small bleep. 'Incoming message'. 'Hello my friend... I have a task for you...'

[Trigger1112]

Damn You EmperorJon!!

Great! Another DID to take up my precious time. Ah well you have yourself another viewer and potential participant.

[The Nightmare]

well targ is not updating and losing his viewers

[EmperorJon]

Oh no! I've founded a religion!

Anyway, 'nother update in a bit, I'm doing well. And you might get a bit of a view of my characters past... and if you're lucky... his real name...

[EmperorJon]

It's quite a long one!

Chapter 3: Reminiscence
Well well well… Hali Bo… I’d have never had thought he was the sort to go.

Ah sorry, let me explain. Hali was an old friend of mine, and had helped me set up my death… I faked it yes.

When I escaped to start this new life, I had to fake my death so that no one would come looking for me, and he helped. It involved a remote crashing of an Octopus into an asteroid at 500m/s whilst on fire, and I screamed over the comms… from a different ship of course. So if you’ve ever seen anything on the news about a dead Boron called Lar Vaasott, yep, that’s me.

I was quite famous too.

Never mind.

Anyway, you’re probably laughing at my name, me and a few Argon friends had a bit of a joke too, I took it in good stride. He asked me ‘What’s your name’, so I obviously say ‘Lar Vaasott’, and he say’s, ‘I know lava’s hot, but what’s your name!’ quite funny at the time…

You had to be there though…

So, Hali Bo wanted me to visit him at the Shipyard in Lucky Planets, he wanted to follow in my footsteps, have an adventure of his own, and I would help him in due course.

So I had to go all the way to Lucky Planets. I kept my eye out for second hand ships on the way… and it paid off!

I spent 131,289cr on a Mako in Rolk’s Legacy. Not bad at all. I fixed it, and then continued to Lucky Planets.

In Lucky Planets the Shipyard was selling a Buster Raider for 19,661cr, then 133,899cr for a Dolphin Hauler at one of the Silicon Mines, on of the large ones too! After repairing that, I set my way back to the shipyard. I got over 200,000cr for the Mako, so not a bad investment there, and I would repair the Buster Raider. It sold for 340,972cr.

I was pretty sure I would soon be able to afford a decent M3 from somewhere, and that would really kick-start my Pirating career!

391,282cr for the Dolphin, which got back to the Shipyard in reasonable time… unfortunately it got attack by a rather cheeky Paranid patrol, and had to be repair all over again.

I smiled. I had just over 2Mcr. What to spend it on?!

Anyway, all this time Hali had been amazed, watching me come and go at the Shipyard buying and selling all these ships whilst he sat in the bar drinking ever increasing amounts of BoGas Fizzy Pop. I knew what he was like, the water in his watersuit would be bubbling for weeks!

Anyway, when I had a spare moment I pulled him aside to have a chat.

‘So, how do I start off then?’ He asked.
‘Well, you could try to get yourself a ship… that might… help a bit.’
‘Ahh. About that. I sort of have, you know… no money. So I was wondering if tyou could lend me one?’ He replied with huge eyes, tentacles quivering with anticipation.
‘Ermm… not really… sorry, but they don’t come free…’
You should have seen his face. Like a little kid, honestly!
‘Ok then. Do you have any traders? I could fly a TS for you… or a fighter, I used to have a Barracuda! I know how to shoot, please just let me out of this hellhole!’ Now he was desperate!
‘Ok… when I have a spare TS which needs a pilot, you can fly it for me. But I may be a few days!’
He smiled.

I promised to pick him up as soon as I could. Sucker…

But I liked him. I would give him a job.

I spent a while going back, then paid 168,499cr for a Buzzard Hauler back in Ianamus Zura. It had 8 Impulse Ray Emitters and a 1mj shield onboard. I fixed it up, and made a final decision that I would rather not fly something made from someone’s old washing machine, so I sold it for 300,135cr. I really had to find a ship I could buy cheaply but it would serve me well. Teladi ships were too slow. Boron ships were too weak. Then 184,999 for a Buzzard Vanguard, with 6 IREs and a 1mj shield. These ships were coming like wildfire today! After fixing it I found it was only worth just over 200,000cr, so not much of a profit, then I decided, I don’t care if it used to be a hairdryer, I like it… and I have a higher chance of getting someone’s ship if I use this thing. So what the heck.

I kept him. It’s kinda’ cute… so I called it Beyond Sell-By Date.

That’s what the little sticker on the side said…

So, it had a maximum of 20mj of shielding… currently it had 2. That would have to be fixed. I was pretty sure that IREs were the only weapon which it’s generator would be able to handle for any decent time, and I seriously had to improve the speed. I outfitted it with Fight Command Software Mk1, a Freight Scanner, and fully tuned it’s engine, rudder and cargo bay. I would need to carry lots of loot!

In Hom. Of Per. I was offered 676cr to defend one of the Solar Power Plants. Not exactly the hugest amount of money ever, but I could kill some ships, and they wouldn’t belong to the Pirate Guild either, so no worries there!

I killed them. Easily. I tore my way through a Discoverer Raider, and the Pirate variants of a Buzzard Vanguard and Harrier Raider. A Harrier Hauler bailed on me, the coward. Not really the class of ships I was looking for but… meh. I fixed it up anyway.

In LooManckStrat’s Legacy I patiently waited for some unsuspecting traveller. Eventually I found a Split Freight Transporter, which wasn’t carrying anything worth mentioning, but was extremely under-armed… after a bit of ’persuasion’ on my behalf he decided he wanted to live, and I found myself practically drooling over a Mamba Raider. Half of it was still there… and there was one Quantum Tube as well, bonus! Eager to get it away from the trade lanes I sent it to dock at the Anarchy Port.

I transferred everything I had to the Mamba Raider then sent BS-BD to the shipyard where it would finally be sold. Shame. I had to take the sticker off too. I upgraded the Mamba and set about repairing it, after a few necessary purchases.

‘Reddy-Brown and Dangerous’ was ready…

Assets:

1,839,618cr
1x Dolphin ‘Bottlenose’ (I like this ship)
1x Vulture Miner (Due for eventual sale)
1x Harrier Hauler (Due for imminent sale)
1x Buzzard Vanguard ‘Beyond Sell-By Date’ (Due for imminent sale)
1x Mamba Raider ‘Reddy-Brown and Dangerous’
16:55:40 hours playtime.


Application Form:

Name:
Race:
Ship/Position Wanted:
Brief Description of Self:
Likes Sushi: Y/N?

Applied Personell For Future Positions - Please Apply!

Hali Bo - Wants a TS for trading. I'll need Trade Command Software Mk3!

[The Nightmare]

let me be the first to make an application

Name:Jakopo Nightmare(or Nightmare for short)
Race:Terran
Ship:anything from M7 and up and i would be very happy
Positon:Captain
Description:former captain of a Odin with hell of a lot fighters.Like tournametns and know how to fight and shoot(with the training i had)
Like Sushi:No

[Olterin]

Second application it is then.

Name: Corwin Smith
Race: Terran
Ship: Katana (Captain of it, obviously ) [wouldn't mind an Aegir though, but... ]
Brief description (Background):
-born on Mars
-graduated as a USC officer on Venus
-35 years old, hardy & proud fighter pilot
-knows a lot about martial arts but little about computer tech
-knows advanced combat tactics
-flown many patrols in his trusty Cutlass Smoke Devil
Like Sushi: Y (as long as it's not made from sentient species )

[Jack Slinger]

Hmm Pirate Guild you say, well if it's the pirate's life for you your going to need some pilots with some combat experience. I'd like to apply:

Name: Jack Slinger (imagination not working today)
Race: Argon

Ship: Nova Raider
Ship Name: Pestilance
Brief Description of self
- Born on board an Argon Casino
- Stole an M4 when I was 16
- Wanting to work my way up the ladder to one day become the proud owner of an M6 - M7
Like Sushi: Like the fish but not the nasty sauce they put on it!

[Apollo303]

First may i say great read so far, keep it up

Secondly, where did you get the `Pirate Guild` from for X3 TC, only one i`ve managed to find was one created by Cycrow and that when i tried to install it said it was for X3:R and may not work with TC ?!?

Thirdly, my application :-

Name : Maxapollius
Race : Argon/Pirate
Ship : Kestral/Eclipse
Position : Wing Leader

Brief : Im a Pirate, i won`t lie about it. I was born on a mercenary outpost and trained n the art of taking whats NOT mine
I would be looking to get the captiancy of a Galleon or Brigantine at some stage in the future

Sushi : No, i could`nt live with the guilt of eating those little Boron

Im a Pirate NOT a canibal

[EmperorJon]

Thankf for your applications, they shouldn't be too hard to accomplish... given some time. Katanas are quite cheap... and so are Nova Raiders... Not sure about the M7+ though, you might be waiting a while...

As for the Kestrel, I needed one sooner or later for exploration, so I now name you Maxapollius, Kestrel Dude!




The Pirate Guild for TC? I linked to it! Clicky clicky?

[Apollo303]

Yea... sorry , just had a few issues trying to get my browser to open the link, got it now tho

As for the app, thank you and i look forward to serving you where needed. I have a wing of kestrals in my own game, or at least in one of them anyway.

[EmperorJon]

Well, a short chapter now, also look at some updates to scripts etc. on front page.

Chapter 4: Hali Bo’s Dolphin
After much waiting around for a transporter with 25mj shields onboard I decided it was hopeless. I’d never find one. So I checked the nearest place where I could get Trade Command Software Mk3, and found it was Ianamus Zura! Quickly, I sent over Bottlenose to buy it for 501,000cr, then sent it on it’s way to Lucky Planets.

Hali Bo would be pleased!

I sold the Harrier Hauler for just over 33,000cr.

Suddenly I noticed a Mamba, drifting through space. I discreetly pulled up and scanned it, to find 2 25mj shields, some Banshee missiles, some drones and a few Pulsed Beam Emitters… And no Pilot.

I made sure no one was looking then claimed it, and ejected the 3 PBEs and one of the shields. Now time to use this Mamba Raider for what it was designed… raiding!

I flew south, to raid Paranid space, and found a friendly Pirate who told me there was a Guild outpost in Spring of Belief, to the North of the sector.

I was in great luck. The Outpost was amazingly well stocked, I bought a Jumpdrive for 101,000cr which could help me get some quick getaways, and then asked about weaponry. I was taken into a workshop where the Pirates build keep their newest invention under lock and key; the Plasma Burst Generator, fresh from the factory in LooManckStrat’s Legacy. They had three. I bought three.

Now I had 3 PBEs, 3 PBGs and 2 IREs, with another in the rear turret.

I pulled away from the base to get some pluderin’ in, and found myself face-to-face with a Nemesis and escort. Big escort. Bomber and fighter escort. Panic!

I rushed back to the Pirate Base to alert them of their strife. And to hide behind an impenetrable wall of Lasertowers.

I joined in the huge fight, the biggest dogfight I had ever seen, I was pleased to discoverer afterwards that I was responsible for the death of the Nemesis! I did have to pay a 5000cr fine for flaming the Outpost though…

I got 1,119,903cr for the Mamba in Ianamus Zura. Not bad considering it had been drifting around.

I attacked a few Paranid freighters, transporters and traders, but no bails or drops that I could carry. Then the Pirate Base notified me of something interesting. A TL in The Shallows on its way to Rhonkar’s Trial. It had to be intercepted and destroyed. For 1Mcr. Problem is, it was very close to its destination.

Due to some crafty Jumpdrive usage I got there in time, now I just needed to bypass all the Military and hit it. Unfortunately as I got close it unloaded over 10 M3 escorts. Which would be a problem.

He panicked, aborted his docking manoeuvre and attempted to flee as I ran around him, out-racing the escorts and flaming his shields. A flash split the sector as the reactor exploded, shredding the remains of the craft through space.

I received 1,300,000cr for the kill and an extra 125,000 for ‘destroying our nearby enemies’. Must be a Pirate base near!

I jumped back to Barren Shores, a quiet and safe Boron sector, where a group of Pirates notified me of a Pirate Base in Bad Debt. They even showed me the gate. SO I jumped there, and found that someone wanted a bounty hunter killed in New Income… Back to the other side of the universe for me!

Got 400,000cr or so for killing the Bounty Hunter, he was flying a Nemesis, and I easily took him down from behind, the Teladi didn’t care either!

Now, if I could get enough money then buy an M6 I would be set!

‘Incoming Message’ bleeped the computer. I opened the message:
‘Dear Member, we would like to announce the new implementation of the ADS System for Carrier defence and control.
Yours Sincerely, Pirate Guild’

Ahh, how nice of them. And ADS! Boy would that teach the enemies of the guild a lesson, with automated Carrier defence!

Suddenly I got a message from Hali: ‘Hello, this is very fun! Trading around these sectors, there isn’t much to trade though, so I’m afraid my profits will be minimal…’
‘As long as you don’t nick the ship, I don’t mind.’ I replied, smiling.
‘Don’t worry, I won’t. Oh, and I have some interesting information for you. There are some Nividium rocks in Great Trench, I heard that it is a very rare mineral. You may be interested. I’m uploading the data to you… now. See you around!’

Nividium!? Finally, something for my Vulture Miner to do!

Assets:

3,793,542
1x Dolphin ‘Bottlenose’ (Hali Bo’s Trader)
1x Vulture Miner (Heading to Niv field)
1x Mamba Raider ‘Reddy-Brown and Dangerous’
1x Buzzard Vanguard ‘Beyond Sell-By Sate’ (Destined for the scrap heap)
20:06:00 hours playtime.

[Master of the Blade]

Was the nividium field 'discovered' using prior knowledge, or is it a result of a script? Or is it a feature which is in vanilla which has escaped my attention? (hoping it's the latter.[$$$]) Once you have some more ships, I'll put in an application.

[EmperorJon]

Discovered by my other thread, I was compiling a guide on Nividium debris. Turns out there already is one, but I learnt where the debris is!

Fear not, though. This will not be free money. There will be... complications.

[The Nightmare]

another question...will this DID be join like targs or your the only story teller?