X3:R Plot - I'm crying here

[rafikibob]

Hi,
I'm picking up X3R now for the first time and it's beautiful to look at and I can feel the promise. But....
I am doing something wrong, I must be.

I'm getting my ass shot to pieces on the Find Crystal mission. I'll be doing ok (i've played games for 30 years, original BBC electron Elite, I'm better than average) and although i'm playing on "Normal" I'll sometimes just get some incoming fire from one of the Talon's protectors and i'll be dead in 2-3 seconds.

I must be missing something. I'm not completely stationary, my shields appear to be up, and i'm enthusiastically killing them and then i'm dead.
I get a "shields critical" message but they are tiny.

Should I have done some upgrades to the default Buster before venturing out? I've just got a hold full of energy crystals and 3k odd credits left.

I've been on that same mission for 2 days now. I die, I go back, I try again, I try and get better, and a few tactical changes (like running away) but...fail...

I'm not joking, I buried my head in my hands and I can't carry on if it's just going to be crying and screaming at my screen.

It's bad enough the steep learning curve in the game. Spending most of my time lost etc but this is worse.

Please help me obi wan....etc...

[BankruptAssasin]

Ah, X3 frustrations.

I'm not much use to you here as I give up on X3R very shortly after playing it, so i am unable to give advice on this mission, however have you considered capping a few frieghters and selling them on?

This will give you enough credits to buy a nice M3, Nova Raider is an excellent choice for players. Or if u think you can do it, try capping an M3.

If your still flying your Buster then i feel this is the issue, Busters are not very good ships, they are basic fighters but you should def upgrade asap.

My experience of X3 was loads of travelling, find random gates many mnay KM away and then it would just crash, corrupt save, wasted many an hour playing it, i even did the seta trick and left on overnight and woke up and played it and same thing happened.

This was an issue with my PC not the game but it left a sour taste

[TTD]

Yes...a lot of missions are not on a timer,and you can drift in and out of them in order to trade ect .
That way you can upgrade to better ships or improve the one you have.

[hisazul]

Buster is.... ehh... how to put it... made out of wet paper? Well... anything slighly bigger m5 with few equally pathetic m4s and buster goes bust.

In X3:R once your shields go down its usually game over unless you are in cap ship... but if your cap ships shields got ripped off then you will probably get hammered too.

In AP, hulls are a bit more important(at least past fighter class) and combat ranks scale enemies a tad bit better.

While I said all that... X titles are notoriously unforgiving. And have steep learning curve. Once you get the hang of combat , you can take on destroyer with nothing but a measly fighter(obviously not a random one but not the point) and win... In my case it's not because of some magical "skills" or some other nonsense it's because I know which weapons can do what and what I can squeeze out of specific ship in a given situation. Turret placements, using roids, hiding, boosting... there are a lot of little things that add up. Also there are some weapons/other stuff that isn't easy or even possible(normally) to dodge. Beams (granted AI misses with those), AOE weapons, agile missiles when you got no turrets, a fat m2 that pops right out of the gate at the same time as you try to enter it, stations.... when AI pilots, docking bays, pirates planting mines in your cargo bay, mines in general since they are REALLY hard to see visually even in smaller ship forget the big ones.

Btw.... missiles are deadly in X3:R especially disruptors which act in unique way in that game.

Also... m4 is interceptor and just like m5(scout) those 2 fighter classes aren't really designed for full on combat unless you are godly at dodging crap. They are just too fragile, all they have is speed they neither have the durability, shields or weapons to fight anything above their own class(normally... there are always exceptions). Get close enough to flak turret and you are space junk, since flak projectiles have 2k? 1.5k? per second speed... you are not dodging those.

[Alan Phipps]

There is an X3R Plot walkthrough here that might help. Naturally there are huge Spoilers in it so just skim the titles to get to the bits you want to read about. (I suggest just to look at starting out tips {and consider improving your ship} and maybe the Crystals mission.)

[rafikibob]

Thanks for the responses folk.
I am following that walkthrough, hence thinking I was doing a magnificently awful job.

Step 1, educate myself on the ships.
Step 2, Weigh up the pros and cons of capping freighters.
Doesn't seem that many downsides??

Maybe a daft question, should i be playing X3R? I just bought all 3 off steam in a pack and assumed I could just play them in order.
What are your thoughts on that?

Seems like if a game is designed to be played forever, it's a bit weird to stop playing it and play a slightly different game that's designed to be played forever. *shrug*

Thanks again

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

X3 Reunion had the best plot of all of them (fun-wise)!
It's very different from X3TC and X3AP, because it isn't serious. Not even a little bit. Saya and Julian joke all day, and the voice acting of JB (in space) totally fits the character.

[pjknibbs]

Unless you're desperate to follow the plotlines all the way through, TC would make a better intro to the games--it's somewhat easier than R, has a slightly better UI and gives you a lot more to do in the sandbox.

[Jimmy C]

Which start are you using? The recommended one for newcomers is the Easy one that gives you a freighter to trade with while you do more interesting things in your ship.

[Gold Dragon]

Also a helpful tip:

Some pilots have abandoned perfectly good ships around the universe. Finding them could be a useful thing.

I'll tell you of 1:

There is a "Luxury Yacht" hidden in a sector named for the daughter of the Queen of the Borons. Simply play ring-around-the-rosie with the asteroids to find this unique ship.

And it is unique.

[rafikibob]

Ha, sounds fun.
I think I do fancy the plot a bit because that's what I'm after, some "this is my ship, this is my life" escapism.

I might give some thought to restarting with a bit more goodies. I chose "Normal" which gives you a Buster, 5k in creds and a few mods.

Did cap a freighter since that was offered as a solution, and that was fun, but now I have no idea what to do with it

[hisazul]

Since you got yourself a TS no point what so ever in restarting, unless you go for one of the more "peculiar" starts like enemy with everyone or something else in the same line.

Generally speaking if you got all 3 of the X3 titles, X3:AP is the best sandbox and the most improved and varied by far. But some missions from X3:R were one of a kind... heavily scripted or in peculiar places but unique and fun.

[jlehtone]

Ha, sounds fun.
I think I do fancy the plot a bit because that's what I'm after, some "this is my ship, this is my life" escapism.

Ignore the plot for a while. You are not ready. Explore, study, gather. I was in that Buster once (but with many hours of X2, i.e. familiar with the basics). I ventured into Pirate sectors, where I saw a fight. Some destroyed ships dropped some cargo. Valuable cargo, but small enough for the Buster to scoop up. Sheer luck to stumble on it, if you believe in luck. Sold the loot, got nice credits and reputation. Time for the plot was much later.

I chose "Normal" which gives you a Buster, 5k in creds and a few mods.

Well, the "Quickstart" gives Buster with a bit more goodies, while the "Xtreme" gives the same Buster with a bit less goodies. No huge difference. Just proceed.

Did cap a freighter since that was offered as a solution, and that was fun, but now I have no idea what to do with it

Study MORT
You might not yet have funds for full hauls, but learning to send another ship for errands is most useful.

There is a "Humble Merchant" start. No plot. It gives a M5 scout, a freighter, and 100k to trade with. There are three quite common approaches:
1. Fly freighter, trading, and remotely explore/MORT with the M5.
2. Explore with the M5, and use the freighter as MORT.
3. Sell one of the ships and do something with the other.

You are almost at that "beginner's start", but you have plot too. About same options, and more.

You could in principle sell one of your ships (e.g to M4 -> M5). Before you do, check that you have enough reputation to buy ships.


Captured freighter? Damaged? Hull below 90% slows the ship down. Only the Shipyards can repair ships, and that ain't cheap. Still, even a brick can get some job done.

[BankruptAssasin]

Sincde you capped a frieghter, if your willing to do a bit of trading for a while and forget the plot, i suggest selling the buster, take the equipment you need of it, shields, guns etc, especially SETA (I spent a day or so not knowing about SETA)

This will get you decent funds for trading, now you can fix the ship up a little if you want, or if your in the Argon Prime area, you can do e-cell runs, plenty of Solar Power Plants around that part of space and plenty of people needing it.

I also think Silicon was a massive trade route for me, think there's 2 silicon mines in the Power circle, usually decent price and sells like hot cakes in Argon Prime, once this is exhausted, you can then do the Ore run, buy at 50 and sell at 120+, lots of profits.

Again i haven't played Reunion in a long while, plus when i started playing TC, the general gameplay and controls of Reunion were even more horrible than when i had to learn it the first time (Again X3R left a sour taste so i may be Bias)

In repsonse to whether you should play X3R, I like TC, AP is very good, Few upgrades & being able to type in the secotr on the universe map is a very neat touch, I have never played the AP plots, usually modded in the TC plots for AP and then never got around to doing it, i have a thing for Missiles, not as much as our own Nuklear Slug mind you, AP fixed the AI's ability to shoot down missiles which put me back to TC, i may play AP again though.

[ThommoHawk]

Reading this topic, I've decided to do something I've never done before - play the plot to the end, having abandoned it and just went straight in to new sandbox as argon merchant trader start (will take some getting used to again).

Re the OP:

1) Sandbox play is the strength of X3 games, never the plot (but are worth doing once).

2) X3 Reunion is good, the Bala Gi expansion is an easy way to get your first player HQ. And a Hyperion whit 3GJ (!) shields. The downside is X3R property menu only shows ships by sector, which bounces (flows) up and down the list as your ships move from sector to sector - mainly noticeable when you amass large numbers of ships. No Terrans in Reunion.

3) X3 TC is better, But don't expect cut scene plots like earlier XGames, It has more mission based plots. There is an improved property menu (ships can be displayed by ship type which gives the display stability, not just by sector) and many more improved GUI (side bar menu commands etc.). Has much more stuff too. Kha'ak are still around to fight with in TC. The 'downside' of TC is getting the player HQ: before you can do the plot which allows you to have one in the game, there is a plot known as the HUB plot, which is a massive challenge which requires building and trading, which is fine now I've done it, but I wish the HQ was not dependent on that Hub one first.

4) X3 Albion Prelude is like TC but with probably the best Map/GUI (large view is available on large monitors etc.). It has some excellent new ships, and includes war sectors (not a fan of myself) and tries to make everything more exciting (plot wise - AT WAR - pew pew pew kaboom). No Khaak in AP, just Xenon. No Earth Torus, as TC is the only X game EVER so far to have something like it. But AP has a ton of other stuff to do.

edit; added the earth torus bit, and diction.

[TTD]

however , there is a plot that gives you the choice to end the war, if you so wish.

[ThommoHawk]

^ there is that, yep. (Re AP it is my favourite on par with X2 in greatness) Not that I forgot to mention it, just my post was starting to get rather lengthy, and I thought I was in danger of being boron. These games are all great.