A few usefull tips (some spoliers too) for game-play.

[BrigandPhantos77]

Question: How many times does it take to steal a blue print for a factory? I could really use the ability to make my own Chelt / Rastar Oil since the Split are my enemy.

Lots: it depends upon your rep as well as your diplomat (spy)'s skill. Failed attempts will still increase the future success chance tho..

Another "dumb" question: Why the heck does a Teladianium Foundry want me to return a Shrike when the stupid Teladi know full well the thing can't dock there. LMAO!! I did enjoy selling it.

Doesn't matter: all X3 series games have this odd & confusing issue. Simply take it to its destination & the popup will appear to turn over the ship's command: station docking ability is irrelevant

I preferred to keep and sell it. I did that with a couple M3+ craft that they wanted me to return. The police give up after a little while if you keep it docked before they spawn. "Give me 1.8 million for returning it or sell for 10x." I'll accept that rep hit. Trying to get something M7 to appear in Paranid areas so I can drop my rep on purpose. They got me locked out with Argon who's ships I prefer. I did finally get the Rastar Refinery I was aiming at though. Took over 12 tries, and 1 captured / arrested spy. Now for the Chelt Aquarium.

[Hwitvlf]

I did finally get the Rastar Refinery I was aiming at though. Took over 12 tries, and 1 captured / arrested spy. Now for the Chelt Aquarium.

As far as I can tell, it's more difficult to steal the blueprint for expensive stations. As such, you're better off stealing an M size Chelt/Rastar and then upgrading it. I'm doing a playthrough where I don't buy any stations, only build with blueprints, and it generally takes about 5 attempts to steal a blueprint and around 2 to buy it.

I preferred to keep and sell it. I did that with a couple M3+ craft that they wanted me to return. The police give up after a little while...

Another old tip for 'return ship' mission: take the claimed ship to an enemy sector (Yaki, Dukes etc) and cancel the mission. Destroy the police ships that show up a short while later for a nice reputation boost with the sector owner. The level of the police units appears to depend on the type of claimed ship as well as the class of the ship where it's docked. If you dock a claimed M3 on your M1, some stronger police units should show up for a better reputation boost.

Alternatively, if you can start reverse engineering the ship before the mission expires, you still get a little money from the mission and no reputation loss.

[Ramdat]

I did finally get the Rastar Refinery I was aiming at though. Took over 12 tries, and 1 captured / arrested spy. Now for the Chelt Aquarium.

As far as I can tell, it's more difficult to steal the blueprint for expensive stations. As such, you're better off stealing an M size Chelt/Rastar and then upgrading it. I'm doing a playthrough where I don't buy any stations, only build with blueprints, and it generally takes about 5 attempts to steal a blueprint and around 2 to buy it.

Yeah, it does seem to take more attempts the more expensive it is. I would suggest doing defense missions for the faction first, as ships spawned by the mission will give you the "Bounty Hunter" influence bonus, and completion of the mission typically give an agent too. Bounty Hunter temporarily reduces influence costs by 50%, and it can stack with other bonuses to get up to 75%. Since it effectively makes influence worth two to four times more, the L station requiring ~2x more attempts is less troublesome. Generally the easiest method to achieve the Bounty Hunter bonus is to go to a Xenon-adjecent sector, such as Zyarth's Dominion, and accept a Xenon Hold Position mission.

Stealing M blueprints for station types which already have L variants is much more expensive, plus the upgrade process adds more time and micromanagement. For example, the cost difference between an M and L Chelt Aquarium is only ~350k, but the upgrade kit costs ~3.2 million. Constructing the upgrade kit yourself is less expensive than buying it, but still more expensive than buying or constructing the L variant.

[Hwitvlf]

Stealing M blueprints for station types which already have L variants is much more expensive, plus the upgrade process adds more time and micromanagement. For example, the cost difference between an M and L Chelt Aquarium is only ~350k, but the upgrade kit costs ~3.2 million. Constructing the upgrade kit yourself is less expensive than buying it, but still more expensive than buying or constructing the L variant.

That's good info to have, but for me it's about real-world time verses game-world money. Money is easy to come by in FL whereas finding and using agents tends to be a grind. I don't picture most people trying to steal blueprints from friendly factions as it's easier to buy them, so getting a station defense mission to lower agent cost is not always feasible.

[Sovereign01]

Well I didn't get my Adv. Kestrel but I did get my Jag. Cost me a bit of Split rep to get one to bail but the upsides made up for it. I actually did end up getting an Arrow as one of the discoverable ships scattered about the universe so I claimed and docked it as I do with all my claimed ships. I finally managed to get myself a Split Elephant, once I finish kitting it out I'll send it out to collect all those ships for reverse engineering.

[Stu Austin]

Hello all. If you are in combat or get attacked by bad guys and your shields go down, you can recharge them fast without using SETA.

Spoiler

Show

Bring up your info screen , use your "up" arrow to scroll up to the shields and hold it in the up position and your shields will start to recharge faster. You can also do it for another of your ships (ship has to be in sector with you).

stu

[Hwitvlf]

Hello all. If you are in combat or get attacked by bad guys and your shields go down, you can recharge them fast without using SETA.

Spoiler

Show

Bring up your info screen , use your "up" arrow to scroll up to the shields and hold it in the up position and your shields will start to recharge faster. You can also do it for another of your ships (ship has to be in sector with you).

Ha, that's a fun find, but I tested and I think it just forces the window to sample the shield status more often, but not regenerate faster. Normally the window is updated once a second, but pressing up re-samples the values several times in one second.