[TC] Complete List of Ship Sources + Ship Collector's Helper Spreadsheet (spoilers)

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UnknownObject
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Re: [TC] Complete List of Ship Sources + Ship Collector's Helper Spreadsheet (spoilers)

Post by UnknownObject » Wed, 27. Mar 19, 07:50

nponoBegHuk wrote:
Wed, 27. Mar 19, 01:45
But after ~2000 reloads and no Unknown Objects spotted doestn't seem like it's worth shortening my SSD lifespan pursuing this any further...
I appreciate your efforts very much!
It was something I should have been expecting - as 3.08 Sector Management.xml doesn't refer to SS_SH_SARGON, it was very unlikely for this ship to spawn. I feel it's better to assume that somewhere is a mod adding this ship.

But your script is awesome! One can capture an Aran every day.

Have you tried any versions besides 1.3 and 2.0?
Мир всем народам на свете.
Нам не нужна
Война!

UnknownObject
Posts: 393
Joined: Fri, 15. Jan 10, 12:05
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Re: [TC] Complete List of Ship Sources + Ship Collector's Helper Spreadsheet (spoilers)

Post by UnknownObject » Sun, 5. May 19, 15:08

Links to MS Excel and Open Office files don't work anymore. Could you reupload them, please?

Thanks!
Last edited by UnknownObject on Wed, 8. May 19, 12:27, edited 1 time in total.
Мир всем народам на свете.
Нам не нужна
Война!

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nponoBegHuk
Posts: 474
Joined: Thu, 6. Mar 08, 19:55
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Re: [TC] Complete List of Ship Sources + Ship Collector's Helper Spreadsheet (spoilers)

Post by nponoBegHuk » Sun, 5. May 19, 23:27

UnknownObject wrote:
Sun, 5. May 19, 15:08
Links to MS Excel and Open Office files don't work anymore. Could you reupload them, please?
v.2.26 is what I've been using lately. Everything on a single page. Also manual support is removed so you must use the included script to export your collection.

If you prefer the older version layout, get v.2.25 here.

I'm off to sleep.
Fast sector selection on the Universe Map | Rock locations for Mobile/OOS mining | Botting for max speed Hyperion | Complete list of ship sources | Capturing smaller ships

My current ship collection:
11 out of 11 *retired* ships found
17 out of 17 *unique* ships found
9 out of 9 *limited* ships found
16 out of 16 *rare* ships found

User avatar
nponoBegHuk
Posts: 474
Joined: Thu, 6. Mar 08, 19:55
x4

Re: [TC] Complete List of Ship Sources + Ship Collector's Helper Spreadsheet (spoilers)

Post by nponoBegHuk » Fri, 9. Apr 21, 00:43

Capturing Pirate and Pirate Syndicate ships.

These guys spawn during Goner Plot. Such ships, even when captured, retain their "Pirate Syndicate" or just "Syndicate" prefix and Betty will keep calling them that instead of just "nova" or whatever (check vid). I did some research about a year ago on these guys but the info seems to be lost. I'll try to post the ones I remember off the top of my head. I am aware most people won't ever try to capture all of these ships but I still would like to provide the info even for myself, if I were to stop playing again and try to do this again after some time. I find looking up my old posts for info easier than trying to remember "what was that one trick I did last time to capture that".

This image sums up what can be captured among these guys, the numbers mean the game version you need to run. As you might have noticed I like to take advantage of using CD version of the game and starting in 1.0.1 - 1.2.1 patch to try to get some of the ships which become unavailable in further updates of the game. Such is the case here. However, there's a technique you could potentially use to try to pull most of these off even in fully patched to latest version game, as long as you don't have completed the goner plot. It requires to shuffle some game files from different game versions around. I can provide the needed files on demand, as long as the mods are not against such sharing.

The mission we're focusing right now is the repeatable "defend station" or "defend ship" (if you lost the goner station in that sector already) mission at the beginning of chapter 2. During that mission you can board and capture a variety of ships.

Let's begin with the data on the bottom of the image.


Pirate Syndicate M3-M5
Unlike the rest of the post, this refers the last mission where you have to follow the blastclaw. Once the blastclaw approaches the base, a single wave containing a bunch of random pirate ships spawns and attacks you. These are capturable in all versions and retain Pirate Syndicate prefix after capture. If you're lucky on RNG, you could the whole lot of different ones. There are 17 different fighters to get from this, however getting at least 1 of each in a single wave might take a couple of years of reloading, so I settled with 12/17. here's a pic. I recorded the video of the entire process. If there is interest, I could upload it.
Syndicate M3-M5
These guys are obviously spawning in all game versions, however they are not capturable in the game versions 1.0.1 to 1.2.1. The culprit is the file Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml. If you want to capture one of these, you have to either patch the game to version 1.3 or higher prior to getting the mission, or (if you play in lower patch) get yourself the 1.3+ version of the file mentioned above and place it manually in your game installation folder so it overrides the one supplied by the patch you currently have. I think I should make a guide on game file substitution, maybe after finishing this post. Please note these ships get stripped of their Pirate Syndicate status as soon as they bail, only Syndicate tag remains. As of how to capture one of these, it's just the good old "shoot it until it bails" strategy. Refer to the guide in my sig if you want to destroy your enjoyment of the capturing experience forever. The game won't remove the ships from your property upon mission failure/completion.

Pirate Syndicate M8
The file Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml from the versions 1.2.1 and below creates a single M8 ship which bypasses the usual way of creating ships through OBS \ SRST. Such ship is capturable in the conventional way, and if you manage to get him to bail while the target to defend is still alive, it will remain as Pirate Syndicate. If you play on 1.3+, you're out of luck unless you use Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml file from 1.2.1 or below placed manually.
Syndicate M8
Hard way: game version up to version 1.2.1
Okay, this one is much trickier than above for game versions up to 1.2.1. The target we're capturing is the same as above - the lone M8 generated by Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml scenario. We need to force the game to strip it of its Pirate Syndicate tag first, so only the Syndicate tag remains AND capture the ship afterwards, which is actually easier said than done. What we gotta do is as follows:
  1. Hop in the sector with the target to defend after getting message from the goners about "one of our ships is under attack"
  2. Don't attack any fighters in sector (just in case), just idle around the gate where the enemies are pouring in to attack the poor Ranger or TS.
  3. Try to put target to defend on your left monitor and as soon as the Pirate Syndicate M8 jumps in, put it on the right monitor or something.
  4. Try to engage the M8, avoiding all the other ships, but only attack it lightly, never ever stripping its shields fully (read the guide in sig for capturing small ships for the reason, if you're into masochism).
  5. When you see your goner target is about to get destroyed and provided you never stripped the shields of the M8 completely (and did not attack other fighters at all, even with turrets/missiles), save your game at this point.
  6. Our objective here is to actually fail the mission (due to the target being destroyed), while engaging the M8 we would like to capture. The reason being, the game will execute the cleanup code once the target dies, so the sector doesn't get swarmed with enemies. However, the cleanup code is buggy. If you capture the ship AFTER mission fails, it will be just tagged Syndicate, not Pirate Syndicate. But the game will try to "use jumpdrive to non-existing sector" to destroy the ship so you can't possibly captured. That's why we attack it. keep shooting at it lightly until you get "Mission failed" message. in 80-90% cases your target M8 will jump out of existence, but if you're lucky it will "forget to jump" (maybe if its jumpdrive gets destroyed? not actually sure, I think there's just a bug where it counts the ships wrong and always leaves 1 ship without cleaning up, you might need to get lucky for that M8 to be left out)
  7. If you were successful on distracting your M8 from jumping it will remain in sector but get renamed to "Teladi Syndicate Hades" or whatever instead of Pirate Syndicate Hades. At this point, save the game again.
  8. Now proceed to capture the target. I recommend leaving the sector and flying back in, to reset your "bail counter" (read the guide). It will stay as Syndicate from now on.
Once again, if you play in patch above 1.2.1, you will need to place Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml file from 1.2.1 or below inside your game install for this to work prior to spawning mission related enemies.
Easy (but untested) way: game version 2.7+
game versions 2.7+ should spawn plenty of M8 if your fight rank is high enough, unlike 1.2.1 and below. And since you're also playing above 1.3, these ships should be capturable and become Syndicate right after bailing even if you don't fail the mission. The downsides? This is actually not tested, and getting a Boron Marlin Hauler would be impossible without shuffling files. If you play on different patch or just up to the challenge you will need all these:
  • Director\OBS.xml from 2.7 and above to allow for spawning of M8.
  • Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml from 1.3 or above to allow the ships spawned by OBS to be captured at all, and be tagged as Syndicate upon doing so.
  • Director\SRST.xml from 2.6 or below if you would also like to have a chance to capture your own Syndicate Marlin Hauler the easy way (it doesn't spawn with SRST 2.7+ anymore).
Syndicate M6
Okay, we're getting into the fun territory. I'll invert the Syndicate / Pirate Syndicate order here because it will be easier to explain. M6 and heavier ships can be boarded in any version of the game. However, in versions 1.2.1 and below there's a bug in Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml which makes you lose the ownership of the boarded ship when the mission fails (and you can board it again to keep it, as long as it doesn't auto destroy itself like M8 ships above). So for this one the instrucions will be as follows:
  • Either play in patch 1.3+ or use Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml from at least 1.3 and capture the ship once for it to become permanently yours and tagged Syndicate.
  • Or if you play in 1.2.1 or below (or using the corresponding file from early versions), capture the ship once during the mission, the ship will be tagged Pirate Syndicate at that point. Destroy transfer your marines back and eject the jumpdrive. When mission fails, the ship ownership will be revoked and the Pirate Syndicate tag wll be stripped to just Syndicate. Recapture the ship to keep it
Pirate Syndicate M6
This one is actually tricky. The file Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml mentioned many times here is responsible for creating and destroying ships, as well as their renaming. We need to understand that the tag the ship will get upon capture is decided when the ship is first created, but the cleanup code will get executed only when the mission fails. We need to do some smart patching/file moving (most probably the latter) to keep the ships tagged as Pirate Syndicate M6. The process will be as follows:
  1. Either start "protect goner asset" mission while playing 1.2.1 version or below, or put similar version of Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml file inside your game folder and wait patiently for goners to call for help.
  2. Once the mission starts and ships spawn, the early version of Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml will program the M6 ships to keep Pirate Syndicate tag once captured during the mission, which is what we want.
  3. However, the same buggy Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml will trigger the faulty cleanup code which will destroy the tag and remove the ship from our posessions, which we don't want. That is why as soon as the M6 ships are spawned, we have to save the game, leave it and then either patch your client to 1.3+ (d'oh) or (easier) put 1.3+ Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml file into your game folder and load the game again.
  4. This way when you capture the ship it will stay Pirate Syndicate as specified by early Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml upon creation. But when the mission fails an updated version of cleanup code gets triggered and the ship is not removed from your property anymore.
Syndicate M7, M1, M2
If you play in patch 2.7+, these will be spawned naturally during your missions and capturing them will produce a Syndicate tag, so no fuss there. However, if you playing a lower patch you will need the following files:
  • Director\OBS.xml from 2.7 or above if you need for M7 Carrack to spawn
  • Director\SRST.xml from 2.7 or above if you need for M1 Galleon or M2 Brigantine to spawn
  • Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml from 1.3 or above if you don't want to be spending an entire day on boarding the same ship twice and want to get your Syndicate capships in a single capture (refer to Syndicate M6 part for the expanation).
Pirate Syndicate M7, M1, M2
Finally, we've come to the only entry on this list which is impossible with 100% untampered game installation. you will need to use a mix of game files from different game versions that never match on the same patch to pull this off. The process here is exactly the same as for the Pirate Syndicate M6, but with more files to include on our tamper list. Here's what we need.
  • Director\OBS.xml from 2.7 or above if you need for M7 Carrack to spawn
  • Director\SRST.xml from 2.7 or above if you need for M1 Galleon or M2 Brigantine to spawn
  • Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml from 1.2.1 or below before starting "protect goner asset" mission. Get the enemy capships to spawn, then save and exit the game
  • Put Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml from 1.3 or above this time into the game folder and load up your save game.
  • Capture the capship as usual, since we switched Director\0.35 Defend Object.xml file mid mission, it will stay as Pirate Syndicate and double capture won't be needed.
  • Repeat for as many capships as you need.
Fast sector selection on the Universe Map | Rock locations for Mobile/OOS mining | Botting for max speed Hyperion | Complete list of ship sources | Capturing smaller ships

My current ship collection:
11 out of 11 *retired* ships found
17 out of 17 *unique* ships found
9 out of 9 *limited* ships found
16 out of 16 *rare* ships found

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