Trying The X Games For The First Time

[williebazerka]

I've always seen these games but never played them so I've decided to try try them out. Is there a guide to help with the basics or is this a game I should just start playing and learn from there? I bought X 3 Terran War Pack (my pc is a older laptop) and any beginners help would appreciated. I never played any 4X type games an it seems a little daunting. Thanks.

[jlehtone]

Welcome to X Universe!

The sticky thread lists many guides.

[williebazerka]

Welcome to X Universe!

The sticky thread lists many guides.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

[Honved]

I never played any 4X type games an it seems a little daunting. Thanks.

It seems a little daunting, for good reason, because it is. There's a long learning curve, but at least you can get by for a while with only a couple of tools in your belt to work with, until you learn more things that you can do. Eventually, the options and abilities are amazing, but it's a long grind before you as a player learn them and as a character can afford them.

For starters, the priorities vary, depending on your chosen start.

If starting as a trader (Humble Merchant), you'll want to make a beeline in Herron's Nebula for the closest Ore Mine with a reasonably full Product bar (the top one), buy as much Ore as you can afford, and then head for somewhere with a mostly-empty Resource bar (the second bar or group). That should give you some working capital. From there, engine upgrades and Trade Extension software (which allows you to see actual buy/sell prices anywhere in the sector, or trade remotely from another ship) are high priorities, probably followed by better scanners. You might also want to get a Mineral Scanner to allow you to take "Scan Asteroids" missions, although a TS cargo ship isn't the right tool for that job. The Humble Trader start includes a Discoverer M5 light fighter (unarmed), which is ideal for scouting and taking those Scan missions. I'll usually put the Trade Extension software in the Disco, then go exploring while I send the Mercury TS freighter to buy and sell goods at a profit. Be warned that the game usually has all Impulse Ray Emitters run out of stock in the Argon Prime vicinity (just south of where you start) in a matter of hours, so you might want to snag a couple early in case you want to arm that M5 light fighter to expand your capabilities into combat.

If starting as a fighter pilot, you'll want weapons (duh!), decent shields, and as much engine tuning as possible (speed = life) as quickly as possible. You might consider taking a Station Defense contract for your first mission as an easy win, because at your initial low Fight rank, the opposition won't really have the firepower to kill a Station, the opponent's AI will be fairly poor, and the local security forces will eventually take out the attacker for you if you don't...and you get paid for it. The higher your Fight rank, the higher the pay, but the stronger the opposition you'll face. My initial opposition was a single M5 fighter; now I'm at a moderately high Fight rank and facing M6 or multiple M8 opponents, usually with escorting M3s or multiple lighter fighters. At really high fight ranks, you may see a Battleship come out of the gate....

Having an opposing pilot bail and abandon ship gives you an opportunity (after the battle) to fly close, eject, and claim the ship. Your spacesuit includes a Repair Laser, which you can then use to repair the damaged ship (or your own) for free, although it's a slow process. At the beginning of the game, it's worth the time spent; later, you'll have enough money rolling in that you generally won't want to bother, and just pay for repairs at a shipyard or sell the damaged ship as-is. You may also see ships with a giant yellow "cent" sign above them, generally indicating a ship for sale. If the condition is good, they'll usually want MORE than the cost of a new ship, but as that approaches 50% damage, the price approaches free. I've picked up M3 fighters for as low as around 100,000 credits, repaired them, and sold them for upwards of a Million credits. Of course, repairing the extensive hull of a large SuperFreighter XL or capital ship could take hours.....

The in-game Encyclopedia (found under the Advanced options tab) has a lot of info on various ships, weapons, and other items you'll encounter. There are also links here on the forums to numerous guides and how-to articles. Enjoy. This is definitely a "long game", where you won't accomplish much in an hour or two, but the cumulative increase in wealth and power gives you ever-expanding options (which you as a player need to learn to use). Note that the X3:TC main plot has several tutorial elements built into it, plus modest rewards along the way and the opportunity for more, but many of the missions are rather tedious.

To illustrate how "deep" the game can get, I've got around 70-80 ships, most of them freighters running independently with Trade Mark 3 software, half a dozen factories, and an M7 capital ship that can dock my M3 fighter, usually with a TL-class large freighter following a sector behind me to build stations or provide resupply as needed, and it can dock any opposing fighter ships that bailed until I fix and/or sell them. You can eventually even take on a major faction, but since there's infinite respawns, you can never really eliminate a faction completely (other then the Kha'ak, which is one of the plotlines).

Enjoy.

[heratik]

Welcome to the biggest but most rewarding time vacuum known to man

I have just restarted after a 3-4 year hiatus, and am having to relearn all the things I have forgotten along the way! This game is deep, way, way deep, but the forums are super helpful with some members with vast experience, also dotted around the forums are amazing, in depth guides to just about anything.

Have fun and maybe see you around!

[Lotharian]

Quick tips:

- You can eject, and your spacesuit right-click has a repair laser to repair any of your ships (eventually) for free. I was so frustrated at first not knowing about the free repair option.
- I rarely use autopilot since it often sends you crashing into some part of the jump gate.
- Activating SETA (with j) speeds up everything, but also makes aforementioned collision danger for any of your ships in that sector way worse.
- Collisions only happen in the sector you're in
- The "safe" place to enter gates is along the "bottom" edge of the gate ring. If you got flipped over / disoriented and don't know where "down" is, you can momentarily engage autopilot just to see which side it points you to.
- Mission rewards increase drastically once you build up your trade & race ranks
- Many missions will not be doable for you at first. I mostly stick with ship retrieval, asteroid scan and personnel transport missions. (Station build missions are great money too, but you need a TL first.)