[TC] Terran Campaign : Walkthrough

Arkanfel · Post by **Arkanfel** » Mon, 27. Jul 09, 17:08

OK, a few things. This game is driving me up the wall.

I just got X3 on steam like yesterday so bear with me here. I started the Terran Campaign because I tend to go straight for the human faction in games like these.

I seem to be hopelessly stuck on mission two. I can follow the Nova back to the pirate base just fine, but I'm skeptical about there being a "random" chance of attack--I get attacked every time the Nova arrives at the base, by five or six (never could count them all) fighters who obviously make short work of me.

I also saw mention in the OP of "You make me fly up and down for a measly 30.000 credits?" I have about 4,500 credits in my account after finishing Mission 1. I suspect 30,000 (however you get them) would probably help me out quite a bit.

Finally, I see a lot of talk about selling ships, but it hasn't been explained to me how this is done. I have a captured M and that scout ship they gave me, but I haven't the foggiest idea how to actually sell them. I tried having them follow me into a dock, but that didn't work. How in the hell do I sell my ships? Should I sell the scout ship or just upgrade it (somehow?) and use it for mission 2?

EDIT: Okay, well I figured out mission 2 well enough, but I still have no idea how to sell that Xenon M I don't really want. I think I might hold on to the Rapier for now, but I'm pretty much flying the Sabre just about all the time.

imperium3 · Post by **imperium3** » Mon, 27. Jul 09, 18:30

The fighters are usually a mix of M4s/M5s = quite a pain if you're still in the starting Sabre. I don't have much experience in anything smaller than an M3, but i think it's doable with a bit of practice.

As regards selling ships, order them to dock at a shipyard (there's one in PTNI HQ and another in Omicron Lyrae) by clicking Orders->Command Console->Navigation->Dock at...->select the shipyard you want. Once they're there, you can either dock yourself and sell them, or if you have a Trading system Extension you can do it remotely, just by clicking on the station.

Arkanfel · Post by **Arkanfel** » Mon, 27. Jul 09, 18:54

Thanks.. not too sure how much good this will do me though, now that I've jumped into mission 3... how they expect me to take out those destroyers and like a dozen fighters ( and why it's labeled 'easy' by the game) is beyond me. I have to confess I'm rapidly losing patience with this game. I'm still in the starting Sabre because I have next to nothing in the way of credits (2,300 now); but I guess I'll go back and sell that Rapier and the Xenon M, but I don't know what or how to buy something to replace the Sabre... the manual, naturally is of little help; I've seen no mention yet of how to buy/sell ships hence my initial questions here.

Assuming I sell the Xenon M and the first Rapier, will I be able to buy something decent to replace my Sabre? If so, what should I get and how do I get it?

EDIT: Okay, now I've gone back to gather up my ships, right? I hooked up with that first Rapier I left in the Asteroid Belt (for reasons I will explain momentarily) and now I'm on my way to Uranus to pick up the Xenon M I left there.

So I give my Rapier a "Follow" order, and he follows me 90% of the way across the sector...

...only to break off and suddenly go the other direction once I get close to the gate I want to take us through. Repeated orders to follow me are happily ignored. If I bought this game at a retail store instead of Steam, the disk might well be on the street right now.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Mon, 27. Jul 09, 20:16

Don't take out the destroyers and the fighters, then. There are plenty of Terran ships around that can do the job--all you have to do is not die!

Arkanfel · Post by **Arkanfel** » Mon, 27. Jul 09, 22:17

Hmm.. worth a shot, I suppose. I used a similar tactic on mission 2 by luring the station's fighters way out and then scanning while they tried to catch up with me.

Still, I could swear that I didn't see any other Terran ships out there besides my wingmen.. I'll have to give it another look. God knows the sector's own organic patrol craft got shot down quickly enough.

Also, someone mentioned earlier that you'd get "250k or so" from selling the rapiers. I just sold the first one I got (right before mission 2) and got less than 1/10th of that amount. I'm still not sure I've entirely figured out how that bar works on the trade screen; I suspect I just didn't raise the price or something?

Oh, but I solved my "ship won't follow me through the gate" problem when I realized I could send a dock order across several sectors; I didn't know I could do that.

apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 02:06

Arkanfel, this game has a huge learning curve. Your trying to play the plot without having learned any of the basics.

Spend a couple of days flying around trying things out, saving and reloading when you make a mistake. Learn the basics, earn some credits, find a better ship.

The plot will wait for you as long as you need.

Arkanfel · Post by **Arkanfel** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 04:29

... which brings me to my next (unfortunate) complaint... namely, that there appears to be no tutorial. I'm going to go ahead and do the trade run explained in the manual, and hopefully that will get me somewhere where I can buy things like satellites and such to help me earn more money and better ships.

I knew this game had a hellacious learning curve going into it, but I've been a pretty dedicated gamer for well over a decade now and I tend to learn quickly. I just get confused when I check out walkthroughs and they mention things like "30,000 credits" in the OP for mission 2--I'm not saying it's a bad guide or anything, I'm just wondering where my 30,000 credits are!

Also, I picked the Terran Campaign both because I tend to play the human faction in spacedy RTSes or SoASE or what-have-you, and because it seemed the most straightforward "go here and shoot these guys" type campaign that wasn't labeled "hard" or worse. I suppose I'll just start out with Humble Trader instead.

apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 04:47

The joke is that the tutorial for X3 was X2, and X3 was the tutorial for TC

The only tutorial is when you com the flight school nova that you auto target when the game starts. That then takes you through a series of how to do senarios. But thats very basic stuff, and still wont get you far.

The other thing to bear in mind, is that the walkthrough was written for a very early version of the game, and the plots get tweaked every single patch. So while 30k was paid for that mission originally, maybe now it doesnt.

Not all plot missions pay credits. In fact, a lot of them dont.

The whole game is about you making money your own way, not relying on plot missions to pay you anything.

Arkanfel · Post by **Arkanfel** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 06:51

Okay, I think I've seen about enough. For the 'Trading Run,' the manual tells you to jump through The East Gate to "The Hole." Fine. Then, to get to "The Wall" it says you have to fly south and then; "Yes, you'll have to find the South Gate (hint, it's in the SE quadrant)".... which, just guessing off the top of my head, would probably take 2+ hours to explore fully even with SETA at 600%. The East gate was easy enough to find, but I'm not going to spend hours flying around the entire goddamn SE quadrant to find the South Gate.

I don't mind games taking up lots of time (hell, that's why I play em) but flying around doing absolutely nothing is not what I would call enjoyable. This game has officially thrown its third strike, as far as I'm concerned. Egosoft, you guys are definitely on to something here, and I appreciate the game's concept and (for the most part) execution well enough. But I'll be goddamned if I'm going to fly around in a freighter doing 75 m/s for 2-3 hours just to find a gate. Even with SETA on at full throttle, it is simply taking way too long to find the south gate. Seriously. Boot the game up, pretend like you're playing it for the first time, and try to systematically comb the SE quadrant for the south gate, with SETA at full throttle. Unless you've got a book to read or a sandwich (or eighteen) to make, it is simply unenjoyable.

Sorry to post this in the Terran walkthrough thread, but it's the only area where what I'm saying has any context, and I don't want to make a separate "this is driving me nuts" thread.

Scarecrow · Post by **Scarecrow** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 06:55

Follow some of the traffic that is headed in that general direction.

Arkanfel · Post by **Arkanfel** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 06:56

The only traffic I saw was heading out of the East gate and towards the west.

apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 06:58

and I don't want to make a separate "this is driving me nuts" thread.

Plenty of people do.

And no, this wasnt the appropriate place to comment on something not part of the plot.

Your not going through anything that most people dont go through. Stop. Go download the X3 Handbook, and do some reading about the game and all the little speed things up hints scattered through it.

Scarecrow · Post by **Scarecrow** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 06:59

Did you get down into the SE quadrant?

The scanner on your ship may not be capable of picking up any ships from that far away.

apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 07:00

If you have a standard ship scanner, your not going to find much of anything in 2 hours.

You want a triplex scanner and a ship capable of mounting one.

Arkanfel · Post by **Arkanfel** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 07:02

apricotslice wrote:If you have a standard ship scanner, your not going to find much of anything in 2 hours.

You want a triplex scanner and a ship capable of mounting one.

Fair enough, but that's not in the manual walkthrough for the trading run.

apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 07:04

What manual walkthrough are you talking about ?

This thread is about the Terran plot, and that plot does not include a trade run through the wall.

Arkanfel · Post by **Arkanfel** » Tue, 28. Jul 09, 07:09

apricotslice wrote:What manual walkthrough are you talking about ?

This thread is about the Terran plot, and that plot does not include a trade run through the wall.

Yes, and I already apologized for posting it here, but (like I said) it was the only place where my comments would have had any context. Go back and read my posts from the start, I promise it's all there

vizerei · Post by **vizerei** » Wed, 29. Jul 09, 22:31

Someone please sticky this =)

Carlo the Curious · Post by **Carlo the Curious** » Thu, 30. Jul 09, 00:28

vizerei wrote:Someone please sticky this =)

There's a sticky for guides in the main forum.

Post by **Nanook** » Thu, 30. Jul 09, 00:40

Arkanfel wrote:
apricotslice wrote:If you have a standard ship scanner, your not going to find much of anything in 2 hours.

You want a triplex scanner and a ship capable of mounting one.
Fair enough, but that's not in the manual walkthrough for the trading run.

You've got the idea that this 'walkthrough trade run' is specifically what you need to do. Unfortunately, the way it's written does give you that impression. However, the game is dynamic, the economy is dynamic, meaning things aren't going to be the exact way they're presented in that walkthrough.

Approach it more as a generic description of how to do things and you'll get a better understanding of the game. For an actual moneymaking trade run, you need to look around and see what's in stock and what places are willing to give you good money for those items.

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[TC] Terran Campaign : Walkthrough