[X3AP] Poison Paranid and Tormented Teladi Rewards

[Jumee]

But can you get Hype to fly at 432 m/s? and that only after I found 4 boxes (people are saying there are 8 total)

in my opinion, which is obviously correct, the Springblossom is already as fast as it needs to be - there's nothing that can seriously threaten it that it can't outrun, with good piloting. when it's really moving, though, it handles a bit like a fish, so there's definitely a strong case for putting 4-6+ rudder opts on it.

a super-fast Hyperion, on the other hand, can do almost any mission type solo - it's especially good at the non-TP taxi runs and (with its two docks) Return Ship missions (with an Afterburner this makes for a quick way to boost rep with the Terrans (because seriously the time limits in Sol space are otherwise impossible)). it's also got a decent punch, near-fighter-style handling even without extra rudder opts, and can easily take out a capital ship solo if armed & piloted properly*.

* mind you, this is also true of the Springblossom - although generally it's made harder by the relative lack of shielding.

it's probably possible to get a Hyperion to maxed-out Springblossom speed (360m/s) if you're really lucky, and boy would that be a ship.

it all depends on what gets created/what you find, I guess - I got sort of shorted on engine tunings in my game, but I'm not starting all over again just to get a faster ship. right now, anyway**.

** Poisoned Paranid is by far my favourite game start just for the reward ship, so I probably will at some point.

The thing about Springblossom is that I dont need docking space (I never do ship retrievals) and for passenger transport it is perfect. Also I use all PM'/AML's in main so energy is not an issue even with PSSC in all turrets. And I did put rudder optimizations in it aswell, besides after you get used to flying it you can easily maneuver even with base rudders.
But the main two reasons to overtune springblossom:
1) I spend most of the time in it (when it is available, until I get it I fly around in Hype), since I like it more than Hype as a combat ship (except for the strange fact that Hype can use wraiths which are terran missile)
2) Just for having stupid speed it is nice to fly like a Kestrel in a corvette

EDIT: someone said that number of crates is fixed but content isnt and I while I dont know about number of crates I know that content is definitely different as I found engine tuning in exactly the same spot as was mentioned here on forum but instead of 5 it 3 in them

[Id13]

Ignore my previous post. Got one at about 220 after just a few loads. Trying for better.

Edit now got the 236 one. Might have to keep trying a bit

What you recommend for weapons on the front of this boat?

[infy dev]

Ignore my previous post. Got one at about 220 after just a few loads. Trying for better.

Edit now got the 236 one. Might have to keep trying a bit

What you recommend for weapons on the front of this boat?

236 is the fastest I would bother to get; otherwise you will wear out the shift + L keys, and your mind.

as for weapons, it should come with a bunch, but it probably won't come with all 5 x 200MJ shields.

I think the turrets are filled with Frag Bomb Launchers, which you can sell straight away - they are rubbish but worth a bit. I added 4 PBEs to the front (for shield stripping, to go with the 4 Ion Shard Railguns I started with), with HEPTs and/or Energy Bolt Chainguns (which need ammo) in the side turrets and PACs in the back turrets (they're a bit limited for choice).


later on I added another couple of ISRs, which I can manually switch for 2 of the PBEs for heavier firepower; I also carry around 4-6 PBGs in case I want to reconfigure as a close-range brawler.

[Id13]

What is a good anti capital missle to use beside the wraith with the hyperion?

[Catra]

tornado

firestorm

hornet

thunderbolt

[Science]

Could I get some help with Poisoned Paranid?

I keep getting close, >20 mill, but just fall short. My usual tactic is spawn at Preacher's Refuge, fly over to Teladi space and get a fighter. I have a save at 3 hours with a Falcon Vanguard fully equipped and ~700k in the bank I usually fall back to when I fail. I pirated the Falcon in the starting ship with 6 fighter drones . Generally then I just do combat missions and pirate every Duke's ship I find and sell as is (repair takes to long) and any Paranid M3 (repaired for an easy 800K). Most captured assets are then instantly sold rather than used for remote trading or forming wings. LooManck Strat's Legacy can be a gold mine but with all the M3 groups it's pretty high risk. Not to mention the banshee missiles that get spammed towards me.

I think I might have just been getting unlucky finding no M3+, unless they don't spawn around there (couldn't get a Blastclaw Prototype to bail). Any tips on trying something else? Using a better ship? Or utilizing more assets? Otherwise I may just have to keep trying the pirate route until I get luckier with some M3+s.

[Nick Northern]

There are a few ways you can go about making the money Science. The usual route is to buy ships that have 75% or less hull and are for sale. Repair and sell. Trading is also a fast route to riches. Ore is easy to find at the price of 50 credits, and buyers are not hard to find paying around 150-200 credits. You can make a couple million an hour with a trader in this way.

With the new addition of the Auction House, there is a good early source of income. Once you find a couple corporate HQ's, (like those in PTNI Headquarters, Home of Light and so on) you can trade corporate stocks. Company stocks (all the smaller companies that fall under the big Corporate listings) have pretty mobile stock prices. This allows for some nice profit to be made by buying at a high stock index listing (50-100) and selling at a low one (0-49).

The method of getting your first 25 million threw just making ships bail is viable, but can be frustrating as you are finding out. If you don't mind mods, http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... light=bail is a good one to make that money much faster. It still requires you to snatch up those ships and repair them. I like this mod and have used it.

My tip is to trade your assets for a fast M5 and a decent trade ship (or use one with a nice cargo capacity that you cap), and do remote trades while scouting sectors for cheap ships to buy with the orange cent icon next to their names, or missions from stations where ships are offered for purchase. Keep an eye out for anything with decent hull damage and repair them to get a nice profit in addition to your trades.

[Olorin35]

230 on my Hyperion after 97 reloads. Decided that was fast enough for me. Came with 2 5 star fighting marines (4 star overall) as well as a nice bonus, so gave me a nice head start on assembling my elite marine squad.

And after running the script to check for crates it turns out I have a great crate start for overtuning as well - 6 engine tuning crates, all with 4 or 5 tunings each. Total of 28 engine tunes. 7 rudder tunes. Probably use all the rudder tunes on the Hype, but with that many engine tunes available, I'm thinking about just overtuning it til about 300m/s (probably 2-3 crates worth), then saving the other crates for a flagship capital (M1/M2) or maybe a seriously overtuned M3+.

[Jumee]

230 on my Hyperion after 97 reloads. Decided that was fast enough for me. Came with 2 5 star fighting marines (4 star overall) as well as a nice bonus, so gave me a nice head start on assembling my elite marine squad.

And after running the script to check for crates it turns out I have a great crate start for overtuning as well - 6 engine tuning crates, all with 4 or 5 tunings each. Total of 28 engine tunes. 7 rudder tunes. Probably use all the rudder tunes on the Hype, but with that many engine tunes available, I'm thinking about just overtuning it til about 300m/s (probably 2-3 crates worth), then saving the other crates for a flagship capital (M1/M2) or maybe a seriously overtuned M3+.

if AP had true-light seeker I would over-tune that it was such a nice ship with 6 Gauss cannons front and if it would become fast than it would be even more fun to fly

[chibajoe]

What I like to do is go Paranid hunting, mainly because your rep with them gets reset when you are reinstated, but partially because I just don't like Paranid.

I start in Heaven's Assertion and high tail it to Patriarch's Conclusion. Make trade runs until I have enough rep and money to get a Jaguar Raider (built in triplex scanner). Use the Raider to build Boron rep for jump drive while setting the Demeter to scavenge Contorted Dominion and Faded dreams. Equip Demeter with jump drive, bonzai it up to war sectors in the Jaguar, jump in Demeter and use it to scavenge until you have enough for a TP and marines. Sell the Demeter and buy the TP and marines. If you're quick, there will still be marines available at military outposts, otherwise try the one of the training barracks. In any case, you need 8 with at least some fighting ability. If you're lucky, you might have already picked up a used TP, and if you're super lucky it will have marines on it.

You should be able to do all the above in under 6 hours. Now, while the marines are training (you need 3 with 2+ stars in mechanical and 2-3 with 2 stars in hacking; engineering is optional) go find yourself a suitable victim: a lost Nemesis wandering by itself in border sectors. Scan your victim to make sure there are no nasty surprises like hull polarization or sentry lasers, call in your TP and cap that sucker. Follow one of the various capping guides if you're not familiar with how to capture a ship using marines.

At this point, you should be at about the 12 hour mark with a M6 full of marines and (if you're lucky or persistent with the reloading, or both) big guns. Load the marines back in to the TP, along with the CIGs that were hopefully in the Nemesis, and send the TP off to train the marines and sell you ill gotten gains while you repair the Nemesis. For this step, it can be helpful if you eject the trading extension and seta from a ship (like your Jaguar Raider) and pick them up in your suit. That way, you can continue to issue training commands to the marines, send the Raider off to buy another trading extension, SETA, and what ever else you need to reequip the Nemesis, or issue trading commands to whatever other ships you may have acquired by now.

Depending on how bad the Nemesis was beat up, it might take an hour or so (of game time; CTRL+J = SETA+repair laser) to fix it up, which should be enough time to get at least a couple of your guys up to 3 stars. Once you're done, you should be sitting at around the 13 hour mark with a fully armed M6, 8 moderately trained marines, and a bad attitude.

At this point, I use the M6 to terrorize the Paranid and take back in blood what they took from me, but you can use it however you like. Use the Jaguar to scout "destroy convoy" missions from Argon and Yaki ships flying around Paranid space, or pick them up at pirate bases. Jump in the Nemesis and go to town. Rinse and repeat until you have the 25mil. You can also use the Nemesis to capture other Nemeses to sell (Nemesi?) or (if you're good) the non-unique Hyperion Vanguards that can be found. I've never sold one, but I imagine they fetch something more than chump change.

I've done the quest in under 12 hours once (lucked out and got a used Iguana with trained marines), but capping and selling M6s will net 25mil in under 20 hours easily (an osprey sells for a cool 9mil if you can find a pirate one or don't mind pissing off the teladi).

The real trick is to stay focused and no get sidetracked. If you're going to do missions (as opposed to following in my dark and violent footsteps) avoid "follow the bad guy" and "patrol sectors" since these take lots of time. "Defend station" and "protect position" missions are quick, and if you get them in patrolled sectors can be almost effortless. "FedEx" missions (fetch foodstuff, chips, radioactive waste, etc.) pay extremely well, are quick, and are easy with a turbo booster, jump drive, and docking computer. "Kill the bad guy" also pays well when you have decent rep and moderate fight rank, and (starting to sound familiar?) are quick. Personnel transport missions also pay well and are quick, but apparently cause massive slowdowns in the game so should be avoided for now.

Whatever path you take, just remember to spend the first 12 hours prepping and the last 12 hours making money. Split it up and it should be pretty straight forward.

[jbigg]

I must be missing something. The post title suggests we can do the Poisoned Paranid start in AP. Is this true?

[Vim Razz]

Yup. Starts unlocks with the same requirements as TC, so most of them are available (aside from the plot-based unlocks like Aldrin Adventurer or Lost Lar).

And as long as I'm here -- 236.7! I'm not sure how many reloads it was. I just kept reloading while watching a movie, saving the good ones and picking the best when I was done.

[Science]

Thanks for the tips Nick and Joe, I may as well as give it a few more shots, perhaps the problem was that I never really ventured out and stuck to that small span of Teladi space. If all else fails I'll just start as Savage Split and get a dragon/phant. (I'll probably end up getting a Elephant shorty after the Hyperion anyway)

What I like to do is go Paranid hunting

And I will definitely be trying out your tactic soon . Thanks guys.

Edit: Ejecting SETA and Trade Extension sounds too evil to be true.

[Olorin35]

Thanks for the tips Nick and Joe, I may as well as give it a few more shots, perhaps the problem was that I never really ventured out and stuck to that small span of Teladi space. If all else fails I'll just start as Savage Split and get a dragon/phant. (I'll probably end up getting a Elephant shorty after the Hyperion anyway)

What I like to do is go Paranid hunting

And I will definitely be trying out your tactic soon . Thanks guys.

Edit: Ejecting SETA and Trade Extension sounds too evil to be true.

My path to getting the 25 million was trading at the start, followed by tons of missions, mostly taxi and courier jobs. My start was in Preacher's Refuge, so I quickly made my way to Shores of Infinity (particularly fun start, I had to dodge 3 tomahawks by interposing asteroids in their way). Once in Boron controlled space, I focused on finding/doing a few Argon courier missions to get out of the Argon rep hole I was in (I think it only took about 4 or 5 to move up the two ranks I needed to be able to dock in their core systems), meanwhile trading e-cells in Boron space. I also picked up a Cargo Lifesupport System from the Boron Research Station in Great Trench. Without a jump drive, I only did the "Easy" missions at this point, but the rep gains are still good, even if at these rep levels, the credits are terrible (1k-5k on average).

Moved to Argon space (Montalaar->Legends Home area) after getting out of the initial hole. Once huge reason to do the move to Argon space ASAP is that the Argon are hostile to the Paranid. I spent the first few hrs in Boron space paranoid and occasionally on the run from the periodic Paranid battle groups that would come through (and even the occasional Paranid trader would come after me). Had to reload once or twice from getting a Tomahawk to the face from a Paranid M8. Once I was in Argon space, there were no more problems of this sort. Did a few more missions, alongside running e-cells and ore around, until I hit "Federation Associate" rank.

At this point, I had enough credits (mostly from trading ecells and ore) and the required reputation to pop over to Legends Home and pick up a jump drive and a docking computer (the other two reasons to focus on Argon rep from the very start). Now I could take on "Average" and even some "Hard" taxi and courier missions, even in the slow Demeter. I think it took a few more of these missions to gain enough rep to buy a Mistral freighter (normal, not SF), which I did for the increased speed, transferring all my equipment over.

Once in a Mistral with docking computer and jumpdrive, I was able to take on almost all taxi/courier type missions (I turned down a few that seemed to be too tight a time limit, but most were no problem, and of course had to turn down the TP taxis), and the payoffs for Hard/Very Hard missions once your rep is at +5 or higher get pretty insane (I remember getting 3.5 million credits for a very hard taxi run at Federation Guardian rank).

Going with the above strategy, it took me just under 24 hrs (in game) to amass the 25 MCr and pay off the Boron to get my Hyperion. Most of that cash was made in the last 2-3 hrs of the day with missions at fairly advanced ranks (finished with Argon Federation Overwatch rank, had every other race except for the Paranid at at least a +5 rank as well), averaging around 1 MCr per mission.

[SmokinSoldier]

After using a script to find all the boxes and see where I could get my vanguard I ended at 372 m/s max speed with 8.2 rpm steering. Started at 222 m/s. Feels like a sloppy m3

[chibajoe]

Thanks for the tips Nick and Joe, I may as well as give it a few more shots, perhaps the problem was that I never really ventured out and stuck to that small span of Teladi space. If all else fails I'll just start as Savage Split and get a dragon/phant. (I'll probably end up getting a Elephant shorty after the Hyperion anyway)

What I like to do is go Paranid hunting

And I will definitely be trying out your tactic soon . Thanks guys.

Edit: Ejecting SETA and Trade Extension sounds too evil to be true.

Just don't get too comfortable in that space suit, what with all the stuff you're cramming into it (you only have enough air to repair about 80% of a Hyperion's hull).

ETA: You should always try to start in Heaven's Assertion because:

a) You start relatively close to the gate out of Paranid space
b) You can get a jumpdrive and cargo bay life support very early
c) It's easy to make money in Patriarch's Conclusion (and the adjacent sectors)
d) You have access to two super-shipyards (Split and Boron)
e) They are relatively small sectors

The last point is hugely important, especially since you're in a relatively slow TS. The sectors east of Heaven's Assertion are smaller than the sectors west of Priest's Refuge. A sector that is 50Km gate-to-gate (Patriarch's Conclusion) takes significantly less game time to work than a sector that is 75Km (barren Shores) across.

[chibajoe]

I just tried a new tactic last night that makes 70% of my long winded post completely invalid:

Raise your Argon rep to the point that the AP plot kicks in. Follow the AP plot.

Spoiler

Show

In the 3rd mission, they give you a fully loaded M6 with marines! You can reload the autosave to "roll" a better ship/marines, but this completely eliminates the part of my post regarding gathering resources to cap a M6. With the centaur that they give you,

I was able to cap a Hyperion at around the 5 hour mark. Since these sell for right under 25M (fully repaired), I could have finished the Poisoned Paranid plot in about 6 hours.

I can't decide if this is a good or bad thing; it makes this (and the Tormented Teladi start, for that matter) far too easy.

[SmokinSoldier]

Are the Argon KOS to you? When I passed a gate into Argon territory in my save they told me to get out or die, it was also different then the normal police so I think it was plot scripted. I can't remember if that's how it was in TC or not.

[Ebonyfly]

Are the Argon KOS to you? When I passed a gate into Argon territory in my save they told me to get out or die, it was also different then the normal police so I think it was plot scripted. I can't remember if that's how it was in TC or not.

Yeah, it is like that in TC aswell. The Argon are not exactly KOS but they won't tolerate you in their core sectors until you raise your rep by...1%!

Unfortunately, from the Preacher's Refuge start, the first Argon sectors you encounter are all core sectors but with a bit of luck you can often find some random Argons offering a mission or two before you enter Argon space.

[SmokinSoldier]

Exactly what it was, I had started in Preacher's Refuge. I didn't really look for any argon missions to raise rep because I was busy getting a trading extension to do stock markets for my Hyp.