About ready to toss this game. PLEASE help?

[PaulVette]

You should probably just explore from easier to find gates.

Spoiler

Show

Heading west from the hole, south from herrons nebula then east from argon prime would have got you to the hole then traveling north would reveal the harder to find south gate.

It might seem like a long way to do it but a lot less than flying lost in a pea souper system and you get to observe more shipping patterns, station type and location ect

If you want to get into this game some lateral thinking is going to be required and refer to the manual sparingly. It sets the scene more than being a complete step by step guide. As will become obvious after you checkout the player guides. It's full of detail but can swamp you when taken at face value.

Also make sure your ship is equipped with duplex or triplex scanners and I would check the key map for the gravidar range (I use space) this will alter the range of the scanner in the bottom right of the cockpit HUD (familiar to elite fans). This is useful for tracking objects such as cargo pods and fighter position in dog fights.

edited for accuracy and added spoilers.

Well, I have just tried using the space bar on the gravidar map and nothing happens. It tells me I am now in mouse mode. So much for that.

As for the duplex or triplex scanners, well, I am so new at this I have no idea where to buy them, how to buy them nor do I have enough credits to buy them. See the dilemma I am in, THAT'S how new I am at this. Please have patience with me as I am very frustrated, overwhelmed, and massively stressed out right now. I just spent four hours of my life wasted and didn't accomplish or learn anything. I am going to bed right now as it is almost 2:00 AM in Atlanta.

Thanks for all of you people's help. I do appreciate it. I wonder how many of you had such a hard time or is it just me? Ya gotta start out somewhere I guess.

[Gswine]

When using the numpad keys 8, 4, 6, 2 you can move the curser that follows the indicator in the system map.

To see the difference point the curser with the mouse onto a target in the ship list. target that ship (t) now press the numpad key for the direction you want and the cursor will move.

Pressing the Ins key will now alter the horizontal and vertical planes of the system map and up and down are in 3 dimensions. The co-ords will change with it and is the only way to find a point in space. No typing them in I'm afraid.

press ins to get back to the vertical plane (default when reopening map)

If you move up and down the target list now the cursor will not follow the indicator.

To reset the cursor press the 5 key on the numpad.

This can be a really useful tool.

Target a ship on the list that is near to or travelling with other ships. zoom in the map once or twice to get a little definition. Now move the curser towards another ship. pressing 5 will now lock the curser over the nearest object (new ship) and can actually be faster than the mouse pointer in certain situations.

This function will target whatever is closest to the curser including cargo, stations and asteroids.

The curser is also key in setting up a factory and precise use of it will allow tight complex design with multiple stations aligned in 3 dimensions.

The mouse pointer can be utilized to select objects on the sector map but double clicking a point on the map will activate the auto pilot and fly to that point.

[BeagleRush]

Don't try to learn everything at once. Good idea is to bookmark good guides or download the unofficial X3 handbook, and refer to it whenever you can't figure something out.

If you're playing Terran Conflict, choose the Terran Start, the missions are a tutorial of sorts.

[Gswine]

Also make sure your ship is equipped with duplex or triplex scanners and I would check the key map for the gravidar range (I use space) this will alter the range of the scanner in the bottom right of the cockpit HUD (familiar to elite fans). This is useful for tracking objects such as cargo pods and fighter position in dog fights.

Well, I have just tried using the space bar on the gravidar map and nothing happens. It tells me I am now in mouse mode. So much for that.

As for the duplex or triplex scanners, well, I am so new at this I have no idea where to buy them, .

Just check through the list of controls in the controls menu until you find one marked 'Gravidar range' I have remaped it to space for ease of use and cannot remember the default.

As to the scanner just check your cargobay (f) and scroll down the list. If you have one it will be listed if not then you will have reduced capabilities for finding objects.

[maphys]

Without the duplex/triplex scanners finding gates is a pain unless you can see them. Duplex scanners (twice the basic range) are available from any Argon equipment dock (Argon Prime, Antigone's Memorial, Three Worlds, Cloudbase Southeast). Triplex (treble the range) are available from Boron docks (Kingdom's End, Rolk's Fate). Best investment you can make right now - suddenly you don't have to be bouncing off something to see it!

Hope you do start to get into the game - it can be a little tough at first. I'd also say that following the tutorial too slavishly is a bad idea. You might find, as some have, that the stations it is talking about are not in your game. The game engine does change things around a bit after start up. Basically you want to be buying stuff a station produces (listed under products) when the stock is over than half full (so prices will be under average) and selling it to a station that needs it (listed under resources) when it is more than half empty. The further full the bar the cheaper the buy, the further empty the bar the better the selling price. Stick to things you see a lot of stations need - Ore, Food, Energy cells - to start with.

M

[pjknibbs]

The Hole is just generally a pain of a sector--pea-soup fog and the gates are in really weird positions (eladan mentioned gates usually being on the ecliptic--well, they're not in The Hole). To be honest with you, you'd be better off going through the north gate in The Wall to find the south gate of The Hole!

[Doktor Teufel]

I just want to chime in with some encouragement for the OP.

Yes, X3 has an unbelievably high learning curve, and yes, it can be frustrating at first. But there's no need to stress out over it or abandon the game; all of the game's minute details (moving to specific coordinates, for example) are impossible for a beginner to learn immediately. You need the community guides, experience playing the game, and advice from the forum before all the little things fall into place.

To be honest, even a very thorough manual and tutorial could only cover the bare basics of this game. There are simply hundreds of features and functions, and once you learn them, you'll be grateful they're there — no question about it. No space sim in human history has allowed the player give so many different commands and pre-programming to a ship that they "own." Is there even another game that allows you to own hundreds of ships?

In fact, once you become an experienced X3 pilot, you'll most likely find yourself wanting even more features and functions.

Patience is definitely a virtue, though. I myself am not a patient man by nature, but I learned to be patient with X3 and I am enjoying myself immensely. Also, a game of X3 can take months to "complete" (not that it ever has to end).

There's no need to rush, you can have plenty of fun achieving the next goal — even if that goal is just, "Find Advanced Satellite factory and supply silicon wafers so they can produce some." And if that takes you a week of exploration, trial and error, reading guides and learning the controls, just don't sweat it. Log out for a while if you get a bit bored, and come back tomorrow or the next day.

[TSM]

The follow trader is good tip for gates as the gates are well off north south east west point's.

Paul don't ever be afraid to ask on this forum you will always get help, there are no noobs only new players

Satellites are quite often in my game in military outpost's

[PaulVette]

Man! Imagine my surprise and pleasure to see these posts this morning. I can't thank you people enough!

You gave me some really good information I didn't know existed. Like using the green cursor to locate yourself to specific coordinates.

And the gravidar map, I have to wrap my brain around that one. Expect more questions.

Can anyone point me in the direction of the UNOFFICIAL GUIDE? That would be very much appreciated as it sounds helpful.

Late last night, and I mean LATE I played it per that page I was talking about and I was perfectly successful. Now THAT was gratifying!

I am getting my space legs. You are right, I need to take it REAL slow.

I can now see that after learning the basics of this game it will give a great deal of pleasure for a long, LONG time.

Question: did any of you make maps of what stations are in what sector? I find that I would need to make a map in order to find a station I went to but want to go back to. Just curious.

Thanks a lot.

Paul

[Doktor Teufel]

Paul, the Ultimate X3 Guide sticky has everything you need. The X3 Handbook v4 can be found here. Scorp's X3 map v1.2 can be found here.

Scorp's X3 map is great because it's an entire program that maps the universe as you explore it (or you can view the entire vanilla universe, if you want). If you follow the directions for installing and running the script that comes with Scorp's map, you'll have all the information about your current universe (including stations, what they buy and sell, asteroids, each sector with its own 3D map) at your fingertips, with a search function included.

You need only ALT-Tab out and consult the map to find what you need, very helpful for new players.

[PaulVette]

Thank you! This is great!

By the way, cool sig.

[maphys]

You know about the universe map? No need to keep your own paper map when it has everything you have found on. Press ',' to bring it up, then just select a sector. Sorry if that is too basic!

Otherwise you could also try this site which has a lot of the raw statistics and the basic universe map (as it is at the start of the game).

Last insanely useful one - from the personal menu (p or the top option on the menu bar) there is an encyclopaedia. From there you can bring up information about wares, where they are bought/sold, prices and so on. I use it so much I have mapped it to the = key.

M

[PaulVette]

Thank you.

Regarding the Encyclopedia, I have noticed it doesn't really show much. Is it "sector sensitive?" Meaning does it only show what is in a certain sector?

Also, how in the world do you "Map" things to to keyboard. Can you give me a walk-through on it?

Thanks yet again. You guys are great.

[maphys]

The encyclopaedia only shows info on things/places you have been to - so it grows with your game. At first it is pretty empty - especially if you only have a small scanner range as you won't have seen any factories. One things that can really help with this is to automate exploration. If you have a small cheap M5 then fit it with Explorer software (from Teladi EQ docks) then it gains commands like "Fly through gate" and "Map sector". From then on all you have to do is pick a starting sector and then order the M5 to map sector. Select the centre of the sector, then give it a radius to explore to. 30-50km is actually enough for most sectors. Really helps if the M5 has a triplex scanner though. Odds are the scout will find the gates in the sector (if the sector is huge up the exploring range) and so when it is finished order the ship to fly through one of the gates. Then map the next sector, fly through another gate etc etc. This way you can have one ship finding all the trade opportunities while you exploit them.

Remapping keys is done via the Gameplay menu. Press Escape or click on the icon at the bottom of the menu bar. A menu will open up, one option being Controls (or something similar). Click that and a list of all the available keyboard commands will come up. Find what you want to remap (this can take a while...) and then select it. Another menu comes up, either clear the current keys or just click assign. You'll be asked to press the key you want to assign. Do so. Then opt to save changes. If there are any conflicts (same key, many functions) it will warn you.

Hope that helps! And sorry if what I have called the options is slightly wrong - I haven't changed my keyboard layout since I made it X3:R style (and remapped shift+J for jumpdrive because my ship kept trying to jump to Jupiter...)

M

[Doktor Teufel]

My suggestion for a first set of goals is this (I only play X3R at the moment, but this should still be more-or-less applicable in TC). Of course, you'll still need to learn as you go to accomplish these:

GOAL 1: Sell your starter ship, regardless of what it is. Get an Argon Discoverer with a Triplex Scanner, all rudder/engine/cargo tunings, a Trading System Extension, plus all compatible software and upgrades transferred from your starter ship (no need for weapons). If you can afford it and are close enough, buy a Jumpdrive to save hassles later.

GOAL 2: Explore at least 40 sectors, and drop navigation satellites in each of them, either during or after your exploration. The regular navsats don't cover much of the map, but as long as they are in the sector, they allow you to see the wares bought and sold by stations when you're out of that sector (provided you have the right software). This is critical.

GOAL 3: During exploration, you should keep a close eye out for abandoned ships, especially in sectors with suspicious gate configurations. If you don't find any accidentally (I found quite a few without using spoilers in X3R), I actually suggest getting a hint. The sale of one or two non-crucial hidden ships will give you comfortable starting credits.

GOAL 4: Now that you've got a bunch of sectors mapped and satellite-d, you need to kiss up to the Paranid to be allowed to buy a Docking Computer, and kiss up to the Split so you can buy the Split Caiman Hauler, AKA the best TS in the entire universe. This is done by doing BBS missions (especially "donation" ones in X3R), shooting bad guys in their sectors, and trading with them. This will take time.

GOAL 5: By now you will be a lot more familiar with the game. With your Split Caiman, Jumpdrive, Docking Computer, nice big map, navsats, Trade/Best Buy/Best Sell software, and some helpful unofficial guides, you can start to learn how manual trading works and begin making some real profits.

---------------------------------

The rest of your goals are up to you! This is just a suggestion.

EDIT: If you're hurting for funds at any point, you can buy a cheap freighter and do easy Energy Cell trading (there are guides for this). You can also consult a capping guide and go off trying to cap ships, but Pirates, Xenon and Kha'ak usually travel in groups and are (kinda) hard targets, so beware. You don't want to piss off any of the major civilizations at this point IMO, so trying to cap non-"enemy of all" ships is a no-no.

[brucewarren]

Beaten to the punch.

There are an awful lots of keys that can be remapped. I suspect that
most are fine as they are.

Not possessing a joystick I can only pass on a rumour that joystick
buttons can also be mapped as if they were keys.

I only ever re-mapped a couple of keys

Spoiler

Show

B to activate Cycrows boarding script pre 2.1
f8 to activate unfocussed jumpdrive so I could do an enhanced RSLG manoever

[Doktor Teufel]

Not possessing a joystick I can only pass on a rumour that joystick buttons can also be mapped as if they were keys.

I can confirm that this is the case.

Up, down, left and right sliding functions are mapped to my HAT switch; missile selection, missile firing, target tracking, target nearest enemy, and primary fire functions are mapped to my joystick (along with roll left and right by twisting the stick); Boost Extension, Afterburner (Bonus Pack), autopilot, laser targeting mode, SETA, Jumpdrive, and (obviously) throttle up/down are mapped to my throttle; and the two extra buttons on the base activate the sector and universe maps.

In fact, I believe you can actually map "holding down" a joystick button to a specific function (as opposed to just tapping it), because I tap the Fire 2 button to select missiles, and hold it to fire them.

I haven't tried it though, so it may only work with just that one function, or perhaps only with certain joysticks, not sure.

[Lancefighter]

normal keys can be 'held down' as well..

[Doktor Teufel]

normal keys can be 'held down' as well..

I just got my joystick the other day, and so I never realized this before. The Fire Missile default joystick binding is, as far as I know, the one and and only "hold down" default in X3R.

Of course, the full list of controls is rather large, so I could be wrong.

Now that I know, I'm definitely going to be adding even more functionality to my joystick and throttle.

EDIT: Oh hey, I forgot about the Visual Enhancement Goggles. Whaddaya know!

[Gswine]

You can map the wingmen/drone protect and attack commands to 1 button each. Good to keep the amount of key pressing down to a minimum when fighting.

Though most of my remaps were to adjust the flight controls back to a more XR style that I am used to. It can take some time to iron that out so if you are playing for the first time you will not really need to.

@PaulVette

Sorry for the odd placement of some of my posts. Had to make corrections as abit woolie in the brain department sometimes and wrong advice is worse than no advice at all.

In XR I got used to the exploration and fighting aspects of the game first and had played for months before learning auto trading and even longer again before getting to station building.

TC is set up in such a way, with the mission types, that you may end up competent in all disciplines a lot faster. But small personel goals and objectives will help build up your knowledge base and the game will keep surprising you for a while to come.

Also should say that the manual is full of good information but reading and rereading can overwhelm you and again you will find that through playing the game aspects of the manual become clearer over time. I still constantly dip back into it for information.