Today, I'd like to share my player story with you guys.
Hope, it's a good read
Core metrics
Playtime: 473 hours, single "play-through"/savegame
Player bank account (excl. station accounts): ~350 mio.
Net worth: ~2.2 bn.
Total number of ships: 526
Total number of stations: 41
Total workforce: 3,255
Number of player-owned sectors: 5 (actually 6, but one seems buggy)
Faction relations: ALI +4, ANT +30, ARG +30, PAR +27, HAT +27, HOP +30, MIN +19, SCA -5, TEL +29
Trade rank: 18 (Professional Entrepreneur)
Battle rank: 8 (Instructor)
War missions: neutral, not engaged
Time spent in SETA: 5 05:41 *
Ships destroyed: 541
* Side note SETA: Actually, I don't really know how this to be read.
I rarely use it and I think X4 has the best implementation of it so far.
For travelling, I use the travel mode. This lets me go quickly from a to b w/o having to speed up the game time.
I only ever used it in the early-to-late-game transition phase,
so that I didn't have to wait for too long for station buildings to complete.
Now, I have so much going on, that using SETA would have me miss a lot and not being able to intervene.
I never did the "let it run overnight"-cheat and I am still gathering a "nice pile".
The Story
I am, apparently, a female paranid of the holy order. But I never really felt like any of that. So I knew, I had to go see the world. I quickly became familiar with what everyone calls "the loop".
I needed to see more and so I ventured into sectors far off the loop. Let me tell you, the universe hides the most wondrous places. And deep inside me, I knew that I could help shape the universe. But I needed to start somewhere.
I first did some minor trading here and there, whatever my ship could carry.
But it didn't really get the cash flowing at that time. So I went to do some dirty work, repairing a few satellites and some touchy duties, I'd rather not talk about. It payed much better. More importantly, though, during that type of work, I captured a signal from a rather peculiar Boron fella.
First, he accused me of working for the split. Heck, I've never even seen one. Anyway, he wanted me to do some dangerous science stuff. I was wanting to discover the world so I told him to count me in.
Long story short, we ended up finding some weird, ancient terran station, hidden in some sort of multi-dimensional rift.
To get there, I had to build a dock. After doing all that, he thanked me by doing some research for me, which yielded the SETA and also that neat little teleporter, I have with me. It's a fascinating story. Though, I never touched the station since.
Instead, I wanted to find a better place to start off my new business.
I had become friends with the Antigone and the Argon, despite the war, and established some stable trade relations with the Teladi.
They're easy to handle, if you only keep telling them about the profit they're gonna make from you.
So, anyway, when I finally had enough credits, I started to build my very own production facility.
It wasn't a huge success but it got things started. It allowed me to afford some bigger ships to get into the tech market.
But things really took off when I started producing for that market - and building components as well; smart chips, hull parts, claytronics, that kinda jazz.
I started to think of the universe as a whole. I began to understand the system, the rules on which the world operates.
So I was thrown back to the beginning: I wanted to change the world. No, this time, it was clear to me, I needed to. This is where the history of the empire took form. And since then, we proudly carry the "aiming for the stars" banner on our ships and facilities.
Again, I travelled the world for a while. And I claimed every place for myself that seemed valuable.
Then I sat back and thought for a while. Now, seeing the universe the way it really is, I asked myself: What would be best for this world?
And how could I still live off of that?
The answer was unsatisfying. But it seemed necessary to free Second Contact II.
It was the one place where all the war factions came together to fight in and endless war.
I tried to talk to the representative of the Antigone Republic about the issue and they were certainly not very fond of the idea.
We both took the fact that this is the republic's most populated sector as an argument for our own respective points of view.
After they refused any further interview, I had to make a decision, I had to make a choice.
Will I take action and walk against my friends, all for the greater good?
And yes, because I saw a real chance to end this war once and for all, as you know, I did. I had to, for the sake of all of us.
And so, with a heavy heart, we went to war.
I hacked into the defense platforms of all the factions, that were present in the sector (namely Argon, Antigone and the Holy Order),
in the hope to keep the number of casualties to a minimum.
But in love and in war, things never work out as planned.
While the Paranid and the Argons didn't show as much resistence,
we fought against the republic for what felt like eternity.
Whereas the Argons and the order didn't really seem to care,
our relations with the Antigone were obviously seriously damaged.
After winning the war, it took a long effort to become the close friends, that we are today. We helped, fight their criminals, we protected their citizens against pirate threats and helped rebuild their society. And it payed: Second Contact VII and XI today are each bigger than SC/II ever was before.
And also, even if there were still a few troops fighting one another, people could live again in SC/II without having to fear for their lives.
I know, I think, we made the world a better place but that's hard to enjoy with all the sacrifices it took. We were walking into a brighter future, though.
At least, that's what everyone thought. Because through all of that, we forgot a larger threat. We forgot the threat. The Xenon were coming. And this time in history, they attacked from all sides. It was just like the old stories, even worse.
First, they attacked at Hatikvah's Choice. Yes, sure, they're only a bunch of mercenaries trying to do some business. But they were attacked at their headquarters and don't you think the Xenon wouldn't aim for Argon Prime. We had to do something! Not least because we had our own branch offices situated there.
A few heroes, many of whom had died, were willing to risk their lives once again. This time against the greatest, our common enemy. We suffered many hurtful losses, and the sector is still not secure. But we saved the League from extinction (or least losing their head) and prevented the Xenon from advancing into Argon Prime. Although, the situation is much more stable now, people still lose their lives today.
Then, the Xenon invaded Holy Vision, the heart of the order. And again, honest people of our nation couldn't simply not help. So, we now fought the Xenon on two fronts.
But the war on Second Contact was costly. And even though we found a new valuable source of income in the Second Contact wharf, we still could only afford to send some supporting troops, helping out in Holy Vision. We couldn't wage another war at that time.
To make things worse, one of our scouts reported a heavy attack on a large trading station of our friends, the Teladi, in Hewa's Twin I. The station was almost lost by the time, said report hit us. We had to concentrate all of our forces to prevent that from happening. And yes, we were able to defeat the Xenon and ban them from the sector so that the Teladi were able to quickly repair the station again.
In addition to that, we helped boost the Teladi economy in Hewa's Twin, especially in sub-sector II.
We were now able to provide the Teladi with more ships that lead to them being able to cast out the Xenon entirely, even from Company Regard,
which was heavily occupied by Xenon forces back then.
Meanwhile, while the Paranid still struggled to defend Holy Vision, they somehow managed to set foot into Faulty Logic I. So we tried to help them there by building and establishing an equipment dock in that sector. But somehow, they didn't want to make use of that.
So we pulled out a plan, that was thought to be quite distant but became imminent due to the recent events. The idea was to claim Faulty Logic VII.
Not only would we act as a buffer for the weaker forces of the pontifex and thus, hopefully, prevent any further damage to them. But there was also a high economic interest in establishing ourselves there before the Paranid did, due to some really highly valuable resources in that sector.
And so we were, once again, preparing for war. But this time, for the first time, we would go on the offense against the Xenon, strike first where they'd least expect it.
Even though we carefully prepared the attack and started to placed troops in the sector, we were still able to hit them by surprise. That win seemed almost to easy and soon enough we were to learn that first-hand.
Until then, anyway, we were able to steady our presence there.
And at that point, I'd like to give a huge tanks to the Argon federation, that,
without being asked, sent us some of their troops for support. Through the Paranid war zone, right into Faulty Logic. Maybe that's their way to thank us for keeping Argon Prime save, I don't know. But they really helped us secure the sector for our further expansion, there.
One day, though, with horror, we had to witness hundreds of Xenon ships, passing through the sector. What was their intention? And why did they not attack? They could've destroyed us right away with that kind of force if they wanted to.
So I personally ordered a scouting squad to secretly follow them through. They must have developed a new intelligence module for themselves. At lease, we really didn't expect to see what we saw then.
The Xenon positioned their ships, countless of them, at the Faulty Logic I gate to Holy Vision. Now, everyone knew, what their plan was: They wanted to cut us off from the rest of the universe. Only the smallest, fastest ships were now able to slip through the barricade.
Larger ships, of the type, I already fought myself before in long, exhausting battles, armed to their teeth, were brought down in a matter of seconds. It was just horrible. None of us, neither we nor the Paranid had any spare troops available to do anything about that.
They were about to starve us to death and they still are, today. Luckily, those brave S ship pilots are still getting wares through the barricade and thus buy us some time.
So this is where we are today - as always, preparing for war. Not because we want to, but because we have to, if we still want to make the world a better place and ensure the safety of our people - and that of our dear friends and allies.
We are now the last and only hope of the entire known universe. And I don't intend to disappoint. So are you with me?
