[X3AP] Repaired reputation with Split but not Strong Arms?

[Lotharian]

Trying the Boring Boron start - which I don't find boring! Since honestly starting in an Octopus with only a tiny small cargo and being -4 with Split and Paranid is quite dicey!

Anyway after 10-12 hours of careful missioning, I finally found a couple doable missions for each race, and now have Paranid and Split at 0 (Nomad and Creature respectively.) This got rid of some of the reds, but Strong Arms is still red to me. I see they have their own separate (hidden?) reputation list? What is the way to fix the Strong Arms rep? Ideally without combat? (and to dig out of any other negative rep with the Boring Boron start?) I did browse the guides but somehow didn't find this.

P.S. is there ANY way to move existing jump beacons? Tractor beam? Some of the beacons in this seed are hideously placed like directly in front of gates

Edit - Now I'm seeing Strong Arms groups that are not red. Huh? Was it just that certain groups had already seen me, so were persisting as hostile? If so, will they linger out there forever? Do I need to track them all down and radio them with the "weapons fire in error" thing? There were a lot of strong arms groups in argon space...

Edit 2 - So I'm up to Friend with Split. I've started comms with some Split reds in their territory, like border control. The first agreed and stood down but the latest didn't at first and just threatened me. But with another try he did stand down. Kind of an irritating mechanic. Can anyone quickly elaborate on this situation? Will I have to comb every single Split and Paranid system apologizing to every single red for whatever is in this character's past? I've worked on this a bit, so far eventually every red Split has relented but there's still red Split Lasertower and I can't comms those?

I just gave up and made a new game. It's not worth trying to apologize to everyone in the universe one by one just so my trade ships won't get shot. Plus dealing with red lasertowers. Can't believe that's the mechanic.

[Nanook]

It's been a while since I played TC, but I believe all those red Split should change back to blue once enough time has passed and you're not visible to them. Of course, the time needed is up to the mighty RNG and they don't all go nice at the same time.

As for the lasertowers, they'll stay red forever so the way to deal with them is to get a big missile, engage your jumpdrive just before firing the missile at the LT, then jump. If you're not in the sector when the LT is destroyed, you don't get blamed for it. Cheesy, but effective.

Anyway, that's what I remember. Hope it still works the same.