Erlking - why no in-game guidance on what to do with it?

[Scoob]

Hey all,

After eight years, I've never bothered with the Erlking... until now. I was already at war with VIG, after they kept raiding my shipping, so it was just natural progression to blow up their Keepsafe and take their stuff.

Upon initial approach, there were some "stay away from our stuff" comms from the station. A little later, during my attack on the station, there was some comms from Boso about the ship, but the sound of Destroyer Main battery fire and explosions masked that.

Now I have the Erlking though, after a successful boarding operation. I can see it has missing parts, and I'm aware that certain "things" have to be found to get the Blueprints for those parts. However, I ONLY know that from reading things outside of the game. I've never deliberately looked anything up, just picked up information from other's comments.

So, I sort of expected a bit more from the game at this point in terms of guidance. The game hasn't mentioned anything about missing Blue Prints. The game hasn't mentioned anything about where to find them etc. I have discovered them in prior games, but ignored them as I had no plans regarding the Erlking, I literally just stumbled upon them in VIG space. However, this game, I've not found a single one... not that I know to look for them of course, going by what the game has told me, or rather what it hasn't.

Is the game supposed to guide me more or at least give some hint on what to do? It's possible it didn't trigger properly or something. Boso's comms said very little. VIG's comms said nothing other than "Stay away". The game has totally failed to draw me in, and inform me that there's anything more to this ship than a useless hulk. I know there's more to it, but not from the game.

Am I missing something here? Well, more accurately, has the game missed something? it just seems that stumbling over some unique ship should present something more to the player to investigate further. It has not for me. Not even a "Talk to Boso", so he can communicate clearly, and not mid-battle with a station and dozens of VIG...

To be clear, I do know what I'm supposed to do for the most part, it's just that the game has told me nothing. Without prior knowledge, it'd be utter guesswork. Indeed, without any indication there is more to this, I'd just not bother at all.

[decifer]

Yeah, the Erlking restoration seems like an afterthought with very little QA.
However, it's not a "useless hulk" even without any restoration. It's still the best large trader in the game
Put a five star pilot - either from the Boron or Yaki plot - in it and let it auto trade expensive stuff like silicon wafers and microchips and it's an unmatched money printer early game.

[alt3rn1ty]

The bit you missed is Boso Ta's blab about it ..

"If I may interrupt, I have been looking at your past accomplishments. This ship in your possession, the Erlking, appears to be capable of hosting several unique components, which we do not yet have the blueprints to construct. I can only hope that you encounter the blueprints on your travels."

.. I sometimes have bad hearing or something else in the living room takes priority on being noisy (TV), so always have subtitles on (wish those were bigger for easier reading).

Anyway those special euipment are well worth getting, especially the turrets for their range.
(Not sure if 9 beta may have tweaked them a bit, but I dont think Egosoft would mess too much with this unique ships equipment/capabilities).

Edit: Oh and if you get cheesed off finding them viewtopic.php?p=5116566#p5116566

[decifer]

Boso Ta's sound bites about it are easily missed. They send you messages for so much irrelevant stuff, sometimes even multiple, e.g. rep and standing changes and access to the live stream, but something important like this only gets a hit or miss audio call...

To be honest, as in the beginning not even all 5 vaults spawned - I checked the savefiles of at least 2 dozen new starts without having all vaults before they fixed it - and the fact that vaults can still spawn far away from the plane without any chance of ever finding it with the scanner let alone satellites, I highly doubt any dev played the actual full loop of finding, capturing and restoring the Erlking.

[Scoob]

Yeah, the Erlking restoration seems like an afterthought with very little QA.
However, it's not a "useless hulk" even without any restoration. It's still the best large trader in the game
Put a five star pilot - either from the Boron or Yaki plot - in it and let it auto trade expensive stuff like silicon wafers and microchips and it's an unmatched money printer early game.

If it cannot do WAR, it's useless. It can't in its current state

The bit you missed is Boso Ta's blab about it ..

"If I may interrupt, I have been looking at your past accomplishments. This ship in your possession, the Erlking, appears to be capable of hosting several unique components, which we do not yet have the blueprints to construct. I can only hope that you encounter the blueprints on your travels."

.. I sometimes have bad hearing or something else in the living room takes priority on being noisy (TV), so always have subtitles on (wish those were bigger for easier reading).

Anyway those special euipment are well worth getting, especially the turrets for their range.
(Not sure if 9 beta may have tweaked them a bit, but I dont think Egosoft would mess too much with this unique ships equipment/capabilities).

Edit: Oh and if you get cheesed off finding them viewtopic.php?p=5116566#p5116566

Ah, now that particular dialogue did not occur for me. I had something else from Boso, but it did not mention any of that. Just something brief about the ship. Knowing how this is supposed to work, I was specifically looking (dialogue text enabled) something like that. Anything like that should always result in a "Speak to Boso" type objective to go into more detail. As it stands the game has informed me of none of this. The missing dialogue above must be some sort of bug though, as it simply did not appear for me.

I did actually find that post, but want to try it legit first. May well resort to it if I get frustrated though. I mean, find random thing in a random spot in a random sector (within limits) but possible way out of the usual sector area. Not that fun sounding.

Boso Ta's sound bites about it are easily missed. They send you messages for so much irrelevant stuff, sometimes even multiple, e.g. rep and standing changes and access to the live stream, but something important like this only gets a hit or miss audio call...

To be honest, as in the beginning not even all 5 vaults spawned - I checked the savefiles of at least 2 dozen new starts without having all vaults before they fixed it - and the fact that vaults can still spawn far away from the plane without any chance of ever finding it with the scanner let alone satellites, I highly doubt any dev played the actual full loop of finding, capturing and restoring the Erlking.

I was actually expecting to hear more about the Irlking as I approach the station for the first time. So, I was specifically waiting for a bit more detail that didn't happen. The bit I got from Boso was very brief, perhaps it cut off prematurely? Other dialogue, directly from the VIG Keepsafe did kick in, perhaps that prevented Boso's dialogue proceeding. They did ask me to stay away several times, even after I'd started shooting. They then did a "suffer the consequences" type comms.... and did NOTHING cos they had nothing heh.

I typically spot several vaults in VIG space, but ignore them. This time, nothing spotted in Windfall I or III, where I have wide satellite coverage, and nothing spotted in my exploration of Windfall IV. I know stuff can spawn way out of bounds and the Long Range Sensor can be very X2 sagt Bussi auf Bauch spotting stuff at times. For example, the default derelict ships - even though I know where they are exactly - never give a sensor ping. I've had the Odysseus for example actually rendered, but not in regular scanner range yet, however, no ping from a long range scan. Hopefully these data vaults show up more reliably.

Really, this should be a mission with more of a trail to follow. I.e. we trace the path the Erlking took to get where it is for example, finding wrecked components along the way.

Final thought: With Space Bar being the key to switch flight modes AND skip and dialogue, well, that's quite the problem when comm'd mid fight. However, now I switch between Mouse on foot and Stick in flight, I don't actually use that any more, the mode switch is automatic.

[decifer]

I was actually expecting to hear more about the Irlking as I approach the station for the first time. So, I was specifically waiting for a bit more detail that didn't happen. The bit I got from Boso was very brief, perhaps it cut off prematurely? Other dialogue, directly from the VIG Keepsafe did kick in, perhaps that prevented Boso's dialogue proceeding.

If I remember correctly, Boso Ta has only 4 short audio calls for you.

• When you approch the Erlking the first time. Something about the unusal power signature and that a boarding operation might be a good idea.
• When you have it, the thing that alt3rn1ty mentioned about needing the blueprints.
• When the Erlking gets destroyed, he mentions that he can help you build a new one with the power core.
• When you finish the restoration (all Erlking installed), he's patting your shoulder for it.

But none of them triggered reliably for me every game.
Otherwise, there's no real guidance.

But for me, the restored Erlking is a bit disappointing. Sure, the turrets are absolute OP (in 8.0) and modded you feel like flying a destroyer. But the main gun is the most annoying mechanic I've seen for a long time. I use it to snipe capital ships and the occasional PE or even smaller, if I'm bored. But as soon as it goes to stations of just battering (disabled) I's, I often let the NPC handle it or use a macro.

[Scoob]

If I remember correctly, Boso Ta has only 4 short audio calls for you.

• When you approch the Erlking the first time. Something about the unusal power signature and that a boarding operation might be a good idea.
• When you have it, the thing that alt3rn1ty mentioned about needing the blueprints.
• When the Erlking gets destroyed, he mentions that he can help you build a new one with the power core.
• When you finish the restoration (all Erlking installed), he's patting your shoulder for it.

But none of them triggered reliably for me every game.
Otherwise, there's no real guidance.

But for me, the restored Erlking is a bit disappointing. Sure, the turrets are absolute OP (in 8.0) and modded you feel like flying a destroyer. But the main gun is the most annoying mechanic I've seen for a long time. I use it to snipe capital ships and the occasional PE or even smaller, if I'm bored. But as soon as it goes to stations of just battering (disabled) I's, I often let the NPC handle it or use a macro.

Thanks for that. I certainly had the first one as I recall the "unusual power signature" bit and the boarding operation suggestion. I had nothing else from Boso after that though.

I had nothing after claiming the Irlking, just the usual "boarding successful" audio tone. I then recalled my Marines, remotely assigned a Pilot and ordered the Irlking to part near my main shipyard. I don't have any XL Bays to service it yet.

I've never really been interested in the Irlking. However, this time, it was very much a "well, I'm here anyway and eliminating VIG, I'll take their stuff" sort of thing. I might not even pursue those BP's. If they were revealed naturally by a ship assigned to "Explore" I'd go grab them. However, it seems that the Explore command doesn't fly far enough to uncover them... if they're even in the two Windfall sectors I occupy.

[decifer]

Thanks for that. I certainly had the first one as I recall the "unusual power signature" bit and the boarding operation suggestion. I had nothing else from Boso after that though.

I had nothing after claiming the Irlking, just the usual "boarding successful" audio tone. I then recalled my Marines, remotely assigned a Pilot and ordered the Irlking to part near my main shipyard. I don't have any XL Bays to service it yet.

You might need to be on the ship yourself for a while to trigger it, not sure.

[decifer]

I've never really been interested in the Irlking. However, this time, it was very much a "well, I'm here anyway and eliminating VIG, I'll take their stuff" sort of thing. I might not even pursue those BP's. If they were revealed naturally by a ship assigned to "Explore" I'd go grab them. However, it seems that the Explore command doesn't fly far enough to uncover them... if they're even in the two Windfall sectors I occupy.

Explorers don't work well if you don't actively watch them. The Erlking vaults didn't get the update to the normal vaults that keep them on the map once found, but also, scouts need to get closer than 40km to even map the normal ones. Satellites are also a bad option in my opinion, as I'm way faster by just going to the middle, scan all directions in a 45° offset and then fly roughly 200-300km on one axis, scan again all directions, go another 200-300km and repeat, then go back to the center and repeat on the next axis. Using nav beacons I usually need 5-10 minutes to scan one sector and if the vault doesn't sit like 200+ km off the plane, I ususally find all of them.

Be aware, that sectors can have 2 or no vault. 1 should be in Windfall I or III, often near one of the gates/accelerators. At least I find one there on a regular basis just by doing the Arcadian Endeavour missions.
Windfall IV should always have at least one, often two.
The others should be somewhere in Avarice, often one of them is very far off.
I use the script from the thread linked above if I can't find them after like 30-40 minutes, if I don't start a custom game with the blueprints unlocked.

edit: the long range scanner might be broken in 9.0 beta 3: viewtopic.php?t=475258

[zakaluka]

There is also a segment when you help degoba steal the ides, where she tells her fixer to steal that other ship, but, she basically says that it's not going to happen.

This is meant to give the player an idea. This is a rather long sequence, you're shown a camera view of the thing, and she really drools all over it before reluctantly giving in

[Cronos988]

There is also a segment when you help degoba steal the ides, where she tells her fixer to steal that other ship, but, she basically says that it's not going to happen.

This is meant to give the player an idea. This is a rather long sequence, you're shown a camera view of the thing, and she really drools all over it before reluctantly giving in

The problem with that part is that you're kinda in a rush and also don't have a good idea of where you actually are due to how that sequence is set up.

Anyways I think the start of the quest is fine.

Beyond that though... the design just seems unnecessarily frustrating. Even the whole boarding operation thing is kinda daft. If you don't happen to already have a large pool of experienced marines, you'll just be repeatedly throwing hundreds of marines at the thing. There isn't exactly any challenge involved in that, it's just tedious.

And then you're supposed to just randomly find the blueprints with zero guidance. I don't get Egosoft's weird obsession with cramming these minigames into their space sandbox game that most people play for the economy and fleet battles.

[alt3rn1ty]

~ I don't get Egosoft's weird obsession with cramming these minigames into their space sandbox game that most people play for the economy and fleet battles.

Its kind of always been a feature of the X series though, X3 Terran Conflict had the Treasure hunt which was I think the most memorable big effort by Egosoft to combine in game mechanisms/lore/logical thought into a long puzzle quest.

Its subjective ofc, but I always liked them, and I think Egosoft just enjoy the challenge of creating them in every new engine they create for each of the X games.