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[Serenitis]

Created to avoid usurping the loadouts thread with chat about how wonderful/terrible Egosoft is.

So, X.
Pretty much my go-to replacement for elite since the early 00's.

I first picked up a copy of Beyond the Frontier in the winter of '99 after being hooked by it's demo on a cover disc. And I subsequently lost months of my life to this thing just running around building stuff as that was a pretty novel and new feature for this kind of game, and one that I really happened to like.

Sadly, BtF has not aged well. It still looks mostly okay if a little plain, but it is let down by the less than stellar AI that really liked ramming, and the means of controlling your factories being awkward as hell. (And one factory not being able to hire transporters so you had to stock it yourself or it would never work.)

Then less than a year later came X-Tension, a sort of add-on-come-sequel to BtF using the same engine (with a few tweaks) and adding what would become a staple of the X games in the future: A whole mess of ships you can 'acquire' and fly yourself, AND the ability to remotely monitor/control distant things.
I never owned XT due to it being absurdly rare, but I did know someone who did...

At the end of 2004 I got X²: The Threat, and even though my PC at the time could barely run it and being a Win98a that machine couldn't support the DirectX version needed to display most of the textures, I still loved it and played it to death.
X² introduced scripting which gave modders what amounted to an enormous toolbox, albeit with no real supporting documentation. (That came later.)
Also: Player capital ships were now a thing.

The weird thing with X² is that even though it will run flawlessly on modern systems, it's installer will not. So you have to manually install it by copying the contents of the discs to a location yourself.
And modern keyboards make fighting a bit more difficult as they have introduced two extra keys between <right-ctrl> and <alt-gr> meaning the strafe drive is a bit more awkward to use.

So yeah, X² is a game I really like and have spent a ton of time on. And if anyone wants to argue debate about what is the best ship and why it is the Split Iguana, have at it.

If anyone wants to add some stuff about X³ and beyond that would be cool. I never got any of those, not even the ones that don't exist....

[Weltall]

I dislike space games. Space games as in getting in a space ship and flying around in a sea of starts, shooting other spaceships and not so much the designs or the thoughts of adventure.

Exceptions always were 4X games, cause I like the concept of exploring, expanding, exploiting and exterminating, so space 4X games just were a larger scale. Also side and top stroller games definitely do not count. The are pew pew of my childhood.

I have no idea why I never liked space movies (like Star Trek and Star Wars) and dog-fighting games in space, but I know that X3 is the reason that today I do not mind playing them and actually giving any space game a second chance, which includes Starsector.

I was told of X3 by one of my best online friends and how awesome it was. What made my jaw drop was when he mentioned that I could board enemy ships and even capture them as mine. Instantly my pirate love exploded. Thoughts that I could board ships like my first experience of a game like that in Cutthroats and eventually games like Pirates of the Caribbean (only the first) and Sid Meiers Pirates.

Honestly though, I did not play X3 Reunion in the end. It was so complicated and hard and I guess at that moment, I did not have the mood to understand it. Too many menus, too unfriendly interface and even the mods that were helpful, felt like they added to the complexity. It was years later that I saw Terran Conflict somewhere mentioned that it was released and I just felt I should give a try a game I could not find no where else, no matter how long I waited. I think the reason I gave up on it easily on Reunion, was that Sid Meier's Pirates that I played, was released close to that, so I guess I had a fall back and did not want to bother more. But after three years, I really wanted something new.

This time I decided to actually try and learn it's controls and understand how it works and of course a couple of days later, I knew how to fully play the game and most things felt easy to do (especially thanks to some mods)

I can not even imagine how many hundreds of hours I spent on X3. First the main story lines of all three games  and then after that was done custom games with mods. After that the XRM and X-Tended, which I loved so much that I played through their main story line (well I remember at least one of the two had one) and then just custom games. The X-Tended mod was, is and probably will always be my favorite mod and way to play the game. I do not know how many hours I spent only creating a statistics sheet for it, because the one provided by the creator team was outdated. I just adored it.

On the X-Tended Universe I have created so many space stations be it for mining, trading  or whatnot and even made a large complex that was supposed to be a self sustained complex for a specific kind of weapon. Countless trading ships running all over its huge universe trading and making me profitssss~ Of course all that due to the helpful mods of the community, that would make things manageable and semi automatic. I am sure there were automatic ways too, but I enjoyed being the one that configured things and depending what happened in the universe I changed things. I only regret never creating a large fleet to wage war XD

For better or worse, I have never played the previous games, although I watched Let's Plays of them, for the lore and story. I tried to play X2, but since I did not slowly grow with X Universe, I felt it was lacking compared to X3, so I could not bring myself to find something gripping. I did though enjoy the let's plays.

I am not one to remember names, but while I played I remember I played for so long, I could instantly connect a name of a ship with what it is and how it looks in my mind. Shame my memory is bad so I can't remember anymore.

I consider X3 one of the best games that I ever played, with replay-ability over 8000! Games like it are only some like Minecraft (sadly due to the empty by npc and story world it is not so attractive when played alone), The Elder Scrolls main games (I never played the first one, so every one after that), Pirates of the Caribbean (only the first with the Horizon mod) and now Starsector.

Games that you can go out there, do whatever you want and act however you like and if you feel like it, follow a story. If not, who cares.

Obviously, one of the main reasons I replay over and over these games, are mods that can change the game a lot from it's normal game. The exception is the second Elder Scrolls.. but whoever played that, I am sure you understand why that one did not need mods.. too vast too impossible to fully ever explore, at least for me.

[borgrel]

I didnt play anything before X2

Though if I had to compare I think I would have preferred the Space X4 game that i did play, to X1 (Battlecruiser 3000 AD). Though it does have an irritating habit of chasing you around the universe with insanely large powerful fleets, it was far more refined and controllable that the first X games.

As for ships I do love the split vessels ..... whole fleets of Split Mamba raiders, Split Caimans and an Elephant ..... yummy
The only class of ship I prefer a non-split vessel is the M6 ....... the fact that the Xenon M6 can mount PPC's just cant be beat and the Argon and Boron and Paranid M6's are sadly better than the Split M6 .... no turrets with such a slow turn rate and very weak shields is death.

An Iguana is nice ....... and u do need it by end game but I have more fun while I'm piloting a Mamba Raider early game (and taking out M2's with a Mamba is just a thrill)


I did not like X3TC ...... the factions were unbalanced (none of the new ships fit with the old race paradigms - the new split ships are the slowest and most heavily shielded WTF), the scripting and AI for all the new added things like Missile Cruisers is so poorly done as to make it unusable and the marines and marine training was tooo exclusive and to expensive and tooooooo slow, etc.

[MesoTroniK]

X3AP with either the XRM or LitCube's Universe mod is a blast either way. Both mods are mutually exclusive and provide a very different experience, XRM is closer to vanilla and you can sort of think of it as the SS+ of X3. LitCube's Universe vastly changes the game and is sort of like a total conversion that takes place in the same universe.

[Weltall]

LitCube's Universe.. I remember I wanted to play it only for a compact complex it provided, along of course all the positive comments of people saying it really changes the gameplay. I remember I got v1.5 about a year ago, but I never played it in the end.

If anyone gets to love the game they want first play the main storyline, They should start from X3 Reunion (yes the game is not as polished, but you will see the story) and then go straight for Albion's Prelude and use the Terran Conflict Plots for AP, instead of playing TC itself.

But with X-Tended, XRM and Litcube, there will be no boring moment.

[Serenitis]

Split ships are hillarious. They are either way better than they have any right to be, or comically bad at any given role.

Spoiler

Caiman are mediocre transports because their holds don't upgrade very well, but they are the fastest TS so the call for them is pretty neiche. The only things I'd ever use a Caiman for is a tender for a TL or if a factory needed small bunches of XL cargo frequently.
Any other TS (except the pirate ship) is better at hauling bulk cargo.

Elephants are a joke. They are too small to be an effective TL, so small that some factories are too big to be transported by one even if you strip everything out.
But transporting stations is not what you use them for because Elephants make decent "ghetto carriers" with their huge hangar bay, and they are fast enough to outrun most things that can hurt it.
It's downsides are: Large price tag, small cargo bay, unhelpful turret placement, and the Paranid Hercules doing everything better for 2/3 the price.

The Mamba is p. cool. Put a strafe drive in it and it's poor shields don't matter - the only things that will ever hit you are disruptors and PSGs.

The Iguana is utterly amazing. It is probably broken tbh, it's that good.
Faster than a Mamba with twice the shielding and only slightly less firepower, but also a turret (v. important). The only Split ship capable of carrying disruptors, which are supposed to be used for collecting spaceflies. But are just about the single most effective tool of piracy there is.
This thing is a TP ship, in other words a space bus. And it can easily outfly and outfight almost any number of M3s once you put a strafe drive on it. You can also take on M6s if you're patient, and M2s if you're super patient. (Waiting for the disruptors to break the shields and the Gamma PACs to nibble down the armour.)
In fact, the Iguana only has one noteable downside: The inabilty to use missiles. (Mosquitos aren't missiles, they are chaff. )
A fully loaded Iguana costs about 0.6M cr, roughly similar to an M4. The best bargain EVER.

The Scorpion is my favourite M4. It is really fast, but most of all it can carry dual Alpha HEPT or mass drivers which is metal as hell in a light fighter. You only have 5MW of shielding so tread carefully.
Where it truly shines though is as a courier. Fit them only with shields and max out the engine upgrades, then use them as stocker ships for your solar power plants.
Thier speed means they'll empty out the local trade docks of crystals pretty efficiently and keep your SPPs ticking over with almost zero effort.

The Jaguar is not really notable. Other M5s are better at everything.
Mandalay is a better player fighter. Pegasus is a better scout. Harrier is a better M6 tender. Disco and Xenon N are better AI swarm fighters.

The Python is arguably the best looking M2, but is not really all that good a ship.
It has less shielding than other M2s AND less guns. It only has 2 mounts in it's forward turret, while all other M2s have 3. The cargo bay is not great, especially considering you're going to want mass drivers - and they need ammo which you have to carry. And your poor shields mean you only get a small window close distance in order to use your mass drivers. And last of all it can only carry a single docked ship, not really a huge let down but instant support is sometimes useful.
It is however an utter joy to fly as it is easily the most agile of the M2s.

And the Split Dragon; a very good looking M6 which I find utterly puzzling.
Why?
Because it is a Split ship, and all it's guns are at the back and only half of those can track any given target. Granted, those guns are either mass drivers or Gamma HEPTs but still I find it's layout to fly in the face of the whole Split ethos of facing everything head on, because Split strong etc.
Still, it is a very fun ship to fly once you 'get over' the compulsion to point your nose at your target.

I never really bothered too much with M1s as the whole fighter thing is tedious as hell to manage with all the nested menus etc.
But the Split Raptor seems like one of the better carriers as it has the biggest hangar bay which is kinda the point of a carrier, and it always reminded me of a Narn ship (for those who remember Babylon 5).

[close]

tl;dr - Split Iguana is the best.

[VuNut]

[...] Missile Cruisers [...]

Bane of my bloody existence, those. Minding my own business when suddenly missiles. Dozens of them. From the other bloody side of the sector.

[...]AI that really liked ramming[...]

That's still 100% the case with X³. Might not happen quite so often, but a script or mod to nullify collision damage is a very good idea for your own sanity.

[Serenitis]

That's still 100% the case with X³. Might not happen quite so often, but a script or mod to nullify collision damage is a very good idea for your own sanity.

Really? How did they manage that?
The AI for BtF (and thus XT) was an utter *** about this as when you were chasing it, it would sometimes do this wierd zero-radius turn and fly right into you. And since it's X. he who had most shields at the moment of impact wins instantly because hull points didn't exist until the next game. But breakable equipment has been in right from the start. So even if you "win" the shield joust you can have a suddenly half-equipped ship for the trouble. (Broken SETA drive. Ugh....)
But this was fixed in X², and the AI jinked and darted all over the place but actual collisions were pretty rare. (Unless you did it deliberately - srsly, shields can make amazing weapons.)

Did missiles get made not awful in 3?
The only uses I ever found for them was instant spike damage delivered from as close as you could get or harrassing/distracting M3s. Because they're slow, vulnerable (1 hit point), easy to dodge, have a very limited rate of fire, are not really powerful enough to bother M6 or bigger, and are not really cheap enough to throw them around when you need the extra damage most (early/mid game).
They make decent vendor trash though, and scooping missiles on the edge of a battle is not a bad way of making some cash.
Also, starting the game by buying a single wasp for 1050 cr and using that missile to one-hit-capture a mandalay (worth ~10k cr) is a p. amusing and decent start.

[Weltall]

The most known (at least when I used to play) smashes on X3 were again the jumpgates. The AI just loved smashing themselves against the gates (be it auto pilot or other ships). Obviously with stations too. So many times I regretted having auto pilot on.. especially when I would get up and go get me water or something , leaving my spaceship on course. Normally the problem should have been enemies appearing out of nowhere.. but nope.. autopilot did a good job XD

But a plugin like VutNut mentioned fixed that. It just widened the invisible walls the AI could see I think, making it so they do not smash against gates or when they try to land on stations. Although I think the jumpgate crashes rarely kept happening, but it has been a long time.

I remember one of the best solutions for a while was to add a plugin that totally removed collision damage. 100% unrealistic, but people used it for their sanity.

[borgrel]

Did missiles get made not awful in 3?

there are missiles with shields and missiles that split (and encircle your ship) and missiles that spiral to stop point defense from hitting....

but at the end of the day the only missiles worth using still ended up being mosquitoes (with the mosquito missile defense ship command) and the ?hammerhead? torpedo for nuking M2's with a puny M3

but missiles splash your ship far more often in x3 so thats cool

[Serenitis]

OMG. I have just been through a complete nuisance of a thing.

Spoiler

Because I got the bug again and installed X2. Everything went okay with the convoluted workaround of an install process and the game ran first time, BUT had a little sound issue in the form of constant static.
About 3 hours later I'd pinned the problem down to the MPEG layer 3 codec not reading the files for the soundtrack correctly for whatever reason, and no amount of updating/replacing it made any difference. So I ended up converting the entire soundtrack folder from mp3 to wma on the advice of a dude from ego.

[close]

It was tedious, but it worked. And now it's half past midnight and I'm going to bed.
Split now give you death comfy pillow.

[VuNut]

Also asteroids. The X3 autopilot LOVES rubbing it's face on asteroids. It's almost like it detects them by taste or something.

The odd missile isn't usually that big of a threat (being relatively easy to shoot down for the attentive player), problem comes when those missile boats appear and unload dozens of top-end ones all over the place like horrifying explosive vomit. I've seen those demons splurge MILLIONS of credits worth of missiles and purge the entire sector in unholy fire for absolutely no reason. That said they are a very useful special weapon as part of your own fleet, but you can never afford to use them like NPCs do.

[Weltall]

Considering how AI sees asteroids, I can understand the reason they can;t avoid it. There were sectors that asteroids were too cluttered. But for gods sake.. how they can miss huge space stations and a large stargate.

But plugins make crashing problems obsolete.... the one against objects. The game rarely still crashes >.>

[Bastion.Systems]

I remember trying X3 a while back, was impressed with how well it ran and how pretty it looked. Also fell in love with the docking voice clips. Time acceleration is really well done.

I should try it again, any must have mods you people recommend? How is the most exiting way to play, combat? Last time I did missions and trading and it was dreadfully boring, even Eurotruck has more intense gameplay.

[Weltall]

I have not played it in a while, but I can suggest mods I used. Choose what sounds better~ Use their Community Script & Mod Download Library for X3 Pinned posts (they call it announcements) to find easily mods.

Plugin Manager - Cause it made adding and removing mods so easy


For Total Conversions:
X3TC - X-Tended, but keep in mind it is on the Terran Conflict one. Not the latest Albion's Prelude. It is my fav too, but that is probably because it was the first I played.
X3AP - XRM, I consider it awesome like X-Tended, but I loved more X-Tended, again probably because it was my first. People chose now XRM, because it is based on the latest expansion Albion's Prelude.
X3AP - Litcubes Universe, Never played it, but people love it and from what I have read, I would love it too.


For mods if you play Reunion for the main story line:
EMP X3 - I remember it was the Extended Mod Pack and supposedly recommended by egosoft
Economy and Supply  X3 and Economy and Supply Libraries X3 - Cause I wanted the market to be better handed, even if I just played for the storyline
MARS Fire Control - Turrets can be stupid. It's that moment that you know that letting a weapon autofire, will not get you much afar from wasted energy. MARS control makes them smarter


And cheaty Reunion mods, that do not really matter since after you finish the story you do not want to play it again:
Bail Signal Extension - More bailing - I remember it made people choose their life over death more. Also I think it made even larger ships that normally they do not bail, to actually do it.. I really do not remember well, it has been a while.
Salvage Claim Software - This is an really expensive upgrade you could buy for your ship, that lets you clam ships through your spaceship seat, by just hacking the abandoned ship. This can be a time saver if the person that plays got tired of getting off their ship like all the time, but keep it mind it works on larger ships too. This is why I wanted to remember if Bail Signal Extension makes larger ships too bail too. It is not awful to once in a while get a huge ship, but it is so much fun to actually capture huge ships .... eh, but again, I would not really bother with Reunion with that. I focused mostly on the Total Conversions.
Target Nearest Unclaimed Ship-Ware Hotkey - Rarely there were unclaimed ships in the universe, be it from fights or abandoned special ships way out there. I used this for 2 spaceships I wanted to find >.> ...


And now for X3 Terran Conflict/Albion's Prelude:
X3AP - TC Plots for AP - If you want to play the storyline of TC, but want to play it on the upgraded AP, this mod is for you.
IEX - Immersive Environments X, was a good mod that had support for vanilla and Total Conversions and made the universe look more sleek. Although honestly I did like the vanilla to begin with.
Capital Ship  Energy Cell Generator - Deep in game you will definitely have a huge ship that will definitely be using Energy Cells by the ton. It is quite easy to find energy cells in the universe, but really large chips can;t land on Solar ... energy collecters (sorry do not remember the name). So either you will ahve to have smaller ships so you can go pick up energy cells and bring them back to your big ship, find one of the large docks and hope they sell energy cells or have this mod. If I rememebr well this was incredibly expensive, but it can feel a bit cheaty, since you wont be paying. I am sure though there was a way to actually charge you for all the Enegy cells it generates, so you would be just saving yourself the bother of reloading your ship with cells.
Capture Stations - It was so hard to do it. I rememebr I only ever got once. It was very expensive and it was easier for the Station to blow, but honestly I did not try much, It was easier for me to buy em >.>
Complex Cleaner - Repacked for Plugin Manager for TC and AP - It cleans complexes that are full of rocks, making them deathtraps  for passing ships and causing potential lag, be it while you travel me a graphical lag, or when NPCs just get confused and get stuck there.
Crystal Free SPP - Solar Power Plants need Crystals to produce energy, but you can buy a really expensive upgrade and the power plant will work without the need of crystals. A bit cheaty.. but with that price, it was better for me to buy crystals. I got it for really late game.
Docking Lockup Fix + Upgrade - Docking for NPCs in X3 is one of the most glitchy parts ever. This fixes the lockup one, that a ship would just get stuck in nothing and stay there, while trying to dock.
Economy and Supply  X3TC and Economy and Supply Libraries X3TC - Economy. Now in TC/AP I want the universe economy to be stable and businessses to actually care for it! Even if this is marked TC I am 100% sure I used it on AP too, without problems.
Enhanced Briefings - Briefings can be kind of vague at times. They tell you to go there somewhere and do something, you will figure it out. Enhanced Briefings fixes that by making them more detailed.
Marine Training Manager - I remember this had some uses, but I only cared for one. When I visited the marine stations, I remember I could pay to have a marine trained 1 level up.. I am sorry but if I would do it in real life, I would ask them to train them to the max! I used this mod so I could save myself the extra visits to train marines, adding the option to train them fully.
No notoriety loss from hitting jumpgates - ... I installed this mostly cause Autopilot can mess up sometimes. Sure there are scripts that help it and actually Total Convertions do not have such problems (At least I rememebr they did not), but I hated it when I accidentally bumped on the gates and I would be considered a bad guy -_-
Pirate Guild 3 Dynamic AI and Guild System Made Pirates more organized. I loved this cause pirates in the game were so unorganized. With this there a Guild (or was it Guilds?) and ranks and etc. It was just great.
Property Baron - Are you filthy rich and you use money as fuel for your fireplace? This is definitely for you. It gives you the option to buy stations in ridiculous prices, rather than buy them yourself which would cost much less. Be careful through what you buy. Check what you should not buy on their page
Pure X HUD - In case you would prefer to feel you are inside the ship, this adds huds to ships. The hud differs depending on what ship you are.
Ranks - New Race Ranking - It replaces the Vanilla Ranking system with a new one. I liked it because it worked with the next one.
Ranks for Xenon, Kha'ak, Pirates and Yaki - It worked in conjunction with the above one, and added ranks for the rest of the factions. It was so weird to try and befriend Kha'ak.
Release Passengers - I loved this. When you captured passengers I remember you could sell them for slaves, but what if I am a guy that would not do that? You can land to a station and actually release them, gaining you good reputation with the faction the passenger is from. Really liked this one.
Salvage Command Suite - This is a cheaty mod, depending how you see it. You can use it to detect astronauts floating in space, abandoned cargo and abandoned ships. The last part makes it kind of cheaty I guess, but in my book it is ok.
Sectormap Revamped - ALL Ships Colored or ONLY Colored Claimable Ships - Change Colors or ONLY Colored Claimable Ships. - It is quite helpful to have colors when you look at the ship list. If I remember right, it colored their faction and whatnot.
STO - Sector Takeover - Well.. you can take over sectors and make them yours! I remember I had problems with it, but I liked the concept.
 v2.51a.spk
Universal Best Buys-Sells Locator - Kind of cheaty. With this and along with satellites, you can find  where is the best price for anything. I am not sure if the satellites are needed, but I think they are. Also I am not sure if searching easily for prices rather than manually looking through every place is cheaty, in a universe with space ships and jumpgates..
Weapons Quickswap - Adds weapons to hotkeys if I rememebr well, making it easy for you to swap between different weapons.
Yaki Armada 2 - Test Build - Makes Yaki Pirates more badass!


And cheaty mods for Terran Conflict/Albion Prelude
Convert Passenger to Marine - Marines are hard to come by and if you are impatient, you can add this mod. When you capture passengers that float in space, you can convert them to Marines.
Extend Advanced Satellite Range - You can throw a satelite on sectors, that let you se what is going on there, when you use the map. Normally the map is black by fog of war. I think you also get updates on events and maybe market happenings?... I do not remember well, but I used it to monitor better my merchant ships that were all over the universe trading.
Extended Communication Rage from 25km to 75km - It triples the distance where you can choose a station or another craft and open communication with. I used it cause when I looked for missions, it was tedious to teleport to sectors, fly towards stations and find nothing only to repeat a handful of times until I found something.
Freight Distribution Network (FDN) - This as I remember I used to connect my different stations with each other. This was to transport good between them faster. Eh. You can do it with freighters too, but I hated that when a freighter had a problem and deliveries delayed, it was a domino catastrophe. Not such a needed mod though for small station empires~
Mobile Ship Repairs - When I usually would capture a ship, I would spend I do not know how much time repairing it in High speed >.> Rather than doing though, I added this mod. You can buy a repair module for a ship (not all can mount it) and then have it as your repair man. You capture a ship? You can just call your repainman ship from wherever he/she is resting and let it do the job.
NPC Bailing Addon - Very configurable, I think it might was useful to make NPCs bail more, rather than sitting there dying, but if you configured this you could also make very large ships bail and even factions that normally do not bail. It was awesome though cause it was so configurable.
Ring of Fire - Stealth Lasertowers - It created a ring of laser towers around the spot you placed it.... nothing hostile could approach there anymore.. It was fun to watch XD
Salvage Claim Software - Like I explained above, it let you capture abandoned or bailed ships without having to do anything but press a button. It was quite expensive and very useful. You NEED this if you are going to have huge ships bail, cause I am pretty sure you cant otherwise capture them.


Mods ONLY for Terran Conflict:
Cheat Collection Package - Lol.. you get what it is.
Saturn Complex Hub - This makes X3 Complexes fit inside a single station. If you know how complicated and messy X3 Complexes can be, then you will understand. They can can lag and problems with the AI/NPC. But if anything, I did find building complexes fun. But still this was awesome too.
Universe Colored Map - Cause I need to know sector is owned by which faction!


Mods ONLY for Albion Prelude:
Cheat Collection Package AP - As above, but only for AP
Universe Colored Map AP - Again as above, but only for AP

Phew..