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[Simmura McCrea]

Having started reading Squiddy McSquid's possibly short life, I've decided to keep a small journal in the same vein. I figured I'd share with you guys too.

After the first couple hours of play, I have the M5 Discoverer class and the TS Mercury class ships I started with. I blew ~9k credits on some software allowing me to trade remotely, letting me flit about in the M5 and get the TS to do all the actual work. This 9k, however, was most of my money, so it's been rather slow going. I've failed both of the two missions attempted so far, alas. The first, a delivery of energy cells, should've been a cakewalk and an easy 2k, but I couldn't find an option to turn the quest in. The second, claiming and returning an abandoned ship, was failed because the abandoned ship exploded after I told it to go home. Message logs says my M5 destroyed it, but I didn't take any damage, so I didn't ram it or something. I call it a bug, myself.

Current plans are to continue to build capital. Once I have ~60k I'll start upgrading the TS to speed it up, then go for more cargo space. If I can figure out how to get it to automate the opportunistic trading I'm doing at the moment, I'll do that and continue to flit around in the M5 and do missions. Hopefully, I can get some weapons on it, or find an abandoned M4 or M3 somewhere to start getting piratical on the pirates.

Current assets
M5 Discoverer class - unarmed, lightly shielded
TS Mercury class - unarmed, lightly shielded
     ~2k credits of energy cells
Some spare change

Feel free to suggest ships names. Hopefully, I'll have more before long. Current ideas are Spyglass and Sugar Daddy, respectively.

[Blaze]

X3.
LP.
(Other stuff I didn't pay attention to)

I am in, I am so in, words do not exist to describe how in I am.

I've always wanted an X3 text LP, but never had the attention span to start one; video LPs are just too slow.

You turn in delivery quests by docking at any the target station, then just wait until they claim it.

What does the TCs trader start begin in? Boron was it?

[Calech]

If I recall correctly, I *think* you have to actually be piloting the craft that makes the dropoff for a delivery mission in order for the cargo to be collected; I have a tendency to stay away from these missions myself due to experiencing similar frustrations. You can get some good payouts from them if you have the patience though.

Truly automating your traders will probably require you to get the most expensive trading software to start up a Sector Trader; it's a little more practical in the early game to issue commands remotely instead as you've been doing. As long as you've got the Trading System Extension installed (I think?) to see the stock levels in stations without docking, you don't need to see the prices - high stock levels are sold cheaply, low stock levels are bought at high cost. Of course getting the Best Buys / Best Selling Price extensions does this for you, but again at a price.

Running combat missions in an underequipped M5 is an interesting experience; I have fond memories of accepting a combat mission only to realise that my ship had only 1 Impulse Ray Emitter (I could do more damage by getting out and punching the other ship, to be honest) and a single 1MJ shield... that didn't go so well. Clear a few 'trade' type missions to improve trade rank and reputation, and you should make enough cash to at least outfit your ship a little better.

One tip about return ship missions; check what ship you're returning and how much you're getting. If you get a message saying "I left the keys in the ignition of my 8m credit M6 class corvette, if you bring it back I'll give you 1k credits for your help"... the local shipyard might give you a better deal At lower levels it's not really worth selling the M5s and M4s, as the reputation and rank benefits are better than maybe an extra 1k-2k credits, but if you strike lucky and get an M3... it's actually better to sell these than keep them, because sector police will spawn to destroy 'stolen' vessels, plus outfitting an M3 is expensive.

[Simmura McCrea]

I started out as an Argon. I'd rather have started Boron, to be honest, since their ships are prettier. I shall bear your advice in mind next time I do one of those jobs, though. It's going to be a while until I do any combat jobs, given the price of weaponry and the M5's flimsiness. I'd really rather avoid combat until it's at least fully upgraded in the engine department.

[Blaze]

Well, not to far north (up?) of Argon Prime is Power Circle. That place (unless the game removes them) has a bunch of neglected solar power plants and ore/silicon mines; you can easily get Ecells for 12-14 there and sell them in the same sector for 17-19. After that you can move to Ore, which you can buy for around 50 and sell for 200 if you have your trades right.

Or you can skip the trading entirely by

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hunting down an ownerless ship; I recommend either the Enhanced Pericles (M4) or Advanced Eclipse (M3) in Savage Spur and Ocracoke's Storm, respectively. You can then sell your current ships and purchase equipment for them. Both require a far trip southwest into possibly hostile (Yaki) sectors.

What are your long term plans? Are you going to befriend race X or not? Are you going pirate, going to remain a pure trader or something in between?

[Simmura McCrea]

Yeah, the Mercury's mostly been pootling around Power Circle and surrounds making me moolah on ecells. Alas, a crash just lost me ~1 hour of work, but it's recoverable, albeit with another hour of work. I need to get into the habit of docking more often. Long term plans are mostly trading, to be honest, although some light piracy might work its way in.

EDIT: Despite the crash setback, I'm steadily making money. I can now fill the Mercury's hold with ecells with money left over. I've also been looking at getting a mineral scanner for the Discoverer. It's ~35k, but the missions I've seen for asteroid scanning would pay that back in one or two missions. I'm also considering some satellites for keeping an eye on stocks and prices, although they're 6-7k a pop.

Current assets
M5 Discoverer
TS Mercury
     2997 energy cells
11,222 Cr

Selling those ecells will bring me up to 50-60k, and I'll consider upgrading the Mercury some before long.

[Burnt Pies]

I wouldn't recommend starting Boron; their ships might look pretty, but for the most part they're poor copies of Split designs. Terrans (And ATF, but they're really hard to get) generally do the best ships, but Terran weapons are overpriced and underpowered, with only one exception. That exception's the Matter/Antimatter launcher, which is hands down the best corvette weapon. A vidar with M/AMLs will eat any M7 for breakfast.

Any chance of screenshots? Even just shots of the ships would be nice.

Spoiler: related to Blaze's spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'd suggest the Blastclaw Prototype, although it's a bit further away, in Veil of Delusion.

[Blaze]

I forgot to ask, are you using any mods?

[Simmura McCrea]

I'm not using mods, but I'll get some screenshots next time I swing the Spyglass up that way.

I spent most of my money upgrading the Sugar Daddy's speed and maneuverability, with a duplex scanner and a mineral scanner for the Spyglass. I had a good mission to use the mineral scanner too, but another crash dropped 15 minutes back in time. I dunno if TC doesn't like Windows 7 or if it's just me. I can't find any weapons or shields that fit on the Spyglass, so I'm going to have to get lucky about finding kit from battles or abandoned ships.

[Calech]

The Discoverer doesn't exactly have a lot of variety in equipment choices; you'll want to get hold of as many Impulse Ray Emitters as you can find (they have fairly low power requirements so you can usually just blaze away with them, which is just as well as they do pitiful hull damage singly), and some more 1MJ shields if you've got any empty shield banks.

Unfortunately, despite being one of the most ubiquitous weapons in the X universe, there really aren't that many IRE Forges out there - the nearest one to you is probably in Split space and at least 10 jumps away from the edge of Argon territory. The upside is that they should be available at Light Weapons complexes, which are a little more common - there should be one of these in Argon Prime.

Likewise, there aren't many (any?) dedicated 1MJ shield factories, but there should be a few Light Shield complexes about, including one in Red Light.

If these are empty of goods you might need to try fulfilling their material requirements so they actually start manufacturing.

When the time comes to upgrade your ship to a new one, if you're buying from a shipyard, I'd strongly recommend picking up the L variant - they usually come with a full set of shields at least, which is an enormous help as equipping ships (before setting up your own industrial megacomplex of course) is often rather frustrating - weapon factories are often undersupplied and equipment docks drain their stocked equipment over time to simulate custom (noone else, of course, buys weapons or shields).

[Simmura McCrea]

Checking the Argon Prime shipyard, I'm looking at just shy of a million credits to get an M4 Buster with some guns and shields on it. That's pretty damn pricey. I'm not sure if I'll save for that or if I'll save up ~500k for the 3rd rank of trade software for the Sugar Daddy and set it up to trade for itself. Either way, it'll take a while. In the meantime, I've upgraded the Spyglass' speed and scanner, so I should actually be able to find some stations in the pea soup systems. I'm also struggling to find any satellites for sale, and I doubt I could afford a station to build them myself. A quick check also showed that the Light Weapons Complex doesn't make IREs, so I'm gonna have to poke around for them, if I ever bother arming the Spyglass.

Current assets
M5 Spyglass
TS Sugar Daddy
     103 ore
119,362 Cr

EDIT: Screenshots are taken, I'll post them here after I'm done. I've fully upgraded the Spyglass, except for cargo space. I'm gonna get the Sugar Daddy more cargo space, then save up the half million. Still can't find any satellites.

Spoiler: The Spyglass (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Sugar Daddy (click to show/hide)

[Burnt Pies]

Argon fighter design isn't great; the Buster's one of the slowest 'Interceptors' around, slower even than some M3s. Look at Split, Paranid, Yaki or Terran ships if you want an M4.

Or buy a Solano from Legends' home. Those things are ludicrously awesome.

[Simmura McCrea]

I can't find the Split, I've no idea where the Terran or Yaki are and the Paranid don't like me much. Paranids are probably the most likely, though, but they're noticeably pricier than the Argon.

[Burnt Pies]

Easiest way to find Split is to head north to the Boron sectors above Argon Prime, then head east until you hit Family Whi. Or go north from Hatikvah's Faith.

Yaki are west from Empire's Edge in Paranid space, then South from Savage Spur. Their shipyard's in Senator's Badlands.

Terrans are north from Omicron Lyrae. They'll likely be really hard to find.

The Solano'll be the priciest, I think, but it's hands down the best M4 in space.

[Simmura McCrea]

So, good news. While following Burnt's directions to the Yaki, I found a ship. A Paranid Enhanced Pericles. Luckily for me, missing an owner. One visit to the Paranid Prime equipment dock later, it's now packing 25MJ of shield (the Spyglass has 3MJ tops) and I'm up about 400,000 Cr due to it carrying some weaponry I didn't want. Automatic trading may come sooner than later. Currently hauling arse (and it really does) to Argon space to see if I can find some PACs for it.

EDIT: 3 PACs later I'm still over 400k and upgrading the cargo capacity of the Sugar Daddy. The Spyglass has been relegated to makeshift satellite for the moment.

EDIT2: A TP Toucan and a TP Iguana have joined the fleet. Both are armed with the nice expensive guns the Pericles had. The Toucan's not great compared to the Iguana though, so I'll sell it. The Sugar Daddy's still bringing in the buckzoids.

Spoiler: The Pericles (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Toucan (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Iguana (click to show/hide)