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[Girlinhat]

First, for anyone not aware of the game, check this spoiler:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

All I can say is "google or Steam it" first all.  X3, or rather the whole X franchise, is based on the concept of free build and free roam, while also providing an optional plot.  Anyone familiar with Freelancer will definitely enjoy this.  Like Freelancers, you pilot your own ship, where you can explore the galaxy/universe, fight pirates, become a pirate, take missions, trade wares across different systems, and other fun space things.  Unlike Freelancers, you may also own multiple ships.  When you have more than one ship, the others are controlled by AI, or just remain docked somewhere.  You can organize this endlessly, since you can pilot things as big as a carrier and mount up to 65 fighters on one carrier, which can be organized into multiple wings and given bulk commands to support their combat deployment.  Also unlike Freelancer, you can build stations.  All stations require energy cells, and most require the food of their species.  For example, to produce a "lasertower" semi-permanent deployed turret, you need ore, energy cells, and the food of the race type - Meatsteak Cahoonas for Argon, mainly.  It becomes much easier when you link them together, so you can make one complex that produces beef, turns beef to meatsteaks, has an attached asteroid mine, and a lasertower factory.  Then you just need to import energy!  Or find a silicon mine, crystal fabricator, and solar plant to make your own energy.

This expands over dozens (hundreds?) of sectors, allowing you as much play space as your CPU can handle.  It's not uncommon for late game players to send whole fleets of battleships and fully stocked carriers to wage war against a particular enemy race.

So I had the idea, just tossing it out there.  Play X3:TC, but do it Succession Fort style.  One player picks it up, does some things, then passes it to the next player, cycling as needed in case there's not enough takers.

This would be rather different than a DF fort.  Namely the diplomacy is more complicated.  One player could make friends with pirates, but they always show as foe so the next player could ruin it.  Another player could pick a fight with the Paranid, and the next player discovers this first-hand.  Station construction would become equally hilarious in the face of widescale construction and misdirection.

X3:TC does have its own time system, but it can be difficult to keep track.  Play time would likely be measured in real-life days, or a custom script could be added to set a timer ping or somesuch.  So the questions are three-fold...
1: Is anyone interested?
2: Real-time or game-time?
3: What, if any, mods or scripts?

[Burnt Pies]

I'm definitely interested! I'd say real time would be much easier to do; I frequently lose all track of in-game time, it's not something I check often. Timer ping will only help if it comes up while I'm playing; If I've left the game on autopilot while grabbing a drink (As I am wont to do), it won't be very useful.

As for Mods, I'd suggest Complex Cleaner, CODEA, maybe XRM, Marine Repairs, Energy Cell Generator, Bonus Pack stuff and perhaps Phanon Corp.

Time for me to make a clean reinstall of X3, I think. Far too many mods on it right now.

[Girlinhat]

Ideally the timer would send a message that would blink in the corner of your screen.

I think the ideal mods would be the ones that make piracy easier, because let's face it, that's how it'll end up.

[Lorgath]

I'd be up for this! I've never installed a mod for any of the X games, as I've never felt the need to add anything to it. Only ever had a small station complex before something else distracted me...

I would also suggest a real time allotment to each player.

[Girlinhat]

Some of the mods are almost essential.  "Complex Cleaner" allows you to compress multiple stations into single larger ones, which does drastic things to improve framerate.  Carrier commands, boarding hotkeys, and MARS (turret overhaul) makes things make so much more sense.  Then there's others like "marines repair ships" (doesn't work quickly enough to matter during combat) and "train marines without mucking with stations" to make things easier and to make it easier to not rely on the different races.  Another lets you convert passengers to marines using space fuel to "subdue them".  Worked together, you can effectively become a real pirate and not be forced to remain friendly with one race to use their shipyards or training.

[Lorgath]

Heh. Some of those do sound useful indeed. Maybe it's time to mod it. I'm not sure the passengers + space fuel = marines makes any kind of sense at all, but it sounds fun!

So what start would we use, and how would we RP changing the player? Some suggestions:

• We're members of some sort of association, who have a timeshare on the rights to fly/command the vessels.
• One pilot is just plugging in different personality chips when they get bored
• If we go for the Humble Trader start, it makes sense that each of us is actually a different crewmember.

[Girlinhat]

This is a Dwarven Industry.  We are a generic pilot who has been struck by a Strange Mood and tore away in our ship to do god knows what.  The only problem is that this is like our fifth strange mood.  The others failed spectacularly, so the overlord doesn't want to waste time helping us on this one - we're on our own!  But you don't fail that many moods without some... psychosis.  Rapid, total, drastic personality swings aren't uncommon for this thing we liberally refer to as a "pilot".

[10ebbor10]

I might be interested. Depends on what kind of mods/ load out we're working with.

[SethCreiyd]

This sounds great, count me interested.  I can already picture the B12 Corporate battle fleets converging on Terra.

I'd say real-time over game-time, in the interest of keeping things moving.  For mods, I'd just want XRM, could take or leave anything else.

[Girlinhat]

Not XRM, that's a total conversion.  At the very least, existing players would be unfamiliar with it, and it'll probably ruin the different plots.  Let's keep it to relatively light things, new hotkeys and minor gameplay tweaks, no new ships or altered sectors or anything.

[Shades]

Sounds like this could be fun. I'd have to reinstall it and get whatever mods we have but colour me tentatively interested.

[Burnt Pies]

XRM doesn't ruin any plots, and it actually makes the game difficult again, along with giving you a reason to fly ships that aren't the best in the category (i.e. most Corvettes and Frigates). It also means you can get ATF ships without capping/doing the BoP plot (Which is hell. Absolute hell.), which makes it totally worth it to me.

Also, it makes Bombers and M7Ms work properly. No more does the player hold all the cards in the missile war!


I can live without it, but I feel it adds a lot to the game and is totally worth it.

[Felius]

Why not use Albion Prelude? If nothing else the stock markets reduce a bit the frustration level of the game.

But either way, watching this. I might even take a turn in the future, but I need more practice before committing to it.

[Blaze]

Dunno how an X3 Succession Game will work, if playing with mods you'll need to have every future player have all said mods/scripts installed or else transfer the entire 4-5GB game folder around.

As for TC vs AP, unless you're against the whole "war sector" thing AP is definitely superior. Stock market is a bit gamey, so I wouldn't recommend it. Just remember to pack missile defenses or be prepared to freight scan anything you might be attacking.

As for you asking about mods, I highly recommend the following:

NPC Bailing Addon: For better (not so much to be iffy though) bail rates.
Salvage Commands and NPCs: Ties in with above.
Pirate Guilds: So pirates are actually useful aside from scrap.
Yaki Armade: Like the above, except for the Yaki.
M.A.R.S. Fire Control System: So turrets won't suck terribly.
Docking Lockup Fix: Because the AI is stupid.
Terran Revitalization Project: A set of scripts which add more functionality to the Terrans, and helps their economy not be a complete disaster.
Community Logistics Software: Because CLS/CAG > UTs.

Other Possibly Useful Scripts:
CODEA WS: For better command of fleets and carrior squadron maintenance.
Anarkis Defense System: Pretty much CODEA Lite.
Remove Rocks from Universe: In case we have FPS issues in rocky sectors.
Convert Passenger to Marine: Let's us turn a passenger into a marine using space fuel. (In case we have a "misunderstanding" with all Military Outposts).
Marine Trainer: Allows marine skill training on any ship that can carry marines (For a steep cost).
Marine Repairs: Ships with marines will slowly repair themselves (And slowly train the marines).
Capture Stations: Allows you to capture stations via boarding (Only number of marines matter, skill is irrelevant.)
Station Repacker: Works with above to allow yoink-ing of stations.

Stuff for Shiggles:
Ring of Fire: Because vanilla lasertowers in TC suck.
Combat SQUASH Mine Launcher: Fun if one can obtain reasonable quantities of SQUASH mines.
Auto Beggar: Exactly what is says on the tin.
Cargo-Beam: Allows one to "beam in" a drone/spacesuit/cargopod using a transporter device. (Direct Link!)

If you use CODEA, individual fighters can be given named pilots and gain skill levels (and thus survivability) over time. You could try a community fleet using it.

[Girlinhat]

I agree with most all those mods.  The only changes I'd make are NOT Capture Stations - many forumites claim it's OP because you can steal XL Solars and IBL forges for about 10k in marines - since skill doesn't matter, you can toss recruits in and it won't care.  Also not Station Repacker, but instead Super Tractor.  ST allows you to tractor any item you can target, using a TL with a tractor in cargo, and allows you to jump sectors while carrying it.  I've used this to move asteroids to President's End, and for moving stations it achieves the same goal with a bit more worry as to "am I gonna hit anything?"  Would also recommend Complex Cleaner, as stations become a MAJOR source of FPS drag, turning them into objects with early-nothing rendering costs is helpful, and even if you don't crunch them, just installing the mod will remove the tubes, and those are major laggy.

And also: Don't need Community Logistics Software.  Instead, get the official Bonus Pack, which includes that and the turbo booster and stuff.