Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Anvilfolk]

Man, I know how I get sucked into these things, and I really don't feel like putting hundreds of hours into a single-player, no interaction game. How grindy is it, really? Like, play for months on end before being able to buy the really big ships and all that?

[forsaken1111]

<- Waiting for Rebirth personally

[mostlikely]

Man, I know how I get sucked into these things, and I really don't feel like putting hundreds of hours into a single-player, no interaction game. How grindy is it, really? Like, play for months on end before being able to buy the really big ships and all that?

Short answer:
Not 'that' grindy.

Long answer:
Assuming:
-The really big ship is the biggest in game (M1, price about 100 million).
-You only want one and focus on this goal.
-You don't want to use mods or cheats.
-You don't want to use slightly unbalanced game mechanics to earn money (Taxi missions, Stock exchange)
-You are willing to use seta (accelerates time by up to 10x, normally not considered an unbalanced game mechanic)
-You know what you are doing.
-You start from scratch with 'humble merchant'.

I'd guesstimate about 20 hours.
But some of the real pro's might be able to correct me on that.

[LostEnder]

Actually the fastest way to upship is piracy, in my experience.  You can do whatever start, but I know assassin starts with a decent combat ship, and I'd assume the new Argon war storyline does also.  After that it's just a matter of trying your luck (or using saves/salvage insurance) to pick off a couple 10k+ cargo freighters to get a nice starting bankroll, and then pirating up to get a M7M, training marines, then jacking that M1 or whatever really.

I'd recommend this guide if one wanted to pursue this type of gameplay.  Also, it's important to move around or run some remote trading to keep the various police forces off your back somewhat.  Hard to steal stuff when the whole sector is shooting at you.

I've never pirated all the way to m1, but it could feasibly beat that 20 hour time.  For a new player though, I really can't recommend this method since it does take a significant amount of knowledge about the game to pull off. Mostlikely's trader route is much safer and beginner friendly.  Also, the trader route would be much more capable of actually supporting that M1 as far as loadout and ammunition.

[Sensei]

Like dwarf fortress, the stage where you are still learning all the game's features takes a very large amount of time and is arguably the most fun.

[Satarus]

Training up marines to be able to jack into ATF or Xenon ships takes a while.  3 star in all stats can reliably take out any commonwealth capital ship assuming it has no defense mods (hull platting, security lasers, or firewall) installed.  Jacking capital ships from the Yaki and Duke's Domain is actually the easiest way to obtain Incendiary Bomb Launchers (IBL) without pissing off the major races. 

The nividium mining exploit was fixed, but there are a few ways to exploit the stock market for lots of money in a short amount of time.

[Rhodan]

Does anyone have some good suggestions for a fancy playership?

Right now I'm cruising around in either the Nova Prototype or Centaur given to me by the main plot.  I've set up a simple space fuel complex in an unknown sector and launched a fleet of sector/universe traders so money is just a matter of time.
I was considering to save up for the OTAS Skiron, but I also hear Springblossoms and Spitfyres are favourites. (Although a lot harder to get)
In Terran Conflict I used to zoom around in my Vidar, but I have no clue how to get one in Albion Prelude.

TL;DR: Tell me which ship you fly in, which weapons you use and why you like it.

[Lightning4]

I typically liked my Cerberus as my general workhorse. It's not the strongest M7 by far but it accomplished most of what I put in front of it. Hangar for support fighters or a personal fighter, enough firepower to handle most ships, and fast enough so a cross-sector trudge isn't unbearable. Argon ship for an Argon pilot.

Though if I actually need to dock with stations for my mission-doing, I use my Chokaro TM. Good for pretty much every mission sans TP and tough combat missions. Fast too.

Though, these are all X3:TC. I'm sure things would be different for me based on availability and tastes, and there's new ships to put into the equation too.

[Ozyton]

Oh hai steam sale

[Satarus]

Popular fighters include the Mamba Raider for it's speed.  The Spytfire is faster and better shielded, but can only use USC weapons.

For Corvettes it is the Springblossom (aka the Cheatblossom) or the Hyperion Vanguard.  The Hyperion is not a production vessel so either cap one or complete the mini-plot for the poisoned paranid start.

M7s have the Tiger (fast), Panther(mini carrier), Agamemnon (phased shockwave generator but not a production ship), and the Shrike (slow, but can have gauss cannons). 

[Anvilfolk]

Good grief, I don't know if I'll resist this sale... should I get the superbox or just the X3 things?

[Rhodan]

Not sure if anyone knows about this little trick, but I just figured out how to run the game in SETA while having it in background mode at the same time.

Basically, all you have to do is play the game on Steam and assign the same shortcut you use to open the Steam overlay to the SETA function.  Usually this will be Shift+Tab.  It's probably best to leave the regular 'J' shortcut in place.  Usually SETA exits whenever any key or key combination is pressed, but this doesn't count if that very keypress is the one activating SETA.

Now your ship will go in SETA mode as soon as you switch to the Steam overlay and stay there while you chat to your Steam buddies and use the Steam browser thingy.  You can even tab out and just use your regular browser if you prefer, or just do whatever.
To enter the Steam overlay without turning on SETA, just activate SETA briefly before opening the Steam overlay.

SETA will of course still exit as soon as you dock at a station, cross a gate or decorate the surface of a nearby asteroid.

Now we can all watch our favourite manly cartoon shows while letting our trading ships work for us. Profitsss!

On a side note: A pretty decent update for both Albion Prelude and Terran Conflict has been released, fixing some bugs, rebalancing ships and missions, optimizing stuff and making all music tracks actually play. I love the music. A larger update with more content is said to arrive within a few weeks, possibly the next parts of the Albion plot and the HUB and Player Headquarters.

[ductape]

Not sure if anyone knows about this little trick, but I just figured out how to run the game in SETA while having it in background mode at the same time.

Basically, all you have to do is play the game on Steam and assign the same shortcut you use to open the Steam overlay to the SETA function.  Usually this will be Shift+Tab.  It's probably best to leave the regular 'J' shortcut in place.  Usually SETA exits whenever any key or key combination is pressed, but this doesn't count if that very keypress is the one activating SETA.

Now your ship will go in SETA mode as soon as you switch to the Steam overlay and stay there while you chat to your Steam buddies and use the Steam browser thingy.  You can even tab out and just use your regular browser if you prefer, or just do whatever.
To enter the Steam overlay without turning on SETA, just activate SETA briefly before opening the Steam overlay.

SETA will of course still exit as soon as you dock at a station, cross a gate or decorate the surface of a nearby asteroid.

Now we can all watch our favourite manly cartoon shows while letting our trading ships work for us. Profitsss!

On a side note: A pretty decent update for both Albion Prelude and Terran Conflict has been released, fixing some bugs, rebalancing ships and missions, optimizing stuff and making all music tracks actually play. I love the music. A larger update with more content is said to arrive within a few weeks, possibly the next parts of the Albion plot and the HUB and Player Headquarters.

SETA?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seta

[Cecilff2]

Not sure if anyone knows about this little trick, but I just figured out how to run the game in SETA while having it in background mode at the same time.

Basically, all you have to do is play the game on Steam and assign the same shortcut you use to open the Steam overlay to the SETA function.  Usually this will be Shift+Tab.  It's probably best to leave the regular 'J' shortcut in place.  Usually SETA exits whenever any key or key combination is pressed, but this doesn't count if that very keypress is the one activating SETA.

Now your ship will go in SETA mode as soon as you switch to the Steam overlay and stay there while you chat to your Steam buddies and use the Steam browser thingy.  You can even tab out and just use your regular browser if you prefer, or just do whatever.
To enter the Steam overlay without turning on SETA, just activate SETA briefly before opening the Steam overlay.

SETA will of course still exit as soon as you dock at a station, cross a gate or decorate the surface of a nearby asteroid.

Now we can all watch our favourite manly cartoon shows while letting our trading ships work for us. Profitsss!

On a side note: A pretty decent update for both Albion Prelude and Terran Conflict has been released, fixing some bugs, rebalancing ships and missions, optimizing stuff and making all music tracks actually play. I love the music. A larger update with more content is said to arrive within a few weeks, possibly the next parts of the Albion plot and the HUB and Player Headquarters.

SEATA?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seta

I think in game it stands for Singularity Enhanced Time Acceleration.  Or something like that.  Basically it makes the game run at 6x speed.(This can be changed higher I believe)

[Shades]

I think in game it stands for Singularity Enhanced Time Acceleration.  Or something like that.  Basically it makes the game run at 6x speed.(This can be changed higher I believe)

Up to x10 (which is the first option I change and wish it went higher, traveling in slow ships is dull )