How do I dock a wing?

Question

In X3AP, it doesn't seem possible to order a wing to dock. The ships will just orbit the chosen station but not dock. Is there a way to dock a wing without dismantling the wing first.

Asked by Jack

Answer

If you order a wing to dock at a station, it will attempt to do so unless there are not enough docking slots available for all ships in your wing. This is usually only an issue on smaller stations that only have external docking ports or if your wing consists of ships other than fighters.

If you order a wing of fighters to dock at a station (such as a trade port) or a carrier with enough hangar capacity that has a hangar bay, then the entire wing should be able to dock with no problems.

Answered by yx.

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What is the best way to get the 50 microchips?

Question

I'm currently on the The Beryll mission of the main plot at the part where you are required to get 50 microchips and bring them back to the research station. What is the best way to get these microchips?

I've been trying for hours to supply the chip plant in Nathan's Voyage, but it only seems to produce one or two microchips per hour.

Asked by NightExcessive

Answer

50 is a small number, your best bet is to traverse a number of chip plants to get what you need.

There's a handy tool that lets you find places that sells them. Look for the sectors with 2 chip plants and just camp out there, make sure those factories are fully stocked on the resources.

Rather than camping out in your own ship, you can just buy a freighter and order them to dock at the chip plants. As long as you have the trading system extension on your ship you can purchase/sell items remotely.

Later on, when you have to gather 50000(!!!) microchips for your hub mission, your best bet then is to produce some massive micro chip complexes (they make a lot of money as well after your mission is done).

Answered by yx.

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What's the best way to start with the Humble Merchant?

Question

So, I finally managed to play a few hours and begin to understand how this game works. Unfortunately I am now stuck with my Discoverer and don't make enough profit..

I am thinking about restarting, but what's the best way to begin?

a) Sell Mercury and only play with the Discoverer? (That's what I did.) b) Sell the Discoverer and keep Mercury. c) Keep both ships and try to automatize the trading stuff with the Mercury.

If you recommend me to use option c, how do I automatize the trading stuff with Mercury? Basically I wish to fly around with my Discoverer while the Mercury does trading stuff on it's own (e.g. buying and selling energy cells at best prices). Is that even possible?

Asked by Valentin

Answer

Selling Mercury is the worst way to start : Discoverer is just a Scout, so it is virtually useless in combat (i eat Scout class ships for breakfast), and Mercury is the best way to start trading and hence making money.

Here is how I started (recommend starting over as humble merchant): Get in the Mercury, and put your Discoverer in Argon Shipyard in Argon Prime. Head South Gate to Home of Light, and from there South again to Ore Belt. This is the easiest way to start up: buy Ore in one of the asteroid mines (should be 2 over there, try both to see which one has it cheaper, it all depends on how much it has in magazines (aim for C50 per ore)), and head back to Argon Prime. Now there are two factories to the left of the south gate. So as soon as you warp in, go to the factory on your left. Dock and see how much they pay for ore. If youre lucky, they will be running out pretty soon. no ore in magazines = they pay 205 per ore. Pretty good deal, you just made 400% of money invested.

Alternatively, you can try to buy and sell Cahoona stakes. Buy at the factories for cheap, sell at argon free trading station (problem is, they eventually stop buying those). As soon as you accumulate some money (say around 20k), go to Home of Light and buy trading extension in Terracorp HQ (it will allow you to check prices without having to dock in a station). Also, having any of your ships (or satellites) in system lets you access all prices from the map menu, even if you are in different sector. BUt you need the trading extension. Also, upgrade your boost, cargo space, and manuverability to maximum asap. This will allow you to trade faster and outrace competition.

You should make a pretty decent money with this ore business. From Home Of Light go East to discover the Red Light sector. there should be couple more factories that use ore. So now you have 3 potential systems to trade ore into.

Finally, to automize your Mercury, you need to first get the pilot to level 8, and buy a trading software MK3 in Home Of Light's Terracorp HQ. It costs ~520k though, so there is a good few hours of manual trading before you :)

Answered by Kris

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X3: Albion Prelude -> What's the best way to start with the Humble Merchant?

Question

So, I finally managed to play a few hours and begin to understand how this game works. Unfortunately I am now stuck with my Discoverer and don't make enough profit..

I am thinking about restarting, but what's the best way to begin?

a) Sell Mercury and only play with the Discoverer? (That's what I did.) b) Sell the Discoverer and keep Mercury. c) Keep both ships and try to automatize the trading stuff with the Mercury.

If you recommend me to use option c, how do I automatize the trading stuff with Mercury? Basically I wish to fly around with my Discoverer while the Mercury does trading stuff on it's own (e.g. buying and selling energy cells at best prices). Is that even possible?

Asked by Valentin

Answer

Selling Mercury is the worst way to start : Discoverer is just a Scout, so it is virtually useless in combat (i eat Scout class ships for breakfast), and Mercury is the best way to start trading and hence making money.

Here is how I started (recommend starting over as humble merchant): Get in the Mercury, and put your Discoverer in Argon Shipyard in Argon Prime. Head South Gate to Home of Light, and from there South again to Ore Belt. This is the easiest way to start up: buy Ore in one of the asteroid mines (should be 2 over there, try both to see which one has it cheaper, it all depends on how much it has in magazines (aim for C50 per ore)), and head back to Argon Prime. Now there are two factories to the left of the south gate. So as soon as you warp in, go to the factory on your left. Dock and see how much they pay for ore. If youre lucky, they will be running out pretty soon. no ore in magazines = they pay 205 per ore. Pretty good deal, you just made 400% of money invested.

Alternatively, you can try to buy and sell Cahoona stakes. Buy at the factories for cheap, sell at argon free trading station (problem is, they eventually stop buying those). As soon as you accumulate some money (say around 20k), go to Home of Light and buy trading extension in Terracorp HQ (it will allow you to check prices without having to dock in a station). Also, having any of your ships (or satellites) in system lets you access all prices from the map menu, even if you are in different sector. BUt you need the trading extension. Also, upgrade your boost, cargo space, and manuverability to maximum asap. This will allow you to trade faster and outrace competition.

You should make a pretty decent money with this ore business. From Home Of Light go East to discover the Red Light sector. there should be couple more factories that use ore. So now you have 3 potential systems to trade ore into.

Finally, to automize your Mercury, you need to first get the pilot to level 8, and buy a trading software MK3 in Home Of Light's Terracorp HQ. It costs ~520k though, so there is a good few hours of manual trading before you :)

Answered by Kris

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How to play X3: Albion Prelude?

Question

I am a huge scifi fan and bought the latest X3 package on Steam (Terran Conflict, Albion Prelude).

Although I find those games very interesting, I am not aware of how the frag I have to play them.

I mainly play Albion Prelude, fly around and try to do stuff (e.g. get silicium from an asteroid, try to earn money..). However, when accepting missions I never complete them. They are too difficult for me because sometimes I don't know what to do.

I searched the internet for tutorials, but I did not find one which tells me what to do. For example, I would love to see a tutorial which explains me how to start with the humble merchant or how to built a mine on an asteroid from scratch. I even don't know how to "harvest" minerals from a rock.

Thanks in advance.

Asked by Valentin

Answer

The X3 series is very complex and it can take many hours to gain any significant understanding of the game's mechanics.

At it's core, it's a space trading game. You want to buy items at places where they are inexpensive, and sell them at places where you can make a profit. For instance, buy Energy Cells from a Solar Plant, and sell them at a factory or other station that requires them.

Doing this manually takes quite a bit of time and effort, but eventually you'll gain the funds and resources required to command additional ships - you can then send them to run these hauling operations for you, earning you cash while you pursue other things.

Eventually you'll get enough money to build your own stations, and then you can make mega profits producing finished goods directly from raw materials. Then your job becomes one mostly of macro-managing the production chains to ensure that the money continues to flow.

Mining is not something I engaged in much personally, as it tends to require some large ships and a lot of manual effort. Combat's kind of an advanced subject, as you'll likely have to sink a fair number of credits into a good "dogfighting" ship and the appropriate armaments for it.

If you're having trouble with a specific mission class, you might browse the mission guides on the X3 Wiki, which contains information about how to complete each type of mission, and what you'll need in order to be successful.

To point you in the right direction for a more in-depth guide, check out the X3 Handbook - it's a collection of a number of useful guides generated by the community over the years. Sometimes the tone is a bit on the "conversational" side for my taste, but it's still chock full of good resources. There's an emphasis on the Terran Conflict (TC) content in some of the early chapters which you may wish to skip over if you're starting with Albion Prelude.

Answered by agent86

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Has the universe been rearranged?

Question

In the new DLC for X3: Terran Conflict, are there any changes to the overall layout of the universe in terms of gate connections or neighboring sector placement?

Answer

CBJ, a big boy at Egosoft, has posted here a pretty lengthy guide detailing the new features of Albion Prelude. It is a good read, and has made me consider pausing Skyrim (blasphemous!). However, he only has this to say about the new map:

Map

Albion

Albion is a key area of space that will feature heavily in X Rebirth. You can get your first glimpses of Albion in X3: Albion Prelude, and see emerging signs of the momentous changes that new technology will bring to the X Universe. Look out for the corporations that are driving this new technology and vying for control of the new sectors and the valuable resources they contain.

Other

The X Universe is a dynamic place, and even in the short time since X3: Terran Conflict some things have changed. New space has been discovered, control of some sectors has been lost by the people who once lived there, and in a few cases gates have mysteriously shut down cutting off routes that were once busy thoroughfares. We won't be spoiling the fun for explorers, however, by giving precise details about what has changed!

And I found a quick 'initial-glance' list from EmperorJon

Universe Changes -

Many of your familiar Unknown Sectors have been claimed. Some more have appeared. The North East of the universe is different! Zyarth's Dominion no longer links to Ocean of Fantasy, the Split sector in between them is GONE! It's a dead end Split area up there. Sector descriptions suggest they're trapped and the gates are beginning to fail as the Xenon advance. Bluish Snout now links to 4 of the "player sectors". Xenon Core 023 now links through to Xenon sectors connected to Aldrin! So Heretic's End isn't the ONLY way to the Solar System... Wink Harmony of Perpetuity is included, and owned by the Goners.

It is definitely a big improvement on TC, and should certainly give fun until TNBT comes along.

To quote Gazz, the legendary author of MARS and many other scripts:

No revolution but a lot of evolution. =)

EDIT: And you can now have a balance of 2,000,000,000,000,000,000 credits, not 2B :D

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How do I force a pilot to eject without murdering him?

Question

I'm trying to achieve "It's Cold Outside" which means that I have to force someone to eject from their ship. I loaded the game and flew to the first waypoint, and then jumped to one of the systems marked in red on the galaxy map. I quickly got into a pitched battle against a group of Terran fighters, but no matter how close I got to destroying their ships, they wouldn't eject.

How can I force someone to eject from their ship?

Answer

Making pilots eject are based on several factors:

1. The relative condition of your ships. If his ship is almost dead and your ship is pristine, then the chance is higher. If you have high amounts of energy left, that helps as well.
2. How fast you deal the damage. If you dish out a lot of damage on a short period of time, they're more likely to bail.
3. Your combat rating. The higher it is, the higher the %.
4. The size of the ships. You aren't going to make heavy fighters bail as often if you are in a dinky scout.

There seems to be bail checks set at various levels of ship HP. If they don't bail at 90%, taking them down to 50% will trigger another chance. If they're almost dead (<10% hp), then no matter what you do to them they won't try to bail again, just finish them off.

Also, having a high shield but low hull damage weapon, like a pulsed beam emitter, helps a lot. Use that to zap away their shield real fast, then nibble away at the hull until they bail.

Finally, I don't know if Terrans will actually bail, at least in X3:TC, you couldn't make ATF ships bail.

If you take your PBE mounted fighter and go find a bunch of M5 and M4s, you'll get them to bail quite fast.

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Are there abandoned ships in X3: Albion Prelude?

Question

Has anyone found any abandoned ships in Albion Prelude. Perhaps they are the same as Terran Confict?

I would like to know if there are abandoned ships that I can claim to kickstart a little money.

Thanks

Answer

From what I gather (i.e. digging around on egosoft forums and exploring the game), abandoned ships in the galaxy are now randomized, so they're no longer in a predetermined position.

If you are having trouble with money, make your way to the Omicron Lyrae area (I hung around in Circle of Labor a lot, which is just north of OL) and start looting the various missiles that gets dropped during the battles between Terrans and Argons. You can easily make 1 mill in half an hour.

Just make sure you don't wander into a stray PSP or you'll be instantly vaporized.

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