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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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Well, after much skimping and saving and ramming of pirate ships in a transport I didn't mind losing extensions on I bought myself an Iguana and fitted it with an ion cannon. Very useful. So I saved and bought another ion cannon and then for the stubborn 'go down with ship' types I fitted a gamma particle cannon into the center weapon slot (at first I fitted three ion cannons but apparantly you can't disable shield generators with them... and often pilots won't eject until the shield generator is gone, I've found. Plus, the Khaak apparantly know no fear).
Then I went on a pirate smoking rampage that took me from Rookie to Commander in short order.
I found myself neglecting my traders so I bought a SPP and figured "Why not? Put the suckers to automated work". I found a sector with a TON of stations and only one SPP ... figured it would be a cornered market since I set my sell to 14 (could go lower, really... most of the income comes from my own trade ships bopping around selling within 5 sectors).
I didn't want to lose the station to Pirates so I stuffed it very far away from Pirate space. In fact, I stuck it in Kingdom's End... the Boron home system. No pirates! Ha ha! Safe as can be. Right? Right?!
^%#(@*^! Khaak. 
Well, at least I had a jump drive and enough cells to jump back and defeat the Khaak invasion force before too much damage could be done. I'm more concerned about my TPs cruising around looking for bargains.
As an experiment I left my computer running this morning... sitting in my SPP running on SETA (once I figured that you could hit J in the station). If nothing horrific happens there should be a pile of credits waiting for me when I get home. If a transport got itself blown to pieces but there's a LOT of credits then I'll probably write it off as a business expense
I did discover that the story will move itself if you linger too long. I was supposed to go to the Goner temple but I decided to make a bunch of money instead... eventually You Know Who attacked You Know Where anyways. At least I got a massive head start and a proper ship before they did. Pity two captured pirate ships were limping through There heading for Argon Prime when all hell broke lose.
Speaking of proper ships... I'm saving for a Corvette (which I will fly until I can get my Titan. It will be mine... oh yes... it will be mine). I'm guessing I shouldn't bother getting a M3 heavy fighter? With 50k shields and 15k hull and three forward weapons, speed 300, and a turret for missile defense how could a heavy fighter be better than an Iguana?
Not that speed matters much in a lot of fights. I find myself lowering speed to match my target like when I was playing X-Wing lest they careen off my shields (unless I'm amusing myself by strafing Argon One after a save - got the sucker down to 80% hull once). Which is a valid and amusing tactic... but only if I've saved recently, as seeing "Ion Cannon damaged" (Damaged? I can't find it anywhere in inventory and there was no option to repair it at spacedock so 'destroyed' is more likely) will probably always make me wince.
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
Mon Feb 23, 2004 3:08 pm |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
Geez you work fast!
Kingdoms End is a great place for a SPP but the Khaak spoil the fun wherever you go. I guess there has to be some reasonable resistance at some point.
The Iguana is an excellent ship - except the view really annoys the hell out of me. The only reason to get a Nova would be the 75k shields...or a Paranid Perseus because it's PSG mounts are station killers. Many players refuse to use PSGs because they're ludicrously unbalanced.
On capturing, apparently the hull has to be at exactly 87% or less for them to bail - they'll never bail above 87%. Of course the trick is to get ships to 87% but no less so they sell for maximum dollars.
Next game session I'm going to take a break from empire-building and see if I can blockade-run a Xenon sector. I'm going to buy a Paranid Pegasus (max speed 1009) and see if I can outrun the weapons on Xenon cap ships.
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Tue Feb 24, 2004 12:09 pm |
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Badger
Stripey Forest Dweller
Joined: 18 Mar 2002
Posts: 924
Location: UK |
Yup.... swapping between two ships you own in a station seems a little paltry after reading about Dhruin and Xen taking huge bites out of the juicy hamburger that is the "X2" universe.
None the less it's swapping between ships that tasks me, it tasks me and I must have it! Corwin told me to press "x" but frankly he must have been smoking something cause that's a load of old cobblers. Unless........ do you have to have some special software installed Corwin, before "X" works?
Badger.
PS: I tried the space walk technique that worked so well when I wanted to board my Merc, in an attempt to board my Disco. Result?.... I am a stripey hood ornament!
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"Ducks are Dumb!" Badger-2005. Go ahead... quote me! |
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Tue Feb 24, 2004 12:58 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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I did buy a Nova. It's much more agile than I'm used to so I often find myself pulling a Last Starfighter "Death Blossom Attack" when shooting at pirates (and annoying the hell out of every other ship in reach. You wouldn't believe how many police licenses I've been through  ). I bought it primarily to run missions that want an M3, and so I don't buy one later when I get a Corvette.
Not that any of the races Corvettes particularly impress me. No ion cannon slots except on the Boron... and then it's the ONLY slot. Blech. Need more firepower than that.
I outfitted my Nova with a few heavy plasma cannons (the green bank of weapons). Ouch! The first pirate I tried to capture with them equipped died a horrible screaming death in my first strafe.
I could find a use for that kind of firepower, though, so I killed 20 Khaak ships that were attacking a sector for 5000 credits each.
87% Good to know. What I've been doing now is switching weapons... I use an Ion Cannon and Alpha Impulse Laser (doesn't get much less hull damage than that) to capture pirates, two Beta Plasma Cannons to blow things up when there are a lot of neutrals around (I find that the ion cannon is brutally indisciminate at targetting), or a Plasma and Ion mix to kill ships in about 3 seconds sustained fire when there are no neutrals screaming at me "I hope that was an accident!" because they've taken 3 seconds fire from a rogue ion cannon targetting computer.
Oh yeah. Set the SETA to x10 and went to bed last night. Woke up with 3.5 million dollars waiting for me at my SPP. It had made that much before the Khaak blew up my crystal gatherer and the station had shut down.
I should get a second SPP but I'm waffling on what sector to put it in. Ideally more than 5 systems away from my other one so they're not competeing for the rare and expensive as hell crystals. Maybe on the far side of the universe... which is truly, truly massive! Every time I think I've mapped it all I find another system through map updates on bulletin boards that were hidden behind a Xenon sector, jump to it, and find so many more systems.
Edit: And by the way, Badger... to swap ships you need to be on the dock menu, not the ship menu. Then the almighty X will work as long as your other ship has successfully docked.
You can swap by way of spacewalk... but as far as I can tell you can only do this outside a station. I've become a hood ornament once or twice at the start when I was trying to be a purist and not use automated docking, ship switching, or anything else that can be done manually. At least one of those hood ornament times was because I bounced off a ship that looked like mine but was not mine at all.
Alright, so I knew it wasn't mine and I was trying to nick a Nova.
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Tue Feb 24, 2004 5:53 pm |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
I capture with a Nova equipped with 2x Ions and when the shields are down to zero (in 2 seconds as you know), I switch one of the Ions for a Beta Pac - a couple of shots gets me to 86-87% if I'm careful. Sometimes I have to patient to get them to bail - I do the above then back off so their shields regenerate and come back in, sometimes 3 or 4 more times. I find the Split give up easier than the others for me but that seems to be a random setting because it was the Teladi in my previous game.
Those Ions blast everything (which is probably good because they're a bit powerful otherwise). I was chasing an Orinocco yesterday who got close to the gate before I could close in. In 2 seconds of Ion use I'd blasted him, the gate (which caused the sector defences to launch), including sending in an M6 and a Destroyer guarding the sector. I went down - but not before causing some mayhem! 
I don't use SETA past legitimate travelling - it feels a bit like cheating to me. A good spot for a SPP is Red Light. There's lots of others, of course. If you'd like to build up your own infrastructure, Lucky Planets is a nice, quiet, relatively empty sector where you can build a SPP, then a Crytal fab to support it, then a Wheat Farm to support that - and so on.
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Tue Feb 24, 2004 10:24 pm |
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
On a side note, how's our request for an X2 forum going?
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Wed Feb 25, 2004 7:02 am |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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I lack the patience to wait for captured pirate ships to limp to a port two sectors away. I pretty much play in SETA. Considering that without SETA I'd have to have logged nearly a hundred hours to get as far as I have I have no regrets. The game is fun but committing a thousand real hours to get everything I want doesn't particularly appeal to me.
That said, now that I have about 6 million and no particular desire to buy a Corvette I still need to raise something like 90 million more... at least! Using SETA while I'm at work will not raise that much capitial any time soon... something like another 45 days. I'll need to do some sort of financial work whether I like it or not (that or kill thousands of pirates...).
Forum would be nice for threads like that, yes. A usergroup at any rate would suffice.
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Wed Feb 25, 2004 7:49 am |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
There was much merriment at the idea that X2 threads in the NFG had stayed on topic but Myrthos said he'd create it, with dte as moderator.
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Wed Feb 25, 2004 9:44 am |
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
Great, can we copy all the threads from here and AOT over so they are available for everyone to see?
_________________
If God said it, then that settles it!
I don't use Smileys, I use Emoticons!!
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Wed Feb 25, 2004 12:12 pm |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
That seems to be the plan.
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Wed Feb 25, 2004 12:20 pm |
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Badger
Stripey Forest Dweller
Joined: 18 Mar 2002
Posts: 924
Location: UK |
Ah.... well great then.
I can't help but feel as though I should be the one letting you all know how it went. But as officially I've heard nothing, I'll raise my paws in an unofficial thumbs up.
Badger
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"Ducks are Dumb!" Badger-2005. Go ahead... quote me! |
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Wed Feb 25, 2004 1:39 pm |
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Lintra
Elf Friend
Joined: 23 Apr 2002
Posts: 9448
Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES |
Guys I hate to throw a spanner into the vaseline, but hasn't dte decided to check out for an unspecified time?
PS-I have been following all the X2 threads and have very much enjoyed them. I have looked for, but not found, a copy of this game here. Oh well. Anyway, keep up the good writing! Every day I look forward to the continuing adventures of Xen, Badger, dte, and Corwin as they play bumper cars with the galaxy, with a cigar planted between the teeth and a leaky styrofoam (sp???) cup of coffee (sometimes laced with whiskey) sitting on the dashboard of their trusty space ships.
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Wed Feb 25, 2004 1:44 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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Ah vengeance.... so sweet sometimes it will give you cavities.
I took great pleasure in using three captured drones to completely wipe out the minefield that everyone loves so much. Not a single mine survived. After that I flew my Nova (ha... no Discoverer for me for this mission) in and did a little spacewalking. A glitch in the game had me ricochet off one of the nascelles I was supposed to scan... but entering and exiting my floating ship fixed it.
As luck would have it a hoarde of Khaak attacked the sector while I was floating about. This was great for me as it kept most of the pirates from getting too curious as to what I was doing. One did get too close but I left my Nova on 'protect' and on its heaviest weapon systems. The pirate got to float on in and take a quick scan of my ship before having to lament not being faster with the eject button.
So now I'm instructed to build an empire. Hmm. Some of the Xenon sectors are prime real estate. Maybe I'll see about clearing one out sometime and renaming it Xenspace.
Now, if only I had some business acumen... I like buy low, sell high as a strategy but the game doesn't often support that. In particular no place ever sells crystals at a discount on a regular basis. If I try to get them at the default price the automatic gathering ship I bought tries to travel 17 systems trying to get them at cost!
Almost enough to want to make me build my own crystal plant.
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Wed Feb 25, 2004 5:22 pm |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
I have my eye on a Xenon sector, too. It will quite a while before I can clear it, however.
Sounds like you've left the "Maximum Jumps" setting for your stations @ 99; generally I have then at a max of 2 but some locations are dense enough for just one jump. Trading Stations always sell crystals for 1684, so if you set the buy price to that they'll buy from the Trading Station which buys them at a loss if necessary from the Fabs. It some locations that works well - others need a little lattitude (up to ~1830).
I don't think dte taking a break will be a problem - it won't be a busy forum and he'll be back before it's an issue.
@Badger - new forums generally get discussed in the Mod forum first, so some of us get an unfair advantage when it comes to knowing how the discussion is going. Not sure when Myrthos will set it up, though.
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Wed Feb 25, 2004 9:32 pm |
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
I'm still finding the silicon trade VERY profitable. I never make less than 200 per unit and often a LOT more. I'm about to set up my first SPP if I can figure out how to do it properly, so hopefully I'll soon be making even more money!!  Then I'll save for a NOva!!!!
_________________
If God said it, then that settles it!
I don't use Smileys, I use Emoticons!!
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Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:48 am |
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