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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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| With Wings of Steel the Baron flies again |
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I finally got my copy. Huzzah!
The opening menu didn't fill me with hope... it ran at maybe 12 fps.
The opening cut scene wasn't flawless either... but once play started things seemed ok.
My first action? Attack a police disco. Boom. M4 pack some firepower!
Well, this irritated the rest of the police in short order. In they came in their busters and their discos.... and in flames they left.
Wow, guns fire a lot faster. I actually had to dogfight at maximum speed and twist, juke, and strafe all over the place to avoid the combined fire of about 20 ships. The M5 were hellions to pick off.
The new drift I didn't notice at all, really. It didn't hinder me at full velocity turns... quite the contrary it would keep my flight path too erratic for the AI to target properly.
Transports are now sitting ducks. They're so BIG that it's easy to keep out of their firing arc (though to be fair the days of just sitting behind one and taking it's rear turret all day are gone. Shields aren't what they used to be when measured against the new projectile speeds!). I capped the first one I engaged (by accident, really. It was red because my argon rating dropped SO fast!). The next 10 or 15 didn't bail. They're still stubborn when you radio 'surrender or die'.
One thing I don't like (it will take some getting used to more than dislike) is losing my precious WASD for turning. Different using my right hand to steer and left to fire. I think I adapted in short order... nothing like the entire night sky being filled with PAC and IRE rounds headed your way as incentive to learn.
Another is the loss of the 's' ship hotkey. By habit I went SC1 to navigate and... nothing. Perhaps it's remapped but I had to use R and select my ship.
Targeting as well seems to be something to get used to. Page down isn't reliable enough to cycle through enemies. e doesn't work at all anymore (not E, which is eject). It's shift-t now but I found it inaccurate at locking on what was in front of me, enemy wise.
Well, I only played for an hour which was apparantly enough to get Argon Enemy of some sort, destroy dozens of fightercraft and transports (including a few Novas. Shields really aren't what they used to be... a skilled M4 has NO problems annihilating a M3), and explode gloriously crashing into the bridge of Argon One at full speed (A-Wing from return of the jedi... only, you know, completely unharming the windows or bugging the shields much).
My computer handled 20 ship dogfights just fine so I'm hopeful.
_________________
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= |
Thu Nov 17, 2005 5:29 pm |
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Ican
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 185
Location: UK |
Well, I'm leading a more sedentary life in X3, hauling large amounts of cargo galaxy-wide in an Argon Super-freighter. The cargo capacity on these things is huge . Makes a Mercury look like a taxi. Any pesky pirates that want to take me on have to blast through 5 x 25MJ shields first. And god help them if I decide to run a collision course ...... the fluffy dice on my windshield would barely tremble in the aftershock. |
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Thu Nov 17, 2005 9:51 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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Four hours in and I have 2000 credits of my initial 5000 remaining (I got a few extra doing one delivery mission). I was chasing the plot around for a bit for the usual plot related perks.
Pirate Falcons are a little tricky when backed up by harriers. Take your eye off him for a second and plasma cannons take you out quickly. Ignore the harriers and they take you out.
I heard that ai pilot skills increased as your rank does. I'm inclined to believe it... where I shredded a fleet yesterday today I have a handful with three or four to one odds.
Need something bigger than a buster, as effective as it is. It's too slow to catch the harriers and not tough enough to take a pounding luring them into a strafing run... and not armed enough to one shot said harriers when they do fall for it.
Money is a little tricky, though. I don't have a TS or even an M5 to do taxi missions. I'll have to cap a few ships but that's not as stress free as it was in X2. 
_________________
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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Fri Nov 18, 2005 5:19 am |
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Ican
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 185
Location: UK |
I take it you started out in normal-plot mode then?
For sure, you don't get much to start with. The buster is nice, but as you say it's too slow to out-maneouvre harriers and lacks punch to take on the heavier falcons.
It's more fun for it though, I think. Combat is definitely not as straightforward and un-challenging as it was in X2, and when you eventually string enough credits together to get a better ship, the accomplishment will feel greater for it.
I now can manage approx 100,000 credits profit with each cargo run .... and that's just energy cells ! |
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Fri Nov 18, 2005 8:28 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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One of my games is on 'normal', yes.
The other, which is harder, is on Bankrupt Assassin.You start in a Split Mamba with plasma cannons, which is nice... but like you'd imagine you start with ZERO credits.
Plus you're neutral to all races except the Boron, who hate you with every fiber of their squidy being. Neutral sucks, all things considered. You can't even cash in one of your plasma cannons to buy some BIRE for capping easier (plasma are overkill at whittling down a hull).
Caught a boron supertransport in a pirate sector so nobody but the boron care that I shipjacked it. Relations are so much touchier now... the Argon get upset when you hijack or blast Boron ships in their space (they don't mind if you kill Paranid, though. In fact, your rep improves...). It's got about 40% hull so it will arrive at a dock sometime in the next 500 years. Hoping it sells for enough to get some basic trading done to raise my argon rep a bit.
_________________
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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Sat Nov 19, 2005 6:59 am |
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Ican
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 185
Location: UK |
The increased importance of reputation is a facet of X3 that I enjoy. You really have to work hard now at fostering trust to trade effectively ... even the higher Argonian friendship ranks are more difficult to achieve. Adds longevity to the game, and a bit of roleplay. Who do you want to side with? Make a choice ... |
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Sat Nov 19, 2005 12:25 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
Sounds like the game's got potential. Maybe I'll pick it up after all.
On a side note, you talented pilots still make me sick... 
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Sat Nov 19, 2005 7:38 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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Combat is harder, in a lot of ways. Dodging sure is. I can evasive manoever against 10 or so ships, sure, but it's harder to lock on and kill one while doing so in X3. Someone taught the computer how to shoot strafe drive using ships.
I'm a few hours in now with the Bankrupt Assassin. Got the argon rep up a little bit by blowing paranid to bits whenever they didn't bail in time. I've had a few solid super transport captures... enough to repair and kit out one of them and still have just over one million credits.
Ships are slower now and the sectors are larger. I'm not sure I follow the logic of that... but it is what it is. Super size trade ships cruise at a whopping 77 speed so bring a book...
Harder to turn a profit in a single sector, I'm finding. I know a lot of people use sector traders but I have yet to find a sector worthy (Banrupt starts you in Akeela's Beacon... far, far away from the profit rich argon and boron core).
_________________
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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Sat Nov 19, 2005 9:26 pm |
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Ican
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 185
Location: UK |
It takes awhile for the economy to settle down into a rhythm. Even then , I agree that making a profit takes more effort than it did in X2. The ships are slower, and the sectors bigger ... but then SETA x 10 is your friend
I'm still grumping that mobile mining hasn't been implemented yet though. I liked doing that in X2. |
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Sun Nov 20, 2005 11:43 am |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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SETA isn't always your friend. It's funny. Once you figure in cpu and computer lag it's faster to run x6 than x10 on my system. x6 is one 'km' per real second. x10 is more like one per 1.2 ...
But if your computer handles X3 like it's no more complicated than minesweeper, yes x10 would help a bit.
I've gotten some annoying crashes. My least favorite is flying along and then the game 'resets'. Goes back to the stations around the star main splash screen... and then churns furiously and does nothing.
Overall though I've gone 6 hours without a crash and I've gone 6 seconds with one. It's not as bad as the offical forums are making it out to be... at least, not yet.
_________________
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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Sun Nov 20, 2005 9:35 pm |
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Ican
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 185
Location: UK |
I've been real lucky so far, and haven't suffered even one crash. Touch wood  |
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Mon Nov 21, 2005 8:48 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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Starting to crash more frequently now that I have half the galaxy revealed (hurray for capping a souped up 535 speed maximum pirate m5).
Sigh.
_________________
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 Nov 22, 2005 4:38 pm |
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Ican
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 185
Location: UK |
Hmm ... that must be really frustrating to have it crash so often. Nevermind , patch 1.3 is not meant to be that far away ( originally touted for around the end of November ). |
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Tue Nov 22, 2005 6:28 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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When it works it worked well. I played around with a xenon sector... they've really been beefed up for X3. Sectors are FILLED with m1, m2, and m6. All I managed to do was quickly destroy three or four N and an L ... then I had to barrel roll strafe all the way to the gate as the sky was replaced by laser enegy. Nasty.
Factories seem a little pricer than I remember... would take a long time for a factory to be in the black. Still, there's something to be said for credits that come in while you're doing other things.
I've been doing basic energy runs from Akeela's Beacon to Argon Prime (or Eighteen Billion). I've got a super tanker that I liberated from a Paranid. It costs something like 130,000 to fill it and I can make 190,000 from a trip. 60,000 free money while I fly around annoying the paranid and looking for pirates to kill (they've been notoriously sparse since the assault in Elena's fortune where I managed to capture two novas).
I'd be worth about 5 million now if I sold off the M3s not in use (The mamba I started with I use for chasing down transports. The nova is for pirate busting. The falcon... well... the falcon is stuck up in Getsue Fune until I jump a disco up there with a jumpdrive for it. It's claim to fame? It has 250,000 shields and a rear turret. I don't know if regular falcons have this... I found this one as a derelict in a place that was not easy to reach.
It's like an even slower and heavily armored Nova... but it's ugly as hell. Style counts.
_________________
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 Nov 23, 2005 4:52 am |
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Ican
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 185
Location: UK |
Sounds as if you are rolling along quite nicely now. I've ventured into Xenon sectors too, and agree they are extremely nasty if you aren't properly equipped.
Factories, and commodities in general are more expensive in X3 than X2, but with planning there is more profit to be made. As you've found with the basic energy super-freighter run .. it can be lucrative just to be a solo-trader. That wasn't really the case with X2. |
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Wed Nov 23, 2005 8:16 pm |
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