#21

I would be, but after the game that shall not be named (ACM), I have decided not to count chickens until they have hatched with regards to games.

#22

Which is sound advice - and the reason why I have not pre-ordered it yet.

...still, one can live in hope...

#23

Got a couple of hours of the old X3 in last night and after spending one of those hours remapping the controls I was pleasantly surprised how much I was enjoying it .

Using some of points raised in the guides I even started to make a bit of money using the following technique:

- Put the trading software on my fighter and freighter.
- Upgraded the trading command software on the freighter.
- Parked my fighter in the home of light.
- Sent the freighter to the Ore belt.

With all that set up I instructed the freighter to buy some cheap energy cells from the massive power plant in the ore belt.

Note: This is all done from the fighter parked in the home of light.

To ascertain the best price you open the sector map, then go to the ‘stations’ tab. By clicking on each factory in turn then pressing ‘U’ the price and stock of the crap they need and sell is displayed.

For some reason the little power station was always full of cells and the big station was about half full. This leads to the price of the cells from the smaller station being dropped as they have a surplus of stock. For example:

Big power station > half full > 14 credits per unit.

Small power station > completely full > 11 credits per unit.

So you then tell the freighter to dock with the pertinent station and fill up on the energy cells.

Meanwhile back in the fighter………..there are some factories in the home of light that use the power cells. Again open up the sector map and click on each factory in turn and see if any are low on cells. If a factory is full they will only pay the standard value for the cells; however if a particular factory is empty, they will pay top dollar.

So I find the space bakery (???) has no cells so, open the map and tell your freighter to lumber to either your location or the factory in question. Keep an eye on the price as if some mother gets there before you and restocks the factory before your freighter gets there, you are Donald ducked.

So I picked up about 2000 cells from the factory at 11 credits per unit = 22000 credits.

I sell the crap to the stricken space bakery for 24 credits per unit = 48000 credits.

So I invest 22000, make 48000giving a nice 26000 profit.

I then treat myself to a space bun and cup of space tea. 

One thiing that did piss me off is that the freighter is so god dam slow that normally by the time it arrived some SOB had already dumped off a load of stock. I got a bit pissed off with this so just decided to blow up anyone that looked like they were going to resupply the factory.

#24

Cool, thankyou, cheers, tar for that. Sounds like you did quite well and got a lot more done than I managed.

I may have to use your above post and attempt to do a similar thing myself as you seem to know what you are doing and that little guide will help me no-end.

So, do you think this is something that is worth getting into? How did we do so badly the first time round!?

#25

Yea I am really enjoying it. I think it is an acquired taste as it is very slow, but I personally like that, it gives you plenty of time to think about you plan. I think when you have a lot of trading ships buzzing about all your time will be taken up.

When I worked out how to get the ship you are in to fly about by itself it was nice to have the auto pilot take you around whilst checking stocks, looking for bargains and ordering the transport ship about.

Some things that I am going to look into are:

- Automating the operation of the trading ship.- Finding some way to be able to get information on factories in other sectors. When you leave a sector you only have a snap shot of what the supply levels were like as you passed through. SO far the only way I can get dynamic prices is to leave a ship parked in each sector.

- Some info on the various upgrades and products available. 


I don’t know why we found it so tricky the first time, it is not easy, but it is not hard either really. I think I will give it some time.

#26

Superb! In which case I look forward to some more pro-tips

#27

Ok, turns out that you buy a ‘Nav Sat’ – not a sat nav and drop it in a sector, this give you presence that allows you to track the prices of things and stop gaps in the market.

Bollocks that is a lot better than buying ships and then just parking them in a corner.

#28

LOL. They sound useful.

While I appreciate the tips, any chance you can bung 'em in one of the "Newbie Tips" or "Guide" threads - to make searching for them easier? Leave general chat about it in here. Cheers Greg.

#29

Will do Greg.

#30

My thoughts on X3 so far...

After a few hours of playing about in X3, with Gregory (tricky little swine) holding my hand, I think it shows potential. Granted I still have next to no idea what most of the game is all about, but it's all a learning process.

It is definitely not as difficult as I remember it being when we first got the game. I really don't know what we found so hard. Maybe it was that we were doing the storyline straight away? I read on forums that the storyline is actually quite hard - and best not attempted straight away.

Anyway, I have done some trading, bought and placed a satellite, played about with the remote command system and explored most of the top left half of the universe and am enjoying it so far. I like the dynamic way the economy (and whole universe works), but this can also constitute being an annoyance too. For instance. A good half an hour was spent by me last night attempting to buy ore from an ore factory. I parked myself outside the factory and put SETA on maximum, waiting for the prices to go down. Every time they did, a bleedin' freighter would dock and buy up all their stick, putting the prices back up again. This happened several times and meant I wasted lots of time sitting around waiting for a deal that would never happen.

Other than my "hobo-exercise" mentioned above though, it is good fun and I look forward to learning of all the cool things you can do and buy for it.

Special thank-you to Sir Gregory of Gregory for helping me out!

Last edited 23 Aug 2013 at 08:40.

#31

I was actually quite helpful talking you though it yesterday as it made me think about some other ways to go about the tasks.

I can appreciate your frustrations with the prices, if you get a good deal on some ore then fly it to a zone that is offering a good price, it is really annoying if the price then shoots down. You are then stuck with it unless you sell it at below market value

.One thing I was thinking about doing in this situation was to fly to the edge of the map, take a note of the x,y,z coordinates and the price you picked it up for and dump the ore into space. You could then get on with some other stuff and when the price becomes reasonable again.

#32

You played this anymore recently Greg? Just curious, as I haven't due to Freelancer and the Baldurs Gate Mod.

TBH, the lack of multiplayer in this is a real turn-off. A shame, as it would be superb to play it with other people.

#33

I keep meaning to but I have been busy most nights this last few weeks. I will defiantly get back on it soon.

#34

Shiny. I would really like to try it with a joystick again, but since my one is Gregged-up, I was using mouse and keyboard. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I would still like to try it with a joystick.

#35

X3 = Meh

#36

Actually:

X3 = X * X * X
or
X² * X

#37

No diffinately Meh anyway you split it