Which ship is my choice?

[Lucky]

Couple weeks ago begin my first x3 run. And I started without a story.
These were hard times.
But now, it's 28th hour game time. And i have 2 Mineral stations, 3 TS Mercury (buy batterys/sell minerals), and my main ship, argon discoverer (Full upgraded, with 4 impulse rays, 3mj shields, and many many sub systems).
Right now, i can fight inly with weak enemy (Xeon N, or Other basic M5 ships).
And i decide to buy new ship. But all i see, is slow ships. My discoverer can reach 370m/s, but New nova maximum speed about 150 or so...
What i should buy? i have only 400-600k credits right now.

[kucingkampung]

Want speed? Visit the Splits. They have relatively fast but with slightly less defense fighter crafts. I suggest an M3 Advanced Mamba for start. It cost around 2 million, equiped with 260 m/s engine, 75MJ shield and its Hamerhead compatible missile (a poweful anti-capital missile that normally only available from drops). I can take out a single Centaur or P with that.

[Fedora01]

I'd personally recommed sticking with your Discoverer for now and continue to improve your income (getting your first Sector Trader would be a good idea). Unfortunatly for how much you have right now M3's are still out of your price range, starting price for most M3's is about 700k-1m Cr not including cost of weapons and shields (another 1m at least). But if you're really hurting for a decent combat ship you can look into getting a Buster Vanguard from the Cloudbase South East Shipyard, not the shiniest or fastest but it will get the job done.
If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask :)

[FourGreenFields]

If you want a combat ship for half a million credits, you're limited quite bad.

The Teladi Kestrel might be an option. High speed, and the firepower should be slightly better than your Discoverer's.
https://x3wiki.com/index.php/Kestrel

Pretty much your only other option is the Paranid Enhanced Pericles, but that's generally considered a terrible player-ship. Good speed for its class (252m/s), decent shield, average firepower, small S-class cargo-bay (-> no jumpdrive!) - but the thing is dirt cheap, at just 71k credits.
https://x3wiki.com/index.php/Pericles


I'd recommend you to earn some more money first instead. 3-4 millions should be enough for a decent M3 with equipment. 1-2 million if you're content with an M4.

M3s:
Argon Nova Raider does 190m/s, and has 75MJ shields. Decent firepower too, and a turret. More or less the jack of all trades, good player-ship. Prototype is even better, but difficult to get.
https://x3wiki.com/index.php/Nova

OTAS (Argon) Venti trades a little cargo-space to be a slightly improved Nova Raider. Faster, 2 more guns, better shields, same generators. Costs about twice as much though (3.3M, instead of 1.6M)
https://x3wiki.com/index.php/Venti

Split Mamba Raider and Vanguard variants are decent. Fast, but little shielding. Good for hit-and-run tactics. I'm not sure what kucingkampung is playing, but it's certainly not vanilla AP - the Advanced Mamba cannot be obtained by the player without cheating, afaIk - definitly not buyable.
https://x3wiki.com/index.php/Mamba

M4s:
OTAS (Argon) Euros. 700k. Not the best, but should keep you covered in most situations.
https://x3wiki.com/index.php/Eurus

Split Scorpion Raider, or Vanguard variants. Glass cannon, but fast as hell (296m/s for Raider, 257m/s for Vanguard). Raider costs 500k, Vanguard 400k. Good firepower for their class.
https://x3wiki.com/index.php/Scorpion

Boron Pike. Technically an M4+. 800k credits, 195m/s speed, 25MJ shield. M3-class cargo-bay. Really, I'd treat it a lot like a cheaper and slightly worse M3.
https://x3wiki.com/index.php/Pike


Third option is to attack M4s in your M5 (should be perfectly doable, if you know what you're doing), and hope they bail. Might get a decent-ish ship for free that way.

[kucingkampung]

Oh, sorry. You're right. I was reffering to Advanced Mamba in TC. Mamba Raider have almost the same spec with Adv. Mamba.

[WinterCreation]

Wait until you have about 1.3 mil and get OTAS Solano. Much better than above recomended Eurus and Pike, cheaper than M3 class ships.
Also lets you get used to lower speeds with heavy firepower after m5.

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by WinterCreation:

Wait until you have about 1.3 mil and get OTAS Solano. Much better than above recomended Eurus and Pike, cheaper than M3 class ships.
Also lets you get used to lower speeds with heavy firepower after m5.

At 1.3M price you could just as well get a real M3 though. The 300k difference to the Nova Raider isn't really worth getting a worse ship sooner.

[WinterCreation]

Originally posted by FourGreenFields:

Originally posted by WinterCreation:

Wait until you have about 1.3 mil and get OTAS Solano. Much better than above recomended Eurus and Pike, cheaper than M3 class ships.
Also lets you get used to lower speeds with heavy firepower after m5.

At 1.3M price you could just as well get a real M3 though. The 300k difference to the Nova Raider isn't really worth getting a worse ship sooner.

True enough. I would still prefer solano in his situation(20m\s faster)

[DrSuperEvil]

Those two Mine stations of yours better be large since you cannot replace them later (asteroid does not respawn). If you want both speed and fire power look at the Aldrin ships.

https://x3wiki.com/index.php/Deca.deaf

https://x3wiki.com/index.php/Spitfyre

Go to Omicron Lyrae and salvage missiles from the war sectors to earn some more capital. You can then pick on the pirate TS ships in Merchants Haven for some free traders/ships to sell.

Did you go the Anonymous Argon start or custom?

Try fighting lone Pirate buzzard vanguards since those are good M4 ships but lack a rear turret.

[The Cunning Fox (raZoleg)]

Buy a TS, spend the money improving engines, look for opportunities (Montalaar, Paranid Sectors arond Paranid Prime, Company Pride - can trade w/o leaving the sector for batteries). Earn your first Million. Then buy another TS, outfit it, train the trader to Universal Trader (UT, or Trade Soft MK III level 8). Keep doing this until you have at least 10-15. Then you will have a steady income from the UTs.

Then you can buy any ship in the game. I've managed to get about a billion credits doing traders-only playthrough in the space of about 20 game hours. Which is slow, some people might say, but it is a no-stations playthrough.

I don't know what ship to buy now, so I'm capturing stuff and pissing entire empires off.

[DrSuperEvil]

Using player time to trade is inefficient. Rather remotely control the TS.

UTs are only an option if neutral with all major races.

Considering you can reach 3 billion credits income per hour without stations within the first 72 hours of play that is no noteworthy feat. You can be earning 144 million per hour within the first 6 hours and that is just with the player ship.

[The Cunning Fox (raZoleg)]

I'm not talking munchkin exploits, scripting and/or breaking the game. Neither am I talking about doing 10 missions a minute. Nor am I talking about stock market.

One can read a gajillion guides on how to exploit the game, or just edit the save file.

UTs are good for beginner because they don't have to f*ck around with factory supplies and other micromanagement. It's fire and forget and the rest is fighting enemies and exploring space.

[Ketraar]

Originally posted by razoleg:

UTs are good for beginner because they don't have to f*ck around with factory supplies and other micromanagement. It's fire and forget and the rest is fighting enemies and exploring space.

Well thats assuming you know what a Unitrader is, and how to equip a ship for it, also have the spare 500k for the software, then understand which sector to place it so it trains fast enough and not just sit around idling for most part. That you need to explore these sectors first is also not a given.

A L1 Station is far more simpler and cheaper to set up as a Mk3 Trader and you dont require micro at all, it needs plopping and then feed with Ecels. Done.

MFG

Ketraar

[Nevasith]

I'm a big fan of kestrels - decent cargo hold, absurd speed and a turret. A small note - most missiles can't even keep up with a fully upgraded kestrel! They do great when you're short on cash and focus on collecting missiles from combat zones or doing space fuel/weed runs.

[DrSuperEvil]

Kestrel is good for sector exploration but not the most effieient use of player time unless trying to get between key sectors.

[The Cunning Fox (raZoleg)]

Originally posted by Ketraar:

Originally posted by razoleg:

UTs are good for beginner because they don't have to f*ck around with factory supplies and other micromanagement. It's fire and forget and the rest is fighting enemies and exploring space.

Well thats assuming you know what a Unitrader is, and how to equip a ship for it, also have the spare 500k for the software, then understand which sector to place it so it trains fast enough and not just sit around idling for most part. That you need to explore these sectors first is also not a given.

A L1 Station is far more simpler and cheaper to set up as a Mk3 Trader and you dont require micro at all, it needs plopping and then feed with Ecels. Done.

MFG

Ketraar

I think I gave a list of sectors to start with in my previous comment. It's not a guide, but it's a start.

A station needs to be in the right sector. Some require at least two-three resources. If it's in the wrong sector - you will be attacked.

Nope, UT with MK3 soft is good enough. A teladi port can outfit it just right in the beginning, or even in ARgon space the central sectors have nearly all the equipment you might need.

----

I second the Kestrel comment, but it's quite expensive to outfit it with everything and easy to lose. I'd move to a TM with Kestrel inside (or three) and explore the galaxy.