Dead is Dead / DID survival tips

[sirus a]

The DID play mode is my favorite. It's difficult, nerve racking, and most importantly has an easy-save option. The convenience of the one-save is why I play it, as I log off when I'm done playing and everything is as it was when I resume play. The normal play mode requires buying salvage insurance to achieve a similar feel, but loading an autosave will randomize mission offerings.
DID leads to a much better experience, as follows.
My save had about 24h play with another 24h SETA going, and I'd just gotten to the point of befriending the Split. I was cruising about Contorted Dominion and has just given some bloke a lift into Patriarch's Conclusion where I'd spotted a good taxi mission to further my reputation. I was juggling mission and logistics so I did not notice the angry Dragon bearing down on my position until I heard Betty chirping about one of my ships being attacked. Several seconds of panic led to my faithful Magnetar being turned to space dust, whilst my Falcon escorts began firing as reputation loss sunk in. I slammed shift + j and selected whichever jumpgate in Contorted Dominion faster than if Hugo Chavez was shouting "arriba!" from behind me. The Dragon calmed once I left the system, and I'd only lost my faithful Magnetar... the same which had tackled pirate ambushes unarmed, and survived with barely a flesh wound. I would have reloaded with a normal start, saving a ship that had become my home, but I calmed myself and bought a Pleco. Apparently I'm Boron in this start, so it's probably more comfortable anyway.

DID forces the player to engage in the type of organic experience that makes X-games worth their weight in gold. The sheer number of interactions within the game create an unscripted experience that I've rarely found in other media, and just letting the world happen whilst you pursue whatever goal you've set today is good entertainment.

This said, I've lost more than one DID game to silly things and misunderstandings.

1. Aggravated NPC ships lose their aggression once the player leaves a system, as long as there is another player asset in that system and reputation is adequate. Leaving a trail of satellites will make newly spawned pirates find their peace with the player, and laser towers/defense platforms must be calmed by using an OOS asset.

2. There is very little traffic control for jumpgates. The player has a decent chance of being internally ravaged when flying any large ship through the gate network, by entering or leaving. Piloting a TL personally is asking for trouble and a player doing such will be lucky to survive 100 jumps in DID. Autopilot is the simple solution, and typically as quick as checking for incoming ships manually using strategically placed satellites in the sector map.

3. THE WORST DID KILLER is accomplished by flagrant use of a Docking Computer and a lack of religious habit with Autopilot. The Docking Computer uses the end-state of the Autopilot docking sequence to determine which docking clamp the player uses, Autopilot no-clips and has a nasty habit of docking TS/TP sized ships partially in a station model. Insta-death then results on undock if Autopilot is not engaged. Playing the game nigh requires running taxi missions, which means the mid-game is Russian Roulette whenever the "undock" button is pressed. Autopilot will save your time in starting a new game, and the biggest contender for "Most Homicidal Station" is the Low-yield Sidearms Fab.

The newer X-games are more balanced, grander, and less fun before taking on the learning curve for a myriad of new game systems. X3:AP is a B+, three-axis dogfighter with as much micro-management as I feel is healthy. There are silly things that happen, and they make the game about as fun as it can be without VR.

[musoyama]

DiD is all about getting yourself into a safe ship and then remote controlling as much of the action as possible. At the start of the game unless you use a credit cheat or ware cloning you won't be able to afford anything with decent shields for a long time. The next best way to avoid trouble is to be able to see it coming (Triplex Scanner) and outrun it (engine tuning). So, you need to get out of that Octopus (crap scanner and engine tuning a waste of money).

At the immediate start open the sector menu and highlight the Recon Drone Construction Facility. You can’t tell the prices BUT if the stock levels of Recon Drones are 80% or better then you’ll be able to buy 3 or 4 drones at around 21-23,000 and sell them at Atreus HQ for 28,000 (15,000-20,000 profit). You can repeat that maybe one buying them at around 26,000 – another 6000-8000 profit. Total profit 21,000 to 28,000.

How to buy? Fly to the Pirate Base in Veil of Delusion and sell your Space Fuel. Buy two cargo bay extensions. Fly to Distant Clouds and pick up the credit crate – 75,000 credits. On the way to these two locations be on the look out for any missiles dropped after a battle. Pick them up (only S size cargo) and sell them at either the Military Base in Faded Dreams, Atreus HQ or the Equipment Dock in Queen’s Retribution. Only pick up what you see in your immediate flight-path – your radar scanning range is pathetic and your craft can’t outrun missiles or Pirates – not yet. If you see any red circles offering defend station missions accept them. No patrols or escort and NO kill missions. After the pirate ship crashes pick up the missiles they drop and sell as before.

Do the buying and selling of the Recon Drones in Queens Harbour – you should have over 100,000 credits. Fly to the Shipyard in Queen’s Retribution and dock. Buy an Octopus Raider – cheapest available. Upgrade the ship cargo to max and about 10400 credits of engine tuning and about 5200 of rudder optimization. Buy Boost Extension. Transfer to the Octopus Raider and then transfer the SETA from your regular Octopus. Sell your old Octopus. Undock and bring up the sector map. Immediately you’ll notice you can see EVERYTHING! The Raider has a built-in Triplex Scanner. This means you can see trouble coming and with the extra tuning you can now outrun most missiles, Pirates and Xenon.

This should take about 15-30 minutes and sets you up for the rest of DiD. I generally fly up to Grand Exchange trying to improve my Teladi ranking on the way and then pick up the dozens of missiles that get dropped by Xenon vessels when they attack Grand Exchange. The Teladi fleet will take care of the Xenon. So much more to say but this is the best way to start DiD in my IMHO. If the stock of the Recon Drones is poor at the start – exit and restart the game! It’s not cheating or even exploiting – you haven’t started yet!

[musoyama]

...continued...also in the early stages look out for any ships with the orange C mark next to them. For example buy a 57% hull Dolphin for 40,000 credits, jump out and repair the hull, sell it at the shipyard in Queen's Retribution - easy money! Don't bother doing any trading with the Dolphin, much more money to be made selling scavenged missiles in Grand Exchange. You want to get enough rep with the Teladi to be able to buy a Kestrel - then you'll be able to pick up 'M' cargo such as Hammerheads, Firestorms, Cyclones etc. AND start doing a few taxi missions (Cargo Bay Life Support available at the Stock Exchange in Grand Exchange).

--

[Disco Stu]

I had all the patience to try this out and things were going well, until the game crashed and I lost the save. Thankfully it was only a few hours in, but it's a shame, I was really looking forward to the challenge - only don't quite have the stomach for bugs to ruin my run.

[musoyama]

lol...I'm still playing AP DiD regularly and more often that FL. In fact just today I completed yet another 'Xenon L capture' (starting as DiD the 'L' capture is the single most difficult part of the initial plot so I know once I've got my 'L' sitting in the Grand Exchange Shipyard I'm good to go for the rest of the DiD plot. Took me about six 'real' hours. I don't mess around with any 'skillful' methods for capturing the 'L' - it's just total death and destruction in Xenon 598 until one or more 'L's are left abandoned by their pilots, then I use System Override Software to claim, transport a Jumpdrive and some ECs and jump the L to the shipyard in Grand Exchange - then I fight my way out of 598 under normal power - I'm in a fully loaded Aquilo so it's not that difficult. How to get to that stage in six hours using only what is 'standard' in AP 3.3 is a spoiler so I won't post unless requested,
I nevertheless find my method a little crude and so spend time searching for a more elegant solution, especially one that isn't dependent on stumbling across a hull-damaged Mako on offer for less than 75,000 credits in the first five minutes or a capital ship skirmish in Faded Dreams leaving behind five or six Banshees and a couple of Remote Guided Warheads. (Both situations have happened on multiple occasions but aren't 'guaranteed circumstances'...so the search continues!

[Disco Stu]

Hah, sounds like fun!

I don't know, I'm just fearful of these bugs that I can't control. Not sure if I did anything that might have triggered it, maybe an alt-tab, but it's hard to stay motivated

As a complete aside, it took me over 200 hours of playtime to realize that when you get a damaged ship, you can actually repair it and sell it for a way more than you'd sell a 25%er. It's one of the things I hoping to do more of in the DiD playthrough.

[musoyama]

Yep - repairing damaged ships is a big shortcut in DiD. You CAN trigger it by hanging around the East gate in Queen's Retribution and constantly fly into Hollow Infinity and back again. Sometimes there'll be a ship on offer just by the gate in Hollow Infinity but more often a ship on offer at the Boron Shipyard in QR. If the price is too steep just SETA the 'offer' time and then wait for the next offer to come along. In the meantime you can accept sector patrol missions for QR or HI but just don't wander too far into the sector - you want to be able to fly through the East gate to escape from trouble. Just immediately next to the East gate in QR you are within communications range of the shipyard, trading station and one other station - so accept defend station missions too.
One other trick you may not know about are the Recon Drones available from Atreus HQ in QH. You can buy and sell them for about 28,000 but you have to care for them. Eject from your cargo bay and instruct the drone to fly through a gate and it will auto-map the sector. You can tell it to map two sectors back-to-back but after that you MUST pick it back up into your cargo bay - they will just die if left outside!! If there's a skirmish in the sector come to a complete halt, eject the drone and use it to identify any missiles dropped by destroyed pirate craft. Then just carefully press and hold the Z key to back up and pick up the drone. It's like having a Triplex scanner in your ship and really useful early on.

[Disco Stu]

Didn't know about the drones.

I did find using the stock market an easy shortcut to getting money, I'd even say exploit-y.

I played my main game using the Springblossom, which I love for speed and firepower, but those two-three times I died undocking make me very wary of even buying it for DiD.

Totally unrelated, did you ever bother to find those bloody spaceflies for the achievement? I've sort of given up on the idea of every getting XTREME rankings to 100% this baby, but would like to get those spaceflies off my bucket list.

[musoyama]

In another post I mention piloting Springblossom as being a very easy way to end your DiD challenge early. I only fly a Springblossom after DiD is finished. Yes, the stock market is a good way to go (it's not a spoiler any longer) but it's a little boring. The most fun I have in DiD is when I stick to the bottom right sectors (Boron) and try to improve my rep with the Split and Paranid. The only real way to achieve this is by accepting roid scanning missions or return abandoned ship. So make sure you DON'T accept roid scanning in QR, HI from the Boron, Argon or Teladi. And also occasionally fly down to Distant Clouds to see if a roid mission appears there. Otherwise I do the 'fly though East gate' thing in QR hoping each time to find a new hull-damaged ship on offer at the Boron Shipyard. As soon as I have anything like an M4 I start transporting passengers and then the money rolls in and the game quickly progresses.
For spaceflies I've always been well rewarded in:
Unknown Sector beyond Xenon 534 - park in the middle of the large asteroid field and turn on SETA and keep your eyes peeled - occasionally fire a burst from your Ion Disruptor

[armcannon]

I love DiD runs in X3AP because typical small threats suddenly become panic inducing. Unfortunately the game will eventually crash and end your DiD run, as you noted. Have you considered picking one of the normal game starts and committing yourself to reloading if you die? At least then you have the option to reload a save if your run ends due to bugs/crashes rather than player error.

Pick a relatively safe unpopulated sector and have your other ships do everything remotely, where possible. Booby trap the gates with lasertowers. Combat should be avoided where possible, but otherwise should be done OOS. No capping, no boarding, obviously. Get a satellite network up asap. Since the goal is to avoid combat altogether, the real killer now is crashing into friendly ships. So heavy shielding/hull becomes more viable. Keep a healthy stock of mosquitos on board for missile defense. A stockpile of other missiles may be useful too, not neccessarily to kill enemy ships, but to force them into evasive maneuvers, buying yourself time while you active your jump drive and escape. Because of the need for shielding and cargo capacity, Teladi capital ships may be a viable option.

Those are just some basic suggestions. But to be honest, DiD in X3AP isn't that difficult. In my experience, dying is not even that common in a normal playthrough unless you're being reckless.

[Disco Stu]

I have given up on it, but you are right, I don't recall dying in my normal playthrough, unless I did something crazy-ish. Maybe I'll come back to it at some other point, it's taken me long enough to really explore the game, so what's a few more years?

[Mad_Commander]

Originally posted by Disco Stu:

I have given up on it, but you are right, I don't recall dying in my normal playthrough, unless I did something crazy-ish. Maybe I'll come back to it at some other point, it's taken me long enough to really explore the game, so what's a few more years?

I'm not ever gonna play DiD but i'm still playing this like..... 10 years later :)

[musoyama]

Originally posted by Mad_Commander:

I'm not ever gonna play DiD but i'm still playing this like..... 10 years later :)

I just finished by fastest ever AP DiD (in all but name) i.e. capture the Xenon L, and have 200 Computer Components, 50 Microchips, 10 IREs and 3 Lasertowers all docked at the Beryll Research Station in Albion Alpha - Flying time 15:49:31.
(Completing the actual DiD mission is simple after that - remotely whenever possible or IN or with my Aquilo, loaded with Hammers and FBMs in tow.) The single hardest task is the Xenon L capture which I do by taking the Aquilo to Xenon 598 and kill everything until an L is finally abandoned. Relatively minor tasks like the 3 lasertowers can be irritating when you don't have enough race reputation so you need to balance a lot tasks. Finally, don't forget to equip your Aquilo with Turbo Boost and System Override Software AND a Transporter if you want to make sure that captured L makes it out of Xenon space (transport your Jumpdrive to the L and Jump it to a shipyard) and make sure you have enough missiles left to fight your way out of Xenon space under normal power.

[musoyama]

Love that I still find new strategies and stuff in this game. My latest DiD plan involves getting myself promoted to Terran Senatorial Advisor rank ASAP - programmable keyboard to the rescue. Then it's into a Valkyrie with Jumpdrive from the Shipyard in Saturn and the rest is pretty straightforward, The Valkyrie can be maxed to 96 cargo which also means you get offered military personnel transport missions which pays well and increases your rep really quickly. Interesting that the Valkyrie is the 'go to' ship for the Terran game start too.

[musoyama]

I'm not sure if this is covered elsewhere but when playing DiD and flying IN the war sectors so long as you remain in the sector any other vessel you own can pass through that sector safely. If you try dropping a nav-sat in a war sector and then exit the sector it'll be destroyed pretty quickly. If you order a ship to fly from Omicron Lyrae to collect dropped missiles in Circle of Labour and you remain in Omicron. The ship will be destroyed by Terran fighters very quickly, The trick is to fly there together.

[Mad_Commander]

Originally posted by musoyama:

Originally posted by Mad_Commander:

I'm not ever gonna play DiD but i'm still playing this like..... 10 years later :)

I just finished by fastest ever AP DiD (in all but name) i.e. capture the Xenon L, and have 200 Computer Components, 50 Microchips, 10 IREs and 3 Lasertowers all docked at the Beryll Research Station in Albion Alpha - Flying time 15:49:31.
(Completing the actual DiD mission is simple after that - remotely whenever possible or IN or with my Aquilo, loaded with Hammers and FBMs in tow.) The single hardest task is the Xenon L capture which I do by taking the Aquilo to Xenon 598 and kill everything until an L is finally abandoned. Relatively minor tasks like the 3 lasertowers can be irritating when you don't have enough race reputation so you need to balance a lot tasks. Finally, don't forget to equip your Aquilo with Turbo Boost and System Override Software AND a Transporter if you want to make sure that captured L makes it out of Xenon space (transport your Jumpdrive to the L and Jump it to a shipyard) and make sure you have enough missiles left to fight your way out of Xenon space under normal power.

I know how to play they game. ;) I just refuse to play DiD, it's not my thing. I don't know how many restarts, play through and piss abouts i've done right through from X2 The Threat to this.
I admit I don't own X4, Not really my thing either.