This is so. incredibly. boring.

[Pondera the Radio Angel]

So, I started playing this game as the humble merchant since I heard it was a trading simulator, and I figured it would be like one of those Anno games, except with only me and my ship. Read some guides, did what they told me, and made around 150k, and I'm running into an issue. All I'm really doing is taking energy cells from a solar power plant in the ore belt and delivering them somewhere else. The next chapter in the guide I'm following opens with "when you've gotten around 1m credits...", this is going to take multiple DAYS of just going back and forth, dropping off the same damn boring cargo.

When does this game get any better? Because I'm already pretty sick of doing this. This game is built like an MMO with a miles tall grind wall, and it explains NOTHING. Like I tried to do a mission for some extra cash, hoping that would help speed things along. I needed a PERSONNEL transport to transport people.....I was not aware that I did not already have that. But when I go looking for one in the Argon shipyards, I can't afford anything, nor do they offer anything relevant. Just pointless upgrades for crap I don't want that I can't afford. I can't even do any mining because my sad little merchant ship can't do anything but make the same trips back and forth from the solar plant to whatever slob needs ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ energy cells.

So, what am I doing wrong here? Did I make a bad choice somewhere? Did I skip past some crucial piece of information? Because, the way things are, I think I'd rather play Anno 2070 instead. At least I could actually BUILD something in that game.

[Kumakumakuma]

Two quick ideas for you to speed up the initial boring grind:

1) Just to check: Are you using SETA? It will speed up time by a factor of 10(if you bump it up in the settings). This is a MUST for this game.

2) Stock Market. Head to Seizewell and buy a license to trade on the market for 10k. Buy biological micro-organisms when they hit over 100, then wait a little bit for them to crash to <70 and sell them. Do this a few times and get some capital, then branch out to construction equipment, terran high tech goods, and weapons interface chips. Keep following the same ideas, buying low and selling high, until you get a few mil. If you want, you can move on to the corporate indexes where you can make a hefty profit off a change of 4-5 index. Or you can move on to factories and other ships.

The stock exchange is a bit OP and gamey, but it will cut out endless hours of boring startup. Good luck!

[Pondera the Radio Angel]

Originally posted by Kumakumakuma:

Two quick ideas for you to speed up the initial boring grind:

1) Just to check: Are you using SETA? It will speed up time by a factor of 10(if you bump it up in the settings). This is a MUST for this game.

2) Stock Market. Head to Seizewell and buy a license to trade on the market for 10k. Buy biological micro-organisms when they hit over 100, then wait a little bit for them to crash to <70 and sell them. Do this a few times and get some capital, then branch out to construction equipment, terran high tech goods, and weapons interface chips. Keep following the same ideas, buying low and selling high, until you get a few mil. If you want, you can move on to the corporate indexes where you can make a hefty profit off a change of 4-5 index. Or you can move on to factories and other ships.

The stock exchange is a bit OP and gamey, but it will cut out endless hours of boring startup. Good luck!

Yup. Am using the time compression feature and I adjusted the options to make it a 1000% increase.

Am in Argon Space, and I think you got your instructions backwards. Shouldn't I wait for them to crash to a low price before I sell them at a higher price?

I'll look into this stock exchange as well. Now, answer me this. What cool things are we able to do futher down the line? What should I be looking forward to by navigating all this?

[Bozz 💀]

In my current game, I salvage abandonned ships in warzones that gives a lot of cash, you can also buy more freighters to transport more goods to make more money, or simply buy a factory (even a ore mine L for 800K credits, put the game on SETA for all the night and get 6-10 million credits)

Every game is different and based on your objectifs, you can do almost anything in this game, create a fleet of trading ships that will automatically trade for you, create stations, colonise sectors to start your own empire, in one of my games I owned 6 sectors (lostco mod) and had something like 200 stations connected to each other by hundreds of freighters took me hours to put all that in place, then the xenons from Hero memorial started to invade my sectors (I activated the xenon military bases from MBRR mod and they finally took my 6 sectors destroying everything :( ... start a war with another faction, face MASSIVE Khaak invasions...

But one advice for you, INSTALL SOME MODS, the base game is nothing in comparison to some mods.

[Pondera the Radio Angel]

Originally posted by Bozz:

In my current game, I salvage abandonned ships in warzones that gives a lot of cash, you can also buy more freighters to transport more goods to make more money, or simply buy a factory (even a ore mine L for 800K credits, put the game on SETA for all the night and get 6-10 million credits)

Every game is different and based on your objectifs, you can do almost anything in this game, create a fleet of trading ships that will automatically trade for you, create stations, colonise sectors to start your own empire, in one of my games I owned 6 sectors (lostco mod) and had something like 200 stations connected to each other by hundreds of freighters took me hours to put all that in place, then the xenons from Hero memorial started to invade my sectors (I activated the xenon military bases from MBRR mod and they finally took my 6 sectors destroying everything :( ... start a war with another faction, face MASSIVE Khaak invasions...

But one advice for you, INSTALL SOME MODS, the base game is nothing in comparison to some mods.

Well, I kind of want to create a vast factory empire like minecraft in space, or maybe Anno in space. My own Empire is definitely on the table in that regard. Once I have a powerful economy, I planned on setting up my own navy and obliterating anyone who provoked my ire. Maybe those future space wal-mart guys over in Telasi.

As for leaving SETA on, isn't that bad? I heard the game triggered pirate invasions and such to punish you for doing that.

Lastly, what mods would you recommend? I was thinking I should get a feel for the base game before engaging in my habitually endless mod dabbling, but it does seem like they're necessary.

[Bozz 💀]

I palyed the base game for 8 hours, and I played X3 AP moded for more than 2K hours (I use no steam exe,
Nothing bad about leaving the game on SETA

Mods I recommend are

Bonus package

XRM: X Rebalance mod http://forum.egosoft.de/viewtopic.php?t=304158
All the recommanded mods for XRM listed on the first page except the advanced universe if you wantt to use IEX
Recommanded mods for Military base response revamp

IEX http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=312645
attention on install instruction for compatibility with XRM but nothing complicated

MARS Fire control http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=217470

Lost colony http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=327171
again read carefully install instruction for IEX and XRM compatibility but it's nothing really complicated

Bounce http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=295405
very important to avoid loosing ships because off the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up auto pilot...

Ok trader http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=121043
Very good trading mod for your factory ships

Improved Khaak 2 the revenge http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=330844

Pirate guild 3 http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=244949

Yaki Armada http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=267009

Anarkis defense systeme http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=246767
I personnaly don't install the new one real wings created by nicoman koz it always ♥♥♥♥♥ my game up...

Personnally I use something like 100 mods lol on a very stable install I never got any crash and I played for over 200 hours in my last game...
I don't recommend litcub's universe mod, koz almost nothing is compatible with that one, u will lose a lot by choosing that mod

If you want more mods look here http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=216690

[Pondera the Radio Angel]

100 at once? Wait... I remember reading something about how you can only run one at a time. Was that not true?

[Bozz 💀]

maybe not 100 but 60 or 70 for sure...
You can only activate one mod at a time with the game launcher

You can use the X plugin manager for mods using SPK files, then U can use the fake patch methode, it is explained in detail in the XRM mod.
most of mods I use are only scripts you put in the scripts folder of X3

[mmmcheesywaffles]

Try the SCS script by TECGS. It lets you switch many features of X3 on or off. You can tailor the game to match your preferences.

Leaving SETA on does actually cost eventually. Expect to lose ships before you can get them out of trouble.

Salvaging wrecks and missiles can add to your credits.

Look at the various Guides available some are wuite helpful

[Richard]

Originally posted by Bozz:

I don't recommend litcub's universe mod, koz almost nothing is compatible with that one, u will lose a lot by choosing that mod

If your just starting out I wouldnt recemmend ANY total conversion mods, just play Vanilla Albion Prelude and if you find some that you dont like check the forums to see if there is a mod to change it..

After you have played for say like 100 hours and fancy a change then try one of the total remakes.

I personally have just started using Litcubes Universe and found that after over 100 hours of playing there is no need for any mods as the package has every thing inlcuded(I love the trade prdoduct search).

It is a steep learning curve but trying to mod a game is part of the fun of playing the game :)

[Bozz 💀]

LC mod is very good, has a lot of potential but lacks customization for now, but more and more sub mods are added so things are getting better... but still it lacks customization, I think that old habits are hard to kill for me, I just can't live without some mods like MARS or MBRR...

[Leo3ABP]

Back to the OP question.
Theare are different ways to make money in this game early on. Some of them were suggested already, others - well, there are simplier missions like asteroid scans or transporting single person (not requires TP class ship), or you can try to trade things like silicon wafers which are easy to find at lowest price and easy to sell at max price, but one thing all those ways have in common is that all of them take time. X3 isnt a game that you can jump into for some fast action and complete it in 10 hours. Things literally may take days and weeks here, even month in case you are aiming to build huge trade empire. This game is akin to hobby, you need to enjoy the process and time spent there, not only the result. If you dont, then this game might not probably be for you, at least for now. It took me many tries in a span of over 15 years to actually understand finer point of X games and eventually fall in love with them.

[Russ]

Originally posted by Pondera:

Am in Argon Space, and I think you got your instructions backwards. Shouldn't I wait for them to crash to a low price before I sell them at a higher price?

He was talking about the index level. In the stock markets in X3 index = Supply/Demand * 100 so buying it at 100+ and selling as low as possible is profitable.

As for your original post, the great thing about X3 is the creation of an empire. In your example of just buying up e-cells in the ore belt and distributing them around well there's no reason you yourself need to do that if you don't want to. If it's profitable to do so you could instead get yourself a dfiferent ship and put a commody logistics MK2 mod in your current TS/trading ship (their cost is negligble - 10k or something). Then use that commodity logistics system to automate the entire process of dropping in at the solar power plant, loading up, and then selling it to everybody else. Make sure you have the official bonus pack installed.

Suddenly you're making the same amount of money without having to do anything. Now can cruise around in your new ship and do whatever you like. Perhaps go scavenge some war/xenon sectors, equip a basic fighter and start doing station defense or other basic military missions, maybe even grab another small trading ship and start trying to build up an entire empire of automated energy trading ships.

[Kumakumakuma]

Yeah, sorry, I was talking about the Index. Stocks that are listed at 100+ will show as Red. Those are the ones you want to work on first. High index means low price :)

[foot_portrait]

Well, honestly...I had a rough start with x3 as well. I bought the game a few month ago in a store and installed it via Steam afterwards. Played a few hours and got frustrated, I just didn't know how to move my ship in a good manner, how to trade, build...and so on.

Didn't touch the game for month then. A few days ago I thought "Hm...maybe you should play it again!?" and read some guides, started a few new savegames and now I have my first 24+ hours of playing behind me. Now I feel familiar with the game (trading, travelling, etc) and it is great fun. Not sure how it will be when it comes to fighting, I hate fighting! :D

At the moment I have a wheat ranch, my Mercury (autopilot trading energy cells), 2 Buster patroling the sector (senseless atm) and my Dolphin for jumping around the sectors. Aaaand (for me much credits) 2.9mil credits.

Just don't give up, study guides, try everything out and you wil enjoy one of the best games made.

[Leo3ABP]

I actually find guides to be counterproductive in learning X games for completely new players. Most of them present pretty narrow aproach to certain things in the game, limiting creativity and willingness to explore the game by new players. OP is good example of that - he read in the guide to trade ECells untill he is up to certain sum, and he naturally got bored of it. If he explored game himself, tryingn ew things as they came along, he would more likely found something to suit his taste more, or at least differentate gameplay for him.

Thats the problem with big open games in general. Ppl come and get overwhelmed by its scale and lack of objectives. Then they go read guides which sort of set virtual objectives or goals to follow (and most gamers preffer to follow a set of layed out objectives instead of deciding for themselfs), and thats sort of takes away 90% of fun early on and from the idea of an open world gameplay and exploration, making game essentially boring.
Just try to play and explore game yourself for at least first 20 or so hours, then you can go and check some guides out if you want, to see how other ppl doing things differently and possibly get new ideas for yourself.
Also my advice would be playing X3: Reunion main plot, it sort of more gradually introduces game universe and mechanics than plots of later games. Or even better, play entire series from the start if you dont mind older graphics of earlier games, since each new game got more complex than previous one, it would help you to gradually learn the world as it develops.
Alternatively If you dont have any other games of the series but Albion Prelude, then get a mod that incorporates Terran Conflict plots into AP and start with Terran Plot, it is pretty mission based and usually provides you with a relevant ship for each new mission, which you can keep for yourself after you are done, thus making early game much easier.
Last but not least, humble merchant is probably worst starting scenario for completely fresh players, since it subconsciously funnels them narrow trade-orientaded gameplay, leaving other aspects of game "for later" which has a good chance of never happening coz player gets bored.