Improving rep with Terran/atf

[Maxwell Sinclair]

Ok so I started as a humble trader, thanks to some clever stock market work I set up my own manufacturing complex that completely supplies itself, meaning I never need to pay a cent to outfit any of my ships, and thanks to the PHQ I can build my own ships for free too. Anyways I was wondering if somehow I could improve my rep with the terrans and the atf at least to a point where I can dock with their stations and take missions for them. Thanks to the main plot line I wound up, not as a terrorist, terran ships are still friendly by default to me, although their pilots will sneer at me when I comms them and their stations won't let me dock. Whenever I enter jupiter or mars via the TOAs I recieve the usual threats of violence from border security with orders to turn around. So how do I get to friendly terms with them? I should mention that pirates loathe me too so that is not really an option.

[mmmcheesywaffles]

Well apart from doing teh Terran start I'm not too sure you can improve your rep very much.

I do know that playing as Terran I managed to get Argon freindly with me. All but Core system access was possible. I suspect the war gets in the way.

[Maxwell Sinclair]

Every time I turn up in a terran sector I am always told "This is border security, you're not allowed to be here you have 1 minute to turn around or face violence." You know, the usual warning. I can still dock with their mining facilities in that one system before jupiter and mars. Not the Oort cloud or neptune or anything, I think it might be asteroid belt or heretics end, it has the last jump gate in a contested sector before you hit TOAs. There is an orbital defence station there, which I am not allowed to dock with. The automated system is so friendly "your presence is neither desirable nor welcome here." However they have mining outposts that I can dock with. Would selling them energy cells work to begin with? Or perhaps setting up a factory or two in that system?

[Maxwell Sinclair]

I am thinking, I will just go for a restart. I messed up quite a bit more than I thought I had. Although if I restart Im not going to waste time like I have so far. Im just going to use Nividium to get back up to where I was, maybe on a different start though. Repairing rep with the terrans seems to be impossible and I didn't realise quite what it takes to work the Phq properly. May try to stay friendly with the pirates and such as well. I am not sure who to play as though. Maybe bankrupt assassin. You can still get access to the main plot and PHQ if you play the assassin right?

[Aesir]

Patrol the sectors you can enter and find pirates/ xenon ships to destroy, each one will steadily improve your rep. this can be painfully slow, especially in AP where the random combat seems a little bit on the slow side. Im fairly certain though not 100% certain that bankrupt assassin is a sandbox game and does not give access to the main plot, not sure about PHQ though

[Fragmentality]

I wouldn't put up a factory because they'll destroy it, because asteroid belt is a war sector. Destroying pirates and Xenon may be difficult since they don't raid Terran very often. If you can still dock with them, go ahead and just trade with them for awhile, or maybe get a mission. You have to stay in the border Terran sectors, like Heretics End or Asteroid Belt. Core sectors like Jupiter and Mars will be hostile until you reach rank 0. If you're real desperate you could destroy Argon ships in sectors they own, like Heretics End or Asteroid belt. You could just ram the argon ships if you got something big, I find that ramming has minimal rep loss.

[Maxwell Sinclair]

The thing is, I have no idea how to reach the terran "backdoor" if you will, into segaris. The only terran sector I can get into is that one I mentioned with the TOAs linking to jupiter and mars. I think it might be heretics end. As for the assassin, he can get access to the argon side of the plot to the best of my knowledge. The only requirements for starting the argon plotline are: Not being a terran, having a certain fight rank, and having a high enough argon rep. Otherwise the humble merchant wouldn't be able to access the plot either, because although he is argon he is not by default a combat pilot. Actually every race can access the main (argon) plot except the terran commander and the aldrin adventurer, both of whom gain access to operation loose ends instead. At least as far as I am aware.

Some starts, such as the tormented teladi, have their own mini plot before they become sandbox. When they become sandbox they gain access to the main plot.

Introduction
The Albion Prelude Plot is a new story found Albion Prelude. The plot is available immediately for the Argon Peacekeeper start, however is enabled for the following start postions:
Argon Peacekeeper,
Humble Merchant,
Bankrupt Assassin,
Tormented Teladi,
Poisoned Paranid,
Goner Witness,
Unholy Traitor,
Teladi Trafficker,
Yaki Insurgent,
Lost Lar,
Savage Split,
Anonymous Argon,
Boring Boron,
Pious Paranid,
Nostalgic Argon,
Suicidal Squid (DiD),

You will need to start with one of the above, have an Argon rank of Accepted Adviser (4,+ or higher) and a Terran rank of Citizen (0) or lower. You will also need to be in sector Argon Sector M148 to start the plot. If you do not meet these requirements then the plot mission will not be offered until you do.

Source for plot info: http://roguey.co.uk/x3ap/help/guides/plot/page1.php

[Maxwell Sinclair]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Timma:

I wouldn't put up a factory because they'll destroy it, because asteroid belt is a war sector. Destroying pirates and Xenon may be difficult since they don't raid Terran very often. If you can still dock with them, go ahead and just trade with them for awhile, or maybe get a mission. You have to stay in the border Terran sectors, like Heretics End or Asteroid Belt. Core sectors like Jupiter and Mars will be hostile until you reach rank 0. If you're real desperate you could destroy Argon ships in sectors they own, like Heretics End or Asteroid belt. You could just ram the argon ships if you got something big, I find that ramming has minimal rep loss.

I think a Boreas with 8 Gigajules of shields would be big enough. But I am going to start a new game as the bankrupt assassin. It says hard but from what I have read it is actually pretty easy, you get access to some of the best combat oriented ships in the game fairly easily, plus it will be easier to sort out neutrality issues with everyone. I buggered up the trader playthrough because I didn't improve rep with the terrans after starting the plot. The supposed trick is to accept the argon plot and then go immediately improve your terran rank afterwards. Then do some of the plot, do some missions to stay on the terrans good side, then do some more of the plot. Kill minimal amounts of anyone. Also I noticed pirates never get angry at you for killing them during patrol missions and such, it is not until you start attacking pirate stations that they get mad with you, or attacking their ships outside of missions and such. Faction relations are strange in this game because your standing with one holds no effect over your standing with others.

According to the lore the paranids hate the argon and vice versa, split hate boron, everyone hates terrans, etc etc. Yet you can be everyones best buddy and nobody will bat an eyelash.

[Storm]

back door to segris:

start grand exchange North into gate to Xenon 598?
East gate into Xenon 627
East gate into Xenon Core 023
South gate into Xenon Sector
West gate into Segris

the gates are generally where you expect them to be or easily visible on route.

best to buy the fastest M5 you can (teladi Kestral) and a triplex scanner, if you can a turbo kit for fun. when entering a xenon sector, boost downwards (5-10km below the horizon) then head where you want, stay low and come up for the next gate.

Running a red route is faily easy, just keep moving and stay a distance away from problems unless you have to.

Terran rep: if their still blue its fairly easy, either try to grab a mission or build a station that requires energy then allow the ai to sell you energy, (terrans have loads of energy and will sell it all day long at 17 credits to anyone). either way will give docking rights within a few hours.

[Maxwell Sinclair]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Storm:

back door to segris:

start grand exchange North into gate to Xenon 598?
East gate into Xenon 627
East gate into Xenon Core 023
South gate into Xenon Sector
West gate into Segris

the gates are generally where you expect them to be or easily visible on route.

best to buy the fastest M5 you can (teladi Kestral) and a triplex scanner, if you can a turbo kit for fun. when entering a xenon sector, boost downwards (5-10km below the horizon) then head where you want, stay low and come up for the next gate.

Running a red route is faily easy, just keep moving and stay a distance away from problems unless you have to.

Terran rep: if their still blue its fairly easy, either try to grab a mission or build a station that requires energy then allow the ai to sell you energy, (terrans have loads of energy and will sell it all day long at 17 credits to anyone). either way will give docking rights within a few hours.

They're kinda blue, in the sense that they wont shoot me, but they wont let me into their space either. I started again anyways. Playing with the bankrupt assassin for a change, It is nice that pirates keep appearing in the sectors I am in, each one seems to drop a firelance missile and I am no stranger to combat piloting, so one or two pirates at a time (as they spawn at the moment) is easy enough, quite a bit of fun actually. The mamba is interesting as a ship. Kinda weird looking, but interesting.

[76561198106301119]

In Segaris/Megnir/Althes look down on a Heavy Load transporters, they can offer a missons to protect them, no matter how deep bad rep you have. Xenons will spawn and attack them. For example, i was "Insurgent", and after killing 3 Q's (with failed mission) I became "Marshall of Mars".

[celem]

Theres also a point in the Shady Business plot where (for storyline related and spoilered reasons) you have the opportunity to kill all the Xenon you could wish in Segaris. I use this to patch up my Terran rep if I forgot to fix it before finish the AP main plot. Slap in an M7m and for the low low cost of a hold full of hammers and 10 minutes of my life i instantly went -8 to +6.

Incidentally, if you do use an M7m like me for this, then remember to set your flags properly or you will barrage the snot out of terran forces as well, which is fun but counter-productive to our rep fixing goal

[Maxwell Sinclair]

I actually took a look at my humble trader game again. The PHQ is indeed out of the way, actually everything is. My massive complex and PHQ are in Gunnes Crusade. This is good for not being attacked, bad for energy costs when jumping capital ships and tl classes. Often I need to use 1000 space or more on energy cells. I actually jumped my boreas into the Xenon sector beside grand exchange, I was flying in my #deca.cefa which I have actually come to like quite a lot. Since I had 3 I RE'd one and recycled the other, keeping the weapons of course. Anyways, my boreas was not really loaded for anti capital ship fighting, given that it had 7 Photon Pulse cannons and then its next most powerful weapon was a high energy plasma thrower, a lot of them... I watched my Boreas single handidly eliminate 3 Xenon Ps, 2 PXs, a J and about 20 Ls, LXs and Ns mixed up. The thing was a beast in combat. I wound up retreating after the Xenon jumped a Q in and started to tear the boreas up. In the end I took everything off it and sold it.

The boreas is nice and all but I figure I can better invest my money in a fleet of slightly less expensive ships. Because of the way I play, My complexes I build to supply my own ships and my HQ. So I play the stock market when I want money, short term trading and the like, or if I get tired of that I keep a handy stockpile of nividium if I need quick cash. I can admit to using the exploit because I don't have the patience for slow freighters. I like the trading aspect, but currently Im at that point where I just want to fight, and capture stuff. Speaking of capturing. I know it is not necessary but what is the best M7M to invest in when I want to capture ships?

I know I need some damn fine marines but I have read guides about them and how best to use them. I usually leave the game running with SETA active when I go to work. So my marines are training while I am away ^-^.

[nail]

Cobra is the best M7M. Has lasers on the back to chew up any fighters or missiles bothering you, and is fast too.

[Maxwell Sinclair]

From the Split... Damn that means I have to go improve split rep a lot... Well alright. Off to do missions for them... Im going to invest in a decent fighter... Idk which one yet... Maybe I will just take my #deca.cefa... Only issue there is ammo, I will eventually run out.

[nail]

You'll want a high Split rep for one of the later plots too, so good to get now...