Do I have to build an empire?

[manicminer]

I've played maybe 50 hours or so and I'm now quite far into the Terran Cadet campaign (I think). I'm not into micro managing miners and traders and would love to just pretend to be Han Solo smuggling and bounty hunting through the universe. Is this possible and can I be successful or do I have to build an empire and build stations etc? Thanks for any advice.. still consider myself a total noob at this game but love the potential..

[Dunkler Messias]

If you enjoy that (playing the smuggler and bounty hunter): Yes, of course. Just keep in mind that some factions get wiped out eventually by the Xenons or enemy factions. Or at least factions will loose some sectors.

Nobody forces you to build a big empire. :-)

[Einar]

The simple answer i would assume is No. you dont have to. Its just a possibility, long term goal in most play throughs, runs. You can pretty much make it whatever you want as a sandbox openworld id say.

there are mission offers and even main plots across the dlc, sectors etc. But they are not forced. Same with empire building... its never forced and everyones idea of empire is different to a extent.

if your happy just running around being a pirate, hunter or law abiding citizen then im sure you can.

Basically you can play this game however you want. theres guidance, story missions and even side missions, random ones in sectors to gain rep with factions. But thats all your choice to accept, focus or not even pay any attention to.

[Jorge_S]

good luck building anything if you don't build at least a mining/ trading small empire to maintain some factions alive

[Oddible]

So don't micromanage them. You can still set up some passive income without micromanagement. Since there is zero maintenance cost or salaries there is nothing preventing you from just dropping miners all over the universe on local automine. Even build a station and assign a manager and a few miners and a trader and ignore them. They will handle things all on their own. Just go cash your paycheck once in a while. Or don't bother and just play like you are. I will say they without putting at least a handful of M miners around you're going to see some problems with the xenon soon. Also, how will you get bigger ships without money? You can certainly capture them but you will need some reputation to equip them.

[manicminer]

I struggle with the menus trying to set up traders and miners. Auto mine works to an extent. I've watched a few videos but I find setting AI routines so much easier in Avorion, for example. It's a lot more logical. X4 tests my patience, maybe I'm just thinking wrong and trying to fit a cube through a circle.. I don't know, it's hard to tell in X4.

Appreciate any more tips or links to point me in the right direction, to try to learn how to build stations etc. It just seems so counter intuitive from what I've experimented with, which is only the Terran Cadet bit where you have to build the station.

I have two miners mining but that took an evening to set up a routine for them that works and I have a trader that needs constant micro managing.

I would be happy to invest the time to set up miners and traders but only if they didn't always seem to need babysitting. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong but can't figure out what.

[Kalisa]

if you do the storyline quests and go diplomatic choices the empires can become more then strong enough to stand on their own, espically if you unlock some blueprints and help build stations for them, dont need a builder or anything for that, and blueprints can get unlocked by stealing as well once u get the proper research done at HQ.
I like to do more of a pirate run personally, where i turn my HQ into a storage hub to sell loot i stole, go around scanning spots and setting up black markets, stealing as much bp's as i can and setting up stations for factions so they are in line with my goals, can do all this without owning a single mining ship or station yourself (outside of HQ) tho income may be slower to start.

As for stations and miners, the auto mine works well, you can also set up repeat orders and tell your mining ship to mine at a specific area, and sell to a different sector, and they will look for proper price. https://gyazo.com/3064eed27034a586673f575e59d5dcd9 screenshot of a miner i ahve with a repeat order, so they mine ore in oort cloud, and look to sell it in oort and pluto, min price of 120. and never need to touch him again if i dont want to, just initally need to make sure ur telling them to mine in a place where there are asteroids.
You can also do a mining station, which is just a station with a docking bay and some solid storage, then assign miners to that, they will go out and mine in a range dicated by the station managers skill (up to 5 jumps away) and then u can assign miners as traders for said station and they will auto sell that ore to any station in range, also pretty hands off once u get set up.

Edit: this is one of the early terran stations i like to build up to https://gyazo.com/d4a41ed2bc645ad48a206554ebb8a1a5
this one has 1 of each of the core resources for terran, and some basic storage, i sell excess ore if i have any but usually make most into refined goods which make more money, initially this station wa just storage moduals, and as i stole blueprints i added the manufacturing later.

[VoiD]

There is no wrong way of playing a sandbox game, if you want to fly around later in the game with your own battleship or raptor flying fortress and try to fight back the xenon by yourself you can, or if you want to ignore them too, you can, just have fun with the game.

[Zloth]

A routine that works? Yeah, there's another way.

Check the information on the ship and go to the behaviors tab. There's a drop-down there saying what the ship should do when you haven't given it any orders. (By default, it's hold position.) Click that, and you'll see a list of things you can tell the ship to do. Automine is on there. Pick that. Have the ship mine silicon in Grand Exchange.

On the plus side, pirates don't bother mining ships. On the minus side, Kha'ak hate mining ships. While you're in that tab, make sure the ship is set to run as soon as anything sneezes at it. Give it three or four laser towers, too, if you can afford it - the ship will drop one when trying to run away, which distracts the baddies.

[manicminer]

Originally posted by Kalisa:

...

I really appreciate your reply, thank you very much. I have no idea how to build a station like that but it gives me hope.

[manicminer]

Originally posted by Zloth:

Give it three or four laser towers, too, if you can afford it - the ship will drop one when trying to run away, which distracts the baddies.

Thanks for your reply. Do you mean 'fit 3 laser cannons'?. I might be mixing up my space games now as I've been playing Avorion and Elite recently and haven't played X4 for a while, but do turrets need to be auto-fire turrets in X4 for them to function?

[Upsilon Crux]

Originally posted by manicminer:

Originally posted by Zloth:

Give it three or four laser towers, too, if you can afford it - the ship will drop one when trying to run away, which distracts the baddies.

Thanks for your reply. Do you mean 'fit 3 laser cannons'?. I might be mixing up my space games now as I've been playing Avorion and Elite recently and haven't played X4 for a while, but do turrets need to be auto-fire turrets in X4 for them to function?

Lasertowers are consumables bought from wharfs/equipment docks. They're deployed the same way as satellites, and act as a distraction to hopefully allow your ship to get into travel drive and escape. Deploying enough of them in a concentrated area can also be surprisingly effective at dishing out damage

[manicminer]

So they are like automated mines? they start attacking enemies when you drop them?

[manicminer]

thank you so much :)

Will an AI piloted ship drop them automatically if under attack?

[Upsilon Crux]

Originally posted by Geist:

Originally posted by manicminer:

thank you so much :)

Will an AI piloted ship drop them automatically if under attack?

No :-(

Its on the wishlist.

Someone told me that they are deployed if they get a flee command but I have never seen that happen.

I still give at least 2-5 of them to all my ships they are still usefull. You just have to deploy them manualy

They definitely drop them sometimes. Might be skill-dependant?

Quick tip: You can manually deploy lasertowers from the ship info screen, hit the wrench tab and about halfway down you can select lasertowers, mines, satellites then click deploy just next to there

[manicminer]

Do you get a notification if one of your AI ships comes under attack?