Who to start as for pew-pew-pew?

[SievertChaser]

As some of you may remember, I ragequit the Terran Cadet after about ten hours in. I've since been going through the initial grind of a Paranid Dedicated Warrior and I'm just... not feeling it. I don't know if it's the relative lack of direction, the difficulty of acquiring initial funds - or maybe it's just the lack of vibe, the lack of Terran or Teladi character so evident in all the designs.

I think I'm going to quit again, without having had a real fight in my fighter )

Therefore, the question. I've already decided to have a freighter-centered playthrough (Heron, specifically, even though it began with a crush on Okinawa) somewhere down the line and I'll use the explorer start to do that without strings attached. And there's the Boron storyline for another explorer.

That leaves the idea of combat-heavy playthroughs. Here, I've been thinking. It seems to me that the Terrans are still the best beginner's faction out there. Everything about them is simplified, from the economy to their decidedly limited list of weapons options. On a side note, can I somehow buy flak and missile turret blueprints and then reproduce them from Terran materials? There's just so painfully few options...

So I think I'll play the good narrow-minded little soldier / space feudal / PMC operator as my first playthrough. Am I right in thinking that the Split, Spear of the Patriarch specifically, are a more "advanced" combat-focused start? I've read mixed things about the Split, but everything about them seems almost ridiculously martial, and they seem to have a varied and respectable arsenal.

Pardon me if the thread is all about feels, I'm trying to have fun here

[conrado.lacerda]

Yeah, Split is the way for combat maniacs. https://youtu.be/Hji_IvgpUlQ?si=9WyHoGNNV9WGdr31&t=543

[Doom]

Originally posted by SievertChaser:

As some of you may remember, I ragequit the Terran Cadet after about ten hours in.

Young gun, wayward scion or Untested Explorer. To acquire initial funds, do missions.

Explorer will start in a scout and will be a girl.

Split have their own storyline, but the thing is, they're at war with Argon.

Another possibility is a .... start from Avarice. You start as sorta pirate. Requires Avarice DLC.

[L.A.R.R.Y]

If you have the Split Vendetta DLC, you can choose The Fires of Defeat game start, where you begin as a FAF Split in a spacesuit after losing a massive battle for the Split Free Families.

Having lost your ship, but most importantly your honor and respect, you start your journey not only to seek revenge on the Patriarch of Zyarth but also to restore your honor as a Split warrior of the Free Families.

Split is all about combat. This start provides you with a long term objective.

It is difficult, but who doesn't like a challenge?

[Urm the Mad]

Paranid has the best ships, split has the funnest weapons.

I personally hate flying split ships in combat and the new flight model has only exacerbated their problems. I'd stick with the Paranid and buddy up with everybody else. What I can promise is that it truly does not matter what start you choose. It doesn't matter how you want to focus your character, you don't gain anything in X4 by keeping your map small and your markets limited. Even a combat oriented character is going to want to drop some resource probes and satellites. You will never make a ton of money with combat, that's what all the automated industry and trading is there to support.

If you want to be a good combat pilot you're going to be making friends across the galaxy and becoming some kind of industrialist on the side.

[Veter]

for trader oriented play you need install any mod that increase haulers capacity, becuase right now they are cripled by egosoft *balance* patches. But in case of this mods, with increased capacity, when they fully loaded they become soo slow that you will most get decision, take classic weak terrans engines, or take paranid universal power engines or argon travel engines, and on top of it forgot about speed and turns, just think that you are sledgehammer that able fly, and you will depend on your escort ships, som you will finally use your hangars on it, and other tricks will cause you play like that.
And what you will do while your autopilot drive your ships between stations and gates? I personally read books.
About military way - just pick up fighter and start it, dont listen anybody about needed to build stations and factory or other ♥♥♥♥. Do it only if plot mean to do it or for terraforming. But your forst role will be woarrior, so earn reputation and money only doing combat actions, and because its very dangerous way and not payout well in some cases, just act more carefully, buy police license from argons and year money from killing xenons with better payments (or from any other faction like splits).
Or there is combined way, be trader, but only for illegal goods, get high risk operations, plan routes, and pick up best cargoships with high speed, mod ships for even bigger speeds, scout for black markets, fight with police or run from them.
Or even worse, be pirate or just that person that will take any dirt work and do it, be it smuggling, killing persons or hacking turrets and shields on defence stations that protect sector from invasions? who care? just do job and get money!

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Urm the Mad:

If you want to be a good combat pilot you're going to be making friends across the galaxy and becoming some kind of industrialist on the side.

That's why I've come to think of it as sort of space feudalism. You need serfs to cover your expenses.

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Doom:

Split have their own storyline, but the thing is, they're at war with Argon.

...which has the advantage of a greater number of targets. I've found the Terran experience of having a clear home while the rest of the galaxy is infested with enemies and future enemies to be quite satisfactory.

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Daoin:

if you mix ship parts not terran you need the original part material. but yes for military a person just cannot miss with a terran start

Yep, that's what I was afraid of. And I even can't really roll up to an Argon wharf, because AFAIK at some point TER is supposed to have a falling-out with both ARG and ANT, right?

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Daoin:

Originally posted by Veter:

for trader oriented play you need install any mod that increase haulers capacity, becuase right now they are cripled by egosoft *balance* patches. But in case of this mods, with increased capacity, when they fully loaded they become soo slow that you will most get decision, take classic weak terrans engines, or take paranid universal power engines or argon travel engines, and on top of it forgot about speed and turns, just think that you are sledgehammer that able fly, and you will depend on your escort ships, som you will finally use your hangars on it, and other tricks will cause you play like that.
And what you will do while your autopilot drive your ships between stations and gates? I personally read books.
About military way - just pick up fighter and start it, dont listen anybody about needed to build stations and factory or other ♥♥♥♥. Do it only if plot mean to do it or for terraforming. But your forst role will be woarrior, so earn reputation and money only doing combat actions, and because its very dangerous way and not payout well in some cases, just act more carefully, buy police license from argons and year money from killing xenons with better payments (or from any other faction like splits).
Or there is combined way, be trader, but only for illegal goods, get high risk operations, plan routes, and pick up best cargoships with high speed, mod ships for even bigger speeds, scout for black markets, fight with police or run from them.
Or even worse, be pirate or just that person that will take any dirt work and do it, be it smuggling, killing persons or hacking turrets and shields on defence stations that protect sector from invasions? who care? just do job and get money!

thats kind of the experience of play in X4 i ever heard, just a quick reply, 1 large terran cargo in late game can get from one side of the galaxy to the other in no time, and full fleets of them can stock up another races wharf in one trip ! they just head back to the station you made and auto dock home. just a point and shoot thing to let them loose when you want to, by the time you need them again they are probably home safe

Isn't Okinawa a smaller (i.e. economically worse) L-class freighter than the Heron, for example?

[Azunai]

The two split starts make you hostile with ARG, so there are more people to shoot.

But any start can just fly to hatikvahs choice and do some pew pew on the gate to the big xenon area. There's almost always a few s or m xenon fighters pouring out of that gate.

I think the first half of the paranid civil war plot also had a fair bit of combat. You have to get both PAR and HOP to +10 rep to trigger it i think (and you need Dal Busta, so have to unlock the HQ and also do the hatikvah plot first)

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Azunai:

I think the first half of the paranid civil war plot also had a fair bit of combat. You have to get both PAR and HOP to +10 rep to trigger it i think (and you need Dal Busta, so have to unlock the HQ and also do the hatikvah plot first)

I guess that's not the Paranid Civil War questline I unlocked, since it seems to be about eradicating HOP.

[Artoritas]

Originally posted by SievertChaser:

Originally posted by Azunai:

I think the first half of the paranid civil war plot also had a fair bit of combat. You have to get both PAR and HOP to +10 rep to trigger it i think (and you need Dal Busta, so have to unlock the HQ and also do the hatikvah plot first)

I guess that's not the Paranid Civil War questline I unlocked, since it seems to be about eradicating HOP.

I think that you're referring to the "war effort" from the godrealm of the paranid side. The civil war is not so one sided. The civil war quest line is started through Dal Busta.

I can confirm that you need a certain rep with both factions before you can start it. I started mine at +20 with HOP and -9 with the godrealm

[atrox]

Originally posted by SievertChaser:

It seems to me that the Terrans are still the best beginner's faction out there. Everything about them is simplified, from the economy to their decidedly limited list of weapons options.

Naaa, looks like you missed the Boron starts. The basic one is story driven and there is definitely pew-pew involved ;)

Economy is base universe - the equip may look even more limited than the Terrans at first, but if you look at their special features there are interesting combinations.

Get your first Guppy and unleash the fighters ;))))

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by atrox:

Originally posted by SievertChaser:

It seems to me that the Terrans are still the best beginner's faction out there. Everything about them is simplified, from the economy to their decidedly limited list of weapons options.

Naaa, looks like you missed the Boron starts. The basic one is story driven and there is definitely pew-pew involved ;)

Economy is base universe - the equip may look even more limited than the Terrans at first, but if you look at their special features there are interesting combinations.

Get your first Guppy and unleash the fighters ;))))

Oh, I have seen the absolutely wicked descriptions of their weapons effects. I am definitely plotting a "Jake Sully and the Borons" playthrough at some point.

But right now I'm back to being Solborn.

[Azunai]

The nice thing about the simplistic terran economy is that you basically just need the computronic substrate blueprint plus a few generic things (dock, solar panel, connectors, storage) and you can plop down a relatively cheap to build factory that prints money.

A single substrate fab supplied by something like 2 gas and 4 drill M miners and with enough panels to generate the EC will produce about 5 million credits worth of substrate per hour.

And once the money starts rolling in, you can just scale it up by adding more of the same.

Best location for it is gaian prophecy (in PIO space). Has all the resources and 200% sunlight, so you don't need a separate powerplant like in the sol system - you just slap on 4 terran solar panels for each substrate fab to generate the required 24k ecells per hour