Are Xenon ships capturable?

[Washburne21]

I am approaching 0/50 on attempts to capture Xenon N's, M's, and L's.

[S.C.]

They can bail, but rare. Raise your fight rank will increase the probability.

[tablebay]

Hello Washburne21,

To capture Xenon N, M, L, LX, you must have a sufficient fight rank (anything above would do) AND the PROPER ship outkitted for the capture.

I usually do my captures with a fully tuned (speed, rudder, cargo bay):
(a) M6+ (Hyperion Vanguard, Heavy Hydra Prototype, Acynonix Prototype), but any M6 (even Pirate M6s) with at least 1 rear turret would do (forget Truelight Seeker); OR
(b) M3 or M3+ with a rear turret; PLUS
(c) equipped with PBE, PAC, or HEPT as main cannons, plus 5-10 Mosquito, Disruptor, and Hurricane missiles.

I can write you the tactics if you need and write me a message.
Although there are some very good tactics guides for ship capturing/boarding in Egosoft forum, or in roguey's website.

Hope that helped.

Best regards,
tablebay

[[XU]Cycrow]

You fight rank doesn't effect the capture of xenon ships, it only effects Kha'ak ships

[tablebay]

Hello Cycrow,

Can you help me out with a mid-level problem with playing X3 FL?
Since you are a moderator/administrator on Egosoft forum as well, I would appreciate it.

Best regards,
tablebay

[[XU]Cycrow]

if you post the problem, i will attempt to answer

[tablebay]

Hello Cycrow,

Thank you for your quick reply.

A. Background
1. I acquired X3 FL through Steam about 1 yr ago, like it very much, and have played with it ever since. (I love playing with the X Universe games, and have all X3 plus the X Rebirth.)
My X3 FL game is vanilla version 1.3, no mods or scripts other than the official patches of 1.1-1.3 were added to it.

2. It is installed in my laptop, which is old and upgraded (Samsung R580, 1 GB videocard, 4 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD), a bit above the minimum technical hardware/software requirements (Windows 7 64-bit) for running the game on it (can give you the laptop specs if needed).
My laptop is regularly cleaned and updated with firewall and, with antivirus softwares besides Microsoft's.

3. I have played X3 FL only in offline Steam mode since its purchase.
I do update Steam regularly, but not on a weekly basis.

4. I also have X3R, X3 TC and X3 AP, purchased them all through Steam years ago, and played with them from time to time. All of them are plain vanilla versions, only the official bonus packs were added to them, no mods or scripts to any of them.

B. Problem
1. My problem is that at the end of May 2022 (while still playing offline), I got a message in-game that my X3 FL was suddenly set to 'modified game'.

2. At that time my Steam client was not the latest and I went 'Steam online' to update it only a month later.
During this month I kept playing with X3 FL only in offline Steam mode, and found that after like 3 loads of either saves or autosaves, the 'modified' tag disappeared from my game's personal sheet, and I could continue playing X3 FL and collect Steam achievements (72% rate as of 15.07.2022).

3. After I updated my Steam client at the end of June 2022, and synchronized the Steam cloud saves with my local laptop saves (it is not automatic), I realized that:

3.1 All my saves (regular and autosaves with two different gamestarts, none of them are custom or modified game) are now tagged 'modified', and remain so no matter which one of them and how many times I reload; plus
3.2 Any new gamestarts (any scenario) are also tagged 'modified' instantly at gamestart, no matter if gamestart was made in Steam offline or in Steam online.

C. Questions
1. I have read almost every relevant forum posts and threads on egosoft.com, Steam, and other possible forums.
The 'modified' tag related messages always refer to one of my various game files in Documents/Egosoft folder, like maps, ships, commands, etc.
What I gathered while reading through these forums and posts, was altering and/or deleting certain lines in the relevant game files in my Documents/Egosoft folder.

2. Since I am not an IT expert, it seems the only option left for me is the complete deletion of X3 FL from my Steam library and re-download and re-install it on my laptop.


3. Will the deletion and re-download and re-install of X3 FL be enough?
Or do I have to completely delete, re-download and re-install X3 TC and X3 AP from my laptop as well?

I have put some considerable effort in X3 FL, not just the Steam achievements completion rate, but my char stands at Pan-Galactic Tycoon, and Hero rating as well, with a neat production & trade empire, with only a few ships/station blueprints (mostly terran) missing.
Perhaps you might know another solution (if any).

Really sorry for bothering you with this.
I know there is no easy answer to these questions.
Pls feel free to ask around your fellow colleagues if they can help.

Best regards,
tablebay

[tablebay]

Hello Cycrow,

One more thing I forgot to add to the questions in point C.3 above.

C. Questions
3. How to fix my problem, either by:
(a) complete deletion, re-download and re-install of X3 FL to my laptop?; OR
(b) complete deletion, re-download and re-install of X3 TC, X3 AP and X3 Fl to my laptop?; OR
(c) complete deletion, re-download and re-install of my Steam client to my laptop, along with X3 TC, X3 AP and X3 FL?
No other games in my Steam library show any signs of being 'modified' or having any problems with running it on my laptop.

Best regards,
tablebay

[[XU]Cycrow]

first of all, if you want to keep your save games no modified, then make sure you are not saving the game when your receive the message about being modified. Once you save a game while its modified, there is no way back.

The message should tell you the reason the game is modified. This is usually when a file does not match its signature. This can happen if a file is edited, or if it has become corrupt somehow.

First thing to try is to use steam to verify the files, these will check the file integrity and redownload any files that missing/different. As FL uses files from TC/AP it might be a good idea to verify those installs as well (although it should check them all for FL anyways)

Starting a new game and checking if its modified is generally the best way to see if your game is modified (just make sure its not the custom game start, as this is always modified)

One of the common ways files can become modified is by virus checks, these adjust the headers of the files to mark them during the scanning process, this results in them not matching the game signature. Barring the scanner from the game directory can help with this.

Otherwise, a fault in the harddrive, like bad sectors, could also cause the issue. You can run the disk checker on the drive to make sure its fine.

once the new games are showing not modified, the save games should do as well as long as they have not been saved over.

IF the new game is showing not modified but the save games are, then it means the save game itself has been marked as modified.

The modified message is primarily there so you know as soon as a game becomes modified so you dont save or lose progress

[[XU]Cycrow]

to be extra sure, you could uninstall all X3 games, then delete the folder manually from steam (steamapps/common/X3 Terran Conflict).
Then reinstall it after.

simply uninstalling it may leave some files remaining

[tablebay]

Hello Cycrow,

Thank you for helping me with this issue.

If I understood correctly what you wrote, the fixing options are as follows:

1. Verifying the affected X3 FL / X3TC / X3 AP game files via Steam.
1.1 Is this done through Steam/Backup and Restore Games? If yes, then should I
1.1.1 restore previous backups; or
1.1.2 backup currently installed programs?
1.2 If not, then what Steam option command should I start to execute the file verification?

2. Does the barring of any of my antivirus programs from scanning the game directory have to be a permanent exception?
2.1 If yes, this might make my laptop exposed/vulnerable to malwares (e.g., viruses, keyloggers)?; or
2.2 Is it a one time thing and I can terminate such exception antivirus scans once the game files' integrity is restored either by Steam verification, or by full deletion, re-download and re-installing X3FL / X3 TC / X3 AP?

3. If neither one the steps set forth in points 1 and 2 above works, then I shall have to either:
3.1 Delete, re-download and re-install 'just' X3FL / X3 TC / X3 AP games. Does this mean I have to delete ALL game files thereto (incl any saves)?; or
3.2 Delete, re-download and re-install not just the games in point 3.1 above, but also my Steam client together with ALL OTHER games within.
If the answer to 3.2 is yes, THAT would be a major overhaul and affect my laptop.

My apologies for these stupid questions, but I've never had to do anything like this before.

Best regards,
tablebay

[[XU]Cycrow]

to verify the files, in Steam, right click on the game, and goto Properties.
Then select Local Files, then press the Verify integerity of game files. This should then check all the files and download any broken ones.

For the AV, the exclusion needs to be active while the game is running, as they use real-time scanners that are constantly scanning the files. The exclusion only needs to be on the real-time scanning part, and only for the game directory itself (you dont have to disable the whole thing, just exclude the install directory)
This shouldn't make you vulnerable to viruses, but you can always do a manual scan of the game before excluding the directory


For reinstalling the game from scratch, you only need to delete the X3 Terran Conflict folder, not all the other games. Steam installs games within steam/steamapps/common. There you will find the X3 Terran Conflict folder. This will contain TC/AP/FL. Delete that and reinstall. Its mainly to make sure there are no additional files in there that the game might be loading

NOTE, these are just suggestions about what might be causing the problem based on common issues in the past

[tablebay]

Hello Cycrow,

Sorry for bothering you again with this problem.

A. Failed repair attempts
I've gone through the steps we have discussed on 19.08.2022, and got the following results.

1. Made the Steam verification of integrity of all X3 TC, X3 AP and X3 FL files, and it showed they were all fine, no broken ones.

2. Made disk check for the drive on wihich Steam and the games were installed, and it showed neither corrupted files, nor fault sectors.

3. Then I checked X3 TC, A3 AP and X3 FL by starting a new game in them. Yet all new games were tagged 'modified' after start.

4. Then I deleted the X3 TC folder from Steam/steamapps/common, and uninstalled all 3 affected X3 games mentioned above.

5. After re-installing and running X3 TC, X3 AP and X3 FL, they all still showed new gamestarts as 'modified'.

6. I have checked my HDD - it is partitioned to have 2 separate drives like A (for system and work programs) and B (for games like Steam, etc.), and it shows that in Documents/Egosoft/ folder (for saves and screenshots) ALL saves remained unchanged for X3 TC, X3 AP and X3 FL.

B. Questions
1. It appears like I have no choice but to delete either
(a) just all saves in Documents/Egosoft/X3 TC, X3 AP, X3 FL folder; or
(b) the subfolders in Documents/Egosoft for X3 TC, X3 AP, X3 FL completely.

2. Will it be enough
(a) to delete just the files /subfolders in B.1 above; or
(b) to uninstall X3 TC, X3 AP, X3 FL games as well, and then re-install and run them.

Perhaps you might advise how to proceed.

Best regards,
tablebay

[tablebay]

Hello Cycrow,

I have good news for us.

I have had to remove one of my more aggressive AV programs - the exclusion was apparently not enough - and install another one and set exclusions as per our discussion of 19.08.2022 above.
This took some time, but then when I started any of X3 TC, X3 AP, and X3 FL, all my previous saves (DiD and regular games) are shown as untagged, I can keep playing without starting a new non-custom gameplay.

Perhaps you also might share this result with your admin/ moderator fans, so if someone stumbles upon this problem in the future again, they would be able to cope with it more easily.

Thank you for your time, and helping me with this.

If you don't mind, I'd add you to my friends' list.

Best regards,
tablebay