First Steps, chase the money highway edition plus find plot start

Simple picture catalog that shows you the basic locations of the immediate sectors near. 7th update

Also Useful tips.
First Tip
Esc
Game Settings
Maintain speed in menu's
causes you to not freeze and also can go into boost mode then click m and right click to set waypoints and just watch your ships roam and reveal the map for you. If click a second player ship then right click map that will move not you. Click open space then right to only move self.Just spin in a circle from edges or center outwards and see an entire map in about 5-10 minutes making sure you use shift +1 travel mode so you dont move like a turtle. and click 1/2 of an inch past 1 1/2 cm past where you want the ship to go on autopilot so it doesnt stall out on you. Also where to find missions super easy.

“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.” ― Albert Einstein

“The simplest way to tell the downfall of a society, is when people will not display. Simple curtesy to one another.”
Robert A. Heinlein. - his book Friday

picture guide

Appologize these images will not be in the right order or have its intended paired picture right next to it.

image of note of the first 8 the big map showing the immediate sectors north east south and west of you. should now be in the right order. needed to fix. click to zoom

images by Direction N.E.S.W. then a close up of area if needed.

Apologize for it asking you to go to a non steam site when click images. It shouldn’t I saved images to hard drive then copied them to steam, in the steam guide set up. Weird

Ok The Plot I found. Rather Simple. I went to argon prime. Went to the stations exploring and when i opened map and looked at the missions. a faction mission popped up and away i went.
Click Pictures to zoom in they are all at half size for easy viewing.

https://roguey.co.uk/x4/
https://roguey.co.uk/x4/ships/
https://roguey.co.uk/x4/universe/ <--- map
https://roguey.co.uk/x4/wares/
https://roguey.co.uk/x4/factions/

This link is to a basic universe map. For those not formiliar with this site.
This has been the main wiki site for the entire x series for English speakers. For at least a decade.
He has already started adding other stuff like ship stats and wares as well, in other tabs.
My guide may get you started with a snack, but in the end his site will feed you your steak and biscuits. With I am sure more side dishs of info soon enough.

I did not have their permission to put this link in my guide. Right now at game launch site is pretty bare. But you can see the quality of his work if look at their work on the other x series games.

Seems there is also a start of another wiki.

https://www.egosoft.com:8444/confluence/display/X4WIKI/X4+Wiki+%28English%29+Home

Seems to cover a lot of the basics.

Boron Plot Scientific Expedition. The game makes it easy to find it.

Hi did a new game start because I lost this plot in my current game. so forced to restart. my loss your gain.
First Thing. Goto any station in the first area. and look for this set of red and yellow flashing lights.

Simply just move close to it. I literally touched my nose of my ship to the center of what you see in the image. at first station i scanned in 2 different games
First in argon prime second in black hole sun.
You must be in scan mode not long range scan mode where you push R to ping long distance
so
Shift + 2 roam around the map.
straifing side to side using
wasd
ws up down ad left right
helps a lot. anyways here you go
Should work on any station. I did the defence station, but dont think it makes any difference.

How to find missions and where to find plot story in menu. and missions in general.

That is once you make it to argon prime and look around.
First what you see when hit enter.
click map Top Middle screen 4th tab says map
Then on Left side of screen
See a Gold icon 4 rows Down. That is what you click after you have recieved a Mission to find it.
Third Tab is what we want this is where Guild Missions show up when in right location next to a station.
Be in habit to check it when you go within 5 km of one as you fly past it. Doesn't take long and it leads to money. When you find missions you would like to do. and ignore the ones you dont.
Do so next to each factory as you go along.
(yes I know a pain but we dont have a mod yet to do it for us yet. so say la ve.)
what can ya do.
and first image shows faction missions in small letters highlighted where the little tab is.
second image does same for other missions. Our primary early game income. from start of game.
and third image what you see when you first hit enter to start looking for the above.

Thats It simple visual Guide.

Have fun and dont let the space bugs fly up your ships tailpipe.

Translation (watch out for your enemies. Dont let them swat ya ^_^ )

Easiest and safest way to make money early game consistently.

Have a feeling im going to get top tip for this one.
Starting sector Black Hole Sun IV
Head west. far as you can go.
See Jump gate. Go through jump gate.
You have entered Second Contact. slightly north West of you you will see a minor highway. Get on it. Do not get off it. Just sit there
You will go through an entire circle of connected highways to jump gates.
Now how does this help you make money.
That part is simple.
Shift + M
This brings up the mission menu.
you will be going around in a circle but when you enter a sector that shows a mission you might want to do.
Immediately hit BACKSPACE
choose your mission do it.
Get back on the merry go round. do it again. 100-150k a mission average. pick the easy ones. It wont all be by same faction. but will give you the moola to do whatever the heck you want. without being like te rest of us who wasted 2 days searching for easy and effective ways to make money.
Take money to your chosen small or large ship dealer buy miners and traders of your choice. its not for the money its because trading builds you rep.
Then just play explore whatever and get the rep to unlock the licences to get the good stuff.
big ships start building stations etc.

Docking tips

Simple trick to dock with things.
X and z for basic throttle long with rolling middle mouse wheel.
Backspace to stop on a dime even from travel speed.

To click the dock option in the menu is a pain.
Shift + space bar before right clicking object you want to dock with.
unfortunate but good idea to get in habit now before it drives you nuts.

WASD are your friends. Holding any 2 except opposites causes you to avoid a ton of enemy fire. As well as more around a lot more efficiently.
Saves a lot of frustration when trying to dock with stations of get back in your ship from space suit.

For docking line across the top level is green. Use wasd to line up.
Easy to use opposites to turn more efficiently
mouse left of center holding d
Mouse right of center holding a
Then saving w and s to go up and down.
Aim center at the dot in middle of the line ie keep nose up.
You do not need to have the grey arrow the top one in middle for your
left to right line up to be touching the bottom line.
Long as it is just touching the center v you click in. I came in about a 15-20% angle. for entire run
May take a few times practicing. But makes it so you don’t skin your knees so to speak.
Makes docking a lot faster once you learn the technique.

now image guide. explaination. my base speed switching from 1-5 m/s to 5-10 m/s scrolling up and down middle mouse button for speed 1 notch back and forth.
while using the
mouse left of center holding d
Mouse right of center holding a techniquesmentioned above

to line up easily. second to last image i was 1 1/2 seconds from hitting platform and just had to lift nose just above the green dot 1/4" / cm and landed perfect.

was a pain at first but now its easy as eatting candy.

how to fire crew

I see people ask this more then once. This is how you do it.
Look at map
second tab down property owned.
Click Ship then open up the menu til you actually find the people for me in this situation it was under here.
Someone in the Rataphract's Tips guide found this. So for this tip i cant take the credit.
I didnt find any other tip really useful.
Apparently How to make marines and pilots is this.
I have not tried this yet.
Make a service man/woman and then turn the service person into a marine. then can turn a marine into a pilot.
again cant take credit for the tip. its from another persons guide. I hope it works will try it myself shortly. just loading up the game for today.
right click on them talk to them dont move them then follow the prompts

Fairly easy way to get a m class ship

Goto Antigone memorial. It’s head west to
Second contact
Void
Antigone memorial.
South west of map is a wharf.
Talk to someone ask to speak to representative.
He asks you to pay 50k and once I did unlocked the military licence for that faction instantly.
Looked at the full ship load out. Changed torpedo launchers to beam weapons and got it for
5.8 mil. So as can see can probably get it in a day maybe 2 of playing.
Faction does have a shipyard so unlocked everything but the destroyer and carrier instantly. Including all of that factions large trade and mining freighters.
Can go to any faction to get your corvette class ship upgrade this just seemed very easy. So thought would list.

Random useful things

When near a station in scan mode. May see what looks like lights shooting out in straight lines like what a grade 3 kid draws a star like. It’s red. Go up scan it try to repair it. Looks like a metre across in space suit.
If see small objects on stations that look like a dark block try hitting it with repair laser.
I have a low graphic computer so that is my reference.

If when long range scanning you get a purple blip and it looks like a 100 metre across satellite and appears to be dead in space
That was a " Data Vault " you had just found. There is an achievement for finding them all probably.
look around for panels that are red repair then it unlocks panels at the top. If you have found all the power panels and the repair blocks. They look normally about a foot long half a foot wide repair them and it’s like the satellite is a big padlock. You will get a blue orb to absorb that lists a skill.

Crystal farming now note I have not done this successfully yet myself only seen a picture in a discord channel.
But
Apparently if you fly through a asteroid field you will see what looks like a o and a + overlapping each other. On random asteroids apparently it’s obvious if you spot one. Buddy said found 6 in 30 minutes and took to a normal trader for over 1 mil. All I got for now peace.

Need to be 20-30 m/s away in a spacesuit to do repairs. Likely same in ships for scans. (least what it feels like half the time. completely rediculously short scan range.

Open map, hold shift and then drag to select and command multiple units.

Personal opinion on scan ranges (not part of guide so can ignore and skip to next section.)
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should be in my personal opinion 40 for space suit and absolute maximum. 80 metres for a small ship 120-160 for a medium ship. 160-200 for a large (should be more im thinking 400 for a large. too likely to into it otherwise. crash.) and 500-800 for a xl ship.
but thats just my personal opinion. Admit going to be using a scanner range mod soon as i get it. but thats me.
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Massive mistake with auto traders and miners that was costing me money.

Last and very very important tip. Just realized this a moment ago.
After you have set an auto miner or an auto trader. Click it then right click the map.
The reason is so you can set autotrader to galaxy on your traders and miners. The difference.
I was making 2000 1500 6500 12,000 a trade then I set this on all of my ships.
Now it lists 145,000 due in trades. As can see massive difference.

The First Aid exploit Bug delemma, some algebra and some whining afterwards. sorry I know im weird.

What do i mean by bug its simply this.
People were using the 3 items needles sedatives and something else. I havent done it. I'm sure others know it. its all over the forums and the net how to do it.
anyways egosoft did something now the people that used these legitamitely now cant make them. so they are annoyed.
so yes

I have been hearing people complaining about the first aid kits now being hard to get. and this may seem ong winded and may not be worth the bother for egosoft to bother with. but I will be happy to be wrong and put this idea in my guide.

Its something egosoft perhaps needs to learn. each person is different they created the perfect platform. I think there is something missing late game that they havent got fixed yet to do with the capital ships appears to be turrets and assuming possibly balance of the big ships is off. so trying to slow the players down a bit. for the first week of the game. they will fix it later to make it more balanced they just got to fix the formula that calculates it for the preportions so they show up in sets of 3 but all 3 of them got to be balanced between different systems and then they change their % chance back back so 1 has item ab 2 bc and 3 ac then number 4 1/3 of a 2/3rds for b and c. for 456 then 7 8 9 medium a small 1/4 b and 3/4 of the total amount up to 50 percent of the total amount the guy can carry then 10 to 18 of the code above 1/2 way mark with 50% being the starting point of the calculations then adding above that the same amount i listed for 1 to 9 above that mark and then have them switch purportions daily. if they added a day night cycle to the game. to faction activity against each other if they didnt. then they will never balance out the game. sorry if my awnser seems very mathy. but its how they can fix it if they used their brains having the 18 total percent chances for what each dealer has of the 3 ingredients to make the first aid kits. would satisfy those who wish to cheat with the making first aid kits method and let the other players from not being punished. Send this off to egosoft and maybe the idea may lead to a fix. having the 18 generated between say 3 sectors then having a second random generator between say well say total is 100 and each is up to 25 so each quarter of the total amount would - 12 or 13 so that way the chance equals 1 to 100% of whatever the max total the trader can carry.

yes algebra in a guide. and i likely even did the math wrong in places. programmers smarter then me guaranteed. and dont think it wouldnt be hard to code the math for the purportions just figuring out what ever part of the code to have 18 different values to be random across all traders or just start with a roll from 1 to 18 then follow the rest of the suggestion so can use simple 1 to 12-13 counters against using the 12.5% as base line randomly picking every odd or even time the code comes up if the purportion is either or. you could even make it 1 to ten if you broke it into 10 pieces i think based on 1 to 9 and 18 total would fix the purportions so it goes 1 to 100 pretty easy.
1 12-13 24-25 38-39 50-51 62-63 75-76 87-88 100
with the randomiser being 1 to 12 then 1 to 13
then 12 to 24 13 to 25
you get the idea randomizing the numbers between each one.

yes a lot of repeated writting. but you could use a code like this to determine when enemy squads show up and how often and whats in them from small medium to large ships as well.

and the thing would be solved. but what do i know im not a programmer. at all. . hope my formula may lead to an idea that solves the delemma egosoft.
I know I may sound like a bit of a .. . . . . .. somthing in there choose a word. and my appologize for that. Hope the idea helps.

I hope i didnt sound too arrogent. more wanted to help then anything.

[Howdoyoupurr]

I am sorry i dont know myself. I havent bothered with doing them either. sorry

[/|l13n]

the mission to scan stations are boring i not do it, i do factions & get only stations' "(!)" yellow ' quests but hard to find. i dunno if there a timer for those missions to appear ? or if u need to put sattelite etc... it seems randomly.

[Howdoyoupurr]

Not every station gives a mission. you might have 1 or 2 in an entire sector. If the mission is there will be a yellow suitcase. There is rumors of more then just the HQ quest that you can only get from finding data leaks on stations. those are as far as i know completely based on luck finding them.

[/|l13n]

good guide that helps ! but i dont knox why i got no missions offer when in 5km of station, i find somes very rarely in random places... do i need to use close range scanner on station ? and cant find random missions too... im at 30hrs got an autominer and im in paranid kingdom missions... any help plz ?

[Howdoyoupurr]

what way is west look at a map lol, north is up west would be to your left south is down and east right. Thanks for the tip Mundus. But you may not realize it but every game start is randomly generated. that way each game is slightly different. So as nice as the thought is. odds are it wont be there for another player.

[Mundus]

But it is surrounded by mines so take care

[Mundus]

There is a Frigate located in Hewas Sibling right at the trade station so you can get a M-class ship for free

[Voyager1]

Uh... Which way is west in space? Starting in black hole sun iv which way is what?

[Howdoyoupurr]

I watched Dansgamings video for a bit and didnt find him spotting a crystal as you said, but it wasnt bad info, still was worth to watch it while i played.

[Howdoyoupurr]

I just woke up and took a look and i seem to have automatic licences that i didnt buy so seems the licences are associated strongly with reputation. thanks for the tip to look at this dansgaming persons video on twitch