Doing a 2nd playthrough - Your experiences?

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Tropguey (5)

Posted 10 years ago.

Hi all,

I was just curious about your experiences when doing a restart of the game. I've just finished the game completely (all Storyline missions, including the expansion), but then a friend picked up the game as a Humble Merchant. Since I know how much time it had cost me to get a hold of the game, I decided to start over partly copying his gameplay and help him out with the basics and questions and all, his goal being to create a large trading empire.

It's a bit strange because on one hand I like it (trying out new things, like using Sector/Universe Traders now since my friend started with those), but somwehere it's not feeling right since I spend 300 hours in the other game already, building up a nice empire with a PHQ and some fully automated shield + weapon complexes. Oh, and it's kinda annoying not having your own TL. Smile

Anyway, I was wondering if any of you did a 2nd playthrough of the game and what your experiences are with restarting. Do you feel it's a waste of the previous game? Or do you like it because you can fix what you did wrong in earlier games (like station placements). Do you go for something completely different? i.e. I started Argon Peacekeeper in the previous game, but during the 2nd playthrough do you go Bankrupt Assasin (building a large Pirate fleet) or Terran Commander (going nuts on the rest of the Universe)?

Roguey

Trueguey (22)

Posted 10 years ago.

I can understand what you mean, restarting can feel a lot of work however probably the most interesting thing in the x-games is building up your resources/fleet; having everything open to you can be slightly boring.

So often I choose something like - Bankrupt Assassin as a 2nd play-through, as its harder to do (but since you know what going on, its a better challenge). I think there even a start being stuck in the middle of Xenon space?

Kirlack

Specoguey (14)

Posted 10 years ago.

I've started so many games on TC it's getting to be insane

My very first play through I got to ~game day 110 and then discovered the Goner plotline was broken (for me), so I opted to start over. Then one of the DiD authors on the Egosoft boards introduced me to a life of piracy, and I never looked back after that Big grin

I think there even a start being stuck in the middle of Xenon space?
- Roguey

That would be the 'Lost Lar' start (only unlocks in TC once you've completed the PHQ plot, not sure what the AP requirements are). You start off in Xenon Core 023 with nothing but an undertuned Angel to your name. It's silly hard to survive, but it can be done Smile

Madder than a Bastard on fathers day.
My DiDs: Peace(s) of Eight - Way of the Gun - Status: Online, A Xenon DiD

Hammerit

Stickguey (8)

Posted 10 years ago.

I usually start from scratch whenever I return to the game (or any game for that matter) after not playing for quite a while. Another reason might be that I feel it's more fun to start anew than to continue. In the X games the latter happens sooner or later because there's only so much fun you can have with all the money in the world and no challenges left.

Lately I've started using a mod I've created so starting over doesn't involve grinding through the plots every time. I first tried out dillpickles mod, but I found that all the free stuff kind of defeats the point of starting over LOL

. If you want you can have it too Wink

.

Here's a little description of what it does:

* provides relevant plot rewards only (meaning Unfocused jump drive, Player HQ and the HUB with last plot alignment)
* marks all involved plots as completed
* ends the "war" while not ending the fighting
* has no effect on 3.0 plots

What it doesn't do:

* give the player any of the reward ships
* exception: otherwise unobtainable ones are safely put at a random location for the player to claim should he ever find them

I mainly chose this path because playing the plot messes up stuff like race notoriety especially the whole war thingy and it's rather annoying having to recover from that. The war fix prevents OOS ships from always getting attacked by random friendlies in the War sectors. Also the constant instant changes of sector ownership and station setups get old after a while.

It currently doesn't support the Terran plot, but I'm already working on fixing that.

RandomTank

RandomTank avatar

Assoguey (17)

Posted 10 years ago.

I always find that when starting a new save, set yourself some rules; it's much more fun! You don't have to go as far as DiD, as some players simply aren't good enough to survive a long time; but just simple rules and challenges can make the game very different! Some rules I've done for some of my saves are: One TC save was only Boron ships (as they are pretty average), any ships that I find/given to me that aren't Boron I have to sell (including that Vidar and the Griffon you get!); another one for Pirates is no trading with any race apart from Teladi and Pirates (which I have the Pirate Guild with), but there are plenty of other options.

You could: Be Enemy with a certain race (like the Paranid); be enemy to all races (very challenging!); only use one races ships; no trading with any races; no building production stations (though this is a bit boring); only deal in illegal goods (I would recommend the Marauder Shipyard for this!); no building any Mines; no buying/stealing TL's (this would take forever!); no buying any ships (starting with a PHQ makes this one quite fun: steal, RE, and then build!); never buy a Capitol ship (lots of marines for this one!) or you can even not use Jumpdrives! (M6's escorting convoy's is the best tactic for this). All these are supposed to do is change your usual playstyle and make it more of a Challenge!

My personal favourite is applying the 'Weapon Construction Embargo' where government funded stations are allowed to construct weaponry (basically, the player can't build weapon Fabs); this adds an extra challenge of not only supplying the weapon stations with resources yourself, but also protecting them! (As you can't replace them!).

I will be the one to take you down!

Kirlack

Specoguey (14)

Posted 10 years ago.

Oooh, I like that last one Tank Big grin

That'd fit into my CLS networking play style quite nicely!

Madder than a Bastard on fathers day.
My DiDs: Peace(s) of Eight - Way of the Gun - Status: Online, A Xenon DiD

AlphanInfidel

AlphanInfidel avatar

Proguey (12)

Posted 10 years ago.

There is a thread, "Your self imposed gaming restrictions," on the X-Universe forum. Indicative of how there are very many different ways to play.

I am an Alien!

FlashOver

Tropguey (5)

Posted 10 years ago.

@Roguey
Yeah, building up your empire certainly is one of the more interesting things to do in the X-Universe. Going Bankrupt Assasin would prolly help to the challenge, though as said I'm partly copying my friend's playstyle early on to get him going.

@RandomTank
Setting some restrictions sound interesting. I'll look into it. Smile

Hammerit

Stickguey (8)

Posted 10 years ago.

The last restrictions I've set myself was to retrieve all energy cells meant for Jumping from Unfocused Jumps. Was plenty of fun especially since I usually don't go there that often.

AlphanInfidel

AlphanInfidel avatar

Proguey (12)

Posted 10 years ago.

@Hammerit.......... Yeah, energy cells sound quite exciting compared to the Sweet 'Foxtrot Alpha' I've found in UFJDLand.

I am an Alien!

RandomTank

RandomTank avatar

Assoguey (17)

Posted 10 years ago.

Just a thought: Another rule you can set yourself which is a real toughie is..... No jumpdrives.

You may think that's ridiculous, but actually it changes the game quite a lot, and requires much more thought when transferring freight and unequipped ships. I tried this on a save in X3:R and found it really fun, although I only applied the rule when I had some decent funds and ships, but before Bala Gi (as trying to escort freighters with just a couple of M3's is just painful), and let me tall ya, TL's get REAL useful REAL quick!

I will be the one to take you down!

Hammerit

Stickguey (8)

Posted 10 years ago.

No jumps AND no SETA Wink

The new bored is bored mode lol

Scott

Specoguey (14)

Posted 10 years ago.

I did Argon peacekeeper then did terrain . It is easy to improve you argon rep then your terrain rep. I did not feel like doing the risky bunnies flying thru Terri as n,space not using jumpdrive so I restarted as a Teledia I wanted the kea you get..

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