---

X3TC » Getting your own Hyperion
Posted by Roguey on Wednesday 10th August, 2011     0 comments

In X3TC the old Hyperion from X3 has been changed from an M7 to a M6. Most of the stats are the same, apart from the shields (1GJ) and few other things. This makes the Hyperion one of the best normal M6's to have (it can also dock at any station). However this ship can not be brought, so its boarding time!

In my game I used an M7M with some Flail missiles and 1 boarding pod. I used Flails missiles to bring down the shields to under 10% - You could use Hammer's but they do too much damage.

Once you got the shields down, send 1 boarding pod (with 5 marines). If you send any more marines, they wont attack and will eject into space. After sending the Boarding pod -it might be worth sending just a few more Flails to stop the shields going up. Once the marines are on Deck 1 you can forget about the shields.

The best way I found of getting my missiles to hit is to face away from the ship and try to out-run it but staying within 10km's (out of range of PPC's but enough for your missiles). If you try using missiles from another angle, the turrets will shot out the missiles. However this time the Hyperion is faster than my ship, but you could simply use Jumpgate's to get the ship to turn and face you.

I lost 1 Marine, but got this ship:



Thanks Paranid. An M7 went hostile (I did think about boarding him too), but decided not too. So I com him and told him my missile barrage was simply an miss-fire. He was fine with that, even know I stole an Hyperion from under their noses.

---

X3TC » My real boarding success
Posted by Roguey on Thursday 28th July, 2011     0 comments

A while back I saved up the money for an M7M rather than a M7, because I wanted to try and board ships. I also wanted to know why M7M were so costly. Ive invested a lot of money into training my marines, with little return.

Today I got 20 marines ready after much training and thought ill have a go at a Boreas, seeing its a ship I really wanted. I didnt hold out much hope but figured ill have a go anyway.

So, I changed my race relationship to hostile to the Argons, then started to fire Hammer Heavy's at the ship - so to bring down the shield and make the ship go hostile. As soon as the ship went hostile, I used the jump-drive and moved the nearest gate. Seeing as I had a Split Cobra (which is faster than the Boreas), I turned the ship to face away and let it catch me up (to 8k/9m range) - so it couldnt fire but I could hit the ship from the front (where the main guns dont shoot out my missiles).

So after many missiles, the shields were down enough. Then the mad launch of my marines, followed by some extra missiles to hold the shields down. Soon after the marines got into the ship (all 20, most only having 3 stars).

Deck by deck, the marines cleared the ship. On one of the decks, one marine died - heck I was expecting a lot more. 19 of them reached the computer core. A few moments later, the ship was transferred to me! Just 1 marine dead - thankyou marines!

So I have a new main ship - albeit it needs repairing:



I hope this helps you with your boarding, good luck!

---

X3TC » M6 rather than M7
Posted by Roguey on Sunday 17th July, 2011     0 comments

After building my complex (it went crazy to 9 x 1MJ shields factories - still buying them like tomorrow) I started to build up my money for a new bigger ship than my Dragon.

The Dragon was a fantastic ship: killing other M6's with ease and even an old dreaded Pirate Carrack (those buggers do so much damage). The top/rear turret guarding against those nasty Tomahawk missiles.

So my credits where building up: 25milion mark and I start to think what do I get? M7's are great but have some drawbacks: big targets, sometimes limited choice of weapons, cant dock everywhere and often feel like a mini-version of a M2.

So looking through the ships I decided on the Boron Heavy Hydra - why? well its not too slow (138m/s), 800MJ (okay not the same as a M7), can dock everywhere, IonD's (plan on doing some boarding and IonD are great at crippling ships), smaller (so harder to hit) plus the good positioning of turrets (front and rear). I also wanted to try something different, as last time I picked the Split Tiger (that was a great ship too). Here's my new ship for anyone interested.



I am planning to use the front guns for my main attack, the 2 front turret for anti-fighter (atm PBE) then the rear for missile defence (PBE again). Those Tomahawk are deadly.

I am also exporting my details to the egosoft site, shown here.

---

X3TC » A station too far
Posted by Roguey on Thursday 14th July, 2011     0 comments

During the past few days ive been building up my complex with my TL. In the end I wanted to create a complex which required no resources - ie. makes everything it needs itself.

The last bit of the puzzle was joining up two mines - an Silicon and Ore Mine L's (no point using M size mines, you wish you upgraded to L later). To do this I need a tractor beam, so I could pull the two mines closer to my complex - as they were too far to join with a complex construction kit:



The only race that sells them are the Paranid who I was trying to keep an enemy (started with the Bankrupt assassin). However this meant I had to be nice to them, so I could buy a couple of tractor beams. This was done with a few fight missions. Soon as I could I got myself some tractor beams for my Dragon M6.

Then what was left to do was to drag both mines close enough to my complex, so I could join them on. I felt sorry for my Dragon dragging a great big station behind it:



After both stations where dragged close enough, they were joined onto the main complex with two more complex construction kits, to make a compete complex. Oh, btw wheat isnt selling very well now - getting loads of it stockpiling.

The last stage was to kick start the complex with some Energy cells (700'ish). To do this I had to stop production at a few of the stations (because resources where limited).



It was just enough to get the complex working, slowly toggling on stations the complex started to become alive.

I am noticing 1MJ shields are still selling well around Argon Prime in X3TC - okay my complex is in Three worlds, but that still Argon space.

Hopefully now ill be able to get some cash up and get myself a bigger ship soon.

---

X3TC » The start of empire building
Posted by Roguey on Tuesday 12th July, 2011     0 comments

Today ive been looking at the M6+ ships, especially the Boron and Argon Heavy M6's. The Boron looks the best on paper, however its nice 10 million price increase seems very step. I couldnt decide which to pick: one side you got an all rounder, the other you got more cost.

So after awhile I though.. ah sod it! I brought a Split Elephant - at 17 million its not bad for a TL. Having your own TL allows you to get stations from shipyards and just jump them to where you want, instead of waiting ages for a NPC TL to reach your location. It also like a home - a cheap mobile HQ. Here's my new TL:



The trouble now is money - station building is very expensive. However over time its profits will be good - especially if you make your complex require no input wares. The great thing about stations is that they always make money, whatever youre doing.

At the moment, my complex is simple 3 x Wheat Farm M in Three worlds. I didnt build these wheat farms for profit (although they do generate money) but for a boost to my rep - ships that land on your station give you a small rep boost.

I am now trying to expand on it by adding a 1MJ shield factory and all the other stations below. At-least now I can jump Wheat Farm L's now from distance shipyards with my TL.

For now ill stick with my Split Dragon as my main ship - it does every I want for now, plus its got the speed and a good frontal attack. However M7's are hard to kill with it.