Exploits

Please note this guide was moved from a wiki the site used to run.

Freight Drone Cloning Exploit (no longer works as of AP 2.5)

the freight drone exploit is actually one of the most simple exploits discovered. the exploit itself is that the freight drones are incapable of handling negative numbers, this means if you tell the freight drone to "collect" -1 of something it will actually add 1 of that ware to the ships hold that the freight drone was collecting the ware from.

this can allow you to clone as many wares as you see fit... but i would add that this can be a very big exploit as it can allow you to clone so many wares you can make multi billions in a matter of seconds. unfortunately this exploit cannot be used in the same way as the CLS exploit for TC to create new wares such as Repair Lasers or to help overture your ships, only wares currently present in your ships/stations can be cloned.

this exploits issue is how much credits can be generated via cloning, take some weapons systems such as the PSP, PPC, IC whose price is around the 1 mil mark, and think about how many you could clone and fit in a TL. this therefore can break immersion and also shorten the time you play a game used in this way.

where it can become useful is in situations where GoD has removed all the stations of a certain type, this is quite common with the Aldrin stations where the weapon fabs have been removed which means you lose all ability to purchase those weapons, this exploit is a way around that without going modified.

Requirements

2x ships (or 1x ship 1x EQd/Trading Station)
1x Freight drone
relevant trade command software

Creating Multiple HQ's (No longer works as of AP 2.5)

this is a derivative of the standard cloning Freight Drone Exploit. N.B. the Player HQ must still be in Ware form aboard your TL. what i normally do (ConCorDian) is transfer my PHq to an EQd, from there it is as easy to do as the standard Freight Drone Cloning Exploit. by using the freight drones you can tell it to collect -# of the PHq, this in turn adds additional PHq's to the station holding capacity of the EQd. now all you need to do is dock your TL to the EQd and collect one then deploy it.

used in this way this exploit can yes create multiple PHq's but this as yet is the closest way for anyone to create a self sustaining empire in the Vanilla game. (use of NPC's is still required for ship equipment)

where this exploit begins to compromise the game is if your interested in the up link feature on the EGOSOFT website as this can show a lot of credits in property as the PHq is one of the most expensive stations ingame.

Requirements

1x TL
1x EDq
1x Freight Drone
Relevant trade command software

i would like to thank both Bothersome and X3 Master Pro for releasing the freight drone exploit onto the Forums -ConCorDian

Bringing Back the FrD Exploit to AP 2.5

thanks to Kurush on the Egosoft Forums who identified the file changed to remove the freight drone exploit. this exploit is relativly easy to bring back. all you need do is aquire a version of the file !ship.cmd.freightransfer.pre.pck from a version of AP prior to AP2.5 and simply paste it into the Scripts folder of the Albion Prelude directory which would normally be located ~~/Steam/Steamapps/Common/X3 Terran Conflict/Addon.

this will then bring back your exploit in order to clone wares, most importantly the PHq. whats more by doing this you can remain completely vanilla (you will NOT recieve the Modified Tag) if that is your wish. another note is that if you Verify your files on Steam they will auto update this file back to its 2.5 version.

Plasma Beam Cannon/Lasertower Exploit v1

this exploit can be used for two different things, either to farm PBC's for use in your ships (Cerberus's etc) or for sale at the nearest EQd for profit. N.B. this only work whilst the LT is still on its countdown setup timer.

Requirements

1x Ship (with XL Cargo and plenty free space)
1x Lasertower
1x Freight Drone
relevant trade command software (to operate freight drone)

Process
this is relatively straight forward:

Drop your LaserTower
command Freight Drone to collect 1 Plasma Beam Cannon from LT
Scoop Up your Freight Drone
Scoop Up LaserTower

Now repeat as many times as you wish. the Laser Tower will have a new PBC every time you redeploy it and therefore you can harvest as many as you wish from only 1 Laser Tower.

For the most part this can be a fairly useful Exploit thanks to the fact you can gain access to a weapon system that can allow some frigates to fire over larger distances, the problem with the exploit is how much money can be made by selling PBCs.

Plasma Beam Cannon/Lasertower Exploit v2

Another way to get PBC's is to deploy your laser-tower, then blow it up before the timer hits zero. Every so-often you should find a crate containing single PBC. Simply repeat the process - be care not to blow up the crate. 100k laser-tower for a 842k weapon, not bad eh? thanks to Xenon for the tip.

(Nividium) Stock Exchange Exploit

there are ways to explain this as not being an exploit, but as "Insider Trading" which is a real life term but even then it is deemed as illegal. so for the sakes of this Wiki we are knowing this as an Exploit.

Requirements

Requirements
1x Freighter
#x Nividium
access to stock exchanges trading in Nividium

Process
*For this to work you will require your freighter with the hold full of Nividium. For this example i would use the East Gate of Scale Plate Green (SPG) - West Gate Nyana's Hideout (NH) and therefore BOTH the stock exchanges in PTNI HQ and Nyana's Hideout (obviously if doing the same be careful as this is a Xenon Migration Route). the process is very simple, when in SPG i am under the influence of the PTNI stock exchange, when i pass through the gate i leave that stock exchanges influence and enter that of NH Stock exchange. when under their influence the stock exchanges will show the quantity of Nividium within your ships hold on their screens, this will then push the commodity into its cheapest (best) buying price (as long as you have enough), therefore you buy up all of the shares available (this is normally 2 shares per number of Nividium under that stock exchanges influence)

Once you own all the shares you then tell your freighter to pass through the gate and leave that Stock Exchanges influence and enter the next. now go back to the stock exchange you just bought the shares in, you will see that the commodity is now at its highest price (best selling price) on the condition there is no other ship carrying Nividium in that Exchanges influence, this means on the far right of your screen you will see just how much profit you have made. sell your shares, take your profit and enjoy...

BUT we are in the influence of another Stock Exchange who trades in Nividium, who when entering the stations influence has pushed its shares into the best buying price... so you now have the ability to purchase those shares and then head back to the sector you just left and repeat until your a multi billionaire!!

A small idea for you though, once you have a few hundred million (and as long as you have enough Nividium at your disposal) try filling the hold of a TL and do this, you could make over 100Mil per run.

*There is also a Second way to do this is to fill your cargo hold with Nividium then go to a Stock Exchange that deals in Nividium, enter the sector and buy all of the Shares, now EJECT all of them from your cargo hold, go back to the stocks and sell the shares back for profit, then pick up the Nividium Container(if done in a TS it should end up Around 500M Right behind you) and repeat, so to recap, fill cargo hold with Nividium, Buy all shares, Eject all, Sell Share, then pick up your cargo container, and repeat

JackKiller2266 with a math thing for the Nividium Exploit thing, if you fill a mammoth with just Nividium Alone that is 15,000 units of nividium, and the stock market doubles your amount so the shares would be at 30,000, so 30,000 X 8,046 (Lowest Share Price)= 241,920,000 CR and then you sell the shares at 30,000 X 24,192 (Highest Share Price)= 725,760,000 CR making a net profit (WITH OUT THE BROKERS FEE) of 483,840,000 CR