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You gave us some outstanding tips! Thank you for sharing them. We are also able to CLAIM a ship by sending a crew member over to the abandoned ship, without having to scan the disabled ship's data leak. I still only play the basic game, so your comment is a great help.

Teleporting in and out, or flying in and out of a sector is a great tip, whether it's to reset npcs or traders' wares. I've hired entire Marine crews of Split women from the Pirate base. Might be my imagination, but they were ruthless!

Awesome bit of history there. Thanks for sharing it! I only attributed it to him because I saw his YT vid, so gave credit where it was due. I'm guessing it was first built by someone who looked at Defense Platform builds and took it a step (or four) further.

The HQ only needs enough storage to hold the materials Boso uses for research. The station's Build Storage will hold all the building materials. But yeah. Having to build solid storage so Boso can do research is a sucker punch. EDIT~ LOL You're right....I left out the part about using our freebee Small Storage blueprints to build storage for Boso's research.

I'd like to see that...could you share a link to your video when you get it uploaded?

You're welcome!

You're welcome

I wouldn't really call this an rpg. It's got some lore missions and such, but it's more about trade and economy with some fighting/defense thrown in. I basically play it as a sandbox, and do missions for money or equipment. Where most players feel overwhelmed is learning the helpful controls and options available in the game. With just the base game (no expansions) I've spent somewhere around 2500 hours and still learning.

@@tinpony9424 okay. I’m honestly probably going to buy it next time I see it on sale. It’s looks fucken awesome and have heard good things about update 7.0. Is there a tutorial type of system implemented? Is there ‘missions’ and a story? Is there anything else you wouldn’t mind telling me that may convince me?

lol...I'm not trying to talk you into anything. But, since you asked Even in the base game, there are several different new game starts we can choose from, so spending a little time in each can help you decide which you want to spend time on. Each has it's own flavor, even when played sandbox style. We have the luxury of playing the game at our own rate, with our own goals, no matter which gamestart we choose. They all have missions of three types. General missions that can be accepted from most factions (earns credits, reputation, goodies). There are guild missions which become available with our reputation/rank in factions, and are the most lucrative. Then there are storyline/plot missions which have greater rewards, but require more grinding. All missions can be put on a back burner until we decide we're ready to do them (with the exception of timed missions). The game has some in-game tutorials. I can't say they really go into much depth, but they are there. Hitting the community posts and player videos can be much more helpful. Tons of starter, intermediate, and advanced guides (and some very helpful players). Doesn't hurt to ask questions if you get stuck or confused about something. We've all been there. The one real suggestion I'd have for a new player is don't get discouraged. As we learn what options are available for us to accomplish something, it can change our game plan. I've lost count of how many new starts I've done after figuring out something that wasn't obvious. This game has tremendous replayability and the mechanics has a pretty steep learning curve, so don't just think of it as a shoot-em-up. Be prepared to spend a lot of time to really get to know the game, and learn what you can do in it. Then, you can set your own course with what you learn.

I'm glad you found it helpful. I consider Ronald Reagan the greatest president of my lifetime. Voted for him twice. So, even though I don't have his wit, I'll take that as a compliment!

Very useful information! Thank you for sharing this. The launcher and spacesuit thrusters are over 200K if bought at most traders.

@@tinpony9424 thx, indeed, i was scared when i see the prices first time at merchants, start the game new some days ago and find this out randomly

Yeah, I hear about the later game ships and how great they are. Looking forward to it. The videos I make are geared more for the early game players that may not have all the game expansions and might need some suggestions about what to do to improve their game. Thanks for the input!

@@tinpony9424 get yourself a Colossus.

lol Does it corner well? Good acceleration?

@@tinpony9424 you don't need that the Asgard travel fast, you need that it manuevers fast, so heres the deal... Put some split general engines on the Asgard, then upgrade the shit on the engine to max out maneuverability, once you do that the only problem will be the time it takes to recharge the main gun of the Asgard, and that could also improve by upgrading the main gun.

Leaving a fleet posted or even laying out a hundred laser towers, both take maintenance. So, it's pretty economical at a low low price of roughly 6 million credits, and the scrapping income is a great idea.

@@tinpony9424 definitely, plus i always lose a few ships each attack to dumb manouvers

Lol 5k hours playing this game and Tharkas Gate on Haktivah is my staging ground for conquest, i build up the batle station there and wait until the Xenon start to dismantle the Zya empire, then in enter the gate with 2 fleets, one to do the terran quest and other to conquer ZYA sectors.

On that playthrough I had a similar setup, but had a dock for the ship to return to, just giving it orders to collect drops occasionally. Is the 4x range a third-party mod, or something from in-game? VERY interested to hear about that!

@@tinpony9424 it’s mod I found on steam workshop, probably also on nexus. It makes things a little dicier and it’s way harder to strafe out of fire or even get away. It speeds up all projectiles by double, so plasma reeeally wrecks stuff, but close second is a bolt gun with a range of around 12 km The plasma turret range with it is over 18km at double speed. In the last five days I put one of those defense towers in the middle of nopilious ..vii? The mining one…anyway there’s no more ka’ak or xenon threat to my smugglers and miners

That's just creepy! Putting my phone in the fridge from now on.

@@tinpony9424 lol coulda been the phone, maybe the headset, …roku? This is some move they pulled off eh? It’s illegal to wire tap us without cause so we wire tapped ourselves for them. The walls have ears indeed. I guess depending on your affluence even the fridge would be listening these days.

@@hlriiiviiiv No Siri here, vehicles are 30-40 years old, and the kitchen and laundry appliances are from the '70s (that's why they still work). But you're right about freely giving up our privacy.

It can be a game-changer for early bankroll. I've seen M ships carrying 100 advanced satellites...that's over 6 million credits from one ship's deployables. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Very much so. I didn't really expect the defense platform to survive, so was trying to restrain myself from interfering too much. A scrap recycle station outfitted with a few tugs would have been nice, too.

Brilliant strategy! I haven't stolen blueprints for a recycler yet, but am absolutely planning on adding a few where wrecks stack up. Thanks for the heads up!

@@tinpony9424 They are very power hungry, so you'll need a nice big power station too. I find salvaging all the wrecks can help with the lag that you inevitably get in Hatikvah as well. I currently have an aux ship sat there collecting all the drops with cargo drones, those come in very handy for ship modding etc.

Yes. I've collected drops at defense builds. I was thinking of the logistics of power plants in high solar sector(s), and realized it's a perfect use for the unlimited pirate-able (SCA) Heron E ships built by the Teladi. Been working on a "boot camp" tutorial capturing/staffing/repairing those.

@@tinpony9424 Ship capture is a great mechanic, I use an Argon Shuyaku freighter as a troop ship and so far have captured 4 scale plate Phoenix E's that were harassing my trade routes, and a bunch of HOP ships from my little war with them. The nemesis corvette is a great ship for de-thorning prickly destroyers before boarding action commences.

I like the Nemesis (because of it's firepower capability) for helping beat a ship's shield and hull down, once I've taken the turrets off a target ship, but yeah, it's fully capable. To take the turrets off a capital ship, I usually drive a brick like the Osprey, Cerberus, or Gorgon (my personal favorite), because they take a beating before their shields need a cooldown. A large freighter used as a troop carrier is nice, because even a Heron full of cheap recruits has a boarding strength over 1000, and sends so many pods it's easy to land a lot of Marines on the target ship before their numbers get depleted. Very useful if sector authorities are hanging around....landing Marines on the target before authorities get involved will keep them from joining the fight.

Thanks!

Yeah, the Elite can't carry drones. I haven't played with Asgard or Osaka ships, but here's the general idea: In x4, ship to ship transfers require the receiving ship to have at least one Cargo Drone. The ship that is supplying the wares will drop the wares in "loot containers", and the receiving ship will send their cargo drone to collect it. If not, check that the receiving ship's cargo drone is enabled to "collect all". This can take a few minutes, so make sure the transfer is at the top of the orders queue, and the ships are close to each other before trying the transfer. EDIT~ Tried this, and next post shows the results.

Ok, so I just tried some transfers in X4 using a M size Gorgon, and a L Heron E. Both ships have one cargo drone. Transferring from the L ship to the M ship resulted in the wares being dropped in a container, but the M ship wouldn't collect it (for some unknown reason). So, I sat in the captain's chair and used the container magnet to collect the container. Transferring from the M ship to the L ship caused the M ship to drop a container that the L ship collected, using it's cargo drone. Be careful about dropping multiple crates of wares. Some might de-spawn before they can be collected.

@@tinpony9424 thanks for trying that for me man. I appreciate it! Shame it has to happen in such a roundabout way, but this method will have to hold my guys over till my auxillary gets complete.

@davecrupel2817 If your L and XL ships have cargo drones you should be able to swap repair drones as "wares transfer" between the two. EDIT~ For pure repair drone shuttling, an Osprey (M-sized ship) holds 17 drones, which is almost double what any L-sized ship can carry.

The ship building modules aren't going to drop blueprints, unfortunately.

@@tinpony9424 That sucks they are very expensive

Yes, disabling flight assist is VERY useful as you've described! Especially in L ships. When I'm cruising around in a destroyer, I use it enough to warrant changing the input to a single key on the keyboard. Thanks for sharing this!

Welcome.

Wow! Thanks for the input. The only advice I can give about starting a channel, is to watch videos and think about what you DON'T like. Do your best in editing and voiceover to not do what you find annoying. Yes, I speak slow and low. I always have, because there are very few things important enough to scream and rant about. Thanks for the critique on that. It's always allowed. The stations that don't build your ship orders are probably missing some wares that are needed to finish the job. When you order a ship, on the right side of the order there will be a yellow warning that shows exactly what is missing and how many. If all stations treat you that way, work on building your reputation with factions. Ship repairs can sometimes be done better at Equipment docks (the ones with a wrench icon). They seem to be better stocked. Hope this helps a bit, and thank you for your comment. You made my day!

Great question! Thanks for asking it. You're right that it's best to send as many as possible. There might be a couple exceptions, though. If the target ship is very low on hull, sending a huge number of pods might destroy it. Or, in the early game we might only have a handful of marines. A dozen or so marines sent together on boarding missions several times won't end up with equal experience levels. So as far as the experience gain, I don't know for sure that all the marines get experience, or that the experience pool is evenly split up. The same can be said for Service Crew experience gain. I'll have to watch that more closely, and get back to you. I was trying to show in this video that we don't need a massive boarding party to capture a Large ship.

Ok, so I did a test... I loaded an assault ship with 16 two-and-a-bit star (in boarding skill) Marines with similar morale, and used them on four SCA Heron E freighters one after another, with no time spent between capture and coming back to the assault ship. All captures were done at the same boarding settings. I ended up with a spread in boarding skill stars from almost four stars, down to two-and-a-bit stars. It looks like experience gained is not an even split. During the four captures, there were Marines that didn't get a boost to their boarding skill, but they may have received some morale boost. Again, I don't know how the experience pool is awarded, but I hope this gives you an idea about what I see. Thanks again for your question!

Outstanding tips. I just started a new playthrough and am anxious to start building in Xenon sectors again. Thank you for the heads up!

@@tinpony9424 An additional one here I came to think of: Like the PIO Freelancer Katanas (M-class) hijack, you also can board the **non-fleet** PIO Patrol Osaka in PIO space, with a fly-by Shuyaku freighter. It won't aggro other ships, nor cause rep loss. Just park one of the builders by a shipyard or maintenance station and use that one to stock up on and transfer marines to the Shuyaku, and you can pretty much just fly from one Osaka to the next. It takes a little while to capture these, but more often than not, the actual cost of capture is 50-200k (dead marines) vs buying an Osaka and kitting it out.

@@b0Stark While I still play base game (no expansions), I've been stocking marines to try the same thing on SCA ships. Might try it on other factions as I get a L Heron E loaded with trained up (3-4 star) marines. I've been hiring two stars, no more, no less, and training them by capping SCA L traders that are continuously built at a TEL shipyard. With the shipyard right there, it's easy to part them out and sell them after swapping a service crew in and out of them. Once I have a couple hundred on hand, it should make for a great tutorial.

Thanks for the tip. While I haven't noticed this Xenon behavior in non-Xenon sectors, I HAVE used it for piloting a ship through Xenon-owned sectors while doing the driving myself. Setting "Maintain Speed in Menus" to ON is very useful while navigating hostile territory.

@@tinpony9424 yeah, had many deaths to that. Took me ages to realise it was a setting 😄. Man, my xenon are scary clever. They will do continuous probing attacks, and the moment the resistance drops at all (eg.whilst resupplying or manoeuvring etc.), they will send through full fleets. They even ambushed me once. I always send scout through a gate dropping satellites before I send the fleet through. They must have had their ks (2 of them) hidden behind the gate, coz it was clear but for a few fighters. In the minute or so it took to get the fleet ready to jump, they destroyed the satellite. I figured, because all the other satellites didn't show any ks in system, it would be safe...nope. Once that satellite went down, they must've brought the ks up, which were waiting for me - it had been no more than 2 minutes between sat going down and jumping. I won, but lost 2 destroyers and a carrier.

Sounds about right. I think the Xenon destroyers lurk up or down, too. Just out of satellite range. Losing two destroyers and a carrier is a BIG "ouch". For 6 or 7 million, a defense tower/platform is a great investment. I kind of micro-manage and do a lot of hands on in-game, so trolling them to follow me out to a defense tower/platform is how I have fun in a destroyer.

Awesome! Thank you.

Me too! Some good tips from viewers in the comment section here. Thanks for the input!

Good question, but having tried it several times, I can let you know Large ships don't give us the SURRENDER option when we comm them. When we siege a Large ship and all the crew bails out, the captain will not abandon ship, so that's why we have to use marines to capture Large and XL ships. But yeah, it doesn't cost anything to try!

I forgot all about disabling the cockpit view. Great tip!

You're welcome. I haven't played that start, but I hear terran cadet is highly recommended for new and returning players.

So. Many. Options!

If you can find an SCA base, their traders have them for sale. Second place, a bit tougher to get, is a Black Market trader.

Pirate bases have all the hacking stuff and bombs for sell outright or the ingredients to make them. If you can’t afford them grab one slicer and fly around scanning for data leaks till you come across a mission to hack the turret terminal at a station. That’s a ~350k earned for 150k or less spent, plus your time of course. I love the hacking missions from pirate stations early on. easy money

@@hlriiiviiiv The timed hacking missions from scanning comms leaks on stations are absolutely the most lucrative beginning missions. As you mentioned, a Security Slicer or Decryption Module is needed for those. They can be found in large battle drops, but don't carry them around while scanning a station...they are Illegal Inventory Items. EDIT~ Worth mentioning, those missions also put a Black Market Trader on the station that gave that mission. That BM Trader might be able to sell you the wares needed for crafting more Decryption Modules or Security Slicers.

I hope it helps.

You're welcome! Thanks for the input! It helps me decide what to do next.

you can ask ships you are in a fight with to surrender? they always say they arent talking with me if I try to comm them mid battle.

@@BlazingImp77151 Yes. For many years when playing all the games from X-BTF to X4 I always had the impression that the surrender option doesn't do anything. Turns out that sometimes you have to ask them many times. I think in X4 it's dependent on their morale stat, so if you shoot down their hull far enough they should become scared and increase the chance of surrender working. Sometimes it may take 20, 30 or more tries with the surrender option until they give up.

You're very welcome!

You're absolutely welcome, and thanks for the input.

LOL..I hope not! Thanks for the smile.

Absolutely welcome. Glad it helped.

thank you very much the glow was burning my eyes

@@raulmorales5289 You're welcome. It reminds me of spending too much time in an over-chlorinated pool.

Save your game. Make sure you don't have any illegal items in your inventory or illegal wares in your ship's cargo hold. Illegal items show up in yellow text. You can drop them into a lockbox before you get near the station, and recover them on your way out by shooting the single lock off the lockbox and using your container magnet. When you fire the EMP, before you detonate it, check for any drones in the area. You can see them in your spacesuit radar, or on the map. Only use one EMP per station. Using two will be seen as hostile. Hope this helps. EDIT~ One more thing, try to stay close to the station while you're in the spacesuit. If the drones trigger, they seem to be reluctant to shoot at you.

@@tinpony9424 Following your tips I was able to steal the blueprints I was looking for, thanks!

I love happy endings!

That's got to be the most concise, accurate description I've heard regarding the menus. The best advice I can give is to follow the direction of the Three Stooges, and "Push buttons!" If it's any consolation, I'm closing in on 2400 hours of game time, and still finding stuff tucked away in little back alleys of the menus. the game progresses slowly, so there's plenty of time to find a preferred way to do a thing. And usually two or three ways to do it in the menus. The in-game tutorial is slightly helpful, but just scratches the surface.

Try it while you're piloting a small or medium ship and you see a small or medium ship with no shield, and hull below about 72%. Doesn't always work, but doesn't cost anything.

Thanks for the feedback! Just when I was going to do a three hour tour.... KIDDING!

There are a few things we can't get this way. Ship building modules are one of them. Turret, shield and ship licenses are also "have to buy". Those "universal" storage modules are another that I tried.

That's what I like to hear! Thanks.

I captured a Tokyo after the 7 update, and while it did say "reputation lost" on the message, the actual rep number stayed the same. They did report to the sector police which is new and annoying, but still worth it :)

@@nimrodta I think it may have to do with having rep at in-between levels. (because it takes more than a couple missions to move to the next level, so more than one infraction to remove an entire level) Thanks for the input!

If there is no police around you dont loose rep since they cant report you. Boarded 5 terran ships from the same fleet. 3 without rep loss and 2 with, since police was around

@@darkgix6326 That's awesome news! Thanks for verifying it.

The fact that this was a thing made absolutely 0 sense.

You're welcome!

A lot of this game is tucked away in little back alleys... Thanks for the watch and comment!

@@tinpony9424 yes, and I learned a lot about accounting and economy in general and want to know the statistics and accounts. Playing for over a year now and never found it

My channel on TH-cam isn't monetized, so don't know what to tell you. EDIT...I didn't know YT could run ads on a non-monetized channel, so did some research. There's a setting hidden away that can be disabled to stop them from injecting ads. Done. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!