X4 - Now with more flyable ships

Sorry for the onslaught of questions. But I can’t find a mining laser or mining turret anywhere. Where might I find one? Also an auto-docking thingie? Last, is there a way I can rotate with an asteroid or match the tumbling so I can mine one? Though I’m trying to mine by shooting the tiny crystal outcrop since I can’t find mining equipment.

Thanks!!! :)

Mining, in my opinion, is best left to your hired hands. They won’t be mining those crystals but rather ore and silicon from asteroids. You can buy a mining ship and instruct the captain to mine/sell their goods. Getting a small mining operation going sets you up with a nice passive income throughout your game.

In terms of zapping crystals, you shouldn’t need a mining laser for that, any weapon will do.

For equipment for your ship, look for Equipment Docks and shipyards. There’s usually a couple in each faction’s space. If you’re friendly with a faction I think I recall even being able to ask them for directions?

Finally, I am not aware of a way to lock rotation with anything, though I haven’t played the game in over a year.

I was just about to ask about that because I haven’t come across any place yet where I can buy stuff for my ship. I bought blueprints to make the stuff I want cause I wasn’t sure if I had to do that to be able to buy them. So I think I may have wasted a million credits.

Good to know the difference.

I cannot find this Signal Hunter that you mention on Steam Workshop when I perform a search for it.

Is this not showing up for you?

I did find the one you linked but cannot find the Signal Hunter mod which @Bateau is saying is the one to use for that mission? I am wondering if it was removed. I notice some recent mods on Nexus that do not seem to be in Steam Workshop when I search for them. I rather use the workshop than manually load them. Steam Workshop has made it too easy I guess.

Is there a way to see all the people available for hire on a station, without having to walk around for an hour talking to everyone?

Yeah you don’t need blueprints to buy stuff, just to make it (which is much later). If you dock on a faction’s station and go to the “Trader’s Corner” the NPC there should be able to give you directions to a shipyard or equipment dock where you can upgrade your ship.

Things are starting to click just a bit now :)

I love being able to tell my pilot where to go, and just sitting back and watching the sights.
What is a good way to explore/reveal sectors? Is that what satellites are for? Or resource probes?

I saw a thread where they said to get a small scout ship and have it follow someone else (I guess you can give worker an order?). That would start to map stuff as they followed the NPC Ship? Was an interesting thread on reddit that I accidently ran into.

I havent started X4 yet as I am finishing up on Planet Crafter I hope to start playing a bit tomorrow.

Woo I got a station! With an asteroid in the middle. But I’m a bit perplexed about supplying the build with resources. I found myself a builder and he’s there, but it doesn’t have anything. Am I supposed to go from station to station manually buying them myself and dropping them off? If so, is there a way to see materials needed when I’m at the checkout counter? Or am I supposed to buy and deliver them, or have them delivered?

I’m at a loss here, but excited!

If you go into the “Plan Build” menu, you can set prices and provide money so that the NPCs will fill the orders for you. But you can do it manually if you really want (or the NPCs think you’re too cheap)

Got it. Build underway now. Thanks!
And, something that I’ve yet to come to grips with. How do you make screens like this legible? I can’t seem to move windows around, so trying to do stuff here is a cluttered nightmare. Window on window on window is not easy to parse.

Also, if I send someone to collect a locked box, do they automatically get it? Or is there a chance they’ll blow it up and lose the contents while trying to open it?

I’m pretty sure there’s a failure chance but lockboxes respawn so it’s not like you’re missing out on unique loot if they do. Also, some lockboxes can drop mines in your face but your NPC guys will never get hit by that.

Good to know. I’ll have to check to see if there’s a behavior for my ships to auto-open lock boxes.
One thing I’ve noticed, is the sector my base is in is inundated with stuff mining everything. It’s taking me a long, long time to learn and I’ve wasted hours and hours trying to figure stuff out in-game. Is there going to be a problem with loss of access to certain lucrative areas for mining? Or by the time I figure out and get my own economy going, will one faction have dominated most of the universe and I’ll not be able to interact with as many aliens?

Mining regions eventually regenerate too. It is possible for a specific area to be overpopulated and thus worthless for you to use because NPCs grab it as fast as it regenerates, but there are more than enough regions in the galaxy to sustain maximum economy.

It is possible for factions to gain or lose territory. Usually Xenon wiping out a border sector. It can certainly mess with your plans. But I’ve never seen a faction get completely eliminated in a vanilla game without direct player intervention. Even if a key station like a shipyard gets destroyed the AI will try to build a new one somewhere.

I am having some difficulty playing with the mouse. Causing my wrist and elbow to hurt a bit. I tried setting up my joystick but I can not get it to work even after watching a few videos on it.

I think part of my problem is that there seems to be a few ways to use the mouse. I can hit Shift N for one setup and that seems to be the mouse moves freely versus having to press the left mouse button all the time. I will work at it some more. I am hoping it will get easier as I play.

Question - during combat tutorial as I was following the enemy ships firing on my base ship to shoot them down I kept getting yelled at for shooting my own ship. Is there a mod to stop friendly fire?