X4 - Now with more flyable ships

Stations are supposed to be able to transfer to/from build storage if it’s idle in one place and useful in the other, but there is apparently some kind of bug with it in 3.2. I don’t know the details. There is a beta version ongoing that might fix it, but you don’t want to get the beta right now, it’s not stable enough.

If it’s the build storage that’s supposed to be receiving, I think finishing all builds will get rid of it. That may require you to manually order a freighter to deliver goods via ware exchange (which ignores reservations)

There’s no ship but the station itself listed there.

I waited for the builds to finish (which is difficult for me because I’m always just throwing more crap on my stations) but that didn’t seem to fix it. :-(

I think speculate that it has to do with the fact that hull parts are being produced (and sold) by the station and demanded by the build storage, yeah. I’m going to try removing all ship traders and buy/sell orders and see if that fixes anything.

But maybe I’ll just have to sit tight for the patch bugs to get ironed out.

Thanks for the replies!

No luck on the ware reservations, and I feel like I tried everything. Oh well–I guess I’ve kind of moved on to other stations. Like my shiny new L shipyard–just up and running. No customers yet, though, other than myself. And yikes it takes like 45 minutes to build a Behemoth. Added some habitats to it to try to speed it up. (And get some crew to recruit–there is apparently nobody willing to hop on the ship despite the fact that I see them when I walk around the station.)

I’m now conquering the HOP sector of True Sight. Because why not?

Here is my motley crew going at a defense platform. They would be so much more efficient if they just spaced themselves out a little and pointed their guns at the target. sigh

Man, I must be playing wrong. The last two games the HOP took over Antigone and Argon Prime. This is about the time I can get 1 or 2 stations up and producing something.

And I swear I ain’t fucking around either. I grind those crystals. Buy ~20 miners. Set them up and keep them busy. Then I move the good pilots to 6 or 7 traders and buy subscriptions. Keep mining. Good money is coming in but not real Navy money. Then the HOP show up and fuck up everything.

This is vanilla. I’m pissed and bored. Going to have to do some mods for the next run. But but right now I’m tired of it.

Are you doing the Argon start? What is your starting standing with the HOP? If it’s above -20, you can grab a non-military ship (like a small freighter) and pop some criminals near their stations which will quickly move you to the point where they won’t be hostile to you anymore. That is what I did with my first Split game because the Argon hated me. At -15 this meant the would shoot at my military ships while leaving civilian vessels alone. If you start at at -20 or worse though you would have to sneak into their sectors and kill Xenon or something.

Aside from that, you can build your stations farther away in Teladi space. If they overextend too far I would expect the other Paranid faction to take it to them.

Hey Kevin! I was hoping you would reply :)

Yep, I’m doing the Argon start and I’m not hostile to HOP. My short term plan was to build up in relative peace until I could afford a half dozen or so capital ships and fighters. Stations, miners and traders were to be the backing I needed. I kinda figured I’d help out the Argon,ANT,PAR with their war. But before that I’d keep the peace. In the second game I set the global trade rules to avoid trading with HOP. I didn’t want to boost their economy. Didn’t matter, they didn’t need it.

I put a lot of hours into two games this month (covid). In both games Antigone gets pasted in a few days. I was really hoping to get a mega station built in Memorial. Its perfect with local resources and super high demand. But I can’t get one simple hull production station up in time before they are cut off. The HOP rocks ANT out of The Void and the semi vacuum left lets the Xenon run rampant. Not healthy for my traders trying to build the station there.

And in both games Argon prime soon follows.

Looking on line, It’s said that the HOP are strong but it’s somewhat randomized.
It seems weird that 15-20 hours in two major players get sidelined. Argon has another warf on the other side of the galaxy but there is no coming back after losing Prime.

I guess I was hoping the galaxy would maintain some kind of equilibrium until I could have some influence. I suppose this is not that game.

Thanks for the reply!

Out of curiosity I wanted to see how long my second game went.

1 day and 4hrs.

That’s how long human civilization has left in this galaxy. 1 day. It’s time to party like it’s 825-02-08 11:00!

@GreasyPig I don’t have anything to add, unfortunately. The HOP were quite strong in my game but they only got as far as Second Contact II Flashpoint and then couldn’t get further. I don’t think I was nearly as efficient in my game as it sounds like you were in yours.

Anyone know how I can get some torpedo bombers to actually fire torpedoes? I outfitted four Perseus fighters with two launchers each and a full bay of torpedoes. When I tell them to attack an Atlas or an Odysseus they charge right at it and… do nothing. It’s really quite frustrating. (If I take control I can of course fire the torpedoes, and they make nice booms.)

Unlucky I guess. The kicker is I had to put 24hrs into each game to see the flop. Two bad hands in a row.

I think next game I might put my stake in Silent Witness I off the highway. But I need a break from it for now.

Anyway, thanks for putting up with my bitching. I really dig all you’re action reports. They’re super fun to read.

Our good friend @Mysterial wrote the Faction Enhancer mods. If you’re not adverse to mods they might be worth checking out, the Argon have always put up a great fight against the HOP in my games (3 or 4) but I was running modded. If you’re on Steam they can be installed from the Workshop.

I will for sure check that out. Thanks.

I was also thinking to mod out blueprints and research. Both are tedious time sinks.
Blueprints are expensive so I steal them anyway. I’ve done that mini-game so many times I don’t want to do it again. Ferrying supplies to the PHQ for reasearch is not fun. Just more spinning plates.

I realized that in order to complete a quest line, I’d have to make up with the Holy Order (I don’t think there’s any other way I can get a Zeus Sentinel, since they don’t seem to be building them for me to capture). I was at -30, and had no idea how to do it, so I went around shooting the little criminal civilian ships. That got me to -21 when I happened upon a Scale Plate Behemoth in their space, and that got me to -9 or so–no longer actively hostile. I completed a station building mission and set up some sector autominers and I’m now at +11. It will be a bit of a slog to get to the +20 I need to buy a carrier from them. (The mission requires the Sentinel variant.) I’ll grind out some missions (mostly infrastructure/supply and intelligence ones for their war effort, it seems) and I’m setting up a factory to sell them advanced electronics–hopefully that will do it before too long. Kinda funny to go from “that guy who took two sectors from them” to best bud, but hey.

I’ve set up three fleets, each based around a carrier and supply ship. My first fleet has something like 15 destroyers and 60 or 70 smaller craft, but the newer ones I’ll probably standardize on ~7 destroyers, 30 fighters, 10 corvettes and 10 frigates. (I thought the carriers could hold 50 craft, but they don’t all seem to be docking at once.) I’m building up to four L construction bays on my big shipyard (since it still takes >45 minutes to build a destroyer). I really love just queuing up 30 Pulsars, 20 Ares, 10 Nemeses and 10 Gorgons and letting them crank out, though. I also love experimenting with different builds, though to be honest I don’t think it makes that much of a difference when it comes down to it, since it’s the numbers that will tell.

I do love seeing the fighters come shooting out of the launch bays of the Colossus. Never gets old–especially when standing on the dock of the ship.

Apparently this was a real bug, though I don’t know when the fix will come out, or if there’s any kind of workaround. Really kind of a bummer, as I had a bomber pulsar design with 3x torpedo tubes and 3x dumbfire launchers (for heavy cluster missiles) that would have absolutely shredded anything they came across. The other issue is actually setting the active missiles for 10 ships is mind-numbingly tedious, and they always seemed to resupply with the wrong kinds of missiles. :-(

Really though, after I finish the quest line, I’ll probably be done with at least this play through, unless I decide I want to take some Xenon sectors. There is a weird crystal structure in one of them I’d like to own (though sadly it would just be for looks).

That’s around the time I wrapped up my latest run too. It was a ton of fun, but like a good 4X game the fun for me is in the journey, not the end. Looking forward to an update or the Terran DLC to yank me back in for another go at it!

Well, I still need to get the Split DLC–I figure I’ll pick it up when it goes on sale and then have another run-through. (Side note, I really wish they had done Terran or Boron rather than Split, they’re the least interesting IMHO.)

I’ve also really enjoyed being finicky with my fleet compositions, and debating Pulsar vs Ares for a fighter and if it’s worth having an interceptor (Nodan?) and all. Too bad I can only debate with myself, because in the end it’s all about whether you have the numbers. But I repeat myself.

Oh, and I also had a weird bug where a nemesis (corvette) was in interior storage on a colossus (carrier), but still had an order to dock with that same carrier. I couldn’t get rid of that order for anything, so it was stuck. (I renamed it “ZZ Stuck” to put it at the bottom of the list, and because it made me think of ZZ Top, which is funny.) But then I tried removing and reassigning the pilot, and that did the trick! Go figure. Now ZZ Stuck is a proud member of my auxiliary home defense fleet (where all the weirdos end up).

Also, is there any way I can take out a Xenon shipyard? I’ve thrown like 15 destroyers at it and they all go pop.

The Boron were always my favorite, but I know I’m going to have to wait a long while to get a Boron DLC, if one ever does get made. I will say this about the Split: Egosoft really stepped up their game on the ship designs for that DLC. The Split ships look amazing.

Well, now I have to get it! I really like the ship designs, generally, with a few exceptions. Sadly, the Odysseus is one of the main ones. (Sadly because for so long it was the primary one that I would see–you really don’t see the smaller ships that much and I spent a lot of time knocking out Odysseus turrets and engines.) I saw it described somewhere as a hairdryer and now I can’t see anything else. I liked the Boron designs from X3 (and the music in Kingdom’s end), so I’m sad they’re not making a comeback.

I think I’m finally* done with this. In a good sense! Finishing** up the Paranid quest took more building than I was anticipating, but still nothing close to The Hub levels of resources if I’m remembering X3TC correctly (I may not be; I’m scarred from it). I’ll definitely pick up the expansion when I get a chance (i.e. it’s on sale on GOG, which is where I ended up buying the game) and play through again. (Or can you import your save? I don’t know if being all-powerful would ruin the fun.)

Before going into a list of things I would prefer changed, I’ll state that the game is amazing and there’s really nothing out there like it, in terms of scope and scale, at least that I’m aware of. So the game gets a very positive review from me, no doubt. But:

  • It did end up feeling a little small, in the end, at least compared to how I remember X3TC. Probably the expansion(s?) would fix that, but I very much ended up feeling like a big fish in a little pond. I even helped (well, led the effort for, really) the Antigone Republic taking the Xenon sectors to their south, because I wanted to see them open up another front against the Holy Order.
  • For god’s sake, get rid of the “sentinel”, “vanguard”, and “raider” distinctions. It’s functionally meaningless, and adds a bunch more clicks (in some cases) and distraction (in others).
  • The UI could always be improved, and I’d specifically like easier ways to outfit and issue orders to groups of subordinates.
  • The usual jank, of varying severity, from not getting achievements (I’ve definitely teleported, but don’t have that one) to torpedos and the heavier missiles being useless in AI hands.

*“finally” because I just checked and I’m at over 300 hours. Yikes.
** Although my fixer / chief of staff / main man Dal Busta claimed that he’d keep looking in to why the Paranid dude went radio silent on us. TBH I don’t remember exactly what said Paranid dude told me in our last communication so I don’t know if there’s more to come. Is there? I got the achievement for finishing the quest so I figured not.

Some final screenshots:


Battlefield graveyard in True Sight, after I lured in two Holy Order fleets from Holy Vision and smashed them. The ship in the center-left of the planet is a Colossus (carrier) of mine; love those things. The blue blur is where I’ll eventually build a defense station to control gate access, though before that station really came online I’d basically broken HOP power (by destroying their shipyard).



Two of my fleets going at a Paranid station somewhere. Again, I really wish they’d just (1) point their guns at the target and (2) figure out how to shoot around the parts they’ve already blown up.



Walking around on a supply ship, looking out the window as we take out a Xenon shipyard. I never figured out a good way to kill those besides piloting a destroyer myself and tediously picking off the turrets before sending everyone else in.

I think the VRO mod would help with this, if you’re into modding at all.

Oh, good idea. Since the achievements were hit-or-miss anyway, I’ll definitely try that next time through.