Posts by johivas

I took a break off the main story (At the Omega 5 GMG base constructing a warp gate) and went back to explore the systems that previously unlocked. There are 2 gates leading to the Gladius system, if I take either I get a message saying the mission failed because I failed to dock with the Grum gate. Docking with the Grum gate doesn't remove the message, and anyway, this has nothing to do with the mission i'm currently in which is to try the new gate they're building in Omega 5, and anyway, I paused the story. I'll skip the place for now.

I really like the work that's been done with the new alien factions and systems, I have bouts where I feel like in the old privateer game, it's almost like i'll find an alien vessel and strip it off of a super alien gun...

Yes really, i swear this is no joke or trolling, the computer is not even connected to the net, i was just baffled when I saw it, it's like god in there or something! The man appeared out of nowhere (9 o'clock), flew right to the wreck, exploded it, and ran away! And I just sat there WTF, that just can't happen man! I had to reload, went there with nomads following me, and the guy didn't show up. Did the nomads really scared him? Maybe, I don't know, but I could explore the wreck and continue the mission. Probably the guy was a hostile outcast and I had to kill him before he reached the wreck, but he appeared non-hostile to me because i'm at peace with the outcasts, so he did his job of blowing-up the wreck and then continued on his own business. If he had been hostile to me, then a fight for the wreck would have ensued one way or the other, and probably the data from the wreck would have ended in space if I destroyed him. So in the end, when I came back with a bunch of nomads, that may really have scared him since he was alone, and lone outlaws don't engage vastly superior numbers...

But more likely it's just bad luck, I forgot that factions shoot wrecks that are of a faction hostile to them, and that's probably what happened here.

Well then, I guess the train is worth it...for a connoisseur that is...

Still, one last question remains, why the 3 600 000 if the container is bought 1 080 000?

Well, loaded a previous savegame and it still froze, but I was still carrying that 8.5 million credits disk I found in death valley. So I loaded the exact same save and sold the disk before going to the wreck, and guess what? It worked, the game didn't freeze. I just hope nobody will want this disk now...

Something weird happened in the next part of the mission; I was to get info from a wreck but upon arriving, some guy just flew right to the wreck and shot it in my face, i was left there unable to continue the mission. I reloaded and this time went there with a platoon of nomads following me closely, the guy didn't show up and i could get the data from the wreck...

I'm at the blackbox retrieval storyline mission, and when I try to tractor in the thing, the game freezes.

Ok, we're just talking here, i'm not really crazy about finding the exact most profitable route in the universe, but i'm curious, and you play along with me.

So, sure that that if I use the train as just a cargo hold, and use it in the shortest "max profits" route, then 50 millions is, indeed, quite a realist target.

But what about the container thing? I like the idea, but it's definitively not the best use you can make of a train. The joke is that it would be extremely profitable if those containers were sold at the advertised price, for now, apart from travel opportunities (like when you leave sol with the train, the containers are there, so it may be a good idea to leave with them if you're going to New York to do something else) apart from that, who trade in containers?

The best route I found gave me 1.5 millions credits net (2 ways) in 10 minutes with the APC. That's 9 millions an hour.

Containers from New York to New Tokyo and back gave me 10 500 000 credits net in 29 minutes (we'll say 30). That's 21 millions an hour.

More than double what I can make with the APC, but I'm not taking into consideration that buying the APC only lowers my value 6 millions while the soulforge train 34...Anyway, how do you get 100 millions an hour with the soulforge train? The containers I sold were worth 1 080 000 credits a unit both ways BTW...it looks like a constant. Why does the price of the profitable container shows 3 600 000 while its true value is 1 080 000? I initially bought the soulforge train thinking i'd buy a container 200 000 credits and sell it 3 600 000 credits, which did not happen, so why the 3 600 000 if the truth is 1 080 000?

Thank you all for your answers. True that I don't know much of crossfire yet. There's something I don't understand for sure since I haven't seen the dynamic economy at work yet. The last game I played that had a dynamic economy was X3 terran conflict, and there's nothing of the sort here since prices of goods remain the same. Maybe this dynamic economy concerns solely container goods? That may be why I only made 5 millions selling 6 containers, or maybe it is only functional in multiplayer? But I'm playing the campaing.

As for the shield, I don't know where I can buy it alone, I visited maybe 250 bases yet, and I haven't seen it anywhere. But I'm in paused story, so maybe i'll see it later when new systems will unlock, and I may truly have missed it (you got to really pay attention of the stuff they sell, that thruster that go just a tad faster is a true jewel to escape combat, but I've seen it only at one base, behind an asteroid field...). But no problem, I spent the 20 millions for the shield, and i'm not frustrated, there are all kind of ways to make money. As for the ship, I wanted the APC to explore, fight, and trade with some effectiveness. I'll probably get another VHF when i'll go back to the story. And i'm not in a hurry to unlock everything, i'm already overwhelmed by the quantity (and quality) of systems I have open presently. When i'll feel at home, then i'll continue the story and open new parts. I like it like that, and it's not important if i don't get the best stuff right away, or if i waste 20 millions for a shield...But I do want the best of the part I have unlocked before going farther. Sure that multiplayer is another matter, i'll see about that later, if my bandwidth is sufficient.

I had a value of 82 000 000 credits and 56 000 000 in hard cash, I bought the best train for 56 000 000 Credits. My total value lowered to 48 000 000 and i was left with enough hard cash to buy 6 containers of titanium (200 000 credits each). I sold them at New York for 1 080 000 credits, all in all that's about 5 millions in profits. That means I would need to do 7 runs to regain my value of 82 000 000. If you look at it only from this angle, you can say "well, after that i'll make profits", but you got to take all factors into consideration, like turning that is very slow, docking that is not available everywhere, slow undocking, vulnerability, things like that. But the most important point is your goal. I set my goal at 150 000 000 in hard cash, such an amount would permit me to try any ship I see at the point of the story where I am. And I have come to the conclusion that the fastest way to reach my goal is not to spend 56 millions for a train but to spend 10 millions for the APC. I'm left with a head start in credits, I'll be able to reach my goal faster, and i'll have the exploration vehicle I wanted right away. But first I must waste 20 millions buying the redemption just for its shield, that way i'll have it when i'll want another VHF, but that's another story...

I went to the order HQ and the storyline seems to resume just fine.

As for the tradelanes interruptions, I know it's the way the game work, I was just laughing a little, but it's nice to know about the formation trick.

Capturing pilots is what I intensively did at the beginning. As soon as I got a decent ship, I parked it in front of the junkers base and destroyed all the incoming enemies until my cargo got full of pilots. That got me 15 millions quite quickly. I think the rogue base in California would be a super place to do the same since it is a hornet's nest of hungry rogues. But I'll be fine as a trader for some time.

To tell me there is a rewarding bonus mission is nice, but it's not much of a hint, would you be kind enough to tell me more, like the system where I should look for it?

My playstyle... Lately i've been playtesting quite a few freshly developed big mods for old games, Pirates of the Caribbean new horizons (best sailing game ever), Rome total war roma surrectum (best army game ever), Jagged alliance 2 1.13. The work on those mods is incredible, and what they all have in common is a dedicated team of serious modders who like their game enough to work 5 years or more, always making it always better, and they all have a few guys who like to help on their forums too, which is a necessity since there is always a bug and my playstyle attracts bugs, (i'm just lucky there are none in my bed...) Next on my list is Deus ex revision, probably ready next month. But enough of that.

I'll go to the order HQ very soon, for now, I wanted to talk about the incompetence of the liberty navy, the liberty police and the liberty military, with a grain of salt, evidently...You see, I needed 10 millions to finally have enough money for a big train (the reason i'll go back to the order HQ soon). I'm in New York and I only have this old VHF with 140 cargo space, and i am not motivated to run around getting a freighter just to raise 10 millions, and I don't want to start battling for credits since I made peace with everybody except the Confederated strike force (I had to battle a lot to make peace), which is quite far away... So the best option I see is to buy engine parts from Newark station in New York, go to the battleship Mississippi in the adjacent sector of Texas to sell the parts, and come back to Newark station with prisoners. This short run net me a nice 500,000 credits, not bad for a cargo hold of 140...But i'll still have to do it 20 times.

Here are a few funny things I noticed.
1- From New York to Texas, it's smooth sailing.
2- There is always a ship docking before me when I arrive at the battleship Mississippi.
3- 2 out of 3 times there is a battle at the Texas-New York gate and I have to wait for traders to use the gate before me.
4- I have to dock with 4 tradelanes on my way back to Newark station, and i'll get interrupted by 2-3 rogues twice, once if i'm very lucky. Now, Ney york is a kind of place where you have all kind of police and military, and navy and more police, hell everybody even owns a battleship! Yet, they can't take care of a few dirty rogues. And those rogues are brave enough to interrupt the tradelane with all the police around, but they run away in fear as soon you fire a .50 mW laser pointer at them from the inside of your cockpit. I wonder if I could pay a kid to sit on the gate and slingshot their windshield when they show up...

Anyway, no problem there, just some idiosyncrasies...

I like to do the storyline... Sure that once my current game is done, and some time has passed, then openSP will be an option.

Yes, I paused the storyline after the train escort mission to the order HQ in sol (the next mission specifically mentioned that it would be at a good time to pause the story). The disk is indeed from Death Valley. I understand that things would go probably easier or better if I followed a scripted walkthrough, but the problem with me is that I hate walkthrough, I feel like a failure if I have to do things following a walkthrough... They're super useful, but I find it more rewarding upon success if try to do things by myself, a walkthrough is a last retort measure to me, I know you have one here, but I haven't looked at it yet. I'll even say the modding team should be proud of that too.

As for the disk, I've been having it too long, i'll take the risk of carrying it with me, even if I still got a lot to do before resuming the storyline. It is very tempting to sell it, it's exactly the amount I need to start the next step of my galactic supremacy plan, it would save me many hours, but don't you think it would further increase the risk of storyline failure if I sell it? What if I need to go get again it and it's not there? If I still have it, there is an increased chance the mission will work. I will sell it just before the mission, and if the game crash or something, then i'll keep it, and if something bad still happens, then what can I say, i'll reload and redo a whole day's work, and someone will have to consider it as a bug.

Go get again it...

I kept my last save before taking the disk, if you tell me this disk is part of the main storyline, then i'll load back the old save. If not, then i'll carry it until the storyline is done, and i'll then try again to carry it at planet crossfire. Now, I don't want to criticize too much since i'm having a really good time, the scenery is fantastic, bump-mapping everywhere, good battles, a plethora of ships to choose from, tons of different sectors, treasures, money, good story and missions. Yet, when designing quests, you got to think that the players will do anything crazy, you don't even take a fraction of a chance, and so you don't leave a disk that is part of the storyline laying out there somewhere in space available for picking anytime, unless you put a warning before starting the game "Don't explore wrecks before finishing the storyline"... see how that sounds ridiculous? Yet, that's what you're telling me. The sectors i'm exploring are unlocked, what am I to do?

Found a data disk worth 8,500,000, the description says that i should carry it to planet crossfire for a new mission. I like the idea of getting mission this way, I just hope this is not part of the main quest, I don't want to break the game with this thing in my inventory...For now, nobody on planet crossfire want it, so I guess it will work after I complete the main quest.

Nomad guns got 0 energy usage...

Yes, in fact, the mission that lead you to have access to trains is a train escort mission, so it would fit perfectly in the story.

That could be easily implemented since text is mostly used to describe missions. I personally prefer text if the voice acting is not top notch, you can fit in far more information too. I think the people working on the mod understood that since it seems mission elaboration is becoming better as time (missions) advance. I didn't like the voice in the first crossfire mission, it sounded as if someone enclosed his head in a cardboard box with a big mike, and the other guy was worse, but then i was pleasantly surprised by the intelligent mix of text, animation and voice when possible, so I can only give a thumbs up. What would do the job too, and permit the story to use far more animations, would be to implement bubbles which pop over the head of the people as they speak. And i'd get rid of the guy who say the station name when you lift-off, the result is not worth the trouble, the "good luck out there" is enough. But i'm not complaining or anything, i'm just writing stuff.

Excellent, thanks for the info, i had done the "search for 3 containers" missions before posting this, a bit laborious, but it was a nice challenge (finding the first one cost me about 2 millions credits in repairs because it was in a radioactive area full of derelict ships near a sun, and since i didn't know I had to look for a container, I assumed I had to shoot all those derelicts...They were full of diamonds, but I only collect pilots so I jettisoned all those diamonds...). The one in ormicron something (i think) got me a little on edge, it is a sector full of spiky rocks with bad vision and no visual cue to direction, i had to turn the map on and off continually to know where i was going, but doing so I would hit a spiky rock which would totally mess-up my direction, worse, i went at the total opposite direction of where the container was (i got a hint when I was in the upper corner of the map... Fortunately, i could click on the base there and use the goto command, that saved me an hour...)

As I write this, i finished the container escort mission, and i'm ready to go do some exploring, my HF ship is just totally inadequate now, and I long to try those trains (isn't it strange that the whole place is filled with train traffic, and they are nowhere to be bought until now?).

Ever since i passed to the crossfire storyline, i lost the ability to make waypoints. I want to know if it will be restored.