I had to upgrade a M6 ship with 200MJ Shields x 3 for 9 millions credits to go through the xenon sector.
Definitely this mission isn't 'Easy' as the game said. :D

I will try to keep my combat ranking low as not to make it too hard but Xenon sectors packed with ,errh, Xenons are dangerous, I know.

My 2nd day in-game:

Working on the Terran plot I get involved in some combat and dangerous situations. I try to avoid too dangerous fights.

I found my first ownerless ship, a Buster Sentinel (this model not sold anywhere) and promptly claimed it, transferred the guns and other equipment over to my old Buster as the Sentinel is too slow to my taste. Then sent it to park somewhere for use much later in game (to reverse engineer it). Bought a 2nd hand ship at 45% of what I sold it for later in the day :-) This one also a ship I did not want. I think the discounts are sometimes too big; it would be enough to be able to buy a ship occasionally that you cannot otherwise, be it due to too low notoriety or it not being sold in any shipyards or maybe sold so far away from where you are. I also bought a TS, the Terran Baldric and started remote (as opposed to automatic) trading with it.

Finally found and bought Best Buys and Best Selling locators. These I have been missing for many hours as I like trading a lot.

Oh shiiit! Xenons, loads of 'em. Never saw this many and such big ships too. I guess Argon Prime is kind of cushy after all. Terran bases are HUUUGE, really huge. Do they have so much people that they need 'em so big?

Somehow the latter twelve hours of this game day I sank into the game fairly totally and played from morning till late night. Considering how many hours of game time have passed, I have accomplished fairly little. I guess things like exploring too much in a slow Buster, scurrying around looking for ship stuff and working on the slow Terran plot mission and STILL NOT having a jumpdrive adds up to lots of hours with comparatively little to show for it. So many missions I simply dare not attempt without one.

I see I have spent about half of the time in SETA, a lot more than I expected.

Relations list (from -5 to +10):
Argon +4
Boron +3
Split +1
Paranid +4
Teladi +3
Goner +3
ATF +3
Terran +3
Pirates estimated at -1
A capital L after the race if I have a police license for them. None yet as I need a +5 or better notoriety

Assets:
3 ships: 2 x M4, 1 x TS (a freighter)
no factories or other stations

Shopping list:
-Police Licenses, whenever I can buy them
-JUMPDRIVE! Now this one is getting imperative
-a Teladi Kestrel (on my way to PTNI HQ to buy one now)
-Guns for my Buster? maybe 1-2 more IREs or 1 IRE + 1 PRG
-5x25MJ shields for my Baldrin TS (5x5MJ installed)
-more cargo bay for my TS Baldrin when I can afford it
-weapons for my Baldrin TS? that would be 1-2 of the expensive EMPCs and/or poltergeist missiles (seeking, swarm) and if I do get them I also need fight command software mk1 and uhmm maybe others too
-Bio Scanner

Not too far into the future I would love to have a better fighter, as the vanilla Buster is not the best thing around.

The pictures show: a freshly claimed Buster Sentinel; a Trans-Orbital Accelerator = the Terran type of gate; my stats

You should try to avoid mix and matching different guns, since it is hard to hit with both weapons (the slower projectiles need to be aimed further ahead of the target), and thus one type is just draining your energy to no good effect. I would remove the IREs and probably add more PRGs when you can get them, although upgrading your ship is also a good idea.

How are you finding the plot? I am yet to attempt any story missions.

I learnt not to mix weapons in Reunion already :-) so I agree. What I do is place them on different weapon banks and/or groups. Like heavier weapons in group 1 and IREs in group 3, pressing "3" will switch from my PRGs to my IREs when I want to keep the firepower or power drain low (comming the enemy to surrender... ;-)) and pressing 1 will return me to my PRGs. Now the Buster does not have any turrets but you can, sometimes must, put different guns into the turrets than your main bank. Now I am not a know-it-all when it comes to turrets so there might be limitations and pros and cons to doing things one way or another with them.

I hope I was clear enough.

So far the main plot missions have been easy but a bunch of Xenon Ls (M3) left behind from one mission are making troubles for me whenever I need to travel in a certain sector. I stopped working on the Terran plot for now as I smell too heavy fighting for my Buster. Started the Goner plot and that sure starts easy for a seasoned trader like me. There is almost never any time limits to the story missions so taking one's time is advisable.

On a side note: How much longer before my new avatar works?! One week is too long, GOG!

There's something troubling me in the latest screenshot you've attached. Do you have a Fight Command Software MK2 installed? Try pressing "k" once and see if that helps with your aim.

Jumpdrives. There's only a few places in the X3 universe where you can get those. Do let me know if you want spoilers :).

Xenons are a pain. Campaign missions aside, camping out or building stations close to Xenon sectors is a joyride, as they tend to send out medium to huge invasion fleets every now and then.

Eh! I have plain forgot to change that targetting setting, thanks!

Jumpdrive.... I decided to go southeast and see more of the universe (yes, I looked up where they are sold).

The Terrans gave me some ships which I do not want. Can I take the guns and sell the ships? Would it be idiocy to install guns on a TS? I know of mosquito missile defence but The Baldric does not take them.

Of course you can.

Not at all. I once had a Mercury Hauler which was preyed upon by 3 Pirate Busters before I managed to get to it and managed to fend off all of them with just a rear-turret PRG. I would not mount offensive forward weapons in a TS though, unless you really feel that you need them.

NPC TSes will also use fighter drones when attacked, but to be honest I've never employed them myself.

I keep dying... which makes it slow getting another 24 in-game hours, even if I sit a lot here playing. Soon....

My 3rd day in-game:

Just minutes into the third day I bought a Teladi Kestrel M5 and continued the Terran plot. I guess the Terrans giving me an M5 (tiny fighter) was a good indication that I will need one soon but I would rather have a Kestrel than what I was given. This one is a blast to fly <3 With this I just flew past the enemy fleet that I could not beat with my Buster.

Next up in the Terran plot would be a patrol mission with a wing of AI ( = not NPC) M5 Rapiers given to me. Makes me suspect a more formidable foe for which I will want a better ship or weapons, so taking a break from the plot for now to get that and work on my "shopping list".

I found a Goner sector and I know Goners sell the jumpdrive but I guess they do not unless they have a station to sell it from, which I was kindly asked to help build... Alright, will do.

Had too many offers to buy used ship so I simply ran out of cash. Now the owner of some more freighters :-) just need to juggle the little cash I have so I can fill them with trade goods and shields.

Suddenly one of my fighters, which was docked in the same system as I (aka "IS"), undocked and started moving about. Did someone steal it? It still is marked as mine though. Such a mystery was too much for me so I loaded a saved game. It seems they just move out of the way so others can dock if it gets crowded so I wasted some real time on replaying a bit.

Annoyingly the Plot demands my presence so cannot go look for a jumpdrive. Players of X games, learn from this, buy it early on. Being in too much hurry with the Goners' first mission I face an empty purse again :-(

Captured a pirate Buster :-) and was so tired that I sold the original Buster to the shipyard instead of this one... Thankfully had a save only ten minutes earlier, after capture but before repairs.

I have always thought that the SETA should not be a ship part but accessable always and once again I had reason to think so. Since it is so cheap I suggest installing it on each and every ship as it can, in case of an attack, with luck, get destroyed in place of a much more critical or expensive upgrade.

Here is one bug that keeps annoying me, especially since it has made me fail at least one mission: When having several conversations simultaneously, it seems to rank the dumb, unimportant station announcements higher and drown out critical ones. (Yes, audio settings are on less prattle x2)

My first setback at 11h into the 3rd day: My 2nd hand Dolphin Hauler gets shot down by a pack of angry pirates too many and too tough for me to fight, a loss of approximately 700,000c :-( (including stuff onboard). Unless I get an M3 or better I must invest in missiles and maybe also fighter drones. Drones on my TSs (freighters) in that case, hmm.

I managed to get a pirate Carrack (M7) to come after me and lured it into crashing at full speed into a Phoenix (M2), which lost a quarter of its shield charge, tops. The pirate? Smithereens :-D And I felt sooo good at having some kind of revenge after they shot my freighter. Bloody pirates! (Never mind I was Cal Johnston in an earlier life.)

What with X3TC having A LOT more missions in many different plot lines than X3R, I decided to have a look at some walk-throughs to try to plan ahead a bit... <hysterical laughter> Some requirements are insane. No compunctions here about using walk-throughs for some games' quests/story. If I want to finish all the races' and all the corporations' plots, this will drag on well into the next year for sure.

A pirate must have placed some strange hex or something on my Kestrel's engine as my max speed dropped and dropped and... well, a Kestrel's defence is its speed, so I was dropped out of the sky. This ought to teach me not to buy 2nd hand ships from pirates.

So I did not get a jumpdrive during the 3rd day either.... but mere seconds into the 4th I did. That is a good spot to make a report.

What have I accomplished so far? Fully upgraded and equipped my Baldric, bought and kitted a Kestrel, advanced a bit on the Terran and Goner plots, not started any new plots but explored quite a bit with my Kestrel (perfect for mapping the world). I just love the ship. Done quite a lot of trading.

Trade rank 14 *
Combat rank 4 *
Argon +6 (L)
Boron +4
Split +2
Paranid +4
Teladi +3 (L)
Goner +3
ATF +3
Terran +3
A capital (L) after the race if I have a police license for them.
* if bottom rank = 0

Assets:
5 ships: 2 X TS 1 x M5 2 x M4
no factories or other stations

Shopping list:
-Police Licenses, whenever I can buy them
-Bio Scanner! How have I missed buying this? Not needed so far but soon will
-a factory or two
-an M3 or such
-a ship with a hangar to store my Busters on and use for lugging around jumpdrives. Cheapest one is?
-more small and fast TSs
-one big TS for some (mainly plot) missions

Pictures: Me buying a jumpdrive with inlay of my stats ; The Goners' Ozias is a peculiar looking ship; Nooo, don't want to lose another freighter :-S

Yes, that will happen every now and then, especially when you have ships docked at stations that have very few docking ports.

Whaaaaat??? Don't SELL the Pirate Buster! Have you seen the laser recharge rate on that bastard? It's better than what some M3s have. It's one of my favorite and probably the best entry level fighter out there. I'd equip it with 6 PRGs and go on rampages, it tends to swat down enemy fighters like flies. Its only downside is its meager 10MJ shield capacity, but it is quick enough to dodge incoming fire, so if you're good on the helm it won't let you down.

I've turned off station announcement ages ago. They were fun to listen to at first, but most of them just get in the way of actual important things happening in the game, as you've also found out :).

Wisened in X3R I turned them off 5mins into the game ages ago but some remain, like lengthy welcome messages to stations and such. My real life space ship computer knows to keep the chit-chat off when we are busy.

Oh I will have a closer look at the Pirate Buster's specs now. In my defence, I was very tired at that moment. I see... more than double the capacitor and recharge rate and faster too. The next one I aquire will be kept.

I think I will start saving every single Disruptor missile I get for the corporation missions where they ask for a delivery of them.

In all my playing of the X games (5 rounds?) it never before took me this long to get a JD.

The ship specifications differ between X3TC and X3AP, ie in AP the Fujin Sentinel lost some cargo space compared to in TC. That Fujin will serve you as long as you remember there are more missiles you cannot outrun. A pirate Kestrel is something I want one day but no hurry :-P

You only need +3 notoriety, I think, for a Teladi police license; at least that was how it was in Reunion.

Again, ship specs differ between the X games. I will research the TMs when the time comes (around 3d6h game time is my guess). My shopping list is a note I keep mainly for myself updating it continuously but thought why not include it in the diary.

Three hours into my fourth day right now and I own two M3s at the moment... so that little problem was solved. I have flown Mambas a lot in other play-throughs of X3 and I like them a lot. My avatar was chosen for a good reason hehe.

The Duke.... If I piss him off I can forget about doing his plot but I am tempted to skip that one to lessen the game difficulty by that much. No Medusa Prototype M3+, no Advanced Perseus M3... hmm

I'm in my eight day game-wise and still have not managed to get a Pirate Kestrel pilot to eject and leave his utterly dreamy ship behind. I'm also using a Teladi Kestrel as a personal jet-packed way of traveling and sometimes capping enemy M5s and M4s, but man, oh, man do I want to get my hands on the pirate version eventually... I probably want it more than all the other pirate capital ships I'm planning to capture.

As you've said it's slightly faster (about 5% I think) than the Teladi version, but overall that can make a huge difference, especially when flying through dangerous sectors. I've explored all the Xenon sectors in my standard Kestrel and I've had quite a few close brushes with some seriously huge Xenon heavy battleships that had multiple flak arrays and PBEs in their turrets.

Bottom line, if you've capped one, you have the best scout/exploring ship in the game (available outside of any plot-lines).

I'm not sure how it is in TC, but in AP you definitely need at least +5 with the Teladi also in order to get a police license.