Any TM you like. I personally recommend the OTAS Zephyrus if you can afford it (it's one of the expensive, top range TMs - THE TM to have actually, great shielding, great in a combat support role).

I just successfully completed my first ship return mission and uhmm, it is hard. Can I keep JD and docking computer on the ship and have one of my own ships docked to the goal station ready waiting for me to transfer stuff and myself over BEFORE then relinquing the command of the ship? Could save a minute that way, flying the slow thing myself. Now I matched speed in space with the ship and beamed the things back to my own ship then let it dock on its own which worked too.

What I can see, any of these would be fine: OTAS Zephyros; Paranid Helios; Terran Toukon; Yaki Chokaro. Quickly checking X3AP, I would make the same list in there.

As you can guess from the screenshot I am feeling a bit smug right about now :-D

I think the Toukon was added in Albion Prelude, and it is worth noting that the Chokaro holds only three fighters rather than the usual four, but other than that I agree with you. My first choice would be the Zephyros, and then the Helios.

I used my usual Skate Prototype (M3+), equipped with an Ion Disruptor I found in a crate in the forward turret to take care of the shields and speed, and a pair of IREs to do the damage, although I think it was the Phased Repeater Gun in the rear turret that fired the fateful shot. I fired a Mosquito Missile or two at it to get its attention and then lured it away from its friends before turning on it, and the pilot actually bailed quite quickly.
I did try going after one in my Enhanced Jaguar, but I kept getting pounded by the rear turret guns and missiles, and with only 2MJ of shielding that did not go well for me, so I eventually gave up on that one after the pilot repeatedly refused to bail.

Wow, great catch :D. I'm twice as eager to get one now. I think I'll plan a steak out operation near one of the local pirate bases and see what I catch :).

I've got a ton of marine cadets in training anyway and can't do any more boardings until they're up to the task (which can take a loooooooong time in AP).

The way I see it, best way to catch a Kestrel is with another Kestrel :P. That's my plan anyway.

I found an ownerless prototype Skate M3+ :-O Who in their right mind leaves such a gem just floating in space?! Claimed and sent to dock while I ponder what to do with it. As a fighter, it totally pawns my beginning Buster. It is even a bit faster but has one big problem, it is BIG = easy for enemies to hit. As a prototype it is not sold anywhere so if I sell it I might never get another one again. (OK, I did check and there is a way to get one more but with quite some effort.) One thing I will use it for is protecting the slowboat Dolphin TS I bought 2nd hand while it trudges to the nearest shipyard; never again am I keeping a neigh useless Dolphin. Wait, I might load it with some hard-to-sell stuff I bought in a weak moment and use it for one of those Get-me-a-ship-worthy-of-the-Queen missions... Sold.

Oh my, I found another ownerless M3 ship. This one looks like a blast to fly, if you get it ;-)

The Kestrel is nice but has a painfully small cargo hold for energy cells. This became very clear when I did a return a ship mission which was across many sectors, my first ever mission of this kind.

There are some 225 sectors in X3TC and even in a Kestrel that takes time to explore. I wanted to go see the south-west corner of the world but realise I need to go find a sector called Aladna Hill and scout around there (so I looked at a map...). Setting course for the middle of the map.

I am playing my game completly unmodded but there is one mod I sure would like to have: Being able to see my notoriety with the factions and races whose reputation ranks are hidden in the standard game. One of them I know anyway: My Xenon relations are at -5, rock bottom :-P For those not knowing the X games so well, those are always hostile to all and every one.

It seems I am quite heavily into the used ships' market... Also a way to make a pretty credit.

Finally found my way to Legend's Home with the OTAS HQ. Looking at the offers in the two shipyards there... Zephyrus -- bought, Mistral -- bought (3, after I have kitted these I will get more), Solano? What is that? Hmm an M4.... with 3 x 25MJ shields, must be a typo <looks it up> Oh my goodness! No typo, that M4 has MORE shielding than some M3s :-O

The 'u' key is really handy as it gives you information about a lot of things, like what equipment and which upgrades a ship at a shipyard comes with. This should make it easier to pick between S, M and L loadouts.

If the first half of the day was mainly exploring and ship buying, the later was heavily trading and I ended it with completing a peaceful mission for the Goners.

My use of SETA has dropped a lot and will probably be around an hour or two a day from here on. I did not shoot at a single thing this in-game day other than by mistake; typically when falling asleep in front of the computer and waking up to the sound of my guns firing :-D

A bit about ships: I never got a feel for the Skate prototype M3+ and sold it but have other ships capable enough. I really like the Zephyrus, thanks WinterSnowfall for the tip. Now I need a TL... but they cost a bit more than I have and one can be hired to move stations for you. Maybe steal one... I am not totally averse to some combat. To steal one I will need marines, and a ship to put them on. Are TLs hard to board?

The massive increase in plot in X3TC compared to X3R is staggering and very game changing if I allow it to be. I feel a bit torn between too many things to do. Also tricky to balance plots with notoriety as working on some, lowers your reputation with others. I want to explore the whole world, setup some factories, and complexes when I can afford those, and work on the plots which there are just too many of. A mobile mining setup and a couple of lonely factories should be my aim for the next day, I feel, after I get my reputation with the Split high enough that they will sell me shields for my freighters. Flying around with a fraction of max shielding is making me nervous but at least they are fast and jumpdrive enabled to better flee.

Q: This has nothing to do with my current game situation but how does one repair a negative standing with the Terrans if you have no assets in Terran space? I never spotted a Terran mission giver anywhere and if you are blocked from entering the Solar system, you must not trade there either. Quickly popping into Heretic's End and shoot down any enemies of the Terran while being chased by the their fleet and ATF? Station hack so you can sell something to a base in Heretic's End or the Asteroid Belt? You need a pirate hacker close enough for that though. Reason I ask is that the corporation plots look like something where one does need to step on the toes of many.

Trade rank 16 *
Combat rank 4 *
Argon +6 (L)
Boron +5 (L)
Split +3 <---Really need another level a.s.a.p.
Paranid +4
Teladi +4 (L)
Goner +4
ATF +3
Terran +4
A capital (L) after the race if I have a police license for them.
* if bottom rank = 0

Assets:
9 ships: 1 x TM 4 X TS 1 x M5 2 x M4 1 x M3
2 Adv sats in use
STILL no factories or other stations

Shopping list:
-Police Licenses, whenever I can buy them
-factories!
-more advanced satellites to cover more key sectors
-more guns for my Zephyrus? loadout for this one is difficult
-4 x Plasma Burst Generators (that dragonbreath thing)/Energy Bolt Chainguns for my M3
-25MJ shields for my Mistrals (3X4=12. Now have 4, +4 on BP) x 8
-guns for my Mistrals. 4 turrets (1+1+2+2 guns) and a tiny laser capacitor... maybe IREs and just one gun/turret
-marines, as they take time to train. how many? 10? 20?
-boarding pods? do I need? how many?
-2 big TSs, one for missions, and one for:
-things needed for a mobile mining setup
-a TP (NOT a Hermes/Manta/Scabbard)
-a TL... but even the cheapest is more than I have now :-( Split Elephant (small cargo bay but fast)? Paranid Hercules? Boron Orca? Argon Mammoth (costs more than the others)?
-a pirate Kestrel!
-a pirate Kestrel!!
-a pirate Kestrel!!!

Pictures are: an invitation to start The Treasure Hunt plot (will do that soon), me arriving at Legend's Home for the first time and pilot statistics.

I played a bit with The Bankrupt Assassin start and I have to say, in X3TC it is not a hard start anymore but one of the easier ones. I got as far as having more than a million credits and all race reputations on the positive side and pirates not too much on the negative. Can recommend this start as long as you are willing to do missions.

Sadly, I managed to save my other ongoing game over this one so it is no more. From this I will remember not to have more than one game going on and move saves OUT of their default folder IF I want to do another play/start. All auto-saves were from the main game.

There are more game starts that can be unlocked, by play or a register hack (or equivalent on Linux).

If you ask me, everything in X3TC is a bit hard to board due to how the boarding mechanics are implemented. Only M7M ships can launch boarding pods, but in TC they can be shot down rather easily by turret fire, so it makes boarding such a horrible drag. In AP they've added hull points to all types of missiles, boarding pods included, so that for larger projectiles it usually takes a couple of shots before blowing them apart. Piracy command software was also upgraded for easier use.

At some points during plot missions you can't control the notoriety you have with some factions. That's the plotline for you. It's one of a reasons that I went ahead with a pure sandbox game.

As I said above, it might not be possible to improve things at all, depending on where you are with the plots. In general, you can improve your notoriety by shooting off pirates or enemies of a certain faction in the faction's sectors. Killing xenon and pirates in general will also have a very tiny effect in increasing your standing with everyone.

HEPTs as frontal hard-mount guns and PRGs in both turrets. I can it the fly-swatting Zephyrus variation :).

Boarding in TC is not really my strong point, as I gave up on it rather early in the game. You'll have to read up on it :). I may start babbling about stuff I now know works in AP, but I may be giving you false information in the context of TC.

The Elephant is more than decent for its price tag and a good startup TL. Yes, it won't have a lot of cargo space, but then again you won't miss it *that* much either. Otherwise it's above average.

Good luck with that :D. It's a hard catch.

I have been trying the Treasure Hunt plot, one of the first things you have to do is destroy one of two laser towers. I tried in the Kestrel, which went about as well as I expected; I tried in my Skate, still crushed; I tried it in my Kha'ak Corvette, not even close; next time I tried it with the Corvette, a Heavy Centaur, and a Heavy Dragon (people should be more careful who they ask to retrieve their ships) and got almost a quarter of the way through the shield before they were all destroyed. I did manage to take it out by firing about 20 Beluga missiles at it, interspersed with Wasp missiles to mess with their targeting, but there must be a better way. Maybe use a fighter to fire missiles from close range so the towers have less chance to target them?

Hopefully it should go easier for you as laser towers were buffed in AP, but then so were corvettes.

I am REALLY angry now as I just lost the game. Will look into how to possibly save it.

Hold on, what do you mean you just *lost* the game? Don't you have any previous saves? Can't you reload?

I saved a BS game on top of the diary game. Thankfully I had one autosave where I had only played three hours carelessly so I was saved. I really ought to heed my own advice and move the game saves out of their folder when I do not play them so mistakes cannot happen. The mouse cursor moves all too easily between Load and Save.

Now I will use more save points to decrease the risks of a total catastrophe.

Past midday now, wonder what to do with a Magnetar TM, put it to work as a mobile miner? 400MJ shielding, up to 1500 XL cargo space, up to 110m/s speed and it can fit a mobile drilling system (and a tractor beam too, curiously).

I don't think it's worth it (doesn't have much of a cargo bay). I have one and just use it as a ship garage. I used to have it ferry back ships I captured, but that role has since been taken over by a Boa (and now is soon to be taken over by a Chokaro).