I am peeved now. X3:TC certainly is not free from bugs even now though most have been ironed out.

I was, yet again, trying to capture a pirate Kestrel and when it was down to 22% hull intact, I switched to weapon group 3 and also checked carefully that my turret guns were not activated for weapon groups 2-4 (left side menu>current ship>advanced>weapons -- scrolled down to turret guns. Clicked remove from group 3, but alas, I had already done that). The game correctly changed the number of my frontal guns from two to one but when I blew past the pirate, with a sinking feeling, I heard my turret opening up and the pirate went poof. I am afraid I told the Argon police where they could stuff their 500Cr bounty. In case anyone is in doubt: It is a place where the sun does not shine.

I am going to do something low to compensate for that bug and reload as I had saved very recently before the fight. This reminds me I need to go buy some more insurance policies, like a thousand of them :-D The cost is negligible to me anyway.

I wouldn't say that. It still has some issues which tend to hit you kind of hard in the long run - I know, I've been there.

Among other things, one of the biggest issues I remember having was with the OOS combat simulation engine, which was way, way off from a normal in-sector outcome.

Xenon Qs had a habit of annihilating M1s and M2s in a single round without you even noticing it, let along having time to react. I'm so glad it's been revamped in X3:AP and is now a lot more inline with real expectations.

Nothing low about it - it's your privilege as a gamer. Do you think I would have taken my Astraeus Hauler for a ride through the Xenon sectors just for the fun of it without being able to reload?

Ah, The Q; P and PX are scary enemies in systems other ('OOS') than the one you are in at the moment.
I just do not want to save and reload a lot just to avoid minor losses and, even worse, to maximise my loot. I will redo the fight against the pirate Kestrel but so that I remove the RPGs in the middle of the fight from the turret. If the game still refuses to award me the ship and I do not feel beaten by some bug again I will gracefully accept the outcome and go look for the next target.

Seems there is no way to buy a PBG forge in X3TC (there is in X3AP though) so will either have to befriend the pirates/Yaki and hack me in to access a forge of theirs and then camp out there and buy until I have enough with margin while probably having to feed the station with supplies too OR get lucky while capturing a Yaki Ryu TL with an intact PBG forge in its cargo hold OR gather a bunch of them from capturing fighters with them on. The combat way is too unreliable I think.

Sigh! I really want to try that weapon and no, I am not cheating in a load of them.

Sorry for shooting at your ships! I have had a change of heart and want to be friends again, pretty please with sweetened Marmite on top.

I hacked a couple of forges and planted ships at them with orders to buy the PBGs when they are produced. I then had to build a space fuel factory and assign another ship to sell that to them in order to actually get production started.

There is? Is it something the Yaki are selling?

I don't have my own, but there's one in Danna's Chance that I hacked and where I shop a lot. It manages to keep itself well stocked and producing without my intervention.

I must have about 20 lying around somewhere, not counting those I've equipped on various ships.

Anyway, getting PBGs is not that much of a hassle. Getting IBLs is.

I read these here:
http://www.x3wiki.com/index.php/Plasma_Burst_Generator_Forge
http://www.x3wiki.com/index.php/Incendiary_Bomb_Launcher_Forge

Note the detail about having to do the plot to be able to buy the forges. Good to hear those PBGs are not that hard to get. Is that also so with a low standing with the Pirates and the Yaki? The bloody over-zealous race fleets keep destroying all stations belonging to the pirates everywhere, including in the pirate sectors, but maybe Yaki sectors may be in peace but I never managed to get a hack into any of their stations so far.

Well, I'm not playing with plots, so that's not an option for me :).

Yes, pretty much. Reputation does not really matter if you do station hacks - they instantly become neutral.

You can occasionally get station hack offerings in Empire's Edge, but they will only go as deep as Senator's Badlands - you won't be able to hack anything in Weaver's Tempest from Paranid sectors unfortunately, due to the 3 sector distance rule.

The only thing I have done in X3TC for a couple of days now, is trying to plan some complexes, which feels way too much like work, and work that I am not well suited for at that :-(. This kind of 'play' does not advance my in-game time at all but is nontheless a part of playing this complicated game. Complexes also cost a lot of money. I thought my purse was pretty well filled but looking at building something to advance the Hub plot at any kind of meaningful speed will set me back way more than what I have in cash at the moment. I guess I will have to start by setting up a money maker then. If small enough and placed in a sector with energy available to buy, I could skip the energy loop and save a good bit on the initial setup costs, but for a complex to supply me with material needed for the Hub, my energy demands would be much too high for anything the market could deliver with ease and reliability. Seems we are talking hundreds of millions here. Good thing the income rate has gone up a lot for me.

The freedom of a sandbox simulator occasionally means one can be at a loss as what to do next. Now I am there, unsure what step to take next to lead me towards my goal of completing all the main plots, preferrably before 2018. If I just keep trudging along planlessly, it might take me many years to complete the Hub.

I have actually really enjoyed doing the HUB plot. I am presently at the point of sending 250,000 Crystals to the Hub now, and am also presently finishing up my second Crystal Complex by hauling Silicone mines/asteroids to it. Income-wise, I have about 10 Traders running...I have kept them as Sector Traders at maximum jump settings, as I have found this safer then Universal Traders...perhaps a little less money, but safer. I also have built 3 or 4 complexes in various sectors to cater to local needs (only one is closed loop, with it's own solar power plant), and these have been very helpful in supplying a steady income. Even with all that, I find myself taking a break from complex building for the Hub plot, and running missions for credits. For me personally, I have found transport missions (personal and items), and station building missions to be the most lucrative for me, and keep my combat rating from rising too high as well. As you finish parts of the Hub requirements, you can then scale back production in those complexes you built for it, and even start selling the products (at the complex directly, and by CAG) for some more supplemental income!

I can see perhaps why some people might get bored or complain about this plot, but I am really enjoying it. I love figuring out the math, to see how many, and what type of stations are needed to put out my final product. It took a bit of practice initially (and saving) to learn how to set up stations neatly to form a nice complex, but once you have it down, you become a pro at it.

I'd be happy to give you a couple of simple complexes I built early on (and where), that I made just for income, and have always sold their products like hotcakes, but I suspect you'd rather do this yourself...let me know though if you do. I will say, it does give you a nice sense of accomplishment after you set up a complex, and see it running right along on it's own XD

I have the flue so my head is not as clear as usual plus math is not my forte but I will do it with some help if nothing else. I am using Xadrian offline complex calculator now.

I thought my income was good enough that I did not need any earner complexes but maybe I should. I have looked at setting up factories to supply the PBG and IBL forges with the raw materials they need. That should make me a pretty penny besides making sure I can buy the desired weapons. A 1MJ shield complex with no energy loop seems what everyone is suggesting for a money maker. Then either feed it with energy freighters or accept trades from npcs.

I do have one question to seasoned complex builders: Which race's stations to buy for the cheapest XL SPP loop (a complex of factories that together cover all that is needed for producing energy cells)? I am on friendly terms witih everyone. Jumping across the map is such a small cost in comparision to the money saved.

The flu sucks, big time...hope you feel better soon. Been a long time since I've had it, but even bad head and chest colds knock me for a loop :/

Yes...1MJ's sell well...mine is in a busy sector in Argon space (as in lots of cross traffic). It was doing so well, I looked around and thought adding some Mosquito missile factories to it would be just the nuts....nope, don't bother, lol. I did go back and add even more 1MJ factories to it, and shut down production on all but one of my MM factories, and it still sells out of shields very quickly. If I may....after setting it up (without it's own SPP), it's gonna eat up energy cells like mad for a while. I would put in half a mil, to a million credits for start-up capital, depending on how many factories are in your complex. Early on while it's constantly spending to re-supply it's energy needs (not a bad idea to ferry a few loads yourself to get things cranking) , it will seem like it's losing money, even though it's selling shields like crazy. Once it finally gets enough e-cells on hand, money starts rolling in...just gotta be patient for a bit to get by the wtf? start-up part, lol. I found the best way to maintain your complex is to set up a couple freighter's with CAG, and run them for both selling shields, and buying e-cells as needed. NPC's will also be stopping by to buy frequently. I set my station to buy e-cells at 13, and initially sell shields at one below average, but when they were selling as fast as I was making them, I just started selling them at average. With 2 Commercial Agents serving the complex's needs, it's a trouble free money maker...I did have pirates attack it once or twice though, and had to go spank their asses for doing so. I keep a Centaur stationed there now for that.

Regarding the SPP XL...the Terrans make the cheapest, but I really didn't want to have to deal with traversing their painfully slow space to gather everything needed to get their SPP's up and running, so I just decided to use the Argon SPP XL's. I have basically made myself at home in Argon space, so everything I need is right there. I know the Boron's and Teladi are a bit cheaper, but I prefer just dealing with Argons for SPP's. Just for reference, I have found 1 Argon SPP XL needs: 3 Crystal Fab L (Argon), 3 Cahoona Bakeries L, and 3 Cattle Ranches L. You will also need to supply Silicon Wafers, or connect Silicon Mine(s). This formula as is, will produce some extra crystals, but , if you use less than 3 Crystal Fabs, there won't be enough Crystals for the SPP XL. The extra crystals produced can be put towards the Hub later, sold, used elsewhere, ect. They won't go to waste, that's for sure.

Hey, feel better, and good luck towards becoming an Industrial Magnate ;-) (Salvage Ins. is your friend, heh heh)

I have one, but it doesn't sell much by itself. If you're expecting to just produce the goods and let the commonwealth traders come to you and buy, here is what I've got set up like that and working out pretty well: Advanced Satellites (they're selling like fresh bread during a famine), Crystals, Energy Cells and Meatstake Cahoonas (in certain areas).

Of course, if you want to sell the produce yourself, anything works, as long as it fits into the local economy.

There may be some slight advantages here and there I guess, but in the long run I think they're pretty well balanced across the races. I remember the Boron have the cheapest SPPs, but then the rest of the required stations for setting up an autonomous production cycle are more expensive compared to the average.

Never really dug any deeper than that. If you ever do the math, please let me know what you find out :).

The way I handle buying things I want, like stations in this case, is by remote controlling the freighter, a TL in this case. No way am I sitting in a TL slowly crawling across huge sectors. You just need to turn 'notify me when order completed' on in the command console for the TL.

It seems that the Terran and Boron SPP XL cost exactly the same BUT the Boron station takes up 2,000 less space in the TL and knowing how Terran stations tend to sprawl, it is probably smaller in space as well. This is for X3TC as that is what I am playing. Sorry not going to check for X3AP.

Yes, that's also how I do it. Of course, you still have to be in the same sector when the station gets deployed - sort of an annoyance if you ask me, but at least it gives you a chance to visit it and set everything up after its build.

What TL did you get in the end by the way? Is it an Elephant?

No worries, I think it's the same in AP. I'm not a fan of Terran stations either - don't even have any yet.