X4: Foundations - Mount and Blade with space-ships. Now with significant Beta update

[Average Manatee]

Have no idea how to check compatibility and the mod page doesn't say anything. Assumed it was good since latest release was a month ago and if compatibility was bad I'd assume they'd have a warning. Things seem working so far, been playing for a number of hours.

 

[Perkel]

Have no idea how to check compatibility and the mod page doesn't say anything. Assumed it was good since latest release was a month ago and if compatibility was bad I'd assume they'd have a warning. Things seem working so far, been playing for a number of hours.

download vro from nexus

 

[Average Manatee]

Yeah that's where I got it

 

[deuxhero]

Star Wars Interworlds is supposed to update to support 6.0 in a few months.

 

[Crispy]

Did I already say this game is amazing?

Boring noob anecdote ahead:

At some point in the Terran Cadet start you're thrown a real curveball by being basically kidnapped and flung several light years to an entirely new and alien sector. I won't spoil the beginning of what I think to be the main plot, but in this instance you apparently lose your starting ship and are presented with an impossible task: to come up with several million credits to take on a very large (for the beginner) project.

Well, I got a little upset at that, being a career military man; besides, I was given a direct order to provide a report on what had happened. I had no real idea whether or not I could even return to Terran space, again, being a noob, but I figured this is a sandbox game, it can't hurt to try.

So, gaining even more invaluable travel and navigation experience, in the new but significantly less valuable ship I was given, I actually managed to locate each and every gate and highway needed to make it back. I reported in, was given a promotion, then dismissed. Great. But something was still missing. My original ship.

I realize that a beginner Kukri is probably hardly worth considering in the big scheme of things in this game, but, damn it, I want to role play in this game and that's exactly what I'm going to do. I want my fucking ship back!

Is it even possible? I have no idea where it went. How do I get back to it? Can I re-procure it at all?

So I just backtracked my steps, located the still-intact ship on the map, set guidance to it -- it turns out it was still docked to the surface of the rather large ship I rendezvoused with as part of the earlier mission -- but it was in yet another completely alien (and distant) sector.

Whelp, fuck it, it's a matter of principle at this point, and it's probably worth with the upgrades I made to it a million credits anyway, so I'm off to get the damned thing back.

Sure enough, I finally manage to catch up to the mission ship, it's not hostile to me, I land on it, but -- where's the Kukri? lol I had no idea a ship this size even had 'internal storage' so I get on the terminal there and, sure enough, it's indeed stored inside. Call it up from storage and lo and behold the thing rises up on the platform before my very eyes. One of the nice things about going into especially complicated games blindly is the little things you witness for the first time that are genuinely cool. That was genuinely cool.

So I get in and take off, but how do I keep my other new ship (which conveniently came with its own Telari captain) to follow me? No sense in abandoning that ship; it's a hell of a intersector traveler compared to my combat-ready Kukri. I figured out I have to remotely request retrieval of it from storage, and, sure enough, I see the thing slowly emerge onto the landing platform and now apparently I can command it to follow me home.

Why did I type all this out? I guess because we all know that those rare moments in gaming that stand out and are worth it are... worth it.

Very cool.

 

[Crispy]

Got all the way back to my home wharf but couldn't figure out how to get the Telari captain to dock the new ship there. The option to dock at my current location was greyed out. So I decided to try something weird... I EVA'd out to him, took me about ten minutes to reach him (I could only command him to get so close and wait) but was able to get aboard, dock it myself, then I commanded him to be a service member on-board the Kukri instead. He actually got out of the chair, climbed down the ladder, made his way to the Kukri, climbed aboard, and now I guess he's along for the ride. I put the other ship into internal storage.

What? How is this game handling all of this? And I realize I haven't even scratched the surface yet.

 

[Average Manatee]

Having one service member with you at all times to take over as captain if you leave is a good idea. Can also just get out of the seat and tell him to fly you somewhere while you do other things on the strategic interface. AFAIK they can just teleport across the galaxy but its cool they physically change ships if you're at the same location.

 

[Joggerino]

Got all the way back to my home wharf but couldn't figure out how to get the Telari captain to dock the new ship there. The option to dock at my current location was greyed out. So I decided to try something weird... I EVA'd out to him, took me about ten minutes to reach him (I could only command him to get so close and wait) but was able to get aboard, dock it myself, then I commanded him to be a service member on-board the Kukri instead. He actually got out of the chair, climbed down the ladder, made his way to the Kukri, climbed aboard, and now I guess he's along for the ride. I put the other ship into internal storage.

What? How is this game handling all of this? And I realize I haven't even scratched the surface yet.

You probably know you can select your ship on the map menu, right click on a location and tell the captain to dock and wait. Was that option unavailable as well?

 

[Perkel]

Got all the way back to my home wharf but couldn't figure out how to get the Telari captain to dock the new ship there. The option to dock at my current location was greyed out. So I decided to try something weird... I EVA'd out to him, took me about ten minutes to reach him (I could only command him to get so close and wait) but was able to get aboard, dock it myself, then I commanded him to be a service member on-board the Kukri instead. He actually got out of the chair, climbed down the ladder, made his way to the Kukri, climbed aboard, and now I guess he's along for the ride. I put the other ship into internal storage.

What? How is this game handling all of this? And I realize I haven't even scratched the surface yet.

From map you can click on ship to select it and then you can order it with right click on something. Like case of docking, attack etc.

 

[Crispy]

Was that option unavailable as well?

Correct. For some reason that option was unavailable. I suppose it had to do with Terran and that ship being different factions.

 

[Joggerino]

Was that option unavailable as well?

Correct. For some reason that option was unavailable. I suppose it had to do with Terran and that ship being different factions.

That's weird, I did the same start as you and never had that problem.

 

[Crispy]

Here's the sequence:

1. Made it back to the Terran Wharf in my recovered Kukri, other new Telani ship following me (Telani captain).

2. I tried to command that ship to dock, but since I'm not docked that's not possible.

3. I dock, he waits.

4. I use map to attempt to command him to dock at my current location, option is greyed out.

5. I say fuck this and do it the hard way.

?

 

[Perkel]

2. I tried to command that ship to dock, but since I'm not docked that's not possible.

You need to click on either it from your ships list and then right click on station > dock or click it on map and then station > dock

 

[Crispy]

click on either it from your ships list and then right click on station > dock

I selected it first on the map while I was docked (to make sure it was highlighted) then right-clicked on the Wharf. Dock here was greyed out with "Ship cannot dock here" or something similar in parenthesis. I never tried commanding it from the ships list, however.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Either you used the command to dock on you or the wharf didn't have space for the ship at the time. But x4 commands are bit bug at times.

 

[Crispy]

I'm p. sure if a M-sized ship can internally house at least two ships at once then a Wharf can as well, Jonathan.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

you have to wait other ships to dock and be send to internal bays, whence the "lack of space".

 

[Joggerino]

The AI ships queue in front of the station though, not sure what player ships do if its crowded.

 

[Crispy]

It was not a queuing issue. I was actually queued to dock at that ship that still had my Kukri aboard it, and it was because it needed to be sent into internal storage from the outer landing pad in order to make room for me to land my new ship onto it.

I may have simply missed a method by which to tell my new ship to dock at that wharf, but it's a moot point now.

 

[Average Manatee]

There should be a "dock and wait" command that works at all times regardless of where you are. I don't recall seeing any kind of queuing problem

 

[Perkel]

I'm p. sure if a M-sized ship can internally house at least two ships at once then a Wharf can as well, Jonathan.

Depends on M-sized ship. Some don't have pad or internal storage.

 

[Zarniwoop]

SETA Everywhere (lets you use SETA while not piloting a ship so you can stand by commanding things while your chauffeur pilots)

You don't need a mod for this, you can already SETA from any of the useless terminals on a ship (gunnery, navigation, whatever). Just sit down, open map and press shift+4.

 

[deuxhero]

Having one service member with you at all times to take over as captain if you leave is a good idea. Can also just get out of the seat and tell him to fly you somewhere while you do other things on the strategic interface. AFAIK they can just teleport across the galaxy but its cool they physically change ships if you're at the same location.

In-fact, I strongly recommend you max out service crew on every ship you make (you can automatically fill a ship full of low quality goons wherever you can upgrade it). It's not particularly expensive, it improves the ship's handlign and (most importantly) the bottleneck for mid and late game is having enough decent crew to staff everything you build, and having a few hundred men constantly having chances to gain Morale (a stat factored into everything) really helps with getting a captain for all those medium+ size ships and a manager for every factory.

As for the issues changing ship: Once you do the player HQ sidequest (apparently it has changed up a bit) you get the ability to research teleportation. This literally makes it require a couple clicks to go to any ship of yours in the same sector. Extra vehecular is still useful for claiming enemy ships that have had their crew jump ship. Focusing on this is rarely worth it without specializing or going for destroyers/battleship IMO. Without mods the AI doesn't really have any settings to harass but not kill enemies, so you have to do it solo. There's also a bizzare choice to make it so the less max HP your ship has, the greater the abandon ship chance. Also you need marines to claim large ships (they won't totally be abandoned), but those are very bottlenecked till late game. Very profitable if you can get it to work though.

I'm p. sure if a M-sized ship can internally house at least two ships at once then a Wharf can as well, Jonathan.

Depends on M-sized ship. Some don't have pad or internal storage.

Yep, the ability to hold some small ships is what makes Frigates what they are. Gunboats, corvettes, traders, miners don't have docks. Main point of frigates is dock, their high defenses (for M class), and ability to hold a lot of consumables (Likely intended for them to be able to supply docked ships with missiles, but it's also good for making quick defenses with laser towers and mines.). You likely want a Destroyer and Auxiliary ASAP. The Auxiliary lets you repair your own ships (and upgrade their software) for free (it shows a cost, but doesn't deduct it) and can dock medium ships, plus it can make some consumables from raw product. A Destroyer with L plasma turrets (preferably Paranid) can bombard enemy stations beyond their retaliation range, which is the earliest practical way to actually destroy them (just be sure to scout to make sure the enemy doesn't bring reinforcements, though there's plenty of ways to take advantage of that behavior). Just be sure to upgrade (mods unlocked via player HQ) their mass and travel drive startup time to massively boost their speed.

 

[Crispy]

I strongly recommend you max out service crew on every ship you make

Interesting. Are there any penalties for using crew of difference factions?

 

[Average Manatee]

Not that I know of.

Filling out ships with crew can be really expensive early on when you're trying to snowball your money. Something like a minimally equipped miner can go from 300k to 600k cost. I'd rather have twice as many miners (or miners + transports to trade away what the refinery produces and keep prices good). But yeah, fill out the crew once you're making 100k every 10 mins or so.

Marine boarding is weird. You need to massively, massively out-number the enemy (at least if you have low skill guys, have never gotten high skill ones). My first time I was boarding a construction ship and I had to do battles of like 70 vs. 17 something like a dozen times and only killed 1 or 2 enemy crewmembers each time. Probably sent 1000 marines to their death before I actually captured it. I'm guessing the enemy crew kept getting skill ups from all the combat after the first 2 waves did reasonably well, so they were ultra veterans massacring my green troops going in.