X3 Frustrations and how to get around them

With the extremely steep learning curve of X3, comes a series of 'frustrations' that sometimes threaten the scrapping of the game. Some of these come from game 'anomolies' and others from player mistakes.

So in order to help aleviate this frustration factor, here are some of them and how to get around them.

CTD or Freeze issues.
You have hardware problems. Off to the Technical Support forum with you. http://forum2.egosoft.com/viewforum.php?f=65. You must be registered to use it.

Framerate problems.
Ditto. Dont walk, run. What you need is already there. It might be 'who' you need, so ask if you cant find.

My game wont start.
Is your computer capable of running the game ? Go here immediately. http://forum2.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=94506

My game runs like a dog with a broken leg.
Minimum spec on the box is exactly that. The game will run, but no guarentee is given as to how well it runs. Standard off the shelf computers for office or internet use will NOT cut it. This is an intensely CPU, RAM and Video hogging game. Its pushing the boundaries of state-of-the-art and if you dont have that, it wont be enough. Upgrade NOW.

The station wont let me buy a ship or product.
Usually this is because your race rank is not high enough yet for the race who sells it to want you to have it.
If you highlight the item on the sales list, it should tell you the rank you currently are (bottom left) and the rank you need to be (bottom right).
The ranks are explained in the X3 manual.
There is no way around this in the game. Its part of the game design to extend the play life of the game into the months instead of just days or weeks.
The only non-game way around this is the script called a.notoriety, which allows you to alter your race rank settings.

I cant find any decent ways of making big money from trading.
The usual problem here is that you have not explored enough yet. There are some very quick money making trade deals out there right at the beginning of the game, but you wont find them unless you get out there and explore. While you explore, keep a running list of where stations are, what products they buy and sell and how much for. If you dont make an effort to understand the economy, you cant hope to make any money from it. And to understand the economy, you must first find all of it, or at least a decent sized chunk of it.At minimum, there are about 50 sectors you need to explore early in the game in a 7x7 grid. While your exploring, keep your eyes out for dropped containers from other peoples combat. Get ye hence immediately !

I cant hire a Mammoth to build my first station.
At the begining of the game, the X universe is still recovering from the Khaak invasion. Small stations have been replaced with big ones and the dynamics of the economy have changed forever. Most TL's are busy replacing stations lost to enemy action or building new ones to fill holes in the economy.
Its also a game mechanism to make you explore further. If the Argon Prime TL's are busy, you need to go find a TL that isn't.
If you have not yet found Kingdom's End, Paranid Prime and Seizewell, off you go !

My wingmen keep bashing into solid objects.
Ah yes. Its hard to get good staff these days.
The commands that get them into trouble are "Follow Me" and "Protect Me".
They are so fixated on doing so that they forget to watch where they are going sometimes.
There is an 'anomoly' in the auto-pilot routines on all ships that sometimes manifests in a somewhat suicidal manner.
This was vastly improved by the 1.4 patch, so if you havent yet installed it, you know what to do right now, dont you !
If you still have problems with 1.4, then you have to take a more active role in ordering your ships around.
If you want them to dock with you, send them to dock first and then dock yourself. Or tell them to standby, dock yourself, then tell them to dock.
If they take a liking to head-bashing gates, then send them through the gate independently and then follow them, or tell them to standby, go first and then give them the command to enter the gate.

My ships keep crashing into things when I am around.
Same problem as with wingmen.
The only sure fire work around is to never be in the same sector with another of your ships.
As long as you are out-of-sector (oos), collision avoidance is not a happening thing and your ships are safe.
The moment you are in-sector (is), your ships are subject to collision avoidance and may fail to do so. And fail pretty badly.
Take some responsibility for what you order a ship to do.
If you command a TL to cross a sector particularly thick in asteroids, you can expect it to collide with something. It just doesnt have the turning ability to avoid everything and unfortunately, stop, turn and move wasnt programmed into the auto-pilot. So just think about what your asking a ship to do before you give it the command. THINK first. Jump the ship to the nearest gate to where you want it, rather than cross the sector. If jumping doesnt improve matters, your obviously in the wrong sector.
The trade software for station ships is also dense, so dont expect them to know its not safe to enter a particular asteroid feild. Place your stations and set the maximum number of jumps for its ships according to where you dont want the ships to go.

My ship keeps hitting a solid object and killing me when I use the auto-pilot.
Its not called the "Auto-Pillok" for nothing !
When you engage auto-pilot with a solid object, like an asteroid, directly between you and the target your travelling to, the auto-pillok will inevitably crash you straight into this solid object and kill you. Its in a direct line, what do you expect ? Dont answer that.
Think before your hit the U button. Look before you leap. Check the path is clear before you turn the steering over to a curcuit board thats blind as a bat.
Take responsibility for being in a dangerous area full of obstacles and make sure you plot your own safe course around them.
If roids are a real problem for you, there is a no-roids script available that will remove all the roids put in by patch 1.3, leaving only the roids visible on the nav map list.

My ships keep entering Enemy Sectors.
Yes.
They dont know what is enemy or dangerous. They just move from A to B.
If you dont want them going to C via D, then dont place Z in a place where they will need to.
Confused ? Good.
Your the one giving the commands. Your the one making the decisions. The ships just do it.
THINK. Think about where you place your stations. Think about how many jumps you allow its ships to go.
If you place a station next to a Xenon sector, and set jumps to more than 1, then if there is a buying or selling station on the other side of the Xenon sector that fits what the ship has orders to do, off the ship goes into Xenon space. And you need a new ship.
If a Khaak M2 is patroling a trade lane your ships will go along, you have 3 choices. Let the ship get toasted. Set jumps so the ship wont go there. Take the M2 out yourself. No action means no ship.
A 4th option exists if the ship is carrying weed or fuel to a pirate base. Take out the pirate base and let it respawn somewhere safer.

I keep losing UT's in Enemy Space.
Yes.
UT's have a mind of their own. They go where they want. And if what they want is in enemy space, they go there.
There is the advantage that they use the jump drive while other ships do not.
But they are still vulnerable in sector.
First rule is, maximize shielding. A UT will jump if attacked, but only if it survives long enough for the jump drive to charge.
UT intelligence was improved with patch 1.4, so again, if you dont have it installed yet, you know what to do.
There is a script that allows you to set up a satelite network that when renamed  (as per instructions with the script), will act as a safe trading guide for UT's.
They will only jump into a sector with the appropriately named satelite. So even if you lose some satelites to enemy action, chances are you didnt want your UT's going there anyway.

My ship has vanished along with a station.
The X universe is a dynamically changing place. For all sorts of reasons, factories and stations are torn down and new ones built.
Enemy action can reduce a whole sector to rouble and it will later be rebuilt.
The factory disassembly crews appear to be, how shall we say, a bit over-enthusiastic in their work.
They enjoy a big bang more than most.
The problem is, they have a habit of carrying out work orders without telling the tennants the structure is scheduled for demolition.
They just go ahead and demolish.
If your ship is docked there at the time, it gets demolished as well.
(There is a roumour that ships are actually appropriated by the demolition crews and sold for their own profit, but it is so far unsubstantiated.)
All you can do is to keep a close eye on what ships are doing. Never leave them idle in strange stations.
Shipyards appear to be usually safe, but have limited docking capasity. EQ docks are just as safe and more likely not to evict your ships. Trading Docks also seem safe and can dock a lot more than anything else. However, there are no guarentees. Plot stations are also safe, but safe is still a relative term, since all plot stations, shipyards, EQ docks and Trading stations will respawn if they get destroyed, while your ship will not.

My ships have vanished without trace.
Ah. Hmmm. er.... yes.
Reports are coming in about this 'event' but so far the best minds are completely unable to explain it.
This is particularly prevalent with ships abandonned and subsequently claimed.
Best advise is to sell claimed ships asap.
Bought ships are not immune it seems, but these reports are a small minority.
There is no way of avoiding this. If it starts, it has started.
The Script Masters are working on a way of respawning lost ships.
Rumour has it the ship losses are due to an enormous mutant star goat, but this is unconfirmed.

I am filled with anger at Egosoft because I cannot get this *?X#@$%&!* game to work.

• Palpatine :  Good ! You have controlled your Fear. Now, release your anger. Strike Egosoft down and take your place at my side ! *sound of maniarcal laughter*
  

• Yoda : Fear leads to Anger, Anger leads to Hatred, Hated leads to Suffering. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you, it will.
  

• Brother Bob : Please come to the Goner Temple immediately and we will teach you to deal with your anger in such a way that you release it and draw strength from the release. In addressing the reasons for your anger, you address your karma and learn your life lessons. The path is rocky but eventually you will come to see that repeating negative themes in your life are life lessons you refuse to learn and karma you refuse to release and forgive. What happens to you is not as important as how you react to it, as reaction renews the cycle of negative karma. Forgiveness is the road to healing. Be calm. Be controlled. Be forgiving. Be at peace. Be nice. Be polite. The Goner Temple beckons you.

• Egosoft Forum Moderator : Please register your copy of X³ and post a real problem and system specs in Tech Support.

The copy protection on this game sux !

esd (Forum Moderator) : You'd think people would get the hint by now... all Starforce threads which we have allowed to continue deteriorate into someone breaking the rules by admitting, linking to or advocating piracy. As a result, all Starforce threads are made on sight. (Read : Locked immediately). Also, anyone that's read up on the subject should know that it's the publisher that chooses the copy protection scheme that gets implimented, and not the developer. In this case, you should be speaking to Enlight or Deepsilver.

Bob Der (Apricot Mapping Service Chief Mechanic) : Definitely some sort of software interaction at the sub-atomic level causing a hardware problem interacting with the system software inertial bypass flow regulator resulting in catastrophic failure of the doohicky that bypasses the quantum flux capasitor by inhibiting the reversal of the polarity of the neutron flow in a manner that just buggers everything up. I can take a look next month sometime if you want.

Apricot Computer Store Salesperson : What he said.

Apricot Computer Store Tech : Its a software problem.

Apricot Computer Store Software Engineer : Its a hardware problem.

Apricot Computer Store Tech : Who built this thing anyway ? Half the components are not compatible with each other !

Apricot Computer Store Software Engineer : Like I said, its a hardware problem.

Apricot Computer Store Tech :  Half the drivers are 3 years out of date !

Apricot Computer Store Software Engineer :  Thats still a hardware problem. We did our updates.

Apricot Computer Store Tech : And whats this peice of *&%^$ doing in there, they scrapped them donkeys years ago. You cant run that with that. Those two always cause problems. Am I getting overtime for this one ?

Apricot Computer Store Salesperson : Its not fixable. Can I show you the latest computer system available ?

Apricotslice : Sorry to overhear, but I do recommend those by the way. Mine is just a few months old and I never had any of the problems you describe.