Leppys X-Terran Conflict Blog

[Leppy]

Hello fellow Escapists, I've recently started playing Terran Conflict, a game developed by Egosoft, which I feel doesn't get enough credit for how amazing it is. I have never met a single person online who has played, or even heard of the X series, and I just think its a tragedy. I've decided I'll try to make a somewhat interesting blog for and see if I can get some people into in the game.
Here's a link to a fan-made trailer, for those of you who are interested...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYkheK-xnuw

Without further ado, onto the blog. -Note: Please keep negative comments, eg. "tl;dr" out of this thread-

I enter the vast universe, a lone pilot in a seemingly infinite universe, surrounded by the bustling sector of Argon Prime. The brilliant blue glow of the planet below illuminating a seemingly militaristic race, determined to strike fear into the hearts of anyone imposing on their territory. Destroyers and squads of fighters are patrolling the sector, on the lookout for pirates attempting to smuggle drugs and weapons to their customers. Giant space stations in every direction, manufacturing high-tech goods from extremely powerful shields to the terrifying firestorm torpedo's. Here I sit, in my small Argon Buster, an M4 class ship, or a light-fighter. Equipped with only weak shielding, and two small lasers, and not a single credit to my name.

I sit and ponder for a moment, what am I going to do? A life of piracy certainly has an appeal to it, but as an inexperienced pilot, I don't like my chances at avoiding the military. Maybe I can help out the military in defending the sector, it pays well and as long as I keep close to backup, it shouldn't be too dangerous. Or perhaps I'll explore the universe, unveil hidden treasures, anything from stashes of weapons and high-value goods, to abandoned ships just waiting to be claimed. Maybe I'll even create a trade empire, purchasing my own sector and dictating the prices of necessities to my neighbors. Hmm...

I decide I'll check out whats for sale at the shipyard, I already feel insignificant in my petty ship. I request docking permission, and slowly approach the gigantic station, almost colliding with another ship on the way in, but safely finish docking. I check the jobs available, -trade pilot wanted for urgent delivery of energy cells to a nearby sector, paying 40,000 credits- -Nearby sector is requesting fighter pilots urgently to quell an invasion of Khaak(terrifying enemy race) paying 20,000 credits, with exceptional pilots receiving extra. I'm in no shape to fight Khaak, and I'd need a transport ship if I was to do the delivery. Hmm, a Centaur (corvette class) ship is 10 million credits, a Argon Titan (Destroyer) just under 70 million, I've got 1000 credits, I see it will be a long way to the top. I spot a Mercury (trade ship) for 163,000 credits, that doesn't seem like too much to ask, so I promptly leave the station with a my goal clear.

I leave the beautiful Argon Prime in my wake as I head north, eager to see what the other inhabitants of this universe are like. After traveling for a few minutes, I meet the Boron, a peace loving race of humanoid-fish people, the peaceful music in the background and the cool glow of the watery planet below create a serene environment.
I recommend you open this in another tab, the sector music almost brought a tear to my eye..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXGnou1sOs4


Everything about the boron appeals to me, this will be where I conduct my business. I see they they are neighbors with the Teladi, a race of industrialist money grabbers, who openly deal with pirates. Exploring the sector of Menelaus Frontier I see peculiar transport approaching from Teladi space, obviously the Boron are also suspicious because they send out a sector defense ship to scan the goods on-board. I follow a short distance behind, and see it's being escorted by two fighters. It's strange that you would need a fighter escort in such a peaceful region of space. The scan reveals the transport is carrying illegal goods, and is ordered to surrender, however the fighters spring into action, quickly disposing of the Boron sector defense. They make a dash for the outskirts of Boron space, to freedom.

I make a decision, I'll defend my new friends and become an enemy of the pirates, perhaps not a wise move, but it's time for some combat. I target the transport and quickly get in range, but it notices me targeting it and both fighters scramble to shake me. The rapid glow of lasers whizzing past me causes me to frantically and often erratically maneuver as I dodge them, I've made a mistake. I manage to get behind one of the fighters, and lock on, its time... I open fire, with everything my two pissy lasers are capable of, and it seems its enough to knock the shields off the first pirate entirely. A few more bursts and he is spacedust. I dispose of both the fighters, barely escaping destruction myself, and turn my sights onto the transport ship. It's rear turret is making it difficult for me to get more then a few shots at it, and its shielding is far stronger then the fighters. After a lengthy game of cat and mouse, I've finally penetrated its shields. The pirate opens comm with me and asks that I cease the attack, offering part of his cargo as incentive. I continue firing at the shield-less ship, quickly knocking it out of action, its badly damaged, barely able to move. Shields destroyed and hopes at escape crushed. The pirate ejects, and attempts to escape in a spacewalk, I decide I'll let him live rather then capture him and hand him over the the authorities.

I check the map, the fighters that I destroyed left behind valuable missiles that I can sell at a nearby equipment dock. The true prize is the abandoned transport ship, just waiting to be claimed, I worry though as the ship is loaded up with spaceweed and spacefuel, both highly illegal. At the same time, if I could manage to sell the goods without being caught I could easily afford to purchase my own transport ship, and begin legitimate trading.

To be continued...

 

[Leppy]

Please leave feedback. Any interest or questions, took a long time to type that out, would like to know if people care.

 

[viranimus]

I dont have terran conflict yet, but I do have X2 and X3 reunion. I REALLY want to play both games however Its fairly deep in my backlog at the moment.

The biggest thing thats actually holding me back from playing it is game pad support. X2 is at least initially practically unplayable with a game pad due to control conflictions that auto transpose gamepad configurations that cannot be turned off and a gamepad configuration that is horribly counter intuitive.

X3 seems to have better support, but it is still a large undertaking to try to condense the controls down to a typical 12 button configuration. Once I have the time to sit down and tweak with the configurations so that I am able to find one that fits my play style (ill even be willing to use K&M, but it will still require extensive remapping to get away from moronic WASD configurations) Ill give it more of a shot.

But I will say that the game I do find interesting and I hope, sincerely hope it fills an itch Ive been longing to scratch since the 90s with colony wars and descent.

As for the post... Cool story bro, no, seriously.

 

[aPod]

Terran Conflict is a good bit of fun for space sim fans. It certainly helps if you are a creative person and sort of tell your own story because after awhile the universe while vast can seem incredibly shallow and empty. There's literally nothing else out there aside from eve, which i hate, that is as high quality a space sim as the x series.

 

[Leppy]

Continued...

I collect the missiles that were left behind from my earlier skirmish, and gingerly fly over to the damage transport. I eject and spacewalk over to capture it, the damage was worse then I initially suspected. Shields destroyed, turret destroyed, engine working at about 5% capability, and a cargo of illegal drugs, which I immediately eject into space, leaving them for the scavengers to come collect. I use the autopilot in my Buster to fly it to the nearby shipyard, and begin the slow haul myself. Upon reaching the Boron Shipyard, I was greeted with 38,000 credits. Not bad for the condition of the ship.

Back into the buster, I head to the equipment dock and sell the missiles I collected, pushing me up to 50,000 credits. With profits like this I decided I would head out into some more dangerous sectors and attempt some more captures, however, I first took the opportunity to upgrade my 5MJ shield to a 25MJ one, purchase two more Particle Accelerator Cannons for my Buster and grab some engine tuning to increase my speed. This burned all my credits, but now I was ready for war.

Before leaving the station, I checked the available missions, and saw a message claiming the sector was under attack, and I would be paid to defend against the attacking Khaak. Feeling cocky, I grabbed the mission, and promptly left the station. I check the map, and see 6 Khaak scouts, and a Khaak fighter. Easy. I race towards the invading Khaak and reach them in no time, but then I realise, their scout ships are blisteringly fast, over twice the speed of my recently customized Buster. They swoop around me like wasps, blasting me with their lasers, but it seems my new shields can take quite a bit of damage. Fortunately, speed is the only advantage they have, and mere seconds of locked on firing easily annihilates them. I dispose of the scouts, and turn my attention towards the fighter, its been spending time pillaging the vast amount of transport ships that ferry goods through this sector.

I approach the Khaak fighter as fast as possible, in an attempt to save the hopeless traders and open fire on it, thinking it'll crumble like the other Khaak. A full 4-5 second burst of PAC cannon fire and I've barely scratched the surface of his shields. He turns his attention to me, and I attempt to dodge his tri-beamed lasers that are vaporizing everything in my vicinity. These things are tremendously accurate and I fail spectacularly at evading the incoming fire. I watch them eat through my new shields in a matter of seconds, and there is little I can do. I pull off an evasive maneuver and manage to shake the fighter, but not for long. Fortunately, there is a nearby Solar Power Plant, and I make a dash towards it, strafing in an attempt to live as long as possible. Once I reach it I race through a gap in the structure, and cut the power to my engine, hiding behind the giant solar panels, Khaak fighter still firing in my direction. Luckily, the station has its own company of fighters and corvettes for defence, and they are dispatched shortly after to hunt down the attacker, all the while I'm hugging the power plant trying to remain unseen.

I don't know whether the stations ships took him out or if he collided with something, but I get a message telling me I'd completed the mission, and was being awarded 20,000 credits, and an extra 10,000 for my stellar performance. Obviously they hadn't been watching me cower like a child.

I check the map to see if anything of value was dropped by the Khaak and the transports they took out. I see a Toucan Hauler in the list of empty ships, and set my target to it. Turns out, there was an empty transport ship just waiting to be captured and it was undamaged, unsure of how this happened, I claim my prize. A fantastic looking transport with a enormous size cargo bay. I fly my newly captured ship towards the nearest equipment dock, with hopes of spending my credits on some upgrades, primarily speed... this thing is slow. I grab a few software updates, an extra shield and I head off, first step to creating my empire was now ticked off the list.

I see that a nearby silicon mine is selling off all its products at the absolute minimum price, I assume because the Khaak had taken out their buyers. So I fly over and buy everything I could afford. I check the map, but nothing nearby needs Silicon Wafers, so I head into Teladi space in search of a buyer.

To be continued...

 

[Leppy]

I've spend a little more time with the game, will make an update tomorrow. For now, bumping to see if there is any interest in me continuing.

 

[Davesdepository]

Yeah I played Terran Conflict a While ago, it is a fun game but I actually prefer Reunion for some reason. I'm not sure why but I think the strafing jets are a bit more responsive in Reunion then in the terran conflict and Iove the whole fact that your starting buster is manuverable enough to dodge incoming fire an take on ships much bigger then the old M4. ood luck with it man will be having a peek every now and then.

 

[Craig Cameron]

I actually bought the X-Superbox from steam during the summer sale and while I strangely enjoyed floating between the same two stations for profit in X-BTF I found myself asking what X2 and 3 were like so I played through the training missions of X2, but when I got to X3, instead of giving me a rundown of the controls (Which to my understanding had compltely changed) it put me in a ship with no cockpit view (yeah I'm one of those people who loves cockpit view) in the middle of a firefight, which made me sad panda for a while.

 

[faithhhhh]

Is this game better than previous ?

 

[Aeshi]

I've been considering buying Terran Conflict after playing the X3: Reunion demo but haven't actually got round to doing so.

I do think there's a good reason most people haven't played it though, as it is far from perfect (I should NOT need to go buy an upgrade to get my turrets to fire without me manning them because that's the whole point of having a turret!)

 

[roman gnome]

I haven't played Terran Conflict yet, but in X2 and Reunion I have found it's quite safe to transport illegal goods as long as they are not on the ship I'm flying personally. That may very well not be the case in TC; in Reunion you can't put a 25Mj shield on a Buster or silicon in a Toucan.