X3: Terran Conflict

Another game I’ve had sitting in my drawer due to lack of RAM is X3: Terran Conflict

x3: Terran Conflict (or TC for short) starts where X3: Reunion left off.  First, a recap

At the end of Reunion, a gate to Earth was built. However, as the X Universe had been out of contact with their Terran brothers for quite some time, the Terran authorities were quite distrustful of their Argon Brothers. The Terran basically told the Argon (and all the other races) they weren’t welcome in the Sol system (for those that don’t know, our sun is actually called Sol).

Their are several starts available in TC. I started as Terran Defender. Basically, it’s your job to defend Earth and the surronding planets from what the Terrans call Artificial General Intelligence (also known as Xenon in the Commonwealth ie the Argon, Boron, Teladi and Split empires). You are sent on several missions for the United Space Command and ATF (not sure what ATF stands for in TC), which not only raise your standing with the Terrans, but also your combat rank.

The thing with the plot missions is they are not time based. You can do them any time you want. Also, you no longer have to fly around docking and reading the bulletin board on each station. Stations will have an icon above the stating which mission they are offereing. Just be warned that the stations can have multiple missions, but only display one icon. it is therefore prudent to look at each station that is offering a mission to see if someone else may be looking for someone to a different mission. Missions can be trade, general, combat or station building. While I don’t have the credits to buy my own TL (I won’t be doing that for a while anyway) I’ve heard they can be pretty profitable, and I’ve also done a few combat missions that easily earned 300k+ (sidenote: I never earned close to that in Reunion at this stage of the game).  The two types of combat missions I’ve come across are station defense and assasination. I haven’t attempted a trade mission yet as I’ve noticed these usually require you to deliver some sort of good, and I haven’t discovered enough of the universe to find where to buy most of the goods characters are asking for.

Another change Egosoft made is the addition of flight wings. Ships can be assigned to flight wings and given orders just as in real life. So while one wing can be off attacking that pesky Xenon destroyer, another can be attacking it’s fighter escort while you move in to kill the destroyer. Doing so may lose you a few ships, but it’s better than losing that shiny new destroyer you just bought and outfitted.

All in all, a much improved game over Reunion. Also, a lot of my favourite scirpts (Motion Analysis Relay System, Crystal Free SPP, even the cheat script) have been converted for TC. Which only makes it that much more appealing.

Oh, a word of warning: say goodbye to family and friends if you get this game. It s very addictive, especially the crazy amount of credits you can make, espeically in the early game. And the game is never ending, meaning you can build your empire to make it as large and as expansive as you want. Fleets of destroyers and carriers running around causing mayhem and destroying anything in their path. Mmmm, yes please!

Until next time

Lord Yu