A year later ..

[Cougar81]

I hate coming to forums to only rant. It really bothers me that we (as human beings) tend to do that. But.

I started with the Teladi outpost. Since I had started a few games with the other options and ran into various bugs.. I decided I wanted to start over.. fresh. See what the devs had for December 2014. You know, after an entire year of playing catch-up in the bug department I wanted to see the culmination of where X-Rebirth is today.

I couldnt find the jumpgate for a while .. but eventually I got it. I started exploring. I looked at what ships I had been gifted with and decided that it was intended that trade was going to be important to get started. I remembered to study a few stations.. ended up in a system with 3 ECell factories .. got a station down to 5% adjustment.. I selected my Ecell trader and negotiated a deal. My money is in the pilots hands... (I paid a little attention over the past year of not playing X:R) and I keep exploring so I can fill out my universe map.

I check my trader. Yep. He's got it on his to do list.
I explore...
I check my trader .. Yep. Still in Teladi space.. still on his to do list.
....
seriously? he isnt moving. he doesnt comm me. he doesnt complain. he doesnt talk about a jump drive. he doesnt do anything. he just sits there NOT DOING what I've asked him to do. This is where X:R is? In the middle of vagueness with an encyclopedia of useless info? A universe of useless stations because the very basic aspect of the game is *stuck* with no instruction IN THE GAME on how to move on. I know I can find the answer on the forum, because I remember this problem coming up for other people as I lurked like many other die hard fans of X3. I dont want to Alt-tab. I want the answer in the game. X3 was notorious for it's learning curve. I spent hours with spreadsheets and station calculators. For once, I want the bloody game to be INSIDE the game.

I *want* to play X:Rebirth. I want my spaceship fix. The last time I started a new game (empire builder) the quest follower doohickey took me a long for a ride to a guy that never gave me a quest. He offered, but there was never a place to accept it .. and the quest follower never changed off of that guy. I never even got to the station I was supposed to own! How do you start a player off in a new game where his primary goal is the station that he's supposed to own and not actually take him to the station??

X used to be about thinking along with the trading and fighting. It's gotten to the point where you're having to think outside the game to try and get around the stumbling blocks in the game. I dont personally have the patience for this kind of game. I want the internet to be a convenient resource, not a necessity. I want "mods" to be fun for a change of pace but not necessary just to make the game work.

I cant imagine how I would play X:Rebirth without an internet connection. Maybe the dev's should give that some thought.

[Sandalpocalypse]

pretty much all of the trading bugs are fixed, with fail states, so I don't know what's going on there tbh.

you can find out more information by looking at the Captain's details and seeing what he's trying to do.

[werewolves?]

If it's the TO start, you get given a Gigurum, it's probably just taking ages because they are slow.

[Rei Ayanami]

Check out the ship details and what the captain is trying to do and what his planned flights are.
If he has planned flights but still won't do anything check the captains details if you have automatic refueling enabled for that ship. If the ship has no auto refuel enabled and no jump cells on board it can take a long time for a ship to move.

If that doesn't help then fly to him and see if he's moving at all.
Sometimes kicking the ship from your squad helps when they're stuck, i think it re-initializes current orders.
If nothing helps, kick and re-add the ship to your squad, which deletes all of its current commands and redo the trade command.

Yea, sometimes it's annoying but this bug should occur only very rarely.

[GCU Grey Area]

Also started a new game with Teladi Outpost start. Didn't think much of the trade ships I was given so sold them almost immediately (M class freighters don't have boosters & therefore are incredibly slow without highways, which the starting Teladi sector notably lacks).

Along with selling a couple of fighter drones & doing a couple of taxi missions, had just enough cash to replace them with an unarmed/unshielded Vulture bulk miner & a handful of drones. Since then been doing a bit of mining in Postern Gate (plenty of rocks & local demand for minerals). Full load of silicon brings in about 450k & been spending the proceeds on more mining & cargo drones to speed up extraction & delivery. Not the most exciting game maybe, haven't fired my guns once (well, except a slight mishap with the mouse causing a misfire which hit my own ship ), but has still been strangely satisfying watching my Vulture wander round the zone smashing rocks, while it's drones hoover up all the debris.

Would advise doing something similar - get rid of those Gigurums & buy a Vulture to replace them. Doesn't need to be a miner (they come in several variants), but they all have boosters & are therefore MUCH quicker in the absence of highways.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Nice point. Perhaps it might it be better if the starting ships from TO and Trader starts were swapped around for that reason. I'm not sure Gigurums would live very long in that first Sector either.

[werewolves?]

Nice point. Perhaps it might it be better if the starting ships from TO and Trader starts were swapped around for that reason. I'm not sure Gigurums would live very long in that first Sector either.

I think it would be better to start with no ships than those ones.

[Artean]

- get rid of those Gigurums.

This. I mostly find Gigurums useless and, more often than not, standing around doing nothing despite having orders to act upon.

[Snafu_X3]

If it's the TO start, you get given a Gigurum, it's probably just taking ages because they are slow.

I don't think the Gigrum(s) you're given will start to do something until you've squadded them at least once (and/or given them money).. at least, that's what I found. The popup 'tips' text says join them to your squad; if this is a requirement it could be made a bit clearer IMO

[Cougar81]

One thing I realized after posting this and cooling off a bit. I probably should replay the tutorial. It was a miracle I remembered how to fly at all.

Thanks for the responses. It's always impressive how helpful the X-community is (and has been).

I really do think the Dev's need to stop and go back to the player experience and add some polish to all of these game starts. No, X3 wasnt a whole lot different (except that you had that nice bit of text telling u about the start and what the "difficulty" was in relation to the other starts). It doesnt have to be that way.

For instance, several responses in this thread indicate the Gigorum to be a poor trading ship and there's nothing wrong with that - it makes sense the recommended change is to a Teladi ship who pride themselves on profitsssss. However, how difficult is it really to start a player (assuming they made it halfway through the tutorial and decided they didnt like getting shot at every time they entered a zone) with a Teladi trader ... you know .. in the Teladi start.. where you start in the ... (you guessed it) Teladi sector.. It almost makes sense eh?

Anyway sorry for the ramble .. and happy flying

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

Actually, it's like "you just arrived to the sector from Albion with your transporters aside"...
But yes - the gigurums are bad. Very bad... Wouldn't be a problem if they removed them without compensation.

[Titan127]

I guess at least having 3 of them to sell gives you a few options to start the game....

But yeah, if I were made to keep those ships in that start. I would just turn right back into Albion and look for some short range trades there. Haven't any real experience using those size of traders though so I can't comment much but even with capital sized freighters I've noticed them just sitting about when they were given trade commands.

It's something to do with the orders they had before they are given the command I believe. I haven't really tested it but I'd make sure the ships are either following you or waiting in position before giving them trade commands. If they do get stuck, re-add them to the squad or just tell them to follow you a sec then wait again seems to fix it.

But as OP mentioned, that's quite an expectation for new players to figure out how to work around that.

[Snafu_X3]

just turn right back into Albion and look for some short range trades there.

Certainly Gigurums /can/ be useful - as top-up vehicles for your station(s) if nothing else, when you don't want to/can't assign a capship - just not for the very start of the game unless you're given a station (haven't tried that start yet..)

[GCU Grey Area]

I would certainly have given those Gigurums a go if the TO start had been anywhere except for where they put it (i.e. a normal sector with highways for them to use). 3 M class freighters, all with different cargo types is certainly flexible & could be an interesting way to start. However as things were I took one look at them, then looked round at the complete absence of highways, laughed a bit, thought 'not as chance in hell' & promptly sold them. The whole point of picking the new start was to explore the new sectors & those ships simply aren't at all suited for that. Thankfully they are worth around 400k-500k each & there's a convenient shipyard right next to them which sells ships which are useful for exploring Teladi space (really love my new Vulture by the way, fantastic ship).

[Santi]

I did a plain start and the only ship I could afford for trading was a Gigurum, it was as expected, slow, small cargo capacity but did some good trades for me and allowed me to buy a second one. Not unhappy at all for the money I spent in them, I have to say that I had top pilots. Found them really useful for stations as they can keep pace and will not break the bank with massive purchases.

[Snafu_X3]

I would certainly have given those Gigurums a go if the TO start had been anywhere except for where they put it (i.e. a normal sector with highways for them to use).

Yup; I meant to add that's their ideal purpose: trading in a sector with highways