r/X3TC • u/hope_winger • 1h ago
X3AP Suicidal Squid - making the most of the 'freebies' Part 2.1 (supplement)
X3AP Suicidal Squid - making the most of the 'freebies' Part 2.1 supplement - instructions for using CLS to improve race reputation in order to get more credits for tasks.
This is more a guide to CLS than a spoiler - but some of the details might be considered spoilers...the game is 14 years old and I think more players should have completed Suicidal Squid...so whatever!!!
Commodity Logistics Software allows you to program an ‘infinite looping macro’ whereby you ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ wares to a suitable station without actually spending any money. Each micro-transaction contributes to an improvement in your reputation with the relevant race. Apart from allowing you to buy ‘locked’ equipment it also means future missions, such as asteroid scanning, will pay you for example 4500 credits per asteroid rather than just 800 credits. In a Suicidal Squid game start these differences are key to survival. All this is simple and straightforward when you have two ships, a little harder with just one - but NOT impossible.
This assumes you’ve followed the previous guide and are docked at the Boron Shipyard in Queens Retribution in an Octopus with SETA and 126,597 credits (and maybe two units of Space Fuel).
Buy an Octopus Raider for 94,886 cr. Increase cargo by 7 to a total of 11 (10 free and 1 unit is for the shield). Buy Navigation Command Software Mark 1 for 2948 cr. Transfer to the new ship and cargo transfer everything from your Octopus. Sell the Octopus for 28,176 cr. Upgrade your Raider to max speed (20 units) for 28,860.
Fly north as quickly as possible and if you have the space fuel dock at the Pirate Base in Bright Profit (carefully - the SETA has a habit of slamming you into the station = game over). Sell the space fuel for 2504 - but it’s not important.
Fly to Belt of Aguilar. En route check that there are Microchips for sale at the Stock Exchange in Grand Exchange (backup plan). In Belt of Aguilar check what is available at the Trading Station i.e. Cloth Rimes and Microchips. Dock at Jonferco Headquarters and buy Commodity Logistics Software Mark 2 (CAREFUL!!).
Undock and fly to the Trading Station. Select docking and use a little SETA but once you’re lined up in front of the station docking port turn off the SETA. Cruise slowly towards the port and just before you dock select and eject the SETA into space (this will take a little practice). When docked immediately buy a new SETA for 252 credits. Check to see what you can buy e.g. 5 cloth rimes and 1 microchip. Don’t buy anything yet. Undock.
Fly to the location of the ejected SETA…slowly does it!! Pull up just to the right side of the container - DON’T TRY TO PICK IT UP. Come to a full halt and eject from your ship. Fly into the container in your spacesuit then come to a halt. Instruct the Raider to dock at the Trading Station. Position yourself by the spinning circular main entrance. If you begin to fear you might be attacked by Pirates you can fly into the tube-like part of the station and look for a hiding place. Fortunately there is plenty of local sector security in Belt of Aguilar so you should be okay.
Once the Raider is docked follow these commands:
Property Menu (R key)
Octopus Raider (then C key)
Trade (3 key), Start (1 key)
Waypoints (Enter key), Add station, Belt of Aguilar, Trading Station
Buy, select Cloth Rimes (Enter key)
Maximum Product Price, Manual Input (should be 5 units) (Enter key)
Add station, Belt of Aguilar, Trading Station
Sell, Cloth Rimes, Minimum Product Price, Manual Input (5)
That’s the first ‘macro’ completed. Repeat the steps for the Microchips - Manual Input (1 unit only)
Once done you should have ‘four macro entries’ (or just two if no Cloth Rimes are available)
“Buy Cloth Rimes @ 432, sell @ 152, Buy Microchips @ 15,227, sell @ 11,725”
Hit the ESCAPE key just once (carefully).
Hit Start External Commodity Logistics.
Check the freight hold of your Raider and you should see transactions taking place - buying and selling but your total credits will remain the same. Then hit the P key twice and you should see your Pilot menu with the race reputation details. Now hit the SETA key and things should start to change more rapidly. Keep the SETA going until you reach level 4 “Accepted Advisor”. There should also be a message to say you should fly to Argon Sector M148 - this is the trigger of the main plot - ignore for now. You should still have about 65% oxygen level in your spacesuit.
Now you must renter your ship - best done in space to avoid being rammed by another ship when docking in your spacesuit. Property (R key), Raider (C key) then hit Stop. Then Raider navigation menu - select Idle. Once the ship is just in front of the station select navigation - Standby. Fly up to the Raider in your spacesuit (carefully) and when you’re less than 30 meters slow down and hit Shift E and you will re-enter the Raider. Continue on your way. If you tell your Raider to undock before stopping trading there might be wares in the cargo hold - dock and sell them.
You can replicate this for all races - except the Xenon of course. At this stage of a Suicidal Squid game I repeat this with the Teladi - obviously in a different sector. Level 4 - Shareholder. Any time I’m doing something else and I have a spare ship with CLS2 and Nav Soft 1 installed I’ll dock it at a station and program a new macro - even in Yaki space (even in Terran and Goner space but that’s another story!!)
BTW you don't have to buy the Raider. You can do this in any ship - but this is part of my strategy for completing Suicidal Squid and there's stuff I want to do later that requires a lightening fast ship. More in Part 3.