I've been modding "X" games since 2004, back when X2 was a "state of the art" game...and I can say with complete honesty that I've enjoyed every bit of it! However given the diminished level of interest in X3TC, and the fact that it is just Vayde and myself doing all the work, it is quite likely that this will be the final version of DDTC. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we do!
Where did this thing come from?
The origins of DDTC go all the way back to X2 The Threat, and one of the very first graphics modifications for the "X" series of games - The Deadly Ship, Station &Galaxy Mod (aka SS&G). At that time, simply being able to add custom ship models into the game was a "big deal", and the small community of X2 modders had a great time reverse engineering the basic things we now take for granted...configuration files (TShips, TCockpits, etc), docking, animations...you name it. Remember, initially there were no tools or documentation! Of course it didn’t take long for the "X" community to step up and take advantage of the incredibly "moddable" X2 game engine, and we soon had some very handy tools, and a great deal of useful information was being shared in the Egosoft forums. All in all, a good time was had by all!
With the release of X3 Reunion, the SS&G mod evolved further into DDRS (DeadlyDa and Red Spot). DDRS continued with the SS&G tradition of adding new ship and station models into the game, but instead of simply loading all the new ships into a shipyard, we made the player work a bit; ships were introduced gradually as the player completed missions. Perhaps even more important, DDRS introduced the very first true player HQ, with the ability to break down and manufacture ships.
Finally, once the "X" series of games matured into X3 Terran Conflict, we developed DDTC for your playing enjoyment!
What is DDTC?
First you need to understand that DDTC is a REALLY big mod, and as a result it is hard to provide a simple summary of features...but we'll try to hit the high-points below. Second, it is important to note that DDTC team actually like playing X3 Terran Conflict. It’s a well-developed mature game that does a good job of catering to a number of wildly disparate styles of game-play. Since we didn’t think it was broken, we didn’t feel any urge to use DDTC as a lever to "fix it". Instead we saw DDTC as a way to extend what X3 Terran Conflict was all about, rather than as a vehicle to introduce radical changes to the game. In short, we like playing X3 Terran conflict...we just wanted more of it!
That said, DDTC does bring a great deal of new content to the game:
Custom Ships & Stations:
Yup...still at it. There are currently 146 custom ships and variants, 8 DAD drone models, and 3 custom stations. In DDTC, there are 7 shipyards scattered around the universe; Argon, Boron, Paranid, Split, Teladi, Terran, and Yaki. There is also a Mercenary Asteroid Base (or MRB) that offers the player missions.
Missions:
There are two basic types of missions that DDTC adds into X3 Terran Conflict; Shipyard missions, and MRB missions.
- - Shipyard Missions:
- At the launch of a new game, there are seven racially-aligned shipyards scattered around the galaxy, all of which start without any ships in their inventories. Assuming the player has a reasonably good reputation with the race that operates a given shipyard, the player will receive a message inviting them to assist in stocking the shipyard with custom ships. (A message "pop up" is sent to the player, and the appropriate sector is exposed on the players galaxy map.)
The mission framework is very similar to that used for the stock Egosoft Corporate missions; where the player undertakes an initial "recruiting" mission, and upon successful completion is offered a series of different missions which eventually populate the shipyard with a full array of ships.
It is not necessary that a player completes the mission sequences for all 7 shipyards. Instead, the player will generally identify the ships they most want to purchase, and work their way through enough missions at the appropriate shipyard to get access to that ship.
The missions are intended to be played over time, and generally would be interspersed with standard Egosoft plot Missions. Accordingly a player might be actively doing missions for several DDTC shipyards, while working their way through one or more of the standard Egosoft plot mission pack(s).
Shipyards are stocked from the "bottom up", starting with the M5 and ending with the M1/M2 Capital ships. In addition to having ships added to the shipyard inventory, players receive cash rewards...and on occasion a "slightly used" ship.
Towards the upper end of the ship stocking mission sequence, the player may receive a damaged M6 for that shipyard. However this reward is only given if the player does not already own an M6. This makes for some interesting game play, as a burning desire to own a Naginata early in the game means you need to do a bunch of missions for the Yaki...which might not always please your allies. In addition to the M6, on the 2nd to last mission for a given shipyard, the player may be notified of a claimable TL (as sold by that shipyard). It is heavily damaged, and will need to be boarded in order to claim it...not always the easiest thing to do. Also, just like the "reward" M6, the claimable TL is only offered if the player does not already own one. Once a shipyard is fully populated, the player can continue to accept missions from it, but they only offer cash rewards.
- The MMRS missions provide used combat class ships, and occasionally a crate of "rare" weapons, as rewards. All MMRS missions are "hostile" in nature, and are scaled to the player’s combat rank.
The DTS faction offers the player less "violant" mission types, and propvides access to used TS & TP class ships as rewards.
The third mission type (actually a one-time mission) is one that will reward the player with their very own PHQ. This is a multi-stage mission, and is all about combat. You need some serious firepower, and you will lose ships. If you prefer the commercial route, you can of course still follow the stock Egosoft Hub/PHQ mission sequence. However, if your game is all about blowing things up, then this is for you! The PHQ mission won’t even be offered until you have a reasonable combat rep and a decent ship. However, just because you meet the minimum criteria and the mission is offered, you should still make very sure you have enough of a fleet to deal with challenging combat situations. (er...also plenty of Salvage Insurance!) Once the player completes the missions, they will be notified of a boardable TL, which has the PHQ in its cargo hold. Unlike DDRS, for DDTC we are using the stock Egosoft PHQ so we can take advantage of the stock game features related to it, and also for better integration with Pelador’s Dedicated Assistant Drones.
For the MMRS and DTS missions, the player will be notified of the ship or weapon type on offer for a given mission, as well as the number of missions required to "earn" it. Small M5 class ships and weapon crates usually take 2 missions, while an M1/M2 class ship would require 9 missions. This means that they can be quite difficult if the player does not have the best ships and hardware available.
- At the launch of a new game, there are seven racially-aligned shipyards scattered around the galaxy, all of which start without any ships in their inventories. Assuming the player has a reasonably good reputation with the race that operates a given shipyard, the player will receive a message inviting them to assist in stocking the shipyard with custom ships. (A message "pop up" is sent to the player, and the appropriate sector is exposed on the players galaxy map.)
Pelador’s Dedicated Assistant Drones (DAD):
Pelador’s DAD package is a significant piece of work in its own right, and is fully integrated into DDTC. For the most effective use, players should take the time to read and understand the accompanying documentation which can be found in the last section of thhe DDTC User Guide.
DAD provides a wide range of drones, which can accomplish many useful tasks. However they are not "set and run' devices that automate the game. We require the player to be actively involved in the use of DAD Drones. Drones can be purchased at selected stations or manufactured at a player-owned station and/or selected DDTC ships. Further, DAD factories can be constructed at the PHQ (once the player owns one).
There are 17 unique types of drones which can be purchased, manufactured at your stations, and even constructed on one or more of your ships if properly equiped. There is way too much information available on this important feature to sumarize here, so please do read the user Guide!
Unique DDTC Tech-Tree:
To support construction of Drones, and to add a bit more "life" to the game, we have developed a custom "Technology Tree" for DDTC. The tech-tree includes 3 new ware types, and 10 new factory types. Again...lots of features here, so please refer to the User Guide for details.
DDTC Bounty Hunters:
Loads of fun for the whole family! Seriously, there are four combat elements to the bounty hunter scripts;
1) At irregular but widely-spaced intervals, a wing of bounty hunters from the race that is least friendly with you is sent in pursuit. Kill or be killed!
2) Firing on a station (accidently or otherwise) will likely result in wing of bounty hunters dropping by to discuss matters with you in an extremely aggressive fashion!
3) Attacking poor helpless TL’s and TP’s can bring a team of "civil defense" specialists to discuss matters with you. They will not be happy. (The endless source of TS & TP ships you’ve been enjoying by attacking those Duke’s transporters will now have a cost!)
4) From time to time the player will be notified of random marauder invasions. There are no penalties, and no major rewards…feel free to ignore the notices, or jump in at see if you can cap a few ships.
The standard Bounty Hunter attacks and the Marauder Invasions are spawned randomly within a 1-10 game-hour window.
Each of the above "events" can be activated and de-activated from the standard X3 Artificial Life menu.
If you are engaged in another X3 mission or task, and do not want to be interrupted, you can simply go to the AL menu, and temporarily disable one or more of the plugins. Once you are ready to resume slaughtering bounty hunters, just turn it back on!
DD Difficulty System:
The difficulty for the Bounty Hunters is controlled by 2 factors:
1) The difficulty setting selected by the player.
2) The largest player-owned ship in the player's current sector.
The DD Difficulty system is simplicity itself. Go to the General Command menu, and select the entry that says "Set Deadly Combat Difficulty Level". Choose one and you’re good to go!
Derelict Ships:
We have removed all the "freebie" ships that were statically defined in the stock Egosoft galaxy map. Instead, from time to time there are a (very) few derelict ships spawned in various sectors. Older derelicts that have not been located and claimed are removed over time. The ships that are spawned can be anywhere, and the chance of the player finding one is not great. If you do find one, claim it quick, since you never know when it will "age" to the point where it will be removed.
Slave Exchange Contracts & Passenger Enslavement:
Peledor created another nice little "extra" for DDTC, which extends the whole passenger/slave concept into something a bit more useful.
- - MRB Slave Exchange Contracts: The MRB has a special exchange program whereby you can exchange slaves for a contracted mercenary to work for you. The types of mercenaries depends on how much you want to pay both in credits and resources which will of course increase the skills of the sourced mercenary in general but there’s risk associated with this as contracts can be filled by lesser skilled mercenaries as you have little say as to who fills the contract, you get what you are given.
When docked at the MRB station, you can access the exchange process via the piracy menu. It takes a little while to set-up a contract and varies slightly while an appropriate mercenary is found.
- Passenger Enslavement: Using a command in the piracy menu you can attempt to enslave passengers on board your ship using one of two methods:- - You use trickery and charm on your passengers with space fuel (1 unit) to subdue them, or
- You can attempt to kidnap them by force, by having firearms aboard the ship.
- - You use trickery and charm on your passengers with space fuel (1 unit) to subdue them, or
This is an "oldie but goodie" carried forward from the DDRS mod. This is a "minimalist" turret automation script, and combines energy management, target tracking and weapon switching. It doesn’t do anything very complicated, and does nothing to improve the turrets ability to hit targets.
It replaces the "Turret Attack Enemies" command.
Eye Candy:
With the exception of the factories required to support the new Tech-Tree described above, and one new sector (to enable the Terran shipyard missions to function correctly), and an extra gate in Savage Spur the layout of the DDTC universe map is stock.
However you will notice that the visual elements are quite different than what was originally shipped with the game. With the permission of SpaceFuelAddictand Alex Vanderbilt, we have carefully applied a range of their custom objects and backgrounds to significantly alter the visual experience. Hopefully you will find it to be an attractive addition to the game-play experience, and not simply "different".
Unleashed Variant:
Finally, with the kind permission of Jaga Telesin, we have included an "unleashed" version of DDTC, which greatly improves performance.
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Important Note: Please note that you MUST start a new game after installing DDTC 1.4!
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Version 1.4 change log:
- - Added three new ships:
- The Paranid M5P Theron, which is fairly fast, but with very light armament. For an M5 class ship, it has an unusually large cargo capacity and is well shielded. It is intended to be used for satellite deployment and small-wares fleet re-supply.
The Yaki Tanto, a handy little M5P for those that like the extreme challenge of fighting from the cockpit of a small fighter!
A new "scratch-built" TP ship model replacing the Teladi Cormorant. The mesh was designed to better reflect the Cormorant's ability to deploy boarding pods. The old mesh is still used for the Terran Chukker.
- As the Zen Master, you start out in Elena's Fortune with a nicely tricked-out Starfury, 10 Salvage Insurance, and 50k credits.
Knife Fighter - You start out in a fully loaded M5P Tanto in Savage Spur, and just about everyone hates you. This is a very tough & slow way to beginn to the game.
- Updated and re-incorporated the Brand-X UniCap scripts from DDRS. Only the manual trigger has been included.
- More MD code changes and updates than I can remember.
- In order to ensure that text is properly displayed, dialogs now use abbreviations (MMRS & DTS) instead of spelling out the full faction name.
- Start threshold for both MMRS and DTS missions adjusted; to unlock the DTS missions you will need to reach a traderank of 80, and to unlock the MMRS missions you will need a fightrank of 100.
- The Charon TS has been resized.
- The DTS "return wares" mission (M04) has been altered such that it no longer always uses the Pirate Base in New Income as the source station.
- The 2nd reward ship for the Teladi changed to the Osiris TM, as the Cormorant is worth too much.
- The cost of the Teladi Cormorant has been reduced to 6m credits.
- Timings and mission probabilities for DTS adjusted.
- Moved MRB closer to the middle of Unknown Sector, thereby shortening the time required to reach the station from the gates.
- Changed/corrected background in sector Emperor's Wisdom.
- Altered interval timing between SY missions.
- Rotated various SYs so they face the gates (again...not sure how they got reverted). - The Paranid M5P Theron, which is fairly fast, but with very light armament. For an M5 class ship, it has an unusually large cargo capacity and is well shielded. It is intended to be used for satellite deployment and small-wares fleet re-supply.
Download link:
DDTC Version 1.4:
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/wolf/images/ ... TC_1.4.rar
DDTC Version 1.4 Unleashed:
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/wolf/images/ ... eashed.rar
As has been the case since our initial release, the DDTC User Guide is the place to get all the current info and links to pix of the ships. There is quite a bit of gameplay information in the User Guide, so please do take some time to look through it!
If you want to know what DDTC is all about before investing your time and bandwidth in a download, then please check out the DDTC 1.4 User Guide. (Don't forget the "hot links" embedded in the PDF. These links will jump you directly to the fleet pages on our site, so you can check out all the ships!)