X3:Reunion Manual - Steam

Once the factory is positioned, you need to do a few more things:• Transfer enough money for its transporters to buy supplies with.• Assign some transporters by setting the new factory as their home base. Then, usingthe command console, use the trade menu to order them to buy resources (musthave Trading Software installed).• Set the buying price for resources and the selling price for products.• Define the jump setting. This determines the maximum number of gate jumps a shipis allowed to do to buy or sell goods. If you increase the buying prices for a resource,the jump distance for the available factories selling at that price will decrease.• In the Command Console’s additional command slots you may set the ‘Auto moneytransfer to player account’ funds limit.Note: If ships are allowed to travel too great a distance, your factory may often run out ofresources or your ship might have to travel across too many hostile sectors and getdestroyed. Remember that Free Trader ships will never sell to your station; they only buy yourproducts if the price is right.Moving Factories with a Tractor BeamThere are many reasons you may want to reposition yourfactory, for instance changing its position for better complexjoining, deciding to organise their locations according forgrouping by manufactured goods or you simply change yourmind where you wanted it to be sited.The Tractor Beam can be used to pull objects you own from oneplace to another. Attempting to tow away someone else’sproperty may earn you some unwelcome company. Firstly you'llneed to have a ship capable of mounting this device, either a TLor an M6, and then once acquired, install it in the appropriateweapon bay.The range at which the Tractor Beam (TB) locks onto an object can vary according to theobject's magnetic field density. Generally a lock can be achieved up to 3.75km distant. Whensufficiently close fire the TB at the object, bear in mind that some objects may not evenappear to be in range of the beam, due to the weapons systems not being optimised for thisnewly developed technology.Once the TB has been established you shouldsee a green energy beam linking your ship withthe object being towed. The optimum towingspeed is between 1-10m/s (forward andreverse). Due to inertia, travelling at speedsgreater than 10m/s will cause the TB to loseintegrity and eventually the beam's lock will bebroken (you will notice an unwelcome change inthe beam's colour before it disconnects). Toavoid a break of lock, you can simply slow downand allow the object to catch up. The beam'sintegrity will also return to nominal levels.43The magnetic field of the object, coupled with the effect of the Tractor Beam, can cause thetowed object to rotate in reaction to fluctuations in the magnetic field. Pilots should be wary ofthis. There is sometimes a 'sweet spot', especially when towing mines, in which the TB is not