History XUniverse / Tropes0ToF

*** "A Place of Sunshine": New sector distributed over UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.

* AfterActionReport: Gameplay and story based after-action reports are popular in the Fanfiction section of the Egosoft forums; typically with a self-imposed challenge (such as [[NoDamageRun deleting their save upon a game-over]]); [[http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=222994 Squiddy McSquids possible short life]] is one of the most well known, and is the basis for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlAWC2HSOYM Nautilus]]' [[RealTrailerFakeMovie trailer]]

* TheComputerIsALyingBastard: With one exception, every time ''X3: Terran Conflict'' tells you you need to board a ship with marines during a plot mission, it's lying. The first boarding target will be given to you for free if you wait a while, the second one will get boarded by {{NPC}}s if you wait a while and the third time you can just eject in your spacesuit and claim the target like an abandoned ship. This is significant, as training marines to the point where they could actually capture anything is a very expensive and time-consuming process, far beyond the scope of anything in the campaign missions.

*** The Hyperion returns in X3:TC, and while it had been downgraded to an M6 corvette it is easily the best M6 in the game and is a fan favorite playership. It flies like an M3+ heavy fighter, practically turning on a dime, has top of the line firepower and shields for an M6, has an absolutely gigantic cargo bay (3333 m^3) and is the only M6 in the game that can dock fighter craft. And if you pick a specific game-start you can even get an overtuned Hyperion that flies far faster than you can normally tune a Hyperion to fly; reports of getting overtuned Hyperions with top speeds over 300 m/s are quite common.

** While lacking the large shockwave effect, stations also produce massive explosions when destroyed; particularly big or important ones, such as Xenon Shipyards, produce fireballs ''several times'' as massive, easily topping fifteen to twenty kilometers in size. Most also leave debris behind, which disappears after a couple game-days.

* FakeBalance:
** Fansite owner [=ApricotSlice=] wrote [[http://apricotmappingservice.com/unbalanced.html an entire essay/rant on this trope]] in regards to ''Reunion''. In theory the ships in the game have two axes of balance (FactionCalculus and ship classes) and are pretty well designed. In practice, ArtificialStupidity, the SchizophrenicDifficulty of in-sector versus out-of-sector combat, and the lack of a good fleet command interface put the balance into a blender.
** In the sequel, ''Terran Conflict'', in addition to the above Terran, ATF, and OTAS ships are mostly balanced by being more expensive than other ships. By the time you're buying ships in large quantities you'll likely have [[MoneyForNothing more money coming in from your investments than you know what to do with]].

* ArbitraryMaximumRange: All weapons have a maximum range, the longest being 8 kilometers on a capital ship cannon. The effective range of most weapons is lower than the listed max range, because at long range the target will usually avoid the {{Painfully Slow Projectile}}s.

* AliensNeverInventedDemocracy: The Argon (a LostColony of humans) are the only explicitly representative government among the major factions, giving a senator to every inhabited planet, moon, or space station in their territory. The rest are the Boron (TheKingdom), the Split (TheEmpire), the Paranids (TheTheocracy), and the Teladi ({{Corporatocracy}}). It's unclear what form the Terran government takes.