History XUniverse / Tropes0ToF

** Aldrinite ships also qualify thanks to their prototypical (but rather inferior) versions of Terran guns.

* CorporateWarfare: The {{Mega Corp}}s all maintain hundreds of fighters and a couple capital ships apiece, mainly to protect their supply chains from SpacePirates, [[AIIsACrapshoot Xenon]], [[BeePeople Kha'ak]], and sometimes raiding fleets of rival governments. [[AnEntrepreneurIsYou The player can engage in this as well]], and can also be hired as a contractor by the corporations and be sent on (among other things) station defense and assassination missions.

** The Split M7 Panther, which has a fighter bay rivaling a carrier and a decent number of frigate-sized guns. M1 Carriers also pack a good number of guns behind powerful shields, though they don't have the stamina of M7 or M2.

** The Kha'ak are essentially the X-Universe's version of the [[VideoGame/{{Elite}} Thargoids]].

** The Teladi share many similarities with the [[Franchise/StarTrek Ferengi]], with their devotion to [[MemeticMutation profitsss]] and even the restriction of their particular gender to travel away from their homeworld. The only key differences are their appearances (Ferengi are humanoid, Teladi are reptilian) and their lifestyle (female Ferengi are forbidden to leave their homeworld, female Teladi are ubiquitous in outer space because male Teladi often stay in their homeworld because unfertilized, unsupervised Teladi birth eggs would always hatch as female, though there do exist male Teladi in outer space).

** The Teladi share many similarities with the [[Franchise/StarTrek Ferengi]], with their devotion to [[MemeticMutaion profitsss]] and even the restriction of their particular gender to travel away from their homeworld. The only key differences are their appearances (Ferengi are humanoid, Teladi are reptilian) and their lifestyle (female Ferengi are forbidden to leave their homeworld, female Teladi are ubiquitous in outer space because male Teladi often stay in their homeworld because unfertilized, unsupervised Teladi birth eggs would always hatch as female, though there do exist male Teladi in outer space).

** The Fragmentation Bomb Launcher. Yes, it does sound like a dangerous weapon but the gun drains up a good deal of energy from your ship, its firing rate and shot velocity are slow, and unless you actually manage to hit your target ''before'' the projectile unleashes its FlechetteStorm, you're not going to hit anything smaller than a corvette. What's more unfortunate about this weapon is that the FlechetteStorm lacks any AreaOfEffect damage whatsoever due in part of a programmer's oversight. The only thing good about this weapon is its high selling price, which makes for VendorTrash at the equipment docks.

* ChainLightning: The Ion Disruptor will arc between multiple ships and deal shield damage to all of them, provided the ships are within a kilometer of each other and are somewhat lined up. It's also the best way to deal with enemy [[MacrossMissileMassacre missile spam]], as the lightning effectively instagibs missiles and can arc between them. Beware its ability to make the local police angry as hell with friendly fire, as it doesn't distinguish between friendly or enemy targets. The Ion Pulse Generator is the Ion Disruptor scaled to corvette-size but drains far more energy when used and is [[CoolButInefficient inefficient in most situations]].

* ChainLightning: The Ion Disruptor will arc between multiple ships and deal shield damage to all of them, provided the ships are within a kilometer of each other and are somewhat lined up. It's also the best way to deal with enemy [[MacrossMissileMassacre missile spam]], as the lightning effectively instagibs missiles and can arc between them. Beware its ability to make the local police angry as hell with friendly fire, as it doesn't distinguish between friendly or enemy targets.

** To a lesser extent, the way how [[AttackDrone fighter drones]] work in the X3 trilogy, the information states that only TS and TM-class freighters can carry fighter drones and is made evident in gameplay with these ships offloading them when they're under attack by hostile ships. Yet this information doesn't hold water and omits the capability of other ships to carry these drones; fighter drones can actually be carried by ships of any size as long as they're capable of carrying cargo that is higher than S-class. In other words, a ship ranging from a small interceptor to a big destroyer can carry them as long as they have space in their hold. This makes fighters drones [[DiskOneNuke Disk One Nukes]] in some sort.

** To a lesser extent, the way how [[AttackDrone fighter drones]] work in the X3 trilogy, the information states that only TS and TM-class freighters can carry fighter drones and is made evident in gameplay with these ships offloading them when they're under attack by hostile ships. Yet this is misleading info and is rather false on some accounts; fighter drones can actually be carried by ships of any size as long as they're capable of carrying cargo that is higher than S-class. In other words, a ship ranging from a small interceptor to a big destroyer can carry them as long as they have space in their hold. This makes fighters drones [[DiskOneNuke Disk One Nukes]] in some sort.

** ''Terran Conflict'' has two new types of enhanced drones, and a little squad of them (bought dirt-cheap) could easily kill the biggest ships in the game in less than a minute with almost no casualties, because it will overwhelm the game's AI, and cause the game to use more system resources. [[AIBreaker As more AIs are running, the game runs the AI routines less, making them fire less often and react slower]]. Also, because [=NPC=] capital ships are [[PointDefenseless rarely equipped with weapons capable of hitting them]], these drones (especially the Mark II variants) could turn even the most difficult of space battles into a cakewalk. Combined with the ability for almost any ship larger than a Scout to carry them, and you have basically a DiscOneNuke (it's since been a common misconception for players to assume that only TS and TM-class craft carry fighter drones and no other craft can carry it, presumably because the AI is only seen using these drones coming out from these class of crafts whenever they're under attack, [[TheComputerIsALyingBastard and also since the information of the X3 wiki does not seem to properly value the use of these drones]]. Which is emphatically false); the only disadvantages being the one-use nature of the drones and the game not registering their kills for your reputation bonuses or for your combat rank.

* AwesomeYetPractical:
** Once you set up a supply chain for your missile frigates and bombers, they can effectively wipe out any sector with MacrossMissileMassacre.
** The Typhoon Missile easily falls under this category. An [[RecursiveAmmo eight-warhead]] missile whose warheads do 30 megajoules of damage each; multiplied, it deals 240 megajoules of damage. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill This is the bane of any fighter that isn't a]] [[MightyGlacier Teladi Falcon Sentinel]], and it is so [[JackOfAllStats well-balanced in its stats]] that it can practically be used against any ship that is not a scout craft. Despite it being a corvette-grade missile, frigates, carriers, and destroyers can carry it in bulk and can effectively become poor men's/women's missile frigates, but with more versatility than missile frigates themselves. Every other ship will learn to fear those carrying the Typhoon because it is capable of [[MacrossMissileMassacre triple-M]][[BuffySpeak -ing]] its adversaries, including [[AIIsACrapshoot Xenon]] and [[BeePeople Kha'ak]] ships, and preferably at longer ranges. Furthermore, there are working factories for the Typhoon and its factories can be purchased at just about any non-Terran shipyard. Its only drawbacks are the below average speed of 195m/s, which renders it incapable of chasing the aforementioned scout craft, and that it cannot track new targets once its original one is destroyed.

** Missile frigates and bombers fall into this category in the early game. Fielding them requires the player to build up a strong supporting industry to manufacture munitions. Once said industry is built up, however, they jump to AwesomeYetPractical, fully capable of singlehandedly leveling sectors.

* AIIsACrapshoot:
** The modern-day Xenon are descended from the Terraformers, originally built by the Terrans to terraform worlds. After a badly-written ''software update'', they began to 'terraform' people, cities, and stations. Eventually they [[spoiler:gained true sentience]]. This is why you bug-check your changes before you implement them, people.
** Non-bugged AGI is human-friendly, however, as the Aldrinites can testify. And [[FlipFlopOfGod according to some sources]], the aforementioned software update was sabotaged by an engineer angry about the cancellation of the terraformer program, after which he would be unemployed.

* CrimeOfSelfDefense: Police only react to ''hostile'' ships (such as the Xenon) attacking civilians (or you) in their sectors. If you've angered a neutral race enough for them to take pot-shots at you even in sectors they don't own, the police will not react. Thankfully, the police are [[EasilyForgiven pretty forgiving]] and [[PoliceAreUseless ineffectual even if they stay angry]]

* CloseRangeCombatant: Quite frankly, Terran/AGI Task Force fighters (as well as the Keris, their only [[AttackDrone fighter drone]]), due to their only compatibility (as far as gun arsenals are concerned) with the Electro-Magnetic Plasma Cannon. To elaborate, the [=EMPC=]'s stats are comparatively weak compared to Commonwealth guns; while the damage against shields and hull are respectably high enough and the energy drain is very manageable, the firing rate and velocity of its shots are poor. This means Terran/AGI Task Force fighters will have major trouble facing off against the annoying [[FragileSpeedster M5 scouts]] as these can fly circles around them and [[DeathOfAThousandCuts slowly chip them to death]], unless they come right at them head-on.

** The FlavorText for Paranid ships state that their race-based weaponry tends them towards this trope. However, it is subverted in gameplay in which their ships don't always follow this trope and they can mount any weaponry like all other ships from other races.

** Aldrinite ships also qualify thanks to their prototype versions of Terran guns.

* CloseRangeCombatant: Quite frankly, Terran/AGI Task Force fighters (as well as the Keris, their only [[AttackDrone fighter drone]]), due to their only compatibility (as far as gun arsenals are concerned) with the Electro-Magnetic Plasma Cannon. To elaborate, the [=EMPC=]'s stats are comparatively weak compared to Commonwealth guns; while the damage against shields and hull are respectably high enough and the energy drain is very manageable, the firing rate and velocity of its shots are poor. This means Terran/AGI Task Force fighters will have major trouble facing off against the annoying [[FragileSpeedster M5 scouts]] as these can fly circles around them and [[DeathOfAThousandCuts slowly chip them to death]], unless they come right at you head-on.

* CloseRangeCombatant: Quite frankly, Terran/AGI Task Force fighters (as well as the Keris, their only [[AttackDrone fighter drone]]), due to their only compatibility (as far as gun arsenals are concerned) with the Electro-Magnetic Plasma Cannon. To elaborate, the [=EMPC=]'s stats are comparatively weak compared to Commonwealth guns; while the damage against shields and hull are respectably high enough and the energy drain is very manageable, the firing rate and velocity of its shots are poor. This means Terran/AGI Task Force fighters will have major trouble facing off against the annoying [[FragileSpeedster M5 scouts]] as these can fly circles around them and [[DeathOfAThousandCuts pick them slowly to death]], unless they come right at you head-on.

* CloseRangeCombatant: Quite frankly, Terran/AGI Task Force fighters, due to their only compatibility (as far as gun arsenals are concerned) with the Electro-Magnetic Plasma Cannon. To elaborate, the [=EMPC=]'s stats are comparatively weak compared to Commonwealth guns; while the damage against shields and hull are respectably high enough and the energy drain is very manageable, the firing rate and velocity of its shots are poor. This means Terran/AGI Task Force fighters will have major trouble facing off against the annoying [[FraigleSpeedster M5 scouts]] as these can fly circles around them and [[DeathOfAThousandCuts pick them slowly to death]], unless they come right at you head-on.

* TheAestheticsOfTechnology: [[AvertedTrope Do not rely on what a ship looks like as a measure of how dangerous it is.]] Terran ships, despite being the most advanced ships, [[http://i.imgur.com/SyPVb.jpg don't look much more advanced than the modern Space Shuttle]] -- just a lot more clean and streamlined. This becomes particularly egregious by the time the 2900s take place, since they should already have sleeker and more visually appealing designs by then to complement their [[HumansAdvanceSwiftly sufficiently advanced technology]]. The Paranid, the second-most advanced race, on the other hand, use [[http://i.imgur.com/VG130.jpg very high-tech looking ships]] with lots of curves and shiny hulls. The Split [[FollowTheLeader follow a similar pattern]] to the Paranid by both design and technology, [[http://www.elite-games.ru/images/x3tc/ships/ss_sh_s_m3p.jpg only with more angular and spiky ends]]. Argon/[=OTAS=] ships look like sleek DieselPunk-styled craft with rusty, scorch-filled marks in their design ([[http://www.elite-games.ru/images/x3tc/ships/ss_sh_otas_m3.jpg specifically their fighters when looking like the latter part]]), despite being bought fresh out of a shipyard. The Teladi, who buy or reverse engineer all their technology from the other races and use lower tech weaponry, have [[http://i.imgur.com/Z17s7.jpg cobbled-together ships]]; in other words, they're the ugliest ships aesthetically speaking (with a few exceptions: the Kea, Kestrel, and Peregrine look surprisingly sleek among the [[UsedFuture usual Teladi design philosophy]]), [[WhatAPieceOfJunk but don't judge them by their looks alone]]: they are usually just as effective as the other race's ships. The Pirates on the other hand, use scavenged and spot-repaired ships, with their capital ships cobbled together from the hulks of old transporter ships, and it shows when you look at their stats - almost all the Pirate ships have terrible stats compared to the original race's ships. Boron ships ''look'' like they ought to be superior to everything else, but really only excel as transports.