I started a new X3:AP game on Friday. I started as a humble merchant.

First thing I did was fly to the Argon ship swap meet to sell the free "fighter" they give you. That allowed me to have some more capital to buy commodities.

Next I flew north to Power Circle to do some energy cell trading. Made some scratch.

When that dried up(I was only at about 100k), I flew south to Ore Belt. On the way I picked up some software upgrades to help my trading.

In Ore Belt, I continued to peddle energy cells to the various ore mines and low yield weapon fabricators. When an ore mine had a surplus, I bought cheap (60/unit?) and sold high (140/unit) to a fabricator.

That enabled me to fund the remainder of my software, speed and turning upgrades. Also, my cargo bay is increased to 3,400 (from the default 3,000).

Now that I have a reasonably upgraded Mercury, I have been looking for other deals (competition on energy cells has peaked at the moment). I was able to sell some energy to a cahoona bakery. I noticed the price was low (54/unit) so I filled my hold (about 900 cahoonas) and sold them to a Free trading port for the average (72/unit).

I am currently sitting on a good Mercury with 300k in the bank. Not stellar, but a good start.

Hmmm, I need to sell my fighter

What's the next freighter up from the Mercury? Any links to screenshots of all the ships?

The Mercury is a TS, so I think a TP class is the next size up, culminating with a TL. With a TL, you can start to buy bases and build them, so obviously that is a ways off.

Make sure you look at this:

X3:TC for Dummies

It gives a lot of good info for the beginner, as well as breakdowns of ship sizes and what the various software upgrades let you do.

Anyone know when rebirth comes out?

Careful, it depends on what you plan to do with the freighter. A TP is a very small person transport, not suitable for bulk freight.
X3:TC Onine Ship Stats
There are different sizes of TS, the one you currently have is a small but fairly fast TS.
There are other tables that put stats like speed and cargo space in relation to get the best transport capacity over time and distance, e.g. a bigger ship at slower speed is often more efficient than a small but fast ship. But small fast freighters are often advantageous to do cargo transport missions.
A TP is needed to transport passengers, the respective missions you get at stations can be very profitable, but the time limit may be challenging.
A TL is not really suitable for regular cargo, as it can't dock on most stations. (it might serve as a base ship when mining an asteroid field with smaller vessels)

Another nice link you might need in the future is the X3:TC Complex Calculator

I don't have AP, but I think most ships and the economics are still similar/thesame as TC, no?!

So far, I have noted that the economics of both are the same.

AP doesn't have all the awesome mods like the X-tended mod for TC in it nor the piracy abilities (boarding and more) does it? I have AP just haven't played it much due to my fear of lacking mods.

I think the majority of TC mods will work with AP. Check the mod forum at Egosoft. I know I was able to import the Serenity ship model in TC, so I imagine it will work in AP, too. No one has a clue re: Rebirth, and Egosoft isn't saying much. The community is getting a bit antsy about the lack of info. I no longer care as much, what with Squadron 42. Though I will certainly buy Rebirth when/if it's released.

It was supposed to come out end of this year but somehow I think that is off by a good bit.

Right, I just caved in and got myself a copy of the X Superbox. I know you've all been discussing Albion Prelude, is that the newest one? Or is that just the best one to play? Any must-have mods or tools?

With all that's on my plate at the moment, I have little time to spare for some more "research" into this so any help to get me started quickly and hit the ground running will be great. Thanks!

I would have said just buy Terran Conflict and Albion Prelude and not bothered with the others as they are lacking so much compared to the newer ones, my opinion anyway.

I wish there was a mod to change those bloody awful faces in the comm screens as they are just cartoons against the lovely graphics of the rest of the game. even if they were just static images (not animated I mean) would be better.

Yes Ice, AP is the newest.

If you want to just fight, start as a combat pilot.

If you want a leg up on forging an empire, start as a humble merchant. Read my posts in this thread for my X3 gems of wisdom.

Superbox was prolly overkill though. You would have been fine with the X3 Terran War Pack, or the X3 GoldBox, especially if you don't have the time to get too into it. You can only play so many games at a time, only so many hours in the day, yada yada sleep, yada yada.

LOL, I got the Superbox for £10, thanks to Flogger23m, so it's still "cheaper" than the Terran War Pack.

Downloading now.

So, no mods or anything for this? Just download and play?

Oh right, yeah at that price it was worth it lol.

Cockpit mod is essential in my view http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=304158

So does it work with TIR by any chance? I know I may be hoping for too much; I'd be happy with an EVE-like 360-view.

Yup http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/03-enhanced-games/game-x3-albion-prelude.html

But why would you want an outside the ship view? That horrid view in Eve is why I can't play it, why is my view outside the ship? lol

There is an outside the ship view but I wouldn't try and fight with it like that only for admiring your ship.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

PERFECT!!!!!

Oh, I'm so excited now, can't wait to play this! I have to remind myself "no co-op multiplayer" to tune down my excitement a notch!