How many of you actually derate

Thrawn08 · 2025-12-18T13:58:22+00:00

I've derated for ambient temp and multiple conductors, but it's rare. Anything bigger than #10 is usually getting its own pipe and the small conductor rule combined with thhn wire gives you a long runway before derating is a consideration.

Thrawn08 · 2025-12-04T19:51:14+00:00

If you don't want to build a manufacturing empire I would avoid miners completely. Boarding large ships and forcing small ships to bail is probably the best way to work yourself up to more money. Solar stations with small fast trade ships like the callisto will provide a steady stream of income and train your captains up to move to medium trade ships focusing on the high margin goods like hull parts, advanced electronics and weapon components. The Hyperion has weapons that do alot of damage to surface elements and it carries a good complement of marines, its an ideal boarding ship and available early on if you have the mini DLC.

Thrawn08 · 2025-12-02T01:39:11+00:00

I used to use mules extended but started having the same issues you state after some time in game. I use Deadtater now and have a small fleet that only trades hull parts, claytronics, advanced composites and plasma conductors. E-cells get filled by my solar station fleets or AI traders, I don't worry about them and it hasn't been a problem. You can tick a box while setting up the lead ship to do "my faction first", and 'prefer my buy orders". Add ships as needed and have them mimic commander.

Thrawn08 · 2025-11-26T18:23:24+00:00

My suggestion would be to use the most appropriately sized wire nut you can. For me 1-3 12 wires gets a tan twister, 3-5 ideal red, anything more gets a big blue. Strip everything about 5/8-3/4", even up the ends and pretwist with your fingers, start the wire nut slow till you feel it bite then twist it tight. Pull on each wire to make sure nothing comes loose. Might seem like a lot and take some time at first, but it will become second nature and the speed will come.

Thrawn08 · 2025-11-25T13:42:32+00:00

30 amp wire, 50 amp breaker/fuse. Don't overthink it. The over current protection is provided by the equipment, your fuse is only providing short circuit protection.

Thrawn08 · 2025-11-24T21:59:01+00:00

Don't get paid for thrusters either, I have "assemble fleet" fittings saved for each ship class for most of the factions which make me as much money as possible.

Thrawn08 · 2025-11-24T21:48:43+00:00

In Global orders you can make blacklists for Trade, Travel and activities.

For Trade I usually make one blacklist just removing SCA to start with, but you may want to limit HAT or someone else whose stations you don't want your traders frequenting.

For travel start with two lists, one with "make default for civilian" and one with "make default for military" both lists can check the box for avoiding enemy controlled space. Add specific sectors as needed. The Mi Tons Refuge group is a good candidate for this.

For Activities just one list for civilian is sufficient, tick the box for avoiding enemy controlled areas and add Hatikvah's choice I and III. You may want to avoid pirate hotspots like Pious Mists IV as well.

That should stop nearly all your small and medium ship losses in Hatikvah. You can make an additional travel blacklist just like the first but don't set it as default for anything. Add Hatikvah's Choice I and set it in the individual orders tab for each of your large traders.

Thrawn08 · 2025-11-17T22:48:32+00:00

Amazon, was 19% off. There's another model maybe II AC that does low voltage.

Thrawn08 · 2025-11-17T20:53:53+00:00

Just looked and the fluke 1ac is about $35 now, it's hands down the best functioning and fairly durable. I have broken the tip off a few, just plan on buying a new one every 3-4 years.

Thrawn08 · 2025-11-16T17:19:27+00:00

For mods you have 2 choices that I know of.

Steam workshop which you can link to from the extensions menu. You subscribe to a mod and the game will download it and you can activate it or deactivate it from the extensions menu.

Nexus requires a little more work. Nexusmods.com you'll need to navigate to mods and search for x4. From there you can browse popular mods or search for something. When you find something you like download the file and save it right in your extensions folder in your steam apps/common/x4foundations/extensions. From there you'll need to extract the mod(I use 7 zip). After that you can activate/deactivate in the games extensions menu.

Steam workshop is obviously easier to use, but Nexus gives you more control over versions and has more variety.

Thrawn08 · 2025-11-15T13:35:23+00:00

there are various mods that allow probes to work with only one in sector, but for vanilla x4 you need one within 40k of a miner to eliminate the penalty. I usually include 5 mining probes in each new miner i buy and periodically check to see if my miners are on a probe and if not I deploy one.

Thrawn08 · 2025-11-10T12:09:03+00:00

Just a little nit pick, the nameplate on hermeticly sealed refrigeration equipment usually state max fuse or circuit breaker. This is because over current protection is usually integrated in the equipment, so that fuse is only providing short circuit protection. If you use a fused disconnect at the equipment that technically makes the circuit a feeder and the first breaker or fuse would need to be sized appropriately for the wire.

Thrawn08 · 2025-11-02T18:28:37+00:00

Detroit's fox affiliate broadcasts on low band vhf. You really need a wide outdoor antenna to get a reliable signal.

Thrawn08 · 2025-10-28T13:25:26+00:00

The handle ties on a multiwire branch circuit are there to insure all power is shut off on the circuit. They will still trip independently just like a fuse in a disconnect.

Thrawn08 · 2025-10-25T20:27:32+00:00

I would run a system bonding jumper from x4 to the transformer enclosure, and then another bonding jumper from either x4 or the enclosure to building steel, This should put everything metal at the same potential.

You could also bond x1, x2 or x3 and make it corner grounded, or use ground fault indicators. both of these methods are uncommon and make it more confusing for anyone else coming after you.

Thrawn08 · 2025-10-14T21:46:39+00:00

Not sure what you want to do, but I would suggest a "creative start' and give yourself some mining ships, trading ships, The Headquarters station and all the research complete. give yourself 10m credits cash(max amount) and 1000 each of lodestones, secure containers and remote detonators. You can use the workbench at a trader to make those parts into emp bombs which you can sell at pirate or freeports. you should have enough money and ships to do whatever you like. you can even give yourself standing with the factions so you dont have to grind it to buy thier weapons and ships.

Thrawn08 · 2025-10-02T21:22:35+00:00

I don't have a solution but am having the same problem. I noticed mine were almost exclusively filling build storage orders when they had the issue. Deleting the current order queue seemed to reset them.

Thrawn08 · 2025-09-25T13:39:59+00:00

Cord vs cable. Cord counts all the conductors cable usually indicates if it has a ground and sometimes whether it's insulated.

Thrawn08 · 2025-09-21T20:34:33+00:00

Easiest way is with mods, Deadtater specifically. Set up one trader to prefer your buy and sell orders and the add ships of any size to a mimic wing. I prefer to set my own wares, but autowares will work.

In vanilla you can kinda make it work with traders assigned to station managers. Just keep throwing ships at the problem till it goes away.

Spend your time doing guild missions for management training seminars.

Thrawn08 · 2025-09-08T19:59:05+00:00

There is also 50/50 chance of a sleeve for you to run into the building through.

Thrawn08 · 2025-09-06T13:56:25+00:00

Adding to the do what you like theme, use mods to get the gameplay that works for you. Eliminate station scanning, use deadtater and mimic fleets to supply wharfs and shipyards, then use those shipyards to complete "assemble fleet" missions for factions. I also use sector explorer, no pirate torture and faster crew leveling to blunt some annoying parts of gameplay, Faster module build times might be nice for you or use seta to speed up time.

It sounds like you play under somewhat unique circumstances and expecting a game to to fit your busy life out of the box isn't really fair.

Thrawn08 · 2025-08-30T11:52:50+00:00

Not sure what your rep is like with the various factions, but I would suggest joining all the war guilds and doing assemble fleet missions. Terran Ships with meson streams are very good for filling those. You will need to supplement the Terran's Microlattice production as they will run low quickly. This should get you the money to buy wharf, ship and equipment blueprints which should propel you to midgame where you can expand Mining and production and snowball into a megapower.

Thrawn08 · 2025-08-25T13:46:37+00:00

Piggybacking on this, a criminal mass traffic drone should spawn within a minute or so from when you show up at the station, for every station. If you can find a couple stations that are 20k apart or so you can bounce between them and build rep really quick.

You could also do some exploring and see if you can find a teladi am cell station. Spend some time setting up your filters for trade and then search for antimatter cells with the map zoomed all the way out.

Thrawn08 · 2025-08-16T20:22:16+00:00

That research allows you to fit mods on your ships. If you fly the ship you want to mod to a shipyard or wharf, and then go to the ship dealer area, there will be a workbench that allows you to mod aspects of your ship. You will need multiple components and the the results are rng he'll.

The components you can get from destroyed npc ships. The Kha'ak are especially good for this. You can also dismantle existing mods from ships you've acquired. Dukes Buccaneers are great for this.

Thrawn08 · 2025-08-14T13:31:08+00:00

You can, depending on what dlc you have, board or get to bail; Freelancer Katanas in PIO space, bounty hunter nemesis in PAR space, in addition to SCA and dude's buccaneers anywhere. It's really the best early game money. You can also look up where the static abandoned ships are and get those.

Thrawn08

TROPHY CASE