X3 Reunion still trumps Terran Conflict for me because of the mod support. In one sector there was a Super Star Destroyer controlling 80 or so TIE interceptors, fighters, and bombers. In another there was an enemy fleet of migrating Xenon ships composed of Cylon Base Stars, Raiders, and a few of the stock ships. I was cruising around in a Battlerstar Galactica with the Battlestar Pegasus on my wing, both fully loaded with Vipers ready to launch. The 2 NPC fleets of the SSD and the Basestars meet and started hammering each other. After the fight thinned out enough for me to actually get involved with out melting my face and computer from the inside I told the Pegasus to jump in, and start attacking anything between the two jumpgates. After most of the enemy fighters were busy, I launched my own little viper and went to check things out leaving the Galactica safely behind.
Now, with X3 what happens out of sector... is vastly different from what happens when you're actually there. The SSD is a very large ship. So large that as soon as I popped in, it rammed into and destroyed a Teladi naval yard, then blew itself up (a fitting end). The Teladi were content to just to stay out of it until that happened. The Pegasus opened fire with all its guns and killed a dozen or civilian ships making everyone in that sector hostile to me. Sooo the bloodbath began. I had another mod installed called Race Response Fleets, basically if any ship belonging to a race gets attacked and there is a police group in jump distance they will come to assist. Unfortunately this furball was taking place next to a Xenon home sector. After 10 mins of trying to GTFO dodging missiles, giant waves of plasma balls, exploding flak, all at an amazing 10 FPS I gave up on ever reaching a jumpgate, and instead decided to make a run as far away from everything as possible.
I sat there 50000km away from the nearest object watching the fight through the my fleets sensors. I opened up my property window, pulled up a list of my ships, told the the Galactica to refuel its crystals for a jump to my location, it ventured off looking for a dock that had what it needed. While I waited I noticed the battle wasn't fairing so well for my guys. The Pegasus was down to 30%, no more missiles, of its 90 vipers only 22 were left and most of those had retreated back into the hanger bay. Wave after wave of Xenon ships were rolling in, the Argon had some how became involved in this, and like most things in the universe, wanted to kill me too. I'm guessing the Peggy obliterated some hapless courier that crossed its line of fire. A few more minutes passed, I check on the Peggy, and she's surrounded, but at the same time I get a mail saying the Galactica has completed its task to refuel, rearm, and resupply its fighters with missiles. I give it a Jump to Position order with me as the target and a few seconds later it pops in right above me. I launch all the vipers, set their missiles to fire freely, and send them off into battle ahead of me while I docked to assume direct control. 20 minutes later, all thats left of my fleet is the Pegasus, who's down to less than 5%, 4 vipers, and the BSG.
There isn't much else around other than station wreckage, ammo drifting about, ejected pilots of all races and creeds and 4 Xenon controlled capital ships. Screw it. I saved the game, switched all my guns to flak cannons, set them them to engage fighters only. I ordered what was left of ol' Peggy to attack the Xenon group, and followed right behind it. The Pegasus fell quickly, but managed to take out the xenon carrier, I turned the Galactica into another of the capital ships at full speed and launched from my last remaining viper. The Galactica barely survived the collision, but it was alive enough to take out any of the fighters that were quick enough to catch me before I made my escape. I reached my own factory complex, docked, took a look at the situation: Before this massacre I was on good terms with everyone except the Xenon, now I'm KOS to all races in the galaxy. I had lost every ship except a few cargo haulers, and the Viper mk7 I escaped in. My only station was a humble Space Weed production facility. In one bad judgement call I went from respected bad ass with my own fleet to hated drug smuggler.
Universe wise, X3 is pretty awesome, and with enough of the correct mods it turns into a completely different game than the one you purchased. It requires a good amount of patience due to the poor interface most modifications are restricted to.
