Did you manage to get into X3 Chal? I've tried a few times. It's a beautiful game and I love the idea of the size and free range. There's just such a huge learning curve I keep losing steam after reading the manual for half an hour every hour of playing.
Yeah Zoo..i've had 30 odd stations..al linked to form 3 super stations in 3 different sectors, all suppliying the others in a loop that produced expensive goods..was awesome...had 3 or 4 of the biggest ships and a horde of smaller ones..kicked arse and still one of my fave games ever..just..so...BIG., and takes a while to get your income going.
Tip : just buy 10 odd traders (start with 2 though) get them all to be universal traders and give em the jump thingy..let them do their thing, just keep an eye on em..they need a nudge every now and then...and before you know it you can buy your 1st station, just make sure you have a goal in mind for what you want your ultimate end product to be and build your stations with that in mind..link em up and your RICH, buy a kick arse ship, fuck some pirates up and rule the universe with an iron fist.
Gonna go reinstall it now...got the bug again

p.s. Kaotic - you're right about Age of Mythology..got my games mixed up, it IS a good game..but its nothing like HOMM..there's another game out there though thats EXACTLY like HOMM3 or 5..thought it was AOM..my bad
