Boarding I

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Jimmy C
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Re: Boarding I

Post by Jimmy C » Sun, 26. Jun 22, 16:23

You can always try to steal the factory plans. Works even if they hate your guts.

Sovereign01
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Re: Boarding I

Post by Sovereign01 » Sun, 26. Jun 22, 22:41

Still have the Aegir, Tyr and Woden to get out of the ATF options, and if I feel like it the Osaka and Tokyo for the Terrans. I'll need to dispatch the Valhalla anyway to get a Tyr to spawn so I might as well board it for REing. Not that I actually plan on building one I just like collecting the blueprints- I've placed JBs by both the Hub and the HQ to spare damaged ships having to transit the gates. My agents are constantly busy, I've taken to doing station defence missions (vs Pirates/Yaki) to get more. Although the Maru can handle a frigate or two when loaded with PBCs and MAMLs, there's nothing like an overtuned Megalodon for curbstomping those pesky M7s :lol:

BrigandPhantos77
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Re: Boarding I

Post by BrigandPhantos77 » Mon, 27. Jun 22, 00:39

Jimmy C wrote:
Sun, 26. Jun 22, 16:23
You can always try to steal the factory plans. Works even if they hate your guts.
Yea, so far I got quite a few that way. Working on Strong Arms beam weapons factories slowly. Got half of what the Pirates offer too. I like being able to make the PBG also, even if they suck in "in-system" combat. Can use it for throw away ship groups where you don't care about accidental friendly "fire". Pun intended.

I want to purchase the majority of the Terran fighters before I let it tank. It just sucks they are hated by all commonwealth races. I already lose my Argon Police License every time I enter Legend's Home, don't want it happening from Ocean of Fantasy or Home of Light. Those later 2 I am +3, only +2 with OTAS.

Rep at the moment "as of this post":
Max for Teladi and Boron, just under Boron with the Argon.
Paranid at the Cap and Split at -2.

Factories for me are primarily throughout Argon, Boron and Teladi. Profits are enough to make any Teladi proud.

I intend to side with the Terran's for the entry part. Don't want them hostile while I explore there sectors.
Peace is a state of mind!
War is absolute!
~ Phantos ~

Sovereign01
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Re: Boarding I

Post by Sovereign01 » Mon, 27. Jun 22, 05:55

I blew up the latest Odin to spawn, for some reason this time it was my Boron rep that suffered in the time that I was in Terran space waiting for my Aquilo to show up, so I've got my agents working on their rep although they've already wiped out my sats in their sectors.

Having gotten the desirable tech from all the corporations I know how much of a grind that is with the notoriety. All except NMMC hate me now thanks to my actions. Not that any of them really matter- my only stations and ships are located either in previously unclaimed sectors. Although I did notice something off, the beacon that was located in Akeela's Beacon beta (along with the adv. satellite) was missing. So I scroll back through the messages and found out that the beacon had actually been destroyed long ago by Xenon! :evil: Long ago being before I got my first Valhalla and I had never even noticed- being dedicated to fuel & weed production I'd never needed to send any ships there to pick up anything. Looks like I have a sector to clear!

I got that second Valhalla, being completely immobile presented a unique opportunity- despite being stationary it still managed to shoot down all my boarding pods. Having examined my own Valhalla I did spot its one weakness- make sure your boarding ship is located directly ahead of the Valhalla out of weapons range- even slightly above or below or either side and the SSCs will be able to draw a bead on the pods. Up front there are 'only' 8 guns and if your suppressing ship can keep those occupied your pods have a much better chance. So now I have a ship to RE- as a bonus that particular boarding action enabled me to max no fewer than ten marines! :lol: Normally I average two at a time so that was really something! :D

BrigandPhantos77
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Re: Boarding I

Post by BrigandPhantos77 » Mon, 27. Jun 22, 07:34

Sovereign01 wrote:
Mon, 27. Jun 22, 05:55
I blew up the latest Odin to spawn, for some reason this time it was my Boron rep that suffered in the time that I was in Terran space waiting for my Aquilo to show up, so I've got my agents working on their rep although they've already wiped out my sats in their sectors.

Having gotten the desirable tech from all the corporations I know how much of a grind that is with the notoriety. All except NMMC hate me now thanks to my actions. Not that any of them really matter- my only stations and ships are located either in previously unclaimed sectors. Although I did notice something off, the beacon that was located in Akeela's Beacon beta (along with the adv. satellite) was missing. So I scroll back through the messages and found out that the beacon had actually been destroyed long ago by Xenon! :evil: Long ago being before I got my first Valhalla and I had never even noticed- being dedicated to fuel & weed production I'd never needed to send any ships there to pick up anything. Looks like I have a sector to clear!

I got that second Valhalla, being completely immobile presented a unique opportunity- despite being stationary it still managed to shoot down all my boarding pods. Having examined my own Valhalla I did spot its one weakness- make sure your boarding ship is located directly ahead of the Valhalla out of weapons range- even slightly above or below or either side and the SSCs will be able to draw a bead on the pods. Up front there are 'only' 8 guns and if your suppressing ship can keep those occupied your pods have a much better chance. So now I have a ship to RE- as a bonus that particular boarding action enabled me to max no fewer than ten marines! :lol: Normally I average two at a time so that was really something! :D
Best method I've had for boarding, flood with Flails, Fighter Drones, then fire off the pods. And the pods need to be fired before the target is within 12km. Once you fire them, hit SETA. It messes with the AI ability to track most missiles. I always SETA when I launch Hammer Heavy Torpedo's for example. Just got my P btw. Only an I and K to go now.
Peace is a state of mind!
War is absolute!
~ Phantos ~

Sovereign01
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Re: Boarding I

Post by Sovereign01 » Mon, 27. Jun 22, 18:50

BrigandPhantos77 wrote:
Mon, 27. Jun 22, 07:34
Sovereign01 wrote:
Mon, 27. Jun 22, 05:55
I blew up the latest Odin to spawn, for some reason this time it was my Boron rep that suffered in the time that I was in Terran space waiting for my Aquilo to show up, so I've got my agents working on their rep although they've already wiped out my sats in their sectors.

Having gotten the desirable tech from all the corporations I know how much of a grind that is with the notoriety. All except NMMC hate me now thanks to my actions. Not that any of them really matter- my only stations and ships are located either in previously unclaimed sectors. Although I did notice something off, the beacon that was located in Akeela's Beacon beta (along with the adv. satellite) was missing. So I scroll back through the messages and found out that the beacon had actually been destroyed long ago by Xenon! :evil: Long ago being before I got my first Valhalla and I had never even noticed- being dedicated to fuel & weed production I'd never needed to send any ships there to pick up anything. Looks like I have a sector to clear!

I got that second Valhalla, being completely immobile presented a unique opportunity- despite being stationary it still managed to shoot down all my boarding pods. Having examined my own Valhalla I did spot its one weakness- make sure your boarding ship is located directly ahead of the Valhalla out of weapons range- even slightly above or below or either side and the SSCs will be able to draw a bead on the pods. Up front there are 'only' 8 guns and if your suppressing ship can keep those occupied your pods have a much better chance. So now I have a ship to RE- as a bonus that particular boarding action enabled me to max no fewer than ten marines! :lol: Normally I average two at a time so that was really something! :D
Best method I've had for boarding, flood with Flails, Fighter Drones, then fire off the pods. And the pods need to be fired before the target is within 12km. Once you fire them, hit SETA. It messes with the AI ability to track most missiles. I always SETA when I launch Hammer Heavy Torpedo's for example. Just got my P btw. Only an I and K to go now.
How many marines did you need to take the P, and is it a lot more manoeuvrable than the PX? Thing with SETA with missiles is that it seems to adversely affect their accuracy too, at least when it comes to unreliable missiles like the Wraith, sometimes when they miss they take ages to come back around and by the time they hit, either the shields have regenerated or (having finished the shields off with weapons fire) they come in and blow the target ship to hell.

The Odin was replaced with another Odin, I'm merely assuming there's a chance that it'll be replaced with a Woden much like when you kill the single Tyr/Valhalla the replacement will be either one. This time a Tyr spawned, if I do go after it I'll use my Aquilo to fire volleys to clear out the attendant Skirnirs. Mind you I do have a Skirnir of my own that once I send it to Getsu Fune will be ready for battle. The Aquilo when loaded with 300 Flails and 300 Hammers (6,600 cargo space out of 7,900) and 3 x 2 GJ shields has a few hundred spaces left for energy cells, the Skirnir when carrying the same number of Ghouls and Shadows (7,500 out of 9,500) with 4 x 2 GJ shields should theoretically have more room, assuming I only load it with SSCs. The PBG is my go-to weapon when it comes to dogfighting enemy fighters in my M6, I've gotten a lot of Xenon L/M/Ns to bail as a result, I'll probably end up revisiting sectors that I've battled Xenon in and collect all those fighters. A pair of PBGs upfront make short work of anything smaller than an an M6 with CIG/MAMLs taking up the other forward slots.

BrigandPhantos77
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Re: Boarding I

Post by BrigandPhantos77 » Tue, 28. Jun 22, 20:25

Sovereign01 wrote:
Mon, 27. Jun 22, 18:50

How many marines did you need to take the P, and is it a lot more manoeuvrable than the PX? Thing with SETA with missiles is that it seems to adversely affect their accuracy too, at least when it comes to unreliable missiles like the Wraith, sometimes when they miss they take ages to come back around and by the time they hit, either the shields have regenerated or (having finished the shields off with weapons fire) they come in and blow the target ship to hell.
It was similar to the PX. I haven't rebuilt it yet. It's got a long production queue in front of it. "4 Cerberus, 4 Q, Tiger, Kariudo with a set of Drones, J, and some misc. fighters." I'll update you on that once I made them.

Soften with 8 to 10 flails to start. Add a group to keep lowering the shields till the fighter drones get close to do there work.

Yea SETA can adversely affect the targeting, but when the target is slow they don't have much of a problem. And the Capital Turrets are more of a worry to me. It doesn't impact the flails as much, but the missile defense system can have a problem sometimes hitting incoming Firestorm's. Your flails btw, will target Firestorm's too. Just gotta watch out for the excess pummeling what your trying to board.

-- Start the boarding with 2 pods (10 marines) and send in another pod once you get to Deck 1 Fighting. I've been employing the fighter drones to keep it distracted as well. Usually use about 50. Sometimes they do hurt the hull, but it keeps the target's shields down so I don't have to swap between pods and flails. Plus Ps and PXs are too soft to withstand them.

Drone control:
Shift + 8 attack target, Shift + 0 to recall them to your cargo bay.

Lost 3 Marines on PX.
Lost 2 on P.



When I move on to the I and K again, I am thinking of employing some Mako's with ID. I set up a fresh shark fully loaded with them. What do you think, worth the expense? I know I will likely lose most of them, but they are cheap enough. And there loadouts I kept simple. 6 ID each, Nav Software, Fight Software, Duplex Scanner, Boost Extension and that's about it.

I produce Mk2 Fighter Drones. If I don't like the Mako's I might just stockpile some and go that route instead.

I realized a day or 2 ago, do you know what we really need? A self destruct button for active missiles. I had a bunch of my flails slam into the Trade Station in Cho's Defeat. The station turned red after I popped a couple Custom's. I rarely go in there, so it doesn't matter a whole deal. But I wish I had control to do that since they randomly select another enemy to hit. Sometimes it's like "NO don't hit that, BOOM!!" Dangit!! Those hammer's hurt too.

--Edit / Update--

So I don't know about the boost / speed but turning wise, the P is in a class of it's own above all other listed M6 so far for me. But the PX is similar to the Washi.
Peace is a state of mind!
War is absolute!
~ Phantos ~

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
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Re: Boarding I

Post by Sovereign01 » Wed, 29. Jun 22, 05:32

BrigandPhantos77 wrote:
Tue, 28. Jun 22, 20:25
Sovereign01 wrote:
Mon, 27. Jun 22, 18:50

How many marines did you need to take the P, and is it a lot more manoeuvrable than the PX? Thing with SETA with missiles is that it seems to adversely affect their accuracy too, at least when it comes to unreliable missiles like the Wraith, sometimes when they miss they take ages to come back around and by the time they hit, either the shields have regenerated or (having finished the shields off with weapons fire) they come in and blow the target ship to hell.
It was similar to the PX. I haven't rebuilt it yet. It's got a long production queue in front of it. "4 Cerberus, 4 Q, Tiger, Kariudo with a set of Drones, J, and some misc. fighters." I'll update you on that once I made them.

Soften with 8 to 10 flails to start. Add a group to keep lowering the shields till the fighter drones get close to do there work.

Yea SETA can adversely affect the targeting, but when the target is slow they don't have much of a problem. And the Capital Turrets are more of a worry to me. It doesn't impact the flails as much, but the missile defense system can have a problem sometimes hitting incoming Firestorm's. Your flails btw, will target Firestorm's too. Just gotta watch out for the excess pummeling what your trying to board.

-- Start the boarding with 2 pods (10 marines) and send in another pod once you get to Deck 1 Fighting. I've been employing the fighter drones to keep it distracted as well. Usually use about 50. Sometimes they do hurt the hull, but it keeps the target's shields down so I don't have to swap between pods and flails. Plus Ps and PXs are too soft to withstand them.

Drone control:
Shift + 8 attack target, Shift + 0 to recall them to your cargo bay.

Lost 3 Marines on PX.
Lost 2 on P.



When I move on to the I and K again, I am thinking of employing some Mako's with ID. I set up a fresh shark fully loaded with them. What do you think, worth the expense? I know I will likely lose most of them, but they are cheap enough. And there loadouts I kept simple. 6 ID each, Nav Software, Fight Software, Duplex Scanner, Boost Extension and that's about it.

I produce Mk2 Fighter Drones. If I don't like the Mako's I might just stockpile some and go that route instead.

I realized a day or 2 ago, do you know what we really need? A self destruct button for active missiles. I had a bunch of my flails slam into the Trade Station in Cho's Defeat. The station turned red after I popped a couple Custom's. I rarely go in there, so it doesn't matter a whole deal. But I wish I had control to do that since they randomly select another enemy to hit. Sometimes it's like "NO don't hit that, BOOM!!" Dangit!! Those hammer's hurt too.

--Edit / Update--

So I don't know about the boost / speed but turning wise, the P is in a class of it's own above all other listed M6 so far for me. But the PX is similar to the Washi.
Are you going to use them to fry the systems on the I and K? I've only used the Mako for getting beacons, with its laser generator how long can a Mako fire a full load of IDs? What you might want to consider is that IDs tend to 'chain' onto ships besides the target so you may find your Makos are inadvertently shocking each other when they fire, I've never tried this with my own fighters so I can't say for sure. Funnily enough, I don't think I've ever used fighter drones for shield suppression, I might have to give them a go. The one missile type I don't make is the mosquito because it's cheap, abundant and the 2 missile sectors lack the ore to support another factory, I could tack them plus a drone II factory on to my ship materials complex if need be. How effective are other swarm missiles like wasps for distracting turrets?

When I boarded my I, the ship I used for shield suppression was an (overtuned) Pteranodon, because once the shields were down the ship switched its turrets from IBLs to PALCs which are very good at keeping shields down while limiting hull damage. The ship did take a fair bit of damage but then again, it was a Xenon I so worth the drone time.

What are you planning on doing with 4 Cerberus and Q? I've been REing the M7Ds with a view to rebuilding them, only done the Yaki one so far but I've got the rest. Thanks to the last round of agent usage my Paranid rep was near bottom so while it was low I took the opportunity and went to Paranid Prime Delta and found the Ariadne I wanted helpfully close to the gate with the only other Paranid ships around being a couple of freighters. Boarding that thing was a piece of cake and with that I'd acquired the last M7D in the game. Gonna be a while before I get to rebuild each one as the reverse engineering queue contains several capital ships, though the Maccana is almost done. I'll probably get the ever-impractical Tyr eventually, the rarity of the PSP means it would go to the back of the queue. I can use my Skirnir to lob Shadow volleys at the escorting frigates now it's been armed, I would also have to have it launch Ghouls at the fighters which will be tricky. Loaded with 300 of the two M7M missiles it has room for 1,000 energy cells, compared to 600 for the Aquilo. It's time I visited the Xenon again I think :twisted:

A manual missile destruct would be great, especially with the Wraiths being what they are. Great if you want to blast a target to hell, less so if you're intent on boarding it.

I'd seen in the stats that the P had an insane turn rate, I did wonder how that translated into handling in the game.

BrigandPhantos77
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Re: Boarding I

Post by BrigandPhantos77 » Wed, 29. Jun 22, 11:24

Sovereign01 wrote:
Wed, 29. Jun 22, 05:32

Are you going to use them to fry the systems on the I and K? I've only used the Mako for getting beacons, with its laser generator how long can a Mako fire a full load of IDs?

The one missile type I don't make is the mosquito because it's cheap, abundant and the 2 missile sectors lack the ore to support another factory, I could tack them plus a drone II factory on to my ship materials complex if need be. How effective are other swarm missiles like wasps for distracting turrets?

When I boarded my I, the ship I used for shield suppression was an (overtuned) Pteranodon, because once the shields were down the ship switched its turrets from IBLs to PALCs which are very good at keeping shields down while limiting hull damage. The ship did take a fair bit of damage but then again, it was a Xenon I so worth the drone time.

What are you planning on doing with 4 Cerberus and Q? I've been REing the M7Ds with a view to rebuilding them, only done the Yaki one so far but I've got the rest. Thanks to the last round of agent usage my Paranid rep was near bottom so while it was low I took the opportunity and went to Paranid Prime Delta and found the Ariadne I wanted helpfully close to the gate with the only other Paranid ships around being a couple of freighters. Boarding that thing was a piece of cake and with that I'd acquired the last M7D in the game. Gonna be a while before I get to rebuild each one as the reverse engineering queue contains several capital ships, though the Maccana is almost done. I'll probably get the ever-impractical Tyr eventually, the rarity of the PSP means it would go to the back of the queue. I can use my Skirnir to lob Shadow volleys at the escorting frigates now it's been armed, I would also have to have it launch Ghouls at the fighters which will be tricky. Loaded with 300 of the two M7M missiles it has room for 1,000 energy cells, compared to 600 for the Aquilo. It's time I visited the Xenon again I think :twisted:
Yea, gonna swarm a target and see how it helps or doesn't. I expect to lose quite a few, but those things will get insta-popped anyway if they get hit. I'll be doing the boarding with a Kraken. The only part I am worried about is if I'll need to keep extra marines nearby in a transport. I figure if worse to worse, I can always send it away out of harms way. Unless I can find the OTAS equivalent to board and take.

Those drones, you'll need about 50 to 60 to suppress the shields on a cap as they are only armed with IREs. I'd imagine the Mk2's you'd need less with PACs.

The mosquito missiles are great sellers. I can't keep the factory stocked. But I go through them fast with the missile defense. I actually got myself 20K of them using the duplication method. Nice little stockpile. They may be cheap, but you should see what a M7M can do when you barrage with them. You can wipe out (or tank your FPS) m5's and m4's in seconds. Pesky little boogers....

When using a missile frigate, I've figured out 3 Hammers per 1 GJ of shields to bring them down. Just before I launch, I send the drones to attack. My launch window is between 12 and 20 km distance to target. Prefer it closer to the 20km mark. Or else you gotta turn and burn away. Once the hammers are away I switch to Flails and send about 5 to 10 single groups. My target will usually take a bit of hull damage, but that is ok with me. Thats what drone boats are for. Once the flails are away I switch right to my pods. If I see shields hit 0% I send the max need for capture. Then I switch right back to my flails and pop a group out as needed. Once the pods make contact I open the personnel sheet. Once I hear ready weapons, it's Shift+0 to recall the drones. Hopefully to save as many as possible.

I'll let you know how the Mako's work out. As well as the P. I added it to my queue.

As for the number of M7's. Can't have too many of those. I have my factories in commonwealth space so they have to be defended. Having a Cerberus on hand works wonders every time a satellite emergency notification is made. (Heh, SEM much like our real EBS). I'll post my save file in google docs again one of these days and you can see what I have done. :D I once sent my whole fleet into Sanctuary of Darkness to see what would happen. I actually lost a few M7s, but I wiped out all the Xenon fairly quickly. I think next time I try it, I'll just bring my bomber fleet.
Peace is a state of mind!
War is absolute!
~ Phantos ~

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
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Re: Boarding I

Post by Sovereign01 » Wed, 29. Jun 22, 20:49

BrigandPhantos77 wrote:
Wed, 29. Jun 22, 11:24
Sovereign01 wrote:
Wed, 29. Jun 22, 05:32

Are you going to use them to fry the systems on the I and K? I've only used the Mako for getting beacons, with its laser generator how long can a Mako fire a full load of IDs?

The one missile type I don't make is the mosquito because it's cheap, abundant and the 2 missile sectors lack the ore to support another factory, I could tack them plus a drone II factory on to my ship materials complex if need be. How effective are other swarm missiles like wasps for distracting turrets?

When I boarded my I, the ship I used for shield suppression was an (overtuned) Pteranodon, because once the shields were down the ship switched its turrets from IBLs to PALCs which are very good at keeping shields down while limiting hull damage. The ship did take a fair bit of damage but then again, it was a Xenon I so worth the drone time.

What are you planning on doing with 4 Cerberus and Q? I've been REing the M7Ds with a view to rebuilding them, only done the Yaki one so far but I've got the rest. Thanks to the last round of agent usage my Paranid rep was near bottom so while it was low I took the opportunity and went to Paranid Prime Delta and found the Ariadne I wanted helpfully close to the gate with the only other Paranid ships around being a couple of freighters. Boarding that thing was a piece of cake and with that I'd acquired the last M7D in the game. Gonna be a while before I get to rebuild each one as the reverse engineering queue contains several capital ships, though the Maccana is almost done. I'll probably get the ever-impractical Tyr eventually, the rarity of the PSP means it would go to the back of the queue. I can use my Skirnir to lob Shadow volleys at the escorting frigates now it's been armed, I would also have to have it launch Ghouls at the fighters which will be tricky. Loaded with 300 of the two M7M missiles it has room for 1,000 energy cells, compared to 600 for the Aquilo. It's time I visited the Xenon again I think :twisted:
Yea, gonna swarm a target and see how it helps or doesn't. I expect to lose quite a few, but those things will get insta-popped anyway if they get hit. I'll be doing the boarding with a Kraken. The only part I am worried about is if I'll need to keep extra marines nearby in a transport. I figure if worse to worse, I can always send it away out of harms way. Unless I can find the OTAS equivalent to board and take.

Those drones, you'll need about 50 to 60 to suppress the shields on a cap as they are only armed with IREs. I'd imagine the Mk2's you'd need less with PACs.

The mosquito missiles are great sellers. I can't keep the factory stocked. But I go through them fast with the missile defense. I actually got myself 20K of them using the duplication method. Nice little stockpile. They may be cheap, but you should see what a M7M can do when you barrage with them. You can wipe out (or tank your FPS) m5's and m4's in seconds. Pesky little boogers....

When using a missile frigate, I've figured out 3 Hammers per 1 GJ of shields to bring them down. Just before I launch, I send the drones to attack. My launch window is between 12 and 20 km distance to target. Prefer it closer to the 20km mark. Or else you gotta turn and burn away. Once the hammers are away I switch to Flails and send about 5 to 10 single groups. My target will usually take a bit of hull damage, but that is ok with me. Thats what drone boats are for. Once the flails are away I switch right to my pods. If I see shields hit 0% I send the max need for capture. Then I switch right back to my flails and pop a group out as needed. Once the pods make contact I open the personnel sheet. Once I hear ready weapons, it's Shift+0 to recall the drones. Hopefully to save as many as possible.

I'll let you know how the Mako's work out. As well as the P. I added it to my queue.

As for the number of M7's. Can't have too many of those. I have my factories in commonwealth space so they have to be defended. Having a Cerberus on hand works wonders every time a satellite emergency notification is made. (Heh, SEM much like our real EBS). I'll post my save file in google docs again one of these days and you can see what I have done. :D I once sent my whole fleet into Sanctuary of Darkness to see what would happen. I actually lost a few M7s, but I wiped out all the Xenon fairly quickly. I think next time I try it, I'll just bring my bomber fleet.
Were you not concerned with the Makos hitting each other when they open up with their IDs? I don't know if IDs were changed for FL to remove that feature. Cargo Bay Shielding will prevent the equipment damage but it will still strip their shields. The Enhanced Mako would serve you better than the vanilla one, being superior in most respects.

The Sirokos is in a class of its own in terms of marine capacity and speed but can't launch Hammers. The other OTAS ship, the Aquilo, can but cannot launch pods. I've used both in tandem, with the Aquilo clearing out the escorts and where practical, knocking down the shields. I always tell both to bug out the moment their part in the boarding is done.

The Argon and Split sell the Mk II drones up to 20 at a time, I have to wonder how the M7D drones perform by comparison seeing as I will have access to all of them now, so far I've been using them for repairs.

This is why I'm glad none of my factories are in commonwealth space, having built them all in unclaimed sectors. Consecrated Fire Beta had a Xenon infestation that I didn't know about prior to building, I fumigated the sector :mrgreen: but I still had one or two Xenon stragglers show up so I placed lasertowers (that the complex makes) to defend the jump beacon that I managed to place close to the docking port. Right now, my bomber 'fleet' comprises a single Claymore filled with Phantoms, docked inside a Kyoto. Still deciding which commonwealth ship I should choose to launch my Tomahawks. The Auster has the best shielding taking up less space than the Claymore with the same capacity resulting in greater payload but is the second-slowest, the Marlin is the second-fastest, has the biggest cargo bay but weakest shields and the Peregrine has the second-biggest cargo bay, third-strongest shields but is the slowest.

EDIT: Just boarded a Q, it was all by itself by the west gate in Xenon 347, the rest of the Xenon were clustered by the north gate. Only took a couple of attempts and that was because my turrets damaged the Q as I was leading it further away from the rest of the sector, 17 out of the 21 marines survived. Acceptable losses, those 4 gave their lives getting me the achievement! :D

EDIT 2: Just boarded a PX, no losses this time. That leaves (in increasing order of difficulty) the P, J, and K to take.

BrigandPhantos77
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Re: Boarding I

Post by BrigandPhantos77 » Thu, 30. Jun 22, 07:11

Sovereign01 wrote:
Wed, 29. Jun 22, 20:49

Were you not concerned with the Makos hitting each other when they open up with their IDs? I don't know if IDs were changed for FL to remove that feature. Cargo Bay Shielding will prevent the equipment damage but it will still strip their shields. The Enhanced Mako would serve you better than the vanilla one, being superior in most respects.

The Argon and Split sell the Mk II drones up to 20 at a time, I have to wonder how the M7D drones perform by comparison seeing as I will have access to all of them now, so far I've been using them for repairs.

This is why I'm glad none of my factories are in commonwealth space, having built them all in unclaimed sectors. Consecrated Fire Beta had a Xenon infestation that I didn't know about prior to building, I fumigated the sector :mrgreen: but I still had one or two Xenon stragglers show up so I placed lasertowers (that the complex makes) to defend the jump beacon that I managed to place close to the docking port. Right now, my bomber 'fleet' comprises a single Claymore filled with Phantoms, docked inside a Kyoto. Still deciding which commonwealth ship I should choose to launch my Tomahawks. The Auster has the best shielding taking up less space than the Claymore with the same capacity resulting in greater payload but is the second-slowest, the Marlin is the second-fastest, has the biggest cargo bay but weakest shields and the Peregrine has the second-biggest cargo bay, third-strongest shields but is the slowest.

EDIT: Just boarded a Q, it was all by itself by the west gate in Xenon 347, the rest of the Xenon were clustered by the north gate. Only took a couple of attempts and that was because my turrets damaged the Q as I was leading it further away from the rest of the sector, 17 out of the 21 marines survived. Acceptable losses, those 4 gave their lives getting me the achievement! :D

EDIT 2: Just boarded a PX, no losses this time. That leaves (in increasing order of difficulty) the P, J, and K to take.
Not really worried about the Makos. Honestly, I bought them as throw away ships for the test objective. The MkII fighter drones I haven't actually used yet, just the 1's. I keep between 150 to 250 in my cargo hold. And an Ozias or 2 with supplies so I can keep boarding the respawns from the Duke. Drone Command Software is btw available on the black market if you get lucky enough to find it. But it's not necessary to have it. The Kraken I use doesn't have the Drone Software. And Shift+0 orders them back to my cargo bay just fine and brings many of them back safely.

Black Hole Sun is a perfect location to aim for a P. As is Scale Plate Green or Grand Exchange (where I got my P).

I actually took my Q "in" XS-347. Popped 2 others before I boarded the 3rd of the group. Got it off the gate of Eighteen Billion. Had a Cormorant and Kariudo sitting in the Teladi sector waiting for it to repair it. And an Ozias to feed it e-cells to jump it to Distant Clouds (Renamed Unclaimed Sector off Unseen Domain) for RE.

Keeping a bomber or another missile frigate on stand by might be a good way to go to use it's hammers or tomahawks. I use the Marlin as my bomber of choice. Winning factor is the cargo capacity. If anything tries to get to close to it I usually jump it right out. Those are direct hands on for me. Best anti-capital anything when you want to slap a J that's wandered where it shouldn't have. :mrgreen:

I'm steadily recycling about half the Zeus I board. I started a new batch of Marines so I can work on fresh fighting. For the first time I had a 5 star marine come straight from the Marine Training Barracks. All stats started in the 80s.

I'd take my factories out of commonwealth space, but at least 3 or 4 of them are major profit makers.

These ones tend to get visited a lot:
Spoiler
Show
1 MJ Shield in Home of Light (always sold out)
Chip Plant in Greet Reef (Average sale nets 5 million profit.)
5 MJ Shield in Seizewell (always sold out)
Mosquito Missiles in Distant Clouds (Hub is parked there. Connects to CBSW and Void / Holy Vision.) Get's constant visits.
Lasertower Factory in Dark Water Beta

If you put a Sun Oil Refinery in PTNI Headquarters Alpha it becomes a high profit factory as well.
Peace is a state of mind!
War is absolute!
~ Phantos ~

BrigandPhantos77
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Re: Boarding I

Post by BrigandPhantos77 » Thu, 30. Jun 22, 21:49

I tried out the P.

It's very nimble so I will give it that. Feels like an oversized M3+. It only has the one rear facing turret, so bails don't have to worry about overkill popping it as it turns blue. From the cockpit view the ship looks like a stick. I'd rather pilot a Skiron though. The ability to use M/AM Launchers is really nice on it.
Peace is a state of mind!
War is absolute!
~ Phantos ~

Sovereign01
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Re: Boarding I

Post by Sovereign01 » Fri, 1. Jul 22, 04:03

BrigandPhantos77 wrote:
Thu, 30. Jun 22, 21:49
I tried out the P.

It's very nimble so I will give it that. Feels like an oversized M3+. It only has the one rear facing turret, so bails don't have to worry about overkill popping it as it turns blue. From the cockpit view the ship looks like a stick. I'd rather pilot a Skiron though. The ability to use M/AM Launchers is really nice on it.
I just boarded a P myself (no losses) also in 347, once I get it back to HQ I'll max its steering and stuff, see how it handles before I turn it into blueprints :D Must be the capital ships that are nightmares to board. I'm gonna use one of my missile frigates in a Xenon sector just to stir up the hornet's nest, haven't quite made a full batch of Shadows for my Skirnir to launch. Soon though :D

EDIT 1: Just bagged a K in Xenon 472, took about 10 attempts after weakening it with Hammers/Flails then finishing the shields with the Maru and its beams, and taking out the couple of M6s nearby first before sending the pods. Had to fight off a bunch of M3/4/5 fighters while the boarding itself was going on. 20 out of 26 marines survived the boarding. So I got my K. It might only have 15% hull left but I got it! :lol: Just one more Xenon ship to go :twisted: Used up all but one of my pods boarding the P and K, will need to buy more as my HQ is busy building a ship.

Once again, the Odin was replaced... by another Odin. That has to be four that I've destroyed, I'm starting to think the only time a Woden spawns is way back during the end of the Terran plot, if so the only way to get one is to make nice with the Terrans and buy it. With the M2 it was either a Valhalla or Tyr that would spawn, with the ATF limited to 1. Each Odin has 3-4 Aegirs and 12-16 Valis escorting it, isolating one Aegir is going to be too impractical. If the Woden won't spawn then I won't need to board the Aegir since if I have the rep to buy the Woden I can buy the Aegir. Interestingly the normal Terrans have 3 Osakas and Tokyos, and one Kyoto. I would need to board another Kyoto to RE as my first one has 3 engine tunings, increasing its top speed by 10 m/s.

EDIT 2: Sure enough, the P handles like a fighter. Shame its lasers and shields are so weak (less of a problem with M/AMLs) and it cannot mount PBGs.

EDIT 3: I went to Xenon 472 again, used the Aquilo to clear out most of the Xenon capital ships (A handful of Qs and a K) leaving a J before jumping out and returning in my Pteranodon with Sirokos hanging back. Once again, two ships did their thing and the pods hit their target unopposed, marines boarded the J while my ship started picking off the nearby fighters. After about 10 tries the marines managed to take the ship, with 21 out of the 26 surviving which fits the pattern- 7 killed for the I, 6 for the K, 5 for the J and 4 for the Q. That's all of 'em! :lol: Total losses from taking 1 of each Xenon ship: 22 marines.

Killed the fifth Odin and again was replaced with another Odin. I'm starting to think the Woden won't spawn after all.

BrigandPhantos77
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Re: Boarding I

Post by BrigandPhantos77 » Mon, 4. Jul 22, 08:05

Sovereign01 wrote:
Fri, 1. Jul 22, 04:03

I just boarded a P myself (no losses) also in 347, once I get it back to HQ I'll max its steering and stuff, see how it handles before I turn it into blueprints :D Must be the capital ships that are nightmares to board. I'm gonna use one of my missile frigates in a Xenon sector just to stir up the hornet's nest, haven't quite made a full batch of Shadows for my Skirnir to launch. Soon though :D

EDIT 1: Just bagged a K in Xenon 472, took about 10 attempts after weakening it with Hammers/Flails then finishing the shields with the Maru and its beams, and taking out the couple of M6s nearby first before sending the pods. Had to fight off a bunch of M3/4/5 fighters while the boarding itself was going on. 20 out of 26 marines survived the boarding. So I got my K. It might only have 15% hull left but I got it! :lol: Just one more Xenon ship to go :twisted: Used up all but one of my pods boarding the P and K, will need to buy more as my HQ is busy building a ship.

Once again, the Odin was replaced... by another Odin. That has to be four that I've destroyed, I'm starting to think the only time a Woden spawns is way back during the end of the Terran plot, if so the only way to get one is to make nice with the Terrans and buy it. With the M2 it was either a Valhalla or Tyr that would spawn, with the ATF limited to 1. Each Odin has 3-4 Aegirs and 12-16 Valis escorting it, isolating one Aegir is going to be too impractical. If the Woden won't spawn then I won't need to board the Aegir since if I have the rep to buy the Woden I can buy the Aegir. Interestingly the normal Terrans have 3 Osakas and Tokyos, and one Kyoto. I would need to board another Kyoto to RE as my first one has 3 engine tunings, increasing its top speed by 10 m/s.

EDIT 2: Sure enough, the P handles like a fighter. Shame its lasers and shields are so weak (less of a problem with M/AMLs) and it cannot mount PBGs.

EDIT 3: I went to Xenon 472 again, used the Aquilo to clear out most of the Xenon capital ships (A handful of Qs and a K) leaving a J before jumping out and returning in my Pteranodon with Sirokos hanging back. Once again, two ships did their thing and the pods hit their target unopposed, marines boarded the J while my ship started picking off the nearby fighters. After about 10 tries the marines managed to take the ship, with 21 out of the 26 surviving which fits the pattern- 7 killed for the I, 6 for the K, 5 for the J and 4 for the Q. That's all of 'em! :lol: Total losses from taking 1 of each Xenon ship: 22 marines.

Killed the fifth Odin and again was replaced with another Odin. I'm starting to think the Woden won't spawn after all.
I think you just have "really" good luck. :D

I haven't tried again for the K or I since my last attempt. I've been rounding out other stuff (pirate m6s).

In AP I always managed to find a Woden in Jupiter sectors. And in Asteroid Belt.

So far I am liking the Split Acinonyx the best out of all the M6 I have tried. It's a flat out hammer when hitting ships. 12 ISR kills it really quickly. Sadly though not much opportunity for bails. I might try a boarding or 2 with it.

I like the PX better than the P as far as the weapons loadout goes. It's also a hammer. But it's too slow for my taste. Guess I am just too used to the Springblossom. With the Turbo Boost on it I am used to closing gaps really quickly. It's just too hard though to hit most targets with the experimental guns on it. More than 70% of my shots miss. Good though for getting bails.

I looked at (unlocked) the Paranid special ships for the first time. I gotta find a way to break my Boron and Argon rep so I can raise the Paranid enough to buy the:
Spoiler
Show
Ariadne and Agamemnon.
I am assuming that boarding an OTAS ship will help me with that? I need the 2 M7Ms from them.

I put all the tunings on my Nemesis so I can dog-fight in it. That thing is more nimble than the Discoverer now.
Peace is a state of mind!
War is absolute!
~ Phantos ~

Sovereign01
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Re: Boarding I

Post by Sovereign01 » Mon, 4. Jul 22, 22:51

I save right before the marines finish getting into the ship, ideally after I've destroyed all the escorts so I don't have to kill them all over again with each attempt. Nothing I could do about the half dozen fighters the carrier launched as I was boarding. At least I think they were from the carrier, I didn't stop to check. :D The Pteranodon's PALCs are ok against fighters if nothing more. Basically, there's no need to bother with boarding waves if you're patient.

I've actually found plenty of success with the Kogarasu Maru, when it's equipped with a couple of plasma beam cannons in the upper turret, half a dozen MAMLs and a pair of flamethrowers up front it can punch well above its weight. I've been able to kill M7s with that thing- it's also quite fun watching my turrets switching lasers mid-turn when dogfighting fighters and I often find myself topping up the ammo whenever I dock at the hub (which is often). I can kill bigger ships with it if I start my attack run 30 km out, fly at around 170 m/s and launch Wraiths- they have a long cooldown so it takes time to build up a decent number of them but if you fly at the same speed as them- the Hyperion was tailor-made for this as its top speed was the same as the Wraith. As it's quite a slow method I call in a bigger ship in that case. My overtuned Megalodon or Pteranodon see action in that case, depending on the presence of enemy fighters. I've started doing Teladi station defence missions that award agents so it's not just taxi missions I do now.

I've been using the all-seeing eye script and find the Odin patrolling between Jupiter and Neptune, the only Woden that it finds is the shipyard that sells them. Comparing the stats the Woden is the superior ship of the two.

Doing missions with Paranid and Split are one way to reduce Argon/Boron. I actually need to do the same with my Split rep as it's stopping me getting my Terran rep high enough to buy the above. I actually boarded three Agamemnons as they were transiting the Hub, pretty much one after the other. I didn't intend to get more than one but when they are dropped into my lap like that I gotta take advantage. I boarded the Ariadne in Paranid Prime Delta, it was all alone and easy pickings and I got it when my rep was already negative before restoring it with agents.

Sirokos carries the most marines so you only need one for any boarding action, and it's fast enough you can use it for boarding M6s if you don't have the Acinonyx or Maru to launch the pods from. Now that I have the missiles I can let the Xenon meet my fully armed and operational battle station Skirnir :lol:

Sovereign01
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Re: Boarding I

Post by Sovereign01 » Sat, 9. Jul 22, 06:25

Well now I know- even despite having its missiles nerfed since the days of TC, the Skirnir is indeed the best M7M for clearing Xenon sectors. The biggest M7M cargo bay more than makes up for the 33% extra space the Shadow requires relative to the Hammer because the missile does 50% more damage per warhead but is only fractionally slower. And the Ghoul missile, despite also being slower than the Flail does 30% more damage and the Flail occupies 40% more space, further compensating for the space the Shadow requires.

Really I'm running out of things to do now since it's still several hours before the PSP plant finishes upgrading to XXL and will be several more before it finishes a production cycle and I can arm one of my Valhallas, Kyoto and Xenon I. The queue for reverse engineering is already a dozen ships long thanks to recent boarding operations, I can't get through them fast enough to clear docking space in the HQ.

I'm forced to conclude that unlike with the ATF M2s where there's an even chance of a Valhalla or Tyr spawning when it goes down (with them only ever possessing 1 at a time), the M1 will always spawn an Odin and not a Woden. According to the script editor the Woden is classified as an M1+, the only such ship in the game. While being superior to the Odin in most respects it falls down in two areas- the Odin has nearly half again as many docking spaces and 2,500 more cargo space.

It would appear I'm going to have to end up buying the ship, looks like that's going to be one last diplomatic challenge.

iXenon
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Re: Boarding I

Post by iXenon » Sat, 9. Jul 22, 22:07

Hi guys,
Regarding to boarding P/PX it's always possible to get them without marines loosing. Just always sent exactly 11 marines in 3 pods and they and 3-4 save/load will do the job. I got some of PX when was considering creating a fleet of them to protect my property, but now I'm thinking M6 are useless for that purposes because could be easily killed.

I also got one "I" with the "second-wave" method. It cost me 15 marines but all my 26 elite marines survived. These 15 ones I got from pilots that jumped our from their ships in the empty Yaki sector. These pilots don't have a destination station because there are no stations in that sector. So, I sent them to my training base, turning them to marines. When they got ready I tried to board an "I" that was sitting in one of my sectors with two other "K" and small support group. I had no missiles and ship for them, so it took me some time to get rid off these intruders. Once "I" was left alone I tried the boarding and realized that one group cannot open the hull and always ends outside. So I had to postpone the assault and sent all marines to a mobile outpost to train them for 2 stars of "mechanic". My elite fighters were sitting on a ship and waiting. After some time on SETA I got these 15 ex-pilots trained and repeated the attempt. Used Kogarasu Maru to knock down the shields, launched 15 marines from one ship with the "Piracy" command and after 40 seconds launched 26 elite marines from another ship. I was lucky to find the right interval very quickly, perhaps at the second or the third attempt. First time I lost 2 elite marines and reloaded the last saved game but next attempt I didn't lose any of them. The first group died of course. Some of them were able to hold out until deck 3 and then the elite group started at deck 4 and passed through this and next 5th deck without any problem.

-XeNoN-
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Re: Boarding I

Post by -XeNoN- » Wed, 12. Oct 22, 16:34

I got my Xenon I on third day of playing think it was like May 7th or so on version 1.0 or was already 1.1... anyways cant remember
Basically ik i rushed like a madman Marine Trainings with my Acinonyx Prototype, then with Carrack and then later on with Cobra, for Xenon Q i just boarded it and basically get the achievment and reloaded the save and went straight to Xenon I on same sector, was Xenon Sector 695, and ye i basically lost just 6 marines out of my total 58 Marines ( 6 were mostly 4 star ones ) and i had spare ones in my Carrack, but ye second or even third wave greatly reduces the chances your marines will die, the Acinonyx + Carrack + Cobra is pretty good combo, all can board ships with Boarding Pods and theyre cheap to get...only issue is early game, when you need to get high enough relations with Diplomacy after that is easy

Sovereign01
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Re: Boarding I

Post by Sovereign01 » Wed, 12. Oct 22, 17:36

-XeNoN- wrote:
Wed, 12. Oct 22, 16:34
I got my Xenon I on third day of playing think it was like May 7th or so on version 1.0 or was already 1.1... anyways cant remember
Basically ik i rushed like a madman Marine Trainings with my Acinonyx Prototype, then with Carrack and then later on with Cobra, for Xenon Q i just boarded it and basically get the achievment and reloaded the save and went straight to Xenon I on same sector, was Xenon Sector 695, and ye i basically lost just 6 marines out of my total 58 Marines ( 6 were mostly 4 star ones ) and i had spare ones in my Carrack, but ye second or even third wave greatly reduces the chances your marines will die, the Acinonyx + Carrack + Cobra is pretty good combo, all can board ships with Boarding Pods and theyre cheap to get...only issue is early game, when you need to get high enough relations with Diplomacy after that is easy
You don't want to board Xenon with marines with anything less than 100 in combat, and anything less than max marines+1. Since their price was increased from AP, boarding pods are now cheaper to make at the HQ than to buy.

-XeNoN-
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x4

Re: Boarding I

Post by -XeNoN- » Thu, 13. Oct 22, 09:06

Sovereign01 wrote:
Wed, 12. Oct 22, 17:36
-XeNoN- wrote:
Wed, 12. Oct 22, 16:34
I got my Xenon I on third day of playing think it was like May 7th or so on version 1.0 or was already 1.1... anyways cant remember
Basically ik i rushed like a madman Marine Trainings with my Acinonyx Prototype, then with Carrack and then later on with Cobra, for Xenon Q i just boarded it and basically get the achievment and reloaded the save and went straight to Xenon I on same sector, was Xenon Sector 695, and ye i basically lost just 6 marines out of my total 58 Marines ( 6 were mostly 4 star ones ) and i had spare ones in my Carrack, but ye second or even third wave greatly reduces the chances your marines will die, the Acinonyx + Carrack + Cobra is pretty good combo, all can board ships with Boarding Pods and theyre cheap to get...only issue is early game, when you need to get high enough relations with Diplomacy after that is easy
You don't want to board Xenon with marines with anything less than 100 in combat, and anything less than max marines+1. Since their price was increased from AP, boarding pods are now cheaper to make at the HQ than to buy.
??? Read again please, ik about it i said i lost only 4 star marines that had less than 100 in combat although i didnt mentioned how much combat they had

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