The X3 Capturing Guide

Torias · Post by **Torias** » Thu, 29. Dec 05, 01:57

Question: Is there a rank restriction in place on capturing certain ships, as there was in X2? Like you need Combat Ace or something to tackle Xenon and Khaak or whatever it was, it's been a while T_T

Relief · Post by **Relief** » Thu, 29. Dec 05, 01:59

Damn good question, i would like to know that myself

ssgs · Post by **ssgs** » Thu, 29. Dec 05, 13:36

Torias wrote:Question: Is there a rank restriction in place on capturing certain ships, as there was in X2? Like you need Combat Ace or something to tackle Xenon and Khaak or whatever it was, it's been a while T_T

I also am starting to think there must be a minimum rank to allow captures. I am new to this and have only ever played X3 V1.3 [normal]
I read the manual and then the forum, next time it will be the other way round!!

I have the rank of specialist and can not capture anything! [ship is starting ship with 6 guns fitted] Tried all the tips. I can get the ships to ditch all their cargo but they will not bail.

Also, when scanning pirate ships, not all of them will turn red straight away. I noticed a normal ship with illegal goods [after scanning] so I told him to surrender, then he turned red and became a pirate.

It is only these forums that make this game playable to newbies.
Thank you.

Ebany · Post by **Ebany** » Thu, 29. Dec 05, 13:51

v1.3 is more rank based than the others. I am only Militant and can only capture m4/5's and occansionally m3's.

If you wanna test this, get salvage ins from Goner and do the *"Save & Load" method until you cap the ship your after.

*Save b4 attacking, and keep loading until you cap the sucker ..... this can take 1/2 realtime or more.

japesk · Post by **japesk** » Thu, 29. Dec 05, 21:19

Just recently did a Invasion Mission for the Mercs guild (great plugin Cycrow!!!). There were 16 ships that invaded. M5s, M4s, and M3s. I capped all M5s (5), 6 M4s, and 3 M3s, thats 14 of 16 ships.

I used this technique. Lay on the BPBEs x2, and APBEs x2--until the shields dropped, then without releaseing the trigger I switched to the 2 ABPEs. At about 80% hull the dudes just bailed. Did this over and over as each ship approached. Bail, Bail, and more Bail.

This seemed like clockwork, until I tried capping targets NOT from the Invasion Mission. Nope. about 1 out of every 8-12.

What's the difference?

Flic · Post by **Flic** » Fri, 30. Dec 05, 02:38

erm... can you really cap M6's??

loads of people have asked and been ignored

Kitch · Post by **Kitch** » Fri, 30. Dec 05, 09:00

Stuff the M6's. I want another Xenon K

(ah... X2 capping, mmm baby)

Alledgedly, any ship is potentially cappable. I'll let you know soon as I get an M6...

soul_hunter · Post by **soul_hunter** » Sat, 31. Dec 05, 11:47

I also find comming with the attitude that you just want to kill the ship. Nail it with the biggest guns you've gat and as hard as you can. Of course anything less than a M3 dies in a split second, thats fine, dont get enough dosh from them any way to make it worth while. I like pirating Boron super dolphin ore TP's. THey have no guns, They jump the fastest and you can sell the ship for about 1 000 000. Only problem with this tactic as stated earlyer is that you often do more damage than you wanted to do.

As for damaging cetrtan parts of a ship, unfortunatly i dont think the game is that involved. If you shoot a trader in the nose, his speed drops as the engine dies. shooting the front to break the back, Hmmm

it would be nice if you could target certain sub systems.

Githyanki · Post by **Githyanki** » Sat, 31. Dec 05, 16:55

ATM, I have all but given up on trying to cap ships. If I try, by knocking shilds out, and then pecking at them, it never works anymore

I have had a few caps by trying to kill them, but not quite finishing the job on the first pass. I did have one comm saying "I give up", I stopped firing at him, he turned around and clasted my hull to 60% before i could finish him off. If I hadnt re-loaded, that would be almost a 2Mil repair on a Split nova.

random50 · Post by **random50** » Sat, 31. Dec 05, 20:50

As for damaging cetrtan parts of a ship, unfortunatly i dont think the game is that involved.

Hmm. I disagree there. I've had much more success switching the laser targetting off and aiming at the nose or weapon points to knock out weapons than just leaving auto targetting on. MIGHT be coincidence, but I seriously doubt it!

LostPilot · Post by **LostPilot** » Sat, 31. Dec 05, 21:11

I have come to the conclusion that, the pilots wont bail if they have shields and any weapons still working and even after that they still try to fight by ramming you (heh).

I have shot so many ships, that i can't even count them and probably capped 3 falcons at most. If they're going to bail it's happening around above 60% hull. I cant even remember when i capped an nova last time, probably last week but the pirates just keep fighting even with the aft-turret.

Torias · Post by **Torias** » Sun, 1. Jan 06, 22:34

I fought off a mini Xenon Invasion in Treasure Chest yesterday while I was there to

Spoiler

Show

claim the unmanned Buster Sentinel,

and I saw my first Xenon P (M6). I wanted to cap that ship soooo bad T_T I fought off like 6 L's and 4 M's just to get it alone, and after an hour of fighting I still never got it to surrender T_T Sigh

Augustini · Post by **Augustini** » Mon, 9. Jan 06, 12:25

I've found a technique for capping M3's wich works 75% of the time.

http://forum2.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php ... highlight=

Mind though, that this technique is for version 1.3. Decided to post it as many are having problems with capping under the 1.3 patch.

agleave · Post by **agleave** » Sat, 14. Jan 06, 08:15

G'day,

Yes I have managed to capture a Xenon L, M, and N. Tried to get a 'P' but not successful yet, and there's usually not many around to get! Xenon Sector 347 is where I have had my success, but you may have to wait a while for the Xenon to fly far enough away for you to capture the ship intact and order it to fly the heck out of the Xenon sector

Andy.

yeebok · Post by **yeebok** » Fri, 27. Jan 06, 10:59

* disclaimer names have not been changed to protect the guilty

It has worked for me but may not work for you. Dunno

I have capped some 10 ships.. my rank is the one after specialist at the moment.

The first time I capped a ship was in the 4th or 5th set of "lucky runs" before I got the hang of it (I purchased a bunch of salv insurances so I could practice).

The first ship I capped was an M5 then later an M4. There were 2 more M4s before I got 2 M3s (both falcons). Then a couple of 4/5s and then a Nova.

I can't cap jack with the nova, but the falcon does OK. I seem to doi best with the Buster I started with.

The falcon runs with 2 AHEPT, 2BPAC and 4 BIRE. The Buster runs the same but without AHEPTs.
They have the same weapon layout :
1- All on
2- All BIRE only
3- 2xBIRE
4- AHEPT+BPAC/HEPT

Generally I lay into anything above an M4 first when I meet a mob of pirates with option 1. Once any shields are gone I change between the 2 and 4 IRE configs to keep the shields at minimum and occasionally chink the hull .. spamming them with C,ENTER,ENTER (comm,skip,surrender). All the while I try to dodge whatever the M5 and M4s throw at me. If I ever need to turn from the M3 I'll lob a missile at it before I retarget whoever's bugging me.

I use the same kind of theory against M4/M5 ships but generally leave off the IREs and use the bigger weapons only to strip shields. I go in pretty hard and to be honest the number of times I see the 'the end' screen is too often (isn't it always?) but I presume the pirates won't give up if you hit 'em gently.

I found Novas unbeatable until recently where I laid into it right from the start. I'd found either I blew them apart before they got behind me, or they did it to me. Then to my surprise I found one had bailed with the hull at 40%.
I've had pilots bail at 8% and as high as 92% with AHEPTs and a 5 and 25MJ shield.

Then when I finally got the nova into my hands I found I hated it and went back to the buster and capped 2 ships out of the next 4 (M3.M4) I met using tactics as at the top.

Hope it helps someone.

wanger · Post by **wanger** » Thu, 2. Feb 06, 23:22

I am having a hard time capturing. I did like 5 runs last night (x3 v1.3) with zero results. I must've killed at least 20-25 pirates. The closest I get to a capture is the pilot saying "Help me, i'm running away". I follow the guide by bringing their shields down to 0 on the first strafe then hull to about 60%, wait for shields to regen and then wipe out their shields. Rinse, repeat. No results. I think 1.3 really ruined this game as far as capturing goes. I mean if i go fishing for 5 hours at least give me one tiny fish so I will come back for another 5 hours the next day

mojo lojo · Post by **mojo lojo** » Sun, 5. Feb 06, 16:10

hi liquidthunder,
I had the same problem,
I thought the ship had dissapeared, i then went back and got close to the pirate base and looked on the sector map, clicked ships only, and there was the ship, it just said buster.
I checked for pilot it said no pilot so i claimed it.

Mojo

karst45 · Post by **karst45** » Mon, 6. Feb 06, 04:05

Juste an question: Can the system override programe (is that the name?) can make an pilote to eject?

Disruptor missil, They say it effect is similar to I D but as far as i know they destroye all the ship (the description say: Disrupt electronic and engine but leave the hull intact). Maybe it to powerfull for M3 ship... might work for M6

And it also say the ID is supposed to destroye all the electronic and sheild. But if you scan the ship befor and after nothing is "destroyed" or disabled[/b]

Augustini · Post by **Augustini** » Mon, 6. Feb 06, 10:23

karst45 wrote:Juste an question: Can the system override programe (is that the name?) can make an pilote to eject?

Disruptor missil, They say it effect is similar to I D but as far as i know they destroye all the ship (the description say: Disrupt electronic and engine but leave the hull intact). Maybe it to powerfull for M3 ship... might work for M6

And it also say the ID is supposed to destroye all the electronic and sheild. But if you scan the ship befor and after nothing is "destroyed" or disabled[/b]

In one word: no... It can only be used to claim pilotless ships closer than 40 meters without leaving the ship.

Infinitesima · Post by **Infinitesima** » Mon, 6. Feb 06, 16:27

I've tried tapping pirates in the hull with IRE's but it just doesn't seem to work with me, most of my caps come from flying in behind them and giving them a single uninterrupted blast up the rear end with 2-4 bPAC's.

2 things I've noticed, but I'm unsure of:

1) When I'm low on energy, ie. I don't have enough to fully kill a ship, the pilot seems to know this and won't bail.

2) they won't bail while going through their 'how dare you shoot at me, scum' type opening monologue when I first hit them. I usually hit them once, wait till they've shut up, then pound them till they bail or die.

The X3 Capturing Guide

My experience .. X3 capping