The X3 Capturing Guide

[MadArkael]

Why doesn't anyone open up the script file that has the mathematics in it for pilots bailing? or is it hardcoded?

[Carlo the Curious]

It's hardcoded. But someone did anyway - this thread is rather old.

[Radeghast]

I had a ship which I wasn't piloting eject its System Override sofware so I think they do get scanned even if your not in them

[edammer]

Not sure if anyone else read through the early posts on this thread but I spotted:-

Just to clarify

Are there only these two ways to claim?

1) Eject to suit and claim

2) Use illegal override software to claim


I tried to fly M4 as close as possible, say <20m, but no luck, so had to walk. One capture so far, a Falcon - or 76% of it. I have seen a couple suits after blowing up ships before. Too heavy trigger on bPAC(s)

Shows that even mighty started small.
His first cap.
Edit. whats also funny is that now it has the moderator sign next to it.

[DevilDog_016]

I have a feeling that the pilots bail faster if you take down the shields and do hull dameage in one long burst of fire. I use bpac for capping, just adjust the number of guns to suit the shields you are to take down. More often than not the pilot will bail using this tactic. only downside is that its hard to know when to stop shooting, you get a feel for it after a while
To make it as easy as possible, get rather close before you start shoooting.

happy hunting!

Yes, I use that method too, and it works fine. That's effective because when you completely deplete the shields and damage the hull in a single burst/continuous fire of the weapons, the AI thinks that you are going to continue firing and destroy it - so it bails out 1/3 of the times.
I have a Nova Vanguard - it's not too fast, 125, but has 3x25MJ shields, 8 weapon slots and the back turret is helpful -and I've found the following config to be good overall, with the groups 1,2,3 assembled for various needs:

Main Guns:

APAC 1 2
APAC 1 2
AHEPT 1 3
AHEPT 1 3
AHEPT 1 3
AHEPT 1 3
APAC 1 2
APAC 1 2

Back Turret: (Protect Ship)
BPAC - it does quick work of any incoming missiles, and if any M4 or M5 thinks he can tail me, he's in for a rough ride that turret saved my ass quite a few times

I use:
Group 1 mainly against M6's and M7's, and to make short work of the more endowed M3's shields - but it only works at short range, due to the APAC shots having a higher trajectory velocity than the AHEPT ones;
Group 2 generally for busting the shields off M4 and M5's, occasionally M3's and M6's if I feel in the mood to harass them I don't use IRE's because frankly they're almost useless, I prefer to use the APAC against the hulls too - even though they're used for shield killing - because they do a smaller amount of damage and I can sell the ships for more;
and Group 3 for hull&shield busting, when I need less firepower or am low on energy.
In conjunction with Disruptor and Silkworm missiles, I cap most of my ships at 60%-70%

I don't recommend the "mad gunning" method if you're new with the game or unaccustomed with the controls. It's best done with a joystick. And you need to have good timing so as to stop firing as soon as possible after the AI bails out - when I first found out the "shoot like crazy" method worked well, I used to bust alot of ships because I didn't stop firing - because further hull damage is unnecesarry and will lower the value of the ship.

Happy Cappin' Just got myself a Xenon L in 80% hull condition, still had 3 functional PBE's, max 200000 credits and it's like new

[DevilDog_016]

I have a question, what are the chances of an M6 or M7 to bail out? I've had several encounters with Xenon P and Xenon LX ships, but never capped any. Tried everything: ion's, missiles, short bursts, continuous fire, even bumped them around with a Concussion IG, but those damn bastards didn't bail out Last time I spent 15-20 minutes tailing a Xenon P and slowly chewing away at it and in the end I got bored and blasted it to hell. Do I need to use a bigger ship? I cap everything with a Nova Vanguard since I gave up the Buster. I could use the cash off a P, since they look ugly like hell, have absolutely no turrets and are pretty common in sectors around X101 and X347...

[em3e3]

In X3:TC, TM, M6 and above will not bail. *except for mission related ships rarely*. You have to board them with marines.

[esd]

Normally I'd lock a thread that's been ressurected after 8months, but guides tend to be an exception.

It should be noted though that this thread is about Reuinion - while many things have remained the same, many have changed in Terran Conflict.

[Torias]

Yeah, I still haven't even finished half of X3, even before the bala gi added content came into play xD So. Anyways; let me see if I have some of the cliff notes of the decoded capture code right:

• 1: For every ship you attack that could be capture-able, there is always a 1 in 8 chance that it can not be capped, period (RNG rolls a 0 on the 0-7 range)
  
  2: Considering the above, we have 7 bail-out flashpoints of hull strength: 87%, 75%, 62.5%, 50%, 38.5%, 25%, and 12.5%. The game may or may not round the decimals down. If a ship can be capped it can always be captured at 12% hull remaining.
  
  3: Ions drop your chances of a bail-out to 1/25th of normal
  
  4: If your ship's hull+shield+max laser strength is lower than the target, you have a 5% penalty to the chance of a bail-out.
  
  5: Chances of a bail-out rise as the ship's hull declines below 25%, at a linear rate ( +(Max Hull / (CurrentHull*4))% )
  
  6: The longer the fight goes on, the lower your chances of a bail-out occuring. The intervals seem to be 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 120 seconds, 240 seconds, and 480 seconds, losing 1%, 2%, 4%, 8% and 16% chances respectively.
  
  7: If I am reading the translated comments right, those intervals are also the times at which a ship will possibly bail. After you've hit the 300 second mark, after the next chance rolls around (the hidden timer hits 8 minutes) it will wrap back around to another chance happening after 30 more seconds, then 60 more, 120 more, etc. Patience, patience, patience...
  
  8: The hidden 'morale' level of a pilot can have up to a 10% influence on their initial bail chance - the base chance goes from 20 to 30%.
  
  9: Finally, if I'm reading this right, Khaak ships can be capped only when you have reached combat level 30 - and then it is a fixed 1% chance of bailout.

Phewies. Yeah, I ran the code block that was posted through a russian to english translator and gleaned that from it. Is it true? How much of it is? And what I really want to know, is if that's all or even partially true, why isn't the main topic updated to reflect these newfound facts so we don't have to come through months or years later and comb painstakingly through the TL;DR of the topic's (and other topics') replies? D:

[Nexuswolf]

1: For every ship you attack that could be capture-able, there is always a 1 in 8 chance that it can not be capped, period (RNG rolls a 0 on the 0-7 range)

Right, that'll explain those stubborn pilots....

2: Considering the above, we have 7 bail-out flashpoints of hull strength: 87%, 75%, 62.5%, 50%, 38.5%, 25%, and 12.5%. The game may or may not round the decimals down. If a ship can be capped it can always be captured at 12% hull remaining.

So when they reach 87% they may bail, if not then they need to reach the next 'bail point' of 75% or they wont bail at all? Which would mean reducing their shields and letting them recharge slowly then repeat is pointless, *sign*

3: Ions drop your chances of a bail-out to 1/25th of normal

Great, and that's what I though they were supposed to be for... *Stashes IDs back in the hold*... guess it makes sense though...

4: If your ship's hull+shield+max laser strength is lower than the target, you have a 5% penalty to the chance of a bail-out.

That seems sen.sible, sort of a "How can I be being beaten by this guy?" thing.

5: Chances of a bail-out rise as the ship's hull declines below 25%, at a linear rate ( +(Max Hull / (CurrentHull*4))% )

Nice to know ^_^, shame at the same time.... ships with more hull sell for more

6: The longer the fight goes on, the lower your chances of a bail-out occuring. The intervals seem to be 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 120 seconds, 240 seconds, and 480 seconds, losing 1%, 2%, 4%, 8% and 16% chances respectively.

Makes sense again, basically go pwn the guy and you'll get him to bail easier ^_^

7: If I am reading the translated comments right, those intervals are also the times at which a ship will possibly bail. After you've hit the 300 second mark, after the next chance rolls around (the hidden timer hits 8 minutes) it will wrap back around to another chance happening after 30 more seconds, then 60 more, 120 more, etc. Patience, patience, patience...

..... I prefer the pwn method >.> but this helps for those hard to get ships (Kha'ak, rare Xenon ships). Just Ion them to death till they have no weapons, then park the car and stick the radio on to SETA FM.

8: The hidden 'morale' level of a pilot can have up to a 10% influence on their initial bail chance - the base chance goes from 20 to 30%.

I think that's probably based on race/faction, Teladi pirates seems to bail more often for me then some of the others, could just be coincidence. Xenon probably have the full morale level, being A.I. and everything.

9: Finally, if I'm reading this right, Khaak ships can be capped only when you have reached combat level 30 - and then it is a fixed 1% chance of bailout.

Bah..... but then again, this is probably to make sure you don't get Kha'ak ships too early on, half of me says because getting your hands on Kyon weapons is a pain, especially early on.

Phewies. Yeah, I ran the code block that was posted through a russian to english translator and gleaned that from it. Is it true? How much of it is? And what I really want to know, is if that's all or even partially true, why isn't the main topic updated to reflect these newfound facts so we don't have to come through months or years later and comb painstakingly through the TL;DR of the topic's (and other topics') replies? D:

Seems to make sense, so its got a good chance of being true... And you could make a new, improved guide, based on the findings, see if anyone's interested in testing this theory out ^_^

(Goes away to develop new strategies with the IDs now redundant in the hold...)

[perkint]

The penalty of IDs has been questioned. When they are in turrets with other weapons, one players personal experience seemed to show that the penalty did not apply.

Now that could be due to one of two reasons (at least).

1. One player's experience may be exceptional rather than proof...
2. It may be that the code that checks for ID's may be "fooled" if there are other weapons firing at the same time.

Can't remember who it was, now. One of the "forum founders" (maybe not literally - just someone who's been here forever)

Tim

[IceFire909]

Sorry about another revive but I'm in a pickle and this seems like a good spot to post.

I'm currently in an Argon M5 (Discoverer Hauler i think. The Small one that's at the bottom of the Argon Prime Shipyard list.) I have about $225k and I need to get a better ship. I'm not very far in the campaign (forgot where I'm up to as last time I played was like mid last year.

I have 1 cattle ranch station in the sector that has Terracorp HQ (Home of Light I believe) which is failing miserably, I keep losing it's transports and I SWEAR no one trades with it even when I had money in it. So I've basically ditched it, taken it's money and wish I could sell it to Argon or something.

Anyway, my M5 has Beta IRE's (Beta and Alpha are the only one's it can hold). The few missions I can get on the BBS are low ass paying so I'm trying to steal ships to sell as I've given up with my Xenon M and sold that.

Any tips for targets to go for to try and cap? I'm currently in Spit Fire.

[Protrader]

Wow!
Another blast from the past..
anyhow...

Cattle ranches fail miserably almost everywhere... But if you just leave it with a 12 price per energy cell cost and 100 argnu sell price it will eventually make a couple credits.

Wheat farms do ok over by black hole sun.

Capping ships is very random.. I have destroyed hundreds for every one I capped.... BBS missions are much more realistic form of money making... Shadow them targets and such...

As for freighters getting blown up... I am betting your using SETA too much... if you do more than 5-10 mins of seta without interacting with the controls, the engine decides your being complacent and punishes you... Harshly...

You can SETA as much as you want... Just make sure you are always doing something and shutting it off constantly or your freighters will have bad guys spawned next to them.


*Side note: I am glad Egosoft fixed the bug I mentioned in page 2 or 3 of this thread between Reunion and Terran Conflict.

[brattbags01]

Q. What can I cap?
A. M3, M4, M5, TP, TS, and some M6's

Are you sure about the M6? Have you actually capped an M6? If so, which one? Was it during a mission or was it a regular non-mission ship?

What about TL, M1 and M2 ?

[Carlo the Curious]

What about TL, M1 and M2 ?

None of which are cappable in X3R - this thread is 4 years old.