[X3:AP] Get all your PALCs!

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Jimmy C
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[X3:AP] Get all your PALCs!

Post by Jimmy C » Sun, 13. Sep 15, 18:41

I used to say PALCs start appearing on M7s at fight rank Assassin or so. I am happy to now say... I was completely wrong about that!
I am currently at Warrior in my current game, and M7s have just started appearing at Very Hard difficulty. On the very second Carrack I have a shot at, I find PALCs on board! I might have missed them if I hadn't decided to take a second look at the freight list I screenshotted to find more valuable loot than CIGs.
So, if you want PALCs, go after M7s on missions. If they're appearing, you'll have a shot at PALCs.

Edit: And one more load of PALCs later, I now have enough to carry out Operation Scorch rather than Operation Zap.

Bill Huntington
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Palc ??

Post by Bill Huntington » Mon, 14. Sep 15, 01:01

Good Info, Jimmy C. Maybe you could tell us, why get PALC at all? They look awesome, but they don't do much damage in my experience. I gave them a lot of chances and they failed every time. If I bothered to pick them up, I would just sell them.
Bill in S.F., enjoying the game

Cpt.Jericho
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Post by Cpt.Jericho » Mon, 14. Sep 15, 01:08

They are great for missle defense.
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Jimmy C
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Post by Jimmy C » Mon, 14. Sep 15, 03:06

I gave them a lot of chances and they failed every time.
Best ways to use PALCs:

1. Put PALCs on turrets and let the AI handle them. They are bugged and will do minimal damage if fired by the player. They are the best anti-fighter, -bomber, -corvette and -missile weapon otherwise. They also do significant damage to larger ships and you can count on them to hurt such ships until you are able to bring your main guns to bear.

2. However, the WAY they're bugged makes them incredible subsystem killers when fired by the player! From cursed ghost, we learned that putting PALCs on the mains of the Pteranodon has a high chance of destroying subsystems while barely scratching the hull, and from a distance.

ThommoHawk
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Re: [X3:AP] Get all your PALCs!

Post by ThommoHawk » Mon, 14. Sep 15, 06:38

Jimmy C wrote: ... snipped ...On the very second Carrack I have a shot at, I find PALCs on board! ...snipped ...
^ ok so im pleased to be learning something new here, just to clarify; Carracks standard loadout include PBC's (plasma beam cannon), but Carracks aren't compatible with PALCs (not included in weapons info list), so:

1) these Carracks are just carrying the PALCs as freight right?
2) And only on mission-spawned Carracks, not normal ones?
3) And if on missions only, just any M7 can carry PALC, not just Carracks?
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Jimmy C
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Post by Jimmy C » Mon, 14. Sep 15, 07:42

these Carracks are just carrying the PALCs as freight right?
Yup, they're rewards for you, the player.
And only on mission-spawned Carracks, not normal ones?
Correct. Only mission spawned ones. And since it's RNG, you may have to reload the mission (load game, accept mission again) a few times, if they don't show up the first time.
Takes quite an effort on my part right now. my ranking is just good enough to make M7s appear on Very Hard, but only sometimes.
And if on missions only, just any M7 can carry PALC, not just Carracks?
Yes, any M7 spawned on missions can be carrying PALCs. Beware if you find them on board Tigers, those can equip the PALCs and will use them.

RAVEN.myst
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Post by RAVEN.myst » Sat, 19. Sep 15, 10:29

I've had them drop from non-mission Qs before, but only extremely rare - killed dozens upon dozens of them for the occasional one (so taking missions certainly seems the more efficient way to go)
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Jimmy C
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Post by Jimmy C » Sat, 19. Sep 15, 21:24

Considering how many Q kills that implies, are you sure you haven't rolled mission-spawned Qs into that as well?
I remember one time I took a mission involving Xenon ships. Hardly ever do that because it's not cost effective for capturing. But I thought I'd just shoot these up for fun. And the Q shows up with PALCs on board. All I could do was hope some of them dropped after I blew the ship to bits.

Karmaticdamage
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Post by Karmaticdamage » Sat, 19. Sep 15, 21:46

Cool trick with these weapons. If you put 8 in each of the side turret banks on a pteranodon and then fire them on a single target, it activates the end of the world code.

sergaent
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[X3:AP] Get all your PALCs fast!

Post by sergaent » Sun, 19. Mar 23, 09:53

3 days ago I finished Shady Business plot @ 15-00 getting 7 PALCs from the plot and 6-7 hours later was able to equip Pteranodon with PALCs all round, so HOWTO do this:
  • Use Pteranodon for PALCs farming
  • PALCs got from the plot need to equip on side and rear turrets, first - fill-in rear turrets and the leftover goes to the sides
    • Do not put additional weapons like PRG on side turrets - it can easily destroy dropped PALC containers with stray volleys
    • Mount 8 PPCs on a main (player controllable) battery
  • Set all turrets to alpha mode with only 2 orders - 1st - Missile Defence and 2nd - Attack all enemies or just "Attack all enemies"
  • Best places for quick PALCs farming are Scale Plate Green and Eighteen Billion
    • SPG - has a Trading post within a comm range from Xenon's South gate
    • EB - has a Military outpost within a comm range from Xenon's East gate
  • You need a Warlord or Crusader fighting rank
    • According to my experience for Warlord < 75% the "Destroy Xenon fleet" mission can contain one Q, >75% - can go for 2 Qs
    • Warlord >75% - Defend station mission sends up to 3 Carracks or 2-3 Akureis
    • Defend station missions are a huge waste of time in terms of getting PALCs fast
  • Prepare for "Destroy Xenon fleet"
    • Clean the sector from any remaining floating wares - looks like it raises chances for drops, you can do it with another (owned) service ships
    • Place Pteranodon exactly centered face to the gate as
      • SPG- 21km far from Trading post centered to South gate
      • EB - ~4km far from East gate (within comm range from Military outpost)
    • The following goes the same for both sectors:
      • Stand still
      • SAVE #1
      • Accept "destroy xenon" mission
      • Few fighters arrive first from a gate, surely they are not a problem for you keeping standing still, waiting for a Q, better for 2 of them
      • On a Warlord < 75% there is a strong probability that instead of Q will arrive a couple of P/PX - then reload #1
      • When Q just spawned from the gate immediately fire a fully charged volley of 8 PPCs into it (supercharge PPCs with a long single firing click) - for strip shields ASAP
      • While PPCs are traveling toward Q - scan her!
        • If cargo does not contain PALCs - reload #1
        • If cargo does contain <=3 PALCs - you will probably get only one from the drop, so I recommend reloading #1 and waiting for Q with 4 PALCs in cargo
        • If cargo contains 4 PALCs - start killing Q
        • When her hull drops to the level < ~20% - SAVE #2
        • Kill it and look for drops
          • No PALC drops - reload #2
          • 1 PALC drop - up to you, but recommend to reload #2 since we want to farm them FAST
          • 2 PALCs drop - pick them up and equip on side turrets until full, main turret equipped with PALCs last and not more that 4, so you get 4/4 PALC/PPC
          • Note, that drop can appear relatively far - I have couple of times > 13km from the kill place
        • If there is more than one Q in a mission - repeat the same for a 2nd - and note that it's faster to reload the whole mission and wait for both Qs to carry 4 PALCs each, so you can get 4 PALCs out of each mission with 2 Qs and 2 PALCs from a mission with a single one
      • Clean sector from remaining wares
  • If there are no xenon missions in SPG and EB - you can either take "defend station" missions and destroy Carracks/Akureis meanwhile or go to do the same xenon missions in Grand Exchange or Black Hole Sun - but the stations dealing these missions are too far from relevant gates, so IMHO better to go to UFJD space and kill Qs there (much slower that SPG/EB missions, but at least something) I got about 3-4 PALCs out of 30 from these side missions
Last edited by sergaent on Wed, 22. Mar 23, 19:10, edited 4 times in total.

sergaent
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Re: Palc ??

Post by sergaent » Sun, 19. Mar 23, 10:04

Bill Huntington wrote:
Mon, 14. Sep 15, 01:01
Good Info, Jimmy C. Maybe you could tell us, why get PALC at all? They look awesome, but they don't do much damage in my experience. I gave them a lot of chances and they failed every time. If I bothered to pick them up, I would just sell them.
Pteranodon equipped all round with PALCs is an ultimate ship!
I just split main battery as 4 PALCs/4 PPCs and use PPCs for fast shields drain.

All the other stuff like fighters/missiles are not the issue anymore. Any Xenon Q goes to blow in 4 secs after shields down and yes, as for Ks, Js and Is it takes much longer, but you pay attention only on a battleship and leave fighters/missiles to turret's AI

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