Boarding attempt of the Aran in AP

[Bill Huntington]

It's been a while since I boarded the Aran. I decided I'd see if anything had changed in the latest version of AP. I found a few.

I used the Achi with eight Marines, more to see if that was enough than anything else. The marines were all 100 in fight training, 100 in Mechanical, 3 or 4 star in Engineering, two with 5 star in Hacking.

I found a distant Aran on try number ten. I ejected and used the repair laser until I got music. I launched marines and they got in with no losses. So far so good. But they had to find an air lock on Level Four. I reloaded a few times and got the same result. I figured out that the marines that were less than 100 in Engineering were damaging the big ship past critical levels. There were no internal defenses.

I didn't want to search the Great Unknown again. Ten tries might have been lucky. I'd try a few tweaks to see if I could still take the Aran. First I tried with seven marines, after temporarily ejecting a Marine with the lowest Engineering rating. No luck. The seven Marines got in but lost Marines at each level, until there were none. A few reloads showed that seven Marines were not enough.

I remembered a nice trick from my early days. I was in a Mamba and attacking a Albatross for some reason. The sector defenders were attacking me in return. But they couldn't score because I got behind a big screen somewhere on the big TL. The sector defenders fired directly at me but hit the TL screen instead. This isn't the trick exactly. What I did was get inside the open bay of the Aran and use the repair laser on the inside. One TC update changed things so the ship moved if you used the repair laser on it and it wasn't yours yet. If I was inside I'd go with it. I set the Aci to Follow Me so it would circle and hopefully avoid any Aran ramming attempt.

I used the repair laser inside the big bay of the Aran. I got the music so it did work. Five minutes more of the repair laser and the marines made it to Level Five. Fifteen minutes of the repair laser and I got it! In the course of the reloads I noticed that the Aran didn't move at all, even with the continuous use of the repair laser . I didn't need to be inside at all. I finished the last minutes next to Aci.

Any pilots have anything to add about the Aran?

[Alan Phipps]

Hi Bill. "I set the Aci to Follow Me so it would circle and hopefully avoid any Aran ramming attempt. "

I wouldn't be that worried about a badly-damaged and untuned Aran with little acceleration and a top speed of a few m/s coupled with a rotational speed of a few degrees per minute. So long as you didn't park your ship in front of its bow, you should have been OK whatever happened.

[Musicker]

Nothing more to really add, just wanted to verify that I had pretty much the same experience every time I acquired an Aran in the past. As long as there were no enemies in the sector, I was always able to jump out, use the repair laser until it gained a couple percentage points of hull, then with a full load of fully trained marines (especially in Engineering and fighting) I was able to successfully capture the ship.

Congrats on the cap, and now you've got me thinking I need to go back to TC yet again.. I've only got about 8000 hours logged on Steam, and 1700 or 1800 I believe in AP.. I just can't stay away for too long. I start getting withdrawl symptoms!

Cheers!

[Jimmy C]

For capturing the Aran, I recommend an M6 that can equip the Tractor Beam. Use maxed marines and save on Pods via spacewalk boarding. It's not going anywhere anyway.


After capturing it and returning to regular space, use the Tractor Beam to haul it to some place you want to deal with it. Either the PHQ for RE or a shipyard for repair.

[Sovereign01]

I know what you mean, I recently got back into AP after two years away. Finally captured a Q for the achievement (the only Xenon ship type hitherto unboarded), did it with 30 marines from the Sirokos.

My game had become a cycle of:

• Board Paranid Hyperion/Agamemnon
  
  Transfer newly maxed marines to TP
  
  Repair and refit new ship
  
  Build stations in Paranid space/other stuff to rebuild rep
  
  Rinse and repeat.

Got 20 of each ship, and thanks to having TPs docked at every station offering marines/mercenaries and hiring all those with fight skill at 50 or above, I've still got dozens of them either in training or awaiting transfer to my Sirokos.

It was my understanding that unlike in TC, in AP you only got one Aran. Is this no longer the case?

[Bill Huntington]

Yes, only one Aran. But some pilots send the captured Aran to the HQ and make more of them. I use mine as a storage unit and keep it as a trophy.

[jlehtone]

Yes, only one Aran. But some pilots send the captured Aran to the HQ and make more of them. I use mine as a storage unit and keep it as a trophy.

Likewise. I did initially consider re-engineering and re-building, but (A) that would have tied the engineers for considerable while and (B) 120k unit storage was irresistible. Therefore, my Aran has been docked in PHQ all along and whenever I find loot, the collector returns to PHQ and unloads to Aran. I still could rebuild. Later.


You can find Aran(s) multiple times as long as you don't successfully board one. I did more than dozen failed boarding trips (hull integrity failures) before a success. I thought the Marines would improve their fight even on bailed attempts, but they did not.

[AleksMain]

...

You can find Aran(s) multiple times as long as you don't successfully board one. I did more than dozen failed boarding trips (hull integrity failures) before a success. I thought the Marines would improve their fight even on bailed attempts, but they did not.

Hull integrity failures are related with engineering (not fighting) skill:

...
there was some confusion about the marine skills:

fighting - how good they are in surviving the mission
hacking - how good at hacking the ship computer
mechanical - how good at hull cutting
engineering - how good at not damaging the ship during boarding

Engineering: It's a good idea to train all marines to 100. This way it is possible to cap ships with 100% hull integrity and to reduce the probability of a mission failure while capping the aran. If the ships hull drops below 5%, then the marines try to leave the ship.

...

See Aran capping Questions/bragging over Aran caps for more details.

[jlehtone]

Hull integrity failures are related with engineering (not fighting) skill

Indeed. That was the plan. To go in. To walk the decks, and then to give up, for the team was no engineers back then. I had the (false) hope that a trip to abandoned hull would grow hair on the chest.

There was also the psychological achievements and statistics goal. I got Marines, who have failed multiple times. When such bunch of known losers later takes Valhallas without breaking sweat, what message does that send to Terrans?

[DrSuperEvil]

You need over 59 engineering on average to board an Aran.

[Sovereign01]

RE-ing an Aran would take four and a half days in TC and just as long to build another, unless that time has been considerably shortened for AP it's just not worth it. The only other ship that comes close in terms of capacity is the Atmospheric Lifter, but even that can't dock anything bigger than an M3.

The only other ships I know of that can do that are the Valhalla and Kyoto and even they cannot dock a (single) big ship. There's probably at least one ship that can also do this that I'm oblivious to though.

Now that I think about it, if I send my Aran off for REing, since I won't have it anymore does that mean it becomes available for capture again? If so, does that only work after the REing is finished?

After all, I don't really need more than one- in TC I would use an Aran filled with TPs to store my veteran marines! Since the capacity of those was quadrupled that became redundant.

[Jimmy C]

In AP you only get to capture the Aran once. It doesn't matter what you do with it afterwards, RE, sell, destroy or keep, you will not see another one in UFJD again.


I play for the long haul. So 8 days to RE then build a new Aran is acceptable.

I can't store all my maxed marines in TPs in the Aran. I'm filling up my 49th TP already.

[Honved]

I can't store all my maxed marines in TPs in the Aran. I'm filling up my 49th TP already.

So, I suppose the next achievement is: can you take over an entire planet with 50 TPs full of marines?

[DrSuperEvil]

Actually the Aran spawn condition is if the player does not own one. It counts if you have it being reverse engineered but if you own one and lose it by it being destroyed you can then find another.

[Jimmy C]

Actually the Aran spawn condition is if the player does not own one. It counts if you have it being reverse engineered but if you own one and lose it by it being destroyed you can then find another.

From what I've heard, no one in AP has ever been able to find a second Aran after capturing the first one. Yes, they've RE'd, sold or destroyed their Arans too to try. If your experience is any different, do share.

With the frequency which the Aran appears in the UFJD (before you capture one) they ought to be quite easy to find if they appear more than once under any circumstances.


Still, I'll make a note of that and give it a try on my next go around.

[Sovereign01]

I'd prefer if they did a combination of the two games- make the first one easy to find then for subsequent Arans revert to the TC system in terms of frequency.

[SirNukes]

From what I've heard, no one in AP has ever been able to find a second Aran after capturing the first one.

I believe you are right. In AP, a flag ("UFJD spawnplug") gets set once the player owns an Aran, preventing further spawns in the UFJD sector.

[Sovereign01]

In AP you only get to capture the Aran once. It doesn't matter what you do with it afterwards, RE, sell, destroy or keep, you will not see another one in UFJD again.


I play for the long haul. So 8 days to RE then build a new Aran is acceptable.

I can't store all my maxed marines in TPs in the Aran. I'm filling up my 49th TP already.

That's what, 2000 marines/mercs? How much boarding did it take to pull that off?

I should do a head count of all my marines, my only rule was they had to be 50 or higher fight skill at the start.

[Jimmy C]

That's what, 2000 marines/mercs? How much boarding did it take to pull that off?

According to my statistics page, 1551. Not all of them had marines onboard though. And I only keep those that are better than half-trained already.

And no.50 is filling up nicely now.

I should do a head count of all my marines, my only rule was they had to be 50 or higher fight skill at the start.

Just open the Properties panel, switch to the Personnel tab. It lists all your marines, and shows a total number at the top. It's very useful for monitoring the progress of a boarding, so I look at it often.

[Sovereign01]

I just did, I have 223 idle on ships and 123 in training for a total of 346. Since I've boarded plenty of Agamemnons & Hyperions I should focus on what other unbuyable ships are worth taking over...