X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

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Fezder
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X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by Fezder » Fri, 19. Oct 18, 14:20

330 hours in game and I just succeeded in my first "proper" boarding. Was having trouble finding any return abandonded ship missions, so hired mammoth and lured it away from crowd. Started from 20km, launching hammers. Other times I launched too few, then too many, destroying mammoth in process. When I actually managed to get shields down to <10% or whatever threshold is, boarding pods are shot down by mammoth.
More save-reloading....few times I destroyed mammoth when crew was inside by launching too many hammers!.

Finally approach when I succeeded was, that I flew 1.5km below mammoth, popped 3 hammers, few flails, then pods. Crew inside, hit the turbo booster while firing few flails to keep shields down.

In the end, got that mammoth without casualties, but no gear either (karma I'd quess due backstabbing hired TL?)
Could sell this for 19M, but I'll keep it for now.

For future boardings, any tips? I noticed that the belly was somewhat blindspot, but manouvering with slowish cobra that close in every boarding attempt sounds like suicide in somes cenarios.
So, to sum my problem areas as for are;
-distance (close gives lower time for defences to act against missiles, but risky)
-amount of missiles (hammers to destroy shields, pods for boarding, flail to keep shields down as well cover pods?)
-direction of approach (sides ad front seem to be heavily fortified mostly)
-targets (well, lone TL in ~70km from gate sounds like maybe easiest next to return ship mission)


(also, boarding happened in Cloudbase south EAST. Now there is hostile argon military cerberus in....cloudbase south west. Even though nobody was hostile after boarding)
Or maybe it's just lack of practise for now.

amoe
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by amoe » Fri, 19. Oct 18, 14:30

This is pretty much the same tactic that I use for most of my boardings. I would love to be able to do boardings from a long distance but it rarely works for me. I use Flail/Hammer alternation, with a certain timing to allow the hammers to hit just after the salvo of flails. Boarding pods nearly always get shot down unless a round of Flails goes in directly before. In general it's quite difficult to get that close to well-armed enemy ships, though, and it's often quite a tight escape for my M7M. It does require a lot of missiles, as you say. I normally aimed to carry 100 Flails and 50 Hammers for any op, although rarely went over 20 Flails and 10 Hammers in a single op.

radcapricorn
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by radcapricorn » Fri, 19. Oct 18, 14:39

I guess congratulations are in order, although... a civilian vessel... a hired one at that? Nasty, nasty pirate, you! :D

For practice and more "interesting" targets you could try hunting military patrols when they pass pirate sectors. Those M6s and M7s always look sooo tempting...

As for the procedure, it varies depending on your target and even your location in the universe. But generally:

- try using more than one ship, either switching control directly via transporter device, or controlling one remotely while flying another one yourself. E.g. missile barrages can be ordered remotely. Brush up on those multitasking skills ;)
- launch volleys of different missiles, e.g. Flails followed by Hammers followed by Flails and so on. Gauge the interval based on distance and missile speed. That way you give their point defenses more targets to shoot at, therefore helping to increase the amount of missiles that slip by.
- amount of missiles: that one you need to get a feel for. Well, technically you can calculate the required amount based on how much shielding the target has and how much damage each missile does. The latter you can get in the encyclopedia, for the former always look at the target info itself, they don't always carry a full complement of shields.
- as for missile defense, don't underestimate Missile Defense Mosquito
- direction of approach also varies per target

Ships going red in other sectors can indeed happen. If you're still good with Argon, try contacting the captain of that Cerberus and apologizing.

Fezder
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by Fezder » Fri, 19. Oct 18, 15:07

Thanks for input!

That hostile cerberus I mentioned earlier was in patrol, going through ore belt and ending in cloudbase south west.
Apologized...but noticed boron kraken nearby, along with escorts.
Took this kraken as my next boarding target, was much easier getting marines on board. Only it was bit irritating to evade escots who were pretty deep in my tail while crew was in.
After another succesful boarding, apologizes were in order. Not sure if I buy ship for a while now that I've gotten taste of boarding....
At least something to do while waiting for microchips for that hub! Around 40k left, 40 or so factories...

radcapricorn
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by radcapricorn » Fri, 19. Oct 18, 15:35

You could also compare monetary value of captures against chips needed for that plot ;)

Honved
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by Honved » Fri, 19. Oct 18, 16:16

Fezder wrote:
"(also, boarding happened in Cloudbase south EAST. Now there is hostile argon military cerberus in....cloudbase south west. Even though nobody was hostile after boarding)
Or maybe it's just lack of practise for now."

You boarded an Argon civilian ship in Argon space? That's brave, or foolish. Normally you would want to lure it into Pirate or rival faction territory (such as Emperor Mines for an Argon ship, or Cloudbase SW for a Paranid vessel). Attacking a civilian ship in their own race's sector is far too likely to lead to warships going hostile. Sometimes apologies work, other times they turn red again after some delay, particularly if they're within sensor range of the ship that made the attack (such as your Cobra).

AleksMain
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by AleksMain » Fri, 19. Oct 18, 16:46

Fezder wrote:
Fri, 19. Oct 18, 14:20
...
For future boardings, any tips?
...
My personal achievement is capping of the Pirate Galleon in the X3:AP after 23 hours of the game time using my own Cobra and
19 marines with 1-4 stars in fighting skills, 1-3 stars in engineering skills, 2-3 stars in Mechanical skills and only 2 marines among them with 2-3 stars in hacking
(Teladi Trafficker starting scenario with damaged Vulture TS startup ship).

So, about advises, which I can give (for X3:TC and X3:AP) :

use Boarding Hints
and
data about boarded Ships.

P.S. I boarded Pirate, Yaki, Xenon and Terran ships only.
P.P.S. I prefer to use Flail Barrage Missiles only during boarding operations, since these missiles are universal for attack of any ships and even if some of them are shot down by target, it is not critical during boarding mission. These missiles are useful as cover for boarding pods and can be used to suppress enemy shield regeneration.

Minimal distance for beginning of boarding operation is about 6Km from the target (sometimes can be less for TM, TL, M6 and M7 class enemy ships).

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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by DrSuperEvil » Fri, 19. Oct 18, 22:23

With TL You need 40 mechanical for boarding pods or 80 for spacewalk. Civilian TLs are unarmed so you just need to knock down the shields, ID them to remove anti-boarding equipment and then fly in front of them and launch your marines at 2km. No M7M is needed.

You can easily cap 5-6 per hour and if you save scum you can get them to keep their jump drive for an easy escape.

Fezder
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by Fezder » Sat, 20. Oct 18, 09:17

Hmm, might as well start practising spacewalking too. Seems much cheaper than M7M . Never used ion disruptor due low range (<1km).

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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by DrSuperEvil » Sat, 20. Oct 18, 11:30

Spacewalking requires marines with double the mechanical skill and has risks if the enemy ship is using missiles or splash weapons like CFA or PSG but is definitely the cheapest way to board. I usually cap an Eclipse and use that to cap a centaur (4x13 Mechanical and 2x 13 Hacking) which I use to cap an M7M (4x40-55Mechanical and 2x26 Hacking) and then go on a TL boarding spree for a few hundred million to fund training my alternative crew to 80 Mechanical. I usually use 8 marines with 100 fight skill trained on M6s and TMs and an M6 as a boarding prep ship. Pretty much a case of prepare the target, order the M7M to jump in and board and then jump it out as soon as the boarding pods make contact. I then collect the marines using the M6 and organise the escape.

Ion Disruptors only real purpose is to stun spaceflies and strip equipment off ships. You can reduce a target to a defenceless hull quite easily. Also they do not damage the hull much so you can still sell the target for a good price.

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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by Triaxx2 » Sat, 20. Oct 18, 12:30

Spacewalking is most useful against small ship targets like M6's and TM's.

My TC technique is what I refer to as the Nostril boarding method. Get the ship to chase you and launch the boarding pods right up their nostrils, because the forward guns are almost never set for missile defense, and as long as you're just out of range, they won't fire on you and accidentally hit your pods. As far as I know, they changed this in AP.

As for shielding, you want to try and scan the ship and work out how much shielding it has on board. Best pirate practices include a close scan to find out it's shield capacity. Then you can calculate the damage done by Hammers, both single and barrage, and plan accordingly. For example capturing an Odysseus, you can fire a hammer barrage and a couple normal hammers, then launch some flails as decoys. Flails are faster, and so they'll impact first and also get into range first, so it's wasting shots on those, and not hitting the Hammers. Once you've chunked off a bunch of shields, you can then go and use Flails to chip it down to sub-10%. How many flails is something you just kind of have to feel out on a per ship basis.
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RainerPrem
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by RainerPrem » Mon, 22. Oct 18, 06:06

Fezder wrote:
Fri, 19. Oct 18, 14:20
...

Finally approach when I succeeded was, that I flew 1.5km below mammoth, popped 3 hammers, few flails, then pods. Crew inside, hit the turbo booster while firing few flails to keep shields down.
Hi,

yes, that's the correct way. If your M7M is fast enough or you have a Turbo Boost Mk2, you can stay under the TLs belly - use the outside view (F2) to check the position once it moves.

In TC 3 Hammers = 1 GJoule of shield. (Scan your target first for non-standard shield layout) In AP it's about 2.5 Hammers. But you need to try that out. For a TL with 5 * 200MJ you can fire two hammers in quick succession, wait for the shield to go up at ~36% and fire the third one. Then you can immediately send your marines. Add one flail, whenever the shield exceeds 5%.
Fezder wrote:
Fri, 19. Oct 18, 14:20

In the end, got that mammoth without casualties, but no gear either (karma I'd quess due backstabbing hired TL?)
Could sell this for 19M, but I'll keep it for now.
The better your marines are the less damage to the hull they do and the higher the probability for equipment to survive.

Keep them. You'll need them. I always go for a fleet of ~8 Mammoths to build my stations and ~6 Elephants for station building missions.
Fezder wrote:
Fri, 19. Oct 18, 14:20

For future boardings, any tips? I noticed that the belly was somewhat blindspot, but manouvering with slowish cobra that close in every boarding attempt sounds like suicide in somes cenarios.
So, to sum my problem areas as for are;
-distance (close gives lower time for defences to act against missiles, but risky)
-amount of missiles (hammers to destroy shields, pods for boarding, flail to keep shields down as well cover pods?)
-direction of approach (sides ad front seem to be heavily fortified mostly)
-targets (well, lone TL in ~70km from gate sounds like maybe easiest next to return ship mission)


(also, boarding happened in Cloudbase south EAST. Now there is hostile argon military cerberus in....cloudbase south west. Even though nobody was hostile after boarding)
Or maybe it's just lack of practise for now.
Tipps: Send the TLs into Pirate sectors or unknown sectors. Farnham's Legend is my hunting ground for Mammoths, in AP it's the Unknwon sector adjacent to Home of Legend.

If this isn't possible (you need to catch your Boreases in Aladna's Hill) leave the sector quickly, raise your rep by doing some missions, then you can apologize with red ships. Often their color is wrong, and they aren't even hostile (did you reset your hostility status for all ships after the boarding?)

It's always better to hammer your targets from close distance. In that case you can better calculate how many you need. Then hit the booster and deliver your flails from ~6..8 km distance. If you got your target to 0..2 % shield, wait ten seconds for its FLAK to calm down. Then send your marines, and they won't be shot at.

cu
Rainer

PS: Save early, save often.

ajime
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by ajime » Mon, 22. Oct 18, 07:57

If u're still rather poor like me(i capped an ares and never bothered to repair it's 50% hull) and currently using an m6,
1. buy at lest 200 wasps to replace the flails.
2. Kill the target shields
3. start spamming wasps, jumping in ur m7m to throw the boarding pods in the interval of wasps fire.
4. Profitsss.

I lost count of how many i capped Yaki TL in ocracoke's storm in my previous play using the belly tactic when it went stuck on the rock. I have a marine training base there. :D

RainerPrem
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by RainerPrem » Mon, 22. Oct 18, 08:35

ajime wrote:
Mon, 22. Oct 18, 07:57
If u're still rather poor like me(i capped an ares and never bothered to repair it's 50% hull) and currently using an m6,
1. buy at lest 200 wasps to replace the flails.
2. Kill the target shields
3. start spamming wasps, jumping in ur m7m to throw the boarding pods in the interval of wasps fire.
4. Profitsss.

I lost count of how many i capped Yaki TL in ocracoke's storm in my previous play using the belly tactic when it went stuck on the rock. I have a marine training base there. :D
Hi,

I'm too lazy and greedy for that kind of complicated attack. And since I want to get most of my capped ships, I don't start capping until I've got a decent complement of marines. That means 2 * Five Stars in Hacking, 4 * Five Stars in Mechanic, 14 * Five Stars in Engineering. Waiting for those gives me enough time to collect enough money for hammers, flails and a Turbo Boost Mk2 (the biggest investment after the M7M itself).

PS: You just need 3 hammers and 5 flails for a TL, that's not really big money.

cu
Rainer

Fezder
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by Fezder » Mon, 22. Oct 18, 11:37

I've taken small break from capping since I'm trying to do that hub plot, only 15k or so chips left. As for topic in hand, I noticed that even though M7 class can hold marines, there are no piracy option for it (launch all marines as for spacewalk). Do marines find their way if I just toss them out of freightbay? Seems odd why M7 then could hold marines if it can't actually use them (apart from expensive storage)
I'm getting ship for using ion disruptors, thinking about centaur-something. Question about ion disruptors, are more better regarding odds of equipment destruction, and must shields be depleted before equipment destruction?

Edit: yes, now I know better where to lure those TL:s for now. Unknown sector east from PTNI seems like good place, since PTNI HQ is nearby, which has albatross, and omicron lyrae, has mammoth.

RainerPrem
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by RainerPrem » Tue, 23. Oct 18, 05:24

Fezder wrote:
Mon, 22. Oct 18, 11:37
I've taken small break from capping since I'm trying to do that hub plot, only 15k or so chips left. As for topic in hand, I noticed that even though M7 class can hold marines, there are no piracy option for it (launch all marines as for spacewalk). Do marines find their way if I just toss them out of freightbay? Seems odd why M7 then could hold marines if it can't actually use them (apart from expensive storage)
I'm getting ship for using ion disruptors, thinking about centaur-something. Question about ion disruptors, are more better regarding odds of equipment destruction, and must shields be depleted before equipment destruction?

Edit: yes, now I know better where to lure those TL:s for now. Unknown sector east from PTNI seems like good place, since PTNI HQ is nearby, which has albatross, and omicron lyrae, has mammoth.
Hi,

all ships of class TM and larger can hold marines, because they can be boarded, not because they can board.

Spacewalk is only possible with TPs.

cu
Rainer

Alan Phipps
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by Alan Phipps » Tue, 23. Oct 18, 12:45

… and M6s (although the latter are not always recommended for boarding big ships but are usually OK for boarding other M6s and TMs).
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DrSuperEvil
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by DrSuperEvil » Tue, 23. Oct 18, 13:35

On transfer of ship ownership there is a 90% chance to destroy lasers and shields while the rest of the freight kept is random so marine skill does not factor in. You can save at the hacking stage to reroll wares kept.

Capital ships can hold marines to increase their boarding resistance in case they are boarded by enemy marines. Only TP, M6 and M7M can initiate boarding.

Ion disruptors are the weapon of choice for equipment damage since they do low hull damage and have a high fire rate. Equipment destruction is calculated on hull damage so Mass Drivers can strip stuff through shields.

Heavy Centaur Prototype is a good all rounder while for using ion disruptors on capital ships the Griffon Sentinel is the best boarding prep ship.

RainerPrem
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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by RainerPrem » Tue, 23. Oct 18, 13:49

DrSuperEvil wrote:
Tue, 23. Oct 18, 13:35
On transfer of ship ownership there is a 90% chance to destroy lasers and shields while the rest of the freight kept is random so marine skill does not factor in. You can save at the hacking stage to reroll wares kept.
Hi,

This is my collected experience:

Damaging hull destroys equipment. The more damage the less equipment exists to be randomly kept, when ownership transfers. The less engineering skill the marines have, the bigger the hull damage is. In X3TC you can get ships with 100% hull, when all marines are at 100% engineering. In X3AP there is always at least 1% of damage.

cu
Rainer

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Re: X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

Post by Alan Phipps » Tue, 23. Oct 18, 14:37

"In X3AP there is always at least 1% of damage." I haven't seen that in vanilla X3AP and have often boarded and captured capitals with intact 100% hull using fully trained marines. Perhaps your marines were all 5 stars at engineering but not all actually at 100% trained? It can only take one or two like that to cause a one percent drop in hull to be shown - and even if the hull point damage is relatively miniscule.
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