Your Very First Boarding - Guide (X3TC)

[nesterhews]

Same problem here, You can't use a Zephyrus or any other of that type of ship for whatever reason.

[Garral]

Your method worked well for me, however - Get the M6 to chase you away from friendly stations. If it flies by any NPC stations in the sector, shoots at them with turret fire, and then you capture it - It seems to remain hostile to any friendly ships in the sector. Had a very unhappy M7 blow up my new Centaur...

[Rive]

Your method worked well for me, however - Get the M6 to chase you away from friendly stations. If it flies by any NPC stations in the sector, shoots at them with turret fire, and then you capture it - It seems to remain hostile to any friendly ships in the sector. Had a very unhappy M7 blow up my new Centaur...

That's interesting, and I think it recommends some more investigation, but for me there was some misorganized boardings (especially when my first Akuma was jumped in for a single DefStat mission) when some heavy PPC fire and innocent stations were involved - but the local Titan cannot reach us before the core-hack. And at the end he was cheerful with result and started to chase down the Akuma's support fleet... (And he was succeed to blow up a station while those Harriers danced around him ). But no harm for my new ship.

All I can think is that some friendly fire was involved for you.

However the 'chase me' method is excellent when you want to board your first heavy (military) M6 - I used that for the Heavy Centaur Proto

[Garral]

Unleashing a drone horde on the target M6 doesn't make it ignore the route to the mission station it seems. This sadly means that any stray stations it hits en route seem to tell that station to drop any docked defense ships. I had this happen again in Paranid space, in which the station it shot had a docked Nemesis - which promptly destroyed my intended capture.

Having a few missiles on hand is a definite must, I'd say. Either way, thanks for the guide - It's really helped.

[LegolasGreenleaf]

That could be a good idea. I did have a Boron Kraken, but didn't know how to use it right, so I scrapped that idea (and the ship, at a Split shipyard).

[LegolasGreenleaf]

Well, I know. I tried to board a Xenon P (which doesn't work, crappy luck) in Argorn space. Not only did I play it cheap and not train my marines, the P was destroyed when a horde of ignorant, arrogent Argon police ships. Now I do my boarding in the unknown sector south of Heavens Assertion, hunting Duke's Buccaneers and selling theire Nemises that I should rightfully own.

[Rive]

I did have a Boron Kraken, but didn't know how to use it right...

The use of that ship is not for this topic - this is a more basic method.



Some video records are in making, otherwise.

[Rive]

Okay, the stuff is now up-to-date.

Or, at least, I hope it is


Please feel free to comment it or to suggest any modification you see useful

[Honved]

One question (for fresh victims of the game) about training up newly purchased Marines:

Some stations offer 3 levels of training, but give no explanation as to what they do, either overall or compared to each other. Which training method (quick/normal/advanced - IIRC) is the most cost effective or practical, and why?

[Rive]

A good question and a good idea to add the answer.

I will do so as soon as I can dig up the answer

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

The three levels of training is merely how many training cycles to go through before reporting back to you It was introduced to combat the message log spam of marines finishing their training.

Basically I believe it works as follows..

Quick = 1 training session
Normal = 3 training sessions
Advanced = 5 Training sessions.

In addition to which you can choose to train just one skill line or all three at once. What I normally do is put a marine through Advanced-All training the first time and then cherry pick which skill lines and what level of training to apply in order to get them up to 3-stars in all.

[Eisenkalle]

Okay... it's been a while since I did any boarding for the campaign.

I have 5 marines in my Heavy Centaur M6. I'm targeting a pirate ship I need to capture and taking its shields down to zero. Because it's a story-related ship, the hull cannot dip below %92.

I've tried ejecting all my marines, but they seem to ignore the ship I'm targeting and float around aimlessly. I seem to recall there being a special "Pirate" command that came up last time I tried boarding... but I don't see anything out of the ordinary in my menu now.

Can M6s do boarding? I know they can't fire boarding pods, but I see conflicting information in various guides about what type of ship I need to begin a boarding attempt.

1. Are you talking about the goner plot (yes 2nd, no 3rd/4th)? If it is the terran Plot read 4th!

2. If 1st is right (if not read 3rd), than you are talking about the "Truelight Seeker" (TLS). The TLS can be "captured". Do a personal spacewalk or fly extremly close to it and use the System Override Software to "claim" (!) the TLS. Right after you have claimed the TLS it starts flying off to the Goner sector... with my v2.1 i was able to BOARD it after it was claimed/captured and now I can fly with an invulnerable TLS and "knock-down" any foe (if my laserenergy is not sufficient).

3. Check your menu, there is a 5th point called "piracy" (as you already have heard of or seen). So first of all keep the targets shields down, if it is storyrelated and IS invulnerable hammer it with everything you have and fly really close. Release your marines not allong the target, try to approach it from the front and dive up or down the targets nose. Your marines will be released and the target flys directly into them. This is, when your "piracy" command IS working correctly. For short hit SHIFT+C, "5" (not from the one NumBlock! ), Enter, Enter... here we go. Eventually you have the chance to save right before you reach a good position to the target and the marine release, SAVE. Even now my marines sometimes do nothing, when I release them and I am that close to the target, that they only need to set foot on the other ships hull...

4. ...or you can not board the ship, because it is a M2, M1, M7, TL, which can only be boarded with boarding pods and a M7M!!! M7/TL are since v2.5 only approachable with boarding pods, before the patch they could be boarded with a TP/M6.

[Nanook]

....
4. ...or you can not board the ship, because it is a M2, M1, M7, TL, which can only be boarded with boarding pods and a M7M!!! M7/TL are since v2.5 only approachable with boarding pods, before the patch they could be boarded with a TP/M6.

Not sure where you got this idea, but there's no truth to it. You can still board any ship with M6/TP spacewalking, and as long as you can get enough marines on board it, you can capture it. There's no game mechanic that prevents it. It's just very difficult to do in most cases, making the boarding pod method preferable.

And as for your answer to NewEonOrchestra, I think he probably got his answer five months ago.

[Eisenkalle]

....
4. ...or you can not board the ship, because it is a M2, M1, M7, TL, which can only be boarded with boarding pods and a M7M!!! M7/TL are since v2.5 only approachable with boarding pods, before the patch they could be boarded with a TP/M6.

Not sure where you got this idea, but there's no truth to it. You can still board any ship with M6/TP spacewalking, and as long as you can get enough marines on board it, you can capture it. There's no game mechanic that prevents it. It's just very difficult to do in most cases, making the boarding pod method preferable.

And as for your answer to NewEonOrchestra, I think he probably got his answer five months ago.

Wow, I haven't checked the initial post date... just read thorugh the thread.

Btw I was told/read it is not possible to board M7/TL from spacewalk anymore with v2.5+. Since I am on v2.1 I can not proof otherwise until I update, so I have to rely on the statements of others. Perhaps my choice of words was a little bit too negative. Most peolpe write it in this way (M7M only with v2.5+! is the word, but also quantity over quality!), so I assumed it was the only way left. My bad and thank you for the enlightment!

[Rive]

A new chapter about the courses is added.

Thanks for the info, NUKLEAR-SLUG

[Honved]

Btw I was told/read it is not possible to board M7/TL from spacewalk anymore with v2.5+. Since I am on v2.1 I can not proof otherwise until I update, so I have to rely on the statements of others. Perhaps my choice of words was a little bit too negative. Most peolpe write it in this way (M7M only with v2.5+! is the word, but also quantity over quality!), so I assumed it was the only way left. My bad and thank you for the enlightment!

As far as I've read (haven't tried it myself), you CAN board a TL with spacesuits, but you need about 20 of them, and the odds are somewhere between poor and just plain bad. That's a LOT of Marines to lose if it all goes wrong.

BTW - thanks for the answers about the training options. At least now I know what I'm paying for.

[Rive]

As far as I've read (haven't tried it myself), you CAN board a TL with spacesuits, but you need about 20 of them, and the odds are somewhere between poor and just plain bad. That's a LOT of Marines to lose if it all goes wrong.

The problem lays elsewhere. 20 marine is more than enough for a commonwealth TL: but they have to reach the target at the same time.

If you launch the marines from a TP then they will split into two groups as they leave the airlock. So you will have four groups, launched from two ships... I will not say that it's impossible to deal with two TP/four groups, but I will not try this

With ten marines (one, personally controlled TP) you have some chances, but not much (lots of reloads will be needed.) But you will have to deal only with two groups.

Terran ships has hard hull, so the use of BPs is advisable. (BPs softens the hull).

[Eisenkalle]

As far as I've read (haven't tried it myself), you CAN board a TL with spacesuits, but you need about 20 of them, and the odds are somewhere between poor and just plain bad. That's a LOT of Marines to lose if it all goes wrong.

The problem lays elsewhere. 20 marine is more than enough for a commonwealth TL: but they have to reach the target at the same time.

If you launch the marines from a TP then they will split into two groups as they leave the airlock. So you will have four groups, launched from two ships... I will not say that it's impossible to deal with two TP/four groups, but I will not try this

With ten marines (one, personally controlled TP) you have some chances, but not much (lots of reloads will be needed.) But you will have to deal only with two groups.

Terran ships has hard hull, so the use of BPs is advisable. (BPs softens the hull).

Yes this was, what I initially wanted to express. I read about the "new" quantity part for boarding operations. That now are ~20 marines need ed for a "simple" TL. That is why I wrote about the no-go with spacewalking for M7/TLs.

As I said, it was a problem with my choice of words... It is not impossible with a M6, but through the new boarding requirements it is (non the less) impossible to deliver this huge amount of marines (10-20 at least, if I remember correctly) to the target in one piece. Therefore boardingpods are commonly preferred over spacewalk. Thanks again for the information.

[Rive]

It is not impossible with a M6...

But it IS impossible with an M6 - an M6 can launch only five marines. You have no chances with five... The minimum is ten -> two M6 or a TP is required for TLs.

For the very first M7M it's quite common a spacewalk/TP boarding with well trained elite troops. Yeah, always with lots of reloads.

[Eisenkalle]

It is not impossible with a M6...

But it IS impossible with an M6 - an M6 can launch only five marines. You have no chances with five... The minimum is ten -> two M6 or a TP is required for TLs.

For the very first M7M it's quite common a spacewalk/TP boarding with well trained elite troops. Yeah, always with lots of reloads.

Yeah I understand the problem. In general those 5 marines onboard woudn't be enough to board anything. That is why I said it is not impossible, BUT a hassle to reload 5 extra meatbags from a TP into the M6 (via Transporterdevice). So better use the TP in the first place or even better a M7M...