The merry men who fell off the boat

[jlehtone]

X3AP. Assassination in Home of Light. Core sector. The Terran criminal did hide in Kyoto (and had second as escort).

And a Claymore. Annoying pest, that simply had to be dealt with first.

While doing that the Argon RRF did start to arrive. RRF is a risk in my peaceful errands, but this time I got my job done.

Nothing new, nothing special. Routine profitsss.


There was, however, in the middle of the fight an unexpected sight on the map: a team of suits. I have no idea where did they come from, what were they aiming for, or did they fell of a pod rather than walking all the way. There they were, and after the reds had gone, they were still doing their normal drift in space -routine.

Nine four star Argon mercs, on all skills. Not only did they accept my personnel transport services, but they also chose to work for a private company from now on.


Would it be plausible that the Argon did launch a boarding op on Terrans, and were kicked off before entering a perishing ship?

[Bill Huntington]

Lucky you! Probably their ship was destroyed and they were on board. The RNG decreed that they survived. Their Argon race hints at that. Any marines that you find floating in space becomes your marines if you pick them up. I watch for it.

Sometimes Marines defending a ship that you're boarding will bail out too. I pick them up; I eject them again if they aren't three star in fighting.

[lyonhaert]

Nice. Does this also happen in TC, as far as marines bailing?

[Jimmy C]

Sometimes Marines defending a ship that you're boarding will bail out too. I pick them up; I eject them again if they aren't three star in fighting.

If there are Marines on a ship, they always bail after your marines clear the last deck and reach the core. I should know, I take combat missions just to capture ships and their marines.

I load the ones I consider unsatisfactory back onto their ships and sell it.

I will say though, outside of mission spawned ships and RRF, I've only seen ships with marines twice. Once was a heavily escorted Hyperion. The other was a Terran fleet that spawned in a war sector. Yes, every M1, M2 and M7 in that fleet had marines onboard for some reason.

I also scanned ships extensively at the time to try to find Jump Beacons, so I know most other capitals didn't have marines.

[AleksMain]

Capped Pirate ships (M7 Carrack, M1 Galleon, M2 Brigantine) in X3:Albion Prelude can drop their own marines.

I often use these marines, especially during first days of game.

Amount of cases with dropped marines is dependent from the amount of boarded capital ships.

Defend station missions can be used to find new targets for boarding.

If boarded ship had dropped marines ones, then it not mean, that it will drop them again after reload.

[Jimmy C]

Capped Pirate ships (M7 Carrack, M1 Galleon, M2 Brigantine) in X3:Albion Prelude can drop their own marines.

If they were mission spawned, yes. Like I said, it's not "can" it's "will" They are my main source of new marines, after the initial 9 I bought at the start of my capping career.

A word of advice to those wishing to take combat missions to "recruit" new marines, skip the missions with Yaki or Xenon enemies.

Yaki will shoot at their marines after they eject. That happens sometimes with Pirates, but it's a certainty with the Yaki. It can be mitigated, but it's such a chore, that I recommend passing on them.

Xenon have no marines for you to recruit, and costs you marines instead. So there's no point there.

[jlehtone]

I will say though, outside of mission spawned ships and RRF, I've only seen ships with marines twice. Once was a heavily escorted Hyperion. The other was a Terran fleet that spawned in a war sector.

IME, "Military" can carry Marines. Hyperions have that title.

Return Stolen Ship mission target has marines. In fact, the mission is feasible only when the target is boardable.

The Defend Station mission Pirates have about two experienced marines (and the rest are really green).


I have demolished quite many ships that do qualify as "has marines", but do not recall ever seeing bails due to that.

If your pods are shot, then you can see suits.
If your team fails to breach, then you can see suits.
If the hull drops low during boarding, then you can see suits.
Presumably all three can occur to the NPC marines too.


Cannot remember what X3TC had. However, there is no RRF, so that rules out one possibility.


The "unworthy recruits" do get a Tour af Lifetime with two marvelous sights on it. The first is a Pirate Base, where they learn about Split culture and the second is the spacious Aran which they have been admiring happily ever after ...

[Jimmy C]

"Military" can carry Marines. Hyperions have that title.

But I only saw marines on a Hyperion once, out of many that I captured before I got tired of it. Well, I got tired of rebuilding my Paranid rank post-capture.

I should add, I scan every ship before I capture it, just to know what's onboard.

Return Stolen Ship mission target has marines. In fact, the mission is feasible only when the target is boardable.

You got that right.

I have demolished quite many ships that do qualify as "has marines", but do not recall ever seeing bails due to that.

I see, I know what you're missing. You have to capture the ships to make them eject their marines. Blowing them up won't do.

Launch your marines at the ship, either via pods or spacewalk. Once they clear the last deck on the ship, the deck before they start hacking the core, the marines on the ship will eject.

I take missions specifically to capture marines, I know what I'm talking about.

[jlehtone]

I have demolished quite many ships that do qualify as "has marines", but do not recall ever seeing bails due to that.

I see, I know what you're missing. You have to capture the ships to make them eject their marines. Blowing them up won't do.

IMHO I was not missing. I essentially (if perhaps vaguely) stated that according to my previous observations "blowing them up won't do."

In the OP case:

• Assassination mission had spawned Terran ships
• I was shooting at the Terrans
• Argons were shooting at the Terrans
• Terrans were shooting everybody
• I was not boarding
• I did not have my shields down
• Both Terrans and Argons had shields down
• Both Terrans and Argons had ships dying
• At least Argon RRF is known to carry marines
• Marines were observed

Since being blown up (quite likely) does not release suits, a NPC must have initiated a boarding op against another NPC, but rather than being successful, it left (part of?) team walking home.


Scanning is good. Sending a team to polarized hull that is backed up by sentry lasers, full crew of veterans, and a firewall is not lottery. (X2 had the lottery.)