Poisoned Paranid start scenario (X3:Albion Prelude)

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AleksMain
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Poisoned Paranid start scenario (X3:Albion Prelude)

Post by AleksMain » Thu, 2. Aug 18, 13:35

Poisoned Paranid start scenario

Below are few tips for this scenario, which can be used by other players.

I have restarted X3:Albion Prelude using Poisoned Paranid start scenario.

Main aim of my current game is as quick as possible boarding of the Xenon I capital ship.

I apply following restrictions to current game:

1. No piracy: all civil or military Commonwealth ships can't be capped or boarded.

2. All Pirate, Yaki, Terran, and Xenon ships can be capped, boarded or destroyed without any limitations.

As you know, you have nothing but Paranid TS Demeter Hauler and 9,268 Cr during first moment of poisoned by unfair customers life.

More, some unfriendly paranids can damage my ship in their sector (Preacher's Refuge in my case).

So, first action is to move to boron sector Lucky Planets and start bartering.

No need to be picky, just dock at the Royal Boron Trading Station and resell those items, which Trading Station has to thirsty merchants.

Having more cash, than before, you can resell Ore or Silicon, but my main aim was to get any fighter as soon as possible, so I sold transport ship and bought very small but fast and deadly in hands of the my pilot Octopus Raider.

Those little bird can avoid any missiles, dodge enemy shots and repay back as avenger with light but repeatable hits.

I have moved to Split sectors, since I need to have best reputation among them to buy Missile Frigate Cobra eventually.

To get more cash being battle pilot, I had to complete battle missions.

During them I capped light enemy ships, repaired and sold them.

Eventually I bought Mamba Raider, which is often regarded as the deadliest common version of the Mamba.
"It's much faster than the standard Mamba, and can easily chase down M4s. However, it completely gives up any hint of extra protection an M3 would have over an M4 with only 25MJ maximum shields."
Since my pilot is more than capable fighter, then I have traded protection of the ship for velocity of it.

Armed with PACs (Particle Accelerator Cannons) for fast destruction of the enemy ships and IREs (Impulse Ray Emitters) to taunt enemies, it had fought many battles and destroyed or even capped many of the light and middle enemy ships ( most of them were M5 and M4).

To get more missions, move faster and get more cash I have bought Jumpdrive in the Home of Light / Terracorp HQ (had to fly there using Kestrel (Octopus Raider can't equip Jumpdrive, see post below)).

I have resold any suitable (damaged) fighters, which I could buy from some merchants and repair.

In some "Return ship" missions the ship is worth more than the mission reward, so I have sold these ships to get more cash.

To do it, I used bought by me TM Zephyrus (Military Transport), which has hangar for 4 fighters, best shields and high speed.

So, after 18 hours and 45 minutes my pilot got more than 25 millions credits.

Since main aim of my game is boarding of the Xenon I and to pay for Hyperion Vanguard I had more than 2 days yet, then I have used my Mamber Raider for a while.

To the end of the first day my pilot had combat rank Specialist, more than 54 millions credits and could buy Missile Frigate Cobra.

I had not trained marines for boarding yet.

So, I have paid for Hyperion Vanguard instead.

I have reloaded autosave dozens times to get best equipment generated for my ship including the number of engine tunings and Marines aboard Hyperion Vanguard.

Eventually I got Hyperion Vanguard with 209.7 m/s speed, 2 good (3-4 star for all skills) marines and Ion Shard Railguns as main weapons.

It has hangar for 2 fighters, which I use often for fighter with another jumpdrive and for transportation of the some other fighter (from one sector to another).

During next day (waiting while marines were trained) my pilot got few missions to return expensive ships, including ... Cobra, which I have sold.

During same day my Cobra had been bought in the Shipyard of the Rhonkar's Trial sector.

I have equipped it with
200 Flail Barage Missiles (using Equipment Multiplication from nearby Military Outpost),
15 Boarding pods (using Equipment Multiplication from nearby Military Outpost),
1000 Mosquito Missiles (for Missile Defense),
2 Concussion Impulse Generators (rear turret, Missile Defense),
3*1GJ shields,
jumpdrive,
transport device,
...
and 15 trained marines (few of them capable to Hack, all of them could cut hull and all of them could fight).

I had found one sector only with enemy ships available for boarding: Ocracoke's Storm.

First boarded by my Cobra ship was Yaki Ryu.

Next was Yaki Akurei (few minutes later). It had jumpdrive equipped after boarding, so it was even faster to sell it at nearby Shipyard at Argon Prime sector.

Then I have Reloaded my Cobra with missiles and jumped to board next Yaki ship (they are flying from the Senator's Badlands sector.

One of the boarded Yaki Akureis had Hull Polarizing Device equipped.

In total I got about 7 Yaki capital ships boarded, and then I had to train my Marines again.

I bought second Cobra for faster boarding process, equipped it in the same manner as first one (both of them had 250 Flail Barrage Missiles already).

1 day 22 hours passed and my pilot got combat rank Assassin.

5 Marines with 100 or little less points in fighting skills (including few Marines, trained in Hacking) I had for emergence purposes.

During one missions (Defend station) 2 Pirate Osprey appeared in the Tkr's Deprivation sector.

So, I used those 5 Marines to board both Ospreys.

Some Marines bailed out of the one of the Osprey, but they were unskilled, so I could not use them.

Next boarding target appeared during Assassination mission.

It had been Pirate Carrack and I had to board it during not more than 10 minutes (mission had deadline) in the Pirate sector Olmancketslat's Treaty (so there could not be any Rapid Response Fleet).

I had lost one (of the 15 using during boarding) trained Marines, because Carrack had Internal Sentry Lasers, but got 4 trained Marines as bonus, bailed out of the Carrack.

Assassination mission was completed and I got 3 400 0000 credits as reward and boarded ship with few additional trained marines.

Obtained Defend station mission in the Hatikvah's Faith sector.

Same process of defending: killed enemy fighter ships and boarded Pirate Carrack, acquired 4 skilled marines among dozen of bailed out.

Such mission in the Bala Gi's Joy sector brought me 5 skilled marines among 13 bailed out along with boarded Pirate Carrack.

26 Marines are training, 15 Marines are onboard of my second Cobra for next missions.

Note: Number and size of the spawned ships for mission is random. If frigate had been spawned once during your missions, then it not mean, that frigate will be spawned next time (after reload), but it can be spawned some other time.

I can buy such ship as Boreas already, since current account is 111 millions credits.

Information about maximum size of the spawned ships for fight missions can be found here.

"Player ranks have effects on the game difficulty and the magnitude of monetary rewards for missions."



Now I have 41 Marines total (26 training and 15 aboard my Cobra).

Boarded Pirate Carrack in the Thuruk's Beard sector and obtained yet 2 skilled Marines.

During the Assassination mission sent 5 Marines to board Terran Katana in the Family Rhonar sector.

Found "Keris" inside Katana. Some type of the useless item may be without price and other information.

Among bailed out Marines were few skilled (one of them had 99 in the hacking skill, 97 in engineering, 64 for fighting and 74 mechanical, for example).

Below is list of the next boarded ships:
2 Pirate Osprey - M6
3 Pirate Centaur - M6
5 Pirate Carrack - M7 (one of the Carracks had five 3 star Marines, other one had three 4 star Marines along with one 3 star Marine bailed out, for example)
1 Terran Yokohama -M7
1 Yaki Akurei - M7 (with Internal Security Lasers)
3 Yaki Centaur - M6
1 Yaki Chokaro - TM

Note: ships starting from M7 class and larger (M1, M2) are best for training of the fighting skill of Marines, because they can accept largest boarding party (21).

Advanced Firewall Software had been found in the one of the boarded Pirate Ospreys.

Note: almost every boarded Pirate capital ship can be as source of skilled Marines (bailed out).

Note: You can avoid Rapid Response Fleet if you are able to board enemy ship really fast

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After 2 days and 11 hours of game time I have made simple calculations and found, that I have 38 (among 66 owned by me) Marines with:
100 points in fighting skill,
not less then 50 in Mechanical skill (most of them had more than 60 points),
not less then 50 in Engineering skill (most of them had more than 60 points),
and about 5 Marines with more than 88 points in Hacking skill.

I have boarded 31 ships during that time (not all of them had been mentioned above), bought third Cobra and stored 182 millions credits, which can be used to buy Missiles for Cobras and equipment for boarded Xenon I.

Before final (32) boarding of the Xenon I my pilot had rank Assassin.

To find "Xenon I", which can be in any (random) Xenon sector I have visited 3 Xenon sectors (could be more):
Xenon Sector 101,
Xenon Sector 347, and finally
Xenon Sector 472.

To speed up process of boarding, I have cleared Xenon Sector 472, destroyed flied there Xenon J, K, multiple Q, some P and PX, LX, many L, M and some N ships.

I used my 3 Cobras for it:
1. Jumped to Xenon Sector 472.
2. Fired all missiles from Cobra.
3. Jumped out.
4. Equipped missiles into arrived to Shipyard of the Rhonkar's Trial Cobra.
5. Changed Cobra to armed and ready for fight.
6. Sent used Cobra back to Shipyard of the Rhonkar's Trial.
7. Repeated since step 1.

I used Flail Barrage Missiles for all targets, but for capital ships added Hammer Heavy Torpedoes.

2 Xenon L can be claimed by me, since their pilots (or their robots ?) bailed out.

To avoid re-spawned Xenon ships I have lured "Xenon I" far from center of the sector, it followed behind my two Cobras with my 38 Marines aboard.

Using Flail Barrage Missiles and Hammer Heavy Torpedoes I had reduced shields of the "Xenon I".

Then I had made following:

1. Using Salvage Insurance saved game at this key moment.

2. Sent 4 boarding pods with Marines without high hacking skill.

3. Fired Flail Barrage Missiles to suppress enemy shield regeneration and then transferred 5 marines (without high hacking skill) from another Cobra, following my own Cobra.

4. Sent 1 boarding pod.

5. Fired Flail Barrage Missiles to suppress enemy shield regeneration and then transferred 4 (instead of 5, could be 5) marines with high hacking skill from another Cobra, following my own Cobra.

6. Sent 1 boarding pod.

7. Fired Flail Barrage Missiles to suppress enemy shield regeneration

I lost seven Marines during boarding process.

Three my own Marines were bailed out and were picked up by me after boarding operation.
Last edited by AleksMain on Sat, 4. Aug 18, 23:36, edited 3 times in total.

DrSuperEvil
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Post by DrSuperEvil » Thu, 2. Aug 18, 21:16

You forgot to mention no stock market use.

I usually restart until i make a clean escape from the starting sector because the altercation causes a loss of race rank which makes the NPCs more agressive IS.

Personally I prefer the Teladi Kestrel over the Octopus.

The rear turret of the Mamba raider for missile defence more than makes up for the lower shielding.

No PBEs? Those are good for bail capping.

Surprising considering the Octopus series only has S class cargo while the Jumpdrive requires M class cargo.

You also need a Sirokos for boarding xenon capital ships since the 21 large first wave really helps.

For boarding the Xenon I it is personnal preference to use 120 Flails and 120 Hammers and ISRs for the rear turret (CIG projectile speed is too slow for my taste).

Surprised you lost any since 10 should be enough marines to have no casulaties during boarding commonwealth ships if the marines used have a high fight skill.

For the Xenon I aim to have 30 marines with 100 fight skill, 14 with 55 Mechanical (10 for the first wave and 4 for the second) and 2 with 88 hacking (send on the second wave).

If you use only 21 marines to board you have a 1/63 chance of success and a 1/220 chance of having no casualties. Therefore use the second wave method for the least amount of reloading.

AleksMain
Posts: 907
Joined: Thu, 21. Sep 06, 11:05
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Post by AleksMain » Thu, 2. Aug 18, 21:58

DrSuperEvil wrote:You forgot to mention no stock market use.
...
I never used it.

Most what I get from those station is boredom,
DrSuperEvil wrote:...

I usually restart until i make a clean escape from the starting sector because the altercation causes a loss of race rank which makes the NPCs more agressive IS.

...
Since radars of the ships in the sector work in some type of sphere around center of the sector, I simply flied to the nearby edge of those sphere to exclude any type of detection.
DrSuperEvil wrote:
...
No PBEs? Those are good for bail capping.
...
Yea. I don't like these guns. If pilot could not bail out, then he is as good as dead.

It is faster.
DrSuperEvil wrote:
...
Surprising considering the Octopus series only has S class cargo while the Jumpdrive requires M class cargo.
...
Yes, I have Kestrel too docked to my Zephyrus.

May be I used it an few days ago to get Jumpdrive.
DrSuperEvil wrote:
...

You also need a Sirokos for boarding xenon capital ships since the 21 large first wave really helps.

...
I use 2 Cobras instead (one behind another) with all marines aboard.
DrSuperEvil wrote:
...
For the Xenon I aim to have 30 marines with 100 fight skill, 14 with 55 Mechanical (10 for the first wave and 4 for the second) and 2 with 88 hacking (send on the second wave).

If you use only 21 marines to board you have a 1/63 chance of success and a 1/220 chance of having no casualties. Therefore use the second wave method for the least amount of reloading.
Exactly my thoughts, but I used less than 30 marines last few times.

I will post link for those thread right now.


Here it is.

There are 25-30 Marines though. And in the one of the posts of those thread exist screenshots of boarding operation (provided by me).

It had been posted before I had found following links about
Boarding Hints
and
Ships.

DrSuperEvil
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Post by DrSuperEvil » Thu, 2. Aug 18, 23:22

Do not underestimate the stock market if you manipulate EBCs. It is possible to earn the 25 million credits within under 6 hours using it. By the time the mission timer ends you can be earning 25 million per transaction (>2x per minute).

This site has the exact probabilities per deck based on 20 vs 21 marines used:

https://translate.googleusercontent.com ... cOHtVDAmzw

This forum post lists the reload numbers needed depending on acceptable losses:

https://translate.googleusercontent.com ... BPotiErsUQ

I personally accept 4-9 losses as a win. Also for finding the Xenon I it is best to look in Xenon Sector 598.

AleksMain
Posts: 907
Joined: Thu, 21. Sep 06, 11:05
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Post by AleksMain » Sat, 4. Aug 18, 23:21

DrSuperEvil wrote:Do not underestimate the stock market if you manipulate EBCs. It is possible to earn the 25 million credits within under 6 hours using it. By the time the mission timer ends you can be earning 25 million per transaction (>2x per minute)...
I prefer to use mission rewards instead. It is more interesting for me than stock market.

P.S. As you can see from long first post of this thread, I have boarded "Xenon I" after 2 days and 11 hours of game time (plus 2 hours per search of the sector with "Xenon I", fight against Xenon ships, boarding and equipping "Xenon I" with 26 Photon Pulse Cannons, 8 Concussion Impulse Generators, 6 Ion Shard Railguns and 1000 Mosquito Missiles).

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