Ship Capture Guide: X2 Version 2 (Updated for 1.4)

[Nymrod]

Saddly no, i think i hitted it way more than needed cuz was trying to avoid him to get behind me, when finally got it was smashed, but well, was my first try, and succeded. There will be more.

Damn, last night i did not even pay attention to the clock, i tryed Al´s sugestion on Pirate bases and got awsome results, after a few try i realised that fireing a missil, just one against the base (from around 14km to stay well away from Laster Towers so you have space to manouver) trigger a soft response, always like 3 or 4 ships, no more ( if you shoot more than 1 missile, then do comes more patrols) and all of mixed ships, (maximun response i got was 3 Orinocos, and 1 Bayamon and managed to capture all 3 orinocos ), with patience, not rushing on them, useing the head, u can CAP them practically all.

i got 1xAHEPT, 1x25MW shield, like 6 drones and a few more little stuff that i sold (i kept the hept and shield of course) and armed my own wing of Orinocos , if they dont give me good result i will sell them too.

makeing counts, i captured like 16 Orinocos (plus only 3 destroyed), 3 Bayamons and 4 TS class.

I think i had beed way lucky of reading this thread so early in my game, following Al´s tips i found a few strategies that really gives me great results ( makeing numbers i have more than 90% of chance of CAPing the targeted ship, even more if i caught it alone, if is the case then the CAP is almost sure).

I discovered 1 thing last capture session, they bail out when they lost all their shields, regardless if they have still weapons or not, but if they still have shield and no weapons, they will continue acting like if they can harm u. From all my caps only 1 bailed out without weapons an lefting behind 1 shield.

Oh, one more thing, ION cannon are spectaculars for shooting down incoming missiles, when i get a missile warning i do a couple of fast spins shooting the cannons, as they have that "chain" effect, a close missile got easily hitted.( i discovered this when i runned out of mosquitos for the missile defence system )
God bless ION cannons!!!!

I dont presum this is a piece of cake, i have reloaded several times in the process of learning the correct metod, and if u are not greedy (rushin in the middle of several ship, or o something thats way too big for u) just a bit of planinng your own strategy will give u great results.

Salvage Insurance, a pilot´s best friend

[korcan]

Pirate base milking can be dangerous sometime. Be sure to check each ship for exotic weapons, almost all pirate ships can equip PSG or Ions. A bayamon with 4 ion drive among the group will kill all your upgrades/shields/weapons in seconds, plus you do not see anything due to the white sparks all around. Same problem with PSG equipped pirates. It is wise to detect those from a distance and destroy them using missiles. Those weapons do not miss even at the hands of ai.

Another profitable capping scenario involves khaak clusters. Approach to the intact cluster from behind. send away 5 shots from twin bPSGs. Depending on the cluster size 1-5 kM5 would turn to green. Very quickly transport kyons to your ship. Orinocco, Perseus or Osprey do this very nicely. One may sell each cannon from 800k.

[Diche Bach]

Well this seems to be the 'go-to' thread for mastering combat in X2 The Threat, so I guess I'll try to implement some of this advice and see if I can become a ship capturer.

[TTD]

Old thread,but I am glad you find it useful.

There seems to be a lot of new X2 players lately.
Maybe it's the X-Superbox from Steam that has gained it some followers.

I cut my pilots teeth on this version.
Tried so many different ships to get missions done.

[HashtagMC]

Thanks for the guide! Before, I thought you had to shoot the hull down to almost zero to get pilots to surrender. I'm making a fortune by capping pirate ships right now, turned one into a cheap replacement M3.

One thing I'd add would be nebulas. If you know where the shield-deteriorating ones are, you can lure pirates there. More of a risk, since your shield is also going down, but you can get the hull value down without having to get through the shield first.

[perceval]

Hey everyone,

I just got back into X2 after sevberal years and I find it to be a bit more difficult than I remembered. First, it seems that a lot of factories are empty on missiles, lasers and so on. I have difficulty finding wasp and dragonfly. Heck, everything!

Now onto the capture thing. I'm not sure if I goofed early in game, but I followed some sugestions I rapidly gfot rid of everything, to buy myself an Argon Buster, with 2 5 MW shields, 2 Alpha PACs and everything useful. So far, I've been successful only once to destroy a poor Mandalay, only to get destroyed by another ship, that wasn't even a pirate! I'm following this guide to the letter and those damned pilots simply won't eject. Am I missing somehting, or as capping become more difficult in 1.5? Thanks for any tips!

[Alan Phipps]

I'm pretty certain that patch 1.5 was to add the vanilla stats upload facility and did not affect ship combat and bailing in any way.

The usual sweet spot for capping is generally held to lie between the target losing all shields (as quickly as you can do that) and the hull dropping with you using as small damage shots as you can to less than 80-90%. Keep trying!

[perceval]

I'm pretty certain that patch 1.5 was to add the vanilla stats upload facility and did not affect ship combat and bailing in any way.

The usual sweet spot for capping is generally held to lie between the target losing all shields (as quickly as you can do that) and the hull dropping with you using as small damage shots as you can to less than 80-90%. Keep trying!

OK thanks. But is the buster good enough to capture, or should I have stayed with the Disco?

[Alan Phipps]

It's the weapons that count - quick shield reduction and slow hull reduction but with lots of impacts - and not so much the ship. A Buster has probably better weapon options and combat survivability than a Disco but, either way, just keep trying.

[perceval]

It's the weapons that count - quick shield reduction and slow hull reduction but with lots of impacts - and not so much the ship. A Buster has probably better weapon options and combat survivability than a Disco but, either way, just keep trying.

You were right. I've managed to capture a few, now. The real trick is not capturing them for me ; it's simply finding some that are not among a cluster of 5-6, in which case I'm often outnumbered and overpowered. Even if I'm starting with the one most at the back and hit no one else, they always all turn on me.

[jlehtone]

When you attack someone, they interrupt their current task and focus on killing you.
If your target's current task was to escort someone, they do one more thing: they notify their leader that they are under attack.
When a leader of formation gets signal that one of its escorts is under attack, it will (1) attack that threat and (2) tell all its escorts to do the same.

[Alan Phipps]

My tip would be to kill or bail out the leader first and as quickly as you can; that tends to confuse the followers for a while as they debate who is the next leader and then what to do about you after that is decided. This short period of confusion leads to further opportunities!

It's actually quite realistic in that respect!

[Praefectus classis]

It's the weapons that count - quick shield reduction and slow hull reduction but with lots of impacts - and not so much the ship. A Buster has probably better weapon options and combat survivability than a Disco but, either way, just keep trying.

You were right. I've managed to capture a few, now. The real trick is not capturing them for me ; it's simply finding some that are not among a cluster of 5-6, in which case I'm often outnumbered and overpowered. Even if I'm starting with the one most at the back and hit no one else, they always all turn on me.

For groups, try the following. Carry a few mosquito missiles with you. Check the speeds of the other ships. Fire one mosquito missile at one of the ships from a distance. They get their attention without destroying them. If you fly away they will follow and gaps develop between the ships because of the different speeds. You can then attempt capture or take out the smaller, faster, less valuable ships first. You may have to rinse and repeat a few times. This works best if your ship is faster than the opposition.