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

[Al]

OK perhaps I should have said:

In general I actually like using keyboards, its just the one I use that I seriously dislike!

Better?

Al

PS I'm at work where I've been since 8am and I haven't stopped yet. I dont know anything about nothing except I'm hungry

[(/\)arped]

I get it now.

[Warpedshark]

I like keyboards because of the precise-ness of them.
Sweet guide Al I read it ages ago and neva bothered to reply in my eagerness to do sum capping. Now that i am a fairly decent capper i have returned.

[IvanT]

Great to see you giving X2 a piece of your legendary capturing skills Al..

Looking forward to seeing how you handle the might of X2 v1.4.. let us know how you get on.. You think things are easy for you now.. ... ....

[lighty68]

:evil:i wish i read this 2 weeks ago,i cannot believe the amount of ships i have destroyed to capture a few .right im off to make some moolah,centaur here i come and many thanks.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

Anyone tried capping in a Dragon??

The number of times I have heard the pilot about to bail and then they blow up in a ball of hot plasma.

I have been considering getting a bunch of mass drivers for capping ships in my Dragon. Anyone got any experience with this?

[Al]

Great to see you giving X2 a piece of your legendary capturing skills Al..

Looking forward to seeing how you handle the might of X2 v1.4.. let us know how you get on.. You think things are easy for you now.. ... ....

Long time no see Ivan

I look forward to the challenge of 1.4! I have stopped using Ions for most of my capturing as it has been driving me nuts just constantly firing away aftre getting them down to 87% hull. I'm currently trying out using hepts to keep the shields down but trying not to damage the hull too much is difficult. I need to get some low power lasers installed in my Nova.

Mind you its all irrelevant at the moment as until I figure out why the Pc keeps crashing I aint going to get much playing time.

Al

[Al]

Anyone tried capping in a Dragon??

The number of times I have heard the pilot about to bail and then they blow up in a ball of hot plasma.

I have been considering getting a bunch of mass drivers for capping ships in my Dragon. Anyone got any experience with this?

I believe PJK did a lot of capping in a Dragon but I might be mistaken. The problem of having ships with turrets is that you can stop firing at will but they will continue until the ship becomes friendly and at this point there can easily be enough shots in flight to destroy an unshielded ship.

Perhaps using the strafe drive as soon as you see/hear the ship becoming yours might help. Or perhaps installing lower power lasers in the turrets?

Al

[jaketus]

I too upgraded from 1.0 to 1.3 and was stunned about the change to capturing. Actually this change totally ruined the game for me. After playing like a maniac for 2 weeks and gotten really hooked into the game and specially to capping I did the patching and after that its been a week since I last played and no hurry back. Attacked a pirate base, shot ~15 ships below 87% and proceeded to do the Ion thingie and after 1,5h got one mandalay and one bayamon while I was going after&targeting the Orinocos = boring as hell, no fun whatsoever. Tried capturing for about 5h and results were about nonexistent.

Is there any script/cheat/whatever to make the capturing the same in 1.3 as it was in 1.0? If not then I guess thats it then for me and x2
If someone finds it fun playing 1h to get a single capture then Im happy for them but for me it isnt. The positive side is of course that my fast evolved addiction to X2 was wiped out in a flash after the upgrade. Hopefully 1.4 does something to this so I guess Ill just wait for that unless I find some other way to make the capping fun again.

[Captain_Elson]

Al I need Help with my capturing.
A.I'm so poor i can't afford a Ion
B. My combo is 1 GIRE, 1GPAC on a buster (3 5MW)
C. when i get cash my Sector trade uses it (trying to build capital for a factory)
Any Advice for this newbie to your capture kingdom? besides restart cause i'm on start # 1999

[Al]

Advice? Yeah plenty. Firstly probably the most important thing to do is get the buster upgraded to max speed asap. 15Mw shields is plenty as long as you can stay out of the fire most of the time.

What I'd recommend is heading to Split Fire and docking at a station and saving. There should be plenty of pirate traffic coming through that sector. I'd stay away from pirate ships as the turret will make life difficult in that ship at the moment. Try and find a small group of pirate fighters and provided they are reasonably far away head towards and save at the closest station.

Now select your target carefully, making sure its not the lead ship in the group. this will normally be the heaviest fighter (but no always). Pick a ship from the back of the group preferably a Mandalay to start with. Get in behind the group and in a position to get a clear shot at your target. Now its time to make your move. Close in a little more and fire at it. Try and get the shields down on the first pass although this doesn't matter too much. Move away from the group and you should find that the rest carry on without attacking.

Now the most important part is to try and avoid its fire. Its probably going to be relatively quick although you should have the edge on it. Everytime it comes in to attack move so that it misses and then turn to get on its tail. If its a slow ship make sure you drop your speed accordingly.

Once you are behind you want to fire enough to get the shields down and then damage the hull a little. The golden number is 87% and at any time after this there is a random chance of the pilot bailing out. Get the shields down and try not to damage the hull too much. You might want to switch to just the IRE at this point. Let the shields build back up a little and then take them down again. If the hull gets too damaged its best to kill it odd and then find another target.

The other alternative is to use missiles. a single wasp will strip the shields on a Mandalay and 2 will do the same for a Bayamon. Then get in quick with the IRE and see how you get on.

Good luck

HTH

Al

[gmac]

So is it possible to capture corvettes like the centaur?

[pjknibbs]

So is it possible to capture corvettes like the centaur?

Nothing larger than an M3 can be captured in the normal course of events. The only exception is the Xenon K--when you get one spawned as part of a "Please help me escape the Xenon!" BBS mission, THOSE are capturable. Normal ones aren't.

[WPI2010]

I can get their hull down to 60% and they refuse to eject. I've tried this a dozen times now and they just dont leave their ship. What am I doing wrong???

[pjknibbs]

I can get their hull down to 60% and they refuse to eject. I've tried this a dozen times now and they just dont leave their ship. What am I doing wrong???

Not being patient enough, or else not taking on enough targets at once. For example, if I shoot up a pirate base with, say, 30 assorted ships inside, I can expect to capture maybe half of them before I get so bored with trying that I blow the rest up and move on--that will take about 3/4 hour of near continuous Ion Disruptor blasting, too!

If you're lucky (as I was last night), you can get a ship to bail on the first pass. (Got a Boron Barracuda with 2 BHEPTs intact which is going to do duty as my capping ship from now on!). Otherwise it can take AGES...

[redeye]

Excellent guide, Al. Doubt i would have ever cottoned onto using just the IonDs for capping.

One side effect of the Ions destoying ships equipment is that you can usually tell how much longer you have to wait.

The Ions seem to destroy weapons and shields gradually as well as engine upgrades. The majority of ships dont seem to want to bail till you wipe out their last shield. Its not much to go on, but scanning a ship you're trying to cap and noticing he is loosing weapons and / or shields can make it a bit less frustrating.

This can also be used to neutralise any rogue ships of a race you dont want to piss off. I dont know how it started, but an Argon Mercury pissed off one of my factories recently, noticed the bugger had gone red so just went and wasted him before he started causing trouble. I forgot to reset the friend foe settings on the lasertowers for that factory though (second factory i built, before i realised what a waste of space they were) and so i ended up with another 3 or 4 mercurys red before i sorted it out.

Not wanting to really piss off the Argon...

Spoiler

Show

They're the closest chance i have to buy the Khaak weapon and defence info

...I just kept blasting all 4 with Ions until thier weapons were destroyed.

Although i do admit to going back and wasting the little beggars later when i have sufficient rank to get the above info

[pjknibbs]

The Ions seem to destroy weapons and shields gradually as well as engine upgrades. The majority of ships dont seem to want to bail till you wipe out their last shield. Its not much to go on, but scanning a ship you're trying to cap and noticing he is loosing weapons and / or shields can make it a bit less frustrating.

Incorrect. The amount of equipment left in the ship has no relation to whether the pilot will bail or not. The reason most captures have no equipment left is because the equipment disappears AFTER the ship is captured--try hitting I then U when your target starts announcing he's going to surrender and watch all the equipment just vanish!

[JamieKnowles]

I think the Ejectee takes the stuff with them.

Damn big pockets in those space suits ya know.

[(/\)arped]

Been capping quite a lot recently, and have found some useful ways (On top of AI's ideas) to capture ships well.
First, I've come up with someGolden Rules

These are:

- Never, NEVER, attack a ship with fighter drones onboard. Any TS except pirate vessels will attack you with them. They aren't hard to kill, but will lower your rating with the attacked race tenfold. My advice: Check their cargo. (Buy a freight scanner to do so.)
- To avoid losing your police license every five minutes, only capture ships from races that are different from the sector that you are in. E.G. Only capture Boron ships outside boron space.
- Capping near capital ships is fine. They won't attack you. They don't care!


The following are alternate ways to cap. (Alternate to AI's guide at the beginning of this topic.) Note to AI: Please don't be offended that I've 'added' to your amazing guide, but these ways are more for people who want to cap quickly.

- Lately, I've used a combination of one Ion D and one AIRE. This might sound crazy, but the AIRE whittles the hull of the victim to the magical 87% (Heavens open, angels sing) and then keeps inflictin damage. However, it is at such a slow rate that it usually has no big effect. Due to the added hull damage (As well as being pounded with Ion fire) the pilot is more likely to jump ship.

- I have been practicing this on Boron Dolphins and have capped around a dozen, with two being destroyed (one I crashed into and the other just wouldn't eject.)
All of the ones that I capped were in the mid seventies to 87% (Heavens open, angels sing) except the first one I capped, which was around 30%. (Still practicing the technique, you see.)

Also, because this method doesn't need reallllly long bursts of Ion D, I capped one of those ships with all three 25mw shields!

The following are things that I'm looking into that may make pilots more likely to eject:

- Distance from destination: Ships with a sector or more to travel were more likely to eject than the ships whose destination was in thar sector.

- Race: Probably affects nothing, but on my game Boron eject LEAST often.

- Cargo: Ships with cargo seem to be capped easier than those without. Odd.

NOTE: The last three points may not work, but they seem to.

Well, that's about it. Tell me what you think. Especially AI. I want to see what the 'Capture Guru' (Heavens open, angels sing) ( ) thinks.

P.S. Don't be put off by the length. It's all good.

[Al]

I actually attack a fair number of ships that have drones on board and as long as they are fighters they very rarely drop them.

Using a lowpower laser or PSGT is well documented. I believe it helps with the speed of capture although obviously you lose remaining hull of any captureed ship in the process..

Al

Ps excuse the bad spelling etc but CAMRA beer festivals have that effect!

Al