Minotaur trying to capture an Akuma -> Mission impossible

[Horrigan]

Hello,

I'm trying to cap a damn Akuma for hours now, I've a 100% failure rate my boarding always explode even If I launch 100000 flails (fictional number but you get the idea). I've a savegame with a 0% shield Akuma 27km from my ship. So I launch about 10 flails, 1 pod, then 2-3 flails and a flail each few seconds, the moment the first volley explodes the shield is low enough for boarding but every damn time my pod explodes.. I even tried to overkill and launch all my flails and a pod between them and it just can't touch the ship. What's going on?

Thanks!

[Rathion]

1. Are you using any scripts?

2. If you press F3 (to view the target ship up close) do you see the Akuma shooting at the pod or does it just blow up as it hits the ship and you don't hear "reached target ship" ?

I've never had any problems capping Akumas with a Kraken, but I doubt it would have anything to do with the ship.

[xalien]

Send fighter drones before sending pods to distract it's turrets and turn on SETA when your pods get closer.

[delray]

Make him follow you, he won't shoot at the Pod at all.

And check my guide (in my sig) out for step-by-step instructions.

[Horrigan]

Only scripts I've is MARS turret control and CAG.

And I just confirmed with F3, the ship really shoots the pod with its front guns. The first volley is basically useless since the time I need to equip the pod leave the pod all alone between the 2 volley with a huge "Shoot me" poster on the front.

From what I read from Delray's guide the drone was like not really necessary, like just a bonus.

EDIT: I was following your guide and the Akuma is following me.

Oh and the big guy have FAA mounted they will instant kill the drones, no?

[delray]

MARS.

Well, you wanted more challenging game and you have it. Get Drones.

[Horrigan]

Well I uninstalled MARS (I run the uninstall script and the upgrade is no longer on my ship so I guess it's good) and the Akuma still shoots my pod and can even shoot a whole barrage of hammerheads. And he still following me.

WTH this is ridiculous, same thing is happening against a shuri the guy repelled 2 barrages of hammerhead without a scratch.. this is useless. I don't understand the "I-Win" button I heard around about the M7M..

[kurush]

WTH this is ridiculous, same thing is happening against a shuri the guy repelled 2 barrages of hammerhead without a scratch.. this is useless. I don't understand the "I-Win" button I heard around about the M7M..

It is "I win" in vanilla. You probably didn't disable the script properly or something. I have yet to find a capital ship in this game that would try to shot missiles while flying directly to you (may be Khaak but they are not cappable anyway).

[aka1nas]

MARS is only available on NPC ships if you enable it through the AL menu. Do you have Gazz's missile defense Mk2 installed as well? That one is global and still gives a fair boost to turret missile defense.

[Grishnak]

The OP is right about the cap ship shooting down missles and boarding pods, same thing happened to me when I was boarding my Python. What I ended up doing is sending a fairly large barrage of flails, switch to boarding pods, launch 4 of them, and send a bunch more flails right behind it, only 1 pod got through, but its all I needed. I also have MARS script. I read somewhere that there was a way to enable/disable NPC ships using it, but I dont know how, and I know I never enabled it for NPC's. Mebey its something new with the 2.1 patch? I never boarded before hand, so I just assumed thats how it worked. :/

It is do able though, and I dont think you lose your marines if they shoot down the pods, mine just ended up floating around in space :E

[Horrigan]

No I don't have that missile defense mkII script.. what is the AL menu btw?

[Rhavin]

Missile Defense MK2 is included in the MARS scripts, it has quite a few surprises, like a Xenon K successfully shooting down every single missile from 5 bombers simultaneously. (my personal combat mod is partly responsible for that though)

AL (Artificial life) menu can be found under Esc->gameplay->AL menu (on the bottom). I think you need to have the script editor active for the menu to appear, not completely sure.

And boy was I surprised when that Kraken shot down my boarding pod with a Flail... simply awesome

[arcana75]

My combat rank is Battlemaster, and I also found that M7M boarding ops against capships to be impossible.

Using F3 camera and hundreds of missiles + 100 drones I could see quite clearly the ship's bullets taking out hammers and pods even with drones swarming and flails all over the place and incoming.

The guns just decide to re-prioritise.

I've tried to cap 5 Hoshis and 5 Akumas in my Kraken consecutively from this patrol mission I picked up and all have failed. The mission is still spawning tho (sector still have 4 Yaki caps).

The nearest I got was 4% but the guns took out all my pods.

I've even tried at 3KM range, and hammers and pods dun survive the trip. Neither do I tho cuz my shields can't take the hammering for long.

At one rank below Battlemaster I actually found it easier to cap an M7 with FAA using my Hyperion Vanguard. "Kite" the ship and lower shields with CIG, then fly head on, take the FAA barrage until u pass minimum range (where FAA won't fire), launch marines. Got my Agamemnon this way.

[Gazz]

Yes, Mk2 is included in MARS. All it does is enable AI ships to shoot at missiles at all.
It doesn't really take more than that.

In vanilla they do that once in a blue moon. If ever.
And zero missile defense is simply ridiculous in a game where M7M exist.

Why should a turret waste time with an IRE-equipped fighter drone while a 300k damage missile or a boarding pod full of marines is incoming?
And it's incoming on a straight and easy to intercept course.

What would you decide to target if you were the turret gunner?
Keep shooting the fighter drone while admiring all those marvellous missile trails? Ohhhhh pretty!

[delray]

It's actually very logical and happens in nature too.

If there are enough Drones and Flails, the gunner in the turret is like an eagle hunting for bats basically. Too many targets at once flying in all directions quickly switching places... so he can't focus on ANY of them and have to just shoot blind in front of him hoping to hit something.

It would be silly if the guy or the computer there was able to single out one particular torpedo or one pod in that crowd, target it, track it and shoot it.

[ak2507]

Give it a different try.
Launch your pod. 4-6 flails in quick succession and after that immediately hit SETA.
See if this works.

[Nanook]

....
It would be silly if the guy or the computer there was able to single out one particular torpedo or one pod in that crowd, target it, track it and shoot it.

I agree. And it's even sillier to think that a pod full of marines that you spent several game days and 5+ million credits to train up to level 5 would appear that way to an enemy. At the very least, it should be 'spoofed' as just another flail missile, if not made almost invisible. To have the enemy turrets prioritize boarding pods over anything else is just plain, well, sadistic!

[idaeus]

... and it would kinda defeat the entire purpose of using boarding pods.

In all my captures using my Cobra (about 40 so far, although I've stopped counting) I can only recall maybe one or two boarding pods being shot down. To my mind, that is about the right ratio considering the time and investment in hammer/flail complexes and marine training costs.

[arcana75]

... and it would kinda defeat the entire purpose of using boarding pods.

In all my captures using my Cobra (about 40 so far, although I've stopped counting) I can only recall maybe one or two boarding pods being shot down. To my mind, that is about the right ratio considering the time and investment in hammer/flail complexes and marine training costs.

May I ask what your combat rank is?

I've been having trouble with M7Ms and wonder if it's due to my combat rank.

[Gazz]

I agree. And it's even sillier to think that a pod full of marines that you spent several game days and 5+ million credits to train up to level 5 would appear that way to an enemy.

Every missile in X3 broadcasts it's type to all interested parties.

If a missile is incoming to your ship you will always see which kind.

At the very least, it should be 'spoofed' as just another flail missile, if not made almost invisible. To have the enemy turrets prioritize boarding pods over anything else is just plain, well, sadistic! :roll:

Well, in the MD Mk2 it's not given priority as in "shoot nothing else".
Such single minded scripts are fooled all too easily, as the Egosoft "missile defense" has proven.

A boarding pod is not outright ignored, however, and it shouldn't be. It's a higher threat than a Hammerhead because that would only destroy the ship. The marines could capture it, and the owners would eventually face their own ship in battle.

I don't want to implement complicated rules for when or whether to ignore specific missiles.
MD Mk2 is intended to draw about the same CPU power as a regular turret script and therefore can not be much smarter without defeating it's purpose.

I only fixed the deadlock that sometimes prevented turrets from firing at anything at all and allowed switching to another missile before the previous one was destroyed.
Without the latter, missile defense is not possible.

That missiles are easy to hit isn't my fault.