[TC] Capping Mercenaries

[Xander Cade]

Two questions on two different subjects here...

1. Are the Mercenary ships spawned for Protect missions different variants?

I ask this because during a recent mission two pilots bailed and after the fight I noticed that their ships were not showing as "Nova" and "Harrier Hauler", as I expected, but "Mercenary Nova" and "Mercenary Harrier Hauler". Once claimed they were identified as "Your Nova" and "Your Harrier Hauler" respectively. I didn't have access to an Argon Shipyard to cross check the stats (and I sold the Harrier), but they do have pirate paint-jobs.

2. I'm playing the Poisoned Paranid start and have been mercilessly pirating the ugly bastards. I finally got to Omicron Lyrae and, while trying to cap a Paranid freighter the Vindicator's (Exterminator? The Final Fury guy) wing came up on my radar with a legal and oh-so desirable target - Paranid Merc Medusa Prototype. Excited to get my hands on one of those (I've never seen them for sale and never flying around until now, I only know about the one you can get from doing the Duke's missions), I saved and then tried to capture it. 16 attempts later and I find myself here... The problem isn't so much that my ship is ill-equipped for the task, although I do wish I could afford more firepower for this fight, but that the pilot appears to be suicidal. 16 fights and he has died the same way 16 times - shooting his own missiles. This has happened when he has had as much as 80% Shield or as little as 80% Hull. I did see him once knock his own shields down from 90% to 5%... and then blow up a moment later when he fired another missile into the path of his own turrets.

This is really getting frustrating. Especially since he doesn't seem to want to fire missiles at me unless I'm in weapons range. Is this the only Medusa Prototype I will get the chance to cap? Even if it isn't, any suggestions on how to prevent him killing himself?

[garv222]

As far as I know those pilots don't bail. What you might not have noticed also is that all those merc ships in Omicron Lyrae are OVERTUNED fighters. I tried to get them to bail many times, but I just gave up. You've got your overtuned hyperion or you will soon. You won't need those overtuned merc ships anyway because even if you Reverse engineered them the resulting blueprint would still be stock.

[rafaelskywalker]

Wait a second...

You won't need those overtuned merc ships anyway because even if you Reverse engineered them the resulting blueprint would still be stock.

Does that apply only to those merc ships or ANY overtuned ship you cap is re-engineered to stock?

[pjknibbs]

Any. REing a ship effectively adds a blueprint for the completely untuned version of that ship.

[TBV]

If you're after the prototype/enhanced versions of ships, look for the ones
named ".....Trader".

If you're determined to find out if it's possible to cap mercs, make sure
your ship is faster than any missile he has that can harm you, by scanning him
first.
Switch your turrets off, and get him to fire all his missiles at you. This
may be annoying and take a while, but what's the alternative?

When his missiles are gone, save the game from there and keep trying.

[Alan Phipps]

The Merc ships are the Pirate variant ship both in paint job and specs. You can indeed get at least the ones from Corporate mission spawns to bail or board them but if you RE them you will only get standard Pirate spec ships. The only reason to keep them after capture is that the game voice will refer to them as 'Mercenary ....' even after capture. I just rename any I capture by putting 'Mercenary' instead of 'Your' and I have a small fleet of them including some Mercenary Osprey and Centaur that I call my 'Non-attributable Hit Squad' and use for dirty jobs (as roleplay only). I have yet to see if post-2.6/7 you get Mercenary Galleon or Brigantine in Corporation Station defence missions.

[Xander Cade]

The problem is, TBV, that the little bastard only seems to want to fire missiles at me when I am in range of his weapons, meaning he is shooting at me when he fires the missile and blows himself away.

I think you mean the High Tech Traders, or the Weapons Dealers. I know that one or the other of those is the Enhanced variety, but I don't remember hearing that they could spawn as the Prototypes. As I said, the only Prototype Medusa I know about for certain is the one you get from the Duke's missions. If I can get a Prototype Medusa from elsewhere I'll leave this guy alone. On the other hand, I didn't know it was overtuned (still illegal for me to scan in Argon space... even if I could afford to purchase a Freight Scanner, which is a moot point since I don't have the rep to buy them yet), and I am sure that would be a nice upgrade to my Skate Prototype.

The Mercenary Nova did come from an Atreus Station Defence mission. I didn't notice the voice thing, but that's really cool. I am thinking I might get myself a wing of Mercenary ships too now. I wasn't expecting them to be something different to normal Pirate variants, but I had to ask.

[StarTroll]

I think you mean the High Tech Traders, or the Weapons Dealers. I know that one or the other of those is the Enhanced variety, but I don't remember hearing that they could spawn as the Prototypes. As I said, the only Prototype Medusa I know about for certain is the one you get from the Duke's missions. If I can get a Prototype Medusa from elsewhere I'll leave this guy alone. On the other hand, I didn't know it was overtuned (still illegal for me to scan in Argon space... even if I could afford to purchase a Freight Scanner, which is a moot point since I don't have the rep to buy them yet), and I am sure that would be a nice upgrade to my Skate Prototype.

You don't need a freight scanner to see the stats of a ship, just go to the ship sheet by choosing the infomation option when you target it. The scanner serves to know what kind of cargo the ships transports as well as equiped weapons, shields, softwars and avaiable missiles.

[Xander Cade]

Without a scanner, what reason would I have to look at the ship's info page when I already know what the ship is?

Nobody has been able to answer the big question though - Aside from the Duke's reward, is this the only Medusa Prototype around?

I have now gotten to the point that I can fly around Omicron Lyrae without any trouble from him, but if I fire so much as an IRE at any more Paranid ships he will attack me and any of my assets in the System (resulting in me losing a ship and the Argons obliterating him). I have to do something about him now.