The AP 2.0 vanilla Xenon capping thread

[gecos]

Alright ladies (wonder if it's the case ) and gentlemen, after much thread answering and research it still looks like experience with Xenon capping (as in capturing ships using marines, not bails made by forcing the damn AIs download themselves out of their fighter) differs from player to player in X3 AP 2.0.
So I'm starting this thread to allow all players with DIRECT XENON CAPPING EXPERIENCE EXCLUSIVELY IN AP 2.0 VANILLA to share information about their capping experience. Let me emphasize please, players who capped Xenon ships in TC or other X games are welcomed to read but please do not post it as it will very likely not be relevant any more. Players who capped Xenon ships in modified games, please do not post as again we cannot be sure it is relevant. Players who capped Xenon ships before patch 2.0 in AP, please mention this as it has at least a slight chance of being relevant. Players who heard other players/read about Xenon caps please do not post hearsay, I'd like to keep this thread with verified direct experience for Xenon capping. I for once can back it up with a save game.

Here goes mine:

AP 2.0
Xenon P (Sector Getsu Fune)
Decks: 3
Installed equipment on P : Duplex scanner (nothing else)
Marines used: 8 5* 100 skill in everything including fighting
Method of boarding: Space walk
Boarding ship: Springblossom
Ships involved in fight: Springblossom
Player rank: Master Chief
Number of reloads: over 150
Results: success - I didn't lose a single marine from deck 1 to finish and managed to capture the P.

AP 2.0
Xenon Q (Zyarth's Dominion)
Decks: 4
Installed equipment on Q : Duplex scanner (nothing else)
Marines used: 21 5* 100 skill in everything including fighting
Method of boarding: Boarding pods
Boarding ship: Sirokos
Ships involved in fight: Springblossom
Player rank: Master Chief
Number of reloads: > 1000 (spent a weekend Friday- Sunday only on this)
Results: success - Lost a single marine on deck 1 but finished the capture with 20 and managed to capture the Q.

AP 2.0
Xenon J (Xenon Sector 597)
Decks: 5
Installed equipment on J : Duplex scanner (nothing else)
Marines used: 21 5* 100 skill in everything including fighting
Method of boarding: Boarding pods
Boarding ship: Sirokos
Ships involved in fight: Agamemnon + Springblossom
Player rank: Master Chief
Number of reloads: ~30
Results: success - Lost 2 marines on deck 1 but finished the capture with 19 and managed to capture the J; failed on all previous rounds and since I had an I and K nearby that were next for capping, decided to stay with 2 losses and move on.

AP 2.0
Xenon I (Xenon Sector 597)
Decks: 5
Installed equipment on I : Duplex scanner (nothing else)
Marines used: 21 5* 100 skill in everything including fighting
Method of boarding: Boarding pods
Boarding ship: Sirokos
Ships involved in fight: Agamemnon + Springblossom
Player rank: Master Chief
Number of reloads: 6
Results: success - Lost 1 marine on deck 1 but finished the capture with 20 and managed to capture the I.

AP 2.0
Xenon K (Xenon Sector 597)
Decks: 5
Installed equipment on K : Duplex scanner (nothing else)
Marines used: 21 5* 100 skill in everything including fighting
Method of boarding: Boarding pods
Boarding ship: Sirokos
Ships involved in fight: Agamemnon + Springblossom
Player rank: Master Chief
Number of reloads: 8
Results: success - Lost 1 marine on deck 3 but finished the capture with 20 and managed to capture the K.

Conclusion drawn : It is possible to capture Xenon capitals without reinforcements but it doesn't seem possible to capture them without losses. My best rounds, with 20 survivors, came within the first 30 reloads or so for the Q and J and first 10 reloads for the I and K and it was a singular event; from over 1000 reloads I've managed to capture the Q many times (~5% of tries) with 18 and 19 also (never had 17) and failed with 16 more than once.
Formula seems to be (Max - D)+1, where Max is the maximum number of marines that can board the ship (in my case 21 ) and D is the number of decks of the boarded ship.

[Naroku]

Well 100 reloads take up how much time? Grats now try it on the XENON I.

[Sovereign01]

Out of curiosity, what ship/s were you using to board the P?

I read somewhere that it's now predetermined as soon as your marines board how many will die on each deck, meaning no matter how many times you reload from any point after intially boarding the result will be the same- was that happening with you?

[palm911]

you need 8 * 5 stars marines, + reinforcements. use boarding pods.

Xenons are by far the hardest.

[gecos]

Out of curiosity, what ship/s were you using to board the P?

I read somewhere that it's now predetermined as soon as your marines board how many will die on each deck, meaning no matter how many times you reload from any point after intially boarding the result will be the same- was that happening with you?

1. Springblossom
2. That's correct, predetermined losses from the moment hull is breached, save when it's still saying Cutting Hull and then wait for it to see the results; that's why it takes so long if you want to see it go through and many people don't understand how can you spend 2hrs on that.

[Aidyer]

I did one once, but it sorta failed:

Target Ship: Xenon PX
Sector: Xenon Sector 347
Player Ship: Agamemnon
Boarding Ship: Sirokos
Marines: 12 4-5* marines
Outcome: 6 of them died, PX was at 66% hull and being attacked by other Xenon, so I abandoned that. It was just a test anyway, and I was quite pleased that I (even though painfully) successfully boarded a Xenon PX on my first attempt

[highflier]

Well 100 reloads take up how much time? Grats now try it on the XENON I.

about the same time to train the marines you loose on the I

[Electric]

Hi all,

First I train my marines to 5* and almost 100% in all skills by boarding CW ships, I think there is no point wasting time with 4 stars or less once you have a Xenon in your sights, it just lowers the success rate big time.

I use a Cobra and an OTAS Sirokos as It holds 30 marines and can launch pods, for most CW ships I will just Fly the Cobra but the Xenon ships need more 5* Marines in at the core at the time of hacking, 17 at least it appears. I use hammers to take the shields down to 10% then flails to 0-4%, keep them low I command the Sirokos using piracy mode to start boarding, once the pods have hit target I order it to follow me again to avoid damage to it, once they are in I save and give it some Seta action…

If I fail to board in 5-6 tries I either break off the capture or reload to before I even targeted that ship for boarding, I do this as in my experience some Terran and Xenon capitals are just easier than others, I’m not prepared to try and take something impossible when there are easier targets, I first learnt this lesson with the Osaka, some were easy and take mostly with first go, others wouldn’t break in over 10 reloads, so I’ll walk away so to speak,

Xenon boarded so far, 1 x K (17 Marines made it) and 2 x Px (All 8 Marines Made it)
Cheers

[gecos]

Hi all,

First I train my marines to 5* and almost 100% in all skills by boarding CW ships, I think there is no point wasting time with 4 stars or less once you have a Xenon in your sights, it just lowers the success rate big time.

I use a Cobra and an OTAS Sirokos as It holds 30 marines and can launch pods, for most CW ships I will just Fly the Cobra but the Xenon ships need more 5* Marines in at the core at the time of hacking, 17 at least it appears. I use hammers to take the shields down to 10% then flails to 0-4%, keep them low I command the Sirokos using piracy mode to start boarding, once the pods have hit target I order it to follow me again to avoid damage to it, once they are in I save and give it some Seta action…

If I fail to board in 5-6 tries I either break off the capture or reload to before I even targeted that ship for boarding, I do this as in my experience some Terran and Xenon capitals are just easier than others, I’m not prepared to try and take something impossible when there are easier targets, I first learnt this lesson with the Osaka, some were easy and take mostly with first go, others wouldn’t break in over 10 reloads, so I’ll walk away so to speak,

Xenon boarded so far, 1 x K (17 Marines made it) and 2 x Px (All 8 Marines Made it)
Cheers

I just capped a xenon Q and got the reboot achievement in the process. Used the Springy to take down the shields and then the Sirokos to board. The true achievement is that from the 21 marines who boarded, 1 died on deck 1 and 20 marines made it to core hacking and took the Q. This was on about the 30th and something reload. Tried over 100 but didn't make a run without losses yet. Will continue as I have a hunch it's doable.

[gecos]

Updated first post with new info.

[Electric]

Congrats on the Q Gecos, I still haven’t capped one myself, I have had some great success with the Xenon I tho

Found 3 in my game mostly in core sectors so decided to try and board a battle damaged I in Xenon 101, she was sitting at 48% hull and surrounded by 3 Q’s 2 P’s and a K, took them out first before leaving a cheeky advanced nav sat far behind the gate for the I to move to and destroy, this took her far away from any spawning Q’s, returning with the Cobra and Sirokos I only needed to drop one more Q before making my way to target.

So it was 21 5* maxed marines in the Sirokos, plus 8 4 and 5* marines in the Cobra… dropped her shields to 2% at 9.5km out and ordered the Sirokos to board, quickly re-ordered it to follow after all pods had reached the hull, once they were in and fighting on deck one I launched the 8 from the cobra protecting with flails as normal, then gave it the seta action… 8 reloads, nearly broke off my attempt… and suddenly they reached the core… quick save just encase but she was mine!

Now fully armed and repaired, really enjoying using it too!

This is AP 2.0 - No mods

[WingC3]

I have capped a Xenon P and PX only.

In both cases I boarded using a cobra and boarding pods using 9 5star fighting marines. They were anywhere from 2-5 star in everything else.

I was flying the spring blossom personally.

The fight rank seems most important for M6's, I'm sure hacking is probably more important on the Q and I than on for the M6's.

In both cases I lost a single marine on deck 1 only. It seems impossible to board without losing 1 marine. I have no interest in reloading 1000+ times. Usually 10 is my limit.

In both these cases however, only 1-3 reloads were required.

It is definitely much harder than CW ships. I just got a Hyperion Vanguard yesterday with no losses.. 0 reloads. This has always seemed unrealistic to me since CW ships are populated and Xenon ships are not. It would seem far more realistic if CW ships required high fight ranks whereas Xenon ships required all 5 star hacking to get through the AI.

[gecos]

I have capped a Xenon P and PX only.

In both cases I boarded using a cobra and boarding pods using 9 5star fighting marines. They were anywhere from 2-5 star in everything else.

I was flying the spring blossom personally.

The fight rank seems most important for M6's, I'm sure hacking is probably more important on the Q and I than on for the M6's.

In both cases I lost a single marine on deck 1 only. It seems impossible to board without losing 1 marine. I have no interest in reloading 1000+ times. Usually 10 is my limit.

In both these cases however, only 1-3 reloads were required.

It is definitely much harder than CW ships. I just got a Hyperion Vanguard yesterday with no losses.. 0 reloads. This has always seemed unrealistic to me since CW ships are populated and Xenon ships are not. It would seem far more realistic if CW ships required high fight ranks whereas Xenon ships required all 5 star hacking to get through the AI.

I can confirm it is possible to board non-capital Xenon ships with 0 losses with less than 50 reloads.

[Lazerius]

Just capped my first ever Q (AP 2.0).


Took about 40+ reloads with initial 20 + 1 (The 1 got in late, since I was going from a cobra, had to xfer from my Hyp Van), so I assume that's where most of my issues lied.

Finally got him in with the rest of the crew with zero losses on deck 1, and saved before hitting deck 2.

They say that the losses are determined on initial hull breach and core hacking, but just for grins I loaded my save about 5 times, and finally the last time it was different (the 1st 4 went 21 at deck 2, 18 at deck 3, dead at deck 4), but this time was the same except had 16 at hacking, and they got it on 1st hack attempt with no losses.

This ole girl's ready to be RE'd

[gecos]

Just capped my first ever Q (AP 2.0).


Took about 40+ reloads with initial 20 + 1 (The 1 got in late, since I was going from a cobra, had to xfer from my Hyp Van), so I assume that's where most of my issues lied.

Finally got him in with the rest of the crew with zero losses on deck 1, and saved before hitting deck 2.

They say that the losses are determined on initial hull breach and core hacking, but just for grins I loaded my save about 5 times, and finally the last time it was different (the 1st 4 went 21 at deck 2, 18 at deck 3, dead at deck 4), but this time was the same except had 16 at hacking, and they got it on 1st hack attempt with no losses.

This ole girl's ready to be RE'd

What you're saying is interesting because:

1. You managed to cap the Q with 16 marines while I failed every time with 16 on many many tries. This is worth looking into a bit further. How many decks on your Q? Did the final marine count as reinforcement or joined the fight from Deck1?

2. You capped while saving after hull breach and got a different final result while the number of losses stayed the same. This is probably the rule as only the number of losses is the same every time, hack outcome is separate.

[nUFamn]

I've set up a military outpost in Menelaus' Paradise (ore, energy, more facilities soon) because I enjoy the constant struggle with Xenon coming at me from two angles. I get a battle every 30 minutes or so, and sometimes I get tag-teamed by two squads of Xenon. (The process is wreaking havoc on my capitalistic empire, however, because all my time is now spent fighting rather than SETA'ing profits.)

Anyhow, last night after reading this post, I loaded X3:AP (Mac, vanilla) up and started to get ready for battle. The first Xenon squad flies through the west gate, while my fleet is at the east gate. By the time my fleet traversed the sector to meet them, I witnessed an M pounding on a Boron NPC just in time to see the Boron explode. Afterward, much to my surprise, there's an "M" sitting out in the middle of nowhere, with 2% hull left, colored light blue in the Sector Map. I sent a squad to defend the position and SETA'd because I was getting impatient. Another squad of Xenon fly through the west gate heading toward the same position but appear to be on a more southward trajectory.

Not knowing whether they'd try to re-claim the M (doubtful, but this is still new to me), I quickly saved and prepared for battle. I was hoping they wouldn't re-claim it, and also that stray fire from our inevitable battle wouldn't destroy the little treasure. Anyhow, won the battle, no Xenon left.. I eject and fly over to inspect the M. Claim it, begin flying to my Mammoth (where I store damaged ships), and then hopped back to my Titan. Named the ship, M "Menelaus' Prize", per my normal ship-naming strategy.

I guess the Boron did 98% damage, and the Xenon bailed right as he won? Can't say I can replicate this, obviously. But I'm not unhappy with the result.

[gecos]

I've set up a military outpost in Menelaus' Paradise (ore, energy, more facilities soon) because I enjoy the constant struggle with Xenon coming at me from two angles. I get a battle every 30 minutes or so, and sometimes I get tag-teamed by two squads of Xenon. (The process is wreaking havoc on my capitalistic empire, however, because all my time is now spent fighting rather than SETA'ing profits.)

Anyhow, last night after reading this post, I loaded X3:AP (Mac, vanilla) up and started to get ready for battle. The first Xenon squad flies through the west gate, while my fleet is at the east gate. By the time my fleet traversed the sector to meet them, I witnessed an M pounding on a Boron NPC just in time to see the Boron explode. Afterward, much to my surprise, there's an "M" sitting out in the middle of nowhere, with 2% hull left, colored light blue in the Sector Map. I sent a squad to defend the position and SETA'd because I was getting impatient. Another squad of Xenon fly through the west gate heading toward the same position but appear to be on a more southward trajectory.

Not knowing whether they'd try to re-claim the M (doubtful, but this is still new to me), I quickly saved and prepared for battle. I was hoping they wouldn't re-claim it, and also that stray fire from our inevitable battle wouldn't destroy the little treasure. Anyhow, won the battle, no Xenon left.. I eject and fly over to inspect the M. Claim it, begin flying to my Mammoth (where I store damaged ships), and then hopped back to my Titan. Named the ship, M "Menelaus' Prize", per my normal ship-naming strategy.

I guess the Boron did 98% damage, and the Xenon bailed right as he won? Can't say I can replicate this, obviously. But I'm not unhappy with the result.

Thank you for the nice story but I think there was a small misunderstanding here. This thread is about Xenon caps (M6, M6+, M7, M2, M2+, M1) not Xenon bails (M3, M3+, M4, M5).

[nUFamn]

Woops, my apologies, I'm such a noob.

[dillpickle]

Thank you for the nice story but I think there was a small misunderstanding here. This thread is about Xenon caps (M6, M6+, M7, M2, M2+, M1) not Xenon bails (M3, M3+, M4, M5).

In all fairness, the thread title is 'The AP 2.0 vanilla Xenon capping thread' - capping refers to capturing a ship by boarding or bailing, and your original post only asks for AP 2.0 Vanilla capping stories...

[gecos]

Thank you for the nice story but I think there was a small misunderstanding here. This thread is about Xenon caps (M6, M6+, M7, M2, M2+, M1) not Xenon bails (M3, M3+, M4, M5).

In all fairness, the thread title is 'The AP 2.0 vanilla Xenon capping thread' - capping refers to capturing a ship by boarding or bailing, and your original post only asks for AP 2.0 Vanilla capping stories...

Very well, edited the OP to clear the matter.