X3AP: Xenon L

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999jefro
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X3AP: Xenon L

Post by 999jefro » Sun, 19. May 13, 00:43

Hey Folks

Wondering if there is any easy way to cap the Xenon N on the AP plot, would love to try the 3.0 plot but so far im up to L kill 260 and not a single ejection.

Im beyond looking for legitimate methods is there any way i can cheat hack or exploit myself a Xenon L without getting the Modified tag, This mission is beyond frustrating and is terrible game design.

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Captain Chris sTc
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Post by Captain Chris sTc » Sun, 19. May 13, 00:44

use less powerful weapons if you keep killing it, might help.
no idea how to cheat one to continue the mission.

999jefro
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Post by 999jefro » Sun, 19. May 13, 00:49

ive been using my khaak corvette that i found with 9 beta kyons in the front and 2 turrets with 2 beta 1 alpha

instazap it to half hull then zap it slowly with 4 betas (about 5% hull per click) until it dies. This method of capping if used on pirates and its worked fine. Id love to try just capping an M1 but i dont have the fleet to do so yet.
Last edited by 999jefro on Sun, 19. May 13, 00:50, edited 1 time in total.

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willyshop
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Post by willyshop » Sun, 19. May 13, 00:49

My advice would be to get a fighter with some PBE's and keep hunting. They drain the shields quickly without wrecking the hull and the high rate of fire seams to increase the probability of a bailout (or whatever xenons do.) The best results I've had are when I just go out to kill as many xenon as I can. Don't flirt around with it, just point everything you have at it and fire.

A big ship with flaks or SSC works well too, since you'll drop their shields super fast and scare the bejesus out of them. Problem is you'll kill half your grey ships.
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TTD
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Post by TTD » Sun, 19. May 13, 01:16

Until you master the techniques needed in X, often you will get something without trying, but when you want to get something, it seems hard.

I tend to just keep at least one of everything until I know I don't need it.

This is why I told someone in another thread, to keep the L he had gained.

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Re: X3AP: Xenon L

Post by DrBullwinkle » Sun, 19. May 13, 03:28

999jefro wrote:so far im up to L kill 260 and not a single ejection.
Wow, that is really hard to accomplish, although you are not the first to report something like that.

Bails happen, on average, about once out of 14 ships or so. Your technique makes some difference -- shoot in bursts with pauses of a few seconds to allow the pilot to bail. While not strictly necessary, shooting in bursts will increase the chance of a bail. As suggested above, a light weapon allows you to try more times before the ship dies.

Flying a larger ship helps to intimidate enemy pilots. If you have an M7 or larger, then you can hunt in Xenon sectors with flak cannons. They will often cause a bail just by accident.

If you are flying a smaller ship, such as M3 or M6, then a couple of players have reported better luck hunting *outside* of Xenon sectors.
  • (Apparently the Xenon are more confident inside their own sectors.)
Border sectors, such as Black Hole Sun and Thyn's Abyss, often have "Defend" missions that spawn Xenon invasions. These are ideal for hunting L's.

Good luck and Kaplah!

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Post by 999jefro » Sun, 19. May 13, 04:23

Thanks for the advice guys, I have a couple of M3+'s lying around ill try one of those kitted out with PBE's and kite some Ls off of a capital then burst there shield down, will also try the defend missions though (although i have already been doing them).

Failing that ill just do up my industry and get it with capital flak like in my last playthrough, le sigh this campaign mission is so frustrating.

Also my mistake it was 160 not 260 I had a brainfart, atleast ill have this to remember.

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Tohron
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Post by Tohron » Sun, 19. May 13, 05:44

My preferred method was to just steamroll through Xenon sectors in an M7M until an L bails. The high burst damage from flails can induce a bail if it doesn't kill them first, so if you plow through enough of them, eventually you'll get lucky.

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Post by tuskenus » Sun, 19. May 13, 08:35

Another advantage to just dragging a large (m7/m2) ship thru a xenon sector and letting caps happen from the turrets is that most of those large ships will also have a docking slot to put your new toy into, as well.

It's just easier than playing with a repair laser in hostile territory, or waiting for the crippled thing to gimp along to safety.

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Post by Solomon Short » Sun, 19. May 13, 08:48

Why would you use the repair laser in a Xenon sector, if you're in a ship with a jumpdrive & some spare eCells you can just jump it to another sector.

Admittedly this will tend to cost the fighter you went hunting in, unless you use the Jumprdrive-Transporter exploit, but for an L, I would (hell, I just relearned it in my AP game so I could get the Kha'ak Corvette out of US[17,9]).

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Post by Taniniver » Sun, 19. May 13, 09:28

I got one yesterday, whilst still maintaining my Harmless 0% fight rank - here's how.

I spotted a Xenon patrol in Grand Exchange - a P leading 7 L, 7 M and a couple of LX. Luckily they were heading towards some Argon military, otherwise I guess I could have jumped in an M2 of my own to distract them.

Installed just 4 PACs in the front of my Hyperion Vanguard, all turrets set to missiles only. Went for the closest L, attacked it until the hull was down to about 5%, no bail. Didn't finish it off, moved onto the next one - keep attacking them fairly slowly so you don't finish them off. After a while all 7 of them were down to 5% hull or less, none bailed. Reload, repeat. It took 6 attempts at attacking these same 7 L before I got one to bail.

Then I claimed it and another nearby Xenon promptly killed it, doh! Lucky I made a save after it bailed. Reload, I left it unclaimed and led the rest of the Xenon to their deaths at the hands of the nearby military before going back to claim it.

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Post by tuskenus » Sun, 19. May 13, 09:54

Solomon Short wrote:Why would you use the repair laser in a Xenon sector, if you're in a ship with a jumpdrive & some spare eCells you can just jump it to another sector.
Because you're left without a jump drive. I'm not saying it's the only way to do it, just that it's easier to have a ship to dock your new toys in if you go out capping.

I tend to push towards having a 'base ship' m7 or m2 as soon as possible anyway, tho - so it's not as if I'm outfitting a Kyoto to just get an L, or something.

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Post by Earth Ultimatum IV. » Sun, 19. May 13, 09:57

It´s very very easy, just do some combat missions where Xenons are involved. Make sure that your weapons are divided into groups, switch to weak group after destroying shields of that L. Use any M3 for this. Myself, the very first L which I found bailed. I kept it for myself and later used for that story mission.

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Post by Solomon Short » Sun, 19. May 13, 10:57

tuskenus wrote:
Solomon Short wrote:Why would you use the repair laser in a Xenon sector, if you're in a ship with a jumpdrive & some spare eCells you can just jump it to another sector.
Because you're left without a jump drive. I'm not saying it's the only way to do it, just that it's easier to have a ship to dock your new toys in if you go out capping.

I tend to push towards having a 'base ship' m7 or m2 as soon as possible anyway, tho - so it's not as if I'm outfitting a Kyoto to just get an L, or something.
Well as I sort of implied, the L is more valuable than most fighters you could cap one with, so I was assuming you'd transfer everything to the L, Jump out, then do the repairs whilst another ship comes to provide you with faster transport, ditching the ship you did the capping from.

Edit: it should be noted, that in TC I generally preferred to go after Ls (& pretty much any other fighter that didn't have PBGs) with a 4 IRE-armed discoverer hauler.

Obviously I've never really been into DiD.

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Post by JoeVN09 » Sun, 19. May 13, 12:03

Lots of lighter guns seem to work best for me -- PACs, PRGs and PBE. I suspect those beta Kyons are a bit heavy for efficient capping.

Since it's easier to use those with fighters, you might consider hanging around the borders of xenon sectors, e.g. Eighteen Billion or Black Hole Sun, looking specifically for Xenon Patrol or Xenon Defence missions. Those will likely throw enemies at you in more manageable numbers than ploughing headlong into xenon territory.
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abskons
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Post by abskons » Sun, 19. May 13, 23:32

Why use light guns when you can use heavy ones...put 8 PBG on your M6 and camp on Black Hole Sun for some Xenon invasion (they're very frequent)...when they come go for a L...usually a single burst rips off more then 50% of it's hull which is enough for them to bail...

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Post by Killjaeden » Sun, 19. May 13, 23:40

Because each hit has a chance triggering the bailing -> the more hits the more often you have a chance. And the less damage-> the more chances.

For capping in vanilla i always used heavy guns (HEPT or so) to quickly burn shields down, and then switch to something lighter and nibble at the hull until 60%, after that i kill them and move on. If they havent bailed on 60% chances are high that they wont ever bail.
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DrBullwinkle
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Post by DrBullwinkle » Sun, 19. May 13, 23:44

I wonder if PBG's register as multiple hits due to their area effect?
  • (If so, then it could be a great idea that I have never seen suggested before.)

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Post by abskons » Mon, 20. May 13, 15:49

DrBullwinkle wrote:I wonder if PBG's register as multiple hits due to their area effect?
  • (If so, then it could be a great idea that I have never seen suggested before.)
That and the fact that when they hit is during like a second or 1.5 sec...maybe that also counts as multiple hits...then multiply that by 8 PBG and that's a very effective way to bail L's :)

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