[3.xx] How to cap a missile spamming Balor?

[VincentTH]

I've got a Cartel Boss Vulnerable mission, and it spawned a Baylor as the target, with another Baylor as escort, and an escort of Katanas. I have no problem getting rid of the escort and capping the escort Balor.

However, the mark Baylor keeps spamming missiles. It also appears that the Novadrone launchers are not targetable, such that it is impossible to disable them. Every time I go near 8km, it spams 4 missiles that are not targetable by the Skunk (and as such cannot be shot down). That makes it impossible to cap the Balor without losing marines (because one cannot do Yisha's mini-games during boarding). The only way to kill it is to Novadrone spam myself and killed it.

Any idea on how to cap a Novadrone spamming Balor? Please enclose tips in Spoiler please.

[Clownmug]

If you aim slightly in front of the missiles you can shoot them down with 1-2 hits from an Inertial Hammer or an even easier way is just sweeping around them with a Heavy Laser. If you're still having problems try avoiding them by periodically boosting away from the Balor then coming back from another direction.

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

Just keep very close to the Balor, circle around it's geometry. The missiles will fly very carefully, trying to avoid the Balor, and probably won't hit you.

[Solomon Short]

Shouldn't you be safe if you park between the engines?

If you then shoot out the turrets (I use tristar missiles), I think a drone hack (once the turrets can't shoot the drone) should shut down the Novadrone launchers long enough for you to board (though I don't think it'll drop the resistance much).

[Ognjen85]

I usually fly all over the place and as long you make hard turns you should not be hit by nova drones. I think that camping inbetween engines might not be good idea...

[VincentTH]

I usually fly all over the place and as long you make hard turns you should not be hit by nova drones. I think that camping inbetween engines might not be good idea...

I tried hiding between the engines, to no avail. The Novadrones looped around and got me .

With the new boarding scheme where your marine pods fly everywhere, you have to go around and disable the guns. Doing that require you to sit at the same place for a good minute in order to disable the guns, which make you perfect target for the Novadrones.

In the old days, I just launched the marines then take refuge somewhere, but now, that is no longer possible to do, as the missiles got me anytime. It would help if Ego allows the player to target incoming missiles, as well as provide a warning system. I can't count how many times I got killed by Drostans!!! Please fix the missile detection/warning system!!!!

[Nanook]

Use sunstalkers or hellbusters to take out the gun turrets from a distance. One or two per turret group should suffice. There aren't that many on a Balor so you should be able to do it quickly. Then as suggested, destroy the drone launch bay to eliminate the Novadrones (that's where they come from which is why you don't see any missile tubes). After that, just hack it once with the trojan drone to lower the shields and you're practically done.

[GCU Grey Area]

Agree with Nanook on this - missiles are definitely the way to go for disarming an angry Balor. Only difference in approach is I'd recommend using swarm missiles for the job - after launch the separate warheads diverge & each warhead homes in on a different target (e.g. turret or shield generator). A single Tristar, or a couple of Astrobees, is often sufficient to knock out ALL the turrets on one side of a Balor in a single high speed attack run. Both attack runs can be completed in a matter of seconds, leaving the target effectively unarmed (except for it's novadrone launchers) & ready for the boarding op. Much quicker & safer than trying to eliminate the turrets individually with guns.

[Simoom]

Use sunstalkers or hellbusters to take out the gun turrets from a distance. One or two per turret group should suffice. There aren't that many on a Balor so you should be able to do it quickly. Then as suggested, destroy the drone launch bay to eliminate the Novadrones (that's where they come from which is why you don't see any missile tubes). After that, just hack it once with the trojan drone to lower the shields and you're practically done.

What Nanook said. Easiest way to board capital ships in general is to use missiles to take out surface elements (especially if the capital ship can launch missiles)

It is always a bad idea to stop and shoot while combating capital ships. You want to keep moving, making fast attack passes. If you have to stop to take out a turret or two, do so quickly. The moment a turret goes down, use the boost button (Tab) to quickly regain speed. Change your direction of attack often so turrets cannot lock onto you.

The Balor is actually fairly easy to board, due to the small number of turrets (and the Novadrones, while annoying, are very slow). What you want to do is go around the back of the ship and shoot out the engines first (get up close and the turrets won't be able to hit you). Once the engines are down, quickly take out the jump drive then the turrets.

After the turrets are down, quickly launch the boarding pods and fly far away (at least 10KM). NPC ships will NOT use missiles against boarding pods, so your marines will be safe. Once all the marines have landed, you can just wait it out.

If the game prompts you to hack the ship (to help with boarding process), you can launch the Trojan drone from far away. The Balor will not use its missiles against a remote drone.

[Araknis]

Balors are ideal for perfect cap, since all their guns are in the front side.
Meaning you leave ALL surface elements alive to use at the minigame.
Plus they have low boarding resistance so you dont have to touch the hull at all.
You can hide at the engines but you need to be careful for a few seconds (20 or so) for the already launched missiles, which are so slow you can shoot down with your guns.
After you deal with the missiles it is safe to stay behind the engines and launch your trojan drone.
Stick like glue on the hull and you wont be hit by guns
Here is the way to hack it and stay alive, obviously engines are already disabled.
Not my perfect cap but you ll get the idea.

http://youtu.be/vKmgGO-6bKg

The second way is by doing a fly by.
You need safe space and be quick with hacking,
You need to first destroy the guns in one side, have the skunk keep flying when you do something else (you can enable that from options), then full speed to fly by near the balor, just before you are on top of it, launch drone and go hack.
Your skunk will keep flying straight drawing all the missiles which cannot reach it.
Obviously speed hacking is of great importance here because your skunk will be out of range of your drone soon.
I dont have a vid of that way, i did it twice in DV.
Its not as difficult as it seems to be though.
I use the first way since i dont wanna destroy any surface elements.

[ezra-r]

novadrones are slow, you just need to move around without stopping, the moment you stop for long, you are dead, otherwise, not that hard, just look at the radar and keep flying around the balor

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Then as suggested, destroy the drone launch bay to eliminate the Novadrones (that's where they come from which is why you don't see any missile tubes).

I didn't think Balor's had drone bays

[VincentTH]

I will have to load back a save game to see if the capped Balor has a drone bay. I don't recall it ever have one, but if they do, that's a viable solution for the missile spam

[linolafett]

the novadrones are launched from invisible connections at the front of the ship. A dronelaunchpad has nothing to do with that behaviour.

[birdtable]

Who is Sparky .... ?
Does he wear a cape.... ?

[birdtable]

He only appears when confusion reigns...

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

Wouldn't waste missiles on Balors... They are easy to kill even if you don't bother upgrading your ship.
But then again, I never use them

[GCU Grey Area]

Wouldn't waste missiles on Balors... They are easy to kill even if you don't bother upgrading your ship.
But then again, I never use them

Well in practice wouldn't even bother running a boarding op on a Balor in the first place - if the boarding team needs practice I'd prefer them to be stealing a freighter, if they're already good at the job there are far better targets for their attentions. Swarm missiles is just my default method for disarming a ship - partly because it's quite a rapid & effective approach, though mostly because it's just so damn cool watching a bunch of turrets on a ship all explode simultaneously.

[Nanook]

the novadrones are launched from invisible connections at the front of the ship. A dronelaunchpad has nothing to do with that behaviour.

Well, that's just sad. So no matter what the player does, it can keep spitting out endless Novadrones. Magic ships - HMMPH

[wwdragon]

the novadrones are launched from invisible connections at the front of the ship. A dronelaunchpad has nothing to do with that behaviour.

Well, that's just sad. So no matter what the player does, it can keep spitting out endless Novadrones. Magic ships - HMMPH

I agree.
All missile launches should come from destructable or disablable target elements... NOT just spawned!

Balor for instance could have 4 seperate lanchers that are those 4 tube areas. EAch is high hips and can be shot out.

Smaller missiles on the Xenon I, should be easy to destroy, like the ones on the Taranis; while the terpedos would have a similarily tough to destroy launch points, just like the Balor.