Custom start fun

[budforceuk]

Good stuff.

I think my main priority now it to capture M size ships and fiol them with marines, then capture a Buffalo, then capture a builder.

Then build a wharf/shipyard, then I can steal the resources for that which means I can upgrade my own ships, then you are away

[Nanook]

Pretty much described my latest start. Have fun.

[budforceuk]

I do have a question.

The Yaki wharf doesn't have any hull parts, I am trying to buy the M ship it sells (forgot the name sorry) - I read somewhere that if you sell ships to the wharf, it will recycle them to creat hull parts, is that true?

Only, it says it requires 410 hull parts, I sold a couple of ship to them, and it still says 410 hull parts.

The only thing I can think of is that I sold the ships remotely, and maybe they got killed on transit?

EDIT:

So I manually flew a ship I wanted to tell to that Yaki wharf, and when I got there, I saw the two other ships I previously sold, so they did make it. Except, they are both just sitting there on the pad with a recycle icon/oder, but dont actually seem to be recycling?

[Nanook]

I've never relied on recyclying ships at shipyards. I'm not even sure of the process of recycling. The way I play, I don't deal with NPC shipyards, at all. I collect ships until I can get my own wharf/shipyard up and running. It forces me to use less than optimal ships in my operations. It is a bit of slog but I enjoy the challenge. (In my current game, I never buy stuff from NPC factories, preferring to steal everything I need. )

If you need a source of hull parts, I suggest you look for NPC stations that are under construction or that have been damaged by enemy action. You can often find a supply of hull parts and other goodies in their build storage.

[budforceuk]

Ok thanks.

I am literally just after that one ship, I didnt even know it existed until today looks so cool!

[budforceuk]

Any tips on getting the M freighter pilots to bail?

Got plenty on M size fighters to bail, dragon, few nemesis and a Gorgon and plenty of S size ships.

Not had a single freighter pilot bail yet though.

[LameFox]

Get them to low health, and follow them around tapping the shields to gently remind them to leave. I think if the hull is low no further hull damage is strictly needed, shooting the shields down every now and then works for me. Pressing comms and telling them to surrender also helps I think, though to what extent I am not sure.

Some ships take longer than others because they have more crew. In other cases I believe it varies due to the morale (either of the crew or just pilot, not sure, the game never explains crew things).

[budforceuk]

Thank you.

Did a bit of research and found a good thread on Reddit. Basically you have to get the hull to 70%, shield below 20%, then tap it with 1 gun every 30 seconds.

Apparently every 30 seconds they have to take a morale ckeck and there is a chance for some crew to bail. The more crew, the more you have to do it, the higher the morale of the crew the less likely they are to bail each check also.

You'll know you are doing it right because when you shoot them they'll send you a message of dismay of some kind, which I think indicates they took a morale test.

I just managed to do it on a medium hauler, did take a good few minutes, maybe 10 minutes, to get them all to bail.

Apparently this also works on larger ships, so it's possible to cap any ship with a single marine, but obviously if there is a lot of crew you might be there a very long time.

The Yaki Wharf still haven't recycled any of the ships I sold to it, but I will keep going until all the docking bays are full to see if this forces them to be recycled.

[Nanook]

It also really helps, I've found, to scan the M ship during the attack. This shows how many crew are still on board, and seems to make those crew members bail quicker. As you plink away at the target, you'll see fewer and fewer crew on board, and when it gets down to 2 or 3, you'll probably get the final bailout. One thing else. Pause the game and check the pilot's stats. If they're high, it might not ever bail and it's best to just kill it and try with another freighter. Good luck.

[budforceuk]

I take it thers isnt any way to repair modules on ships?

I have captured several now, but my little Moreya doesnt have the firepower to drop the shields of a builder alone, most of the combat ships I have captured only have 1 gun left, or none at all, and most no shields, I take it there is nothing you can do about this?

[budforceuk]

Well.....

Managed to capture a Nemesis that still had 3 plasma guns and it's shields intact (spoiled I know!) and it was JUST enough to break the shields on a stray elephant I found.

Man it took my hours from start to finish, most of it was breaking the shields and destroying the almost endless stream of laser towers.

Once I'd blown up one of the shield generators I sat there just letting my turrets hit it with 67% hull and very low shields, every few minutes minutes hitting it with the plasma to keep the shields low.

Eventually....... all the crew bar 2 bailed, and I called in a stolen Boa I had with 20 marines and captured it.

[Nanook]

I take it thers isnt any way to repair modules on ships?
...

Not sure what you mean here. If you mean in a shipyard/wharf, yes there is. When in a shipyard/wharf/eq. dock, before you replace anything on the ship, go to the bottom of the list and do the repair (wrench/spanner icon). If you hover over that with the cursor, you'll see a list of items that will get repaired. Do that before making any other changes, then check to see what's now on the ship.

Also, over time if you have service crew on the ship, many items will get repaired but it could take a lot of time depending on the severity of the damage.

[budforceuk]

I take it thers isnt any way to repair modules on ships?
...

Not sure what you mean here. If you mean in a shipyard/wharf, yes there is. When in a shipyard/wharf/eq. dock, before you replace anything on the ship, go to the bottom of the list and do the repair (wrench/spanner icon). If you hover over that with the cursor, you'll see a list of items that will get repaired. Do that before making any other changes, then check to see what's now on the ship.

Also, over time if you have service crew on the ship, many items will get repaired but it could take a lot of time depending on the severity of the damage.

Oh, I m going full pirate.

I'm hostile to everyone apart from SCA/Hatikva/Yaki

As far as I know they don't have any stations you can do that, the Yaki one sort of, but it never has any resources.

[Nanook]

Well, in my current pirate game, I 'cheated' a bit and gave myself all the ship building/maintenance blueprints at the start, since I was never going to be +20 with any race. So my first action was to build a wharf on the PHQ (took a while, I must say), followed by a L-shipyard. I didn't bother with the maintenance modules, even though they're a lot cheaper in building material, since I can't mod ships with those.

Also, I play a 'yo-yo' game, where I build up my rep with a faction in order to safely steal building material from their sectors, then drop it again by pirating their ships. And here's another fun thing to do. If you're at least -9 with a faction, when they're in a battle with another faction, and one of their S/M ships gets low on hull, comm them and demand a surrender. If their pilot/morale stats are low enough, they'll bail. I've gotten many ships for free doing this.

[LameFox]

You can get trade ships to drop their cargo without having to make them bail (just shoot them for a bit and if they have any they'll let go of it). So you could potentially supply the Yaki that way, assuming they correctly have buy orders for their needs (I have not looked).

[Roeleveld]

I take it thers isnt any way to repair modules on ships?
...

Not sure what you mean here. If you mean in a shipyard/wharf, yes there is. When in a shipyard/wharf/eq. dock, before you replace anything on the ship, go to the bottom of the list and do the repair (wrench/spanner icon). If you hover over that with the cursor, you'll see a list of items that will get repaired. Do that before making any other changes, then check to see what's now on the ship.

Also, over time if you have service crew on the ship, many items will get repaired but it could take a lot of time depending on the severity of the damage.

Oh, I m going full pirate.

I'm hostile to everyone apart from SCA/Hatikva/Yaki

As far as I know they don't have any stations you can do that, the Yaki one sort of, but it never has any resources.

SCA have a shipyard.
Usually in

Spoiler

Show

Hewa's Twin IV

[budforceuk]

So I managed to capture a builder, and a large Argon Freighter.

Flew the Elephant manually from Heretics End to Napolios Fortune where I am going to setup, that was nerve racking.

[budforceuk]

Well...........

That is some wierd behaviour.

The Yaki Wharf has been sitting there with my ship build request at queue number 1, requiring hull parts to complete, fine.

I had captured and then sold to that Yaki Wharf, several ships, which have been sitting in the station docked, and although showing the recycle icon on them, nothing was happening.

Anyway, move on several game hours, I managed to steal hull parts from another faction, then flew them manually to that Yaki Wharf, traded them the hull parts.

Wait a minute or soooo....

Then boom, my ship is now being produced, as expected..... but also oddly, all the other ships I sold to them, now all of a sudden start getting recycled?????

It's like it was stuck, or something, and now I have brought the station back to life!

This is good news though, because...what I might do is capture several more ships and sell them to the Yaki to be "recycled" into more hull parts, so I can use them to buy more ships.

It totally fits in with my game theme of going full pirate and I dont feel im cheating myself, they only sell the Moreya and the other one (cant remember its name) so still will have to ccapture everything else I need anyway.