All your Jump Beacon are belong to me!

[Hwitvlf]

As one of the people who didn't clone a TL full of Jump Beacons using an exploit, I went looking for one on a Rapid Response ship like in AP and finally found it. But, it seems it's a new situation in FL.

The RR ship has Cargobay Shielding so can't use the bay hacker. Since CB Shielding prevents equipment damage in v1.2, can't fry the life support to get rid of marines, or the jump drive to prevent escape. The M7 has 1000+ e-cells for emergency jumping and can cheat by jumping to the middle of sectors, or to sectors without jump beacons. Definitely a new challenge to crack!

Has anyone captured a beacon in v1.2?

[Chull]

As one of the people who didn't clone a TL full of Jump Beacons using an exploit, I went looking for one on a Rapid Response ship like in AP and finally found it. But, it seems it's a new situation in FL.

The RR ship has Cargobay Shielding so can't use the bay hacker. Since CB Shielding prevents equipment damage in v1.2, can't fry the life support to get rid of marines, or the jump drive to prevent escape. The M7 has 1000+ e-cells for emergency jumping and can cheat by jumping to the middle of sectors, or to sectors without jump beacons. Definitely a new challenge to crack!

Has anyone captured a beacon in v1.2?

I've not seen any RR ships so far in my game, though i have to admit to not looking for them as I'm not quite at the point in my game where I have my own sector needing a beacon. Can I ask how you triggered them to arrive, or was it a chance encounter?
I have to agree the new cargo bay shielding is the best anti-boarding equipment IF they have any other tech installed like hull polarization or sentry lasers, it does make you have to think more about how and if you can actually take a particular target.

[Deianeira]

You could also try your luck with Xenon ships. At least they won't jump away

[Midnightknight]

You could also try your luck with Xenon ships. At least they won't jump away

I had a few Q jump as soon as their shields were at 0 in 1.0, don't know if it's changed now but they did jump away too ...

[Novvak]

You could also try your luck with Xenon ships. At least they won't jump away

I had a few Q jump as soon as their shields were at 0 in 1.0, don't know if it's changed now but they did jump away too ...

I think they do - when I was exploring all the systems, I have noticed several capital ships in Xenon Core sectors with damaged hull.
They probably retreat there if they can.

[Hwitvlf]

Can I ask how you triggered them to arrive, or was it a chance encounter?

I think they jump in if you're a hated enemy and fly a capital into their faction's core sectors when they're nearby. I usually check the sectors with high Xenon activity: Getsu Fune, Zyarth's Dominion etc.

[Jimmy C]

I also found an RRF Colossus in Getsu Fune that had a Beacon. Hmm... if you can't remove the marines on the RRF ship, that means it will be as bad as boarding a Xenon ship. Expect to have to hit Reload very often and do not attempt without 5x5 stars.
And don't be concerned about the Jumpdrive. In AP, I saw them jump even after I had destroyed their jumpdrive and I think it had no energy cells either. Somehow, I doubt they changed that script.
Incidentally, I captured a fighter just now that had cargobay shielding on it.

[Cycrow]

boarding should actually be easier than Xenon. As you can do multiple attempts. Each attempt will kill off some of the defending marines making the next time easier.
with Xenon, that doesn't help, as the defence is essentially reset each time

[Midnightknight]

boarding should actually be easier than Xenon. As you can do multiple attempts. Each attempt will kill off some of the defending marines making the next time easier.
with Xenon, that doesn't help, as the defence is essentially reset each time

Speaking of this i never understood what was the nature of the defense on Xenon ships. I boarded a Xenon P last time with 10 very well trained marines (They all had 90+ in fighting) and they almost all get killed in a few seconds. Even a sentry laser wouldn't do that, and the Xenon ship had none of theses improved defenses.


While we are speaking about boarding, there is also a few weirdness i really don't understand for a long time. Why all my marines suddenly dies when they fail to hack the computer or fail to breach the hull lol? I mean ok they have not the skill, so they abandon the task and come back. But no, 5 marines well trained sent, 4 dies simply cause they can't breach a hull while shields are still down. And it's the same for the core, they killed everyone inside, said all is clear and couldn't hack the core, so they suicide ..? It's really weird to me ^^

[Betelgeuse97]

boarding should actually be easier than Xenon. As you can do multiple attempts. Each attempt will kill off some of the defending marines making the next time easier.
with Xenon, that doesn't help, as the defence is essentially reset each time

All the marines however are high leveled and shouldn't be taken lightly. If some of theirs survive, you might be able to take theirs into your fold...at the cost of having those replace your crew. With this that means training your own marines becomes paramount. (Can you train fighting at the barracks?)

I didn't know CBS protected equipment much like how X3LU has equipment protection by default!

@OP: I started a new game as that was one of the reasons. Main one was that 1.0 games had some bugs that were fixed but their effects carried over!

[Hwitvlf]

Why all my marines suddenly dies when they fail to hack the computer or fail to breach the hull lol? ...And it's the same for the core, they killed everyone inside, said all is clear and couldn't hack the core, so they suicide ..?

I think the problem wasn't that the hull was too think, but that the marines were holding the ion cutter backwards and melted a hole in their helmets. Same with hacking, the enemy ship's computer probably just had a complete copy of all the X games installed so some marines stay behind to play.

[Jimmy C]

I boarded a Xenon P last time with 10 very well trained marines (They all had 90+ in fighting) and they almost all get killed in a few seconds.

When boarding Xenon ships, even M6s, anything less than 5x5 stars won't do, and throw in one extra marine over the full capacity for the target ship. Even then, expect to lose some of them, or a great deal of reloading, even for M6s. In AP, there was one time I was capturing an I and I kept reloading for a no loss capture. It took hours.

And it's the same for the core, they killed everyone inside, said all is clear and couldn't hack the core, so they suicide ..? It's really weird to me ^^

That should be a Xenon "feature" you need like 16 (for M7 and up, can't remember how many for M6) at the last stage to even begin to hack the core. Have less than that, they instantly die. Fail to hack the core, instant death again.

Speaking of hacking the core, how do you defeat any ship that has the Advanced Firewall Software and Hull Polarising Device? Terran ships with these were uncapturable in AP. With Cargobay Shielding, they need to be faced directly now.

[Midnightknight]

I boarded a Xenon P last time with 10 very well trained marines (They all had 90+ in fighting) and they almost all get killed in a few seconds.

When boarding Xenon ships, even M6s, anything less than 5x5 stars won't do, and throw in one extra marine over the full capacity for the target ship. Even then, expect to lose some of them, or a great deal of reloading, even for M6s. In AP, there was one time I was capturing an I and I kept reloading for a no loss capture. It took hours.

And it's the same for the core, they killed everyone inside, said all is clear and couldn't hack the core, so they suicide ..? It's really weird to me ^^

That should be a Xenon "feature" you need like 16 (for M7 and up, can't remember how many for M6) at the last stage to even begin to hack the core. Have less than that, they instantly die. Fail to hack the core, instant death again.

Speaking of hacking the core, how do you defeat any ship that has the Advanced Firewall Software and Hull Polarising Device? Terran ships with these were uncapturable in AP. With Cargobay Shielding, they need to be faced directly now.

For the core hacking death no need for the ships to be xenon. Try on any ship your marines could clean the whole ship, if they fail to hack the core at the very end they almost all dies, even if they killed everyone inside.

[Novvak]

Maybe GLADOS is every ship's core

[shameless creature]

For the core hacking death no need for the ships to be xenon. Try on any ship your marines could clean the whole ship, if they fail to hack the core at the very end they almost all dies, even if they killed everyone inside.

Xenon capitals have a special mechanic which causes all Marines to die instantly if fewer than 16 reach the computer core (at least in AP).

Non-Xenon ships can be hacked by just 1 or 2 surviving Marines, depending on their hacking skill and the target's hacking resistance. And if they fail to hack the core, they are ejected from the ship instead of dying instantly.

[Ramdat]

I don't think it's too farfetched that 1000 years in the future, in a universe with canon advanced artificial general intelligence, spaceships have some type of failsafe mechanism to protect itself in the case of a hostile takeover. This would be doubly true for Xenon, since each of their ships are mechanical bodies for an AI consciousness.

[ZAG37iNT]

For the core hacking death no need for the ships to be xenon. Try on any ship your marines could clean the whole ship, if they fail to hack the core at the very end they almost all dies, even if they killed everyone inside.

Xenon capitals have a special mechanic which causes all Marines to die instantly if fewer than 16 reach the computer core (at least in AP).

Non-Xenon ships can be hacked by just 1 or 2 surviving Marines, depending on their hacking skill and the target's hacking resistance. And if they fail to hack the core, they are ejected from the ship instead of dying instantly.

Yep, at least in x3 AP for boarding m1/2 Xenon ships you need keep full each deck of the ship (step in the boarding mission) with a full 5/5 stats marines, for this reason you need send 5 full boardings pods around each 5 or 10 secons (or any as you estimate) after the first gorup of marines landing in the hull, naturally before star the boarding mision you need roast all the internal equipments/improves (the equiped weapons are impossible to destroy) of the ship, i recomend a full equiped ion disruptor Argon Griffon Raider for this step, also you need find the blind point of the ship, for the xenon I at least in ap, is down the ship, very close to central red core, on the other hand the otas Sirokos is hight recomended cause he can carry 50 marines, and as you can imagine this is a very hight cost marine mision, around only 20 or less marines full 5/5 stats will survive from those 50 what can carry the sirikos.

i can imagine if the ship have equiped the CBS is best destroy it an search other whitout the CBS, otherwise the boarding mission is impossible.

(sorry for my bad english)

[Cycrow]

Xenon capitals have a special mechanic which causes all Marines to die instantly if fewer than 16 reach the computer core (at least in AP).

This is not quite right.
The mechanic for the final fight is the same for all ships, including Xenon

After the last deck it simply compares the remaining attack skill against the remaining defence skill to see who the winner is.

This difference with Xenon ships is how this defence rating is calculated.
With normal ships it's the base defence of the ship plus the combine fighting skills of all remaining defending marines.
So the amount of marines you need at the end depends how many defenders have survived

Xenon ships don't have marines and instead has a fixed defence skill based on the normal marine capacity. For a 20 marine ship this means a skill of 1600 or 16x100 fighting marines

[Jimmy C]

i can imagine if the ship have equiped the CBS is best destroy it an search other whitout the CBS, otherwise the boarding mission is impossible.

Given the rarity of Jump Beacons, finding another ship isn't an option. In a game, if the only ship that has a beacon is a Terran RRF that has CBS, Hull Polarization and Advanced Firewall, we need a way to defeat that, or the ship is uncapturable.

[Wou]

If, hypothetically speaking, some small ship would bump into an existing jump beacon over and over again slowly pushing it forward until such beacon has reached the jumpgate, and then into such gate, then would such hypothetical jump beacon appear on the other side of the gate in a different sector? Would it still work?
Asking for a friend