Finding and capturing the Aran

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smitj
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Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by smitj » Wed, 5. Aug 20, 09:49

Are boarding pods necessary to capture it or can Marines do it by spacewalking ? I have been using my Ares to search for it but many sectors are infested with Xenon or Khaak and the Ares is limited in firepower, you can only carry so many missiles.
So I'm trying with my Osaka and hoping I can spacewalk my troops.

Alan Phipps
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by Alan Phipps » Wed, 5. Aug 20, 11:44

If this is X3TC then you can find and board many Arans via UFJD, if it is X3AP you can board it only once and then you will not find any more (you can RE that one at the PHQ to build more though).

The usually recommended boarding kit is an M7M with pods and 20 all-round 3+ star marines. Marines damaging the hull to destruction is a real risk. Other M7M missiles do the self-protection bit.

You will need to use the suit repair laser on the Aran in the pre-operation phase to get it to turn hostile so that you can board it and maybe even to improve the hull points a bit.

There are Aran capture guides that you can Google the forums for and other advice posts such as here.
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by jlehtone » Wed, 5. Aug 20, 12:36

Alan Phipps wrote:
Wed, 5. Aug 20, 11:44
The usually recommended boarding kit is an M7M with pods and 20 all-round 3+ star marines. Marines damaging the hull to destruction is a real risk.
X3AP: it is safe to fail an Aran boarding operation. Just collect the marines that eject from the (near) wreck and proceed to next UFJD sector. New Arans will show up until you succeed to board one.

I had inexperienced engineers, so they did damage several Arans before I admitted that I must train them first. I had hopes that they would at least learn to fight, but unfortunately escaping from empty collapsing hulls does not make marines any wiser.
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smitj
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by smitj » Thu, 6. Aug 20, 09:57

I finally found the Aran and I have been blasting away at it with my repair laser for over an hour and absolutely nothing as happened. It's still invisible to my sensors. Any ideas?
Last edited by smitj on Thu, 6. Aug 20, 10:01, edited 1 time in total.

western
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by western » Thu, 6. Aug 20, 11:08

I have just experienced the same, I ejected and started to repair, it beeped as becoming an enemy and it still didn't appear?
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by Alan Phipps » Thu, 6. Aug 20, 12:47

You cannot target it until it becomes your ship. Once it is definitely hostile from being 'illegally' repaired, just issue the piracy command to the M7M and it should pick it as the nearest hostile target. Alternatively, just visually point the M7M directly at the close by Aran and launch the pods at it manually.
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smitj
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by smitj » Thu, 6. Aug 20, 14:28

So there I was, repair laser and my temper overheating when I had done it all the time! Thank God for this forum, the Aran is now docked at my HQ. Thanks to all for the advice.
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by TerranJedi » Mon, 27. Feb 23, 21:51

Thread necro.

I've been hunting for an Aran and haven't had any luck. Probably tried 30-40 jumps and nothing. It feels like I'm jumping to the same 4 or 5 sectors. Is there some other plot mission that needs to be completed before they show up?

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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by Alan Phipps » Mon, 27. Feb 23, 22:26

You just need the UFJD as far as I know. There are two potential issues at play in finding an Aran: 1) not knowing if there is one in that UFJD sector (without cheating), and 2) not seeing/finding it even if there was one there.

1) is RNG luck, while 2) is a matter of looking around carefully and using goggles and remote viewing tricks.
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by TerranJedi » Tue, 28. Feb 23, 14:56

I guess I'll just keep hunting and hope the rng eventually decides to be in my favor.

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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by JSDD » Tue, 28. Feb 23, 20:11

TerranJedi wrote:
Mon, 27. Feb 23, 21:51
It feels like I'm jumping to the same 4 or 5 sectors. Is there some other plot mission that needs to be completed before they show up?
when using UFJD, the sector you appear in is completely random generated (prpbability of an aran is about 3-5 %, if i recall it right)
no, you dont need to finish any plot to be able to "find" an aran ... as soon as you got the UFJD, the hunt is on ^^

first time in X3TC, i had to jump around 50 - 100 times to find my first one, the second one just needed 5 or 6 jumps (or so) more

Code: Select all

<set_value name="this.MinRange" min="0" max="3"/>
<set_value name="this.MaxRange" min="50" max="60"/>
				
<create_ship name="this.tempship" typename="SS_SH_GO_MSY" race="neutral" hidden="1" racelogic="0">
   <position object="this.Position" min="({value@this.MinRange}*2)km" max="({value@this.MaxRange}*3)km"/>
   <cargo>
     <ware typename="SS_WARE_ENERGY" min="100" max="300"/>
   </cargo>
   <hull min="3" max="30"/>
 </create_ship>
... this controls the spawn or the aran: (in X3TC)
distance = 0 to 180 km away from the player
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terryokc2
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by terryokc2 » Tue, 28. Feb 23, 20:34

Just keep plugging away in those sectors… I don’t even bother if I see any Kha’ak or Xenon ships. Works out for getting missions in systems as well… I try to be close enough to several stations while doing those jumps into the unknown’s so I can communicate for build missions or ship offers or abandoned ships that need returned to the owners. (wink wink) 😁

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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by TerranJedi » Sun, 12. Mar 23, 05:53

Did at least another hundred sectors and still nothing. Considering that throughout this entire game very little has been stocked in stations and several stations that maps and Roguey's site say should be there and aren't, I'm wondering if there is something amiss with my game or the GoD engine ate all the Arans for breakfast while I was beating up pirates.

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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by Alan Phipps » Sun, 12. Mar 23, 11:53

UFJD sectors are created from scratch (with RNG help for templates) on each use of the UFJD. GoD is nothing to do with it. That doesn't exclude there being an issue with your game installation though.

Have you ever used any 3rd party mods or done any save/game edits for this current save series? If appropriate, have you verified your game installation? We are getting a bit off topic for this thread now though.
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TerranJedi
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by TerranJedi » Sun, 12. Mar 23, 20:25

I was joking about GoD removing the Arans. I was just getting frustrated that after ~200 unfocused jumps I still haven't seen one. Getting a bunch of Kha'ak and Xenon stations/ships though.

For about 30 of those jumps I saved right before jumping into a sector, drop an advanced sat, look around and if nothing was there, reload and try again.

Game is vanilla, installed fresh from Steam less than six months ago. Terran Defender start (only start I've done so far)

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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by Alan Phipps » Sun, 12. Mar 23, 21:37

".. installed fresh from Steam less than six months ago." A Steam gamefiles verify doesn't take long and might explain various types of issues if it finds files missing or corrupt.

Did you ever confirm whether it was TC or AP that you were playing? In TC you can find many Arans in later UFJD sectors, but in AP there's only the one you first capture. To verify AP properly, you have to verify both TC and AP separately as AP uses TC gamefiles too.
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JSDD
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by JSDD » Mon, 13. Mar 23, 20:58

TerranJedi wrote:
Sun, 12. Mar 23, 05:53
Did at least another hundred sectors and still nothing. Considering that throughout this entire game very little has been stocked in stations and several stations that maps and Roguey's site say should be there and aren't, I'm wondering if there is something amiss with my game or the GoD engine ate all the Arans for breakfast while I was beating up pirates.
how are you searching ??

you gotta target the next best asteroid, press F3 (i think) to watch that asteroid, and press - (minus) to zoom out ... then navigate with 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 on the num pad. move the view a bit around and check out your environment. sometimes it helps to clean the monitor from any dust so that you can see any debris nearby ^^

IF there is an aran, and if you have your eyes open ... you won't miss it
// that ship is just too huge

take your time to check each sector ... but dont waste your time. about 2 minutes in is enough
scale it by a 100 jumps ... and you get about 2h of search
To err is human. To really foul things up you need a computer.
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TerranJedi
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by TerranJedi » Tue, 14. Mar 23, 02:42

Yeah, that's basically what I've been doing. I can spot kha'ak and xenon structures and ships far away from my jump in point but still no Aran. Sometimes I fly around for a little bit using VEG and sometimes I just drop an advanced sat right away and see what that shows.

I haven't installed AP so unless I need to for it to show up I don't know what else may be going on under the hood but I think it's a stretch.

Probably need to just keep trying another 100 jumps. Law of averages has never been in my favor though.

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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by jlehtone » Tue, 14. Mar 23, 18:34

I found a save from X3TC. I seem to have one Aran in it and in stats:
Unknown sectors visited : 153

I'm pretty sure I did jump unfocused even after finding the Aran.
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TerranJedi
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Re: Finding and capturing the Aran

Post by TerranJedi » Thu, 16. Mar 23, 01:20

So in some other thread about finding the Aran, there were some pictures that don't work anymore (can't seem to find it right now) but someone mentioned having trouble finding it, restarted their computer multiple times but something else they mentioned had been tickling my brain for a bit. It's the ship I'm in.

I think they were in a Terran or ATF ship. I've been jumping around in a Scabbard with my 10 marines. No luck. I switch over to a Zephyrus (forgot that you can't launch marines from a TM) and on my fourth jump, there it is. Bummer that I can't get it. Now to switch to a bigger (non-Terran) ship and try again.

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