Ship Capture Guide: X2 Version 2 (Updated for 1.4)

[JulianG]

AH! The great Al himself Thanks, patiance is my second name.... unlucky my third...

My Factories (3 wheat farms and 1 crystal fab in "The Wall", 26 yield Sillicon Mine in "Heron's Nebulla" and my SPP in "Kingdom's End") has become very adept at losing me money??!

Don't know why? They buy at below average and sell at above?! And now my crystal buying ship's (at my SPP) AI decided to get retarted two, it just hangs around and refuses to buy crystals? It leaves the SPP, but flies no where with no "Destination" listed under owned ships in the SPP??!!

SO I got bored and just a little angry After reading your guide (and everything else I could find regarding capping) I decided to try myself...

25 Kills though is a lot of bad luck... but then again. I have bought a 100 lottory tickets in the game and I haven't won once! Did any one write a script yet that can increase your luck???

I'll try the ION's though... as soon as my crystal buying AI figures out that AI stands for Artificial Intelegenge and not Artificial Idiot!!!

[Al]

What you might find is that the factories are stocking up on resources and hence appear to be losing money. Thats normally what explains it.

If your crystal buyer isn't going anywhere check that your settings are ok. Best thing to do is set your buying price to 1684 (IIRC) which is the price that trading stations sell at.

Al

[JulianG]

1684C? I think that might be the problem. I read earlier today (TDs Guide on SPP's) that there's a bug in X2 regarding this, I'll check it in my game. Anything over 1684 makes your freighters ignore trading stations... Thanks.

My other factories has been running a while, they should be stocked? Most of them only use E-Cells, which are cheap. My Crystal Fab has always struggled... there's just not enough Cahoona Meatstakes to go around...

Right now I will consitrate on capping more, thanks for the guide + advise, and thanks to everyone else as well, espicially jlehtone for advising me as well... I'm rather new to forums (old gamer though), this one and the official UFO Aftershock forum is the only two I belong too. You guys are very helpfull and kind... I do appreciate it

I'll report in after the weekend on how the capping went

[Jakesnake5]

This is what I use for capping, a Perseus with 3 Bpsg's (got the ship from a assination mish).

Hit a Pirate TS 6-8 times with all 3 and they tend to bail really quick, or not at all.

If they don't bail, their dead. Same for most other ships, if you flatline their shields that fast, they either want out NOW, or think they got a pair.

[JulianG]

...got a pair... They often do... you can see them floating around in space after their ship explodes! (*SQUISH* "What just hit my windshield?")

I was wondering about the Perseus. 3 forward mounts seemed like a good idea, but I didn't know how well the Beta PSG's work. I might just give that one a shot... Thanks Jakesnake5

As promised Al, here's how the capping went over the weekend

I bought 2 Ion's for my Nova, most ships I capped was with one ION and one Beta HEPT mounted... 1 or 2 runs (depending on class of ship) and they give up. If they don't I'll mount my 2nd ION as well... Another 3 or 4 passes with both ION's (or I just sit on their a$$ if I don't want to be in the way of their forward mounts) they wil bail, if they don't... I blow them up...

The "Unkown Enemy Ship" guys seems to bail easier, I capped about 7 of their M3's! I kept one, repaired, upgraded and with 3 of it's beam weapons. 3 Other M3's also still had their beam weapons. These sell for a lot! These M3's look cool when you fly around in them...

I also captured about 25 or so Pirate ship and a Teladi Vulture. The Vulture by accident, silly critter flew in front of a Dragonfly missle ... I also capped a few of the small Khaak ship (scouts I think)...

I put bigger floats in my factories and added another SPP in Herron's Nebulla and I still have 18Mil left

Thanks Guys!!! Capping for profit is so much more fun!

BTW: I kind of accidently shot a Boron factory with my duel ION's, it went red and luanched it's non existent fighters... will it return to normal over time or to I need to go and apologize?

[jlehtone]

BTW: I kind of accidently shot a Boron factory with my duel ION's, it went red and luanched it's non existent fighters... will it return to normal over time or to I need to go and apologize?

Find a Pirate Base within three sectors from it. Find a "Hacker" in the BBS of that Pirate Base. It does cost a bit, and may fail, but that is the only way.

Do not use IonD or PSG near friendly objects.

[JulianG]

Do not use IonD or PSG near friendly objects.

I figured this one out the hard way! Other than the Baron station I also have a Argon Disco flying around Akeela's Beacon that's P!$$ed at me! My ranking with the Baron didn't drop though. I can still dock at their stations... it's just the one that turned red, and I can dock with it. It's in one of the Pirate held sectors, in between Argon space (around Argon Prime) and the Argon space by Akeela's Beacon...

Oh well, will the pirate bases still allow me to dock... considering I killed and captured so many of their ships???

[Al]

Sounds like you had a good weekend capturing!

Most pirate ships do not belong to a pirate base. IF you check in the ship details you can see whether it does or not. If you attack those that belong to a base while in the same sector as that base then it can get pissed off and at this point will launch its entire compliment of fighters at you.

If they dont belong to a base you can capture them as they come out the docking port as long as you dont hit the base itself

Al

[JulianG]

Thanks Al, and thanks to everyone else that helped...

Are the M6's any good for capping, it doesn't seem that any of them can take the ION D's? I have 18 Mil saved up after my weekend pirate/Khaak hunting, enough for an M6... or should I rather save up for a M2? The Baron Ray looks like a good investmet as it can take ION D's on all turrets and only cost about 49 Mil...

The Ray should be rather good at capping I would imagine

[jlehtone]

Some say that the Ray is good. Look some older threads listed in Search.

A M6 may, or may not be a good capper. Hydra does have an IonD slot, but you are better of with something else. Nemesis and Osprey both can use PSG, which may yield captures. I practically stopped capturing at the point when I did move from Nova to Dragon. It is fast and deadly. Three times I have seen an assassination escort M6 turn blue under the Dragon's guns, but two times the rest of the burst killed the target. However, the Dragon is a nice ship to assassinate with. The rewards go up and possibly beat capturing.

[EssAitch]

Are the M6's any good for capping, it doesn't seem that any of them can take the ION D's? I have 18 Mil saved up after my weekend pirate/Khaak hunting, enough for an M6... or should I rather save up for a M2? The Baron Ray looks like a good investmet as it can take ION D's on all turrets and only cost about 49 Mil...

IMNSHO you already have the best capturing platform in the game: the Nova. As well as the BHEPTs and Ions, I also have a couple of PACS that I can swap in for hull shaving.

For capturing, you need accuracy and control and you have to spend a lot of money on gunnery crews to get that kind of performance from an M6 or M2. I believe you can instruct the gunnery crew to maximise captures, but I'd never employ a gunnery crew to do a man's job

18 million cr. will buy you a Paranid Hercules which no serious ship thief should be without. Save up a little longer first so you can aford some shields and guns for it.

[Jakesnake5]

The good thing about BPSG's (specially on the Perseus) is they do massive shield damage, but not so massive hull (unless your target is a piece of paper. )

But the hull damage is proportional to the SIZE of the hull. M5's go down fast, M4's mid, and M3's slow. Fighters don't do too badly. M6's and up size, take more for the hull volume. Which is silly, but when they blow up, you see multiple sections, so each section 'hit' takes damage).

Xenon's, though, are a totally DIFFERENT can of worms. Their tougher than they look.

[JulianG]

The Split Dragon is a pretty ship I think I'll stick with my Nova for now...

EssAitch, what would I use a Paranid Hercules for? It's got plenty cargo space, trading perhaps?

[jlehtone]

EssAitch, what would I use a Paranid Hercules for? It's got plenty cargo space, trading perhaps?

Hercules is a TL. The cheapest TL of all. Shielded like a carrier. Like any TL, it can haul stations for you. Made my station building to bloom. You can use it to trade (manually); you fly it to a sector and send its TS ships to buy the cheap and to sell high. Change sector and repeat. Or you can go around mobile mining and have it carry the minerals to the market.

However, the good part of Herc for capturer is that it can carry 27 ships with it. Bring it to the sector where you capture. Tell the captured hulks to dock. When the Herc is full, you tell it to jump to shipyard and broadcast to the docked ships that they should go to the yard. Faster and safer than letting them fly at snail pace from the combat zone.

[JulianG]

I like it, I like it a lot!

I thought it would come in rather handy So that's what that "broadcast" command is for? So you can use it to send all ships in, say your Hercules, too one place... like a ship yard. Cool...

How much money does mobile mining make a person anyway?? Is it more profitable than capping?

Can the Hercules use a jumpdrive?

My concern at the moment is more... Would the Hercules be a good investment right now as it will use all the money I have? Should I rather use my 18 Mil and built more SPP's? Or just save it for a M2? I really want to see what the M2's can do...

[Al]

To be honest it depends on what you intend to make your money from. If you are planning on spending most of your time capturing then I'd recommend buying it immediately. Its a very good way of protecting your investments once they are captured. You can equip a jump drive and have your captured ships at the shipyard in next to no time.

If you dont have any factories set up then you can also use your TL for doing this. makes it far quicker than hiring NPC TLs and then ordering them around.

Remember that to make the most profits you need to use all methods. Sector traders are relatively cheap to set up and can make good profits.

HTH

Al

[JulianG]

I think I migth just get me a Hercules then

What do I need to set up a sector trader? Is that the Trade Software MK3 that cost like 500 000 credits? And define "good profit"

I recon I will cap some more ship until I have about 20 Mill and then buy the Hercules. I can dock my Nova and my Khaak M3 in it and alternate between them when capturing enemies. That would leave me with space for another 25 catured ships and with 13000 cargo space, I can load enough energy cell to jump around between sectors like mad and still have space for weapons and equipment that I take of captured ships... OK, make that space for 24 captured ships. I will more than likely need a TS (like the Baron Dolphin) on the Hercules to supply the TL with goods if needed...

Thanks for the advise AL. jlehtone and EssAitch. Hecules it is.

[EssAitch]

So that's what that "broadcast" command is for? So you can use it to send all ships in, say your Hercules, too one place... like a ship yard. Cool...

Careful with that bit If you broadcast to all docked ships that will include your own ships (and you don't want to sell that KM3 before you've finished playing with it). I think you can specify which class, like "Broadcast to all docked TS/TP", but when it gets more complicated you'll need to command them individually. Still pretty easy if you target the shipyard first and use "Dock at my target" on each one (key sequence 'c', '1', '1')

[JulianG]

I have not even started playing with that KM3 It's fine though... More than likely easier just sent all 27 ship to a ship yard and then just call back my Nova and KM3 before they get there...

[jlehtone]

Careful with that bit If you broadcast to all docked ships that will include your own ships (and you don't want to sell that KM3 before you've finished playing with it).

That is true, but they will only dock at yard. You still have to sell them one by one, and that is where you must be careful. Then simply tell one of the non-sold to broadcast to all to dock back to Hercules. A bit inconvenient. Like having a Shark with its own Dolphins, and a dozen or two of fresh Caimans that should get the Advanced Trading Software.

Still pretty easy if you target the shipyard first and use "Dock at my target" on each one (key sequence 'c', '1', '1')

Easy if you are there. I do not fly a TL, nor like to hang in the same sector either. Imagine a scenario, where you fly in Khaak sector, capturing ships, and the Hercules hauls them to safety. You would not like to break off capturing just to oversee some docking.


The requirements for the sector trader are mentioned in the ReadMe of the BonusPack.