UPDATE (08/08/2011): Note: If initial Deca cap is successful by player (not by NPC ships), Deca can be re-capped at any point afterwards, making the 2nd team launch time issue moot.
UPDATE (03/02/2011): Confirmed this process still works in TC v3.1.
UPDATE (11/22/2010): Confirmed this process still works in TC v3.0.
UPDATE (10/11/2010): Confirmed #deca is destroyable after final capture. Beware.
Guide updated (06/10/2010) to reflect patch 2.7 changes
UPDATE (06/09/2010): Confirmed #deca loses indestructable property after first team caps it in TC v2.7
Patch notes 2.7 - Fixed #deca remaining invincible after being boarded
UPDATE (06/09/2010): Confirmed this process still works in TC v2.6
UPDATE (12/19/2009): Confirmed this process still works in TC v2.5
Yay, my first post.
First of all - why didnt I know about this series earlier?! I am enjoying Vanilla x3 TC a great deal! Thanks to the people here with their helpful advice which I have been lurk-reading for a few weeks now. I guess living in Japan for so many years leaves me a bit detatched...
to the OP, and everyone in general - the #deca M2 Carrier IS possible to obtain in Vanilla without cheating whatsoever. The process also works for the Goner TLS. There is also a pleasant surprise in store at the end of this post.
This process can ONLY be done during the first forray into ALDRIN space. You only get one chance to get a #deca!
You will need (varies depending on ship internal defenses) 5~15+5~10 marines, the first batch (aka: meatbags) should have sufficient training and fight skill to:
a. kill the ship defenders
b. hack and cap the ship
c. have sufficiently low skill to be...
d. killed by the 2nd group of 5~10 marines (who should be 5 star all around).
When I capped the #deca, it had 12 marines defending it - of which were not present on pre-scan... they kinda just appeared on the ship. My mid-level trained meatbags were able to kill them and cap the ship while taking significant casualties. This makes it easier for your REAL team to do their job. ***note: save before and midway in a different slot in case you bork - even a team of 5 stars can fail on occasion, as it appears to have some randomness to hacking the core***
Since patch 2.6 capping has become significantly harder (as many have claimed). This may impact your chances of capping successfully.
You will also do well to have a M7M which can launch boarding pods - these make your life so much easier.
The process is time-sensitive, your window of opportunity is around 10~15 seconds. This is why I said save beforehand.
The window of opportunity depends entirely on the distance you are when launching your boarding pods. The closer you are, the faster your 2nd team will reach the hull. Logically this means that closer = better = more control.
Step 1: pre-position a M2 or M7 (or anything with big damage output) near where the #deca will spawn. It spawns in the same place every time. You will also want to park your M7M nearby for easy access. A Kestrel is useful at this point so you can zip speedily from the mission station back to your M7M. You will want your 5 star team of marines parked in your M2, and the meatbags on your M7M for convenience, so you dont launch the wrong marines once the shields are down.
You will want to turn off weapons on ships nearby except the one that is dropping the #deca shields for initial cap, and be ready to turn off that ships turrets after initial cap asap due to above change with 2.7 patch.
Step 2: once the plot spawns the #deca, you have roughly 10 real-time minutes before the NPC forces gimp their way over to the #deca and pepper it with fire - making boarding and close-in maneuvering a bit hazardous! All is good tho, because 10 minutes should be plenty of time if you've prepped beforehand.
Step 3: With the #deca shields down proceed to launch your meatbags in pods. Immediately transfer over the real team of 5 star marines to the M7M. The #deca is invulnerable so just leave your M2 to pound it. You will want to make haste to the rear of the #deca (the side that doesnt have the huge mouth-like cavity) and position your M7M (I recommend the Cobra FTW) around 800m or so away. doesnt matter what direction your facing at all. Just be sure your relatively directly behind the ship. Why? Because if your facing perpendicular to the #deca, being a huge ship, and boarding pods being rather picky about their trajectory, one pod may impact a few seconds before the second. From the rear, the boarding pods have a much smaller cone of trajectory, and thus will impact at roughly the same time.
Step 4: So your meatbags make it to the core, great! Around when you get the message "locating the access panel" or somesuch you have a few seconds before the ship is captured - and turned over to the terrans (along with your meatbags!). Screw that. The nice thing about boarding pods is that it takes a few seconds for them to break into the hull. Using this delay, fire your pods before the ship is capped, but not too early so that they break into the hull before the ship is capped.
You will find that once the meatbags have gimped their way to capping the ship it is made un-boardable - except that you already have a team(s) hacking the hull! HAH! So, the ship starts to fly towards the huge rock, and you get some blah-blah quest chat and the mission updates with no problem. Once they finish wasting your speaker electricty with their inane banter you will hear your boarding pod give you an update (which you couldnt hear before due to the plot speech). For me it was clearing level 1. Sit back and wait for your prize to be delivered to you! Congratulations, you are now the owner of a legitimate non-cheated fully-functioning #deca!! *note: reloading 10 times failed to provide equipment on the #deca each time. Too bad.*
This process is similar with the Goner TLS as well (which is what led me to this process in fact.) Why would I cap the TLS when it is given to me as a reward later you ask? I refused to read the walkthrough for the plots, and thus did not know about the goner giving you the ship later on. ***please note, the process to cap the TLS is not the same: you simply need to go hostile to the TLS as soon as it's been capped, at which point it can be re-capped without any problems.***
One little peice of icing, as promised. While I do not use this side-effect, if you use this method to cap the #deca, you will get a perma-invulnerable #deca, which can have shield damage but which never drops below 93% hull. Same goes for the TLS if capped immediately after you board it and it starts flying off.
Use this as you see fit based on your play style and needs.
As stated in patch notes, the #deca loses it's invulnerability after it is capped for the first time. Anyone capping it from 2.7 will be out of luck.
Related to this, is the fact that #deca can ONLY equip Alpha, Beta and Gamma Kyon Emitters. You can farm these from destroying a whoooole lot of khaak M1's and M2's. Drop rates are terrible. Be prepared for a good camp.
There... my first post is completed, and I hope this adds somewhat to this community. Thank you for reading.
Very nice work!
.
These will spawn anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes in small groups. Nothing too troubling by the time you can actually GET to this sector (Final Fury plot).
