Capped a xenon Q X3TC 2.5 vanilla

[Gruber1232002]

Finally got my resources together and capped a Q last night.

SECTOR

Ocean of Fantasy

TOOLS

Hyperion Vanguard
Cerberus with 8 Ion-d's
Sirokos
29 Maxed marines (I figured if it cost more marines than that I didn't want it)
3 Fighter Drones Mk II

METHOD

Using the Hyperion I led the Q and its 2 L escorts away from the middle of the sector until we were around 60km away from the nearest station. (I've had enough prizes killed by good Samaritans that I'm overly cautious now.) Then I called in the Cerberus to follow me. I took out the L's and started engaging the Q. Knocked its shields down to ~5% then broke off and made a beeline for the Cerberus while calling in the Sirokos to fly to 10 km away.

When the Cerberus got in range I transported over and ordered the Hyperion to fly to the EQD so it wouldn't get in the way. I had to start dodging the IBL and PPC fire immediately cause those Q's are quick. I started roasting the Q with 8 Ion-d's while trying to stay in its blind spot. I roasted that sucker until its hull was at 90%. I could still see a flak installed on the side but it had stopped firing ages ago and its main guns were gone. The Q started pulling the endless circle maneuver with out ever firing so I figured it was time.

I ordered the Sirokos to follow me and turned towards it. When in range I transferred over and ejected 3 MkII FD's from the Sirokos. I told them to attack my target and then targeted the Q. Then the Q started doing something funny. It stopped circling and started running for the gate. Once the FD's engaged I opened the Piracy menu and started boarding. Pods away shields at 1% all looking good.

"Boarding party eliminated", WHAT??, four guys in space. "Almost through the hull" What the hell is going on? Did my drones shoot a pod? I picked up the marines in space and hit R to check on the others. 21 marines on deck 1. Oh good. I guess the autoboard tried to send 25 marines?

No losses by deck 2. Wow. Bam, 3 men down on deck 2. Crap. Check target, dammit, drones are killing the hull, down to 50% now. Fire 1 boarding pod. I monkey with the drones to set at least one to attack shields of target, meanwhile "Man down, Man down". Fire Pod. "Deck 4 clear". Hit R, 21 guys on board. Entering core, 2 guys die, fire pod, nothing happens..., "No marines on board" WHAT! I've used them all! Well I guess I did send a bunch. "It's ours". No way!, really! 19 Men left on board a Q with 40% Hull and 1 guy floating in space. A couple of Km back. I saved.

Then because I'm greedy, and because maxed marine are PRICELESS, I reloaded to a previous point to try and get a better result. This time I told 1 of the drones to attack shields while the other two attack target. In the boarding menu I turned 8 marines off so I wouldn't have to pick them up in space. Boarded. 21 marines land everything looks good, then 7 of them die before reaching deck 2. Fire 2 pods. No extra guy in space?? Uh-oh, hit R, 19 guys on board, clearing deck 2. Boarding failed by deck 4. Tried again a couple of times but I never got as good a result as the first time. I'd take a Q with 10% hull if I could save a few of those Maxed marines. Anyway, last night the minimum price for a Q was 9 elite marines. Kinda pricy, but I guess I can afford it so, oh well. When I get back up to 30 maxed marines I'll go for a J or a K.

ADVICE

Four out of the six additional tries succeeded. I think boarding with 21 maxed marines makes a huge difference. Deck 1 is the hardest deck, if most of your guys get through deck 1 alive, you'll probably make it. Stay close to the target so that the travel time to board is minimized. Pick your guys up from space ASAP, you'll probably need them, unless you're using multiple boarding vessels. In the property menu (r), under personnel, - options hide your idle and training marines so that your boarding guys show up right away. Saves time and frustration.

[Catra]

heh,

very sorry to say but,

this thread totally stole your thunder P=

anyway, grats on the cap.

[perkint]

Congrats on the capture. I was interested to know what difference the extra 1 marine made and it appears it does help a fair bit

Tim

[Gruber1232002]

heh,

very sorry to say but,

this thread totally stole your thunder P=

anyway, grats on the cap.

Yeah I saw that one, but I wanted a Q more than a J,

Besides, J's and K's move slower so they should be easier to cap, though they do have another deck so maybe not. But each deck is 5% easier than the last (Cycrow) so I'll find out soon enough.

I posted because most of the previos posts about capping xenon are using 20 5* (not maxed necessarily) marines in 2.1 or lower. Not really comparable to the current standards in 2.5.

[The-Gizmo]

Congrats on the Q. I capped a Q a while back in 2.1, but I recently wanted a J in 2.5 because it's priced like a cheap M6, and therefore only takes 6 hours to build at the PHQ, compared to the 19 hours it takes to do a Q. I plan to mass produce those J's and use them for sector defense or whatever, won't matter too much if some get destroyed as I'll have plenty to replace them. As soon as the Aran finishes being built that is...

[Gruber1232002]

@ Gizmo

Congrats on your J

I'll be going for one soon since I still don't have a carrier. I tried boarding a K a few weeks ago using 20 really good marines. Gave up after 15 tries since I couldn't get past deck one with more than 13 marines. Since I'm on game day 10 now, most of my ~160 marines are fully trained at outposts around the universe. My boarding program mixes high level marines with rookies so than when a marine maxes out I can replace him with a noob and still have a viable force. The 29 guys I used were the tip of a wide based iceberg that's rising. In a few days I should have 50+ maxed marines, and then the xenon stealing will really begin. (although the way marine training goes it would be cheaper to buy a Raptor than pay 9+ maxed marines for a J)

I wonder if the difficulty of boarding a xenon ship is tied to resource value? I don't think it is for normal ships, because I don't see any difference between boarding M1/2/7/7M's. The xenon ships are hardwired differently, but I'm not completely sure how yet. I'm also unsure whether there is a difference between 'spawned for mission' and 'naturally occurring' xenon.

I noticed it was much harder to cap a mercenary pirate M6 from an OTAS mission than a randomly occurring pirate M6 in pirate space. That is admittedly just a feeling. The RNG may have just been angry with me. Incidentally this Q was 'naturally occurring'. I think perhaps they all are, since I've never seen a Q on a xenon patrol.
If anyone has any observations I'd be glad to hear them.

[Gruber1232002]

Forgot to ask, has anyone seen a J/K outside of xenon space apart from the invasion/patrol mission spawns?

[Catra]

Forgot to ask, has anyone seen a J/K outside of xenon space apart from the invasion/patrol mission spawns?

theres usually a migrant fleet going from 472 <--> 347, or 101 <--> 347, sometimes xenon alley (598, 627, 023) -->472. usually its one way, but sometimes they do go to and fro.

[perkint]

You're much more likely to see big Xenon moving around if you go and clear a sector occasionally...

Tim

[Gruber1232002]

You're much more likely to see big Xenon moving around if you go and clear a sector occasionally...

Tim

Maybe that's why I haven't seen any. I haven't tangled with the xenon much, usually leave them alone unless they are threatening something of mine. Time to field test my Akuma perhaps? With the goal of starting a migration, which xenon sector should feel my greed fueled wrath? Is it fair to say that if I spank x347 I should get a migration from x472?

[perkint]

Truth be told, I'm not sure...

I would assume that they come from Xenon core sectors but I've never really dug into how the migration works. I know there is some simple respawning but there does appear to be some migration to restock a sector once you've cleared it.

Tim

[NewEonOrchestra]

In my experience trying to take over Xenon cores, they continually respawn in a ring around the sector. Slowly the Xenon Qs would use their PPCs to knock out my Titans, so I stopped my invasions.

[zazie]

the goal of starting a migration, which xenon sector should feel my greed fueled wrath? Is it fair to say that if I spank x347 I should get a migration from x472?

It might vary from game to game, but in my experience it's best to leave 101 untouched and to clear out 472. The Xenon will start massive fleets running from 101 through Hatikvah's, Sacred Relic, Wasteland to take over 472 again. Sometimes I saw several J's and K's in the same sector plus the flanking Q's. The Paranid did a really good job in Cardinal's Domain, only single K's made it to Interworlds.

[fairywhipper]

all xenon ships are hard to cap. well done

but, never capping a ship with is, firewall, hull?
makes it more fun but only if its not a xenon. as i had to cap a pirate m7 with all of those and 3marines + bad attitude. still, all those things added together is still not a patch on xenon. im still trying for a xenon ship.....l

[Gruber1232002]

Actually I have a advanced firewall software on the panther I stole a couple of days ago. Don't know what I'll do with it and the couple of sentry lasers and hull polarizers I've collected.

Maybe one day I'll install LV's race boarding script and finally have a use for the defensive softwares. I've gotten into a bad habit of not checking the ships I steal because it doesn't matter any more. 21 high level marines are unstoppable (except by xenon obviously). But one day there will be 20 average marines and a sentry laser on something I try to steal and I'm gonna lose a marine or two. Then I'll be mad...