X3TC Who should I pirate?

[Scraphound]

So I decided to try my luck at capping a Hyperion today. I failed.

My marines are amazing hackers, mechanics, and engineers, but they can't fight worth a damn. I successfully capped a Carrack once, but out of 20 marines only 2 survived.

I'm beginning to realize that if I'm going to have any hope of capping the good stuff I'm going to need to train up on easier targets first. Which as far as I can tell means I'm going to have to betray one of the races.

That said, I'm worried about screwing up the commerce end of my empire.

Terrans seem like the best choice to attack since they're so reclusive. Only thing is, I'm worried about pissing off Aldrin. I really like the Springblossoms and Spitfyres.

Will they turn hostile if I assault Terran space?

Or is there a type of ship that's fairly safe for my marines to cap without upsetting any of the races?

[Morkonan]

If you attack the Terrans, you will not be about to outfit any captured Terran ships unless you have already unlocked the necessary factories and have purchased them.

I'm not sure if Aldrin and Terran factions are interdependent.

Paranid or Split seems like a good choice for enemies. The only proprietary techs they have are Tractor beams, for Paranid, and Turbo Boosts, for Split, I think. So, if you have all those you need, go for one of them.

Don't attack the Boron unless you don't want any Ion weapons, don't attack the Argon if you want Supply Command Software and don't attack the Taledi if you want Explorer command software.

Or, something like that. These items are just off the top of my head, so may not be correct. Research which techs and upgrades are proprietary to that race alone and then make your decision based on that.

Note: Capping a ship will not immediately put you into a permanently hostile situation. Simply apologize to everyone involved and do some missions for that race to raise your rep back up to acceptable levels.

[Fulgrymm]

The easiest ships to capture are the Casinos/Hospitals. Another option for training might be to find a return ship mission that asks you to fetch an abandoned M7 somewhere.

[Progress-M]

If you are worried about rep, it's quite easy to delay the decision about making enemies by training your fighters by means of capping a selection of civilian TL's (as stated, casinos, hospitals, arenas) from all races and repairing the rep with a few 'very hard' missions. It's also the boring and least gutsy way of doing it, but I admit to doing this in TC.

[Bill Huntington]

SpFiota, the Hyperion is just about the hardest ship to cap, in my experience. Since it is an M6, you can only use 6 Marines. Plus it is fast and tough. A hard combo.

If you want to give your marines fight training, the best target is Return Ship missions. Instead of claiming the ship, you cap it with your marines. If it is an M7 and you are supposed to return it to a small station, you can return it AND then cap it again. With marines for training, a Stolen Ship mission for an M6 or M7 now becomes an excellent choice.

But you don't always get those missions. So I look through the sectors to find an unescorted M7M. When your marines have 5 stars, you might consider taking a Tiger or Panther. You want one of each anyway. M2s are actually the easiest target to cap. Once their shields are down, they come back slowly. M1s are okay, but faster than an M2. I like to cap the Zeus, whether it belongs to the Paranid or the Duke. My last game, I had 25 - 30 marines that finished training close to the same time. One group was fight trained to 100, and then the next group completed training to 3 x 100, and needed fight training. When I was done, I looked through the whole TC universe and there were no more M2s anywhere ! (Except Terran!) Then I took missions to rebuilt the rep with each race. It didn't take too long since I had an Elephant, and took a lot of Build missions.

You don't lose much rep for capping a ship with a major race. Sometimes I would rebuild the rep when it was down one or two levels. Just 2 or 4 missions, and it's back to the top.

If you choose just one race to attack, I find the Paranid is the best choice. The only thing that they have exclusively is the Tractor Beam, and I haven't used one for many many months. I don't need to tow asteroids, and I don't even tow the ship in that mission in TU3.

Good Luck, spFiota !! When you have 10 marines trained to 4 x 100, you can take any ship in TC (except Xenon)!!

[uk.crow]

Before you even start training them, make sure you have a bioscanner fitted to the ship you're buying marines with, with it you can see their stats. Only buy marines that have 2 or more stars in fighting otherwise the money is wasted on the training. I'm not sure if you know this already but a troop of 20 marines with 2 stars fighting each should be able to capture a carrack with limited difficulty unless it had internal sentry lasers.

[zapza]

Hi SpFiota

For what it's worth, I'd recommend that you get yourself down to Heavens Assertion and launch regular capping forays into the Unknown Sector containing Duke's Haven.

When you first enter that Unknown Sector you might encounter half a dozen or so "Duke's Escort Nemesis". Often these are close to the gate, but sometimes they are further away - these are the escorts for the Duke's Zeus. This should be your "target" for boarding and, more importantly, training your marines up to 5 star fight standard.

(No rep loss with any of the Races)

It takes a little bit of practice at first, but you should be able to dispose of the escorts quite quickly by simply running away from the gate and firing a couple of Hammers and several Flails at each Nemesis. Try not to target the Zeus until most of the escorts are toast.

Then you can whittle away the Zeus shields and board her at your leisure.

You can easily see how many other Nemesis are in Sector by clicking on the Duke's station "Owned Ships" - if there are still one or two "lurking" just click on "Target" to see how far away from you they are. Most of the time any that show up on that menu screen are too far away to cause you any problems.

From the time you take out the escorts and have the Zeus all to yourself it seems to take about an hour before another Zeus & escorts spawn in that Sector. So take your time and once you've capped a few Zeus consider how best to make a regular practice of it.

When you cap the Zeus just jump it out to the North Gate of Heaven's Assertion and then into the Paranid Shipyard.

60 million credits, lots of booty and fairly low risk training for your marines.

I've managed to train about 150+ marines to 5 star fight level in only a few weeks with relatively few losses as all my marines were trained to 5 stars in all other skills before being introduced to the Duke.

I still prey on the local Paranids and also regularly steal Tyrs from ATF, but I owe most of my successes to the Duke.

Good luck with it all.

[DrBullwinkle]

Hyperion Vanguard is easy to board with pods; hard to board via spacewalk (due to speed and turret coverage). If you are spacewalking, then board an M7M, then get your Hyperion.

You can compensate for low fight skill by using more marines.

It doesn't much matter who you steal from. Rep damage from boarding is minimal and easy to recover by doing a couple of missions. (Terran, ATF, and Xenon are the most challenging races to board, so train up your marines in fight skill before attempting them).

[Snafu_X3]

Rep damage from boarding is minimal and easy to recover by doing a couple of missions.

Most people here are saying the same thing; however I'd like to point out that rep damage iis minimal if you're in the top 2 or maybe 3 rep ranks with <target's> race; if you're below this level it can be quite a hit

Also don't take on Duke's while you're doing Duke's missions or have completed that corp plot &/or aren't bothered about completing it. Boarding/destroying Duke's ships /before/ you've started their plot chain works, but you'll have to find a hacker & raise your pirate rep quite a bit in order to start the plot (Duke's sells SSS, which is unique & quite useful for capping ships)

Personally I find Atmo Lifters to be the easiest cap targets (apart from Return Ship missions, natch), & they're useful once owned too..

[zapza]

Also don't take on Duke's while you're doing Duke's missions or have completed that corp plot &/or aren't bothered about completing it. Boarding/destroying Duke's ships /before/ you've started their plot chain works, but you'll have to find a hacker & raise your pirate rep quite a bit in order to start the plot (Duke's sells SSS, which is unique & quite useful for capping ships)

Excellent point; one which I neglected to mention. My apologies.

Still, if like me, you're not bothered about the Duke, or his crappy missions, go for it. Money for old rope ...

[Scraphound]

What's the SSS?

[Alan Phipps]

The software signature scrambler (SSS) allows you to carry the system override software (SOS) without the police or customs scans detecting it as an illegal extension. Duke's HQ also sells cargobay shielding that is supposed to shield illegal wares in the cargobay from police and customs scans, but no-one is totally sure that it works in vanilla.

Edit: typo.

[Snafu_X3]

Duke's HQ also sells cargobay shielding that is supposed to shield illegal wares in the cargobay from police and customs scans, but no-one is totally sure that it works in vanilla.

Cargo bay shielding is also available from StrongArms HQ, but SSS is truly unique. I've never seen a practical use for CBS, whether or not it works, so I've never bothered jumping through the hoops to grab some..

[Nanook]

Duke's HQ also sells cargobay shielding that is supposed to shield illegal wares in the cargobay from police and customs scans, but no-one is totally sure that it works in vanilla.

Cargo bay shielding is also available from StrongArms HQ, but SSS is truly unique. I've never seen a practical use for CBS, whether or not it works, so I've never bothered jumping through the hoops to grab some..

Theoretically, you could outfit CAG's with it and use them to sell illegal goods. Without CBS, they may get scanned and be forced to drop their cargo, resulting in lost profits. With CBS, assuming it actually works, the cops wouldn't detect the illegal goods. So if you used CAG's this way (or CLS pilots), you could potentially increase your illegal goods profits, operative word 'potentially'.

This might also be useful for Sector/Universe Traders, presuming they also occasionally deal in illegal goods.

[X2-Illuminatus]

Cargo Bay Shielding doesn't work, no matter how or where you install it.

[Snafu_X3]

Theoretically, you could outfit CAG's with it and use them to sell illegal goods. [...]This might also be useful for Sector/Universe Traders, presuming they also occasionally deal in illegal goods.

Oh I understand its purpose, but it's easier not to use it & let smugglers come to you for illegals. Anyway, it's borked according to Illuminatus, so the argument's become academic

[Nanook]

I like academic.

[Scraphound]

Ugh.

So is it just impossible to board certain ships or something?

I managed to get some marines trained in combat, and I decided to go for an Osaka.

I've got all the missiles I could possibly need to throw at it. I've taken its shields down. I launch literally hundreds of flails along with my 4 boarding pods.

For some reason flails don't just go straight at the target, though. They circle around and attack from the rear, and the Osaka ignores them until they're coming in for the kill.

Naturally boarding pods just make a beeline for the target.

This means that while the Osaka's REAR guns are distracted by missiles, the front guns are free to blast my pods away. I've tried everything I can possibly conceive of. I've attempted launching the pods from point blank range. From long range. From mid range. At odd angles.

If I'm lucky maybe one out of four pods gets through. I'm really frustrated. Boarding was a big part of the reason I decided to get TC, but right from the beginning it's been a nightmare.

Boarding with astronauts is a joke. Only a masochist could possibly enjoy it. Okay, fine. I decided to skip boarding early in the game and focused on getting a missile complex and a M7M. Now it's the same problem. I can't get my damn marines into a ship because they just get blown up. Maybe it's just because the Osaka has so many guns, but come on. Hundreds of missiles are swarming it and it just waits until the pods are just about to connect and then obliterates them without the slightest effort.

Boarding just isn't fun. I'm ready to hang the game up and call it quits at this point. I've never been so frustrated. I love a challenge but this is just cruel and unusual punishment after I devoted so much time and effort into being able to successfully board.

[zapza]

Don't get too disheartened too soon.

Terran ships (&Xenon) are a bit more difficult to take down than others. (I'm pretty sure you need all marines trained up to 100 in all skills)

As far as I know the only ships which can't be boarded are in some way tied into the various plots; pretty well everything else is fair game.

So, if an Osaka is giving you a problem, lower your sights a little and go find yourself somewhere to "practice" first.


The Duke's Zeus is a fertile training ground; it's regular and predictable, albeit you forfeit the Duke's missions for a while. So what?



Try a bit of Aran Hunting for unopposed boarding ops.


Perhaps go back and read some of the 'Boarding Guides' - if I remember correctly Delray's Guide was well worth reading.


Boarding might accurately be described as tricky but it's certainly not 'impossible'


Keep at it and don't lose heart

[DrBullwinkle]

Boarding just isn't fun.

Wow... I think boarding is the most fun thing that I have ever done in any space sim.

Yes, it is challenging... but that is what makes it so satisfying when you master it.

In your case, I have some suggestions:

• 1) Start with an easier target. Terran, ATF, and Xenon ships are the most difficult to board. Master your technique (and fight-train your marines) on easier targets before trying one of the more difficult targets in the game (Terran Osaka M2).
  
  2) Don't try to be in the M7M. Some targets (like M2's) are easier to board when you do the shield suppression (in an M6 or M7) while you command your M7M remotely. Keep the M7M out of weapons range of your target (10-15km; sometimes more).
  
  The reason that this works is that the target's turrets will prioritize you, rather than the incoming boarding pods.
  
  3) An M7 with Ion Shard Railguns (ISR) is ideal for shield suppression. ISR's are the best pirate weapon in the game -- they suppress heavy shields while draining the target's laser energy (so that it cannot kill as many of your boarding pods).
  
  4) For an Osaka, you may need more than 20 marines. Use two M7M's or a Sirokos for the more challenging targets.

Targets such as Osaka are intended to be more challenging, so that boarding will continue to be fun long after you have mastered boarding easier targets, such as TL's.

See Marine Tips for more information.
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