Is it possible to get the You've been duked achievement now?

[fireanddream]

I read that at launch the achievement is impossible to get because the duke M7M would not be able to get enough marines.
From patch 1.3 they do try to get marines from a larger range of marine barracks now.
So has anyone done this achievement before? I'm not bothering to do the two X-tremes if this achievement is still bugged.

[BrigandPhantos77]

Not in vanilla. You actually got 2 obstacles with it. I've never seen the missile frigates actually get the marines. And every time they return to Lasting Vengeance they get blown up by there allies. For some reason the switch back to dukes rarely succeeds.

[DanKara]

And every time they return to Lasting Vengeance they get blown up by there allies. For some reason the switch back to dukes rarely succeeds.

Wasn't that supposed to be fixed in 1.3 (but only effective in games started with 1.3)?

[BrigandPhantos77]

And every time they return to Lasting Vengeance they get blown up by there allies. For some reason the switch back to dukes rarely succeeds.

Wasn't that supposed to be fixed in 1.3 (but only effective in games started with 1.3)?

Honestly I don't know at this point. I've started a new game in 1.3, it is definitely not fixed. The 2 issues I posted are on a fresh start. So was my previous start.

The 2 things most common things I see is either the frigates getting blown up when they return to Lasting Vengeance, or they simply float around forever. They do sometimes go out and roam, but I don't recall them actually doing anything. I'd say the fail to switch back is probably about 60 to 70% of the time.

The other thing I've seen happen, is picking a fight with the fighters and having them cost me Paranid rep because of picking a fight with them and they stay hostile / aggressive long after the frigate jumps out and switches to Paranid. And doing the comm sorry weapons fire apology does not work at this point.

[fireanddream]

The 2 things most common things I see is either the frigates getting blown up when they return to Lasting Vengeance, or they simply float around forever. They do sometimes go out and roam, but I don't recall them actually doing anything. I'd say the fail to switch back is probably about 60 to 70% of the time.

Wasn't that supposed to be fixed in 1.3 (but only effective in games started with 1.3)?

Okay so my game has progressed to a point where this is the most interesting thing to do.

If you two have read the "You've been duked?" thread, the culprit (one of them) apparently is the ([max capacity]/2)-1 marine storage limit on the Duke's HQ. I have got the TPs to deliver marines successfully but as soon as new marines were delivered, they were purged so the dock has only 9 out of 20 marines, the (capacity/2) - 1 rule.

FYI the TPs only search for mercenaries (so player marine training barrack won't help, nor does the one owned by the Dukes in Lasting Vengeance). And of course the M7Ms fail to change back to the Duke's a lot of the times.

My next plan is save scumming to make sure the Rehab facility only produces marines with fighting > 60, so the marine will be picked up by both the TP and the M7M. And then if the M7M picks up any marines at all, I will force it to retaliate (via boarding pods) by lightly harassing it. TMs are super easy to board so if I can get it to fire pods I have a good chance of successfully getting my ship boarded. If the achievement doesn't trigger by then I would give up.

The more hardcore version of this is doing the same thing while also monitoring an M7M. To trigger an active boarding when it has full 28 marines. If what I do above doesn't trigger and achievement I'd try, maybe.

[fireanddream]

Okay, bad news, you can't bait the M7M into retaliating via boarding pods. The RRFs do this, the duke's don't.
Good news, I did get the M7M to pick up marines from the HQ, so at least that part of the logistics goes through.

Here's my crazy plan for loading one of the M7Ms with 28 marines:

1) get rank 7 with pirates & dukes so I can clear out the unpicked marines from HQ & rehab facility
2) park some capitals in Maelstrom Beta for some steady stream of pirate & dukes rep.
3) park a Valhalla / ore mine carefully right in front of the gate in Lasting Vengeance, so the M7Ms are hopefully stalled for enough time until their "resupply at HQ" script is called (should target a minotaur, because slow)
4) and my job is monitoring the rehab facility in Danna's Chance so that every time it produces at least one usable marines
5) never leave Lasting Vengeance; keep destroying the other M7M so they don't compete with each other; minimal rep loss if ram
6) every time the TP comes back it should bring at least 5 usable marines
7) profit?

I really think it's doable. Ultimate vanilla challenge?

[fireanddream]

For some reason the rehab facilities only produce one marine per cycle, as oppose to two from the pedia page. Which works in our favor because now all 10 marines from one TP can be save scummed to qualify for pickup, and there would be no need to keep pirate or duke's rep > 7, because ideally every marine should qualify.
Positive rep is still needed so I don't get harass by those M6s and are able to supply the HQ with E-cells.

[BrigandPhantos77]

For some reason the rehab facilities only produce one marine per cycle, as oppose to two from the pedia page. Which works in our favor because now all 10 marines from one TP can be save scummed to qualify for pickup, and there would be no need to keep pirate or duke's rep > 7, because ideally every marine should qualify.
Positive rep is still needed so I don't get harass by those M6s and are able to supply the HQ with E-cells.

I was thinking... we need some new emojis on here. Need one of a ship, and another of a guy slamming his head forward. That way we could quote ramming ships correctly.

Sorry that's a bit outta the blue and into left field. When you said ramming M7M for minimal rep loss, that popped into my head.

Edit:
I know, ram full speed in our space suit. Charge and rename ourselves the Juggernaut.

[fireanddream]

I was thinking... we need some new emojis on here. Need one of a ship, and another of a guy slamming his head forward. That way we could quote ramming ships correctly.

Sorry that's a bit outta the blue and into left field. When you said ramming M7M for minimal rep loss, that popped into my head.

Edit:
I know, ram full speed in our space suit. Charge and rename ourselves the Juggernaut.

I stupidly destroyed the duke's HQ last session to... stall out one of the TPs. It had a few good marines but I was at rock bottom with the dukes, so no way to clear their HQ off old marines. And then I thought, hey let's destroy the HQ to buy us time to rebuild the rep before we let the TP delivers.

Boy did I underestimate how fast you build rep in FL. In 5 hours I got my pirate rep to max and the dukes to rank 8. Now I have 2 hours of SETA to do waiting for the HQ to respawn.

[BrigandPhantos77]

I stupidly destroyed the duke's HQ last session to... stall out one of the TPs. It had a few good marines but I was at rock bottom with the dukes, so no way to clear their HQ off old marines. And then I thought, hey let's destroy the HQ to buy us time to rebuild the rep before we let the TP delivers.

Boy did I underestimate how fast you build rep in FL. In 5 hours I got my pirate rep to max and the dukes to rank 8. Now I have 2 hours of SETA to do waiting for the HQ to respawn.

How bad did your other reps tank? I keep trying to play the nice merchant with everybody. My big goal is still the achievement for 100 billion credits in assets. Can't seem to get myself there. I always see a shiny new ship to buy. I do manage to get a ton of them though. Mostly through building of course. I just can't help but protect my rep on each play. I seem to be keeping the Paranid on friendly terms despite playing nice with the Terrans and Argon.

Edit- That little out of the way sector off Unseen Domain, I manage to put soo many ships in it that I made traveling there personally the best way to just about crash the game. Like lag so bad it could never catch up.

[fireanddream]

How bad did your other reps tank? I keep trying to play the nice merchant with everybody. My big goal is still the achievement for 100 billion credits in assets. Can't seem to get myself there. I always see a shiny new ship to buy. I do manage to get a ton of them though. Mostly through building of course. I just can't help but protect my rep on each play. I seem to be keeping the Paranid on friendly terms despite playing nice with the Terrans and Argon.

I've completely trashed all other rep except Teladi and NMMC. And so I took this opportunity to get the unfounded + war is good business achievements too by attacking those two. Now I'm enemies with literally everything except pirates and dukes. I had to tow my HQ in black hole sun waaaay off course to avoid being attacked.

[fireanddream]

Wasn't that supposed to be fixed in 1.3 (but only effective in games started with 1.3)?

And every time they return to Lasting Vengeance they get blown up by there allies. For some reason the switch back to dukes rarely succeeds.

Hi yall, after 4 days of trying I'm happy to announce the achievement is indeed bugged.

However, I have successfully got an M7M loaded with 28 marines (with mechanical/hacking specialists) that can consistently board my ships, in completely vanilla. The achievement just doesn't pop.

Here's my save in case any of you or future generation wants to try to pop it:

In Lasting Vengeance a Gannet is heading towards the HQ where it will pick up the last batch of marines.
With luck it will idle in sector a bit and then head towards my Pather in the same sector. I detonated all my other capital ships.
Eject the shield and it will get boarded.

[DanKara]

I'm happy to announce

AWESOME and OUTSTANDING!
But equally SAD that the achievement does not trigger…

Some questions for being boarded:
At the time of the Dukes-Boarding where you still on friendly terms with the Dukes? (I was under the impression, the wouldn't target friends?)
Have you tried different ships/classes as bait/victims? … or different places/sectors?

[fireanddream]

I'm happy to announce

AWESOME and OUTSTANDING!
But equally SAD that the achievement does not trigger…

Some questions for being boarded:
At the time of the Dukes-Boarding where you still on friendly terms with the Dukes? (I was under the impression, the wouldn't target friends?)
Have you tried different ships/classes as bait/victims? … or different places/sectors?

Yes. The exact chance is (10 - your rank with the dukes)^2 vs random(0,500), if the number is less than the random number player race is picked as the target. So it helps to stay at extremely high rank for testing purposes.

I have tested:

Lasting Vengeance + me flying the ship
Lasting Vengeance + me in my Ocelot just watching
Lasting Vengeance + me starying OOS the whole time
Hub + me flying the ship
Hub + me in my Ocelot just watching
Heaven's Assertion + me flying the ship
Heaven's Assertion + me in my Ocelot just watching

However there is just one oddity. In all testing the M7M doesn't turn hostile, nor the TM, just the fighters.
The M7M also doesn't get covered when it jumps outside to board my ship.
I can confirm whether or not they will cover/uncover is predetermined for their next venture outside, so it doesn't surprise me.
If you let the Gannet move outside (rolling an idle at some other sector) after picking the marine, after it comes back, the next time it jumps out it may or may not turn into a Paranid.

I haven't tested what happens if they do it as "Paranid boarding Gannet", or how they will behave if I'm unfriendly with the dukes. At this point I'm just incredibly happy the whole thing is done. Maybe more testing later.

Btw, since officially the achievement description is "have one of your ships boarded", I'm gonna try to get boarded by an RRF M7M by exhausting its offensive missiles then poking it with no shield.

[DanKara]

Btw, since officially the achievement description is "have one of your ships boarded", I'm gonna try to get boarded by an RRF M7M by exhausting its offensive missiles then poking it with no shield.

Oh my...
Getting boarded ... by accident? Haha ... what an evil thought (or a smart one).
Good luck!