[TC] Boarding mini-guide

[phoenix-it]

Key thing is to use several & give them time to do their job - I know minutes feel like hours in a combat situation (especially when moving a few feet either way out of a turret blindspot means risking heavy fire) but have patience & those guns will be gone (also gets rid of shields & other equipment too).

Oh, I have no intention of shadowing the other vessel if that doesn't benefit me. I'll be waiting outside the weapon range for the fighters to disable the weapons.

[phoenix-it]

Same here, in my case it's the Boron and Argon fleet, defending the No and So gate of Looman Legacy. They must be on defending position, as the few pirate stations there are left intact. It may make sense if they guard the South gate of Ceo's Doubt and the North gate of Cardinal Domain, however.

I think they're more likely there to secure the trade lane from attack. I haven't checked the rest of the sectors in pirate alley yet.

The pirates all appear to be coming in and out through Spaceweed Grove, the gate is east of the Pirate Anarchy Port.

[GCU Grey Area]

Oh, I have no intention of shadowing the other vessel if that doesn't benefit me. I'll be waiting outside the weapon range for the fighters to disable the weapons.

Interesting tactics - let us know how it goes, what ships you use, how they are equipped, etc. Personally like to do my boarding up close & personal, so my marines don't have a long walk & I have full control over the situation (don't really trust AI flown ships all that much). Also get quite a thrill flying so close to big ships that the hulls are almost touching & their turrets are useless.

By the way, just tried to tackle an ATF Skirnir M7. Tough hulls - got the shields down, marines got to the hull & started drilling. Then they reported back: "hull plating too tough to get through - aborting". They were all fully trained 5-star mechanics, so looks like that's definitely a ship that needs boarding pods to take. Damn, guess it's time to see where the pirate bases that used to sell them were rebuilt (they were all destroyed a few days into my game, at a time when I couldn't afford to buy pods or a ship which could use them).

[phoenix-it]

Actually, I was talking about how I'll be using boarding pods. Shut the guns down and see if they don't get shot down.

[GCU Grey Area]

Actually, I was talking about how I'll be using boarding pods. Shut the guns down and see if they don't get shot down.

Fair enough - still hunting for those mythical boarding pods myself (spent most of the last hour searching the outer reaches of numerous sectors but no luck so far).

One thing to watch out for is that I think spare guns carried a freight aren't damaged by Ion D fire & sometimes these get installed in an empty turret if/when the enemy ship finds a new target to shoot at (sometimes happens when I'm hiding in a blindspot & launch marines, who promptly get shot by the new guns). Although, from the sound of it, if your going to use extra ships to get rid of guns, the spare guns will be installed straight away since they'll have those ships to shoot at. Once they're installed they become viable targets for Ioning away.

[Nataku02]

WHICH STATION and how many?????

[Noller]

I have a M 7 Cerberus with 18 Soldiers but i do net get the Bording Aktion in the Command Menu how could this be ?

[GCU Grey Area]

Need some advice on M7Ms from those who have used them. Current situation is:
Have cornered an ATF Odin in the Hub. Shields are down & it has used up all its weapon energy shooting at a drone swarm. 5-star Marines have tried to get in on their own but can't cut through the hull. Don't want to let the Odin go, so it's time to use my 1 (and only) boarding pod.
Remotely ordering & equipping an M7M from the battlefield is not a problem (all the necessary logistics are in place), just wondering which one to get & would be grateful for any feedback on which M7Ms have worked well for other people & which to avoid.

[palm911]

good luick on that one.

even with pods m1 and m2 ships are not capturable by any means. .. never get past the hulls.

you can however get the m7s.

its a bug (tested retested over 40 times with 5 stars on mechanical. and hacking.

[GCU Grey Area]

even with pods m1 and m2 ships are not capturable by any means. .. never get past the hulls.

Pirate Galleon M1s are boardable (though of course they may be an exception). Didn't even need pods to capture mine.

[cezarip]

Key thing is to use several & give them time to do their job - I know minutes feel like hours in a combat situation (especially when moving a few feet either way out of a turret blindspot means risking heavy fire) but have patience & those guns will be gone (also gets rid of shields & other equipment too).

Oh, I have no intention of shadowing the other vessel if that doesn't benefit me. I'll be waiting outside the weapon range for the fighters to disable the weapons.

Be careful, IonD beam has the "ability" to jump from ship to ship and you may see the shields of your fighters gone. Or in the worst case they may remain without guns due to the fact that IonD has affected them also. I usually do the "frying" myself without the help of other fighters.

[GCU Grey Area]

Had another go at the Odin, this time using a boarding pod - looks like palm911 is right: certain ships just aren't boardable, with or without boarding pods & maxed out training for the marines - I tried well over a dozen times using both methods.
Incidentally, the basic hull strength of the ship does not seem to be a factor in this: Pirate Galleons are capturable & have almost double the hull strength of an Odin.
Also, did a scan & there's nothing in the Odin's cargo bay or installed kit list along the lines of enhanced hull plating, so think it's either a bug or Ego just don't want people flying around in ATF capitals.
Damn, really wanted that ship.

[palm911]

i meant the M1 and M2 ATF ships.

you can capture any other M1 and M2 in the game.

this is what i know.

the script check the class and also the race, for example if you spawn a Terran tyr under yaki its boardable without any issues. but if you do under ATF then its impossible to capture. it has to be a bug, the only problem is the devs does not seen to admit that the mechanics are broken its so hard to admit when there is a problem? they just preffer to keep silence or throw some generic response (sad truth)

xenon ships on the other hand works as intended, damn hard to capture. but its boardable. if you place any SHIP in the game (m1 and m2 under xenon race) you will find soon enough that the difficulty has been increased.

on the ATF ships: this is what i was able to capture after the negotiations with my diplomacy boarding group:

ATF vidar : not an issue , easy to board with fairly unnexperienced marines (2 stars)

ATF skirnir : takes some time, need high mechanical stats, and hacking, fighting also seems to be fairly important, (3 marines with 2 stars on fighting should be able to do it. on the mechanical i have 2 maxed experienced mechanical marines. and 1 fully experienced hacker. (took around 8 tries for me to capture it.

ATF aegir: same as above.

so far IMPOSSIBLE to capture. due to a bug or feature.
ODIN
TYR

and i have no luck capturing the thor and the fenrir. they dont seem to bail. but i have to test even more. to be sure of it.

yaki and pirates M1 and M2 are capturable, xenons ships (Q, K, Js) are capturable you just need fully experienced combat marines, once inside its likely you will get a wipe with the inside defenses.

argon, split, teladi, boron, paranid (capturable all of then.)

terran. i have not tried. (i rather use pods on rare ships. since pods are also very hard to find, why capture something you can easily buy after a combat mission? my pods are for ships you cant buy

going back to ATF. in my game there is only 1 odin , and 1 tyr, the second tyr under terran is plot related and cannot be boarded. same as certain skirnir that flyes at 170m/s in aldrin.

[GCU Grey Area]

i meant the M1 and M2 ATF ships.

you can capture any other M1 and M2 in the game.

etc...

Thanks for that - very useful info. Hopefully some of it will be sorted out in the next patch. Was really looking forward to having an Odin for a flagship.

[phoenix-it]

I think the bottom line is that they went way too overboard trying to make boarding difficult in general. i.e. Boarding pods would make it too easy so we'll make them 99% likely to get shot down in any situation where the target still has a working gun. They shouldn't be produced by any factories and should only appear 1 at a time randomly and pirate bases. They'll only be launched by ships that cost 10's of millions of credits that have only 1 turret, can only launch missiles, and is otherwise inferior to most standard frigates that have normal turrets and cost a lot less. On top of all that we'll make the best ships impossible to board.

Which is in major contrast from what they did with the Terrans in general:

You get a vidar that flies like a heavy fighter and fires ammo based medium damage corvette+ class M/AML guns. These guns are not energy based so they can fire as long as you have ammo. When you combine that with the ships shields, maneuverability and speed a decent pilot can wipe out an entire Xenon sector with just 1 corvette.

The fighters you can get are faster, more maneuverable and far more heavily shielded when compared to anything in the commonwealth. The weapons they employ have a very high damage per energy output that pretty much outclasses anything else that's available.

You get access to ancient ship designs that are ridiculously fast, well armed and carry much larger amounts of cargo when compared to anything else in it's class.

All that makes me wonder... Why is the "balance" so strange in this game. On one hand, they appear to want to make one thing so annoying that it's not worth the effort unless you're trying to nab something that's not otherwise available. On the other hand they hand you the keys to what are easily the most destructive ships in the game.

I'm having a real hard time trying to figure out why they did a lot of this... It's quite puzzling.

[LTerSlash]

I have triyed to capture a Atmosferic Lifter today... i didt made to pass the hull... i triyed with 5 marines all of them with 5 stars mechanical.... so WTH?!

I didt get a M7M yet...

[Rmaccc]

I have triyed to capture a Atmosferic Lifter today... i didt made to pass the hull... i triyed with 5 marines all of them with 5 stars mechanical.... so WTH?!

I didt get a M7M yet...

thanks,saved me a long time trying.

does anyone have a list of ships that are actually capturable ?


edit: doesnt work with boarding pods either.

i guess its yet another no capper.
on a side note i just found out what a total waste of time an M7 missile boarder is,50 mill to bypass the troops space walk ?and thats only if you can find boarding pods.
ship would get destroyed before it escape its so slow.

waste of an hours chasing the damn lifter.

[GCU Grey Area]

on a side note i just found out what a total waste of time an M7 missile boarder is,50 mill to bypass the troops space walk ?and thats only if you can find boarding pods.
ship would get destroyed before it escape its so slow.

The one useful thing I discovered in my futile attempt to capture that Odin was that a substantial swarm of drones (I was periodically launching them in batches of 30) made the boarding operation MUCH safer for both the ship(s) and the marines, whether or not they were using a boarding pod.

The drones did a fantastic job of keeping the shields down all by themselves &, because the Odin used up all its weapon energy shooting at the drone swarm, it had nothing left to shoot at ships, marines and/or their boarding pod.

[phoenix-it]

on a side note i just found out what a total waste of time an M7 missile boarder is,50 mill to bypass the troops space walk ?and thats only if you can find boarding pods.

My sentiments exactly... That's a lot of money to spend on that provides so marginal a benefit to the existing process. Pods are VERY LIKELY to get shot down too if every turret on the target isn't disabled.

[DarkTemplar]

At first i was happy about the Marines, cause i thought i would finally be able to collect all the shops flying around out there. But now there are more and more ships wich arent boardable at all. Like the ATF Capital Ships, the Khaak M6 and Capital Ships and the normal ATF m3,m4 and m5. There is no really reason why they should be unboardable, they just are, maybe they simply want to harass the players.