Squiddy McSquids possibly short life - {Possible spoilers inside}

Ravenholme · Post by **Ravenholme** » Sun, 30. Nov 08, 11:36

Now that I've unlocked the Poisoned Paranid start, I'm considering doing a Dead-is-Dead game with it, and even more so, documenting my adventures with it. I write stories as a hobby anyway, would be cool to share one using some of Squiddy's Rules.

(Guess you can say that NUKLEAR inspired me)

angels7707 · Post by **angels7707** » Sun, 30. Nov 08, 13:08

excellent story.. the added aspect of the mercs and hijacking is an great addition to X3...

Ravenholme · Post by **Ravenholme** » Sun, 30. Nov 08, 16:34

I've started my game and telling of it, as inspired by NUKLEAR-SLUG and Squiddy.

Meet Tupman, the infected Paranid with 75 hours to make 25 000 000 credits to be cured of his disease to regain his assets:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=226106

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Sun, 30. Nov 08, 20:57

Yesterdays mission while ultimately succesful wasn't the resounding success it could have been. Whether they were unlucky or whether it was just down to poor fight skills is debateable. I'm choosing to overlook my own incompetence. More experimentation is required to provide a definitive answer, however until I can find another Merc base I'm sorely limited on troops.

A TP is useable for capturing but is not ideal as without weapon support I'm having to jump between ships and that complicates an already tricky operation. What I really need is an M6 which can mount ION-D which would negate the need for a TP. Having spent some time with the encyclopaedia it seems the only M6 that can mount ION-D are the Hydra and Centaur. Boron ships are off the menu, at least for the time being, so that means unless I can relocate that Pirate Centaur I saw down in Mookeyes Revenge one time I'm going to be upsetting the Argon again..

Centaurs seem to come in three variants according to the encyclopaedia, normal, heavy and heavy-prototype. Heavy and Heavy-P seem largely the same except the prototype variant is a whole hell of a lot faster. In fact it's got a top speed that would be fairly good for a fighter. If I'm going to do this then I might as well go the whole hog and go straight for the Heavy-P. In for a penny, in for a pound and all that. First task of course is to locate one. I've never actually seen one up close but I must have passed one at some point.

I buy up a few Advsats and order a couple ships to layout a grid around the Argon sectors since I'm assuming that's where they'll be while I wander off and do a few missions. Ship retrieval missions are much, much easier when you've got a TM along for the ride and with 600Mj of shielding around me I'm feeling quite safe as I don't think there's much that could do me harm before I can RSLG-JD out of there. I even manage to fit in a nice assassination mission which for the cost of a handful of Wasps and the Hammerhead I sneaked in under their radar nets me a cool 3 million. Sweet!

As it happens it seems there is at least two Heavy-P's in the area. the first I pick up in Red Light and assign my Medusa to tail it, the second in Herrons Nebula and attach a Blastclaw to that one. Jumping into Red Light I do a sneaky scan of the Heavy-P. Pros: It's fast, massively shielded and horrendously well armed. Cons: It's fast, massively shielded and horrendously well armed.. and I have to defeat that.

Hmm, having actually looked at one first-hand I'm suddenly having second thoughts. I'm not really keen to go up against that level of firepower in a single fighter.. and dropping off troops on it? Ideally I would much prefer to attempt something like this with an M6 for the shielding but with only seven remaining squaddies I can't at the present time afford to take the almost inevitable losses from other boarding actions as that would leave me insufficient manpower to get the Heavy-P. Dilemma.

So what do you all reckon? Do I make the play for the Heavy-P or take a pass on that and try something a little easier.. a TL perhaps?

Ravenholme · Post by **Ravenholme** » Sun, 30. Nov 08, 21:05

I wouldn't risk it until you've got your marines well trained and more of them. They're a precious resource at this stage, which you have to husband carefully.

TheJakal · Post by **TheJakal** » Sun, 30. Nov 08, 21:54

I agree with RavenHolme. I would rather wait for it to be safe for you to do and not have this gate tale of explits ended abruptly than you go blazing in and lose it all.

Cheers

89James89

Tenlar Scarflame · Post by **Tenlar Scarflame** » Sun, 30. Nov 08, 21:59

I'd advise against it, for now. At the moment I would advise going for a Light M6 (try for the pirate Centaur), then using that one to stage your boarding action of a Heavy or Heavy Proto.

Although I get the feeling that you're going to go for the Proto first anyway.

KiwiNZ · Post by **KiwiNZ** » Sun, 30. Nov 08, 21:59

Nice one again.

If you are really keen on trying that, go to the pirate sector and pick on a pirate corvette. They are a fair bit weaker but it allows you to see how hard it'd be to keep shields down for any length of time without being toasted. If you can take out those corvettes repeatedly, you might be in with a chance. Though, be prepared that the Argon launch a bunch of fighters at you, if you intend to take on that prototype in one of their sectors.

Ravenholme · Post by **Ravenholme** » Sun, 30. Nov 08, 22:32

The sneaky thing to do would be to start doing the Hub missions up until you can align the first gate, and then set the first set of gates on the patrol path of the Prototype Heavy Centaur, and take it when it's within the hub. Then restore your rep with the Argon so you can continue supplying goods to the Hub

TBV · Post by **TBV** » Sun, 30. Nov 08, 23:10

I reckon this might be Squiddy's most potentially dangerous outing yet.

I would put an awful lot of resources into it if I were him. Maybe get a few more disposable fighters to help decrease the risk.

Like it says in the manual about bringing ten ships if two should be enough.
In a dead is dead game this saying carries more weight.

DocIceT · Post by **DocIceT** » Mon, 1. Dec 08, 00:28

Remember the prudent use of missiles to stay out of such up close and personal situations.
Maybe fighter drones will do the trick here. Unleash and when the shields are down do a single flyby to drop the marines.
Still have to try this myself but definately a better strategy in a dead is dead game.

GCU Grey Area · Post by **GCU Grey Area** » Mon, 1. Dec 08, 00:36

NUKLEAR-SLUG wrote:only seven remaining squaddies I can't at the present time afford to take the almost inevitable losses from other boarding actions as that would leave me insufficient manpower to get the Heavy-P. Dilemma.

If you need more troops to practice with & maybe to capture a standard M6 before going after the P-type, I'd go looking for a TP & press-gang the all the passengers...

Necrosexual · Post by **Necrosexual** » Mon, 1. Dec 08, 01:54

I think his best bet is to fry as much shielding and weapons on the H.C.P. as possible with ION_D's maybe even frying all the shields if that's possible.

There is a maneuver to put your marines in the path of a ship if that ship is faster than your marines

(you)-----(marines)>>---------<<<(HCP)

I will call it the marine sandwich.

SLUG i have taken on a HCP in a regualr HC and it was one of the toughest captures i have done. You might not survive this one...

nitromethane · Post by **nitromethane** » Mon, 1. Dec 08, 03:14

i cant seem to stay alive due to my poison ivy on my trigger finger but FIGHTER DRONES ARE YOUR FRIENDS and congratulations on staying in it this far as well as a great write up cant wait for your next installment

Random_Guy · Post by **Random_Guy** » Mon, 1. Dec 08, 03:30

I tried a few dead-is-dead rounds this weekend starting as an Anonymous Argon.

1. Splattered by a M1/M2 (the Argon ones look the same) as I went through a gate. Lasted about half an hour.

2. Fragged by pirates. A groups of pirate M5's attacked me before I had any guns and was only going around 200 m/s with 1 MJ of shielding.

3. Fried while passing some blue dots on my radar. Despite being blue to me, they were apparently red to each other. I guess they didn't get into range until I was right next to them, because all of a sudden I get fried by someone's PBG.

4. Splattered by a gate. I actually did pretty well this time. I got a fair amount of money and somehow ended up out near Avarice. I did some missions for the Teladi and got my rank up and then bought a Kestral. SETA Autopiloted into the gate and died.

I just reloaded from the fourth one as I had spent several hours and it was a retarted death.

5. Splattered by a trader. Making sure not to relive #4, I was manually flying around in my Kestral. I was flying at a gate at full speed (605 m/s) on my way to a shield factory (so I still only had 1 MJ) and a Paranid TS popped out right in front of me. SPLAT.

I gave up. Your advice is to use a freight scanner to only attack weak targets? It sounds like good advice. Unfortunately, I never even got a chance to try it out. You see, despite normally being a fighter jockey, I managed to stay Harmless in all my attempts. Yeah, never even fired a shot. Didn't even own a gun until right before my last death. Go figure.

Anyway, squid? Is there any reason why you can't just fry it with IonD's until it loses all its stuff? Once that happens, it should be an easy cap. Good luck!

Necrosexual · Post by **Necrosexual** » Mon, 1. Dec 08, 04:02

and then bought a Kestral.

you break the rules you get splattered!

btw I am on my 8th attempt and am finally doing it right.

Random_Guy · Post by **Random_Guy** » Mon, 1. Dec 08, 04:16

I never said I was following Squid's rules, I just said I was playing dead-is-dead.

Mav'r'ck · Post by **Mav'r'ck** » Mon, 1. Dec 08, 04:53

This thread is awesome. Well done NUKLEAR.

I will deffo have to try a did game some time, though I have to say if I do so there is no way I will let random gate deaths count. No way I'd let some hard earned empire go due to what is basically an unavoidable game bug.

Course, the easy way for the lad to solve his problem would be to work his way through the Terran plot...but then where would the drama be in that?

Seems to me that the best course of action is two-fold:

1) Patience to train your marines to a high level
2) Start on an easier target and use that to get your HCP.

That said, capping a TL also makes complete sense, especially as you're going after the Split anyway. Fleet base and you can then do station build missions which must surely be the highest return for the lowest risk in the entire game.

Necrosexual · Post by **Necrosexual** » Mon, 1. Dec 08, 05:22

Oh that's right he could go for a TL.

So SLUG have you ever fried a marine by accident with ION D's? the energy stream does jump targets after all.

phoenix-it · Post by **phoenix-it** » Mon, 1. Dec 08, 05:48

You could always go for a regular Centaur first, then go for the meaner brother. The heavy M6 ships are no pushover, unless you're flying a well armed M3+ or an M6 yourself.

I need to start doing some capturing prep myself as I REALLY want an Agamemnon.