Just wanted to share my statistics on one of the later part of the mission:
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Where you have to capture two fighters:
Ship Used: Paranid Hyperion Vanguard
Combat rank: Vindicator 93%
Game version: 3.1 + latest bonus pack, unmodified game.
Ship captured: ATF Fenrir
Morale: 20
Number of Reloads: 8
Hull damage which got him to bail: ~80% - 58%
Weapon used: Mix of CIG and ISR
Ship captured: ATF Mjollnir
Morale: 20
Number of reloads: 28
Hull damage which got him to bail: ~50% - 17%
Weapon used: single CIG
Ah, and there's more, don't know if it was already told but:
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if you board one of theATF Tyrs that chase you in the last part of the plot it will disappear along with your marines after you escape from the chase so don't waste your time (unless you manage to dock it at your HQ and add it to reverse engineering queue, which I did)
My current ship collection: 11 out of 11*retired* ships found 17 out of 17*unique* ships found 9 out of 9*limited* ships found 16 out of 16*rare* ships found
Chull wrote:So the reward for this new mission, "new" technology, is some fighters.
That's it?
I'd be surprised if anyone even flies these things personally.
What happened to the new tech reward? beam weapon blue prints? a Khaak M2? a totally new ship? New ship equipment?(blue print scanner etc)
No, you get some crap fighters that are slightly less crap than other fighters. Oooowww! I'm completely disappointed.
Only came in this thread to see if the rewards were worth starting the mission. They're not.
You get a Griffon for FF, a decent reward, but this was advertised as unveiling new tech, not some crap barely anyone will even bother flying.
RE them, then make a fleet of ATF M3/M4/M5's? yeah sounds like AWESOME fun....................
hmm.. I suppose that does come up on the slightly short side.. personaly I heard that there is a better one for the 'lost brothers ' mission - a SY with terrian stations. So you can at long last make use of the terrian tech's and stuff... I already have RE'ed the springblossom - which I use as a blockade runner... How nice would it be if I could use it as an M6 though? And hopefully there is some aldrain stations for sale as well... you cant sub the EPMC's for the PMC's on terrain stuff..
I was able to defeat the 4 Tyr at the end of the plot line by using Xenon sectors. The Ka'ak are too spread out, but the Xenon aren't.
Step 1: fly to Xenon Sector 472
Step 2: get the Xenons attention and then fly past the 4 Tyr. I got the Xenon to take out one and reduce the shields on the other three.
Step 3: head to Xenon sector 101 and immediately fly north. The xenon start pretty close to the gate in this sector and will be immediately on top of you and the Tyr.
Step 4: head to Legends Home and hide behind the OTAS Boreas which should be strong enough to eliminate any remainders.
The Terran ships appear to attack any vessels so you can choose any sector with a big fleet. I like to do 472 first and then 101 so as to not give time for too much shield recharging while getting ships to close with one another.
I used my HV but anything fast and heavily shielded should do the trick.
ALWAYS use Commonwealth ships for the Caps. Tried more times than I care to count in Terran ships and the required ships WILL NOT Bail. First time I tried in a non-Terran vessel they couldn't bail fast enough.
Strike hard, fast and from the Dark.
If at first you don't succeed... excessive force may be necessary
i just can't get the mjonir to bail. i've lost count of how many reloads i've done. i've tried different ships, different weapon loudouts, different tactics, and for some reason, he just won't bail. is there any other way to get him to bail?! this is so fustrating...
-NavyAICS.
My preferred method is to use a bank of HEPTs. Begin with an opening volley which deals slightly more than full shield damage to bring his hull integrity down a bit. Then loose off another very short burst to deal around 25% hull damage. And then repeat until the target bails or dies. Repeat in the latter case.
I'm going to try reposting this issue on this topic since its related:
After successfully infiltrating the base with my 10 1 star marines and blockading the gate with my 2 Boreas and Panther, I get a "Escort: object.name@L2M016.PlayerTP to the Dark Space Station".
Now I've read about that thing in the threads before... that means the object doesn't appear in the map... and it didn't. Waiting in SETA, the Scabbard never arrived.
I'm wondering if anyone else had this bug in this part of the mission happen to them before. The only "modification" I have installed is the bonus pack.. so that shouldn't really be an issue...
Am I supposed to be actually right next to the station for this mission to work? Or did you guys go next to the gateway as well and it was fine?
The only old save I have is gathering marines and sending them to the dark space base... hopefully that's far enough for this stupid error to be gone. That and I'm going to train my marines further just in case having one star marines only infiltrating is the issue.
If you've never had any mods installed, I'd be tempted to file an official bug report and upload the save. But since TC has no more updates planned, it might be a moot point.
IonD's supposedly lower your chances of capping in TC...
Seems the best method is to save a few times.
Save a before the ships spawn.
save b if a ship bails.
If the second does not bail after a dozen reloads reload save a and try it again.
If anyone was wondering, doing this in a steam DiD is not enjoyable. Even with a repair laser.
Well. I give up. After hours of trying to capture, I managed to get the Fenrir. The Mjolnir never bails.
This is by the far the lowest of the low of the plots in X3TC. Never thought finishing a plot would punish you with a race that hates you now (unless you exploited) and ships that rely on the shoddy RNG to claim any chance of reward.
I hope the designer is resting peacefully at night.
Just got up to the part where I needed to scan the Valkyrie. Had a lot of trouble with this in my Kestrel so after trying to scan it for a few sectors, it eventually docked at the Hull plating production Facility in Oort Cloud.. I docked there as well and voila, it started scanning immediately. Easy way to get the scanning done
The next bit isn't so much difficult as annoying. You're going to need to fly to Kuiper Belt and when you approach the target Mjollnir it'll turn red and the Bloodhounds will start scrapping with the ATF escorts. Save now. You need to cap the fighter; those of you who have capped fighters before know what you're up against; those of you who havn't, I'll give a brief guide to capping here. It is said that slowly whittling away the hull with a light weapon like an IRE or PBE is a good strategy; I find that at lower fight ranks it doesn't work so well, and a better strategy is to dive in, guns blazing and cease fire at the point where you've stripped away the shields. Then give a few more periodic short - SHORT - bursts every couple of seconds to deal further damage. Seems to work a lot more often for me. If you destroy the Mjollnir before it bails, then reload your save and try again; keep trying until you get it. The ATF escorts will remain neutral to you and won't attack you even when you're capping their charge. I believe thet the correct term for this behaviour is 'Idiocy' but I'm not going to complain if you won't!
With the Mjollnir capped, you need to return it to the base. When it docks, you're given the option of turning it over.
i'm still stuck on this part!!! this is driving me mad. i've been stuck at this exact point for a long time. i even walked away from the game for about a month or two, came back to give it another go and... i still can't get this idiot to bail! i've tried different ships, different weapons, different tactics, and nothing!
can't i just pay him or something?! i've got plenty of credits... this sucks.
-NavyAICS.
i know i'm not supposed to "double post" but, this is important. i'm feeling a little at the moment. i just installed 3.1.1 and replayed the mission (see post above)... and wouldn't you know it?! first time, he bails... what a jerk!
i was so shocked; i claimed it, repaired it (w/ handy dandy repair laser), sent it on its way to be docked at "secret base" and i started following it. about a minute later, this scary thought popped into my head: "what if i, or that ship, crashes?" i turned on a dime, went full speed for the closest base i could dock at! game save complete! whew!
i take back all mean names i called ES...wait, i didn't post them... never mind. i love you ES!
-NavyAICS.
I have to admit, capping both the Mjollnir and the Fenrir was no easy task. I was all about to give up on the Fenrir when he finally bailed at 27% hull and of course 0% shields, after about 15 tries. The Fenrir was definitely the hardest for me. He kept blowing up before bailing.
I used my Griffon with all weapons disabled except for 3 lasers operational and made sure no weapons were on automatic fire. At least with my Griffon, I had a place for both of the ATF fighters to park after capping them. I capped them both in the unknown sector.
Now that I have the blueprints for the fighters, I presume there is nothing I can do with them until after I finish the Hub (?). I have 75000 computer chips to find before I can have a PHQ (?) is that correct?
Essentially correct. You have to complete the Hub plot to start the PHQ which will reward you with the PHQ.
Which will let you use the blueprints for those ships.
I think I got a combination that works best for capturing the Fenrir and Mjollnir. After trying many different approaches including attacking the shields and doing as little damage to the hull as possible with no success, I thought about under what circumstances bailing usually occurs and concluded that it usually happens when you have the full intent of killing them so...
1) I had my Griffon with a selection of 5 fighters onboard (fully upgraded Starfyre, Mako Raider, Cutlass, Kestrel, and Xperimental Shuttle). I knew that those M4s and M3s are likely to be able to outrun the Griffon so I needed a contingency plan in case they did.
2) You need to find a nice, quite place between Maelstrom and Gaian Star where the pirates aren't going to bother you. You need time to 1 on 1 the Fenrir and Mjollnir. For me, this ended up being at the West gate of Unknown Sector between the two. I parked the Griffon by the gate by far enough away it wouldn't attack any pirates that go through there (which a Pirate M7 did). Make sure the Griffon has enough room to dock the Mjollnir and Fenrir.
3) I decided to use the Mako Raider for the Mjollnir because they're both M4s and the Cutlass for the Fenrir because they're both M3s. My Mako Raider has two PACs, two IBEs, and two Ion Disruptors. This gave me a solid selection of a tool to use against the Mjollnir. My Cutlass had all slots filled with EMPCs and the turrets command set to "None."
4) The Mjollnir (it arrives first because it is faster) was carrying a Poltergeist missile (use a freight scanner on the ships to see what missiles they have) that would 1-shot kill my Mako Raider so, when the Mjollnir comes into range of the Mako, I engaged it with the PACs until it started engaging me. I then went into a defensive pattern until it launched the Poltergeist missile at me. At which point, I abruptly turned around to engage the missiles with the PACs. The moment the Poltergeist was dealt with, I flew out of range of the Mjollnir and saved the game. The greatest hurdle to success (the missile) is now out of the way. I then turned around and hit the Mjollnir with my PACs as if I were going to kill it. I didn't let off on the PACs what-so-ever and only did if, and that's a big IF, the pilot came on the comms. I'd listen for the eject message and if it wasn't, I'd proceed to ruthlessly fire at it until either another message or it blows up. If it blows up, load the save after the missile was intercepted (it took me about 3 attempts for each to get an eject). If it doesn't blow up, fly to it, eject quick, claim it, get back in your ship, and order the Mjollnir to dock with the Griffon. You should also dock with the Griffon to change over the Cutlass. That's one ship down.
5) The Cutlass works great for the Fenrir because it has 4 EMPCs clustered together dead center of the ship. It's kind of like the A-10 Thunderbolt II of fighters--it does a lot of damage in a tight group wherever the nose of the aircraft points. Again, make sure to disable those turrets because they can blow up the ships accidentally while the pilot gives the eject message. The procedure is pretty much the same as the Mjollnir with one exception. The Fenrir carries Spectre missiles instead of Poltergeist missiles and, if you are attacking it while the Specter missiles are launched, you'll hit the missile instantly killing the Fenrir. Like the Mjollnir, you must launch a volley of rounds at it (you'll bring it down to 25-50% shields) and then stop. Fly evasively and take out the Specter missiles as they are launched (again, use the freight scanner to find out how many are in it). Once you engage and destroy all the Spectre missiles, fly out of range of the Fenrir and save. Just like the Mjollnir, attack it like you are going to kill it with those 4 EMPCs only stopping if you hear the pilot say something. You'll know in less than 15 seconds if the pilot is going to eject or die. If he ejects, capture it and dock it with the Griffon, you dock with the Griffon, then jump out of there with the Griffon. If he doesn't eject, load the save just after when the Spectre missiles were dealt with and try again.
In summary, it seems to me that pilots are most likely to eject when they are subjected to a lot of damage rapidly giving them the impression that if they don't eject, they'll die. Keep that in mind when trying to capture those ships.
The Mjollnir and the Fenrir can both be captured in this plot. I captured the Mjollnir after just a few reloads using my Springblossum. However, I could not capture the Fenrir even though I tried a number of ship and weapon combinations.
I gave up for a while and tried again after it arrived in Gaian Star. It was about 78% on arrival and I decided to blast it thoroughly with ion disruptors from one of my other ships. I still couldn't come up with a combination that would allow me to capture it so I left it alone.
Later, while clearing a Xenon patrol from one of the race sectors, I found that many of the M's and L's were bailing. I immediately checked in another sector and caught a glimpse of another Xenon patrol. I went there and was blasting an L when it turned blue. I didn't get off the trigger soon enough to save it but decided it was time to make another go at the Fenrir.
I jumped to Gaian Star, changed to just one X-EMPC in my Springblossum, and blasted away. The Fenrir bailed on the first try and I was finally able to complete the mission.
It has taken me about 2 months on and off to get both the fighters to bail in Mailstrom, M4 first (save game!!!) with the Fenrir eventually bailing after an amazing number of reloads.
The Player ship was a Springblossom with 7 MA/M launchers and one EEMPC, with weapon layouts set at 1 == all, 2 ==2 MA/M, and 3 == 1 EEMPC. Turrets were set as Missile Only.
Getting the Fenrir without interference from Carracks, Brigs, Elites, & Blastclaws was the responsibility of a Boreas parked at the West Gate, and a Cobra parked 50 K South East of the North Gate, ready to barrage Carracks coming from the North. I brought a Boa along to take my prizes away....
Still running totally plain vanilla 3.1, and will now resume my other mind-numbing task of finding an Aran in my Cobra with the UFJD, 88 jumps and still no Aran, plenty of broken jump gates, Khaak bases, K's & Q's though.
at the moment. i just installed 3.1.1 and replayed the mission (see post above)... and wouldn't you know it?! first time, he bails... what a jerk!
never mind. i love you ES!
