GPPCs? Grrr...

[Argon-419]

Ok.. so I've destroyed many, MANY Js. Scanned them - every slot has a GPPC in it.

How come they never drop them?!

I've killed at least 40 Js armed to the teeth with GPPCs. Slowly, quickly, with missles, without missles. What am I doing wrong?

[maphys]

Missiles may be the issue - they could blow up any crates left over! Finish them with guns.

Dropping stuff is otherwise random. Odd that you have not seen any. What weapons are you using? I've noticed that Flaks/PSGs are a bit good at removing all crates within range.

M

[Argon-419]

Well.. I'm in my Centaur as I've yet to get the Hyperion and haven't gotten an M1/M2 yet to back me up - so.. BHEPTs. And a handful of PACs.

Lame I know compared to the shields of a J, but it gets the job done.. eventually. Sometimes I'll use a Hammerhead in the beginning to get its shields down a bit - I always finish it with guns. Never seen a J drop anything - not even Hornets. Nada.

See my frustration?

[maphys]

I'd be narked too! Although I have noticed that I seem to get more stuff in XI missions than Xenon clearing. Ks also seem to drop more than Js, but they are a lot tougher too. But generally I think I am lucky to get one load of GPPCs per sector cleared.

The Centaur is perfectly good for J killing - I tend to use an LX myself. I just can't get on with big ships. The Hyperion uses too many PSGs - I swear you sweep out most of the crates before you can get them.

I gues all I can say is 'good luck'!

M

[razorhead]

I used to strip the J's shields with the hyperion in my last game and then just ram them to take the remaining hull. Sometimes I got 15-19 GPPCs from each J.

[Geek]

You can not get installed weapons as remaining crates after destroying the ship. So if you want to max GPPC you will have to get close (but in firing range) so that the ship change its loadout to smaller weapons.

And as said beore it is very random. I can get 40 PPC from the first two ships or none after cleaning several Xenon sectors.

[Carlo the Curious]

I seem to remember reading that capships won't drop guns that are equipped - so if you're engaging from a long distance there's much less chance they'll drop PPCs since they're using them.

Having said that I still see a fair number dropped when clearing Xenon sectors in my Python...

[Arseface]

I used to strip the J's shields with the hyperion in my last game and then just ram them to take the remaining hull. Sometimes I got 15-19 GPPCs from each J.

I find this technique works well.

Use G-PSGs on the J/K until its sheilds are almost gone. Then hit boost extension and switch to the main battery of 8 B-HEPTs. Firing these will quickly drain your remaining energy, and cause the GPSGs to cease firing. Either the B-HEPTs will finish the thing off, or most likely I will take the remaining hull off with my shields kamikaze style

As soon as I have killed the cap ship I check the sector map - if there is a weapon drop I jump back to the closest gate and avoid that area. If I have to fight around existing weapon drops I switch to all HEPTs on my turrets. In Xenon space I don't use B-PSGs on the rear, and I have my forward turrets set to 'attack my target', so they shouldn't cause any damage to my loot between killing the cap ship and jumping out again.

I seem to get a good proportion of weapon drops - at least 1 in 3 on average. Most drop GPPCs (4 to 12), along with other goodies like B-FAA, A-FAA, B-PBE etc.

[ThommoHawk]

They should still drop the PPC eventually - even if you use missiles. My first K / J victory was in a centaur using missiles only and PPC's were dropped - touble was I could not get any Transports near the darn things before they timed out.....

[dion_b]

A good tip to avoid the latter (and to split off one capital ship in sectors crawling with them) is to make a dry run at a ship to get its attention. As soon as it starts shooting GPPC at you (about 6k away), do an about turn and head towards the nearest gate at full speed. Once the following ship has dropped to about 10k, match speed with it and lure it right up to the gate. Keep your eyes open when doing this to a K, you might also have attracted a J which travels at twice the speed and might just give you a nasty surprise if you're not ready for it (in that case just match speed with the J, which should give you enough time to finish it off and gather the loot before the K finally makes it).

Once at the gate, destroy the ship (I find that with a J it's usually better to first take out the escorting LXs and Ls, whereas with a K you really need to take the mark out first). If you're lucky, you now should have some juicy crates straight in front of the gate. Now call in a jumpdrive-equipped freighter (I tend to use a Demeter SuperFreighter, but anything with >4000 cargo should work), *manually* telling it which wares to collect (to be sure it doesn't waste time in hostile space picking up mosquitoes while ignoring those 21 GPPCs). Just select the highest value crate and keep on collecting them one by one until either everything's gone or you get company (in which case immediately jump the freighter out to the nearest EQ).

Repeat ad libidum (or until your shields need a good long recharge).

[fud]

Loot drops after a ship's demise are more or less random, in the same boat as the chances a pilot will bail out. It's luck of the draw.

Keep blasting them, eventually you'll find a crate with 10-20GPPC in it. But then you have to make sure you've got room in the boot for it.

[Mars Mug]

On average when I clear a sector of 20+ Xenon J/K 5 of those ships drop cargo of value, the rest either drop nothing or a whole crate load of wasp missiles. I will normally pick up just under 100 GPPCs along with an awful lot of other stuff and ship captures, that usually yields a credit count of around 150-200 million, but at the very best I have reached 300 million in a single sector. The highest number of GPPCs that I remember dropping from a single ship is 24, that's a job for my TL to pick up otherwise I can squeeze 19 into the Hyperion.

[jlehtone]

Human mind ... expects loot, counts "failures", and despairs. Expect not. Count not. When you reach the state of mind where you don't want loot, ships start turning blue all over. That is the way of the Almighty Random Number Generator.

Only one is sure: who does not shoot, will not hit.

[jannix]

I used to strip the J's shields with the hyperion in my last game and then just ram them to take the remaining hull. Sometimes I got 15-19 GPPCs from each J.

I do exactly the same and it works very frequently! - get xenon drops often!!!

[Mars Mug]

I used to strip the J's shields with the hyperion in my last game and then just ram them to take the remaining hull. Sometimes I got 15-19 GPPCs from each J.

I do exactly the same and it works very frequently! - get xenon drops often!!!

That is my prefered tactic also, and on the final aproach firing all forward guns to drain the energy to the G/B/A PSGs