First M1 Capture

[mcjomar]

Well, actually the third (the first one came with all it's shields, but I accidentally died before I could save ) and the second one came in such a poor condition, that there was no way I'd keep it.

Third go round, and I've got it in pretty good condition, plus about 6 CFAs.

It's a Yaki Shuri (and I have my eyes on a second one as soon as I can rustle up about 80 more flails and 20-30 more hammerheads).

*My question is this - should I keep it, or sell it to get the capital for a destroyer?*

I have a shrike semi-fully fitted (HEPTs instead of the IBLs I don't have as I haven't captured a Ryu with the fab in it yet) and a Minotaur for boarding (pretty much flown solo NS style with drones and such to provide covering fire) and I'm on the second-to-last OFF mission - I can tangle with all the khaak stuff in that mission, even the destroyers and carriers with the use of some smarts - but I keep accidentally shooting the military base, and can't apologise for it for some reason, even though I can apologise to the capital ships and such in sector.

I'm on the steam version for this game.

I'm considering acquiring a teladi Phoenix as it seems to have the best combination of shields and guns for my playstyle.
Thoughts?

(And yes, I'm working on the complexes to support all this stuff)

[ancienthighway]

It really comes down to your play style. Do you like popping into a sector and unleashing 60 fighters to do all the work while you sit back and watch, or would you rather get into the fray?

Outfitting 60 fighters can be a bear, especially in vanilla. Even if you buy the large versions only, you still have to add guns for turrets, move the turret gun from the main battery to the trurret, give turret commands, set missile fire percentages, enable MDM, and the list goes on and on. Renaming isn't a bad idea because if you are looking for one fighter among 60 that recovered that one missile or laser you really want to keep track of isn't easy if the fighters are all named "Your Nova Raider".

[drkpendragon]

Well, you can always set up one of the many ways to supply ships in order to get weapons and such. You also don't need many extensions for carrier based fighters. However, I don't think it's worth it. You may want to use one for a mobile ship yard that can jump in and pick up any ships you need transported. It's annoying that you can't do it with anything larger than a M3, though.

The Aran, on the other hand, is much more useful. M6s are the smallest ship worth using at the point were you are in the game. They also make great mobile shipyards and mobile mining bases. I know a lot of people enjoy collecting ships though, so you may want to capture ships like the Yaki Shuri in order to reverse engineer it.

As far as M1s, I'd use the Boreas if you plan on flying it. Otherwise the Terran ships are the best OOS.

Then, for IBLs, I've had great luck finding huge amounts of them when capturing M1s. I find 32 quite often. You should think about capturing some normal races M1s. There are many without escorts and your reputation lose is very minor. Just get a missile complex up and running as soon as possible.

[mcjomar]

I've got to admit, currently I prefer being in the thick of things.
Even when using a minotaur, I found myself preferring to get within about 10km or so for immediate results on those Shuris (that and getting them to follow me, because the front end just plain won't shoot down my missiles - especially while swarmed with about 40-odd fighter drones).


That said (having spent some time forum skimming) having a horde of fighters at my disposal would be nice, if a little bit wallet killing.


I've not completed the Goner plot yet, and hence don't have the Aran.
Ditto for the Hub plot, or PHQ plot.

In fact, I've only completed the Terran plot.
OFF is the next one to complete, and that's only got two missions to go now I guess, as I'm at captain rank.


Boreas and Tokyo (those are they, correct?) I'm unsure of - Boreas because most OTAS ships aren't exactly my ideal of a good looking boat, regardless of the stats, and Tokyo because I don't yet have the rep for the EMPCs the terrans make, let alone anything bigger.
Perhaps that's fixable though.

As for IBLs - I'm one of those strange people who like to maintain the racial rep but I appreciate the points all the same, thank you.

I guess this means I should consider going for a destroyer (and on that front I've decided the Phoenix is the one for me, as mentioned).

I've got about 100mill or so, and selling the Shuri would net me 37mill or so more to play with.

I've got a capital (200mj, 1gj, and 2gj) shield production complex semi-finished, which just needs the food and energy stations adding in to start up, which will cost about 50 mill to finish, give or take.

After that, a flail/hammer plex would cost about 60-odd mill or so to supply the M7M.


The only thing holding me back from selling the Shuri to fund all this is - It's basically a Colossus with a different name, and I wouldn't mind a big mobile fortress with guns to carry my fighters around in, when I don't have them stowed away in my shrike.

[heratik]

If you want IBL, but don't want to upset the locals, pirates are a very good source of them. Capture Carracks, Brigantines and Galleons for all the IBLs you could ever want!

I would nat advise the Pheonix, especially as a player ship, it is just too bloody slow.

In fact, for a personal ship I would recommend sticking with an M7, leave the M1/M2 for heavy support when you need it.

Your shrike is an awesome ship, with the right setup you can rule the universe in that alone.

As for selling the Shuri, capturing another M1 will be absolutely no problem, it seems you are more than capable. So if you need the cash now, sell the thing.

[mcjomar]

Good to know - besides, the Yaki have a spare sitting about I can go nick later once I've rebuilt my missile stores, or built a missile plex.

IBLs - I read NS's DiDs, and having read the forums a bit, I figure blow up the one the Yaki own, and then wait for a Ryu to come replace it - then capture the Ryu. I'm a bit.... leery of trying to capture Carracks, Brigantines, or Galleons (they're fairly well clustered down in the pirate sectors near Maelstrom it seems and the gun spread seems more than a little prickly).

Ryu capture tactics - sit at the top of the ship strafing sideways at an angle, get the shields down with drones and flails only (hammers seem to die quick or kill it quick, no middle ground) and then tag it, and cross my fingers. Pre-2.5 it was easier with the vidar plus my ninja squad, but oh well.

[kurush]

IBLs - I read NS's DiDs, and having read the forums a bit, I figure blow up the one the Yaki own, and then wait for a Ryu to come replace it - then capture the Ryu. I'm a bit.... leery of trying to capture Carracks, Brigantines, or Galleons (they're fairly well clustered down in the pirate sectors near Maelstrom it seems and the gun spread seems more than a little prickly).

As far as I know, there were no reports of IBL factories being restored this way. NS only reported it for PBG. It is way easier to become friends with Yaki (although not that easy if you already 3.14ssed them off with your Shuri cap).

[heratik]

I'm a bit.... leery of trying to capture Carracks, Brigantines, or Galleons (they're fairly well clustered down in the pirate sectors near Maelstrom it seems and the gun spread seems more than a little prickly).

Pirates are a pushover, the other day I got a message come through that one of my supply ships had been destroyed by a Brigantine, So I jumped into the sector with my Kraken, took the Brig, as I was wrapping up that one a galleon strolled into my radar, so I took that, after I had taken that and sent them both off to be sold, I was waiting for a supply ship to bring my Kraken some more Ecells, and a Carrack shows up, why thank you, I'll have that.

All in all I obtained 42 IBL from that escapade

[mcjomar]

Cool, any suggestions? I've got more than enough boarding pods, and I've got 15-20 very well put together marines, I just need to know the angles and such, as unless I can find an easy spot (front of the Shuri for example) the target always seems to shoot down the pods

[heratik]

When your pods fire make sure you release a fair amount of flails to cover their approach, note that flails are just a bit faster than pods, so fire off a couple when they release but then also keep up 1 a second for a few more seconds. You might need a few reloads, but it will come good in the end.


Edit - plentiful amounts of Salvage Insurance and at least 3 spare save slots is highly recommended.

[Jawms]

For capping:
Target the ship you want, and take note of the amount of shielding it has.. always listed at the top in an amount of MJ's.

A Hammer Heavy hits for 300MJ's.. do the math, and fire that many hammers, plus maybe 1 or 2 more to account for lost missiles and such. Now turn and run, because the Captain will be looking for blood by this time.

Then start peppering it with Flails, about 1 every second for a destroyer.. If the shields strength is decreasing, slow your speed, if it is increasing, fire a few in quick succession.

When the targets shields drop below 5%, it will deffinitaly be following you, so you should be free to fire your boarding pods and have them make contact without loosing any. Make sure to cover your pods with flails though, because, hey, things happen.

Trial and error is key.. Save before you fire your first hammer, then reload if necessary.. As soon as your pods make contact, Save! The rest is simple. (note, save in different slots, if you dont get the items you want, reload from when your pods made contact, if you die/loose youyr pods, reload from the beginning)

As for Weapons:
I would deffinitaly invest in some IBL's.. Loomankstrats Legacy(prob spelt wrong) has a forge that if you keep stocked, can give a fair supply of those Cap Killers.. Alternately, if you want the quick and easy way of getting them and your Fight rank is high enough, go on a killing spree in that Shrike of yours.. Target Yaki/Pirates.. Before a M2 blows, Save, then reload if it doesnt drop IBL's

Because your flying a Shrike, Slap some Gauss Cannons on it.. More available than IBL's, and just as powerful.

As for Ships: That Shrike is a good personal ship.. Especially for its hangar. You dont need a Destroyer unless you cant cope with the competition.. And then again, dont really need to fly it yourself..

Good Luck

[mcjomar]

Thanks for the tips.
It's probably going to be trial and error still though

As for the Shrike, It's already got the Guass Cannons (I built a complex that builds FLAK and Gass Cannons + ammo). The HEPTs aren't too bad, but a bit short on range.
Eventually I'll replace them with CIG or IBLs though.

[drkpendragon]

Cool, any suggestions? I've got more than enough boarding pods, and I've got 15-20 very well put together marines, I just need to know the angles and such, as unless I can find an easy spot (front of the Shuri for example) the target always seems to shoot down the pods

Just hit whatever ship you want with a few flails to get it's attention first. I know that in the Cobra, you'll be faster that just about every ship you're attacking. Just get out of their range and match speeds. They'll be following you at this point, so they can't shoot down your missiles or pods. After that, fire as many hammers as you need. Drop their ships to 1% or 2% and fire your pods. Fire 1 or 2 flails after that and you'll be fine. In fact, the larger the ship, the easier the capture because their shield % rises more slowly.

It's easiest if you take M2s, without escorts, in friendly space. You'll lose maybe 30% reputation, but make about 100 million. You can do a single mission and get that reputation back. Also, any ship that can equip IBLs has a chance of having up to 32 in it's cargo hold. I'm not sure why, but when I capture Boreas, there are often 32 IBLs in it's hold. It seems they are more common that the other weapons it can equip. Remember, you can also save while they are hacking the core and reload for different loot.

[Triaxx2]

The Phoenix is a good choice for a player ship, though it is indeed a bit slow. Given the fact that it mounts lots of Gauss Cannons, you can carry thousands of energy cells to use the Turbo Booster and speed yourself up. And nothing is quite like hiding behind 10GJ of shielding.

As for capping Galleons, it's got an odd... semi-blind spot to the left and right. As long as you don't get too high, or too low, the up/down's can't hit you, don't get too far forward or back and all you'll face are IBL/CIG rounds. It's a great place to sit with a Corvette and burn off the weapons.

Shooting pods in from range with an M7M works as long as you take the fire yourself rather than letting the pods take the blow.

[Snafu_X3]

FWIW I just completed OFF flying a single Tiger with IBLs & FAA + Split turboboost, & I don't consider myself to be a particularly good fighter. This was at combat rank Assasin (the higher your combat rank, the tougher the enemy defences)

[Nanook]

...
IBLs - I read NS's DiDs, and having read the forums a bit, I figure blow up the one the Yaki own, and then wait for a Ryu to come replace it - then capture the Ryu. I'm a bit.... leery of trying to capture Carracks, Brigantines, or Galleons (they're fairly well clustered down in the pirate sectors near Maelstrom it seems and the gun spread seems more than a little prickly)....

Pirate capital ships are just as easy to capture as Yaki. I made a living in a past game simply capturing Brigantines, with the occasional Galleon and Carrack. Brigs had more guns and so net profit was the best of the three. As for their clustering near Maelstrom, simply blow some up and they'll respawn elsewhere, mostly in the pirate sectors between Bala Gi's Joy and Hatikvah's Faith. Just be on the lookout and nab them before a passing task force kills them.

And kurush is wrong about the TL's transporting IBL forges. Others have reported it doing it, too, after N-S. I myself have captured a number of other factory types inside TL's. However, spotting the IBL carrier before it deploys is tricky, as it takes a while before they do it, up to a gameday or two. So it's just too easy to get doing other things and forget about it until it's too late. Lot's of luck is involved.

[mcjomar]

Combat rank Warlord, so a tiny bit trickier I might suspect.
Still, hopefully a Gauss Equipped Shrike can deal with it.
My last few tries say it *should* be possible, but something always seems to happen to cause me issues with that (like shooting the station by accident and being unable to apologise to turn it blue again, for example).

[Nanook]

You can't apologize to stations. To get a red one blue, you need to find a 'hacking' mission (lightbulb) in a station nearby, up to a three sector radius or so.

As for your combat rank, that has nothing to do with boarding ships. In fact, combat rank doesn't affect much of anything other than missions. Generic ships aren't affected. Like I said, blow up a few pirate capitals and they'll respawn elsewhere eventually. Use missiles from a distance to avoid having to deal with the hordes of fighters that usually accompany them in the Maelstrom area.

Once they've respawned somewhere else, kill off the escorts and they should be easy to board. A lone Brigantine is no harder to board than a lone Akuma. Good luck.

[mcjomar]

Sorry Nanook, I was replying to the previous post to yours - it seems I missed your post. My bad.

I was replying in response to a comment about how the rank might affect the difficulty of the OFF missions.

As noted, drenching the fighter support with flails seems to do wonders for reducing enemy numbers

I take it it's easier to cap from the front on Destroyers as well as carrier such as the Shuri (which looking at stats and model, really is just a Colossus clone anyway) because - as mentioned elsewhere - the front end seems to not have missile defence overly much when chasing a "fleeing" ship

As for the station apology mess, thanks for the tip - this makes it imperative that no shots from my turrets land on any stations. Tricky proposition, as in the last part of the second-to-last mission, all Kha'ak forces are attacking the military base outright.

[Snafu_X3]

as in the last part of the second-to-last mission, all Kha'ak forces are attacking the military base outright.

Only if you're unlucky IME; otherwise they simply fly around attacking anything in sight, much like the XI missions. There may be 1 or 2 caps specifically targetting that military base, but not much more than that

Your Shrike may be a bit slow for the OFF final mission; not for getting /to/ the targets, but for running away to recharge shields (or otherwise getting out of trouble). Extra shields help with alpha attack but you'll need to survive for more than that: there'll be a /lot/ of hostiles, mostly aiming for you!