Capping Xenon M2??!!!

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

Moderator: Moderators for English X Forum

Post Reply
jamafish
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat, 1. Oct 11, 18:11

Capping Xenon M2??!!!

Post by jamafish » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 04:14

Ok, so scoured the galaxy for legendary marines with 60+ fighting, trained them up to 5 stars in everything I could, brought down a Xenon K's shields, then shoved 4 boarding pods into his belly, everybody gets through....

through multiple reloads, the best results I get are 4-5 die on deck one, another 4-7 die on deck 2, and party always gets eliminated by deck 3...

Just for kicks, I decided after a few reloads to use the cheat manager to give myself 20 marines with all skills at 5 stars...

SAME RESULTS!!!

I scanned it and it doesn't have anything fancy like internal sentry lasers or whatnot.

Are Xenon ships just ridiculously hard to cap??!!!

kurush
Posts: 4320
Joined: Sun, 6. Nov 05, 23:53
x3tc

Post by kurush » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 04:30

Yes they are. You might need more than 20 marines, all 5* in everything.

jamafish
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat, 1. Oct 11, 18:11

Post by jamafish » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 04:51

*sigh*

but M7's can only hold 20... can you mod them to carry more?

Darkhymn
Posts: 109
Joined: Sun, 14. Jan 07, 04:15
x4

Post by Darkhymn » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 04:53

Xenon cap ships have extremely high difficulty. You absolutely need pods, maxed skills, and 21 marines.

quoick
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon, 16. Oct 06, 00:17
x3tc

Post by quoick » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 05:05

jamafish wrote:*sigh*

but M7's can only hold 20... can you mod them to carry more?
There is two ways of doing it. You can use 2 M7Ms to hold your 21 marines. It is extremely difficult to get all the marines on the hull at the same time and entering the ship at the same time (this is the crux to successfully boarding
Xenon Ships) but it is possible. The easier way involves
Spoiler
Show
purchasing the OTAS Sirokos M7M. It holds 30 marines. How do you get it since it is not listed in any shopyards I hear you ask? When you get to level 10 of the OTAS corp missions, it becomes available to buy from the OTAS shipyard. It can only fire boarding pods so you are going to need another ship to bring the shields down.

jamafish
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat, 1. Oct 11, 18:11

Post by jamafish » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 06:04

hmm, wow, this is ridiculous, the gap in difficulty between capping commonweatlh shilps vs xenon ships is huge.

Where xenon ships like...just not get captured, I just finished capping 2 tigers since the last post...

any reason why the devs made it so difficult to be a good guy?

Romantic Heretic
Posts: 281
Joined: Thu, 30. Jun 11, 15:57
x3tc

Post by Romantic Heretic » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 06:37

A Xenon ship isn't like other ships. I doubt it has corridors, gravity, doors, elevators or anything you'd expect on other ships. Tactics wouldn't be the same and the Xenon ship probably has all kinds of internal defences rather like humans have an immune system.

They are giant, sentient machines after all.
To be angered by evil is to partake of it, stupid. - Phrases of Import and Salvation, Chapter IX, The Book of Universal Truths and Other Humorous Anecdotes

garv222
Posts: 1275
Joined: Tue, 5. Jan 10, 09:25

Post by garv222 » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 07:53

jamafish wrote:hmm, wow, this is ridiculous, the gap in difficulty between capping commonweatlh shilps vs xenon ships is huge.

Where xenon ships like...just not get captured, I just finished capping 2 tigers since the last post...

any reason why the devs made it so difficult to be a good guy?
Imagine how stupidly devious an AI run ship could be. Light turning on and off blind your poor marines. Hidden doors snapping shut on limbs....Hell the whole ship is probably a gigantic internal sentry laser system.
Duke's Buccaneers... I hate you so much... I am sooo demolishing your HQ when our business is finished....

Bill Huntington
Posts: 2493
Joined: Mon, 2. Feb 09, 17:34
x3tc

Capping the K

Post by Bill Huntington » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 08:21

There is a minimum number of elite marines that must make it through Level 5. The number is between 14 and 17, can't remember exactly. But losing 2 on Deck 1 is normal, and losing 1 on each deck can't be avoided. If you start with 20, you won't have enough. So you have to add more after the first wave, and time it so they catch up. If you don't have enough, they just kick you into space.

I just made it with 28 marines, 4 x 100. And it hurt to lose each one. So it was the last thing I did in that game. I felt like I had done something good when I got it.
Bill in S.F., enjoying the game

David Howland
Posts: 1259
Joined: Sat, 10. Mar 07, 16:19
x3tc

Terran!

Post by David Howland » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 08:55

Hi jamafish,
You mentioned the crux of your main problem yourself, the huge gap between commonwealth and Xenon ship boarding.
The answer is fill it with Teran, there is a wonderful M2 that experienced Xenon fighters out there use called the Tyr. If you research and board that, the marines and techniques you will gain, mean one SMALL step on to Xenons.
Of course you can struggle now mightily and probably will be rewarded with Xenon capitals but they are pretty useless, the resale credits does not cover the costs of gaining it and so is only fit for the trophy cabinet! Also when you go back to boarding more useful ships they will seem boring in comparison.
Leave the Xenon struggle where it belongs, in the END GAME!
The BANISHED RETURNS.
HEALTH WARNING! Steam Damages Freedom Of Speech!
Congratulations Egosoft on increasing memory usage from 2 to 3 Gb.
Bin playing X too long when Egosoft refuses to sell you their latest game?
The only steam I want is in my kettle! STEAM=GAME OVER.

devilsad
Posts: 220
Joined: Wed, 2. Mar 11, 14:19
x3tc

Post by devilsad » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 10:27

Yeah there's a reason why the 'Reboot' achievement on Steam (capture Xenon Q) is only completed by 0.1%, and I think that 0.1% is rounded up..

It's something you do when you find yourself building stations just to hold your next 2 billion credits and you're capping a dozen regular M2s before breakfast.

User avatar
heratik
Posts: 1210
Joined: Tue, 3. May 11, 16:31
x3tc

Post by heratik » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 13:10

Capping a Xenon M2:

Minimum 21 Marines, all 5* fight skill.

At least maximum number of marines that can perform boarding operation minus number of decks, must survive to the core. So 21-5=16. 16 marines MUST make it to the core to avoid automatic core hack failure.

Saving/reloading technique is the most important factor in taking Xenon capital, save every deck, reload if more then 1 marine dies on any deck...

Also, as has been mentioned, getting all 21 on board simultaneously is imperative. If you are going to go down the 2 M7M route, I would advise that you command your secondary M7M to follow you in the primary M7M and order it to stop when about 1-2km behind you. When the shields on the M2 have dropped, order the secondary M7M to Piracy, then immediately order your primary M7M to piracy, the time taken the navigate through the menus to fire the marines from your primary M7M should mean they fire just as the ones you fired from your secondary are passing you, ensuring they travel together and hit at the same time. If you use boarding hotkeys, you need to work out the offset yourself!

Happy hunting! :D

Triaxx2
Posts: 7229
Joined: Tue, 29. Dec 09, 02:15
x4

Post by Triaxx2 » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 14:17

The trick to boarding Xenon ships is to get the range right so you can tow along a couple of TP's to refresh your marine stock on the M7M, and at the same time keep enough Flails aboard to keep the shields down. And stay far enough ahead that you don't die. Yeah... it's not at all easy.
A Pirate's Revenge Completed Now in PDF by _Zap_
APR Book 2: Best Served Cold Updated 8/5/2016

The Tale of Ea't s'Quid Completed

Dovie'andi se tovya sagain

navetta
Posts: 415
Joined: Wed, 19. May 10, 20:24
x3ap

Post by navetta » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 14:26

wow, so its completely impossible to capture a xenon M2/M1 with no losses, even when using 21 4*100?

User avatar
cmdnenad
Posts: 600
Joined: Wed, 8. Dec 10, 13:46
x3tc

Post by cmdnenad » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 15:11

I capped a J yesterday (my first :)), using two M7Ms. After launching hammers, I ordered the other M7M to board (piracy menu), with one marine. As soon as he was on its way, I launched my pods, transfered reserve marines to my M7M and send a second wave shortly after. It took me a couple of reloads, it was a bloody mess but I did it :mrgreen:. 7 out of 23 marines died. Somehow 4 marines were left on my M7M. They were all elite ofc.

The biggest problem was to send the second wave in time. A few times they got through the hull after all marines from the first wave were already dead. What's the best time to launch them?

Starlight_Corporation
Posts: 1263
Joined: Thu, 17. Feb 05, 16:51
x4

Post by Starlight_Corporation » Tue, 18. Oct 11, 18:00

I usually launch a pod at each deck they break. That way, they get their backup on the next deck. Results in quite some marines flying in space, but increases your capchance greatly.
First pod for reinforcements get launched the moment they are cutting hul, and every new deck I launch a new pod. Seems to work okay. Last cap (a K) I lost 8 marines, 5 in the ship, and 3 got shot down.

Post Reply

Return to “X Trilogy Universe”